Toward the Popularization of Kabbalah
R. Yosef Hayyim of Baghdad and the Kabbalists of Jerusalem
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11678385 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jonatan Meir (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2013 |
| Volume | 33 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 148-172 |
| Publication date | 2013-04-12 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Modern Judaism - A Journal of Jewish Ideas and Experience (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0276-1114 • E-ISSN: 1086-3273 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1093/mj/kjt005 |
| OpenAlex | W1975844870 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 4 |
Toward the end of the nineteenth century, a certain Iraqi Torah scholar asked R. Yosef Hayyim of Baghdad—the renowned Ben Ish Hai (1834–1909)—the following question: “If I am worthy to go up to Jerusalem, of which it is said (Isa 2:3): “From Zion will go forth the Torah, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem,” where many scholars study this wisdom [of Kabbalah], how will I be able to recognize the foremost scholar upon whom I can rely, and at whose feet I should study?.” In response, R. Yosef Hayyim offered him the following test. The questioner should ask each scholar to explain several pages of the Kabbalistic work Nahar Shalom, by the famed R. Shalom Shar’abi [the Rashash, 1720–1777]. The Kabbalist should be able to identify all the sources of the passages in the Lurianic writings, as well as be able to compare both these corpuses and resolve any contradictions between them. If he passes this test, the questioner should declare: “You are my teacher! Teach me the true wisdom of our Rabbi, the Ari z”l. If you understand these texts clearly, I will drink the words of the Ari thirstily, but, if your understanding is unclear, God forbid, why should you confuse me as well? You may still teach me—just as one teaches the Torah with its translation, without all the depth and hidden details of the verses—that much I will accept.” “You should say this to any teacher whom you seek to learn from,” concluded R. Yosef Hayyim.1 This interesting tale appears in the introduction to one of R. Yosef Hayyim’s own Kabbalistic works, Da’at u’Tevunah, printed in Jerusalem in 1911. There is a tradition among Jerusalem Kabbalists that the questioner was R. Saliman Eliyahu (1879–1941), who moved from Baghdad to Jerusalem in 1919, and ultimately found a teacher in R. Hayyim Shaul Dweck ha-Kohen (1858–1933), a Syrian Kabbalist, who served as the head of the Kabbalistic yeshiva “Rehovot ha-Nahar,” at that time.2
Art · Judaism · Kabbalah · Literature · Shalom · Test (biology · Theology · Torah · Classics · History · Islamic Studies and History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Medieval and Classical Philosophy · Philosophy
| Citations per year | 0.22 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2017 - 2020 (4) |
| Highly cited | No |