Sefardi Jews and Maimonides

Judaism in Middle Ages10th c.-16th c.

New Centers of Jewish Culture

• 10th c. – Andalusia – new center of the Jewish education– Flowering of Jewish

philosophy, science and poetry

Shelomo Ibn GabirolTHE 16-YEAR-OLD POET I am the prince the song‘s my slave I am thestring all singers songmentune my song’s a crown forkings for ministers alittle crown am onlysixteen years old but myheart holds wisdom like somepoet 8o year old man

This poem entitled "Azharoth," is based on the Taryag (613) commandments of the Torah, and was included in the Shovuoth service of many congregations.

INVITATION Come up to me at early dawn,Come up to me, for I am drawn,Beloved, by my spirit’s spell,To see the Sons of Israel.For thee, my darling, I will spreadWithin my court a golden bed,And I will set a table thereAnd bread for thee I will prepare,For thee my goblet I will fillWith juices that my vines distil:And thou shalt drink to heart’s delight,Of all my flavours day and night.The joy in thee I will evinceWith which a people greets its prince.O son of Jesse, holy stem,God’s servant, born of Bethlehem!

Shelomo Ibn Gabirol

• Mekor Hayyim „Origin of Life“ – written in arabic– Theory of emanation– He argued that all substances, both physical and

spiritual, have a common (incorporeal) matter. This matter is absent only in God, who is a form in the strict sense. Between God and the visible world there is the divine will, which creates the world and puts it into motion, the universals—matter and form, and the soul of the world, which is manifested in three forms, i.e., vegetative, sensitive, and rational.

• References to Sefer Jecira

• 11th c.• Known as Avicebron or Avicebrol• Neoplatonic philosophy Influenced mainly Christian thinking

– a thinker who planted Jewish philosophy in Spain and a compiler who brought together the Judaic religious conception of God and creation with the philosophical views of Aristotle and Plotinus. As the first propagator of neo-Platonism in the West - has been called the Jewish Plato.

Almoravids

• 11th c.• Berbers from north-

west Africa came to help Andalusia against Christian king Alfonso VI form Castillia– Religious intolerance

Maimonides• The greatest thinker of his

time• Born in Cordoba, 1135• His family had to fleed the

country due to the invasion of Berber Almohads who took over the country after Almoravids

• Went to Egypt where he became a court physician of the sultan Saladdin

• Combines Jewish religious tradition with the teaching of Aristoteles

• Mishne Torah – a survey of the Jewish religious law

13th – 15th c.

• Christian rulers are taking over the Islamic Spain including the Jewish communities

• Toledo (Castile) – still an important centre of Jewish culture

• Intesive developement of the Jewish mysticism - kabbalah

Sefardi Jews• 1492 – expulsion of Jews

from Spain – Sefardi (= Spanish in the

biblical language) Jews went to Portugal, Italy, northern Africa and Turkey

• Sefardi Jews spoke hebrew and ladino (= old Spanish) written in hebrew caracters

• Maranos = new Christians – converted Jews– Part of them still secretely followed

the Jewish tradition– Many in Spain and in Portugal (Jews

expulsed already in 1497)– after many pogroms often fled to

other countries – Spinoza´s family Amsterodam, 17th c.

Jewish mysticism• Kabbalah = mystical

tradition - name since the 12th c.– Sefer Jecira – Book of

Creation• written in Middle East

(Babylonia?), 7th c.• Explains creation and

composition of the world based on 22 letters of the hebrew alphabet and 10 sefirot = ten basic spiritual ur-numbers

• Sefirot = incorporeal spiritual ideas that come from God who creates the world through them

• Bahir (Book of the Brightness)– Spiritual light that forms

the 10 spiritual spheres – sefirot

– These spheres are at the same time manifestations of different qualities of God – His omnipotence, wisdom, love, justice and charity

– They form a siritual tree through which emanates the divine force that keeps the world in existence

Jewish Mysticism

• Zohar (Brightness)– About Rabbi Shimon ben

Jochaj – rabbi Akiva´s follower, 2nd c. CE – who was hiding from Romans

• Safed – Galilee– A small town where

settled many sefardi Jews

– Uninterrupted tradition– Jicchak Luria, 16th c.

Jicchak Luria• There was only an infinite God before the creation of the world.

He started the creation by forming a relatively empty space within infinity where he created upper spiritual worlds. Our world is a mirroring of these worlds.

• Upper spiritual worlds are composed by the ten sefirot divided in three parts – 1) manifestation of God as the supreme rational power– 2) manifestation of God as moral and ethical all-pervading

power (love, charity)– 3) justice– The power of God and of the upper spiritual worlds flows to

us through the 10th sefira

Jicchak Luria• The universe didn´t develop harmonically but through a cosmical ur-

catastrophe – divine light melted with the darkness, good with evil• In consequence the spiritual worlds went down• The sense of the human existence is to help to renew the original

order of the world – tikkun – and to get back to God• Every human thought and action plays a very important role in this

process• Gilgul – transmigration of souls

– http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/14479-transmigration-of-souls#anchor4

– Only kabbalah influenced Jews believe in this