Sefardi Jews

Judaism in Middle Ages10th c.-16th c.

Geonic Period

• Geonim: Rabbinic leaders in Babylonia in the 7th - 10th c. – Talmudic academies – Same function as Sanhedrin– Sura, Pumbedita

• Arabization and islamization of the Middle East, Egypt, northern Africa, most of Spain Besides hebrew and arameic, Jewish scholars start to use arabic, especially for scientific and philosophical treatises

Andalusia

• 10th c. – new center of the

Jewish education– Flowering of Jewish

philosophy, science and poetry

Shelomo Ibn Gabirol

• Mekor Hayyim „Origin of Life“ – written in arabic– Theory of emanation

• References to Sefer Jecira

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

– „Jewish Plato“

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

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!

Azharot (based on Taryag, 613 commandements of the Torah); Shavuothttp://w

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Almoravids

• 11th c.• Berbers from north-

west Africa came to help Andalusia against Christian king Alfonso VI from 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 (based on old Spanish) written in hebrew caracters

• Maranos = new Christians – converted Jews– Many in Spain and in

Portugal (Jews expulsed already in 1497)

Jewish mysticism

• Kabbalah = mystical tradition - name since the 12th c.– Sefer Jecira –

Book of Creation• written in Middle

East (Babylonia?), 7th c.

• 10 sefirot = ten basic spiritual ur-numbers

• Bahir (Book of the Brightness)– the 10 sefirot are

formed by a spiritual light

– These spheres are at the same time manifestations of different qualities of God

– spiritual 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

Jicchak Luria

• The universe developed through a cosmical ur-catastrophe – divine light melted with the darkness, good with evil

• The meaning of the human existence is to help to renew the original order of the world – tikkun

• Every human thought and action plays a very important role in this process

• Gilgul – transmigration of souls