Lurianic Kabbalah

Unit 1: Introduction: Kabbalah Before and After the Expulsion From Spain

As we saw in the last lesson, several influential schools of Kabbalah were active in the late

Middle Ages and the major text of Kabbalah, the Zohar, was composed during that period.

Nonetheless, until the 16th century, the study and practice of Kabbalah was limited to elite Jewish

circles, mostly in Spain but also outside of the Iberian Peninsula, in Greece, Italy, Germany, and

the land of Israel. The flourishing of Kabbalah in Spain that we discussed in the previous lesson

was followed by a long period of decline. Very few Kabbalists are known from the late 14th and

15th centuries and few texts were written at that time. This situation changed dramatically after

the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 and Portugal in 1497. During the decades that

followed the expulsions, Kabbalists wrote many books and established new centers. Most

Kabbalists during that period were exiles from Spain and Portugal, and later, descendants of the

exiles. As the Hebrew name for Spain is Sepharad, the exiles and their descendants are called

Sepharadim. The Sephardic immigrants established new Kabbalistic centers in the areas they

moved to, such as Italy, North Africa, the Land of Israel, Greece, and Turkey.

The focus of this lesson will be the most important Kabbalistic center at the time, which was

established in Safed, a town in the upper Galilee in the land of Israel. At the time, it was under

the rule of the Ottoman Empire. Isaac Luria, who arrived in 1570, developed special Kabbalistic

teachings there, and these became the most authoritative forms of Kabbalah for later generations.
16th century Kabbalists wrote many books and developed new Kabbalistic doctrines and

practices. During this century, Kabbalistic texts, including the Zohar, were printed for the first

time. Although some Kabbalists opposed its printing, two editions of the Zohar were published

in Italy between 1558 and 1560. The Zohar played a very important role in the Kabbalah of

Safed. Almost all the Kabbalistic texts written at the time cite the Zohar extensively, and many

of the practices that were established were based on it. The new doctrines Kabbalists developed,

including within Lurianic Kabbalah, were based on interpretations to the Zohar to a large degree.

Gradually Kabbalah spread also to other, non-Sephardic Jewish communities, including the large

Ashkenazi communities of Central and Eastern Europe. During the 17th and 18th centuries,

Kabbalah came to be accepted as normative in most Jewish communities around the world, and

the Zohar became part of the Jewish canon. Kabbalah spread beyond elite learned circles and

large segments of the Jewish population came to accept and practice aspects of Kabbalah. The

followers of Sabbatai Zvi, who was declared the messiah in the late 17th century, played a central

role in the popularization of Kabbalah at that time.

From the late 15th century, prominent Christian thinkers also became interested in Kabbalah.

They translated Kabbalistic texts into Latin and developed Christian interpretations of Kabbalah.

Through the agency of Christian Kabbalists, many early modern and modern European

theologians, scholars, and scientists became familiar with Kabbalah. In today’s lesson we will

begin by discussing the revival of Kabbalah following the expulsion of the Jews from Spain. We

will move on to the establishment of the Kabbalistic center in Safed, the development of Lurianic
Kabbalah and its dispersion, before concluding with the formation of Christian Kabbalah and the

influence of the Sabbatean movement.

Unit 2: The Kabbalistic Center of Safed

The dramatic proliferation of Kabbalistic activities in the period following the expulsion from

Spain is intriguing. Some scholars suggest it was a reaction to the expulsion and that Sephardic

exiles turned to Kabbalah to find an explanation for the traumatic events. According to Gershom

Scholem and some of his disciples, the new forms of Kabbalah that emerged in the 16th century

(especially the innovative concepts of Lurianic Kabbalah) were created as a response to the

expulsion of the Jews from Spain. Yet, as Moshe Idel argued, 16th century Kabbalists did not

offer Kabbalistic explanations for the expulsion. In fact, it is not mentioned at all in Lurianic

Kabbalah. The proliferation of Kabbalah during this period should be explained, he suggested,

by the new social and cultural realities of the period. Some Kabbalistic texts were written to

present Kabbalah to the local communities who were not familiar with it. In other cases,

Kabbalistic texts were written to combat other forms of Kabbalah that they encountered in their

new localities. Furthermore, Kabbalah, and especially the Zohar, played an important role in the

attempts of the Sephardic exiles to gain cultural hegemony. As you recall, the Zohar was written

in Spain and it reflects the ideologies and practices of late-medieval Jewish Sephardic culture.

However, because it was perceived to have been written by Rabbi Shimo’n bar Yohai – a second

century rabbinic sage from Palestine – it was considered authoritative within all Jewish

communities.
From 1517, the Galilean town Safed had been under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. Under

Ottoman rule, the town became a thriving center for the wool industry, and attracted Sephardic

exiles and Jewish immigrants from other locations. The newcomers included many scholars,

most of whom were interested in Kabbalah and the Zohar. The fact that Safed is located in the

upper Galilee, the very location in which the Zohar was allegedly written, and that the grave of

Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai is on Mount Meron, close to Safed, was highly significant to the

Kabbalistic sages who settled there.

In 1536, Rabbi Yoseph Karo arrived in Safed. Karo had been born in Spain, and following the

exile lived in Istanbul and Edirne (in Turkey) and Nikopol (in todays’ Bulgaria). He became the

most prominent early-modern authority in halacha – Jewish Law, but like many other Sephardic

rabbis at the time, he was also interested in Kabbalah. As you may recall, Karo used to receive

divine revelations following his recitation of the Mishna. He recorded these revelations in his

diary, Megid Mesharim. From his diary, we know that he and his companions used to visit the

grave of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, and study the Zohar there.

Another important Kabbalist who arrived to Safed around the same time was Rabbi Shlomo

Alkavetz, also of Sephardic origin. He was born a few years after the expulsion from Spain,

probably in Salonica, in Greece. If you recall, he met Karo before they both settled in Safed, and

wrote of the heavenly voice that spoke through Karo’s mouth during the tikkun leil shavuot they

performed together. The heavenly voice urged them to emigrate to the Holy Land. Alkavetz

wrote several books, many of them Kabbalistic commentaries on Biblical texts. He was also a

poet and the author of Lecha Dodi – “Go Forth My Beloved” – a Kabbalistic song sung in all
traditional Jewish communities on Kabbalat Shabbat – the ceremony that welcomes the entrance

of the sabbath.

Another, much younger member of the Kabbalistic circle in Safed was Rabbi Moshe Cordovero,

the brother-in-law of Alkavetz. As his name indicates, Cordovero’s family originally came from

Cordova in Spain. He was born after the expulsion, in 1522, probably in the land of Israel. He

studied halacha with Yoseph Karo, and Kabbalah with his brother in law, Shlomo Alkavetz. He

was head of a Yeshiva, a school for advanced rabbinic studies and wrote several important

books. Pardes Rimonim, “The Orchard of Pomegranates” is a comprehensive summary of

Kabbalistic doctrines, that Cordovero finished writing in 1548, when he was in his mid-twenties.

The book became one of the most central and influential texts in the history of Kabbalah.

Cordovero also wrote a monumental commentary to the Zohar, called Or Yakar – “Precious

Light.” Another small but very interesting work of his is Sefer Girushin, “The Book of

Peregrinations,” which describes the wandering of Cordovero and his companions in the area of

Safed, their visits to the graves of saints in the area, and the Kabbalistic secrets that were

revealed to them during these travels. Many early Kabbalistic sources influenced Cordovero’s

doctrines but the most important source was the Zohar. Although he was interested in theoretical

and philosophical aspects, and has been considered the greatest theoretician of Kabbalah by

modern scholars, he was also very interested in practical Kabbalah, and the power of holy names.

Cordovero’s disciples included the most prominent rabbis of Safed. He died in 1570, at the age

of 48. By the time he died, he was the most prolific and respected Kabbalist of the period.
Unit 3: Isaac Luria life and Lurianic Writings

In 1570, a few months before Cordovero’s death, a young Kabbalist named Isaac Luria came to

Safed from Egypt. This young Kabbalist, who died only two years later, overshadowed

Cordovero, and became the most authoritative Kabbalist of the early modern period. Isaac Luria

was born in Jerusalem in 1534. His father came from an Ashkenazic family (that is, of German

Jewish descent), and his mother, from a Sephardic one. His father died when he was young, and

Luria relocated to Egypt, where he lived in the household of his wealthy maternal uncle. Luria

studied halacha and Kabbalah with some important scholars of the time. He made a living as a

merchant. In 1570, when he was 36 years old, he moved to Safed, a town he had already visited

at least once before. In Safed, Luria started teaching Kabbalah to a group of disciples, some of

them students of Karo and Cordovero. Among his disciples were Rabbi Hayim Vital, who was of

Italian Jewish origin, Rabbi Yoseph Ibn Tabul, who was of North African descent, Rabbi Moshe

Yonah, and others. Luria interpreted passages from the Zohar for his students, introduced to

them new Kabbalistic ideas and practices, and gave them personal spiritual advice. He died of

the plague in the summer of 1572.

Luria’s followers called him ha-Ari, and acronym of “the divine Rabbi Issac,” which also means

“the Lion.” This great admiration for Luria, and the belief in his extraordinary powers, were

expressed by Hayim Vital, Luria’s foremost disciple:

Also in our generation, the God of the first of the last generations did not leave the people

of Israel without a redeemer. As he was jealous for his land and had mercy on his people,

he sent us an angel and a saint from heaven, the great godly pious teacher, our master, the
 honorable Rabbi Isaac Luria Ashkenazi of blessed memory. He was as full of the Torah

as a pomegranate … he was proficient in the conversation of the trees, of the birds, and of

angels, and an expert in physiognomy … he knew all the deeds of human beings – what

they did, and what they will do. He knew things that people entertained in their minds,

before they carried them out. He knew the future, everything that happens in the world,

and what was decreed in heaven. He was expert in the wisdom of the transmigration of

souls …. He acquired all this on his own, through his piety and austerity, after studying

the ancient as well as the new books of this wisdom for many days and years. He added

to his studies piety, austerity, purity and devotion, which brought about a revelation of

Elijah the prophet, who revealed himself to him every day, talked to him face to face, and

disclosed to him this wisdom (Vital, Introduction to Ez Hayim).

Luria himself did not write much. His writings from before he arrived in Safed are mostly

commentaries to passage of the Zohar. He also wrote a few religious poems that include

Kabbalistic poems for the three Sabbath meals, written in Zoharic Aramaic, which became very

popular. Another interesting text written by Luria is a ritual known as a yichud, which is to be

performed on the graves of saints to unite with their souls. Most of Luria’s teachings were

written down by his disciples. Hayyim Vital, Luria’s closet student, wrote the largest corpus of

Lurianic Kabbalistic works after Luria’s death. Vital called his composition Etz Hayyim (“The

Tree of Life”) and he rewrote and edited it a few times during his life. Vital believed these

writings should be kept secret and refused to disseminate them. However, during an illness, some

of his writings were taken from his house, copied, and propagated. After he died in 1620, his son,

Rabbi Shmuel Vital, and his disciples and followers, again edited the writings. Parts of them
were printed from the 17th century but comprehensive editions of Vital’s Lurianic corpus were

only printed from the late 18th century. Luria’s teachings were also written down by other

students– Moshe Yonah and Yoseph Ibn Tabul. Their versions of some of Luria’s teachings are

different to those of Vital. Rabbi Israel Sarug, who had also probably been a disciple of Luria,

presented another version of Luria’s teachings. Sarug was the first scholar to teach Lurianic

Kabbalah in Italy and later in Germany and Poland, in the late 16th and early 17th centuries.

Unit 4: Lurianic Kabbalah- the Zimzum

Luria’s teachings covered many topics. I have already mentioned his interpretations of the

Zohar, as well as the rituals on the graves of saints to unite with their souls. In previous lessons, I

mentioned that Luria established other rituals too, called tikkunim and yichudim, intended to

rectify and heal both the divine and human realms. Luria was also interested in the reasons for

the commandments, and the proper intentions of prayers, as well as in the transmigration of

souls. He developed new doctrines concerning the structure of the divine realm and the processes

through which the lower worlds are emanated. We have already discussed some of these

doctrines.

Luria’s most famous teaching is probably that of the zimzum, the contraction of the En Sof.

Although this became Luria’s best-known teaching, actually, it is mentioned only a few times in

the Lurianic writings. If you recall, according to Lurianic Kabbalah, before the emanation of the

sefirot and creation of the lower worlds, the only thing that existed was divine infinite light – “Or

En-Sof”. In order to form a place within which the sefirot and all other realms could be emanated
and created, the divine light contracted and formed a void within itself, called tehiru. Let us look

at the way Hayyim Vital describes the zimzum:

You should know that before the emanations were emanated and the creatures created,

the simple supernal light filled all there was, and there was no empty space ... everything

was filled with the simple infinite (En-Sof) light. It had no beginning and no end.

Everything was one simple light, equal in total equality, which is called the light of the

En-Sof (infinite). When it was resolved in His simple will to create worlds and emanate

the emanations in order to reveal the perfection of His actions, and of His names and His

attributes ... The En-Sof contracted (zimzem) Himself within the middle point in Himself,

in the very middle of His light.... after this contraction (zimzum) an empty area and a

vacant space was left in the middle of the infinite light, in which there was space for the

emanated, created, formed, and fashioned entities (Vital, Sefer Ez Hayyim).

Another disciple of Luria’s, Rabbi Yoseph Ibn Tabul, described the zimzum differently.

According to Ibn Tabul, before the zimzum, the En-Sof did not consist solely of a pure supernal

divine light. Rather, from the very beginning, another element, “the roots of judgment”, were

scattered and diluted within the divine light of the En-Sof, which Tabul also identified with

infinite mercy. The first divine act was a collection, or concentration of all the roots of judgment

to one point within the En-Sof. The concentrated roots of judgment, now condensed into one

area, caused the infinite light, the power of mercy, to withdraw from that point, thus creating the

tehiru, which, in contrast to Vital’s description, was not an empty space, but rather, consisted of

the condensed roots of judgment, as well as some impression left by the infinite light that had

withdrawn. Let us look at the words of Ibn Tabul:

judgment that were concealed within Him. And from the place of these concentrated

roots, mercy withdrew. This is similar to grains of sand within water that do not make

them muddy, and cannot be observed. Yet, when you filter the water, the sand that was

within it will be revealed ... Thus, when the all the power of judgment was collected and

concentrated in one place, it thickened, and because of this the light of the En-Sof

withdrew, and only the impression of the light, and the power of Judgment, was left there

(Ibn Tabul, Drush Hafzibah).

As you see, this is a very different account of the zimzum to that of Vital. Did the two students

understand Luria’s teaching differently? Did they add their own elaborations? Did Luria teach

different versions of this theory? Another possibility is that Vital did not want to disclose the

teaching concerning the primordial existence of the power of judgment within the Infinite.

Unit 5: Lurianic Kabbalah – Emanation and Breaking of the Vessels

The stages of the emanation process that followed the zimzum are highly complicated, and are

described quite similarly by Luria’s different students. First, a thin line of divine light re-entered

the empty void. The divine light then started to be differentiated into the sefirot. The vessels of

the sefirot were constructed from the roots of judgment, into which the divine light poured forth.

It was at this point that the breaking of the vessels occurred. The light of the En-Sof first poured

forth into the upper three sefirot – Keter, Hokhmah, and Binah. Yet, when it reached the lower

seven sefirot, its power was too strong for the capacity of the vessels, and they broke.
The breaking of the vessels is described as follows by another Lurianic Kabbalist, Israel ibn

Sarug:

When the affluence poured forth from Binah to Her seven progenies, it descended as one.

That is, all the affluence poured forth at once. Hesed received it first, because He is

nearest to Her, and held the light within Himself. But it could not contain the plentitude

of the light of affluence, and the vessel broke. Then, it poured forth to Gevurah. And He

also wanted to hold all the affluence, and that vessel also broke. And this happened also

to Tiferet, Netzah, Hod, etc. (Ibn Sarug, Limudei Azilut).

As you may recall from our previous lessons, following the breaking of the vessels, the sefirot

were reconstructed into five parzufim, or faces. After the breaking of the lower seven sefirot

most of the divine light that was within them returned to the last unbroken sefirah, Binah. Later,

the light re-emerged from Binah and was formed into Zeir Anpin, the small face, and Nukva, the

female. Thus, the five parzufim were created – the first three, Keter (or Arich Anpin, the long

face), Binah (Ima), and Hochma (Aba), were not affected by the breaking of the vessels, as were

the last two parzufim, Zeir Anpin and Nukva. The broken shards of the vessels of the lower

seven sefirot (and some of the divine light that adhered to them) fell down from the divine realm

to the bottom of the void. This fall created the sub divine worlds: Beri’ah (the world of creation)

and Yetzirah (the world of formation), as well as the lower material realm, Asiah, (the world of

action). The lower world, in which we live, is comprised of the broken shards of the vessels – the

klipot, and the sparks of divine light captured within them. The mission of humanity, and

especially of the Jewish people, according to Luria’s teaching, is to restore harmony between the

two lower male and female partzufim, to separate the sparks of the divine light from the shards of

the broken vessels, and elevate them to the divine realm by following the divine commandments.
If the Jewish people would fulfill this momentous mission of tikkun, or repair, it would restore

harmony between the sefirot and elevate the divine sparks. Then both the lower and divine

realms would be redeemed.

Unit 6: Christian Kabbalah

Before turning to examine the reception of Lurianic Kabbalah and the propagation and

popularization of Kabbalah in the 17th and 18th centuries, I would like to discuss Christian

Kabbalah. Although Kabbalah emerged within Judaism, from the late 15th century, some

theologians and Christian Hebraists (that is, scholars of Hebrew) became interested in Kabbalah.

They translated Kabbalistic texts from Hebrew and Aramaic with the help of Jews and Jewish

converts to Christianity. They integrated Kabbalistic concepts into their theologies, and offered

Christian interpretations of Kabbalah. The Christian Kabbalists accepted the antiquity of the

Kabbalah, and assumed it contained ancient Christological doctrines that proved the truth of

Christian theology. Hence, they believed that Kabbalah could be used for missionary purposes –

to convince the Jews to convert. Christian scholars were the first to publish Kabbalistic writings,

translated into Latin, even before these texts were printed in their original languages. Latin

translations of Kabbalistic texts printed in the 16th and 17th centuries were later translated into

modern European languages, and became sources for knowledge of Kabbalah in modern Europe.

Christian Kabbalists supported the printing of Kabbalistic texts in their original languages in

order to propagate the study of Kabbalah amongst the Jews and thereby convert them to

Christianity. Hence, Christian Kabbalah had a significant impact on both modern Christian and

modern Jewish cultures.

of the most important scholars and philosophers of the Renaissance, is considered the first

Christian Kabbalist (although a few Jewish converts to Christianity offered Christian

interpretations of Kabbalah before him). In 1486, when Pico was only 23 years old, he wrote 900

theses about religion, philosophy and magic and offered to defend them. The introduction to

these theses is the Oration on the Dignity of Man, a key text of Renaissance thought. Kabbalah

has an important place for Pico; 72 of his theses concern Kabbalah. In one of them, he declared

that no sciences could better prove the divinity of Christ than Kabbalah and magic. Pico and the

Christian Kabbalists who followed him believed that Kabbalah was part of the Prisca Theologia

- the ancient theology God revealed to humanity that is compatible with true Christianity. In his

theses, Pico identified the trinity with different Hebrew names of God and with the sefirot. He

offered Kabbalistic-Christian interpretations of biblical verses, and declared that the principles of

Kabbalah proved that Jesus was the true messiah. Pico studied Kabbalah with Italian rabbis,

especially with the Jewish convert, Flavius Mithridates, who translated several Kabbalsitc texts

for Pico.

Another important Renaissance Christian Kabbalist was the German scholar of Hebrew and

Greek, Johann Reuchlin, who published two books on Kabbalah, De Verbo Mirifico – “On the

Wonderful Word,” published in 1494, and the Arte Cabbalistica, “On the Art of Kabbalah,”

published in 1517. Reuchlin, who met with Pico, accepted and elaborated his ideas concerning

the antiquity of Kabbalah, its hidden Christological messages, and its potential to encourage

Jews to convert. One of Reuchlin’s influential doctrines concerns the Kabbalistic secret of the
name of Jesus, which is comprised of the letters of the Tetragrammaton – yod, he and vav, with

an additional shin, bringing the divine name to its messianic perfection.

Many other Christian Kabbalists were active in the 16th century. I will mention only a few.

Paulus Ricius, a Jewish convert to Christianity, translated Yoseph Gikatilia’s Gates of Light into

Latin, and printed his translation, De Porta Lucis, in 1516. This was the first printed Kabbalistic

text. Guillaume Postel, the French scholar of Semitic languages, translated a large part of the

Zohar into Latin, and developed a unique messianic theology based on zoharic concepts, which

brought him into conflict with the Inquisition and the French authorities, who decided that he

was insane, and put him under house arrest.

One of the most influential Christian Kabbalistic circles operated in the late 17th century, in the

court of the Count Christian Augustus in Sulzbach. The head of the group, who was in contact

with many European scholars of the time, was the German Hebraist Christian Knorr von

Rosenroth. Knorr published a two-volume compendium of Christian Kabbalah called Kabbalah

Denudata, “Kabbalah Unveiled.” It comprised of Christian interpretations of Kabbalah, as well

as translations of some major Kabbalistic texts, including several units from the Zohar, and a few

writings of the Kabbalists of Safed. Kabbalah Denudata became one of the major sources of

information on Kabbalah in Europe.

Many Christian Kabbalists in the 16th and 17th centuries encountered negative reactions from the

Christian authorities. Nonetheless, they also stimulated much interest, and introduced Kabbalah
in its Christian interpretation to modern European culture. Many important scholars,

philosophers and scientists (such as the English theologian and scientist Isaac Newton and the

German Philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz) were interested in Kabbalah. Kabbalah

therefore had a significant impact on modern European thought.

Unit 7: The Popularization of Kabbalah and the Sabbatean Movement.

As I mentioned previously, Kabbalah proliferated during the 16th century. New Kabbalistic

centers were established, many Kabbalistic texts were written, new forms of Kabbalah were

created, and Kabbalistic texts – first and foremost the Zohar, were printed for the first time. As

we saw, interest in Kabbalah was not restricted to the Jewish world. The proliferation of

Kabbalah continued in the 17th century, and reached its peak in the 18th. By that time, Kabbalah

had reached all Jewish communities and apart from very small circles that opposed it, it became

accepted as normative Jewish theology. Gradually, Lurianic Kabbalah became the most

authoritative form of Kabbalah. It was considered the key to understanding the Zohar, and

overshadowed the teachings of other Kabbalists, including those of Moshe Cordovero. The

propagation and popularization of Kabbalah increased from the late 17th century, and Kabbalah

reached larger segments of the Jewish population. Many editions of the Zohar, and other

Kabbalistic texts were printed and the Zohar was translated into the vernacular Jewish languages

of Yiddish and Ladino. Passages from the Zohar were integrated into the prayer service, and

Kabbalistic rituals, such as the tikkun leil shavuot and other tikkunim were widely practiced.

There were probably many different reasons for the growing popularity of Kabbalah in the

Jewish world. One important factor was the Sabbatean movement. These were the followers of
Shabbtai Zvi, a Jew from Izmir, who was pronounced the messiah in the summer of 1665. This

stimulated great enthusiasm all over the Jewish world, and many, possibly most, Jews at the

time, believed the pronouncement of the coming redemption. The enthusiasm was curtailed a

year later when Shabbtai Zvi was arrested by the Ottoman authorities and converted to Islam.

Notwithstanding the great disappointment, many Jews retained their belief in Shabbtai Zvi as

redeemer. Some of them followed him and converted to Islam while secretly keeping their

identity as Sabbatean believers. Other Sabbateans, some of them prominent rabbinic scholars,

continued their normative Jewish ways of life, entertaining in secret their belief in Shabbtai Zvi.

In the mid-18th century, some Jewish followers of Jacob Franck, who declared himself Shabbtai

Zvi’s successor, converted to Catholicism.

Kabbalah played a central role in Sabbateanism. Both Shabbtai Zvi, and his main supporter,

Nathan, the prophet of Gaza, studied Kabbalah. Nathan of Gaza, as well as other Sabbateans,

believed that the Zohar proclaimed the coming, as well as the conversion of the messiah. They

used Lurianic concepts to explain Shabbtai Zvi’s strange behavior. His conversion to Islam (as

well as his eccentric behavior before that) were part of his messianic mission involving

descending into the depths of the kelipot, the powers of evil, in order to release from there the

last imprisoned sparks of the divine light. Sabbatean circles were very active in the propagation

and popularization of Kabbalah in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Sabbateans stood behind

the printing of many of the editions the Zohar at the time, translated the Zohar to vernacular

languages, and taught Kabbalah to wider circles of the Jewish population, including women. One

of the popular books at the time, Sefer Hemdat Yamim, was instrumental in the propagation of
Kabbalah and performance of Kabbalistic rituals. It was composed by Sabbateans in the early

18th century.

Sabbateanism contributed much to the proliferation of Kabbalah in the modern period. Yet, some

rabbis, who were worried about the increasing popularization of Kabbalah and recognized that

many Sabbateans were involved in it, called for a restriction of its study. One of the most famous

expressions of this trend was a decree issued by the rabbis of the town of Brody, in the Ukraine,

following the conversion of the followers of Jacob Franck. According to the decree, issued in

1756, people should not study the Zohar before the age of 30, or Lurianic Kabbalah before the

age of 40. Kabbalah should be studied only from approved printed texts, and only by people who

had already “filled their bellies” with rabbinic teachings. Thus, just as Kabbalah reached the peak

of its popularity in the Jewish world, restrictions were imposed on its study. As we shall see in

our last lesson, from the late 18th century, some Jewish circles called not for the restriction of

Kabbalah study but rather for its complete rejection. Although calls for restriction or rejection

had a significant effect on the status of Kabbalah, it did not disappear from modern Judaism. As

we shall see in our next and final lesson, new and interesting types of Kabbalah continued to

develop in the modern period