524) Editing Jewish texts: Between reverence and revision

 

Shem haGedolim by R. Chaim David Azulai, known as the Chida (1724-1806).

Introduction

This article—based extensively on the research by Dr Oded Cohen[1]—examines the challenges facing editors of religious Jewish texts. It deals with two very different editors and separated by six hundred years, yet who faced similar tasks and scrutiny. 

The first editor is the Maskil of the Enlightenment movement, Isaac Benjacob (1801-1863), who edited the Shem haGedolim of the R. Chaim David Azulai, known as the Chida (1724-1806). 

The second is Maimonides, who—though not an editor of the Babylonian Talmud in the conventional sense—systematically distilled its legal rulings into his Mishneh Torah, the ground-breaking code that stripped away dialectical debate in favour of a clear, authoritative Halachic structure. 

523) Radical rabbinic models of universalism

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz 1937-2020

Introduction

This article traces the thought of four rabbinic figures—spanning from the sixteenth century to the modern writings of R. Adin Steinsaltz—who identify and exemplify a strikingly universalist approach within Jewish tradition. It highlights how these thinkers engaged with non-Jewish doctrines, religions, and ideologies not with hostility or indifference, but with a rare openness that challenges conventional boundaries of theological discourse. 

1) R. Natan Nata Shapira (1585-1633)

R. Natan Shapira of Kraków, also known as the Megaleh Amukot (Revealer of Secrets), was a student of Lurianic Kabbalah from the school of R. Yisrael Sarug and was responsible for the dissemination of the teaching of the Ari Zal.  He saw the need to extract good from the non-Jewish world as a necessary precursor to the messianic age. 

“[R. Natan Nata Shapira] clarified the mission of Judaism, in light of kabbalistic historiography, as one that aims to gather up the holy sparks scattered among gentiles in order to bring redemption nearer” (Rachel Elior in Yivo Encyclopedia). 

522) Italian letters: The battle over the Zohar

An 1847 letter by Shmuel David Luzatto, to the scholar Meir Halevi Letteris.

Introduction

This article—based extensively on the research by Daniel A. Klein[1]—examines the little-known polemic over Kabbalah between two great Italian rabbis of the nineteenth century. These rabbis were R. Shmuel David Luzzatto (known as Shadal, 1800-1865), a great-grandnephew of the famed R. Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (Ramchal), and R. Elia Benamozegh (1823-1900), the rabbi of Livorno (Leghorn). The two collided in written correspondence—not over Halachah, but over the soul of Judaism itself. Both were outspoken defenders of traditional Judaism, yet each understood its essence in profoundly different ways. 

Shadal emphasised the practical, ethical and rational core of Judaism, rejecting mystical elements like Kabbalah and particularly the Zohar. His approach was more material than ethereal in the sense of being grounded in practical, historical, linguistic, and moral realism. Benamozegh, on the other hand, was a mystic, a Kabbalist, a man who believed the Zohar was not only authentic, but essential. To this day, the Piazza Benamozegh in Livorno, Tuscany, continues to bear his name—a quiet but enduring tribute to the legacy of a man whose ideas once stirred fierce debate within Italian Jewry. 

521) Confronting or Escaping? -Beyond the "Back of the Wagon of the Baal Shem Tov"

 

[Back of the Wagon | Matisyahu | Afiko.man | Alex Clare | TYH Nation - YouTube].

Introduction

This article—based extensively on the research by Dr Leore Sachs-Shmueli[1]—challenges the common assertion that the Baal Shem Tov’s innovative path was primarily one of experiential and joyful spiritual surrender. Instead, it reveals a far more complex and unnerving spiritual trajectory: one that first plunges deliberately into raw fear, negativity, and darkness in order to extract sparks of holiness from the husks of evil. Only then can the state of ecstatic joy be authentically reached. 

One of the most beautiful and catchy hit songs in contemporary Jewish music must be the “Back of the Wagon of the Baal Shem Tov.” It is symbolic of radical trust and letting go, no matter where the storm takes you, as long as you’re in the back of the wagon of the Baal Shem Tov. Here, one rides with spiritual abandon, music, and a bottle of wine, into the Infinite Light: 

“Where we headed? It doesn’t matter as long as I’m in the back of the wagon with the Besht (Baal Shem Tov)” (Opening lyrics of the song).