525) Tashlich, water and 'bribing' demons

Introduction

Although the Jewish world after Maimonides (1138–1205) gradually embraced a mystical ethos—particularly following the publication of the Zohar some eighty years after his death—his followers remained wary of the burgeoning mystical practices that took root within Judaism, often approaching them with scepticism, if not outright rejection. Drawing on rationalist principles and a commitment to biblical authenticity, Maimonides challenged many mystical rituals, which he saw as later additions rooted in superstition or non-Jewish origins. His opposition reflects a broader philosophical stance: that religious expression should be grounded in reason, ethical clarity, and Torah-based tradition. This article—based extensively on the research by Rabbi Dr Israel Drazin[1]—examines the Tashlich ceremony and attempts to understand Tashlich within the broader context of medieval Jewish thought and its Maimonidean/rationalist reinterpretation. 

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). 

520) 'Creating' sacred sites: Who is buried there, and does it matter?

Alleged tomb of Rav Ashi, on the Israel Lebanon border

Introduction

This article—based extensively on the research by Professors Shai Sekunda and Isaac Hershkowitz—examines the historical accuracy of some popular gravesites attributed to biblical figures and great rabbis. Many thousands of fervent worshippers flock to these sites, and the question is: Are the righteous Tzadikim who are claimed to be buried there really buried there, and if not, does it matter? We shall discuss a number of these purported burial sites, including those of Rav Ashi on Mount Shinan, R. Shimon bar Yochai in Meron and the biblical Binyamin in Jerusalem. 

519) When rabbis dared to challenge the Divine: The case of Midrash Tehillim

Midrash Shocher Tov, the first section of Midrash Tehillim (on Psalms 1-118)  produced between the third and eight centuries in Palestine.

 

Introduction

This article—based extensively on the research by Professor Dov Weiss[1]— examines the rise and decline of rabbinic protest theology. It looks at the audacious attempts by some Mishnaic rabbis to defy a general ethos of protest prohibition, particularly upheld by the schools of R. Akiva and R. Elazar. By tracing the gradual evolution of rabbinic protest theology through the Talmudic period to its peak in post-Talmudic times, Weiss maps a distinct theological arc that eventually waned and merged into modern times as a subdued tradition.

518) Messianic Immunity—The Perfect Storm: The case of R. Avraham Baruch haRofeh

Responsa by R. Chaim Benveniste, 1743

Introduction

This article—based extensively on the research by Professor Abraham Ofir Shemesh[1]—examines an extreme case of messianic immunity. In the sixteenth century, a medical doctor, R. Avraham Baruch haRofeh, under the influence of the Sabbatian messianic movement of Shabbatai Tzvi, felt he could administer harmful drugs to non-Jews in order to kill them. Because he believed he was living in the stirrings of the messianic era, he also believed he could do so with impunity—if not hasten the full awakening of the messianic age as he saw it unfolding before his very eyes. 

While R. Avraham Baruch may have been an extreme case, unfortunately, due to the vicissitudes of a long and oppressive Jewish history, he did have some textual precedent to draw upon. We shall look at some of that precedent, but also show how many of the later rabbis contextualised those earlier rulings and declared that they were no longer applicable. 

517) A historical context to Midrashim

 

Introduction

This article—based extensively on the research by Professor Gary Porton[1]— investigates the historical conditions that may have fostered the complex and often elusive evolution of Midrash. Midrashim are the creative and often fanciful interpretations of the biblical text that dramatically expand its plain meaning. While some adopt a literal approach to the interpretation of Midrashim, others opt for an allegorical methodology. Based on a reading of Talmudic texts, Porton suggests a more diachronic or historical approach based on how and where Midrashim were first taught. 

Fascinatingly, he discovers that Midrashim may never have been intended for communal consumption. They were not, as many have claimed, produced for sermons to entertain those in the synagogues. Instead, he hypothesises, they were part of an internal rabbinic tradition that was rarely expounded in the public domain. This research could significantly contribute to the way we read and understand Midrashim. 

516) When Midrash is too much for the Midrash

One of the six known manuscript versions of the Tosafist work Hadar Zekeinim. This one dates around the 15th century.

Introduction 

This article—based extensively on the research by Rabbi Dr Zvi Ron[1]—examines various Midrashim that have been rejected by an unofficial form of collective rabbinic consensus. These include Midrashim from lesser known sources as well as, surprisingly, those from classical Midrashic sources such as Mechilta, Sifra, Sifri, Midrash Raba and Midrash Tanchuma. 

Midrashic ‘status’ 

Not all Midrashim are cut from the same cloth and there appears to be a hierarchy of Midrashic sources. Rav Hai Gaon (939-1038), for example, suggests that those Midrashim that made it into the corpus of the Talmud, are of a superior quality to those that remained in the anthologies of Midrashic works alone. He maintains that the Midrashim not found in the Talmud can be rejected if they do not seem plausible: 

515) Missing in Manuscript: The additional biblical verses added to the Mishna

Tosefet Yom Tov (later  Tosefot Yom Tov) Mishna commentary by R. Yom Tov Lipmann Heller, Prague, 1614-1617. 

 
Introduction

This article—based extensively on the research by Professor Jason Kalman[1]—examines the question of biblical verses, cited as proof texts, that added to our versions of the Mishna. Based on comparisons between our Mishna texts and their earlier manuscripts and printings, in almost twenty per cent of the cases, these scriptural citations are missing in the earlier and more original versions. This means that one out of five biblical verses, acting to compliment or support a contemporary Mishna text, is a later insertion. 

Until recently, not much research had been conducted on the relative absence of biblical citations found in a vast array of manuscripts and early printings of the Mishnah, in comparison with our contemporary version of the Mishna where these extra verses are to be found. 

514) Kabbalah: From Obscurity to the Defining Essence of Judaism

First printing of the Zohar, Cremona 1558.

Introduction

This article—based extensively on the research by Professor David Malkiel[1]—explores the thirteenth-century rise of Kabbalah in Spain and its subsequent peaking in sixteenth-century Safed. Since the Safed period, Kabbalah has come to be widely regarded as embodying the very essence and greatest depths of Judaism in the popular imagination. How did this transformation take place? Some would suggest that this is a natural progression towards messianic times. But any study of Jewish messianism shows that we have always believed we've been living in imminent messianic times. There may be additional ways of tracking the development of Kabbalah.

Malkiel introduces an unusual history of the rise of Kabbalah from a cultural perspective connecting it to the Rennaissance and the emerging preoccupation with ‘realism,’ which (ironically for a study on mysticism) avoids fantasy and idealism in favour of concrete reality.