283) ‘MASHIACH NOW’ - OVER THE LAST 500 YEARS:

 

The Alhambra Decree expelling the Jews from Spain in 1492.

 - ESTABLISHING MESSIANIC STUDY CIRCLES IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE EXPULSION FROM SPAIN -

INTRODUCTION:

The Expulsion of the practising Jews from Spain was initiated by the Alhambra Decree which was issued on 31 March 1492 by the joint Catholic Monarchs of Castile and Aragon. The Jews were to have left Spanish soil by 31 July of that year.

The Expulsion from Spain had a tremendous bearing on a number of aspects of Jewish history. In this article, we will explore how it triggered an emphasis on redemptive and messianic fervour which was to become a theological mainstay of future Judaism. Of course, earlier Jewish literature had dealt with such matters, but after the Expulsion, it took on a new and elevated urgency.

I have drawn extensively from the research[1] of Professor Elisheva Carlebach of Columbia University who specializes in the cultural, intellectual, and religious history of the Jews in Early Modern Europe.

INTENSE MESSIANIC SCHOOLS WERE ESTABLISHED IN THE POST-EXPULSION ERA:

As an immediate spiritual reaction to the Expulsion, many intensely mystical and messianic schools, or yeshivot, were established in attempts at theurgically (through magical or supernatural means) bringing about a state of immediate redemption.

Professor Carlebach writes:

“Some of the most intense messianic spirituality was centered in the many yeshivot and study circles established in the period after the Expulsion for the express purpose of hastening the redemption.”

Besides both general Torah learning and the redemptive study circles in particular taking on an urgent and overt messianic accentuation, other aspects of Jewish life - including even the mundane politics within the expelled community - became spiritualized.[2] Everything was imbued with omnisignificance and messianic overtones.

HISTORY HAS OVERLOOKED THE BIRTH OF RADICAL MESSIANISM AFTER THE EXPULSION:

It is important to remember that these redemptive study circles were not just unique to the Spanish Jews of the post-Expulsion era, but they continued in one form or another to dominate the religious study landscape well into the future and their influence was later felt deep within Ashkenazic circles as well.

Carlebach shows how the influence of these Sephardic redemptive study circles spread to the Ashkenazic world and transformed their study ethos to also include a redemptive component. Torah study was no longer just about acquiring knowledge but it took on a pressing theurgic dimension as well. Fascinatingly, for some reason, this important development has been largely ignored by students of history.

According to Carlebach:

 “Of all the messianic pathways taken by Iberian [Spanish and Portuguese][3] Jews as a consequence of the persecutions and expulsions of the fifteenth century, this one has been least explored, although it lasted for centuries and spread beyond the Sephardic community...”

 “[T]he significance of messianism as a central and fundamental response to the Expulsion [from Spain][4] remains unremarked.”

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SEPHARDIC AND ASHKENAZIC YESHIVOT:

The Sephardic yeshiva was often called a hesger which was a closed circle of not more than ten elite scholars. In a large community there would be many such study circles. While Ashkenazic rabbis usually sought positions of rabbinic leadership and authority, the Sephardic rabbis were more interested in the prestige that came with heading a redemptive study circle.

It is possible that this difference in the way each group asserted its authority was evidenced by the Ashkenazic rabbis sometimes being Halachically stricter than their Sephardic counterparts.

POSSIBLE ISLAMIC INFLUENCE:

Interestingly, Carlebach writes:

“Similar schools, circles, and voluntary societies, whose structure and function parallel those we have described, flourished in medieval Islam and may have contributed to the genesis or continuity of this form among the Sephardim.”[5]

FUNDING:

The funding for these study circles was from the wealthy within the communities who were happy to be able to contribute and thereby, they believed, vicariously gain a share in bringing about the anticipated messianic state of redemption.

CURRICULA:

These messianic study circles did not just study Torah but they developed specialized mystical curricula which would bring the redemption closer.

As mentioned, these circles were elitist and in the words of R. Raphael Treves:

“Our redemption...cannot be attained by the masses, only by the elite.”

The spread of Lurianic Kabbala (from the Ari Zal) also contributed to the messianic urgency as it imbued the study and practice of Torah with theurgical significance. And many practitioners within the study circles maintained that Kabbalah study should be elevated over traditional Talmudic study.[6]

Bear in mind that the Zohar, a foundation work of Jewish mysticism, had been published in Spain in around 1290, which in relative terms was not that long before the Expulsion, and by its nature would certainly have lent itself to messianic enterprises.

GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION:

While many believed that the Holy land was the ultimate geographical location to host messianic study circles, some maintained that centres within the Diaspora were crucial to prepare the world for the imminent messianic manifestation.[7] 

There was much debate over which particular region of the Holy Land was best suited for these messianic circles. Besides the obvious choice of Jerusalem, some preferred Safed (particularly during the 16^th –century), Tiberius, Chevron and even Gaza. Actually, Safed was dominant as long as it held its strong economic position but, as soon as it lost that dominance, Jerusalem took over.

ABULAFIA:

In the 18^th-century, the great mystic R. Chaim ben Moshe Abulafia (1660-1744) founded a yeshiva in Tiberius called Mashmia Yeshua (Harbinger of Redemption). He told the Jews of Tiberius that:

“[T]he messiah would soon arrive and come from the Sea of Galilee.”  

OHR HACHAIM:

R. Chaim Benattar (1696-1743), known as the Ohr haChaim, was attracted to Abulafia in Tiberius. He specifically wanted to establish a redemptive yeshiva to hasten the arrival of Messiah and he moved his Kabbalistic circle to Jerusalem. Some believe he was the inspirational model for the up-and-coming Chassidic movement.[8]

ESTABLISHING SETTLEMENTS IN THE HOLY LAND:

The Diaspora communities often supported the messianic yeshivot of the Holy Land. Only selected candidates qualified to be sent to the Holy Land. It was also very expensive to travel during the 18^th-century, as the fare was twice the annual income needed to live in the Land of Israel.

AUSPICIOUS REDEMPTIVE DATES:

Carlebach writes:

“The attempts to establish redemptive centres of rabbinic scholarship [in the Holy Land] began with the first exiles [from Spain][9], and continued for centuries. They tended to cluster around certain redemptive dates, such as 1575, 1700-1706, and 1740...

Rabbinic circles were similarly established all over the Sephardic Diaspora, in Italy, North Africa, and the Ottoman Empire. While some were simply traditional centers of study, many had esoteric agendas which transformed their activities into intense theurgic dramas.“

FROM SMALL ELITIST GROUPS TO WIDER PARTICIPANTS:

The post-Expulsion messianic study circles continued to flourish for centuries into the future. Initially, they maintained their elitist nature but gradually, after being adopted to some degree by the Sabbateans - the followers of the false messiah Shabbatai Tzvi (1626-1676) - and later by the Chassidic movement, they opened up to the masses who were encouraged to participate in the enterprise of study for redemptive purposes. Thereafter, this messianic ethos slowly wound its way into the general mainstream.

SABBATEANS ADOPT THE SEPHARDIC STUDY CIRCLE MODEL:

Bear in mind that the Sabbateans were not just a fringe movement. Their numbers included up to half - if not more - of the Jewish population at that time. Many of their leaders were prominent rabbis and, after Shabbatai Tzvi was shown to be a false messiah and the movement went underground, it was very difficult to distinguish a secret Sabbatean from a mainstream religious Jew. The secret Sabbateans were known to have established secret cells. 

[See Shabbatai Tzvi – Roots Run Deep.]

Carlebach writes:

“Many prominent Sabbateans, some with messianic pretensions of their own, planned to build redemptive yeshivot.” 

RABBI AVRAHAM ROVIGO:

During the time of the secret Sabbateans similar redemptive study circles were established in Jerusalem by R. Avraham Rovigo in 1702[10], and by R. Isaiah Hasid who established a ten-scholar Sabbatean yeshiva in Mannheim, Germany.[11]

RABBI RAPHAEL MORDEKHAI MALKHI:

Another example of this is the secret or crypto-Sabbatean, R. Raphael Mordechai Malkhi. Malkhi intended to make Jerusalem the centre of Sabbatean ideology and his primary tool for so doing was to establish a redemptive yeshiva.

Raphael Mordechai Malkhi wrote:

“At the end of days...they [the Jews of the Diaspora][12]  will establish a midrash [yeshiva] in Jerusalem of seventy scholars over them. The Lord will bring many settlers out of oppression who will cultivate the land...The era of this restoration...is the time of the approach of the redemption...The King Messiah will emerge from them.”[13]

RABBI AVRAHAM CARDOSA:

In 1703, another Sabbatean - R. Avraham Cardosa - who competed for authority with Malkhi, arrived in the Holy Land and also wanted to establish a redemptive yeshiva in Jerusalem. He was an interesting personality because he had lived as a Marrano in Spain until his twentieth year and then became a crypto-Sabbatean. He hired copyists to disseminate his writings in Jerusalem in order to counter the other Sabbatean literature which was popular there.

Cardosa wrote in no uncertain terms:

“In the Academy on High there are two yeshivot, one for Elijah and one for R. Simon bar Yohai. And I will establish a third one...for I possess a veritable treasury of esoteric lore.”[14]

The anti-Sabbatean Rabbinate of Jerusalem, however, blocked him from opening up his yeshiva in Jerusalem. In 1708, his student, Nechemya Hayon collected funds from Smyrna to establish a redemptive yeshiva in Israel but it was also blocked by the Rabbinate.

RABBI MORDECHAI ASHKENAZI:

During the 18^th-century, another crypto-Sabbatean, R. Mordechai Ashkenazi wrote a work entitled Eshel Avraham (Terebinth of Abraham). He named the work after his teacher, R. Avraham Rovigo and writes that most of the ideas in the book were from Rovigo.

What is significant about Eshel Avraham is that it offers a window into the nature of these redemptive study circles. It quotes Rovigo as saying:

“The signs have now been revealed that this is the generation of King Messiah.”[15]

Carlebach writes:

“The curriculum proposed by the Sabbatians did not differ from that of many of their predecessors – they championed an almost exclusive reliance on kabbalistic texts, beginning with the Zohar, and particularly the study of Lurianic Kabbalah.”

However, what set them apart from the other redemptive yeshivot was their insistence that the study of Talmudic literature actually impeded the redemption.

Eshel Avraham explains that Moshe’s Torah from Sinai was not powerful enough to affect a full and permanent redemption, and it was only the Torah of R. Shimon bar Yochai - the alleged author of the Zohar - that could lead to a complete messianic redemption.[16]

Eshel Avraham continues to explain that there are three types of individuals who study Torah: 1) Those who just read it as a story. They are regarded as “the fools of the world.” 2) Then there are those on a slightly higher level who study “the principles of Torah.” 3) And then there are those on the highest level, who:

“penetrate the soul...Because Israel did not engage itself in Kabbalistic lore, but only in peshat [the simple or literal meaning of the words of the Torah][17], there can be no redemption unless the matter is rectified.”[18]

The Talmudic or Halachic study of Torah is compared to the bark of as tree, while the Kabbalah is the sap. Eshel Avraham issues a warning:

“Woe to those rabbis who eat of the husk of the Torah but don’t know its secrets.”[19]

ANALYSIS:

As Carlebach has pointed out, history has overlooked the fundamental and powerful influence of the messianic study circles that sprung up in the aftermath of the Expulsion.

These redemptive attempts at turning mystical study into theurgical catalysts for the dawning of the Messianic Era were the springboard from which many of the more modern messianic movements sprung.

What the redemptive study circles did after the Expulsion from Spain in the 15^th-century, was to transform the traditional view of Torah study into an urgent and powerful tool to bring about the ‘immediate redemption’. It was a mystical attempt to ‘rectify’ the evils of the Expulsion.

This messianic ethos, almost like a manifesto, was then capitalized upon by the mystics of the 16^th-century. They too had study circles and signed pledges of allegiance. [See Appendix to Sefer haTzoref link below.]

A similar mystical character and tenor was then adopted and reworked by the followers of Shabbatai Tzvi in the 17^th-century.

The same thread found its way into the Chassidic Movement of the 18^th-century which also had closed messianic study circles such as the Chevraya Kadisha of the Baal Shem Tov.

All of this was later appropriated to a large degree by the mainstream Jewish world during the 19^th- century which similarly ascribed redemptive and messianic value to Torah Study.

This accounts, in no insignificant manner, for the popular messianism which dominated much of 20^th century Judaism and continues to this day where - not just Torah study - but every event is somehow linked to the immediate redemption.

In a remarkable article published, surprisingly, in the Chareidi Mishpacha Magazine, Rabbi Aaron Lopiansky[20] wrote:

“We need to teach our children history. And that history needs to include much more than dry names and dates and stories of gedolim...

My first concern is our deep ignorance of Jewish history — or any history for that matter. It is simply mind-boggling to hear people state that ‘Never has anything like this happened before. This [Corona][21] virus must be heralding the coming of Mashiach!’...

The second source of distress is the current Mashiach fervor. Klal Yisrael has had many “Mashiach is here” moments. Read the excellent ‘Mashichei Hasheker U’misnagdeihem’ (all 700 pages) of Rabbi Binyomin Hamburger, and you will get a feel for how numerous and how destructive these movements were...”

FURTHER READING:

[Rabbi David Alro’i and the Night of the Flight.]

[David Reuveni and Shlomo Molcho – A Messianic Duo.]

[R. Yehudah Leib Prossnitz – Another False Messiah.]

[Sefer haTzoref – Were these the ‘Secret Writings’ Which Had to be Hidden?] See Appendix for a ‘Pledge of Allegiance’ to ‘form a single company’, as found in the Stolin Geniza.

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[1] Elisheva Carlebach, Rabbinic Circles as Messianic Pathways in the Post-Expulsion Era.

[2] Rachel Elior, Messianic Expectations and Spiritualization of Religious Life in the Sixteenth Century, 145:35-49. And; H.H. Ben-Sasson, Exile and Redemption in the Eyes of Spanish Exiles, pp. 216-227.

[3] Parenthesis mine.

[4] Parenthesis mine.

[5] See Joel L. Kraemer, Humanism in the Renaissance of Islam (Leiden 1986), p. 103.

[6] See Moshe Idel, Infinities of Torah in Kabbalah (New Haven 1986), pp. 141-157.

[7] See Elisheva Carlebach, Pursuit pp. 62-63. And: Elisheva Carlebach, “Redemption and Persecution”, pp. 19-20.

[8] Marc D. Angel, Voices in Exile: A Study of Sephardic Intellectual History (Hoboken 1991), pp. 89-94.

[9] Parentheses mine.

[10] Some accounts have it in 1701.

[11] Jacob Mann, The Settlement of the Kabbalist Abraham Rovigo and his Circle in Jerusalem in 1702, 6:10.

[12] Parenthesis mine.

[13] Y. Rivlin, The Proposal of Rabbi Raphael Mordekhai Malkhi to Establish a Yeshiva in Jerusalem as a Center for Jewry [Heb.], p. 46.

[14] Elijah Kohen, Sefer Meribat Kadesh, in Inyanei Shabtai Zevi (Berlin 1912). Pp. 18-19.

[15] Eshel Avraham 5b.

[16] Eshel Avraham 3a.

[17] Parenthesis mine.

[18] Eshel Avraham 3a-3b.

[19] Eshel Avraham 5a.

[20] Rabbi Lopiansky is the Rosh HaYeshiva of the Yeshiva of Greater Washington.

[21] Parenthesis mine.

190) MUSINGS ON AN ‘ASHKENAZI’ ARIZAL:

INTRODUCTION:

R. Yitzchak Luria (1534-1572) known as the Ari (the ‘Lion’) is considered to be the father of modern Kabbalah.  He was born in Jerusalem to an Ashkenazi father, R. Shlomo Luria, and a Sefaradi mother. His father died when he was just eight years old and he was raised by his mother’s brother in Cairo.

During that time he studied under Radbaz (R. David ben Zimra, a Spanish Kabbalist who fled during the Expulsion from Spain) and his student R. Betzalel Ashkenazi, whom he helped compile the Shita Mekubetzet on some tractates of the Talmud.

At twenty-two, he began studying the Zohar, which had just recently been published, and for seven years he lived on the island of Roda in the Nile engrossed in his studies.

Until the appearance of the Ari, the popular Kabbalistic model that most followed was that of Ramak, or R. Moshe Cordovero of Safed. He advocated a rather intuitive perception of the Spiritual realms. However, during the mid-1500’s when the universal trend was leaning more towards science and industry a more systematic model was required. This need was filled by the Ari Zal and his very structured system was even endorsed by Ramak himself as the way forward.

The Ari Zal passed away when he was only 38 years old, and all he put down in writing were a few poems.  However, it was through his oral teachings (later recorded in writing by his students – particularly R. Chaim Vital) that the Zohar became comprehensible to us.

In this article we will explore some of his opinions as well as some speculation as to his views relating to nusach, or prayer rites:

BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT:

ORIGINS OF NUSACH:

Rabbi Eliezer Melamed explains in his Peninei Halacha[1] how each Jewish group thinks their rite is the most authentic. 

The Ashkenazim claim that their prayer rite is most accurate because its roots go back to all the way to Shimon haPekoli. He was a Tanna in Israel and his tradition remained in the Holy Land throughout the Talmudic and Gaonic periods.  As the Talmud records:

“Shimon haPekoli arranged the order of the Shemona Esrei under the supervision of Raban Gamliel at Yavneh.”[2]

 שמעון הפקולי הסדיר שמונה עשרה ברכות לפני רבן גמליאל על הסדר ביבנה

This was in contradistinction to Nusach Sefard which had its origins outside of Israel, in Babylonia. Nonetheless, the Sefaradim claim their nusach is a ‘higher’ one and one can, therefore, change from Ashkenaz to Sefard but not vice versa.[3]

CHANGING ONE’S NUSACH:

Bearing in mind that nusach is a custom and not a law, the Peninei Halacha gives two sides of an interesting debate on the issue of changing one’s established nusach.

Assume a student from a Chassidic family, who prayed according to nusach Ari, goes to study at an Ashkenazi yeshiva and adopts the Ashkenazi nusach for the duration of his studies. After some time he returns home and now faces the dilemma of whether to revert back to nusach Ari or continue with nusach Ashkenaz?

The Ashkenazi rabbis would rule that he continue with nusach Ashkenaz because originally all Ashkenazim used that nusach, and it was only in the last two and a half centuries that the Chassidim innovated the change to nusach Ari. So while that period of two and a half centuries is sufficient to set a precedent for Chassidim, in general, to continue with their nusach, however, where someone had already changed ‘back’ to nusach Ashkenaz - as in our example - he should continue using nusach Ashkenaz as that still remains his ‘primary’ and ‘original’ nusach.

The Chassidic rabbis, on the other hand, would rule that he should certainly revert back to nusach Ari (or Sefarad-Chassidi) because we can still rely on the original Chassidic dispensation when the movement was born, to change from Ashkenazi to Ari in the first instance.

The Peninei Halacha suggests that, because of the deadlock, one should consult with one’s rabbi.[4]

ARI ZAL AND NUSACH:

The Chatam Sofer writes in his responsa, that all prayer rites are equally important. Then he adds:

“And the fact that the Ari composed his (mystical) kavanot (meditations) based on Nusach Sefard, was (simply) because he was accustomed to pray from (that rite). But, in truth, had someone like the Ari been (living in) Ashkenaz (Germany and Northern France), he would have composed all his kavanot based on Nusach Ashkenaz.” [5]

KESET YEHONATAN:

According to the very insightful  Keset Yehonatan (The Inkstand Yehonatan,[6] published in 1697):

“...R. Yitzchak Luria [the] Ashkenazi used to pray, throughout the year, in a Sefaradi community. It was only on the High Holy Days and Festivals that he would pray with Ashkenazim.

And when asked why he did not pray throughout the entire year with the Ashkenazim, he responded: ‘These and those are [equally] the words of the living G-d. Except that the Sefaradim have extra prayers and supplications and that is why I pray [more frequently] with them...’

According to this - essentially - the Ari Zal was expected to keep his original nusach which was nusach Ashkenaz! And this was apparently well known because the questioner asked why didn’t he always just pray in the Ashkenazi community? To this, he responded that he chose to pray with the Sefaradim more frequently simply because of their additional prayers which he also wanted to say.

THE ASHKENAZI ARIZAL:

The common perception, though, is that Ari Zal was a Sefaradi Jew, but the fact is he was an Ashkenazi Jew.

The acronym ‘ARI’ stands for ‘A’shkenazi ‘R’abbi ‘Y’itzchak. His surname was Luria, not Ashkenazi as some maintain. Ashkenazi was a description of his Ashkenazi heritage.

Some, however, insist that the ‘A’ stands instead for Elohi or G-dly, attesting to his extraordinary spirituality as no other sage is afforded such an honorific. They maintain that only later was Ashkenazi substituted for Elohi.

R. Binyomin Shlomo Hamburger in his Shorshei Minhag Ashkenaz points out that the Ari Zal was indeed Ashkenazi and prayed on the high holidays in an Ashkenazi shul (as we saw in Keset Yehonatan).

However, his student, R. Chaim Vital was a Sefaradi Jew, and therefore his teacher gave over to him lessons according to the Sefaradi customs. 

But evidently, the Ari Zal himself adhered for the most part, to his Ashkenazi rites and customs.

PACHAD YITZCHAK:

According to the Pachad Yitzchak[7], by R. Yitzchak Lamparonti (1679-1756):

 “...The Holy Ari did not interfere with customs of [different] communities...and he admonished people not to change their customs, because he said that every custom has an angel appointed over it and a [special]opening in heaven to receive those prayers [and practices]...”

It is most likely, considering the evidence that the Ari was an Ashkenazi - that history has mistakenly only viewed him through the prism of R. Chaim Vital the Sefaradi.  That is why we associate his kavanot with nusach Sefard. But we don’t know which nusach he used for himself.

As the Chatam Sofer said that “had someone like the Ari been (living in) Ashkenaz, he would have composed all his kavanot based on Nusach Ashkenaz.”

He knew he was an Ashkenazi and indeed he may have used kavanot based on nusach Ashkenaz (particularly considering that he had only known R. Chaim Vital, his Sefaradi student, for the last two years of his life).

TEFFILIN ON CHOL HAMOED:

A similar case can be made regarding the question of wearing teffilin on Chol haMoed. As a rule, Safaradim do not wear them while Ashkenazim do. But which custom did the Ari Zal abide by himself?

It is highly probable that the Ari Zal personally did put on teffilin on Chol haMoed, as again, he believed that Ashkenazim should remain faithful to their customs.[8]

R. Hamburger supports this thesis by mentioning R. Nosson Adler - one of the teachers of the Chatam Sofer, and himself a kabbalist who followed the ways of the Ari Zal - who would wear teffilin on Chol haMoed, for the same reasons as outlined above (i.e. because he was an Ashkenazi).

A rather obvious observation (pointed out by my wife) is that since the Ari Zal prayed with Ashkenazim on the High Holy Days which include Chol haMoed, it is very likely that he followed their custom and wore teffilin as well.

CHASSIDIC NUSACH:

If all this is correct, another interesting irony would be the persistence of Chassidim, in the era after the Baal Shem Tov, to pray from their new nusach Sefard-Chassidi or nusach Ari[9], even though they themselves were originally Ashkenazim.

Of course one could argue that for those who didn’t know their exact lineage, there was a ‘Thirteenth Gate’ which the Ari Zal is said to have established over and above the standard ‘Twelve Gates’ through which the prayers of each of the Twelve Tribes were to have passed.

As the Maggid of Mezeritch (1704-1772) writes:

“Now that people do not know the tribe of their origin, and we also do not know which customs apply to which tribes, it is best to follow the order arranged by the Ari, which is universal.”[10]

The question remains, though, as to what the Ari Zal himself would have suggested (hypothetically, as he had lived two hundred years prior) to the new Chassidim whose ancestors had already been using the Ashkenazi nusach for generations?

Considering that the Pachad Yitzchak said: “The Holy Ari did not interfere with customs of [different] communities...”- one wonders whether he would have wanted an entire community to change to a new nusach?

The question becomes compounded when we remember that the Ari Zal, as an individual, had personally chosen to vacillate between the two relatively ancient rites of Ashkenaz and Sefard. And although he was rather blasé about it, remarking “these and those are (equally) the words of the living G-d” - we have no idea of his view regarding a ‘new’ nusach for an entire community.

ANALYSIS:

These are just some of the interesting questions which arise from discovering that a great ‘Sefardi’ Kabbalist was, in fact, an Ashkenazi who probably kept Ashkenazi customs and didn’t want people to change their customs either.

And yet, although he is said to have ‘opened’ the Thirteenth Gate of Prayer, he himself appears - through his own practice and admission - to have downplayed the centrality of any particular nusach, by glibly moving from one to the other.

Although many are quick to place the Ari Zal into a ‘theological box’, it may be more difficult to categorise and define this ‘Ashkenazi Kabbalist’ than most would have imagined.

[For more on the conflicting legacies of the Ari Zal see: EMEK HAMELECH - THE BATTLE FOR THE SOUL OF THE ARI ZAL:]

NOTES FOR FURTHER STUDY:

Here is an opposing opinion by the Chatam Sofer (1762-1839) to that of the Maggid of Mezrich (quoted above) concerning the “Thirteenth Gate":

Teshuvot Chatam Sofer, Orach Chaim 16.

“What you quote from...[the Maggid about the Thirteenth gate][11] is that the Sefardic rite [of the Ari] is intended for those who do not know their tribe, I am not worthy of understanding. If this...were true, the Kohanim and Levites, who certainly know the tribe of their origin, should not use this rite, but a special liturgy for Levites. [We clearly see that this is not the case].

Furthermore, in the time of the Talmud, people were already ignorant of their tribes of origin...Would we, therefore, have to say that all the Talmudic sages also used the Sefardic rite, and if this were true, from what source have we derived other rites?...

We know that all the sages of France, Rashi, the Tosafists, Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg, Rabbi Asher...and many others, all made use of the Ashkenazic rite. Even though they did not know their tribe, their prayers certainly ascended to the heavens.

The Ari himself used the poems that Rabbi Shimon the Great composed...saying that they were composed by one who knew the way of Truth...but Rabbi Shimon used the Ashkenazic rite...

Shall we then say that the prayers of all these saints were cut off, may the Merciful One protect us?”[12]

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[1] Peninei Halacha, haNusachim uMinhagei he Edot, 2, p.86 -7.

[2] Berachot 28b.

[3] The Chida wrote in the name of the Ari that the Sefaradi nusach is a universal rite that passes through all the Twelve Gates of prayer (see later in the article). (Yabia Omer 6:10)

[4] Peninei Halacha, Tefillah, 6:8, p.95.

[5] See: Shut Chatam Sofer 1, 15.

[6] It has been suggested that the title was taken from II Samuel 1:22, Keshet (with a shin), “The Bow of Yehonatan.” A Samech was substituted for the shin and it became Keset or inkstand. The author was R. Yonatan ben Ya’akov.

[7] Pachad Yitzchak: Vol. 13, p. 107.

[8] See Treasure of Ashkenaz - The Lion of Ashkenaz: The Arizal You Didn’t Know.

[9] Nusach Ari should not be confused for the actual nusach the historical Ari Zal used.  Nusach Ari is an ‘approximation’ based ‘al pi nusach haAri Zal’

[10] Maggid Devarav leYa’akov 141. (Translation by R. Aryeh Kaplan.)

[11] Parenthesis mine.

[12] See: A Call to the Infinite, by R. Aryeh Kaplan. Moznaim Publishing Company 1986. P. 87.