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HOLY INHABITANTS OF A HOLY CITY:

HOW SAFED BECAME ONE OF THE FOUR HOLY

CITIES OF ERETZ ISRAEL IN THE 16TH CENTURY1

Yair Paz

Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies, Israel

Introduction

In 1492, in the wake of the Expulsion from Spain, Jews began

migrating eastwards towards the Ottoman Empire. In 1516 theOttomans conquered Eretz Israel and after that the stream of Jews

coming to settle there and particularly in Safed increased. In fact

the period offlourishing in the city from 1525 to 1575 is known as

the golden age of Safed. The Jewish population of the city, which

at its heightaccording to cautious estimateswas about 5,000 (out

of a total population of 10,000), made it the second largest aggre-

gation of Jews in the world (after Salonika). Other estimates give it

more than twice that number. (Schechter 1908; David 1993, 108110;

Shur 2000, 49; Avizur 1983, 353360). For comparison, in Jerusalem,

which was the second largest Jewish community in Eretz Israel, there

were only 1,0002,000 Jews and that number remained unchanged

in those years, as did the populations of other Jewish centers in EretzIsrael. Beside the impressive demographic growth, it is important to

note the characteristics of the immigrants: one of the outstanding

features of this population is that it included several hundred sages

who reached Safed in those years, most of them involved in mysti-

cism. Among them were the figures that became the leaders of the

Kabbalists of Safed, R. Isaac Luria (Ari), R. Haim Vital, R. Joseph

Karo, R. Moses Cordovero, R. Solomon Alkabez, R. David Ibn

Zimra and other influential Kabbalists. That holy inhabitants made

Safed the city of Kabbalists, the main popularity and importance

of which in the Jewish world derived from spiritual fermentation that

took place there at that time.

1 I wish to thank my colleagues at Schechter institute, Dr. Doron Bar and Prof.Rene Levine Melammed who read the article and commented on it.


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The purpose of this article is to discuss the intriguing question as

how a small and remote mountain town, almost unmentioned inancient sources (except for two marginal mentions) became in a short

time such an important Jewish center and even received the title of

being one of the four holy cities of Eretz Israel. Was the strong

attraction to Safed the result of historical-economic conditions alone

that brought about the sanctification of the town, or were there

more spiritual reasons or unknown traditions in the background of

the exceptional attraction of that holy inhabitants to the town and

these caused the dramatic change in its status?2 This question will

be considered from a relatively new inter-disciplinary point of view

combining the methodologies of historical-geographical research and

the study of the history of mysticism in the 16th century, which is

called cultural-historical geography (Baker & Biger 1992; Ben-Arzi

1996, 1845).

Discussion of Historical-Geographical Conditions

Most of the researchers involved in the historical background and

geographical-economic conditions of 16th century Safed follow in

the footsteps of the studies by Ben-Zvi (Ben-Zvi 1976) and Avizur

(Avizur 1963; For the historical background see Rozanes 1933,

168208). Specialists in the history of Kabbalah in Eretz Israel also

generally rely on Avizur with regards to the centrality of Safed at

that time (e.g. Zak 2002, 5152 and the references there). Avizur,on the basis of industrial infrastructure in the Safed area at that

time, concludes that there were 18,000 Jews living there out of a

total population of 25,000 (Avizur 1983, 358). He cites four primary

factors that brought about this dramatic prosperity: The stable secu-

rity situation of the Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth century; the

low cost of living; (relative) proximity to the port of Sidon; the attrac-

tive economic base of the Safed area (in particular the springs as a

basis for the wool industry). He concludes: The waters of Safed

2 The expression four holy cities is particularly noticeable in Izhak Ben-Zvis

studies, but is common in the terminology of the history of Ottoman Eretz Israeland differs from the more routine expression holy community which was attachedto every Jewish community, such as Jaffa, Gaza or Shechem. The question of theunique growth of Safed is sharpened in the light of the rapid decline of this glo-rious period in the history of the city, in the last quarter of the century.


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were, therefore, a valuable resource, which as a result, became the

greatest industrial center in Eretz Israel, and perhaps the largest andmost technically developed in Eastern Turkey (Avizur 1963, 46). At

the same time a comparative examination of the two geographical

advantages cited will demonstrate that they are very relative and

partial, and they cannot explain the motivation for concentrating the

process specifically in this area.

Avizur himself admits that Safed was a wondrous meeting point

between natural resources that arrived from a distance of thousands

of kilometers; wool brought from Western Europe or the Balkans

because the local wool did not suit the demands of this industry and

dyeing materials from the Orient. The manufacture and processing

did indeed take place in the city and the (relatively few) springs in

its vicinity, however, the emigrants from Spain could have easily

found other sites that were much more accessible to the sea and

had far better water supplies. That was the case, for example, in

Salonika, which was much closer to the source of raw materials and

also more accessible. And in fact an expansive wool industry devel-

oped in Salonika, in which a significant part of the local Jews took

part. Safed, on the other hand, was a remote mountain town, and

a full year elapsed from the shearing of the sheep until the wool

arrived there in a circuitous route. The wool had to be transferred

a number of times, by land and by sea, which quadrupled its price,

an enormous increase in the economic terms of the 16th century.

This, together with various customs levied on the wool or on thetextiles, could have cast a doubt on the ability of Safed to compete

with other centers. Only a unique qualification, that included excep-

tional additional value would have justified taking such an economic

risk. In fact Avizur does point out that the dyed woolen cloth indus-

try was considered a high-ranking economic branch in the 15th17th

centuries and that it was a popular occupation among Jews, but the

greedy tax policies of local rulers and a variety of custom levies

brought about its decline in the 17th century.

Thus it seems that the wool industry in Safed did not develop

due to natural advantages, but despite problematic geographical con-

ditions. Therefore it would seem that the central factor that brought

about the enhanced development of this branch in Safed was thehuman factor. The exiles from Spain came to Safed carrying the skills

of their ancestors in Castile and Aragonhuman capital and knowledge

in the treatment of wool. This together with their little independent


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capital and the donations that they invested in the industrial infra-

structure enabled them to develop a competitive economic branch,despite difficult opening conditions. Avizur himself points out the

longing of exiles and former conversos who had returned to the open

practice of Judaism to settle in Eretz Israel, and the many needy

people who started to look for a way to get into this profession (per-

haps hoping for better conditions than they had found in Salonika)

led to the development of the textile industry in Safed (Avizur 1963,

45). Avizur himself points out the longing of exiles and former con-

versos who had returned to the open practice of Judaism to settle

in Eretz Israel, and the many needy people who started to look for

a way to get into this profession (perhaps hoping for better condi-

tions than they had found in Salonika) led to the development of

the textile industry in Safed (Avizur 1963, 45).

Nevertheless it turns out that the economic prosperity was short lived;

tough international competition as well as crises that hit the Jews of

Safed at the end of the century brought about the rapid decline of

the towns economic base. The crisis in Safed preceded the world

crisis (in the wool trade) by about half a century, and in fact its

causes were local. We can conclude that the wonder cited by Avizur

was not derived from geographical factors but from initiatives and

the human ability of Spanish exiles to make links between markets

for natural resources at the ends of the earth, develop sophisticated

industry on the basis of a shaky foundation andfi

nally tofi

nd mar-kets for this expensive product far away from Safed, presumably with

the help of ramified connections with their communities of origin.

After all this is said, the question still remains what attracted so

many Jews, among them a disproportionate number of Kabbalists,

during a short and defined period of time, to migrate to this remote

mountain town in Eretz Israel?

There is an hypothesis that the preponderance of tombs of the

sages of the Mishnah, and in particular that of Rabbi Simeon bar

Yohai (Rashbi), to whom the Book of the Zohar was attributed, were

the source of attraction. However this assumption cannot stand on

its own. The fact is that we have no information about an attempt

to settle in Meron itself (where the tomb of Rashbi itself is located),or even of an aspiration that was nipped in the bud because of con-

temporary conditions, while at the same time there were Jews dwelling


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in a number of villages in the Galilee (such as Alma, Ein Zeitim,

Kfar Kana and Pekiin).Some researchers have suggested that what attracted scholars and

Kabbalists to Safed was the exemption they received from payment

of the Qaraje, a general tax on the community, as opposed to the

poll tax which was imposed on individual non-Muslims (Benayahu

1964, 106). However an analysis of the case shows that this exemp-

tion was given to many communities, including Jerusalem, and there-

fore its influence was not critical. The community of Jerusalem did

not expand at the same time.

The Changes in the Mystical Status of the Galilee

It is interesting to note that the remarkable growth of Safed already

attracted the attention of sermonizers at the time. At least one contem-

porary source tries to provide a theological-geographical explanation:

Why did the town of Safed deserve to be settled with the help of Godby the splendor of the Holy People more than the other cities of EretzIsrael? Regarding the settlement of the town of Safed, may it be builtspeedily and in our days, because it is the first town that was confiscatedafter the death of Joshua and it was call Hahorma, (i.e. confiscation),and they did not spare any soul and removed every impure objectfrom the town, totally and for ever until the Messiah comes by com-mand of God, may He be praised, and we did not find that they didthis in any other city after the death of Joshua, throughout the periodof the Judges . . . Therefore the Holy One Blessed Be He rewarded itas the place most settled before the other towns of Eretz Israel, maythey be built speedily in our days, and the name of Safed ( zadi, pe,taf ) is a hint that Zion will be built speedily in our days, the initialsofzion peer tiferet[Zion the splendor of splendors], which is pronouncedby the Ashkenazim the zion bamishpat tipadeh [Zion will be redeemedthrough justice] (Yehiel 1576, Ch. 1; Glorious, 1972).

This explanation merges two midrashic sources that are cited here

in order to link Safed with the concept of Redemption; one is an

interpretation of the verse until Shiloh comes (Genesis 49:11) accord-

ing to which the year shin, lamed, he ([5]335 = 1575) should be the

date of the Redemption; the other suggests the role of Safed as

the place where the Sanhedrin would renew its operations beforethe coming of the Messiah (see below). It may be that the expla-

nation for this extraordinary attraction on the part of the leading


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Kabbalists and their students specifically for the area of Safed and

the Upper Galilee is to be found in their unique spiritual under-standing of this region and the connection they made between sym-

bolic ideas and the concrete vistas of the Galilee. Scholars studying

this period have already pointed out that at the same time we are

witness to a multiplicity of phenomena, events and processes related

(or interpreted as being related) to an increase in Messianic tension

and expectation of the Redemption. This subject has been investi-

gated from a number of points of view, primarily by means of ques-

tions about the time factorsleading to Messianic expectations (Scholem

1967, 244286). However a notable fact is that a significant part of

these events and phenomena are related to the important Jewish

center developing in Safed and in the Galilee at that time, and we

will present here five examples:

1. The prophecy of the child: Around the time of the conquest of Eretz

Israel by the Ottoman Sultan Salim I (1516) a rumor spread that

a Galilean child prophesied about the conquest of the land, the

end of time and the appearance of the Messiah, but his prophecy

was difficult to interpret (Eisenstein 1915, 396398). The Kabbalist

Rabbi Abraham Halevy tried to interpret the prophecy of the

child, Nahman b. R. Pinhas of Kfar Baram, near Safed, on the

basis of historical events in the period. In his opinion the Messiah

would appear in 1530 or 1531 in the gate that turns towards

Rome, and it is a city in the land of the Galilee, called Rome,

near Sephoris. He emphasized that the Messiah would appearin the Upper Galilee (Scholem, Qiryat Sefer; Vilnai,Ariel, s.v. Rome).

2. David Hareuveni and Solomon Molcho: These two fore-runners and

preachers visited Safed and Jerusalem in the course of 15231525

predicting that in the year 1540 the Redemption would take place.

Their visit aroused many echoes and expectations. The burning

of Solomon Molcho on the stake only increased these expecta-

tions and some people connected this event to appearance of the

Messiah son of Joseph (Aeshcoly-Idel 1993; Idel discusses, in his

introduction to the second, expanded edition of Aeshcolis book,

Reuvenis messianic pretensions and the expectation of the Messiah

son of Joseph between 1535 and 1540). For example R. Joseph

Karo arrived at Safed in the wake of a prophecy by his Maggid

[the voice of the Mishnah that spoke to him] that he would have


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spiritual achievements there, culminating in death as a martyr

like Solomon Molcho (Werblowsky 1958).3. In the early 1560s a wealthy Jewish woman named Donna Gracia

received a license from the Turkish sultan to build the city of

Tiberias. Donna Gracia was very close to the Kabbalistic circles,

supporting them financially, and they influenced her views and

initiatives. Her son-in-law Don Joseph Nasi was entrusted with

carrying out the project, and rumors spread rapidly in many

Jewish communities and were linked immediately to expectations

of a mystical process that was expected to commence in Tiberias

(Tamar 1958, 6188, esp. 63). Indeed these rumors of a Jewish

prince or king [nasi] named Joseph who was bringing the redemp-

tion of the Jews close stirred feelings of worry among the Muslims

(Ben-Zvi 1976, 196202, esp. 198). Joseph Nasi completed con-

struction of the walls of Tiberias circa 1564.

4. The Story of Joseph della Reina: In the Galilean version of this famous

story it involves Joseph who went from Safed to Meron, to the

tomb of Rashbi, where angels of the Lord appeared to him and

opened an opening to bring about the Redemption, but he failed

in his struggle against the evil spirit and the Redemption was lost

(Dan 1962). According to Dan the background for the creation

of this Galilean version is related to the atmosphere of Messianic

expectation that was pre-dominant in the area of Safed in Kab-

balistic circles at that time.

5. Rabbi Isaac Luria and his disciples: The year 1575, as mentionedabove, had also been predicted to be the year of Redemption

(Tamar 1958). Rabbi Isaac Luria (Ari) arrived in Safed in 1570

and his charismatic personality made a great impression, how-

ever his sudden death of the plague after only two years, led to

frustration and disappointment on the one hand, but also a secret

mystery on the other. Some tried to explain his untimely death

as a necessary stage in the process of redemption and even to

see him as the Messiah son of Joseph. His foremost disciple, R.

Haim Vital wrote: On the word and the seat of David your

servant [= the hiding of David (Hebrew)] warned our teacher . . .

that the future Messiah son of Joseph would die and we did not

understand his words, and God knows secrets and in the endproved the beginningthat my pious master, may his memory

be a blessing, died for the sins of the generation (Vital, 1782,


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Amidah, Ch. 19:43a; Tamar 1964, 170). Tamar stresses that Ari

and his disciples not only expected the coming of the Messiahson of Joseph, but also tookactive measuresto bring it about. Below

we will discuss further the connection between the Messiah son

of Joseph and the Galilee.

What all of these sources have in common is connecting the con-

cept of the beginnings of Redemption with a specific territory and

a given time period. However, it seems that the most notable and

active use of this combination was that made by the charismatic

rabbi of Safed, R. Jacob Berav. In those years a harsh controversy

took place between the rabbis of Safed and Jerusalem over restora-

tion of ordination in general and the role of Safed in particular in

that restoration (Katz 1986, 213236). The study of that controversyhas revolved primarily around the competition between these two

leading communities of Eretz Israel in the sixteenth century, Safed

and Jerusalem. However, it seems that the background behind and

motive for R. Jacob Beravs efforts to renew ordination in Safed

specifically were related to the opinion that Safed and the Galilee

had a central role in this stage of the footsteps of the Messiah or

the beginning of Redemption, and in this context it was even sug-

gested that R. Jacob Berav intended to declare himself Nasi. His

proposal to renew ordination was based on a homily in the Babylonian

Talmud (Sabbath 139a; Sanhedrin 98a): And I will restore your

judges as of old and then Zion will be redeemed in justice, i.e.

renewal of ordination and the resumption of the Sanhedrin as con-ditions for Redemption (as suggested in the first source that we

quoted). Nevertheless, the question still remains: why Safed?

More explicit remarks on the immanent link between renewal of

ordination in general and the importance of doing so in the Galilee

itself were made by one of R. Jacob Beravs disciples, R. Moses de

Castro. In a letter from Jerusalem he hints at the view of his teacher

regarding the Redemption: He will fulfill in our day the words of

the prophet, saying shake offthe dust, arise and sit up, beloved land,

heritage of the deer, for our brethren who dwell in the Galilee have

sent to us saying we have the law of the redemption, the three lands

of the Galilee, and Tiberias among them, and there the Sanhedrin ceased

to exist and it will first return to there in the future (Dimitrovsky

1966, 112132). In other words, the residents of Safed declared a

tradition according to which the Sanhedrin would return there first:


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there by way of hermeneutics meaning Tiberias and all of the

Galilee. What is the source of this tradition regarding the place ofRedemption?

The Revival of Ancient Homilies

Clearly the hints in this letter refer us to a Baraitha in the tractate

Rosh Hashanah (31b) which traces the peregrinations of the Sanhedrin

from one place to another, until it reached its final residence in

Tiberias: And Tiberias was the lowest of them all as it says and

lower than the land and the dust (Is. 29), regarding which R. Yohanan

(an Amora of Eretz Israel, 3rd century) says: And from there they

will be redeemed in the future, as it says shake offthe dust, arise and

sit up, (Is. 52) i.e. from the lowest point (also topographically) therenewed growth will rise. This homily is based on a sporadic cita-

tion of the verse . . . arise, sit up Jerusalem, but the homilist seeks

to connect deep humiliation (and the humiliation of dust) signified

by Tiberias and the shaking off of the same dust at the time of the

Redemption.

Analysis of De Castros letter makes it clear that he is quoting

from an additional tradition, preserved in Maimonides Commentary

on the Mishna (12th century). Maimonides, dealing with the resump-

tion of the Sanhedrin before the coming of the Messiah, writes: And

it is a tradition that it will return first to Tiberias, and from there

move to the Temple (Hilkhot Sanhedrin 14:12). The term tradition

(qabalah ) as used by Maimonides is of course not identical with itsuse in Safed, although it does refer to traditions that have no for-

mal source, but do have great importance for him. The members

of the community of Cori in Italy cited Maimonides remarks about

Tiberias with reference to the enterprise of Yosef Nasi (Tamar 1958,

63; Ben-Zvi 1976, 199). These exceptional, but dormant, traditions

gained new momentum with the appearance of the Book of the

Zohar on the Jewish scene and its arrival in the Galilee with exiles

from Spain. In fact, the Zohar, which mentions many geographical

locations in the Galilee, cites the Land of the Galilee explicitly as

the location of the appearance of the Messiah (without pointing out

a particular locale): In sixty-six the king Messiah will reveal himself

in the Land of the Galilee (Zohar I [Gen.] 119a and II [Ex.] 7b).

Elsewhere the Zohar suggest why at the time of the revival of the

dead a great army will gather specifically in the Galilee: and they


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will gather in the Holy Land and armies will go up all of them to

the land of the Galilee because there the Messiah will reveal him-self because it is the portion of Joseph (Zohar II, 20a). Even though

it is difficult to identify geographical references in the Zohar (cf.

Liebes 2002, 3144), the Zohar clearly stresses the importance of

the Galilee in the framework of a stage in the appearance of the

Messiah son of Joseph, bringing us back again to the words of

R. Moses de Castro quoted above. R. David b. Zimra (Radbaz),

one of the most influential rabbis of Eretz Israel in the 16th cen-

tury (Safed, Jerusalem and Cairo), writes in his commentary on the

aforementioned quote from Maimonides that the Messiah will appear

in the Galilee and then disappear once again, which is closed to

Vitals remarks mentioned above. And as we have seen that is how

R. Haim Vital perceived the death of R. Isaac Luria in the Galilee

a short time after he arrived there.

Other early sources also make a more specific geographical dis-

tinction, speaking of the Upper Galilee: A star rises from Jacob . . . it

smashes the brow of Moab (Num. 24:17)R. Huna said in the

name R. Levi: it teaches that Israel will be gathered in the Upper

Galilee, and the Messiah son of Joseph will look out [yizpehper-

haps a word-play on Zefat ] upon them from the Galilee and they

will go up from there and all of Israel his people to Jerusalem (Pesiqta

Zutrata, Balaq, 58; cf. Jellinek 1938, 141 and Eisenstein 1915, 386).

With a few differences this midrash also appears in an additional

anonymous source: At that time a man from the descendents ofJoseph will arise and be called the Messiah of the Lord and many

people will gather around him in the Upper Galilee and he will be

their king . . . and then the Messiah son of Joseph will go up together

with the people gathered following him from the Galilee to Jerusalem

(Talmi 1955, 179; Idel 1998, 382 n. 8).

In conclusion a number of Talmudic, midrashic and medieval

sources (e.g. the Zohar) discussing the beginnings of Redemption

indicate that its first stages will take place in the Galilee, and more

specifically cite two locations; the firstTiberias and the second the

Upper Galilee. Similarly these sources stress (as they were interpreted)

the necessity of resuming the Sanhedrin specifically in the Galilee

and even the office ofNasithere as well, and also that the Galileanredemption will have a preparatory stage under the leadership of

the Messiah son of Joseph.


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The sense of the footsteps of the Redemption in the 16th cen-

tury, together with the increasing centrality of Kabbalistic literatureat this time, motivated many Kabbalistic sages to move to Eretz

Israel out of Kabbalistic ideology, and following that ideologyto

settle in the area of the Galilee. In this way it is possible to explain

the first stage in the migration of Kabbalists (and other penitents

seeking correction for their souls) to the Upper Galilee and to its

central townSafed.

Redemption in the Upper Galilee: Concretization of an Idea

The Kabbalistic sages who settled in the Galilee were joined, as

mentioned above, by former conversos who sought to repent andatone for their sins, as part of their preparation for the Redemption.

It is possible that the attraction of many of them to the wool indus-

try was not derived only from the necessity of creative ways to solve

problems of making a living in a new environment, but was anchored

immanently in a Kabbalistic outlook. As mentioned, one of the unique

characteristics of the Kabbalistic teaching is that of identifying abstract,

symbolic ideas with the concrete world, whether the world of action

and creation or the private and even intimate world of family life.

This view led, in contradistinction to other trends in Judaism, to the

idealization of concrete action and daily work. Many Kabbalists took

part in the wool industry and other occupations, even though they

could have made a living from donations and that also influencedtheir large following. It seems that this phenomenon encouraged the

rapid development of the wool industry (and attempts to develop

silkworm cultivation and the planting of mulberry orchards).

However the Kabbalists were not satisfied with arriving in the

Upper Galilee, but as mentioned, as part of their unique perception

and practical method, they started to take active measures (or par-

tially active ones) in order to prepare the way for the coming of the

Messiah and for them the Upper Galilee had its own value, more

than just a place to live. Liebes put it this way: The Kabbalists

were attracted to Rashbi and his colleagues, both to adhere to their

souls that hovered over their tombs and to follow in their paths, and

by that I mean literally the paths where they walked, the paths of

the Galilean hills . . . the stage on which their heroes walked, i.e.


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Eretz Israel, has significant meaning and is not only a framework

and a literary conceit (Liebes 2000, 3235). Thus in the course ofthe fifty years of the Golden Age the concrete familiarity of the

Kabbalists with the trails of the Upper Galilee and its landscape was

intensified. This exposure sharpened their tendency to offer a sym-

bolic interpretation to a visible panorama (alike Bar-Gal 1983). Below

we will provide a few examples of the concretization of the link

between the Galilee and the Redemption.

1. Attraction to Rashbi and his colleagues, as mentioned above,

which grew stronger with the dissemination of the Zohar and the

rise in its importance as a source of Messianic prophecy, together

with the tradition that its author was Rashbiled to the new

fame of another remote location, the village of Meron. Followinga single reference in the Jerusalem Talmud the tomb of Rashbi

was identified there (until that time pilgrims had visited Meron

as the site of the tomb of Hillel and Shammai). From this time

on the tomb of Rashbi becomes one of the popular pilgrimage

sites (although not the central one and clearly not an exclusive

one) for the Kabbalists of Safed and a number of redemptive

practices developed around it (Vilnai 1986, 121; Benayahu 1962;

Vilnai,Ariel, s.v. Meron, Rashbi).

2. At the same time there developed among the Kabbalists a gen-

eral phenomenon of touring in order to locate and identify addi-

tional tombs ofTannaim and Amoraim (the sages of the Mishnah

and Talmud). One of the most important books that describesthis phenomenon is Haim Vitals Sefer Hagilgulim, about which

Ben-Zvi said that it reveals a remarkable knowledge of the topog-

raphy of the Upper Galilee (Ben-Zvi 1976, 189). These expedi-

tions throughout the Galilee strengthened their familiarity with

the region and their attempts to identify places and various objects

in the landscape with names mentioned in the Book of the Zohar

and in earlier sources.

3. An additional phenomenon, evidently found only among the

Kabbalists of Safed, was that of going out to nature for study

and for carrying out mystical ceremonies, which they called gerushin

(lit. expulsions; cf. Zack 1995, 3454; 299317). The first two

who mentioned this practice were the brothers-in-law Cordovero

and Alkabetz, although the most famous group that performed

gerushin were the Ari and his disciples.


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4. The customs of Ari and his disciples (the lions whelps): Despite

the short time that Ari lived in Safed he left his impact with anumber of special practices and one of the most famous of them

(attributed to him, even though it actually preceded him) was

going out into a field in order to receive the Queen, i.e. the

Sabbath. The Sabbath symbolized the connection between the

real world and the Upper Sephirot and functioned as a focus and

a propitious time for the beginning of Redemption (Halamish

2000, 332355). This was realized and demonstrated by going

out to the Galilean countryside and by performing a ceremony

in which attention was given to every detail (see below).

5. Evidently the Kabbalists were proud of their location in the Upper

Galilee and of its eschatological context and emphasized it. For

example the famous Kabbalist R. Shelomo Alkabez concluded

one of his books saying: . . . and this book was completed here

in Safed, which is in the Upper Galilee, may it be rebuilt speed-

ily in our days, on the third day of the month of Kislev, in the

year [5]313 [= 1553] and may he reveal himself to us Amen and

Amen, and he does not make do with the ordinary idiom the

Holy Land or the Holy Community (Pachter 1987, n. 36).

Likewise R. Elijah de Vidash takes pride and we have already

seen here in the Safed in the Upper Galileesages . . . who were famil-

iar with the science of physiognomy (Vidash, [1575] 1926, 2,6,70c;

Halamish 2000, 339). Similarly a few generations late the printer

ofHemdat Yamim took pride in how the book was published: whenI went up the mountain, the holy mountain of the Upper

Galilee . . . and behold a man stood opposite me carrying this

book from the house of Rav (preface by the printer R. Jacob

Algazi, Izmir 1731).

The Hymn Lecha Dodi as an Expression of the Connection between

Mysticism and Landscape

One of the most famous literary works composed in this period in

the Upper Gaililee is the hymn Lecha Dodi (Come by Beloved) by

the Kabbalist R. Solomon Alkabez. Continuing the line of reason-

ing above, we shall try to analyze some of the topographical expres-

sions incorporated in the stanzas of the hymn, and to give them a

new interpretation in this context.


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Alkabez (b. Salonika 1500d. Safed 1576) immigrated to Eretz

Israel and settled in Safed in the year 1536, one of the years identifiedas a year of Redemption (Tamar 1958, 62; Pachter 1987; Zack

1977). Just before his immigration he even gave a sermon in his

community, in which he explained the ideological motive behind his

movemessianic expectations (Pachter 1987, 253). As other Kabbalists

in Safed he used to tour the hills of the Galilee, and this fact left

an impression on his literary work. Zinberg, an expert on Hebrew

literature, relates, in the name of one of Alkabezs disciples, that

Alkabez used to go out for walks in barren fields, in which he would

isolate himself in holiness. On the eve of every Holy Sabbath all the

members of the group would gather together, confess their sins and

before the sunset go out to the fields to receive the Sabbath

Queen . . . and in this ecstatic atmosphere, on one his walks, he com-

posed the immortal hymn, Lecha Dodi (Zinberg III: 56; cited in

Cohen 1970, 337, identified the student as Cordovero, mentioned

above). Despite this somewhat romanticized description, it is possi-

ble to identify a number of topographical influences in the hymn,

as we shall see below. This is highly likely since Alkabez composed

the hymn around the year 1548, i.e. after twelve years of walking

the paths of the Upper Galilee (Cohen 1982, 349). The hymn is full

of hints and ideas of the Redemption and may be analyzed in a

number of linguistic and ideological ways (Cohen 1982; Kimelman

2003 and bibliography there; Bazak 1989). Despite the tendency to

regard the hymn as mystical, there is still a level of plain sense ofthe text that cannot be ignored, and it contains unique expressions

that need to be understood against the background of the Biblical

and Talmudic context from which they are drawn. This follows the

assumption that the world of the sages of Safed (like that of all ser-

monizers) was suffused with semantic associations from the Bible and

the Midrash, to which they added deeper exegetical interpretations.

As is well known, most of the stanzas of the hymn involve the

Redemption, but two of them differ somewhat in character. The

third stanza in translation: Shrine of the King, royal city, arise!

Come forth from thy ruins. Long enough have you dwelt in the vale

of tears! He will show you abundant mercy. Come my beloved to

greet the bride, let us receive the Sabbath. The fourth stanza: Shakeoffyour dust, arise! Put on your glorious garment, my people, and

pray: Be near to my soul, and redeem it through the son of Jesse,

the Bethlehemite. Come my beloved to greet the bride, let us receive


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the Sabbath. (Birnbaum 1977, 245). Both include topographical

expressions that suggest a transition from a lower status to a higherone. The third stanza says Long enough have you dwelt in the vale

of tears! and the fourth uses the expression shake off your dust,

arise. It is noteworthy that the author of Hemdat Hayamim sensed

that these expressions were out of place in a hymn devoted to crown-

ing (or as other scholars claimed, do not express accurately that

authors Sabbatean view), and consequently he offered a revised

interpretation that replaced the negative expressions in both stan-

zas (Cohen 1982, 352; Fogel 2001, esp. 381).

In our opinion the lowly expressions are not coincidental, but

are anchored in his world view of the stages in the redemptive

process, both in terms of the concrete landscape and the Biblical

and Midrashic sources from which the expressions were drawn.

Let us turn first to the expression shake off your dust which

Alkabez uses in other places as well. As we have pointed out, this

expression has Biblical, Midrashic and Kabbalistic levels of mean-

ing. On the Biblical level it concerns the redemption of Jerusalem,

e.g. Shake off the dust, rise and sit up, Jerusalem, but Alkabez

quotes only part of the verse, omitting the name of Jerusalem. He

did this clearly intentionally since he did the same to three other

truncated verses that are incorporated into the hymn: awake, awake,

arise, Jerusalem; awake, awake, don your strength, Zion; don your

glorious garments, Jerusalem (Isa. 51:952:2). In fact the entire chap-

ter in Isaiah is a panegyric to the Redemption of Zion and Jerusalem,but Alkabez explicitly and intentionally omits all reference to Jerusalem.

A similar truncated allusion may be found in the expression He will

show you abundant mercy (yahmol 'alayikh ) which is clearly based

on Jer. 15:5: Who will have mercy on you (yahmol 'alayikh ), O

Jerusalem. Was there a political reason for this omission? There

does not seem to be any external reason for the omission of the

name of Jerusalem or Zion or a textual reason (meter or rhyme)

either. It does seem that Alkabez was playing a double game here;

He uses expressions that are clearly identified with Zion and Jerusalem,

but by omitting the name of Jerusalem, he allows the listeners to

think that he is leading him in another direction. One may not

ignore the fact that just two years after Alkabez arrived in Safed asevere controversy broke out between the leading rabbi of Safed,

R. Jacob Berav and R. Levi b. Haviv of Jerusalem over the resump-

tion of rabbinical ordination. This controversy continued for many


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years. Alkabez wrote the hymn against a background of this con-

troversy, in which competition over hegemony was involved as wellas an ideological dispute over the site of the beginning of the

Redemption, as we have pointed out. It is likely that Alkabez, a

Safed Kabbalist, who believed in the major role of the Upper Galilee

in the Beginnings of the Redemption and evidently an adherent of

R. Jacob Berav, would refrain from writing a panegyric to Jerusalem,

especially while this bitter polemic persisted. On the other hand it

would have politically incorrect to ignore Jerusalem entirely. Perhaps

that is why he chose an expression that had already undergone a

geographical metamorphosis and truncation in the Talmud. In fact

the source of the truncated expression that Alkabez chose leads us

back to the passage in tractate Rosh Hashana (see above) that describes

how the Divine Presence shakes off its dust and the depths of its

disgrace in Tiberias (and its going up to the high hills of the Galilee?)

as the first stage of the redemptive process. By doing so he receives

approval to use the expression ambiguously; it hints at Jerusalem,

but brings us directly to the redemption of Tiberias! In this way

Alkabez can sing a song of redemption of the Galilee without stat-

ing explicitly the name of Zion or of the Galilee.

To complete the topographical picture we should point out that

the third stanza, which mentions The Valley of Tears also has a

geographical meaning. This expression, in Hebrew 'emeq habakhafirst

appears in Psalms, and the reader of modern Hebrew immediately

recognizes it as a negative expression. That is because it is used reg-ularly to express negative descriptions in modern Hebrew literature

(references to Europe at the time of the Shoah, the name given to

a valley in the North of Israel where a tough battle took place in

the Yom Kippur War et al.). These literary sources follow in the

footsteps of Midrashim of the sages, as we shall see below, however

on a Biblical level the meaning of the word bakha (bet, khaf, aleph) is

a tree or bush (cf. e.g. II Sam. 5:24tree tops) and indeed the

context in Psalms also leads us to a valley covered with bushes, in

which springs are discovered: as they pass through the valley of

bushes, they find water from a spring (Ps. 84:78).

In the Talmudic period they were unfamiliar with a bush called

bakha, but interpreted this unusual word according to its homonym(bet, khaf, he) as weeping, and the spring as a source of water made

from tears (B.T. 'Eruvin 19a; Shemot Rabbah7:4Weeping and cry-

ing like a spring).


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In an entirely different context the Zohar describes Rashbi sitting

with his son and a disciple in the Galilean hills and they see a tubeoffire coming down into the waters of the Sea of Galilee and the

entire area trembles. Seeing this remarkable sight, Rashbi said surely

this is the time when the Holy One Blessed Be He remembers his

children and sheds two tears into the great sea. The meeting of the

fire and tears (apparently in the Sea of Galilee) causes the tremor

(Zohar II [Exodus] 9a).

Evidently Alkabez combined in his poem the magnificent land-

scape that he saw before him (surely out of identification with the

point of view of Rashbi in the Zohar) with the three early sources

we mentioned; the expression 'emeq habakha as the vale of tears;

Tiberias as the point where Israel reached its lowest state on the

one hand, but its redemption will begin on the other (shake offyour

dust); and Sea of Galilee as the sea of Gods tears, which causes a

tremor in the entire area when the arrival of the hour of redemp-

tion is remembered.

This associative and complex integration of ancient sources could

only take place in the unique combination created by three factors:

onethe dramatic landscape of the high Galilean hills on the one

hand and the lowly Sea of Galilee on the other ( 'emeq habakha in

both of its meanings); the secondthe time factor, the fervent expec-

tation that in this landscape and at that time the process of redemp-

tion was about to begin; the thirdAlkabezs romantic and unusual

personality and the landscape-oriented interpretation he gave toancient sources. It is interesting to note that Alkabezs use of the

rare expression 'Emeq ha-bakha is not sui generis. At the same time a

physician and historian from Avignon named Joseph ben Joshua

Hacohen wrote a book about the tribulations of the Jews from their

Exile until after the Expulsion from Spain and called it 'Emeq Habakha.

Written between 15131563, it was first disseminated within a small

circle (first published in 1575), and I have found no evidence that

Alkabez knew it and adopted the expression from it.

In this context we cannot ignore an additional interesting histor-

ical connection. If the assumption that Alkabez composed the hymn

about twelve years after his immigration to Eretz Israel is correct,

then it was just at the time when the wall was under constructionaround the ruins of the citadel of Safed, a wall that was meant to

protect the Jews of the town in times of emergency (regarding two

such events in the late 1540s cf. Ben-Zvi 1976; Cohen 1982, 349).


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Thus it is possible that the expression and the city shall be rebuilt

on its mound in the sixth stanza does not refer to Jerusalem at all(may be alike Jer. 30:18), but hints at the restoration of Safed, the

purpose of which was to provide refuge or in Alkabezs language:

The afflicted of my people will be sheltered within you.

The Encounter with the Landscape while Receiving the Sabbath

Evidently for Alkabez and his group (and later on for Ari and

R. Haim Vital) the verbal connection between landscape and ritual

did not suffice. They created a highly evocative ceremonial act, linked

in a unique and intentional way to the landscape of the Upper

Galilee. By this we refer to the custom of going out of the townevery Sabbath eve, to nature, in order to receive (or to greet) the

Sabbath Queen. Much has been written about the origins and

meaning of this custom and the symbolism of Queen/Bride/Divine

Presence/Redemption (Cohen, Halamish 2000; Kimelman 2003).

A number of elements in the ceremony, cited by those who have

described it, emphasize this trend:

1. Stressing the position in which one should stand when perform-

ing the ceremony: When you go out to the field, choose a place

that is higher and there should be open space behind you and

on your right and left, at least four cubits should be clean before

you as your eyes can see (this and other instructions are fromthe prayer book of the AriCohen 337). In other words, seek

an open space and especially where you can look in front of you.

2. The unusual emphasis on standing in a high place (in some ver-

sions on a high mountain) was meant to obtain a view of the

surrounding area (as opposed to the accepted custom of praying

from a low point, particularly in the practice of Oriental Jewish

communities). One may presume that the purpose of the vantage

point was actually to see 'Emeq habakha, i.e. the Valley of Tiberias

and the Sea of Galilee, and in the opposite direction the high

Mt. Meron. This may be done easily if you go out to one of the

hills outside Safed, and it certainly could be done from the hill

of the citadel, which was the place at which it had long been thecustom to carry out the Tashlikh ceremony on the New Year

(Rosh Hashanah) in Safed, with a view to the Sea of Galilee

below.


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3. The direction of prayer in this ceremony is not towards Jerusalem,

as was the usual practice, but towards the westand face the westand close your eyes. This change raises two questions: first of all

the apparent abandonment of Jerusalem and secondly the choice

of looking towards the west. Some connected it to the presence

of the tomb of Rashbi in the west. However, this is difficult to

accept since it negates the approach that one does not pray

towards the dead, nor is there any source for it, to the best of

my knowledge. On the other hand, if we continue the line of

reasoning above, according to which Alkabez sought to hint at

replacing Jerusalem with the Galilee, then this act of facing west

also says that Jerusalem is no more than a point of cosmic con-

tact between man and the upper worlds, and even the physical

Jerusalem was only a stage in a more abstract direction, expressed

even in the Temple by facingwest(Stepansky 2002). Thus, at the

sublime moment of contact with the Divine Presence at the

entrance of the Sabbath, Alkabez is saying that there is some-

thing beyond the geographical location of the Temple in Jerusalem

(For a parallel idea from modern times, cf. Paz 1997).

4. White garments: It is stressed that the Kabbalists wore four white

garments. In fact this does not entail a topographical element,

but does create an association with the priests performing ritual

in the Temple.

5. Scholars have pointed out that the custom to go out in a pro-

cession to thefi

eld took place almost exclusively in Safed (exceptfor one testimony by the author ofHemdat Yamim to the effect

that it was practiced in his time in Jerusalem as well). Indeed

there was a controversy among sages of the time regarding whether

going out of town was an act of the pious or the eccentric as

Cordovero put it, since the Sabbath does not come through the

field but from above and the context of the controversy may

have been intellectual or educational (Cohen 1982, 336342;

Halamish 2000, 336339). Nevertheless the hypothesis that explains

the fact that this practice did not spread to other communities

for considerations of safety is unlikely since in Safed itself the sit-

uation was not always ideal and conversely we do not know of

serious attempts to imitate the ceremony in other lands. Evidentlywithout the natural backdrop of Safed and the Galilee and with-

out the mystical-topographical link the ceremony of receiving the

Divine Presence in the field loses its point. If we may assume


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that the hymn Lecha Dodiwas part of the ceremony of going out

to the field, we may conclude that without the immanent con-nection between the hymn and the landscape, going out to the

field becomes meaningless.

Thus, finally it seems that the hymn Lecha Dodi and the practices

that developed in Safed for receiving the Sabbath express the sec-

ond stage in the sanctification of Safed. Unlike kabbalistic writings

composed outside Eretz Israel, here a clear connection with the land-

scape finds its expression, not only because these individuals were

living in this area with its dramatic landscape, but from an ideol-

ogy that here, in this picturesque landscape the beginnings of

Redemption will take place, and, moreover, the awaited Redemption

is already suggested by the concrete landscape. These were primafacie optimal environmental conditions for significant kabbalistic lit-

erary creativity and they merged well with the concretization of the

landscape and turned it into a symbol, one of the principles of the

Kabbalah.

In the course of the spiritual metamorphosis conducted by the

Kabbalists an emphasis was put on the centrality of the Upper

Galilee, even at the expense of the centrality of Jerusalem, both as

a temporary stage (the beginnings of Redemption) and as an idea

(turning towards the west).

The ability to take the congregation to a high place out of town,

from which they could see the valley of the Sea of Galilee in one

direction and Mt. Meron, with the tomb of the author of the Bookof the Zohar in another, was a rare geographical-historical coinci-

dence. Since then a rich tradition of Kabbalistic customs developed

(going out to the field of holy apples to receive the Divine Presence;

ceremonies at Meron on the anniversary of Rashbis death etc.) which

comprise an entire series of acts shrouded in mystery the purpose

of which was to bring about the coming of the Messiah and his

appearance in the Upper Galilee.

Conclusion

The arrival of many Kabbalists in Eretz Israel at the beginning ofthe 16th century and their settling specifically in Safed was not an

accident and did not result from its economic attraction. Transforming

Safed into a city of the holy was first and foremost connected with


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257

the role of the Upper Galilee in mystical and kabbalistic literature,

particularly that of the Zohar, and this process took place in twoprimary stages. The first stage was connected with the general phe-

nomenon of increased expectations for Redemption in kabbalistic

circles at the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th,

in the wake of the Expulsion from Spain, which drew many immi-

grants to Eretz Israel, particularly among the activists among the

Kabbalists. Nevertheless many expressions in mystical literature led

to the conclusion that the first stage of the Redemption, the appear-

ance of the Messiah son of Joseph would take place specifically in

the Upper Galilee (and not, for example, in the Jerusalem area).

This alone made the Galilee a magnet for groups of eschatologically

oriented mystics, who translated these ideas into operative steps to

reach the Galilee. It seems that the most notable example of that

and perhaps the end of the first stage was the immigration of

R. Solomon Alkabez to Safed in 1536, a year of keen messianic

expectation. From this point on two parallel processes took place,

and both are intrinsically connected to the character and the views

of the immigrants; one is related to the creative effort to develop

new and sophisticated sources of income, which would take good

advantage of the human capital and knowledge that the Kabbalists

and their followers brought with them from Spain and Italy. This

was done in order to provide a livelihood for them and their con-

gregations, both as an immediate need and as part of a general ide-

ology to develop a full life in Eretz Israel.The second process was fundamentally spiritual and began as a

natural result of the encounter with the concrete landscape of the

Galilee, and the beginning of an intimate romance with that land-

scape. In this stage the tradition of spiritual expeditions into nature

and the groups that walked all over the Galilee, a phenomenon that

was evidently unique to this time and place, and became a funda-

mental element in the teachings of Ari and his disciples. This stage

led to the literature ofgerushin of Cordovero on the one hand and

the composition of the hymn Lecha Dodiand other similar ones on

the other.

This was evidently the stage at which Safed and the Upper Galilee

became the concrete backdrop and played a role in the process ofthe beginning of Redemption bringing about a dramatic increase in

the religious and mystical importance of the area. This found its

expression in the desire to renew the Sanhedrin, specifically in this


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258

area; in the development of new local practices related to nature

and the landscape, such as going out to receive the Sabbath Queenand the Redemption, and in the kabbalistic literary creativity that

was sustained on this landscape.

From all of this it is clear that behind the sanctification of Safed

and the messianic ideas associated with it were two causes: the mys-

tical tradition that goes back to the Talmud, but is primarily found

in the Zoharic literature, and the concrete landscape of the Galilee,

including the deep valley of Tiberias on one side and the high moun-

tains of Safed on the other. Together they created a powerful cat-

alyst that transformed a forgotten and remote town into one of the

most important spiritual and economic centers in the Jewish world

of the time.

The aspiration to create an exemplary religious society (Schechter

1908) i.e. a holy people or a holy community worthy of receiv-

ing the Messiah (including the renewal of ancient institutions such

as the Sanhedrin or the Nasi) will be better understood only in the

context of the tradition of the ancient sanctity of the place. This

sanctity was expected to be revived with the coming of the Messiah.

The case of Safed fits prima facie the models of Eliade and Turner

regarding the sanctification of places outside existing centers and on

mountain tops (Eliade 1961; Turner 1987). However what is unique

about this case is the integration of seductive topographical features

together with revival, development and enrichment of ancient, dor-

mant traditions of a people seeking to renew its connection with itsformer land temporarily in an alternative location.

The crisis and the rapid decline which this process witnessed at

the time (the death of Ari and the economic collapse) were inter-

preted as a planned and foreseen process, related to the stages of

the Redemption, and the temporary appearance of the Messiah son

of Joseph in the Galilee. In this context it is important to empha-

size that in the next generations no similar phenomenon of spiritual

ferment and creativity occurred in any other community in Eretz

Israel or the area. However, centuries of decline have not dimin-

ished the sanctity that Safed attained in that generation and which

left it shrouded in mystery, awaiting its role as the harbinger of the

Redemption of Israel.


23/25

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A Holy PeopleJewish and Christian Perspectives

on Religious Communal Identity

edited by

Marcel Poorthuis & Joshua Schwartz

BRILLLEIDEN BOSTON

2006