Al Reguel Ajat

In 1492 the Jews of Spain were expelled by royal decree, and five years later the Jews of Portugal suffered a similar fate. Iberian Judaism had lived in peace with its Muslim and Christian neighbors for hundreds of years. They were the most stable and prosperous Jewish communities since the time of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel.

The Sephardic Jews could not take with them material wealth, but they could take with them the immense treasure of their intellectual achievements. In no field was this more evident than in that of Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism, that spiritual connection that individuals can develop with the Divine. By the 16th century, the Zohar, the fundamental book of Kabbalah, was already an integral part of Jewish religious thought at the time. As a result, new centers of study of Jewish mysticism were established in Italy, Turkey, and above all in Safed (Tz’fat), in the Land of Israel.

Great scholars settled in Safed. One of them was Moses Cordovero, who at the age of 16 received the “smicha,” the title of rabbi, from his teacher, Rabbi Jacob Berab. In 1542, at the age of twenty, he began to study Kabbalah with Solomon Alkabetz, author of Lecha Dodi, a hymn sung on Shabbat. In 1550 Cordovero founded an academy of Kabbalistic studies in Safed, which he directed until his death in 1570. His main work was Or Yacar (Precious Light), an analysis of the Zohar. It was at his academy that Isaac Luria began his studies of Kabbalah.

Rabbi Isaac Luria (1534-1572) was the scholar who most influenced medieval Jewish mysticism. He is known by the initials “Ari” (the lion). He is considered the father of modern Kabbalah. Luria taught his mystical thought to a dozen students until his death at the age of 38 from an epidemic. His student, Rabbi Hayim Vital, wrote down his ideas and in turn taught them to a select group, in keeping with Luria’s wishes that they not be disseminated to the masses.

Yet by the 17th century, Luria’s ideas and the unique vocabulary in which they were expressed had not only spread throughout Europe but had become a central pillar of traditional Jewish thought, a position they hold to this day. Luria’s great merit is that he made Kabbalah more accessible.

Professor Gershom Scholem of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem said that Luria and his followers developed this religious ideology as a direct response to the afflictions of the Jewish people at the time. The exile of the Iberian Jews was as great a tragedy as the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. An answer was needed to the question of the existence of evil in the world, the kind of evil that had forced thousands of Jews to convert to Christianity, killed thousands more Jews, and eventually sent the Iberian Jews into exile. Kabbalah was that answer.

Prepared by Marcos Gojman

Bibliography: Essential Judaism by George Robinson, Encyclopaedia Judaica, and other sources.

The calendar is a systematized account of the passage of time and is used for the chronological organization of activities. The origin of the Jewish calendar cannot be established with any certainty. In Exodus 12:2 it is written: “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be for you the first month of the year.” This verse is one of the earliest mentions involving the use of a calendar.

The Jewish calendar in its current form is known to have existed for 1,600 years. Previously, the Sanhedrin was in charge of defining the calendar through a council called Sod-ha-ibur, which literally means “secret of the calendar intercalation.” But it was in the year 359 CE that the meetings of the Sanhedrin were banned by the Roman Emperor Constantius II and in order to prevent the Jewish people from being left without a calendar, Hillel II, Nasi of the Sanhedrin, decided to make public the secrets of its structure.

The Jewish calendar is calculated according to two cycles: the lunar and the solar. This is because the days and dates of religious ceremonies are determined by the phases of the moon, while the seasons are based on the revolution of the earth around the sun. This dual system was necessary because the twelve-month lunar year is approximately eleven days shorter than the solar year. If this difference were not corrected, over the years the festivals that form the backbone of Jewish history would shift from season to season, altering their character. Passover, the spring festival, might have fallen in winter.

The problem was solved by inserting an extra month in some years, thus making the festivals coincide with the corresponding season. In a 19-year cycle, the Jewish calendar has seven years that have 13 months instead of 12. This extra month, Adar Bet, is added to years 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, and 19. Also, since a lunar month lasts 29 days, 12 hours, and 44 minutes, some months on the Jewish calendar have 29 days and others 30, depending on the type of year in question.

In ancient times, the months were named only by their numerical order, starting in the northern spring with the first month. Later, the names of the Hebrew months were taken from the Babylonian calendar. For example, the month of Tishrei was called “Tashritu” in Babylonian.

The counting of the Jewish years, as we know it today, dates back to the Middle Ages. Our sages defined the Creation of the World as the starting point for counting the years. The calculation is based on the Bible, on the lists of the generations that followed Adam and Noah and his sons (Chapters 5, 10 and 11 of Breishit) and on the various historical events. Thus, Rabbi Yossi ben Halafta calculated that the world was created in the year 3761 BCE (Before the Common Era) and Maimonides agreed with him. Let’s do the math: 3761 years plus 2014 years of the Common Era gives us 5775, which is the current Jewish year. Thanks to our sages, we do know what day we live in.

Prepared by Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: The Beginning of the Jewish Calendar by Bernard Dickman, Development of the Hebrew calendar by John Lemley and Counting the years by Rabbi Rachel M. Solomin.

Statutory law refers to laws that are written in codes and that were enacted by a legislative body, such as parliaments, chambers of deputies or senators, or synods of religious people. In this system, judges must adhere to what the written law says in order to issue a ruling.

On the other hand, unwritten law, or common law, is a set of legal rules that are not based on a written code, but on the spirit and customs of the community. These rules are developed gradually based on the decisions of judges who, although they take into account previous decisions, adapt them to new circumstances. This set of judges’ decisions can be put in writing, but that does not mean they become law. They only serve so that other judges can consult them. In that environment there were no bar associations, so the old men of the village, who possessed the wisdom of the time, determined the best ruling in a given situation.

However, in 19th century Europe, with the creation of new nations and the fact that the majority of the population was already urban, there was a need to unify the criteria of the judges and formulate a series of rules that were finally written in codes.

In the Bible, the judges did not have written codes to consult. The prophet Nathan questions King David in the episode of Bathsheba and tells him a fictitious situation where someone who had a large flock took his only animal from another. Nathan asks the king what the punishment should be in this case and David sentences him to death. If the biblical commandments had had the character of written law at that time, David should have consulted Exodus 21:37 which says: “If a man steals a bull or a sheep and kills it or sells it, he must pay the rightful owner five bulls for the bull or four sheep for the sheep” and not have given that sentence.

Jewish jurisprudence retained its nature as unwritten law from the end of biblical times to the beginnings of rabbinic Judaism. Rabbis continually interpreted scripture in ways that allowed the law to adapt to the needs of the moment. Codifying halakha, the law, was expressly discouraged and even forbidden. The Talmud Babli itself is not so much a code as a compilation of a long series of discussions among the sages.

So how did Judaism come to accept the codes of Maimonides and Josef Caro? Just as in 19th-century Europe, Maimonides’ Mishne Torah and Caro’s Shulchan Aruch sought to unify the Jewish people with a single interpretation of the law. Josef Caro defended his work by claiming that Judaism could have an infinite number of Torahs if the interpretations were not unified. But for Rabbi Luria, on the contrary, this multitude of opinions was to be celebrated, since “the souls of Israel” were endowed with different capacities and each one had a little piece of that Great Truth. But as in Europe, over time, written codes were imposed on Judaism. Written law prevailed over oral law. What a pity.

Prepared by Marcos Gojman

Bibliography: Joshua Berman “What is this thing called law?” Published in Mosaic.

It is well known that Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews have different customs. Starting with the halacha itself, Sephardic Jews follow the rules set out in the original version of Yosef Caro’s Shulchan Aruch and Ashkenazi Jews follow a version modified by Rabbi Moises Isserles. These differences in the interpretation of mitzvoth usually remain in the world of yeshivoth, since their impact on daily life is less obvious. But there are a number of different customs that are obvious to anyone. And these differences become like the uniforms of sports teams. They serve to distinguish the group, but in reality they have no significance. Let’s look at a few:

*On Pesach, Ashkenazim usually do not eat kitniyot, which are legumes, grains, millet and rice, while Sephardim do eat them.

*Ashkenazim mix fish with dairy products, while some Sephardic Jews do not.

*On Chanukah, Sephardim eat sufganiot and Ashkenazim eat latkes.

*There are also differences between the two groups in the way they cook and wash dishes.

*Ashkenazim usually prefer that married or widowed women cover their heads with wigs.

*As for the rules of kashrut for meat, Sephardim have stricter rules. Meat products that Ashkenazim would eat are rejected by Sephardim.

*Ashkenazim use the names of deceased relatives to name their newborns, while Sephardim name them after their grandparents, regardless of whether they are alive.

*Ashkenazim’s tefillin are different from Sephardim’s in the way they are put on. Ashkenazim’s tefillin are wrapped towards the body and not away from the body as Sephardim do. In addition, Ashkenazim put them on while standing, while Sephardim can put them on while sitting. There is also a difference in the way the tzitzit are tied on the tallit.

*The Ashkenazi pronunciation of Hebrew is different from that of the Sephardim, such as the way of pronouncing the letter Tav.

*Ashkenazi men wear the tallit from the moment they get married, and Sephardim from the moment they get bar mitzvah.

*Ashkenazim wear a kittel, a white robe, on Rosh Hashana, while Sephardim do not, although it is customary for them to wear white.

*In the Sephardic tradition, the saying of Selichot in preparation before Rosh Hashana is done early in the morning throughout the month of Elul, while Ashkenazim do it on Saturday night before the holiday.

*There are also differences in the prayers. For example, the Sephardic Kaddish has some additional phrases to the Ashkenazi Kaddish.

As you can see, the differences in customs between Sephardim and Ashkenazim are more in form than substance. And marriages between the two groups are becoming more frequent, which further minimizes these differences. Old Mr. Ashkenazi will continue to be Sephardic, but perhaps Ms. Ashkenazi could end up married and transformed into simply someone Jewish, without adjectives.

Prepared by Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: The Jewish Encyclopedia, Encyclopaedia Judaica and other sources.

If we look at any traditional Jewish group, whether today or yesterday, such as the Jews of the shtetl of Europe, the Hasidim of Brooklyn, the Jews of Yemen or Syria, we can see how different they are from one another and even more so from the Jews of biblical times.

When speaking of a local Jewish culture, the question usually arises as to whether they are Ashkenazi or Sephardic Jews. These terms date back to the Middle Ages and were originally assigned to the Jews of Germany and Spain, respectively. The first Ashkenazim date back to the 10th or 11th century and were originally from France and Germany, where they had arrived from the Roman world and the land of Israel. Of the Sephardim, only a minority comes from Spain, as the majority are from North Africa and the Middle East and their origins go back to Babylon.

Another distinctive feature of Jewish cultures was language. None used Hebrew in daily life. They used the language of the country, mixed with words of Hebrew and Aramaic. The Ashkenazim developed Yiddish, a language derived from German, with a bit of Hebrew and later some Slavic languages ​​such as Russian and Polish. When the Sephardim left Spain they spoke Ladino, a language derived from Spanish.

There was not only a difference in language, but also in matters of halacha and customs. The Sephardim follow the halakhic precepts according to the Shuljan Aruj of Josef Caro. The Ashkenazim follow what Rabbi Isserles dictated, who adapted the Shuljan Aruj to Ashkenazi customs. Hebrew, although only used in religious texts, was pronounced differently by the different communities. An Ashkenazi would say “shabos koidesh” (holy Sabbath), a Yemenite Jew would say “shabot qodesh” and a Sephardi “shabbat kodesh”.

There were also differences in clothing and food. Although everyone respected the laws of kashrut, their application in practice resulted in different dishes. Reheated food on Saturday was given to all groups, but in different ways. In Europe, they had cholent, which has a Judeo-French root meaning heated, just like the term jamin in Hebrew. In Africa, they had tefina. In one case, it was an apple and noodle pudding, in others, meat with potatoes and beans, and in others, wheat, meat, chickpeas and boiled egg. As a curious fact, the prohibition of removing fish bones on Saturday gave rise to the Ashkenazim’s gefilte fish.

Judaism has developed a great variety of ethnic cultural expressions that range from typical dishes to the melodies used in prayers. The basic principles of Judaism are the same, but each group puts them into practice in its own way. Although each time, these customs are mixed. An Ethiopian Jew can go to a Hasidic yeshivah and a Sephardic Jew can serve matze ball soup on Pesach. Yes, we are one, but we are also many.

Prepared by Marcos Gojman

Bibliography: Encyclopaedia Judaica and other sources.

The term “tikkun olam” is a deeply important and commonly misunderstood Jewish concept. Tikun olam is not the fulfillment of a mitzvah, but rather refers to the Jewish drive and commitment to perfect the world according to God’s will, through our own behavior, attitude, and action. Many scholars point out that the term has been done an injustice when it simply refers to man’s involvement in charitable activities.

The first reference to tikun olam occurs in the Mishnah and broadly means “promoting the general welfare” (see Mishnah, Gittin 4:2). Another early rabbinic reference appears in the Aleinu prayer, which originated in the Rosh Hashanah liturgy but became a daily prayer around 1300 CE. In the second paragraph it says, “Therefore we trust in You, that we may see Your glorious power, to banish from the world the detestable things “l’takein olam b’malchut shaddai” and to perfect the world under Your sovereignty.” Here it is still spoken of as repairing the world being a divine rather than a human action.

Isaac Luria, the 16th century Kabbalist, emphasized the concept of tikun olam in his theology. Luria taught that God emanates into the world through the sefirot, which have personality traits, such as compassion. He said that by meditating on each of these sefirot and their unification, one can help heal what is a shattered spiritual world.

In 1964, Israel’s Chief Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook expanded on Luria’s concept when he wrote that tikun olam must “fly not only over the spiritual ether,” but must equally concern itself with both the spiritual and the physical. (Orot Ha-Kodesh, sect. 3, p. 180).

In the early 1950s Shlomo Bardin, the director of the Brandeis Institute in California, taught that tikun olam refers to the obligation of Jews to work for a more perfect world. This interpretation had an enormous impact on Jewish youth movements and by 1970 it had been adopted by the youth movement of Conservative Judaism as the motto for its social action activities. In the following decades, tikun olam became the motto for social action in Judaism in general.

Judaism teaches us that the reason for human existence is tikun olam, the «repair of the world.» God left the world incomplete and imperfect so that human beings could participate in the act of creation, completing and perfecting it. And God is referring to this world, in this life. Focusing on a hypothetical (or real) «afterlife» is likely to weaken our commitment to improving this one. It is not forbidden to believe in or hope for paradise, but let us not worry so much about it that we forget about the world in which we live. It is this world that we need to repair.

Prepared by Marcos Gojman

Bibliography: Articles on Tikkun Olam by Rabbi Paul Steinberg, Rabbi Dan Danson and others.

For Judaism, anything that even remotely conflicts with the concept that there is only one God is rejected on principle, because it contradicts the idea of ​​pure monotheism. That there is a God in heaven who fights against a god of the underworld or hell is not monotheism. It is the same dualism that we find in pagan beliefs.

The Bible speaks of a character known as Satan, who acts as an accusing prosecutor in God’s court. Satan has no powers or authority of his own, but must obtain God’s permission to act.

Every time he is mentioned in the Bible we see him written as «HaSatan», or «The Satan». By using the definite article «the», it indicates that it is a title, like the rabbi, the teacher, etc. Thus, in the Bible the term HaSatan is used more as an indication that the subject performs a certain job and not as a description of a being.

Therefore, Satan’s job description is very different from that of the devil. For Christians, devil and Satan are synonyms, and for them the devil does have power and authority on his own. In contrast, in the Jewish Bible, Satan only has the power that God gives him and has no authority. The fact that the devil is defined as having power and authority implies that there is more than one god.

Satan is mentioned in only a few places in the Hebrew scriptures. In each case, he is an angel who works for God and not against God, and as we said before, he must have God’s permission to act. Chronicles, Job, Psalms, and Zechariah are the only places where he is mentioned. In each case, Satan’s job description is to act as what we know in our time as the prosecutor and his duty is to present the accusation and the evidence that shows the guilt of the accused. Furthermore, the prosecutor must obtain permission from God, The Judge, to initiate an operation to unmask a lawbreaker.

Some scholars explain the term satan as a metaphor referring to the evil inclination, the “yetzer hara”, that every person has. The term satan literally means adversary. And in Jewish philosophy it is said that one of the things we battle with every day is our own evil inclination, the yetzer hara. The yetzer hara is not a being or a force, but is man’s innate capacity to do evil in the world. Its counterpart is the “yetzer hatov”, the inclination toward good.

It is clear that the concept of “The Devil” in Western culture contradicts the foundation of Jewish monotheism. That is why, in Judaism, we have sent the “devil” to hell.

Prepared by Marcos Gojman

Bibliography: Articles by Rabbi Stuart Federow, Ariela Pelaia and the Encyclopaedia Judaica.

Samuel Ibn Nagrel´a was born in Granada, Spain in 993. He received an excellent Jewish and general education and became a Talmudic scholar, statesman, poet, soldier, philologist and one of the most influential Jews in Muslim Spain. He was fluent in Hebrew, Arabic and Latin. He was a student of one of the most respected rabbis of his time, Rabbi Hanoch ben Moshe.

Fleeing from the Berbers, Samuel settled in Malaga. There he opened a spice shop, near the Palace of the Vizier of Granada, Abu al-Kasim ibn al-Arif. Samuel began to receive visits from a servant of the Vizier who asked him to write letters for him, which he did very well thanks to his mastery of Arabic and Hebrew calligraphy. The Vizier, who admired Samuel’s writing style, asked his servant to introduce him to the author. After their first meeting, Samuel was hired as the Vizier’s personal secretary. Samuel and the Vizier became good friends and soon the Vizier realized Samuel’s capabilities. In addition to his secretary, Samuel became his political advisor.

Upon the Vizier’s death, Sultan Habbus al Muzaffar appointed Samuel Vizier of Granada, despite a decree prohibiting Jews from holding public office. Samuel became the king’s advisor on political and military matters. He rose to be the head of the Muslim army of Granada and participated in multiple battles against Arab Seville. Upon the death of Sultan Habbus, his son Badis was crowned and Samuel was appointed his chief advisor and general of the army. In 1027, the Jewish community granted Samuel the title of HaNagid, the prince.

It is said that a fanatic Muslim had severely offended Samuel and the king, upon learning of this, ordered Samuel to have his tongue cut out. Instead, Samuel sent a gift to the offender, thereby earning his gratitude. The king questioned Samuel and he replied: I cut out his aggressive tongue and gave him a gentle tongue instead.

Samuel put his wealth and high authority to good use. He was passionate about spreading knowledge. While serving as a soldier, he wrote poems on the subject of war and battle. He purchased and gave thousands of copies of books to poor Jewish students in Sicily, Spain, Egypt and Jerusalem. He actively sought to spread Judaism and Jewish culture, helping less fortunate scholars such as Salomon Ibn Gabirol.

In addition to serving as Vizier for three decades, his military responsibilities gave him no respite and Samuel HaNagid, weakened by the same, died of natural causes in 1056 on a battlefield. He was beloved by the community and mourned by Muslims and Jews alike. Aside from his poems, his only major surviving work is Hilchot Hanagid, a compilation and commentary of halacha based on the two Talmuds. Samuel HaNagid certainly deserves to be in the Jewish hall of fame.

Prepared by Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: Encyclopaedia Judaica, Jewish Encyclopedia and other sources.

The existence of Jewish streets or neighborhoods arose, on the one hand, from the interest of Jewish communities to live separately in order to better observe their laws and customs. On the other hand, the separation was the result of decrees by the authorities, especially the ecclesiastical ones. Observing the commandments, the need to have a minyan for prayers, a cemetery, a mikveh, and mutual help, were what motivated the Jews to group together in neighborhoods or streets that in some cases were separated from the rest of the city by walls.

For example, the Jews of Speyer in 1084 asked the bishop for permission to live in a separate, walled neighborhood. In other cases, it was the Church that imposed on them the obligation to live separately from the Christians, seeking to isolate and humiliate the Jews.

The word “ghetto” comes from the Venetian gettare, meaning slag, the product of metal foundries, and borghetto, a diminutive of borgo, a neighborhood. The Venetians coined the term in the 16th century when they forced the Jews of Venice to live together, surrounded by a wall, in the poorest part of the city, near an iron foundry.

The Venetian ghetto was not the first Jewish ghetto. In 1179 the Catholic Church decreed that Christians should not live together with Jews. This led to Jews being segregated in most European countries, at first in streets called Judengase and later in walled neighborhoods with gates that were closed at night. In 1555 a decree by Pope Paul IV forced the Jews of Rome to live in an area on the left bank of the Tiber River, which was immediately walled off. Other Italian cities followed Rome’s example. In addition to living in the ghetto, Jews were required to wear a badge, were required to listen to sermons seeking their conversion, and were restricted in their professions. In Muslim countries, too, different ethnic or religious groups lived in their own neighborhoods. “Harat al Yahud” literally means “Jewish neighborhood” in Arabic.

Living in a ghetto had both positive and negative effects on Judaism. The Jew in the ghetto lacked political, economic, social, and cultural freedom. He had no political rights, his economic activity was restricted, as was his socializing with non-Jews, and he could not participate in the culture and education of the outside world. Living conditions in the ghetto were therefore very difficult. On the other hand, they did not have to worry about maintaining their identity and the Jewish way of life. The walls not only kept out anything Jewish, but also kept out nothing from outside. They were an antidote to the problem of assimilation. Prepared by Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: History of the Ghetto by Dr. Gerhard Falk, Encyclopedia Judaica and other sources.

Maimonides held that one should not read the Torah literally. In his view, one was obliged to understand the Torah in such a way that it was compatible with scientific discoveries. He wrote that if the Torah and science did not agree, it was for two reasons: either the scientific part was not well understood or the Torah was misinterpreted. He said that if science proved a point, the scriptures should be interpreted accordingly.

The age of the universe is one such discrepancy. Unlike the majority, a small minority of rabbis in classical times held that the world was older than the nearly 6,000 years that the literal interpretation maintains. In the Talmud’s tractate Chaggiga 13b-14a, it is written that there were 974 generations before God created Adam. And in some midrashim it is explained that the “first week” lasted much longer than seven days. (Midrash Breshit Rabbah 9).

In his Torah commentary, Rabbi Bahya ben Asher in 11th century Spain maintained that there were many time systems in the universe before the present time. He said that the earth was billions of years old.

Rabbi Israel Lipschitz of Danzig (1782-1860) commented in “Yachin u-Boaz,” his commentary on the Mishnah, that the world had had many historical cycles, each lasting thousands of years. The age of the dinosaurs was one such cycle. He said: “From all this we can understand what the Kabbalists have told us, that the Earth has been destroyed and renewed several times.”

Some Orthodox rabbis, such as Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, maintain that scientific theories confirm that God had a master plan for creating the universe and that this is consistent with modern Orthodox thought. In the early 20th century, both Conservative and Reform Jews accepted scientific discoveries as true and therefore interpreted the sacred writings in light of them.

Rabbi Kook said that the creation account belongs to “The Mysteries of the Torah” and is therefore open to interpretation. The creation account was not intended to be a literal description of how everything came into being, but rather to emphasize that it was God who called everything into existence. But furthermore, the theory of evolution agrees with the order marked out in Genesis. The most evolved beings were created last.

As C.S. Lewis says, the scientist knows while the religious man believes. Science tries to explain how the universe works while religion tries to explain what its purpose is and what place man occupies in it. One is a matter of knowledge and the other of belief.

Prepared by Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: Jewish Responses to Modern Science, by Rabbi Louis Jacobs and other sources.