The Safed Circle II: R. Moshe Cordovero (Remak)
🧿 Another important figure of Pre-Lurianic Tzfat was the Kabbalist R. Moshe Cordovero, who popularized Kabbala and created a new genre of Kabblistic ethical literature (musar).
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The population of Tzfat (Safed), in the Galil of northern Ottoman-controlled Israel, mushroomed in the sixteenth century, following the wave of mass expulsions of Jews from Iberian kingdoms. Since the economy was, for a time, stronger in Tzfat than in Jerusalem, Tzfat attracted many Jews, among them scholars, who helped to build and populate some sixteen to eighteen yeshivot and an even greater number of synagogues, at the community’s height. As a result of this influx of emigres, Tzfat became the place of coalescence for a number of trends of the transition from the medieval world to early modernity among world Jewry. As we’ve seen, messianism was a core part of the Jewish ethos in Tzfat and prompted a number of activities, chief among them, the attempt to reinstate formal semicha (rabbinic ordination), an institution that had been lost since antiquity. Another part of the messianic fervor as well as the fruitful meeting of learned Jews was the importance now placed on making Kabbalistic secrets more widely accessible.
The Popularization of Kabbala in Tzfat
The coming redemption, it was thought, would both be effected through wider study of Kabbala as well as enabling the esoteric to become exoteric in the messianic age. This was identified in the Zohar itself as consisting of study of the Zohar:
הַמַשְׂכִּילִים יָבִינוּ (דניאל י״ב:ג׳), מִסִּטְרָא דְּבִינָה, דְּאִיהוּ אִילָנָא דְּחַיִּי, בְּגִינַיְיהוּ אִתְּמַר, וְהַמַשְׂכִּילִים יַזְהִירוּ כְּזוֹהַר הָרָקִיעַ (דניאל י״ב:י׳) בְּהַאי חִבּוּרָא דִּילָךְ דְּאִיהוּ סֵפֶר הַזֹּהַר…וּבְגִין דַּעֲתִידִין יִשְׂרָאֵל לְמִטְעַם מֵאִילָנָא דְּחַיִּי, דְּאִיהוּ הַאי סֵפֶר הַזֹּהַר, יִפְּקוּן בֵּיהּ מִן גָּלוּתָא בְּרַחֲמֵי.
But the learned will understand (Daniel 12:3), from the aspect of Binah, which is the Tree of Life, for them was said, “But the learned will be illuminated like the radiant expanse of sky (zohar ha-rakiya) (Daniel 12:10)—meaning in your composition which is Sefer ha-Zohar…for in the future the Jews will taste from the Tree of Life, which is this Sefer ha-Zohar, and be redeemed from exile with [Divine] compassion.
Groups of Kabbalists, now in the Land of Israel, sought to recreate the countryside ramblings and mystical fellowship of Rashbi and his companions, as described in the Zohar. This included having collective as well as personal mystical experiences of devekut (cleaving to G-d); the expansion of rituals, such as the focus on the third meal of Shabbat (seuda shlishit); and the creation of new rituals, such as Kabbalat Shabbat (greeting the arrival of Shabbat, figured as a “queen”) and Tikkun Chatzot (a prayer service recited past midnight). Attendant to this was the composition of new liturgy and piyut, some of it in Aramaic, the lyrical language of the Zohar. It also included a strong focus on reliving, and in so doing helping to ameliorate, the exile of the Shechina—G-d’s Presence on earth. This was at once a reenactment of exile, even in the Land of Israel, and an attempt to end the exile, in part by means of gathering in the Land of Israel. Penitence, including self-abnegating behaviors, was often a factor in Tsfat Kabbalists’ personal practices.
The activities of the Tzfat Kabbalists also included the writing of introductions, manuals, and systemic treatises explicating esoteric concepts and making them more accessible. Perhaps the foremost popularizer of Kabbala in these media was R. Moshe Cordovero, also known by the acronym Remak.
Remak and his Introduction to Kabbala
R. Moshe Cordovero, like so many Kabbalists who found their way to Tzfat, came from a family originating in Iberia—his surname would indicate Córdoba, but it seems the family departed from Portugal. Remak himself may have been born in Turkey, c. 1522, meaning that his family took a typical post-expulsion forced immigration path of Spain to Portugal to Turkey and finally to Tzfat in the Ottoman-ruled Land of Israel. The yeshiva headed by Remak was a Portuguese one; he also served as Av Beit Din (head rabbinical court judge). In Tsfat, Remak studied under R. Yosef Karo, the author of the Beit Yosef and Shulchan Aruch, as well as R. Shlomo Alkabetz, whose sister he eventually married, making them brothers-in-law.
In addition to a commentary on the Zohar and a number of other Kabbalistic works, Remak wrote two long and systematic introductions to Kabbala which proved more analytic, comprehensive, and clear than anything so far available. In a sense, as Ira Robinson points out, Remak did for Kabbala what his teacher (and fellow Kabbalist), R. Yosef Karo, did for the systemization of Jewish law: conceptualize it, organize it, and make it actionable. The first systematic treatise, written when he was a relatively young man, was titled Pardes Rimonim (Pomegranate Orchard); the second, written at a later juncture, was called Elima Rabbati. R. Moshe Cordovero also produced an introduction for the seeker, called Or Ne’erav (Mixed Light).
In Pardes Rimonim, Remak gives an account of how he began seeking as a young man and found his teacher by Divine intervention:
נאם הצעיר משה בן לא"א ב"ר יעקב קורדואירו בראותי ימי הילדות חלפו עברו למו ברדפי כל תאוה ויכלו באפס תקוה. ויהי בהגיעני קוני אל שנת העשרים ושער צהוב צמח ויעירני קוני כאיש אשר יעיר משנתו ואומרה אל נפשי עד מתי תתחמקין הבת השובבה עד מתי תשתכרין הסירי את יינך מעליך עד מתי ילין בקרבך מחשבות אונך ותשכח ה' עושך ויוצרך מבטן ועתה קומי קראי אל אלקיך ותשקוד על דלתותיו יום יום ורפא את מזבח ה' ההרוס. ויהי כשמעה את קול הקריאה הומה ותאמר אקומה נא ואסובבה בעיר בשווקים וברחובות לבקש לי מנוח אשר ייטיב לי ואשמע קול מדבר עיר וקדיש מן שמיא נחית מורי ורבי המקובל האלקי החכם ה"ר שלמה אלקבץ הלוי נר"ו ויביאני אל היכלי טירותיו ויורני ויאמר לי בני יתמוך דברי לבך הט אזנך ושמע דברי חכמים ויציבני על דלתי החכמה והתבונה מתוק מדבש ונופת צופים המהגים והמצפצפים בעמקי סתרי התורה ויהי בפי כדבש למתוק ואשקוד על דלתי מדרשו ואשמע נאמו ויועירני ללמוד דרכי הזהר ומפתחות לפתוח שעריו ויתחזק כי ואהי עוסק ימים ואשתומם ואומר מה טוב ומה נעים להיות עסקי זה
So spoke the young Moshe, son of Rabbi Yaakov Cordovero, as I reflected upon the days of my youth, which flitted and passed while I chased every desire and concluded with nary a hope. But when my Maker brought me to reach the age of twenty, a golden hair grew and my Maker awakened me like a man who awakens from his sleep. I said to my soul, “How long will you waver, O rebellious daughter?” (Yirmiyahu 31:22), “How long will you make a drunken spectacle of yourself? Remove your wine” (Shmuel Alef 1:14), “How long will you harbor within you
Your evil designs?” (Yirmiyahu 4:14), so that you forget Hashem your Maker and your Creator from the womb. Now arise and call upon your G-d and knock on His doors each day, and repair the destroyed Altar of Hashem. When she [my soul] heard the crying voice sound, she said, I shall arise and go about the city in the markets and the streets to seek a respite that will do me good. Then I heard a voice speaking, and with the help of heaven my holy master and teacher landed before me, the rabbi Shlomo Alkabetz ha-Levi, may G-d watch over him and redeem him. He brought me to the halls of his home and taught me, saying to me, “My son, support the words of your heart and tilt your ears to hear the words of the wise.” He brought me to the doorsteps of wisdom (chochma) and understanding (tevuna, from binah). Sweeter than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb are those who study and buzz around the depths of the secrets of the Torah which were like honey sweetening my mouth. I knocked on the door of his study-hall and I heard his lectures and he awakened me to the ways of the Zohar and gave me keys to open its gates. I grew stronger after many days of study and was astonished; I said, how good and how pleasant to be engaged in such things!
This “origin story” of a young mystic includes the vapidity of youth, followed by an internal awakening that leads the young man to seek G-d. Already here, Remak speaks to himself—and his reader—using Biblical idiom, taken from verses of the Neviim (prophets). Already, the imagery of repairing the destroyed altar hints of coming redemption and tikkun—cosmic correction. Walking the city streets in pursuit of the good and the right, the seeker stumbles, by Divine guidance, into his mentor (and later brother-in-law), R. Shlomo Alkabetz. The master Kabbalist begins to open the secrets of the Torah, via the Zohar, to Remak. The seeker grows into an adept who cannot imagine spending his time in any other pursuit.
Tomer Devora and the Inception of Kabbalistic Ethical Literature (Musar)
The small ethical work Tomer Devora (Palm Tree of Deborah) describes in ten chapters, one for each of the ten Sefirot, how a person might draw near to G-d by approaching each Divine aspect. Here, for example, is Remak’s advice about the third Sefira, Chochma (Wisdom):
האיך ירגיל האדם עצמו במדת החכמה: הִנֵּה הַחָכְמָה הָעֶלְיוֹנָה פְּרוּשָׂה עַל כָּל הַנִּמְצָאִים כֻּלָּם, עִם הֱיוֹתָהּ נֶעֱלֶמֶת וְנִשְׂגָּבָה מְאֹד, וְעָלֶיהָ נֶאֱמַר (תְּהִלִּים קד, כד): מָה רַבּוּ מַעֲשֶׂיךָ ה' כֻּלָּם בְּחָכְמָה עָשִׂיתָ. כָּךְ רָאוּי לְאָדָם שֶׁתִּהְיֶה חָכְמָתוֹ מְצוּיָה בַּכֹּל וְיִהְיֶה מְלַמֵּד לְהוֹעִיל לִבְנֵי אָדָם לְכָל אֶחָד וְאֶחָד כְּפִי כֹחוֹ כָּל מַה שֶׁיּוּכַל לְהַשְׁפִּיעַ עָלָיו מֵחָכְמָתוֹ יַשְׁפִּיעֵהוּ וְלֹא תַטְרִידֵהוּ סִבָּה כְּלָל.
שני פנים לחכמה: וְהִנֵּה אֶל הַחָכְמָה שְׁנֵי פָנִים:… הַפָּן הָרִאשׁוֹן - הוּא הִתְבּוֹדְדוּתוֹ בְּקוֹנוֹ כְּדֵי לְהוֹסִיף בְּחָכְמָתוֹ וּלְתַקְּנָהּ. הַשֵּׁנִי - לְלַמֵּד בְּנֵי אָדָם מֵאוֹתָהּ חָכְמָה שֶׁהַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא הִשְׁפִּיעַ עָלָיו. וּכְמוֹ שֶׁהַחָכְמָה מַשְׁפַּעַת אֶל כָּל סְפִירָה וּסְפִירָה כְּפִי שִׁעוּרָהּ וְצָרְכָּהּ, כֵּן יַשְׁפִּיעַ בְּכָל אָדָם כְּפִי שִׁעוּר שִׂכְלוֹ
How a person can accustom himself to the aspect of Wisdom (Chochma): For the Highest Wisdom is spread out over all existence, even as it is concealed and exalted. About it it is said, “How many are Your creations, L-rd; You made all of them with wisdom” (Tehillim 104:24). So is it fitting for a person that his wisdom be found in everything; and he should teach for the benefit of other people, each and every one, and each according to his ability, all that he can affect them by his wisdom he should do and no reason should concern him in the least.
There are two sides to Wisdom: Note that there are two sides to Wisdom. The first aspect is its seclusion in its Maker in order to complete his Wisdom and correct it. The second is to teach people this same Wisdom that the Holy One, blessed be He, used to affect him. Just as Wisdom affects each and every Sefira according to its measure and its requirements, so it will affect each person according to his intelligence…
By attuning to the Sefira of Chochma and its multifaceted aspects, the mystic can be affected by the Sefirot as well as affect others—and is charged with the dual responsibility of undertaking both. Suffused with Kabbala, he creates a hands-on guide for living based on a kind of imitatio Dei, but in this case, of aspects of the Divine. The example of Tomer Devora was to prove influential, first among Tzfat Kabbalists and then later throughout the Kabbala-inflected Jewish world.
Reads and Resources
You can read R. Moshe Cordovero’s Or Ne’erav, Pardes Rimonim, and Tomer Devora on Sefaria, and Elima Rabbati on HebrewBooks.org.