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  • Toward the Popularization of Kabbalah: R. Yosef Hayyim of Baghdad and the Kabbalists of Jerusalem
  • Jonatan Meir (bio)

Toward the end of the nineteenth century, a certain Iraqi Torah scholar asked R. Yosef Hayyim of Baghdad—the renowned Ben Ish Hai (1834–1909)—the following question: “If I am worthy to go up to Jerusalem, of which it is said (Isa 2:3): “From Zion will go forth the Torah, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem,” where many scholars study this wisdom [of Kabbalah], how will I be able to recognize the foremost scholar upon whom I can rely, and at whose feet I should study?.” In response, R. Yosef Hayyim offered him the following test. The questioner should ask each scholar to explain several pages of the Kabbalistic work Nahar Shalom, by the famed R. Shalom Shar’abi [the Rashash, 1720–1777]. The Kabbalist should be able to identify all the sources of the passages in the Lurianic writings, as well as be able to compare both these corpuses and resolve any contradictions between them. If he passes this test, the questioner should declare: “You are my teacher! Teach me the true wisdom of our Rabbi, the Ari z”l. If you understand these texts clearly, I will drink the words of the Ari thirstily, but, if your understanding is unclear, God forbid, why should you confuse me as well? You may still teach me—just as one teaches the Torah with its translation, without all the depth and hidden details of the verses—that much I will accept.” “You should say this to any teacher whom you seek to learn from,” concluded R. Yosef Hayyim.1 This interesting tale appears in the introduction to one of R. Yosef Hayyim’s own Kabbalistic works, Da’at u’Tevunah, printed in Jerusalem in 1911. There is a tradition among Jerusalem Kabbalists that the questioner was R. Saliman Eliyahu (1879–1941), who moved from Baghdad to Jerusalem in 1919, and ultimately found a teacher in R. Hayyim Shaul Dweck ha-Kohen (1858–1933), a Syrian Kabbalist, who served as the head of the Kabbalistic yeshiva “Rehovot ha-Nahar,” at that time.2

Two important points can be gleaned from this tale: the first concerns the flourishing of Kabbalah study in Jerusalem’s yeshivot at the outset of the twentieth century, as the questioner himself [End Page 148] states: “Jerusalem . . . where many scholars study this wisdom.” We know, for instance, that the original Beit El yeshiva, founded in 1737, expanded its operations at that time with the construction of new study halls. Numerous other Kabbalistic yeshivot were also opening around Jerusalem at the time, such as Rehovot ha-Nahar (est. 1896), Sha’ar ha-Shamayim (est. 1906), Yeshiva Oz v’Hadar, a division of the Porat Yosef Yeshiva complex (est. 1923, through the efforts of R. Yosef Hayyim), all of which enthusiastically embraced the teachings of the Rashash, even while they sought to adopt and integrate them with other Kabbalistic systems, developing new approaches in the world of Jewish mysticism. All this was in addition to dozens of unaffiliated Kabbalists who studied and taught throughout Jerusalem, at that time.3

The second point of the tale is somewhat subtler and concerns the relationship between the Kabbalists of those yeshivot and R. Yosef Hayyim, whom Gershon Scholem called the “leader of the Kabbalists of Baghdad.” The veracity of the Jerusalem tradition on this anecdote notwithstanding, its importance lies in that it envisions the Ben Ish Hai as playing a significant role in the transmission of Kabbalah from the Ari and the Rashash to the Kabbalists of Jerusalem. Indeed, many of Jerusalem’s Kabbalists considered R. Yosef Hayyim to be a significant figure: not necessarily for any original, esoteric doctrines that he developed, but rather, for his ability to integrate Kabbalah, halacha, and minhag (custom), as well as for his adaptation of classic Kabbalistic works into popular, mystical rites (tikunim). It is this new genre that he developed—reflecting the unfolding relationship between tikunim literature and the general public—that we will examine later.

As early as the mid-nineteenth century—if not before—the teachings of R. Shalom Sharabi had spread...

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