Rabbi Yosef Karo It was Erev Shavuot in Salonika, in the year 1533, that two young Sephardic rabbinic luminaries – Yosef Karo and Shlomo Alkabetz – gathered together with their Haverim (which literally means “friends,” but in the Spanish Yeshivot meant “Torah Scholar colleagues”.) The purpose of their gathering was to practice a special Kabbalistic Shavuot custom mentioned in Judaism’s classical work of mysticism, “The Zohar” (Book of Illumination). This unique book is attributed to Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai, but according to most scholars, it was composed, compiled, edited and issued by the 13th century Spanish Kabbalist Moshe de Leon. The Shavuot custom from the Zohar that the Haverim gathered for was the Tikkun Leil Shavuot, where we stay awake the night of Shavuot and study Torah.
On that Shavuot night in 1533 in Salonika, something happened that would come to affect the entire Jewish world. Two outstanding Jewish mystics – Rabbi Yosef Karo (the eventual author of the Beit Yosef and Shulhan Arukh, Judaism’s most authoritative code of Jewish law) and Rabbi Shlomo Alkabetz (the author of many Kabbalistic works, including the famous Lekha Dodi poem chanted every Friday night) – had a mystical experience that deeply impacted them. Alkabetz eventually recorded this mystical experience in what came to be known as Iggeret Alkabetz – The Epistle of Alkabetz.
It was well known in mystical circles that when Rav Yosef Karo would study the rabbinic texts of the Mishnah, a high pitched voice would overtake his voice, and would begin revealing mysterious secrets of the Torah to him. Rav Karo eventually recorded all of these mystical experiences in a book titled Maggid Mesharim. The “Maggid” – or “teller” – was believed to be the Shekhina – the mystical, prophetic female voice that represented God.
Rav Alkabetz describes Rav Karo studying Mishnah on the night of Shavuot in Salonika in 1533, and he says this night was like a reenactment of the Revelation at Mount Sinai, but instead of Moses the Prophet, this time the revelation came to the great mystic Rav Yosef Karo. On that night, when Rav Karo studied Mishnah, Rav Alkabetz and all of the Haverim heard the voice of the Shekhina emerge from Rav Karo’s mouth, saying: “Cease not from studying Torah, for a thread of mercy is stretched out over you, and your Torah study is pleasant to the Holy One blessed be He. Stand upon your feet and raise me up.”
What did the Shekhina mean by “Stand upon your feet and raise me up”?
Immediately upon hearing the voice of the Shekhina, Rav Karo and all of the Haverim in the Beit Midrash that night in Salonika put together a unique grouping of Torah study texts that had a common theme. There were selections from the Bible (Written Torah), the Mishnah (Oral Torah), and esoteric mystical texts – the Zohar. The selected texts were about the Creation of the World, the Revelation on Mt. Sinai and the account of how Ezra and Nehemia returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple. The contents of these texts formed a pattern – Creation, Revelation and Redemption – symbolizing Jewish chronology “from exile to redemption.”
As they studied these texts, the voice of the Shekhinah spoke to them again, clarifying what she meant by “Stand upon your feet and raise me up.”
She addressed Rav Karo, Rav Alkabetz and all of the Haverim, and ordered them: “Go up to the Land of Israel, for not all times are opportune. Let not your eyes have pity on your worldly goods, for you will eat the goodness of the Higher Land.”
The Shekhina addressed them as the “chosen few” and insisted that they swear by covenant to go up to the Land of Israel. A mutual dependence was set up between the Shekhina and the Haverim. They will “go up” to the Land of Israel to deliver her from exile (“Raise me up”), and she, now redeemed in the Holy Land, will deliver them from their state of exile. In other words, the Shekhina restored to the Land of Israel will help bring the Messiah.
In 1534, just a few months after this famous Tikkun Leil Shavuot, a plague broke out in Salonika. Rav Yosef Karo lost his wife, two sons and daughter in that plague. If that wasn’t enough, the mystical Maggid seems to have disappeared and stopped speaking to him from his mouth. Rav Karo felt that God was punishing him for delaying the oath, for not going up to the Land of Israel as he had promised that night of Shavuot.
Rav Karo mourned for a year and eventually remarried. He moved with his new wife to Nikopol, a small town in Bulgaria on the banks of the Danube River. He was still convinced that his first wife and children had died because he had not kept the oath he made on Shavuot.
In 1536, Rav Karo became very sick, and by Rosh Hashanah of 1536, he was at death’s door. Rav Shlomo Alkabetz rushed from Salonika to see his beloved colleague and friend, and when he arrived, something strange happened to Rav Karo. The mystical voice of the Maggid suddenly reappeared, promising Rav Karo that his new wife would bear him new children. Rav Karo and Rav Alkabetz spent Shabbat together, and they heard the voice of the Shekhina demanding that the two of them keep their sacred oath to go up to the Land of Israel. When Shabbat was over, Rav Alkabetz wrote his famous epistle – Iggeret Alkabetz – recording all of these mystical events, including the famous Tikkun Leil Shavuot in Salonika in 1533.
So it was, that almost three years after that famous night of Shavout in Salonika, Rav Yosef Karo and Rav Shlomo Alkabetz and their families set sail from the Port of Constantinople. Ten days later, they reached the shores of the Land of Israel. They settled in Safed, setting the stage for a new “Golden Age” – not in Spain – rather the “Golden Age” of Kabbala and Mysticism in Safed, Israel.
There they would compose famous works of Jewish law, mysticism, Torah commentary and poetry that would affect the entire Jewish world until this day.
The illustrious world of Kabbalah and Mysticism as we know it was born on Shavuot in Salonika in 1533, courtesy of two outstanding Sephardic scholars.
In their honor and memory, we should continue the legacy of studying Torah and connecting ourselves to Eretz Yisrael.
Moadim L’Simha and Hag Shavuot Sameah
Rabbi Daniel Bouskila is the Director of the Sephardic Educational Center and the rabbi of the Westwood Village Synagogue.
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