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In 1968 Shirley Chisholm became the first Black woman elected to the United States Congress. In 1972 she launched a campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, breaking another political barrier.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
| Beit El Kabbalist yeshiva | |
|---|---|
 Entrance door to the Yeshivat haMekubalim, depicting all 7 gates in Jerusalem's Old City Walls | |
| Location | |
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31°46′30″N 35°13′54″E / 31.774978°N 35.231566°E | |
| Information | |
| Type | Yeshiva |
Religious affiliation | Orthodox Judaism |
| Established | 1737 |
| Founder | Rabbi Gedaliah Hayon |
| Rabbi Yisrael Avi`hai | |
| Gender | Males |
| Language | Hebrew |
The Beit El Kabbalist yeshiva (Beit El means "House of God") (also: Midrash Hasidim 'School of the Devout' or Yeshivat haMekubalim, 'Yeshiva of the Kabbalists') is a center of kabbalistic study in Jerusalem. It consists of two buildings, one in the Ruhama neighbourhood of West Jerusalem, built in 1948, and another in Old City’s Jewish Quarter, built in 1974.
The yeshiva was founded in 1737 by Rabbi Gedaliah Hayon, originally from Constantinople, for the study of kabbalah in the Holy City. In the 1740s, a gifted young man named Shalom Mizrachi Sharabi arrived in Jerusalem from Yemen. He studied at Beit El and over time became an outstanding scholar and kabbalist. At the behest of Rabbi Hayon, he was appointed head of the yeshiva.[1]
Under Sharabi’s leadership the yeshiva grew and became one of the main yeshivas in Jerusalem with 40 scholars from the Sephardic and Ashkenazi communities. Rabbi Hayon had organized the life of the yeshiva around prayer services, which through mystical communion with God would bring the scholars closer to understanding the secret teachings of Kabbalah. Rabbi Sharabi initiated regulations, orders and kavanot ("intentions") of the daily prayers according to the Nahar Shalom prayer book (Salonika, 1806/5566) which he authored, continuing the teachings of the Arizal and following its cosmological approach while incorporating kabbalistic symbolism, entreaties and thoughts/meditations. Known today as the Siddur haRashash, it remained, together with the Etz `Haim of Rabbi `Haim Vital, the focus of kabbalistic studies in the yeshiva.
The scholars were divided into four groups. The first awoke at midnight to say Tikkun Hatzot and learn the Kabbalah of the Arizal until dawn. The second delved into the works of the Arizal from after shacharit (morning prayers) until midday. The third group learnt the Mishna with Rabbi Ovadia mi’Bartenura’s commentary from midday till nightfall. After ma’ariv (evening prayers) the fourth set of scholars would arrive and learn the Talmud and the Shulchan Aruch.[2]
As the yeshiva's reputation spread it attracted prominent rabbis, among them were Chaim Joseph David Azulai, Avraham Gershon of Kitov, Menachem Mendel of Shklov and Yom Tov Algazi.
In 1757, Rabbi Sharabi chose twelve select disciples who were to form a special group called Ahavat Shalom (love of peace). They signed a pledge of eternal friendship which hung on the door of the Holy Ark in the yeshiva. Part of the document reads: "..all twelve of us shall be as one glorious soul…that if God forbid one of us encounters misfortune, we will all assist him.." One of the stipulations was that if a son was born to one of the group, three members would go to learn Torah by the newborn's side every night until its circumcision to act as a safeguard for the child. On the night before the brit milah the whole group was instructed to visit and study there.
The yeshiva premises remained in the hands of the leading kabbalists of each generation who inherited the apartment on the top floor.
In the late 1800s, the writings of Dr Eliezer Levy, who escorted Sir Moses Montefiore around Jerusalem, describe of how they visited the place where "they pray all year round according to the mystical meanings of the Arizal from midnight till the afternoon, and from then till the evening they study Talmud and Zohar." The authoritative Sefer Etz `Haim of Rabbi `Haim Vital was for the first time printed under the auspices of the yeshiva around 1866. Distinguished scholars of Kabbalah continued to emigrate to Jerusalem in order to study in the yeshiva. Among the outstanding luminaries, Rabbi Hayim Shaul Dweck HaKohen, Rabbi Shaul Kassin (the father of the famed leader of Syrian Jewry, Rabbi Yaakov Kassin), and Rabbi Avraham Ades (the master of the Baba Sali) were drawn there from Syria in order to dedicate themselves to spiritual growth.
The 1927 Jericho earthquake damaged the building, and the British Municipality ordered the building be demolished. No sooner had the order been received, plans got underway to rebuild, and eight months later, in March 1928, the new extended premises were completed.
In the 1930s, when the illustrious Chazon Ish was on his way to the Western Wall, he made a point of stopping by the yeshiva to study there, stating, “I have great merit to see the place where such great and holy people learnt and prayed."[3]
During the 1948 Palestine war, the contents of the building were looted and the building was desecrated.[4]
The son of Rabbi Shalom Hedaya (who was head of Bet El from 1927 to 1945, following the leadership of Rabbi Yedidyah Raphael Chai Abulafiya and Rabbi Massoud Alhadad), Rabbi Ovadia Hedaya, set to work on schemes to revive the study of Kabbalah in the spirit of Bet El. Rabbi Ovadia Hedaya did so on the roof of his house on Rashi street before taking on the task in 1958 of rebuilding the yeshiva in the new section of the city on the very street where he lived.
In 1974, six years after the liberation of the Jewish Quarter, on the very site of the former Beit El yeshiva in the Old City, the Beit El Yeshiva was re-established (at first under the cryptic name Rishpei Esh,[5] as understood from the Shir haShirim) under the aegis of Rabbi Yehuda Getz, a noted kabbalist, who until his death was the official rabbi of the Western Wall area. The Rashi Street yeshiva remains in existence.
On 13 September 1995, a ceremony took place celebrating the completion of refurbishment to the yeshiva in the Old City, at this time also renamed Yeshivat HaMekubalim Beit El.[6] Upon Rabbi Guez's death, his foremost student (talmid muvhaq) was chosen as Rosh Yeshiva of the Old City site.
One of the most famous alumni of the yeshiva was Rabbi Yitzchak Kaduri, who died in January 2006. The Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Shalom Mordekhai Haim Hedaya died in March 2010.[7] Rabbi Raphael Hedaya was appointed as caretaker Rosh Yeshiva of Beit El at the Rashi Street yeshiva until the year of mourning was passed.
The current Rosh Yeshiva of Beit El in the Old City is Rabbi Yisrael Avi`hai.
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Source: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
The Beit El Kabbalist yeshiva (Beit El means "House of God") (also: Midrash Hasidim 'School of the Devout' or Yeshivat haMekubalim, 'Yeshiva of the Kabbalists') is a center of kabbalistic study in Jerusalem. It consists of two buildings, one in the Ruhama neighbourhood of West Jerusalem, built in 1948, and another in Old City’s Jewish Quarter, built in 1974.
The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon is a novel by American-Portuguese author Richard Zimler. It was first published in Portuguese translation in 1996 after having been rejected by many American publishers. After reaching No. 1 on the Portuguese bestseller list, the book found success in other countries and has been a bestseller in 13, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, Brazil and Australia. It has been published in 23 languages. Based closely on the events of the Lisbon massacre of 1506, The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon is a locked-room mystery crossed with historical fiction about a pogrom of Portuguese Jews.
This article lists figures in Kabbalah according to historical chronology and schools of thought. In popular reference, Kabbalah has been used to refer to the whole history of Jewish mysticism, but more accurately, and as used in academic Jewish studies, Kabbalah refers to the doctrines, practices and esoteric exegetical method in Torah, that emerged in 12th-13th century Southern France and Spain, and was developed further in 16th century Ottoman Palestine. These formed the basis of subsequent Jewish mystical development. This is a partial list of Jewish Kabbalists; secondary literature incorporating Kabbalah is enormous, particularly in the voluminous library of Hasidic Judaism that turned esoteric Kabbalah into a popular revivalist movement. Hasidism both adapted Kabbalah to its own internalised psychological concern, and also continued the development of the Jewish mystical tradition. Therefore, only formative articulators of Hasidic thought, or particularly Kabbalistic schools/authors in Hasidism are included here. In the Sabbatean mystical heresy that broke away from Judaism, only the founders are listed. Solely academic-university Jewish studies researchers of Jewish mysticism, not being "Kabbalists", nor necessarily Jewish, are not listed here; nor are separate non-Jewish derivative/syncretic traditions of Kabbalah. Rabbinic figures in Judaism are often known after the name of their magnum opus, or as Hebrew acronyms based on their name, preceded by R for Rabbi/Rav.
Kabbalah or Qabalah ( kə-BAH-lə, KAB-ə-lə; Hebrew: קַבָּלָה, romanized: Qabbālā, pronounced [kabaˈla] ; lit. 'act of receiving' or 'acceptation') is an esoteric method, discipline, and school of thought in Jewish mysticism. It forms the foundation of mystical religious interpretations within Judaism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal (מְקֻובָּל, Məqubbāl, 'receiver'). Kabbalists originally developed transmissions of the primary texts of Kabbalah within the realm of Jewish tradition and often use classical Jewish scriptures to explain and demonstrate its mystical teachings. Kabbalists hold these teachings to define the inner meaning of both the Hebrew Bible and traditional Rabbinic literature and their formerly concealed transmitted dimension, as well as to explain the significance of Jewish religious observances. Kabbalah emerged from earlier forms of Jewish mysticism in 12th to 13th-century Occitania, specifically in Languedoc, among the Hachmei Provence (lit. 'sages of Provence' or 'wise ones [of] Occitania'), as evidenced by the Bahir (בָּהִיר, Bāhîr, 'clear'). Following the movement of Jews from Occitania, Catalonia, and other parts of Spain, it was found in the Rhineland school of Judah ben Samuel of Regensburg, which coincided with the Golden Age of Jewish culture in Spain (Al-Andalus). This included the Zohar (זֹהַר, lit. 'radiance' or 'brightness' or 'splendor'), the foundational text of Kabbalah, which was likely authored by Rabbi Moses de León in the late 13th century. It was then reinterpreted during the Jewish mystical renaissance in 16th-century Ottoman Palestine. Isaac Luria (16th century) is considered the father of contemporary Kabbalah; Lurianic Kabbalah was popularised in the form of Hasidic Judaism from the 18th century onwards. During the 20th century, academic interest in Kabbalistic texts led primarily by the Jewish historian Gershom Scholem has inspired the development of historical research on Kabbalah in the field of Jewish studies. Though minor works contribute to an understanding of the Kabbalah as an evolving tradition, the primary texts of the major lineage in medieval Jewish tradition are the Bahir, Zohar, Pardes Rimonim (פַּרְדֵּס רִמּוֹנִים, 'Orchard [of] Pomegranates'), and Etz Chaim (עֵץ חַיִּים, ʿĒṣ Ḥayyîm, 'Tree of Life'). The early Hekhalot literature is acknowledged as ancestral to the sensibilities of this later flowering of the Kabbalah, and, more especially, the Sefer Yetzirah (סֵפֶר יְצִירָה, Sēfer Yeṣîrāh, 'Book of Formation') is acknowledged as the antecedent from which all these books draw many of their formal inspirations. The document has striking similarities to a possible antecedent from the Lesser Hekhalot, the Alphabet of Rabbi Akiva, which in turn seems to recall a style of responsa by students of Joshua ben Levi in tractate Shabbat 104a. The Sefer Yetzirah is a brief document of only a few pages that was written sometime between 200-600, many centuries before the high and late medieval works detailing an alphanumeric vision of cosmology and may be understood as a kind of prelude to the major phase of Kabbalah.
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
MORE →Joe Louis.
