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, 22 Friday, December 16, 1;:14' THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Rabbi Joseph Karo: Medieval Jewish Scholar and Mystic
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"Lo, I am the Mishnah
speaking in your mouth, I
am the soul of the Misnah
and I and the Mishnah and
you are united as one."
The above. quotations are
from "Ma' gid Mesharim,"
a diary Joseph Karo kept of
his - celestial commu-
nications."
R.J. Zwi Werblowsky ex-
plores it in "Joseph Karo:
Lawyer and Mystic," (The
Jewish Publication Society
of America. )
Joseph Karo descended
from a famous rabbinic
family. But his place of
birth (probably Toledo) and
exact date of birth are un-
known. He died on March
24, 1575 CE at the age of 87.
After the expulsion of the
Jews from the Iberian
Peninsula, Karo's family
settled in Constantinople
where they resided for
many years. However, after
the death of his father Eph-
raim, Joseph Karo and his
family • moved to Salonica,
then the largest and most
important Jewish commu-
nity in Turkey. There his
sons Isaac and Yehudah,
daughter Buena, and wife
died during a cholera epi-
demic.
From Salonica Karo
moved to Adrianople where
in 1522 CE he began to write
his magnum opus "Beit Yo-
•
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set- (The House of Jo-
seph). He completed it 20
years later in 1542 in Safed
where he had settled in 1536.
At that time, Safed was
the center of Jewish piety,
my-sticism and scholarshop.
In that holy city Jews from
Salonica, Adrianople and
other Sephardi commu-
nities, and Ashkenazi Jews
from Germany, Moravia
and Poland established their
permanent homes.
In Safed Joseph Karo be-
came the leading rabbinic
authority, and his friends
and followers included Solo-
mon Alkabetz, the author of
"Lekha Dodi"; Moses Cor-
dovero, the author of "Par-
des Rimmonim" (Garden of
Pomegranates): and Moses
Aksheikh, the commentator
of the Pentateuch, the
Prophets and other biblical
books.
Karo married five times
and had many children. The
author says Karo owed his
vigor to his strong physical
constitution and "to a rigor-
ous ascetic discipline: mor-
tification where it does not
degenerate into self-ema-
dating torture, frequently
leads to increased physical
health and resistance" to
sickness.
It is puzzling that Karo,
the author of "Beit Yosef"
and the "Shulkhan Arukh,"
the acknowledged represen-
tative of halakhic and reli-
gious Judaism, would be a
practicing kabbalist.
Similarly, it is mystifying
that Karo, the rabbi with a
sober and legal mind, would
spend a part of his life in a
fantastic and grotesque
world where he would com-
municate with a "voice" re-
ferred to as the Maggid.
What was that "voice"
that told Karo the following
• LABOR ZIONISM IS FIRMLY COMMITTED TO
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ENSURING SOCIAL JUSTICE FOR ALL ITS CITI-
ZENS.
* Through urban and agricultural cooperatives .
* Through an enlightened labor movement.
* Through an enlightened labor movement.
* Through the support of religious pluralism.
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MOVEMENT AND OUR FRIENDSHIP WITH
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WHERE DEPEND ON THE FORCE OF THIS
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COMMITMENT.
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DETERMINE THE CHARACTER AND DIRECTION
OF THE WORLD ZIONIST MOVEMENT. WE
MUST THEREFOR REASSERT THE VITALITY OF
THE LABOR ZIONIST IDEA FOR THE LEAD-
ERSHIP OF .THE WORLD ZIONIST ORGANIZA-
_ TION AND FOR THE SOCIETY OF ISRAEL.
* LABOR ZIONISM FIRED THE IMAGINATION OF
MANKIND.
* It rebuilt a desolate land.
* It instituted the advanced social forms of the Kib-
butz and the Moshay.
* It built and supports a great labor movement—the
Histadrut and its sister movement, Na'amat.
•IN THE DIASPORA.
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* We call for democracy in the conduct of Jewish
communal affairs.
* We fight for the protection of Jewish rights
everywhere.
* We continue our practical support for Jewish edu-
cation and culture.
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FULL SUPPORT TO THE DEMOCRATICALLY
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LARLY AS THAT GOVERNMENT SEEKS THE
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bizarre story?
"I have revealed to you
on the last Sabbath the se-
crets (of the incarnatiOns)
of your former wives and I
now come to reveal to you
the secret of this your third
wife. You must known that
in her past (transmigration)
this woman was a male, a
virtuous rabbinic schol-
ar...Since she is a male soul
she not really your
mate...because her soul is
essentially a male soul (and
so is yours) she could not
produce offspring for you. If
you object (and ask) how
then could she bear children
to her first husband, know
that his soul contained fe-
male sparks..."
Was the "voice" that al-
ternately admonished and
praised Karo an awe-in-
spiring angel or a dream-
figure?
Zwi Werblowsky, a follow-
er of Sigmund Freud's
depth psychology, offers
this interpretation:
Whatever else the Mag-
gid may be, he certainly
also represents Karo's con-
science or in the current
psychoanalytical jargon his
super-ego...characterized by
the ambivalence of the orig-
inal parent-child situation:
love and need of acceptance
(i.e. of safety and pro-
tection)...punishment and
reconciliation. In this re-
spect too the Maggid proved
himself a true parent-type
super-ego."
"Joseph Karo: Lawyer
and Mystic" is a profound
and incisive study of "Mag-
gid Mesharim" and its au-
thor.
R.J. Werblowsky is pro-
fessor of comparative reli-
gion at the Hebrew Univer-
sity, Jerusalem, and is the
translator from Hebrew to
English of Gershom Sho-
lem's "Sabbatai Sevi : The
Mystical Messiah."
-
UJA Cites Beate Klarsfeld
NEW YORK—A non-Jew-
ish, German-born Nazi-
hunter, called "a woman of
valor" by Golda Meir and
nominated for the Nobel
Peace Prize by a committee
of more than 100 Israeli
notables, has received the
highest accolade of the na-
tional United Jewish Appeal
Women's Division.
The Adele Rosenwald
Levy Award for "contribu-
tions to contemporary Jew-
ish life beyond the norm of
excellence - was presented
to Beate Klarsfeld last week
by UJA Women's Division
President Sylvia Hassen-
feld at the inaugural dinner
of the UJA National Confer-
ence in the New York Hilton
Hotel.
"'In a generaion in which
it is too easy to forget," said
Mrs. Hassenfeld, "Beate
Klarsfeld brings constancy,
determination, purpose-
fulness and love to her work
on behalf of the Jewish
people. She has taken re-
DEATE KLARSFELD
peated personal risks to
speak out for Jewish rights
in Eastern and Western Eu-
rops, North Africa and even
on the streets of Syria."
- In her response, Mrs.
Klarsfeld vowed that she
would "relentlessly contin-
ue" her personal 10-year
drive to unmask Nazi war
criminals now serving in
government and industry in
France, Germany and
around the world.
U.S. Supreme Court Blocks
NY Support for Day Schools
NEW YORK (JTA)—The
financially hard-pressed
Jewish day schools in New
York will not receive a
hoped-for reimbursement of
about $1 million from the
state as a result of a ruling
by the U.S. Supreme Court
Dec. 6.
The court: in a 6-3 deci-
sion, ruled that a 1972 New
York law that provided
about $11 million to reim-
burse parochial schools for
the cost of state-mandated
record-keeping and testing
services is unconstitutional.
The court said the law
was unconstitutional be-
cause "it will of necessity
either have the primary of
feet of aiding religion...or
will result in excessive state
involvement in religious af-
fairs."
Jews Are Elected
to S. Africa Posts
JOHANNESBURG
(JTA)—Four Jewish candi-
dates were elected to Par-
liament during the recent
elections in South Africa.
Three are members of the
official opposition Progres-
sive Federal Party and the
fourth is a member of the
South African Party.