Rabbi Shimon Lavi

Biography and Milestones: From the Expulsion from Spain to Settling in Tripoli

Rabbi Shimon ibn Lavi (the Rashal) is counted among the most fascinating and influential intellectual figures of North African Jewry in the 16th century.^{[1, 2]} He was born in Castile in Spain, apparently in the year 1480 (5240) or 1485 (5245), and is therefore considered the last of the kabbalists born on Spanish soil on the eve of the great expulsion.^[3] His early childhood years were marked by the national trauma of the expulsion from Spain in 1492, which forced his family to emigrate to the city of Fez in Morocco.^{[1, 3]} In Fez the Rashal underwent exceptional spiritual and intellectual growth; he acquired a comprehensive Torah education in both the revealed and the esoteric teaching, alongside broad training in the sciences, in astronomy (in which he was described as a "tokhni", an astronomer) and in medicine, a profession in which he was certified and which served him as a central tool in his later public activity.^{[3, 4, 5]}

Historical research and communal documentation present two different versions regarding the circumstances of the Rashal's arrival in Tripoli in Libya and the exact dating of this journey:

Despite the chronological difference between the sources, there is broad historical agreement regarding the decisive factor that led to his decision to end his journey in Tripoli and to give up his life's aspiration to go up to the Land of Israel.^{[4, 5]} In the middle of the 16th century the Jewish community in Tripoli was in a deep spiritual and cultural decline, the result of severe persecutions, decrees of forced conversion and frequent conquests by the Spaniards and the Knights of the Order of Malta, which brought about the application of the laws of the Inquisition in the region.^{[1, 3, 5]}

Communal historiography, as documented in the book of Rabbi Avraham Khalfon "Ma'aseh Tzaddikim", describes the Rashal as one who was horrified to discover the extent of the ignorance of the local Jews.^[5] In his first encounters he became aware that on Sabbath eves most members of the community prayed the Amidah in the weekday version, and that the community lacked any halakhic leadership or Torah scholars.^[5] Out of a deep sense of national responsibility, the Rashal decided to sacrifice his personal longing for the Land of Israel, saying: "It is better for me to stay here and teach them Torah and commandments than to go to the Land of Israel".^[5] He settled in the city, married there, and devoted the next 39 years of his life to the spiritual restoration of the community.^{[4, 5]}

The Spiritual Turning Point in Tripoli: Halakhic, Educational and Public Restoration

Rabbi Shimon Lavi is regarded as the spiritual reviver of Libyan Jewry and as the one who reshaped its religious and legal identity.^{[3, 5]} His activity encompassed all areas of communal life, while instilling the rich customs of Spain in the local community.^{[3, 5]}

First, the Rashal brought about a revolution in the system of education and teaching.^[4] He established batei midrash that trained new generations of rabbinic judges, Torah scholars, poets and liturgical poets, thereby creating the human infrastructure for the existence of a learned and independent community.^{[3, 4, 5]}

Second, he reorganised the legal system by establishing orderly rabbinic courts.^[5] These courts introduced social order and ruled according to the laws of the Torah in all monetary matters, including disputes between neighbours, challah, wills, gifts, commerce, sales of land and deeds, alongside close supervision of matters of the forbidden and the permitted, betrothals and divorces.^[5]

In order to bridge the gaps in the knowledge of the common people, the Rashal introduced practical liturgical enactments in the synagogues.^[5] The most prominent of them was the enactment to pray the evening prayer aloud, a unique custom intended to enable the unlearned who were not proficient in reading to fulfil their obligation of prayer by listening to the prayer leader.^[5]

Alongside his spiritual roles, the Rashal filled a lofty political and public role.^[5] His broad medical education enabled him to serve as the personal physician of Yahya Pasha, the governor of Tripoli on behalf of the Ottoman Empire.^{[2, 5]} This position earned the Rashal immense esteem from the government ministers and the Muslim leadership, and he used this influence to protect the rights of the local Jews and to prevent harm to the community.^{[4, 5]} Because of this life's work, the Rashal was compared in the eyes of his contemporaries and of later generations to "Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai in the generation of the destruction", as one who saved an entire community from spiritual and cultural annihilation.^[5]

His Kabbalistic Teaching and Scientific Thought: The Book "Ketem Paz"

The central intellectual work of Rabbi Shimon Lavi is the book "Ketem Paz", a wide-ranging and systematic commentary on the Book of the Zohar on Genesis, written between 1561 and 1571 in Tripoli.^{[3, 6]}

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│ The Rashal's intellectual teaching │

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│ Autonomy from Safed │ │ Canonisation │ │ Intellectual synthesis │

│Adopting the Kabbalah of Gerona │ │ Comparing the Zohar │ │ Integrating philosophy │

│and early Provence │ │ to Bible and Talmud │ │ and science in interpretation │

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A Renewed Canonisation of the Jewish Bookshelf

In "Ketem Paz" the Rashal presents a revolutionary pedagogical and hermeneutical conception concerning the hierarchy of study.^[3] He gave the Book of the Zohar, the Talmud and the Bible equal canonical status, and even went so far as to state in his work that knowledge of the esoteric teaching and of the Zohar should precede the study of the Talmud.^{[3, 6]} This conception was intended to provide the common people and the learned alike with a spiritual foothold based on the inner dimension of the Torah, as part of the process of restoring national identity after the physical and spiritual crisis of the expulsion.^[3]

Intellectual Independence and Philosophical-Scientific Integration

The historical uniqueness of "Ketem Paz" in the study of Kabbalah stems from the fact that it represents completely independent thought, written close to the expulsion from Spain without the influence of the kabbalistic schools of Safed (the school of the Ramak and the Ari), which over the years became the accepted interpretation of the Zohar.^{[3, 6]} The Rashal developed and preserved the early Kabbalah of Gerona and Provence, while boldly integrating rationalist philosophical terminology under the influence of Maimonides (Rambam) and his book the "Guide of the Perplexed".^{[3, 6]} He proposed a metaphorical interpretation of the parables found in the Zohar, and saw its study as a sophisticated tool for meditation on the Godhead.^[6]

Alongside this, his writings show the influence of his anonymous teacher from Fez, who apparently composed the "Explanation of the Foreign Words in the Book of the Zohar", a pioneering lexical work that the Rashal used and even developed.^{[3, 5]} The Rashal's method of writing was characterised by a mystical technique of "the moving of the pen", defined as intuitive writing driven by supreme spiritual inspiration.^[3]

A further dimension of the Rashal's mystical personality is reflected in his expertise in and belief in the doctrine of reincarnation and repair (tikkun).^[5] Living evidence of this is found in the historical record that tells of his encounter with a man of stature who at first refused to come to him out of pride.^[5] The Rashal took off his tefillin, went to him himself and urged him to reveal to him what his spiritual repair was, while looking at his face and identifying him as the reincarnation of "Daniel, the man greatly beloved".^[5]

The History of the Book and Its Printing

The name "Ketem Paz" was given to the work by the Chida, who identified the exact gematria connection between the title of the book and the name of the author, in addition to the word PZ being an acronym of "Perush Zohar" (Commentary on the Zohar).^{[3, 5]} This connection is represented in the following equation:

The gematria of "Ketem Paz" ≡ the gematria of "Shimon Lavi"

The work was preserved in manuscript for more than two hundred years in Tunis in the possession of Yeshua Tanji, and was first printed in Livorno in the year 1795 (5555) in two volumes at the press of Eliezer Saadon, on the initiative of the magnate Yeshua HaKohen Tanuji and edited by Rabbi Yitzchak Khalfon.^{[3, 5]} Today the book is considered an enduring asset in the world of Kabbalah; modern kabbalists make great use of it, and it is a central source in the commentary "Matok MiDvash" by Rabbi Daniel Frisch.^[3] Modern editions of the book have been edited by Rabbi Menachem Makover, Rabbi Tal Chaimovich and Rabbi Ronen Zer, with the help of the "Or Shalom" association of Jews of Libyan origin.^[7]

The Liturgical Poem "Bar Yochai": Sefirotic Architecture and Talmudic Connections

Rabbi Shimon Lavi is the author of the monumental liturgical poem "Bar Yochai" and also of its original melody.^{[1, 8, 9]} The poem has become one of the most sanctified and widespread liturgical texts in all the communities of Israel, and it is studied and sung every Sabbath, holiday and festival, and especially on Lag BaOmer at the grave of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai (the Rashbi) in Meron.^{[9, 10]}

The poem excels in a unique acrostic structure that commemorates the name of the author, "Shimon Lavi".^[9] From the second stanza onward, immediately after the opening of the line with the words "Bar Yochai", a letter of the Rashal's name appears according to the sequential order of his name.^[9]

Intellectually, the poem is built as a splendid synthesis that maps the historical and Talmudic life story of the Rashbi onto the theosophical structure of the ten kabbalistic sefirot, in ascending order from the lowest sefirah, Malkhut, to the highest sefirah, Keter ^{[9, 11, 12]}:

• Malkhut (the first stanza, "You were anointed, happy are you"): represents the reception of the supreme spiritual abundance defined as "the oil of joy".^{[11, 12]}
• Yesod (the second stanza, "Oil of holy anointing"): identifies the Rashbi with the attribute of the tzaddik who bestows holiness on the world.^{[11, 13]}

Hod (the third stanza, "You dwelt in a good dwelling"): concretely connects the episode of the flight and hiding in the cave for 12 years from the decrees of the Romans, during which he acquired his mystical glory and splendour.^{[9, 11, 14]}

Netzach (the fourth stanza, "Standing acacia trees"): describes the students of the Rashbi standing like "acacia trees" and studying the teaching of eternity and the blazing light of the hidden.^{[9, 11, 14]}

Tiferet (the fifth stanza, "And to the field of apples you ascended"): the Rashbi's ascent to the level of "chakal tapuchin kadishin" (the field of holy apples), where he became united with the balancing Tiferet, until it was said of him "'Let us make man' was said for your sake".^{[11, 14]}

Gevurah (the sixth stanza, "You were girded with might"): reflects the Rashbi's heroic and uncompromising struggle against the Roman authorities, his polemical silence and his going out to spiritual war ("a fiery law") against the enemies.^{[9, 11, 14]}

Chesed (the seventh stanza, "To the place of marble stones you came"): the Rashbi's arrival at the source of the pure white waters of Chesed, represented by stones of pure marble and the face of a lion.^{[11, 14]}

Binah (the eighth stanza, "In the Holy of Holies, a green line"): tying the bonds of abundance of the sefirah of Binah, represented by the gate of Nun ("the secret of fifty") and the great Jubilee.^{[11, 14]}

Chokhmah (the ninth stanza, "Yod, primordial wisdom"): gazing into the depths of the "first of the offering" of the 32 paths that characterise divine wisdom.^{[11, 14]}

Keter (the tenth stanza, "Wondrous light, exalted on high"): reaching the summit of Keter, the wondrous light and the Infinite hidden from the eye of every living being ("a mystery that none can name").^{[11, 14]}

The Liturgy and the Spread of "Bar Yochai" throughout the Jewish Diaspora

Rabbi Shimon Lavi's poem achieved an unprecedented standing in the Jewish liturgical bookshelf, as many communities incorporated it permanently into their orders of prayer and their customs, each in its own unique way ^[9]:

Musically, the poem has given rise to an enormous variety of musical traditions.^[9] The most widespread Oriental melody originates in the region of Greater Syria, and it is included in the order of the singing of the Bakashot of the communities of Aleppo and Jerusalem, based on maqam Saba (although the quarter tones were omitted in the popular Ashkenazi version).^[9]

In parallel, rich and complex Hasidic melodies developed, among them the melodies of Ropshitz-Dzikov Hasidism, the joyful melody of Karlin Hasidism, the melodies of Boyan and Vizhnitz Hasidism, and the monumental melody of Bobov Hasidism composed by Rabbi Ben Zion Halberstam of Kraków in 1920 (5680).^[9] In recent years a modern rhythmic melody from the workshop of the singer Moshe Levi has also become very widespread.^{[9, 10]}

Further Works and His Legacy for the Generations

Rabbi Shimon Lavi also left an indelible mark through further works intended to regulate the religious and customary life of the community.^[5]

He composed and arranged the "Order of Tikkunei Kallah for the Night of Shavuot" according to the custom of the Jews of Tripoli, which was first printed in Venice in 1680 (5440).^[5] The tikkun is built in a distinctly kabbalistic structure and divided into seven different orders, corresponding to the seven lower sefirot, from Chesed to Malkhut, with the aim of connecting the sanctity of the festival with the process of divine influx.^[5]

The Rashal's legacy has remained a foundational layer in the identity of Libyan Jewry throughout the generations ^[5]:

Spiritual and family continuity: his son, Rabbi Yosef Lavi, continued to serve as a rabbinic judge and leader in Tripoli until his death in 1626 (5386).^[5] His grandson, Rabbi Shimon Lavi, continued in his path and first printed in Venice, in the year 5408, the well-known festival prayer book "Siftei Renanot", which became the canonical prayer book of the Jews of Libya.^[5] Later descendants led the community, among them Rabbi Yehuda Lavi and the consul Shaul Lavi, who acted resolutely and brought about the successful end of a grave blood libel that took place in Libya.^[5]

Commemorating his name among the members of the community: as a token of appreciation and admiration for his life's work, most of the Jews of Tripoli used to name their sons "Lavi" in his memory, a tradition that has been preserved for generations.^[15]

Pilgrimage to his grave: his grave in Tripoli ("al-Dhahra") became a focus of pilgrimage for Jews and Muslims alike.^{[3, 5]} In times of drought, withheld rain or public decrees, the members of the community used to go up in their masses to recite Psalms and pray at his grave, and communal tradition tells of salvations and rains of blessing that fell immediately after the prayers there.^[5]

Rabbi Shimon Lavi represents in his personality the model of the leader who combines a broad scientific, philosophical and medical education with uncompromising halakhic and mystical depth.^{[5, 6]} His choice to give up his aspiration to go up to the Land of Israel in favour of rebuilding Libyan Jewry made him the spiritual father of the community and the one who shaped its character for generations.^{[4, 5]}