Acharonim1659–1729Izmir
Rabbi Eliyahu HaKohen HaItamari (the Shevet Musar)
Ethics, preaching and Kabbalah
- Shevet Musar
- Midrash Talpiyot
- Yalkut HaItamari
- Izmir
- Asceticism
- Charity
- Guardians of the poor
- Aggadat Eliyahu
- Ethical literature
Ethics, preaching and Kabbalah
Ethics is not only a matter for the individual: in his sermons he preached asceticism and distance from the pleasures of this world, and saw poverty and social inequality as a religious and moral problem that the whole community must put right. He regarded the wealthy of the community as “guardians” of the poor’s funds and called on them to give their money to charity.
A judge, preacher and kabbalist, one of the sages of Izmir, who lived in the city all his life. His ethical book Shevet Musar first appeared in Constantinople in the Hebrew year 5472, has been printed in dozens of editions since and was translated into Yiddish, Ladino and Judeo-Arabic. He wrote dozens of books, mostly on ethics, midrash and biblical commentary, among them Midrash Talpiyot.
The writings of Eliyahu HaKohen of Smyrna can be read on Sefaria, a free library of Jewish texts. A title opens the text itself.
Content from Sefaria (sefaria.org) and Wikimedia projects, non-profit projects.
The archive doesn’t yet record Rabbi Eliyahu HaKohen HaItamari’s teachers, so the road to Sinai can’t be drawn yet.