The Scribe part 7

I have described in an earlier series my unbounded admiration for Rabbi Issac Luria (1534-1572), generally known as the ARI (Holy Lion). He was a great Kabbalist, as well as an accomplished scholar in other areas. He would go into the deeper spiritual meanings of texts, as well as practices; sometimes ruling that one tradition's way in a particular mitzvah was the correct one, sometimes ruling that both were equally acceptable, and sometimes ruling that neither was correct, and recommending a different way. He was completely anonymous for the first thirty seven years of his life, only becoming widely recognized in his last year and a half.The writings of his students, especially his closest disciple, Rabbi Hayyim Vital, take up an entire shelf in my library. In many circles, he is seen almost as a prophet. Middle East Sepharadim accepted his teachings and practices completely, which accounts for many of the differences between those communities and the Spanish-Portuguese tradition. He greatly impacted Hasidic thought and practice, and is at least taken into consideration in most non-Hasidic Ashkenazi circles as well.
In the Scribal area, he made a daring pronouncement. ALL traditions were valid. Each contains great mysteries. The arguments of who was first, and which tradition had the better pedigree, he saw as irrelevant. However, he recommended certain shapes in the case of seven letters, specifically in Tefillin. For Sepharadim, this was not big news. All seven letters had several variations, and he was merely favoring one particular variation that was already well known and accepted. Therefore, when a Sepharadi says that he is writing Ktav ARI (ARI script), he is writing in a standard Sepharadic script, being careful in Tefillin only, to favor a particular shape of these letters.. The untrained eye would see no difference from standard Sepharadic script at all.
Although Rabbi Hayyim Vital carefully recorded his master's teachings, he was very reticent about distributing these to the public. Eventually, the writings did get out, and spread throughout the Middle East. Another scholar, Rabbi Israel Sarug, brought the ARI's teachings to Europe. But it is not known how, or if, he was actually a student of the ARI. His basic premises are identical to those taught by Rabbi Hayyim Vital. But his application to these premises are far more philosophical and psychological. He is often seen in this regard as a forerunner of Hasidism. When it comes to practice, however, he differed from Rabbi Vital in many ways. This is why we will often see a Hasid and a Sepharadi doing two different things, and ascribing both to "the custom of the ARI". Rabbi Vital's works only came to Europe a century and a half later, when Kabbalistic customs of the ARI, in accordance with the teachings of Rabbi Sarug were already well established. In his writings, Rabbi Sarug brings an almost identical list of the ARI's variations (with a few exceptions). European Kabbalists began writing Ashkenazi (Beit Yosef) writing, with the inclusion of these forms that had been unknown previously in the Ashkenazi world. Moreover, whereas ARI had stressed these shapes specifically for Tefillin, the Ashkenazi Kabbalists adopted them for all purposes.Many rabbis accepted these new forms, others objected that they violated the ancient Ashkenazi Mesorah. When Hasidism entered the stage of history in the mid eighteenth century, it used this script; Beit Yosef with seven (some say eight) letters written in accordance with the teachings of the ARI. This is known as Ktav ARI, and is used by nearly all Hasidim, albeit with minor variations from community to community. When Hasidism was opposed by certain rabbis, much of the criticism was leveled against the script. Nevertheless, most rabbis consider it valid.So, when someone talks about Ktav ARI, if he is a Sepharadi, he means an almost imperceptible variation in the classical Sepharadic script. When an Ashkenazi says Ktav ARI, he means an Ashkenazi script, with seven or eight fairly drastic changes, that are easily spotted by someone with even a layman's knowledge. The impetus to follow the ARI is out of a desire for depth beyond the ordinary. It is important to note that the ARI actually made no new script.
The Chabad Chassidim have their own script, instituted by their founder, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi. It is a very intricate script, with letters formed in such a way as to be a compromise between the Beit Yosef and ARI scripts.It had been lost for about a century and a half, but was reintroduced when several manuscripts were discovered in the 1960's.
All this might seem like nit-picking. But these are the letters, the energies, used by G-d in creating Heaven and Earth.In this, as in all things, we want to "tune in" to the mysteries of creation; and of life.

The Scribe part 6

Besides the Sephardic and Ashkenazic scripts, several others are used.I have mentioned on several occasions the customs of the Yemenites. The Jews of Yemen  are the oldest continuous group in Jewish history. They were in one geographic area since the fifth century BCE, until recently (most came to Israel shortly after its founding, the last members of the community leaving  recently). They have preserved the most ancient Jewish practices. A bit of a mystery is the fact that they have preserved two separate scripts. One is virtually identical to the Sepharadic, except that there are no crowns on the letters. Both Ashkenazic and Sepharadic scripts place little crowns on certain letters. Although there is apparent reference to this practice in the Talmud, the Yemenite rabbis considered this to be  a misinterpretation, as well as being rather vague in its proper application. Therefore, they wrote in an essentially Sephardic script (and they are NOT Sepharadim, but a much older tradition, by about 1,000 years!) but without the familiar crowns. However, there is a second script current among them. It is far less ornate. At first glance, it hardly looks like Hebrew. But, in fact, it is consistent and uniform, not haphazard. Many consider it a distortion of the traditional script, that sprang up in outlying areas, away from the centers of learning. (It should be pointed out that Yemen had an amazing tradition of learning. Books were scarce, and even middle-level scholars knew Tanach, Talmud, and the writings of RAMBAM   by heart). Others maintain that on the contrary, it represents a far more ancient form of the Hebrew letters, with the Sepharadic-like script coming in from the outside only later. I do not know which is the truth, but both have been used for many centuries. I once had the distinct honor and pleasure of visiting the late scholar, Mori (Yemenites use that title instead of "rabbi") Yosef Kappah at his home in Jerusalem. He showed me a Torah scroll that had been written by his grand father, an immense scholar, and leader of a large segment of Jews in Yemen. It was in the "cruder" script. If it had been a later distortion, it seems unlikely to me that he would have used it. A final conclusion awaits further research.
Meanwhile, back in the Land of Israel in the sixteenth century, the great teacher of Kabbalah, the ARI, was about to change a great deal. Ironically, he declared all scripts to be valid, and all with deep spiritual meaning. However, despite the fact that he created no new script, he was about to become the father of two new variations of the sacred alphabet, both known today as "ARI Script". Stay tuned.

Whom Are You Fooling?

When I lived in Israel, one Shabbat I was standing on the steps of the synagogue after morning services, with two friends/students. I told them a teaching of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov: "A person must either fool the whole world, or fool himself. If he lives by everyone else's values, he will be seen as a valuable member of the community, receiving  respect and honor. But he will be fooling himself. His life will be devoid of meaning and purpose. If, however, he lives his dreams, concentrates on the eternal values, lives a life of love, giving and holiness, unconcerned with other people's concepts of success, he will be really living. But others will see him as a madman. He will be fooling the world". A neighbor overheard me. "What?!?! How can you say that? You're saying that the world is "hefker" (owner-less). The world is NOT HEFKER!". I was shocked and puzzled by his words. Had I said that the world was hefker? Then I realized what he was saying.. He was a man of about forty. He had studied at a fine New York Yeshiva.His life since then was a struggle to "be somebody". He built a huge home. He wore the finest suits. He could drop the names of prominent rabbis. When he led services, he would "ham it up" with the latest popular melodies. Everything about him said "Please! See me as someone!". And many did! But was he happy? He told me many times that he was not. But the above quote of Rabbi Nachman was too threatening. If it's not about "being someone" what is it about? Isn't this what I was taught? Should I be struggling for an  unknown inner world, striving for something as elusive as "Happiness"? He had succeeded in fooling himself. I strive to fool the world. How about you?

The Scribe part 5

We have seen how the Ashkenazi script became very pervasive through the careful documentation of the Beit Yosef. The descendants of German Jewry, as they moved Eastward into Poland, Russia, and other East European countries, took this scrip with them. Another script, however, was in use in Turkey, Persia, Iraq,Syria, all of North Africa, Spain, Portugal and all of Southern Europe. We call it the "Sepharadic script", but this is a misnomer. It did not come out of Spain and spread to these other countries. By the time the Jews settled in Spain, it was already the predominant script throughout the Mediterranean basin, as well as points East. From all the old manuscripts we can find, it seems to be the script used in both Babylonian and Eretz Israel in Talmudic times. However, unlike in Germany, where the rabbis painstakingly analysed and reanalysed the shapes and proportion of each letter, the rabbis in the Mediterranean communities seemed to take what had been received as a given. Moreover, local variations of letters sprang up; many of which would be unrecognizable to us. The Sepharadic rabbis were tolerant of all of these. Even today, a scribe examining an old scroll or tefillin, might find an unusual letter. If he takes it to an Ashkenazi rabbi, and the rabbi sees that the letter doesn't conform to accepted rules, he will declare it invalid. A Sepharadic rabbi is more likely to say "It's OK. That is how they wrote that letter in Baghdad, or Aleppo, or Tunis". Today, it has become fairly standardized, leaving behind what we may consider ancient oddities. However, there is still a toleration of variations, which is largely lacking in Ashkenazi circles. The Ashkenazi rabbis would counter that we have a detailed Mesorah (tradition) from the Middle Ages that must not be tampered with. Sepharadim question the binding nature of that Mesorah, especially since we find older manuscripts, even written by great rabbis, who seemed to either be ignorant of such a Mesorah, or at least not to be overly concerned with it. This may account for the fact that when Rabbi Yosef Karo wrote his Beit Yosef, he accepted the Ashkenazi script as correct and binding, while in his Shulchan Aruch he seems not to be concerned with the "niceties" of any particular script. Most present day Ashkenazi authorities accept Sepharadic script as valid, if not ideal. Some do consider it invalid, as several letters differ sharply from the Ashkenazi Mesorah (especially tzadi, nun, lamed and shin). Sepharadim rely on the antiquity of their forms of the letters, but do not question the validity of the Ashkenazi approach. Some Ashkenazi rabbis have questioned if Sepharadic script is old, or merely a copying of the print form of the letters. (Sepharadic script is much more like the fonts used in printed Hebrew). However, printed Hebrew began in Italy, where the Jews used a form of the Sepharadic script. The fonts used in print were actually facsimiles of Sepharadic Hebrew script, not the other way around! I find this fascinating, as it reflects the differences of thought in the two communities on nearly every issue. But again, we have today, thank G-d, reached a point of mutual tolerance and respect; at least when it comes to the Hebrew letters..
These two scripts, however, are not the only ones. Where did the others come from? That will be my next installment.

The Scribe part 4

The scribe is about to write. He has purchased fine parchment. It may be pre-ruled, or he may prefer to rule it himself. Each letter will "hang" from lines scratched into the parchment, except for the letter "lamed", the top of which goes over the lines. The body of the letters take up half the space between lines, with half needed for the heads of "lameds" to go up, and the feet of long letters (qof, final nun, tzade, peh, chof) to go down, without touching the other letters. In Ashkenazi script, most of the letters are "square"; they are as wide as they are tall. In Sepharadic script, the height of the letters is slightly more than their width. He must not only cut his pen in order to produce the right size letters, but there will often be a need to re-cut it as it wears down through writing. The re-cut must be exactly the same size, or the letters will be uneven, marring the beauty of the sacred text. He makes his declaration of intent, and begins writing. But which script? On what basis does he chose? This may be a question of tradition, but there are also ideological considerations.Let's take a look at some of these.
Beit Yosef (Classic Ashkenazi)
Rabbi Yosef Karo, the great 16th century author of the Shulchan Aruch (Code of Jewish Law), wrote an even greater work known as "Beit Yosef" (the House of Joseph) which is an amazing encyclopedia of rabbinic opinion spanning nearly a thousand years. He is often called "the Beit Yosef" after this magnum opus. In one section, he goes into great detail about the correct shapes and proportions of the letters of the sacred alphabet. He uses as a basis the works of several great Ashkenazi rabbis of the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries. These were based partially on interpretations of statements in the Talmud, partially on Tradition, and partially on the Kabbalistic understanding of the German rabbis, who interpreted what combinations of letters go into other letters. For instance, a "shin" was seen as needing to be comprised of a zayin, a yod, and a vav. The "energies" of these letters make the energy of a shin. Although he was Sepharadic, and often seen as the ultimate Sepharadic authority, he nevertheless based his understanding of the proper forms of the letters solidly on Ashkenazic tradition. The classical Ashkenazi script has ironically been known ever since as "Beit Yosef". Many consider this to be the ONLY kosher script, as it is the only one so well documented. This was the view of such prominent rabbis as Chazon Ish, and Chafetz Chaim. However, when Rabbi Karo wrote his Shulchan Aruch, he essentially ignored his own analysis in Beit Yosef, and wrote "in the first instance one should write in accordance with the Tradition, but this is not essential". Ashkenazi rabbis consider this a "mystery". Sepharadic rabbis see it as a reversal of his stand in the intervening twenty years between the writing of the two works, and giving "equal rights" to different traditions.In recent years, I have come to the conclusion that the Ashkenazi script is NOT the gold standard. The origin of Ashkenazim was in Italy, from which they ventured into Franco Germany in the time of Charlemagne. Italian script is virtually identical to the Sepharadic script. It is my contention that the medieval Ashkenazic rabbis  introduced fundamental changes into the classical script, based on their interpretations of sources. From a historical perspective, I believe it impossible to declare the Beit Yosef script to be the only, or even the most, traditional. What are the other traditions? Where did they come from? Why do some prefer them? That will be may next installment.