Shlomo (Solomon) Halevi Alkabetz (also transliterated as
Alqabitz or
Alqabes; Hebrew:
שלמה אלקבץ) (c.1500,
ThessalonikiThessaloniki , Thessalonica, or Salonica is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the Greek region of Macedonia. It is honorarily called the Συμπρωτεύουσα Symprotevousa of Greece, as it was once called the συμβασιλεύουσα symvasilevousa of the Byzantine Empire...
–1580,
SafedSafed is a city in the Northern District of Israel. At an elevation of 800 meters above sea level, Safed is the highest city in the Galilee. Since the sixteenth century, Safad has been considered one of Judaism's Four Holy Cities, along with Jerusalem, Hebron and Tiberias...
) was a kabbalist and
poetA poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
perhaps best known for his composition of the song
Lecha Dodi; sources differ as to when he wrote it (1529, 1540 and 1571 have all been suggested).
He studied
TorahThe term "Torah" , refers either to the Five Books of Moses or to the entirety of Judaism's founding legal and ethical religious texts...
under Rabbi Yosef Taitatzak. In 5289 (1529 CE) he married the daughter of one Yitzchak Cohen, a wealthy householder living in Salonica.
Shlomo (Solomon) Halevi Alkabetz (also transliterated as
Alqabitz or
Alqabes; Hebrew:
שלמה אלקבץ) (c.1500,
ThessalonikiThessaloniki , Thessalonica, or Salonica is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the Greek region of Macedonia. It is honorarily called the Συμπρωτεύουσα Symprotevousa of Greece, as it was once called the συμβασιλεύουσα symvasilevousa of the Byzantine Empire...
–1580,
SafedSafed is a city in the Northern District of Israel. At an elevation of 800 meters above sea level, Safed is the highest city in the Galilee. Since the sixteenth century, Safad has been considered one of Judaism's Four Holy Cities, along with Jerusalem, Hebron and Tiberias...
) was a kabbalist and
poetA poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
perhaps best known for his composition of the song
Lecha Dodi; sources differ as to when he wrote it (1529, 1540 and 1571 have all been suggested).
Biography
He studied
TorahThe term "Torah" , refers either to the Five Books of Moses or to the entirety of Judaism's founding legal and ethical religious texts...
under Rabbi Yosef Taitatzak. In 5289 (1529 CE) he married the daughter of one Yitzchak Cohen, a wealthy householder living in Salonica. Instead of giving his wife a more traditional wedding gift, he gave her his newly completed work
Manot HaLevi. He settled in Adrianople,
TurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey
, is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in Western Asia and Thrace in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe...
where he wrote
Beit Hashem,
Avotot Ahava,
Ayelet Ahavim and
Brit HaLevi. This latter work he dedicated to his admirers in Adrianople. His students included Rabbi Shmuel Ozida, author of
Midrash Shmuel on
AvotAvot may refer to:* Pirkei Avot, a tractate of the Mishna composed of ethical maxims of the Rabbis of the Mishnaic period* The Patriarchs : Abraham, Isaac and Jacob* Avot, Côte-d'Or, a commune in France...
, and Rabbi Avraham Galante, author of
Yareach Yakar on
ZoharThe Zohar is widely considered the most important work of Kabbalah, or . It is a mystical commentary on the Torah , written in medieval Aramaic...
. His circle included Moshe Alsheich and
Yosef KaroJoseph ben Ephraim Caro, also spelled Karo, or Qaro, was author of the last great codification of Jewish law, the Shulchan Aruch, which is still authoritative for all Jews pertaining to their respective communities...
, as well as his famous brother-in-law Moshe Cordovero (Ramak).
Maggid and the Move to Safed
Following the practice described in the Zohar, the circle stayed up on
Shavuotis a Jewish holiday that occurs on the sixth day of the Hebrew month of Sivan . Shavuot commemorates the anniversary of the day God gave the Torah to Moses and the Israelites at Mount Sinai. It is one of the shalosh regalim, the three Biblical pilgrimage festivals...
night. During the recitation of the required texts the
ShekhinahShekhinah is the English spelling of a grammatically feminine Hebrew language word that means the dwelling or settling, and is used to denote the dwelling or settling presence of God Shekhinah (alternative transliterations Shekinah, Shechinah, Shekina, Shechina, Schechinah, שכינה) is the English...
appeared as a
maggidMaggid , sometimes spelled as magid, is a traditional Eastern European Jewish religious itinerant preacher, skilled as a narrator of Torah and religious stories. A preacher of the more scholarly sort was called a "darshan", and usually occupied the official position of rabbi...
to Rabbi Karo praising the circle and telling them to move to the Land of Israel. When they stayed up again the second night of Shavuot, the Shechinah was adamant about their moving to the land of Israel. The account was recorded by Alkabetz:
Rabbi Shlomo settled in
SafedSafed is a city in the Northern District of Israel. At an elevation of 800 meters above sea level, Safed is the highest city in the Galilee. Since the sixteenth century, Safad has been considered one of Judaism's Four Holy Cities, along with Jerusalem, Hebron and Tiberias...
around 5295 (1535 CE). When in Safed, he followed his brother-in-law Rabbi
Moses CordoveroMoses Cordovero was a physician who lived at Leghorn , Tuscany in the seventeenth century. David Conforte praises him as a good physician, and also on account of his scholarship and philanthropy. He was always eager to secure the release of prisoners through his personal influence as well as by...
as a student and by engaging in the practice of gerushin ("banishment") around Safed.
Thought
His works written in Adrianople center on the holiness of the people Israel, the Land of
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
, and the specialness of the mitzvot. Alkabetz accepts the tradition that
EstherEsther , born Hadassah, was a Jewish prophet and queen of the Persian Empire in the Hebrew Bible, the queen of Ahasuerus , and heroine of the Biblical Book of Esther which is named after her...
was married to Mordechai before being taken to the king's palace and becoming queen, and even continued her relationship with Mordechai after taking up her royal post. The view of
midrashMidrash is a homiletic method of biblical exegesis. The term also refers to the whole compilation of homiletic teachings on the Bible....
articulated by Alkabetz and other members of the school of Joseph Taitatsak represents an extension of the view of the authority of the oral law and halachic midrash to aggadic midrash and thus leads to the sanctification and near canonization of aggadic expansions of biblical narrative (Walfish 2002).
Quotes
Works
Among his printed works:
- Lecha Dodi (1579), a mystical hymn to inaugurate the Shabbat
Shabbat is the seventh day of the Jewish week and a day of rest in Judaism. Shabbat is observed from sundown Friday until the appearance of three stars in the sky on Saturday night...
- Manot HaLevi (completed 1529, published 1585) on the Book of Esther
The Book of Esther is one of the books of the Ketuvim of the Tanakh and of the Historical Books of the Old Testament. The Book of Esther or the Megillah is the basis for the Jewish celebration of Purim...
- Ayalet Ahavim (completed 1532, published 1552) on Song of Songs
Song of Songs is a book of the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament. It may also refer to:In music:*Song of songs , the debut album by David and the Giants*The Song of Songs , a play directed by Eimuntas Nekrošius in 2005...
- Shoresh Yishai (completed 1552, published 1561) on the Book of Ruth
The Book of Ruth is one of the books of the Ketuvim of the Tanakh and of the Historical Books of the Old Testament...
- Brit HaLevi (1563), a kabbalistic commentary on the Passover Haggada
- Or Tzadikim, a book of sermons
Among those existing in manuscript are:
- Divrei Shlomo, on the section of Scripture known as Writings
Ketuvim is the third and final section of the Tanakh , after Torah and Nevi'im . In English translations of the Hebrew Bible, this section is usually entitled "Writings" or "Hagiographa." The Ketuvim are believed to have been written under the Ruach HaKodesh, a level less than that of prophecy.In...
- Naim Zemirot, on Psalms
Psalms is a book of the Hebrew Bible , included in the collected works known as the "Writings" or Ketuvim.-Etymology:...
- Sukkat Shalom, Avotot Ahavah, on the Torah
The term "Torah" , refers either to the Five Books of Moses or to the entirety of Judaism's founding legal and ethical religious texts...
- Pitzei Ohev, on the Book of Job
The Book of Job is one of the books of the Hebrew Bible. It relates the story of Job, his trials at the hands of Satan, his theological discussions with friends on the origins and nature of his suffering, and finally a response from God...
- Apiryon Shlomo, Beit Hashem, Beit Tefilla, interpretations of the prayers
- Lechem Shlomo, on the guidelines for the sanctification of meals, according to kabbalah
Kabbalah is a discipline and school of thought concerned with the mystical aspect of Judaism. It is a set of esoteric teachings that is meant to explain the relationship between an infinite, eternal and essentially unknowable Creator with the finite and mortal universe of His creation...
- Mittato shel Shlomo, on the mystical significance of sexual union
- Shomer Emunim, on the fundamental principles of faith