Foundations of Sephardic Spirituality: The Inner Life of Jews of the Ottoman Empire [Hardcover]

Marc D. Angel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 31, 2006

In this groundbreaking work, Rabbi Marc Angel explores the teachings, values, attitudes, and cultural patterns that characterized Judeo-Spanish life over the generations and how the Sephardim maintained a strong sense of pride and dignity, even when they lived in difficult political, economic, and social conditions. Along with presenting the historical framework and folklore of Jewish life in the Ottoman Empire, Rabbi Angel focuses on what you can learn from the Sephardic sages and from their folk wisdom that can help you live a stronger, deeper spiritual life.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Despite the esoteric title, this exploration of Judeo-Spanish communities is more than a scholarly treatise. Angel, rabbi of Shearith Israel, the Spanish-Portuguese synagogue in New York, grew up in Seattle with Turkish-born grandparents who spoke Ladino (a form of medieval Spanish). He documents the historical foundations, cultural values and religious underpinnings of his own Sephardic roots. In the early 20th century, the Ottoman Empire was home to more than 400,000 Jews, making it the fifth-largest Jewish community in the world. Because these Sephardim felt little need to integrate into the larger culture, they maintained a language that dated back to the expulsion from Spain in 1492. They suffered abject poverty, discrimination, humiliation and political weakness. However, because of both internal attitudes and external factors, their self-perception was bolstered with faith in God, a belief in their own rich heritage and in their place in the world to come. Angel sprinkles his readable narratives with scholarly citations as well as superstitions, rituals, Ladino folklore, songs and sayings. This valuable historic journey demonstrates the "triumph of the human spirit," resolute in its optimism and dignity. (Apr.)
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From Booklist

Rabbi Angel's grandparents were Sephardic Jews who were born in Turkey and the Island of Rhodes, their generation shaped by the vagaries of history of Jews living in the Ottoman Empire. Although on the lower rungs of the economic, educational, and cultural ladders, the Sephardim saw themselves in a distinctly positive light, maintaining a rich inner life with an infinite faith in God. Angel chronicles their Iberian roots and their religious foundations; the Bible and the Talmud were the primary texts of their religious worldview. He explains their spiritual approach to Midrashic/Kabbalistic Judaism, the religious and social structure of their lives, and their Ladino folklore. He concludes that the Sephardic experience in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Ottoman Empire demonstrates the triumph of the human spirit in the face of ubiquitous discrimination, poverty, and political weakness. George Cohen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 202 pages
• Publisher: Jewish Lights Publishing (March 31, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580232434
• ISBN-13: 978-1580232432
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,112,036 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A marvelous and indepth history, December 8, 2009

By 

Israel Drazin (Boca Raton, Florida) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Foundations of Sephardic Spirituality: The Inner Life of Jews of the Ottoman Empire (Paperback)

The December 5, 2009 New York Times reported that many citizens of Turkey fervently want their country to return to be a Muslim land, as it was when it was part of the Ottoman Empire. "The Ottoman Empire conquered two-thirds of the world but did not force anyone to change their language or religion at a time when minorities elsewhere were being oppressed." However, the Times also reports that these "proponents are glossing over the empire's decline and (are) glorifying an anachronistic system that...was mired in corruption and infighting in its latter years."

Jews were a small part of the Ottoman Empire during its ascendancy and its decline. What was their life like, socially, culturally, politically and religiously? How were they treated by the empire? Did they suffer a devastating decline like the empire? What caused the Jewish decline?

Rabbi Marc Angel answers these questions and more in this well-written and very informative history of Jewish life in the Ottoman Empire. The book was a National Jewish Book Award Finalist, and should have been the winner.

The Ottoman Empire, grounded on Muslim law, was founded in 1299 and ended in 1922. Modern Turkey, a secular state, is its successor. Jews, as reported, were granted freedom by the Ottoman Empire to observe their religion and customs, but their social life was restricted in many ways. Their life under the Muslims was usually more tolerable than under the Christians who all too often expressed their contempt for their mother religion with brutal murderous anti-Semitism. The Muslims mistreated people of other faiths, but Jews and Christians were considered to be "People of Scriptures" and were tolerated. Toleration is an interesting and telling word because no husband would dare turn to his wife and say, "My dear, I tolerate you."

The Ottoman political fabric and the life of its people started to decay and fray in the later parts of the sixteenth century, the same time that Jewish life in the empire began its decline. What caused the Jewish disintegration? Are these destructive cancers present in today's Jewish society, eating away at its glory?

Rabbi Angel is very careful, considerate and sympathetic in describing the decline. There were many factors: economic, sociological, political. A basic internal problem was the rise of a kabbalistic/midrashic type of Judaism, the belief that life is controlled by outside amorphous generally evil forces, and a misguided usage of midrash, thinking that the ancient parables that the rabbis taught were true history.

The majority of Jews accepted the notions of kabbala after the horrendous expulsion from Spain in 1492, when many Jews escaped to the welcoming arms of the Ottoman Empire. Confused over the reason for the expulsion - was it the hand of God or some other force? - many Jews accepted the mystical notions in kabbala and convinced themselves that humans lacked the ability to combat the semi-divine beings that were causing the evil they experienced. They slipped into a life of passivity, of anti-intellectualism, of seclusion from secular studies, and a mystical reliance on an outside non-human force to save them.

Rather than think for themselves, they became convinced that they must rely on the teachings of sometimes mediocre rabbis who lacked a secular education even when the rabbis issued instructions that were as blatantly wrong and absurd as declaring that black is white, a Jewish version of papal infallibility.

Many Jews stumbled and sank in the muddy life draining waters of superstition, into a fundamentalist spiritual worldview of focusing their lives in otherworldliness, passivity, piety, repentance, and a disdain for secular study and worldly business.

This deterioration led millions of Jews, including many rabbis, in the mid-seventeenth century, to believe that Sabbatai Sevi was their longed-for savior. They were so misguided, so ignorant of reality, that even when this false messiah converted to Islam to save his life, some still continued to be convinced that he was the longed-for Jewish messiah. Some retained this remarkable whim even after he died.


This tragic history is by no means unique to the Jews of the Ottoman Empire. The tragic and life draining impacts of the misunderstanding and misuse of kabbala and midrash struck every other Jewish community. This problem continues to be evident in our own time in many Orthodox circles.

Rabbi Angel spends most of the book describing the five century history of this people, focusing on their inner lives, their beliefs, customs, feelings of self-worth. He tells of renowned scholars in this community who had Jewish and general wisdom. He draws on the folk wisdom of the Jewish masses, especially as manifested in the rich Judeo-Spanish tradition.

Angel describes the confrontation of Ottoman Jews with the challenges of modernity and Western influences. By the latter half of the 19th century, this impressive segment of the Jewish people underwent a process of finding a balance between the claims of tradition and the demands of the modern world.

Jewish life that flourished in the Ottoman Empire no longer exists. The once significant people are now dispersed, primarily in America and in Israel, almost indistinguishable from other Americans and Israelis. Has their culture died?

Rabbi Angel shows that it has not. For these people produced many important books with meaningful lessons that he describes, books read today in Jewish houses of study, synagogues and homes, inspirational books, books with significant content, books that will influence the thinking of many people for generations to come. The Judeo-Spanish culture--intellectual and folk--still has much to teach the Jewish people.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ottoman Days, June 4, 2006

By 

Allegra (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Foundations of Sephardic Spirituality: The Inner Life of Jews of the Ottoman Empire (Hardcover)

I would call this a unique 201 page mini encyclopedia of the Sephardic Jews' life before, during and after their stay in the Ottoman Empire where they found refuge after their 1492 expulsion from Spain. We learn how and why their culture evolved, became embedded as an integral part of their character which distinguished them from non-Sephardic Jews. Along with religious life their secular life is described.Sayings, stories, myths songs are presented in a way that gives readers understanding of family, personal ways of life. No long drawn out chapters or heavy prose burden the reader who no matter personal inclinations as a Jew or non-Jew will find this a pefect guide to what makes a Sephardic Jew what he is. Easy to read.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting and inspiring work, May 29, 2006

By 

Ehav Eliyahu Ever (Jerusalem, Israel) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Foundations of Sephardic Spirituality: The Inner Life of Jews of the Ottoman Empire (Hardcover)

I began reading this book thinking that I was going to read only a few chapters. Yet, I found that I could not put the book down. Rabbi Angel does a wonderful job at describing the environment of Turkish, Spanish, and Roman Jewish interaction and the effects on their spiritual life. This work goes into many of the cultural nuances that place because of internal and external situations such as the inquisition in Spain and Portugal, the Sabbatai Svi movement, and the decline of the Ottoman Empire.

I really enjoyed how the book explained both the good and bad that resulted from the increase in Qabbalistic thought. He also covers the traditions, poetry, and music that came out of the Ladino culture. All and all, this is one of the best and most straight forward books that deals with the need for Sephardim to preserve the culture.

I think this book should required reading in all Yeshivot and Jewish schools.