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

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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.

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.

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.

Foundations Of Sephardic Spirituality: The Inner Life Of Jews Of The Ottoman Empire provides an essential history to any who would understand the roots of Jewish spirituality. Rabbi Marc Angel's exploration is scholarly, providing a fine survey of the Judeo-Spanish people of the Ottoman Empire and the influences that led them to stay united under duress. Angel's background as a primary interpreter of Sephardic history provides a thorough survey of culture, history and religious foundations, drawing many essential connections between Kabbalah teachings and radical new ideas which were to change how the Jewish community interacted. From issues such as Muslim rights and changing political status to turning points leading to the decline of Ottoman Jewry, Foundations Of Sephardic Spirituality is an essential study for any who would understand the history of Sephardic belief and evolution.

When I joined a Spanish/Portuguese synagogue a few years ago, I noticed that a decent number of the congregants had roots in Turkey. I thought that this was just because the synagogue in question was the only Sephardic synagogue in town. But this book explains otherwise; in fact, most Turkish and Balkan Jews not only had roots in Spain, but kept speaking Ladino (Judeo-Spanish, which bears the same relationship to mainstream Spanish as Yiddish has to mainstream German) for several hundred years after leaving Spain in 1492.

This book is really two separate books: a critical examination of Sephardic Jewry and a loving description of its folklore and customs. The second half has been amply discussed in other reviews, and so I won't say more about it.

A bit more about the first half: in 1492, Spain was a major center of Jewish learning, and the Ottoman Empire was strong and confident. And over the next century or so, leading Jewish thinkers such as Joseph Caro and Isaac Luria lived within that Empire. But at the dawn of the 20th century, the Jewish population was mostly poor and working-class, the Ottoman Empire and the Balkans were exporting Jews to America, and the major centers of Jewish learning were in Eastern and Central Europe. In the first half of this readable little book, Rabbi Angel tries to answer the question: what changed?

1. Because of currency devaluations and European competition, the Ottoman Empire declined economically. Because Jews were especially involved in international trade, they suffered disproportionately from the Empire's economic problems. And as the Jews grew poorer, they could afford less education - fewer schools, fewer books, etc.

2. In the mid-17th century, the Ottoman Empire's Jews were led astray by a false messiah, Sabbatai Zevi. The Empire was troubled by the messianic movement, and told Zevi to convert to Islam or be beheaded. Zevi chose the former. Once the Zevi movement collapsed, Angell theorizes that "something snapped within the spiritual life of Ottoman Jewry." While western European Jews turned against mysticism, Turkish Jews responded by turning away from rationalism towards a mix of otherworldly mysticism, literal interpretation of strange rabbinic parables, and flat-out superstition. Some rabbis discouraged wealth accumulation, and taught Jews to accept poverty and focus on the afterlife rather than on this life.

If Angel's description of the dominant Jewish trends is correct, it is not surprising that Turkish Judaism declined; the combination of the Ottoman Empire's overall decline and an anti-rational, anti-wealth Jewish culture could not possibly have been good for Jews' economic strength or for their intellectual growth - as a Jewish saying does, "No Bread, No Torah". (Having said that, I wonder whether Angel's emphasis is distorted by his own struggles; he leans towards modern Orthodoxy, which tends to be more rationalistic and worldly than some elements of haredi Orthodoxy).

To make matters worse, as the Ottoman Empire declined, countries such as Greece and Bulgaria were formed out of its ruins. These countries were dominated by Christians who were much more hostile to Jews than the Turks. And when the Europeans dismantled the Ottoman Empire in the 1920s, Europeans created numerous Arab countries which were also more anti-Semitic than Turkey.