Rationalism and Mysticism
Spanish Portuguese Jews in Morocco in the time of Rabbi Yaacov Sasportas

Marc Eliany © All Rights Reserved

The war of the Christians against the Moors had devastating consequences on Jews on both side of the conflict. Although Jewish culture flourished to an extent that it is remembered as the golden era of ‘Sepharad Jewry’ in Iberia and North Africa, Moslem and Christian religious zeal brought much hardship upon Jewish citizen in the form of coercive conversion, increased taxes, expulsions and abuses that included death.

Citing ‘Jewish heresy,’ calls for the expulsion of the Jews from Spain were voiced as early as 1460 (Alfonso de Spina). In 1481 the first Auto-da-fe took place in Seville, followed by expulsion from Andalusia (1483), Inquisition instructions to target Judaizing New Christians (1484), accusations that Jews and New Christians ‘crucified a child to bring about the destruction of Christianity’ (1490) and the expulsion in 1492, following the conquest of Granada, the last Moslem stronghold in Iberia. But even prior to 1460, rabbinical testimonies indicate that persecution of Jews was omnipresent in Spain and that it involved forced conversions and death (see the case of Ankaoua in Toledo in Sainthood, Lineage and Social Stratification in Jewish Morocco, for example). Persecutions did not end in Spain. Most Jews sought refuge in Portugal but by 1497 Jews were baptized en mass there (Bar Navi, 2002).

As usual, Jews sought refuge in more accommodating places. The elite settled in Holland, Italy, the Balkan region, and parts of the Turkish Empire including Turkey, Egypt, Syria and Israel. But the majority immigrated to North Africa, with a high concentration in Morocco. Jews and New Christians immigrated to North Africa to practice Judaism more freely and in spite of oppressive living conditions there too. Given the hardship, many Jews found comfort in mysticism in an attempt to make sense of their suffering. Yet, contrary to widespread accounts, delving into mysticism did not imply giving up on rational thinking, as demonstrated by Rabbi Yaacov Sasportas.

Some known rabbi settled in North Africa for good. Rabbi Yossef Giktilia, author of Shaare Zedek (Gates of Justice) settled in Sale. Rabbi Haim Bibas settled in Tetouan and turned it into a center of rabbinical learning. (Sar Shalom). But many other rabbis stayed in Morocco only for a while.

Rabbi Yaacov Hayat, author of Maarecet Haelohut (Divine Systems), reported abuses and starvation in Fez then. Hayat immigrated later to Napoli. Rabbi Yaacov Beirav (1474-1546) also spent a brief period in Fez, before wandering to Safed, where he taught Joseph Caro (1488-1575), author of Shulcan Aruc (Set Table). Rabbi Shimon Lavi settled in Fez as a child, acquired his education there, before moving to Tripoli, where he established a rabbinical academy. He is the author of an interpretation to the Book of Splendor (Sar Shalom).

Ongoing calamities swung the pendulum in Jewish communities from rationalism to mysticism, with Luria bridging between the two as well as between Sepharade and Ashkenaze in Safed (1534-1572 CE), spreading the belief that suffering must herald pending messianic deliverance. It was a time when exorcists (baal shem) and amulets gained powers potent enough (at least in theory) to save Jews from evil and exile (i.e., dybbuks, jnun as well as terrible neighbors) and as if miraculously, a messiah appeared (Shabbetai Zvi 1626-76) and almost all the Jewish world was taken in.

Rabbi Yaacov Sasportas (1610-1698), born in Oran to a family related to Rabbi Moshe Ben Maimon (Ramban), also of Spanish origin, demonstrated rabbinical brilliance and served as judge in Tlemcen and rabbi in Marrakech, Fez and Sale, before taking position as director of a rabbinical academy in Amsterdam and rabbi posts in London, Hamburg, Livorno and Amsterdam, where he died.

Sasportas, a rabbi versed in Cabbala, led the campaign against the messianic movement of Shabetai Zvi while in Tlemcen, in collaboration with Aharon Siboni in Fez and Daniel Toledano in Meknes and continued his campaign in Europe in collabration with Shemuel Aboab (Venice), Shimon Shapira (Prague) and Yossef Levy (Livorno) (1626-1660).

As predicted by Sasportas, the messiah proved false but Jewish existence remained miserable and desperate yearning for salvation made the Shabbatean movement last through the 18th century, causing many disenchanted Jews to convert to Islam, Christianity as well as Frankism (i.e., an underground Shabbatean religion led by Jacob Leib known as Frank, 1726-1791).

Sasportas fulfilled a variety of diplomatic missions on behalf of Morocco in Europe. His diplomatic experience opened new doors for the Jews in Europe. For as usual in Jewish history, destruction gives rise to reconstruction, as Sasportas together with Rabbi Manasseh Ben Israel, a Marrano scholar (1604-1657), combined with British fundamentalists with sympathies for Jews to convince Cromwell to allow Jewish immigration, making England the harbinger of Modern Jewish communities (1648-1732).

Sasportas is the author of Edout bét Yaacov (Jacob Testimony) and Ohél Yaacov (Jacob’s Tent), as well as an account on the Shabetai Zvi campaign.

References

Alfonso de Spina, Fortress of the Faith. Bar Navi, Eli et. al. 2002, A Historical Atlas of the Jewish People, Schocken Books, NY Sar Shalom Shimon, ???? Moroccan Sages, Jerusalem, Hod Yossef. (Hebrew) Johnson, Paul, 1987, A History of the Jews, Phoenix Press