Kotzk Podcast 087: From the Nile to Safed: Egyptian Judeo-Sufism as an influence on Lurianic Kabbalah

Hello everybody, our share today is titled From the Nile to Tsvat, Egyptian Judeo-Sufism as an influence on Lurianic Kabbalah.

I've known extensively from the research of Professor Paul Frenton.

And he's an expert on the Karaganiza.

He was a professor at the Sorbonne University.

And he seems to be one of the very few people who has looked into the notion of Judeo-Sufism.

For those of you who are interested, he also has an interesting South African connection, having an association with the University of Stellenbosch, which is interesting for those who are interested.

All right, anyway, we're going to look at six generations of Rambam's direct descendants.

who practiced a form of synthesis between Judaism and Sufism, known as Judeo-Sufism, a term which Fenton has coined himself.

And this was a movement that comprised large numbers, huge numbers of Jews adherence to this movement.

They were known as Hasidim.

which is significant for our discussion.

And they followed a mystical path called Berech HaChassidut.

And this influence from the descendants of the Rambam, from Maimonides, eventually reaches Sfat in the 16th century and arguably informed many of the ideas and ideologies of what became known as the Torah of the Arizal or Lurianic Kabbalah.

Now, I need to emphasize that Egyptian Judeo-Sufism was not a marginal group.

It hasn't been studied much, but it was not a marginal group.

It needs to be studied further.

Hello everybody, our share today is titled From the Nile to Tsvat, Egyptian Judeo-Sufism as an influence on Lurianic Kabbalah.

I've known extensively from the research of Professor Paul Frenton.

And he's an expert on the Karaganiza.

He was a professor at the Sorbonne University.

And he seems to be one of the very few people who has looked into the notion of Judeo-Sufism.

For those of you who are interested, he also has an interesting South African connection, having an association with the University of Stellenbosch, which is interesting for those who are interested.

All right, anyway, we're going to look at six generations of Rambam's direct descendants.

who practiced a form of synthesis between Judaism and Sufism, known as Judeo-Sufism, a term which Fenton has coined himself.

And this was a movement that comprised large numbers, huge numbers of Jews adherence to this movement.

They were known as Hasidim.

which is significant for our discussion.

And they followed a mystical path called Berech HaChassidut.

And this influence from the descendants of the Rambam, from Maimonides, eventually reaches Sfat in the 16th century and arguably informed many of the ideas and ideologies of what became known as the Torah of the Arizal or Lurianic Kabbalah.

Now, I need to emphasize that Egyptian Judeo-Sufism was not a marginal group.

It hasn't been studied much, but it was not a marginal group.

It needs to be studied further.