Ronit Meroz
Department of Hebrew Culture, Tel Aviv University
In the sixteenth century, leading kabbalists and their disciples taught and practiced Kabbalah in small circles in the Galilean hilltown of Safed. These fraternities were strictly hierarchical and were often modeled on the stories found in the Zohar. Among the mystical associates in Safed there were those who focused on repentance while others emphasized the creation of new kabbalistic rituals. In this lecture, Professor Meroz will examine the ways in which the Safed kabbalists reinterpreted the rituals of the Zohar, blending the received wisdom with new customs against the background of material circumstances and social conflicts.