Re: Maoz Tzur & Shavuot (part II)

[I. Oppenheim <i.oppenheim...>]

On Wed, 9 Jan 2002 SamWeiss (at) bellatlantic(dot)net wrote:

> Probably the most striking instance of the widespread effect of the
> printing press on Jewish liturgy is the entire Friday night Kabbalat
> Shabbat service, developed and strategically disseminated ("published")
> by the Safed mystics at the end of the 16th century.

Those mystics in Tsefat must have been excellent marketing gurus :-)
An even more striking example is... the Shulchan 'Aruch!
Written by Josef Caro, part of that same circle of mystics,
the Shulchan 'Aruch must have been disseminated very strategically
as in no time it became the authoritative guide concerning the Halakhah
in virtually the whole world.

I've always found it quite ironical that Yitschak Luria (the Arizal)
considered Caro's soul unfit to receive the 'higher wisdom' of his own
kabbalistic system... When Caro tried to join the circle of Luria, he was
bluntly rejected.

Concerning the rest of your reply, if this is what you meant in the first
place, I totally agree.

Regards,
Irwin Oppenheim

---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org ---------------------+