You Did What__ Mad Plans and Great Historical Disasters - Bill Fawcett [10]
When Abulafia traveled in Spain and Italy, he came into contact with the spreading influence of Jewish mysticism called Kabbalah, a part of the Hebrew Scriptures that describes creation and God’s relationship to that creation. It defines both a series of texts, particularly the Zohar, Bahir, and the Sefer Yetzirah, as well as defining a system of mysticism and interpretation of Scripture. It also consists of meditative, devotional, mystical and magical practices, which were taught only to a select few. Some aspects of Kabbalah have also been studied and used by non-Jews for hundreds of years.
The most influential Kabbalistic document, the Sefer ha-Zohar, or “Book of Splendor,” was written by Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai at about 150 C.E. It contains a series of separate scriptures covering a wide range of subjects, from a verse-by-verse commentary on the Torah to highly theosophical descriptions of processes within God. It describes the 125 levels man can achieve, including the highest level, “Eliyahu the Prophet,” where the prophet himself is said to come.
But the existing Kabbalistic works did not fully satisfy him. Abulafia began composing a new book that would be closer to what he called the “real truth.” Through his lectures, he gained a small following among the less educated and more superstitious Jews of Spain. Many rabbis opposed his new form of Kaballah and forced him to leave for Italy. In 1271, he wrote that God granted him a vision and he received the spirit of prophecy.
From then on, Abulafia called himself Raziel, “the seer of God’s secrets.” In one of his more popular apocalyptic pamphlets, he wrote:
The Lord’s spirit reached my mouth and worked through me so that I manifested many dread and awful sights with signs and wonders. When I reached to the Names and untied the seal bands, the Lord of all revealed Himself to me, and made known to me His secret, and informed me concerning the end of the exile and the beginning of the redemption.
In one of Pope Nicholas III (Giovanni)’s decrees, he wrote that one hundred and fifty Jews must hear conversion sermons in Rome every week. In another, he claimed to be “Vicar of God,” which would be the same as calling himself “another God.” The term “antichrist,” incidentally, is translated from the Greek vicarius christi, or “Vicar of Christ.” He is best known, however, in literature, when Dante Alighieri placed him in the Third Circle of Hell (Canto 19), for those guilty of simony — buying and selling the grace of God.
Abulafia’s own writings tell us it was then that God had ordered him to go to Rome. His divine mission, in response to Nicholas’s actions, was to convert the pope to Judaism and invoke his assistance to bring the Jews home to the Holy Land — still occupied by the Christian Crusaders. His students pled with him not to go, but after a second vision Abulafia learned that he was the Son of God, and was urged to visit Nicholas III.
In a letter, Abulafia told the pope that he dreamed of dissolving the differences between Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and wished to meet with Nicholas III to discuss his ideas and ease the suffering of the Jews. On Rosh Hashanah, in 1280 C.E., Abulafia set out to Rome. Word spread quickly about the proposed meeting, and the irate pope immediately erected a stake — Nicholas III ordered Abulafia’s execution upon arrival.
When the mystic arrived in Rome, he discovered that the pope had gone to the castle of Sorriano near Viterbo. As he reached the papal residency, Abulafia was immediately arrested and incarcerated. Despite his apparently inevitable