The Jews in Lublin - Biblioteka Multimedialna Teatrnn.pl - Brama ...

equest a thorough theoretical knowledge, but only an adaptation of some of religious
practices, to which a mystical-magic meaning was attributed.
It resulted in the popularization of these teachings among the masses, and they
entered the canon of folk religiosity (for example the using of talismans, sources for
which should be searched for in this Kabbalah). In the context of the popularization
of Kabbalahistic knowledge among the different social classes, the most essential is,
from the historic point of view, the role of Hebrew printing houses. At the turn of
16th and 17th Century Lublin became the publishing centre of all types of Kabbalahistic
books, which is evidence of the interests of the Jewish community at the time.
In 1547 one of the first Hebrew printing houses in Polish lands was established there,
and in 1587 the second (of Kalonimus Jaffe) was established, which as the generations
passed, managed to publish the most important works concerning the Kabbalahistic
issues, practically "systematically" 4 . For example, in 1647, the work Or Neeraw written
by Moses Kordowero, the most important Kabbalahist synthesizing and ordering of
the lurian system, popular in Poland, was published there 5 .
However it is only one aspect of the popularity of Kabbalah. On the other hand,
the Lurianic Kabbalah, in the version cultivated by majority, was an important object
of interest for the elite of Jewish society. It can be acknowledged, that Lublin was one
of the first places, for the development of the mystical speculations in the lurian spirit
in Polish lands, and even within Europe. Jewish Lublin as the centre ofTalmudic
learning was never a place of the full bloom of philosophy, in the spirit of Majmonides
and his More Newuchim, and what followed was not a centre of such secular sciences
as mathematics, physics and so on. Nevertheless it became a centre for the development
of theological and theosophical sciences, including Kabbalahistic speculations:
first, in the Safedic spirit, then in Chassidic. The engagement of the authorities of the
communes of Krakow and Lublin, Rabbis Moses Isserles Remu and Szlomo Lurii Maharszal
in the critique of the mass magical and mystical practices for the lurian mould
was a characteristic example of the orthodox attitude. They were simultaneously personally
engaged in mystical speculation (among other things the commentary to the
Zohar book by Remu is known). Such attitudes are revealed by the fragment of the
letter from Remu to Maharszal:
If I had to get away, I would get away from Kabbalah more willingly than from philosophy,
because in Kabbalahistic studies it is easier to be deluded than in philosophy
which is based on logic. This is an useful caution for the population, which has found
in the books of Kabbalah: "In this time, when they printed the books of Kabbalah,
4 Based on the known titles of the books published in the printing houses of Lublin it is estimated that
the percentage of the different types of Kabbalahistic texts printed there was 10%. Cf. BAŁABAN
M.: Historya i kultura żydowska ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem historii Żydów w Polsce, t. 2, Lwów-
Warszawa-Kraków 1925 (reprint: Warszawa 1982).
5 Cf. SZEMEN N.: Lublin. Sztotfun Torah, Rabanuth un Chassiduth. Toronto 1951, p. 122.
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