TURKEY

Edirne, the city of the Jewish scholars

It isn’t just the bricks and stones and the beautiful paintings and carvings of the synagogue that were so magical, but the fact that Edirne is a vital link to the past and the connection to the future.
Edirne, the city of the Jewish scholars
One of the famous scholar of Edirne was Rabbi Yosef Caro who penned the Shulhan Aruh

Rav Mendy Chitrik

 

The re-opening of the Edirne Synagogue was a moment felt magical, the impressions on the hearts were great. I was so proud to be in Edirne, to be there together with our entire community, to bring in the Sefer Torah to the rebuilt synagogue. To feel the vibe, to breath the atmosphere. After all, it is Edirne, a city with double edged history:

It is the same Adrianopolis rebuilt by and named after Hadrian the great prosecutor of the Jews, the one who crushed Bar Kohva and his Jewish army after the great revolt in Judea and whom was responsible for the deaths of millions of Jews, and then it is also Edirni, as called by the Jews: Edirne was a home to a Jewish community for a documented 1.600 years! It is the city of the Jewish scholars – the home of the great lineages of the Geron and Mordehai families, where the esteemed Behmoras and Behmoarar (Hebrew acronym to “Sons of the honorable rabbis”) families descend from and the birthplace of Rabbi Moshe Alsheh, the renowned chief rabbi of Tsfat on the heights of the Galilee Mountains of northern Israel.

But it is no doubt one individual who etched Edirne into the conscious and memory of the Jewish people. It is the man who from Edirne is still teaching and guiding the entire Jewish people. It is none other than Maran Rabbi Yosef Caro, the famous author of the Bet Yosef and the Shulhan Aruh. Rabbi Yosef Caro was born in Spain and was expelled to Portugal. He lived in Lisbon until the age of seven when the family was once again expelled – Rabbi Yosef managed to come to Istanbul with his father Efraim and his family. When his father died, he moved to study in the famous Talmudic schools and Yeshivot of Edirne. It is in Edirne that he gathered the wealth of knowledge that will make him the lighthouse of Sefardic and world Jewery. It is where he got married in Edirne to the daughter of Rabbi Ishak Sabah and after her death to the daughter of Rabbi Reuven Albala – famous rabbinical figures at the time in Edirne. Rabbi Yosef Caro opened his first Yeshiva in Edirni, called Bet Yosef, where he taught his great students who later became pillars of Sefardic Jewry in the Ottoman Empire. In Edirne he also first authored his book Kesef Mishne, the commentary on the Mishne Torah of Rabbi Moshe Ben Maymon (Maimonides) and in Edirne he began composing his master book the Bet Yosef, which gathers all the different opinions of Jewish law into on entire comporistion.

Rabbi Yosef moved to Eretz Yisrael in 1536, where he became the most respected Chief Rabbi of Tsfat, there he completed the Bet Yosef and wrote the condensed version of the Bet Yosef, the Shulhan Aruh, the Code of Jewish Law – which made him the most famous rabbinical figure at the time and henceforth. The Shulhan Aruh is until today the decisive book that gathers and encompasses the entirety of Jewish law pertaining to all aspects of Jewish religious life. It is until this day that one must study and memorize great sections of the Bet Yosef and Shulhan Aruh in order for a rabbi to received Rabbinical Ordination and permission to be a rabbi and teacher of Jewish law. Rabbi Yosef Caro died in Tsfat in 1575 at the age of 87. But his teachings, which he began spreading and printing in Edirne, still live on an illuminate and guide the entire Jewish world. It is for this reason amongst others that this pilgrimage to Edirne was so special and meaningful to me on a personal and deep level. It isn’t just the bricks and stones and the beautiful paintings and carvings of the synagogue that were so magical, but the fact that Edirne is a vital link to the past and the connection to the future. This synagogue is not only a monument but a living symbol of eternity, the eternity of Jewish knowledge and the Jewish people.    

 

Related Newsss ss