ABSTRACT
R. Moses de León (c. 1250–1305) was one of the most seminal figures in the development of kabbalah in medieval Castile. One particularly impactful aspect of his career lay in his comprehensive contribution to the kabbalistic interpretation of the traditional precepts of Mosaic law (ta’amei ha-mitzvot). Given the fact that the ancient sages assigned special status to the commandment of almsgiving, it is not surprising that the kabbalists saw fit to imbue this rite with particular significance. From the thirteenth century, kabbalists have associated the divine attribute called Shekhinah (or malkhut) with poverty. With no possession of her own, her welfare depends upon the support of the other divine attributes (or sefirot). According to this conception, when the Shekhinah is separated from the source of her welfare, evil predominates. As above, so below: when the poor are not sustained through charitable funds, they resort to desperate acts of violence. 2 In the kabbalistic view, the requirement of giving alms is not simply a figurative way of understanding the Shekhinah’s need for support. Both the upper world of divinity and the lower mundane realm are interconnected and interdependent. By performing the commandment of almsgiving, the kabbalist simultaneously ameliorates the plight of the poor and restores harmony within the world of divinity. The kabbalist is empowered to perform this pivotal task of influencing divinity by means of his mutual bond with the divine attributes and his community. Like the divine attribute of tiferet, which mediates between opposing divine attributes, the kabbalist functions as an intercessor between opposite extremes: mercy and judgment, resources and poverty, divine and human. For this reason, the texts presented below stress that the attribute of tiferet is, in fact, the attribute of tzedaqah, or almsgiving. The unification of these opposites is consistently represented in terms of an erotic conjunction between masculine and feminine attributes, a mystical communion also embracing the souls of the benefactor and the beneficiary.
