“Israel, Holiness to the Lord”

In 2001, Paulist Press published as part of its “Classics of Western Spirituality” series a volume of Abraham Miguel Cardozo: Selected Writings, translated by me and with an introduction that provided the first biography of Cardozo since 1707, the year after his death.

Cardozo (1627-1706) was a magus, theologian, and cult leader, brought up in Spain as a Catholic and converted to his ancestral Judaism in his 20s. He was also a “Sabbatian,” a follower of the false Messiah Sabbatai Zevi, with a distinct wrinkle: Cardozo thought he was also a Messiah, partner to Sabbatai in his redemptive work.

Delusional? Absolutely. But also brilliant. Cardozo, as I said on the blurb for my book, “was one of the most vivid, complex and original personalities to emerge within Judaism during the seventeenth century. An early modern Jew, he was above all and individual. Like his contemporary Spinoza, Cardozo suffered horribly for his individuality. Yet he remained faithful until his death–his strange, violent, eerily messianic death–to what he believed to be the true and authentic Jewish faith.”

He sounds like a character out of a novel. But no novel about Cardozo exists, so I’m writing one. More about that anon, I hope.

But anyway …

In my collection of translations from Cardozo, I included one of a “Mending” ritual he performed. (Tikkunim, “Mending-rites,” magical redemptive acts composed mainly of holy words from the Scriptures and the proper “intentions” to accompany their recitation, were Cardozo’s stock in trade.) The text is entitled “Israel, Holiness to the Lord.” I had to abridge it considerably for the Paulist Press volume, and I’ve received an inquiry from a gentleman in Russia asking if I might happen to have a fuller draft of it.

As it happens, I do.

I translated it in three parts. And here they are:

Israel, Holiness pt 1

Israel, Holiness pt 2

Israel, Holiness pt 3

(My novel, actually, I’m calling The Mending. And you can guess why.