Milchamoth Hashem [”Wars of the Lord:” a scathing attack against Kabbalah in general and the Zohar in particular]

KAFAH, YICHYA.

Yemen

1932-33

Hebrew Manuscript on paper. In a semi-cursive, clear Yemenite script with marginal notes.

Yichya ibn Saliman al-Kafah (1850-1932) was Chief Rabbi of San’a, the capital of Yemen. He founded the Dardaim movement, which sought to combat the influence of Kabbalah, then pervasive in Yemenite Jewish life, and restore a rational approach to Judaism rooted in authentic sources, so safeguarding the older (Baladi) tradition of Yemenite Jewish observance. In light of identifying a strong superstitious influence within Yemenite Jewry - which R. Kafah saw as contrary to Orthodox Judaism, he composed the present controversial work which portrays the Kabbalah and the Zohar in particular as an intrusion of pagan, polytheistic elements into the pure monotheism of mainstream Rabbinic Judaism. Throughout the work he severely denigrates the author of the Zohar as a heretic: “God has helped us reveal …the thoughts of the philosopher and deceitful false prophet, author of the Zohar, who speaks perversely rebelling against God and the Torah” (final paragraph prior to colophon on f. 89b). The scribe of this manuscript, Shalom ben Abraham Uzaryi was a disciple of Rabbi Kafah and following the close of the main text, records here his own anti-Zoharic views. The initial four leaves contain an index highlighting all Talmudic citations “against the Zohar and the new Kabbalists.” The publication of this work aroused a sharp polemic response from both within Yemen and from rabbis overseas, including Chief Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook; the work Emunath Hashem (1937) was the rebuttal.