Sources & Further Reading

The pages on this site are written in our own words from classical and modern sources. Where traditions differ, we say so. Each story is marked as a documented account, a tradition, or a folk legend, so that readers know how firm the ground is beneath it.

Classical sources

• Rabbi Yosef Karo, Maggid Meisharim (first part Lublin, 1646), including the letter of Rabbi Shlomo HaLevi Alkabetz in its introduction.
• Rabbi Yeshaya HaLevi Horowitz, Shnei Luchot HaBrit (the Shelah), Tractate Shavuot — Alkabetz’s letter on the Shavuot night.
• Rabbi Chaim Vital, Sha’ar HaKavanot — the Arizal’s teaching on Shavuot night; and Sha’arei Kedushah on maggidim.
• Shivchei HaAri — traditions about the Arizal in Tzfat.
• Rabbi Chaim Yosef David Azulai (the Chida), Shem HaGedolim — on Karo’s works and their reception.
• Zechariah al-Dhahiri, Sefer HaMusar — his visit to Karo’s yeshiva around 1567.
• Letter of Rabbi Yisrael of Polotsk (1778) — the Hasidim praying in the Beit Yosef.

Modern studies

• R. J. Zwi Werblowsky, Joseph Karo: Lawyer and Mystic (Oxford, 1962; Jewish Publication Society, 1980).
• Eli Schiller and Gabriel Barkai (eds.), “Beit HaKnesset Maran Yosef Karo,” in Tzfat VeAtareha, Ariel 157–158.
• Dovid Rossoff, Safed: The Mystical City.

Help us

If you know a tradition about the synagogue that is missing here, or a source we should cite, please tell the gabbai. We would be glad to add it.