For some fifty years Karo recorded the visits of a heavenly teacher — the Maggid — which spoke through his own mouth and identified itself again and again with the Mishnah: “I am the Mishnah that speaks in your mouth.” The Maggid Meisharim (“Teller of Upright Things”) collects these teachings, arranged by the weekly Torah portions.
What the Maggid taught
The Maggid’s words range across ethical exhortation and kabbalah: the ten sefirot, the secrets of Creation, divine names, the levels of the soul, reincarnation and resurrection, providence and free will, the inner meaning of mitzvot, and the damage that sin does. Again and again it urges Karo to purify himself — to sleep little, eat and drink sparingly, guard his thoughts, and never interrupt his learning — and rebukes him for small lapses. It promised him that he would settle in the Land of Israel and that his books would light the eyes of all Israel; both came true. (See “I Am the Mishnah That Speaks in Your Mouth”.)
Publication
The work appeared long after Karo’s death: the first part in Lublin in 1646, the rest later in Venice. The Chida wrote that only about one-fiftieth of the manuscript was ever printed. Its introduction is the letter of Rabbi Shlomo Alkabetz to the companions in Salonica: the Shavuot night on which the Maggid first spoke before witnesses, the second night with a minyan, the pact the friends made the following Shabbat, and Alkabetz’s plea to the Salonica circle to follow Karo and him to the Land of Israel. (Read The Voice on Shavuot Night.)
