The Writings of Rabbi Menaḥem Azariah da Fano and Their Interpretation in Seventeenth-Century Ashkenazic-Polish Milieu

Abstract Rabbi Menaḥem Azariah da Fano (1548–1620) was one of the most important Italian rabbis during the second half of the sixteenth century and the early seventeenth century. Most of Menaḥem’s writings were compiled in his “treatises” that were primarily published in two volumes: Asarah Maʾamarot and Amarot Ṭehorot . This article addresses the characterization of the genre of these treatises and attempts to understand their popularity in the seventeenth century Ashkenazic milieu. The treatises were printed and commentated on throughout this period almost exclusively in this region. The article shows how Kabbalists in Ashkenaz interpreted Menaḥem’s writings and how they became the foundation for kabbalistic teachings. Kabbalists such as Rabbi Yeshayahu Horowitz and Rabbi Nathan Nata Spira of Kraków relate to Menaḥem as the disseminator of the Safedian kabbalistic tradition to Europe. At the same time, Kabbalists wrote commentaries on his writings, commentaries that also presume to constitute an introduction to the Safedian Kabbalah in general and to Lurianic Kabbalah in particular. My claim in the article is that Menaḥem’s homiletical style of writing in these treatises plays a central role in this process. Menaḥem’s writings were identified by the Polish Kabbalists as part of the accepted literary genre in the Polish region, an approach that contributed to them becoming canonic compositions in the study of Kabbalah.