Jewish Sufism in the Medieval

Egypt
by: Leonard C. Epafras, Ph.D.

(defense: Thursday, September 27th, 2012)

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The Dissertation Summary

Chapter I Introduction
During the reign of Ayy?bid (1174-1250) and Maml?k (1250-1570) in Egypt, at a time when Isl?mic
??f?sm (ta?awwuf) was popular, there were also local Jewish practicioners of ??f?sm. Some of
them went so far as to join the ??f?s brotherhoods (orders, ?ar?qa) and live according to its
discipline in monasteries (kh?nq? or rib??). Some others established an exclusive Jewish pietistic
group, which they called ?asidim (pietists) that embraced ??f?sm into their system of spirituality.
The ?asidim was centered on the family of Maymun? and lead by R. Ibr?h?m ibn Maym?n
(Abraham Maimonides, 1186-1237). The unique position of Ibr?h?ms spiritual system within the
Jewish mystical tradition was its strong tendency to lean toward ??f?sm. His inclination toward
Muslim traditions raised suspicion and opposition among the Egyptian Jewish community. In the
larger context, ??f?sm in different levels of erudition stimulated the construction of the Jewish
spiritual and ethical system. Some ??f?stic notions and practices were reflected in the works of
Jewish philosophers, poets, and mystics.
My research will attend to this religious phenomenon: the cross-confessional relationship between
the two traditions, which some scholars styled Jewish ??f?sm. Jewish ??f?sm does not entirely
fit into the mainstream Jewish mysticism (Kabbalah) because of different mode of spiritual
attainment and, historically, of the almost parallel development between the two. The research,
furthermore, is an attempt to understand the context that
conducive to such interaction and the strategy of identity constitution at the frontier of
??f?sm.

Built upon the above concern, the guiding questions are: What is the milieu/context that allows this
kind of agency, which took a daring move of adopting ??f?s philosophy and practice and moving
beyond its traditional religious commitment? How significant is ??f?sm in the agency of identity
formation? What was the extent and limit of this interaction?

To focus my research, I will assume that: Firstly, the socio-cultural context as well as
the demographics setting plays a significant role to induce such religious expression.
Secondly, I assume that there is an incentive for the dynamic of identity formation that encourages
the self to move beyond traditional religious boundaries, while at the same time retaining the
existing identity. Moreover, with this back and forth movement of the self at the frontier of identity,
nourished by Jewish heritage and Muslim ??f? tradition, a new spiritual space is shaped.

The importance of the study is, firstly, it will expose the intimacy among the Abrahamic traditions,
particularly the Jewish-Muslim interaction in the medieval period. Amidst the overwhelming
antagonistic discourse of the Jews and Muslims in Indonesia, such an intimate relationship in
history is largely unknown. Thus, a presentation of historical interaction will hopefully help to bring
an opening to an alternative religious discourse and imagination, within the context of Abrahamic
religious traditions (Isl?m Christianity Judaism).

Secondly, the present research is an attempt to give an alternative perspective in viewing the
hybrid identity, such as displayed in the Jewish ??f?sm. The hybrid identity in this regard is
associated with the tendency to evolve different elements from within and outside existing
traditions into a speciation, and in so doing a hybrid creating a new space of religious expression.
In this I will try to propose the frontier perspective as a way to see the hybrid identity as a more
dynamic identity formation rather than simply view it as mixing of identities.

The works of three scholars paved the way of my research. The most prominent scholar of the
study of the relationship between Jews and ??f?sm is Paul Fenton. His initial engagement with
this issue is the translation and editing on Abd All?h ibn Maym?ns Al- Maq?lat al-?aw?iyya (The
Treatise of the Pool). This is also the work that the present research took for the discourse
analysis.
Second scholar is Diana Lobel in her study on Jewish medieval philosophy that influenced by
??f?sm in R. Ba?ya ibn Paqudah (ca. eleventh century),Al-Hid?ya il? far?i? al-qul?b (Guide to
the Duties of the Heart), and R. Yehudah ha-Levi (ca. 1075-1141), Kit?b al-radd wa'l-dal?l f?'l-d?n
al-dhal?l(The Book of Refutation and Proof in Defence of the Despised Religion). Those are the
significant works that revealed the intimate relationship between Jewish spirituality and Muslim
??f?sm in term of sharing philosophical notions, vocabularies, and ideal.

The third scholar is Elisha Russ-Fishbane in his PhD dissertation entitled Between politics and
piety: Abraham Maimonides and his times that defended at Harvard University. He demonstrated
the function and importance of Jewish-??f? pietism as a way to help the Jews of the time transcend
their spiritual life in the difficult times.

Benefitting from those works and in many ways expanding upon their findings, especially that of
Fentons, my research will be an attempt to look at the dynamics of the Jewish experience in
diaspora, particularly through the understanding of identity formation and the extent and limit of
hybridity of such religious interaction. Furthermore, through this research I attempt to propose
alternative way to understand this dynamic through the frontier perspective. Therefore, differs from
those works, my research is not a purely historical and comparative studies, but more of a study
of Alterity or Otherness, and its dynamic as the main concern of inter-religious studies. This
research is more specifically to be called the hermeneutics of border. The hermeneutics of border
is the cultural and textual interpretation directed at specific issues regarding the border of identity
and its dynamics.
The formal object of this research is the Jewish identity that represents a distinct religious and
cultural discoursediscourse; or what has been referred to in this work as Jewish ??f?. The
material object is a Jewish spiritual manual written by R. ?Abd All?h ibn Maym?n entitled Al-
Maq?lat al-?aw?iyya(Ar. The Treatise of the Pool), as the representation of the Egyptian Jewish
??f? literary product. The frontier perspective is the main outlook of this research.

To answer the research questions above, the research conducted is basically an inter- disciplinary
engagement that asserts a degree of eclecticism. To gain the understanding of the frontier aspects
of the interaction between the Jews and ??f?sm, there are two main operations that will guide the
entire process.

Historical survey. Important to note, since covering the entire history of relationship between
the Jews and Muslims is simply impossible, I have chosen to focus on specific mode of interaction,
which is through the assessing of the frontier between the two communities. In this regard I
will examine the continuity of history, the intersecting cultural and religious narrative, parallel
histories, the sharing of cultural metaphors, and the polemics/apologetics discourse between Jews
and Muslims, more than any other features within that complexity of relationship.
Bakhtinian literary analysis. To get fully understanding of the identity constitution and its
dynamics at the frontier of identity, I proposed a case study, i.e. the analysis of ?Abd All?h ibn
Maym?ns The Treatise of the Pool. I will employ textual analysis to understand both the main
ideas and the social character of the classical texts. To this, Russian theorist, Mikhail Bakhtins
dialogism will be the main perspective in this study. Dialogism is
useful for the present study to recognize the internal dynamics of the self, and its
connection with the world. It also helpful to understand how a text structures a universe of
signification and the social context it tries to grapple.
Chapter II
Frontier Perspective

This research proposes, following Sander Gilman that Jewish history is carrying great weight if it
is understood within the context of frontier. That it is a history of a people constantly in frontier
situations, even more so because the greater part of Jewish history is the
history of diaspora (dispersion). The Jews have confronted many frontiers in different
contexts of their diaspora, in which Jewish identities and experiences have always been contested
and changed. The frontiers are places of encounters among people of different identities and
persuasions, places of contention and complexity, of contestation and transformation, of curiosity,
interest and antagonism, of conflicts and traumas, of nourishment and harmonies, the crucible
through which the Jews have undergone many rich and diverse experiences.

The traditional perspective, what is called the center/periphery perspective, has put Jewish history
on a singular, linear, and comprehensive narrative of a displaced people, a people in exile and of
their longing for a homecoming in the land of Israel. This model is culminated in the Zionist
perspective through its proclamation of the end of Jewish diaspora and the establishment of the
modern State of Israel.
Zionism based its rhetoric on the duality of homeland/diaspora, homelessness/homecoming,
and primarily of center/periphery. These all-encompassing terms portray the static and degraded
diaspora against the ideal homeland. Gilman further argues that this model not only consummates
Jewish history history, but also condenses the Jewish individual into a singular contour of identity.

Despite the above rhetoric, according to Gilman, the effect of Zionist construction and
identity eventually shows itself in the frontier nature of Jewish history; that Israel and
Zionism is none other than one more frontier of Jewish experience to which the question of Jewish
identity is constantly challenged rather than settle. This is noticeable in the meaning of Israel as
the homeland for the Jews, and in the Jewish relationship with the Arabs, especially the Palestinian
Arabs: instead of the totality of Jewish reality over the land, Palestine/Israel became a disputed
territory between the two nations. It is further complicated among the Jewish community where
Jews of different stocks and histories, such as Ashkenazim, Sephardim, Mizra?im, and other
peripheral Jews contested within the power structure of the State of Israel.

The frontier discourse on the other hand does not start with a displacement narrative but with the
rhetoric of a constant new beginning. Thus, the frontier experience produces more complex
identities, multilayered, and often dissociated one; more dynamic relationship between the
presumed center and its periphery. Through this perspective therefore, the discussion of Jewish
??f?sm is possible, as it reflected the dynamic of Jewish diasporic experience and encounter with
other people and reality.

In connection with that, Jewish ??f?sm is in certain ways reflected the hybridity of identity
formation. The traditional formulation of identification the hybrid appeared in the terms
assimilation, acculturation, syncretism, and lately hybridity. Those terms are the operating
designation in dealing with a new identity speciation as the product of the interaction of two
social/cultural/religious categories. The main problem of this meaning production is that it treated
the new space of identity as derivative of its respective parent categories. It tends to presume
that the third category is only possible if it eliminates the original traits of both sources. Another
peril of the above syncretism formulation is that it has often been (ab-)used by political, religious
authority, and mainstream religious tradition to degrade people dwelling in this twilight world.

Here the hybrid identity is not about quarantining the subject from other subjectivities, so as to
establish a new in-between purity. Conversely, it is more about greater potential of interconnectivity
and kinesis among real, virtual, imagined, and possible forms of subjectivity with the recognition of
its specific (probably peculiar) way of boundary drawing. To each its own subjectivity in effect is a
new chapter of experience, a molten experience, an outcome of interacting with different mode of
stimulus, persuasion and the presence of other identities, without necessarily severing its
relationship with its former subjectivity. Hence, the signal of severing relationship (disconnectivity)
with its former subjectivity, which is may be another possible mode of interconnectivity that now
rests on the subjects appraisal of the entire engagement and the responds from the other subjects.
To sum up, the frontier perspective put the issue of the third subjectivity/identity as an effect of
interconnectivity to the former subjects/identities and beyond. Therefore here we speak of frontier
landscape as the space of interaction between subjects/identities.

There are several features of this frontier landscape that relevant to the present study:

Frontier is the product of human imagination and instrumental for the shaping of human society.
It is further a construction within the interaction of subjectivities/agencies, rather than natural.
Despite the rhetoric of vigorous identity maintenance, frontier of identity in various
degrees is porous and paradoxical. This porosity allows many activities such as
trespassing, conversion, border patrolling, transformation, and outreaching, such as we
shall see in Jewish ??f?sm.
Frontier is a caesura, a break or interruption between the two worlds: the world of the self and
the world beyond. Thus it is a place of anxiety that oftentimes overcame through the controlling
the border in order to maintain the identity intact.
Chapter III
Jewish-Muslim Interaction
A Frontier Perspective

This chapter is expounding Jewish-Muslim interaction in Medieval Isl?m. Engagement in this

part is meant to answer the question: How did the Jews fare under Isl?mic rule in the Middle
Ages? How the Jews lived in the milieu of Isl?m and constantly confronted with an elaborated
ideology justify inequality of the religious Other, while at the same time, in different level of social
and political interaction were allowed the freedom to independently manage their religious matter?
What was the context of interaction that allowed the emergence of Jewish ??f?sm?
Understanding Jewish-Muslim interaction in medieval Isl?m may help us to aware of the setting of
interaction and also of the complexity of relationship. And observing it within the framework of
frontier probably could give a greater benefit.

There are two paradigms in the context of the study of Jew-Muslim-Christian interaction in history
that determined the ideological framework on reading it, the way it regulate certain text to be read,
and the tendency among the scholars in dealing with it. The first is the myth of interfaith utopia
that in tandem with the lachrymose conception of history of the Jews, and the second is the neo-
lachrymose paradigm. The first is revolved around the concept of interfaith utopia and golden
age that praised the unprecedented era of harmonious interaction among Jews, Muslims, and
Christians under medieval Muslim political domains, notably in Al-
Andalus (the Muslim Spain). Even though living as secondary class along with other non-
Muslim minorities, the Jews were very well integrated into Isl?mic society, enjoyed political
achievements, and were less persecuted. This notion mirrored to the lachrymose history of the
Jews under Christian dominion.

The second paradigm is called neo-lachrymose conception of Jewish history that emphasizes on
the perpetual Jewish suffering and sorrowful under Isl?m, since the day of Prophet Mu?ammad. It
is essentially a counter myth of the first paradigm.
Steering between two paradigms, frontier perspective in this regard giving a more nuances and
complex explanation to it. Jews under Isl?m were lived in the oscillation between best years and
the long twilight. In its best years the Jews enjoyed noteworthy cultural space to maneuver,
despite restrictions. The cultural affinity and sharing milieu also contributed to the smooth
integration of the Jews into Isl?mic society. Furthermore, Jewish economic savviness and political
shrewdness could overcome the social restriction and inequality. In the long twilight persecution
and migration dominated the narrative of the Jews.

A good example of the application of frontier perspective is Al-Andalus, the Muslim Spain that
became the champion of golden age of interfaith relationship. Here I read it from the frontier
perspective in order to go beyond the above extremes and to understand better the Jewish-Muslim
interaction. In it I argued that Al-Andalus should be seen as the negotiating space, a frontier and a
diaspora context for any of its subjects.

Furthermore, the pre-Isl?mic interaction between the Jews and Arabs became the backdrop of the
subsequent milieu and interaction between the Jews and the Muslims in medieval period. Here I
argued that longer encounter and interaction allowed the Jews to easily adjust with the new reality
of Isl?mic domain.

Arabic language and culture were among the visible influences that transformed many cultures
whenever the Muslims set their foot in the early Isl?mic expansion. In this regard the Jewish
adopted Arabic and transformed into Judeo-Arabic. It is, in this sense, a product of Isl?micate
Jewry, that in the Isl?mic dominion, Jews adopting Isl?mic socio-cultural framework and mentality,
while at the same time maintaining their distinct culture and religious way of life.

Polemics and apologetics is another frontier landscape between the Jews and the Muslims. It is
however, never a simple defensive and self-referential expression in expanding and defending
ones faith. It is one way of religious communication and sharing a species of religious experience,
yet it often it appeared in highly intellectual and sophisticated enterprise, thus allowing a more
dynamic intellectual, philosophical and theological exercise, and acts as a membrane for the
exchange of ideas.

After briefly look at Jews and Muslim interaction throughout medieval era, it is important however,
to note some ideas explored in this chapter, to usher us into more detail
discussion of Jewish ??f?sm. Firstly, despite complex interaction between Jews and
Muslims under Isl?mic domain, the longer interaction between Jews and Arabs, Jews and other
social groups in pre-Isl?mic era, evidently it provide sufficient space for cultural and religious
expansion. However, secondly, creating a distance from the rest of Isl?mic dominant culture
through polemical/apologetic work, and Judeo-Arabic, allowed the Jews to pursue a specific
Jewish aspiration, while at the same time being nurtured by the Isl?mic environment.

Chapter IV
Jews and ??f?sm at the Frontier
This chapter meant to answer the questions: What is Jewish ??f?sm? What would be the
expectation of applying such term? How interpenetrative was ??f?sm and Judaism in the medieval
era? What were the features of Jewish ??f?sm, notably in medieval Egypt?

According to Shlomo Goitein, a scholar on Jewish-Muslim interaction, initially it was Judaism that
influenced ??f?sm in its formative period through a collection called Isr??liyy?t (of Israelite origin)
regarding the pious men from among the Children of Israel (ban? Isra?l). This is broad category
on the collection of biblical stories and passages
in Tawr?t (Torah), Zab?r (Psalm), Inj?l (Gospel), Rabbinical lore (aggadah) and edifying
legends. Muslim account of the stories of Tawr?t and Inj?l appeared notably in Qi??? al-
Anbiy? (Story of Prophets; maaseh ha-neviim), indeed in the Isl?micized version.

In the subsequent era however, in the early Isl?mic period Muslim observers found that non-
Muslims, including the Jews often present at the lectures of ??f? masters. How deep they exposed
to ??f?sm, whether they converted to Isl?m or just became ??f? sympathizers were another
complex issue. Suffice it here to exhibit the exposure of the Jews into Isl?mic practice.

It has been a long scholarly recognition that medieval Jewish poetry was influenced by Arabic
literary tradition. Arabization and Isl?micate climate directly and indirectly stimulated the revival of
Hebrew literature. Since the ceasing of biblical Hebrew tradition, it was in the Isl?mic realm that
once again Hebrew gained its glorious days beyond its liturgical and religious usage. Particularly
in Isl?mic Spain, al-Andalus, Hebrew poetry marked the expansion of Jewish cultural and religious
space.

From the tenth century onward, Arabic style influenced the secular Hebrew poetry, and it also
marshaled religious poetry into new innovative liturgical expressions.
Acclimatization of Arabic literature structure has been beneficial to the development of
Jewish spirituality. In this sphere we witness the penetration of ??f?-motif into Jewish
religious expression, primarily in the motifs of love of God and zuhd (asceticism).
One of the most celebrated medieval Jewish scholars and the first Jewish intellectual who openly
employed ??f?s ideas in his work is Ba?ya ben Yosef ibn Paqudah (eleventh c.), a dayyan (qadi)
and philosopher from al-Andalus. He wrote an influential and popular ethical book Al-hid?ya il?
far?i? al-qul?b (The Book of Direction to the Duties of the Heart), known among the Jews
as Torat ?ovot ha-Levavot. It is now became the standard book of ethics among the Jews, notably
in the traditional communities.
In attaining the perfect duties of the heart Ibn Paqudah proposed ten stages of spiritual journey.
The ten stages or gates in his book seem that corresponded with ten stations (maq?ma) through
which a ??f? had to pass in order to attain the true and passionate love of God. The ten gates of
spiritual journey are as follows:
1. The first gate/chapter of Oneness (b?b al-taw??d; shaar hayyi?ud).
2. The second gate of reflection/works of [creation] (b?b al-itib?r; shaar habe?inah).
3. The third gate of serving God/obedience (b?b al-iltiz?mu ??ati ll?hi; shaar avodat hashem).
4. The fourth gate of trust/absolute reliance on God (b?b al-tawakkul; shaar habita?on).
5. The fifth gate of purifying/wholeheartedness intention in action (b?b al-ikhl?? al-amal;
shaar yi?ud hammaashe).
6. The sixth gate of humility (b?b al-taw??u; shaar hakenia).
7. The seventh gate of repentance (b?b al-tawba; shaar hateshuvah).
8. The eight gate of examination of conscience/self-accounting (b?b al- mu??saba; shaar
heshbon hanepesh).
9. The ninth gate of abstinence/asceticism (b?b al-zuhd; shaar haperishut).
10. The tenth gate of the love of God (b?b al-ma?abba; shaar ahavat hashem).
Another interesting figure was Natanael ibn al-Fayy?m? (ca. 1090-ca. 1165), a head of
Jewish yeshivah (Jewish [religious] school) in Yemen. He wrote a spiritual guidance
entitled Bustan al-Uqul (The Garden of Wisdom/Intellect) or Gan ha-Sekhalim in Hebrew. As
Yemen at the time was the stronghold of Ism??l? Sh?ism, his spiritual elaboration was
influenced by esoteric theology of Sh??te-Ism??l?, especially on the cosmology,
prophetology, and hermeneutics.
A unique interaction between Jews and ??f?sm displayed by Abraham ben Shmuel Ab? l-Afiyya
(Abraham Abulafia, 1240-ca.1291). He was known as the proponent of what scholar called
ecstatic Kabbalah. He and his circle maintained breathing technique, dhikr, word
permutation, mahw(effacement) and concentration that evidently absorbed from ??f?sm and to
a degree is close to Indian yoga. While another mystic, Yits?aq ben Shemuel of Acre developed
a practice called hitbodedut (seclusion) that in many ways adopted ??f?s khalwa and dhikr.
Similar to Ab? l-Afiyya technique, hitbodedut was a meditative and ascetic detachment.
The last one and the most important in this interaction is Egyptian Jewish ??f?sm. The affinity of
Egyptian Jewish ??f?sm with Muslim ??f?sm is that both concern with pietistic construction of
religious life over esoteric and theosophic tendency profoundly in Kabbalah. It was thus called, as
they called themselves, pietists, (?asidim), rather than mystics. Their way of spiritual is self-
referential as derekh ha-?asidut (the path of piety) or sul?k derekh ha-?asidut (traversing the
path of piety); this is immediately recalled the ??f?s term ?ar?qa al-??f?yya.

Since pre-Isl?mic era, Egypt has been a center of various religious currents: from
ancient Egyptian religion, Greek and Hellenistic religion, Judaism and its sects. The
Egyptians were among the first who embraced Christianity that formed the indigenous Christianity
found in Coptic Church. Christian monasticism, the earliest Christian mysticism had its origin in
Egypt. Saint Anthony (ca. 251-356), an Egyptian hermit, has been an inspiration for thousands of
Christians in the subsequent centuries to follow his example. Egyptian ??f?sm was also among
the most advanced and developed in the Isl?mic world. In term of demographical and religious
context, the stage was ready for Jewish ??f?sm to come together. The models were available
and the milieu was there. But we have to look at other conditions that also significantly contributed
to the emergence of Jewish ??f?sm.

The appearance of ?asidim movement in Egypt in the end of Ayyubid and the first
epoch of Maml?k was advantageous. After the fall of Abb?sid and the destruction of
Baghd?d by the Mongols this period was marked with the outburst of ??f?sm and religious
Fundamentalism. After Al-Andalus ??f?sms golden age was fading, Maml?k Egypt was a fertile
soil for ??f?sm, a trend commenced during the preceding period of Ayy?bid. The arsenal of
conceptual tools, technical terms, and lively practice of ??f?sm provided familiarity for
the ?asidim to become a full-blown pietist organized movement. It was a unique circumstance
since at the same time the Isl?mic policy toward the non-Muslim was more tighter than before.
Pact of Um?r, which regulated the relationship between Muslims and ahl al-dhimma was upheld
faithfully, so that the outcome resulted in numerous restrictions.
At the same time, the problems faced by the Jewish community were the shrinking of
Egyptian Jewish population because of the natural disasters, and the raising of Jewish
refugees from other places that need charity aid, employment, and assistance. The mood of the
Jews toward mysticism, in the beginning of the movement, was coincided with the high expectation
of messianic fulfillment. The era they lived was at the brink of millennium, a transition from the end
of the fifth millennium to the sixth of Jewish calendar. All and all, those contexts were the backdrop
of the emergence of Egyptian ?asidim.
The main drive of ?asidim was Ibr?h?m ibn Maym?n (Abraham Maimonides or Abraham ben ha-
Rambam, 1186-1237), a nagid (ra?is al-yah?d), the leader of Jewish community and a physician
of Ayyubids court. The synthetic way Ibr?h?m between Jewish
heritage and ??f?sm proposed was set down to two goals: to restore religious practices
assumed to be widespread among Jews in the past, and to take ??f? teachings, as a model for
mysticism of high spirituality. On the other hand, Ibr?h?m differed from the aforementioned
Ba?ya ibn Paqudah that he hardly incorporated ideas from ??f? literatures; instead he
employed ethical teachings from Jewish disposal. In this frontier, Ibr?h?m deliberately
avoided Muslim direct quotation, while then again he reimagined biblical prophets as the exemplary
pietists (?asidim rishonim, the first pietists) and his religious reform project he deemed to be the
restoration to the prophetic ideal. From this we can assume that no matter the ??f?stic posture of
his enterprise he was still convinced that traditional Jewish texts were pregnant enough material
to fuel his spiritual proposal, and what he should do was just reactivate those upon the ??f? pattern.
Ibr?h?m ibn M?sa Maymun? sensed a deep crisis of Jewish people and Judaism in exile/diaspora.
He attempted to amend Jewish ritual by introducing some Isl?mic, especially ?uf?c practices into
it, but to this he confronted harsh resistance. Isl?mic practices he introduced such as: bending
during prayer (suj?d; hishta?awayah), kneeling, and so on. The practices in question certainly
belong to ancient Jewish ritual but had long since discontinued, except for private devotion. It is
worth noting that this practice was/is common among Karaite Judaism. For Ibr?h?ms Jewish
fellows a question might be arose: how could the reform of synagogue service was by way of the
mosque ritual?
To see in full the affinity of ?asidim and ??f?sm and understand better the resistance this group
faced from other Jewish co-religionists, the following list is the enumeration of ??f? practices that
the ?asidim acquaintanced.
(1) Ablution (wudh?; tebila).
(2) Prostration (suj?d) and Kneeling (raka). (3) The spreading of the hand.

(4) Weeping.

(5) Orientation (qibla).

(6) Vigils and fasting. al-qiy?m wa??iy?m (standing and fasting). (7) Solitary contemplation
(khalwa; hitbodedut).
(8) Incubation (khalwa). (9) Dhikr.
The adoption of ??f? practices and notions by Ibr?h?m and his fellows in ?asidim movement was
not only the product of Jewish-Muslim interaction but also within the mysticism milieu. However, in
a more practical life those ??f? influences simply unacceptable for other Jews. The strong
antagonistic attitude displayed by them toward ?asidims practices in general can be outlined as
follows:
(1) The ?asidim proponents accused of being negligent in traditional ritual
observances.

(2) The group using improper language in religious matters.

(3) Ibr?h?m ibn Maym?n, specifically, introducing false religious doctrines to the community.

Chapter V
Al-Maq?lat al-?aw?iyya
A Jewish ??f? Treatise
This chapter is the study case of Jewish ??f?sm and it consists primarily of the literary/discourse
analysis of a spiritual manual written by a figure within Egyptian ?asidim movement, ?Abd All?h
ibn Maym?n (?Obadyah Maimonides, 1228-1265). He was the son of Ibr?h?m ibn Maym?n.
Analysis will be directed at Abd All?hs composition extent, Al- Maq?lat al-?aw?iyya (The Treatise
of the Pool), a spiritual guide that written in Judeo- Arabic. The literary analysis is employing the
Bakhtinian dialogism. Dialogism was established by a Russian theorist, Mikhail Bakhtin (1895-
1975) and it became the central category that informing all of his works. The importance of
Bakhtinian dialogism is meant to attest the dynamic of the frontier in the Jewish ??f?sm.
The unique aspect of Al-Maq?la is in the method of scriptural interpretation and his inflection to the
??f? sense. Abd All?h employed allegorical-philosophical approach in dealing with biblical
sources. This allowed him to establish complicated symbolism and mystical interpretation. The
Judeo-Arabic, in this regard became the perfect vehicle to extend the metaphors into the ??f?-
specific terms without betraying the Jewish core meaning or intention.
Related to the title of the Treatise, the metaphor of pool/cistern as the seat of human heart, which
requires cleansing from the dirt and sin, is a common motif of the mystical tradition, while water
and river symbolize the source of spiritual flow. However, the notion Abd All?h expounded in this
regard shared and is indebted to the Muslim philosopher and theologian, Al-Ghazz?l? (1058-1111)
who devoted one entire chapter of his I?y? ul?m al-d?n (The revival of the religious sciences) to
the discussion of the Prophet Mu?ammads pool (?aw? al-ras?l).
The most apparent of allegorical mode of interpretation is Abd All?h usage of biblical symbols in
mystical interpretation. In Al-Maq?la, he employed several important Jewish symbols derived from
the vast Jewish tradition, in which in some cases he contextualized by using ??f?s understanding,
e.g.tree of life (ets ha-?ayyim), bread/corn of heaven or manna (man), snake (na?ash), well-
guarded tablet (al-law? al-ma?f??, from Al-Qur??n Sur? Al- Bur?j 22), water, and pool (?aw?).
This mystical symbolism is important to understand the spiritual universe of Jewish religiosity and
the extent of imagination of biblical interpretation. It is the space where Abd All?h invested in his
effort to renew Jewish spirituality and the space where the text co-existed in dialogic manner with
larger social context and with the Other.

In a sense, the usage of ??f?s terms and adoption of ??f? practices could be seen as external
persuasions that encroached into the self. Likewise, it can be said that this is the marker of self
expansion process that evolved beyond the traditional commitment with the self embracing and
welcoming those external persuasions. It showed the degree of flexibility and adjustability of the
worldview, not necessarily consciously being aware of it. The flexibility of the self in this regard is
counted on through the usage of symbolic-mystical interpretation of biblical text. Through this mode
of interpretation the landscape of meaning is expanded, and at the same time indicated the trace(s)
of other discourses within the given text could be identified either in challenging or conforming
posture.

Beyond the textual analysis, the Jewish diaspora/exilic narrative remained the significant force
within this text. It thematized the entire discussion of Jewish spiritual awakening. Therefore, the
Jewish ??f?sm in this respect was not only an effect of the Jews lived in the Isl?micate context,
but also a cultural strategy to live at the brink of inter- confessional boundary.

Chapter VI Conclusion

In the case in hand, I have looked at the Jewish ??f? whether the incorporation of the ??f? terms
and expressions were part of cultural translatability, as to decode the realm of spirituality into
specific Jewish experience, and whether this gesture at the same time was also a cultural
checkpoint to which the limit and borderline drew, as to prevent the intrusion of the presumed
alien trait. This is not necessarily considered as xenophobic, but it is assumingly a way to reaffirm
the self by reauthenticating and reinscribing it through forging a certain relationship with the Other
in a new cultural and religious space. By so doing a greater possibility of advancing religious
experience is realized.

The claim of biblical prophetic tradition by the Jewish ??f? gain a new meaning, reimagined and
activated through Jewish encountered with Muslim ??f? traditions. Border/frontier, in this respect
is an interface, a conduit and intersection of a new religious expression. This model also suggest
the flexibility and mobility as to ambiguity and situatedness of a self to cross and to trespass the
traditional boundary, and turn the frontier experience as an experience of dramatizing the edge.
It may proper to conclude in general term that what so called Jewish ??f?sm is a Jewish aspiration
that longing for the Jewish spiritual renewal and found in some ??f? mode of religiosity an
instrument or link to reactivate the assumingly Jewish heritage in the past.

The numerous examples of Jewish-??f?sm interaction have been described in the preceding
chapters. The profile of those examples may be summarized as follows:

1. Jewish critics to mysticism and particularly toward the Jews who enthusiastic to ??f?sm.

2. Jewish convert to Isl?m through ??f?sm

3. Jewish enthusiasts of ??f?sm

4. Jewish inter-confessionalist

5. Egyptian ?asidim
Jewish ??f?sm has shown us that human self is a composite self. Our religious tradition is nexus
of other traditions, a sought after identity but at the same time the product of stabilized tradition
and fixating identity over the course of history. Therefore, we learn from this research about the
encounter of Jews and ??f?sm that dialogue with the Other is inexhaustible.
The more aspiring expectation of this research is the alternative way to view hybrid identity within
inter-religious discourse, notably in Indonesia. Hybridity is a reality of any socio-political and
cultural context, but in Indonesia this issue is even more suppressing. As a highly pluralistic and
multi-cultural society in terms of cultural and religious traditions, the issue of hybridity became a
cultural space of contestation and resistance. This even more problematic in the post-Reformation
era, when the politics of identity and the politics of sameness are getting stronger in which any
subjects that resides the realm of in-between became the obvious target of this politics.

All in all, according to the frontier perspective none of those subjects engaged at the frontier free
from their own historical and social burden. To each other they in fact struggle to cope with their
own position at the frontier of the Other. The eradication of the Other is always an option as one
subject imagining the frontierless landscape, the unproblematic religious and cultural topology.
Nevertheless, the possible of transformation is also cogent as the more diligent way of coping the
difference and the opportunities of more creative and imaginative mode of interaction through
dialogue is inexhaustible.