“To Do the Will of His Creator, for Thereby Happiness Shall Be Attained”

Halakhic Religiosity of Obedience and Servitude in Early Modern North African Jewish Communities

Abstract

The issue of human perfection was one of the topics that most preoccupied medieval Jewish thinkers and commentators. One viewpoint was that obedience to God and subjugation to Him are what grant a person religious perfection, such that “accepting the yoke of the kingdom of heaven” – that is, servile (submissive) subordination to God through obedience to His decrees – is the definitive purpose of religious life. Lorberbaum termed this outlook “halakhic religiosity of obedience and servitude”. The question of human perfection similarly gripped the North African sages of the early modern period, from the sixteenth to the mid-nineteenth century. The present study indicates that the “halakhic religiosity of obedience and servitude” perspective continued to exist in that region during the specified period, albeit alongside other perspectives. Moreover, in order to complete the picture, the present study also traces the North African rabbis’ directive that one must carry out all one’s actions (eating, sleeping, intercourse) “for the sake of heaven”; an approach constituting an extension of the “halakhic religiosity of obedience and servitude” worldview.