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Wednesday, May 04, 2005

Who made the Ari holy?

There are roughly 9468 Jewish rabbis who have written books, articles and commentaries over the last 2000 years.

[Yes, Mirty. We know. Not one of them was a woman. I've alerted my Congressperson.]

Anyway, of these 9468 Jewish rabbis, only two are called "holy," in common every-day speech: The Ari and the Ohr Chaim (who may be holy, but not holy enought for an easily found online bio. Sorry)

Why?

(If you're good, tomorrow I'll explain to you why the Ari was a proto-modernists. It's really one of the sweet ironies of all time that a forward thinker such as the Ari is, today, the patron saint of everything backwards about Judaism.)