Lion Taming: R. Yitzhak Isaac Haver's Kabbalistic Defense of Jewish Tradition

This article explores R.Yitzhak Isaac Haver's defense of the authenticity of Kabbalah in Magen Vetzinah (1855), a refutation of Leon Modena's anti-kabbalistic polemic Ari Nohem, which was written in the 17th century but not published until 1840. Haver (1789-1853) feared that Jews would follow Modena and deem Kabbalah an inauthentic part of the Jewish tradition. Refuting Ari Nohem allowed him to critique the anti-traditionalism of his contemporaries who advanced many of Modena's arguments. I argue that Haver addressed contemporary attacks on the authority of traditional Judaism through defending Kabbalah. Rather than a fideistic traditionalist, he engaged with challenges to the authenticity of Kabbalah's textual foundations and its claims to truth. Haver's openness to addressing text-critical issues and philosophical aspects of Kabbalah attests to the intellectual curiosity of thinkers of his cultural environment and to the threat that traditionalists perceived from Jewish acculturation and reform.