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Mikdash Melekh author

Mikdash Melekh author

1700 CE–1780 CE · AH · Amsterdam

Shalom Buzaglo was a Moroccan-born Jewish scholar who flourished in the eighteenth century, eventually settling in Amsterdam. He was a master of Kabbalah and halakha, and is best remembered as the author of Mikdash Melekh, a celebrated and voluminous commentary on the Zohar that synthesizes kabbalistic interpretation with rigorous textual analysis. His work became influential in both Sephardic and Ashkenazi circles, serving as a standard reference for those seeking to understand the mystical dimensions of Jewish law and tradition. Buzaglo's erudition encompassed both the esoteric and exoteric dimensions of Torah, and his commentary remains studied by advanced students of Kabbalah to this day.

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Stop 1 of 11750–1780Lived

AmsterdamאמסטרדםNetherlands

We know they were here, but the specifics of what they did at this stop aren’t recorded yet in our corpus.

Amsterdam in this era

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Amsterdam emerged as a sanctuary for Jews fleeing persecution across Europe, transforming into one of the continent's most vibrant Jewish centers under Dutch Protestant rule. The Portuguese Jewish community, composed largely of Marranos who had escaped Iberia, established themselves in the city's expanding neighborhoods and soon created an intellectual and mercantile powerhouse, their wealth from trade funding elegant synagogues and supporting both Talmudic scholarship and mystical pursuits. The Ashkenazi Jews who arrived later, especially after the Chmielnicki massacres devastated Polish Jewry in 1648, found refuge here too, establishing their own institutions and eventually outnumbering their Sephardic counterparts. Amsterdam's yeshivas became renowned across Europe for rigorous study of halakha and Kabbalah alike—tensions between rationalist and mystical approaches played out in lecture halls and study circles. The city's famous Portuguese Synagogue, completed in 1675 with its magnificent wooden ceiling and abundant natural light, stood as a symbol of the community's freedom and flourishing, while the bustling Jodenbreestraat (Jews' Broad Street) pulsed with Hebrew printing presses, manuscript traders, and scholars debating the nature of divine emanation and ethical practice.

About Amsterdam

Major Sephardi/Ashkenazi printing center; home of Elazar Rokeach (Maaseh Rokeach).

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Works(2)