In this concluding class of the series on the Golden Age of Tzfat, we meet three pivotal figures who carried the torch of this extraordinary era into its final decades. Moshe Alshich, the celebrated preacher and author of Torat Moshe, who served as Chaim Vital’s primary teacher and became the head of the Tzfat community after Yosef Karo’s passing. Moshe di Trani (the Mabit), the halakhist and philosopher whose works Kiryat Sefer and Bet Elohim explored the boundaries of messianic hope and the principles of Jewish faith. And David ibn Abi Zimra (the Radbaz), the towering legal authority whose life spanned the entire golden age—from his birth in Spain before the expulsion to his final decades in Tzfat as a member of Karo’s court, where he issued the decisive ruling that ended the controversial renewal of semikhah. We then explore the forces that brought this remarkable period to a close: the economic collapse of Tzfat’s textile industry under English competition, the devastating plagues and earthquakes, and the spiritual crisis that followed the Sabbatean movement. Finally, we reflect on the enduring legacy of the Tzfat renaissance—the Shulchan Aruch, Lurianic Kabbalah, the Kabbalat Shabbat liturgy—and consider why this small Galilean town, for a few extraordinary decades, became the most vibrant center of Jewish creativity since the time of the Mishnah.
