Perhaps my affinity for -- nay, dependence on -- coffee is indicative of an innate (and, currently, inert) Kabbalistic bent.
Adherents of Kabbalah, the artful and often erotic Jewish mystical tradition, typically emphasize study after midnight as a way to draw nearer to the Shechinah, the exiled feminine aspect of the Divine, and to study during, and meditate on, the daily miracle of darkness being slowly transformed into light.
But how did they do begin this practice? What enabled them to stay up all night?
One intriguing answer: coffee.
Although I've heard it posited before, I found, buried amongst the more than 900,000 hits I got when I googled Coffee and Kabbalah together (most of the hits were coffee klatsches and pictures of Madonnah), this intriguing article from an old issue of Arthur magazine. It notes that the apogee of Kabbalistic practice, and many of its most brilliant and provocative insights, came from Tzfat (Safed) in what is now northern Israel, in the late 16th century, when Isaac Luria, aka "The Ari," moved to Safed from his hermitage on an island in the middle of the Nile, where he had studied Zohar, the masterwork of Jewish mysticism, and lived alone for many years.
Decades prior to Luria's arrival in Safed, however, Joseph Karo, the great Jewish halakhist (legal scholar) and mystic, had settled there and initiated the practice of staying up all night on Shavuot (the Jewish holiday both celebrating the first harvest and commemorating the giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai) and studying Torah.
Interestingly, coffee is first documented in Safed in 1528. The first
coffee house opened in the town in 1580. That means coffee was being served in the town when Karo introduced all-night Torah study, and became ever more popular as Kabbalists settled in the scenic mountain-top hamlet and popularized the practice of all-night study, prayer and meditation.
So it's quite possible that my own predilection for the drink is mystical and not merely chemical in nature.
Aside from encouraging insomnia, coffee also focuses the mind, enhancing mood and concentration. And the latest studies on caffeine show that coffee has a hydrating and not diuretic effect; does not create or exacerbate heart disease, and in fact may even reduce the risk; reduces the chance of some cancers and has no discernible link to others; and reduces the risk of Parkinson's Disease and Type 2 Diabetes.
Coffee, of course, originated in the Middle East, growing in Ethiopia and being cultivated in Yemen as early as the 6th century. The drink would therefore have reached Palestine before getting to Europe. And indeed, it didn't arrive in Venice until 1615, where the first coffee house opened in 1640. Only after this date did the practice of studying all night on Shavuot becoming accepted in the Venetian Jewish community.
Coffee, anyone?
--T.A.
Update: Great minds think alike, although, as usual, I'm a step behind. Chavi just posted about coffee, too! (Chavi, I swear, I didn't know. I've added you to my blog-roll, so now I'll know.) In any case, coffee's a natural topic at the beginning of a week -- and at the end of a fast (Tisha b'Av).
