Sefer HaMefoarספר המפואר
Collection of Shlomo Molcho's messianic-kabbalistic sermons, first printed in Salonika in 1529.
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Shlomo Molcho
Shlomo Molcho
1500 CE–1532 CE · Acharonim · Lisbon
Born Diogo Pires (c.1500) into a converso family in Portugal, Shlomo Molcho returned openly to Judaism after encountering the messianic emissary David Reuveni, and became a charismatic preacher and kabbalist. He studied Kabbalah in the Salonika circle of R. Yosef Taitazak and published his sermons (later printed as Sefer HaMefoar, 1529). Granted an audience by Pope Clement VII in Rome, he was ultimately arrested at Regensburg and burned at the stake in Mantua in 1532. His martyrdom left a profound impression on the sages of Safed — R. Yosef Karo and R. Shlomo Alkabetz among them — and Karo's mystical diary records a yearning to die a martyr's death 'like Shlomo Molcho.'
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Stop 1 of 51500–1525Born
LisbonליסבוןPortugal
What they did here
Born Diogo Pires in Portugal, a converso who served as a royal court secretary before returning to Judaism as Shlomo Molcho.
About Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital and largest city of Portugal. Muslim forces took it in 711; in 1147 Afonso Henriques captured it with the help of crusaders; it became the kingdom's capital around 1255. It was the birthplace of Pope John XXI, the only Portuguese pope, and from the late fifteenth century the departure point for most Portuguese voyages of exploration, among them Vasco da Gama's of 1497; Francis Xavier sailed from here for India in 1541. Its important Jewish community, whose members included Isaac Abarbanel, treasurer to King Afonso V, was forcibly converted in 1497, and about 2,000 converts were killed in the Lisbon massacre of 1506. An earthquake devastated the city in 1755.
In Lisbon at the same time
In the same place & time
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Sages whose lives overlapped with Shlomo Molcho’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
Across the traditions
In the same tradition
Yosef Taitazak, David HaReuveni, Maharashdam, Shlomo Alkabetz, Moshe Alshich, Yitzchak Adarbi, Azariah dei Rossi, Moshe Almosnino
Works(1)
Related figuresRYosef TaitazakDDavid HaReuveniביYosef KaroשאShlomo AlkabetzSuggested by shared subject matter, not a documented teaching relationship.