“O my soul’s beloved” (Yedid nefesh)

The kabbalist, scholar, preacher, and poet Eleazar Azikri, a descendant of Spanish exiles, lived in Safed, where he studied kabbalah with Moses Cordovero and Isaac Luria, among others. Azikri kept a diary from 1564 until close to his death, in which he recorded his mystical experiences. He established two groups of mystics, the Hearkening Companions and the Tabernacle of Peace, which sought to rouse the people of Israel to repentance and thus bring about redemption. Azikri wrote a popular ethical kabbalistic treatise, Sefer ḥaredim. This work includes four poems, one of which, “Yedid nefesh” (“O my soul’s beloved”), was subsequently included in the prayer liturgy. As he grew older, Azikri withdrew from public life, concentrating on solitude, asceticism, and communion with God. He composed responsa, commentaries on the Jerusalem Talmud and Babylonian Talmud, and homiletic commentaries on the Pentateuch and Lamentations, most of which remain in manuscript. He died childless and was buried in Safed near the grave of his wife.