About the Book

'The Palm Tree of Deborah' (Tomer Deborah) is an ethical discourse devoted to the doctrine of the imitation of God. It was penned by the kabbalist and scholar, the Spanish rabbi of Ottoman Palestine, Rabbi Moshe Kordovero, an authority and intellectual well versed in Judeo-Arabic philosophy. Kordovero proceeds systematically through the various known attributes of God (the sefirot) and explains how we as humans can work on improving ourselves by imitating those attributes to the best of our ability.

He desired to give a complete intellectual system to kabbalistic theology. Influenced by the earlier success of Jewish philosophy in articulating a rational study of Jewish thought. His was the first accepted, complete systemization of the esoteric ideas of kabbalah. It was the first work to philosophically attempt to make the doctrine of the sefirot into the ethical foundation of thought and action.

This work was first published in Venice in 1588. The book takes its name from a passage in the Book of Judges (4:5) “As she sat under the palm-tree of Deborah between Ramah and Beth-El in the hillcountry of Ephraim; and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment."

This version of The Palm Tree of Deborah is based upon a new translation with interpretation and editing by Mr. Alfassa conducted while he was living in the Old City of Jerusalem in 2003.