Foundations of Sephardic Spirituality: The Inner Life of Jews of the Ottoman Empire by Rabbi Marc D. Angel provides a fascinating look at the Jews of Spain after their expulsion from the Iberian Peninsula, and their lives in the Ottoman Empire. In many surveys of Jewish history, the decline of the Sephardic community after their exile from Spain is stated, but not contextualized. Rabbi Angel walks us through the context, erasing the stigma of the so-called Sephardic decline. Rabbi Angel also explains how Sephardic communities remained orthodox in modern times while not embracing denominations. While most Sephardic communities were orthodox, the lacked the dogmatism of the Ashkenazi versions. Sephardic religious practice was always less strident; it was always more worldly and accepting of difference, to their credit and our edification.
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