Ramchal Synagogue in Acco
The Ramchal Synagogue is not a particularly impressive building in terms of its construction and interior design. However, it tells two interesting stories and and a visit is well warranted for both reasons. The first story is about the person for whom this synagogue is named – the Ramchal, which is an abbreviation of the first letters of his name Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto. The second is the history of the Jews of Acre. The latter is told in the visitor’s center next to the synagogue.
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Directions: The synagogue is in Market St.
Admission: The synagogue is open from 9.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. Sunday to Thursday and 9.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m. on Friday and holiday eves during the summer. It is open from 9.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. during the winter from Sunday to Thursday. It is closed on Shabbat and holidays. The building is no longer a functioning synagogue. This is their website.
The unimposing exterior of the Ramchall Synagogue.
A movie is shown in the synagogue about the Ramchal’s trial. But as for many of these types of short movies that illustrate episodes in a person’s life, it is difficult to understand without knowing the full picture. However, the essay below should help.
A short movie is shown in the synagogue about the Ramchal's trial.
One of the arks in the synagogue
The adjoining Visitors Center has displays about the history of Jewish life in Acre. When this present building was constructed, it was found to be built over buildings in what was formerly the Crusader Genoise district. The Visitors Center tells the second story — about the Jewish community of Acre in the 12th and 13th century CE.
The Crusades were a disaster for the Jews of Europe and Israel. Jewish communities in the Rhineland were decimated during the initial People’s Crusade. When the Crusaders arrived in Jerusalem during this First Crusade, the Jewish and Muslim inhabitants of Jerusalem were massacred. One may be surprised to learn, therefore, that a thriving Jewish community existed in Acre after the Third Crusade. Acre was a cosmopolitan city, and there were less restrictions on Jews than in Europe. Waves of Jews arrived here with messianic expectations, including many well-known rabbis. Nachmanides visited this community when he was in Israel and gave a sermon in the synagogue explaining why he had immigrated to Israel. This would have fallen on very receptive ears. Maimonides also visited this community a generation earlier during the First Crusader period, although he probably stayed for only a brief time.
A move is shown about the Ramchal's journey to Acre
The main writings of the Ramchal can be viewed in digital form
Who was the Ramchal?
The Ramchal was a genius who was completely misunderstood in his time and who was hounded by the rabbinic authorities. Only after several hundred years were his writings appreciated.
He was born in 1707 in the ghetto of Padua, in the Republic of Venice. He had a traditional Jewish and secular education, possibly including attending the University of Padua. At a young age he developed an interest in kabbala. By age 14 he knew by heart the kabbala of the Ari and by age 15 had written his first book on kabbala.
His problems began at age 20. He heard angelic voices from a heavenly Maggid, including the prophet Elijah, and he began teaching and writing thousands of pages of mysticism under the dictation of this Maggid.
This occurred 51 years following the death of the false messiah Shabtai Zvi, and the Jewish world was still reeling from this disaster. The Rabbinic establishment was especially aware of its culpability in failing to stop this disaster; but it could certainly prevent a repeat fiasco. From this time on, the study of kabbala was viewed with suspicion. This was especially the case for someone hearing angelic voices and teaching about his experiences. The Ramchal was threatened with excommunication unless he gave up all his previous kabbalistic writings. These were buried and some were burnt. He also had to agree to neither write about nor teach kabbala in the future.
At age 28 he moved to Amsterdam, which was a more liberal place for Jews. It was here that he wrote his masterpieces — “Messilat Yesharim (The Path of the Righteous),” also “Derech Hashem” (The Way of God), which is an ethical treatise on the theology of Judaism, and other books. A century later his book Mesilat Yesharim would be discovered by Rabbi Israel Salanter, the originator of the Mussar Movement, and would become the prime ethical guide for the major yeshivot of Eastern Europe.
In 1743 he moved to Acre. It is unclear why he did this. It is possible he thought he would have more freedom to write about kabbala, which remained his true love. Alternatively, he recognized the Torah obligation to live in Israel. Perhaps both. The Ottoman period was a period of immigration of Jews to Acre. It is a nice cinematographic touch, but there is no evidence that he was still guided by heavenly voices as shown in the movie. He and his family died in a plague 3 years after arriving in the city.
Despite its name, the synagogue you are visiting is not the synagogue he prayed in. The Ramchal would have arrived in Acre during the rule of Doher El-Omar (otherwise known as Zahir al-Umar). Dohar was very tolerant of other faiths and encouraged Jews to settle in his kingdom. He supported the building of a Jewish Quarter in Tiberias.
However, there were limits to his niceness. In 1758, by which time the Ramchal was no longer alive, he knocked down the main synagogue and built the el-Mualek Mosque on top of its ruins. Nevertheless, he provided the Jewish community with an alternative venue, which is the present Ramchal Synagogue. It was named Ohel Chaim, possibly after Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, although it could also have been named after Chaim Farchi, a Jewish advisor to the next Ottoman leader Ahmed al-Jazzar. Farchi played a crucial role in the defeat of Napoleon and his failure to capture the city.
The new synagogue was a smaller and humbler Ottoman building along a main north-south 13th century Ottoman market street. It has no women’s section, and women would sit outside and listen through the window. A hanging on the synagogue wall is an old piece of parchment paper with three columns of text, taken from a Torah scroll written by the Ramchal.