Abraham Abulafia on the Messiah and the Pope †

The biblical episode of the encounter between Moses and the Pharaoh turned out to be a matrix of speculations in Judaism about the messianic drama. Nahmanides contributed to it in his dispute with Paulus Christianus by assuming that the Messiah will go to the Pope as part of the messianic scenario. Some few decades later, the Kabbalist Abraham Abulafia (1240—c.1292) reports about his intention to meet the Pope in 1280. Scholars differed as to what was the purpose of this intention. The present study considers a series of passages written by the Kabbalist, which include inclusive language insofar as he was addressing not only the Jews but also other religions, in order to elucidate the succinct sentence found in one of his writings. In my opinion, those passages are related to his inclusive vision of the meaning of Yahadut, referring to religious persons who acknowledge the centrality of the divine name, and consequentially, Abulafia was concerned with some form of religious dialogue with the Pope. This more open tone is found in the claim that as a Messiah, Abulafia preached to the Gentiles and discussed esoteric topics with a Christian.