Lurianic Kabbalah: Collected Studies by Gershom Scholem, קבלת האר"י: אוסף מאמרים מאת גרשם שלום, edited by Daniel Abrams (Sources and Studies in the Literature of Jewish Mysticism 22; 2008, 440 pages, ISBN 1-933379-09-X, in Hebrew). This volume (all in Hebrew) celebrates the groundbreaking work of Gershom Scholem on Kabbalistic literary and mystical activity from the end of the fifteenth century, just prior to the Expulsion from Spain and until the rise of Sabbateanism. At the heart of this collection are all of Gershom Scholem’s detailed studies on R. Isaac Luria, his teachers, students and the works that emerged from Safed, including numerous texts which he introduced and explained. All sixteen studies are reproduced here, re-typeset, and including a Hebrew translation of the chapter on Isaac Luria and his School, from his Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism - all updated with Scholem’s post-publication hand notes from his personal library and annotated with full bibliographic references, manuscript identifications and followed by a complete bibliography in all languages of all studies about Kabbalah from the periods treated in this volume. The volume is introduced with a typology of the various methods and scholarship that emerged from Scholem’s foundational work. This volume is an essential research tool for the serious study of Jewish mysticism.
Analogy in Midrash and Kabbalah: Interpretive Projections of the Sanctuary and Ritual, by Maurizio Mottolese (Sources and Studies in the Literature of Jewish Mysticism 21; 2007, 398 pages, ISBN 1-933379-07-3, in English). Found in most religious cultures, analogical discourse plays a decisive role in Judaism. This book offers a close inquiry into the peculiar features, the various forms and the broader developments of analogy within Jewish literature, focusing especially on late-antique and medieval contexts. Not surprisingly, Jewish authors always produced analogical maps of reality by means of an analogical interpretation of the Bible, seen as disclosing manifold, and often secret, correspondences. This study of analogy is thus based on a renewed exploration of midrashic and mystical hermeneutics. The thematic focus investigates interpretive projections of the ancient sanctuary and its worship, highlighting the tendency of Jewish exegetes to analogize (and thus double in heaven) sacred places and cultic practices. Exploring analogical exegesis is then also an opportunity, as well as a means, for offering a refreshing perspective on the mythical-ritual imagery of the Rabbis and the medieval kabbalists.
Mystical Interactions: Sociology, Jewish Mysticism and Education, by Philip Wexler. (Sources and Studies in the Literature of Jewish Mysticism 20, 2007, 197 pages ISBN 1-933379-06-5, in English). Mystical Interactions represents a dialogue and interaction between Sociology and Jewish Mysticism. It juxtaposes ‘classical’ sociology, depth social psychology and contemporary theories of social movements to conceptual social aspects from the Jewish mystical tradition. By interweaving sociology and Jewish mysticism, Wexler offers a new theory of a religious sociology of everyday social life, of the elementary forms of mystical sociality. Sociology does not ‘explain’ Jewish mysticism. On the contrary, Jewish mysticism becomes a resource for understanding social interaction differently. What emerges is a Jewish, mystical social interpretation of society, religion and education.
The Secret of Unity: Unifications in the Kabbalistic and Hasidic Thought of R. Hayyim ben Solomon Tyrer of Czernowitz, בסוד היחוד: היחודים בהגותו הקבלית-חסידית של ר' חיים בן שלמה טירר מטשרנוביץ, by Ron Wacks, (Sources and Studies in the Literature of Jewish Mysticism 19; 2006, 320 pages, ISBN 1-93379-04-09, in Hebrew). This book is a study of the thought of R. Hayyim ben Solomon Tyrer of Czernowitz (1760?-1817?), one of the most prominent rabbis of eastern Galicia and the adjoining regions in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. He gained renown primarily during the eighteen-year period in which he served as rabbi in Czernowitz, in Bukovina. His works include: Sidduro shel Shabbat, Sha‘ar ha-Tefillah, Be’er Mayyim Hayyim; Eres Hayyim, and Teshuvah be-‘Inyan ’Amirat Le-Shem Yihud. The study is divided as follows: (1) The Life and Works of R. Hayyim; (2) Unifications in Kabbalah and Hasidism; (3) Models of Unifications in the Thought of R. Hayyim; (4) The Modes of Incorporation of the Models in Various Realms.
Psychoanalysis and Kabbalah: The Masculine and Feminine in Lurianic Kabbalah, פסיכואנליזה וקבלה: לתהליכי זיווג הזכרי והנקבי בקבלת האר"י, by Devorah Bat-David Gamlieli (Sources and Studies in the Literature of Jewish Mysticism 18; 2006, 408 pages, ISBN 1-933379-03-0, in Hebrew). This study examines the reasons for the negative connotation attributed to the female aspect of the Godhead, identified in various Jewish traditions with ’ani, understood as the ego in psychological terms. This study draws on three disciplines: Lurianic Kabbalah, Maimonidean philosophy, and Freudian psychoanalysis: Psychology of the Self and Object-Relations Theory. This interdisciplinary approach offers a new interpretive model for understanding Lurianic texts and their exegesis of the Hebrew Bible. A reading of Lurianic symbolism through psychoanalytical terminology provides for a deeper understanding of kabbalistic symbolism.
The Interpretation of Secrets and the Secret of Interpretation: Midrashic and Hermeneutic Strategies in Sabba de-Mishpatim of the Zohar, פרשנות הסוד וסוד הפרשנות: מגמות מדרשיות והרמנויטיות ב'סבא דמשפטים' שבזוהר , (Sources and Studies in the Literature of Jewish Mysticism 17; 2005, 304 pages, ISBN 1-933379-00-6, in Hebrew) Sabba de-Mishpatim is a distinct literary unit of Zoharic literature which interprets Exodus, chapters 21-24. The composition tells of a wonderful encounter between Rabbi Hiyyah and Rabbi Yossi, and an eccentric old man (the Sabba), whom they originally mistook for an ignoramus. The exegesis delivered by the Sabba to the friends examines esoteric matters concerning the laws of the spirit and reincarnation, reward and punishment, and principles of exegesis. This section of the Zohar is most famous for the parable of the maiden in the tower. This volume is the first full-length study of Sabba de-Mishpatim, exploring its hermeneutics and the revival of the midrashic form in Zoharic literature.
Enchanted Chains: Techniques and Rituals in Jewish Mysticism, by Moshe Idel, with a foreword by Harold Bloom (Sources and Studies in the Literature of Jewish Mysticism 16; 2005, 258 pages, ISBN 0-9747505-4-9, in English) Enchanted Chains brings together some conceptual approaches that were developed in Idel’s earlier studies such as Kabbalah: New Perspectives, particularly the contributions of analyzing techniques and rituals for a better understanding of Jewish mysticism, as well as of certain aspects of mystical literature in some of the major religions. Here, the author has taken a further step, attempting to highlight the existence of affinities between techniques, theologies and the nature of experience related to them. He describes the specific understanding of Jewish mystics of the well-known theme of the Great Chain of Being, as part of their magico-theurgical worldviews, which differed from the more static Platonic picture dominant in the West, and described by Arthur Lovejoy in his famous monograph.
Sex of the Soul: The Vicissitudes of Sexual Difference in Kabbalah, by Charles Mopsik, Edited with a foreword by Daniel Abrams, (Sources and Studies in the Literature of Jewish Mysticism 15; 2005, 212 pages, ISBN 0-9747505-9-x, in English). The present volume is the first collection of studies by Charles Mopsik (1956-2003) to be published in English. It contains the contents of two separate volumes published in French, with an additional study which was published elsewhere. These seven studies focus on the function and character of sex and gender in Jewish Mysticism: (1) The Primeval Couple and the Primordial One in the Religions of the World; (2) The Masculine Woman; (3) Creation and Procreation: Beyond the Bounds of the Body – From the Hebrew Bible to Medieval Jewish Mysticism; (4) Genesis 1: 26-27: The Image of God, Man and Wife, and the Status of Women in the writings of the Early Kabbalists; (5) Genesis 2:24: ‘They Become One Flesh’: Several Interpretations by Medieval Jewish Mystics; (6) Union and Unity in the Kabbalah: The Proclamation of the Divine Unity and the Male/Female Couple; (7) The Secret of the Marriage of David and Batsheva.
Roots of Faith and Devequt: Studies in the History of Kabbalistic Ideas, by Mordechai Pachter, (Sources and Studies in the Literature of Jewish Mysticism 10; 2004, 342 pages, ISBN 0-9747505-5-7, in English). This book presents - in English - four studies by Mordechai Pachter on central ideas in kabbalistic thought: (1) The Root of Faith is the Root of Heresy; (2) Circles and Straightness; (3) Smallness and Greatness; (4) Devequt in Sixteenth Century Safed. The first study describes the most supreme point of deity revealing itself out of the depths of Ein-Sof (the Infinite), the point defined as faith. The second chapter goes on to the two modes of revelation and operation of all the Divine sefirot, the modes of circles and straightness; and the third chapter treats the Sefirot, namely the two lower configurations, ze‘ir ‘anpin (the Short Countenance) and nuqva (the Female), who are the Lurianic equivalents of the sefirot Tiferet and Malkhut, in their two states of development and growth: the state of qatnut (smallness) and the state of gadlut (greatness); the final chapter discusses the lowest point of the Divine world, the point at which man and God meet in communion, i.e. devequt.
The Commentaries to Ezekiel’s Chariot of R. Eleazar of Worms and R. Jacob ben Jacob ha-Kohen, edited and introduced by Asi Farber-Ginat and Daniel Abrams,פירושי המרכבה לר' אלעזר מוורמס ולר' יעקב בן יעקב הכהן (Sources and Studies in the Literature of Jewish Mysticism 11, 2004, 184 pages; ISBN 0-9640972-8-1, in Hebrew). These two commentaries form the only known kabbalistic reworking of a surviving German pietist text and are of great importance for the understanding of the emergence of Kabbalah in the thirteenth century.
Words of the Righteous (Divrei Saddiqim): An Anti-Hasidic Satire by Joseph Perl and Isaac Baer Levinsohn, critically edited and introduced by Jonatan Meir, דברי צדיקים (Sources and Studies in the Literature of Jewish Mysticism 12, 2004, 180 pages, ISBN 0-9747505-7-3 in Hebrew). The most famous anti-Hasidic satire in the nineteenth century is Joseph Perl’s Megale Temirin. This text was published anonymously in Vienna in 1819. Isaac Baer Levinsohn was the first to respond to Megale Temirin, composing an imitation and continuation of this satire, which he called Megale Sod. He sent it to Perl who was enthusiastic about the manuscript, made many changes to it, and finally printed it in Vienna in 1830 under the title Divre Saddiqim (Words of the Righteous). The edition is introduced with a discussion of the various stages of the manuscript from its initial composition and through its final form in print. The second chapter presents a the critical, annotated edition of Divre Saddiqim, while the third offers a comparison of the different versions of the manuscript. The final section contains a facsimile of the manuscript and the first edition.
The Intention of Prayers in Early Ecstatic Kabbalah: A Study and Critical Edition of an Anonymous Commentary to the Prayers, critically edited and introduced by Adam Afterman, כוונת המברך למקום המעשה (Sources and Studies in the Literature of Jewish Mysticism 13; 2004, 320 pages, ISBN 0-9747505-3-0, in Hebrew). This Commentary to the Prayers was written around 1270 in Catalonia, probably in Barcelona. It appears that the anonymous author was part of a small group of ecstatic kabbalists who studied linguistic kabbalah and various commentaries to the Book of Creation which were available in Barcelona. We know at least two members of this circle, Baruch Tugarmi and his student, Abraham Abulafia. In the year 1270, Abulafia visited Barcelona and intensively studied linguistic kabbalah. The Commentary to the Prayers shows many affinities to Abulafia’s Ecstatic Kabbalah. The anonymous author was additionally influenced by another group of early Catalan Kabbalists that lived in Gerona, especially Ezra ben Shlomo, whom he quotes extensively. A partial Latin translation of the Commentary was prepared for Giovanni Pico, Count of Mirandola.
Joseph b. Abraham Ibn Waqar: Principles of the Qabbalah, edited from Hebrew and Arabic Manuscripts, by P. B. Fenton, ספר שרשי הקבלה (Sources and Studies in the Literature of Jewish Mysticism 14, 2004, 200 pages, ISBN 0-9747505-6-5, in Hebrew). Rabbi Joseph ben Abraham Ibn Waqār flourished in Toledo in the first half of the fourteenth century. His Sefer Shorshei ha-Qabbalah, is presented here in a critical edition with both the Judeo-Arabic original and the medieval Hebrew translation, arranged in parallel columns. This work contains a kabbalistic lexicon of theosophic terms, chapters on various conceptions of the sefirot and their functions, and arguments for the superiority of the Kabbalah over that of the philosophers and astrologers.
The Mystical Meaning of Lekhah Dodi and Kabbalat Shabbat, by Reuven Kimelman. קבלת שבת ולכה דודי. Solomon Alkabetz composed Lekhah Dodi in Safed in the mid-sixteenth century. This book discloses the poem’s kabbalistic meaning and its function within the Sabbath evening service. It explains how the ceremony for the welcoming of the Sabbath developed in Safed as a wedding and coronation ceremony in which the Sabbath was personified as bride and queen. The song merges erotic, mystical, and historical images into a kabbalistic vision of redemption. It urges one to join the divine Lover in greeting the weekly Sabbath to get to experience the cosmic Sabbath. (Sources and Studies in the Literature of Jewish Mysticism 9; 2003, 286 pp., ISBN 0-9705369-7-6, in Hebrew). Domestic orders only.
Vision and Speech: Models of Revelatory Experience in Jewish Mysticism, by Haviva Pedaya, המראה והדיבור. This Hebrew monograph is a programmatic attempt to describe central types of mystical experience of revelation in Jewish sources from the Hebrew Bible through the medieval Kabbalah. The book investigates visionary and aural aspects of prophetic and ecstatic experiences. Close textual readings are offered to these mystical testimonies in which the mystic becomes vocal and recounts praises of the Divine. The nature of the linguistic imagery is explored with a sensitivity to its relationship to myths and metaphors which account for introverted and extroverted types of mysticism. An overriding typology is thus provided for ecstatic mysticism in Judaism. (Sources and Studies in the Literature of Jewish Mysticism 8; 2002, 286 pp., ISBN 0-9640972-9-X, in Hebrew)
Abraham Abulafia Kabbalist and Prophet: Hermeneutics, Theosophy and Theurgy, by Elliot R. Wolfson. This book reexamines the main features of Abulafia’s mystical thought and practice in light of his embracing of paradox as the main vehicle for expressing truth. It has been commonplace in modern scholarship to distinguish sharply between two kinds of kabbalah, the theosophic and the ecstatic. The studies that have been assembled in this volume illustrate a somewhat more fluid and elastic exposition of Abulafia’s prophetic kabbalah in relation to the theosophic kabbalah of his generation. (Sources and Studies in the Literature of Jewish Mysticism 7; 2000, 247 pp., ISBN 0-9640972-7-3, in English)
Sefer Gematriot of R. Judah the Pious: Facsimile Edition of a Unique Manuscript, introduced by Daniel Abrams and Israel Ta-Shema. ספר גימטריאות. Sefer Gematriot is a collection of German pietist traditions, preserved in a unique manuscript copied at the end of the thirteenth century. The work records the various traditions in the name of R. Judah the Pious, author of Sefer Hasidim, and head of the esoteric circle of the pietists. (Sources and Studies in the Literature of Jewish Mysticism 6; 1998, 166 pp., ISBN 0-9640972-6-5, in Hebrew)
R. Moses De Leon’s Commentary to Ezekiel’s Chariot, פירוש המרכבה לר' משה די ליאון and R. Joseph Gikatilla’s Commentary to Ezekiel’s Chariot פירוש המרכבה לר' יוסף ג'קטילה , critically edited and introduced by Asi Farber-Ginat. These works are of great importance for the study of this major genre of Kabbalistic literature, including the Zohar. These works enrich our understanding of thirteenth-century sefirotic symbolism, as well as the Kabbalistic doctrines of mystical vision, angelology, and evil. (Sources and Studies in the Literature of Jewish Mysticism, vols. 4 and 5; 1998, 98 pp., ISBN 0-9640972-2-2; 116 pp., ISBN 0-9640972-1-4, in Hebrew)
R. Moses de Leon’s Sefer Sheqel ha-Qodesh, critically edited and introduced by Charles Mopsik with an introduction by Moshe Idel, ספר שקל הקדש. This book provides some of the earliest testimony regarding the appearance of the Zohar in the late thirteenth century, and forms a unique test-case for understanding the redactional process behind the canonical work of medieval Jewish mystics. (Sources and Studies in the Literature of Jewish Mysticism 3; 1996, 187 pp. ISBN 0-9640972-4-9)
R. Asher ben David: His Complete Works and Studies in his Kabbalistic Thought, Including the Commentaries to the Account of Creation by the Kabbalists of Provence and Gerona, by Daniel Abrams. ר' אשר בן דוד: כל כתביו ועיונים בקבלתו. R. Asher ben David, was the grandson of R. Abraham ben David (Rabad) and the nephew of R. Isaac the Blind. His Book of Unity, included in this volume, is one of the first Kabbalistic works written. (Sources and Studies in the Literature of Jewish Mysticism 2; 1996, 378 pp., ISBN 0-9640972-3-0, in Hebrew).
The Book Bahir: An Edition Based on the Earliest Manuscripts, by Daniel Abrams with an introduction by Moshe Idel. ספר הבהיר. Supplemented by studies in the history of the book’s redaction and reception; the printing history and scholarly treatments of the work; listings of manuscript witnesses; annotated listings of commentaries to the Bahir; kabbalistic works which quote and comment on the Bahir; and unknown passages found in other works. (Sources and Studies in the Literature of Jewish Mysticism 1; 1994, 375 pp., ISBN 0-9640972-0-6, in Hebrew) OUT OF PRINT
Bibliography of the Writings of Professor Moshe Idel: A Special Volume Issued on the Occasion of his Fiftieth Birthday. The bibliography provides annotated listings of all of Idel’s published works, including articles published in journals and collected studies volumes, book reviews, encyclopedia entries, introductions to books, critical editions and manuscript facsimiles, full-length monographs, and volumes which were published and distributed in limited copies within Israeli universities. (66 pp., 1997, ISBN 0-9640972-5-7, in Hebrew).
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