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Major Trends In Jewish Mysticism
''Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism'' is a work on the history of the Jewish Kabbalah by Gershom Scholem, published in 1941. The contents of the book were first assembled in the order in which they will finally appear as a series of lectures delivered in 1938 at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, where he had been invited by Shalom Spiegel to give a course on Kabbalah. (Two of the eleven chapters or lectures appearing in the book, were delivered on other occasions as Scholem points out in the foreword). In a letter to Walter Benjamin written March 25th of that year, Scholem notes that all of his lectures have now been delivered such that he would be free to spend the remainder of his visit (lasting until that June) reviewing the Kabbalistic manuscripts available in the library of the seminary. Thus the lectures were delivered between January and March. The historical backdrop and the timing of these lectures gives some context of the atmosphere in these lectures: A pu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kabbalah
Kabbalah or Qabalah ( ; , ; ) is an esoteric method, discipline and school of thought in Jewish mysticism. It forms the foundation of Mysticism, mystical religious interpretations within Judaism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal (). List of Jewish Kabbalists, Jewish Kabbalists originally developed transmissions of the primary texts of Kabbalah within the realm of Jewish tradition and often use classical Jewish scriptures to explain and demonstrate its mystical teachings. Kabbalists hold these teachings to define the inner meaning of both the Hebrew Bible and traditional rabbinic literature and their formerly concealed transmitted dimension, as well as to explain the significance of Jewish religious observances. Historically, Kabbalah emerged from earlier forms of Jewish mysticism, in 12th- to 13th-century Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain, al-Andalus (Spain) and in Hakhmei Provence, and was reinterpreted during the Jewish mystical renaissance in 16th-century ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shi'ur Qomah
The Shi’ur Qomah () or Dimensions of the Body is a midrashic text that is part of the hekhalot literature. It purports to record, in anthropomorphic terms, the secret names and precise measurements of God's corporeal limbs and parts. The majority of the text is recorded in the form of sayings or teachings that the angel Metatron revealed to the tanna Rabbi Ishmael, who transmitted it to his students and his contemporary, Rabbi Akiva. It is also an exegetical analysis of Song of Songs 5:11-16 and proclaims that anyone who studies it is guaranteed a portion in the World to Come. Provenance and interpretation Currently the text exists only in fragmentary form, and scholars have debated how to date it appropriately. Modern academic scholars of Jewish mysticism such as Gershom Scholem think that it is from “either the Tannaitic or the early Amoraic period.” However, in the 12th century, the rationalist Jewish philosopher Maimonides declared the text to be a Byzantine forg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hasidic
Hasidism () or Hasidic Judaism is a religious movement within Judaism that arose in the 18th century as a spiritual revival movement in contemporary Western Ukraine before spreading rapidly throughout Eastern Europe. Today, most of those affiliated with the movement, known as ''hassidim'', reside in Israel and in the United States (mostly Brooklyn and the Hudson Valley). Israel Ben Eliezer, the "Baal Shem Tov", is regarded as its founding father, and his disciples developed and disseminated it. Present-day Hasidism is a sub-group within Haredi Judaism and is noted for its religious conservatism and social seclusion. Its members aim to adhere closely both to Orthodox Jewish practice – with the movement's own unique emphases – and the prewar lifestyle of Eastern European Jews. Many elements of the latter, including various special styles of dress and the use of the Yiddish language, are nowadays associated almost exclusively with Hasidism. Hasidic thought draws heavily o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sabbatai Zevi
Sabbatai Zevi (, August 1, 1626 – ) was an Ottoman Jewish mystic and ordained rabbi from Smyrna (now İzmir, Turkey). His family were Romaniote Jews from Patras. His two names, ''Shabbethay'' and ''Ṣebi'', mean Saturn and mountain gazelle, respectively. Active throughout the Ottoman Empire, Zevi claimed to be the long-awaited Jewish Messiah and founded the Sabbatean movement. Central to his teachings was the belief that during the Messianic Age, acts traditionally considered sinful would transform into righteous ones. This antinomian doctrine led Zevi and his followers to deliberately violate Jewish commandments, a controversial practice that later inspired movements like the Frankists. Upon arriving in Constantinople in February 1666, Sabbatai was imprisoned on the order of the grand vizier Köprülüzade Fazıl Ahmed Pasha. In September of that same year, after being moved from different prisons around the capital to the imperial courts' seat in Adrianople (now Edi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isaac Luria
Isaac ben Solomon Ashkenazi Luria (; #FINE_2003, Fine 2003, p24/ref>July 25, 1572), commonly known in Jewish religious circles as Ha'ari, Ha'ari Hakadosh or Arizal, was a leading rabbi and Jewish mysticism, Jewish mystic in the community of Safed in the Galilee region of Ottoman Syria, now Israel. He is considered the father of contemporary Kabbalah, his teachings being referred to as Lurianic Kabbalah. While his direct literary contribution to the Kabbalistic school of Safed was extremely minute (he wrote only a few poems), his spiritual fame led to their veneration and the acceptance of his authority. The works of his disciples compiled his oral teachings into writing. Every custom of Luria was scrutinized, and many were accepted, even against previous practice. Luria died at Safed on July 25, 1572, and is buried at the Safed Old Jewish Cemetery. The Ari Ashkenazi Synagogue, also located in Safed, was built in memory of Luria during the late 16th century. Early life Luri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zohar
The ''Zohar'' (, ''Zōhar'', lit. "Splendor" or "Radiance") is a foundational work of Kabbalistic literature. It is a group of books including commentary on the mystical aspects of the Torah and scriptural interpretations as well as material on mysticism, mythical cosmogony, and mystical psychology. The ''Zohar'' contains discussions of the nature of God, the origin and structure of the universe, the nature of souls, redemption, the relationship of ego to darkness and "true self" to "the light of God". The ''Zohar'' was first publicized by Moses de León (c. 1240 – 1305 CE), who claimed it was a Tannaitic work recording the teachings of Simeon ben Yochai (). This claim is universally rejected by modern scholars, most of whom believe de León, also an infamous forger of Geonic material, wrote the book himself between 1280 and 1286. Some scholars argue that the ''Zohar'' is the work of multiple medieval authors and/or contains a small amount of genuinely antique novel mate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abraham Abulafia
Abraham ben Samuel Abulafia () was the founder of the school of "Prophetic Kabbalah". He was born in Zaragoza, Spain, in 1240, and is assumed to have died sometime after 1291 following a stay on the small and windswept island of Comino (the smallest of the three inhabited islands that make up the Maltese archipelago). Biography Early life and travels Very early in life he was taken by his parents to Tudela, Navarre, where his aged father, Samuel Abulafia, instructed him in the Hebrew Bible and Talmud. In 1258, when Abulafia was eighteen years old, his father died, and Abulafia began a life of ceaseless wandering shortly thereafter. His first journey, in 1260, was to the Land of Israel, where he intended to begin a search for the legendary Sambation and the Ten Lost Tribes. He got no further than 'Akko, however, because of the desolation and lawlessness in the Holy Land stemming from the chaos following the recent Crusade. The battle that year between the Mongol Empire and Mam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bahir
''Bahir'' or ''Sefer HaBahir'' (, ; "Book of Clarity" or "Book of Illumination") is an anonymous mystical work, attributed to a 1st-century rabbinic sage Nehunya ben HaKanah (a contemporary of Yochanan ben Zakai) because it begins with the words, "R. Nehunya ben HaKanah said". It is also known as ''Midrash of Rabbi Nehunya ben HaKanah'' . First mentioned in late 12th century Provencal works, the ''Bahir'' is an early work of the esoteric Jewish mystical tradition that eventually became known as Kabbalah. The work is considered by scholars to be pseudepigraphical, composed in Provence in the late 12th century. Title Nahmanides, in his commentary on the Torah, (Genesis 1) is one of the first to quote the work under the title ''Midrash R. Nehunya ben HaKanah.'' ("R. Nehunya ben HaKanah said," the opening sentence) Among medieval Kabbalists it became known as ''Sefer HaBahir'', taken from its opening comment, "One verse says: 'And now men see not the light which is bright ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sefer Yetzira
''Sefer Yetzirah'' ( ''Sēp̄er Yəṣīrā'', ''Book of Formation'', or ''Book of Creation'') is a work of Jewish mysticism. Early commentaries, such as the '' Kuzari'', treated it as a treatise on mathematical and linguistic theory, as opposed to one about Kabbalah. The word ''Yetzirah'' is more literally translated as "Formation"; the word ''B'riah'' is used for "Creation". The book is traditionally ascribed to the patriarch Abraham, although others attribute its writing to Rabbi Akiva or Adam. Modern scholars have not reached consensus on the question of its origins. According to Saadia Gaon, the objective of the book's author was to convey in writing how the things of our universe came into existence. Conversely, Judah Halevi asserts that the main objective of the book, with its various examples, is to give humans the means to understand the unity and omnipotence of God, which appear multiform on the one hand, and yet, are uniform. The famous opening words of the book are as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Book Of Enoch
The Book of Enoch (also 1 Enoch; Hebrew language, Hebrew: סֵפֶר חֲנוֹךְ, ''Sēfer Ḥănōḵ''; , ) is an Second Temple Judaism, ancient Jewish Apocalyptic literature, apocalyptic religious text, ascribed by tradition to the Patriarchs (Bible), patriarch Enoch who was the father of Methuselah and the great-grandfather of Noah..Barker, Margaret. (2005) [1998]. ''The Lost Prophet: The Book of Enoch and Its Influence on Christianity''. London: SPCK; Sheffield Phoenix Press. The Book of Enoch contains unique material on the origins of demons and Nephilim, why some fallen angel, angels fell from heaven, an explanation of why the Genesis flood narrative, Genesis flood was morally necessary, and a prophetic exposition of the Millennialism, thousand-year reign of the Messiah. Three books are traditionally attributed to Enoch, including the distinct works 2 Enoch and 3 Enoch. 1 Enoch is not considered to be Biblical canon, canonical scripture by most Jewish or Christian chu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hekhalot Literature
Hekhalot literature (sometimes transliterated as Heichalot), from the Hebrew word for "Palaces," relates to visions of entering heaven alive. The genre overlaps with Merkabah mysticism, also called "Chariot literature", which concerns Ezekiel's vision of the throne-chariot, so the two are sometimes referred to as the "Books of the Palaces and the Chariot" (). Hekhalot literature is a genre of Jewish esoteric and revelatory texts produced sometime between late antiquity (some believe from Talmudic times or earlier) to the Early Middle Ages. Many motifs of later Kabbalah are based on the Hekhalot texts, and Hekhalot literature itself is based upon earlier sources, including traditions about the heavenly ascents of Enoch found among the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Pseudepigrapha. Hekhalot itself has many pseudepigraphic texts. Texts Some of the Hekhalot texts are: * ''Hekhalot Zutartey'' "Lesser Palaces" or "Palaces Minor," which details an ascent of Rabbi Akiva through the seven heav ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gershom Scholem
Gershom Scholem (; 5 December 1897 – 21 February 1982) was an Israeli philosopher and historian. Widely regarded as the founder of modern academic study of the Kabbalah, Scholem was appointed the first professor of Jewish mysticism at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Scholem and the Kabbalah Scholem is acknowledged as the single most significant figure in the recovery, collection, annotation, and registration into rigorous Jewish scholarship of the canonical bibliography of mysticism and scriptural commentary that runs through its primordial phase in the ''Sefer Yetzirah,'' its inauguration in the '' Bahir,'' its exegesis in the ''Pardes'' and the ''Zohar'' to its cosmogonic, apocalyptic climax in Isaac Luria's '' Ein Sof'' that is known collectively as Kabbalah. After generations of demoralization and assimilation in the European Enlightenment, the disappointment of messianic hopes, the famine of 1916 in Palestine, and in the midst of the catastrophe of the Final Solution i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
