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Heikhalot
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] |
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] |
Merkabah Mysticism
Merkabah () or Merkavah mysticism (lit. Chariot mysticism) is a school of early Jewish mysticism (), centered on visions such as those found in Ezekiel 1 or in the hekhalot literature ("palaces" literature), concerning stories of ascents to the heavenly palaces and the Throne of God. The main corpus of the Merkabah literature was composed in the period 200–700 CE, although later references to the Chariot tradition can also be found in the literature of the Ashkenazi Hasidim in the Middle Ages. A major text in this tradition is the '' Maaseh Merkabah'' (). Etymology The noun ''merkavah'' "thing to ride in, cart" is derived from a verb, , with the general meaning "to ride". The word "chariot" is found 44 times in the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible, most referring to normal chariots on earth. Although the concept of the Merkabah is associated with Ezekiel's vision, the word is not used in Ezekiel 1. However, when left untranslated, in English the Hebrew term ''merkav ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Entering Heaven Alive
Entering heaven alive (called by various religions "ascension", "assumption", or "Translation (Mormonism), translation") is a belief held in various religions. Since death is the normal end to an individual's life on Earth and the beginning of afterlife, entering heaven without dying first is considered exceptional and usually a sign of a deity's special recognition of the individual's piety. Judaism In the Hebrew Bible, there are two figures – Enoch and Elijah – who are said to have entered heaven alive, but both wordings are subject of debate. Bereshit (parashah), Genesis 5:24 says "Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, for God took him," but it does not state whether he was alive or dead nor where God took him. The Books of Kings describes the prophet Elijah being taken towards the Heaven in Judaism, heavens () in a whirlwind, but the word can mean either heaven as the abode of God or the sky (as the word "heavens" does in modern English). According to the pos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Midrash Eleh Ezkerah
Midrash Eleh Ezkerah ( ''ʾĒlle ʾEzkərā'') is an aggadic midrash, one of the smaller midrashim, which receives its name from the fact that a seliḥah for the Day of Atonement, which treats the same subject and begins with the words "ʾĒlle ʾEzkərā," recounts the execution of ten famous teachers in the time of the persecution by Hadrian. The same event is related in a very ancient source, Lamentations Rabbah, and also in Midrash Tehillim from the fifth and sixth centuries of the common era. The version in ''Eleh Ezkerah'' According to the Midrash Eleh Ezkerah, and a brief parallel source in Midrash Mishlei, a Roman emperor commanded the execution of the ten sages of Israel to expiate the guilt of the sons of Jacob, who had sold their brother Joseph—a crime which, according to Exodus 21:16, had to be punished with death. The names of the martyrs are given here, as in the seliḥah (varying in part from Lamentations Rabbah and Midrash Tehillim), as follows: # Sime ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smaller Midrashim
A number of midrashim exist which are smaller in size, and generally later in date, than those dealt with in the articles Midrash Haggadah and Midrash Halakah. Despite their late date, some of these works preserve material from the Apocrypha and Philo of Alexandria. These small works, were in turn used by later larger works, such as Sefer haYashar (midrash). Important editors and researchers of this material include Abraham ben Elijah of Vilna, Adolf Jellinek, and Solomon Aaron Wertheimer. Principal works The chief of these works are: * '' Midrash Abba Gorion'', a late midrash to the Book of Esther * '' Midrash Abkir'', on the first two books of the Torah. Only fragments survive. * '' Midrash Al Yithallel'', stories about David, Solomon, and the rich Korah * '' Midrash Aseret ha-Dibrot'', a haggadah for Shavuot * '' Chronicle of Moses'' (or ''Divrei ha-Yamim shel Mosheh'') * '' Midrash Eleh Ezkerah'', on the execution of the ten sages by the Roman emperor Hadrian. * '' Mid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Primary Texts Of Kabbalah
The primary texts of Kabbalah were allegedly once part of an ongoing oral tradition. The written texts are obscure and difficult for readers who are unfamiliar with Jewish spirituality which assumes extensive knowledge of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), Midrash (Jewish hermeneutic tradition) and halakha (Jewish religious law). The Torah For kabbalists, ten utterances in Genesis with which God created the world are linked to the ten sefirot—the divine structure of all being. According to the ''Zohar'' and the ''Sefer ha-Yihud'', the Torah is synonymous with God.Kabbalah: New Perspectives, Moshe Idel, Yale University Press, 1988. More specifically, in the ''Sefer ha-Yihud'', the letters in the Torah are the forms of God. The kabbalist looks beyond the literal aspects of the text, to find the hidden mystical meaning. The text not only offers traditions and ways of thinking, but it also reveals the reality of God. One of the first Jewish philosophers, Philo of Alexandria (20BCE-40 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alternate History
Alternate history (also referred to as alternative history, allohistory, althist, or simply A.H.) is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which one or more historical events have occurred but are resolved differently than in actual history. As conjecture based upon historical fact, alternate history stories propose "what if?" scenarios about pivotal events in human history, and present outcomes very different from the historical record. Some alternate histories are considered a subgenre of science fiction, or historical fiction. Since the 1950s, as a subgenre of science fiction, some alternative history stories have featured the tropes of time travel between histories, the psychic awareness of the existence of an alternative universe by the inhabitants of a given universe, and time travel that divides history into various timestreams. Definition Often described as a subgenre of science fiction, alternative history is a genre of fiction wherein the author speculates upon how the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pseudepigraph
A pseudepigraph (also anglicized as "pseudepigraphon") is a falsely attributed work, a text whose claimed author is not the true author, or a work whose real author attributed it to a figure of the past. The name of the author to whom the work is falsely attributed is often prefixed with the particle " pseudo-", such as for example " pseudo-Aristotle" or " pseudo-Dionysius": these terms refer to the anonymous authors of works falsely attributed to Aristotle and Dionysius the Areopagite, respectively. In biblical studies, the term ''pseudepigrapha'' can refer to an assorted collection of Jewish religious works thought to be written 300 BCE to 300 CE. They are distinguished by Protestants from the deuterocanonical books (Catholic and Orthodox) or Apocrypha (Protestant), the books that appear in extant copies of the Septuagint in the fourth century or later and the Vulgate, but not in the Hebrew Bible or in Protestant Bibles. The Catholic Church distinguishes only between the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alphabet Of Rabbi Akiva
Alphabet of Rabbi Akiva (, ''Alpha-Beta de-Rabbi Akiva''), otherwise known as Letters of Rabbi Akiva (, ''Otiot de-Rabbi Akiva'') or simply Alphabet or Letters, is a midrash on the names of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Two versions or portions of this midrash are known to exist. Version A of ''Alphabet'' Version A, which is considered by Adolf Jellinek to be the older form, and bBlochto be of a much more recent origin, introduces the various anthropomorphized letters of the Hebrew alphabet that God engraved from His crown with a pen of fire contending with each other for the honor of forming the beginning of creation (bereshit). It is based upon Genesis Rabbah 1 and Shir haShirim Rabbah on 5:11, according to which Aleph (א) complained before God that Bet (ב) was preferred to it, but was assured that the Torah of Sinai, the object of creation, would begin with Aleph (אנכי = Anochi = I am); it, however, varies from the Midrash Rabbot. The letters, beginning with the l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Sword Of Moses
''The Sword of Moses'' (''Harba de-Moshe'') is an apocryphal Aramaic–Hebrew book of magic, written or compiled by an anonymous Jew sometime before the 11th century, probably in Palestine. It was edited by Moses Gaster in Zikhron Ya'akov in 1896 from a 13th- or 14th-century manuscript from his own collection, formerly MS Gaster 78, now London, British Library MS Or. 10678. Gaster assumed that the text predates the 11th century, based on a letter by Hai ben Sherira (939-1038) which mentions the book alongside the '' Sefer haYashar'', described as another book of formulas, and that it may even date to as early as the first four centuries. Yuval Harari disagrees, saying, "It seems more reasonable that the book stemmed from the (later) era of magical treatises, such as ''Pishra de-Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa'' or ''Havdala de-Rabbi Aqiva''. Although there is no hard proof for the date of origin of any of these compositions (including ''The Sword of Moses''), scholars tend to agree that the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sefer HaRazim
''Sefer HaRazim'' (; "Book of Secrets") is a Jewish magical text supposedly given to Noah by the angel Raziel, and passed down throughout Biblical history until it ended up in the possession of Solomon, for whom it was a great source of his wisdom and purported magical powers. This is not the same work as the '' Sefer Raziel HaMalakh'', which was given to Adam by the same angel, although both works stem from the same tradition, and large parts of ''Sefer HaRazim'' were incorporated into the ''Sefer Raziel'' under its original title. It is thought to be a sourcebook for Jewish magic, calling upon angels rather than God to perform supernatural feats. Discovery The text was rediscovered in the 20th century by Mordecai Margalioth, a Jewish scholar visiting Oxford in 1963, using fragments found in the Cairo Geniza. He hypothesised that several fragments of Jewish magical literature shared a common source and was certain that he could reconstruct this common source. He achieved ... [...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] |
