Sod ha-Shabbat

Sod ha-Shabbat PDF Author: Elliot K. Ginsburg
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438404123
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 282

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Sabbath has been one of the most significant and beloved institutions of Jewish life since late antiquity. Over a period of several centuries, the classical Kabbalists developed a rich body of ritual and myth that articulated a fresh vision of the Sabbath. The mystical understanding of the Sabbath was assimilated by virtually every Jewish community. This volume is a translation and critical commentary to Sod ha-Shabbat, a treatise on the mystical Sabbath by the influential Spanish-Turkish Kabbalist, R. Meir ibn Gabbai. This important text, the most systematic treatment of the Sabbath in classical Kabbalah, has been inaccessible to the English reader until now. The study includes an Introduction to ibn Gabbai's life and work, accompanied by extensive critical notes that clarify general problems of translation and place the work in its historical context. Broader theoretical issues regarding myth and the ritual process are also discussed.

Sod ha-Shabbat

Sod ha-Shabbat PDF Author: Elliot K. Ginsburg
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438404123
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 282

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Sabbath has been one of the most significant and beloved institutions of Jewish life since late antiquity. Over a period of several centuries, the classical Kabbalists developed a rich body of ritual and myth that articulated a fresh vision of the Sabbath. The mystical understanding of the Sabbath was assimilated by virtually every Jewish community. This volume is a translation and critical commentary to Sod ha-Shabbat, a treatise on the mystical Sabbath by the influential Spanish-Turkish Kabbalist, R. Meir ibn Gabbai. This important text, the most systematic treatment of the Sabbath in classical Kabbalah, has been inaccessible to the English reader until now. The study includes an Introduction to ibn Gabbai's life and work, accompanied by extensive critical notes that clarify general problems of translation and place the work in its historical context. Broader theoretical issues regarding myth and the ritual process are also discussed.

The Sabbath in the Classical Kabbalah

The Sabbath in the Classical Kabbalah PDF Author: Elliot K. Ginsburg
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438404115
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 362

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book is a critical study of the mystical celebration of Sabbath in the classical period of Kabbalah, from the late twelfth to the early sixteenth centuries. The Kabbalists' re-reading of the earlier Jewish tradition has been called a model of "mythopoeic revision," a revision rooted in a world-view that stressed the interrelation of all worlds and levels of being. This is the first work, in any language, to systematically collect and analyze all the major innovations in praxis and theology that classical Kabbalah effected upon the development of the Rabbinic Sabbath, one of the most central areas of Jewish religious practice. The author analyzes the historical development of the Kabbalistic Sabbath, constructs a theoretical framework for the interpretation of its dense myth-ritual structure, and provides a phenomenology of key myths and rituals. It is one of the first Kabbalistic studies to integrate traditional textual-historical scholarship with newer methods employed in the study of religion and symbolic anthropology.

New Paths in Jewish and Religious Studies

New Paths in Jewish and Religious Studies PDF Author: Glenn Dynner
Publisher: Purdue University Press
ISBN: 1612499244
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 569

Get Book Here

Book Description
The work of Elliot R. Wolfson has profoundly influenced the fields of Jewish studies as well as philosophy and religion more broadly. His radically new approaches have created pioneering ways of analyzing texts and thinking about religion through the lens of gender, sexuality, and feminist theory. The contributors to New Paths in Jewish and Religious Studies: Essays in Honor of Professor Elliot R. Wolfson, many of whom are internationally renowned scholars, hearken from diverse fields. Each has learned from and collaborated with Wolfson as student or colleague, and each has expanded the new scholarly directions initiated by Wolfson’s groundbreaking work. Wolfson’s scholarship gives us innovative ways to think about Judaism and a fresh understanding of religion. Not only a scholar, Wolfson is one of the most important Jewish thinkers of our day. Chapters are grouped according to the categories of religion, Jewish thought and philosophy, and a focused section on Kabbalah, Wolfson’s primary specialization. The volume concludes with a bibliography of Wolfson’s published work and a selection of his poetry.

The Scandal of Kabbalah

The Scandal of Kabbalah PDF Author: Yaacob Dweck
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691162158
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 297

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Scandal of Kabbalah is the first book about the origins of a culture war that began in early modern Europe and continues to this day: the debate between kabbalists and their critics on the nature of Judaism and the meaning of religious tradition. From its medieval beginnings as an esoteric form of Jewish mysticism, Kabbalah spread throughout the early modern world and became a central feature of Jewish life. Scholars have long studied the revolutionary impact of Kabbalah, but, as Yaacob Dweck argues, they have misunderstood the character and timing of opposition to it. Drawing on a rang.

Along the Path

Along the Path PDF Author: Elliot R. Wolfson
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438424361
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 302

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book explores the fundamental issues in Jewish mysticism and provides a taxonomy of the deep structures of thought that emerge from the texts.

Uniter of Heaven and Earth

Uniter of Heaven and Earth PDF Author: Miles Krassen
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438409656
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 322

Get Book Here

Book Description
Uniter of Heaven and Earth explores an important stage in the development of Hasidism, the eighteenth-century Jewish mystical movement. The author presents a clear and penetrating account of the basis of Hasidic mysticism, clarifying its basic beliefs and contemplative practices. The underlying teachings of Hasidism are elucidated through translations of many authentic Hasidic texts previously unavailable in English. Including a wide-range of Hasidic texts, the book focuses on the writings of a seminal figure in early Hasidic history, Rabbi Meshullam Feibush Heller. A disciple of Rabbi Yehiel Mikhel, the Maggid of Zlotchov, perhaps the prototype of the Hasidic Rebbe, Heller formulated a version of Hasidic teachings that highly influenced later stages and schools of the movement, including HaBaD Hasidism. Central to these writings are an argument for faith in Hasidic masters and an account of radical spiritual approaches that enable the masters to transform negative thoughts and emotions into means of discovering God. This book clearly explains Hasidic mysticism's use of the Kabbalah, discusses the meaning of Jewish holidays in early Hasidism, and provides an edifying and insightful account of the ethical basis upon which Hasidism's mystical aspirations depend. What emerges is an essential understanding of the mystical experience and distinctiveness of the Hasidic Zaddiq, and the controversial spiritual practices which he alone could safely employ.

The Generations of Adam

The Generations of Adam PDF Author: Isaiah Horowitz
Publisher: Paulist Press
ISBN: 9780809135905
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 472

Get Book Here

Book Description
"Here is a first time English translation of a seventeenth-century classic of Jewish literature that deals with many of the most important issues addressed by Kabbalists since the late twelfth century. Horowitz (c. 1570-1626) served as rabbi of several of the most important European Jewish communities before becoming Chief Ashkenazic Rabbi of Jerusalem in 1621."--Publisher description.

Another Modernity

Another Modernity PDF Author: Clémence Boulouque
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 1503613119
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 383

Get Book Here

Book Description
Another Modernity is a rich study of the life and thought of Elia Benamozegh, a nineteenth-century rabbi and philosopher whose work profoundly influenced Christian-Jewish dialogue in twentieth-century Europe. Benamozegh, a Livornese rabbi of Moroccan descent, was a prolific writer and transnational thinker who corresponded widely with religious and intellectual figures in France, the Maghreb, and the Middle East. This idiosyncratic figure, who argued for the universalism of Judaism and for interreligious engagement, came to influence a spectrum of religious thinkers so varied that it includes proponents of the ecumenical Second Vatican Council, American evangelists, and right-wing Zionists in Israel. What Benamozegh proposed was unprecedented: that the Jewish tradition presented a solution to the religious crisis of modernity. According to Benamozegh, the defining features of Judaism were universalism, a capacity to foster interreligious engagement, and the political power and mythical allure of its theosophical tradition, Kabbalah—all of which made the Jewish tradition uniquely equipped to assuage the post-Enlightenment tensions between religion and reason. In this book, Clémence Boulouque presents a wide-ranging and nuanced investigation of Benamozegh's published and unpublished work and his continuing legacy, considering his impact on Christian-Jewish dialogue as well as on far-right Christians and right-wing religious Zionists.

Hasidic Art and the Kabbalah

Hasidic Art and the Kabbalah PDF Author: Batsheva Goldman-Ida
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004290265
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 488

Get Book Here

Book Description
Hasidic Art and the Kabbalah presents eight case studies of manuscripts, ritual objects, and folk art developed by Hasidic masters in the mid-eighteenth to late nineteenth centuries, whose form and decoration relate to sources in the Zohar, German Pietism, and Safed Kabbalah. Examined at the delicate and difficult to define interface between seemingly simple, folk art and complex ideological and conceptual outlooks which contain deep, abstract symbols, the study touches on aspects of object history, intellectual history, the decorative arts, and the history of religion. Based on original texts, the focus of this volume is on the subjective experience of the user at the moment of ritual, applying tenets of process philosophy and literary theory – Wolfgang Iser, Gaston Bachelard, and Walter Benjamin – to the analysis of objects.

The Enlightened Will Shine

The Enlightened Will Shine PDF Author: Pinchas Giller
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438404093
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 199

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book analyzes the use of symbolism and theurgy in two sections of the Zohar, the central text of the kabbalah. These compositions, Tiqqunei ha-Zohar and Ra'aya Meheimna have been particularly loved by kabbalists. Giller demonstrates the significance of their contributions to theosophical kabbalah.