© Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ Notes on the Study of Early Kabbalah in English with a section on the Pre-Kabbalistic Streams of Jewish Mysticism to the Hasidei Ashkenaz to which is appended KABBALAH STUDY: JEWISH MYSTICISM IN ENGLISH (1996) Don Karr © Don Karr, 1985, 1996, revised & updated 2002-2020; revised w/links 2021-2024. Email: dk0618@yahoo.com All rights reserved. License to Copy This publication is intended for personal use only. Paper copies may be made for personal use. With the above exception, no part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, without permission in writing from the author. Reviewers may quote brief passages. THE PHASE OF JEWISH MYSTICISM conventionally referred to as “early kabbalah” begins with Sefer ha-Bahir (ca. 1180) and ends with the Zohar (1270-1300). The major features and figures of this span can be outlined thus: A. Early Kabbalah1 1. Formative Period a. Sefer ha-Bahir (ca. 1180) b. Provence i. Isaac the Blind (1160-1235) ii. The Iyyun School (early to mid-1200s) iii. Asher ben David (fl. mid-1200s) c. Gerona i. Ezra ben Solomon (older contemporary of Azriel) ii. Azriel (ca. 1160-ca. 1238) iii. Nahmanides (1194-1270) iv. Jacob ben Sheshet (contemporary of Nahmanides) v. Sefer ha-Temunah (ca. 1300) vi. Sefer ha-Yashar (13th century) d. Castile i. Jacob ha-Cohen (brother of Isaac ha-Cohen) ii. Isaac ha-Cohen (d. ca. 1300) iii. Moses of Burgos (ca. 1230-1300) 2. Developmental Period a. Abraham Abulafia (1240-1291) b. Moses de Leon (1240-1305) c. David ben Yehudah he-Hasid (ca. 1240-ca. 1320) d. Joseph Gikatilla (1248-1325) e. Menahem Recanati (1250-1310) f. Isaac of Acre, or Acco (1250-1340) g. Bahya ben Asher (1255-1340) h. Joseph of Hamadan (late 13th-early 14th century) i. Massekhet Azilut (early 14th century) 1 This outline is offered with full awareness that it gives an oversimplified picture of the development of early kabbalah. The outline below of Pre-Kabbalistic Streams is similarly convenient. Both outlines show the limits of the sources available in English. At the upper left of each page: ∞ links to Early Kabbalah; §§ links to Pre-Kabbalistic Streams. 1 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ For a concise introduction to early kabbalah, find “The Kabbalistic Tradition: A Brief History until the Zohar,” which is CHAPTER 2 of A Guide to the Zohar by Arthur Green (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004), pages 9-27, or the pertinent sections of Joseph Dan’s Kabbalah: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford – New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), pages 11-29. Five books cover the kabbalah in English. • FORMATIVE PERIOD which can serve as the basis of a study of early Scholem, Gershom. Origins of the Kabbalah (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society/ Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987)—hereafter OK. OK is from the German Ursprung und Anfange der Kabbala (1962), translated by Allan Arkush, edited by R. J. Zwi Werblowsky; Ursprung… is an expansion of the Hebrew work, Reshith ha-Qabbalah (1948). • Dan, Joseph; and Keiner, Ronald C. The Early Kabbalah [THE CLASSICS IN WESTERN SPIRITUALITY] (Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1986)—hereafter EK.2 EK is an anthology of texts—an excellent complement to OK. • Dan, Joseph. Jewish Mysticism, Volume II: The Middle Ages (Northvale – Jerusalem: Jason Aronson Inc., 1998)—hereafter JMII. JMII is a collection of Dan’s articles covering early Kabbalah, concentrating on Sefer ha-Bahir and the Ashkenazi Hasidim. See below, Pre-Kabbalistic Streams of Jewish Mysticism, § 5. Hasidei Ashkenaz. • Dauber, Jonathan. Knowledge of God and the Development of Early Kabbalah (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2012). “To state my thesis in broad terms, a major factor that led to the development of Kabbalah was the adoption by the first Kabbalists of a philosophic ethos that, under the influence of the newly emergent Hebrew philosophic materials, had taken root in Jewish communities in Languedoc and Catalonia. This was an ethos in which a sort of meta-reflection on classical Jewish texts and, in particular, the investigation of God as the height of that reflection, was accorded great religious significance. It was their adoption of such an ethos, and the seriousness with which they took it, that spurred the early Kabbalists to actively develop and expand their traditions.” (—page 3) • _______. Secrecy and Esoteric Writing in Kabbalistic Literature (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2022). —with chapters focusing on Abraham ben David, Isaac the Blind, Ezra ben Solomon, and Asher ben David. See also • Haskell, Ellen Davina. Suckling at My Mother’s Breasts: The Image of a Nursing God in Jewish Mysticism (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2012). This book is a reworking of Haskell’s Ph.D. dissertation, METAPHOR AND SYMBOLIC REPRESENTATION: THE IMAGE OF GOD AS SUCKLING MOTHER IN THIRTEENTH CENTURY KABBALAH (Chicago: University of Chicago, 2005). See CHAPTER TWO, “Suckling the Divine Overflow in Early Kabbalah,” which looks at three influential early kabbalistic works that develop and incorporate imagery associated with the nursing divine: Sefer ha-Bahir (The Book of Brightness), Isaac the Blind’s Commentary on Sefer Yetzirah (The Book of Formation), and Ezra of Gerona’s Perush le-Shir-ha-Shirim (Commentary on the Song of Songs). (—page 12) 2 From the Depth of the Well: An Anthology of Jewish Mysticism, edited by Ariel Evan Mayse (New York/Mahwah: Paulist Press, 2014) contains excerpts of writings from this period drawn from Dan and Keiner’s Early Kabbalah with passages from Ezra ben Solomon from Seth Brody’s Commentary on the Song of Songs (listed below in § 1.c.1). 2 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ • Mottolese, Maurizio. Analogy in Midrash and Kabbalah: Interpretive Projections of the Sanctuary and Ritual (Los Angeles: Cherub Press, 2007). While Mottolese’s work covers a broad range (Midrash, Maimonides, and mysticism), the core of the book (from CHAPTER 6 on) treats early kabbalah “from Provence to the Zohar.” The kabbalists whom Mottolese draws upon most are Ezra of Gerona, Nahmanides, and, from a generation later, R. Bahya ben Asher (d. 1340). “Analogy,” which elsewhere might be termed “correspondence,” requires the notion of a sympathetic universe as epitomized by a phrase like “As above, so below.” If nothing else, kabbalah is about analogy. • _______. Bodily Rituals in Jewish Mysticism: The Intensification of Cultic Hand Gestures by Medieval Kabbalists (Los Angeles: Cherub Press, 2016). Within the confines of his subject, Mottolese covers the entire spectrum of the current bibliography, from the FORMATIVE PERIOD to the DEVELOPMENTAL PERIOD and the Zohar. • Lachter, Hartley. Kabbalistic Revolution: Reimagining Judaism in Medieval Spain (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2014)—primarily on the DEVELOPMENTAL PERIOD. “This study will focus on kabbalistic texts produced in Spain, mainly in the region of Castile-Leon, during the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. Kabbalists whose works will be of particular importance include Joseph Gikatilla, Moses de Leon, Joseph of Hamadan, David ben Yehudah he-Hasid, and to a lesser extent, Joseph ben Todros ha-Levi Abulafia and Isaac ibn Sahula. Occasional reference will be made, as a point of comparison, to kabbalists who lived and worked either earlier in the thirteenth century (such as Ezra and Azriel of Gerona, Nahmanides, Asher ben David, and the circle of Iyyun texts, or ‘Books of Contemplation’), or those who lived contemporaneously with the kabbalists in question but outside the region of Castile, mainly in Catalonia and Aragon (prominent examples would include Bahya ben Asher from Segovia and the students of Nahmanides living in the region of Catalonia), where kabbalists were somewhat more conservative. Notably absent from this list is Abraham Abulafia…” (pages 11-12). To the above books, add the following dissertations: • Brody, Seth Lance. HUMAN HANDS DWELL IN HEAVENLY HEIGHTS: WORSHIP AND MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE IN THIRTEENTH-CENTURY KABBALAH (Ph.D. dissertation, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1991). “Current discussion of Kabbalistic spirituality, originating with Gershom Scholem, tends to differentiate between the ‘theurgic’ and ‘transformative’ sides of Kabbalistic practice and to present them as constituting divergent goals for mystical intentionality and life. Our analysis of thirteenth-century sources dealing with contemplative prayer and the priestly cult indicate that on the contrary, the theurgic efficacy of a Kabbalist’s worship is a product of his experiential adhesion and absorption into Divinity.” (from the ABSTRACT, p. vii) • Dauber, Jonathan Victor. STANDING ON THE HEADS OF PHILOSOPHERS: MYTH AND PHILOSOPHY IN EARLY KABBALAH. (Ph.D. dissertation, New York: New York University, 2004). Chapters include “The Opening to Myth in the Thought of Abraham bar Hiyya,” “Myth and Philosophy in Sefer ha-Bahir,” “Ascent and Decent” (in Sefer ha-Bahir, R. Jacob ben Sheshet, and R. Azriel of Gerona), and “Myth and Discursive Thinking in R. Asher b. David.” • Goldberg, Joel R. (= Yechiel Shalom Goldberg). MYSTICAL UNION, INDIVIDUALITY, AND INDIVIDUATION IN PROVENÇAL AND CATALONIAN KABBALAH (Ph.D. dissertation, New York: New York University, 2001). Focusing on the earliest kabbalists (e.g., Isaac the Blind, Ezra ben Solomon, and particularly Azriel of Gerona), Goldberg considers the role of individuality in mystical phenomena, i.e., mystical union and the ritual actions which precipitate it. See below, § 1.b. 3 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ Formative Period 1. a. Sefer ha-Bahir (BOOK OF BRIGHTNESS): The earliest work considered “kabbalistic” is Sefer ha-Bahir. There are substantial discussions of this text in OK (pp. 35-48, 49-198) and Dan’s JMII (xiv-lvii, 1-18—see below in “Other references”). Translated excerpts are given in EK (pp. 57-69). Using Scholem’s observations as a starting point, Ronit Meroz has presented her conclusions regarding the three distinct strata of Sefer ha-Bahir in several lectures (including “A Bright Light in the East—The Babylonian Stratum in Sefer ha-Bahir,” Session: HERMENEUTICAL REFLECTIONS ON EARLY KABBALAH at the Association for Jewish Studies Thirty-fourth Annual Conference, Los Angeles: December 17, 2002) and in her Hebrew article, “A Bright Light in the East: On the Time and Place of Part of Sefer ha-Bahir” in Da’at: A Journal of Jewish Philosophy and Kabbalah 49 ([Ramat-Gan]: Universitat Bar-Ilan, 2002): • • • about half was written in Provence in the 12th or 13th century most of the rest was written in the Jewish Babylonian congregation which lived in the 9th and 10th centuries; this stratum has several layers within it and includes Raza Rabba a few paragraphs were written earlier in the land of Israel, some time before the Babylonian strata Regarding all this, refer to Meroz’ articles in English: • • “A Journey of Initiation in the Babylonian Layer of Sefer ha-Bahir,” in Studia Hebraica, Issue no. 7 (Bucharest: The “Goldstein Goren” Center for Hebrew Studies, 2007), on-line at https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=124809 “Middle Eastern Origins of Kabbalah,” § B. THE BABYLONIAN STRATUM OF THE BOOK BAHIR, in The Journal for the Study of Sephardic and Mizrahi Jewry, VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1, SECTION 1: ACADEMICS AND RESEARCH (Summer 2007), edited by Zion Zohar, at http://sephardic.fiu.edu/journal/Summer2007.htm [DEFUNCT LINK].3 Fixing a date for Sefer ha-Bahir is also taken up in Giulio Busi’s FOREWORD to Saverio Campanini’s edition of Mithridates’ Latin translation of the Bahir (noted immediately below). Busi determines that the redaction of the Bahir must have been sometime after 1161, namely after Bahya ibn Pakuda’s Duties of the Heart and Yehuda HaLevi’s Kuzari had been translated from their original Arabic into Hebrew; one, the other, or both are the probable source of the Bahir’s “hidden quote” concerning “whoever frees his heart from worldly occupations” in its definition of the “Merkavah mystic.” Regarding further thematic sources for the Bahir coming from the Kuzari, Busi notes the likelihood that Yehudah ha-Lewi’s book influenced directly the redactor of the Bahir, since, between the final redaction of this one in Southern France and the translation of the Kuzari into Hebrew, there is a demonstrable relation in space and time. As a matter of fact, the highly positive meaning of the heavenly agriculture present in the Bahir is quite close to Yehudah ha-Lewi’s theories centered on the election of Israel. (The Book of Bahir—page 32) 3 This paper is now at ACADEMIA: https://www.academia.edu/2049611/7._The_Middle_Eastern_Origins_of_Kabbalah 4 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ The notion of Sefer ha-Bahir’s being the “first kabbalistic work” has been called into question. Note Jonathan Dauber’s conclusion (Knowledge of God and the Development of Early Kabbalah [Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2012], page 3): “[T]he Bahir did not in fact become known until the thirteenth century and … its designation as a Kabbalistic work is problematic” (see Knowledge of God, CHAPTER FIVE). Daniel Abrams, an acknowledged source for Dauber, raises similar issues, questioning whether Sefer haBahir is, in fact, kabbalistic—or even a work (see Kabbalistic Manuscripts and Textual Theory…, CHAPTER 2, “The Interpolation of Marginal Glosses: ‘The Shekhinah’ and the Theosophic Revisions of Early Manuscripts of the Book Bahir”).4 There are seven full or extended English translations of Sefer ha-Bahir: • Campanini, Saverio (ed). The Book of Bahir: Flavius Mithridates’ Latin Translation, the Hebrew Text, & an English Version [THE KABBALISTIC LIBRARY OF GIOVANNI PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA – Giulio Busi, General Editor] (Torino: Nino Aragno Editore, 2005). The English version is from the Latin of Mithridates, composed around 1486. • Collé, E. and Collé, H. The Bahir/The Brightness: A New Translation with New Insights into One of the Most Important Books of the Kabbalah ([n.p.]: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014). From the Amsterdam (1651) edition. • Dennis, Geoffrey W. Sefer ha-Bahir: Selections from The Book of Brilliance, The Classic Text of Early Kabbalah (Woodbury: Llewellyn Publications, 2017). “Drawing from both the [Reuven] Margolioth (Sefer ha-Bahir [Jerusalem: Mossad Rav Kook, 1994] and [Daniel] Abrams (The Book Bahir… [Los Angeles: Cherub Press, 1991 and 1994]) texts, for this collection I have selected fifty-one of the most piquant and … accessible passages, enough to allow the reader to see the full scope of the Bahir’s interests, but sparing the reader both the seriously fragmented sections and often repetitive nature of the complete work.” (—page 8) • Kaplan, Aryeh. The Bahir: An Ancient Kabbalistic Text attributed to Nehuniah ben HaKana / 1st century C.E. (New York: Samuel Weiser, Inc., 1979). Based primarily on the edition by Reuven Margolioth (Jerusalem: Mossad Rav Kook, 1951 and 1994), which “integrat[es] all the readings from three late manuscripts, including words and phrases not found in the early manuscript witnesses.” (—BAHIR, SEFER HA- [Daniel Abrams, Encyclopedia Judaica, 2008] at http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/sefer-ha-bahir) • Neugroschel, Joachim. “From the Bahir,” in The Secret Garden, edited by David Meltzer (New York: Seabury Press, 1976), pages 47-96. “…translated from the definitive edition prepared by Gershom Scholem,” i.e., Das Buch Bahir (Berlin: Arthur Scholem, 1923; Leipzig: W. Drugulin, 1923; reprinted, Darmstadt: Wissenschftliche Buchgesellshaft, 1970). • Siet, Mark. (The) Bahir Revealed: Kabbalah via the Keys of Consciousness ([n.p.]: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2012). Translation with extensive commentary. Siet notes at the beginning: “Special thanks for the inspiration of Aryeh Kaplan and his translation of the Bahir that is the basis of all the commentary herein presented.” 4 See also Abrams’ “Prolegomenon to a New Edition of the Book Bahir – Editorial Practice in the Presentation of Ms. Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek 209: An Essay in Method,” in Kabbalah: Journal for the Study of Jewish Mystical Texts, vol. 16, edited by Daniel Abrams (Los Angeles: Cherub Press, 2020), pp. 131-156, and Abrams’ articles listed below. 5 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ • Weiss, Rabbi Abner; and Klee Ministry [Kenneth N. Klee]. Sefer Bahir – Book of the Brilliant Light: An Introduction to Kabbalistic Meditation ([n.p.]: independently published, 2023) “We translate and interpret each paragraph in order and relate the paragraphs from meditative and experiential perspective.” (page 4) Excerpts of the Bahir appear in the following anthologies and studies: • • • • • Bokser, Ben Zion. The Jewish Mystical Tradition (New York: The Pilgrim Press, 1981): § 7. “Sefer haBahir” (translated excerpts). Dan/Kiener. EK (pp. 57-69). Dauber, Jonathan. Knowledge of God and the Development of Early Kabbalah (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2012), CHAPTER FIVE: “Investigating God in Sefer ha-Bahir.” (Dauber translates and comments on Bahir §§ 46, 48, 53, and 96.) ______. STANDING ON THE HEADS OF PHILOSOPHERS: MYTH AND PHILOSOPHY IN EARLY KABBALAH (Ph.D. dissertation, New York: New York University, 2004): CHAPTER 2, Section D, offers a “Textual Analysis of Sefer ha-Bahir, Sections 32-60” CHAPTER 3 translates § 60 APPENDIX 2 translates parts of § 32. Finkel, Avraham Yaakov. Kabbalah: Selections from Classic Kabbalistic Works from Raziel HaMalach to the Present Day (Southfield: Targum Press, 2002), pp. 40-46. Finkel offers Bahir §§ 1, 3, 125, 126, 175, 176, and 195, • Hoffman, Edward (ed.). The Kabbalah Reader: A Sourcebook of Visionary Judaism, foreword by Arthur Kurzweil (Boston – London: Trumpeter/Shambhala Publications, 2010). • Horowitz, Daniel M. A Kabbalah and Jewish Mysticism Reader (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 2016), pages 76-80. • Matt, Daniel C. The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1994). Matt translates §§ 22 (THE COSMIC TREE), 104 (THE RIGHTEOUS PILLAR), and 150 (STUMBLING). Stern, David, Parables from Sefer ha-Bahir,” in Rabbinic Fantasies, edited by David Stern and Mark Jay Mirsky (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1990), pp. 203-213. • Hoffman includes Bahir §§ 1, 2, 3, 5, 194, and 195. With commentary, Horowitz translates §§ 23, 119, 125, and 195. Seven passages translated: Pars. 3, 37, 38, 54, 76, 131-2, and 181. based on the Hebrew edition of Reuven Margolioth (Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kook, 1951) with recourse to Alan Arkush’s translation of excepts in Gershom Scholem’s Origins of the Kabbalah. NOTE: Kabbalah: Journal for the Study of Jewish Mystical Texts (Los Angeles: Cherub Press, 19962023)—hereafter Kabbalah: Journal, followed by the volume number, editor(s), and date. Studies: • • • Abrams, Daniel. “Prolegomenon to a New Edition of the Book Bahir – Editorial Practice in the Presentation of Ms, Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek 209: An Essay in Method,” in Kabbalah: Journal, vol. 16, edited by Daniel Abrams (2020), pp. 131-156. ______. “Textual Variance in the Book Bahir: Alternative Versions in Marginal Glosses and Across Multiple Witnesses – A High-Resolution Inquiry to a Brief Passage,” in Kabbalah: Journal, vol. 54, edited by Daniel Abrams (2022), pp. 7-94. ______. “The Book Bahir before It was The Book Bahir: A Commentary on ‘Esoteric Legends’ from the Beginning of the Thirteenth Century,” in Kabbalah: Journal, vol. 56, edited by Daniel Abrams (2023), pp. 103-122. 6 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • ______. “The Condensation of the Symbol ‘Shekhinah’ in the Manuscripts of the Book Bahir,” in Kabbalah: Journal, vol. 16, edited by D. Abrams and A. Elqayam (2007); a revised version of this paper appears as “The Interpolation of Marginal Glosses: ‘The Shekhinah’ and Theosophic Revisions of Early Manuscripts of the Book Bahir” = CHAPTER 2 of Kabbalistic Manuscripts and Textual Theory: Methodologies of Textual Scholarship and Editorial Practice in the Study of Jewish Mysticism (Los Angeles – Jerusalem: Cherub Press – The Magnes Press, 2010—2nd revised edition 2014). Bar-Asher, Avishai. “The Bahir and Its Historiography: A Reassessment,” in The Journal of Religion, vol. 103., no. 2 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2023), pp. 115-144. Dan, Joseph. Gershom Scholem and the Mystical Dimension of Jewish History [MODERN JEWISH MASTERS SERIES #2] (New York: New York University Press, 1988), CHAPTER 5. “The Enigmatic Book Bahir.” ______. “Midrash and the Dawn of Kabbalah,” in Midrash and Literature, edited by G. Hartman and S. Budick (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986), pp. 127-139; also JMII: CHAPTER 1. Dauber, Jonathan. Knowledge of God and the Development of Early Kabbalah (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2012): - CHAPTER 5. “Investigating God in Sefer ha-Bahir” _______. STANDING ON THE HEADS OF PHILOSOPHERS: MYTH AND PHILOSOPHY IN EARLY KABBALAH (Ph.D. dissertation, New York: New York University, 2004): - CHAPTER 2. MYTH AND PHILOSOPHY IN SEFER HA-BAHIR - CHAPTER 3: A. SEFER HA-BAHIR: § 30 APPENDIX 2. § 32 OF SEFER HA-BAHIR IN LIGHT OF EARLY KABBALISTIC SOURCES Esmail, Waheeda. THE TRANSCENDENCE AND IMMANENCE OF THE DIVINE IN THE BAHIR AND IBN AL-ARABI’S THOUGHT. MA Thesis (Montreal: Concordia University, 2011). Eylon, Dina Ripsman. Reincarnation in Jewish Mysticism and Gnosticism [JEWISH STUDIES, Volume 25] (Lewiston-Queenston-Lampeter: The Edwin Mellen Press, 2003). Fishbane, Michael. Biblical Myth and Rabbinic Mythmaking (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003): CHAPTER 10. A. I. THE MYTHIC DISCOURSE OF THE BAHIR (pp. 256-260). Green, Arthur. Keter: The Crown of God in Early Jewish Mysticism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997): Chapter Thirteen. “Sefer ha-Bahir.” Idel, Moshe. Ascensions on High in Jewish Mysticism: Pillars, Lines, and Ladders (Budapest – New York: Central European University Press, 2005): Chapter 2, § 3, “The Pillar in the Book Bahir.” Krzok, Paul. “A Look at the Bahir,” in The Hermetic Journal, Number 22, edited by Adam McLean (Edinburgh: Winter 1983). Lehmann, O. H. “The Theology of the Mystical Book Bahir, in Studia Patristica I (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1957). McGaha, Michael. “The Sefer ha-Bahir and Andalusian Sufism,” in Medieval Encounters, Volume 3, Number 1 (Leiden – New York: E. J. Brill, 1997), pages 20-57. Neubauer, A. “The Bahir and the Zohar,” in Jewish Quarterly Review, ORIGINAL SERIES, vol. 4 (London: Macmillan and Co., 1892). Schäfer, Peter. Mirror of His Beauty: Feminine Images of God from the Bible to the Early Kabbalah (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2002): Chapter 6, “The Shekhinah in the Bahir” (pages 118-134). Scholem, Gershom. Kabbalah [articles from ENCYCLOPEDIA JUDAICA] (Jerusalem -New York: Keter Publishing House/Times Books, 1974; rpt. New York: Dorset Press, 1987): (article) “Sefer ha-Bahir.” 7 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ • • • • • ______. On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism (New York: Schocken Books, 1965): Chapter 3. “Kabbalah and Myth,” § II. Segol, Marla. “Feeling and Wisdom in the Sefer Bahir,” in English Language Notes, vol. 56, no. 1 (Durham: Duke University Press, 2018), pp. 153-168. Wolfson, Elliot R. “Before Alef/Where Beginnings End,” in Beginning/Again: Toward a Hermeneutics of Jewish Texts, edited by Aryeh Cohen and Shaul Magid (New York: Seven Bridges Press, 2002); also in Wolfson’s Alef, Mem, Tau: Kabbalistic Musings on Time, Truth, and Death (Berkeley – Los Angeles – London: University of California Press, 2006), pp. 118-136. ______. “Hebraic and Hellenic Conceptions of Wisdom in Sefer ha-Bahir,” in Poetics Today, volume 19, number 1: HELLENISM AND HEBRAISM RECONSIDERED: THE POETICS OF CULTURAL INFLUENCE AND EXCHANGE I, edited by David Stern (Durham: Duke University Press, Spring 1998). ______. “The Tree That Is All: Jewish-Christian Roots of a Kabbalistic Symbol in Sefer haBahir,” in (1) (idem) Along the Path: Studies in Kabbalistic Myth, Symbolism and Hermeneutics (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995), and (2) The Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy, vol. 3, issue 1 [Special Issue: STUDIES IN JEWISH MYSTICISM, ESOTERICISM, AND HASIDISM] (Yverdon: Harwood Academic Publishers GmbH, 1993), pp. 31-76. 1. b. Provence: The fragments of material that were to become Sefer ha-Bahir made their way to Provence where they fed the development of a mystical school, ca. 1200. This school’s second generation was headed by R. Isaac the Blind (in Hebrew: Rabbi Yitzhak Saggi Nehor), i.e., Isaac ben Abraham of Posquières (d. 1235), “…the first Jewish scholar whom we know by name that dedicated all his creative powers to the field of Kabbalah” (Dan’s introduction to EK, p. 31). On Isaac the Blind, see OK (pp. 248-309) and EK (pp. 31-4, translations on pp. 71-86). R. Isaac’s major work, Commentary on SEFER YEZIRAH, “the first systematic treatise of Kabbalah,” is fully analyzed and translated by Mark Brian Sendor in THE EMERGENCE OF PROVENÇAL KABBALAH: RABBI ISAAC THE BLIND’S COMMENTARY ON SEFER YEZIRAH, Volumes I & II (Ph.D. dissertation, Cambridge: Harvard University, 1994). In MYSTICAL UNION, INDIVIDUALITY, AND INDIVIDUATION IN PROVENÇAL AND CATALONIAN KABBALAH (Ph.D. dissertation, New York: New York University, 2001), Yechiel Shalom Goldberg analyzes key passages from R. Isaac the Blind’s Commentary on SEFER YEZIRAH as well as passages from the works of R. Isaac’s nephew, R. Asher ben David, and R. Azriel of Gerona (on the latter two, see below). Further references: • • • Bar-Asher, Avishai. “Isaac the Blind’s Letter and the History of Early Kabbalah,” in The Jewish Quarterly Review, Vol. 111, No. 3 (Herbert D. Katz Center for Advance Judaic Studies, Summer 2021), pp. 414-443. Dauber, Jonathan. “An Early Kabbalistic Explanation of Temple Sacrifice: Text and Study,” in Accounting for the Commandments in Medieval Judaism: Studies in Law, Philosophy, Pietism, and Kabbalah, edited by Jeremy Brown and Marc Herman (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2021), pp. 58-79. An analysis of three recensions of a text from the circle of Isaac the Blind. _______. Secrecy and Esoteric Writing in Kabbalistic Literature (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2022): Chapter 4. 8 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ • • • • • Halbertal, Moshe. Concealment and Revelation: Esotericism in Jewish Thought and Its Philosophical Implications, translated by Jackie Feldman (Princeton – Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2007): CHAPTER 9, “From Transmission to Writing: Hinting, Leaking, and Orthodoxy in Early Kabbalah.” Koren, Sharon Faye. “Kabbalistic Physiology: Isaac the Blind, Nahmanides, and Moses de Leon on Menstruation,” in AJS Review, vol. 28, no. 2 (Cambridge: Association for Jewish Studies, 2004); and Koren’s Forsaken: The Menstruant in Medieval Jewish Mysticism (Waltham: Brandeis University Press, 2011): PART II: MEDIEVAL KABBALAH, chapter 7. Matt, Daniel C. The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1994). Matt includes excerpts from Isaac’s commentary on SY. Weiss, Tzahi. “The Letter of Isaac the Blind to Nahmanides and Jonah Gerondi in its Historical Context,” in Journal of Jewish Studies, Vol. LXXII, No, 2 (Oxford: Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, 2021), pp. 327-348. Zinberg, Israel. A History of Jewish Literature, Volume III: THE STRUGGLE OF MYSTICISM AND TRADITION AGAINST PHILOSOPHICAL RATIONALISM (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1973): CHAPTER 1, “The Mystics of Provence.” Also circulating in Provence in the early-to-mid 1200s were the writings of the Iyyun (CONTEMPLATION) school. The kabbalah of these strange texts is quite different from the doctrines which developed into classical kabbalah. See EK (p. 26, translations on pp. 43-56: “Book of Speculation,” “Fountain of Wisdom,”5 and “Explanation of the FourLettered Name”), OK (pp. 309-363), and especially Mark Verman’s study, The Books of Contemplation: Medieval Jewish Mystical Sources (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992—a revision of Verman’s Ph.D. dissertation, SIFREI HA-IYYUN, delivered at Harvard, 1984), which includes translations of several major texts of this group. On the Iyyun school, see • • • • Dan, Joseph. The ‘Unique Cherub’ Circle: A School of Mystics and Esoterics in Medieval Germany [TEXTS AND STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN JUDAISM, 15] (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1999); comments regarding the Iyyun school, or “circle,” appear throughout. Grözinger, Karl E. “Handling of Holy Traditions as a Path to Mystical Unity in the Kitve ha-‘Iyyun,” in Rashi 1040-1990: Congres européen des Études juives, ed. by Gabrielle Sed-Rajna (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1993). Porat, Oded. “Aimed Inquiry and Positive Theology in Sefer Ma’ayan ha-Hokhmah,” in Journal of Jewish Thought & Philosophy, Vol. 24 (Leiden: Brill, 2016), pages 224-278. Verman, Mark. “The Evolution of the Circle of Contemplation,” in Gershom Scholem’s MAJOR TRENDS IN JEWISH MYSTICISM 50 Years After, edited by J. Dan and P. Schäfer (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1993). Asher ben David (fl. mid-1200s) wrote Sefer ha-Yihud (BOOK OF UNITY), a commentary on the sefirot which straddles philosophy and kabbalah. See • 5 Asher ben David. “Commentary on the Tetragram,” in Four Short Kabbalistic Treatises: Flavius Mithridates’ Latin Translation, the Hebrew Text, and an English Version, edited by See David Chaim Smith, Fountain of Wisdom: The Complete 13th Century Text with Commentary (illustrated) (Flash of Lighting of Alef, 2021). The ad copy states, “The 13th century text, The Fountain of Wisdom, is one of the most challenging works of the kabbalistic tradition. Alongside this important text is a passage-by-passage commentary by David Chaim Smith, designed to address the working issues of the spiritual practitioner.” The translation is by Mark Verman. 9 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ • • • • • • • • • Saverio Campanini [THE KABBALISTIC LIBRARY OF GIOVANNI PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA, Volume 6] (Castiglione delle Stiviere: Fondazione Palazzo Bondoni Pastorio, 2019), pp. 131-134. Dauber, Jonathan. “Esotericism and Divine Unity in R. Asher ben David,” in Jewish Studies Quarterly, Vol. 21, No. 3 (Mohr Siebeck, 2014), pp. 221-260. ______. Knowledge of God and the Development of Early Kabbalah, pp. 137-139, 140-142, 160-161, 170-172, et passim. ______. Secrecy and Esoteric Writing in Kabbalistic Literature (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2022), Chapter 6. _______. STANDING ON THE HEADS OF PHILOSOPHERS, Chapter Four: “Myth and Discursive Thinking in R. Asher b. David,” pp. 266-304. Fishbane, Etan P. “The Speech of Being, the Voice of God: Phonetic Mysticism in the Kabbalah of Asher ben David and His Contemporaries,” in The Jewish Quarterly Review, Vol. 98, No, 4 (University of Pennsylvania/Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, 2008), pp. 485-521. Goldberg, MYSTICAL UNION, INDIVIDUALITY, AND INDIVIDUATION IN PROVENÇAL AND CATALONIAN KABBALAH, pp. 133-156 et passim. Halbertal, Concealment and Revelation, pp. 72-76, 153-154, et passim. Matansky Eugene D., and Afterman, Adam. “The Dyad of Four-Letter Divine Names in Early Kabbalah and Its Sources,” in The Journal of Jewish Thought & Philosophy, vol. 30, no. 2 Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2022), pp. 234-237 Scholem. OK, pp. 401-403, 431-433, et passim. 1. c. Gerona (Catalonia): The most prolific circle of kabbalists from the period before the Zohar was that of Gerona, which followed up on the teachings of R. Isaac the Blind. The primary figures of this group were (1) R. Ezra ben Solomon and (2) R. Azriel ben Menahem (Azriel of Gerona), who established a school which included (3) R. Moses ben Nahman (Nahmanides) and (4) R. Jacob ben Sheshet. On the Gerona circle, see EK (pp. 34-36), OK (pp. 365-475), and Moshe Idel’s article, “Some Remarks on Ritual and Mysticism in Geronese Kabbalah,” in The Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy, vol. 3, issue 1 (Harwood Academic Publishers GmbH, 1993). Other references: 1. R. Ezra ben Solomon (died ca. 1240): • • • Abrams, Daniel. “Dismantling the Author and His Work – Toward a Genealogy of the Texts which Comprise R. Ezra of Gerona’s ‘Secret of the Tree of Knowledge,’” in Kabbalah: Journal for the Study of Jewish Mystical Texts, Volume 53 (Los Angeles: Cherub Press, 2022), pp. 7-52. Altmann, Alexander. Studies in Religious Philosophy and Mysticism (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1969): “A Note on the Rabbinic Doctrine of Creation.” Includes excerpts from R. Ezra ben Solomon’s Perush ‘al Shir ha-Shirim and a letter to R. Abraham on God’s garments in English. Brown, Jeremy Phillip. “On the Construction of Homelessness in Medieval Kabbalah: Exile in R. Ezra ben Solomon of Gerona,” a paper for the Symposium on Homelessness (Center for Religious Wisdom and World Affairs, Seattle University, April 26, 2018). [forthcoming book chapter] 10 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ • • • • • • • • • • • • • _____. “What Does the Messiah Know? A Prelude to Kabbalah’s Trinity Complex,” in Maimonides Review of Philosophy and Religion Volume 2, edited by Ze’ev Strauss and Isaac Slater (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2023), pp. 1-49. Dauber, Jonathan. “Ezra ben Solomon of Gerona and the Sabians,” in Journal of Jewish Studies, Vol. 70, No. 2 (Oxford: Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, 2019), pp. 276-297. ______. Knowledge of God and the Development of Early Kabbalah (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2012). ______. Secrecy and Esoteric Writing in Kabbalistic Literature (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2022), Chapter 5. Ezra ben Solomon of Gerona. Commentary on the Song of Songs [Perush ‘al Shir haShirim] and Other Kabbalistic Commentaries, selected, translated, and annotated by Seth Brody [TEAMS COMMENTARY SERIES] (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications/Western Michigan University, 1999). Along with R. Ezra’s commentary are the “Hidden Midrash to the Book of Lamentations” from the Zohar Hadash and R. Bahya ben Asher of Sargossa’s commentary on Genesis 1:1-2 (composed 1291). Gavarin, Martelle. “Rabbi Ezra ben Solomon of Gerona,” PART 1, in Kabbalah: A Newsletter of Current Research in Jewish Mysticism, vol. 1, no. 2, edited by Hananya Goodman (Jerusalem: Winter, 1985-6); PART 2: “Annotated Bibliography: Source Texts & Criticism,” in Kabbalah: A Newsletter…, vol. 1, no. 3 (Jerusalem: Spring 1986). Green, Arthur. “The Song of Songs in Early Jewish Mysticism,” in Orim: A Jewish Journal at Yale, vol. 2 (New Haven: Spring 1987). Goldberg, Yechiel Shalom. “The Foolishness of the Wise and the Wisdom of Fools in Spanish Kabbalah: An Inquiry into the Taxonomy of the Wise Fool,” in The Journal for the Study of Sephardic and Mizrahi Jewry, Volume 1, Issue 2 (October-November 2007), edited by Zion Zohar, on-line at http://sephardic.fiu.edu/journal/ [DEFUNCT LINK]. ______. “Spiritual Leadership and the Popularization of Kabbalah in Medieval Spain,” in The Journal for the Study of Sephardic and Mizrahi Jewry, Volume 2, Issue 2 (Winter 2008/2009), edited by Zion Zohar, at http://sephardic.fiu.edu/journal/ [DEFUNCT LINK – “404 Web Site not found”]. Matansky, Eugene D., and Afterman, Adam. “The Dyad of Four-Letter Divine Names in Early Kabbalah and Its Sources,” in the Journal of Jewish Thought & Philosophy, vol. 30, no. 2 Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2022), pp. 237-239 Mottolese, Maurizio. Analogy in Midrash and Kabbalah: Interpretive Projections of the Sanctuary and Ritual (Los Angeles: Cherub Press, 2007). Scholem, Gershom. “Sod ‘Etz ha-Da‘ath” (THE SECRET OF THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE) in On the Mystical Shape of the Godhead (New York: Schocken Books, 1991). A passage attributed to R. Ezra, on pp. 65-8. Travis, Yakov M. KABBALISTIC FOUNDATIONS OF JEWISH PRACTICE: RABBI EZRA OF GERONA – ON THE KABBALISTIC MEANING OF THE MIZVOT: INTRODUCTION–ANNOTATED TRANSLATION–CRITICAL HEBREW EDITION (Ph.D. diss. Waltham: Brandeis University, 2002): a study of Ezra ben Solomon and detailed kabbalistic commentary on the meanings of the mizvot (English translation and Hebrew critical edition). 11 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ 2. R. Azriel of Gerona (ca. 1160-ca.1238): • EK pp. 87-108, “Explanation of the Ten Sefirot” and “Commentary to Talmudic Legends.” • Altmann, Alexander. “Motif of the ‘Shells’ in Azriel of Gerona,” in (idem) Studies in Religious Philosophy and Mysticism (1969); originally in Journal of Jewish Studies, vol. XI, nos. 3-4 (1960), pp. 101-112. • Blaha, Josef (trans./annot.). Azriel of Gerona: Commentary on the Ten Sephiroth (Praha [Prague]: Josef Blaha, 2015). • • • • • • • • • • • • Azriel’s questions and answers about the sefirot, along with Blaha’s ranging commentary in the form of endnotes. Dauber, Jonathan. Knowledge of God and the Development of Early Kabbalah (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2012). Fishbane, Michael. Biblical Myth and Rabbinic Mythmaking (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003): CHAPTER 10. A. II. SOME MYSTERIES OF THE AGGADAH ACCORDING TO R. AZRIEL (pp. 260-266). Ginsburg, Christian D. The Kabbalah: Its Doctrines, Development, and Literature (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1863; London: G. Routledge and Sons, 1864), PART II, § III. The Commentary on the Ten Sephiroth, pages 176-188. Goldberg, Joel R. (= Yechiel Shalom Goldberg) “Azriel of Gerona: A Phenomenology of Individuality” = CHAPTER 6 of MYSTICAL UNION, INDIVIDUALITY, AND INDIVIDUATION IN PROVENÇAL AND CATALONIAN KABBALAH (Ph.D. dissertation, New York: New York University, 2001). Goldberg, Yechiel Shalom. “The Foolishness of the Wise and the Wisdom of Fools in Spanish Kabbalah: An Inquiry into the Taxonomy of the Wise Fool,” in The Journal for the Study of Sephardic and Mizrahi Jewry, Volume 1, Issue 2 (Oct-Nov 2007), edited by Zion Zohar, on-line at http://sephardic.fiu.edu/journal/ [DEFUNCT LINK]. Halbertal, Moshe. Concealment and Revelation: Esotericism in Jewish Thought and Its Philosophical Implications, translated by Jackie Feldman (Princeton – Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2007): CHAPTER 10, “Open Knowledge and Closed Knowledge: The Kabbalists of Gerona – Rabbi Azriel and Rabbi Ya’akov bar Sheshet.” Matt, Daniel C. The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1994). Matt includes excerpts from Azriel’s writings. Matansky Eugene D., and Afterman, Adam. “The Dyad of Four-Letter Divine Names in Early Kabbalah and Its Sources,” in the Journal of Jewish Thought & Philosophy, vol. 30, no. 2 Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2022), pp. 239-243. Pachter, Mordechai. “The Root of Faith is the Root of Heresy,” PART I of Pachter’s Roots of Faith and Devequt: Studies in the History of Kabbalistic Ideas (Los Angeles: Cherub Press, 2004), pp. 13-130. Porat, Oded. “An Introduction to the Kabbalistic Writings of R. Azriel of Gerona,” in Iberia Judaica, Vol. XIII (Madrid: Asociación Hispana de Estudios Hebraicos, 2021), pages 139-148. Safran, Bezalel. “Rabbi Azriel and Nahmanides: Two Views of the Fall of Man,” in Rabbi Moses Nahmanides (Ramban): Explorations in His Religious and Literary Virtuosity, edited by Isadore Twersky (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1983). Scholem, Gershom. “Azriel of Gerona,” in Kabbalah (Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House, 1974, reprinted frequently), pages 391-393. 12 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ 3. Nahmanides (1194-1270): • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Abrams, Daniel. “Orality in the Kabbalistic School of Nahmanides: Preserving and Interpreting Esoteric Traditions and Texts,” in Jewish Quarterly Review, vol. 3, no. 1 (Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck] 1996). ______. “The Textualization of Orality: The Reception and Interpretation of Nahmanides’ Kabbalistic Traditions” = CHAPTER 3 of Kabbalistic Manuscripts and Textual Theory: Methodologies of Textual Scholarship and Editorial Practice in the Study of Jewish Mysticism (Los Angeles/Jerusalem: Cherub Press/The Magnes Press, 2010). Afterman, Adam. “The Language of Union in the Writings of Moses Maimonides and Moses Nachmanides,” in “And They Shall Be One Flesh”: On the Language of Mystical Union in Judaism (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2016), pages 102-129. ______. “The Mystical Dynamics of the Holy Spirit in Moses Nahmanides’ Writings,” in The Jewish Quarterly Review, vol. 113, no. 4 (Philadelphia: Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, Fall 2023), pp. 639-668. Brown, Jeremy. “What Does the Messiah Know? A Prelude to Kabbalah’s Trinity Complex,” in Maimonides Review of Philosophy and Religion Volume 2, edited by Ze’ev Strauss and Isaac Slater (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2023), pp. 1-49. Caputo, Nina. Nahmanides in Medieval Catalonia: History, Community, and Messianism (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame, 2007). Chavel, Charles B. (trans.) Ramban (Nachmanides): Commentary on the Torah, 5 vols. (New York: Judaica Press, 2005). _______. Ramban (Nachmanides): The Law of the Eternal is Perfect (New York: Judaica Press, 2005). _______. Ramban (Nachmanides): Writings of the Ramban (New York: Shiloh Publishing House, 1983). Cohen, Mordechai Z. “Nahmanides’ Four Senses of Scriptural Signification: Jewish and Christian Contexts,” in Entangled Histories: Knowledge, Authority, and Jewish Culture in the Thirteenth Century, edited by Elisheva Baumgarten, Ruth Mazo Karras, and Katelyn Mesler (Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017), pp. 38-58. Curwin, David. “Humans Blessing God—A Mystical Idea and Modern Implications,” in Tradition, vol. 50, no. 4 (New York: Rabbinic Council of America, 2018), pp. 19-36. Dauber, Jonathan. Knowledge of God and the Development of Early Kabbalah (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2012). Dan, Joseph. “Nachmanides and the Development of the Concept of Evil in Kabbalah,” Jewish Mysticism, Volume III: The Modern Period (Northvale – Jerusalem: Jason Aronson Inc., 1998). Diamond, James A. “Nahmanides on the Polis: Reading Exegesis and Kabbala as Political Theory,” in Hebraic Political Studies, vol. 4, no. 1 (Jerusalem: Shalem Press, Winter 2009), pp. 56-79. Feldman, Jonathan. THE POWER OF THE SOUL OVER THE BODY: CORPOREAL TRANSFORMATION AND ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE BODY IN THE THOUGHT OF NAHMANIDES (PhD diss., New York: New York University, 1999). Funkenstein, Amos. “Nahmanides Symbolical Reading of History,” in Studies in Jewish Mysticism, edited by J. Dan and F. Talmage (Cambridge: Association for Jewish Studies, 1982). Halbertal, Moshe. Concealment and Revelation: Esotericism in Jewish Thought and Its Philosophical Implications, translated by Jackie Feldman (Princeton – Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2007): CHAPTER 11 “Tradition, Closed Knowledge, and the Esoteric: Secrecy and Hinting in Nahmanides’ Kabbalah.” _______. Nahmanides: Law and Mysticism, translated by Daniel Tabak (New Haven: Yale University Press. 2020). 13 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Halperin, Dalia-Ruth. “The Sarajevo Haggadah Creation Cycle and the Nahmanides School of Theosophical Kabbalah,” in Studies in Iconography, Volume 35, (Kalamazoo: Western Michigan University/Princeton University, 2014), pages 165-186. Hames, Harvey J. “Reason and Faith: Inter-religious Polemic and Christian Identity in the Thirteenth Century,” in Religious Apologetics – Philosophical Argumentation, edited by Yossef Schwartz and Volkhard Krech [RELIGION IN PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY 10] (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2004) Henoch, Chayim J. Ramban: Philosopher and Kabbalist (Northvale – Jerusalem: Jason Aronson Inc., 1998). Hughes, Aaron W. “Concepts of Scripture in Nahmanides,” in Jewish Concepts of Scripture: A Comparative Introduction, edited by Benjamin D. Sommer (New York – London: New York University Press, 2012), pp. 139-156. Idel, Moshe. “Leadership and Charisma: Maimonides, Nahmanides and Abraham Abulafia,” in The Journal for the Study of Sephardic & Mizrahi Jewry, Volume 2, Issue 1 (June 2008), edited by Zion Zohar, on-line at http://sephardic.fiu.edu/journal/ [DEFUNCT LINK]. ______. “Nahmanides: Kabbalah, Halakhah, and Spiritual Leadership,” in Jewish Mystical Leaders and Leadership in the Thirteenth Century, edited by M. Idel and M. Ostow (Northvale/ Jerusalem: Jason Aronson Inc., 1998). Kimelman, Reuven. “Ramban,” in The Torch, vol. xxvii, No. 1 (Chicago: The National Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs, 1968), pp. 5-9. Koren, Sharon Faye. “Kabbalistic Physiology: Isaac the Blind, Nahmanides, and Moses de Leon on Menstruation,” AJS Review, vol. 28, no. 2 (Cambridge: Association for Jewish Studies, 2004), AND Koren’s Forsaken: The Menstruant in Medieval Jewish Mysticism (Waltham: Brandeis University Press, 2011): PART II: MEDIEVAL KABBALAH, chapter 7. Mottolese, Maurizio. Analogy in Midrash and Kabbalah: Interpretive Projections of the Sanctuary and Ritual (Los Angeles: Cherub Press, 2007). Novak, David. The Theology of Nahmanides Systematically Presented [Brown Judaic Studies 271] (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1992). Pachter, Mordechai. “The Root of Faith is the Root of Heresy” = PART II of Pachter’s Roots of Faith and Devequt: Studies in the History of Kabbalistic Ideas (Los Angeles: Cherub Press, 2004). Pedaya, Haviva. “Nahmanides,” in Encyclopaedia Judaica, SECOND EDITION, Volume 14 (Macmillan/Keter Publishing House, 2007), pp. 739-748. ______. “The Great Mother: The Struggle between Nahmanides and the Zohar Circle,” in, Temps i espais de la Girona jueva: actes del Simposi Internacional celebrat a Girona 23, 24 i 25 de març de 2009, Coordinació: Silvia Planas Marcé (Girona, 2011), pp. 299-315. Schechter, Solomon. “Nachmanides,” in Studies in Judaism: FIRST SERIES [articles by S. Schechter] (London: Adam and Charles Black/Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 1896; rpt. 1945), pages 120-172. Also in Studies in Judaism: A Selection (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society / Cleveland - New York: Meridian Books, 1958), pages 193-230. Schwartz, Dov. “From Theurgy to Magic: Sacrifice in the Circle of Nahmanides and his Interpreters,” (= CHAPTER THREE) in Studies on Astral Magic in Medieval Jewish Thought, translated by David Louvish and Batya Stein [THE BRILL REFERENCE LIBRARY OF JUDAISM, VOL 20] (Leiden - Boston: Brill, 2005). Shulman, Yaacov Dovid. The Ramban: The Story of Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman (New York – London – Jerusalem: C. I. S. Publishers, 1993). Stern, Josef. Problems and Parables of Law: Maimonides and Nahmanides on Reasons for the Commandments (TA’AMEI HA-MITZVOT) (Albany: SUNY Press, 1998). Twersky, Isadore (ed). Rabbi Moses Nahmanides (Ramban): Explorations of His Religious and Literary Virtuosity. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1983. 14 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ • • • • • • • • Wolfson, Elliot. “By Way of Truth: Aspects of Nahmanides’ Kabbalistic Hermeneutic, in AJS Review, vol. 14, no. 2 (Cambridge: Association for Jewish Studies, 1989). ______. “The Secret of the Garment in Nahmanides” in Daat: A Journal of Jewish Philosophy and Kabbalah, #24 (Ramat-Gan: Bal-Ilan University, Winter 1990). Weisblum, Moshe Pinchas. The Hermeneutics of Medieval Jewish Thought: Understanding the Linguistic Codes of Rashi and Nahmanides (Lewiston – Queenston – Lampeter: The Edwin Mellen Press, 2007). Yisraeli, Oded. “Jerusalem in Nahmanides’s Religious Thought: The Evolution of the ‘Prayer over the Ruins of Jerusalem,’” in AJS Review, vol.41, no. 2 (Cambridge: Association of Jewish Studies, 2017), pp. 409-453. ______. “The Controversy of the Intention of Prayer in the Early Kabbalah,” paper for the XI EAJS congress (Krakow: July 17, 2018), accessed via Academia: https://www.academia.edu/37166862/The_Controversy_of_the_Intention_of_Prayer_in_t he_Early_Kabbalah ______. “The ‘Messianic Idea’ in Nahmanides’ Writings,” in Jewish Studies Quarterly, Vol. 29, No. 1 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2022), pp. 22-45. ______. “Tradition and Creativity in Nahmanides’ Kabbalah: The Commentary on the Creation Story and Its History,” in Revue des études juives, vol. 177, issue 1-2 (Paris/Louvain: Peeters Publishers, 2018), pp. 37-73. Zinberg, Israel. “Nahmanides and His Followers,” in (idem) A History of Jewish Literature, Vol. III (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1973). 4. R. Jacob ben Sheshet (fl. mid-1200s) • EK pp. 109-50, “The Book of Faith and Reliance,” and “Response of Correct Answers.” • Dauber, Jonathan. Knowledge of God and the Development of Early Kabbalah (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2012). • _______. STANDING ON THE HEADS OF PHILOSOPHERS: MYTH AND PHILOSOPHY IN EARLY KABBALAH (Ph.D. dissertation, New York: New York University, 2004). • Freudenthal, Gad. “The Kabbalist R. Jacob ben Sheshet of Girona: The Ambivalences of a Moderate Critique of Science,” in Temps: Espais de la Girona jueva [ACTES DEL SIMPOSI INTERNACIONAL CELEBRAT A GIRONA 23, 24 & 25 DE MARC DE 2009 (= Girona Judaica, vol. 5)] (Girona: Patronat Call de Girona, 2011), pp. 287-301. • Halbertal, Moshe. Concealment and Revelation: Esotericism in Jewish Thought and Its Philosophical Implications, translated by Jackie Feldman (Princeton – Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2007): CHAPTER 10 “Open Knowledge and Closed Knowledge: The Kabbalists of Gerona—Rabbi Azriel and Rabbi Ya’akov bar Sheshet.” • Idel, Moshe. “Jewish Kabbalah and Platonism,” in Neoplatonism and Jewish Thought [STUDIES IN PLATONISM: ANCIENT AND MODERN, #7], edited by Lenn Goodman (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992). • Matansky Eugene D., and Afterman, Adam. “The Dyad of Four-Letter Divine Names in Early Kabbalah and Its Sources,” in the Journal of Jewish Thought & Philosophy, vol. 30, no. 2 Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2022), pp. 243-249. 15 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ 5. Sefer ha-Temunah [ShT] A treatise often cited by the Gerona circle, ShT expounds upon the doctrine of the shemittot (COSMIC CYCLES). References: OK pp. 460-75; and Scholem’s On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism, pp. 77-86. Refer also to • • • Idel, Moshe. “The Kabbalah in Byzantium,” § iii. SEFER HA-TEMUNAH AND ITS LITERARY CIRCLE, in Jews in Byzantium: Dialectics of Minority and Majority Cultures, edited by Robert Bonfil, Oded Irshai, Guy G. Stroumsa, and Rina Talgam (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2012), pages 677-686. Kaplan, Aryeh. Immortality, Resurrection, and the Age of the Universe: A Kabbalistic View (Hoboken: KTAV Publishing House, Inc./New York: Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists, 1993); chapter 1, “The Age of the Universe,” pp. 1-12. Wolfson, Elliot R. “Murmuring Secrets: Eroticism and Esotericism in Medieval Kabbalah,” in Hidden Intercourse: Eros and Sexuality in the History of Western Esotericism [ARIES BOOK SERIES, vol. 7], edited by Wouter J. Hanegraaff and Jeffrey J. Kripal (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2008); see especially pages 78-80. 6. Sefer ha-Yashar [ShY] Scholem placed this tract “in the circle of the Kabbalists of Gerona in approximately 1260.” Indeed, it is generally believed that ShY was written by a kabbalist who attempted to render his kabbalistic ideas more acceptable—and accessible—by using the language of ethics and philosophy. Shimon Shokek argues for Rabbi Jonah Gerondi (13th century) as the possible, if not probable, author. Some traditions attribute ShY to Rabbenu Tam from the end of the 14th century. References: • Cohen, R. Seymour (trans/ed). Sefer ha-Yashar. The Book of the Righteous (New York: Ktav Publishing House, 1973). • Shokek, Shimon. Jewish Ethics and Jewish Mysticism in SEFER HA-YASHAR [Sefer ha Yashar be-misgeret sifrut ha-musar ha-’Ivret ba-me’ah ha 13] translated by Roslyn Weiss [JEWISH STUDIES, vol. 8] (Lewiston: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1991). 7. A Commentary to the Ten Sefirot In “A Commentary to the Ten Sefirot from Early Thirteenth-Century Catalonia” (in Kabbalah: Journal, vol. 30, edited by Daniel Abrams, 2013), Abrams offers a synoptic edition of six manuscripts, with an English translation, based on MS London Reg. 16 A x (Margolioth 755), chosen “because it lacks many of the scribal errors that mar the other manuscripts” (page 15). “In some manuscripts there is an attribution to Nachmanides which was quite common with short, anonymous texts which were copied in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries” (p. 11). 16 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ 1.d. Castile: In the second half of the 13th century, a circle of kabbalists grew around the brothers R. Jacob and R. Isaac ha-Cohen (or Kohen), along with their pupil Moses ben Solomon ben Simeon of Burgos. Scholem refers to their developments as “the Gnostic reaction”—reaction, that is, to the philosophic leanings of the Gerona mystics (ref. Scholem, Kabbalah [1974], pp. 55-6). Joseph Dan points out, however, that [t]he two brothers presented two different conceptions of the celestial and divine worlds. While Rabbi Jacob followed the traditions of the merkavah exegesis of Rabbi Eleazar of Worms and other earlier Jewish scholars, Rabbi Isaac adopted the basic concepts of the ten divine emanations, the sefirot, as described in the writings of Rabbi Isaac the Blind of Provence and Rabbi Azriel of Gerona. To their teachings, Rabbi Isaac added a new, revolutionary dimension: he claimed that parallel to the sefirot on the holy side, the right, there are evil sefirot on the left. (—Dan, “Conflicting Views of the Origins of Evil…,” in Envisioning Judaism [noted immediately below], page 823) Rabbi Shem Tob ibn Gaon, who was influenced by the Cohens, wrote Keter Shem Tov, disclosed the “hidden” kabbalistic references in Nahmanides. He also penned a memorial to his friend, one Rabbi Elhanan, called Badey ha-Aron, which drew on the writings of the Cohens and quoted passages from the Zohar without acknowledging the source. See Dan, Gersom Scholem and the Mystical Dimension of Jewish History (New York – London: New York University Press, 1987), pages 233-234. 6which For references to the Cohens and Moses of Burgos: • • • • • • 6 EK pp. 36-7; translations 151-182, “Explanations of the Letters” and “Treatise on the Left Emanation”; OK pp. 355-64. Abrams, Daniel. “Metatron as Logos – The First Created Light of the Intellect in Jacob ha-Kohen's Book of Illumination,” in Kabbalah: Journal for the Study of Jewish Mystical Texts, Volume 55 (Los Angeles: Cherub Press, 2023), pp. 73-118. ______. “The Secret of Illicit Relations – An Unknown Secret by Jacob ben Jacob ha-Kohen (Text, Translation and Commentary),” in Kabbalah: Journal for the Study of Jewish Mystical Texts, Volume 53 (Los Angeles: Cherub Press, 2022), pp. 53-66. Ben-Shahar, Na‘ama. “The Author of ‘Sefer Ha-Qelippot’ (The Book of Shells),” in Kabbalah: Journal, vol. 50, edited by Daniel Abrams (2021), pages 153-164. Dan, Joseph. “Conflicting Views of the Origins of Evil in Thirteenth-Century Kabbalah,” in Envisioning Judaism: Studies in Honor of Peter Schäfer on the Occasion of his Seventieth Birthday, edited by Ra‘anan S. Boustan, Klaus Herrmann, Reimund Leicht, Annette Y. Reed, and Giuseppe Veltri, with the collaboration of Alex Ramos, Volume 2 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2013), pages 821-835. Dan devotes the last half of his paper to “The Theodicy of Rabbi Moses of Burgos in The Pillar on the Left,” offering a comparative analysis of this work and Rabbi Isaac’s Treatise on the Emanations on the Left. ______. “The Emergence of Messianic Mythology in 13th-Century Kabbalah in Spain,” in Occident to Orient: A Tribute to the Memory of A. Scheiber, edited by Robert Dan (Budapest: Akademiai Kiaido/ Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1988). Also = JMII: Chapter 9. This is not to be confused with the Keter Shem Tov of Abraham Axelrod of Cologne (fl. 1260-1275), which mixed the kabbalah of Gerona with the ideas of the Hasidei Ashkenaz. 17 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ • • • ______. “Samael, Lilith, and the Concept of Evil in Early Kabbalah,” in AJS Review, vol. 5 (Cambridge: Association of Jewish Studies, 1980); in Essential Papers on Kabbalah, edited by Lawrence Fine (New York: New York University Press, 1995); also = JMII: Ch. 11. Ebstein, Michael; and Weiss, Tzahi. “A Drama in Heaven: ‘Emanation on the Left’ in Kabbalah and a Parallel Cosmogonic Myth in Ismāʿīlī Literature,” in History of Religions, Vol. 55, No. 2 (The University of Chicago Press, November 2015), pp. 148-171. Porat, Oded. “R. Yitzhak haCohen and R. Moshe of Burgos as Sources of the Evil Doctrine of the Zohar,” in Iberia Judaica, Vol. XIV (Madrid: Asociación Hispana de Estudios Hebraicos, 2022). pp. 175-202. On Castilian kabbalah further, see • • • • • Abrams, Daniel. “Metatron, the Lesser Lord, the Angel Called Elohim – A Kabbalistic Treatise from Thirteenth-Century Castile: Text, Translation and Commentary,” in in Kabbalah: Journal, vol. 34, edited by Daniel Abrams (2016), pages 7-26. Bar-Asher, Avishai. “The Ontology, Arrangement, and Appearance of Paradise in Castilian Kabbalah in Light of Contemporary Islamic Traditions from al-Andalus,” article accepted for Religions, Vol. 11, Issue 11 (online ISSN: 2077-2444, 2020). _______. “From Germany to Spain: Numerology as a Mystical Technique,” in Journal of Jewish Studies, vol. 47, no. 1 (Cambridge: 1996). Kanarfogel, Ephraim. “Rabbinic Figures in Castilian Kabbalistic Pseudepigraphy: R. Yehudah He-Hasid and R. Elhanan of Corbeil,” in Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy, vol. 3, no. 1 (Harwood Academic Publishers GmbH, 1993). Lachter, Hartley. “The Politics of Secrets: Thirteenth-Century Kabbalah in Context,” in The Jewish Quarterly Review, Vol. 101, No. 4 (Philadelphia: Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, Fall 2011), pp. 502-510. Kanarfogel’s article leads us to a later phase of Castilian kabbalah—the subject of Hartley Lachter’s Kabbalistic Revolution: Reimagining Judaism in Medieval Spain (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2014), which treats the writings of Joseph Gikatilla, Moses de Leon, Joseph of Hamadan, and David ben Yehudah he-Hasid— what we call here the DEVELOPMENTAL PERIOD. 18 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ DEVELOPMENTAL PERIOD NOTE: Kabbalah: Journal for the Study of Jewish Mystical Texts (Los Angeles: Cherub Press, 19962022)—hereafter Kabbalah: Journal, followed by the volume number, editor(s), and date. 2. a. Abraham Abulafia: Abulafia is the focus of Scholem’s 4th lecture in Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism. Unlike the developing theosophical stream of kabbalah, Abulafia sought a system of prophetic kabbalah, that is, ecstatic experiential kabbalah. Boldface indicates the titles of what are considered Abulafia’s major works. ABULAFIAN TEXTS in translation: • Abulafia, Abraham. Chaye Ha-Olam Ha-Ba – Life in the World to Come, translated by Yaron Ever Hadani and Sharron Shatil (Belize City: Providence University, 2008). • ______. Gan Naoul – Locked Garden, edited by Fabrizio Del Tin ([n.p.]: eUniversity.pub, 2018). • ______. Get Ha-Shemot – Divorce of the Names, translated by Sharron Shatil (Belize City: Providence University, 2007); edited by Fabrizio Del Tin ([n.p.]: eUniversity.pub, 2018). • ______. Imrei Shefer – Words of Beauty, translated by Alexandru Munteanu (n.p.: David Smith, LLC, 2016); edited by Fabrizio Del Tin ([n.p.]: eUniversity.pub, 2018). • ______. Meditations on the Divine Name, translated by Avi Solomon (self-published: Lulu.com, 2011); republished as The Heart of Jewish Meditation: Abraham Abulafia’s Path of the Divine Names (Hadean Press, 2013 – http://www.hadeanpress.com/); available as a Kindle edition (Amazon Digital Services, 2012). • ______. Ner Elohim – Candle of God, translated by Sharron Shatil (Belize City: Providence University, 2007); edited by Fabrizio Del Tin ([n.p.]: eUniversity.pub, 2018). • ______. Ohr Ha-Shechel – The Light of the Intellect, integral edition in English and Hebrew, translated by Avi Solomon, Adam Shohom, and Sharron Shatil (Belize City: Providence University, 2008); edited by Fabrizio Del Tin ([n.p.]: eUniversity.pub, 2018). • ______. Otzar Eden Ganuz – Concealed Treasure of Eden, translated by Alexandru Munteanu [four volumes: Tome 1 of 4, Tome 2 of 4, etc.] (n.p.: David Smith, LLC, 2016); edited by Fabrizio Del Tin ([n.p.]: eUniversity.pub, 2018). • ______. Sefer Ha-Chesek (or Cheshek) – Book of Desire, translated by Alexandru Munteanu (n.p.: David Smith, LLC, 2016); edited by Fabrizio Del Tin ([n.p.]: eUniversity.pub, 2018). • ______. Sefer Ha-Melamed – The Book of the Master, edited by Fabrizio Del Tin (eUniversity.pub, 2018). • ______. Sefer Ha-Ot – The Book of the Sign, translated by Efrat Levy; integral edition in English, Hebrew, and Aramaic (Belize City: Providence University, 2006); edited by Fabrizio Del Tin ([n.p.]: eUniversity.pub, 2018). See below under “The Book of the Sign” (= Sefer ha-Ot) and within The Path of the Names. • ______. Sefer Ha-Tzeruf – The Book of Permutation (n.p.: David Smith, LLC, 2016); edited by Fabrizio Del Tin ([n.p.]: eUniversity.pub, 2018). While, it is apparent that this work reflects his teachings, Abulafia did not write this work, which is generally referred to as “the anonymous Sefer ha-Tzeruf” (e.g., by Moshe Idel, “TA’ANUG: Erotic Delights from Kabbalah to Hasidim,” in Hidden Intercourse, page 126—see below under “Idel”). Even so, Aryeh Kaplan states, Abulafia wrote much about permutation and combination of letters, devoting his entire Sefer HaTzeruf (BOOK OF BLENDINGS) to the subject. There, however, he writes very little regarding the actual method in which one makes use of such permutations. There is, however, one place where Abulafia goes into this at length, and this is in his Otzar Eden HaGanuz. (—Meditation and Kabbalah, page 83) 19 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ • ______. Sheva Netivot Ha-Torah – The Seven Paths of Torah, integral edition in English and Hebrew (Belize City: Providence University, 2006); edited by Fabrizio Del Tin ([n.p.]: eUniversity.pub, 2018). • ______. Sitrei Torah: Secrets of the Torah, volumes 1 and 2, translated by Yaron Eden Hadani and Alexandru Munteanu (ENGLISH EDITION – Belize City: Providence University, 2009); edited by Fabrizio Del Tin ([n.p.]: eUniversity.pub, 2018). • ______. The Book of the Sign and Messiah: A readable translation of Abraham Abulafia’s Prophecy, introduction and notes by Antony Micheal Hylton MA (independently published, 2023). • ______. “The Book of the Sign,” in Revelation and Redemption: Jewish Documents of Deliverance from the Fall of Jerusalem to the Death of Nahmanides, translated & edited by George W. Buchanan (Dillsboro: Western North Carolina Press, 1978): pp. 293-307. • ______. The Path of the Names: Writings by Abraham ben Samuel Abulafia, edited by David Meltzer (Berkeley – London: Trigram • Tree, 1976). “From Sha’eri Zedek [Gates of Justice],” “The Question of Prophecy,” and selections from Haye Olam ha-Ba [The Book of Eternal Life or The Book of the Life of the Afterlife], and Sefer ha-Ot [The Book of the Letter]. See also the section on Abulafia (§ ‫ )ו‬in Tree : 1 – ‫שמו‬, edited by David Meltzer (Santa Barbara: Christopher Books, Winter 1970), pp. 128-153, which contains an article on Abulafia by Gershom Scholem, the same translation of Sha’eri Zedek as in the Path of the Names, the fourth, fifth and final section of the sixth sections of Sefer ha-Ot, “Be Prepared for Thy God” and “2 Prophetic Poems” by Abulafia. • ______. Ve-Zot Li-Yehuda – And This Is for Yehuda, edited by Fabrizio Del Tin ([n.p.]: eUniversity.pub, 2018). • Albotini, Yehuda. Sulam Aliyah: Ladder of Ascent, translated by Yodfat Glazer and Adam Shohom; Integral edition in English and Hebrew (Belize City: Providence University, 2007); edited by Fabrizio Del Tin ([n.p.]: eUniversity.pub, 2018). “In particular, Rabbi Albotini followed a system advanced by Abraham ben Samuel Abulafia that is generally referred to as ‘ecstatic’ or ‘prophetic’ Kabbalah, as outlined in Abulafia’s Sefer haOt (BOOK OF THE SIGN).” (—PREFACE, page viii) On Albotoni’s Sulam Aliyah (or Sullam ha-‘Aliyah), see David R. Blumenthal’s Understanding Jewish Mysticism: A Source Reader, Volume II (New York: Ktav Publishing House, 1982), CHAPTER 4, “The Abulafian Transformation” (ref § THREE CHAPTERS FROM AL-BOTONI’S SULLAM HA‘ALIYAH, text with commentary—pages 42-78). • Jacobs, Louis. Jewish Mystical Testimonies (New York: Schocken Books, 1976): Chapter Six: “The Prophetic Mysticism of Abraham Abulafia” —passages from “[Abulafia’s unpublished] writings,” from Hayyei ha-Olam ha-Ba, and from Sha’areir Zedek, which was written by a disciple of Abulafia’s. • Kaplan, Aryeh. Meditation and Kabbalah (York Beach: Samuel Weiser, Inc., 1982): Chapter 3: “Rabbi Abraham Abulafia.” Includes passages from Otzar Eden ha-Ganuz, Metzaref la-Shekhel, and Sefer ha-Ot. • Matt, Daniel C. The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1994). Matt includes excerpts from Abulafia’s works: Mafteah ha-Tokhahot (p. 21), Hayyei haOlam ha-Ba (pp. 103-104), Sha’arei Tsedek (by an anonymous student of Abulafia’s, pp. 105107), Otsar Eden Ganuz (p. 111) • Shem Tov Sefardi [de Leon] (attr.) Shaarei Tzedek: Gates of Righteousness, translated by Yaron Ever Hadani (Belize City: Providence University, 2006); edited by Fabrizio Del Tin ([n.p.]: eUniversity.pub, 2018) “As Moshe Idel demonstrated, this book is incorrectly attributed to Rabbi Shem Tov de Leon. Its apparently true author is a direct disciple of Avraham Abulafia, Natan ben Saadyah Harar.” (Fabrizio Lanza/Fabrizio Del Tin, PREFACE, page vi) 20 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ STUDIES ON ABULAFIA: • Afterman, Adam. “Abraham Abulafia’s Mysticism of Divine Flux,” in Journal of Jewish Studies, vol. 74, no. 2 (Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, Autumn 2023), pp. 359-381. • ______. “Mystical Union in the Ecstatic Kabbalah of Abraham Abulafia,” in “And They Shall Be One Flesh”: On the Language of Mystical Union in Judaism (Leiden–Boston: Brill, 2016), pages 151170. • Arzy, Shahar; and Idel, Moshe. Kabbalah: A Neurocognitive Approach (New Haven – London: Yale University Press, 2015). While Abraham Abulafia is not the only mystic discussed in this book, he figures most prominently throughout. See in particular, CHAPTER 3, “The One Out There: Autoscopic Phenomena in Jewish Mysticism” (pages 35-84). • Arzy, Shahar; Idel, Moshe; Landis, Theodor; and Blanke, Olaf. “Speaking with One’s Self: Autoscopic Phenomena in Writings from the Ecstatic Kabbalah,” in Journal of Consciousness Studies: Controversies in Science & the Humanities, Volume 12, Number 11 (Exeter: Imprint Academic, November 2005), pages 4-29. • Berger, Abraham. “The Messianic Self-Consciousness of Abraham Abulafia: A Tentative Evaluation,” in 1. Essays in Life and Thought Presented in Honor of S. W. Baron, edited by J. L. Blau (New York, Columbia University Press, 1959); 2. Essential Papers on Messianic Movements and Personalities in Jewish History, edited by Marc Saperstein (New York: New York University Press, 1992). • Bokser, Ben Zion. The Jewish Mystical Tradition (1981), § 9: “Abraham Abulafia” Quotes the studies of Adolph Jellinek and Gershom Scholem on Abulafia. • Garb, Yoni. “Fear and Power in Renaissance Mediterranean Kabbalah,” in Fear and its Representations, edited by Anne Scott and Cynthia Kosso (Turnhout: Brepos Publishers, 2002), pp. 137-151—discusses the Abulafian Sharei Tzedek, pp. 144-151. • Hames, Harvey J. “A Seal within a Seal: The Imprint of Sufism in Abraham Abulafia’s Teachings,” in Medieval Encounters: Jewish, Christian and Muslim Culture in Confluence and Dialogue, VOLUME 12, NUMBER 2 (Leiden: Brill, 2006). • ______. Like Angels on Jacob’s Ladder: Abraham Abulafia, the Franciscans, and Joachimism (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2007). • Hofer, Nathan. “Abraham Abulafia’s ‘Mystical’ Reading of the Guide for the Perplexed,” in Numen, Vol. 60, No. 2/3 (Leiden: Brill, 2013), pp. 251-279. • Huss, Boaz. “The Formation of Jewish Mysticism and Its Impact on the Reception of Rabbi Abraham Abulafia in Contemporary Kabbalah,” in Religion and Its Other: Secular and Sacral Concepts and Practices in Interaction, edited by Heike Bock, Jörg Feuchter, and Michi Knecht (Frankfurt – New York: Campus Verlag, 2008), pp. 142-162. • ______. “Three in One or One that is Three: On the Dating of Abraham Abulafia’s Sefer haOt,” in Review des Études Juives 165, Issue 1-2 (Paris: janv-juin 2006). • Hylton, Antony Michael. The Prophetic Jew Abraham Abulafia [AKA The Jewish Prophet Abraham Abulafia and His Gospel] ([n.p.]: A. Michael Hylton Har Tziyon/Lulu.com, 2016). The “Author Spotlight” at Lulu.com is headlined, “Bible Covenant Secrets Revealed Here!!!” • Idel, Moshe. “A Unique Manuscript of an Untitled Treatise of Abraham Abulafia in Biblioteca Laurentiana Medicea,” in Kabbalah: Journal, Volume 17, edited by Daniel Abrams and Avraham Elqayam (2008). • ______. “Abraham Abulafia and Menahem ben Benjamin in Rome: The Beginnings of Kabbalah in Italy,” in The Jews of Italy: Memory and Identity, edited by Barbara Garvin and Bernard Cooperman (Bethesda: University Press of Maryland, 2000), pages 233-255. 21 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ • ______. “Abraham Abulafia and Unio Mystica,” in Studies in Medieval Jewish History and Literature III, edited by Isadore Twersky and Jay M. Harris (Cambridge – London: Harvard University Press, 2000), pp. 147-178. • ______. “Abraham Abulafia: A Kabbalist ‘Son of God’ on Jesus and Christianity,” in Jesus Among the Jews” Representation and Thought, edited by Neta Stahl (London – New York: Routledge, 2012), pages 60-93. • ______. “Abraham Abulafia: The Apotheosis of a Medieval Heretic in Modern Me’ah She’arim,” in Canonization and Alterity: Heresy in Jewish History, Thought, and Literature, edited by Gilad Sharvit and Willi Goetschel (Berlin – Boston Walter de Gruyter GmbH, 2022), pp. 125-158. • ______. Abraham Abulafia’s Esotericism: Secrets and Doubts [TEXTS AND STUDIES IN SKEPTICISM, 9] (Berlin – Boston: Walter de Gruyter GmbH, 2020). • ______. “Abulafia’s Secrets of the Guide: A Linguistic Turn,” in Perspectives on Jewish Thought and Mysticism, edited by A. L. Ivry, E. Wolfson, and A. Arkush (Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1998), pp. 289-329. • ______. “Hitbodedut as Concentration in Ecstatic Kabbalah,” in Jewish Spirituality I: From the Bible through the Middle Ages, edited by Arthur Green (New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, 1985). • ______. “Inner Peace through Inner Struggle in Abraham Abulafia’s Ecstatic Kabbalah,” in The Journal for the Study of Sephardic and Mizrahi Jewry, Volume 2, Issue 2 (October-Winter 2008/2009), edited by Zion Zohar, on-line at http://sephardic.fiu.edu/journal/ [DEFUNCT LINK]; now at "Inner Peace through Inner Struggle in Abraham Aboulafia's Ecstatic Kabbalah" | Moshe Idel - Academia.edu • ______. Kabbalah in Italy 1280-1510: A Survey (New Haven – London: Yale University Press, 2011). - CHAPTER 2. - CHAPTER 3. - CHAPTER 4. - CHAPTER 5. - CHAPTER 6. - CHAPTER 7. Abraham Abulafia and Ecstatic Kabbalah Abraham Abulafia’s Activity in Italy Ecstatic Kabbalah as an Experiential Lore Abraham Abulafia’s Hermeneutics Eschatological Themes and Divine Names in Abulafia’s Kabbalah Abraham Abulafia and R. Menahem ben Benjamin: Thirteenth-Century Kabbalistic and Ashkenazi Manuscripts in Italy • ______. Language, Torah, and Hermeneutics in Abraham Abulafia (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989). • ______. “Leadership and Charisma: Maimonides, Nahmanides and Abraham Abulafia,” in The Journal for the Study of Sephardic & Mizrahi Jewry, Volume 2, Issue 1 (June 2008), edited by Zion Zohar, on-line at http://sephardic.fiu.edu/journal/ [DEFUNCT LINK]. • ______. Messianic Mystics (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998): CHAPTER TWO: “Abraham Abulafia: Ecstatic Kabbalah and Spiritual Messianisms” and APPENDIX ONE: “Ego, Ergo Sum Messiah: On Abulafia’s Sefer ha-Yashar.” • ______. Mystical Experience in Abraham Abulafia (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988). • ______. Studies in Ecstatic Kabbalah (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988). • ______. “Ta‘anug: Erotic Delights from Kabbalah to Hasidism,” in Hidden Intercourse: Eros and Sexuality in the History of Western Esotericism [ARIES BOOK SERIES, vol. 7], edited by Wouter J. Hanegraaff and Jeffrey J. Kripal (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2008); see especially § DELIGHT IN ECSTATIC KABBALAH (pages 123-130). • ______. “The Contribution of Abraham Abulafia’s Kabbalah to the Understanding of Jewish Mysticism,” in Gershom Scholem’s MAJOR TRENDS IN JEWISH MYSTICISM 50 Years After (1993). 22 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ • Kann, Nitsa. KABBALITERATURE – POST/MODERN HEBREW LITERATURE AND ITS KABBALISTIC PRECURSORS (Ph.D. diss. Berkeley: University of California, 2006): Ch. 4. “Yona Wallach and Abraham Abulafia – the Monster Doe and the Magic of Inwardness,” pp. 218-273. • Kiener, Ronald. “From Ba’al ha-Zohar to Prophet to Ecstatic: The Vicissitudes of Abulafia in Contemporary Scholarship,” in Gershom Scholem’s MAJOR TRENDS IN JEWISH MYSTICISM 50 Years After (1993). • Krawczyk, Mikolaj. “Sefer ha-Ot—Preliminary Insights on a Critical Edition,” in Kwartalnik historii żydów (Jewish History Quarterly) (Warsaw: Instytut Religioznawstwa, 2015), pp. 283-316. • Meilicke, Christine A. “Abulafianism among the Counterculture Kabbalists,” in Jewish Studies Quarterly, Volume 9 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2002), pp. 71-101. • Miller, Michael T. “Abraham Abulafia’s Mystical Theology of the Divine Name and its Philosophical Revision in Walter Benjamin,” in Medieval Mystical Theology, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Reading [UK]: The Eckhart Society, 2015), pp. 80-94. • ______. The Name of God in Jewish Thought: A Philosophical Analysis of Mystical Traditions from Apocalyptic to Kabbalah (London – New York: Routledge, 2016), CHAPTER 6, “Name and Letter: Deconstructing Language with Abulafian Prophecy and Levinasian Othering,” pp. 126-149. • Putzu, Vadim. “Mystical Techniques, Mental Processes, and States of Consciousness in Abraham Abulafia’s Kabbalah: A Reassessment, in Archive for the Psychology of Religion, Vol. 41, Issue 2 (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2019), pp. 89-104; access at (1) Mystical techniques, mental processes, and states of consciousness in Abraham Abulafia’s Kabbalah: A reassessment | Vadim Putzu - Academia.edu. • Raskin, Saul. Kabbalah in Word and Image, with the Book of Creation and from the Zohar (New York: Academy Photo Offset, Inc., 1952.): “Abraham ben Samuel Abulafia, pp. 16-22. • Sagerman, Robert J. The Serpent Kills or the Serpent Gives Life: The Kabbalist Abraham Abulafia’s Response to Christianity [SUPPLEMENTS TO THE JOURNAL OF JEWISH THOUGHT AND PHILOSOPHY, volume 12] (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2011) ≈ AMBIVALENCE TOWARD CHRISTIANITY IN THE KABBALAH OF ABRAHAM ABULAFIA (Ph.D. diss., New York: New York University, 2008). • Scholem, Gershom. Kabbalah: pp. 53-9, 62-5, 180-3. • Stow, Sandra Debenedetti. “Abraham Abulafia’s Impact on Arts of Memory and European Culture,” in How Jewish Mystical Thinking Shaped Early Modern Europe: Cabbalistic Influences on Shakespeare, Cervantes, Rabelais and Others, edited by Yona Dureau (Lewiston – Queenston – Lampeter: The Edwin Mellen Press, 2014), pages 83-120. • Wolfson, Elliot R. Abraham Abulafia—Kabbalist and Prophet: Hermeneutics, Theosophy and Theurgy [SOURCES AND STUDIES IN THE LITERATURE OF JEWISH MYSTICISM, 7] (Culver City: Cherub Press, 2000). This work incorporates the following articles: • 1. “The Doctrine of the Sefirot in the Prophetic Kabbalah of Abraham Abulafia,” Parts I and II, in Jewish Studies Quarterly, vol. 2, no. 4 AND vol. 3, no. 1 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1995 and 1996). 2. “Mystical Rationalization of the Commandments in the Prophetic Kabbalah of Abraham Abulafia,” in Perspectives on Jewish Thought and Mysticism, edited by A. Ivry, E. Wolfson, and A. Arkush (1998), pp.331-380. ______. “Abraham ben Samuel Abulafia and the Prophetic Kabbalah,” in Jewish Mysticism and Kabbalah: New Insights and Scholarship, edited by Frederick E. Greenspahn (New York – London: New York University Press, 2011). • ______. “Deceitful Truth and Truthful Deceit: Sod ha-Hippukh and Abulafia’s Divergence from Maimonides,” in A Tribute to Hannaha: Jubilee Book in Honor of Hannah Kasher, edited by Avi Elqayam and Ariel Malachi (Tel-Aviv: IDRA Publishing, 2018), pp, 91-125. • ______. “Kenotic Overflow and Temporal Transcendence—Angelic Embodiment and the Alterity of Time in Abraham Abulafia,” in Kabbalah: Journal, Volume 18, edited by Daniel Abrams (2008). 23 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ • ______. “Murmuring Secrets: Eroticism and Esotericism in Medieval Kabbalah,” in Hidden Intercourse: Eros and Sexuality in the History of Western Esotericism [ARIES BOOK SERIES, vol. 7], edited by Wouter J. Hanegraaff and Jeffrey J. Kripal (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2008). • ______. “Textual Flesh, Incarnation, and the Imaginal Body: Abraham Abulafia’s Polemic with Christianity,” in Studies in Medieval Jewish Intellectual History: Festschrift in Honor of Robert Chazan, edited by David Engel, Lawrence Schiffman, and Elliot R. Wolfson (Leiden: Brill, 2012), pages 189-226. 2. b. Moses ben Shem Tov de Leon: considered the author, or the primary author, of the Zohar. However, listed here are items which fall outside the treatment of the Zohar and take up de Leon’s other works. • Abrams, Daniel. “Divine Yearning for Shekhinah: ‘The Secret of the Exodus from Egypt’ – R. Moses de León’s Questions and Answers from Unpublished Manuscripts and their Zoharic Parallels,” in Kabbalah: Journal, Volume 32, edited by Daniel Abrams (2014). • Bar Asher, Avishai. “From Alphabetical Mysticism to Theosophical Kabbalah: A Rare Witness to an Intermediate Stage of Moses de León’s Thought,” in Revue des études juives, vol. 179 nos. 3-4 (Paris/Louvain: Peeters Publishers, juillet-décembre 2020) pp. 351-384. • Brown, Jeremy; and Bar-Asher, Avishai. “The Enduring Female: Differentiating Moses de León’s Early Androgynology,” in Jewish Studies Quarterly, vol. 28, no. 1 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2021), pp 21-53. • Fishbane, Eitan P. “Mystical Contemplation and the Limits of the Mind: The Case of Sheqel ha-Qodesh,” in The Jewish Quarterly Review, vol. 93, Nos. 1—2 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, July–October 2002), pp. 1-27. • Hecker, Joel. Mystical Bodies, Mystical Meals: Eating and Embodiment in Medieval Kabbalah (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2005). • Kaplan, Aryeh. Meditation and Kabbalah. pp. 122-4 (excerpt of Shekel ha-Kodesh). • Koren, Sharon Faye. “Kabbalistic Physiology: Isaac the Blind, Nahmanides, and Moses de Leon on Menstruation,” AJS Review, vol. 28, no. 2 (Cambridge: Association for Jewish Studies, 2004), and Koren’s Forsaken: The Menstruant in Medieval Jewish Mysticism (Waltham: Brandeis University Press, 2011): PART II: MEDIEVAL KABBALAH, chapter 7. • Lachter, Hartley. Kabbalistic Revolution: Reimagining Judaism in Medieval Spain (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2014). • Margoliouth, George. “The Doctrine of Ether in the Kabbalah,” in Jewish Quarterly Review, vol. 20 (1908). • Scholem, Gershom. “Moses ben Shem Tov de Leon,” in Kabbalah, pages 432-434. • Wolfson, Elliot. “Murmuring Secrets: Eroticism and Esotericism in Medieval Kabbalah,” in Hidden Intercourse: Eros and Sexuality in the History of Western Esotericism [ARIES BOOK SERIES, vol. 7], edited by Wouter J. Hanegraaff and Jeffrey J. Kripal (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2008). • ______. “Mystical Realization of the Commandments in Sefer ha-Rimmon,” in Hebrew Union College Annual, vol. 59 (Cincinnati: 1988). • ______. “Mystical-Theurgical Dimensions of the Commandments in Sefer ha-Rimmon,” in Approaches to Judaism in Medieval Times I, edited by David R. Blumenthal [BROWN JUDAIC STUDIES, no. 54] (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1988). Wolfson prepared a critical edition of Sefer ha Rimmon: The Book of the Pomegranate: Moses de Leon’s Sefer ha-Rimmon [BROWN JUDAIC STUDIES, no. 144], Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1988—a revised version of Wolfson’s Ph.D. dissertation (Waltham: Brandeis University, 1986). The text is given in Hebrew; the 69-page introduction is in English. 24 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ 2. c. David ben Yehuda he-Hasid: a descendant of Yehuda he-Hasid (author of the major Hasidei Ashkanaz text, Sefer Hasidim) and early commentator on the Zohar. • Hacohen, Bentsion Ben Levi. Or Zaru’a: Man’s Attempt to Meet His Creator: A Detailed Kabbalistic Explanation of the Prayer Book by Rabbi David ben Yehuda he-Chasid (Jerusalem – New York: Urim Publications, 2009). • Idel, Moshe. Ben: Sonship and Jewish Mysticism (London – New York: Continuum, 2007): Chapter 4, § 8. “David ben Yehudah he-Hasid: Ben ’Adam as the ten sefirot,” pp. 429-430. • ______. “Kabbalistic Prayer and Colors,” in Approaches to Judaism in Medieval Times, edited by David R. Blumenthal (Chico: Scholars Press, 1988), pp. 17-27. • ______. “The Image of Man above the Sefirot: R. David ben Yehuda he-Hasid’s Theosophy of Ten Supernal Sahsahot and Its Reverberations,” in Kabbalah: Journal, vol. 20, edited by Daniel Abrams (2009). • ______. “Visualization of Colors, 1 & 2: David ben Yehudah he-Hasid’s Kabbalistic Diagram,” in Ars Judaica, vols. 11 & 12 (Ramat-Gan: Department of Art at Bar-Ilan University/Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2015 & 2016), pages 31-54 and 1-14, respectively. • Lachter, Hartley. Kabbalistic Revolution: Reimagining Judaism in Medieval Spain (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2014). • Liebes, Yehuda. Studies in the Zohar (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993), pages 126-134. • Matt, Daniel Chanan. The Book of Mirrors: Sefer Mar’ot ha Zove’ot by R. David ben Yehudah he-Hasid [BROWN JUDAIC STUDIES, no. 30] (Chico: Scholars Press, 1982). “An important feature of The Book of Mirrors is the large number of passages from the Zohar which Rabbi David translates into Hebrew from the original pseudo-Aramaic. His renderings represent the first lengthy translations of the Zohar. Through them we see how a contemporary Kabbalist read and understood (sometimes misunderstood) the seminal Work of Kabbalah” (—HUCA 51, p. 129, article given notice immediately below). The Scholars Press edition of Book of Mirrors is a slightly revised version of Matt’s Ph.D. dissertation, SEFER MAR’OT HA-ZOVE’OT BY RABBI DAVID BEN YEHUDAH HEHASID: TEXT AND STUDY (Waltham: Brandeis University, 1978), available from UMI at www.il.proquest.com—easier to obtain than the book. A revision of Matt’s English introduction appears as “David ben Yehuda Hehasid and His Book of Mirrors” in Hebrew Union College Annual, vol. 51 (Cincinnati: 1980). • Morello, Bettina; and Gardino-Colonna, Giorgio. Book of Mirrors: An Exploration of Science and Kabbalah (independently published, 2022). “This publication is based on Daniel Matt’s translation of R. David Yehudah he-Hasid’s work, [Sefer] Mar’ot haZove’ot … Selections from the first English translation by Giorgio Gardino-Colonna with commentary by Bettina Morello.” 25 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ 2. d. Joseph Gikatilla: Abulafia’s “star pupil,” thought to have had two kabbalistic phases (though there is some debate on this): a philosophical phase (ref. Ginat ’Egoz) and a theosophical phase (ref. Sha’are Orah). TEXTS: • Chiqatiya, Rab Yosef [i.e., Joseph Gikatilla]. Secret of the Serpent – ‫סוד הנחש‬, English translation by Rab Yaqob Bar Ilah, edited and annotated by The Chief Magician of Mystery Babylon ([n.p.]: independently published, 2020). • Gikatilla, Joseph ben Abraham. Gates of Light [SHA’ARE ORAH] translated by Avi Weinstein (San Francisco: HarperCollins Publishers, 1994). • Gikatilla, Rabbi Yosef. The Book of Allegories: Parables that Revive the Soul – A translation and adaptation into English of Sefer HaMashalim by Our Master and Teacher, The Holy and Godly Tzaddik Rabbi Yosef Gikatilla, Peace be upon him, adapted into English by Rabbi Amiram Markel and Yehudah Shimon Markel ([n.p.]: The Neirot Foundation / Lulu.com, 2020). • ______. Gates f Light – A Translation and Adaptation of Shaarei Orah by Our Master and Teacher the Holy and Godly Tzaddik Rabbi Yosef Gikatilla, translated and adapted into English and annotated by Rabbi Amiram Markel [and] Rabbi Yehuda Shimon Markel ([n.p.]: The Neirot Foundation / Lulu.com, 2023). • ______. HaShem Is One – A translation and adaptation into English of the wonderous book Ginat Egoz of Our Master and Teacher, The Holy and Godly Tzaddik Rabbi Yosef Gikatilla, Peace be upon him, adapted into English by Rabbi Amiram Markel and Yehudah Shimon Markel ([n.p.]: The Neirot Foundation/Lulu.com), 4 volumes: Volume 1 (‫)א‬, The Foundations (2020) Volume 2 (‫)ב‬, The Letters of Creation, Part I (2020) Volume 3 (‫)ג‬, The Letters of Creation, Part II (2020) Volume 4 (‫)ד‬, The Vowels of Creation (2020) • Giqatilla, Yosef. The Book of Punctuation: Flavius Mithridates’ Latin Translation, the Hebrew Text, and an English Version, edited with introduction and notes by Annett Martini [THE KABBALISTIC LIBRARY OF GIOVANNI PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA 4, Giulio Busi, general editor]. Torino: Nino Aragno Editore, 2010. See my review of this book in ADDENDUM B of The Study of Christian Cabala, at http://www.digital-brilliance.com/contributed/Karr/Biblios/ccineb.pdf STUDIES: • Abrams, Daniel. “R. Joseph Gikatilla’s ‘Secret of the Cherubs,’” in Kabbalah: Journal, Volume 36, edited by Daniel Abrams (2017), pp. 7-24. • Blickstein, Schlomo. BETWEEN PHILOSOPHY AND MYSTICISM: A STUDY OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL-QABBALISTIC WRITINGS OF JOSEPH GIQATILA (1248—C.1322) (Ph.D. dissertation, New York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1983). Blickstein’s study focuses on Gikatilla’s Ginnat ’Egoz. • Bokser, Ben Zion. The Jewish Mystical Tradition. § 10: “Joseph Gikatilla.” • Decker, Ronald. The Esoteric Tarot: Ancient Sources Rediscovered in Hermeticism and Cabala (Wheaton – Chennai: Theosophical Publishing House, 2013): Chapter 10, “Cards and Cabalism.” “Insofar as modern cartomancy is indebted to Etteilla, it is also indebted to Gikatilla.”—p. 223. • Dal Bo, Federico. Emanation and Philosophy of Language: An Introduction to Joseph ben Abraham Giqatilla (Los Angeles: Cherub Press, 2019). 26 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ • _______. “The Theory of ‘Emanation’ in Gikatilla’s Gates of Justice,” in Journal of Jewish Studies, Vol. 62, No. 1 (Cambridge: Oxford Centre for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies, 2011), pp. 79-104. • Garb, Yoni. “Fear and Power in Renaissance Mediterranean Kabbalah,” in Fear and its Representations, edited by Anne Scott and Cynthia Kosso (Turnhout: Brepos Publishers, 2002), pp. 137-151—discusses “several mythic passages by Rabbi Joseph Gikatilla” from Gates of Light, pp. 142-143. • Hecker, Joel. Mystical Bodies, Mystical Meals: Eating and Embodiment in Medieval Kabbalah (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2005). • Lachter, Hartley. “Kabbalah, Philosophy, and the Jewish-Christian Debate: Reconsidering the Early Works of Joseph Gikatilla,” in The Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy, Vol. 16, No. 1 (Leiden: Brill, 2008), pages 1-58. • _______. Kabbalistic Revolution: Reimagining Judaism in Medieval Spain (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2014). • Kaplan, Aryeh. Meditation and Kabbalah. Ch. 4, § 2: “Gates of Light.” • Mark, Barry R. “Kabbalistic Tocinofobia: Américo Castro, Limpieza de Sngre and the Inner Meaning of Jewish Dietary Laws,” in Fear and its Representations, edited by Anne Scott and Cynthia Kosso (Turnhout: Brepos Publishers, 2002), pp. 152-186—see in particular pp. 180181. • Miller, Michael T. “The Tree of Names: The Source of Logic and Emanation in Wittgenstein and Gikatilla” = CHAPTER 5 of The Name of God in Jewish Thought: A Philosophical Analysis of Mystical Traditions from Apocalyptic to Kabbalah (London–New York: Routledge, 2016), pp. 101-125. • Mopsik, Charles. “The Secret of the Marriage of David and Batsheva” (Introduction, Text and Annotated Translation), in (idem) Sex of the Soul: The Vicissitudes of Sexual Difference in Kabbalah (Los Angeles: Cherub Press, 2005), pp. 150-194; English translation of David et Bethsabée: Le secret du marriage (Paris: Editions de l’éclat, 1994). • Morlok, Elke. “Integrative Hermeneutics via Language and Ritual in Medieval Jewish Mysticism,” in Reflections on Knowledge and Language in Middle Eastern Societies, edited by Bruno De Nicola, Yonatan Mendel, and Husain Qutbuddin (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010), pp. 90-110. • ______. Rabbi Joseph Gikatilla’s Hermeneutics (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2011). • ______. “Visual and Acoustic Symbols in Gikatilla, Neoplatonic and Pythagorean Thought,” in in Lux in Tenebris: The Visual and the Symbolic in Western Esotericism, edited by Peter Forshaw (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2016), pages 19-49. • Scholem, Gershom. “Joseph Gikatilla,” in Kabbalah. pp. 409-11, et passim. • Stillman, Avinoam J. “A Printed Primer of Kabbalistic Knowledge: Sha’arei Orah in EastCentral Europe,” in European Journal of Jewish Studies 16 (Leiden: Brill, 2022), pp. 1-28. 2. e. Menahem Recanati: “The first kabbalist to quote frequently and at length from the Zohar was Italian, Rabbi Menahem Recanati” (—Tishby, The Wisdom of the Zohar, vol. 1, pages 20-21). Recanati also drew on the Geronese kabbalists. • Black, Crofton. Pico’s HEPTAPLUS and Biblical Hermeneutics (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2006). A page-and-a-half excerpt from Recanati’s Commentary on the Torah (ff. 3r-v) is given in English (pages 217-8) and Hebrew (page 233), and “thematically summarized” (pages 2189) in CHAPTER SEVEN, “The Beginning and End: Bereshit and the Sabbath.” 27 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ • Cordovero, Moses. Pardes Rimonim: Orchard of Pomegranates, Parts 1-4, integral edition in English, Hebrew, and Aramaic, translated by Elyakim Getz (Belize City: Providence University, 2007), pages 145-150. “This chapter is a transcription of Rabbi Mena’hem Recanati’s view on the nature of the Sefirot, whether they are co-substantial with God or only vessels” (—Part 4, CHAPTER 1, ¶1) • Idel, Moshe. There are numerous references to Recanati in Idel’s English works.7 See, in particular, - Absorbing Perfections (New Haven – London: Yale University Press, 2002), CHAPTER 4, § IV: GOD AS TORAH OR TORAH AS GOD and § V: SOME REFLECTIONS ON DECONSTRUCTION (pages 122-8) - Kabbalah and Eros (New Haven – London: Yale University Press, 2005), CHAPTER 3, § 5: MENAHEM RECANATI’S TREATMENT OF THE DIVINE CONCUBINE (pages 122-5). - Kabbalah in Italy 1280-1510: A Survey (New Haven – London: Yale University Press, 2011), chapters 7 through 10. • Mark, Barry R. “Kabbalistic Tocinofobia: Américo Castro, Limpieza de Sngre and the Inner Meaning of Jewish Dietary Laws,” in Fear and its Representations, edited by Anne Scott and Cynthia Kosso (Turnhout: Brepos Publishers, 2002), pp. 152-186—see in particular pp. 181-183. • Ogren, Brian. Renaissance and Rebirth: Reincarnation in Early Modern Italian Kabbalah (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2009: Recanati is mentioned throughout Ogren’s book. On Recanati as source for Elia Hayyim ben Binyamin of Genazzano, see CHAPTER FIVE, pages 181-184. • Recanati, Menahem. Commentary on the Daily Prayers: Flavius Mithridates’ Latin Translation, the Hebrew Text, and an English Version, edited with introduction and notes by Giacomo Corazzol, two volumes. [THE KABBALISTIC LIBRARY OF GIOVANNI PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA 3, Giulio Busi, general editor] Torino: Nino Aragno Editore, 2008. This two-volume set offers the only translation of a complete text by Recanati in English; the introduction contains the only substantial discussion of Recanati in English. See my review of this book in ADDENDUM B of The Study of Christian Cabala, at http://www.digital-brilliance.com/contributed/Karr/Biblios/ccineb.pdf • Stow, Sandra Debenedetti. “The Modality of Interaction between Jewish and Christian Thought in the Middle Ages: The Problem of Free Will and Divine Wisdom in Dante Alighieri and Menahem Recanti as a Case Study,” in Interaction between Judaism and Christianity in History, Religion, Art and Literature, edited by M. Poorthius, J. Schwartz, and J. Turner (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2009), pages 165-217. • Wirszubski, Chaim. Pico della Mirandola’s Encounter with Jewish Mysticism. Cambridge – London: Harvard University Press, 1989. In the process of identifying sources for points of Pico della Mirandola’s kabbalah, Wirszubski quotes—in English—Recanati’s Commentary on the Torah dozens of times. These translations, however, are not rendered from the Latin translation of Mithridates (Pico’s translator), which is lost, but rather from Recanati’s Hebrew text. 2. f. Isaac of Acre (or Acco): Isaac of Acre is of particular interest given that he drew from both the Abulafian ecstatic school and the Catalonian/Castilian theosophic school, which included Nahmanides and the Zohar. • Afterman, Adam. “Language and Images of Mystical Union in the Kabbalah of R. Isaac of Acre,” in “And They Shall Be One Flesh”: On the Language of Mystical Union in Judaism (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2016), pages 171-188. • Fenton, Paul. “Solitary Meditation in Jewish and Islamic Mysticism in the Light of a Recent Archeological Discovery,” in Medieval Encounters, Volume 1, Number 2 (Leiden: Brill, 1995). 7 In Hebrew, there is Moshe Idel’s R. Menahem Rekanati, ha-mekubal (Tel Aviv, Schocken, 1998), which is the first of an intended two-volume study. 28 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ • Fishbane, Eitan P. “Authority, Tradition, and the Creation of Meaning in Medieval Kabbalah: Isaac of Acre’s Illumination of the Eyes,” in The Journal of the American Academy of Religion, vol. 72, issue 1 (Atlanta: Emory University/The American Academy of Religion, March 2004). • ______. As Light before Dawn: The Inner World of a Medieval Kabbalist. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2009, which is a reworking of CONTEMPLATIVE PRACTICE AND THE TRANSMISSION OF KABBALAH: A STUDY OF ISAAC OF ACRE’S ME’IRAT ‘EINAYIM (Ph.D. dissertation, Waltham: Brandeis University, 2003). • Huss, Boaz. “NISAN—The Wife of the Infinite: The Mystical Hermeneutics of Rabbi Isaac of Acre,” in Kabbalah: Journal, vol. 5, edited by D. Abrams and A. Elqayam (2000). • Idel, Moshe. Absorbing Perfections: Kabbalah and Interpretation (New Haven – London: Yale University Press, 2002): APPENDIX 3. R. ISAAC OF ACRE’S EXEGETICAL QUANDARY, and numerous other references. • ______. “Hitbodedut as Concentration in Ecstatic Kabbalah,” in Jewish Spirituality I: From the Bible through the Middle Ages, edited by Arthur Green (New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, 1985). • ______. Kabbalah and Eros (New Haven – London: Yale University Books, 2005): CHAPTER 4. “Contemplating a Female: From Platonic Eros to Jewish Mysticism.” • ______. Messianic Mystics (New Haven – London: Yale University Press, 1998): within CHAPTER THREE, § MESSIAH AND KETER; within APPENDIX ONE, § R. YITZHAQ OF ACRE ON MESSIAH AS METATRON; and numerous other references. • ______. Studies in Ecstatic Kabbalah, especially CHAPTER 7, “Hitbodedut as Concentration in Ecstatic Kabbalah.” • ______. The Gate of Intention: R, Isaac ben Shmuel of Acre and Its Reception (Los Angles: Cherub Press, 2020). • ______. The Mystical Experience in Abraham Abulafia (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988)—numerous references to Isaac of Acre throughout. • Kaplan, Aryeh. Meditation and Kabbalah. “Rabbi Isaac of Acco,” pp. 137-154. • Matt, Daniel C. The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1994). Matt includes excerpts from the writings of “Isaac of Akko.” 2. g. Bahya ben Asher of Sargossa: an avowed follower of Nahmanides and, usually without acknowledgement, Sheshet, Asher ben David, Gikatilla, etc. His exegetical technique included the four-fold interpretation of PaRDeS. • Bachya Ben Asher. Torah Commentary: Midrash Rabbeinu Bachya (7 volumes), translated by Eliyahu Munk (Jerusalem: Urim Publications, 2003). • Brody, Seth. Commentary on the Song of Songs [= Perush ‘al Shir ha-Shirim] (Kalamazoo: Western Michigan University, 1999). Includes R. Bahya ben Asher’s commentary on Genesis 1:1-2 (composed 1291). • Hecker, Joel. Mystical Bodies, Mystical Meals: Eating and Embodiment in Medieval Kabbalah (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2005). • Liebes, Yehuda. Studies in the Zohar (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993): § “Bahya B. Asher,” pp. 90-3, et passim. • Millen, Herbert. BAHYA BEN ASHER: THE EXEGETICAL AND ETHICAL COMPONENTS OF HIS WRITINGS (Ph. D. dissertation, New York: Yeshiva University, 1974) • Mottolese, Maurizio. Analogy in Midrash and Kabbalah: Interpretive Projections of the Sanctuary and Ritual (Los Angeles: Cherub Press, 2007). 29 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ • Pinto, Idan. “Letters and Livelihood: R. Bahya ben Asher’s Commentary on the Recitation of the Manna Story,” in The Journal of Jewish Thought & Philosophy, Vol. 31 (Leiden: Brill, 2023), pp. 1-29. 2. h. Joseph of Hamadan: author of Sefer Ta’amei ha-Mitzvot and Sefer Tashak; there is a critical edition (Hebrew text) of the latter by Jeremy Zwelling (PhD diss., Brandeis University, 1975). • Elior, Rachel. Jewish Mysticism: The Infinite Expression of Freedom (Oxford – Portland: The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2007), pp. 147-148. • Hallamish, Moshe. Introduction to the Kabbalah, translated by Ruth Bar-Ilan and Ora WiskindElper (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999). • Hecker, Joel. Mystical Bodies, Mystical Meals: Eating and Embodiment in Medieval Kabbalah (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2005). • Idel, Moshe. Ben: Sonship and Jewish Mysticism (London – New York: Continuum, 2007): Chapter 4, § 7. “R. Joseph of Hamadan and R. Joseph Al-Ashqar, pp. 425-429 et passim. • _______. Enchanted Chains: Techniques and Rituals in Jewish Mysticism, with a forward by Harold Bloom (Los Angeles: Cherub Press, 2005), pp. 137-139 et passim. • _______. New Perspectives (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988). • Koren, Sharon Faye. Forsaken: The Menstruant in Medieval Jewish Mysticism (Waltham: Brandeis University Pres, 2011), pp. 79-81 et passim. • Lachter, Hartley. Kabbalistic Revolution: Reimagining Judaism in Medieval Spain (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2014). • Liebes, Yehuda. Studies in the Zohar (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993): § “Rabbi Joseph of Hamadan,” pp. 103-110 et passim. • Mopsik, Charles. Sex of the Soul: The Vicissitudes of Sexual Difference in Kabbalah (Los Angeles: Cherub Press, 2005), pp. 25-27 et passim. • Sachs-Shmueli, Leore. “A Castilian Debate about the Aims and Limits of Theurgic Practice: Rationalizing Incest Taboos in the Zohar, Moses de León, and Joseph of Hamadan,” in Accounting for the Commandments in Medieval Judaism: Studies in Law, Philosophy, Pietism, and Kabbalah, edited by Jeremy Brown and Marc Herman (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2021), pp. 208-228. • _______. “Human-Animal Reincarnation and Animal Grief in Kabbalah: Joseph of Hamadan’s Contribution,” in Journal of Jewish Thought & Philosophy, Vol. 31 (Leiden: Brill, 2023), pp. 30-56. 2. i. Massekhet Atzilut: “a pseudepigraphic treatise from the beginning of the 14th century” (Scholem, Kabbalah, page 119)8 often attributed to Isaac the Blind. R. Ariel Bar Tzadok adds, “What is interesting to note is that Masekhet Atzilut apparently predates Zoharic Kabbalah by a good period of time. And yet, the texts speaks about the four Kabbalistic worlds of Atzilut, Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah, knowledge of which was mostly unknown (or concealed?) at that time” (The Unveiling, p. 27). • B[ar] Tzadok, R. Ariel. The Unveiling: Freeing Prophetic Reality from Academic Kabbalistic Metaphors, INCLUDING AN ORIGINAL TRANSLATION & COMMENTARY OF THE KABBALISTIC CLASSIC: Masekhet Atzilut (The Kosher Torah School for Biblical, Judaic & Spiritual Studies, 2023). • Ginsburg, Christian D. The Kabbalah (Longmans, Green & Co., 1863; published as The Essenes and the Kabbalah, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul/Macmillan Co., 1956), § Treatise on the Emanations, pp. 191-193. 8 Ref. Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah (Jewish Publication Society/Princeton University Press, 1987), p. 11 30 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ Other books, chapters, and articles on Early Kabbalah NOTE: Kabbalah: Journal for the Study of Jewish Mystical Texts (Los Angeles: Cherub Press, 1996-2023) hereafter Kabbalah: Journal, followed by the volume number, editor(s), and date. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Abrams, Daniel. “Hypostatic Wisdom and Imitatio Dei: Kabbalistic Traditions of Attaining Wisdom, in Kabbalah: Journal, Volume 17, edited by Daniel Abrams and Avraham Elqayam (2008). _______. “Some Phenomenological Considerations on the Account of Creation in Jewish Mystical Literature,” in Kabbalah: Journal, Volume 10, edited by Daniel Abrams and Avraham Elqayam (2004), pp. 7-19. Afterman, Adam. “Mystical Union in Early Kabbalah,” in “And They Shall Be One Flesh”: On the Language of Mystical Union in Judaism (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2016), pages 130-150. Touches on Isaac the Blind, Ezra ben Shlomo, Azriel of Gerona, Jacob bar Sheshet, and the treatise Iggeret HaKodesh. Altmann, Alexander. “‘The Ladder of Ascension,’” in Studies in Religious Philosophy and Mysticism (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1969). Ariel, David S. “‘The Eastern Dawn of Wisdom’: The Problem of the Relationship between Islamic and Jewish Mysticism,” in Approaches to Judaism in Medieval Times, Volume II, edited by David R. Blumenthal [BROWN JUDAIC STUDIES 57] (Chico: Scholars Press, 1985), pages 149-167. Avraham Ben Alexander of Cologne. Kether Shem Tov: The Krown [sic] of the Good Name. [Spain, 13th century]. Belize City: Providence University, 2006. Block, Tom. “The Question of Sufi Influence on the Early Kabbalah,” in Sophia: The Journal of Traditional Studies, Volume 13, Number 2 (Oakton [VA]: The Foundation for Traditional Studies, Winter 2007-2008); pages 68-86. Brody, Seth. “Human Hands Dwell in Heavenly Heights: Contemplative Ascent and Theurgic Power in Thirteenth Century Kabbalah,” in Mystics of the Book: Themes, Topics, and Typologies, edited by R. A. Herrera (New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 1993). Brown, Jeremy Philip. “Of Sound and Vision: The Ram’s Horn in Medieval Kabbalistic Rituology,” in Qol Tamid: The Shofar in Ritual, History and Culture, edited by Jonathan Friedman and Joel Gereboff (Claremont: Clarmont Press, 2017), pp. 83-113. ______. “The Reason a Woman Is Obligated: Women’s Ritual Efficacy in Medieval Kabbalah,” in Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 116, No. 3 (Cambridge University Press, 2023), pp. 422-446. Ciucu, Cristina. “Neo-Platonism and the Cabbalistic Structure of the Divine Emanation,” in Caietele Echinox [ECHINOX NOTEBOOKS], no. 12 (Cluj-Napoca [Romania]: Fundatia Cultura Echinox, 2007). Cohen, Seymour. The Holy Letter. A Study in Jewish Sexual Morality (translation of Iggeret haKodesh) (New York: Ktav, 1973; rpt. Northvale/London: Jason Aronson Inc., 1993). Cuffel, Alexandra. “The Matter of Others: Menstrual Blood and Uncontrolled Semen in Thirteenth-Century Kabbalists’ Polemic against Christians, “Bad” Jews, and Muslims,” in Negotiating Community and Difference in Medieval Europe: Gender, Power, Patronage and the Authority of Religion in Latin Christendom [STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN TRADITIONS, vol. 142], edited by Katherine Allen Smith and Scott Wells (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2009), pages 249-284. Dan, Joseph. “Gershom Scholem’s Reconstruction of Early Kabbalah,” in Modern Judaism, vol.5, no. 1 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985); and in Gershom Scholem 31 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • [MODERN CRITICAL VIEWS], edited by Harold Bloom (New York – New Haven – Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987). ______. Gershom Scholem and the Mystical Dimension of Jewish History: Chapter 6. “The Early Kabbalah” and Chapter 7. “From Gerona to the Zohar.” ______. Jewish Mysticism and Ethics. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1986; 2nd enlarged edition (Northvale: Jason Aronson, 1996): Chapter 2. “Philosophical Ethics and the Early Kabbalists.” ______. “Kabbalistic and Gnostic Dualism,” in Binah, vol. 3: JEWISH INTELLECTUAL HISTORY IN THE MIDDLE AGES, edited by Joseph Dan (Westport: Praeger, 1994), pp. 415-433. ______. “Samael and the Problem of Jewish Gnosticism,” in Perspectives on Jewish Thought and Mysticism, edited by Alfred L. Ivry, Elliot R. Wolfson, and Allan Arkush (Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1998); also in Dan’s JMIII, pp. 367-390. Faierstein, Morris M. “‘God’s Need for the Commandments’ in Medieval Kabbalah,” in Conservative Judaism, vol. 36, no. 1 (New York: Rabbinical Assembly, 1982), pages 46-59. Fenton, Paul. “Joseph Waqâr and His Attempt to Reconcile Kabbalah and Philosophy,” in Judaica Petropolitina No. 3, (Saint Petersburg / Jerusalem: St. Petersburg State University / Hebrew University, 2015), pp. 80-98. ______. “Traces of Mōšeh ibn ‘Ezra’s ‘Arūgāt ha-Bōsem in the Writings of the Early Qabbalists of the Spanish School,” in Studies in Medieval Jewish History and Literature III, edited by Isadore Twersky and Jay M. Harris (Cambridge – London: Harvard University Press, 2000). Fishman, Talya. “A Kabbalistic Perspective on Gender-Specific Commandments: On the Interplay of Symbols and Society,” AJS Review, Vol. 17, No. 2 (Cambridge: Association for Jewish Studies, 1992), pp. 199-245. “The present study aims at exploring the impact of kabblistic theology on one feature of Jewish cultural life, attitudes toward women’s participation in aspects of Jewish ritual, by examining a single text, Sefer HaKanah [late 14th or early 15th cent.].” Garb, Yoni. “Kinds of Power: Rabbinic Texts and the Kabbalah,’ in Kabbalah: Journal, vol. 6, edited by D. Abrams and A. Elqayam (2001). Gottlieb, Efraim. Abstract of “The Significance of the Story of Creation in the Interpretations of the Early Cabbalists,” in Tarbiz, vol. 37, no. 3 (March 1968). Green, Arthur. Keter: The Crown of God in Early Jewish Mysticism. (1997): Chapter Twelve. “The Way to Kabbalah”; Chapter Thirteen. “Sefer ha-Bahir”; and Chapter Fourteen. “The Early Kabbalah.” Hames, Harvey J. “Between Innovation and Tradition” = CHAPTER ONE of The Art of Conversion: Christianity and Kabbalah in the Thirteenth Century (Leiden – Boston – Köln: Brill, 2000). Huss, Boaz. “Demonology and Magic in the Writings of R. Menahem Ẓiyyoni,” in Kabbalah: Journal, Volume 10, edited by Daniel Abrams and Avraham Elqayam (2004), pp. 55-72. Idel, Moshe. Ascensions on High in Jewish Mysticism: Pillars, Lines, and Ladders (Budapest – New York: Central European University Press, 2005): Chapter 2, “On Cosmic Pillars in Jewish Sources.” ______. Enchanted Chains: Techniques and Rituals in Jewish Mysticism [SOURCES AND STUDIES IN THE LITERATURE OF JEWISH MYSTICISM 16], with a forward by Harold Bloom (Los Angeles: Cherub Press, 2005). ______. “Jewish Mysticism among the Jews of Arab/Moslem Lands,” in The Journal for the Study of Sephardic and Mizrahi Jewry, edited by Zion Zohar (February 2007); on-line at http://sephardic.fiu.edu/journal/JSSMJinsidecover.htm [DEFUNCT LINK] ______. “Kabbalah and Elites in Thirteenth-Century Spain,” in Mediterranean Historical Review, Volume 9, Number 1 (London: Frank Cass/Tel Aviv University, 1994). 32 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • ______. “Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed and the Kabbalah,” in Jewish History, Volume 18, Nos. 2-3: COMMEMORATING THE EIGHT HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF MAIMONIDES’ DEATH (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2004), pages 197-226. ______. Messianic Mystics. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998: Chapter Three. “Concepts of Messiah in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries: Theosophical Forms of Kabbalah.” ______. “On European Cultural Renaissances and Jewish Mysticism,” in Kabbalah: Journal, Volume 13, edited by Daniel Abrams and Avraham Elqayam (2005). ______. “Reification and the Ontological Status of Thought and Action in Early Kabbalah” and “The Gender Addition to ‘Action,’” in in The Privileged Divine Feminine in Kabbalah (Berlin – Boston: Walter de Gruyter GmbH, 2019), pp. 28-40. ______. “Transmission in Thirteenth-Century Kabbalah,” in Transmitting Jewish Traditions: Orality, Textuality & Cultural Diffusion, edited by Yaakov Elman and Israel Gershoni (New Haven – London: Yale University Press, 2000). Kiener, Ronald. “The Status of Astrology in the Early Kabbalah: From the Sefer Yesirah to the Zohar,” in Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Thought, vol. 6, nos. 3-4: PROCEEDINGS OF THE SECOND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE HISTORY OF JEWISH MYSTICISM: The Beginnings of Jewish Mysticism in Medieval Europe, edited by Joseph Dan (Jerusalem: The Hebrew University, 1987). Krinis, Ehud. “Cyclical Time in the Ismā‘īlī Circle of Ikhwān al-ṣafā (Tenth Century) and in Early Jewish Kabbalists Circles (Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries),” in Studia Islamica III (Leiden: Brill, 2016), pp. 20-108. Lachter, Hartley. “Charity and Kabbalah in Medieval Spain: Possible Evidence from Isaac ibn Sahula’s Meshal ha-Kadmoni,” in Ibéria Judaica VI (Madrid: Asociación Hispana de Estudios Hebraicos, 2014), pages 119-126. ______. “Jewish Bodies in Divine Form: Jewish Difference and Historical Consciousness in Medieval Kabbalah, in Journal of Jewish Identities, Volume 11, Number 1 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018), pp. 123-142. ______. “Silkworms of Exile: Jewish History and Collective Memory in the Kabbalistic Works of Meir ibn Gabbai (1480-ca.1540),” in Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal fo Jewish Studies, Vol. 40, No. 3 (West Lafayette: Perdue University Press, 2022), pp. 1-37. ______. “Spreading Secrets: Kabbalah and Esotericism in Isaac ibn Sahula’s Meshal haKadmoni,” in The Jewish Quarterly Review, Vol. 100, No. 1 (Philadelphia: Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, 2010), pp. 111-138. Laenen, J. H. Jewish Mysticism: An Introduction, translated by David E. Orton [original Dutch: JOODSE MYSTIEK. EEN INLEIDING] (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001): III.2. “Historical overview of the movements.” Matansky Eugene D., and Afterman, Adam. “The Dyad of Four-Letter Divine Names in Early Kabbalah and Its Sources,” in the Journal of Jewish Thought & Philosophy, vol. 30, no. 2 Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2022), pp. 219-250. Matt, Daniel C. The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1994). ______. “The Mystic and the Mitzwot,” in Jewish Spirituality I: From the Bible through the Middle Ages, edited by Arthur Green (New York: Crossroads Publishing Company, 1985). Mopsik, Charles. “Genesis 1:26-27: The Image of God, Man and Wife, and the Status of Women in the Writings of the Early Kabbalists” AND “Genesis 2:24: ‘They Become One Flesh’: Several Interpretations by Medieval Jewish Mystics,” in idem, Sex of the Soul: The Vicissitudes of Sexual Difference in Kabbalah (Los Angeles: Cherub Press, 2005). Rebiger, Bill. “The Early Opponents of the Kabbalah and the Role of Sceptical (sic) Argumentations: An Outline,” in [Jewish Thought, Philosophy, and Religion, Volume 1 –] 33 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ • • • • • • • • • • • • • Yearbook of the Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies, edited by Giuseppe Veltri (Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2016), pages 39-57. Sachs-Shmueli, Leore. “‘The Secret of Incest’: Ms. Cambridge, Cambridge University Library Dd. 4.2.2.,” in Kabbalah: Journal, Vol. 45, edited by Daniel Abrams (2004), pp. 48-78. Sagiv, Gadi. “Dazzling Blue: Color Symbolism, Kabbalistic Myth, and the Evil Eye in Judaism,” in Numen 64 (Leiden: Brill, 2017), pages 183-208. Scholem, Gershom. “The Concept of Kavvanah in the Early Kabbalah,” in Studies in Jewish Thought: An Anthology of German Jewish Scholarship, edited by Alfred Jospe (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981). Weiss, Tzahi. “Beyond the Scope of Philosophy and Kabbalah,” in Religions 12 (2021), access at https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12030160 or Tzahi Weiss, "Beyond the Scope of Philosophy and Kabbalah", Religions 12(3):160 (2021) | Tzahi Weiss - Academia.edu ______. “Prayers to Angels and the Early Sefirotic Literature,” in Jewish Studies Quarterly, Volume 27, No. 1 (Mohr Siebeck, 2020), pp. 22-35. ______. “The Emergence of the Kabbalah: Early Sefirotic Theosophy as a Response to Contemporary Challenges,” in Numen: International Review for the History of Religions, Vol. 69 (Leiden: Brill, 2022), pp. 1-27. Willensky, Sara O. Heller. “The ‘First Created Being’ in Early Kabbalah: Philosophical and Isma’illan Sources,” in Binah, vol. 3 (ed. J. Dan; Westport: Praeger, 1994) ______. “Isaac Ibn Latif—Philosopher or Kabbalist?” in Jewish Medieval and Renaissance Studies, edited by Alexander Altmann (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1967). Wolfson, Elliot R. “Beneath the Wings of the Great Eagle: Maimonides and ThirteenthCentury Kabbalah,” in Moses Maimonides (1138-1204): His Religious, Scientific, and Philosophical Wirkungsgeschichte in Different Cultural Contexts, edited by Görge K Hasselhoff and Otfried Fraisse [EX ORIENTE LUX, band 4] (Würzburg: Ergon Verlag, 2004), pages 207-237. ______. “Beyond the Spoken Word: Oral Tradition and Written Transmission in Medieval Jewish Mysticism,” in Transmitting Jewish Traditions: Orality, Textuality & Cultural Diffusion, edited by Yaakov Elman and Israel Gershoni (New Haven – London: Yale University Press, 2000). ______. “Negative Theology and Positive Assertion,” in Daat, nos. 32-33 (Ramat-Gan: Bal-Ilan University, 1994). ______. Through a Speculum That Shines. Vision and Imagination in Medieval Judaism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994): CHAPTER 6. “Visionary Gnosis and the Role of the Imagination in Theosophic Kabbalah.” Yisraeli, Oded. “Jewish Medieval Traditions concerning the Origins of the Kabbalah,” in The Jewish Quarterly Review, Vol. 106, No. 1 (Philadelphia: Center for Advanced Judaic Studies / University of Pennsylvania Press, Winter 2016), pages 21-41. 34 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ Addendum: Pre-Kabbalistic Streams of Jewish Mysticism9 TO FILL THE SPAN between the close of the Tanakh and emergence of kabbalah, a muchsimplified selection of streams representative of—or having influence upon—Jewish mysticism can be outlined thus: 1. Early beginnings a. Apocalypses/Pseudepigrapha (ca. 200 BCE onward) b. Philo (ca. 20 BCE to 50 CE) c. Qumran (= Dead Sea Scrolls: 100 BCE onward) d. Rabbinic and synagogue traditions (100 CE onward) e. Miscellaneous magic texts and other “occult” works 2. Merkabah and hekhalot (200 CE onward) 3. Sefer Yezirah (between 200 and 900 CE) 4. Transition a. Geonic period (600-1000) b. Rishonic period (1000-1500) c. Early commentaries on Sefer Yezirah d. Religious philosophers i. Solomon ibn Gabirol (1020-1070) ii. Judah Halevi (1075-1141) iii. Abraham ibn Ezra (1089-1164) iv. Maimonides (1138-1204) 5. Hasidei Ashkenaz (German Hasidism: ca 1170-1240) 1. Early beginnings Since Jewish mysticism is ultimately based on the Hebrew Bible, the beginning, really, is the Tanakh, parts of which are more “mystical” than others. More important to our line of inquiry is that certain themes were developed more than others for a variety of mystical purposes. By Talmudic times, two branches of the mysteries were well known and defined: the work of creation, i.e., developments of the first chapters of Genesis, and the work of the chariot, developments of Ezekiel and, to a lesser extent, Isaiah. OVERVIEW: With his chapters on Ezekiel, Enoch literature and related material, Qumran, Philo, the rabbinic “Cycle of the Seven Stories,” merkabah passages in the Talmud(s), and the merkabah mystics, Peter Schäfer covers our §§ 1. a, b, c, d and § 2 in The Origins of Jewish Mysticism (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2009).10 9 10 Refer to my “Kabbalah Study: Jewish Mysticism in English” (1993-1996), appended below, where there is a section offering suggestions for a survey of Jewish mysticism, one segment of which parallels the outline presented here. Alternative titles are discussed. My initial efforts (in the early 1990s) to research the origins of Jewish mysticism began with Norman Cohn’s Cosmos, Chaos and the World to Come: The Ancient Roots of Apocalyptic Faith (New Haven – London: Yale University Press, 1993). Note Daniel M. Horowitz’ anthology, A Kabbalah and Jewish Mysticism Reader (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 2016) which commences not with Sefer ha-Bahir but with the Bible, the apocalypses, and the Talmud. 35 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ a. Apocalyptic, Wisdom Literature, Pseudepigrapha Radicalizations of Bible themes appeared in the intertestamental apocalypses, which, when grouped together with a somewhat irregular splay of wisdom literature, psalms, testaments, prayers, and other material, are referred to as the pseudepigrapha. Two fine introductions to apocalyptic are 1. Russell, D. S. The Method and Message of Jewish Apocalyptic (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1964). 2. Collins, John J. The Apocalyptic Imagination: An Introduction to the Jewish Matrix of Christianity (New York: Crossroad, Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1984; rpt. 1998). Further, consult Collins’ more recent The Oxford Handbook of Apocalyptic Literature [OXFORD HANDBOOKS] (Oxford – New York: Oxford University Press, 2014).11 Another strand begun in the Bible, including Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes, and certain of the Psalms, is wisdom literature, which traces its way through the standard extracanonical set called The Apocrypha (in Ecclesiasticus), through the Pseudepigrapha, and on into the Talmudic Sayings of the Fathers (Pirqe Aboth). An enduring treatment of all this is O. S. Rankin’s Israel’s Wisdom Literature (Edinburgh: T & T Clark Ltd, 1936; rpt 1954 and 1964; rpt. New York: Schocken Books, 1969). More recent works include Stuart Weeks, An Introduction to the Study of Wisdom Literature (New York: T&T Clark, 2010), and Robert Alter, The Wisdom Books: Job Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes: A Translation with Commentary (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2012). A generous compendium of pseudepigrapha (which includes some material which does not really belong under this heading) is The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (OTP), edited by James H. Charlesworth: Volume 1: APOCALYPTIC AND TESTAMENTS; Volume 2: EXPANSIONS… LEGENDS, WISDOM… PRAYERS, ODES, PSALMS, FRAGMENTS (Garden City: Doubleday and Company, 1983 and 1985). It is a collection of utmost value and far more inclusive than the previous standard, Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament (APOT), edited by R. H. Charles (2 vols., Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913; rpt. 1973).12 Supplementing Charlesworth’s OTP is Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Noncanonical Scriptures, Volume 1, edited by Richard Bauckham, James R. Davila, and Alexander Panayotov (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2013), which expands the scope of the pseudepigrapha even further.13 11 12 13 Also of interest is Collins’ Seers, Sibyls & Sages in Hellenistic-Roman Judaism (Leiden – New York – Köln” Brill, 1997). Charles’ APOT includes two items not in Charlesworth: “Pirke Aboth” and “The Fragments of a Zadokite Work.” “[T]he former [is omitted from OTP] because it is rabbinic, the latter because it is now recognized to belong among the Dead Sea Scrolls” (—Charlesworth, page xxv). Find also the important but rarely cited article by Charlesworth, “In the Crucible: The Pseudepigrapha as Biblical Interpretation,” in The Pseudepigrapha and Early Biblical Interpretation, edited by J. Charlesworth and C. Evans (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1993); and Andreas Lenhardt’s “Pseudepigrapha as Antecedents of Kabbalah: A Selected Bibliography,” in Kabbalah: Journal for the Study of Jewish Mystical Texts, vol. 2 (Los Angeles: Cherub Press, 1997). For the contents, go to https://www.amazon.com/dp/080282739X?asin=B08VW5XG5Z&revisionId=a8cab41b&format=1&depth=1 36 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ b. Philo Philo, who was the most important Jewish philosopher of the first century, has a somewhat anticlimactic relationship with Jewish mysticism. Thoroughly Hellenized, he begins for us the long, and rather strained, counterpoint between Neoplatonism and Judaism—and, indeed, Jewish mysticism—which simmers right on up to Spinoza and beyond. Of particular use in the present context are the following: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Bockmuehl, Markus N. A. CHAPTER FOUR: “Philo,” in Revelation and Mystery in Ancient Judaism and Pauline Christianity [WISSENSCHAFTLICHE UNTER-SUCHUNGEN ZUM NEUEN TESTAMENT – 2. Reihe 36] (Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck], 1990). Borgen, Peder. “Heavenly Ascent in Philo: An Examination of Selected Passages,” in The Pseudepigrapha and Early Biblical Interpretation, edited by J. Charlesworth and C. Evans (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1993). Daniélou, Jean. Philo of Alexandria, translated by James G. Colbert (Eugene: Cascade Books, 2014)—French original: Philon d’Alexandrie (Paris: Librairie Arthème Fayard, 1958). Lewy, Hans (ed). “Philo: Selections,” in Three Jewish Philosophers (New York – Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society/Meridian Books, 1960). Niehoff, Maren R. “What Is in a Name? Philo’s Mystical Philosophy of Language,” in Jewish Studies Quarterly, vol. 2, no. 3 (Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck], 1995). Philo of Alexandria. The Contemplative Life, The Giants and Selections, translated by David Winston, preface by John Dillon (New York–Ramsey–Toronto: Paulist Press, 1981). ______. The Works of Philo, translated by Charles Duke Yonge (London: H. G. Bohn, 1854-1855; RPT Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, 1993). Runia, David T. (trans.) On the Creation of the Cosmos according to Moses Pogrom [PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA COMMENTARY SERIES, Number 1] (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2005). Schäfer, Peter. CHAPTER 5: “Philo: The Ascent of the Soul,” in The Origins of Jewish Mysticism (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2009). Schenk, Kenneth. A Brief Guide to Philo (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2005). Seland, Torrey. Reading Philo: A Handbook to Philo of Alexandria (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2014). van der Horst, Peter W. (trans.) Philo’s Flaccus: The First Pogrom [PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA COMMENTARY SERIES, Number 2] (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2005). Werblowsky, R.J. Zwi. “Philo and the Zohar” Parts 1 and 2, in Journal of Jewish Studies, vols. X and XI (Cambridge: 1959 and 1960). Winston, David. “Was Philo a Mystic?” in Studies in Jewish Mysticism, edited by Joseph Dan and Frank Talmage (Cambridge: Association for Jewish Studies, 1982). Yonge, C. D. (trans.) The Works of Philo: Complete and Unabridged, New Updated Edition (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, 1993). On Neoplatonism and Judaism: • Goodman, Lenn E. (ed). Neoplatonism and Jewish Thought (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992). 37 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ c. Qumran Since so much has been written on the Dead Sea Scrolls, let me suggest just three books to make short work of getting a reliable impression of the Qumran material: • Garcia Martinez, Florentino. The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated: The Qumran Texts in English (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1994). Shanks, Hershel (ed). Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls: A Reader from the BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY REVIEW (New York: Random House, 1992). VanderKam, James C. The Dead Sea Scrolls Today (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1994). • • Four other works on the Qumran materials are of interest in the present context, especially the fourth: • Boccaccini, Gabriele. Beyond the Essene Hypothesis: The Parting of Ways between Qumran and Enochic Judaism (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1998). Davidson, Maxwell J. Angels at Qumran: A Comparative Study of 1 Enoch 1-36, 72-108 and Sectarian Writings from Qumran [JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF PSEUDEPIGRAPHA SERIES, 11] (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1992). Magness, Jodi. The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2002). Schiffman, Lawrence H. Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls. The History of Judaism, the Background of Christianity, the Lost Library of Qumran (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 1994). • • • The most “mystical” of the Qumran texts—those having the most in common with subsequent hekhalot literature—are the Berakhot and the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice. On these, see • Alexander, Philip. The Mystical Texts: Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice and Related Manuscripts [COMPANION TO THE QUMRAN SCROLLS, 7 / LIBRARY OF SECOND TEMPLE STUDIES, 61] (London – New York: T & T Clark International, 2006). Davila, James R. Liturgical Works (Grand Rapids – Cambridge: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2000). Newsom, Carol A. “Merkabah Exegesis in the Qumran Sabbath Shirot,” in Journal of Jewish Studies 38:1 (Cambridge: 1987), pages 11-30. _______. Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice: A Critical Edition [HARVARD SEMITIC STUDIES 27] (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1985), which is a revised version of Newsom’s Ph.D. dissertation, 4Q SEREK SIROT ’OLAT: EDITION, TRANSLATION, AND COMMENTARY (Cambridge: Harvard University, 1982); see especially Chapter VII. “4Q Sir and the Tradition of the Hekhalot Hymns.” • • • Studies on the relationship of Qumran to merkabah/hekhalot mysticism are touched on in my paper in “Notes on the Study of Merkabah Mysticism and Hekhalot Literature in English,” in Jewish Studies 52 (Jerusalem: Journal of the World Union of Jewish Studies, 2017), ENGLISH SECTION, pages 35*-112*, and at • • http://www.digital-brilliance.com/contributed/Karr/Biblios/mmhie.pdf or https://www.academia.edu/4881092/Notes_on_the_Study_of_Merkabah_Mysticism _and_Hekhalot_Literature_in_English_-_full_text Look for entries under “2004 • Elior” and “2006 • Alexander.” 38 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ d. Rabbinic and synagogue traditions14 Bits and pieces of the “mystery” are scattered throughout the rabbinic writings following the themes mentioned (creation and chariot), along with others (angels and demons, mystical exegesis on various topics, etc.) Some material might be cast more into the category of “legend,” but here the allusions can be suggestive and significant. It is difficult to pin down a few books to represent this phase of development; with recent publications on midrashim and other rabbinic literature, a full list might contain dozens of titles. Given our track, however, see the following: • Chernus, Ira. Mysticism in Rabbinic Judaism (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1982). • Halperin, David. The Merkabah in Rabbinic Literature [AMERICAN ORIENTAL SERIES, vol. 62] (New Haven: American Oriental Society, 1980). • __________. The Faces of the Chariot [TEXTE UND STUDIEN ZUM ANTIKEN JUDENTUM, 16] (Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck], 1988). • Patai. Raphael. Gates to the Old City: A Book of Jewish Legends (New York: Avon Books, 1980): the midrash sections. • Urbach, Ephraim E. The Sages. Their Concepts and Beliefs (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1975; rpt. Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press, 1987); see especially - Chapter VI. “Magic and Miracle” Chapter VII. “The Power of the Divine Name” Chapter VIII. “The Celestial Retinue” Chapter IX. “He Who Spoke and the World Came into Being” pp. 578-80. e. Miscellaneous magic texts & other “occult” works Full studies include • • • Gideon Bohak’s Ancient Jewish Magic: A History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008) Yuval Harari’s Jewish Magic before the Rise of Kabbalah (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2017) Part I of Michael D. Swartz’ The Mechanics of Providence: The Workings of Ancient Jewish Magic and Mysticism (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2018) For a detailed bibliography on Jewish magic, see the site once maintained by Scott Noegel at the INTERNET ARCHIVE Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20151004083815/http://faculty.washington.edu/snoegel/JewishM agicBibliography.pdf or find the appendix to my “The Study of Merkabah Mysticism and Hekhalot Literature in English” in Jewish Studies 52 (Jerusalem: Journal of the World Union of Jewish Studies, 2017), pages 35*-112*; also at http://www.digital-brilliance.com/contributed/Karr/Biblios/mmhie.pdf or https://www.academia.edu/4881092/Notes_on_the_Study_of_Merkabah_Mysticism_and_Hekhalot _Literature_in_English_-_full_text For brief introductions to Jewish magic, refer to the following survey articles: • 14 Alexander, P. S. “Incantations and Books of Magic,” in Emil Schürer, The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ (175 B.C.—A.D. 135), A New English Version revised and edited by G. Vermes, F. Millar, and M. Goodman (Edinburgh: T & T Clark Ltd, 1986): volume III, part 1, pp. 342-79. Noticeably absent here is reference to the Talmud. See the recommendations in my 1996 essay, “Kabbalah Study – Jewish Mysticism in English” (appended below). 39 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ • • • Idel, Moshe. “On Judaism, Jewish Mysticism and Magic,” in Envisioning Magic: A Princeton Seminar and Symposium, edited by P. Schäfer and H. Kippenberg (Leiden: Brill, 1997). Schäfer, Peter. “Jewish Magic Literature in Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages,” in Journal of Jewish Studies, vol. XLI, no. 1 (1990). ____________. “Magic and Religion in Ancient Judaism,” in Envisioning Magic. 2. Merkabah and hekhalot literature Refer to my bibliographic essay at Hermetic Kabbalah or Academia.edu, • “Notes on the Study of Merkabah Mysticism and Hekhalot Literature in English,” in Jewish Studies 52 (Jerusalem: Journal of the World Union of Jewish Studies, 2017), ENGLISH SECTION, pages 35*-112*, and at http://www.digital-brilliance.com/contributed/Karr/Biblios/mmhie.pdf or https://www.academia.edu/4881092/Notes_on_the_Study_of_Merkabah_Mysticism _and_Hekhalot_Literature_in_English_-_full_text 3. Sefer Yezirah Refer to my bibliographic essay, • “Notes on Editions of Sefer Yezirah in English,” at http://www.digital-brilliance.com/contributed/Karr/Biblios/syie.pdf or https://www.academia.edu/22875900/Notes_on_Editions_of_Sefer_Yetzirah_in_English 4. Transition a. Geonic period It is generally thought that the Geonic period left little evidence of theosophical development. Apocalyptic, merkabah, and rabbinic writings continued to exercise authority, this material being compiled and redacted with little being added to the existing traditions. In this period, however, magical works circulated and grew. Joseph Dan writes, “The Geonic period, from the sixth to tenth centuries, is a period which seems to be outside the realm of the history of Jewish thought. … [I]t still retains the image of being a half-millennium almost completely devoid of any Hebrew works on theology or ethics. This image is not completely true.”15 Refer to Scholem’s Kabbalah, pp. 30-5: “Mysticism in the Geonic Period.” See also Klaus Herrmann, “Jewish Mysticism in the Geonic Period: The Prayer of Rav Hamnuna Sava,” in Jewish Studies between the Disciplines: Papers in Honor of Peter Schäfer on the Occasion of his Sixtieth Birthday (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2003)—also in Officina Magica: Essays on the Practice of Magic in Antiquity, edited by Shaul Shaked [IJS STUDIES IN JUDAICA, 4] (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2005), pp. 171-212. An example of a work from this period is Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer (CHAPTERS OF RABBI ELIEZER), which has been translated and annotated by Gerald Friedlander (London: 1916; rpt. New York: Sepher-Hermon Press, 1981 [4th ed]). b. Rishonic period Among the Rishonim were the Tosafists, rabbis who developed “additions” to the Talmud, i.e., additions to Rashi. For our purposes, see “Peering through the Lattices”: Mystical, Magical, and Pietistic Dimensions in the Tosafist Period by Ephraim Kanarfogel (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2000). 15 The ‘Unique Cherub’ Circle (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1999), page 17. 40 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ c. Commentaries on Sefer Yezirah For a review of English sources on these commentaries, both philosophical and kabbalistic, see my “Notes on Editions of Sefer Yezirah in English,” PART 3, at http://www.digital-brilliance.com/contributed/Karr/Biblios/syie.pdf or https://www.academia.edu/22875900/Notes_on_Editions_of_Sefer_Yetzirah_in_English d. Religious philosophers A History of Mediaeval Jewish Philosophy by Isaac Husik (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1916; rpt. 1941) is a classic, but Husik grants only perfunctory mention to kabbalah in the opening strains of his conclusion. The same is generally true of Jewish Philosophy in the Middle Ages by Raphael Jospe (Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2009). A History of Jewish Philosophy in the Middle Ages by Colette Sirat (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985) serves our purpose better, for it pays some attention to how kabbalah fits in. For treatments which are more focused on kabbalah, see Elliot R. Wolfson’s “Jewish Mysticism: A Philosophical Overview,” in History of Jewish Philosophy, edited by Daniel H. Frank and Oliver Leaman (London – New York: Routledge, 1997), and Hava TiroshSamuelson’s “Philosophy and Kabbalah: 1200-1600,” in The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Jewish Philosophy (Cambridge University Press, 2003). Ernst Müller (1880-1954), in History of Jewish Mysticism (Oxford: East and West Library, 1946; rpt. New York: Yesod Publishers, n.d. [ca. 1960]), writes (pp. 73-74): In Spain the Cabbalah assumed a more philosophical form, due to the influence of the religious philosophy which was already fully developed in that country. There are numerous points of contact between it and the work of the three great thinkers Jehudah Halevi, Solomon Ibn Gabirol, and Abraham Ibn Ezra. The first-named devoted some space to the Sefer Yezirah in his great work Cuzari. Gabirol as a neo-Platonist has many resemblances with the Cabbalah. … Finally Abraham Ibn Ezra made mystical numerical and literal analyses of the Name of God, particularly in his writing Yesod Mora… i. On ibn Gabirol, refer to • Idel, Moshe. “Jewish Philosophy and Kabbalah in Spain,” in Sephardic & Mizrahi Jewry: From the Golden Age of Spain to Modern Times (New York: NYU Press, 2005). • Laumakis, John A. The Font of Life (Fons Vitae) [MEDIAEVAL TEXTS IN TRANSLATION] (Marquette University Press, 2014). • Loewe, Raphael. Ibn Gabirol [JEWISH THINKERS] (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1989). An analysis of ibn Gebirol’s life and writings. Included is a full translation of Keter Malkut (ROYAL CROWN), which Müller calls Gabirol’s great “cosmological hymn.” • ______. “Ibn Gabirol’s Treatment of Sources in Kether Malkuth,” in Studies in Jewish Religious and Intellectual History Presented to Alexander Altmann on the Occasion of His Seventieth Birthday, edited by Siegfried Stein and Raphael Loewe ([Tuscaloosa]: University of Alabama Press, 1979). • Neoplatonism and Jewish Thought, edited by Lenn E. Goodman (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992): - Dillon, John M. “Solomon Ibn Gabirol’s Doctrine of Intelligible Matter” - Mathis, C. K. “Parallel Structures in the Metaphysics of Iamblichus and Ibn Gabirol” - McGinn, Bernard. “Ibn Gabirol: The Sage among Schoolmen” • Pessin, Sarah. Ibn Gabirol’s Theology of Desire: Matter and Method in Jewish Medieval Neoplatonism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013). • ______. “Solomon Ibn Gabirol,” in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, at http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ibn-gabirol/ (published 2010) 41 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ • Selected Poems of Solomon Ibn Gabirol, translated by Peter Cole (Princeton - Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2001). • Wise, Stephen S. The Improvement of the Moral Qualities: AN ETHICAL TREATISE OF THE ELEVENTH CENTURY BY SOLOMON IBN GABIROL…WITH A TRANSLATION… (New York: Columbia University Press, 1902; rpt. Palala Press, 2015). ii. Judah Halevi’s principal work, Kuzari (or Cuzari), has been put into English a few times, but not all versions include the commentary on Sefer Yezirah (in § 4:25). Two that do are • Hirschfeld, Hartwig. The Book of Kuzari (New York: Pardes Publishing House, 1905; rpt 1946; rpt New York: Schocken Books 1964). • Korobkin, N. Daniel. The Kuzari: In Defense of the Despised Faith (Northvale – Jerusalem: Jason Aronson Inc., 1998): pp. 232-248. Also see • Baneth, David Hartwig (Zwi). “Judah Halevi and Al-Ghazali,” in Studies in Jewish Thought, edited by Alfred Jospe (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981). • Bar-Asher, Avishai. “The Kuzari and Early Kabbalah: Between Integration and Interpretation regarding the Secrets of the Sacrificial Rite,” in Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 116, Issue 2 (Cambridge University Press, 2023), pp. 228-253. • Burnstein, Abraham. Judah Halevi in Grenada: A Story of His Boyhood (New York: Bloch Publishing Company, 1941). • Efros, Israel. Studies in Medieval Jewish Philosophy (New York: Columbia University Press, 1974): Part II. “Some Aspects of Yehuda Halevi’s Mysticism” and “Some Textual Notes on Yehuda Halevi’s Kuzari.” • Krinis, Ehud. God’s Chosen People: Judah Halevi’s ‘Kuzari’ and the ShīCīlmām Doctrine [CELAMA 7] (Turnhout: Brepols Publishing, 2014). • Levin, Gabriel (trans.) Poems from the Diwan (POETICA 32) (London: Carcanet Press, Ltd., 2002). • Lobel, Diana. Between Mysticism and Philosophy: Sufi Language of the Religious Experience in Judah Halevi’s KUZARI (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000). • Rosenzweig, Franz. Ninety-Two Poems and Hymns of Yehuda Halevi, translated by Thomas Kovach, Eva Jospe, and Gilya Gerda Schmidt; edited by Richard A. Cohen (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000). Originally published as Jehuda Halevi: Zweiundneunzig Hymnen und Dedichte (Berlin: Verlag Lambert Schneider, 1927). • Scheindlin, Raymond P. The Song of the Distant Dove: Judah Halevi’s Pilgrimage (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008). • Schwartz, Dov. “From Technique to Consciousness: Notes on the Development of Esoteric Writing in Twelfth-Century Jewish Thought,” in Jewish Thought: Journal of the GoldsteinGoren International Center for Jewish Thought, Volume 2: ESOTERICISM IN JEWISH THOUGHT (BeerSheva, 2020), pp. 9-33. • _______. “Judah Halevi and Abraham Ibn Ezra” (= CHAPTER ONE) in Studies on Astral Magic in Medieval Jewish Thought, translated by David Louvish and Batya Stein [THE BRILL REFERENCE LIBRARY OF JUDAISM, VOL. 20] (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2005). • Silman, Yochanan. Philosopher and Prophet: Judah Halevi, the KUZARI, and the Evolution of His Thought (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995). • Sirat, Colette. A History of Jewish Philosophy in the Middle Ages (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985): Chapter 4. • Strauss, Leo. “The Law of Reason in the Kuzari,” in Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research, vol. XIII (New York: 1943). • Sviri, Sara. “Spiritual Trends in Pre-Kabbalistic Judeo-Spanish Literature: The Cases of Bahya ibn Paquda and Judah Halevi,” in Donaire, NÚMERO 6 (London: Consejería de Educación y Ciencia, Embajada de España, 1996), pp. 78-84. 42 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ • Wolfson, Elliot R. “Merkavah Traditions in Philosophical Garb: Judah Halevi Reconsidered,” in Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research, Vol. 57, (American Academy for Jewish Research, 1990-1991), pp. 179-242. iii. Works by Abraham ibn Ezra translated into English: • Abraham Ibn Ezra Latinus on Nativities: A Parallel Latin-English Critical Edition of Liber Nativitatum and Liber Abraham Iudei de Nativitatibus [ABRAHAM IBN EZRA’S ASTROLOGICAL WRITINGS, Volume 6], edited, translated and annotated by Shlomo Sela (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2019). • Abraham Ibn Ezra on Elections, Interrogations, and Medical Astrology A Parallel Hebrew-English Critical Edition of the Book of Elections (3 Versions), the Book of Interrogations (3 Versions), and the Book of the Luminaries [ABRAHAM IBN EZRA’S ASTROLOGICAL WRITINGS, Volume 3], edited, translated and annotated by Shlomo Sela (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2012). • Abraham Ibn Ezra on Nativities and Continuous Horoscopy: A Parallel Hebrew-English Critical Edition of the Book of Nativities and the Book of Revolution [ABRAHAM IBN EZRA’S ASTROLOGICAL WRITINGS, Volume 4], edited, translated and annotated by Shlomo Sela (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2013). • Abraham Ibn Ezra: The Book of Reasons, A Parallel Hebrew English Critical Edition of the Two Versions of the Text [ABRAHAM IBN ERA'S ASTROLOGICAL WRITINGS, Volume 1], edited, translated and annotated by Shlomo Sela (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2007). • Abraham Ibn Ezra: The Book of the World, A Parallel Hebrew English Critical Edition of the Two Versions of the Text [ABRAHAM IBN ERA'S ASTROLOGICAL WRITINGS, Volume 2], edited, translated and annotated by Shlomo Sela (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2010). • Abraham Ibn Ezra’s Introductions to Astrology, A Parallel Hebrew-English Critical Edition of the Book of the Beginning of Wisdom and the Book of the Judgments of the Zodiacal Signs [ABRAHAM IBN EZRA’S ASTROLOGICAL WRITINGS, Volume 5], edited, translated and annotated by Shlomo Sela (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2017). • Commentary of Abraham Ibn Ezra on the Pentateuch, translated by Jay F. Shachter (Hoboken: Ktav Publishing House, 1986). • Commentary on the Pentateuch, translated & annotated by Norman Strickland and Arthur M. Silver (New York: Menorah Publishing Company, 1988). • Ibn Ezra’s Commentary on the Pentateuch: Deuteronomy (Devarim), translated and annotated by H. Norman Strickman and Arthur M. Silver (Menorah Publishing, 2001). • Ibn Ezra’s Commentary on the Pentateuch: Exodus (Shemot), translated and annotated by H. Norman Strickman and Arthur M. Silver (Menorah Publishing, 1997). • Ibn Ezra’s Commentary on the Pentateuch: Genesis (Bereshit), translated and annotated by H. Norman Strickman and Arthur M. Silver (Menorah Publishing, 1988). • Ibn Ezra’s Commentary on the Pentateuch: Leviticus (Va ‘Yikra), translated and annotated by H. Norman Strickman and Arthur M. Silver (Menorah Publishing, 2004). • Ibn Ezra’s Commentary on the Pentateuch: Numbers (Ba-Midbar), translated and annotated by H. Norman Strickman and Arthur M. Silver (Bloch Publishing Co., 1999). • Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra’s Commentary on Books 3-5 of Psalms, Chapters 72-150, translated by Norman Strickman (New York: Touro College Press/Academic Studies Press, 2016). • Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra’s Commentary on the First Book of Psalms, Chapters 1-41, translated by Norman Strickman (Academic Studies Press, 2009). • Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra’s Commentary on the Second Book of Psalms, Chapters 42-72, translated by Norman Strickman (Academic Studies Press, 2009). • Rabbi ibn Ezra’s Commentary on the Creation (Perush ha-Torah: Bereshit, Perek 1-6) translated by Michael Linetsky (Northvale - Jerusalem: Jason Aronson, 1998). • The Beginning of Wisdom / Reshith Hochma, translated and annotated by Meira B. Epstein; edited with additional annotations by Robert Hand ([Bel Air?]: A[rchive for the] R[etrieval] of H[istorical] A[strological] T[exts], 1998). 43 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ • The Beginning of Wisdom: An Astrological Treatise by Abraham ibn Ezra, edited by Raphael Levy and Francisco Cantera (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press/London: H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1939). • The Book of Nativities and Revolutions, edited, translated and annotated by Meira B. Epstein and Robert Hand ([Bel Air?]: A[rchive for the] R[etrieval] of H[istorical] A[strological] T[exts], 2008). • The Commentary of Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra on Hosea, translated by Abe Lipshitz (New York: Sepher-Hermon Press, 1988). • The Religious Poems of Abraham ibn Ezra, Volume One, translated by Israel Levin [STUDIES IN HEBREW POETRY] (Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 1975). Volume 2 (1980) is the Hebrew edition. • The Secret of the Torah (Sefer Yesod Mora ve-Sod ha-Torah) translated by Norman Strickman (Northvale – Jerusalem: Jason Aronson Inc., 1995). • Twilight of a Golden Age: Selected Poems of Abraham Ibn Ezra, translated and edited by Leon Weinberger [JUDAIC STUDIES SERIES] (Tusdaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 1997). Studies on Abraham ibn Ezra: • Aranda, Mariano Gómez. “The Ten Commandments are Implanted in Human Minds: Abraham Ibn Ezra’s Rational Approach to the Decalogue,” in Accounting for the Commandments in Medieval Judaism: Studies in Law, Philosophy, Pietism, and Kabbalah, edited by Jeremy Brown and Marc Herman (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2021), pp. 137-155. • del Valle, Carlos. “Abraham Ibn Ezra’s Mathematical Speculations on the Divine Name,” in Mystics of the Book: Themes, Topics and Typologies, edited by R. A. Herrera (New York: Peter Lang, 1993). • Friedländer, M. Essays on the Writings of Abraham ibn Ezra (London: The Society of Hebrew Literature / Trübner and Co., 1877; rpt Yerushalayim, [Mitshuf], 1964). • Halbertal, Moshe. Concealment and Revelation: Esotericism in Jewish Thought and Its Philosophical Implications, translated by Jackie Feldman (Princeton – Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2007): CHAPTER CHAPTER 5. “Esotericism and Commentary: Ibn Ezra and the Exegetical Layer” 6. “Concealment and Heresy: Astrology and the Secret of the Torah” • Harris, Alex; and Zellman-Rohrer, Michael. “‘Goat Beautiful of Voice’: A Piyyut of Abraham ibn Ezra from Medinet el-Fayyum, Egypt,” in Zutot, Vol. 18, Issue 1 (Leiden: Brill, Nov. 2021), pp. 21-36. • Kreisel, Howard. “Abraham Ibn Ezra’s ‘Secrets’ in the Early and Later Torah Commentaries,” in Jewish Thought: Journal of the Goldstein-Goren International Center for Jewish Thought, Volume 2: ESOTERICISM IN JEWISH THOUGHT (Beer-Sheva, 2020), pp. 35-64. • Lancaster, Irene. Deconstructing the Bible: Abraham ibn Ezra’s Introduction to the Torah [ROUTLEDGE JEWISH STUDIES SERIES] (Abingdon – New York: Routledge, 2003; reprinted 2007).—includes a translation of Introduction to the Torah. • Langermann, Tzvi. “Abraham Ibn Ezra,” in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, at http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ibn-ezra/ (published 2006; revised 2014). • Schwartz, Dov. “Judah Halevi and Abraham Ibn Ezra” (= CHAPTER ONE) in Studies on Astral Magic in Medieval Jewish Thought, translated by David Louvish & Batya Stein [BRILL REFERENCE LIBRARY OF JUDAISM, vol. 20] (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2005). • Sela, Shlomo. Abraham Ibn Ezra and the Rise of Medieval Hebrew Science (Leiden – Boston: Brill Academic Publishers, 2003). • ______. “Abraham Ibn Ezra’s Appropriation of Saturn,” in Kabbalah: Journal, Vol. 10, edited by Daniel Abrams and Avraham Elqayam (2004), pp. 21-53. • Soloveitchik, Haym. “Topics in the Hokhmath Ha-Nefesh,” in Journal of Jewish Studies, Volume XVII (Oxford: The Oxford Centre for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies, 1967), pp. 65-78. Ibn Ezra’s Yesod Mora and his commentaries on Exodus and Ecclesiastes were inserted into Hokhmath Ha-Nefesh, presumably by Eleazar of Worms. 44 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ iv. Maimonides (1138-1204), mysticism and kabbalah According to Abraham Abulafia, Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed is a profound mystical text.16 Be that as it may, Maimonides is not generally ranked among those who contributed to the development of the kabbalah. Nonetheless, he is considered esoteric—a euphemism perhaps for elite or elitist. In his brief foreword to Six Treatises Attributed to Maimonides, translated and annotated from the Hebrew editions by Fred Rosner, MD (Northvale – London: Jason Aronson Inc., 1991), Rabbi Moshe Greenes argues that Maimonides was “steeped in Kabbalah.” There are several English editions of Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed: • • • The Guide for the Perplexed, translated by M. Friedlander (London: Routledge/New York: E. P. Dutton, 1910, 2nd ed., 1928 & 1951; rpt. New York, Dover Publications, 1956). The Guide of the Perplexed, translated with an introduction and notes by Shlomo Pines, introductory essay by Leo Strauss, 2 volumes (Chicago – London: University of Chicago Press, 1963). The Guide of the Perplexed, abridged with introduction and commentary by Julius Guttman, translated by Chaim Rabin, new introduction by Daniel Frank (Hackett Publishing Company, 1995). For a study of the guide, • Faur, José. Homo Mysticus: A Guide to Maimonides’s GUIDE FOR THE PERPLEXED (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1998/9). Further on Maimonides, see • • • • • • • • Blumenthal, David R. “Maimonides: Prayer, Worship, and Mysticism,” in Approaches to Judaism in Medieval Times, edited by David R. Blumenthal (Chico/Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1984), pp. 1-16. Diamond, James Arthur. Maimonides and the Hermeneutics of Concealment, Deciphering Scripture and Midrash in THE GUIDE OF THE PERPLEXED (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002) Fox, Marvin. Interpreting Maimonides (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990). Halbertal, Moshe. Maimonides: Life and Thought (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014). Idel, Moshe. “Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed and the Kabbalah,” in Jewish History, volume 18, nos. 2-3 (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2004)—an issue “Commemorating the EightHundredth Anniversary of Maimonides’ Death Kellner, Menachem. Maimonides’ Confrontation with Mysticism (Oxford – Portland: The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2007). Twersky, Isadore (ed.) A Maimonides Reader (Springfield: Behrman House, Inc.,1972). _______. Studies in Maimonides (Cambridge, etc.: Harvard University Press, 1990). Abraham Maimonides (1186-1237), son of the famed philosopher, formed his own pietist group. See the following articles: • • • • Fenton, Paul B. “Asceticism among the Judeo-Sufis of Egypt: The Cases of R. Abraham Maimonides and R. David II Maimonides,” in Asceticism in Judaism and the Abrahamic Religions (Beer-Sheva: Ben-Gurion Universtiy of the Negev, 2021), pp. 67-97. Friedman, Mordechai A. “Abraham Maimonides on His Leadership, Reforms, and Spiritual Imperfection,” in The Jewish Quarterly Review, vol. 104, no. 3 (Univerity of Pennsylvania Press, Summer 2014), pp. 495-512. Goitin, S. D. “A Treatise in Defense of the Pietists by Abraham Maimonides,” in Journal of Jewish Studies, Vol. XVI (Oxford: The Oxford Centre for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies 1966), pp. 105-176. _______. “Abraham Maimonides and His Pietist Circle,” in Jewish Medieval and Renaissance Studies, edited by Alexander Altmann (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1967), pp. 145-164. ‘Obadyah Maimonides (1228-1265), grandson of the Maimonides, produced a Sufi-pietist “manual for the spiritual wayfarer along the Path to Godliness” (Fenton, p. 27). See the following: • • 16 Fenton, Paul (trans./ed/). The Treatise of the Pool by ‘Obadyah Maimonides (London: Octagon Press, 1981). Vadja, G. “The Mystical Doctrine of Rabbi ‘Obadyah, Grandson of Moses Maimonides,” in Journal of Jewish Studies, Vol. VI (Oxford: Oxford Centre for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies, 1955), pp. 213225. See Abulafia’s commentary on Guide of the Perplexed: Sitrei Torah: Secrets of the Torah, volumes 1 and 2, translated by Yaron Eden Hadani and Alexandru Munteanu (ENGLISH EDITION – Belize City: Providence University, 2009); edited by Fabrizio Del Tin ([n.p.]: eUniversity.pub, 2018). 45 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ 5. Hasidei Ashkenaz The Hasidei Ashkenaz (≈ GERMAN PIETISTS) were active in the Jewish communities of the Rhineland (major city: Regensburg) in the years 1170-1230. Leaders of this group were from the Kalonymus family. Key figures include (1) Samuel ben Kalonymus the Pious of Speyer, his son (2) Judah the Pious (or Yehuda he-Hasid, 1150-1217), who wrote the best-known tract of this school, Sefer Hasidim (BOOK OF THE PIOUS), and (3) Eleazar ben Judah of Worms (1176-1238), Judah’s main student, known for several works, foremost among these Sefer ha-Roqeah (BOOK OF THE PERFUMER), Hokhmah Ha-Egoz (WISDOM OF THE NUT), Hokhmat ha-Nefesh (WISDOM OF THE SOUL), and the multi-volumed Sodei Razaya (SECRET OF SECRETS, also called SECRETS OF RAZIEL). The fundamental unit for the transmission of esoteric oral knowledge is the family. According to the testimony of Rabbi Eleazar of Worms, the termination of his family line, as a result of the early death of his son and combined with the diminution of his students, moved him to commit the secrets of the Torah to writing. The fear of the loss of the secret as a result of the diminution of the line of transmission justified the writing down of the secret; thus, the knowledge could be passed on without relying on the continuous chain of oral tradition.17 While not considered part of the early kabbalah in the strictest sense, the Hasidei Ashkenaz must be seen as a bridge from the earlier merkabah/hekhalot and name mysticism to important aspects of the kabbalah which was to follow.18 General19 Abrams, Daniel. “From Germany to Spain: Numerology as a Mystical Technique,” in Journal of Jewish Studies, vol. 47, no. 1 (Cambridge: 1996), pp. 85-101. Ariel, David S. “‘The Eastern Dawn of Wisdom’: The Problem of the Relationship between Islamic and Jewish Mysticism,” in Approaches to Judaism in Medieval Times, Volume II, edited by David R. Blumenthal [BROWN JUDAIC STUDIES 57] (Chico: Scholars Press, 1985), pages 149-167. Bar-Levav, Avriel. “Death and the (Blurred) Boundaries of Magic: Strategies of Coexistence,” in Kabbalah: Journal, vol. 7, edited by D. Abrams and A. Elqayam (2002) pages 51-64. Baumgarten, Elisheva. Practicing Piety in Medieval Ashkenaz: Men, Women, and Everyday Religious Observance [JEWISH CULTURE AND CONTEXTS] (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014). Cohn-Sherbok, Dan. Jewish Mysticism: An Anthology (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 1995). Passages: from a prayer from the Ashkenazi liturgy (pp. 98-100). 17 Moshe Halbertal, Concealment and Revelation: Esotericism in Jewish Thought and Its Philosophical Implications, translated by Jackie Feldman (Princeton – Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2007): CHAPTER 4 “Concealment and Power: Magic and Esotericism in the Hekhalot Literature,” page 33. 18 For instance, one can track techniques in the use of holy names from Eleazar of Worms through Abraham Abulafia to Hayyim Vital, then, via Yakov Zemech and Meir Poppers, to Shalom Sharabi. Works on the general list on Hasidei Ashkenaz inevitably treat Yehuda he-Hasid and Eleazar of Worms, given that a majority of the principal writings of this movement come from them. 19 46 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ Dan, Joseph. “Ashkenazi Hasidim, 1941-1991: Was there Really a Hasidic Movement in Medieval Germany?” = JMII20: Chapter 13. Originally in Gershom Scholem’s MAJOR TRENDS IN JEWISH MYSTICISM 50 Years After, edited by P. Schäfer and J. Dan (Tübingen: J. B. C. Mohr [Paul Siebeck], 1993), pages 87-101. __________. “Mysticism and Ethics in the Ashkenazi Hasidic Movement” = CHAPTER 3 of Jewish Mysticism & Jewish Ethics (Seattle – London: University of Washington Press, 1986), pp. 45-75. __________. “The Ashkenazi Hasidic Movement,” in Gershom Scholem and the Mystical Dimension of Jewish History (New York: New York University Press, 1988), pages 92-126. __________. “The Emergence of Jewish Mysticism in Medieval Germany” = JMII: Chapter 2. Originally in Mystics of the Book, edited by R. A. Herrera (New York–Berlin–etc.: Peter Lang, 1993), pages 57-95. __________. “The Emergence of Mystical Prayer” = JMII: Chapter 10. Originally in Studies in Jewish Mysticism edited by Joseph Dan and Frank Talmage (Cambridge: Association for Jewish Studies, 1982), pp. 85-120. __________. “The Language of the Mystics in Medieval Germany,” in Mysticism, Magic and Kabbalah in Ashkenazi Judaism—noted below under “Grözinger, Karl Erich; and Dan, Joseph (eds)”—pp. 6-27. __________. “The Seventy Names of Metatron” = JMI*: Chapter 10. Originally in Proceedings of the Eighth World Congress of Jewish Studies, Vol. III (Jerusalem: World Union of Jewish Studies, 1982), pages 7-29. Dan discusses the “most popular list of these name,” Sefer ha-Heshek (printed Lemberg, 1865), which “was written, most probably, by one of the adherents to the theology of the Ashkenazi Hasidic movement, in the second half of the twelfth century or the first half of the thirteenth.” (pp. 229-230) __________. The ‘Unique Cherub’ Circle. A School of Mystics and Esoterics in Medieval Germany [TEXTS AND STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN JUDAISM, 15] (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1999). Dan distinguishes four major mystical circles from this period (12th and 13th centuries): (i) the Iyyun circle, (ii) the Kalonymus family (i.e. what we generally think of as the Hasidei Ashkenaz), (iii) Sefer ha-Bahir, and (iv) the ‘Unique Cherub’ Circle. The Iyyun and ‘Cherub’ circles, Dan insists, cannot be identified with the Hasidei Ashkenaz. Green, Arthur. Keter: The Crown of God in Early Jewish Mysticism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997; rpt 2016). Chapter Ten, “Medieval Reconsiderations” Chapter Eleven, “The Hymn of Glory” Chapter Twelve, “The Way to Kabbalah” Grözinger, Karl Erich. “Between Magic and Religion – Ashkenazi Hasidic Piety,” in Mysticism, Magic and Kabbalah in Ashkenazi Judaism—noted immediately below under “Grözinger, Karl Erich; and Dan, Joseph (eds)”—pp. 28-43. Grözinger, Karl Erich; and Dan, Joseph (eds). Mysticism, Magic and Kabbalah in Ashkenazi Judaism: International Symposium held in Frankfurt a. M. 1991 [STUDIA JUDAICA: Band XIII] (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1995). The first eight articles (of twenty) treat the Hasidei Ashkenaz. See listings in this bibliography under Alexander, Baskin, Dan, Grözinger, Gruenwald, Hallamish, Marcus, and Wolfson. Herrmann, Klaus, “An Unknown Commentary on the Book of Creation (Sefer Yezirah) from the Cairo Genizah and Its Re-Creation among the Haside Ashkenaz,” in Creation and Re-Creation in 20 JMII = Jewish Mysticism, Volume II: THE MIDDLE AGES (Northvale/Jerusalem: Jason Aronson, Inc., 1998). 47 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ Jewish Thought [FESTSCHRIFT IN HONOR OF JOSEPH DAN ON THE OCCASION OF HIS SEVENTIETH BIRTHDAY], edited by Rachel Elior and Peter Schäfer (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2005). ______. “Jewish Mysticism in the Geonic Period: The Prayer of Rav Hamnuna Sava,” in Jewish Studies Between the Disciplines / Judaistik zwischen den Disziplinen: Papers in Honor of Peter Schäfer on the Occasion of His Sixtieth Birthday, edited by Klaus Herrmann, Margarete Schlüter, and Giuseppe Veltri (Leiden – Boston: Brill 2003), pages 180-217. Horowitz, Daniel M. “Hasidei Ashkenaz: Mystical Moralism,” = Chapter 7 of A Kabbalah and Jewish Mysticism Reader (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 2016). Idel, Moshe. “From Italy to Ashkenaz and Back: On the Circulation of Jewish Mystical Traditions,” in Kabbalah: Journal, Volume Fourteen, edited by Daniel Abrams and Avraham Elqayam (2006), pp. 47-94. _______. “Gazing as the Head in Ashkenazi Hasidism,” in The Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy, Vol. 6 (Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1997), pp. 265-300. _______. Golem: Jewish Magical and Mystical Traditions on the Artificial Anthropoid [SUNY SERIES IN (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990). JUDAICA] Chapter 5, “Ashkenazi Hasidic Views on the Golem.” _______. “Some Forlorn Writings of a Forgotten Ashkenazi Prophet – R. Nehemiah ben Shlomo ha-Navi’,” in the Jewish Quarterly Review, Vol. 95, No. 1 (Philadelphia: Center for Advanced Judaic Studies / University of Pennsylvania Press, Winter 2005), pages 183-196. Kanarfogel, Ephraim. “Dreams as a Determinant of Jewish Law and Pratice in Northern Europe during the High Middle Ages,” in Studies in Medieval Jewish Intellectual and Social History [FESTSCHRIFT IN HONOR OF ROBERT CHAZAN], edited by David Engel, Lawrence H. Schiffman, and Elliot R. Wolfson (Leiden - Boston: Brill, 2012), pp. 111-143. ___________. “Mysticism and Asceticism in Italian Rabbinic Literature of the Thirteenth Century,” in Kabbalah: Journal, vol. 6, edited by Daniel Abrams and Avraham Elqayam (2001), pp. 135-149. ___________. “Peering through the Lattices”: Mystical, Magical, and Pietistic Dimensions in the Tosafist Period (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2000). ___________. “Ta‘ame ha miṣvot in Medieval Ashkenaz,” in Accounting for the Commandments in Medieval Judaism: Studies in Law, Philosophy, Pietism, and Kabbalah, edited by Jeremy Brown and Marc Herman (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2021), pp. 177-190. ___________. The Intellectual History and Rabbinic Culture of Medieval Ashkenaz (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2013). ___________. “Varieties of Belief in Medieval Ashkenaz: The Case of Anthropomorphism,” in Rabbinic Culture and Its Critics: Jewish Authority, Dissent, and Heresy in Medieval and Early Modern Times, edited by Daniel Frank and Matt Goldish (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2008). Koren, Sharon Faye. “Menstruation and the Mystics of Ashkenaz,” in Forsaken: The Menstruant in Medieval Jewish Mysticism (Waltham: Brandeis University Press, 2011), pages 43-60. Kuyt, Annelies. “Hasidut Ashkenaz on the Angel of Dreams. A Heavenly Messenger Reflecting or Exchanging Man’s Thoughts,” in Creation and Re-Creation in Jewish Thought [FESTSCHRIFT IN HONOR OF JOSEPH DAN ON THE OCCASION OF HIS SEVENTIETH BIRTHDAY], edited by Rachel Elior and Peter Schäfer (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2005), pp. 147-163. Lehnardt, Andreas. “Shedding Light on Metatron – Recently Discovered Fragments of Mystical Writings in Germany,” in Jewish Manuscript Cultures: New Perspectives, edited by Irina Wandrey [STUDIES IN MANUSCRIPT CULTURES, Volume 13] (Berlin – Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2017), pp. 131-154. 48 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ Mandel, Paul. “The Sacrifice of the Souls of the Righteous upon the Heavenly Altar: Transformations of Apocalyptic Traditions in Medieval Ashkenaz,” in Regional Identities and Cultures of Medieval Jews, edited by Javier Castaño, Talya Fishman, and Ephraim Kanarfogel (London: The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization/Liverpool University Press, 2018), pp. 4972. Marcus, Ivan. “Hasidei Ashkenaz Private Penitentials: An Introduction and Descriptive Catalogue of their Manuscripts and Early Editions,” in Studies in Jewish Mysticism, edited by Joseph Dan and Frank Talmage (Cambridge: Association for Jewish Studies, 1982), pages 57-83. ___________. Piety and Society. The Jewish Pietists of Medieval Germany [ÉTUDES SUR LE JUDAISME MEDIEVAL: Tome X] (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1981). ___________. “Prayer Gestures in German Hasidim,” in Mysticism, Magic and Kabbalah in Ashkenazi Judaism—noted above under “Grözinger, Karl Erich; and Dan, Joseph (eds)”—pp. 44-59. ___________. “The Devotional Ideals of Ashkenazic Pietism,” in Jewish Spirituality I: From the Bible through the Middle Ages, edited by Arthur Green (New York: Crossroad, 1986). ___________. “The Historical Meaning of Hasidei Ashkenaz: Fact, Fiction or Cultural Self-Image?” in Gershom Scholem’s MAJOR TRENDS IN JEWISH MYSTICISM 50 Years After, edited by P. Schäfer and J. Dan (Tübingen: J. B. C. Mohr [Paul Siebeck], 1993), pages 103-114. ___________. “The ‘Song of Songs’ in German Hasidism and the School of Rashi: A Preliminary Comparison,” in Rashi, 1040-1990: hommage à Ephraim E. Urbach: congrès européen des études juives, edited by Gabrielle Sed-Rajana (Paris: Editions du Cerf, 1993). Offenberg, Sara. Illuminated Piety: Pietistic Texts and Images in the North French Hebrew Miscellany (Los Angeles: Cherub Press, 2013). _______. Up in Arms: Images of Knights and the Divine Chariot in Esoteric Ashkenazi Manuscripts of the Middle Ages (Los Angeles: Cherub Press, 2019). Ravitzky, Aviezer. “The Messianism of Success in Contemporary Judaism,” in The Encyclopedia of Apocalypticism, volume 3, edited by Stephen Stein (New York: The Continuum Publishing Company, 1999), pages 204-229. Schäfer, Peter. “The Ideal of Piety of the Ashkenazi Hasidim and Its Roots in Jewish Tradition,” in Jewish History, vol. 4, no. 2 (Haifa: Haifa University Press / Leiden: E. J. Brill, Fall 1990). Scholem, Gershom. Third Lecture. “Hasidism in Medieval Germany,” in Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism. (New York: Schocken Books, 1941; frequently reprinted). Shoham-Striner, Ephraim. “Exile, Immigration and Piety: The Jewish Pietists of Medieval Germany, from the Rhineland to the Danube,” in Jewish Studies Quarterly, Volume 24, Number 2 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2017), pages 234-260. Shyovitz, David I. A Remembrance of His Wonders: Nature and the Supernatural in Medieval Ashkenaz [JEWISH CULTURE AND CONTEXTS] (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017). Trachtenberg, Joshua. Jewish Magic and Superstition: A Study in Folk Religion (New York: Behrman’s Jewish Book House, 1939; rpt. New York: Atheneum, 1975). Wolfson, Elliot R. “The Image of Jacob Engraved upon the Throne: Further Reflection on the Esoteric Doctrine of the German Pietists,” in Along the Path: Studies in Kabbalistic Myth, Symbolism, and Hermeneutics (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995). _____________. “The Mystical Significance of Torah Study in German Pietism,” in Jewish Quarterly Review, vol. 84, no. 1 (Philadelphia: Dropsie College for Hebrew, July 1993). 49 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ Development of Merkavah/Hekhalot Abrams, Daniel. Sexual Symbolism and Merkavah Speculation in Medieval Germany: A Study of the SOD HA-EGOZ Texts [TEXTS AND STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN JUDAISM: 13] (Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck], 1997). Abrams treats and translates the Sod ha-Egoz texts, “the earliest known commentaries on Ezekiel’s Chariot (Ma’aseh Merkavah),” which are, on the one hand, apparent latter-day developments of hekhalot literature while, on the other hand, “proto-kabbalistic.” ____________. “‘When Moses Ascended into Heaven’: Hekhalot Themes and Ashkenazi Interpolations in a Mystical Ascent Text (Edition, Translation and Commentary),” in Kabbalah: Journal, Volume Forty-Two, edited by Daniel Abrams (2018), pp. 63-94. Dan, Joseph. “Chochmat Ha-Egoz: Its Origin and Development” = JMI21: Chapter 9. Originally in Journal of Jewish Studies, vol. XVII (Cambridge: Oxford Centre for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies, 1966). ___________. “The Ancient Hechalot Mystical Texts in the Middle Ages: Tradition, Source, Inspiration,” = JMI22: Chapter 12. Originally in Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, Volume 75 (Manchester: 1993), pp. 83-96. Herrmann, Klaus. “Re-written Mystical Texts: The Transmission of the Heikhalot Literature in the Middle Ages,” in Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, Volume 75 (Manchester: 1993). Hirschfelder, Ulrike. “Torat ha-Mashiah in the Context of Apocalyptic Traditions in Ashkenazi Hekhalot Manuscripts,” in Envisioning Judaism: Studies in Honor of Peter Schäfer on the Occasion of his Seventieth Birthday, edited by Ra’anan S. Boustan, Klaus Herrmann, Reimund Leicht, Annette Y. Reed, and Giuseppe Veltri, with the collaboration of Alex Ramos, Volume 1 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2013), pages 657-684. Kanarfogel, Ephraim. “Peering through the Lattices”: Mystical, Magical, and Pietistic Dimensions in the Tosafist Period (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2000). Kanarfogel tracks the influence and use of hekhalot and other mystical and magical material to 12th- and 13th-century Germany and France. He argues that esoteric teachings and practices spread beyond the Hasidei Ashkenaz to the tosafists, rabbinic descendents of Rashi, conventionally considered to have been inclined exclusively toward study of the Talmud. Wolfson, Elliot R. “Haside Ashkenaz: Verdical and Docetic Interpretations of the Chariot Visions” = CHAPTER 5 in Through a Speculum That Shines: Vision and Imagination in Medieval Jewish Mysticism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994). ________. “Metatron and Shi’ur Qomah in the Writings of the Haside Ashkenaz,” in Mysticism, Magic and Kabbalah in Ashkenazi Judaism—noted above under “Grözinger, Karl Erich; and Dan, Joseph (eds),” pages 60-92. ________. “The Image of Jacob Engraved upon the Throne: Further Reflection on the Esoteric Doctrine of the German Pietists” = CHAPTER 1 of Along the Path: Studies in Kabbalistic Myth, Symbolism, and Hermeneutics (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995). 21 JMI = Jewish Mysticism, Volume I: LATE ANTIQUITY (Northvale/ Jerusalem: Jason Aronson Inc., 1998). 22 ibid. 50 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ Yehuda he-Hasid [Judah the Pious] & Sefer Hasidim Alexander, Tamar. “Rabbi Judah the Pious as a Legendary Figure,” in Mysticism, Magic and Kabbalah in Ashkenazi Judaism—noted above under “Grözinger, Karl Erich; and Dan, Joseph (eds),” pages 123-138. Alexander-Frizer, Tamar. The Pious Sinner: Ethics and Aesthetics in the Medieval Hasidic Narrative (Tübingen: J. B. C. Mohr [Paul Siebeck], 1991). Baer, Yitzhak. “The Socioreligious Orientation of ‘Sefer Hasidim,’” in Binah, vol. 2 (New York – Westport – London: Praeger, 1989), pages 57-95. Bar-Levav, Avriel. “Death and the (Blurred) Boundaries of Magic: Strategies of Coexistence,” in Kabbalah: Journal, Vol. 7, edited by Daniel Abrams and Avraham Elqayam (2002), pp. 51-64. Baskin, Judith R. “Images of Women in Sefer Hasidim,” in Mysticism, Magic and Kabbalah in Ashkenazi Judaism—noted above under “Grözinger, Karl Erich; and Dan, Joseph (eds),” pp. 93-105. Cohn-Sherbok, Dan. Jewish Mysticism: An Anthology (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 1995). Passages from Sefer Hasidim (pp. 95-98). Cronbach, A. “Social Thinking in the Sefer Hasidim,” in Hebrew Union College Annual 22 (Cincinnati: 1949), pages 1-147. Dan, Joseph. “Mysticism and Ethics in the Ashkenazi Hasidim,” in Jewish Mysticism and Jewish Ethics (Seattle - London: University of Washington Press, 1986), pages 45-75. __________. “Rabbi Judah the Pious and Caesarius of Heisterbach: Common Motifs in Their Stories,” in Jewish Mysticism, Volume III: THE MODERN PERIOD (Northvale – Jerusalem – Manchester: Jason Aronson, Inc., 1999), pp. 297-315. Originally in Scripta Hierosalymitana, Vol XXII, edited by J. Heinemann (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1971), pp, 18-27. __________. “The Book of Divine Glory by Rabbi Judah the Pious of Regensburg,” in Studies on Jewish Manuscripts [TEXTS AND STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN JUDAISM, 14] (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1999), pages 1-18. Finkel, Avraham Yaakov. Kabbalah: Selections from Classic Kabbalistic Works from Raziel HaMalach to the Present Day (Southfield: Targum Press, 2002): Chapter 20, RABBI YEHUDAH HECHASSID. ____________. (trans/ed). Sefer Chasidim: The Book of the Pious by Yehuda HeChasid (Northvale: Jason Aronson, 1997). Fishman, Talya. “Rhineland Pietist Approaches to Prayer and the Textualization of Rabbinic Culture in Medieval Northern Europe,” in Jewish Studies Quarterly, Volume 11, Issue 4 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2004), pages 313-331. Gruenwald, Ithamar. “Social and Mystical Aspects of Sefer Hasidim,” in Mysticism, Magic and Kabbalah in Ashkenazi Judaism—noted above under “Grözinger, Karl Erich; and Dan, Joseph (eds),” pages 106-116. Hallamish, Moshe. “Rabbi Judah the Pious’ Will in Halakhic and Kabbalistic Literature,” in Mysticism, Magic and Kabbalah in Ashkenazi Judaism—noted above under “Grözinger, Karl Erich; and Dan, Joseph (eds),” pages 117-122. Harris, Monford. “The Concept of Love in Sepher Hassidim,” in Jewish Quarterly Review 50 (Philadelphia: Dropsie College Press, 1959), pages 13-44. 51 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ __________. “Dreams in Sefer Hasidim,” in Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research 31 (New York: American Academy for Jewish Research, 1963). Reprinted in Harris’ Studies in Jewish Dream Interpretation (Jason Aronson, 1994). Jewish Quarterly Review, Volume 96, Number 1 (Philadelphia: Center for Advanced Judaic Studies – University of Pennsylvania Press, Winter 2006). JQR 96:1 contains a selection of entries from the forum Sefer Hasidim: ▪ Baskin, Judith R. “Women and Sexual Ambivalence in Sefer Hasidim” ▪ Fishman, Talya. “The Rhineland Pietists’ Sacralization of Oral Torah” ▪ Fram, Edward. “German Pietism and Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Polish Rabbinic Culture” ▪ Horowitz, Elliott. “Introduction: ‘A Splendid Outburst of Spirituality’” ▪ Kanarfogel, Ephraim. “R Judah he-Hasid and the Rabbinic Scholars of Regensburg: Interactions, Influences, and Implications” ▪ Shoham-Steiner, Ephraim. “The Humble Sage and the Wandering Madman: Madness and Madmen as Exemplum from Sefer Hasidim” ▪ Soloveitchik, Haym. “Pietists and Kibbitzers” + APPENDIX Kahana, Moaz. “Old Prophecies, Multiple Modernities: The Stormy Afterlife of a Medieval Pietist in Early Modern Ashkenaz,” in Jewish History, vol. 34 ([Netherlands]: Springer, 2021), pp. 233-258. Kanarfogel, Ephraim. “Judah he-Hasid and the Tosafists of Northern France,” in Jewish History 34 ([Netherlands]: Springer, 2021), pp. 177-198 Kramer, Simon G. God and Man in the Sefer Hasidim (Skokie: Hebrew Theological College Press/New York: Bloch Publishing, 1966). Marcus, Ivan. “Exegesis for the Few and the Many: Judah ha-Hasid’s Biblical Commentaries,” in Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Thought, vol. VIII [PROCEEDINGS OF THE THIRD INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE HISTORY OF JEWISH MYSTICISM: THE AGE OF THE ZOHAR], edited by Joseph Dan (Jerusalem: Hebrew University, 1989). ___________. “Judah the Pietist and Eleazer of Worms: From Charismatic to Conventional Leadership,” in Jewish Mystical Leaders and Leadership in the Thirteenth Century, edited by Moshe Idel and Mortimer Ostow (Northvale – Jerusalem: Jason Aronson, Inc., 1998), pages 97-126. ___________. (trans) “Narrative Fantasies from Sefer Hasidim” (by Judah the Hasid), in Fiction, vol. 7, nos. 1 and 2: RABBINIC FANTASY (The City College of New York, 1983); also in Rabbinic Fantasies: Imaginative Narratives from Classical Hebrew Literature, edited by D. Stern and M. Mirsky (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1990; rpt. New Haven – London: Yale University Press, 1998). ___________. Piety and Society. The Jewish Pietists of Medieval Germany [ÉTUDES SUR LE JUDAISME MEDIEVAL: Tome X] (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1981): PART TWO, JUDAH THE PIETIST’S SECTARIAN PROGRAM. ___________. “Religious Virtuosi and the Religious Community: The Pietistic Mode in Judaism,” in Take Judaism, for Example: Studies toward the Comparison of Religions, edited by Jacob Neusner (Chicago – London: The University of Chicago Press, 2003), pp. 93-115. ___________. SEFER HASIDIM and the Ashkenazi Book in Medieval Europe (Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018). Rubin, A. “The Concept of Repentance among the Hasidey Ashkenaz,” in Journal of Jewish Studies, vol. XVI, edited by J. G. Weiss (London: Jewish Chronicle Pub., 1965). 52 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ Shyovitz, David I. “Was Judah he-Hasid the ‘Author’ of Sefer Hasidim?” in Jewish History 34, 1-2 (Springer, 2021). Sierka, Anna. “Domesticated Lilith: The Integral Role of the Demonic Femnine in the Esoteric Writings of the German Pietists,” in The Journal of Religion, Vol. 103, No. 2 (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2023), pp. 209-227. Discusses Lilith in The Book of the Divine Glory, which is attributed to Yehudah ha-Hasid. Singer, Shalom Alchanan (trans.) Medieval Jewish Mysticism (Wheeling: Whitehall, 1971). A partial translation of Sefer ha-Hasidim. Soloveitchik, Haym. “The Midrash, Sefer Hasidim and the Changing Face of God,” in Creation and Re-Creation in Jewish Thought [FESTSCHRIFT IN HONOR OF JOSEPH DAN ON THE OCCASION OF HIS SEVENTIETH BIRTHDAY], edited by Rachel Elior and Peter Schäfer (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2005), pp. 165-177. ________________. “Three Themes in the Sefer Hasidim,” in AJS Review, vol. 1 (Cambridge: Association for Jewish Studies, 1976), pages 311-357. van Uchelen, Nikolaas A. “Ma‘aseh Merkabah in Sefer Hasidim,” in Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Thought, vol. VI (3-4) [Proceedings of the Second International Conference on the History of Jewish Mysticism: THE BEGINNINGS OF JEWISH MYSTICISM IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE], edited by Joseph Dan (Jerusalem: The Hebrew University, 1987). Yassif, Eli. “The Medieval Saint as Protagonist and Storyteller: The Case of R. Judah he-Hasid,” in Creation and Re-Creation in Jewish Thought [FESTSCHRIFT IN HONOR OF JOSEPH DAN ON THE OCCASION OF HIS SEVENTIETH BIRTHDAY], edited by Rachel Elior and Peter Schäfer (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2005). Eleazar of Worms Abrams, Daniel. “The Literary Emergence of Esotericism in German Pietism,” in Shofar, vol. 12, no. 2 (West Lafayette: Purdue University, 1994). “This paper will investigate the nature of R. Eleazar’s attitude toward the transcription of esoteric matters and his departure from the expressed view of his teacher R. Judah the Pious.” (page 71) __________. Sexual Symbolism and Merkavah Speculation in Medieval Germany (see above: Development of Merkavah/Hekhalot) The Sod ha-Egoz texts discussed are generally ascribed to Eleazar of Worms. Altmann, Alexander. “Eleazar of Worms’ Hokhmah Ha-Egoz,” in Journal of Jewish Studies, Volume XI, nos. 3-4 (Cambridge: Oxford Centre for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies, 1960), pp. 101-113 ≈ “Eleazer of Worms’ Symbol of the Merkabah,” in (idem), Studies in Religious Philosophy and Mysticism (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1969), pp. 161-171. Cohn-Sherbok, Dan. Jewish Mysticism: An Anthology (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 1995). Passages: from Eleazer of Worms’ Secret of Secrets (pp. 90-95). Dan, Joseph. “The Ashkenazi Concept of Language,” Chapter 3 of Jewish Mysticism, Volume II: THE MIDDLE AGES (Northvale/ Jerusalem: Jason Aronson Inc., 1998), pages 65-87. Originally “The Concept of Language in Ashkenazi Hasidism,” in Hebrew in Ashkenazi, edited by L. Glinert (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), pp. 11-25. This article discusses Eleazar if Worms’ Sefer Alfa Beta (the first treatise of Sodei Razaya) and Sefer haHokhmah. 53 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ __________. “The Ashkenazi Hasidic “Gates of Wisdom,” Chapter 4 of Jewish Mysticism, Volume II: THE MIDDLE AGES (Northvale/ Jerusalem: Jason Aronson Inc., 1998), pages 89-97. On Eleazar of Worms’ Sefer ha-Hokhmah. ___________. “The Book of the Divine Name by Rabbi Eleazar of Worms,” = Chapter 7 of Jewish Mysticism, Volume II: THE MIDDLE AGES, pages 129-177. Originally in Frankfurter Judaistische Beiträge, vol. 22 (Frankfurt am Main: Gesellschaft zur Förderung Judaistischer Studien, 1995) pp. 27-60. ___________. “Chochmat Ha-Egoz: Its Origin and Development” = Chapter 9 of Jewish Mysticism, Volume I: LATE ANTIQUITY (Northvale/ Jerusalem: Jason Aronson Inc., 1998). Originally in Journal of Jewish Studies, vol. XVII (Cambridge: Oxford Centre for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies, 1966). ___________. “Medieval Jewish Influences on Renaissance Concepts of Harmonia Mundi,” in Aries: Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism, vol. 1, no. 2 (Leiden: Brill, 2001), pp. 135-152. Dan traces scientific and mystical ideas starting with the Sefer Yezirah, elaborations of tenth-century commentaries on it, especially that of Shabbatai Donnolo, and developments of the Hasidei Ashkenaz, in particular Eleazar of Worms. Dan shows how these commentaries “contributed to the establishment of the concept of harmonia mundi as a dominant world-view in Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, mainly in the context of the variegated phenomena which are sometimes united under the general title ‘Christian kabbalah.’” ___________. The Heart of the Fountain: An Anthology of Jewish Mystical Experiences (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), pages 101-113. Ch. 7 – THE WORSHIP OF THE HOLY NAME and Ch. 8 THE excerpt of Eleazar’s Sodey Razaya § Sefer ha-Shem and Sefer ha-Rokeach. THE VOICE OF GOD OVER THE WATER DEVOTION IN PRAYER, ROKEAH – Eleazer of Worms. Chokmat ha-Nefesh – Wisdom of the Soul, edited by Fabrizio Del Tin ([n.p.]: eUniversity.pub, 2018). ___________. Sefer ha-Shem – The Book of the Name (the final part of Sodei Razaya), two “tomes,” translated by Avraham Broide, Alexandru Munteanu and Sharron Shatil ([n.p.]: David Smith, LLC, 2016) / edited by Fabrizio Del Tin ([n.p.]: eUniversity.pub, 2018). ___________. Sodei Razaya in English, four volumes ([n.p.]: David Smith, LLC, 2016 / [n.p.]: eUniversity.pub, 2018). • Secrets of Raziel: Book of the Alphabet – Sefer Alfa Beta, translated by Alexandru Munteanu (2016) / edited by Fabrizio Del Tin (2018) • Secrets of Raziel: Book of Desire – Sefer ha-Chesek, translated by Yaron Ever Hadani (2016) / edited by Fabrizio Del Tin (2018) • Secrets of Raziel: Book of Unity – Sefer ha-Yihud, translated by Yaron Ever Hadani (2016) / edited by Fabrizio Del Tin (2018) • Secrets of Raziel: Commentary on the Book of Formation – Peirush al Sefer Yetzirah, translated by Avraham Broide (2016) / edited by Fabrizio Del Tin (2018) ___________. The Laws of the Angels, First English Edition, includes “Sod ha-Yichud,”, edited by Jonathan M. Stein, Esq. PLLC, forward by Jason Augustus Newcomb (Amazon Digital Services, 2011). ___________. The Ways of Metatron: A Book of Enoch, First English Edition, edited by Jonathan M. Stein, Esq. PLLC (Amazon Digital Services, 2011). ___________. Three Tracts [TREE TEXT: 2], edited by David Meltzer (Berkeley: Tree Books, 1975). OF PROPHECY and THE BOOK OF THE WORD translated by Jack Hirschman, and selections from Hokhmah ha-Egoz—translations from Alexander Altmann’s “Eleazar of Worms’ Symbol of the Merkabah,” listed above. THE BOOK 54 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ Finkel, Avraham Yaakov. Kabbalah: Selections from Classic Kabbalistic Works from Raziel HaMalach to the Present Day (Southfield: Targum Press, 2002): Chapter 21, RABBI ELAZAR ROKEACH OF WORMS. Idel, Moshe. “From Italy to Ashkenaz and Back: On the Circulation of Jewish Mystical Traditions,” in in Kabbalah: Journal, Vol. 14, edited by Daniel Abrams and Avraham Elqayam (2006), pp. 47-94. See in particular pp. 52-54. Jacobs, Louis. “The Mystical Piety of Rabbi Eleazar of Worms” = CHAPTER FIVE of Jewish Mystical Testimonies (New York: Schocken Books, 1976), pages 48-55. “The selection from Sefer Raziel is from the edition printed in Medzibezh in 1818, pp. 9b—10a.” Kuyt, Annelies. “R. El’azar of Worm’s ‘Stairway to Heaven,’” in Jewish Studies between the Disciplines / Judaistik zwischen den Disziplinen: Papers in Honor of Peter Schäfer on the Occasion of his Sixtieth Birthday, edited by Klaus Herrmann, Margarete Schlüter, Giuseppe Veltri (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2003), pages 218-225. Marcus, Ivan. “Judah the Pietist and Eleazer of Worms: From Charismatic to Conventional Leadership,” in Jewish Mystical Leaders and Leadership in the Thirteenth Century, edited by Moshe Idel and Mortimer Ostow (Northvale – Jerusalem: Jason Aronson, Inc., 1998), pages 97-126. ___________. Piety and Society. The Jewish Pietists of Medieval Germany [ÉTUDES SUR LE JUDAISME MEDIEVAL: Tome X] (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1981): PART THREE, ELEAZAR OF WORMS’ PERSONALIST TRANSFORMATION. Matveev, Yoel. “Symbolic Computation and Digital Philosophy in Early Ashkenazic Kabbalah,” in Judaic Logic [JUDAISM IN CONTEXT 8], edited by Andrew Schuman (Piscataway: Gorgias Press, 2010), pp. 226-237. Millgram, Abraham E. An Anthology of Hebrew Literature (New York: Abelard-Schuman, 1961), pp. 142-6. Excerpts from Eleazer of Worms’ Rokeach. Soloveitchik, Haym. “Topics in the Hokhmath Ha-Nefesh,” in Journal of Jewish Studies XVII (Oxford: The Oxford Centre for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies, 1967), page 65-78. Zabolotnaya, Natasha Esther. “Cosmology and Color Symbolism in R. Eleazer of Worms,” in Kabbalah: Journal, Vol. 12, edited by Daniel Abrams and Avraham Elqayam (2004). 55 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ Kabbalah Study Jewish Mysticism in English by Don Karr © Don Karr, 1993-1996. Email: dk0618@yahoo.com All rights reserved. License to Copy This publication is intended for personal use only. Paper copies may be made for personal use. With the above exception, no part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, without permission in writing from the author. Reviewers may quote brief passages. A. In an article reviewing the then-current (1970s) state of scholarship on the history of early rabbinic Judaism,1 Jacob Neusner complained, in particular, about E. E. Urbach’s study2 concerning “the sages, their concepts and beliefs” (Neusner’s italics) as revealing “remarkably little variation, development or even movement,” where “[d]ifferentiation among the stages” and “among schools and circles within a given period” was all but neglected. More recently, similar complaints have been leveled against “establishment” historians of Jewish mysticism and Kabbalah: In the last fifteen-or-so years, the neat linear history offered by Gershom Scholem3 and those following his lead has been seriously challenged. In the proceedings of a conference marking the fiftieth year since the publication of Scholem’s landmark book, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1941),4 Ithamar Gruenwald argues5 that this work (i.e., Major Trends…) “appears to be too limited in its conceptual framework, as well as in its actual treatment of the subject matter.” Scholem saw certain developments in antique Judaism as a mystical phase which followed well after the writing of the Hebrew Bible; he also saw expressions of mysticism, once present, as separate and distinct, not just from the scriptural phase but from normal (common or popular) expressions of religion. Gruenwald makes a case for tracing “mystical, or quasi-mystical, elements in Scripture itself.” Further, he states that there are mystical elements in rabbinic literature to which Scholem did not give due attention. Critical analyses focusing on Scholem’s treatment of ancient Jewish mysticism (i.e., merkabah mysticism and hekhalot literature) have also been offered in recent years.6 For the moment, our concern is with those developments which, by one rationale or another, claim the title “Kabbalah,” conventionally agreed to be a phenomenon begun in medieval times (though traditionally thought to be from antiquity). Our approach may at first appear to be at cross purposes, for, while there is a case supporting a definition for Kabbalah which is more inclusive (as in Gruenwald’s comments noted above or in the suggestions in Moshe Idel’s article noted 56 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ below), there are those of us who would like to see Kabbalah circumscribed sufficiently to salvage it from the excessive, near-generic use of the term, primarily in Christian and occult circles, to refer to mysticism and magic of all sorts. (The term kabbalah is itself a coinage7 with problems not unlike those of such related words as “mysticism,” “magic,” “myth,” and “gnosis/gnosticism.”)8 The issue of defining—or redefining—Kabbalah has been addressed by Moshe Idel.9 He critiques the “prevailing assumption in the academic field” that Kabbalah is “a relatively homogeneous mystical phenomenon, more theoretical than practical.” Idel’s primary target is, of course, Scholem and his notion that Kabbalah is defined, and thus unified, by a certain “core question,” namely, the mystery of the Godhead—which question is “answered” by the doctrine of the sefirot. Idel discusses the various mystical uses of divine names as an alternative kabbalistic channel. In the introduction to Essential Papers on Kabbalah, Lawrence Fine attempts to set up a working definition for kabbalah starting with a rejection of the “popular, noncritical use of the term” as referring to all “esoteric and occult phenomena, past and present.”10 Fine prefers to limit Kabbalah to “a discrete body of literature that became clearly identifiable beginning in Provence in the late twelfth century and northern Spain in the thirteenth.” However, in a book which has heated up the discussion on the origins of Kabbalah (and other topics) [Kabbalah: New Perspectives], Moshe Idel has argued that there is not such a definite separation between rabbinic literature and the conventionally circumscribed Kabbalah. Idel’s view suggests a more continuous, less neat development which gradually coalesced into a proto-Kabbalah.11 The medieval Jewish mystics referred to as “Kabbalists” did not abandon the mysticism—or any other part of the vast rabbinic literature—which came before them. The hekhalot writings, German hasidic material, Sefer Yezirah and the various commentaries on it, etc., along with the Talmud, midrashim, and the rest of the rabbinic writings, were all considered authoritative—all part of the same chain of tradition (kabbalah) of which the medieval and later Kabbalists considered themselves links.12 Kabbalah did not spring up ex nihilo. It seems prudent to open channels for the origins and growth of Kabbalah back into the depths of ancient Judaism. Determining a starting line at Sefer ha-Bahir and the mystic circles at Languedoc does not match the facts. To begin with, the Bahir is itself a compilation, with sources in and references to earlier material, which immediately begins our search into the time before its appearance.13 B. To investigate Jewish mysticism, how is one to begin at the beginning? The documentary evidence is sprawling, yet incomplete. We cannot commence with Genesis 1:1 and travel a nice straight line to Kabbalah today. However, to set a broad stage for subsequent mystical endeavor, a fine first book is Cosmos, Chaos and the World to Come: The Ancient Roots of Apocalyptic Faith, by Norman Cohn (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993), the second part of which charts the primal swirlings of the path which eventually leads to Jewish (and Christian) mysticism, beginning with Zoroastrian concepts, tracing their development in Jewish 57 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ apocalyptic, finally landing in the Book of Revelation. This last turn may seem to veer off track unless one keeps in mind the fundamentally Jewish character of this mystical apocalypse. For grounding in the theme (i.e., the ascension to heaven) taken up by the ancient Jewish mystics associated with the merkabah and hekhalot, a most informative source is Martha Himmelfarb’s Ascent to Heaven in Jewish and Christian Apocalypses (New York/ Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993). On a somewhat different tack, though holding onto the thread begun with the last two selections, is Markus N. A. Bockmuehl’s Revelation and Mystery in Ancient Judaism and Pauline Christianity [WISSENSCHAFTLICHE UNTERSUCHUNGEN ZUM NEUEN TESTAMENT – 2. Reihe 36] (Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck], 1990)14 Assuming that the reader is reasonably familiar with the Hebrew Bible, the next step would be to acquire some knowledge of early rabbinic thought and method. The Sages by E. E. Urbach (see note 2) is an excellent start. Three anthologies serve as introductions to their respective texts: 1. The Classical Midrash: Tannaitic Commentaries on the Bible, translated and introduced with commentary by Reuven Hammer (Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1995). 2. The Mishnah: Oral Traditions of Judaism, selected and translated by Eugene Lipman (New York: Schocken Books, 1974).15 3. The Talmud: Selected Writings, translated by Ben Zion Bokser (Paulist Press, 1989). 4. The Talmud: The Steinsaltz Edition – A Reference Guide (New York: Random House, 1989). As a first approach to Jewish mysticism proper, an indispensable source is The Ancient Jewish Mysticism by Joseph Dan (Tel Aviv: MOD [Ministry of Defense] Books, 1993). At this juncture, it would be a good idea to read some of the more general books on Jewish mysticism in order to get an impression of its history and concepts. My recommendation is to study the following books—in the order in which they are listed: 1. Scholem’s Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (see note 3), some comments on which have already been noted16 2. Moshe Idel’s Kabbalah: New Perspectives (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988). 3. Elliot R. Wolfson’s Through a Speculum That Shines: Vision and Imagination in Medieval Jewish Mysticism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994). A weakness of Major Trends is the absence of a chapter on the early Kabbalah. Two books nicely fill this void: 1. Scholem’s Origins of the Kabbalah (Jewish Publication Society and Princeton University Press, 1987). 2. Joseph Dan and Ronald C. Kiener. The Early Kabbalah (Paulist Press, 1986). Paulist Press has provided two more titles which help round out our short list: 1. Daniel C. Matt. Zohar: The Book of Enlightenment (1983) 2. Lawrence Fine. Safed Spirituality: Rules of Mystical Piety, The Beginning of Wisdom (1984). 58 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ The final development of Jewish mysticism covered in Scholem’s Major Trends is Hasidism, on which I have not developed an extended bibliography. However, I can suggest three works to provide a foundation: 1. Rachel Elior. The Paradoxical Ascent to God: The Kabbalistic Theosophy of Habad Hasidism (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993). 2. Moshe Idel. Hasidism: Between Ecstasy and Magic (State University of New York Press, 1995). 3. Rivka Schatz-Uffenheimer. Hasidism as Mysticism. Quietistic Elements in Eighteenth-Century Hasidic Thought (Princeton/ Jerusalem: Princeton University Press and Magnes Press, 1983). Three of the books listed above (Dan and Kiener’s Early Kabbalah, Matt’s Zohar, and Fine’s Safed Spirituality) offer texts as well as introductions. There are some other anthologies: 1. 2. 3. 4. Daniel C. Matt. The Essential Kabbalah (see note 3). Dan Cohn-Sherbock. Jewish Mysticism: An Anthology (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 1995). Ben Zion Bokser. The Jewish Mystical Tradition (New York: The Pilgrim Press, 1981). David Meltzer (ed). The Secret Garden. An Anthology in the Kabbalah (New York: The Seabury Press, 1976).18 There is a bit of redundancy among these titles; fortunately, all are available in low-cost paperback editions. There are some collections of articles which can be recommended: 1. Lawrence Fine (ed). Essential Papers on Kabbalah (New York University Press, 1995). 2. Arthur Green (ed). Jewish Spirituality: volume 1: FROM THE BIBLE THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES, 1986; volume 2: FROM THE SIXTEENTH-CENTURY REVIVAL TO THE PRESENT (New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, 1987). Haredi students of the Kabbalah might sneer at many of the works suggested here. For an overview, they would instead urge Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan’s Inner Space: Introduction to Kabbalah, Meditation and Prophecy (Brooklyn: Moznaim Publishing Corporation, 1990) or Rabbi Yechiel Bar-Lev’s Song of the Soul (Petach Tikva, 1994). Both, especially the latter, are serviceable introductions to Lurianic Kabbalah, which is somewhat thinly handled in our entry on Safed Kabbalah, though covered well in Scholem’s Major Trends. For further advice on readings in Judaism, see Back to the Sources: Reading the Classic Jewish Texts, edited by Barry Holtz (New York: Summit Books, 1984). There, one is guided by specialists through the issues and literature of the Bible, Talmud, Midrash, medieval commentaries and philosophy, kabbalistic texts, hasidic teachings and prayer books. Another good overview of the literature of Judaism is The Sacred Books of the Jews by Harry Gersh (New York: Stein and Day, 1968). One of the best general anthologies is Philip S. Alexander’s Textual Sources for the Study of Judaism (Totowa: Manchester University Books/Barnes and Noble Books, 1984; rpt. University of Chicago Press, 1990). Alexander’s introductions are particularly helpful. 59 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ A very instructive set of anthologies (if you can get past the lame illustrations) is Louis Jacobs’ CHAIN OF TRADITION SERIES published by Behrman House (New York): 1. Jewish Law (1968) 2. Jewish Ethics, Philosophy and Mysticism (1969) 3. Jewish Thought Today (1970) To these could be added Jacobs’ Jewish Mystical Testimonies (New York: Schocken Books, 1977). ________________________________________ Notes (updated 2003): For full bibliographic information on various stages of Jewish mysticism, refer to my series on sources in English: • • • • • • “The Study of Merkabah Mysticism and Hekhalot Literature in English”—with an appendix on Jewish magic “Sefer Yezirah in English” “The Study of Early Kabbalah in English” [the current paper] “The Zohar in English” “The Study if Later Kabbalah in English: The Safed Period and Lurianic Kabbalah” “The Study of Christian Cabala in English” These papers can be accessed on-line at http://www.digital-brilliance.com/contributed/Karr/Biblios/index.php. “Popular” books on Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism are numerous and quite varied in their quality and purpose. For readable, well-researched accounts, see • • Laenen, J. H. Jewish Mysticism: An Introduction [= JOODSE MYSTIEK. EEN INLEIDING] translated from the Dutch by David E. Orton (Louisville: Westminster Knox Press, 2001). Silberman, Neil Asher. Heavenly Powers: Unraveling the Secret History of the Kabbalah (New York: Grosset/Putnam, 1998). 1. Jacob Neusner, “The History of Earlier Rabbinic Judaism: Some New Approaches,” in History of Religions, vol. 16, no. 3 (University of Chicago, February 1977). 2. Ephraim E. Urbach, The Sages: Their Concepts and Beliefs [original Hebrew: HAZAL, PIRKE EMUNOT VE-DE’OT, Jerusalem: Magnes Press, The Hebrew University, 1975], English translation by Israel Abrahams (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1979). 3. See Scholem’s Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (Jerusalem: Schocken Publishing House, 1941; frequently reprinted by Schocken Books, New York). A similar flaw plagues the recent anthology by Daniel C. Matt, The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism (HarperSanFrancisco, 1994). As nicely done as it is, Matt’s book gives the erroneous impression that the Kabbalah can be summarized and distilled into a single, comprehensive volume. This problem of homogenization burdens other areas of Jewish studies. See Barry Holtz’s comments regarding midrashim in Back to the Sources (New York: Summit Books, 1984), pp. 177-9. 4. Gershom Scholem’s MAJOR TRENDS IN JEWISH MYSTICISM 50 Years After: Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on the History of Jewish Mysticism, edited by Peter Schäfer and Joseph Dan (Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck], 1993). 5. “Reflections on the Nature and Origins of Jewish Mysticism,” in Gershom Scholem’s MAJOR TRENDS… (see note 4). 60 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ 6. In particular see Peter Schäfer, Gershom Scholem Reconsidered: The Aim and Purpose of Early Jewish Mysticism [THE TWELFTH SACKS LECTURE DELIVERED ON 29TH MAY 1985] (Oxford: Oxford Centre for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies, 1986) and Nathaniel Deutsch, The Gnostic Imagination: Gnosticism, Mandaeism, and Merkabah Mysticism [BRILL’S SERIES IN JEWISH STUDIES, vol. XIII] (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1995). An essay which takes a critical look at contemporary “Kabbalah Studies” in general, but with a rather different approach from that of the present discussion, is Gil Anidjar’s “Jewish Mysticism Alterable and Unalterable: On Orienting Kabbalah Studies and the ‘Zohar of Christian Spain,’” in Jewish Social Studies, vol. 3, no. 1 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, Fall 1996). Regarding Anidjar’s central theme, namely Moslem influence on Kabbalah, see Moshe Idel’s leveling response, “Orienting, Orientalizing or Disorienting the Study of Kabbalah: ‘An Almost Absolutely Unique’ Case of Occidentalism,” in Kabbalah: Journal for the Study of Jewish Mystical Texts, vol. 2 (Los Angeles: Cherub Press, 1997). In several of Schäfer’s discussions (Gershom Scholem Reconsidered for one) and in David Halperin’s The Faces of the Chariot (Tuebingen: J. C. B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck] 1988), questions are raised about the titles and contents of hekhalot texts. The notion of fixed bodies of content forming a canon of “books” representing a coherent school of hekhalot mysticism appears unsupportable. A similar problem exists with the very term kabbalah (see note 7). A partial solution is suggested in such subheadings as the early Kabbalah of the Provence and Gerona circles, the ’Iyyun school, prophetic Kabbalah (of Abraham Abulafia), or Lurianic Kabbalah. However, should the German Hasidism be excluded so definitely from Kabbalah? 7. Until the thirteenth century, kabbalah referred to the whole body of oral religious teachings: the Talmud, the midrashim, etc. Indeed, anyone who picked up a copy of Sefer ha-Kabbalah (BOOK OF TRADITION) expecting it to expound upon kabbalistic mysteries would be sorely disappointed. See The Book of Tradition, translated by Gerson D. Cohen (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1968). 8. On the terms “mysticism,” “symbol,” and “myth,” see Gil Anidjar’s article, mentioned in note 6. Words causing particular difficulty in the field of Jewish mysticism are “gnostic” and “gnosticism”; examples of discussions on these terms are • • • 9. P. S. Alexander. “Comparing Merkavah Mysticism and Gnosticism: An Essay in Method,’ in Journal of Jewish Studies, vol. 35, no. 1 (1984) Joseph Dan. “Jewish Gnosticism?” in Jewish Studies Quarterly, vol. 2, no. 4 (1995) Ithamar Gruenwald. “Jewish Merkavah Mysticism and Gnosticism,” in Studies in Jewish Mysticism, edited by J. Dan and F. Talmage (Cambridge: Association for Jewish Studies, 1982). “Defining Kabbalah: The Kabbalah of the Divine Names,” in the Mystics of the Book: Themes, Topics, and Typologies, edited by R. A. Herrera (New York: Peter Lang, 1993). 10. If one were to pick up any of a number of popular books on Kabbalah, one might come away with the impression that Kabbalah was primarily, if not solely, the doctrine of the sefirot, or divine emanations. In fact, Kabbalah involves a rich array of concepts and techniques, not the least of which are various types of letter and name mysticism (though many of the hermeneutic conventions concerning words and letters, such as gematria, are more accurately considered rabbinic, not kabbalistic). Topics are diverse: the progression of cosmic cycles, mystical explanations of the mitzvot, the interplay of humankind with the ultimate God, the source of and reason behind evil, creation and the end, the mystical significance of the holidays, angels and demons, the transmigration of souls—indeed, a ranging literature full of unpredictable interpretations of scripture. 11. Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988). See in particular Chapters 6, 7, and 8. 12. On considering the German Hasidim as an important source for non-sefirotic Kabbalah, see Daniel Abrams, “From Germany to Spain: Numerology as a Mystical Technique,” in Journal of Jewish Studies, vol. XLVI, no. 1 (Spring 1996). 61 © Don Karr 2024 ∞ §§ 13. See the various discussions of the Bahir: • • • • Gershom Scholem. Origins of the Kabbalah. Joseph Dan. The Early Kabbalah. _________. “Midrash and the Dawn of Kabbalah,” in Midrash and Literature, edited by G. Hartman and S. Budick (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986); and in Dan’s Jewish Mysticism, Volume II: THE MIDDLE AGES (Northvale: Jason Aronson Inc., 1998). See especially the introduction to Jewish Mysticism II, where Dan argues against Scholem’s description of the history of Jewish mysticism as having a “linear development from its beginnings” (“Introduction: § III”). Elliot R. Wolfson. “The Tree That Is All: Jewish-Christian Roots of a Kabbalistic Symbol in Sefer ha-Bahir,” in Wolfson’s Along the Path: Studies in Kabbalistic Myth, Symbolism, and Hermeneutics (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995). 14. To pursue the development of Christian mysticism, see The Foundations of Mysticism: Origins to the Fifth Century, by Bernard McGinn (New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 1991—paperback edition, 1995)—the best work on this topic which I have seen. Foundations… is the first of a four-volume series. An interesting supplement to McGinn is Guy G. Stroumsa’s Hidden Wisdom: Esoteric Traditions and the Roots of Christian Mysticism [STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS (NUMEN BOOK SERIES), Volume LXX] (Leiden – New York – Koln, E. J. Brill, 1996). Following mystical trends inevitably leads through apocryphal Christianity into Gnosticism. For an overview of this complex subject, see Gnosis: The Nature and History of Gnosticism, by Kurt Rudolph (Edinburgh: T&T Clark Ltd, 1984; New York: Harper and Row, 1987). For texts, see (forgive the “pop” titles) The Gnostic Scriptures: Ancient Wisdom for the New Age, translated, annotated, and introduced by Bentley Layton (New York: Doubleday, 1987), and The Gnostic Bible, edited by Wallis Barnstone and Marvin Meyer (Boston & London: Shambhala, 2003). 15. The more comprehensive English edition of the Mishnah by Herbert Danby (1933) is still available from Oxford University Press. 16. A possible alternative to Major Trends is Scholem’s Kabbalah (Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House, 1974, reprinted frequently). 17. In Essential Papers, Arthur Green’s article, “The Zohar: Jewish Mysticism in Medieval Spain,” is a gem; it’s worth getting the book just for this. This fine article also appears in An Introduction to the Mystics of Medieval Europe, edited by Paul Szarmach (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1984), which also contains David Biale’s article on the Safed Period, “Jewish Mysticism in the Sixteenth Century.” 18. Be careful with the Meltzer anthology. It is full of sloppy mistakes. 62