Absorbing Perfections: Kabbalah and Interpretation

Moshe Idel

Published by Yale University Press 2008

Absorbing Perfections

Kabbalah and Interpretation

Moshe Idel

https://doi.org/10.12987/9780300135077

Overview
Contents

About this book

In this wide-ranging discussion of Kabbalah—from the mystical trends of medieval Judaism to modern Hasidism—one of the world’s foremost scholars considers different visions of the nature of the sacred text and of the methods to interpret it. Moshe Idel takes as a starting point the fact that the postbiblical Jewish world lost its geographical center with the destruction of the temple and so was left with a textual center, the Holy Book. Idel argues that a text-oriented religion produced language-centered forms of mysticism.

Against this background, the author demonstrates how various Jewish mystics amplified the content of the Scriptures so as to include everything: the world, or God, for example. Thus the text becomes a major realm for contemplation, and the interpretation of the text frequently becomes an encounter with the deepest realms of reality. Idel delineates the particular hermeneutics belonging to Jewish mysticism, investigates the progressive filling of the text with secrets and hidden levels of meaning, and considers in detail the various interpretive strategies needed to decodify the arcane dimensions of the text.

Author / Editor information

Moshe Idel is Max Cooper Professor of Jewish Thought, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, and senior researcher at the Shalom Hartman Institute.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Foreword Harold Bloom Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Preface Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xv
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. The World-Absorbing Text Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	26
2. The God-Absorbing Text: Black Fire on White Fire Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	45
3. Text and Interpretation Infinities in Kabbalah Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	80
4. The Book That Contains and Maintains All Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	111
5. Magical and Magical-Mystical Arcanizations of Canonical Books Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	137
6. Torah Study and Mystical Experiences in Jewish Mysticism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	164
7. Secrecy, Binah, and Derishah Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	202
8. Semantics, Constellation, and Interpretation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	221
9. Radical Forms of Jewish Hermeneutics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	250
10. The Symbolic Mode in Theosophical-Theurgical Kabbalah Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	272
11. Allegories, Divine Names, and Experiences in Ecstatic Kabbalah Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	314
12. Tzerufei Όtiyyot: Mutability and Accommodation of the Torah in Jewish Mysticism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	352
13. Tradition, Transmission, and Techniques Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	390
14. Concluding Remarks Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	410
Appendix 1. Pardes: The Fourfold Method of Interpretation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	429
Appendix 2. Abraham Abulafia’s Torah of Blood and Ink Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	438
Appendix 3. R. Isaac of Acre’s Exegetical Quandary Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	449
Appendix 4. The Exile of the Torah and the Imprisonment of Secrets Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	461
Appendix 5. On Oral Torah and Multiple Interpretations in Hasidism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	470
Appendix 6. ‘‘Book of God’’/‘‘Book of Law’’ in Late-Fifteenth-Century Florence Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	482
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	493
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	619
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	647

Language: English
Publisher: Yale University Press
Pages
- Main content: 688

eBook

Published: October 1, 2008
ISBN: 9780300135077