Papers by Avi Kallenbach
Jewish Studies Quarterly, 2023
In the early 1620s Jewish polymath Menahem de Lonzano wrote a short work of messianic prognostica... more In the early 1620s Jewish polymath Menahem de Lonzano wrote a short work of messianic prognostication which he named Masa Dumah. Preserved in a single manuscript, the work is dedicated not to a classic of Jewish Messianism, but rather to a popular medieval collection of mysterious images and cryptic prophecies pertaining to the vagaries of the papacy: the Vaticinia de Summis Pontificibus. Undeterred by the work's overtly Christian trappings and content, Lonzano took it upon himself to convert the text to Judaism, using fantastical premises and creative exegesis to argue that it foretold the impending rise of a Jewish messiah. This article offers an overview of this remarkable text − identifying the specific editions used by Lonzano, showing how he sought to transform the Christian text into a Jewish apocalypse, and laying the ground for a wider discussion of Lonzano's messianism and its place in the history of Early Modern Jewish messianism.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
The kabbalistic writings penned by the students of Isaac Luria contained diverse viewpoints that ... more The kabbalistic writings penned by the students of Isaac Luria contained diverse viewpoints that were often at odds. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, two major approaches emerged to contend with this diversity: R. Menahem Azaria da Fano proposed a harmonistic method in which divergent theosophical positions are not truly at odds but rather reflect a single truth. R. Menahem di Lonzano disagreed and instead viewed the diversity of the Lurianic corpus as reflective of the distinct personal opinions of Luria's students. In this article, I show how these two kabbalists used their respective approaches to impose order upon the corpus and to elicit a unified message from the diversity.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
בבואו לתאר את כתבי היד בהם מופיע חיבורו של ר' משה מבורגוש על תורת הרע, ספר עמוד השמאלי, הסב גרשם ... more בבואו לתאר את כתבי היד בהם מופיע חיבורו של ר' משה מבורגוש על תורת הרע, ספר עמוד השמאלי, הסב גרשם שלום תשומת לב לנוסח חילופי של הטקסט שמפליג בשינוייו ממהדורתו. מדובר בנוסח שמופיע בכתב יד אוקספורד (נויבאואר 1837) וכן בקובץ הקבלי המאוחר ילקוט ראובני. שמו של הקובץ בכתב יד אוקספורד הוא 'ספר הקליפות'. מלבד היותו מאגר חשוב של טקסטים מחוגו של ר' יצחק הכהן ור' משה מבורגוש, ספר הקליפות מעניין בגלל אופן הצגת מקורותיו: החיבור לא מבדיל בין דברי הרב לדברי התלמיד, אלא שוזר דבריהם יחד, מטשטש את הגבולות ביניהם ועורך אותם לכדי טקסט מאוחד. בסוף המאמר מופיעה מהדורה של ספר הקליפות.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
In this article, I discuss an unprinted passage appearing in the Byzantine branch of Tiqqunei Zoh... more In this article, I discuss an unprinted passage appearing in the Byzantine branch of Tiqqunei Zohar manuscripts (e.g, Ms. Toronto), labeled in most manuscripts as tiqqun 19. The text in question is a highly abridged version of a passage which appears at the beginning of a tiqqun numbered 18 in both the Orta Koj and Mantua editions of Tiqqunei Zohar. This long version also appears in the Byzantine branch of manuscripts, three tiqqunim after its short counterpart, as tiqqun 23. Using these variant passages as a case study, I explore questions such as the composition of Tiqqune Zohar and its editing.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Books by Avi Kallenbach
This study is dedicated to a single kabbalistic manuscript from the Benayahu Collection – a copy ... more This study is dedicated to a single kabbalistic manuscript from the Benayahu Collection – a copy of R. Isaac Luria’s Peirush Sifra Detzni‘uta. The manuscript, copied in Safed at the very end of the sixteenth century, was sent to Italy where it was meticulously edited and marked up by the prominent halakhist and kabbalist R. Menahem Azaria da Fano. The study explores the nature of Fano’s emendations, dissects his interpretative glosses, and demonstrates the profound textual influence the manuscript exerted on other copies of the work produced in Italy during the period. Among other thing, it shows how R. Menahem Azariah da Fano read Luria’s work through an intertextual lens, using a wide range of kabbalistic works and concepts to inform his comments and edits. The short study is followed by a full facsimile edition of the manuscript – with each colored photo of the manuscript facing a full transcription of both the main text as well as Fano’s corrections and marginalia. The study represents an important contribution to the history of reading practices and an example of applying the methodologies of New Philology to the study and editing of kabbalistic manuscripts.
ספר זה מוקדש לכתב יד קבלי אחד מאוסף בניהו - עותק של פירוש ספרא דצניעותא המיוחס לר' יצחק לוריא (האר"י). כתב היד הועתק בצפת סוף המאה השש עשרה ונשלח לאיטליה. שם הוא זכה להגהות ועריכות רבות מאת המקובל האיטלקי המפורסם ר' מנחם עזריה מפאנו. בספר זה נבחנות עריכות הרמ"ע, הערותיו העיוניות, וההשפעה הטקסטואלית העצומה של כתב יד זה על עותקים אחרים של 'פירוש ספרא דצניעותא' שהופקו באיטליה באותה תקופה. בין היתר, נטען כי הרמ"ע מפאנו קרא את יצירתו של האר"י דרך אספקלריא אינטר-טקסטואלית ותוך שימוש במגוון רחב של חיבורים ותפיסות קבליים – שחלקם זרים לרוחו של החיבור. לאחר החלק המחקרי של הספר מופיעה מהדורה פקסימילית של כתב היד עם פענוח והערות.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Presentations by Avi Kallenbach
'ספר הזוהר' מהדורת מנטובה (שי"ח-ש"כ) הוא אחד מן הספרים הנדפסים המשפיעים בתולדות הספר העברי. עותקי... more 'ספר הזוהר' מהדורת מנטובה (שי"ח-ש"כ) הוא אחד מן הספרים הנדפסים המשפיעים בתולדות הספר העברי. עותקים שונים של מהדורה זו שמורים בספריות העולם, אבל העותק הנמצא כיום במכון שוקן הוא ללא ספק אחד המרשימים ביותר. גיליונותיו של טופס זה מלאים בהערות שיצאו מתחת ידיהם של ארבעה יהודים-איטלקיים שחייהם השתרעו על פני יותר ממאה שנה. במפגש הקרוב נעמוד על תכניו ומאפייניו של טופס ייחודי זה ועל דמויותיהם של אלו שהוסיפו בו את הערותיהם. בין השאר נדון בבעליו הראשונים של הספר, ר' עזרא מפאנו (ר"צ-שס"ח לערך) שהערותיו מעידות על רוחב ידיעותיו, מהספרות הקבלית והפילוסופית ועד לספרות האיטלקית (ובכלל זה 'הקומדיה האלוהית'). העיון בהערות שבטופס זה מאפשר הצצה נדירה לדרכים השונות בהן נלמד 'ספר הזוהר' באיטליה בעת החדשה המוקדמת
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Translations by Avi Kallenbach
The Dual Truth 2019
Studies on nineteenth-century modern religious thought and its influence on twentieth-century Jew... more Studies on nineteenth-century modern religious thought and its influence on twentieth-century Jewish philosophy.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Articles by Avi Kallenbach
A friend, wishing to polish his translation skills, recently asked me the following question: " i... more A friend, wishing to polish his translation skills, recently asked me the following question: " if you had to give one tip to a new translator, what would it be? " Without hesitation I answered " avoid literalisms. " As editor of Academic Language Experts this is the most frequent issue I encounter when reviewing translations: texts which, while comprehensible, are markedly literal. Let me explain. When I say " literalisms " I do not mean a text that is translated word-for-word. I am actually referring to a more subtle problem: a translation which is technically " correct " —definitely not " Google translate " —but still closely emulates the form, order, and linguistic idiosyncrasies of its source. There are of course cases when a literal translation may be preferable (legal and medical texts for example) and this is certainly an issue translators and clients should discuss explicitly before a project begins. But generally speaking, clients want their texts translated so their message or research can effectively reach audiences who are only familiar with the target language. A text fails at this task when it reveals its foreign origins, gives the impression of an imperfect rendering, and challenges readers to clamber over awkward, disjointed formulations. There is a reason this problem is so widespread. Avoiding literalisms is THE most difficult part of being a translator. It requires employing many different skills simultaneously: reading comprehension, writing proficiency, language knowledge and more. It requires a translator to extract the meaning from the source language, while at the same time escaping its stylistic-linguistic influence. It is the writer's equivalent of trying to whistle a song while another one plays in the background. The ability to juggle these skills is truly a rare talent.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
CONFERENCES, WORKSHOPS, COLLOQUIA by Avi Kallenbach
In commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the death of R. Hayyim Vital (1542-1620), the Goldst... more In commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the death of R. Hayyim Vital (1542-1620), the Goldstein-Goren International Center for Jewish Thought at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, the Ben Zvi Institute for the Study of Jewish Communities in the East, and the World Union of Jewish Studies will hold a three-day conference via ZOOM dedicated to Vital and his world.
Vital is known first and foremost as the chief disciple of R. Isaac Luria. Luria himself wrote little; Vital is thus responsible to a large extent for what is now known as “Lurianic Kabbalah.” As a paragon of the sixteenth-century Safed renaissance, many aspects of Jewish life in Palestine and Syria are imbricated in his life and thought in this critical chapter of early modern Jewish history. Alongside his immense and singular contribution to the development of the Kabbalah, the breadth and diversity of Vital’s interests are evident in his rich corpus of writings. These are devoted to a plethora of topics and express the variegated aspects of his activity over many decades in Safed, Jerusalem, and Damascus. The study of Vital’s life and work may thus shed light on many facets of contemporary Ottoman Jewish society.
The fifteen sessions of the conference will cover many aspects of the activity of Vital and his contemporaries, as well as the history of the reception of his intellectual legacy in the modern and early modern periods.
Sessions include:
Safedian Modes of Fashioning Prominent Figures | Crossroads in the Formations of Kabbalistic Knowledge | Vital, Between Cordovero and Luria: A Reappraisal | Vital’s Book of Visions and Its Early and Later Contexts | Safedian Praxis and Its Contexts | Safed Beyond the Text: Reality and Imagination | Metempsychosis and the Fate of the Soul | Vital the Doubtful Messiah | Safed’s Culture of the Book | The Formation of Lurianic Kabbalah Across Regions | From Vilna to Jerusalem: Reading Vital in Modern Times | Vital in a Philosophical Tone
Papers will be delivered in both Hebrew and English
For details (including list of English papers), see: https://sites.google.com/view/vital400/en | For further inquiries: 400vital@gmail.com.
Academic Committee: Prof. Boaz Huss, Prof. Bracha Sack, Prof. J. H. Chajes, Dr. Hanan Harif, Prof. Ronit Meroz, Prof. Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin. Committee secretary: Dr. Assaf Tamari
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Uploads
Papers by Avi Kallenbach
Books by Avi Kallenbach
ספר זה מוקדש לכתב יד קבלי אחד מאוסף בניהו - עותק של פירוש ספרא דצניעותא המיוחס לר' יצחק לוריא (האר"י). כתב היד הועתק בצפת סוף המאה השש עשרה ונשלח לאיטליה. שם הוא זכה להגהות ועריכות רבות מאת המקובל האיטלקי המפורסם ר' מנחם עזריה מפאנו. בספר זה נבחנות עריכות הרמ"ע, הערותיו העיוניות, וההשפעה הטקסטואלית העצומה של כתב יד זה על עותקים אחרים של 'פירוש ספרא דצניעותא' שהופקו באיטליה באותה תקופה. בין היתר, נטען כי הרמ"ע מפאנו קרא את יצירתו של האר"י דרך אספקלריא אינטר-טקסטואלית ותוך שימוש במגוון רחב של חיבורים ותפיסות קבליים – שחלקם זרים לרוחו של החיבור. לאחר החלק המחקרי של הספר מופיעה מהדורה פקסימילית של כתב היד עם פענוח והערות.
Presentations by Avi Kallenbach
Translations by Avi Kallenbach
Articles by Avi Kallenbach
CONFERENCES, WORKSHOPS, COLLOQUIA by Avi Kallenbach
Vital is known first and foremost as the chief disciple of R. Isaac Luria. Luria himself wrote little; Vital is thus responsible to a large extent for what is now known as “Lurianic Kabbalah.” As a paragon of the sixteenth-century Safed renaissance, many aspects of Jewish life in Palestine and Syria are imbricated in his life and thought in this critical chapter of early modern Jewish history. Alongside his immense and singular contribution to the development of the Kabbalah, the breadth and diversity of Vital’s interests are evident in his rich corpus of writings. These are devoted to a plethora of topics and express the variegated aspects of his activity over many decades in Safed, Jerusalem, and Damascus. The study of Vital’s life and work may thus shed light on many facets of contemporary Ottoman Jewish society.
The fifteen sessions of the conference will cover many aspects of the activity of Vital and his contemporaries, as well as the history of the reception of his intellectual legacy in the modern and early modern periods.
Sessions include:
Safedian Modes of Fashioning Prominent Figures | Crossroads in the Formations of Kabbalistic Knowledge | Vital, Between Cordovero and Luria: A Reappraisal | Vital’s Book of Visions and Its Early and Later Contexts | Safedian Praxis and Its Contexts | Safed Beyond the Text: Reality and Imagination | Metempsychosis and the Fate of the Soul | Vital the Doubtful Messiah | Safed’s Culture of the Book | The Formation of Lurianic Kabbalah Across Regions | From Vilna to Jerusalem: Reading Vital in Modern Times | Vital in a Philosophical Tone
Papers will be delivered in both Hebrew and English
For details (including list of English papers), see: https://sites.google.com/view/vital400/en | For further inquiries: 400vital@gmail.com.
Academic Committee: Prof. Boaz Huss, Prof. Bracha Sack, Prof. J. H. Chajes, Dr. Hanan Harif, Prof. Ronit Meroz, Prof. Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin. Committee secretary: Dr. Assaf Tamari
ספר זה מוקדש לכתב יד קבלי אחד מאוסף בניהו - עותק של פירוש ספרא דצניעותא המיוחס לר' יצחק לוריא (האר"י). כתב היד הועתק בצפת סוף המאה השש עשרה ונשלח לאיטליה. שם הוא זכה להגהות ועריכות רבות מאת המקובל האיטלקי המפורסם ר' מנחם עזריה מפאנו. בספר זה נבחנות עריכות הרמ"ע, הערותיו העיוניות, וההשפעה הטקסטואלית העצומה של כתב יד זה על עותקים אחרים של 'פירוש ספרא דצניעותא' שהופקו באיטליה באותה תקופה. בין היתר, נטען כי הרמ"ע מפאנו קרא את יצירתו של האר"י דרך אספקלריא אינטר-טקסטואלית ותוך שימוש במגוון רחב של חיבורים ותפיסות קבליים – שחלקם זרים לרוחו של החיבור. לאחר החלק המחקרי של הספר מופיעה מהדורה פקסימילית של כתב היד עם פענוח והערות.
Vital is known first and foremost as the chief disciple of R. Isaac Luria. Luria himself wrote little; Vital is thus responsible to a large extent for what is now known as “Lurianic Kabbalah.” As a paragon of the sixteenth-century Safed renaissance, many aspects of Jewish life in Palestine and Syria are imbricated in his life and thought in this critical chapter of early modern Jewish history. Alongside his immense and singular contribution to the development of the Kabbalah, the breadth and diversity of Vital’s interests are evident in his rich corpus of writings. These are devoted to a plethora of topics and express the variegated aspects of his activity over many decades in Safed, Jerusalem, and Damascus. The study of Vital’s life and work may thus shed light on many facets of contemporary Ottoman Jewish society.
The fifteen sessions of the conference will cover many aspects of the activity of Vital and his contemporaries, as well as the history of the reception of his intellectual legacy in the modern and early modern periods.
Sessions include:
Safedian Modes of Fashioning Prominent Figures | Crossroads in the Formations of Kabbalistic Knowledge | Vital, Between Cordovero and Luria: A Reappraisal | Vital’s Book of Visions and Its Early and Later Contexts | Safedian Praxis and Its Contexts | Safed Beyond the Text: Reality and Imagination | Metempsychosis and the Fate of the Soul | Vital the Doubtful Messiah | Safed’s Culture of the Book | The Formation of Lurianic Kabbalah Across Regions | From Vilna to Jerusalem: Reading Vital in Modern Times | Vital in a Philosophical Tone
Papers will be delivered in both Hebrew and English
For details (including list of English papers), see: https://sites.google.com/view/vital400/en | For further inquiries: 400vital@gmail.com.
Academic Committee: Prof. Boaz Huss, Prof. Bracha Sack, Prof. J. H. Chajes, Dr. Hanan Harif, Prof. Ronit Meroz, Prof. Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin. Committee secretary: Dr. Assaf Tamari