This volume is a massive review and study of all textual material related to the first known kabb... more This volume is a massive review and study of all textual material related to the first known kabbalistic work, The Book Bahir. The edition demonstrates the relatively fluidity of the text and the freedom of kabbalist scribes to alter the text at various stages of its transmission. In the volume, all manuscripts are listed, the full text of the earliest dated manuscript is presented in facsimile and transcribed with variants from another early manuscript. Also included is a facsimile of the first printed edition and annotated listings of all citations of the Bahir in manuscript and printed sources including all references to the Bahir in print in all languages and from all times including modern scholarship. Also included are lists of passages of the Bahir from printed anthologies of Kabbalistic works, listings of all commentaries to the Bahir in manuscript and print and all known translations. The study further overturns the claim that the Bahir was written or even known in Provence by R. Isaac the Blind. Other major claims include the distancing the Bahir from gnostic sources, especially those revolving around the term pleroma, which was central to Scholem’s claim.
Arguably the first kabbalistic "book" composed by an "author", introduced by the first known kabb... more Arguably the first kabbalistic "book" composed by an "author", introduced by the first known kabbalistic poem. This volume contains some of the earliest kabbalistic expositions known, composed by Asher ben David, the grandson of R. Abraham ben David, in the beginning of the thirteenth century.
From the English Abstract:
This book is a sustained effort to identify and interpret written kab... more From the English Abstract: This book is a sustained effort to identify and interpret written kabbalistic traditions about the female body of God. This collection focuses attention on an important and often neglected aspect of divine imagery in kabbalistic literature, depictions which describe God’s feminine attributes. My intention is neither to suggest that feminine, somatic imagery of God represents all of kabbalistic literature, nor that this imagery is found with the same frequency as that of the masculine imagery in kabbalistic literature. Rather, this book seeks to make a contribution to the ongoing theological discussion, based on cultural and literary criticism, in order to re-evaluate rabbinic literature from antiquity through the early modern period.
This study offers a fresh reinvestigation to the Sod ha-Egoz texts, the earliest known commentari... more This study offers a fresh reinvestigation to the Sod ha-Egoz texts, the earliest known commentaries to Ezekiel's Chariot (Ma'aseh Merkavah) from the medieval Jewish mystics of Europe. The texts, ascribed to Eleazar of Worms and the circle fo the German Pietists in 12th and 13th century Germany, apparently infer that the sexual reproduction of the Egoz (nut) reflects the workings of the chariot-world. If true, the main circle of the Jewish mystics prior to the appearance of the Kabbalah already believed in a doctrine which is widely considered a defining characteristic of Kabbalah. This study challenges the accepted views in scholarship regarding the authorship and meaning of these texts. New manuscript sources are presented along with all the known text versions and a synoptic translation of the main text-types.
These two commentaries form the only known kabbalistic reworking of a surviving German pietist te... more These two commentaries form the only known kabbalistic reworking of a surviving German pietist text and are of great importance for the understanding of the emergence of Kabbalah in the thirteenth century. פירושי המרכבה לר' אלעזר מוורמס ולר' יעקב בן יעקב הכהן
This volume (all in Hebrew) celebrates the groundbreaking work of Gershom Scholem on Kabbalistic ... more This volume (all in Hebrew) celebrates the groundbreaking work of Gershom Scholem on Kabbalistic literary and mystical activity from the end of the fifteenth century, just prior to the Expulsion from Spain and until the rise of Sabbateanism. At the heart of this collection are all of Gershom Scholem’s detailed studies on R. Isaac Luria, his teachers, students and the works that emerged from Safed, including numerous texts which he introduced and explained. All sixteen studies are reproduced here, re-typeset, along with a Hebrew translation of the chapter on Isaac Luria and his School, from his Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism - all updated with Scholem’s post-publication hand notes from his personal library and annotated with full bibliographic references, manuscript identifications and followed by a complete bibliography in all languages of all studies about Kabbalah from the periods treated in this volume. The volume is introduced with a typology of the various methods and scholarship that emerged from Scholem’s foundational work. This volume is an essential research tool for the serious study of Jewish mysticism.
Kabbalistic Manuscripts and Textual Theory uncovers the unstated assumptions and expectations of ... more Kabbalistic Manuscripts and Textual Theory uncovers the unstated assumptions and expectations of scribes and scholars who fashioned editions from manuscripts of Jewish mystical literature. This study offers a theory of kabbalistic textuality in which the material book – the printed page no less than handwritten manuscripts – serves as the site for textual dialogue between Jewish mystics of different periods and locations. The refashioning of the text through the process of reading and commenting that takes place on the page – in the margins and between the lines – blurs the boundaries between the traditionally defined roles of author, reader, commentator and editor. This study shows that kabbalists and academic editors reinvented the text in their own image, as part of a fluid textual process that was nothing short of transformative.
This volume is a massive review and study of all textual material related to the first known kabb... more This volume is a massive review and study of all textual material related to the first known kabbalistic work, The Book Bahir. The edition demonstrates the relatively fluidity of the text and the freedom of kabbalist scribes to alter the text at various stages of its transmission. In the volume, all manuscripts are listed, the full text of the earliest dated manuscript is presented in facsimile and transcribed with variants from another early manuscript. Also included is a facsimile of the first printed edition and annotated listings of all citations of the Bahir in manuscript and printed sources including all references to the Bahir in print in all languages and from all times including modern scholarship. Also included are lists of passages of the Bahir from printed anthologies of Kabbalistic works, listings of all commentaries to the Bahir in manuscript and print and all known translations. The study further overturns the claim that the Bahir was written or even known in Provence by R. Isaac the Blind. Other major claims include the distancing the Bahir from gnostic sources, especially those revolving around the term pleroma, which was central to Scholem’s claim.
Arguably the first kabbalistic "book" composed by an "author", introduced by the first known kabb... more Arguably the first kabbalistic "book" composed by an "author", introduced by the first known kabbalistic poem. This volume contains some of the earliest kabbalistic expositions known, composed by Asher ben David, the grandson of R. Abraham ben David, in the beginning of the thirteenth century.
From the English Abstract:
This book is a sustained effort to identify and interpret written kab... more From the English Abstract: This book is a sustained effort to identify and interpret written kabbalistic traditions about the female body of God. This collection focuses attention on an important and often neglected aspect of divine imagery in kabbalistic literature, depictions which describe God’s feminine attributes. My intention is neither to suggest that feminine, somatic imagery of God represents all of kabbalistic literature, nor that this imagery is found with the same frequency as that of the masculine imagery in kabbalistic literature. Rather, this book seeks to make a contribution to the ongoing theological discussion, based on cultural and literary criticism, in order to re-evaluate rabbinic literature from antiquity through the early modern period.
This study offers a fresh reinvestigation to the Sod ha-Egoz texts, the earliest known commentari... more This study offers a fresh reinvestigation to the Sod ha-Egoz texts, the earliest known commentaries to Ezekiel's Chariot (Ma'aseh Merkavah) from the medieval Jewish mystics of Europe. The texts, ascribed to Eleazar of Worms and the circle fo the German Pietists in 12th and 13th century Germany, apparently infer that the sexual reproduction of the Egoz (nut) reflects the workings of the chariot-world. If true, the main circle of the Jewish mystics prior to the appearance of the Kabbalah already believed in a doctrine which is widely considered a defining characteristic of Kabbalah. This study challenges the accepted views in scholarship regarding the authorship and meaning of these texts. New manuscript sources are presented along with all the known text versions and a synoptic translation of the main text-types.
These two commentaries form the only known kabbalistic reworking of a surviving German pietist te... more These two commentaries form the only known kabbalistic reworking of a surviving German pietist text and are of great importance for the understanding of the emergence of Kabbalah in the thirteenth century. פירושי המרכבה לר' אלעזר מוורמס ולר' יעקב בן יעקב הכהן
This volume (all in Hebrew) celebrates the groundbreaking work of Gershom Scholem on Kabbalistic ... more This volume (all in Hebrew) celebrates the groundbreaking work of Gershom Scholem on Kabbalistic literary and mystical activity from the end of the fifteenth century, just prior to the Expulsion from Spain and until the rise of Sabbateanism. At the heart of this collection are all of Gershom Scholem’s detailed studies on R. Isaac Luria, his teachers, students and the works that emerged from Safed, including numerous texts which he introduced and explained. All sixteen studies are reproduced here, re-typeset, along with a Hebrew translation of the chapter on Isaac Luria and his School, from his Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism - all updated with Scholem’s post-publication hand notes from his personal library and annotated with full bibliographic references, manuscript identifications and followed by a complete bibliography in all languages of all studies about Kabbalah from the periods treated in this volume. The volume is introduced with a typology of the various methods and scholarship that emerged from Scholem’s foundational work. This volume is an essential research tool for the serious study of Jewish mysticism.
Kabbalistic Manuscripts and Textual Theory uncovers the unstated assumptions and expectations of ... more Kabbalistic Manuscripts and Textual Theory uncovers the unstated assumptions and expectations of scribes and scholars who fashioned editions from manuscripts of Jewish mystical literature. This study offers a theory of kabbalistic textuality in which the material book – the printed page no less than handwritten manuscripts – serves as the site for textual dialogue between Jewish mystics of different periods and locations. The refashioning of the text through the process of reading and commenting that takes place on the page – in the margins and between the lines – blurs the boundaries between the traditionally defined roles of author, reader, commentator and editor. This study shows that kabbalists and academic editors reinvented the text in their own image, as part of a fluid textual process that was nothing short of transformative.
“KABBALAH” is the first and only academic periodical devoted exclusively to the study of Kabbbalah. The journal allows contributors to publish studies about Kabbalistic literature in great philological detail and with whatever space or format is deemed necessary for the field. With the realization of 50 volumes of scholarly studies, the journal has become the central publishing platform for Kabbalah research.
(Opening Remarks): Prof. Elchanan Reiner, The National Library of Israel (in Hebrew)
(Moderator): Prof. Jonatan Meir, Ben Gurion University of the Negev (in Hebrew)
“Kabbalah: Between Tradition and Revolution” (in Hebrew)
Prof. Avraham Elqayam, Bar Ilan University
“Precursors of Kabbalah: Brief Reflections” (in English)
Prof. Elisheva Carlebach (Columbia University)
“Why Kabbalah? The Field and Its Journal” (in English)
Prof. Daniel Abrams (Bar Ilan University; Editor, KABBALAH)
In-person Event, The National Library of Israel, Jerusalem
SECOND SESSION
November 14th, 1700h ... more In-person Event, The National Library of Israel, Jerusalem
The journal Kabbalah is the central publishing platform for Kabbalah scholarship. Many studies published in its volumes were written by scholars who are daily patrons of the National Library of Israel. These studies are based in no small part on the materials found in the holdings of the Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts and the Gershom Scholem Library. In this second session, the new generation of scholars will gather, in-person, to offer talks based on the fruits of their research in Kabbalah.
Opening Remarks: Prof. Elchanan Reiner, The National Library of Israel (in Hebrew)
Moderator – Prof. Jonathan Garb, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (in Hebrew)
Who is the Author of the Book of Shells? (in Hebrew)
Dr. Na‘ama Ben-Shachar, The Open University of Israel, Ra‘anana; Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan
Transcription on the Tiber: Early Transmission, Editing and Collation of Kabbalistic Texts in Medieval Italy (in Hebrew)
Avishai Bar-Asher, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The “Author,” Textual Methodologies, and the Study of Early Modern Kabbalah (in Hebrew)
Mr. Avi Kallenbach, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan
Concluding Remarks: Prof. Daniel Abrams, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat- Gan; Editor, Kabbalah Journal (in Hebrew)
After the lectures, refreshments will be served in the entrance half of the library building.
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This book is a sustained effort to identify and interpret written kabbalistic traditions about the female body of God. This collection focuses attention on an important and often neglected aspect of divine imagery in kabbalistic literature, depictions which describe God’s feminine attributes. My intention is neither to suggest that feminine, somatic imagery of God represents all of kabbalistic literature, nor that this imagery is found with the same frequency as that of the masculine imagery in kabbalistic literature. Rather, this book seeks to make a contribution to the ongoing theological discussion, based on cultural and literary criticism, in order to re-evaluate rabbinic literature from antiquity through the early modern period.
פירושי המרכבה לר' אלעזר מוורמס ולר' יעקב בן יעקב הכהן
This book is a sustained effort to identify and interpret written kabbalistic traditions about the female body of God. This collection focuses attention on an important and often neglected aspect of divine imagery in kabbalistic literature, depictions which describe God’s feminine attributes. My intention is neither to suggest that feminine, somatic imagery of God represents all of kabbalistic literature, nor that this imagery is found with the same frequency as that of the masculine imagery in kabbalistic literature. Rather, this book seeks to make a contribution to the ongoing theological discussion, based on cultural and literary criticism, in order to re-evaluate rabbinic literature from antiquity through the early modern period.
פירושי המרכבה לר' אלעזר מוורמס ולר' יעקב בן יעקב הכהן
FIRST SESSION
November 11th, 7pm Jerusalem
“KABBALAH” is the first and only academic periodical devoted exclusively to the study of Kabbbalah. The journal allows contributors to publish studies about Kabbalistic literature in great philological detail and with whatever space or format is deemed necessary for the field. With the realization of 50 volumes of scholarly studies, the journal has become the central publishing platform for Kabbalah research.
(Opening Remarks): Prof. Elchanan Reiner, The National Library of Israel (in Hebrew)
(Moderator): Prof. Jonatan Meir, Ben Gurion University of the Negev (in Hebrew)
“Kabbalah: Between Tradition and Revolution” (in Hebrew)
Prof. Avraham Elqayam, Bar Ilan University
“Precursors of Kabbalah: Brief Reflections” (in English)
Prof. Elisheva Carlebach (Columbia University)
“Why Kabbalah? The Field and Its Journal” (in English)
Prof. Daniel Abrams (Bar Ilan University; Editor, KABBALAH)
SECOND SESSION
November 14th, 1700h Israel
Advanced Registration Required
http://live-events.nli.org.il/events/khmyshym-krkym-shl-ktb-h-t-qblh-mvshb-shny-bbnyyn-hspryyh
The journal Kabbalah is the central publishing platform for Kabbalah scholarship. Many studies published in its volumes were written by scholars who are daily patrons of the National Library of Israel. These studies are based in no small part on the materials found in the holdings of the Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts and the Gershom Scholem Library. In this second session, the new generation of scholars will gather, in-person, to offer talks based on the fruits of their research in Kabbalah.
Opening Remarks: Prof. Elchanan Reiner, The National Library of Israel (in Hebrew)
Moderator – Prof. Jonathan Garb, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (in Hebrew)
Who is the Author of the Book of Shells? (in Hebrew)
Dr. Na‘ama Ben-Shachar, The Open University of Israel, Ra‘anana; Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan
Transcription on the Tiber: Early Transmission, Editing and Collation of Kabbalistic Texts in Medieval Italy (in Hebrew)
Avishai Bar-Asher, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The “Author,” Textual Methodologies, and the Study of Early Modern Kabbalah (in Hebrew)
Mr. Avi Kallenbach, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan
Concluding Remarks: Prof. Daniel Abrams, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat- Gan; Editor, Kabbalah Journal (in Hebrew)
After the lectures, refreshments will be served in the entrance half of the library building.