Jonathan Dauber is Associate Professor of Jewish Mysticism at Yeshiva University’s Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies where he is also the director of the PhD program. He holds a PhD in Jewish Mysticism from New York University and is author of Knowledge of God and the Development of Early Kabbalah (Brill, 2012) and Secrecy and Esoteric Writing in Kabbalistic Literature (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2022). He is currently working on Sefer ha-Bahir: Translation and Commentary to be published by Stanford University Press. Address: Teaneck, New Jersey, United States
The Temple of Jerusalem: From Moses to the Messiah: Studies Published in Honor of Professor Louis H. Feldman. Edited by Steven Fine, 2011
The temple in Jerusalem was, of course, the site in which God's presence was thought to be pa... more The temple in Jerusalem was, of course, the site in which God's presence was thought to be particularly tangible. Indeed, it is this characteristic of the temple that leads various Rabbinic texts to grapple with the theological question of how the omnipresent God could nevertheless dwell in a particular location. The experience of God may no longer be possible in the earthly temple, but it remains available to the mystic who ascends to the seventh heavenly temple. It is against this backdrop that the temple symbolism employed in Sefer ha-Bahir - a compilation of disparate material, which espouses many elements of the theosophical symbolism that came to be identified with Kabbalah - is so striking. Sefer ha-Bahir mentions the temple in three separate passages. In all three, it refers to it as the "holy temple". Keywords: God; Sefer Ha-Bahir ; temple; theosophical symbolism
This study suggests that there is a degree of truth to the first Kabbalists' view that the philos... more This study suggests that there is a degree of truth to the first Kabbalists' view that the philosophy of R. Abraham bar Hiyya resonates with their own theosophical speculations. My analysis focuses on the significance of the term "pure thought" which these Kabbalists borrowed from bar Hiyya. According to them, it refers to the first or second of the sefirot, which function as intra-divine intellectual faculties. While bar Hiyya did not adhere to a notion of sefirot, I suggest that he did conceive of three intra-divine intellectual faculties, one of which is "pure thought". Thus, the Kabbalists emerge as largely accurate in their interpretation of the term. This analysis points to a certain similarity between bar Hiyya's conception of divine unity and that of some of the first Kabbalists. Each rejects the philosophical account of divine unity as simplicity and allows for multiple aspects to inhere in God.
The Cultures of Maimonideanism: New Approaches to the History of Jewish Thought. Edited by James T. Robinson, 2009
... which was presumably circulated in Southern France, and which had the approbation of his uncl... more ... which was presumably circulated in Southern France, and which had the approbation of his uncle, R. Meshullam ben Moses, as well as the remainder of the sages of this land. 26 This critique is, as Alon Goshen-Gottstein has argued, apparently related to R. Meir's anti ...
The Temple of Jerusalem: From Moses to the Messiah: Studies Published in Honor of Professor Louis H. Feldman. Edited by Steven Fine, 2011
The temple in Jerusalem was, of course, the site in which God's presence was thought to be pa... more The temple in Jerusalem was, of course, the site in which God's presence was thought to be particularly tangible. Indeed, it is this characteristic of the temple that leads various Rabbinic texts to grapple with the theological question of how the omnipresent God could nevertheless dwell in a particular location. The experience of God may no longer be possible in the earthly temple, but it remains available to the mystic who ascends to the seventh heavenly temple. It is against this backdrop that the temple symbolism employed in Sefer ha-Bahir - a compilation of disparate material, which espouses many elements of the theosophical symbolism that came to be identified with Kabbalah - is so striking. Sefer ha-Bahir mentions the temple in three separate passages. In all three, it refers to it as the "holy temple". Keywords: God; Sefer Ha-Bahir ; temple; theosophical symbolism
This study suggests that there is a degree of truth to the first Kabbalists' view that the philos... more This study suggests that there is a degree of truth to the first Kabbalists' view that the philosophy of R. Abraham bar Hiyya resonates with their own theosophical speculations. My analysis focuses on the significance of the term "pure thought" which these Kabbalists borrowed from bar Hiyya. According to them, it refers to the first or second of the sefirot, which function as intra-divine intellectual faculties. While bar Hiyya did not adhere to a notion of sefirot, I suggest that he did conceive of three intra-divine intellectual faculties, one of which is "pure thought". Thus, the Kabbalists emerge as largely accurate in their interpretation of the term. This analysis points to a certain similarity between bar Hiyya's conception of divine unity and that of some of the first Kabbalists. Each rejects the philosophical account of divine unity as simplicity and allows for multiple aspects to inhere in God.
The Cultures of Maimonideanism: New Approaches to the History of Jewish Thought. Edited by James T. Robinson, 2009
... which was presumably circulated in Southern France, and which had the approbation of his uncl... more ... which was presumably circulated in Southern France, and which had the approbation of his uncle, R. Meshullam ben Moses, as well as the remainder of the sages of this land. 26 This critique is, as Alon Goshen-Gottstein has argued, apparently related to R. Meir's anti ...
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