Author: Professor Moshe Idel
Publisher: Yale University Pre
Keywords: interpretation, kabbalah, perfections, absorbing
Number of Pages: 688
Published: 2002-05-01
List price: $60.00
ISBN-10: 0300083793
ISBN-13: 9780300083798

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 Jew