Jewish Mysticism: The modern period PDF Download

Author: Joseph Dan
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 488

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Book Description
A monumental event in the publishing history of English-language reference books on the subjects of Jewish mystical thought and practice.

Author: Jonathan Garb
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9781107153134
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
This volume offers a narrative history of modern Kabbalah, from the sixteenth century to the present. Covering all sub-periods, schools, and figures, Jonathan Garb demonstrates how Kabbalah expanded over the last few centuries, and how it became an important player, first in the European, subsequently in global cultural and intellectual domains. Indeed, study of the Kabbalah can be found on virtually every continent and in many languages, despite of the destruction of many centres in the mid-twentieth century. Garb explores the sociological, psychological, scholastic and ritual dimensions of kabbalistic ways of life in their geographical and cultural contexts. Focusing on several important mystical and literary figures, he shows how modern Kabbalah is both deeply embedded in modern Jewish life, yet has become an independent, professionalized sub-world. He also traces how Kabbalah was influenced by, and contributed to the process of modernization.

Author: Joseph Dan
Publisher: Jason Aronson, Incorporated
ISBN: 1461629195
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 453

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Book Description
Interest in Jewish mysticism is, in our generation, widespread and growing. From Hebrew schools to Hollywood, people of all backgrounds and levels of knowledge are pursuing the subject. Books, magazines, journals, and classes are rapidly growing in number. One result of this burst of interest and popularization of Jewish mysticism is the problem of misinformation. The need for reliable source material has become crucial. This four-volume work by Professor Joseph Dan is a monumental event in the publishing history of English-language reference books on the subject of Jewish mystical thought and practice. Professor Dan's credentials are of the highest order. The recipient of the Israel Prize (considered to be Israel's highest honor), Joseph Dan is the Gershom Scholem Professor of Kabbalah at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and continues to be a visiting professor at some of the most prestigious institutions of higher learning in the world.

Author: Daniel Reiser
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110535882
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 462

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Book Description
This book analyzes and describes the development and aspects of imagery techniques, a primary mode of mystical experience, in twentieth century Jewish mysticism. These techniques, in contrast to linguistic techniques in medieval Kabbalah and in contrast to early Hasidism, have all the characteristics of a full screenplay, a long and complicated plot woven together from many scenes, a kind of a feature film. Research on this development and nature of the imagery experience is carried out through comparison to similar developments in philosophy and psychology and is fruitfully contextualized within broader trends of western and eastern mysticism.

Author: Yaacob Dweck
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691162158
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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Book Description
How the Jewish culture war over Kabbalah began The Scandal of Kabbalah is the first book about the origins of a culture war that began in early modern Europe and continues to this day: the debate between kabbalists and their critics on the nature of Judaism and the meaning of religious tradition. From its medieval beginnings as an esoteric form of Jewish mysticism, Kabbalah spread throughout the early modern world and became a central feature of Jewish life. Scholars have long studied the revolutionary impact of Kabbalah, but, as Yaacob Dweck argues, they have misunderstood the character and timing of opposition to it. Drawing on a range of previously unexamined sources, this book tells the story of the first criticism of Kabbalah, Ari Nohem, written by Leon Modena in Venice in 1639. In this scathing indictment of Venetian Jews who had embraced Kabbalah as an authentic form of ancient esotericism, Modena proved the recent origins of Kabbalah and sought to convince his readers to return to the spiritualized rationalism of Maimonides. The Scandal of Kabbalah examines the hallmarks of Jewish modernity displayed by Modena's attack—a critical analysis of sacred texts, skepticism about religious truths, and self-consciousness about the past—and shows how these qualities and the later history of his polemic challenge conventional understandings of the relationship between Kabbalah and modernity. Dweck argues that Kabbalah was the subject of critical inquiry in the very period it came to dominate Jewish life rather than centuries later as most scholars have thought.

Author: Moshe Idel
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300046991
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 444

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Book Description
In this prizewinning new interpretation of Jewish mysticism, Moshe Idel emphasizes the need for a comparative and phenomenological approach to Kabbalah and its position in the history of religion. Idel provides fresh insights into the origins of Jewish mysticism, the relation between mystical and historical experience, and the impact of Jewish mysticism on western civilization. "Idel's book is studded with major insights, and innovative approaches to the entire history of Judaism, and mastery of it will be essential for all serious students of Jewish thought."--Arthur Green, New York Times Book Review "Moshe Idel's original, scholarly, and stimulating study of Kabbalah contains the promise of a masterwork."--Elie Wiesel "Moshe Idel's book can help the nonspecialized reader to reconsider the whole of Kabbalistic tradition in comparison with many aspects of contemporary thought."--Umberto Eco "There can be no dispute about the importance and originality of Idel's work. Offering a wealth of complementary insights to Gershom Scholem and his school, it will command a great deal of attention and serious discussion."--Alexander Altmann

Author: Lawrence Fine
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691227985
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 555

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Book Description
This collection of original materials provides a sweeping view of medieval and early modern Jewish ritual and religious practice. Including such diverse texts as ritual manuals, legal codes, mystical books, autobiographical writings, folk literature, and liturgical poetry, it testifies to the enormous variety of practices that characterized Judaism in the twelve hundred years between 600 and 1800 C.E. Its focus on religious practice and experience--how Judaism was actually lived by people from day to day--makes this anthology unique among the few sourcebooks available. The volume encompasses the broad scope and complex texture of Jewish religious practice, taking into account many aspects of Jewish culture that have hitherto been relatively neglected: the religious life of ordinary people, the role and status of women, art and aesthetics, and marginalized as well as remote Jewish communities. It introduces such remarkable personalities as Moses Maimonides, Leon Modena, and Gluckel of Hameln, and presents extraordinary texts on festival practice, Torah study, mystical communities, meditation, exorcism, the practice of charity, and folk rites marking birth and death. Representing state-of-the-art scholarship by distinguished academics from around the world, the volume includes many materials never before translated into English. Each text is preceded by an accessible introduction, making this book suitable for college and university students as well as a general audience. Whether read as a deliberate course of study or dipped into selectively for a glimpse into fascinating Jewish lives and places, Judaism in Practice holds rich rewards for any reader.

Author: Peter Schäfer
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691142157
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 415

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Book Description
'The Origins of Jewish Mysticism' offers an in-depth look at the history of Jewish mysticism from the book of Ezekiel to the Merkavah mysticism of late antiquity. The author reveals what these writings seek to tell us about the age-old human desire to get close to and communicate with God.

Author: Joseph Dan
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 0814718124
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 343

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Book Description
Annotation "An excellent overview of the history of Jewish mysticism from its early beginnings to contemporary Hasidism ... scholarly and complex."--Library Journal"An excellent work, clear and solidly documented by Joseph Dan on Gershom Scholem and on his work."--Notes Bibliographiques"An excellent guide to Scholem's work."--Christian Century.

Author: Gershom Scholem
Publisher: Schocken
ISBN: 0307791483
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 497

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Book Description
A collection of lectures on the features of the movement of mysticism that began in antiquity and continues in Hasidism today.