Gershom Scholem

Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (eBook, ePUB)

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

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

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Seitenzahl: 496
• Erscheinungstermin: 17. August 2011
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9780307791481
• Artikelnr.: 38204389

Autorenporträt

GERSHOM SCHOLEM was professor of Jewish mysticism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem until his death in 1982. He is also the author of The Messianic Idea in Judaism, On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism, On the Mystical Shape of the Godhead and Zohar.

Inhaltsangabe

FOREWORD BY ROBERT ALTER, xi
 
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION, xxv
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION, xxix
 
TABLE OF TRANSLITERATION, xxxi
 
FIRST LECTURE: GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF JEWISM MYSTICISM. pp. 1-39.
Purpose of these lectures. What is Mysticism? The paradoxical nature of
mystical experience. Mysticism as an historical phenomenon. Mythology,
Religion and Mysticism. Mystical interpretation of religious values. Jewish
Mysticism influenced by the positive contents of Judaism. The Kabbalistic
theory of the hidden God and His attributes. The Sefiroth. The Torah.
Kabbalism and language. Mysticism and the historical world. Cosmogony and
eschatology. Jewish Philosophy and Kabbalism. Allegorization and symbolism.
Philosophical and mystical interpretation of Halakhah and Aggadah.
Kabbalism and prayer. Mythical elements in Kabbalistic thought. The
resurrection of myth in the heart of Judaism. The absence of the feminine
element in Jewish Mysticism.
 
SECOND LECTURE: MERKABAH MYSTICISM AND JEWISH GNOSTICISM. pp. 40-79
The first period of Jewish Mysticism. Anonymity of their writings.
Esoterism of the Mishnah teachers. Throne-mysticism. Apocalyptic and
mysticism. The literature of the Hekhaloth-books. The Yorde Merkabeh and
their organization. Conditions of initiation. The ecstatic ascent of the
soul and its technique. Magical elements. Dangers of the ascent. God as
Holy King. The hymns of the Merkabah mystics. Shiur Komah. Enoch, Metatron
and Yahoel. The cosmic curtain. Remains of Gnostic speculations on aeons.
The “Book of Creation.” Theurgy. Moral re-interpretation of the Merkabah.
 
THIRD LECTURE: HASIDISM IN MEDIAEVAL GERMANY. pp. 80-118
The rise of Hasidism in Germany. Mystical tradition and German Jewry. The
“Book of the Devout.” Jehudah the Hasid and his disciples. Eschatological
character of Hasidism. The new ideal of the Hasid: Ascetics, ataraxy and
altruism. Love of God. A Judaized version of monkish Cynicism. The magic
power of the Hasid. The Golem legend. Mysteries of Prayer. Occultist
practices. Hasidic conception of penitence. The conception of God in
Hasidism. Immanence of God. Kavod, the Divine Glory. Traces of the Philonic
doctrine of the Logos. The Cherub on the throne. Holiness and Greatness in
God. The aim of prayer. The cosmic archetypes.
 
FOURTH LECTURE: ABRAHAM ABULAFIA AND THE DOCTRINE OF PROPHETIC KABBALISM.
pp. 119-155
Emergence of Kabbalism. Types of Kabbalists. Kabbalistic reticence and
censorship. Vision and ecstasy. The conception of Devekuth—the Jewish form
of mystical union. Life and work of Abraham Abulafia. His theory of
ecstatical knowledge. The “science of combination.” The music of pure
thought. The mystical nature of prophecy. Prophetic Kabbalism. Mystical
transfiguration as the essence of ecstacy. Mystical pragmatism. Practical
Kabbalism and magic. Later developments of Abulafia’s doctrines.
Translation of an autobiography written by a disciple of Abulalia.
 
FIFTH LECTURE: THE ZOHAR I. THE BOOK AND ITS AUTHOR. pp. 156-204
The problem of the Zohar. Literary character and composition of the Zohar.
The whole of the Zoharic “literarture” consists of two major parts: the
bulk of the Zohar and the Raya Mehenma. The bulk of the Zohar the work of
one author. Evidence of unity. The language and style of the Zohar. Its
stage-setting. Pseudo-realism. Principles of literary composition. Sources
of the Zohar: the real and fictitious ones. Treatment of the sources. The
author’s predilection for certain Kabbalistic doctrines and dislike for
others. Absence of the doctrine of the Shemitahs, or units of cosmic
development. Stages in the composition. The Midrash Ha-Neelam as the oldest
constituent of the Zohar. The Midrash Ha-Neelam written between 1275 and
1281; the bulk of the Zohar between 1281 and 1286; the Raya Mehemna and
Rikkunim about 1300. The question of the personality of the author. Moses
ben Shemtob de Leon. The old testimonial on his authorship. Moses de Leon
and Joseph Gikatila. Comparison of Moses de Leon’s Hebrew writings with the
bulk of the Zohar. Identity of the author all these writings. Other
Kabbalistic pseudepigrapha written by Moses de Leon. Veiled references to
his authorship of the Zohar in Moses’ Hebrew writing the Zohar.
Pseudoepigraphy a legitimate category or religious literature.
 
SIXTH LECTURE: THE ZOHAR II. THE THEOSOPHIC DOCTRINE OF THE ZOHAR. pp.
205-243
The difference between Merhabah Mysticism and Spanish Kabbalism. The hidden
God or En-Sof. The Sefiroth, the Realm of Divinity. Mystical conception of
the Torah. Symbolical realization of the Sefiroth. Some instances of
Kabbalistic Symbolism. God as a mystical organism. Nothing and Being. The
first three stages of the Sefiriotic development. Creation and its relation
to God. Theogony and Cosmogony. Pantheistic leanings of the author of the
Zohar. The original nature of Creation. Mythical imagery in Kabbalistic
thought. The problem of sexual symbolism. The new idea of the Shekhinah as
a feminine element in God as the mystical Community of Israel. Man and his
Fall. Kabbalistic ethics. The nature of evil. The Zohar and Jacob Boehme.
Psychology of the Zohar. Unity of theosophy, cosmology and psychology.
 
SEVENTH LECTURE: ISAAC LURIA AND HIS SCHOOL. pp. 244-286
The Exodus from Spain and its religious consequences. Kabbalism on its way
to Messianism. Apocalyptic propaganda by Kabbalists. The character and
function of the new Kabbalism. Its center if Safed, Palestine. Moses
Cordovero and Isaac Luria. Their personalities. Spread of Lurianic
Kabbalism. Israel Sarug. Characteristics of the Lurianic doctrine.
Tsimtsum, Shevirah, and Tikkun. The twofold process of Creation. The
withdrawal of God into Himself as the starting-point of Creation. Meaning
of this doctrine.  The primordial catastrophe, or Breaking of the Vessels.
The origin of Evil. Two aspects of the theory of the Tikkun, or restoration
of harmony. The mystical birth of the personal God and the mystical action
of man. The emergence of theosophic worlds, and their relation to God.
Theism and Pantheism in Luria’s system. Mystical reinterpretation of
Messianism. The doctrine of mystical prayer. Kawwanah. Man’s role in the
Universe. Luria’s psychology and anthropology. The Exile of the Shekhinah.
The uplifting of the holy sparks. Transmigration of the soul and its place
in the Kabbalism of Safed. Influence of Lurianic Kabbalism. A great myth of
Exile and Redemption.
 
EIGHTH LECTURE: SABBATIANISM AND MYSTICAL HERESY. pp. 287-324
The Sabbatian movement of 1665-1666. Sabbatai Zevi, the Kabbalistic
Messiah, and Nathan of Gaza, his prophet. Sabbatai Zevi’s illness and its
mystical interpretation by Nathan. Quasi-sacramental character of
antinomian actions. Lurianism adapted to the personality of the new
Messiah. Heretical turn of the movement after the apostasy of Sabbatai
Zevi. Importance of Sabbatianism for Jewish history. A revolution of the
Jewish consciousness. Connection between heretical Kabbalism and
“Enlightenment.” The Sabbatian ideology. A religion of paradoxes.
Historical and mystical aspects of Redemption. Their clash after Sabbatai
Zevi’s apostasy. Sabbatianism. Doctrine of the necessary apostasy of the
Messiah. The problem of antinomianism. Moderate and radical forms of
Sabbatianism. Mystical nihilism and the doctrine of the Holiness of Sin.
The new conception of God: the first cause, or the God of Reason, and the
first effect, or the God of Revelation.
 
NINTH LECTURE: HASIDISM: THE LASTEST PHASE. pp. 325-350
Polish and Ukrainian Hasidism of the eighteenth century and its problem.
Kabbalistic and Hasidic literature. The transformation of Kabbalism into a
popular movement. The alternatives of Kabbalistic development after the
collapse of Sabbatianism. Return to esoteric forms of worship: Rabbi Shalom
Sharabit. Intensification of its popular aspects: Hasidism. Kabbalism
purged of its Messianic elements. Sabbatianism and Hasidism. Rabbi Asam
Baal Shem—a crypto-Sabbatian prophet. New type of leadership in
Sabbatianism and Hasidism. Mystical revivalism. What is novel in Hasidism?
The essential originality of Hasidism not connected with mystical theosophy
but with mystical ethics. Zaddikism implied by the intrinsic nature of
Hasidism. Personality takes the place of doctrine. The figure of the
Zaddik, or Saint. The living Torah. The social function of the Saint as the
center of the community of men. Mysticism and magic in Hasidism. The
Hasidic story.
 
NOTES, 351-424
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY, 425-444
 
INDEX, 445-460