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in the settingof the rabbinic world. But aggadah also includes tales of
landscape
rabbis themselves and teachings of wisdom in many forms: maxims, para-
the
folk traditions, and so forth.
bles,
kabbalists made great use of the midrashic/aggadic tradition, drawing
The
both its methods of interpretation and its contents. The hermeneutical
on
of Midrash, includingthe legitimacy of juxtaposingverses from
assumptions
within Scripture without concern for datingor context, the rearranging
anywhere
of words or even occasional substitution of letters, use of numerology and
as ways to derive meaning, the endless glori®cation of biblical
abbreviation
and the tarringof villainsÐall of these and others were carried over
heroes
Midrash into Kabbalah. Indeed many of them were used by other sorts of
from
preachers as well. But the content of the aggadic worldviewÐwith its
medieval
picture of God as Creator and divine Ruler who sees everywhere; who
mythic
in history; who responds to prayer and human virtue, even suspendingthe
acts
of nature to rescue His beloved; who mourns with Israel the destruction
laws
their shared Temple and suffers with them the pain of exileÐall this too was
of
carried over into the kabbalistic imagination. In fact the kabbalists
faithfully
partial to the most highly anthropomorphic and mythic versions of rab-
were
tradition, such as were contained in the eighth-century collection Pirqei
binic
Eli'ezer. Here they stood in sharp contrast to the prior emerging
de-Rabbi
trend of the Middle Ages: Jewish philosophy, which exercised a
intellectual
of critical skepticism with regard to the more fantastic claims of the
degree
and sought out, whenever possible, those more modest and somewhat
aggadah
viewpoints that could be found amongcertain of the early rabbis.
naturalistic
is the tradition of halakhah, the legal and normative body of Talmudic
Second
teaching, the chief subject of study for Jews throughout the era, and thus
main curriculum upon which most kabbalists themselves were educated.
the
early kabbalists lived fully within the bounds of halakhah and created a
The
that justi®ed its existence. While later Kabbalah (beginningin
meaningsystem
early fourteenth century) contains some elements that are quite critical of
the
little of this trend is evident in the period before the Zohar. Some
halakhah,
of KabbalahÐRabbi Moses Naḥmanides (see below) is the great
transmitters
also active in the realm of halakhic creativity, writingresponsa
exampleÐwere
commentaries on Talmudic tractates. More common was a certain intel-
and
specialization, undoubtedly re¯ectingspiritual temperament, spawning
lectual
who lived faithfully within halakhah and whose writings show its
kabbalists
their lives, but who devoted their literary efforts chie¯y to the
patterningof
of mystical exegesis, including kabbalistic comments on the command-
realm
or re¯ection on aspects of halakhic practice.
ments
third element of the rabbinic legacy is the liturgical tradition. While
A
praxis was codi®ed within halakhah and thus in some ways is a subset
liturgical
it, the texts recited in worshipÐincluding a large corpus of liturgical poetry,
of
Introduction
xxxi
or piyyutÐconstitute a literary genre of their own. Medieval writers, including