Front Matter (PDF) - Stanford University Press

The Franco-Rhenish tradition also had room for a strongmagical component
tion.
to religion. Ancient speculations on secret names of God and the
still held currency in these circles. The power of using such names to
angels
the divine will, utter blasphemy in the eyes of the Maimonidean, was
affect
for granted in early Ashkenaz, as it had been centuries earlier throughout
taken
Jewish world.
the
secrets of Kabbalah were made public in this age as a way to combat
The
in¯uence of Maimonidean rationalism. The freedom and implied disinter-
the
in human affairs of the philosophers' God frightened the mystics into
est
of the deep esotericism that had until then restricted them to oral
comingout
of their teachings within closed conventicles of initiates. Their
transmission
were to serve as an alternative explanation of the Torah, one that saw
secrets
and its commandments not only as playinga vital role in the ongoing
Torah
life of Israel, but also as havinga cosmos-sustainingrole in a view of
spiritual
universe that made them absolutely essential. It is no accident that two of
the
key subjects discussed in these earliest kabbalistic speculations are the
the
or secret meanings of prayer and ta'amei ha-mitsvot, the reasons for
kavvanot
commandments. Both of these are interpreted in a way that insists on the
the
effects of human actions. The special concentration on divine names
cosmic
an essential part in early Kabbalah, settingin course a theme that was to
played
developed over many centuries of kabbalistic praxis.
be
secret doctrines ®rst taught in Provence were carried across the Pyr-
The
in the early thirteenth century, inspiringsmall circles of mystics in the
enees
district of Catalonia. One key center of this activity was the city of
adjacent
well known as the home of two of the most important rabbinic ®gures
Gerona,
the age, Rabbi Moses ben Naḥman (called Naḥmanides) and Rabbi Jonah
of
(c.1200±1263). Naḥmanides, perhaps the most widely respected Jewish
Gerondi
®gure of the thirteenth century, is the most important personage
intellectual
with the early dissemination of kabbalistic secrets. He was a leading
associated
commentator, scriptural interpreter, and legal authority. His Torah
Talmudic
includes numerous passagesÐmost brief and intentionally obscure,
commentary
but several lengthy and highly developedÐwhere he speaks ``in the way
truth,'' referringto secret kabbalistic traditions. Alongside Naḥmanides
of
emerged a somewhat separate circle of kabbalists including two very
there
teachers, Rabbi Ezra ben Solomon and Rabbi Azriel. These ®gures
important
to have been more innovative than Naḥmanides in their kabbalistic exe-
seem
and also more open to the Neoplatonic philosophy of Abraham Ibn Ezra
gesis
others that was gaining credence in their day. Naḥmanides was essentially
and
in his kabbalistic readings, insisting that he was only passing
conservative
what he had received from his teachers, and his view of philosophical
down
in general was quite negative. Rabbi Ezra, the author of commentaries
thought
the Songof Songs and some Talmudic aggadot, and his disciple Rabbi
on
Introduction
xxxvii
Azriel, who wrote a larger treatise on the aggadot as well as a widely quoted