Front Matter (PDF) - Stanford University Press
Front Matter (PDF) - Stanford University Press
Front Matter (PDF) - Stanford University Press
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the divergence between these two tendencies within Kabbalah, we see<br />
In<br />
and abstractionist elements strugglingwithin the emergingself-articu-<br />
mythic<br />
of the mystical spirit. In raisingall to the very heights of the se®rotic<br />
lation<br />
the Catalonians were votingfor abstraction, a Kabbalah that led the<br />
world,<br />
to experience a God not entirely removed from the rari®ed transpersonal<br />
mystic<br />
deity of the Jewish philosophers. The Castilians may have incorporated<br />
aspects of Gerona's Neoplatonism, but their spirit is entirely different.<br />
some<br />
in¯uenced in part by renewed contact with more mythically-oriented<br />
Perhaps<br />
elements, and in part re¯ectingalso the romantic troubadour ethos<br />
Ashkenazic<br />
the surroundingculture, they write in a spirit far from that of philosophy.<br />
of<br />
we ®nd a strong emphasis on the theurgic, quasi-magical effect of<br />
Here<br />
activity on the inner state of the Godhead, and its ef®cacy in<br />
kabbalistic<br />
divine unity and thus showeringdivine blessingupon the lower<br />
bringingabout<br />
Their depictions of the upper universe are highly colorful, sometimes<br />
world.<br />
earthy. The fascination with both the demonic and the sexual that characterizes<br />
even<br />
their work lent to Kabbalah a dangerous and close-to-forbidden edge<br />
undoubtedly served to make it more attractive, both in its own day and<br />
that<br />
later generations. 2<br />
throughout<br />
last quarter of the thirteenth century was a period of great creative<br />
The<br />
amongthe kabbalists of Castile. The se®rotic KabbalahÐas detailed<br />
expansion<br />
the works of such well-known ®gures as Moses de LeoÂn, Todros Abula®a,<br />
in<br />
Gikatilla, Isaac Ibn Sahula, Joseph ben Shalom Ashkenazi, Joseph An-<br />
Joseph<br />
and Joseph of Hamadan, all dating from the period between 1280 and<br />
gelino,<br />
a considerable and highly varied body of writing, even leav-<br />
1310Ðconstitutes<br />
the Zohar itself. It was within this circle that fragments of a more<br />
ingaside<br />
composition, written mostly in lofty and mysterious Aramaic rather<br />
poetic<br />
Hebrew, ®rst began to circulate. These fragments, composed within one<br />
than<br />
two generations but edited over the course of the following century and a<br />
or<br />
The emergence of kabbalistic teaching is more complex and obscure than has been<br />
2.<br />
in the precedingparagraphs. The relationship between Kabbalah and certain late<br />
described<br />
of midrashic writingis still not entirely clear. The nature and degree of contact<br />
forms<br />
early kabbalists and the German Hasidic circles, especially as re¯ected in the<br />
between<br />
of Rabbi Eleazar of Worms (ca. 1165±ca. 1230), continues to puzzle scholars. The<br />
writings<br />
of abstract mystical writings known as Sifrei ha-Iyyun, or Books of Contemplation, ®ts<br />
group<br />
into this puzzle, but its precise date and relationship to other parts of the pre-<br />
somewhere<br />
corpus is still debated by scholars. The sources of the highly distinctive school of<br />
Zoharic<br />
or ``ecstatic'' Kabbalah taught by Rabbi Abraham Abula®a (1240±after 1292),<br />
``prophetic''<br />
havinglittle connection to the Zohar, also would require treatment in a full picture of<br />
while<br />
emergence of kabbalistic thought. But this very brief treatment of major schools and<br />
the<br />
should suf®ce to set forth the context out of which the Zohar emerged.<br />
themes<br />
Introduction<br />
xl<br />
half, are known to the world as the Zohar.