| Description |
xvi, 487 pages ; 24 cm |
| Series |
Princeton paperbacks |
|
Princeton paperbacks.
|
| Contents |
CHAPTER ONE: THE PROBLEM. 1. The State of Research: The Views of Graetz and Neumark --- 2. Southern France in the Twelfth Century: The Catharist Movement -- The Jews of Languedoc --- 3. The Esoteric Doctrine of the Creation and the Merkabah in Prekabbalistic Judaism: The Literature of the Hekhaloth and Jewish Gnosticism --- 4. The "Book of Creation" --- 5. The Oldest Documents Concerning the Appearance of the Kabbalah and the Publication of the Book Bahir ---- CHAPTER TWO: THE BOOK BAHIR. 1. Literary Character and Structure of the Book: Its Different Strata --- 2. Gnostic Elements in the Bahir: Pleroma and Cosmic Tree --- 3. Other Gnostic Elements: The Potencies of God -- Middoth -- Gnostic Reinterpretations of Talmudic Sayings -- The Double Sophia and the Symbolism of the Sophia as Daughter and Bride --- 4. Identification of Ancient Sources Preserved in the Tradition of the German Hasidim: Raza Rabba and Bahir --- 5. The First Three Sefiroth --- 6. The Six Lower Sefiroth: The Limbs of the Primordial Man and Their Symbolism -- The Place of Evil --- 7. The Syzygy of the Masculine and the Feminine: The Seventh and Tenth Sefirah in the Bahir -- The Symbolism of the Righteous --- 8. The Symbolism of the Shekhinah and the Feminine: The Jewel --- 9. Elements of the Doctrine of the Aeons Among the German Hasidim --- 10. The Transmigration of Souls and the Mysticism of Prayer in the Bahir ---- CHAPTER 3: THE FIRST KABBALISTS IN PROVENCE . 1. Abraham ben Isaac of Narbonne --- 2. Abraham ben David (Rabad) --- 3. Jacob the Nazirite and the Groups of Ascetics in the Community, Perushim and Nezirim -- Catharism and Kabbalah -- Revelations Granted to the Ascetics and the Forms of These Revelations -- The Doctrine of Kawwanah in Prayer --- 4. Isaac the Blind and His Writings --- 5. Isaac's Doctrine of the 'En-sof and the Sefiroth --- 6. Good and Evil in Isaac and Other Sources --- 7. Isaac's Contemplative Mysticism: Kawwanah and Debhequth --- 8. The Writings of the?Iyyun Circle --- 9. Fundamental Conceptions of This Circle: The Primordial Ether -- Light- and Language-Mysticism --- 10. The Thirteen Middoth, Ten Sefiroth and Three Lights Above Them in Pseudo-Hai --- 11. The Sefirotic Doctrines of a Pseudoepigraphic Epistle ---- CHAPTER 4: THE KABBALISTIC CENTER IN GERONA. 1. The Kabbalists of Gerona and Their Writings --- 2. Debates and Disturbances Resulting from the Propaganda of the Kabbalists: Their Role in the Controversy over the Writings of Maimonides --- 3. Elevation Through Kawwanah: The Nothing and the Hokhmah --- 4. The Doctrines of Azriel and Nahmanides on the Process of Emanation -- 'En-sof, the Primordial Will and the Primordial Idea -- The Sefiroth --- 5. Man and the Soul --- 6. The Book Temunah and the Doctrine of World Cycles or Shemittoth |
| Summary |
One of the most important scholars of our century, Gershom Scholem (1897-1982) opened up a once esoteric world of Jewish mysticism, the Kabbalah, to concerned students of religion. The Kabbalah is a rich tradition of repeated attempts to achieve and portray direct experiences of God: its twelfth-and thirteenth-century beginnings in southern France and Spain are probed in Origins of the Kabbalah, a work crucial in Scholem's oeuvre. The book is a contribution not only to the history of Jewish medieval mysticism but also to the study of medieval mysticism in general and will be of interest to historians and psychologists, as well as to students of the history of religion. -- Back cover |
| Analysis |
Cabala - History |
|
Judaism Cabala |
|
Sefer ha-bahir |
| Notes |
Translation of: Ursprung und Anfange der Kabbala |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Notes |
Also available online via the World Wide Web |
|
Translation of: Ursprung und Anfange der Kabbala |
| SUBJECT |
Sefer ha-bahir. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n84074787
|
| Subject |
Cabala -- History.
|
| Author |
Werblowsky, R. J. Zwi, 1924-2015.
|
| LC no. |
86007381 |
| ISBN |
0691020477 |
|
0691073147 (Princeton University) |
|
