Absorbing Perfections: Kabbalah and Interpretation
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In this wide-ranging discussion of Kabbalah - from the mystical trends of medieval Judaism to modern Hasidism - one of the world's foremost scholars considers different visions of the nature of the sacred text and the methods used to interpret it. Moshe Idel takes as a starting point the fact that the postbiblical Jewish world lost its geographical center with the destruction of the Temple and so was left with a textual center, the Holy Book. Idel argues that a text-oriented religion produced language-centered forms of mysticism. Library Journal Idel displays his grasp of a wide-ranging and deep body of material.
ForewordPrefaceIntroduction11The World-Absorbing Text262The God-Absorbing Text: Black Fire on White Fire453Text and Interpretation Infinities in Kabbalah804The Book That Contains and Maintains All1115Magical and Magical-Mystical Arcanizations of Canonical Books1376Torah Study and Mystical Experiences in Jewish Mysticism1647Secrecy, Binah, and Derishah2028Semantics, Constellation, and Interpretation2219Radical Forms of Jewish Hermeneutics25010The Symbolic Mode in Theosophical-Theurgical Kabbalah27211Allegories, Divine Names, and Experiences in Ecstatic Kabbalah31412Tzerufei'Otiyyot: Mutability and Accommodation of the Torah in Jewish Mysticism35213Tradition, Transmission, and Techniques39014Concluding Remarks410App. 1Pardes: The Fourfold Method of Interpretation429App. 2Abraham Abulafia's Torah of Blood and Ink438App. 3R. Isaac of Acre's Exegetical Quandary449App. 4The Exile of the Torah and the Imprisonment of Secrets461App. 5On Oral Torah and Multiple Interpretations in Hasidism470App. 6"Book of God"/"Book of Law" in Late-Fifteenth-Century Florence482Notes493Bibliography619Index647
