History of Kabbalah

The present article describes newly identified fragments that contain further evidence about Sefer Or Zaruʿa in its entirety, and Sefer ha-Neʿlam: two anonymous texts recently discovered and attributed to R. Moses de León. One fragment preserves an early proof of Or Zaruʿa’s original structure (recently restored), while the other serves as new evidence for identification of Sefer ha-Neʿlam’s. Finally, the two fragments contribute to the textual criticism of these works, and shed new light on their reception history.

Shamati is the most valuable book in the world, because it has the power to bring a person to the purpose of his life. Shamati is the main Kabbalistic source text. It contains all the foundations of man’s spiritual work. The articles contained in this book summarize everything one needs to enter the Upper World. They encompass the infinite depth of all 125 degrees that a person can and must go through in his spiritual path, whose summit is the goal of creation. This book is the most special book in the world, because no book in the entire history of mankind has gone deeper into man’s spiritual work.
source:
https://laitman.com/2008/08/shamati-the-most-valuable-book-in-the-world/

Lo Shamati è il libro più prezioso del mondo, perché ha il potere di condurre una persona allo scopo della sua vita. Lo Shamati è il testo kabbalistico più importante. Nei suoi contenuti si trovano le basi del lavoro spirituale dell’uomo. Gli articoli che si trovano in questo libro riassumono tutto ciò di cui si necessita per entrare nel Mondo Superiore. Comprendono l’infinita profondità dei 125 gradi che una persona può e deve attraversare nel suo cammino spirituale, la cui cima è lo Scopo della creazione. Questo è il libro più straordinario del mondo, perché nessun altra opera nella storia dell’umanità è penetrata tanto profondamente nel lavoro spirituale dell’essere umano.
fonte::
http://laitman.it/2010/04/24/shamati-il-libro-piu-prezioso-del-mondo/

Recent years have seen the flourishing of research on Lithuanian Kabbalists in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, to the point that some scholars speak of a defined and delineated stream of Kabbalah, a school unto itself dubbed "Lithuanian Kabbalah." Such scholars include within this stream all those who saw the Vilna Gaon as their teacher in Kabbalah (parallel to the position of the Baal Shem Tov in Hasidism) and they ascribe to it such fixed categories as its "Articles of Faith." In their conception, this stream was part and parcel of the broader and well-known nationalist-messianic current that had its source, supposedly, in the Vilna Gaon himself; this current reached its full fruition in the twentieth century, and so too has the smaller stream within it, now a clearly defined "school," developed in various ways until the present. As if this were not enough, scholars have joined the later ideological trend which seeks to revise the history of Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in a decidedly messianic way, presenting it in a continuous line from the Vilna Gaon to the emergence of Zionism and then to the founding of the State of Israel. Again, the Vilna Gaon is not merely presented as a "herald" of Zionism but as one who encoded within his Torah the secret of redemption, the beginning of which, apparently, we are witnessing today. The article conducts a critical analysis of the concept of "Lithuanian Kabbalah," and uses as its case study the life and teachings of Rabbi Shimon Tsvi Horowitz.


בשנים האחרונות צומח ועולה מחקר סביב למקובלים בני ליטא במאות התשע עשרה והעשרים, עד שיש כאלו המדברים על זרם מוגדר ומובחן, אסכולה בפני עצמה, המכונה 'קבלה ליטאית'. בתוך זרם זה כוללים את כל אלו שראו בגר"א את מורם בקבלה, כמעין בעש"ט לחסידות, ומונים קטגוריות מקובעות של 'עיקרי אמונה' של אותו זרם הרוכב על מהלך משיחי ולאומי ידוע שמקורו כביכול בגר"א עצמו והגיע לגמר בישולו במאה העשרים. עד שנוצר בעיני כמה חוקרים מעין 'חוג' ברור ומוגדר שמתגלגל באופנים שונים עד לימינו. אם לא די בכך, הרי שהמדברים על אותו זרם קבלי רוכבים למעשה על קו אידיאולוגי מאוחר שבא לפרש מחדש את ההיסטוריה של היישוב היהודי בארץ ישראל במאה התשע עשרה ברוח משיחית וליצור מעין המשכיות מימי הגר"א עד להופעתה של הציונות ולמאורעות שהתרחשו עם הקמת מדינת ישראל. שוב אין הגר"א מצטייר רק כ'מבשר' הציונות אלא כמי שצפן בתורתו את סוד הגאולה שאנו עומדים לכאורה בפתחה. המאמר עוסק בניתוח ביקורתי של המשוג "קבלת ליטאית" וכמקרה מבחן יש כאן דיון בדרכו של ר' שמעון צבי הורביץ

No document is more central to the scholarly historiography of kabbalah's "origins" than a unique letter written by R. Isaac the Blind. Since its discovery, scholars have made it the foundation for an elaborate narrative about the transmission of kabbalistic traditions from Provence to Gerona at the beginning of the thirteenth century. Scholars have not only used the letter to help reconstruct the ties between these two centers, but even to reconstruct their purported theological concerns about the transmission, composition, and dissemination of esoteric lore.

The present study offers a fresh and thorough explication of this cryptic, and partly encrypted, document, which is here translated and critically edited. Whereas previous scholars focused on its exoteric opening, neglecting the esoteric central portion that spans nearly half of the letter, the author elucidates this difficult section, with the assistance of traditions attributed to Isaac and the writings of his own trustworthy nephew, Asher b. David. Particular attention is paid to Isaac's quotations from Sefer yetsirah, which reveal the central pillar of theology supporting Isaac's doctrine of mystical intentions (kavanot). This decipherment yields a new understanding of the exoteric section and of the entire correspondence between the kabbalists: they were debating the mystical-contemplative significance of certain liturgical kavanot and religious rituals (especially taking an oath by the Tetragrammaton).

De longs siècles durant, la Cabale a été considérée comme étant exclusivement juive. La mystique du judaïsme s’identifiant généralement à celle-ci, tant les cabalistes que ceux qui les ont étudiés considéraient négativement les tendances chrétiennes de la Cabale, et ne laissaient généralement pas de place dans leurs ouvrages historiques et autres anthologies à une telle tendance. Mais la tendance est au changement depuis quelques dizaines d’années : comme dans de nombreux autres domaines des sciences des religions, tant les théories que les outils d’appréhension de la réalité ont évolué, ouvrant la voie à une étude approfondie de la Cabale chrétienne en (et pour) elle-même. Les nouveaux spécialistes de celle-ci se trouvent armés de moyens et d’informations considérables dont ne disposaient pas leurs prédécesseurs, ce qui leur permet de pousser l’analyse et la comparaison beaucoup plus loin.

A systematic look at colour on the four worlds of the Qabalistic Tree of life, it's historic evolution and meditational use, especially in terms of energy circulations between Da'ath and Yesod in the Body.  Presentation to Servants of the Light,  Convocation of the Lodges: Gathering of the Lights 18-20 November 2011.  Slides, notes and visual meditations downloadable from the Tree In Colour website, created by the author can be found on an updated website called The Luminous Tree https://echtrai.org

The focus of that site is stories from and about the Tree of Life including a systematic look at colour in the Four Worlds of the Qabalistic Tree, its history and meditational use. The Golden Dawn Colour Scales and Colour in Medieval Jewish Kabbalah area among the topics addressed.  Launched 4 Nov 2021.

Full Article: https://www.academia.edu/39244534/Sefer_%E1%B8%A4alomei_Qets_Pela_ot_Meoraot_Tzvi_1814_and_the_Image_of_Sabbatianism_in_the_18th_and_19th_Centuries_Jewish_Thought_Journal_of_the_Goldstein-Goren_International_Center_for_Jewish_Thought_1_2019_pp._125-167_Hebrew_


ההרצאה היא פתח לפרוייקט רחב במסגרת האקדמיה הלאומית למדעים
ISF
שעניינו - מהדורה מוערת ומבוארת של ספר מאורעות צבי
וניצוח של עיצוב השבתאות במאה התשע עשרה


הקונגרס העולמי למדעי היהדות
מושב
250

Sabbatianism, Science and the Bounds of Religion
Tuesday, 08 August, 2017 09:00-11:00, Room: 2717

Maoz Kahana (he)
Rabbi Jonathan Eybeschutz’s Conception of the Sceintific Revolution and the Rediscovery of the Lost Manuscript of `Sefer Meirav’

Pawel Maciejko (en)
The Coat of Arms of Wolf Eibeschütz

Jonatan Meir (he)
Sefer Me’ora’ot Tzvi and the Image of Sabbatianism

גרשם שלום -- תולדות התנועה השבתאית // 
History of the Sabbatian Movement was the first attempt by one of the giants of scholarship on Jewish mysticism, Gershom Scholem (1897-1982), to present a comprehensive picture of Sabbatianism as a single narrative. The book is based on the series of lectures given at the Hebrew University during 1939-1940, which are of special importance in that they laid the foundation for all of Scholem’s research in the years to come, including his extensive monograph Sabbatai Sevi: the mystical Messiah, 1626-1676, first published in 1957. What follows is a sketch of the massive History of the Sabbatian Movement, over which Gershom Scholem toiled his whole life but never completed. The lectures are presented here for the first time based on the original manuscripts, alongside the text of an additional series of lectures that Scholem gave as part of the “Month of Study” organized by Berl Katznelson in 1941. These long-hidden texts reveal new facets of the Sabbatian movement and its history, as well as of Gershom Scholem as a historian, and serve as prologue to any further study of this most stormy and complicated episode in Jewish history. The new edition includes a comprehensive introduction by the editors on all of Gershom Scholem’s studies on Sabbatianism. //---//

Table of Contents:
“The Open Book” - Jonatan Meir and Shinichi Yamamoto /
Introduction /
Chapter One: The Faces of the Generation /
Chapter Two: The Messianic Movement from its Beginnings to its Height /
Chapter Three: The Twists and Turns of the Sabbatian Movement /
Chapter Four: The Historical Development of Sabbatianism /
Appendix A: Messianism from the Spanish Expulsion to the Eve of Emancipation (Month of Study, 1941) /
Appendix B: The Sabbatian Movement: Its Roots, Its Development, and its Aftermath (Introduction, 1942-45 /
Appendix C: Bibliography of Works by Gershom Scholem on Sabbatianism /
Index /
Notes on the Cover Image (from the collection of Paweł Maciejko)

//--// Order The BOOK
http://www.schocken-jts.org.il/english/bookstore/prodView.asp?idproduct=408

Throughout the nineteenth century, Maskilic journals increased their publication of anti-Hasidic satires. From the eighteen-sixties onward, this literature came primarily as a response to the revival in the publishing of Hasidic hagiography and to the spread of Hasidism into new territory. To this point, no complete review or even general survey has been performed on this extensive polemical literature, despite the fact that it has much to teach us about Hasidism and the Haskalah in those years. We are not speaking of an insignificant bibliographical lacuna, but of a disregard for an entire field of research which would shed light not only on a forgotten chapter of modern Hebrew and Yiddish literature but also on an important chapter in the relationships between Maskilim and Hasidim in that period and the genesis and development of the different streams of Hasidism. This Maskilic literature intended to do more than eradicate Hasidism; it aimed to strengthen the self-consciousness of the individual Maskilim who found themselves alone in Hasidic territory. Paradoxically, the literature documented the very movement it intended to eradicate from the world. The distorted reflection displayed in the anti-Hasidic literature does more than present a caricature of its subject -- it conceals hitherto unknown elements about the nature and development of the Hasidic movement. The present article deals with one such case, a satire on Bratslav Hasidism from 1863, which has at its core a Maskilic satirical text written by Yehiel Meller on pilgrimage to the grave of R. Nahman of Bratslav in Uman.





כתבי עת של משכילים לאורך המאה התשע עשרה הרבו לפרסם סאטירות בגנותה של החסידות. משנות הששים ואילך באה ספרות זו בעיקר כתגובה להתעוררות הדפסת ספרות השבחים החסידית ולהתפשטות החסידות במרחבים חדשים. לא קיימת עד עתה סקירה שלימה, ואף לא מיפוי כללי, של אותה ספרות פולמוסית ענפה, על אף שיש בה ללמד הרבה על דרכי החסידות וההשכלה באותן שנים.  לא מדובר רק בחסרון ביבליוגרפי שאין לו משמעות, אלא בהתעלמות משדה מחקר רב עניין שעשוי להאיר לא רק על פרק נשכח בספרות עברית ויידיש החדשה אלא גם על פרק חשוב ביחסים בין משכילים לחסידים באותה תקופה, ועל דרכי צמיחתם, פיצולם והתפתחותם של זרמים שונים בחסידות. הייתה זו ספרות שיותר מאשר נועדה לבער את החסידות נועדה לחזק את תודעתם העצמית של המשכילים הבודדים במרחבים החסידיים; ספרות שבאופן פרדוקסלי תיעדה תנועה אותה חפצו לבער מן העולם. הבבואה המעוותת בה התהדרה הסאטירה האנטי חסידית לא רק הציגה דימוי – אלא טומנת בחובה הצבעה על אלמנטים חדשים ועל התפתחויות בחסידות. במקרה אחד ממין זה הנוגע לחסידות ברסלב בשנות השישים של המאה התשע עשרה עוסק המאמר. שלפנינו - שעיקרו מהדורה של טקסט משכילי שכתב יחיאל מלר - בשנת 1863 - על העלייה לקבר ר' נחמן מברסלב באומן
"""

Amidst the rich panoply of Jewish Kabbalah, Abraham Abulafia (1240-1291) resonates the most with modern, philosophically minded seekers of direct mystical experience. Abulafia was unique amongst Jewish mystics in providing precise instructions for personal spiritual practice. Despite a severe rabbinical ban, the subterranean influence of Abulafia’s complex of ideas and meditation techniques is evident upon many central figures in the history of Religion and Philosophy, including Chaim Vital, Pico della Mirandola and Spinoza.

"The Heart of Jewish Meditation: Abraham Abulafia’s Path of the Divine Names" translates three of Abulafia’s meditation texts to provide reliable access to this fascinating historical figure for modern acolytes of the heretical eternities.

In 1629, a strange treatise was published in Paris: the Curiositez inouyes ("unheard-of curiosities"), a survey of the astrology of the ancient Hebrews and the talismanic art of the Persians. Its author, the Orientalist Jacques Gaffarel (1601-1681), was a rising figure of French scholarship and a friend of Pierre Gassendi (1592-1655) and Gabriel Naudé (1600-1653). The originality of his treatise, one of the last defences of astrology authored by a French scholar in the seventeenth century, lay in its antiquarian approach to knowledge based mainly on a corpus of rabbinic sources. In this article, I address one of the essential aspects of the Curiositez inouyes: the re-establishment of astrology based on the doctrines of the ancient Hebrews. I show how Gaffarel used, not without ambiguity, the rhetoric and resources of historical scholarship to introduce a new legitimisation of astrology through the Jewish Kabbalah. Through this analysis I wish to explore how the attitude toward Antiquity shaped the conception of astrology in early modern France.

Demonstrates how the Sefer Yetzirah's GLGL-Wheel is derived mathematically from clues encoded in the ancient text. The Wheel is composed of 231 'gates' and 462 'paths'. Within the Wheel exists a spiral pathway consisting of 441 paths that are referred to as the Teli Serpent spiral. The remaining 21 paths constitute a central mandala called the LB Heart mandala.

In the following article we will examine at length some of the dynamics by which R. Yosef Hayyim of Baghdad—the renowned Ben Ish Hai (1834–1909) - integrated Kabbalah into daily life, and the complex way that he combined the teachings of the Rashash with simplified, esoteric practices meant for the general public. Needless to say, the relationship between the Kabbalists of Jerusalem and R. Yosef Hayyim illuminates a fascinating chapter in the history of Kabbalah in the late nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century.

http://mj.oxfordjournals.org/content/33/2/148.short?rss=1

L’article a pour sujet la personnalité extraordinaire du kabbaliste le Rabbin Levi Isaac Krakovsky (1891–1966), un des étudiants oubliés du Rabbin Yehuda Leib Ashlag (1885–1955). Krakovsky diffusait l’enseignement de son maître en Amérique en anglais, écrivait des douzaines de livres et essayait d’établir des yeshivot de Kabbalistes. Contrairement à son maître, il présentait un enseignement exotérique et une vision de diffusion de la Kabbale dans le monde entier. Son influence était minime, mais un de ses élèves était Shraga Philip Berg qui continuait son chemin et le complétait de plusieurs points de vue. L’article se base sur de riches matières archivales, parmi lesquelles de longues essays de l’auteur en manuscrit qui sont décrits ici pour la premiere fois. D’une telle façon, nous décrivons le dévelopment de la Kabbale en Amérique du début du vingtième siècle jusqu’ aujourd’hui.

In an article published in 1940, G. Scholem questioned whether R. Yisrael Sarug was indeed a personal disciple of Luria, as he (Sarug) had claimed. One of Scholem's principal arguments was that all testimonies for Sarug's studying with Luria depend on a single source: Sarug's own words. The entire voluminous literature of Safed has no other relevant evidence, independent of the latter's own testimony. This article intends to reconsider the information on this point. It argues that the many Safed sources are, in large measure, incidental, except for one: the list contained in the writings of R. Hayyim Vital naming Luria's group of disciples (Havurah). The article asserts that Vital's list is of quite a  late date; Sarug's absence from it does not, therefore, contradict the possibility that he was a personal disciple of Luria in Luria's early days in Safed. In other words: though we do not possess any independent literary testimony supporting Sarug's own claim, we can say, having reconsidered the available evidence, that we have removed the contradiction between two contrary claims. There is therefore no longer any reason to cast doubt on the reliability of Sarug's own words. And if it is true that he was Luria's disciple in the latter's early days in Safed, then we also have an explanation for Sarug's relying so heavily on the book Kanfei Yonah (as illustrated in the appendix to this article) because we know that Luria taught his disciples the content of that book in his early days in Safed.

published without the knowledge of the author - . not proofread by the author. an updated and corrected version of the article will appear in my book - Wrestling with the Esoteric (2017)

הדברים נדפסו שלא בידיעתי וללא הגהה מצידי. אין אחריות המחבר על טיב התרגום ודיוקו. נוסח מעודכן, עם תיקונים רבים, יראה אור בספרי  - נפתולי סוד, 2017

One of the more astounding books produced by Bratslav Hasidism is Liqquṭei tefilot (1822–1827), composed by R. Nathan Sternhartz of Nemirov, which established a whole new genre in Bratslav literature. This article discusses the book's genesis, publication, and primary goals, as well as the controversy it generated. The new Bratslav theology that emerged after the death of Rabbi Naḥman led to disputes, both internal and external, over the role and character of R. Nathan. Examining this particularly obscure chapter in the early history of Bratslav Hasidism sheds light on the movement as it exists today in all its diversity, both ideological and social. Keywords Bratslav Hasidism – Hasidism – Jewish mysticism – Kabbalah

Full Article
http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/1477285x-12341269;jsessionid=1n5j66dblsols.x-brill-live-03

The Haskalah, or “Jewish Enlightenment,” is often considered to be a secularizing trend within modern European Judaism. Yet as recent studies have begun to show, this characterization ignores the Romantic and religious attitudes of many Haskalah authors (maskilim). This article reassesses the Haskalah’s relationship to esotericism and Kabbalah by analyzing the life and work of Elyakim Getzel Hamilzahgi (1780–1854), a Galician maskil with a deep commitment to Kabbalistic study. Hamilzahgi’s pioneering textual criticism of Kabbalistic texts, particularly the Zohar, countered the attitudes of Western European scholars and Eastern European Hasidim alike. His scholarship aimed to purify Kabbalah from corruption and to render it a source for a renewal of Jewish religious culture.

The satirical writings of Lucian of Samosata had a tremendous influence on the literature of the Eastern European Haskalah, shaping its criticism of the burgeoning Hasidic movement in the nineteenth century as if there were no gap between it and the Roman Empire of the second century. Lucian’s criticism of false prophets, self-proclaimed philosophers, and common fools and frauds, like his satirical dialogues with the world of the dead, provided the perfect model for those Maskilim who opposed the revelations of the Hasidic movement in both theological and social realms. One particularly salient testimony to the classical satirist’s influence is the astounding translation of his story “Alexander the False Prophet” by the Maskilic writer Meir Letteris, the first translation of Lucian’s work into Hebrew. The translation, printed in full below, was based on the German edition of Christoph Martin Wieland and published in the journal Ha-Tsefirah, which Letteris edited in 1823. As with every translation, it is a new product, shaped in and by its own context. This essay discusses the tendencies and apparent goals of the translator, the additions and omissions he made to the text, and the influence of Lucian’s satirical style on the Haskalah.

Megaleh Temirin (Revealer of Secrets), first published in Vienna in 1819, is one of the sharpest and wittiest pieces of Jewish literature written in the first half of the nineteenth century, and is perhaps the most important piece of Hebrew prose composed before the stories of Mendele Mocher Seforim. A sly and complex story deriding Hasidism and Hasidim, it is told through the correspondence between the beadles of Hasidic courts and contemporary rabbis, and it presents a dark picture of  avaricious frauds and swindlers whose main concern was control over territory and the souls of believers, a goal achieved by beguiling the authorities and attacking all opponents. Perl lends his book a ‘Hasidic’ feel both in its physical design and in its language, presenting a Maskilic version of In Praise of the Ba’al Shem Tov that lays Hasidism bare so that no reader will ever be able to look at that, or any other Hasidic book, in the same way again. In addition to the book’s satiric sting, which would have been enough to bring its readers a dual pleasure, Perl’s hints at contemporary people and places, hidden within anagrams and numerological tricks. With the unraveling of these clues, which also include the use of actual Hasidic sources, the book is a valuable, contemporary view of historical reality. A meticulous reading of the book may therefore open a window on the hidden worlds of Hasidism and the Haskalah at the start of the nineteenth century.

The first volume (Imagined Hasidism) serves as an introduction to the complex satirical writings of Josef Perl of Tarnopol (1773-1839). At the center of the book stands an analysis of the satires, Megaleh Temirin (1819) and Bochen Tzadik (1838), including a systematic treatment of the ‘characters’ in the central works and a discussion of the dozens of manuscripts to be found in the Perl Archive in Jerusalem. Perl’s writings are analyzed here in the fuller context of Hebrew and Yiddish literature in general and Maskilic and Hasidic literature in particular, as well as other polemical writings and governmental records critical of Hasidism. The study thus presents a complex and nuanced picture of the relationship between literature and history, between the anti-Hasidic reports and the more complicated historical reality, and lays the groundwork for further research into the genre of nineteenth-century Maskilic satire.

The second and third volumes (Megaleh Temirin) present for the first time an annotated edition of Megaleh Temirin. It is based on the first edition and the scattered manuscripts and it includes a comparison to its Yiddish translation. The book is accompanied by appendices on its origins and contents, including fundamental treatments of several passages: an explication of the encoded names, the Hasidic sources used by the author, and the variants found in the manuscripts and in the only edition of the book in Yiddish.

The editor of the book, Professor Jonatan Meir, teaches in the Goldstein-Goren Department of Jewish Thought at Ben-Gurion University. He has published several articles on the Haskalah of Eastern Europe, Hasidism, and a number of varied topics in twentieth-century Kabbalah.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Contents


Introduction                                                                                     
Scholarship on the anti-Hasidic writings of Josef Perl • Hasidic hagiography and the emergence of satire • Two-fold reading of Perl’s writings and the gematriyot • Satire, literature, and history • ‘Holy Books’ and subversive books

Chapter 1: Josef Perl, Rabbi Nathan of Nemirov, and the ‘Holy Books’
Prayer of the fall of Hasidism and the expungement of their books • Sefer Shivhe ha-Besht and the critique of hagiography • Sefer Sipurey Ma‘asiyot and the parodic response to it • Rabbi Nathan of Nemirov, ‘heretical books’ and the ‘Holy Books’ • In praise of the true Tsaddikim • ‘Laughter of the heretics’: testimonies about the polemics against Sefer Shivhe ha-Besht • ‘Holy Books’, ‘sacredness of hagiography’, and parodies of hagiography • Appendix: Parodic manuscript about an opponent of the ‘Holy Books’ who was reborn as a horse

Chapter 2: Speaking Names in Sefer Megale Temirin                             
Time of the composition of Megale Temirin, censorship, and a note on the Buch • Hasidic books and the emergence of parody • Structure of Sefer Megale Temirin • The Introduction to Sefer Megale Temirin • Main Hasidic courts • The court in Żołyń (Łożne) and the peregrinations of the Buch • The court of Dishpal (Międzyboż), moneyboxes of the Besht, the holy relics • The court in Aklo (Olika) and the ritualized reading of Sefer Shivhe ha-Besht • Function of the footnotes and the parodic hagiography • History of the rabbis – clandestine opponents of Hasidism • The Besht in Tarnopol • Rabbi Meir Jacob of Zasław and the letters from Galicja  • Zaddikim in Galicja • Ciphered stories • ‘Holy Places’: reincarnations of a praise from Sefer Shivhe ha-Besht • The revelation of the Buch and the death of the secretary • ‘Gang of criminals’: another death and an escape to the Land of Israel • The End: Ovadia Ben Petahia and the rabbi of Opatów

Chapter 3: Joseph Perl, Hirsh of Zydaczów, and the Polemics of Gematriyot
Reb Zevi Hirsh of Zydaczów and Hasidism in Galicja • Maskilic opposition to the Zydaczówer • Letters concealed in Sefer Megale Temirin • A manuscript about the misdeeds of the Hasidim • Books, education, and a note on Reb Nathan of Nemirov • Zydaczówer’s ban on the Maskilim and the first Gematria • Parodic letter of Perl and the second Gematria • About the parodic letter and the jumble of gematriyot • Denunciation and expulsions of R Zevi Hirsh • ‘Father of impurity’: Joseph Perl and the writings of the rabbi of Komarno • Final note • Appendix: Parodic letter against the Zydaczówer

Chapter 4: Speaking Names in the Book of Sefer Bohen Zaddik               
The manuscript of Sefer Bohen Zaddik and the difficulties with its publication • Structure of the book • In search for the true Zaddik and the rabbi of Opatów • Travels of Ovadia Ben Petahia between the towns of Galicja • Kromcza Ruska (Zaleszczyki) or the entrance to Galicja • ‘Briks’ (Tarnopol): Rabbi Jehoshua Heschel Babad and the school • ‘Bicik’ (Lemberg) Rabbi Jacob Orenstein and a ban on the Maskilim • ‘Abdera’ (Brody) Rabbi Ephraim Zalman Margaliot and Sefer ha-Zoref • The explanation of the names of the rabbis • Utopia and dystopia • The hidden butcher and his kabbalistic writings • The discovery of the colonies • The image of the disciples of the Gaon and the ‘true Hasid’ • ‘The solution for the East’ or heterotopia •  The will to flee and the emissary

Chapter 5: The Imaginary Influence of Sefer Megale Temirin                     
The myth about the success of the book • Pamphlet Megale Sod • The manuscript about the misdeeds of the Hasidim • Dialogues about Sefer Megale Temirin • For whom Sefer Megale Temirin was intended and who read it • Note concerning Sefer Megale Temirin in Yiddish • Influence real and imagined • Was Sefer Shivhe ha-Besht written by a parodist? • Temerl Bergson and Sefer Megale Temirin • Writ of defense of Hasidism • Sefer Megale Temirin and the Hebrew literature • Appendix: writ of defense of Joseph Judah Lob Sossnitz

Afterword: Note on the Anti-Hasidic Outlook                                       

Bibliographic Abbreviations   

Reviews:
(1) Dan Meron, 2013, ‘Megaleh Temirin’, Kivunim Hadashim 29, 55 pages (Hebrew)
(2) David Assaf, 2014, ‘Hasidim will not Read it but Tear it’, Haaretz, Tarbut ve-Sifrut, p .6 (Hebrew) http://onegshabbat.blogspot.co.il/2014/04/blog-post_18.html
(3) Eliezer Brodt, 2014, 'New book Announcement- Megale Temirin', The Seforim Blog http://seforim.blogspot.co.il/2014/01/new-book-announcement-megale-temirin.html
(4) Matan Hermoni, 2014,  הסבתא המופקרת של הספרות העבריתHaaretz, Sfarim (Hebrew) http://www.haaretz.co.il/.premium-1.2382365
(5) Shinichi Yamamoto, 2015, 山本　伸一, "ヨナタン・メイール編著『想像のハシディズム』", ユダヤ・イスラエル研究　第28号  http://www.waseda.jp/assoc-jsjs/jistudies.html
(6) David Biale and David Assaf,, 2015, 'Revealer Revealed', Jewish Review of Books, pp. 17-21  http://jewishreviewofbooks.com/articles/1454/revealer-revealed/
(7) Hillel Halkin, 2015, "Sex, Magic, Bigotry, Corruption- and the First Hebrew Novel', Mosaic Magazine,  http://mosaicmagazine.com/observation/2015/05/sex-magic-bigotry-corruption-and-the-first-hebrew-novel/
(8) Tomer Persico, 2015, "Interview", Lula'at haEl http://tomerpersico.com/2015/08/10/meir_perl/
(9) Ariel Evan Mayse, 'Review', Jewish History (2015)ת  http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10835-015-9245-2
(10) Review - Gal-Ed

Intense interest in the Bahir has often gone hand-in-hand with attempts to trace the sources of Kabbalah, since this book is considered the earliest work (or one of the earliest works) of kabbalistic literature. Scholars have adduced various hypotheses about the Bahir’s dating, geographic origin, conceptual foundations, and especially the question of its sources, to support the dominant reconstruction of Kabbalah’s rise. Such conjectures include dating the composition of the Bahir to centuries before its first attestation in Western Europe, placing its origin outside Europe, and, in most cases, describing its textual consolidation as a long and complex process.
This article examines the linchpin of the main theories proposed since the mid-twentieth century: an attempt to reconstruct the Bahir’s supposed textual predecessor, a magical text from the East titled Raza Rabba. This text, a figment of the scholarly imagination, has become the springboard for an all-encompassing narrative about the types of sources that ultimately gave rise to the various streams of medieval Jewish mysticism. These theories are particularly entwined with the ‘Gnostic thesis,’ which claims that the central concepts of medieval Kabbalah depend deeply on sources that scholars of comparative religion (especially in the twentieth century) have identified with different sects and schools of ‘the Gnostic religion.’ The sudden ‘discovery’ of remnants of this ancient Raza Rabba has furnished scholars with historical ‘proof’ of the existence of early ‘organic’ Jewish material in the East that was reworked or altered under the influence of contact with these external, ‘foreign’ sources.
The article shows that this thesis primarily rests on the outdated view and the untenably purist mode of thinking that guided the philological analyses and the creation of a historiographical narrative about different occult corpuses that ostensibly found expression in the Bahir. The various iterations of this thesis were demonstrably shaped by trends in the discourse on the lone ‘historical proof,’ namely, the ancient Eastern magical work Raza Rabba, which, scholars claimed, was lost at some point yet somehow was partly preserved in the works of the German Pietists [Hasidei Ashkenaz]. Once scholars wrested the reconstruction of this ‘book’ from thin air, it mushroomed into three distinct theses. First, a more complex theory replaced an earlier distinction between (a) Jewish magical writings from the East versus (b) ancient Gnostic texts as different sources of influence on the Bahir. According to this theory, late texts belonging to the Hekhalot and Merkabah literature (which supposedly contain basic aspects of ‘Jewish Gnosticism’) had been reworked and edited after an encounter with (unidentified) Gnostic sources and then incorporated into the ‘earliest’ stratum of the Bahir. Second, scholars rejected the contention that the Kabbalah of the Bahir emerged from an encounter with late ‘Gnostic’ channels (i.e. such as sects active in Western Europe that allegedly only influenced the Bahir’s ‘editors’), in favor of a more formative role for ‘Gnosticism’ in the composition of the Bahir in the East in the Early Middle Ages. Third, the assertion of a common magical heritage from the East, shared by Franco-German kabbalists and Provençal counterparts, gave way to the view that the libraries of those kabbalists held similar specimens of the Hekhalot-Merkabah literature.
As the article continues, it demonstrates how the fabrication of this ancient textual source facilitated a narrative representing the streams of Franco-German esotericism as more organic than those evident in early Kabbalah. According to this tendentious account, Kabbalah coalesced in areas impacted by the Bahir only after the text had been subjected to ‘Gnostic,’ ‘mythic,’ and ‘symbolic’ influences, whereas the same early sources reached the German Pietists after undergoing the ‘opposite’ processes of rationalization and demythologization. Thus this ‘lab-grown historiography’ was mistaken for the real thing. In the absence of any actual historical evidence, scholarship manufactured raw source material that was flexible enough to serve as the source of Gnostic developments in kabbalistic literature and as the foundation for more a moderate, organic development in the pietistic literature.
The present investigation of this episode points to hitherto unreported errors made by scholars in identifying and analyzing the fragments attributed to this (fictitious) ancient work. It also helps to explain a set of biases and mistakes that have become entrenched in the field as a result. The study also elucidates the serious implication of this pattern of misrepresentation, namely, the creation of an overwrought distinction among different types of mystical lore in medieval Jewish history. This typological distinction has maintained a virtual stranglehold on the field. One that scholars continue to perpetuate even in more savvy critiques of the purported Gnosticism of the Bahir or of kabbalistic literature writ large. For this reason, the critical analysis in the article applies not only to those studies that promote some version of the ‘Gnostic thesis’ but even to the majority of alternative theories about early sources intended to replace it. After reinterpreting the textual evidence, the article presents several conclusions with broad ramifications and suggests new historiographical avenues to pursue.

Theological Debates among the Masters of Niqqud in the Works of Joseph Gikatilla's "Disciples" Avishai Bar-Asher In the early 1270s, R. Joseph b. Abraham Gikatilla wrote a number of works dedicated to the secrets of the Tiberian Hebrew vowel points. In them, he developed an exegetical approach that derives theological meaning from the character of the vowel points, and the relevant theology is built on Aristotelian metaphysics and cosmology. Gikatilla's extant compositions on the subject include: (1) the so-called Sefer ha-Niqqud, of which both a long and short version are known (also preserved in Latin translation); (2) the third and final part of his popular Ginnat Egoz; and (3) a short, late revised version of Sefer ha-Niqqud titled Sha'ar ha-Niqqud which was reworked into the framework of theosophical Kabbalah.
      This article discusses a series of anonymous, short compositions on the vowel points written in the wake of Gikatilla's, beginning in the 1270s and continuing for a generation or two. The nameless authors drew on his work and further developed his approach, and in so doing interpreted each in their own way his conceptions of theology and metaphysics, language, and cosmology.

The first part of the article identifies these short tracts scattered among other anonymous treatises in manuscript, some new to scholarship and some having been discussed only in very general terms.
  The second part turns to the content of these works and analyzes their absorption and modification of Gikatilla's thought. At the heart of the discussion is a theological dispute among these authors about the very possibility of representing the transcendent deity and the sub-divine cosmological realm through the set of signs that are the Hebrew vowel points, particularly the ḥolem (or ḥolam). These writers ranged across time and space, so an examination of how they adapted Gikatilla's thought and one another's interpretations is crucial for drafting a more accurate reception history of Gikatilla's early writings. Notably, these "successors" of Gikatilla did not identify terminology or ideas from theosophical Kabbalah in his treatment of the vowel points. The theosophy of the sefirot rarely appears in these works, and when it does it is marginal and a glaringly late interpolation.
      The extensive investigation of these sources reveals an unknown stage in the dissemination and exposition of Gikatilla's early writings. It further informs the ongoing discussion about distinct conceptual stages in Gikatilla's intellectual biography, and helps to remap Gikatilla's connections with other kabbalists and kabbalistic works (Abulafia, de Léon, the Zohar, and others).


Editions of six of the works discussed in the article are included in appendices.

Review
"This excellent study is [...] recommended for academic libraries."
Daniel Scheide, Florida Atlantic University, Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews, Volume VII, No. 2
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Abstract
It is difficult to ignore the diversity of the kabbalah or both its modest and coarse manifestations over the course of the twentieth-century – phenomena that have latterly garnered considerable attention in both the lay and research literature alike. That said, it appears that the historical background for these current developments, namely the world of the kabbalists in the late 1800s and early 1900s, has yet to merit an in-depth study. The dozens of hagiographies that are now being written by the progeny and admirers of the said kabbalists paint a romantic picture of a “glorious past.” In these books, the early twentieth century is described as a kabbalistic renaissance that is on equal footing with the days of Isaac Luria in Safad. Surprising as it may be, the Hebrew and Yiddish belles-lettres and, following in their footsteps, the research literature from Gershom Scholem onwards has left the impression that kabbalah deteriorated in the beginning of the twentieth century to the point of nearly vanishing of the world stage. According to this same narrative, only the efforts of a few surviving kabbalists—a sort of dying elite—kept the flame from expiring. On those rare occasions in which scholars bring up these practitioners, they are referred to as “the remnants of the kabbalists” or similar epithets. This characterization was painted in even louder colors upon describing the era’s Jerusalem-based kabbalists. At one and the same time, then, there are descriptions of both a great awakening and steep decline. The author’s attempt to make sense of this contradiction is one of the catalysts behind the present study. Its origins aside, the book focuses on the kabbalah seminaries (Yeshivot or academies) in Jerusalem from 1896 to 1948 as well as the various manifestations of kabbalah within traditional Jewish society.
Kabbalistic Circles in Jerusalem breaks new ground on the robust activities of Jerusalem’s kabbalistic yeshivot, foremost among them Beit el, Rehovot haNahar, and Sha'ar haShamayim. By virtue of these institutions’ publications and the unearthing of tens of documents and manuscripts that were deposited in sundry archives, the book surveys the daily schedule and methodology of these yeshivot; their methods for disseminating kabbalah books; the dynamics between revelation and concealment that undergirded all the kabbalists’ endeavors; the arrangement of the RaShaSh Siddur’s first print run; the messianic outlooks that were espoused in this community regarding the attempts to discover the Sambatyon River and the lost tribes; and the content and assorted roles of the Tikkunim literature. What is more, the author explores the disagreements between competing groups—most notably, the feud over the extent to which occult wisdom should be exposed to the general public—and the various gradients of Jewish mysticism within these seminaries.
Against this backdrop, shedding light on Jerusalem’s kabbalist circles between the years 1896 and 1948 opens a door to the wider world of the myriad kabbalistic streams in East Europe and Arab lands, the Maghreb included. The foundations that were laid by these yeshivas in the early twentieth century also paved the way for the contemporary blossoming of kabbalah in many and manifold circles. In this sense, retracing the pertinent developments in the Land of Israel at the outset of the twentieth century is imperative not only for repairing the distorted picture of the past, but for understanding the ongoing surge in kabbalah study
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This book endeavors to fill a lacuna in the literature on early twentieth-century kabbalah, namely the lack of a comprehensive account of the traditional kabbalah seminaries (Yeshivot) in Jerusalem from 1896 to 1948 as well as the various manifestations of kabbalah within traditional Jewish society. The foundations that were laid in the early twentieth century also paved the way for the contemporary blossoming of kabbalah in many and manifold circles. In this sense, retracing the pertinent developments in Palestine at the outset of the twentieth century is imperative not only for repairing the distorted picture of the past, but for understanding the ongoing surge in kabbalah study.

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Few fields of academic research are surrounded by so many misunderstandings and misconceptions as the study of Western esotericism. For twenty years now, the Centre for History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents (University of Amsterdam) has been at the forefront of international scholarship in this domain. This anniversary volume seeks to make the modern study of Western esotericism known beyond specialist circles, while addressing a range of misconceptions, biases, and prejudices that still tend to surround it. Thirty major scholars in the field respond to questions about a wide range of unfamiliar ideas, traditions, practices, problems, and personalities that are central to this area of research. By challenging many taken-for-granted assumptions about religion, science, philosophy, and the arts, this volume demonstrates why the academic study of esotericism leads us to reconsider much that we thought we knew about the story of Western culture.

Authors: Egil Asprem, Justine M. Bakker, Tessel M. Bauduin, Henrik Bogdan, Jean-Pierre Brach, Roelof van den Broek, Dylan M. Burns, Allison P. Coudert, Antoine Faivre, Claire Fanger, Christine Ferguson, Peter J. Forshaw, Joscelyn Godwin, Kennet Granholm, J. Christian Greer, Olav Hammer, Wouter J. Hanegraaff, Boaz Huss, Massimo Introvigne, Andreas B. Kilcher, Jeffrey J. Kripal, John MacMurphy, Mriganka Mukhopadhyay, Bernd-Christian Otto, Marco Pasi, Mark Sedgwick, Julian Strube, Gyorgy E. Szonyi, Elliot R. Wolfson, Mike A. Zuber.

published without the knowledge of the author - . not proofread by the author. an updated and corrected version of the article will appear in my book - Wrestling with the Esoteric (2017)

הדברים נדפסו שלא בידיעתי וללא הגהה מצידי. אין אחריות המחבר על טיב התרגום ודיוקו. נוסח מעודכן, עם תיקונים רבים, יראה אור בספרי  - נפתולי סוד, 2017


Йо н а т а н Ме и р
Михаэль Лайтман и группа «Бней-Барух»
(фрагмент статьи «О последователях рабби
Й.-Л. Ашлага, полемике с ними и о распространении
еврейской каббалистической литературы»)

This is an excerpt from a much bigger article devoted to
several followers of Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag’s agenda who
are trying to disseminate Kabbalistic ideas and practices
outside of the borders of Judaism. This very excerpt analyzes
teachings of Michael Laitman, a Russian-speaking student of
Rabbi Baruch Ashlag, and his movement “Bnei Baruch”,which
try to present Kabbalah as science and lead it out of Orthodox
Judaism. Author considers Laitman’s methodology, his ideas
on correction of the world and salvation from anti-Semitism
through Kabbalah studies, his social ideal. In this excerpt one
can also find analysis of the social context of the movement,
Laitman’s competition with another representative of New Age
Kabbalah Shraga Feivel (Philip) Berg, strategies of gaining
popularity and complicated relations with Jewish Orthodoxy.

Contents

Preface pp. ix-xii

Introduction: The Imagined Decline of Kabbalah pp. 1-17

Chapter One: The Kabbalistic Yeshivot of Jerusalem  pp. 19-73

Chapter Two: Searching for the Lost Tribes  pp. 74-108

Chapter Three: The Renaissance of Print  pp. 109-140

Chapter Four: Prayers and Ritual Literature pp. 141-166

Chapter Five: Critique, Parody and Controversy pp. 167-175

Concluding Remarks p. 176

Appendix: List of Proclamations pp. 177-184

Bibliography pp. 185-230

Index pp. 231-243


"Reviews:
(1) Tomer Persiko, 2012, הרחובות ממריאים ‘The streets of Kabbalah’, Beit Avichai Journal, (Hebrew)
(2) Tomer Persiko, 2012, הרחובות ממריאים ‘The streets of Kabbalah’, Lula’at ha-El: The Varieties of Religious Experience, Blog (Hebrew)
(3) Avishai Elboim, 2011, חיפוש עשרת השבטים ‘Searching for the lost Tribes’, Shabat be-Shabato, no. 1405, p. 6 (Hebrew)
(4) Yaniv Mezuman, 2012, רחובות הנהר ‘Rehovot ha-Nahar’, Makor Rishon, Shabat, pp. 12-13 (Hebrew)
(5) Yehudah Mirsky, 2012, ‘Gershom Scholem, 30 Years On’, Jewish Ideas Daily.
(6) Eliezer Baumgarten, 2013,נהר שלום  ‘Nahar Shalom’, Pa'amim 133-134, 7 pages (Hebrew) http://www.ybz.org.il/_Uploads/dbsAttachedFiles/Pea133_134eyunim.pdf


1) Evening book at the Ben Tsvi Jerusalem, with the guests: Moshe Idel, Ronit Maroz, Yoram Bilu Hanan Gafni, Zeev Griss, 10 March 2012
http://www.ybz.org.il/?CategoryID=141&ArticleID=849

2) Evening book at the Ben Gurion University of the Negev, with the guests: Haim Beer, Elhanan Reiner, Zeev Griss, Boaz Huss 12 June 2012
http://in.bgu.ac.il/Pages/events/Streets-of-the-river.aspx





"""

One of the earliest Kabbalistic centers known to us was active in the 13th century in the Catalan town of Girona, in which such renowned kabbalists as Ezra, Azriel, Jacob b. Sheshet and Nachmanides lived and composed their writings. In the past two decades, Moshe Idel's assertion, according to which Nachmanidean Kabbalah is not dependent upon Gironese sources and that his Sefirotic notions are separate and independent of those of his townsmen. In contradistinction, the present paper points to six Kabbalistic themes and traits characteristic to the writings of Nachmanides as well as to those of his older townsman Azriel of Girona. Through close comparison, it is shown that these two corpora share significant points of similarity which were not hitherto discussed in scholarship. Consequently, it is proposed to see Nachmanidean Kabbalah as a corpus genealogically related, among others, to parts of the Kabbalistic corpus composed in Girona by other Kabbalists, first and foremost – by Azriel.

“The Golden Age” of the Kabbalah among émigrés from Iberia began in the last decades of the sixteenth century. This was the culmination of a complex, lengthy, and gradual process in which the Kabbalah developed, took shape, and moved from the esoteric world of the initiated to the general public. We have a relatively great deal of information on the spread of Kabbalah in the new conditions of the sixteenth century. However, did the process occur only after the expulsions from the Iberian peninsula or had it begun before then? This article discusses the status of the Kabbalah in Jewish society, its dissemination, and its influence on the intellectual and religious world of the Jews of Spain between the persecutions of 1391 and the expulsions at the end of the fifteenth century. From this perspective, the article examines the writings from that period and their role as links in the chain of the development of the Kabbalah among Iberian Jewry and its descendants. The article discusses works that were written in this period and presents the well-known Kabbalists and their contribution to the dissemination of the Kabbalah. Thus the article refers to how the Kabbalah was studied and the framework of study of the yeshivot in which it was taught—by way of examining the information we have and clarifying claims asserted in previous research. An additional aspect of the article discusses the role of Kabbalists in the community and estimates that role to have been an important factor in enabling the spread of the Kabbalah in society. On the basis of the data presented in the article, it then goes on to address the main issue at hand: the identification of a gradual increase in the status of the Kabbalah over the course of the fifteenth century (notably, nearly all of the evidence we have refers to the Castilian sphere and not to that of Aragon). This increase is expressed in the Kabbalists’ activity in the main schools and the presence of major yeshivot in which the head of the yeshiva inculcated his disciples with esoteric learning. An additional manifestation of the spread of the Kabbalah and its penetration into the central rabbinic discourse is found in the fact that Kabbalistic considerations started to inform mainstream halakhic rulings in works written before the expulsion.
Consequently we may conclude that part of the process that led to the spread of the Kabbalah in the century after the expulsion began already in the fifteenth century, a century that in many ways shaped the Sefardi heritage that the émigrés took with them to their new homes.