Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism [Paperback]

A collection of lectures on the features of the movement of mysticism that began in antiquity and continues in Hasidism today.FOREWORD BY ROBERT ALTER, xi
 
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION, xxv
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION, xxix
 
TABLE OF TRANSLITERATION, xxxi
 
FIRST LECTURE: GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF JEWISM MYSTICISM. pp. 1-39.
Purpose of these lectures. What is Mysticism? The paradoxical nature of mystical experience. Mysticism as an historical phenomenon. Mythology, Religion and Mysticism. Mystical interpretation of religious values. Jewish Mysticism influenced by the positive contents of Judaism. The Kabbalistic theory of the hidden God and His attributes. The Sefiroth. The Torah. Kabbalism and language. Mysticism and the historical world. Cosmogony and eschatology. Jewish Philosophy and Kabbalism. Allegorization and symbolism. Philosophical and mystical interpretation of Halakhah and Aggadah. Kabbalism and prayer. Mythical elements in Kabbalistic thought. The resurrection of myth in the heart of Judaism. The absence of the feminine element in Jewish Mysticism.
 
SECOND LECTURE: MERKABAH MYSTICISM AND JEWISH GNOSTICISM. pp. 40-79
The first period of Jewish Mysticism. Anonymity of their writings. Esoterism of the Mishnah teachers. Throne-mysticism. Apocalyptic and mysticism. The literature of the Hekhaloth-books. The Yorde Merkabeh and their organization. Conditions of initiation. The ecstatic ascent of the soul and its technique. Magical elements. Dangers of the ascent. God as Holy King. The hymns of the Merkabah mystics. Shiur Komah. Enoch, Metatron and Yahoel. The cosmic curtain. Remains of Gnostic speculations on aeons. The “Book of Creation.” Theurgy. Moral re-interpretation of the Merkabahl“7