Language, Torah, and hermeneutics in Abraham Abulafia / Moshe Idel ; translated from the Hebrew by Menahem Kallus.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Idel, Moshe, 1947-

Series:

SUNY series in Judaica

Standardized Title:

Avraham Abulʻafyah. English

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Abulafia, Abraham ben Samuel, 1240-approximately 1292.

Abulafia, Abraham ben Samuel.

Cabala--History.

Cabala.

Hebrew language--Philosophy.

Hebrew language.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xvii, 212 pages)

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, c1989.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Abraham Abulafia, the founder of the ecstatic Kabbalah, exposed a mysticism that includes a deep interest in language as a universe in itself, to be studied as the philosophers study nature, in order to attain higher knowledge than natural science and speculative philosophy. The status of Hebrew as the natural, intellectual, and primordial language is discussed against the background of the medieval speculations regarding this topic. Abulafia proposed an elaborate hermeneutical system, unique in the whole Kabbalistic literature, for both its systematic exposition and the eccentric exegetical devices it describes. Various versions of this sevenfold system occur in several manuscripts that are collected and analyzed here in detail for the first time. Torah was regarded by Abulafia as the most important text, reflecting the constitution of the intellectual world and being identical with the Active intellect and even to God Himself. On the other hand, Torah was interpreted in Abulafia's Kabbalah as an allegory to the psychological processes of the mystic, an approach different from the regular Kabbalistic interpretation of this text as a symbolic corpus reflecting the divine intrasefirotic life. Moshe Idel was Centennial Scholar in Residence at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Currently, he is Associate Professor of Jewish Thought at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Contents:

Front Matter

Front Cover

Half Title Page

Title Page

Copyright Page

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Content

Abulafia's Theory of Language

The Meaning of the Torah in Abulafia's System

Exegetical Methods in the Hermeneutical System of Abulafia

Back Matter

Transliteration Note

Abbreviations

Notes

Subject Index

Author Index

Index of Cited Works

Back Cover.

Notes:

"The present volume ... is part of a doctoral dissertation ... submitted at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem 1976"--P. vii.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 131-199) and indexes.

ISBN:

1-4384-0744-0

OCLC:

798297898