Kabbalah in print : the study and popularization of Jewish mysticism in early modernity / Andrea Gondos.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gondos, Andrea, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Printing--Social aspects--Europe, Central--17th century.

Printing.

Zohar.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (280 pages)

Place of Publication:

Albany, New York : State University of New York Press, [2020]

Summary:

How did Jewish mysticism go from arcane knowledge to popular spirituality? Kabbalah in Print examines the cultural impact of printing on the popularization, circulation, and transmission of Kabbalah in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The Zohar, in particular, generated a large secondary literature of study guides and reference works that aimed to ease the linguistic and conceptual challenges of the text. The arrival of printed classics of Kabbalah was soon followed by the appearance of new literary genres—anthologies, digests, lexicons, and other learning aids—that mediated mystical primary sources to a community of readers not versed in this lore. A detailed investigation of the four works by R. Yissakhar Baer (ca.1580–ca.1629) of Prague sheds light on the literary strategies, pedagogic concerns, and religious motivations of secondary elites, a new cadre of authors empowered by the opportunities that printing opened up. Andrea Gondos highlights shifting intellectual and cultural boundaries in the early modern period, when the transmission of Kabbalah became a meeting point connecting various strata of Jewish society as well as Jewish and Christian intellectuals.

Contents:

Print technology and its impact on religious consciousness

Cultural agency and printing in early modern Ashkenaz

Kabbalistic abridgments and their cultural impact

Zoharic customs in a Halakhic framework

Constructing a Zoharic lexicon

The plain meaning of the Zohar : an anthological approach

The influence of Kabbalistic study guides and concluding remarks.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781438479736

1438479735

OCLC:

1205607973