The Privileged Divine Feminine in Kabbalah / Moshe Idel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Idel, Moshe, author.

Series:

Perspectives on Jewish texts and contexts (Series) ; 2199-6962 Volume 10.

Perspectives on Jewish Texts and Contexts ; 10

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cabala.

Femininity--Religious aspects--Judaism.

Femininity.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (262 pages).

Place of Publication:

Berlin ; Boston : De Gruyter, [2018]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

This volume addresses the complex topic of the preeminent status of the divine feminine power, to be referred also as Female, within the theosophical structures of many important Kabbalists, Sabbatean believers, and Hasidic masters. This privileged status is part of a much broader vision of the Female as stemming from a very high root within the divine world, then She was emanated and constitutes the tenth, lower divine power, and even in this lower state She is sometime conceived of governing this world and as equal to the divine Male. Finally, She is conceived of as returning to Her original place in special moments, the days of Sabbath, the Jewish Holidays or in the eschatological era. Her special dignity is sometime related to Her being the telos of creation, and as the first entity that emerged in the divine thought, which has been later on generated. In some cases, an uroboric theosophy links the Female Malkhut, directly to the first divine power, Keter. The author points to the possible impact of some of the Kabbalistic discussions on conceptualizations of the feminine in the Renaissance period.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Preface

Contents

1. Introduction - Theosophical Kabbalah: Complexity and Dynamism

2. Reification and the Ontological Status of Thought and Action in Early Kabbalah

3. The Gender Addition to "Action"

4. On the Elevated Status of the Divine Feminine in Theosophical Kabbalah

5. The Father, the Head, and the Daughter

6. Sefer Ma'arekhet ha-'Elohut and its Reverberations

7. R. Moshe Cordovero and R. Shlomo ha-Levi Alqabetz

8. R. Isaac Luria Ashkenazi, His Kabbalist and Sabbatean Followers

9. R. Moshe Hayyim Luzzatto: 1707-1746

10. The Privileged Female in Some Later Kabbalists in Ashkenaz

11. Some Hasidic Examples of the Three-Phases Gender Theory

12. Some Wider Terminological Considerations

13. Concluding Remarks

Primary Sources

Bibliography

Name Index

Subject Index

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 07. Dez 2018)

ISBN:

9783110599800

3110599805

9783110597608

3110597608

OCLC:

1078918451