BACK TO LINKS MENU
KABBALAH
A reproduction of the 8th chapter of Ezra's Beginning of Wisdom. From
the 1939 Levy-Cantera translation.
THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA
Millar, F, Graham Breastplate Jewels of the High
Priest, The Twelve Tribes, Zodiac, Month, Tribe, Settlement
Elliot Wolfson, New York University
Language, Secrecy, and the Mysteries of Law: Theurgical Elements in the
Christian Kabbalah of Johann Reuchlin
The Samuel and Althea Stroum Lectureship in Jewish
Studies by Moshe Idel - are available at this
link. Scroll down to Idel1, 2 and 3. These three text files
can be saved separately. Moshe Idel is a genius following in the
tradition of excellence of Scholem.
SEFER YETZIRAH &
Saadia's Commentary (excerpts)
From Saadia ben Joseph (al-Fayyumi)[931 C.E.], Commentaire
sur le Séfer Yesira ou Livre de la Création par Le Gaon Saadya de Fayyoum,
trans. & ed., M. Lambert, Paris, Emile Bouillon, Editeur, 1891); translated
into English from the French & Hebrew by Scott Thompson and Dominique
Marson, San Francisco, 1985.
Kabbalah Links Page
Large selection of Links. "Once you have followed several of these
links and appreciate the extent of the written material on Kabbalah, your eyes
will begin to glaze over and you may find yourself slumped at your terminal in
a catatonic stupor of information overload."
Bnei-Baruch Kabbalah
Authentic Jewish Kabbalah.
The Work of the Chariot
There are several on-line translations of core
texts such as the Sepher Yetzirah, some parts of the Zohar, and other works.
Moshe Idel, Ramon Lull and
Ecstatic Kabbalah: A Preliminary Observation, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 51 (1988),
pp. 170-174. [Kabbalah]
Moshe Idel, The Throne and the
Seven-Branched Candlestick: Pico della Mirandola's Hebrew Source, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld
Institutes, Vol. 40 (1977), pp. 290-292. [Kabbalah]
Moshe Idel, Kabbalah in Italy, 1280-1510: A
Survey, Yale University Press (May 2011)
Idel, Moshe,
Ascensions on high in Jewish Mysticism: Pillars, Lines, Ladders, Central
European University Press, , Budapest, 2005. [kabbalah]
http://www.bandung2.co.uk/books/Files/Religion/Ascensions%20on%20High%20in%20Jewish%20Mysticism.pdf
Eric Lawee, Graven Images, Astromagical Cherubs, and Mosaic Miracles: A
Fifteenth-Century Curial-Rabbinic Exchange, Speculum,
Vol. 81, No. 3 (Jul., 2006), pp. 754-795
Daniel Abrams, "Special Angelic Figures: The Career of the Beasts
of the Throne-World in Hekhalot Literature, German Pietism and Early
Kabbalistic Literature," Revue des
Etudes juives 155 (1996), 384-85.
Erwin Goodenough, Jewish Symbols, Vol. 5
For an update
of Scholem Studies, this is fairly recent:
Daniel
Weidner, Reading Gershom Scholem, The
Jewish Quarterly Review, Vol. 96, No. 2 (Spring 2006) 203–231.
http://jqr.pennpress.org/PennPress/journals/jqr/JQR200602003.pdf
Ben Zion Bokser, The Thread of Blue, Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research, Vol. 31
(1963), pp. 1-32.
Bertrand Russell, Has Religion Made Useful Contributions to
Civilization?
http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/russell2.htm
DeFeo was very interested in the Kabbalah,
and the Mystic Rose. For an excellent overview of her work and content, see:
Robert Berg,
Jay DeFeo: The Transcendental Rose, American
Art, Vol. 12, No. 3 (Autumn, 1998), pp. 68-77
'Jay DeFeo: A Retrospective' Gives Bay Area
Legend Her Due At SFMOMA (PHOTOS)
The Huffington Post | By
Priscilla Frank Posted: 11TH /16TH 2012.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/16/jay-defeo-a-retrospective_n_2118636.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_DeFeo
Arthur Green, Shekhinah, the Virgin Mary, and
the Song of Songs: Reflections on a Kabbalistic Symbol in Its Historical Context,
AJS Review, Vol. 26, No. 1 (Apr., 2002), pp. 1-52. [kabbalah]
[goddess]
Diana Lobel, A Dwelling Place for the
Shekhinah, The Jewish Quarterly Review,
New Series, Vol. 90, No. 1/2 (Jul. - Oct., 1999), pp. 103-125. [TOO TECHNICAL
JSTOR]
Elliot Wolfson has published extensively in the area of Jewish
mysticism and philosophy in the medieval and modern eras. engaging the immense
and complex corpus of kabbalistic texts critically, he also seeks to extend and
transform this distinctive tradition of speculative thought. in so doing, he
intersects with and contributes to a range of fields and disciplines, including
philosophical hermeneutics, the history and phenomenology of religion, and
theories of gender and eroticism.
https://files.nyu.edu/erw1/public/scholarship.html
Elliot R. Wolfson, "Imago Templi"
and the Meeting of the Two Seas: Liturgical Time-Space and the Feminine
Imaginary in Zoharic Kabbalah, RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics, No. 51
(Spring, 2007), pp. 121-135. [kabbalah]
Elliot R. Wolfson, "The Tree That Is All: Jewish-Christian
Roots of a Kabbalistic Symbol in Sefer ha- Bahir," Journal of
Jewish Thought and Philosophy 3 (1993): 31-76. [kabbalah]
Elliot R. Wolfson, "Occultation
of the Feminine and the Body of Secrecy in Medieval Kabbalah," in Rending the Veil: Concealment and Secrecy in
the History of Religions, ed. Elliot R. Wolfson (New York: Seven Bridges
Press, 1999). [kabbalah]
"These secrets, whose authenticity
presumably is linked to their having been transmitted in a continuous chain, retain
something of their secret nature even when committed to writing." p.118
Yehuda Liebes, Zohar and Iamblichus, Journal
for the Study of Religions and Ideologies, 6, 18(Winter 2007): 95-100
Abstract:
The Zohar, the Cabbalistic ‘Bible’, has a special
theory concerning magic. Magic, which for the Zohar is the essence of idolatry,
is depicted there as identical in its form with Cabbalistic mystical theurgy,
but directed not towards God but towards evil demons. This theory has been
labeled in research Hermetic and Neo-Platonic, but only in general terms. This
article makes a further step and finds a parallelism between a paragraph in the
Zohar and a paragraph in On the Mysteries of Iamblichus, the Neo-Platonic
philosopher. The two paragraphs expound the above theory in similar terms, and
also cite as their source a similar authority, namely eastern sages or
Chaldaean prophets. This parallelism may establish a literary connection
between the Zohar and Iamblichus, who may be related also in other respects.
http://jsri.ro/ojs/index.php/jsri/article/view/457/455
IN an important article, Moshe
Weinfeld writes:
“Though this equation of Kabbalah with
Assyro-Babylonian theosophy is a new hypothesis, it cannot be ignored,
especially when raised by a brilliant scholar like Parpola. Parpola observed
that the basic elements of the sacred Kabbalistic tree overlap the Mesopotamian
sacred tree. The names and definitions of the Kabbalistic tree with its
branches recall the attributes and symbols of the Mesopotamian gods, and the
association of the tree with the ten numbers (Sephirot =countings) recalls the
mystic numbers of the Mesopotamian gods. Jewish scholars who are familiar with
both cuneiform literature and Jewish mysticism accept the thesis. As Parpola
observed, the Kabbalistic tree has textually explicit explanations which are
lacking in the case of the Assyrian sacred tree, the Kabbalistic textual
evidence can then shed light on the Assyrian tree and its components.” [1]
These are:
(1) Keter= crown;
(2) Hokhmah = Wisdom;
(3) Binah = understanding;
(4) .Hesed = Mercy;
(5) Hod = splendour;
(6) Yesod= Foundation;
(7) Tipheret= Beauty;
(8) Geburah = Strength;
(9) Nesah = Victory/Endurance;
(10) Malkhut = Kingdom.
Each has an attribute associated with its
number. The tree has a central trunk, the so-called pillar of equilibrium, and
horizontal branches spreading to the right and the left, which reflect
masculine and feminine. The Sephirot (the countings) are seen as the ten divine
powers through which God manifests himself.
The article is available for download:
Simo Parpola, "The Assyrian Tree of
Life: Tracing the Origin of Jewish Monotheism and Greek Philosophy",
Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 52 (1993), pp. 161-208.
http://www.atour.com/education/pdf/SimoParpola-TheAssyrianTreeOfLife.pdf
[1] Moshe Weinfeld, Feminine
Features in the Imagery of God in Israel: The Sacred Marriage and the Sacred
Tree, Vetus Testamentum, Vol. 46,
Fasc. 4 (Oct., 1996), p.516. [kabbalah]
Moshe Weinfeld, Feminine Features
in the Imagery of God in Israel: The Sacred Marriage and the Sacred Tree, Vetus Testamentum, Vol. 46, Fasc. 4
(Oct., 1996), pp. 515-529. [kabbalah]