Origins of the Kabbalah

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Book is in NEW condition. 2. Seller Inventory # 0691073147-2-1

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Synopsis:

One of the most important scholars of our century, Gershom Scholem (1897-1982) opened up a once esoteric world of Jewish mysticism, the Kabbalah, to concerned students of religion. The Kabbalah is a rich tradition of repeated attempts to achieve and portray direct experiences of God: its twelfth-and thirteenth-century beginnings in southern France and Spain are probed in Origins of the Kabbalah, a work crucial in Scholem's oeuvre. The book is a contribution not only to the history of Jewish medieval mysticism but also to the study of medieval mysticism in general and will be of interest to historians and psychologists, as well as to students of the history of religion.

Review: Gershom Scholem's Origins of the Kabbalah provides a painstakingly detailed history of Kabbalah's rise among medieval French and Spanish Jews, describes the first publication of Jewish mystical texts, and investigates the growth of their influence on Jewish religious life. The book also doubles back to describe secret traditions of Jewish Gnosticism, which describe a Creation story so numerological and esoteric it makes the New Testament book of Revelation look as simple and straightforward as a Saturday-morning cartoon. This book is much denser than Scholem's excellent On the Kabbalah and its Symbolism, but for readers with a basic knowledge of Kabbalah, it shouldn't be rough going. --Michael Joseph Gross

Bibliographic Details

Title: Origins of the Kabbalah
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Publication Date: 1987
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: New