Concealment and Revelation ：Esotericism in Jewish Thought and its Philosophical Implications

Publication subTitle ：Esotericism in Jewish Thought and its Philosophical Implications

Author： Halbertal Moshe;Feldman Jackie;;  

Publisher： Princeton University Press‎

Publication year： 2009

E-ISBN: 9781400827961

P-ISBN(Paperback): 9780691125718

Subject： B985 Judaism (Hebrew)

Keyword： 宗教

Language： ENG

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Description

During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, great new trends of Jewish thought emerged whose widely varied representatives--Kabbalists, philosophers, and astrologers--each claimed that their particular understanding revealed the actual secret of the Torah. They presented their own readings in a coded fashion that has come to be regarded by many as the very essence of esotericism. Concealment and Revelation takes us on a fascinating journey to the depths of the esoteric imagination. Carefully tracing the rise of esotericism and its function in medieval Jewish thought, Moshe Halbertal's richly detailed historical and cultural analysis gradually builds conceptual-philosophical force to culminate in a masterful phenomenological taxonomy of esotericism and its paradoxes.

Among the questions addressed: What are the internal justifications that esoteric traditions provide for their own existence, especially in the Jewish world, in which the spread of knowledge was of great importance? How do esoteric teachings coexist with the revealed tradition, and what is the relationship between the various esoteric teachings that compete with that revealed tradition?

Halbertal concludes that, through the medium of the concealed, Jewish thinkers integrated into the heart of the Jewish tradition diverse cultural influences such as Aristotelianism, Neoplatonism, and Hermeticisims. And the creation of an added concealed layer, unregulated and open-ended

Chapter

Contents

Contents

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments

A Note on Editions Used

A Note on Editions Used

Introduction

Introduction

CHAPTER 1 The Paradox of Esotericism: “And Not on the Chariot Alone”

CHAPTER 1 The Paradox of Esotericism: “And Not on the Chariot Alone”

CHAPTER 2 The Hidden and the Sublime: Vision and Restriction in the Bible and in Talmudic Literature

CHAPTER 2 The Hidden and the Sublime: Vision and Restriction in the Bible and in Talmudic Literature

CHAPTER 3 The Ethics of Gazing: The Attitude of Early Jewish Mysticism Toward Seeing the Chariot

CHAPTER 3 The Ethics of Gazing: The Attitude of Early Jewish Mysticism Toward Seeing the Chariot

CHAPTER 4 Concealment and Power: Magic and Esotericism in the Hekhalot Literature

CHAPTER 4 Concealment and Power: Magic and Esotericism in the Hekhalot Literature

CHAPTER 5 Esotericism and Commentary: Ibn Ezra and the Exegetical Layer

CHAPTER 5 Esotericism and Commentary: Ibn Ezra and the Exegetical Layer

CHAPTER 6 Cealment and Heresy: Astrology and the Secret of the Torah

CHAPTER 6 Cealment and Heresy: Astrology and the Secret of the Torah

CHAPTER 7 Double Language and the Divided Public in Guide of the Perplexed

CHAPTER 7 Double Language and the Divided Public in Guide of the Perplexed

CHAPTER 8 The Breaching of the Limits of the Esoteric: Concealment and Disclosure in Maimonidean Esotericism

CHAPTER 8 The Breaching of the Limits of the Esoteric: Concealment and Disclosure in Maimonidean Esotericism

CHAPTER 9 From Transmission to Writing: Hinting, Leaking, and Orthodoxy in Early Kabbalah

CHAPTER 9 From Transmission to Writing: Hinting, Leaking, and Orthodoxy in Early Kabbalah

CHAPTER 10 Open Knowledge and Closed Knowledge: The Kabbalists of Gerona—Rabbi Azriel and Rabbi Ya’akov bar Sheshet

CHAPTER 10 Open Knowledge and Closed Knowledge: The Kabbalists of Gerona—Rabbi Azriel and Rabbi Ya’akov bar Sheshet

CHAPTER 11 Tradition, Closed Knowledge, and the Esoteric: Secrecy and Hinting in Nahmanides’ Kabbalah

CHAPTER 11 Tradition, Closed Knowledge, and the Esoteric: Secrecy and Hinting in Nahmanides’ Kabbalah

CHAPTER 12 From Tradition to Literature: Shem Tov Ibn Gaon and the Critique of Kabbalistic Literature

CHAPTER 12 From Tradition to Literature: Shem Tov Ibn Gaon and the Critique of Kabbalistic Literature

CHAPTER 13 “The Widening of the Apertures of the Showpiece”: Shmuel Ibn Tibon and the End of the Era of Esotericism

CHAPTER 13 “The Widening of the Apertures of the Showpiece”: Shmuel Ibn Tibon and the End of the Era of Esotericism

CHAPTER 14 Esotericism, Sermons, and Curricula: Ya’akov Anatoli and the Dissemination of the Secret

CHAPTER 14 Esotericism, Sermons, and Curricula: Ya’akov Anatoli and the Dissemination of the Secret

CHAPTER 15 The Ambivalence of Secrecy: The Dispute over Philosophy in the Early Fourteenth Century

CHAPTER 15 The Ambivalence of Secrecy: The Dispute over Philosophy in the Early Fourteenth Century

CHAPTER 16 Esotericism, Discontent, and Co-Existence

CHAPTER 16 Esotericism, Discontent, and Co-Existence

CHAPTER 17 Taxonomy and Paradoxes of Esotericism: Conceptual Conclusion

CHAPTER 17 Taxonomy and Paradoxes of Esotericism: Conceptual Conclusion

Notes

Notes

Index

Index

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