Kabbalistic Circles in Jerusalem (1896–1948)

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

Preface

1 The Last Kabbalists

Ariel Bension and the Imagined Decline

Critique of the Decline Theory

Reports of Decline and the Kabbalah-Socialism Myth

Gershom Scholem and Coeval Kabbalists

Haim Hazaz’s Vision of Decline

Decline and Zionist Utopia

2 The Kabbalah Seminaries of Jerusalem

Shalom Sharabi and the Rise of Kabbalistic Yeshivot

Beit El’s Astonishment at Reports of Its Decline

A Short Note on the Essence of the Kabbalah Seminaries

Rehovot haNahar

Oz veHadar and the Branching Out of Rehovot haNahar

Mysteries of the East and the Rebbe of Munkacs

3 Merging Traditions: The Sha’ar haShamayim Yeshiva

Criticism against the Sharabian Monopoly

The Beginnings of Sha’ar haShamayim

Program and Regimen

The New Beit El

Between Ashkenazim and Sephardim

The Sha’ar haShamayim Yeshiva, the Land of Israel and Rabbi Kook

The Nazirite’s Quest for Prophecy

4 The Search for the Lost Tribes

Kabbalah beyond the Sambatyon

The Awakening of Explorers in Jerusalem

Shimon Zvi Horowitz’s Expedition to the Far East

Renewed Attempts and the Sha’ar haShamayim Information Center

Following in Horowitz’s Footsteps

A Note on “Traditions” Ascribed to the Vilna Gaon

A Few Calculations of the End

Two Shelved Letters to the Ten Tribes

5 Concealment and Revelation: The Print Revolution

The Dissemination of Kabbalah via the Printing Press

The Printing Vision of Sha’ar haShamayim

Three Kabbalah Primers

The Mekhavvnim and the Dissemination of the RaShaSh’s Siddur

Kavvanot for the Select Few and Criticism of the Siddur’s printing

Yosef Hayyim, Kabbalistic Customs and the RaShaSh’s Intentions

The Borders of Dissemination and the Expansion of the Circle of Intenters

Menahem Menkhin Halperin and the Printing of the Lurianic Corpus

On a Few Disseminators of Lurianic Kabbalah

6 Practicing Kabbalah: The Tikkunim Literature

Support for the Kabbalah Seminaries and the Turn to the General Public

The Call to Study the Zohar and Conduct the Zemah Tikkun

The Tikkunim Literature and the Midnight Vigil

Tikkun ha’Brit, Bratslav Hasidism and Yemei ha’Shovavim

Special Prayers and Tikkunim during the Holocaust

7 Censure, Parody and Debate

Valley of Demons

A Wondrous Tale: Coverage of a Dybbuk in the Jerusalem Press

Sha’ar haShamayim in the Eyes of the Local Jerusalem Press

Mendele Moykher Sforim, the Sambatyon and the Kabbalists of Jerusalem

The “Last” Adversaries: Deinard’s Burial of the Kabbalah and the Yihyah Qafiḥ Polemic

Afterword

Bibliography

Index