- Title Pages
- Epigraph
- Foreword
- Preface
- Introduction
-
1 The World-Absorbing Text -
2 The God-Absorbing Text -
3 Text and Interpretation Infinities in Kabbalah -
4 The Book that Contains and Maintains All -
5 Magical and Magical-Mystical Arcanizations of Canonical Books -
6 Torah Study and Mystical Experiences in Jewish Mysticism -
7 Secrecy, Binah, and Derishah -
8 Semantics, Constellation, and Interpretation -
9 Radical Forms of Jewish Hermeneutics -
10 The Symbolic Mode in Theosophical-Theurgical Kabbalah -
11 Allegories, Divine Names, and Experiences in Ecstatic Kabbalah -
12 Tzerufei 'Otiyyot -
13 Tradition, Transmission, and Techniques -
14 Concluding Remarks -
Appendix 1 Pardes: The Fourfold Method of Interpretation -
Appendix 2 Abraham Abulafia's Torah of Blood and Ink -
Appendix 3 R. Isaac of Acre's Exegetical Quandary -
Appendix 4 The Exile of the Torah and the Imprisonment of Secrets -
Appendix 5 On Oral Torah and Multiple Interpretations in Hasidism -
Appendix 6 “Book of God”/“Book of Law” in Late-Fifteenth-Century Florence - Bibliography
- Index
The God-Absorbing Text
The God-Absorbing Text
Black Fire on White Fire
- Chapter:
- (p.45) 2 The God-Absorbing Text
- Source:
- Absorbing Perfections
- Author(s):
Moshe Idel
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
This chapter first examines the lack of metaphysics about language and looks at how the Torah is composed of white fire (the divine substance) and black fire (letters). It looks at the symbolic interpretations of the white and black fire in medieval Kabbalistic treatments, followed by the main differences between the ancient theological stand and the medieval view on the white and black dichotomy. The nature of the letter yod, the concern surrounding the visual factors of text in Hasidism, the white sections of the Torah as an iconic conception of the text, and modern literary theories surrounding the significance of the text complete the discussion.
Keywords: white fire, black fire, Torah, divine substance, letters, Kabbalistic treatments, dichotomy, yod, Hasidism, symbolic interpretations
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- Title Pages
- Epigraph
- Foreword
- Preface
- Introduction
-
1 The World-Absorbing Text -
2 The God-Absorbing Text -
3 Text and Interpretation Infinities in Kabbalah -
4 The Book that Contains and Maintains All -
5 Magical and Magical-Mystical Arcanizations of Canonical Books -
6 Torah Study and Mystical Experiences in Jewish Mysticism -
7 Secrecy, Binah, and Derishah -
8 Semantics, Constellation, and Interpretation -
9 Radical Forms of Jewish Hermeneutics -
10 The Symbolic Mode in Theosophical-Theurgical Kabbalah -
11 Allegories, Divine Names, and Experiences in Ecstatic Kabbalah -
12 Tzerufei 'Otiyyot -
13 Tradition, Transmission, and Techniques -
14 Concluding Remarks -
Appendix 1 Pardes: The Fourfold Method of Interpretation -
Appendix 2 Abraham Abulafia's Torah of Blood and Ink -
Appendix 3 R. Isaac of Acre's Exegetical Quandary -
Appendix 4 The Exile of the Torah and the Imprisonment of Secrets -
Appendix 5 On Oral Torah and Multiple Interpretations in Hasidism -
Appendix 6 “Book of God”/“Book of Law” in Late-Fifteenth-Century Florence - Bibliography
- Index
