- Title Pages
- Preface
- Introduction
-
1 Kabbalah -
2 Abraham Abulafia and Ecstatic Kabbalah -
3 Abraham Abulafia's Activity in Italy -
4 Ecstatic Kabbalah as an Experiential Lore -
5 Abraham Abulafia's Hermeneutics -
6 Eschatological Themes and Divine Names in Abulafia's Kabbalah -
7 Abraham Abulafia and R. Menahem ben Benjamin -
8 R. Menahem ben Benjamin Recanati -
9 Menahem Recanati as a Theosophical-Theurgical Kabbalist -
10 Menahem Recanati's Hermeneutics -
11 Ecstatic Kabbalah from the Fourteenth Through Mid-Fifteenth Centuries -
12 The Kabbalistic-Philosophical-Magical Exchanges in Italy -
13 Prisca Theologia -
14 R. Yohanan ben Yitzhaq Alemanno -
15 Jewish Mystical Thought in Lorenzo IL Magnifico's Florence -
16 Other Mystical and Magical Literatures in Renaissance Florence -
17 Spanish Kabbalists in Italy after the Expulsion -
18 Two Diverging Types of Kabbalah in Late-Fifteenth-Century Italy -
19 Jewish Kabbalah in Christian Garb -
20 Anthropoids from the Middle Ages to Renaissance Italy -
21 Astromagical Pneumatic Anthropoids from Medieval Spain to Renaissance Italy -
22 The Trajectory of Eastern Kabbalah and Its Reverberations in Italy - Concluding Remarks
-
Appendix 1 The Angel Named Righteous: From R. ʾAmittai of Oria to Erfurt and Rome -
Appendix 2 The Infant Experiment: On the Search for the First Language in Italy -
Appendix 3 R. Yohanan Alemanno's Study Program -
Appendix 4 Magic Temples and Cities in the Middle Ages and Renaissance: Masʾudi, Ibn Zarza, Alemanno - Bibliography
- Index of Manuscripts
- Index of Titles
- Index of Names
Menahem Recanati's Hermeneutics
Menahem Recanati's Hermeneutics
- Chapter:
- (p.128) 10 Menahem Recanati's Hermeneutics
- Source:
- Kabbalah in Italy, 1280-1510
- Author(s):
Moshe Idel
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
This chapter explores the fact that, even though the generation of Jewish scholars before Recanati contributed greatly to kabbalistic hermeneutics, Recanati does not quote them at all. Though composing a book that invited, in principle, some elaborations on exegesis, in his main work, the Commentary on the Torah, the Italian Kabbalist does not indulge in theoretical speculations, describing precisely how secrets were extracted from the scriptures. In this respect his approach is reminiscent of Nahmanides's or R. Shlomo ibn Adret's reticence in formulating exegetical systems. These three authors belong to what the chapter refers to as the first elite, a layer of authors who refrained from organizing exegetical methods into a more systematic structure. This reticence notwithstanding, Recanati did not refrain from offering his own kabbalistic interpretations of the Pentateuch and of the various commandments.
Keywords: Jewish scholars, kabbalistic hermeneutics, exegesis, Nahmanides, R. Shlomo ibn Adret, Pentateuch
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- Title Pages
- Preface
- Introduction
-
1 Kabbalah -
2 Abraham Abulafia and Ecstatic Kabbalah -
3 Abraham Abulafia's Activity in Italy -
4 Ecstatic Kabbalah as an Experiential Lore -
5 Abraham Abulafia's Hermeneutics -
6 Eschatological Themes and Divine Names in Abulafia's Kabbalah -
7 Abraham Abulafia and R. Menahem ben Benjamin -
8 R. Menahem ben Benjamin Recanati -
9 Menahem Recanati as a Theosophical-Theurgical Kabbalist -
10 Menahem Recanati's Hermeneutics -
11 Ecstatic Kabbalah from the Fourteenth Through Mid-Fifteenth Centuries -
12 The Kabbalistic-Philosophical-Magical Exchanges in Italy -
13 Prisca Theologia -
14 R. Yohanan ben Yitzhaq Alemanno -
15 Jewish Mystical Thought in Lorenzo IL Magnifico's Florence -
16 Other Mystical and Magical Literatures in Renaissance Florence -
17 Spanish Kabbalists in Italy after the Expulsion -
18 Two Diverging Types of Kabbalah in Late-Fifteenth-Century Italy -
19 Jewish Kabbalah in Christian Garb -
20 Anthropoids from the Middle Ages to Renaissance Italy -
21 Astromagical Pneumatic Anthropoids from Medieval Spain to Renaissance Italy -
22 The Trajectory of Eastern Kabbalah and Its Reverberations in Italy - Concluding Remarks
-
Appendix 1 The Angel Named Righteous: From R. ʾAmittai of Oria to Erfurt and Rome -
Appendix 2 The Infant Experiment: On the Search for the First Language in Italy -
Appendix 3 R. Yohanan Alemanno's Study Program -
Appendix 4 Magic Temples and Cities in the Middle Ages and Renaissance: Masʾudi, Ibn Zarza, Alemanno - Bibliography
- Index of Manuscripts
- Index of Titles
- Index of Names
