- 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
Abraham Abulafia's Hermeneutics
Abraham Abulafia's Hermeneutics
- Chapter:
- (p.64) 5 Abraham Abulafia's Hermeneutics
- Source:
- Kabbalah in Italy, 1280-1510
- Author(s):
Moshe Idel
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
This chapter focuses on Abulafia's innovative and complex hermeneutical system, one of his most original contributions to Jewish mysticism. This hermeneutical system became widespread in Kabbalah. Different though the Spanish Kabbalists' symbolic techniques were from Abulafia's, their originators have something in common: being much less concerned with halakhic matters than Nahmanides and most of his followers were, they belonged to what the author refers to as innovative Kabbalah, with an approach that was open to developments rather than concerned with preserving ancient traditions. In exploring exegetical techniques, all these kabbalistic authors active between 1270 and 1295 concerned themselves with questions related to both the infinity of the sacred text and the status of the interpreter.
Keywords: hermeneutical system, Jewish mysticism, Spanish Kabbalists, symbolic techniques, halakhic matters, Nahmanides, innovative Kabbalah
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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
