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ASCENSIONS ON HIGH IN JEWISH MYSTICISM

Pillars, Lines, Ladders

Moshe Idel teaches at the Hebrew University, and senior researcher at the Shalom Hartman Institute, Jerusalem.

Ascensions on high took many forms in Jewish mysticism and they permeated most of its history from its inception until Hasidism. The book surveys the various categories, with an emphasis on the architectural images of the ascent, like the resort to images of pillars, lines, and ladders.

After surveying the variety of scholarly approaches to religion, the author also offers what he proposes as an eclectic approach, and a perspectivist one. The latter recommends to examine religious phenomena from a variety of perspectives. The author investigates the specific issue of the pillar in Jewish mysticism by comparing it to the archaic resort to pillars recurring in rural societies.

Given the fact that the ascent of the soul and pillars constituted the concerns of two main Romanian scholars of religion, Ioan P. Culianu and Mircea Eliade, Idel resorts to their views, and in the Concluding Remarks analyzes the emergence of Eliade's vision of Judaism on the basis of neglected sources.

Contents

Preface; Introduction; Chapter 1: On Diverse Forms of Living Ascent on High in Jewish Sources; Chapter 2: On Cosmic Pillars in Jewish Sources; Chapter 3: The Eschatological Pillar of the Souls in Zoharic Literature; Chapter 4: Psychanodia and Metamorphoses of Pillars in Eighteenth-Century Hasidism; Chapter 5: The Neoplatonic Path for Dead Souls: Medieval Philosophy, Kabbalah and Renaissance; Concluding Remarks; Name Index; Subject Index

"His control of literature is impressive, and his proposal is suggestive. Throughout, Idel shows mastery of a very wide range of primarz and secondary sources. Summing up: recommended." - Choice

2005
224 pages
ISBN 978-963-7326-02-8 cloth $41.95 / €35.95 / £24.95
ISBN 978-963-7326-03-5 paperback $21.95 / €18.95 / £12.95

 

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