As light before dawn : the inner world of a medieval kabbalist PDF
Preview As light before dawn : the inner world of a medieval kabbalist
As Light Before Dawn Stanford Studies in Jewish History and Culture edited by Aron Rodrigue and Steven J. Zipperstein As Light Before Dawn The Inner World of a Medieval Kabbalist Eitan P. Fishbane stanford university press stanford, california Stanford University Press Stanford, California © 2009 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved. Published with the generous support of the Lucius N. Littauer Foundation. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system without the prior written permission of Stanford University Press. Printed in the United States of America on acid-free, archival-quality paper Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Fishbane, Eitan P., 1975- As light before dawn : the inner world of a medieval kabbalist / Eitan P. Fishbane. p. cm.--(Stanford studies in Jewish history and culture) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8047-5913-7 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Isaac ben Samuel, of Acre. 2. Cabala--History--To 1500. 3. Mysticism--Judaism--History--To 1500. I. Title. II. Series: Stanford studies in Jewish history and culture. BM526.F57 2009 296.1'6--dc22 2009010151 Typeset by Bruce Lundquist in 10.5/14 Galliard This book is dedicated with love to the memory of Leah Levitz Fishbane 1974–2007 הבהא תומכ הזע יכ Contents Acknowledgments ix Part I Context 1. Perspectives and New Directions: Reflections on the State of Scholarship 3 2. The Wandering Kabbalist: Historical Profile and Context 20 Part II Reception and Transmission 3. Receiving Tradition, Constructing Authority 49 4. Intentions and the Recovery of Meaning 77 5. Seeing the Secret: Creative Process and the Hermeneutics of Insight 101 Part III Contemplative Practice, Mystical Experience 6. Contemplation, Theurgical Action, and the Presence of God 125 7. Techniques of Mystical Contemplation: Kavvanah and Devotional Experience 178 8. Asceticism, Prophecy, and Mystical Union 248 Conclusion 283 Bibliography 285 Index of Names and Book Titles 303 Index of Subjects and Terms 307 Index of Works Quoted 319 Acknowledgments To paraphrase Sefer Yez.irah and its kabbalistic offspring: the end is bound to the beginning like the flame is bound to the coal—and so too the beginning is rooted in the end, the circle turning and returning unto itself. As I prepare to transfer this book to press—this project that has lived with me through several stages of growth and development—I speak from the vantage point of endings, even as the reader takes up these words at the beginning of the way. The last words that are written are the first to be read, the place where preface and postscript meet and merge. Over the course of this last year I have come to think a great deal about the meaning of endings, about the place of memory in the shad- ows of tragedy and absence. And now, as I write these lines, the face of my wife Leah stands before me—her voice present as it once was. For it was Leah, zikhronah livrakhah, who saw me through the long road of this work. From its very inception in my graduate studies to the shape it bears now, this book was nurtured and loved by my partner in life, the space in which it was born made possible only because of the strength and time that she gave to me. For this, and for so much more, I dedi- cate this work to Leah’s memory—may the blessing she carried always fill the world with light and beauty. The years spent writing this book were also enveloped with the wonder of fatherhood, and I feel blessed daily for the presence of my daughter, Aderet Shoshanah. The time she had with her mother cut so excruciatingly short, she nevertheless is led by the power of that forma- tive nurturance, and it is from the wellspring of her mysterious young energy that I am drawn back to life, back to these words that were the markers of my path into the world of learning and ideas.
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