Concealment and Revelation: Esotericism in Jewish Thought and its Philosophical Implications PDF
Preview Concealment and Revelation: Esotericism in Jewish Thought and its Philosophical Implications
Concealment and Revelation This page intentionally left blank Concealment and Revelation esotericism in jewish thought and its philosophical implications Moshe Halbertal Translated by Jackie Feldman princeton university press princeton and oxford Copyright © 2007 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 3 Market Place, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1SY All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Halbertal, Moshe. [Seter ve-gilui. English] Concealment and revelation: esotericism in Jewish thought and its philosophical implications / Moshe Halbertal; translated by Jackie Feldman. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-691-12571-8 (hardcover: alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-691-12571-6 (hardcover: alk. paper) 1. Mysticism—Judaism. 2. Cabala—History. 3. Judaism—History—Medieval and early modern period, 425-1789. I. Title. BM526.H34513 2007 296.7'12—dc22 2007001212 British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available This book has been composed in Sabon Printed on acid-free paper. ∞ pup.princeton.edu Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For my daughters Nomi, Racheli and Shira This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgments ix A Note on Editions Used xi Introduction 1 Chapter1 The Paradox of Esotericism: “And Not on the Chariot Alone” 8 Chapter2 The Hidden and the Sublime: Vision and Restriction in the Bible and in Talmudic Literature 13 Chapter3 The Ethics of Gazing: The Attitude of Early Jewish Mysticism Toward Seeing the Chariot 18 Chapter4 Concealment and Power: Magic and Esotericism in the Hekhalot Literature 28 Chapter5 Esotericism and Commentary: Ibn Ezra and the Exegetical Layer 34 Chapter6 Concealment and Heresy: Astrology and the Secret of the Torah 44 Chapter7 Double Language and the Divided Public in Guide of the Perplexed 49 Chapter8 The Breaching of the Limits of the Esoteric: Concealment and Disclosure in Maimonidean Esotericism 60 Chapter9 From Transmission to Writing: Hinting, Leaking, and Orthodoxy in Early Kabbalah 69 viii • Contents Chapter10 Open Knowledge and Closed Knowledge: The Kabbalists of Gerona—Rabbi Azriel and Rabbi Ya’akov bar Sheshet 77 Chapter11 Tradition, Closed Knowledge, and the Esoteric: Secrecy and Hinting in Nahmanides’ Kabbalah 83 Chapter12 From Tradition to Literature: Shem Tov Ibn Gaon and the Critique of Kabbalistic Literature 93 Chapter13 “The Widening of the Apertures of the Showpiece”: Shmuel Ibn Tibon and the End of the Era of Esotericism 105 Chapter14 Esotericism, Sermons, and Curricula: Ya’akov Anatoli and the Dissemination of the Secret 114 Chapter15 The Ambivalence of Secrecy: The Dispute over Philosophy in the Early Fourteenth Century 120 Chapter16 Esotericism, Discontent, and Co-Existence 135 Chapter17 Taxonomy and Paradoxes of Esotericism: Conceptual Conclusion 142 Notes 169 Index 191 Acknowledgments This bookwas written with the generous support of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem and the Institute for Advanced Studies at the He- brew University. The community of scholars at the Hartman Institute has been an ongoing source of intellectual inspiration and companionship, and I wish to thank David and Donniel Hartman, the directors of the in- stitute, for their support. The last section of the book was written at NYU School of Law, and a draft of it was presented at the Colloquium in Legal, Political and Social Philosophy at NYU. I have learned a great deal from the attentive and insightful comments I received from my colleagues Thomas Nagel and Ronald Dworkin, and the other participants at the Colloquium. I owe gratitude to my friends Yonathan Garb, Melila Helner, Stephen Holmes, Moshe Idel, Mattias Kumm, Yair Lorberbaum, Menachem Lorberbaum, Adi Ofir, Elchanan Reiner, Guy Stroumsa and the late Israel Ta-Shma, who read parts of the manuscripts and shared with me their most valuable comments. I wish to thank Fred Appel my editor at Prince- ton Press for his wise and encouraging advice and support, Nathan Carr of the Princeton Press for his dedicated treatment of the production process, and the copy editor Eric Schramm for his patient reading and valuable comments.
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