Language, Torah, and hermeneutics in Abraham Abulafia

231 Pages·2011·3.99 MB·English

by  Moshe Idel

Language, Torah, and Hermeneutics
in Abraham Abulafia
This One
G3H9-7J0-CDLH
SUNY Series in Judaica:
Hermeneutics, Mysticism, and Religion
Michael Fishbane, Robert Goldenberg, and Arthur Green,
Series Editors
Language, Torah,
and Hermeneutics in
Abraham Abulafia
Moshe Idel
Translated from the Hebrew by
Menahem Kallus
State University of New York Press
In memoriam Gershom G. Scholem
Published by
State University of New York Press, Albany
® 1989 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced
in any manner whatsoever without written permission
except in the case of brief quotations embodied in
critical articles and reviews.
For information, address State University of New York
Press, State University Plaza, Albany N. Y 12246
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
!del, Moshe, 1947-
Language, Torah, and hermeneutics in Abraham
Abulafta.
(SUNY series in Judaica)
Bibliography: p.
Includes indexes.
1. Abulafia, Abraham ben Samuel, 1240-ca. 1292.
2. Cabala - History. 3. Ecstasy (Judaism) 4. Hebrew
language - Philosophy. 5. Bible. O. T. - Criticism,
interpretation, etc., Jewish. I. Title. II. Series.
BM526.I339 1988 296.16*0924 87-33630
ISBN 0-88706-831-6
ISBN 0-88706-832-4 (pbk.)
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction ix
1. Abulafia's Theory of Language 1
2. The Meaning of the Torah in
Abulafia's System 29
3. Exegetical Methods in the Hermeneutical
System of Abulafia 82
Transliteration Note 125
Abbreviations 127
Notes 131
Subject Index 201
Author Index 205
Index of Cited Works 209

Acknowledgments
The present volume, like that dealing with The Mystical Experi-
ence in Abraham Abulafia, is part of a doctoral dissertation on Abra-
ham Abulafia's Kabbalah, submitted at the Hebrew University, Jeru-
salem 1976. Since then, several unknown sources and perspectives
have enriched the content of the expanded chapters devoted to the
concept of language, Torah, and exegetical methods. As in the above
volume, the presentation offered is heavily based on the significant
texts of Abulafia, this being a deliberate effort to allow as direct an
encounter as possible with Abulafia's formulations in his manuscript
writings.
The topics dealt with here belong to a neglected area of
kabbalistic thought: They were rarely mentioned by Scholem in some
of his phenomenological discussions on kabbalistic subjects, and they
are absent from others, such as his important article on the Torah in
Kabbalah. This study is the first elaborate attempt to describe the
views of one kabbalist, who was deeply interested in linguistic
Kabbalah and also contributed some daring, even eccentric insights,
into the possibilities included in kabbalistic exegesis. In comparison
to modern criticism, like deconstructionism, it seems that Abulafia's
hermeneutics is an extreme method, which deconstructs the text to
its letters to reconstruct it in new ways.
Thanks are due to several institutions who contributed to the
emergence of this volume; first and foremost, to the Institute of
Microfilms of Hebrew Manuscripts of the National and University
Library in Jerusalem, where the material used here was perused; to
the National and University Library in Jerusalem; to the Memorial
Foundation for Jewish Culture in New York, whose grants allowed
vii
viii Acknowledgments
the writing of the first version of this study and, later on, continua-
tion of studying additional manuscripts indispensable for a better
understanding of the ecstatic Kabbalah; and, finally, to all the librar-
ies which kindly allowed the use and printing of the manuscript mate-
rial included in this volume. Mr. Menahem Kallus has translated with
patience and dedication most of the material included in this volume.
Thanks to Prof. Elliot Wolfson, who went through the whole manu-
script and suggested many improvements for its English rendering.
The time required for the studies, writing, rewriting, and checking of
the material at all its stages was diverted from my family, whose sup-
port enabled me to finish this manuscript.
Introduction
The Kabbalah of R. Abraham Abulafia is known by two names,
both used by him in his writings: the ecstatic Kabbalah, literally the
prophetic one, Kabbalah Nevu'it, namely that type of mysticism that
instructs the Kabbalist to attain a mystical experience conceived of
as prophecy; and the Kabbalah of the Names, that is, the divine
Names (Kabbalat ha-Shemot), or that type of mysticism that shows
the way for attaining that ecstatic experience. This path focused upon
practices of reciting the divine names and various combinations of
letters of the Hebrew alphabet.1 The technique of combining letters,
used to attain experiences, was also applied in the hermeneutic sys-
tem of this Kabbalist, as an advanced exegetical method that enables
the mystic to penetrate the most recondite strata of Scripture. It is
the apex of a most complex exegetical path that passed unnoted by
modern scholarship of Kabbalah and Jewish hermeneutics and which
will be exposed here for the first time in a detailed way. To under-
stand, however, the prime-matter to which these hermeneutical
devices were applied, we shall survey the views of Abulafia and some
of his followers concerning the nature of language and their concep-
tion of the Torah, the main object of the hermeneutical endeavour.
We may describe Abulafia's view of language and interpretation
as basically inclined to an allegorical perception, which influenced
his conception of the Torah, his own revelations, and his interpreta-
tions of his revelations. In the line of medieval Aristotelianism, the
allegory hints at the psychological processes which consist in the
changing relationship between the inner powers: intellect and imagi-
nation. Interpretation of Scripture and of his revelations leads him,
time and again, to decode texts and experiences as revealing
ix