The Heart and the Fountain: An Anthology of Jewish Mystical Experiences

337 Pages·2002·1.46 MB·English

by  Joseph Dan

THE
HEART
AND
THE
FOUNTAIN
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THE
An Anthology of
Jewish Mystical Experiences
HEART
AND
Edited by
Joseph Dan
THE
FOUNTAIN
3
2002
3
Oxford New York
Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai
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and an associated company in Berlin
Copyright © 2002 by Joseph Dan
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The heart and the fountain : an anthology of Jewish
mystical experiences / [edited by] Joseph Dan.
p. cm. Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0–19–513978–X
1. Mysticism—Judaism.
I. Dan, Joseph, 1935–
BM723 .H36 2002
296.7'12—dc21 2001055485
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
CONTENTS
Preface vii
Introduction
I. Religion, Mysticism, and Language 1
II. Jewish Mysticism 7
III. Jewish Concept of Language:
The Midrash 9
IV. Historical Outlines: Late Antiquity 15
V. Historical Outlines: The Middle Ages 23
VI. Historical Outlines: The Modern Period 36
VII. The Christian Kabbalah 44
1. The Revelation of the Secret of the World 49
2. Visions of Rabbi Akibah and Rabbi Ishmael 55
3. The Deification of Enoch 61
4. Rabbi Bahya Ibn Paquda: To See Without
Eyes, To Hear Without Ears 75
5. Gabirol: God and the Universe 81
6. Addressing an Emanated Godhead 95
7. The Voice of God Over the Water:
The Worship of the Holy Name 101
8. The Rokeah: The Devotion in Prayer 107
9. Divine Will Clothed in Human Will:
The Intention of Prayer in Early Kabbalah 115
10. Abraham Abulafia: An Apocalyptic Vision 121
11. The Mystical Immersion in Names and
Letters:Shaarey Zedek 129
12. Zohar: The Beginning 139
13. Rabbi Simeon Bar Yohai and His Society
of Mystics 149
14. The Zohar: The Wondrous Child 161
15. To Write Without Pen and Ink 175
16. Joseph Della Reina:
From Experience to Legend 181
17. Walking with the Shekhinah:
The Palm Tree of Devorah 195
18. The Messianic Dreams of Rabbi Hayyim
Vital 203
19. A Prophetic Vision by Nathan of Gaza 213
20. Nathan of Gaza Facing the Monsters of Evil:
The Myth of the Doenmeh 217
21. Luzzatto: Messianism and Sanctity 223
22. The Mystical Prayer of Rabbi Israel
Ba’alShem Tov 231
23. Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav:
A Vision and a Dream 239
24. Bialik: Mystical Poetry and Mystical
Language 251
25. The Sweet Voice of the Lord:
Four Contemporary Israeli Poets 263
Notes 277
Permissions 311
Index 312
vi CONTENTS
PREFACE
An anthology usually is a selection of texts from a well-
defined whole. This is not the case with this volume.
Jewish religious culture does not contain a distinct sub-
division of “mystical texts” from which such a selection
can be made. The term mysticism does not have a
Hebrew equivalent, and the concept, which developed
in Christianity since the third century, has never been
defined within Judaism. Using this term consists of the
imposition of a foreign category by modern scholars on
the vast body of Jewish spiritual literature, declaring—
each scholar following his own individual definition—
some texts as analogical to what in Christianity is
regarded as “mystical.” The works presented here are
exactly that: Using my own definition of mysticism,
which is explained in the introduction, I have selected
texts that I believe express, analogically, the religious
attitudes and experiences that in a Christian context are
regarded as mystical.
The common identification of the kabbalah—
which is an authentic, internal Jewish religious phe-
nomenon—as “Jewish mysticism” is completely wrong.
The kabbalah is a Jewish esoterical tradition of contem-
plation of divine secrets, believed to have been given by
God to Moses on Mount Sinai, which includes spiritual
expressions of a variety of disciplines and characteristics.
Some of these can be analogically categorized as mysti-
cal, but most are not, while at the same time there are
many Jewish spiritualists who wrote mystical works who
were not kabbalists. This anthology should not be
regarded as a selection of kabbalistic texts. About half of
the authors of the texts presented here were kabbalists. Even so, in sev-
eral cases the works from which the texts were selected would not be
regarded by their writers as “kabbalistic.” In fact, if I were to prepare a
representative anthology of the kabbalah, there is only one text from
this volume that I would include in it (chapter 12, “Zohar: The
Beginning”). The first eight chapters are taken from works written
before the beginning of the kabbalah in the end of the twelfth century.
The last two chapters are taken from the works of writers who regarded
themselves as nonreligious. Several others are selected from autobio-
graphical works and others from ethical literature that usually is not
included in kabbalistic literature.
The experiences, visions, dreams, and apocalypses presented here
demonstrate, I believe, that in any large group of religious writings it is
possible to discern spiritual phenomena that are analogical in their
characteristics to what is described in a Christian context as mystical lit-
erature. The difference is that while the Christian writers, in most
cases, identified themselves or at least related themselves to the phe-
nomenon of mysticism that is part of their tradition, the Jewish writers
did not, because the concept was completely absent from their religious
worldview. Because of this, the selection of the texts is unavoidably sub-
jective; the editor is loyal not to the intrinsic dynamics of Jewish reli-
gious expression, but to external criteria, incorporated in the contem-
porary concept of mysticism.
I would like to thank the Rockefeller Foundation in Bellagio, Italy,
and its director, Giana Celli, for the invitation to be their guest in the
summer of 2000, a most enjoyable period that I dedicated to writing a
part of this book. Several of my colleagues assisted me with good
advice, especially Dr. Mor Altshuler-Suleiman, and I thank all of them
very much. Ms. Na’ama Mizrakhi assisted me in collecting the mate-
rial. My partner, Professor Miri Kubovy, demonstrated her usual
patience and tolerance in the many months in which I was completely
absorbed in this work.
Joseph Dan
The Hebrew University, Jerusalem
November 2001
viii PREFACE
THE
HEART
AND
THE
FOUNTAIN