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Jewish Thought Journal of the Goldstein-Goren International Center for Jewish Thought Jewish Thought Journal of the Goldstein-Goren International Center for Jewish Thought Editors Michal Bar-Asher Siegal Jonatan Meir Shalom Sadik Haim Kreisel (editor-in-chief) Guest Editor Oded Ysraeli Editorial Secretary Asher Binyamin Volume 2 Esotericism in Jewish Thought Beer-Sheva, 2020 Jewish Thought is published once a year by the Goldstein-Goren International Center for Jewish Thought. Each issue is devoted to a different topic. Topics of the following issues are as follows: 2021: Asceticism in Judaism and the Abrahamic Religions 2022: New Trends in the Research of Jewish Thought Articles for the next issue should be submitted by April 1, 2021. Manuscripts for consideration should be sent, in Hebrew or English, as MS Word files, to: [email protected] All articles must be accompanied by an English abstract. English articles should be submitted in accordance with the following guidelines: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html The journal is open access: http://in.bgu.ac.il/en/humsos/goldstein-goren/Pages/Journal.aspx The Hebrew articles in this issue were edited by Avi Vengrober. The articles in English were edited by Sara Tropper. The views and opinions expressed in the articles are those of the authors alone. Address: The Goldstein-Goren International Center for Jewish Thought, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, PO Box 653, Beer- Sheva 8410501. © All Rights Reserved This issue is dedicated to the memory of Prof. Gerald J. Blidstein 1938-2020 Table of Contents English Section Foreward 7 Dov Schwartz From Technique to Consciousness: Notes on the 9 Development of Esoteric Writing in Twelfth- Century Jewish Thought Howard Kreisel Abraham Ibn Ezra's “Secrets” in the Early and 35 Later Torah Commentaries Gal Sofer The Magical Cosmos of Yohanan Alemanno: 65 Christian and Jewish Magic in the Service of a Kabbalist Gerold Necker The “Secret of the Creation of the Demons”: A 93 Chapter in an Anonymous Lurianic Treatise Adapted by Moses Zacuto Matt Goldish The Open Secret of Sabbatean Communal 113 Leadership After 1666 George Y. Kohler The Claim to “Hidden Truths” as the Reason for the 133 Rejection of Kabbalah by the Wissenschaft des Judentums Hebrew Section Foreword 7 Yehuda Liebes The Secret in the Zohar and in the History of the 9 Jewish Religion Adiel Kedari The Art of Revelation and Concealment in a 20 Talmudic Story Ariel Lichterman Idolatry as a Political Institution in Maimonides’ 34 Thought: Esotericism and Exotericism Eliezer Hadad Maimonides’ Interpretation of the Story of ‘The 60 Nobles of the Children of Israel’ David Benzazon The Secret of the First Man in the Guide of the 87 Perplexed: Caspi, Narboni and Abarbanel Shalom Sadik The Question of the Existence of Radical 112 Philosophical Secrets Emerging from The Light of the Darkness (Nur al Dalam) Doron Forte ‘With Clarification Concealment is also Necessary’: 134 Esoteric Reading and Commentary in Shem Tov ben Joseph Ibn Shem Tov’s Commentary on Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed Eli Gurfinkel The ‘Right’ Interpretation and Esoteric Methods 180 in the Commentaries of R. David Messer Leon to the Guide of the Perplexed Ronit Meroz The Tree That is an Angel: On a Binitarian 218 Approach Reflected in Sefer HaBahir Yair Lorberboim ‘Thy Commandment is Exceeding Broad’: R. 250 Shelomo Ibn Adreth and the Formation of Halakhic Religiosity of Mystery and Transcendence Judith Weiss ‘That Saint Offered a Nipple’: Christian Gender 335 Concepts Regarding the Holy and the Divine as Background to the Increasing Preoccupation with the Shekhina in Medieval Kabbalistic Literature Sara Offenberg ‘For Your Eyes Only’ – On the Merkavah and 376 Military Secrets: Text and Image in a Manuscript from Erfurt Inbal Gur Ben Esoteric Embeddings from R. Eleazar of Worms 402 Yitzhak in the Book of Tanya to R. Schneur Zalman of Liadi Jonatan Meir Revelation, Concealment and Censorship in 437 Bratslav Hasidic Literature Lee Bartov What is Religious Philosophy? Shestov's 470 Possible Answer to Camus Rachel ‘Deep Secrets and Spiritual Tools’: The Secret in 488 Werzberger Contemporary Jewish Spirituality Foreword It is with great pride that we present the second issue of the new annual journal, Jewish Thought, sponsored by the Goldstein-Goren International Center for Jewish Thought at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. This issue is devoted to the topic of esotericism in Jewish thought. It consists of 22 articles – 16 in Hebrew and 6 in English. Many of the contributions are based on lectures on this topic given at the international conference in Jewish thought, sponsored by the center in May 2019. The head of the organizing committee was Prof. Oded Israeli, who was invited to be a guest editor of this issue. As in the case of the journal’s initial issue on faith and heresy in Jewish thought, which can be accessed at the following link: https://in.bgu.ac.il/en/humsos/goldsteingoren/Pages/Journal.aspx, most of the articles in this issue were written by established scholars, while some were written by young scholars who are at the beginning of their scholarly career. All articles that were submitted underwent a rigorous selection process involving at least two reviewers. In the course of working on this issue we learnt with great sorrow of the untimely passing of two participants in the conference who had wished to submit articles. The first was Dr. Tsippi Kauffman from Bar-Ilan University, an expert in Hassidic thought, whose research focused on the Hassidic religious experience and its kabbalistic context. Tsippi’s Hebrew talk at the conference, ‘The Mystical-Ethical Model: On Ethics as the Secret Stratum in Hassidism’ can be accessed at the following link: https://youtu.be/zHdgawH7CpI. The second was Prof. Ada Rapoport-Albert from University College London. Ada was a scholar of international renown in the field of Jewish thought. Her particular expertise was on the history of Sabbateanism and early Hassidism, with her focus being on topics involving gender. Her talk in Hebrew, ‘Jacob Frank’s “Massa Dumah” (The Burden of Silence)’, can be accessed at the following link: https://youtu.be/DbDSPqjjJBE. At the conference, a special session was devoted to the editor-in- chief of this journal, Prof. Haim Kreisel, on the occasion of his retirement from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Three of his former students delivered papers at the session: Dr. David Ben-Zazon, Dr. Doron Forte and Prof. George Kohler. All three of them have articles in the current issue based on the themes of their papers. Close to the end of the process of preparing this issue for publication we were informed of the death of our esteemed colleague Prof. Gerald J. Blidstein. Prof. Blidstein was a member the Israel Academy of the Sciences and the 2006 Israel Prize laureate in the category of Jewish thought. Prof. Blidstein specialized in rabbinic thought, both legal and midrashic, in all periods, with a particular emphasis on the thought of Maimonides. He was a model scholar, an excellent teacher and first-rate mentor for the many doctoral students who completed their dissertations under his supervision. He was also the ideal colleague, always ready to help all who turned to him in any way he could. He was an inspiration to all of us, and without doubt the heart of the Goldstein-Goren Department for Jewish Thought at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. In addition, He was the founding head of the Goldstein-Goren International Center for Jewish Thought. His presence is sorely missed by all members of the department, and we are sure by all who knew him. It is only fitting that we devote this issue to his memory. The editors From Technique to Consciousness: Notes on the Development of Esoteric Writing in Twelfth-Century Jewish Thought Dov Schwartz Bar-Ilan University Abstract During the twelfth century, Jewish thinkers began using an esoteric technique in their writing, concealing their views under a textual cover. In fact, they created two meanings for the text: one overt and one covert. The article argues that they did so unreflectively at first, without signs of awareness. A consciousness of esoteric writing took shape during the twelfth century and the article shows how, with this growing awareness, concealment techniques became richer. Should a theological or philosophical text written within a religious context necessarily be consistent? Should it be free of contradictions? Certainly not, and especially when it deals with issues the thinker considers abstract, loaded, touching on the most delicate questions of true faith and transcending easily understandable matters. The contradictions of authors who have produced outstanding works may be assumed to be deliberate rather than due to negligence since, from these writers’ perspective, they are directly concerned with immortality or, God forbid, with annihilation and disappearance. These are issues that determine whether humans will reach communion with God or be rejected and estranged. Tensions and sensitivities prevalent in the religious world only further ambiguous writing. In this article, I examine strains and inconsistencies deliberately used by considering several techniques of inconsistencies and intentional contradictions in twelfth-century Jewish thought, particularly in the writings of Judah Halevi and Maimonides. I intend to show how esoteric writing moved from the reality of a work based on contradictions to one that explicitly details its own contradictory nature. In other words, I want to show how esoteric writing shifted from practice to consciousness. I will first remark briefly on the characteristics of esoteric writing in the Middle Ages. Jewish Thought 2 (2020): 9-33 Dov Schwartz Introduction Findings of studies on esoteric writing in medieval Jewish thought enable us to re-examine this literary and philosophical issue from a more mature and even reflective perspective.
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