Kabbalah: An Introduction to Jewish Mysticism

Nathaniel Berman Cogut Center for the Humanities Spring 2016

(draft 1/20/16)

In the 12th and 13th centuries, new ways of approaching Judaism sprung up in France and Spain that would come to be known as “kabbalah.” These new approaches expressed aspirations for mystical illumination and elaborated vast mythological narratives about divine and demonic beings, as well as about human history. The kabbalists radically and self-consciously departed from the then-conventional understandings of Judaism, particularly those of medieval Aristotelian philosophers like Maimonides. However, they also claimed to find their new mythological and mystical worldviews in the texts of the tradition, from the Bible through the vast corpus of rabbinic writings. This course will introduce students to kabbalah through looking at its founding period, with a focus on primary texts (in translation), especially the Zohar, the magnum opus of classical kabbalah. No prior background necessary – all primary texts will be read in translation.

Course requirements: 1) class participation (20% of final grade); 2) one in-class presentation (10%); and 3) either a final 15-20 page paper (70% of grade) or a 6-8 page paper due at the mid-term (25%) and a 9-12 page paper due during finals week (45%).

Readings: - Books to be Purchased: Joseph Dan, Kabbalah: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford U. Press, 2007) Arthur Green, A Guide to the Zohar (Princeton U. Press 2002) Gershom Scholem, On the Mystical Shape of the Godhead: Basic Concepts in the Kabbalah (New York: Schocken, 1997) - All other readings will be posted on Canvas

- Note: passages from primary texts will all be in translation and posted on Canvas - Note: if necessary, we may hold class during the first Monday of reading period (5/2)

Session I: Introduction - The Kabbalistic Difference - Passages from the Bible, the Talmud, Maimonides, and the Zohar on God and Language - Zohar II:94b-95a, II:99a-b – ‘The Old Man and the Princess in the Tower’

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Session II: Overview of Kabbalah in the History of Judaism - Eugene R. Borowitz, "Judaism: An Overview," from The Encyclopedia of Religion (1987) - Joseph Dan, Kabbalah: A Very Short Introduction (2007), pp. 3-61 - Arthur Green, “Introduction,” Zohar: The Pritzker Edition (2003) - Cave Stories: o Plato, The Republic, ‘The Myth of the Cave’ (excerpt) o Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Shabbat, 33b - ‘Rabbi Shimon’s Cave’, o Zohar I:11a - ‘Rabbi Shimon’s Jewel’, o Zohar I:15a - ‘The Breakthrough of Light’

Session III: Mysticism and Mythology - Gershom Scholem, “General Characteristics of Jewish Mysticism,” from Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1940), Lecture I - Mircea Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane (1956) (excerpts) - Gershom Scholem, “Kabbalah and Myth,” from On the Kabbalah and its Symbolism, pp. 87-118 - Recommended: Pamela Anderson, “Myth, Mimesis and Multiple Identities: Feminist Tools for Transforming Theology” (1996) - Zohar, I 88a, II:87b, III:34a - ‘The Widow and the Prophet’ - Moshe Cordovero, Pardes Rimonim (1548), 8:20 Session IV: Introduction to the Zohar - Arthur Green, A Guide to the Zohar (2003), pp. 63-99, 159-190 - Gershom Scholem, “The Theosophic Doctrine of the Zohar,” in Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1940), Lecture VI - Melila Hellner-Eshed, A River Flows from Eden: The Language of Mystical experience in the Zohar, (2005, 2009), 1-28 - Zohar I:117a-b – ‘A Book in the Cave’; Zohar II:13a-b – ‘A Book in the Cave’; Tikune Ha-Zohar, 23b-24a – ‘The Revelation of the Zohar and Redemption’; Tikune Ha-Zohar, 1a – ‘ “And the Enlightened Shall Shine as the Zohar of the Heavens” ’

Session V: The Sefirot - Gershom Scholem, “Shi’ur Komah: The Mystical Shape of the Godhead,” from On the Mystical Shape of the Godhead (1962, 1991), pp. 15-56 - Arthur Green, A Guide to the Zohar, pp. 3-60 - Zohar III:70a – ‘Ten Crowns’; Zohar II:86a – ‘My Faces’; Zohar II:86b-87a – ‘Many Faces’; I:50b-51a – ‘The Unity of the Candle’ - Sefer Tikkune Ha-Zohar, 17a-b - ‘The Sefirot and the Body (“Elijah Opened”)’ - Moshe Cordovero, Pardes Rimonim, I:4:6 - ‘Commentary on “Elijah Opened”’

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Session VI: The “Sh’ma,” the Holy Family, and the Divine Wedding - Maimonides (12th century), “The Thirteen Principles,” from Introduction to the Commentary on the Mishnah, Tractate Sanhedrin - Zohar, III:110a (Ra’ya Mehemna) – ‘The Son of Yah’; I:27b (Tikkune Ha- Zohar) – ‘The Divine Family’; III:77b – ‘The Divine Bride and Groom’; III:290b – ‘The Divine Father and Mother’

Session VII: The Divine Feminine – the Shekhinah and the Great Mother - Isaiah Tishby, Wisdom of the Zohar, I:371-389 - Gershom Scholem, “Shekhinah – the Feminine Element in Divinity,” from On the Mystical Shape of the Godhead (1962, 1991), pp. 140-197 - Sefer Ha-Bahir (12th century), sections 63, 78, 132, 162 – ‘The Daughter of the King’ - Zohar III:98a-b – ‘The Great Mother and the Divine Wedding’; Zohar III:98a- b – ‘The Great Shofar’; Zohar II:184a-b – ‘The Upper World and the Lower World’; Zohar Eichah – ‘Mourning the Mother’ - Recommended: Ellen Davina Haskell, Suckling at My Mother's Breasts: The Image of a Nursing God in Jewish Mysticism (2012) (excerpt) Session VIII: The Demonic Realm - Isaiah Tishby, Wisdom of the Zohar, 447-474 - Joseph Dan, “Samael and the Problem of Jewish Gnosticism” (1994) - Sefer Ha-Bahir, 162 – ‘God Has an Attribute Whose Name is Evil’ - Isaac Ha-Kohen (13th century), Treatise on the Left Emanation (excerpt) - Zohar, I:147a – ‘The Demonic Emerges From Smoke’; II:242b-243a – ‘From the Dregs of Wine’; III:48b-49b – ‘The Emergence and Reform of the Devil’; III:41b – ‘Parallel Structures’ - Suggested: Elliot Wolfson, “Light through Darkness: The Ideal of Human Perfection in the Zohar” (1988)

Session IX: Creation /Emanation/Revelation … and the Emergence of Conflict - Isaiah Tishby, Wisdom of the Zohar, I:269-307 - Zohar, I:1a-1b – ‘The Rose and the Saplings’ - Isaiah Tishby, Wisdom of the Zohar, 230-256 - Zohar, II:167a – ‘ “And there was light” ’; II:128a, 135 – ‘The Death of the Kings of Edom’ - Suggested: Elliot Wolfson, “Left Contained in the Right: A Study in Zoharic Hermeneutics” (1986)

Session X: Theurgy - Moshe Idel, “Ancient Jewish Theurgy” and “Kabbalistic Theurgy,” from Kabbalah: New Perspectives (1990), 156-199 - Joseph Gikatila (13th century), Sha’arei Tsedek, 4b – ‘ “If They Had Not Received the Torah, the Sefirot Would Have No Unity” ’

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- Joseph Gikatila, Sha’arei Orah, 37b-38a - ‘Unifying the Sefirot’ - Moses de Leon (13th century), Sefer Ha-Rimon, p. 98-99 – ‘Augmenting the Divine’ - Zohar, II:216a – ‘Unifying the Divine Limbs’; I:4b-5a – ‘Creating a New Heaven and a New Earth’; I:116a – ‘ “And David Made the Name” ’; I:134b – ‘Human Action Sustains the Cosmos’; III:113a-b – ‘As Though He Made Me’, III:222a-b Session XI: The Aftermath of the Zohar and Concluding Stories - Arthur Green, A Guide to the Zohar, 101-150 - Joseph Dan, Kabbalah: A Very Short Introduction, pp. 63-112 - Zohar, II:14a-b – ‘Rabbi Ḥiyya’s Initiation’ - Rabbi Naḥman of Bratslav, “The Lost Princess”

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