Abraham Abulafia

Foreword by Shlomo Pines As is understood by the thirteenth-century mystic Abraham Abulafia, Kabbalah is not primarily a form of gnosis or theosophy. In effect, his view has nothing in common with the Sephirotic Kabbalah, whose object is the penetration of the structure of Divine being and the processes occurring therein. With the help of his profound erudition, Moshe Idel has devoted patient and exhaustive study to the analysis of the extant material from the voluminous Abulafian corpus. He concludes that the mystical technique, experiences, and doctrines of this author are focused upon the human being and his upward progress along the path leading to prophetic-mystical ecstasy. This description leaves the reader with a clear sense of the disparity among the elements composing the corpus in question. Idel begins by discussing the senses of sight and hearing of the mystic in a state of extasy and the techniques enabling him to reach this state. He observes that the processes spoken of here which have parallels in Yoga (i.e., in its breathing excercises) and the Greek hesychasm: namely, the peculiar importance given to the pronunciation of Divine Names. All of these have no bearing upon the theoretical basis of Abulafia's thought, a structure which, at least in terms of its terminology, betrays philsophical influence. There is no doubt that it was a powerful mystical impulse which led Abulafia as commentator of the Guide for the Perplexed to declare in the same work that a certain technique, x consisting of the permutations of Hebrew letters composing certain words, is far superior to the cognitive path recommended by the philosophers as a means of apprehending and cleaving to the Active Intellect (i.e., the supreme goal of the Aristotelians). The cognition spoken about by Abulafia is one which is easily obscured by the imagination. Essentially, both Maimonides and, even more emphatically, Abulafia, understand the imagination as opposed to the intellect. On the other hand, Abulafia's thought regarding imagination, like that of Maimonides, entails a certain unacknowledged ambivalence. It is inconceivable that Abulafia thought, in contradistinction to Maimonides, that the imagination played no role whatsoever in the visual and aural experience of the prophets, an experience which he understood as one of mystical ecstasy. While Maimonides states that all the prophets are philosophers, and Avicenna, in the last work written before his death, articulates his belief that the prophets are mystics, Abulafia inverts Avicenna's statement: all the true mystics are, in his opinion, prophets. From this, the inevitable conclusion is that he himself was a prophet. PART I The Mystical Experience in Abraham Abulafia Introduction 1. The Question of Abulafia's Status In describing Hayyey ha- `01dm ha-Ba', one of the principal works of R. Abraham Abulafia, the noted mystic R. Hayyim Joseph David Azulai (1724-1807), better known as the Hid"a, wrote:' This is a book written by R. Abraham Abulafia, concerning the circle of the seventy-two letter [Divine] Name, which I saw on the manuscript parchment. And know that the Raba [R. Solomon ben Adret] in his Responsa, sec. 548,2 and Rabbi YaSar [R. Joseph Solomon del Medigo of Candia], in Sefer Mesdref leHokmdh, 3 expressed contempt toward him as one of the worthless people, or worse. However, I say that in truth I see him as a great rabbi, among the masters of secrets, and his name is great in Israel, and none may alter his words, for he is close to that book mentioned, and his right hand shall save him. These remarks of the Hid "a aptly summarize the problem involved in Abulafia's thought and his role in the development of the Kabbalah. To begin with, despite his greatness as a mystic, being "among the masters of secrets," he was fiercely attacked by the major halakhic figure of his generation, R. Solomon ben Abraham ibn Adret, and was placed under the ban. It follows from this that R. Azulai's words, "as one of the worthless people, or worse," were a deliberate understatement, intended to safeguard the honor of both Abulafia and his critics. The fact that Hayyey ha-`01dm ha-Btv remained in manuscript form until the eighteenth century would suggest that the effect of RaÂ§ba's ban had not worn off even then, or for that matter until our own day. Nevertheless, it seems to me that, between the final years 3 4 Introduction of the thirteenth century, when Abulafia was excommunicated by his opponent in Barcelona, and the seventeenth century, a striking change occurred in the status of the banned Kabbalist. A figure such as R. Azulai (Hid"a), who was expert in all dimensions of Jewish culture and who at the same time represented post- Sabbatian Kabbalistic thought in the East, did not hesitate to praise the man and to describe his system in glowing terms: "his name is great in Israel, and none may alter his words." Such a drastic changeâfrom excommunication to a position in the foremost ranks of Jewish mysticsâis indicative of an unprecedented phenomenon in the development of Jewish mysticism. The present study describes a central question in the vast corpus of R. Abraham Abulafia. The exploration of this questionâthe nature of the mystical experience and related mattersâwill clarify the importance of this Kabbalist within the framework of medieval Jewish mysticism, and assist our understanding of the ambivalent attitudes toward Abulafia in different periods. Who was Abraham Abulafia, and what was his uniqueness as a Kabbalist? The Mystical Experience in Abraham Abulafia 5 Spain and traveled to the land of Israel in search of the mythical River Sambatyon. However, the battle between the Mamelukes and the Tatars in Eyn-Harod brought an abortive end to Abulafia's Palestinian travels in the city of Acre. He returned to Europe via Greece, where he was married, and after a few years went on to Italy. There, in Capua, he studied philosophy and especially the Guide for the Perplexed with R. Hillel of Verona, and after some time returned to Catalonia. In 1270 he had a vision, in which he was commanded to meet with the pope. During that same period, and possibly in the same place, he began to study the Kabbalah, which he had earlier opposed, his studies being concentrated primarily on the commentaries of Sefer Yesirdh. From Catalonia he traveled to Castile, where he taught the Guide to R. Joseph Gikatilla and R. Moses b. Simeon of Burgos, two of the leading Castillian Kabbalists during the 1270's and 1280's. After leaving Castile, he spent the next several yearsâapparently the entire second half of the 1270'sâwandering about, possibly going as far as France. At the end of the decade he again taught the Guide in the Greek cities of Thebes and Patros, and in 1279 returned to the Italian city of Capua, where he continued to teach the works of Maimonides. Because of his peculiar method of studying the Guide, based on combinations of letters and similar linguistic techniques, as well as his messianic statements about his intention to meet with the pope, he was persecuted by his fellow Jews. At the end of the Hebrew calendar year 5040 (i.e., Fall 1280), he attempted to meet with Pope Nicholas III, who rejected these overtures. While the pope was still in his vacation palace in Soriano, near Rome, Abulafia made a daring attempt to evade the pope's threats to burn him at the stake, and arrived at the castle. However, soon after his arrival the pope suddenly died, thus saving Abulafia from a certain death. 2. Abulafia's Life Unlike many other Kabbalists who preceded him or were his contemporaries, Abulafia provided extensive details regarding his life. These are quite numerous, and have not yet been discussed in a detailed biography of Abulafia's life; this subject will be discussed elsewhere. In this context I shall present only the basic information concerning Abulafia's life, based exclusively upon the testimony contained in his own writings.4 Abraham was born in the Hebrew calendar year 5000 (1240 C.E.) in Saragossa in the province of Aragon to his father, Samuel; the family moved to Tudela, where Abulafia continued to study with his father until the death of the latter, when he was a young man of eighteen years. Two years later, Abulafia left 6 Introduction The Mystical Experience in Abraham Abulafia 7 After a brief period of imprisonment in Rome by the "Little Brothers"âthe MinoritesâAbulafia left the Apennine Peninsula, arriving in Sicily in the year 1281, where he continued his literary and messianic activities. He succeeded in establishing not only a circle of students and admirers who "moved at his command," but apparently also opponents. His prophetic and messianic pretensions evidently caused the leaders of the island to turn to R. Solomon ben Abraham ben Adret (ca. 1235-ca. 1310, known as Ragba) for instructions as to how to deal with this personality; and ibn Adret, who was both an halakhic sage and a Kabbalist, began an all-out war against Abulafia. Even if his letters against the ecstatic kabbalist did not always find a sympathetic ear among Abulafia's many disciples in Sicily, there is no doubt that Abulafia's status was nevertheless severely damaged, and he was forced to go into exile on the island of Comtino, near Sicily, at least for a brief period. The polemic between Abulafia and ibn Adret continued throughout the second half of the 1280's and concluded, insofar as we can tell, with Abulafia's death toward the end of the year 1291.

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