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The Mystification of Kabbalah: Abraham Abulafia in Contemporary Kabbalah

Boaz Huss

in Mystifying Kabbalah: Academic Scholarship, National Theology, and New Age Spirituality

This chapter examines how the application of the category of “mysticism” to Kabbalah and Hasidism shaped the image and practice of Kabbalah among the broader public. Subjugation of the Kabbalah to ... More

This chapter examines how the application of the category of “mysticism” to Kabbalah and Hasidism shaped the image and practice of Kabbalah among the broader public. Subjugation of the Kabbalah to the category of mysticism led to an emphasis on Kabbalistic phenomena that were similar to what was perceived as mysticism, for example, reports of visions, ascension to other worlds, and union with God. Researchers assumed ecstatic visions and experiences underlay Kabbalistic texts, even when the text did not mention them. The chapter focuses on analyzing how the hegemonic perception of Kabbalah as “Jewish mysticism” led to a growing interest in the writings of the thirteenth-century Kabbalist Avraham Abulafia and to his description as the Jewish “mystic” par excellence. Despite Abulafia’s rejection from the traditional Kabbalistic canon, he became a current Kabbalistic cultural hero.Less

Abraham Abulafia and Ecstatic Kabbalah

Moshe Idel

in Kabbalah in Italy, 1280-1510: A Survey

This chapter focuses on Abraham Abulafia, the founder of the ecstatic trend of Kabbalah. In 1270, he began to study Kabbalah in Barcelona, perhaps as the result of a revelation. From 1271 to 1273 he ... More

This chapter focuses on Abraham Abulafia, the founder of the ecstatic trend of Kabbalah. In 1270, he began to study Kabbalah in Barcelona, perhaps as the result of a revelation. From 1271 to 1273 he was teaching his Kabbalah and his special, mystical understanding of Maimonides' Guide to some Kabbalists in Castile. At the end of 1273 or early 1274 he left Spain, and for the next five years he attempted to teach his special type of mysticism in Greece: in Patros, Thebes, and Evripos. In 1280 he made an unsuccessful effort to meet Pope Nicholas III while the latter was in retreat in the castle of Soriano, near Rome. When Abulafia arrived at the castle, the pope suddenly died of apoplexy, and as a result Abulafia was imprisoned for two weeks in Rome by the Minorite Franciscans.Less

Ecstatic Kabbalah from the Fourteenth Through Mid-Fifteenth Centuries

Moshe Idel

in Kabbalah in Italy, 1280-1510: A Survey

This chapter describes how the kabbalistic writings of Abraham Abulafia and Menahem Recanati did not only survive in manuscripts but excited interest in the various forms of Jewish mystical lore ... More

This chapter describes how the kabbalistic writings of Abraham Abulafia and Menahem Recanati did not only survive in manuscripts but excited interest in the various forms of Jewish mystical lore among later generations of Kabbalists in several centers of Jewish culture, especially in Italy and the Byzantine Empire, though almost not at all in the Iberian peninsula. Thus, although there was no pure school of either Abulafia or Recanati that continued their teachings in their pristine form, both thinkers exerted substantial and distinctive influences upon other Kabbalists. In the case of Recanati, both the numerous manuscripts of his writings surviving in Italy and his family's preservation of his oeuvre indicate his centrality in the development of Kabbalah in this Jewish center of culture.Less

Abraham Abulafia the Mystic and His Theory and Technique

Shahar Arzy and Moshe Idel

in Kabbalah: A Neurocognitive Approach to Mystical Experiences

Appendix B provides information about the main mystical figure in this book, Abraham Abulafia.