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A Jewish Response to Christian Kabbalah

Yaacob Dweck

in The Scandal of Kabbalah: Leon Modena, Jewish Mysticism, Early Modern Venice

This chapter examines Modena's outrage at the appropriation of Kabbalah by Christians, particularly Pico della Mirandola. It looks at Modena's effort to separate Christian Kabbalah from Jewish ... More

This chapter examines Modena's outrage at the appropriation of Kabbalah by Christians, particularly Pico della Mirandola. It looks at Modena's effort to separate Christian Kabbalah from Jewish theology and to redefine Kabbalah as a uniquely Jewish realm of thought. Modena objected to Christian Kabbalah for a variety of reasons similar to his opposition to Jewish Kabbalah: it was a recent innovation, and the attempt to argue for its antiquity defied both reason and textual evidence. In the very same passages, however, Modena objected to Christian Kabbalah for the simple fact that it was Christian. Ultimately, in criticizing Christian Kabbalah as a perversion of a specifically Jewish set of esoteric secrets, Modena adopted a protectionist and proprietary attitude toward a form of knowledge and set of practices he had spent considerable energy criticizing and had otherwise rejected.Less

Jewish Kabbalah in Christian Garb

Moshe Idel

in Kabbalah in Italy, 1280-1510: A Survey

This chapter begins with a dominant scholarly definition of Kabbalah that regards its crucial component as a concern with the ten divine powers, the ten sefirot. In line with this view, Jewish ... More

This chapter begins with a dominant scholarly definition of Kabbalah that regards its crucial component as a concern with the ten divine powers, the ten sefirot. In line with this view, Jewish Kabbalah emerged in Languedoc in the last decades of the twelfth century, and Christian Kabbalah in the final decades of the thirteenth. However, if we turn to another way of defining Kabbalah, found already in the eleventh century, as an esoteric tradition concerning the divine names, the situation becomes much more complex. Some passages dealing with divine names recur in Christian texts early in the thirteenth century, in the discussions of Joachim de Fiore. At the end of the same century and early in the next, Arnauld of Villanova wrote a whole treatise dealing with the divine name. Whether this treatise reflects the impact of Abraham Abulafia's Kabbalah remains to be investigated.Less

Prisca Theologia: R. Isaac Abravanel, Leone Ebreo, and R. Elijah Hayyim of Genazzano

Moshe Idel

in Kabbalah in Italy, 1280-1510: A Survey

This chapter focuses on the emergence of Christian Kabbalah, with its missionary goals, and how it prompted a more negative attitude toward Jewish Kabbalah among several Jewish authors. One topic ... More

This chapter focuses on the emergence of Christian Kabbalah, with its missionary goals, and how it prompted a more negative attitude toward Jewish Kabbalah among several Jewish authors. One topic central to the understanding of Kabbalah in this period, which preoccupied many Renaissance scholars, was the concept of prisca theologia, the belief in the existence of an “ancient theology” whose basic tenets manifested themselves in various religious and philosophical doctrines under different nomenclatures. This chapter analyzes several statements that reveal a concordance between Jewish and other forms of traditions, and discusses the significance of that concordance. This discussion establishes the likelihood that Jews were acquainted with Christian discussions stemming from Renaissance sources, integrated them, and adapted them to their own purposes.Less

The Recurring Nightmare, the Elusive Secret: Historical and Imaginary Roots of Sex Magic in the Western Tradition

Hugh B. Urban

in Magia Sexualis: Sex, Magic, and Liberation in Modern Western Esotericism

This chapter provides a brief overview of the background of sexual magic in the West, both in its imaginary forms and in its more concrete historical roots. It explains that since at least the time ... More

This chapter provides a brief overview of the background of sexual magic in the West, both in its imaginary forms and in its more concrete historical roots. It explains that since at least the time of the Gnostic heresies, there has been a recurring fear throughout Western history which links illicit sexuality with black magic and social subversion. The chapter discusses the more credible historical roots of modern sexual magic in ancient Greek love magic, the sexual symbolism of the Jewish Kabbalah and Renaissance magic, and the erotic mysticism of Emanuel Swedenborg, and also analyzes the relevant works of P. B. Randolph, Theodor Reuss, and Aleister Crowley.Less

Printing and the Career of the Slavonic Text

in All the Names of the Lord: Lists, Mysticism, and Magic

Given the scant documentation, any speculation about the specific channels by which the Jewish Kabbalah may have influenced Christian communities prior to the European Renaissance remains ... More

Given the scant documentation, any speculation about the specific channels by which the Jewish Kabbalah may have influenced Christian communities prior to the European Renaissance remains conjectural. What it knows for certain is that the teachings of the Kabbalah and, by extension, the theory of the Name of seventy two, became known to the Christian world no earlier than the end of the fifteenth century. That period coincided with the Kabbalah's internal transformation from an esoteric system into an exoteric teaching, when, in the words of Moshe Idel, it “became more a lore that promoted the production of secrets, than a custodian of secret lore.” The enthusiasm with which Europe embraced the opportunity to dabble in the Kabbalistic secrets, however, was conditioned by phenomena that had little to do with the Kabbalah itself.Less