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This chapter traces the range of kabbalistic customs, books, and teachings that were promoted by Ezekiel Landau as a result of his kabbalistic orientation. It outlines Landau's view on the kabbalah as the key to understanding the inner truth of the aggadah, in which he espouses the pedagogic importance of knowing kabbalistic concepts and offers kabbalistic readings of enigmatic agadot. It also discusses Landau's kabbalistic worldview that extends beyond the theoretical and affects his opinions and recommendations in the realm of praxis. The chapter looks back at the approbation of Moses ben Jekuthiel Zalman's Magid Mishnah as a commentary on the first volume of the Lurianic Mishnat Hasidim. It highlights the confused state of Lurianic writings and the tremendous contribution of Moses ben Jekuthiel towards alleviating the problem.

This chapter traces Ezekiel Landau's Prague works that incorporate kabbalistic teachings related to the soul, such as gilgul neshamot and ibur. It reviews Landau's Prague homilies and commentaries that are replete with kabbalistic concepts concerning demonic spirits and the afterlife. It also investigates writings, other Prague sources, and recent research on popular Jewish and non-Jewish culture in pre-modern Europe, which reveal that the Jews of Prague were obsessed with notions concerning the satanic realm, the soul, and the idea that invisible demons cause suffering. The chapter recounts how the themes on demons and the afterlife played a prominent role in the spiritual life and outlook of Prague Jews in numerous eighteenth-century eastern and central European communities. It discusses Landau's mythic and daring remarks concerning the soul and the demonic that predicated his mystical understanding of these entities.

This chapter shows how, during the period beginning in the latter part of the seventeenth century, works that popularized kabbalistic ideas in homiletic and ethical treatises and in regimens of daily life appeared in substantial numbers. This reflected the significant increase in interest in popular kabbalistic teachings at precisely this time. This increased interest generated a growing market for the large number of books of conduct and other works informed by kabbalistic teachings that were published in these years. And the literature itself served to stimulate further interest in popular kabbalah. Many of the publications in question were essentially inexpensive pamphlets written in accessible language and guiding the reader through prayer services and rituals associated with the life cycle. All these were imbued with mystical significance. In this way the individual could feel privy to the esoteric realm and attain the conviction that they were indeed acting in accordance with God’s will. Moreover, the spread of this popular literature created a constituency for the emerging kabbalistic elite.