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University of Minnesota |
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Classical and Near Eastern Studies |
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Center for Jewish Studies |
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Jewish Mysticism, Magic, and Kabbalah |
![Text Box: Jewish Mysticism, Magic, and Kabbalah
Course Overview
This course is designed to provide an introduction to the mystical and magical tradition in Judaism. We treat the origins of mysticism in the Bible and ancient Judaism, the flowering of mysticism in the medieval period, the origins and development of the Kabbalah, and modern forms of mysticism, such as Hasidism. We also explore the intersection of the mystical tradition with magical phenomena and messianic movements. Topics that will be discussed include prophecy and visionary activity, mystical approaches to secret knowledge, traditions of heavenly ascent, magical techniques, Kabbalistic ideas of divine knowledge and emanation, the origins of evil, the erotic dimension in Kabbalah, and the diffusion of Kabbalah in popular American culture. Throughout, students engage with the Jewish mystical and magical tradition through close reading and discussion of the central primary mystical and magical texts of Judaism.
Textbooks
J. H. Laenen, Jewish Mysticism: An Introduction (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001). [not at bookstore; order from www.amazon.com, www.bn.com, www.fetchbook.info]
All other readings will be posted on WebCT
Course Requirements
Midterm exam (25%) [Mar 2]
Final exam (25%)
Study Questions Responses (20%)
Final Analytical Paper (20%) [May 4]
Participation and attendance (10%)
Writing Assignments (follow links for assignments)
There will be two writing components for this course:
Study Questions Responses
For several of the readings throughout the semester, I will be providing you with a set of study questions to consider while preparing the primary texts. These questions are intended to help you understand the complex material and will provide a foundation for our class discussion. You are expected to come to class with a typed response to these questions (1-2 pages). I will collect them in class. They will be graded as full-credit (thoughtful responses), half-credit, or no credit. They cannot be turned in late or via email. There will be 12 of these assignments. The dates are indicated on the class schedule. The questions will be posted on WebCT.
Final Analytical Paper
There will be a short research paper that is due at the end of the semester. You will choose the topic for the paper in consultation with me. While the general topic is open, your paper should be focused on close analysis of a small sampling of Jewish mystical and/or magical texts. You will be expected to analyze closely these texts and draw upon modern scholarly literature in your paper. We will discuss the paper in greater detail as the semester progresses.
Due Date: May 4 (in class)
Length: 3115: 1800-2100 words; 5112: 2100-2400 words.
You are required to turn in a paper proposal by March 19 that will include a topic and the specific texts you will analyze, a bibliography of relevant secondary sources, and a general outline of your paper. This counts toward your final grade.
We will devote some class-time to discussing research methods and writings techniques.
Submissions Procedures
All papers will be submitted in a hard copy in class and as an electronic file uploaded to www.turnitin.com. This site provides protection to you, to your work, and the grades assigned by confirming that the essay avoids overlap with any material on the web. It provides instructors with “originality reports” for each essay. It also protects your papers from any subsequent unauthorized reuse by third parties (detailed instructions to follow).
Campus Writing Resources
There are resources on campus to assist with writing. These services are not only for students who require assistance with grammar or organization; they are recommended for strong writers who wish to learn how to write even more effectively. Please consult: Student Writing Center, 15 Nicholson Hall http://writing.umn.edu/sws/index.htm
Difference between 3112/5112
Undergraduates should normally register for this class at the 3112 level. Advanced seniors and graduate students should register at the 5112 level. Students registered at the 5112 levels have higher expectations in writing assignments (including exams), with regard to requirements, length, written ability, and format. For the final paper, 5112 level students are expected to display a more thorough engagement with secondary scholarship (detailed instructions to follow).
Attendance
Students are expected to attend all class sessions. Students are expected to come to each class with the assigned readings and any writing assignments completed. If you have specific questions related to the readings, please come to class prepared to ask these questions. This will improve your own understanding and that of your classmates. Attendance and active participation in class discussions is essential to successful completion of the other course requirements. If you miss a class due to illness, please let me know before class and then contact a fellow student to find out what you missed.
Late Work
All late work will be dropped one third of a letter grade per late class day. Please contact me prior to due date if extenuating circumstances arise.
Grading
Final course grades will be assigned according to the following scale: 100-93=A, 92-90=A-, 89-87=B+, 86-83=B, 82-80=B-, 79-77=C+, 76-73=C, 72-70=C-, 69-60=D, 59-0=F. (S/N: S=70%). A passing grade will only be given if all course work is completed.
Academic Integrity and Plagiarism
All student work is expected to represent the independent thinking and research of each student. All students are expected to abide by the University of Minnesota’s academic code. Scholastic dishonesty is defined by CLA as follows:
“Scholastic dishonesty is any act that violates the rights of another student with respect to academic work or that involves misrepresentation of a student’s own work. Scholastic dishonesty includes (but is not limited to) cheating on assignments or examinations, plagiarizing (misrepresenting as one’s own anything done by another), submitting the same or substantially similar papers (or creative work) for more than one course without consent of all instructors concerned, depriving another of necessary course materials, and sabotaging another’s work.” http://advisingtools.class.umn.edu/cgep/studentconduct.html
Any violations of this academic code will be dealt with according to the University’s guidelines:
“Academic dishonesty in any portion of the academic work for a course shall be grounds for awarding a grade of F or N for the entire course.”
http://www1.umn.edu/usenate/policies/grades&acadwork.html
We will spend some class time discussing proper ways to draw upon secondary scholarship and how to forge your own independent thinking in dialogue with earlier scholarship.
Student with Disabilities
Any student with a documented disability condition (e.g., physical, learning, psychiatric, systemic, vision, hearing, etc.) who needs to arrange reasonable accommodations should contact me and Disability Services at the beginning of the semester. Students should first contact Disability Services at 180 McNamara Alumni Center (612-626-1333). For further information, see: http://ds.umn.edu/
Class Schedule
All readings will be available on WebCT.
All readings should be done by the date on which they are listed (items should be read in the order they are listed).
Always bring your primary text readings to class with you (primary texts are indicated by the bulleted items).
Schedule is subject to modification.
January 17 – Introduction to the Course
January 19 – Defining Mysticism and Magic
Readings:
James R. Davila, Descenders to the Chariot: The People Behind the Hekhalot Literature (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2001), 24-42.
David Ariel, Kabbalah: The Mystic Quest in Judaism (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006), 1-21.
Moshe Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988), xi-xx.
January 22 – The Development of Jewish Mysticism and Magic
Readings:
Ariel, Mystic Quest, 23-42.
Elliot Wolfson, “Varieties of Jewish Mysticism: A Typological Analysis,” in Mysticism and the Mystical Experience (ed. D.H. Biship: Selinsgrove: Suquehanna University Press, 1995), 133-69.
Michael D. Swartz, “Jewish Magic in Late Antiquity,” in Cambridge History of Judaism, vol. 4, the Late Roman-Rabbinic Period (ed. S.T. Katz: Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 699-720.
January 24 – Prophecy and Visions in the Hebrew Bible
Study Questions due
Readings:
Isaiah 6; Ezekiel 1; 1 Samuel 10; Exodus 33:12-23.
Jon D. Levenson, “The Jerusalem Temple in Devotional and Visionary Experience,” in Jewish Spirituality, v. 1, From the Bible through the Middle Ages (New York: Crossroad, 1986), 32-61.
J. Lindblom, Prophecy in Ancient Israel (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1967), 299- 311.
January 26 – Apocalyptic Literature and Visionary Ascent
Readings:
1 Enoch 12-16; Daniel 7
Michael Mach, “From Apocalypticism to Early Jewish Mysticism,” in The Encyclopedia of Apocalypticism (ed. J.J. Collins; London: Routledge, 1998), 1:193-228.
January 29 – Dead Sea Scrolls I: The Divine Chariot and Angelic Communion at Qumran
Readings:
“Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice” in Michael Wise, Martin Abegg, and Edward Cook, The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated (2d ed.; San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2005), 462-81.
Philip Alexander, The Mystical Texts (London: T. & T. Clark, 2006), 5-11, 93-119.
Rachel Elior, The Three Temples: On the Emergence of Jewish Mysticism (Oxford Littman Library, 2005), 63-81.
January 31 – No Class
February 2 – Dead Sea Scrolls II: Looking for Mysticism at Qumran
Study Questions due
Readings:
“Hymn of Glorification” A (4Q491) and B (4Q471b) in Geza Vermes, The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English (London: Penguin, 2004), 342-43.
4Q427 7 (parallel text from the “Thanksgiving Hymns”) in Vermes, Dead Sea Scrolls, 303-4.
Alexander, The Mystical Texts, 86-89.
Bilhah Nitzan, “Harmonic and Mystical Characteristics in Poetic and Liturgical Writings from Qumran,” Jewish Quarterly Review 85 (1994): 163-83.
Elliot Wolfson, “Mysticism and the Poetic-Liturgical Compositions from Qumran: A Response to Bilhah Nitzan,” Jewish Quarterly Review 85 (1994): 185-202.
February 5 – Other Forms of Ancient Judaism: Early Christianity and Philo
Readings:
1 Corinthians 12:1-9.
Philo, The Special Laws 1.32-51 in Lawrence Schiffman, Texts and Traditions: A Source Reader for the Study of Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism (New York: Ktav, 1998), 224-26.
Dan Cohn-Sherbok, Jewish Mysticism: An Anthology (Oxford: One World, 1998), 56-59.
Alan F. Segal, “Paul and the Beginning of Jewish Mysticism,” in Death, Ecstasy, and Other Wordly Journeys (ed. J.J. Collins and M. Fishbane; Albany: SUNY Press, 1995), 95-122.
David Winston, “Philo’s Mysticism,” Studia Philonica Annual 8 (1996): 74-82.
February 7 – Introducing Jewish Mysticism in Late Antiquity: Rabbis and Others
Study Questions due
Readings:
“Four Who Entered the King’s Orchard” in Louis Jacobs, Jewish Mystical Testimonies (New York: Schocken, 1997), 29-34.
Same story as told in Hekhalot Zurtati §345
Responsum of R. Hai Gaon (d. 1038) concerning explanation of above story.
Martin S. Jaffee, Early Judaism: Religious Worlds of the First Judaic Millennium (2d ed.; Bethesda: University Press of Maryland, 2006), 158-64, 230-47.
February 9 – Mystical Literature of Late Antiquity: the Hekhalot Literature
Readings:
“Visions of Ezekiel,” in David R. Blumenthal, Understanding Jewish Mysticism: The Merkabah Tradition and the Zoharic Tradition (2 vols.; New York: Ktav, 1978), 1.47-51.
Laenen, 17-37.
Joseph Dan, “Three Types of Ancient Jewish Mysticism: An Introduction,” in Jewish Mysticism (4 vols.; Northvale: Aaronson, 1998), 1.27-70.
February 12 – Hekhalot II: Descent to the Chariot
Study Questions due
Readings:
Hekhalot Rabbati in Blumenthal, Understanding Jewish Mysticism, 1.53-91.
Peter Schäfer, The Hidden and Manifest God: Some Major Themes in Early Jewish Mysticism (Albany: SUNY Press, 1992), 11-21, 37-45..
February 14 – Hekhalot III: In the Chariot Room
Readings:
Shiur Qomah in Pieter W. van der Horst, “The Measurement of the Body: A Chapter in the History of Ancient Jewish Mysticism,” in Effigies Dei: Essays on the History of Religions (ed. D. van der Flas: Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1987), 56-68.
Schäfer, The Hidden and Manifest God, 99-103
Look back at Dan, “Three Types,” 49-51.
February 16 – Hekhalot IV: Enoch, God, and Metatron
Study Questions due
Readings:
3 Enoch 1-16 in James H. Charlesworth, Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (2 vols.; New York: Doubleday, 1983), 1.255-68
Philip Alexander, “3 Enoch,” in The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ, vol. III.1 (ed. G. Vermes et al.; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1986), 269-75.
Look back at Dan, “Three Types,” 51-53.
Schäfer, The Hidden and Manifest God, 123-38.
February 19 – Hekhalot V: The Prince of the Torah
Readings:
Sar HaTorah passages from Michael D. Swartz, Scholastic Magic: Ritual and Revelation in Early Jewish Mysticism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), 60-67, 93-108
Jaffee, Early Judaism, 247-50.
Look back at Dan, “Three Types,” 64-74.
Rebecca Lesses, Ritual Practices to Gain Power: Angels, Incantations, and Revelation in Early Jewish Mysticism (Harrisburg: Trinity Press International 1998), 190-203
February 21 – Hekhalot VI: Cosmogony and the Magic of Words and Letters
Readings:
Sefer Yesira (“The Book of Creation”) in Blumenthal, Understanding Jewish Mysticism, 1.13-46.
Jaffee, Early Judaism, 250-59.
Look back at Dan, “Three Types,” 53-64.
Joseph Dan, “The Language of Creation and its Grammar,” in Jewish Mysticism, 1.129-54.
February 23 – Jewish Magic in Late Antiquity
Study Questions due
Readings:
Sefer ha-Razim (“The Book of Mysteries”) in Michael A. Morgan, Sepher Ha Razim = The Book of Mysteries (Chico: Scholars Press, 1983), 17-42.
Peter Schäfer, “Jewish Magic Literature in Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages,” Journal of Jewish Studies 41 (1990): 75-91.
Philip A. Alexander, “Sefer ha-Razim and the Problem of Black Magic in Early Judaism,” in Magic in the Biblical World: From the Rod of Aaron to the Seal of Solomon (ed. T.H. Klutz; London: T. & T. Clark, 2003), 170-90.
February 26 – More Jewish Magic
Readings:
“Sword of Moses” in M. Gaster, Studies and Texts in Folklore, Magic, Mediaeval Romance, Hebrew Apocrypha, and Samaritan Archaeology (New York: Ktav, 1971), 312-21.
Yuval Harari, “Moses, the sword, and ‘The Sword of Moses’ between rabbinical
and magical traditions,” Jewish Studies Quarterly 12 (2005): 293-329.
February 28 – Hekhalot in Perspective and Review for Midterm
No Reading!
March 2 – Midterm
March 5 – Bahir and the Emergence of Jewish Mysticism in Medieval Europe
Readings:
The Book Bahir in Joseph Dan and Ronald Kiener, The Early Kabbalah (New York: Paulist Press, 1986), 57-70
Laenen, 45-54, 84-92.
March 7 – The Origins and Meaning of the Sephirot
Study Questions due
Readings:
The Sefirot in Daniel Matt, Zohar: The Book of Enlightenment (New York: Paulist Press, 1983), 33-37
Ariel, Kabbalah, 65-94.
March 9 – Emergence of Kabbalah in Provence and Gerona
Readings:
Isaac the Blind and Azriel of Gerona in Dan and Kiener, The Early Kabbalah, 71-96.
Laenen, 92-104.
Gershom Scholem, Kabbalah (Jerusalem: Keter, 1974), 42-52.
March 13-15 – No Class (Spring Break)
March 19 – Other Currents in Early Kabbalah
Paper Proposal Due
Readings:
Iyyun Circle in Dan and Kiener, The Early Kabbalah, 43-56.
Eliezer of Worms in Louis Jacob, Jewish Mystical Testimonies (New York: Schocken, 1997), 61-70.
The Rokeah in Joseph Dan, The Heart and the Fountain (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 107-13.
Laenen 104-15.
Joseph Dan, “Mysticism and Ethics in the Ashkenazic Hasidic Movement,” in Jewish Mysticism and Jewish Ethics (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 19866), 45-75
March 21 – Abraham Abulafia and Ecstatic Kabbalah
Study Questions due
Readings:
“The Prophetic Mysticism of Abraham Abulafia” in Jacobs, Mystical Testimonies, 78-91.
Laenen 115-24.
Moshe Idel, The Mystical Experience of Abraham Abulafia (Albany: SUNY Press, 1988), 13-41.
March 23 – Abulafia Continued
Readings:
“On Prophecy,” in Jacobs, Mystical Testimonies, 71-78.
“An Apocalyptic Vision,” in Dan, The Heart and the Fountain, 121-27.
Idel, Mystical Experience, 73-100, 137-45.
March 26 – The Zohar: An Introduction
Readings:
Laenen 129-42.
Arthur Green, A Guide to the Zohar (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004), 63-98.
March 28 – Decoding the Zohar: An Exercise
Study Questions due
Readings:
Blumenthal, Understanding Jewish Mysticism, 1.113-25.
March 30 – The Human Soul in the Zohar
Readings:
“The Three Souls,” in Isaiah Tishby, The Wisdom of the Zohar (3 vols.; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), 2.723-48.
Scholem, Kabbalah, 152-65.
April 2-4 – No Class (Passover)
April 6 – Creation, God, and the Sephirot in the Zohar
Study Questions due
Readings:
Tishby, The Wisdom of the Zohar, 1.257-62, 265-68, 309-18.
Scholem, Kabbalah, 88-116.
April 9 – No Class (Passover)
April 11 – Good and Evil in the Zohar
Readings:
Tishby, The Wisdom of the Zohar, 2.475-82, 490-93, 494-96, 513-14, 526-28.
Gershom Scholem, “Sitra Ahra: Good and Evil in the Kabbalah,” in On the Mystical Shape of the Godhead (New York: Schocken, 1991), 56-87.
April 13 – No Class
April 16 – Sex, Gender, and the Feminine Aspect of the Divine in Kabbalah
Readings:
Tishby, The Wisdom of the Zohar, 1.398-99, 412-14; 3.1381-84, 1386-90, 1394-1400.
Ariel, Kabbalah, 95-11
Elliot Wolfson, “On Becoming Female: Crossing Gender Boundaries in Kabbalistic Ritual and Myth,” in Gender and Judaism; the Transformation of Tradition (ed. T.M. Rudavsky; New York: NYU Press, 1995), 209-28.
April 18 – Lurianic Kabbalah and the Reinterpretation of the Zohar
Readings:
“The Pious Customs of Isaac Luria,” on Lawrence Fine, Safed Spirituality (New York: Paulist Press, 1984), 65-80.
“Lurianic Prayerbook,” in Blumenthal, Understanding Jewish Mysticism, 1.169-80.
Laenen, 143-88.
April 20 – Creation, Redemption, and Messianism in Lurianic Kabbalah
Study Questions due
Readings:
“The Communication of the Heavenly Mentor to Rabbi Joseph Karo” in Jacobs, Mystical Testimonies, 122-51.
“The Visions of Rabbi Hayyim Vital,” in Jacobs, Mystical Testimonies, 152-66.
Scholem, Kabbalah, 128-44.
April 23 – Shabbetai Zevi: The Mystical Messiah
Readings
Letter of Nathan of Gaza (1673) in Gershom Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973), 202-3
Vision of Rabbi Abraham in Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi, 224-26.
A Sabbatian Letter from Aleppo, Syria in Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi, 257-58.
Shabbatai Zevi in Smyrna (1665) in Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi, 396-98.
Laenen, 189-201.
April 25 – The Kabbalistic Doctrine of Shabbetai Zevi
Readings:
Letter of Nathan of Gaza to Rabbi Raphael Joseph in Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi, 270-75.
Nathan of Gaza’s emendations to the Amidah in Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi, 294-95.
Nathan of Gaza on Job in Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi, 309-10.
Gershom Scholem, “Redemption through Sin,” in The Messianic Idea in Judaism (New York, Schocken, 1971), 78-141.
April 27 – The Emergence of Hasidic Judaism
Readings:
“The Mystical Epistle of the Ba’al Shem Tov,” in Jacobs, Mystical Testimonies, 182-91.
“The Zaddik and His Community,” in Blumenthal, Understanding Jewish Mysticism, 161-73, 187-89.
Laenen, 215-21
Rachel Elior, The Mystical Origins of Hasidism (Oxford: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2006), 1-10, 27-40.
April 30 – New Models of Mystical Piety in Hasidism
Study Questions due
Readings:
“The Hasidic Prayer Life,” in Blumenthal, Understanding Jewish Mysticism, 122-25, 132-41.
“The Mystical Prayer of Rabbi Israel Ba’al Shem Tov,” in Dan, The Heart and the Fountain, 231-37.
Laenen, 221-37
Louis Jacobs, “Hasidic Prayer,” in Gershon D. Hundert, Essential Papers on Hasidism: Origins to Present (New York: NYU Press, 1991), 330-62.
May 2 – Jewish Mysticism, Madonna, and New Age Kabbalah
Readings:
Browse through the Website of the Kabbalah Center (www.kabbalah.com)
Boaz Huss, “All You Need in LAV: Madonna and Postmodern Kabbalah,” Jewish Quarterly Review 95 (2005): 611-24.
May 4 – Jewish Mysticism through the Ages
Final Analytical Paper Due
May 9 (1:30-3:30 PM) – Final](image2112.gif)
|
University of Minnesota |
|
Classical and Near Eastern Studies |
|
Center for Jewish Studies |
|
Jewish Mysticism, Magic, and Kabbalah |