University of Minnesota

Classical and Near Eastern Studies

Center for Jewish Studies

Jewish Mysticism, Magic, and Kabbalah

Jewish Mysticism, Magic, and Kabbalah

 

Accelerated Version of Course (22 sessions)

 

Course Overview

This course is designed to provide an introduction to the mystical 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 mystical texts of Judaism.

 

Textbooks

J. H. Laenen, Jewish Mysticism: An Introduction (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001).

Course Reader available at Rams Copy Center, 4144 University Way NE (632-6630)

 

Course Requirements

Two take-home midterm exams (45%)

Final take-home exam (25%)

Presentation (20%)

Participation and attendance (10%)

 

Student Presentations

Students will offer a short presentation (about 10 minutes) on an issue related to the topic of the day, but not covered in the general lecture.  These topics are indicated for each class session.  Students will consult the brief treatment of this topic as found in the Encyclopedia Judaica (ed. F. Skolnik and M. Berenbaum; 2d ed.; Detroit: Macmillan, 2007) [at Suzallo Reference or online access as E-Book] or our textbook.  Presentations should include a concise explanation of the issue and its relevance to the topic of the day and the class in general.

 

Take-Home Exams

Exams for this course will consist of two midterm take-home exams as well as one final take-home essay exam.  All questions will be essay format.

 

Attendance (for credit students)

Students are expected to attend all class sessions.  Students are expected to come to each class with the assigned readings 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.

 

Preparing for Class

Our class time will be divided between lecture and discussion.  Much of the discussion will center on reading Jewish mystical texts together.  Many of these texts require significant effort to comprehend fully.  I will often distribute a set of study questions that will aid you in your preparation for class.

  

Class Schedule

All readings should be done by the date on which they are listed.  Always bring your primary text readings to class with you

Schedule is subject to modification.

 

1. Introduction to the Course: Defining Mysticism

 

2. The Development of Jewish Mysticism

 

Readings

Laenen, 1-17

 

3. Hebrew Bible and Apocalyptic

 

Readings

Exodus 33:12-23; Isaiah 6; Ezekiel 1

1 Enoch 12-16

 

Suggested

Michael Mach, “From Apocalypticism to Early Jewish Mysticism,” in The Encyclopedia of Apocalypticism (ed. J.J. Collins; London: Routledge, 1998), 1:193-228.

 

4. Dead Sea Scrolls and Early Judaism

 

Presentation: Demons (use Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls)

Readings

Selections from “Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice” in Michael Wise, Martin Abegg, and Edward Cook, The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated (2d ed.; San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2005), 462-71.

“Hymn of Glorification” A (4Q491) and B (4Q471b) in Geza Vermes, The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English (London: Penguin, 2004), 342-43.

 

Lawrence H. Schiffman, Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls: The History of Judaism, the Background of Christianity, the Lost Library of Qumran (ABRL; Garden City: Doubleday, 1995), 351-62.

 

5. Introducing Jewish Mysticism in Late Antiquity: Rabbis and Others

 

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), 230-40.

 

6. Mystical Literature of Late Antiquity: the Hekhalot Literature

 

Presentation: Alphabet, Hebrew, in Midrash, Talmud, and Kabbalah (EJ)

Readings

Laenen, 17-37

(get started on Hekhalot Rabbati for July 27)

 

7. Descent to the Chariot and In the Throne Room

 

Readings

Hekhalot Rabbati in Blumenthal, Understanding Jewish Mysticism, 1.53-91.

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.

 

 

8. Enoch, Metratron, and the Prince of the Torah

 

Readings

3 Enoch 1-12 in James H. Charlesworth, Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (2 vols.; New York: Doubleday, 1983), 1.255-65

Prince of the Torah passages from Michael D. Swartz, Scholastic Magic: Ritual and Revelation in Early Jewish Mysticism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), 63-64, 93-102

 

Jaffee, Early Judaism, 247-50.

 

9. Jewish Mysticism and Magic

 

Presentation: Amulet (EJ)

Readings

Sefer Yesira (“The Book of Creation”), chs. 1-2 in Blumenthal, Understanding Jewish Mysticism, 1.13-30.

Sefer ha-Razim (“The Book of Mysteries”) in Michael A. Morgan, Sepher Ha Razim = The Book of Mysteries (Chico: Scholars Press, 1983), 17-28.

 

Jaffee, Early Judaism, 250-59.

 

10. The Bahir and the Emergence of Kabbalah

 

Readings

The Book Bahir in Joseph Dan and Ronald Kiener, The Early Kabbalah (New York: Paulist Press, 1986), 57-70

 

Laenen, 84-92

 

11. Abraham Abulafia and Prophetic Kabbalah

 

Presentation: German Pietists (Laenen or EJ)

 

Readings

Selection from Mystical Experience of Abraham Abulafia (1) Techniques for attaining ecstasy; (2) the mystical experience

 

Laenen 115-24

 

12. Introducing the Zohar

 

Readings

Isaiah Tishby, The Wisdom of the Zohar (3 vols.; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), 3.1126-27.

Blumenthal, Understanding Jewish Mysticism, 1.113-25.

 

Laenen 129-42

 

13. God, Creation, and the Sephirot

 

Presentation: Golem (EJ)

Readings

Tishby, The Wisdom of the Zohar, 1.257-62, 309-13.

 

Laenen, 46-54

 

14. The Human Soul in the Zohar

 

Readings

Tishby, The Wisdom of the Zohar, 2.723-35.

 

15. Good and Evil in the Zohar

 

Presentation: Lilith (EJ)

Readings

Tishby, The Wisdom of the Zohar, 2.490-96, 526-28, 535-38.

 

16. Sex, Gender, and the Feminine Aspect of the Divine in Kabbalah

 

Readings

Tishby, The Wisdom of the Zohar, 1.398-99, 1386-90, 1394-1400.

 

17. Lurianic Kabbalah

 

Presentation: Philosophy and Mysticism (Laenen)

Readings

 

Laenen, 143-64

“The Pious Customs of Isaac Luria,” on Lawrence Fine, Safed Spirituality (New York: Paulist Press, 1984), 65-80.

 

18. Creation and Redemption in Lurianic Kabbalah

 

 “Lurianic Prayerbook,” in Blumenthal, Understanding Jewish Mysticism, 1.169-80.

 

Readings

Laenen, 165-82

 

19. Shabbetai Zevi: The Mystical Messiah

 

Presentation: Doenmeh (EJ)

Readings

Letter of Nathan of Gaza (1673) in Gershom Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973), 202-3

Shabbatai Zevi in Smyrna (1665) in Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi, 396-98.

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.

 

Laenen, 189-201

 

20. Hasidic Judaism and Mystical Piety

 

Readings

Hasidic prayer texts

 

Laenen, 215-21

 

21. Hasidic Mystical Doctrine

 

Presentation: Habad and Schneersohn, Menachem Mendel (EJ)

Readings

“The Zaddik and His Community,” in Blumenthal, Understanding Jewish Mysticism, 161-73, 187-89.

 

Laenen, 221-37

 

22. New Age Kabbalah

 

Presentation: Christian Kabbalah and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (EJ)

Readings

Browse through the Website of the Kabbalah Center (www.kabbalah.com)

 

Laenen, 263-72

 

Suggested

Boaz Huss, “All You Need in LAV: Madonna and Postmodern Kabbalah,” Jewish Quarterly Review 95 (2005): 611-24.