Absorbing Perfections
Subtitle: Kabbalah and Interpretation
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: May 1, 2002
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 688
ISBN-13: 9780300083798
Subjects: Judaism; Kabbalah & hermetic thought; Magic & alchemy; Mysticism; Cabala; Religion; Religion - Judaism; Judaism - Sacred Writings; Religion / Judaism / Sacred Writings; Judaism - Kabbalah & Mysticism; Bible; Bible; Criticism, interpretation, etc., Jewish; History; O.T; O.T; Pentateuch
Description: "In this wide-ranging discussion of Kabbalah - from the mystical trends of medieval Judaism to modern Hasidism - one of the world's foremost scholars considers different visions of the nature of the sacred text and the methods used to interpret it. Moshe Idel takes as a starting point the fact that the postbiblical Jewish world lost its geographical center with the destruction of the Temple and so was left with a textual center, the Holy Book.

Idel argues that a text-oriented religion produced language-centered forms of mysticism."--BOOK JACKET.