The scandal of Kabbalah
Subtitle: Leon Modena, Jewish mysticism, early modern Venice
By: Yaacob Dweck
Series: Jews, Christians, and Muslims from the ancient to the modern world
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Princeton, NJ
Language: eng
Number of pages: 280
ISBN-13: 9780691145082
Subjects: Controversial literature; Cabala; History
Description: The Scandal of Kabbalah is the first book about the origins of a culture war that began in early modern Europe and continues to this day: the debate between kabbalists and their critics on the nature of Judaism and the meaning of religious tradition. From its medieval beginnings as an esoteric form of Jewish mysticism, Kabbalah spread throughout the early modern world and became a central feature of Jewish life. Scholars have long studied the revolutionary impact of Kabbalah, but, as Yaacob Dweck argues, they have misunderstood the character and timing of opposition to it. Drawing on a rang.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: 1. Hebrew manuscripts in an age of print; title: 2. Early modern criticism of the Zohar; title: 3. Guiding the perplexed; title: 4. Safed in Venice; title: 5. A Jewish response to Christian Kabbalah; title: 6. The afterlife of Ari Nohem; title: 7. Kabbalah and scholarship in the nineteenth century; title: Epilogue.