Concluding Note : p. 174 CONCLUDING NOTE THE course of Jewish mysticism subsequent to the "Zohar" consists, in the main, of developments and elaborations, by Jews in many lands, of the doctrines taught in that unique work. There is an enormous fund of originality in many of these elaborations. Their writers were...
Introduction : p. 1 JEWISH MYSTICISM INTRODUCTION IT might strike the average reader as exceedingly odd that any attempt should be made at writing a book on Jewish mysticism. The prevailing opinion--among theologians as well as in the mind of the ordinary man--seems to be that Judaism and mysticism st...
Chapter I. Some Early Elements. Essenism : p. 16 CHAPTER I SOME EARLY ELEMENTS: ESSENISM THE Old Testament is the fountain-head of Judaism. Hence if it is true, as is contended in a previous page, that the Old Testament contains mystical elements, then the starting-point in any treatment of Jewish mysticism on historical, or even...
Chapter Iii. Philo. Metatron. Wisdom : p. 52 CHAPTER III PHILO: METATRON: WISDOM SOMETHING must now be said about the mystical elements in the Hellenistic, as distinguished from the Palestinian, branch of early Judaism. The Palestinian (which includes the Babylonian) is, by a long way, the more voluminous; and its significance...
Chapter Ii. The Merkabah Mysticism : p. 33 CHAPTER II THE MERKABAH (CHARIOT) MYSTICISM THE first chapter of Ezekiel has played a most fruitful part in the mystical speculations of the Jews. The lore of the heavenly Throne-chariot in some one or other of its multitudinous implications is everywhere to be met with. Whence Ezekiel...
Chapter Iv. Kingdom Of Heaven. Fellowship : p. 79 CHAPTER IV KINGDOM OF HEAVEN: FELLOWSHIP: SHECHINAH THE Old Testament, which alone is, and ever was, the Bible of the Jew, contains two oft-recurring ideas which rank among the principal elements of its theological teaching. These ideas are: ("a") God as Father; ("b") God as King. To give...
Chapter Vi. Some General Features : p. 117 CHAPTER VI SOME GENERAL FEATURES OF THE 'ZOHAR' MYSTICISM THE "Zohar" (lit. = 'Shining' or 'Brightness' from the word in "Daniel", xii. 3--"And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament") is, "par excellence", the textbook of Jewish medival mysticism. Its language is...
Chapter Vii. The Ten Sefirot : p. 136 CHAPTER VII THE TEN SEFIROT ALL finite creatures are, in divergent senses and varying degrees, part and parcel of the Deity. "Creatio ex nihilo" is unthinkable, seeing that God, in the Neoplatonic view, is the Perfect One, 'an undivided One,' to whom no qualities or characteristics can be...
Chapter Viii. The Soul : p. 155 CHAPTER VIII THE SOUL As in all systems of mysticism, the soul plays a towering part in the theology of the "Zohar". Mysticism's centre of gravity is the close kinship between the human and the Divine; and the only avenue through which this kinship can become real to us is the soul...
Editor's Preface : p. iii EDITOR'S PREFACE GENERAL and special studies on Christian mysticism are numerous enough; but it is somewhat remarkable that, in their introductory pages, authors, who have much to say of Plotinus and Neoplatonism, have nothing or very little on the still more cognate subject of Jewish...
Preface : p. v PREFACE THE following pages are designed to give the reader a bird's-eye view of the salient features in Jewish mysticism rather than a solid presentation of the subject as a whole. The reason for this will be apparent when one thinks of the many centuries of variegated thought that have had...
Title Page : JEWISH MYSTICISM BY J. ABELSON London: G. Bell And Sons [1913] Scanned , September 2005. Proofed and formatted by John Bruno Hare. This text is in the public domain in the United States because it was published prior to 1923. These files may be used for any non-commercial purpose, provided this...
Untitled : JEWISH MYSTICISM BY J. ABELSON [1913] Although the Kabbalah has lately become 'trendy,' there is a dearth of well-written, scholarly books which give a larger perspective on the subject of Jewish Mysticism. In addition, many of the books on the subject are by Occultists, and however valuable they...
Bibliography : p. 177 BIBLIOGRAPHY WORKS in English are unfortunately very few. On the whole subject of the mystical elements in Talmudic, Midrashic, and Kabbalistic theology, the student should see: A. Franck, "La Kabbale" (Paris, 1843; 2nd ed., 1889). German Trans. (with many original additions) by A. Jellinek...
Chapter V. The Book 'yetsirah : p. 98 CHAPTER V THE BOOK 'YETSIRAH' THE date and origin of this extraordinary book--the oldest philosophical work in the Hebrew language--are shrouded in obscurity. There is as yet no critical edition of it, although there are several translations of it, both of the whole and of parts, into L...