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A transparent illusion : the dangerous vision of water in Hekhalot mysticism : a source-critical and tradition-historical inquiry
Authors: ---
ISBN: 9004113371 9004496866 Year: 2002

The descent to the chariot : towards a description of the terminology, place, funstion and nature of the Yeridah in Hekhalot lietarture
Author:
ISSN: 07218753 ISBN: 316146284X 9783161462849 Year: 1995 Volume: 45 Publisher: Tübingen Mohr Siebeck

The hidden and manifest God : some major themes in early Jewish mysticism
Author:
ISBN: 1438418825 0585075271 9780585075273 9780791410431 0791410439 9780791410448 0791410447 0791410439 0791410447 9781438418827 Year: 1992 Publisher: Albany : State University of New York Press,

Scholastic magic : ritual and revelation in early Jewish mysticism
Author:
ISBN: 0691010986 1306984203 1400864410 0691605912 Year: 1996 Publisher: Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press,

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Abstract

In exploring the social background of early Jewish mysticism, Scholastic Magic tells the story of how imagination and magic were made to serve memory and scholasticism. In the visionary literature that circulated between the fifth and ninth centuries, there are strange tales of ancient rabbis conjuring the angel known as Sar-Torah, the "Prince of the Torah." This angel endowed the rabbis themselves with spectacular memory and skill in learning, and then taught them the formulas for giving others these gifts. This literature, according to Michael Swartz, gives us rare glimpses of how ancient and medieval Jews who stood outside the mainstream of rabbinic leadership viewed Torah and ritual. Through close readings of the texts, he uncovers unfamiliar dimensions of the classical Judaic idea of Torah and the rabbinic civilization that forged them.Swartz sets the stage for his analysis with a discussion of the place of memory and orality in ancient and medieval Judaism and how early educational and physiological theories were marshaled for the cultivation of memory. He then examines the unusual magical rituals for conjuring angels and ascending to heaven as well as the authors' attitudes to authority and tradition, showing them to have subverted essential rabbinic values even as they remained beholden to them. The result is a ground-breaking analysis of the social and conceptual background of rabbinic Judaism and ancient Mediterranean religions. Offering complete translations of the principal Sar-Torah texts, Scholastic Magic will become essential reading for those interested in religions in the ancient and medieval world, ritual studies, and popular religion.Originally published in 1996.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

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