FOREWORD BY ROBERT ALTER, xi
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION, xxv
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION, xxix
TABLE OF TRANSLITERATION, xxxi
FIRST LECTURE: GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF JEWISM MYSTICISM. pp.
1-39.
Purpose of these lectures. What is Mysticism? The paradoxical
nature of mystical experience. Mysticism as an historical
phenomenon. Mythology, Religion and Mysticism. Mystical
interpretation of religious values. Jewish Mysticism influenced by
the positive contents of Judaism. The Kabbalistic theory of the
hidden God and His attributes. The Sefiroth. The Torah. Kabbalism
and language. Mysticism and the historical world. Cosmogony and
eschatology. Jewish Philosophy and Kabbalism. Allegorization and
symbolism. Philosophical and mystical interpretation of Halakhah
and Aggadah. Kabbalism and prayer. Mythical elements in Kabbalistic
thought. The resurrection of myth in the heart of Judaism. The
absence of the feminine element in Jewish Mysticism.
SECOND LECTURE: MERKABAH MYSTICISM AND JEWISH GNOSTICISM. pp.
40-79
The first period of Jewish Mysticism. Anonymity of their writings.
Esoterism of the Mishnah teachers. Throne-mysticism. Apocalyptic
and mysticism. The literature of the Hekhaloth-books. The Yorde
Merkabeh and their organization. Conditions of initiation. The
ecstatic ascent of the soul and its technique. Magical elements.
Dangers of the ascent. God as Holy King. The hymns of the Merkabah
mystics. Shiur Komah. Enoch, Metatron and Yahoel. The cosmic
curtain. Remains of Gnostic speculations on aeons. The “Book of
Creation.” Theurgy. Moral re-interpretation of the Merkabah.
THIRD LECTURE: HASIDISM IN MEDIAEVAL GERMANY. pp. 80-118
The rise of Hasidism in Germany. Mystical tradition and German
Jewry. The “Book of the Devout.” Jehudah the Hasid and his
disciples. Eschatological character of Hasidism. The new ideal of
the Hasid: Ascetics, ataraxy and altruism. Love of God. A Judaized
version of monkish Cynicism. The magic power of the Hasid. The
Golem legend. Mysteries of Prayer. Occultist practices. Hasidic
conception of penitence. The conception of God in Hasidism.
Immanence of God. Kavod, the Divine Glory. Traces of the Philonic
doctrine of the Logos. The Cherub on the throne. Holiness and
Greatness in God. The aim of prayer. The cosmic archetypes.
FOURTH LECTURE: ABRAHAM ABULAFIA AND THE DOCTRINE OF PROPHETIC
KABBALISM. pp. 119-155
Emergence of Kabbalism. Types of Kabbalists. Kabbalistic reticence
and censorship. Vision and ecstasy. The conception of Devekuth—the
Jewish form of mystical union. Life and work of Abraham Abulafia.
His theory of ecstatical knowledge. The “science of combination.”
The music of pure thought. The mystical nature of prophecy.
Prophetic Kabbalism. Mystical transfiguration as the essence of
ecstacy. Mystical pragmatism. Practical Kabbalism and magic. Later
developments of Abulafia’s doctrines. Translation of an
autobiography written by a disciple of Abulalia.
FIFTH LECTURE: THE ZOHAR I. THE BOOK AND ITS AUTHOR. pp.
156-204
The problem of the Zohar. Literary character and composition of the
Zohar. The whole of the Zoharic “literarture” consists of two major
parts: the bulk of the Zohar and the Raya Mehenma. The bulk of the
Zohar the work of one author. Evidence of unity. The language and
style of the Zohar. Its stage-setting. Pseudo-realism. Principles
of literary composition. Sources of the Zohar: the real and
fictitious ones. Treatment of the sources. The author’s
predilection for certain Kabbalistic doctrines and dislike for
others. Absence of the doctrine of the Shemitahs, or units of
cosmic development. Stages in the composition. The Midrash
Ha-Neelam as the oldest constituent of the Zohar. The Midrash
Ha-Neelam written between 1275 and 1281; the bulk of the Zohar
between 1281 and 1286; the Raya Mehemna and Rikkunim about 1300.
The question of the personality of the author. Moses ben Shemtob de
Leon. The old testimonial on his authorship. Moses de Leon and
Joseph Gikatila. Comparison of Moses de Leon’s Hebrew writings with
the bulk of the Zohar. Identity of the author all these writings.
Other Kabbalistic pseudepigrapha written by Moses de Leon. Veiled
references to his authorship of the Zohar in Moses’ Hebrew writing
the Zohar. Pseudoepigraphy a legitimate category or religious
literature.
SIXTH LECTURE: THE ZOHAR II. THE THEOSOPHIC DOCTRINE OF THE ZOHAR.
pp. 205-243
The difference between Merhabah Mysticism and Spanish Kabbalism.
The hidden God or En-Sof. The Sefiroth, the Realm of Divinity.
Mystical conception of the Torah. Symbolical realization of the
Sefiroth. Some instances of Kabbalistic Symbolism. God as a
mystical organism. Nothing and Being. The first three stages of the
Sefiriotic development. Creation and its relation to God. Theogony
and Cosmogony. Pantheistic leanings of the author of the Zohar. The
original nature of Creation. Mythical imagery in Kabbalistic
thought. The problem of sexual symbolism. The new idea of the
Shekhinah as a feminine element in God as the mystical Community of
Israel. Man and his Fall. Kabbalistic ethics. The nature of evil.
The Zohar and Jacob Boehme. Psychology of the Zohar. Unity of
theosophy, cosmology and psychology.
SEVENTH LECTURE: ISAAC LURIA AND HIS SCHOOL. pp. 244-286
The Exodus from Spain and its religious consequences. Kabbalism on
its way to Messianism. Apocalyptic propaganda by Kabbalists. The
character and function of the new Kabbalism. Its center if Safed,
Palestine. Moses Cordovero and Isaac Luria. Their personalities.
Spread of Lurianic Kabbalism. Israel Sarug. Characteristics of the
Lurianic doctrine. Tsimtsum, Shevirah, and Tikkun. The twofold
process of Creation. The withdrawal of God into Himself as the
starting-point of Creation. Meaning of this doctrine. The
primordial catastrophe, or Breaking of the Vessels. The origin of
Evil. Two aspects of the theory of the Tikkun, or restoration of
harmony. The mystical birth of the personal God and the mystical
action of man. The emergence of theosophic worlds, and their
relation to God. Theism and Pantheism in Luria’s system. Mystical
reinterpretation of Messianism. The doctrine of mystical prayer.
Kawwanah. Man’s role in the Universe. Luria’s psychology and
anthropology. The Exile of the Shekhinah. The uplifting of the holy
sparks. Transmigration of the soul and its place in the Kabbalism
of Safed. Influence of Lurianic Kabbalism. A great myth of Exile
and Redemption.
EIGHTH LECTURE: SABBATIANISM AND MYSTICAL HERESY. pp. 287-324
The Sabbatian movement of 1665-1666. Sabbatai Zevi, the Kabbalistic
Messiah, and Nathan of Gaza, his prophet. Sabbatai Zevi’s illness
and its mystical interpretation by Nathan. Quasi-sacramental
character of antinomian actions. Lurianism adapted to the
personality of the new Messiah. Heretical turn of the movement
after the apostasy of Sabbatai Zevi. Importance of Sabbatianism for
Jewish history. A revolution of the Jewish consciousness.
Connection between heretical Kabbalism and “Enlightenment.” The
Sabbatian ideology. A religion of paradoxes. Historical and
mystical aspects of Redemption. Their clash after Sabbatai Zevi’s
apostasy. Sabbatianism. Doctrine of the necessary apostasy of the
Messiah. The problem of antinomianism. Moderate and radical forms
of Sabbatianism. Mystical nihilism and the doctrine of the Holiness
of Sin. The new conception of God: the first cause, or the God of
Reason, and the first effect, or the God of Revelation.
NINTH LECTURE: HASIDISM: THE LASTEST PHASE. pp. 325-350
Polish and Ukrainian Hasidism of the eighteenth century and its
problem. Kabbalistic and Hasidic literature. The transformation of
Kabbalism into a popular movement. The alternatives of Kabbalistic
development after the collapse of Sabbatianism. Return to esoteric
forms of worship: Rabbi Shalom Sharabit. Intensification of its
popular aspects: Hasidism. Kabbalism purged of its Messianic
elements. Sabbatianism and Hasidism. Rabbi Asam Baal Shem—a
crypto-Sabbatian prophet. New type of leadership in Sabbatianism
and Hasidism. Mystical revivalism. What is novel in Hasidism? The
essential originality of Hasidism not connected with mystical
theosophy but with mystical ethics. Zaddikism implied by the
intrinsic nature of Hasidism. Personality takes the place of
doctrine. The figure of the Zaddik, or Saint. The living Torah. The
social function of the Saint as the center of the community of men.
Mysticism and magic in Hasidism. The Hasidic story.
NOTES, 351-424
BIBLIOGRAPHY, 425-444
INDEX, 445-460
GERSHOM SCHOLEM was professor of Jewish mysticism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem until his death in 1982. He is also the author of The Messianic Idea in Judaism, On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism,On the Mystical Shape of the Godhead and Zohar.
"A crucially vital work in the long history of Jewish esoteric
spirituality. Aside from its intrinsic importance, the book's
influence has been enormous, and is likely to continue all but
indefinitely. As much as the stories and parables of Kafka,
Scholem's work helped inaugurate Jewish gnosticism on our era."
—Harold Bloom, Yale University
"Over fifty years ago, Major Trends struck the scholarly world like
a bombshell, marking the beginning of a new era. The book's unique
combination of philological erudition, phenomenological
penetration, and synthetic sweep not only wrought a revolution
in Jewish studies but also established Jewish mysticism as a major
phenomenon in the general history of religions."
—R.J.Z. Weblowsky, Hebrew University
"As the Zohar is the canonical text of the Kabbalah, so, in a
sense, is Scholem's Major Trends the canonical
modern work on the nature and history of Jewish mysticism. For a
sophisticated understanding, not only of the dynamics of Jewish
mysticism, but of the exquisite complexities of Jewish history and
tradition, Major Trends is a major port of entry through which one
must pass."
—Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, Columbia University
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