Absorbing Perfections: Kabbalah and Interpretation [Hardcover]

Professor Moshe Idel (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0300083793 | ISBN-13: 978-0300083798 | Publication Date: May 1, 2002

In this discussion of Kabbalah - from the mystical trends of medieval Judaism to modern Hasidism - Moshe Idel considers different visions of the nature of the sacred text and of the methods to interpret it. He takes as a starting point the fact that the post-biblical Jewish world lost its geographical centre with the destruction of the temple and so was left with a textual centre, the Holy Book. Idel argues that a text-oriented religion produced language-centred forms of mysticism. Against this background, the author demonstrates how various Jewish mystics amplified the content of the Scriptures so as to include everything: the world, or God, for example. Thus the text becomes a major realm for contemplation, and the interpretation of the text frequently becomes an encounter with the deepest realms of reality. Idel delineates the particular hermeneutics belonging to Jewish mysticism, investigates the progressive filling of the text with secrets and hidden levels of meaning, and considers in detail the various interpretive strategies needed to decodify the arcane dimensions of the text.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Hebrew University professor Gershom Scholem, who died in 1982, is regarded as the greatest Kabbalah scholar of the 20th century. His successor and critic is Idel, also a professor at Hebrew University and author of this densely written treatise. In contrast to recent efforts to make Kabbalah more accessible, Idel presents a highly specialized narrative in language that can be grasped by only a few learned scholars. Idel demonstrates his intellectual mastery of Kabbalah by citing both Jewish and Christian commentators from medieval to modern times. Many of his sources are obscure and abstruse. Seemingly in recognition of this limitation, Idel offers six appendices in which he tries to further explain the work of Abraham Abulafia, Isaac of Acre, Nahman of Braslav, Marsilio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola, among others. All of these thinkers, along with Idel, focus on the mystical aspect of the Bible as the major topic for analysis. Idel's writing is sprinkled with foreign words and phrases that are not translated, as well as English terms that require an academician's expertise: anagrammatic, renomadization, crisical, superarcanization, hypersemantic, theosophical-theurgical, historiosophical, floruit, astromagical, extradivine, imaginaire, intercorporal, ergetic, clinamenic, and so on. Kabbalah enthusiasts who emphasize its experiential rather than its intellectual aspects will be bewildered by this text, though some academic specialists may appreciate its dizzying breadth.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Many recent books popularize the Jewish mystical system known as the Kabbalah, but this is not one of them. Here, one of the preeminent living scholars of the Kabbalah delineates the development of major hermeneutical concepts in Jewish mysticism. These concepts are "the nature of the text, the different forms of interpretation, and the experience of the mystical interpreter." After establishing the ramifications for mystical thinkers of having a sealed, canonized text at the heart of their religion, Idel (Kabbalah: New Perspectives) painstakingly describes the methods used by many different kabbalists throughout history to interpret the Torah. One of his themes is the nature of a language-centered mysticism, especially in interaction with the personal experience of the interpreter. This work is very complex and is filled with scholarly detail. Idel displays his grasp of a wide-ranging and deep body of material. Highly recommended for academic libraries, especially those serving Judaic studies programs, this book may also may be of interest to advanced students in literature and philosophy. Stephen Joseph, Asst. Butler Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Pittsburgh, PA
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 688 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (May 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300083793
• ISBN-13: 978-0300083798
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.5 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #869,711 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The outstanding work on this subject of our generation, February 12, 2003

By 

Dr. Jeremy Rosen (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Absorbing Perfections: Kabbalah and Interpretation (Hardcover)

Absorbing Perfections is the outstanding work on Kabbalah of this generation. It is a serious ( and heavy) academic work that breaks new ground and adds important dimensions to the work of previous scholars such Scholem and Shatz.
Whereas other popular works on Kabbalah lack the serious historical perspectives and mastery of the original texts Moshe Idel is unique. There is no one like him writing about Kabbalah in the Western World today.
If Scholem was too Germanic, detached and disregarding of the experiences and spiritual achievements of Kabbalah, Idel adds all these dimensions to the solid academic foundations.
This book is a hard read, its style is not easy, but if anyone wants a serious understanding of Kabbalah rather than a comic book version, this has to be the book to read.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars To aim at the most comprehensive and complete perception of the Tradition, January 3, 2008

By 

Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Absorbing Perfections: Kabbalah and Interpretation (Hardcover)

Harold Bloom in his illumating preface to this work calls it Idel's most monumental and important to date. Bloom sees Idel the way he sees great literary creators as in a kind of 'agon' with their forebearers. All English Romantic poetry tries to contend with and overcome Milton. So all scholars of Kabbalah including Idel must contend with and strive to overcome their great founding predecessor, Gershom Scholem.
As Bloom understands it Idel makes a more continuous reading of the Tradition than does Scholem who gives more weight to transformations in interpretation connected with major historical events, primarily the explusion from Spain. Idel is also celebrated by Bloom by reading the text in the fullest and most absorbing way possible- i.e. by attempting an enrichment of the Tradition as opposed to the post-modern dilution of it.
Idel is an idiosyncratic often difficult writer. But his command of detail and knowledge of the texts are second to none. And his work expands our sense of what Kabbalah and the search for the hidden meanings of the Divine mean in Jewish Tradition.