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Descenders to the Chariot: The People Behind the Hekhalot Literature (Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism)

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In this book Davila has located the practitioners who produced the Hekhalot literature in a specific time and place and to some degree in a specific social context. We know when and where at least some of them lived and worked. We do not know any of their names for certain yet, but we have learned the names of some of their clients and neighbors, of those personal lives we have caught glimpses. Davila has also set these practitioners in an illuminating cross-cultural context by comparing them to a particular type of magico-religious functionary: the shaman and, more specifically, the shaman/healer. Although much about them remains obscure - and much always will - our lens for viewing them has gained a sharper focus and we have, so to speak, a few snapshots of them at work. We can now speak of the descenders of the chariot not only as literary constructs but as real people, the people behind the Hekhalot literature.

Contents

The Hekhalot Literature 1

Mysticism, Magic, and Shamanism 25

Becoming a Shaman 55

Shamanic Ascetic Techniques 75

Initiatory Disintegration and Reintegration 126

The Otherworldly Journey 156

Control of the Spirits 196

The Hekhalot Literature and Other Jewish

Texts of Ritual Power 214

Locating the Descenders to the Chariot 257

Conclusions 306

Bibliography 313

Indices 325