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The Mystical Experience in Abraham Abulafia (Suny Series in the Anthropology of Work)

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One of the few studies of Abulafia and his meditational alphabet mysticism. Aulafia's system is often mentioned but rarely elucidated.Like most scholarly works Idel plumbs the writing style, time period, influences and important unanswered questions that arise from any critical study including such odd factors as music and eroticism. I myself am not a scholar and often find these ilk of books hard to read and concerned with topics that were not my cheif concerns on the subject.However, this work contains an examination of many of the practical techniques of Abulafia's sytem. THis makes the academic read of the book worthwhile just to get these practical gems.Even if your orientation is practical the historical and biographical info. in the book are very helpful background info. any student of the system should know. Of special interest are the queatons raised as to wether Abulafia emphasized any form of aceticism and how important he considered observance of jewish law to be. Qwestions on which all authorities do not agree. If you want to know more about Abulafia and his system this is a good book.