The reception of Sefer Ha-Temunah in modern times: Editing, ideological influence, and polemical discourse

• In Event: The Reception of Kabbalistic Works in Early Modernity and the Modern Period

Abstract

Sefer Ha-Temunah, a Kabbalistic treatise whose origins remain obscure, began to surface prominently in the mid-fifteenth century, appearing in a range of Kabbalistic works across North Africa, the Ottoman Empire, and Eastern Europe. Despite facing rejection from prominent figures such as Rabbi Moshe Cordovero and Rabbi Yitzhak Luria in sixteenth-century Safed, the treatise retained its significance within the writings of Kabbalists in Eastern Europe.
Noteworthy figures like Meir Poperes, Yeshaya Halevi Horvitz, Moshe Katz, Yaakov Segal, Dov Ber of Mezrich, the Gaon Rabbi Eliyahu of Vilna, and Rabbi Shnior Zalman of Liadi engaged with the text, illustrating its enduring impact. In the lecture, we will delve into the treatise's textual evolution, exploring how it has been adapted and edited over time. Furthermore, we will analyze its conceptual influence on Kabbalistic thought up to the nineteenth century.

Author

• Roee Goldschmidt, The Open University of Israel