Fear and Doubt: Editing Practical Kabbalah in Early Modern Ashkenaz

• In Event: Error, Doubt and Anxiety in Kabbalistic Manuscripts

Abstract

While numerous recent studies have explored the magical foundations of various kabbalistic ideas and practices, less attention has been paid to the methods used by editors and compilers to transmit practical kabbalistic texts. In my talk, I will examine the manuscript marginalia in several anonymous seventeenth-century compilations of *practical kabbalah* from East-Central Europe. These marginal notes, driven by diligence and fidelity in conveying textual information related to the truth of divine names underpinning *kabbalah ma’asit*, rather than skepticism about the legitimacy or effectiveness of practical kabbalistic practices, highlight a prevalent proto-philological attitude of doubt among Ashkenazi copyists. This doubt was not targeted towards the general use of divine names, but rather at the editorial practices that seemed to embed revelation with falsification and error. I propose that these extensive marginalia in the Ashkenazi manuscripts of practical kabbalistic content provide insight into the meticulous consideration by editors and copyists of the textual and rhetorical aspects of kabbalistic knowledge that aimed to locate *practical kabbalah* within the revered tradition of divine names, backed by philological evidence.

Author

• Agata Paluch, Free University of Berlin