Error, Doubt and Anxiety in Kabbalistic Manuscripts

Session Submission Type: Panel Session

Abstract

Kabbalistic manuscripts were produced and read by those who sought to uncover the inner meaning of religious texts, delve deeper into the truths of Scripture and gain access to inner-make up of the heavens. The production and reproduction of kabbalistic texts, from the thirteenth century and on through the early modern period after the rise of print, were fraught with anxiety about getting it right, that the textual expression would correctly capture the nature of the heavens as error could theurgically disrupt the order above separate the power in heaven. Even with proper statements about the way of truth, the kabbalists often warned their readers to avoid error and voiced certainty that without any doubt or suspicion, their explication might lead to the “cutting of the shoots”. The talks will seek to define the appropriate methodologies for conceptualizing the role of the writer and scribe in expressing statements of error and doubt as a contribution to the study of how kabbalistic texts were formulated and transmitted. The binary of truth and error will be questioned through the study of key texts in order to advance an understanding of the hermeneutic and cultural constructs of written statements, culturally positioned in various historical periods. How did kabbalists deal with differing textual records of key texts, such as Sefer Yesira, the Book Bahir, and the Zohar? Did they understand that their writings would be copied in newer forms and with differing formulations that might have caused them anxiety about the truth value of what they were trying to convey and transmit? Did the Kabbalists consider that meaning and text were fluid and might change over time, accepting the shifting values and cultural expectations of later generations? Where is the meeting on these topics of kabbalistic literary production and scribal reproduction that refashioned the text correctly or in error and how was that conceived? Are there features that describe the medieval period before the rise of print and what changed in the Renaissance and Early Modern periods that have a bearing on kabbalistic textuality?

Sub Unit

• Jewish Mysticism

Chair

• J. H. Yossi Chajes, University of Haifa

Individual Presentations

• Two Hundred and Twenty-One Gates [or: 231 gates]”: Mystical and Magical Techniques in Sefer Yetzirah - Naama Ben shachar, Bar-Ilan University

• Error in Kabbalistic Manuscripts - Daniel Abrams, Bar-Ilan University

• Fear and Doubt: Editing Practical Kabbalah in Early Modern Ashkenaz - Agata Paluch, Free University of Berlin

Zoom Host

• Zoom Host 02