Jewish Mysticism
Kabbalah, Hasidism and Jewish mystical philosophy.
- JudaismThe religion of the Jewish people, founded on the covenant with the one God and the Torah.
- KabbalahThe Jewish mystical tradition of the hidden God and the divine emanations (sefirot).
- HasidismThe Jewish pietist movement founded in eighteenth-century Eastern Europe.
- MaimonidesJewish philosopher, legal scholar and physician, author of the Guide of the Perplexed.
- Moses de LeónCastilian Kabbalist, generally regarded as the main author of the Zohar.
- Isaac LuriaKabbalist of Safed whose teaching of creation, exile and repair reshaped Jewish mysticism.
- Abraham AbulafiaFounder of prophetic, ecstatic Kabbalah, a discipline of meditation on the letters of the divine names.
- Moses CordoveroKabbalist of Safed who gave the Zohar’s teaching its most systematic form.
- Philo of AlexandriaJewish philosopher of Alexandria who read the Torah through Greek philosophy, and first described the Logos as mediator between God and the world.
- Baḥya ibn PaqudaJewish moral philosopher of Muslim Spain, author of The Duties of the Heart, a classic of the inner life.
- Naḥman of BratslavHasidic master and storyteller, great-grandson of the Baal Shem Tov, who taught secluded prayer and joy amid despair.
- The Baal Shem TovCharismatic teacher in Podolia, regarded as the founder of Hasidism.
- Martin BuberAustrian-born Jewish philosopher of dialogue and interpreter of Hasidism.
- Ein SofIn Kabbalah, the Infinite: God as hidden and beyond all attributes.
- SefirotIn Kabbalah, the ten powers or qualities through which the hidden God is manifest.
- TzimtzumIn Lurianic Kabbalah, God’s withdrawal to make room for the world.
- DevekutCleaving to God: in Jewish mysticism, constant attachment of the mind to God.
- The ZoharThe central work of Kabbalah, a mystical commentary on the Torah in Aramaic, presented as the teaching of Rabbi Shimon bar Yoḥai. Modern scholarship attributes it to Moses de León and his circle in Castile; tradition holds to the ancient attribution.
- The Guide for the PerplexedMichael Friedländer’s complete English translation of Maimonides’ Guide, on the interpretation of the Bible’s language about God, the negative attributes, creation, prophecy, providence and the reasons for the commandments, ending with the perfection of knowing God.