Word and Image in Medieval Kabbalah The Texts, Commentaries, and Diagrams of the Sefer Yetsirah

by Segol, Marla

• ISBN13: 9781403969743
• ISBN10: 1403969744
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-10-30
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

The Sefer Yetsirah, the Book of Creation, is a core text of the early kabbalah, but it is something of a mystery. Scholars have struggled to establish the most basic facts about the work: its dating, its place of origin, and especially its meaning. Is it philosophy, theosophy, or magic? What were its ritual uses? Even now, scholars do not agree on these. Its manuscript context provides important clues, however. The work appears commonly in kabbalistic manuscript collections, embedded in commentaries containing diagrams and glosses. Taken together, they show how some used the Sefer Yetsirah, and how it fit into Jewish canonical discourses and ritual practices. The words and images of Sefer Yetsirah raise crucial questions about the history of kabbalah, and about scholarly categories for understanding it. In the end, they show that the relation between religion and magic is closer than we think.

Author Biography

Marla Segol holds the Institute for Jewish Thought and Heritage Professorship at the University of Buffalo.

Table of Contents

Word and Image in Medieval Kabbalah
Situating the Text
Genre as Argument in the Sefer Yetsirah: A New Look at its Literary Structure
Thinking in Lines and Circles
The Letter forms: How did He Combine Them, and Why?
Golem Diagrams: Golem-making, Astrology, and Messianism
Postscripts to the Golem: Word, Image, and Body