Ascensions on High in Jewish Mysticism

Pillars, Lines, Ladders

Moshe Idel

• Publisher: Central European University Press
• Year: 2005
• Print ISBN: 9789637326028
• eBook ISBN: 9786155053788
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: History of Religion

Ascensions on high took many forms in Jewish mysticism and they permeated most of its history from its inception until Hasidism. The book surveys the various categories, with an emphasis on the architectural images of the ascent, like the resort to images of pillars, lines, and ladders.After surveying the variety of scholarly approaches to religion, the author also offers what he proposes as an eclectic approach, and a perspectivist one. The latter recommends to examine religious phenomena from a variety of perspectives. The author investigates the specific issue of the pillar in Jewish mysticism by comparing it to the archaic resort to pillars recurring in rural societies. Given the fact that the ascent of the soul and pillars constituted the concerns of two main Romanian scholars of religion, Ioan P. Culianu and Mircea Eliade, Idel resorts to their views, and in the Concluding Remarks analyzes the emergence of Eliade's vision of Judaism on the basis of neglected sources.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Introduction
• CHAPTER 1:On Diverse Forms of Living Ascent on High in JewishSources
• CHAPTER 2: On Cosmic Pillars in Jewish Sources
• CHAPTER 3:The Eschatological Pillar of the Souls in Zoharic Literature
• CHAPTER 4: Psychanodia and Metamorphoses of Pillars in Eighteenth-Century Hasidism
• CHAPTER 5: The Neoplatonic Path for Dead Souls: Medieval Philosophy, Kabbalah and Renaissance
• Concluding Remarks
• Name Index
• Subject Index
• Back cover