Concealment and Revelation: Esotericism in Jewish Thought and its Philosophical Implications

by Moshe Halbertal

Publisher:

Princeton University Press

, 2007

Overview

During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, great new trends of Jewish thought emerged whose widely varied representatives--Kabbalists, philosophers, and astrologers--each claimed that their particular understanding revealed the actual secret of the Torah. They presented their own readings in a coded fashion that has come to be regarded by many as the very essence of esotericism. Concealment and Revelation takes us on a fascinating journey to the depths of the esoteric imagination. Carefully tracing the rise of esotericism and its function in medieval Jewish thought, Moshe Halbertal’s richly detailed historical and cultural analysis gradually builds conceptual-philosophical force to culminate in a masterful phenomenological taxonomy of esotericism and its paradoxes.

Among the questions addressed: What are the internal justifications that esoteric traditions provide for their own existence, especially in the Jewish world, in which the spread of knowledge was of great importance? How do esoteric teachings coexist with the revealed tradition, and what is the relationship between the various esoteric teachings that compete with that revealed tradition?

Halbertal concludes that, through the medium of the concealed, Jewish thinkers integrated into the heart of the Jewish tradition diverse cultural influences such as Aristotelianism, Neoplatonism, and Hermeticisims. And the creation of an added concealed layer, unregulated and open-ended, became the source of the most daring and radical interpretations of the tradition.

Key Features

• Takes us on a fascinating journey to the depths of the esoteric imagination.
• Traces the rise of esotericism and its function in medieval Jewish thought.
• Builds conceptual-philosophical force.

Contents

• Chapter 1 The Paradox of Esotericism: “And Not on the Chariot Alone”
• Chapter 2 The Hidden and the Sublime: Vision and Restriction in the Bible and in Talmudic Literature
• Chapter 3 The Ethics of Gazing: The Attitude of Early Jewish Mysticism Toward Seeing the Chariot
• Chapter 4 Concealment and Power: Magic and Esotericism in the Hekhalot Literature
• Chapter 5 Esotericism and Commentary: Ibn Ezra and the Exegetical Layer
• Chapter 6 Concealment and Heresy: Astrology and the Secret of the Torah
• Chapter 7 Double Language and the Divided Public in Guide of the Perplexed
• Chapter 8 The Breaching of the Limits of the Esoteric: Concealment and Disclosure in Maimonidean Esotericism
• Chapter 9 From Transmission to Writing: Hinting, Leaking, and Orthodoxy in Early Kabbalah
• Chapter 10 Open Knowledge and Closed Knowledge: The Kabbalists of Gerona—Rabbi Azriel and Rabbi Ya’akov bar Sheshet
• Chapter 11 Tradition, Closed Knowledge, and the Esoteric: Secrecy and Hinting in Nahmanides’ Kabbalah
• Chapter 12 From Tradition to Literature: Shem Tov Ibn Gaon and the Critique of Kabbalistic Literature
• Chapter 13 “The Widening of the Apertures of the Showpiece”: Shmuel Ibn Tibon and the End of the Era of Esotericism
• Chapter 14 Esotericism, Sermons, and Curricula: Ya’akov Anatoli and the Dissemination of the Secret
• Chapter 15 The Ambivalence of Secrecy: The Dispute over Philosophy in the Early Fourteenth Century
• Chapter 16 Esotericism, Discontent, and Co-Existence
• Chapter 17 Taxonomy and Paradoxes of Esotericism: Conceptual Conclusion

Praise for Concealment and Revelation

Halbertal explains complex issues clearly and gracefully, moving smoothly from dense kabbalistic passages to abstruse texts on medieval philosophy in a way that allows the unspecialized reader to follow his train of thought without plumbing the depths of each theological system to which he refers.

—Jewish Book World

This concise and brilliant book . . . provides great insight into individual thinkers like Ibn Ezra, whose astrological beliefs are frequently overlooked by his readers, and Rambam, whose explicit esotericism has perplexed readers for centuries. . . . A translation of the 2001 Hebrew edition, this very scholarly yet highly readable work will be recognized as a masterful work for many years to come.

—Tradition

Halbertal’s book outlines a challenging theory in the intellectual history of Jewish creativity. He does not rely on new material but offers a superb interpretation of available material. This book undoubtedly represents a major contribution to the discourse on the character and the varieties of ancient and medieval Jewish thought.

—Dov Schwartz, Journal of Religion

Product Details

• Title: Concealment and Revelation: Esotericism in Jewish Thought and its Philosophical Implications
• Author: Moshe Halbertal
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Print Publication Date: 2007
• Pages: 208
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
• ISBNs: 9780691125718, 9781400827961, 0691125716, 1400827965
• Resource ID: LLS:CNCLMNTRMPLCTNS
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-09-25T21:32:27Z

About Moshe Halbertal

Moshe Halbertal is professor of philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, a fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, and the Gruss Professor at New York University Law School. He is the author of People of the Book and the coauthor (with Avishai Margalit) of Idolatry.