As light before dawn : the inner world of a medieval kabbalist

337 Pages·2009·1.609 MB·English

by  of Acre. Isaac ben Samuel, of Acre. Isaac ben Samuel, Fishbane, Eitan P

As Light Before Dawn
Stanford Studies in Jewish History and Culture
edited by Aron Rodrigue and Steven J. Zipperstein
As Light Before Dawn
The Inner World of
a Medieval Kabbalist
Eitan P. Fishbane
stanford university press
stanford, california
Stanford University Press
Stanford, California
© 2009 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior
University. All rights reserved.
Published with the generous support of the Lucius N. Littauer
Foundation.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system without the prior written permission of Stanford
University Press.
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free,
archival-quality paper
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fishbane, Eitan P., 1975-
As light before dawn : the inner world of a medieval kabbalist /
Eitan P. Fishbane.
p. cm.--(Stanford studies in Jewish history and culture)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8047-5913-7 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Isaac ben Samuel, of Acre. 2. Cabala--History--To 1500.
3. Mysticism--Judaism--History--To 1500. I. Title. II. Series:
Stanford studies in Jewish history and culture.
BM526.F57 2009
296.1'6--dc22 2009010151
Typeset by Bruce Lundquist in 10.5/14 Galliard
This book is dedicated with love
to the memory of
Leah Levitz Fishbane
1974–2007
הבהא תומכ הזע יכ

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Part I Context
1. Perspectives and New Directions:
Reflections on the State of Scholarship 3
2. The Wandering Kabbalist:
Historical Profile and Context 20
Part II Reception and Transmission
3. Receiving Tradition, Constructing Authority 49
4. Intentions and the Recovery of Meaning 77
5. Seeing the Secret: Creative Process
and the Hermeneutics of Insight 101
Part III Contemplative Practice,
Mystical Experience
6. Contemplation, Theurgical Action,
and the Presence of God 125
7. Techniques of Mystical Contemplation:
Kavvanah and Devotional Experience 178
8. Asceticism, Prophecy, and Mystical Union 248
Conclusion 283
Bibliography 285
Index of Names and Book Titles 303
Index of Subjects and Terms 307
Index of Works Quoted 319

Acknowledgments
To paraphrase Sefer Yez.irah and its kabbalistic offspring: the end is
bound to the beginning like the flame is bound to the coal—and so
too the beginning is rooted in the end, the circle turning and returning
unto itself. As I prepare to transfer this book to press—this project that
has lived with me through several stages of growth and development—I
speak from the vantage point of endings, even as the reader takes up
these words at the beginning of the way. The last words that are written
are the first to be read, the place where preface and postscript meet and
merge.
Over the course of this last year I have come to think a great deal
about the meaning of endings, about the place of memory in the shad-
ows of tragedy and absence. And now, as I write these lines, the face of
my wife Leah stands before me—her voice present as it once was. For
it was Leah, zikhronah livrakhah, who saw me through the long road of
this work. From its very inception in my graduate studies to the shape it
bears now, this book was nurtured and loved by my partner in life, the
space in which it was born made possible only because of the strength
and time that she gave to me. For this, and for so much more, I dedi-
cate this work to Leah’s memory—may the blessing she carried always
fill the world with light and beauty.
The years spent writing this book were also enveloped with the
wonder of fatherhood, and I feel blessed daily for the presence of my
daughter, Aderet Shoshanah. The time she had with her mother cut so
excruciatingly short, she nevertheless is led by the power of that forma-
tive nurturance, and it is from the wellspring of her mysterious young
energy that I am drawn back to life, back to these words that were the
markers of my path into the world of learning and ideas.