Kabbalah in Print: The Study and Popularization of Jewish Mysticism in Early Modernity

280 Pages·2020·14.595 MB·English

by  Andrea Gondos

Kabbalah in Print
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Kabbalah in Print
The Study and Popularization of
Jewish Mysticism in Early Modernity
Andrea Gondos
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Cover: Thomas Wyck (ca. 1616–ca. 1677), A Scholar in His Study
Hallwyl Museum, Stockholm, Sweden.
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2020 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without
written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or
transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic,
magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior
permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Name: Gondos, Andrea, author.
Title: Kabbalah in print : the study and popularization of Jewish mysticism in early
modernity / Andrea Gondos, author.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, [2020] | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: ISBN 9781438479712 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438479736
(ebook)
Further information is available at the Library of Congress.
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I dedicate this book to the memory of my
Grandmother, Dr. Julianna Gál (z˝l)
whose love of books and thirst for knowledge
inspired my own intellectual quest
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A book is like a magic garden carried in your pocket.
—Chinese Proverb
I MUST Create a System, or be enslav’d by another Man’s;
I will not Reason and Compare: my business is to Create.
—William Blake, Jerusalem
What a glorious gift is imagination, and what satisfaction it affords!
—Thomas Mann, Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man
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Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
Chapter 1 Print Technology and Its Impact on Religious
Consciousness 25
Chapter 2 Cultural Agency and Printing in Early Modern
Ashkenaz 59
Chapter 3 Kabbalistic Abridgments and Their Cultural Impact 79
Chapter 4 Zoharic Customs in a Halakhic Framework 105
Chapter 5 Constructing a Zoharic Lexicon 131
Chapter 6 The Plain Meaning of the Zohar: An Anthological
Approach 153
Chapter 7 The Influence of Kabbalistic Study Guides and
Concluding Remarks 175
Notes 183
Bibliography 229
Index 257
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Illustrations
Figure 3.1 Yissakhar Baer, Pith.ei Yah (Prague, 1609), fol. 1a,
from the Scholem Collection, National Library of
Israel. 90
Figure 3.2 Yissakhar Baer, Pith.ei Yah (Prague, 1609), fol. 14b,
from the Scholem Collection, National Library of
Israel. 101
Figure 3.3 Samuel Gallico, Assis Rimonim (Venice, 1601), fol. 23a,
from the Scholem Collection, National Library of
Israel. 102
Figure 3.4 Moses Cordovero, Pardes Rimonim (Krakow, 1592),
fol. 39b, from the Scholem Collection, National
Library of Israel. 103
Figure 4.1 Yesh Sakhar, Title Page (Prague, 1609), from the
Scholem Collection, National Library of Israel. 110
Figure 4.2 Yesh Sakhar (Prague, 1609), fol. 2a. “Laws of Rising
in the Morning,” from the Scholem Collection,
National Library of Israel. 116
Figure 4.3 Index of Laws, Yesh Sakhar (Prague, 1609), fol. 78a,
from the Scholem Collection, National Library of
Israel. 117
Figure 5.1 Yissakhar Baer, Imrei Binah, Title Page (Prague,
1611), from the Scholem Collection, National
Library of Israel. 139
ix
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