Saturn’s Jews: On the Witches’ Sabbat and Sabbateanism

218 Pages·2011·10.82 MB·English

by  Idel

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THE KOGOD LIBRARY OF JUDAIC STUDIES
Saturn’s Jews
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Editor
The Kogod Library of Judaic Studies
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E ditorial Board Menachem Fisch
Moshe Halbertal
Donniel Hartman
Moshe Idel
Avi Sagi
Other titles in the series
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Ben: Sonship and Jewish Mysticism
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The Open Canon
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Transforming Identity
Avi Sagi and Zvi Zohar
Messiahs and Resurrection in ‘The Gabriel Revelation ’
Israel Knohl
Mysticism and Madness: The Religious Thought of Rabbi Nachman
Bratslav
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To Be a Jew
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Disempowered King
Yair Lorberbaum
Saturn’s Jews
On the Witches’ Sabbat
and Sabbateanism
Moshe Idel
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SHALOM HARTMAN inn continuum
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Published by Continuum International Publishing Group
The Tower Building, 11 York Road, London SE1 7NX
80 Maiden Lane, Suite 704, New York, NY 10038
www. con tinuumbooks. com
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
©Moshe Idel, 2011
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: HB: 978-1-4411-2144-8
PB: 978-0-8264-4453-0
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
Typeset by Free Range Book Design Production
Printed and bound in Great Britain
Vdh irrrr dww irinxi iiwto "ism 'row pi
And Saturn is the first and last gate,
and there everything will be united.
MS. Vatican 194, fol. 67a.
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Contents
Abbreviations ix
Preface xi
1 From Saturn, Sabbath and Sorcery to the Jews 1
Introduction 1
On Abraham ibn Ezra’s Visions of Saturn 5
Two Thirteenth-Century Kabbalists: Abraham Abulafia
and Joseph Ashkenazi on Saturn, Sorcery and Sabbath 12
Some Fourteenth-Century Texts 22
Some Fifteenth-Century Jewish Texts on Saturn 24
Saturn in the Sixteenth Century: Joseph ibn Tzayyah,
Isaac Karo and Abraham Yagel 27
Jewish Resistance to and Critique of the Saturnization
of Judaism 29
Some Possible Repercussions 38
■ From Saturn to Sabbatai Tzevi: A Planet that Became Messiah 47
Some Preliminary Reflections on Jewish Culture 47
Astrology, Messianism and Universalism 51
Saturn, Binah and Messiah 54
Sabbatai Tzevi and Saturn 64
Saturn, Forbidden Sexual Relations and Sabbateanism 69
More on Sabbateanism and Astrology 72
Nathan of Gaza and Moshe Hayyim Luzzatto
on Saturn and Sabbatai Tzevi 76
Some Conclusions 77
viii Contents
3 From Saturn to Melancholy 85
Some Saturnian Discussions in the Eighteenth Century 85
Between Aby Warburg’s School and
Gershom Scholem’s School 88
On Some Elite Jews and Melancholy in
the Twentieth Century 91
Concluding Remarks 99
Appendix 109
Notes 119
Bibliography 181
Index of Subjects 189
Index of Persons 195