Ascensions on High in Jewish Mysticism: Pillars, Lines, Ladders (Pasts Incorporated) (Pasts Incorporated)

Table of Contents......Page 6
Preface......Page 10
1. Studying Religion......Page 12
2. Eight Approaches to Religion......Page 15
3. Perspectivism: An Additional Approach......Page 22
4. Kabbalah as Symbolic Theology according to Modern Scholarship......Page 24
Notes......Page 30
1. Introduction......Page 34
2. Heikhalot Literature: Precedents and Offshoots......Page 39
3. Nousanodia: The Neoaristotelian Spiritualization of the Ascent......Page 48
4. Neoplatonic Cases of Psychanodia......Page 52
5. The Ascent through the Ten Sefirot......Page 58
6. "As If" and Imaginary Ascents......Page 62
7. Ascension and Angelization......Page 65
8. Astral Psychanodia in Jewish Sources......Page 67
9. Concluding Remarks......Page 68
Notes......Page 69
1. The Pillar in the Work of Mircea Eliade and Ioan P. Culianu......Page 84
2. The Cosmic Pillar in Rabbinic Texts......Page 85
3. The Pillar in the Book of Bahir......Page 90
4. The Pillar in Early Kabbalah......Page 94
5. The Pillar and Enoch-Metatron in Ashkenazi Esotericism......Page 97
6. The Zohar and the Luminous Pillar......Page 99
7. The Human Righteous as a Pillar in the Zohar......Page 103
Notes......Page 104
1. The Pillar and the Two Paradises......Page 112
2. The Eschatological Inter-Paradisiacal Pillar......Page 114
3. The Pillar in the Pseudo-Midrash Seder Gan `Eden and Its Zoharic Parallels......Page 116
4. Worship of the Pillar......Page 118
5. The Pillar as a Vehicle......Page 121
6. The Pillar as Conductor to the Divine Realm......Page 123
8. Contemplating a Supernal Secret......Page 124
9. Later Repercussions of the Zoharic Stances......Page 126
10. Pillar, Performance and the Righteous......Page 131
11. The Timing of Posthumous Psychanodia......Page 132
12. The Manichean Pillar of Light and Glory......Page 134
13. Symbolic Interpretations of Zoharic Paradisiacal Architecture......Page 138
14. Concluding Remarks......Page 141
Notes......Page 144
1. The Besht and the Epistle of the Ascent of the Soul......Page 154
2. The Besht as an Iatromant......Page 157
3. On Shamanism in the Carpathian Mountains......Page 159
4. The Besht and the Eschatological Pillar......Page 161
5. The Tzaddiq as the Present Pillar in Hasidism......Page 166
6. Hasidic Semantics......Page 168
7. Some Methodological Issues Related to the Besht's Epistle......Page 169
Notes......Page 171
1. The Universal Soul and Median Line in Arabic Texts......Page 178
2. The Median Line in Kabbalah......Page 182
3. Al-Batalyawsi, Yohanan Alemanno and Pico della Mirandola......Page 192
4. The Ladder, Natura and Aurea Catena......Page 198
5. Some Conclusions......Page 203
Notes......Page 205
1. Pillars, Paradises and Gestalt-Coherence......Page 216
2. Pillars and Some Semantic Observations......Page 220
3. Between Literature and Experience......Page 225
4. On the Pillar and Mircea Eliade's Views on Judaism......Page 227
5. Organism, Organization and the Spectrum between Them......Page 239
6. Time, Ritual, Technique......Page 242
Notes......Page 244
D......Page 250
S......Page 251
Z......Page 252
B......Page 254
E......Page 255
K......Page 256
N......Page 257
S......Page 258
T......Page 259
Z......Page 260