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

Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
	The Intellectual Climate in Prague at the Dawn of the Seventeenth Century
	The Cultural Context: Secondary Elites and the Popularization of Kabbalah
	Shifting Intellectual Boundaries: Transnational Kabbalistic Networks in Early Modernity
	Overview
Chapter 1 Print Technology and Its Impact on Religious Consciousness
	Printing and Its Impact on Christianity
	Trajectories of Hebrew Printing
	Christian Consumers of Kabbalistic Books
	Printing Jewish Mysticism: The Zohar and Other Works
	Conclusion
Chapter 2 Cultural Agency and Printing in Early Modern Ashkenaz
	The Rise of New Agents of Culture in Early Modern Ashkenaz
	Rabbi Yissakhar Baer’s Biography
	The Printers—The Gersonides Dynasty of Prague
Chapter 3 Kabbalistic Abridgments and Their Cultural Impact
	The Use and Impact of Christian Reference Aids
	A Jewish Response to Printing: The Emergence of Shortcuts
	Abridgments to Works of Kabbalah
	Pitḥei Yah: A Digest to Cordovero’s Pardes Rimonim
Chapter 4 Zoharic Customs in a Halakhic Framework
	Halakhah and Kabbalah: Issues and Developments
	Ritual Observance and the Sustenance of the Divine World: Yesh Sakhar
	Conclusion
Chapter 5 Constructing a Zoharic Lexicon
	The Use of Lexical Aids among Humanist Scholars in Early Modern Europe
	“Entrance” into the Words of the Zohar: Lexicographic Practice in Kabbalah
	Offering Words of Understanding: Yissakhar Baer’s Lexicon to the Zohar
	Conclusion
Chapter 6 The Plain Meaning of the Zohar: An Anthological Approach
	Conclusion
Chapter 7 The Influence of Kabbalistic Study Guides and Concluding Remarks
Notes
Bibliography
Index