Temple Portals: Studies in Aggadah and Midrash in the Zohar

Preface
Table of Contents
Chapter One: The Zohar as Midrash
	Why midrash?
	The Zohar’s homiletic methodology
Chapter 2: The Zoharic Homilies: General Outlines
Chapter 3: From the Rabbinic to Zoharic Aggada: Preservation, Reworking, and Alteration
Chapter 4: “The Light Hidden for the Righteous”: For Whom is it Reserved?
	“The light reserved for the righteous”: The early traditions
	The “hidden light” and the “light of thought”
	The “world to come” and the “future”
	The “hidden light” in the Zohar
	The “hidden-present”: In the wake of the Zohar
	Conclusion
Chapter 5: Adam’s Sin: Its Meaning and Essence
	The meaning of Adam’s sin: Polemical residues in nascent kabbalistic thought
	“He entered in tranquility and departed in terror”: Original sin in the writings of R. Moses de Léon
	“Many accounts”: Original sin in the Zohar
	Exegetical tendencies and the exegete
	Conclusion
Chapter 6: Enoch and Elijah: From Angel to Man, Man to Angel
	The ancient traditions about Enoch and Elijah
	Enoch and Elijah’s ascents in medieval philosophy
	Elijah’s ascent: Nahmanides’ view
	Enoch’s and Elijah’s ascents in the zoharic circle and later works
	Conclusion
Chapter 7: “He failed”: The Story of Abraham’s Origins
	The zoharic homily: The exegetical context
	The story of Abraham’s origins in medieval Jewish literature
	The activist approach and its early roots
	The Zohar, Maimonides, and Sefer Yetzira
	The various versions in the Zohar
	The Zohar, Philo, and Genesis Rabbah
	Conclusion
Chapter 8: The Aqeda: From Test to Experience
	What did God really want?
	The essential view of the aqeda and its manifestations in midrash and piyyut
	The essentialist approach in Nahmanides commentary on the Torah
	The zoharic aggada: The “completion” of the aqeda
	The zoharic aggada: The aqeda as an incense offering
	The aqeda as the “binding of Din” in early kabbalistic writings and the Zohar
	The aqeda in the Zohar: From theosophic to a personal-existential midrash
	Conclusion
Chapter 9: The Birthright and the Blessing: Esau’s Suppressed Cry
	‘That wicked one’: Esau as archetype
	The literary roots of the archetypal image
	Esau and Edom in the zoharic myth
	Esau’s cry: The wronging of evil and its vengeance
	Conclusion
Chapter 10: The Exodus and the Liberation of the Kabbalistic Spirit
	From the deliverance of the people to the deliverance of the spirit
	From national enterprise to mythical struggle
	From mythic struggle to personal-spiritual freedom
	Conclusion
Chapter 11: The War Against Amalek: Human vs. Divine Needs
	“Did Moses’ hands wage war?”: The Zohar and Roš. Haš. 3:7
	The war against Amalek: A double and triple war
	Moses’ hands and Amalek’s defeat
	Conclusion
Chapter 12: Nadab and Abihu’s Sin as a “Holy Revolt”
	Early and earlier traditions
	Nadab and Abihu’s sin in the Zohar
	Nadab, Abihu, and Phinehas
	The meaning of the homily in its historical context
	Conclusion
Chapter 13: “But Amongst the Nations of the World There Did Arise One Like Moses”: Moses and Balaam
	Prophet or diviner: From the ancient aggadah to the early Kabbalah
	Moses and Balaam: An aggadic tradition and its meaning
	Balaam’s and Moses’ prophecies in the Zohar and R. Moses de Léon’s Writings
	Criticism of the dualist view of prophecy
	The dualistic view of prophecy: Exegetical and ideological aspects
	Conclusion
Chapter 14: “Then Moses, the Servant of the LORD, Died There”: Did Moses Really Die?
	Moses’ death in the pre-zoharic literature
	“Death by a kiss”
	Moses’ death in the Zohar
	The relationship between the Zohar and the early aggada
	Moses’ light and soul in the Tiqunim literature
	Conclusion
Chapter 15: Elijah the Zealot
	Elijah’s origin and identity
	Zeal and Elijah in rabbinic thought
	Elijah and Phinehas in the zoharic tradition
	Elijah’s zeal: Between earth and heaven
	Conclusion
Epilogue
Bibliography
Chapters first published elsewhere
Index of Zoharic Sources
Index of subjects
Index of persons