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1. Arthur Green, “The Zaddiq as Axis Mundi in Later Judaism,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion (JAAR), XLV/3 (1977), p. 327.
2. Passage from M. Zelikson, Kol mevaser ve-omer (The Voice of the Herald Brings Good News and Proclaims), 32, 48–49 (Abraham Pariz-Slonim] (?Jerusalem, ?1965), quoted in Elior, The Mystical Origins of Hasidism, p. 133.
3. Modernized rendition by the author from Scholem’s translation in Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, p. 108. The hymn is generally attributed to Samuel though some scholars attribute it to his son, Judah he-Hasid.
4. Abulafia, Haye ha-nefesh (Life of the Soul), MS. Munchen 408, fol. 7b–8a, quoted in Idel, Mystical Experience in Abraham Abulafia, p. 157.
5. Hai Gaon (939–1038) quoted in B. M. Lewin, ed. Otsar ha-geonim (Treasury of the Geonim), 13 vols. Jerusalem: 1928–62), vol. 4, pp. 13–15; quoted in Jacobs, Schocken Book of Jewish Mystical Testimonies, p. 32.
6. Nathan ben Yehiel, Sefer he-arukh: Aruch Completum (The Arranged Book) 1:14, quoted in Wolfson, Through a Speculum That Shines, p. 146. According to Wolfson, in his detailed study of the nature of the visionary experiences among Jewish mystics, Hai Gaon likened this mystical vision to the nature of prophecy in general.
7. Quoted in Fishbane, As Light Before Dawn, p. 111.
8. More information on the writing of the Pentateuch can be found in Friedman, Who Wrote the Bible?
9. Blenkinsopp, History of Prophecy in Israel, p. 30. Blenkinsopp summarizes the work of two important German scholars, Hermann Gunkel and Sigmund Mowinckel, in the late 19th and early 20th century. He says that Gunkel “made a clear distinction between the several literary types which were either employed in prophetic preaching or incorporated at a later time into prophetic books and those forms which were peculiar to prophecy.… Genuine prophetic utterance … proceeded from what Gunkel called the prophet’s mysterious experience of oneness with God and identification with his purposes in history. This incommunicable and ultimately inexplicable experience was, for Gunkel, the essence of prophecy.”
10. Drob, Kabbalistic Metaphors, pp. 94–95.
11. Encyclopedia of World Myth, http://towerweb.net/alt-lib/myth/pan-ku .shtml, and Myth, Legend, and Folk Belief in East Asia, http://www .continuinged.ku.edu/is/tapes/1ANTH293.html. Also see Patanjali, Thoughts on Indian Mysticism, p. 34.
12. “The Tzohar” [Tsohar], in Schwartz, Gabriel’s Palace, pp. 59–62, based on the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Hagigah 12a; Midrash Genesis Rabbah 31:11, and other sources.
13. Several manuscripts and printed editions read here: “sons of Elohim, wise of the generation, and whoever are privileged to contemplate it discover higher wisdom” [footnote 1042 in Matt, The Zohar: Pritzker Edition, vol. 1, p. 238].
14. Zohar 1:37b, in Matt, The Zohar: Pritzker Edition, vol. 1 (Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 2004), pp. 237–239.
15. See Fohr, Adam and Eve, pp. 39–41.
16. Judah Leib Alter of Ger, Otsar ma’amraim u-mikhtavim (A Treasury of Sayings and Writings) (Jerusalem: Makhon Gahaley Esh, 1986), p. 75f; quoted in Green, Ehyeh: A Kabbalah for Tomorrow, p. 22.
17. Cf. Zohar 1:79b, in The Zohar, Sperling and Simon, trans., vol. 1, pp. 268–269.
18. Zohar 1:89a, in The Zohar, Sperling and Simon, trans., vol. 1, pp. 295–296.
19. Green, Ehyeh: A Kabbalah for Tomorrow, p. 24.
20. Zohar 1:102b, in Matt, The Zohar: Pritzker Edition, vol. 2, pp. 128–29.
21. Ya’akov Yosef, Toldot Ya’akov Yosef (Events of Ya’akov Yosef) (Lemberg, 1863), 127b, quoted in Dresner, The Zaddik, p. 127.
22. Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sukkah 45b, quoted by Maimonides, Treatise of the Pool, p. 112.
23. Maimonides, Treatise of the Pool, Paul Fenton, trans., p. 112.
24. Mahzor Vitry (Prayer book of Vitry), eleventh and twelfth centuries (the work of pupils of Rashi, 1040–1105), S. Hurwitz, ed., Nurnberg, 1923, quoted in Living Talmud, Goldin, trans., p. 195.

25. Cf. Zohar 1:83a, in The Zohar, Sperling and Simon, trans., vol. 1, p. 276. The rabbis are in discussion about Abram’s journeys, and Rabbi Abba comments that the Bible makes a point of saying that he went to the South. Rabbi Simeon then gives his interpretation:

    “Observe that these words have an inner meaning, and indicate to us that Abram went down to the ‘lower degrees’ in Egypt, and probed them to the bottom, but clave not to them and returned unto his Master. He was not like Adam, who, when he descended to a certain grade, was enticed by the serpent and brought death upon the world; nor was he like Noah, who, when he descended to a certain grade, was enticed and ‘drank of the wine and became drunk and was uncovered in the midst of his tent’ (Genesis 9:21). Unlike them, Abram came up again and returned to his place, to the upper grade to which he had been attached previously. This whole incident is related in order to show that he was steadfast in his attachment to Wisdom, and was not seduced, and returned to his former condition. ‘Into the South’: this is the higher grade to which he was attached at first, as it is written, ‘going on still to the South.’ The inner significance of this narrative is that if Abram had not gone down to Egypt and been tested there, his portion would not have been in the Lord.”

26. Abulafia, Haye ha-nefesh (Life of the Soul), MS. Munchen 408, folio 7b–8a, quoted in Idel, Mystical Experience in Abraham Abulafia, p. 157.
27. Green, Ehyeh: A Kabbalah for Tomorrow, pp. 34–35.
28. Green, Ehyeh: A Kabbalah for Tomorrow, p. 21.
29. Cf. Zohar 2:20b–21a, in The Zohar, Sperling, Simon, & Levertoff, trans., vol. 3, pp. 295–296. See also Kaplan, Meditation and the Bible, pp. 7–8.
30. Simon ben Tsemakh Duran, Magen avot (Shield of our Fathers) 2:2 (Livorno, 1785), p. 16a, quoted in Kaplan, Meditation and the Bible, p. 89.
31. Kaplan, Meditation and the Bible, p. 2.
32. Epstein, Kabbalah: Way of the Jewish Mystic, p. 156.
33. According to Fishbane’s “Biblical Prophecy as a Religious Phenomenon,” in Jewish Spirituality: From the Bible Through the Middle Ages, Green, ed., vol. 1, p. 62, contemporary scholars have “attempted to locate the phenomena of biblical prophecy within the context of the larger contemporary ancient Near Eastern environment in which it occurred.… There are valuable studies that trace (or relate) the origins of Israelite prophecy to comparable phenomena in ancient West Asia (like the mantic-ecstatic type of prophet known from twelfth-century [BCE] Byblos or ninth-to-eighth century bce Aram) or in Mesopotamia proper (like the messenger type known from eighteenth-century [BCE] Mari).” Also see Wilson, Prophecy and Society in Ancient Israel, 98–115, 129–34, and Bibliography.
34. Discussion in this section draws on Blenkinsopp, History of Prophecy in Israel, pp. 36–37.
35. “In Israel, as everywhere else in the Near East, ecstatic prophets were attached to temples and carried out specific functions there including intercessory prayer and the giving of oracles, especially in critical situations. Apart from explicit attestations, some aspects of their activity can be cautiously deduced from prophetic oracles in the hymns and the attribution of psalms to prophets. We have seen that one or another of the canonical prophets may have belonged to the ranks of these temple ecstatics, while others may have begun their career, but not ended it, in that capacity.” Discussion in Blenkinsopp, History of Prophecy in Israel, pp. 252–253.
36. Heschel, The Prophets, p. 27.
37. Kaplan, Meditation and the Bible, p. 27.
38. See Blenkinsopp, History of Prophecy in Israel, p. 30 and throughout the book.
39. Blenkinsopp, commenting on a passage in the biblical book of Chronicles, written in the second century BCE, in History of Prophecy in Israel, p. 254.
40. Blenkinsopp, History of Prophecy in Israel, p. 124.
41. Moshe Hayim Luzzatto, Derekh ha-shem (The Way of the Name), pp. 3:4:2,4, as quoted in Aryeh Kaplan, Meditation and the Bible, pp. 65–66.
42. Blenkinsopp, History of Prophecy in Israel, p. 66.
43. Cited in Kaplan, Meditation and the Bible, p. 88.
44. Kaplan, Meditation and the Bible, p. 90.
45. Bible, 1 Kings 8:23. See also discussion on the term “servant of God” on pp.108–117.
46. Kaplan, Meditation and the Bible, p. 87.
47. See Davidson’s Divine Romance, pp. 34–62, for an expansive discussion of an ancient allegorical text on this subject, “The Virgin, the Harlot and the Bridegroom,” found among the Nag Hammadi trove.
48. “Wisdom literature” is a term used for a loose body of work in which Wisdom is personified as a feminine entity. This literature is found in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Canaan, and ancient Israel. The canonized books of Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes are generally included in the Israelite Wisdom literature, as well as some of the Psalms, and also in some non-canonized works like the Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach (Ecclesiasticus). There are similarities and probably influences of these literatures upon each other. The nature of Wisdom varies in use – and can be interpreted on many levels – both as an esoteric essence, and as common sense and a developed intellect. It is probable that this literature was a refined literary form in which many of the ancient prophets, from the time Isaiah and Hosea, conveyed their teachings. Scholars still debate its origins, who its authors were, and its intended audience. A discussion of the research in this area is covered in Crenshaw’s “The Wisdom Literature” in Knight and Tucker, ed., The Hebrew Bible and Its Modern Interpreters, pp. 369–407.
49. See also Davidson, Treasury of Mystic Terms, Part 1, vol. 3, pp. 341–345.
50. Kaplan, Meditation and the Bible, Introduction, n.p.
51. “The Isaiah scroll, one of the longer units in the Hebrew Bible, comprises prophetic material collected over a period of about half a millennium. While the nucleus of this collection goes back, directly or indirectly, to Isaiah ben-Amoz, to whom the entire book is attributed (1:1), at least two thirds of the text derives from anonymous disciples, seers, scholiasts, and interpreters of either the First or Second Temple period” (Blenkinsopp, History of Prophecy in Israel, p. 107). As early as the eighteenth century it was realized that chapters 1–39 were written in the eighth century BCE, at least 150 years before chapters 40–66, and constitute a separate collection. Further analysis revealed that chapters 40–55 were written during the exilic period (early and mid-sixth century BCE) and chapters 56–66 were post-exilic (late sixth century BCE). Of course, even these divisions are rough, as there were also interpolations into the earlier sections by writers from later periods. For example, in chapters 24–27 there are well-known passages promoting Jerusalem as the spiritual center of the world, a reflection of the aspirations of an exiled community for the reestablishment of its temple and religious center. (Blenkinsopp, History of Prophecy in Israel, p. 209.) The well-known Chapter 11, predicting the advent of a future prophet-king-messiah who brings peace and harmony, may also have been an interpolation from the period of exile. (Blenkinsopp, History of Prophecy in Israel, pp. 117–118.)
52. Isaac Abarbanel, commentary on Ezekiel 1:4, in Kaplan, Meditation and the Bible, p. 47.
53. Blenkinsopp, History of Prophecy in Israel, p. 195.
54. Elior, The Three Temples, p. 31ff.
55. The discovery of a very early manuscript of the Isaiah scroll among the Dead Sea Scrolls has illuminated the meaning of this text. Before this discovery, the earliest copies of the Hebrew Bible were dated from the ninth century ce (the traditionally received or masoretic text), and this passage had always confounded scholars as it didn’t quite make sense. In the traditional reading, the passage says: As many were astonished at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man,” The text in the Dead Sea scroll of Isaiah reads “anointed” instead of “marred,” a change of only one letter in the Hebrew (from nishkhat to mishkhat).
56. Blenkinsopp, History of Prophecy in Israel, p. 218.
57. Concerning Joel and Zechariah this is especially true, as scholars have shown. (Blenkinsopp, History of Prophecy in Israel, p. 259.)
58. Cf. Isaiah 11:1.
59. Schiffman, Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls, p. 117.
60. 1QH, quoted in Vermes, Dead Sea Scrolls in English, p. 187.
61. 1QH, quoted in Vermes, Dead Sea Scrolls in English, p. 182.
62. 1QH, quoted in Vermes, Dead Sea Scrolls in English, pp. 184–186.
63. 1QH, Vermes, Dead Sea Scrolls in English, pp. 166–167.
64. 1QH, Vermes, Dead Sea Scrolls in English, p. 204.
65. See Dan, “Jewish Mysticism in History, Religion and Literature,” in Studies in Jewish Mysticism, Dan and Talmage, ed.
66. Hashmal: lightning; literally, electrical light.
67. Translation of this excerpt by Carol Newsom, Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice (4Q405 20 ii 22:6–14) (1985) p. 303; as quoted and slightly retranslated by Yudith Nave and Arthur Millman in Elior’s Jewish Mysticism, p. 125.
68. 1 Enoch, the Apocalypse of Enoch, is also called the Ethiopian Book of Enoch, because the first manuscripts found were in the Ethiopic language (Geez), which is very close to the original Aramaic (the language spoken by the Jews of the last centuries BCE). Earlier copies of fragments in Aramaic were found in the 1940’s among the Dead Sea scrolls. A later book, called 2 Enoch, or Secrets of Enoch, is also referred to as the Slavonian Book of Enoch (after its earliest existing manuscript). There are several more works originating in late antiquity bearing Enoch’s name.
69. Wolfson, Through a Speculum that Shines, pp. 28–29.
70. Citations are drawn from E. Isaac’s translation as published in Charlesworth’s edition of Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, vol. 1, modified by reference to some of the alternative readings he cites, and to Charles’ translations in Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, vol. 2. The final selection, of Enoch’s advice to his family, is drawn entirely from the Charles translation, and is available online at http://www.ccel.org/c/charles/otpseudepig/enoch/enoch_3.htm. In a few places I have taken the liberty of modernizing some of the awkward archaic construction and choice of words.
71. Translation by Michael O. Wise, cited by Tabor on his website “The Jewish Roman World of Jesus.” Wording adjusted in reference to Wise’s translation of the same text in Eisenman and Wise, Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered, pp. 21–23.
72. Author’s translation of passages from Tefillat Shemoneh Esrei.
73. See Bible, Matthew 11:5 and Luke 7:22.
74. Tabor, website “The Jewish Roman World of Jesus.”
75. Tabor, website, “The Jewish Roman World of Jesus.”
76. Wolfson, Through a Speculum that Shines, p. 31.
77. Moses Maimonides, “Letter to Rabbi Hisdai ha-Levi,” quoted in Bokser, Jewish Mystical Tradition, p. 74.
78. Bokser, Jewish Mystical Tradition, p. 74.
79. Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed, II, 44–45 [92a–97b], Pines, trans., vol. II, pp. 394–403.
80. “In Philo’s philosophy, the logos is the Divine Mind, the Idea of Ideas, the first-begotten Son of the Uncreated Father, eldest and chief of the angels, the man or shadow of God, or even the second God, the pattern of all creation and archetype of human reason.” (See QE 2.124; Conf. 41; Mig. 103; Conf. 63, 146; Deus 31; Her. 205; Fug. 112; Mos. 2.134; Euseb. PE. 7.13.1; LA 3.96; quoted in David Winston, “Was Philo a Mystic?” in Dan and Talmage, ed., Studies in Jewish Mysticism, pp. 15–39, quote on 20–21.)
81. Recounted in Buchler, Some Types of Jewish-Palestinian Piety, footnote on pp. 90–91, quoting from Sefer ma’asiyot (The Book of Actions), Gaster, ed., Ramsgate, 1896, p. 115ff.
82. Talmud, Mishnah Avot (Fathers) 3:12, in Bokser, The Talmud, p. 227.
83. Talmud, Mishnah Ta’anit (Fasting) 25a, in Encyclopedia Judaica, article on “Hasidim (‘pietists,’ talmudic term).”
84. Talmud, Mishnah Berakhot (Blessings) 33a, in Encyclopedia Judaica, article on “Hasidim (‘pietists,’ talmudic term).”
85. Talmud, Mishnah Avot 5:14, in Bokser, The Talmud, p. 234.
86. Talmud, Mishnah Shabbat (Sabbath) 31a, in Buchler, Some Types of Jewish-Palestinian Piety, p. 23.
87. Midrash Leviticus Rabbah (Rabbinic Interpretation of Leviticus) 1:5, in Buchler, Some Types of Jewish-Palestinian Piety, p. 13.
88. Talmud, Mishnah Avot 1:14, in Bokser, The Talmud, p. 221.
89. Quoted in Buchler, Some Types of Jewish-Palestinian Piety, p. 20. (Primary source not given.)
90. Baraitha Sotah 48b, in Buchler, Some Types of Jewish-Palestinian Piety, p. 55.
91. Baraitha Sotah 48b, in Buchler, Some Types of Jewish-Palestinian Piety, p. 56.
92. Buchler, Some Types of Jewish-Palestinian Piety, p. 58.
93. Talmud, Mishnah Avot 1:12, in Bokser, The Talmud, p. 221.
94. Talmud, Mishnah Avot 2:5, in Bokser, The Talmud, p. 222.
95. Talmud, Mishnah Avot 2:7, in Bokser, The Talmud, p. 222.
96. Talmud, Mishnah Avot 1:6, in Bokser, The Talmud, p. 220.
97. The Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan (Mishnah Avot de-Rabbi Nathan), Goldin, trans., pp. 172–73.
98. Neusner, “Varieties of Judaism in the Formative Age,” in Jewish Spirituality: From the Bible through the Middle Ages, vol. 2, Green, ed., p. 192. This article also appears in Neusner’s book, Torah from Our Sages, p. 185.
99. Lenowitz, Jewish Messiahs, p. 39.

100. Cohen, From the Maccabees to the Mishnah, p. 201.

101. Matt, God and the Big Bang, p. 156. Matt acknowledges that his discussion of Jesus draws on Geza Vermes, Jesus the Jew: A Historian’s Reading of the Gospels (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1973); E. P. Sanders, Jesus and Judaism (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985); … “The Life of Jesus,” in Christianity and Judaism: A Parallel History of Their Origins and Development, Hershel Shanks, ed., (Washington, D. C.: Biblical Archaeology Society, 1992), pp. 41–83.

102. Matt, God and the Big Bang, pp. 156–157. Talmudic and biblical references are from the Tosefta (supplementary Mishnah), Mishnah Berakhot, 3:20 and Mark 16:18.

103. Matthew 7:12.

104. Matt, God and the Big Bang, p. 159.

105. Matt, God and the Big Bang, p. 163.

106. Talmud, Tractate Baba Metsia (Middle Gate) 31b; Sukkah (Booth) 5a, quoted in Bokser, Wisdom of the Talmud, p. 87; also see Bokser, The Talmud, p. 16.

107. The Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan, Goldin, trans., ch. 4, p. 34.

108. Cohen, From the Maccabees to the Mishnah, p. 93.

109. Talmud, Tractate Shabbat, 153a, in Bokser, The Talmud, p. 97.

110. Talmud, Mishnah Avot 1:21, in Bokser, The Talmud, p. 231.

111. Talmud, Tractates Baba Kamma (First Gate) 9:30 and Shabbat 151a, in Bokser, Wisdom of the Talmud, p. 55.

112. Talmud, Mishnah Avot 4:29, in Bokser, The Talmud, pp. 231–232.

113. Talmud, Mishnah Avot 3:20, in Bokser, The Talmud, p. 228.

114. Talmud, Mishnah Avot 3:19, in Bokser, The Talmud, p. 227.

115. Talmud, Mishnah Avot 2:21, in Bokser, The Talmud, p. 224.

116. Cf. Talmud, Mishnah Sanhedrin (Law Court) 74a, in Bokser, The Talmud, p. 208.

117. Talmud, Mishnah Berakhot 61b, in Bokser, The Talmud, pp. 80–81.

118. Talmud, Mishnah Berakhot 61b, in Bokser, The Talmud, p. 81.

119. Bokser, Wisdom of the Talmud, p. 72.

120. Quoted in Bokser, Wisdom of the Talmud, pp. 78–79.

121. Talmud, Tractate Baba Batra (Last Gate) 165a. (JCL)

122. See Bokser, Wisdom of the Talmud, p. 81.

123. Neusner, First-Century Judaism in Crisis, p. 95.

124. Neusner, There We Sat Down, p. 95.

125. Neusner, There We Sat Down, p. 74.

126. Cohen, From the Maccabees to the Mishnah, p. 122.

127. Neusner, There We Sat Down, p. 95.

128. Cohen, From the Maccabees to the Mishnah, p. 201.

129. Neusner, There We Sat Down, p. 58.

130. Neusner, There We Sat Down, p. 78.

131. Neusner, There We Sat Down, p. 85.

132. Neusner, There We Sat Down, p. 85.

133. Neusner, There We Sat Down, p. 102.

134. Neusner, There We Sat Down, p. 86.

135. Neusner, There We Sat Down, p. 85.

136. As mentioned in the Talmud, in Tractate Berakhot 55a, referred to in Trachtenberg, Jewish Magic and Superstition, p. 82. Also see section on Sefer yetsirah, pp. 202–205.

137. Trachtenberg, Jewish Magic and Superstition, p. 90.

138. Trachtenberg, Jewish Magic and Superstition, pp. 86–87.

139. Dan, “Mysticism in Jewish History, Religion, and Literature,” in Dan and Talmage, ed., Studies in Jewish Mysticism, pp. 3–4.

140. Talmud, Mishnah Hagigah (Celebration of a Feast) 14b; as translated in Jacobs, Schocken Book of Jewish Mystical Testimonies, pp. 30–31.

141. Jacobs, Schocken Book of Jewish Mystical Testimonies, p. 32.

142. See Talmud, Mishnah Yadayim (Hands), 3:5.

143. Hai Gaon quoted in B. M. Lewin, ed. Otsar ha-geonim (Treasury of the Geonim), 13 vols. (Jerusalem: 1928–62), vol. 4, pp. 13–15; quoted in Jacobs, Schocken Book of Jewish Mystical Testimonies, p. 32.

144. Nathan ben Yehiel, Sefer he-arukh: Aruch Completum 1:14, quoted in Wolfson, Through a Speculum That Shines, p. 146. According to Wolfson, in his detailed study of the nature of the visionary experiences among Jewish mystics, Hai Gaon likened this mystical vision to the nature of prophecy in general.

145. Jacobs, Schocken Book of Jewish Mystical Testimonies, p. 30. Rashi translated pardes as heaven, though the meaning is more strictly garden or orchard.

146. Heikhalot rabbati 1:2–5, in Bokser, Jewish Mystical Tradition, p. 57.

147. Heikhalot rabbati 6:3–5, in Bokser, Jewish Mystical Tradition, p. 59.

148. Heikhalot rabbati 7:1–3, in Bokser, Jewish Mystical Tradition, pp. 59–60.

149. Heikhalot rabbati 15:2–3, in Blumenthal, Understanding Jewish Mysticism, p. 57.

150. Heikhalot rabbati 16:1, in Blumenthal, Understanding Jewish Mysticism, p. 59.

151. Heikhalot rabbati 16:3, in Blumenthal, Understanding Jewish Mysticism, p. 60.

152. Heikhalot rabbati 22:2,3, in Blumenthal, Understanding Jewish Mysticism, p. 73.

153. Heikhalot rabbati 24:2,3, in Blumenthal, Understanding Jewish Mysticism, p. 78.

154. Heikhalot rabbati 24:4,5, in Blumenthal, Understanding Jewish Mysticism, p. 79.

155. Heikhalot rabbati 25:1, in Blumenthal, Understanding Jewish Mysticism, pp. 80–81.

156. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, p. 47.

157. Sefer yetsirah 1:1, in Sefer Yetzirah, Kaplan, trans. and ed., p. 5.

158. Sefer yetsirah 2:2, in Sefer Yetzirah, Kaplan, trans. and ed., p. 100.

159. Sefer yetsirah 6:8, in Sefer Yetzirah, long version, Kaplan, trans. and ed., p. 281.

160. Ba’al Shem Tov, in Tsava’at harivash (The Testament of the Besht) §75, quoted in Elior, Jewish Mysticism, p. 107.

161. In Likutim yekarim (Precious Collections), 132b, quoted in Elior, Jewish Mysticism, p. 110.

162. Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Qirqisani, The Book of Lights and Watchtowers, “Al-Qirqisani’s Accounts of Jewish Sects and Christianity,” Leon Nemoy, trans., Hebrew Union College Annual, 7 (1930), quoted in Lenowitz, Jewish Messiahs, pp. 72–73.

163. Abulfatah Muhammad al-Shahrastani, Book of Beliefs and Sects of Opinions [kitab al-milal wal-nahal], from the Hebrew translation in Aescoly, Movements, p. 145f, quoted in Lenowitz, Jewish Messiahs, pp. 74–75.

164. Al-Qirqisani, Book of Lights and Watchtowers, quoted in Nemoy, p. 383; cited in Lenowitz, Jewish Messiahs, p. 76.

165. Al-Shahrastani, Book of Beliefs and Sects of Opinions, translated into Hebrew by Aescoly in Movements, pp. 150–151; cited in Lenowitz, Jewish Messiahs, pp. 76–77.

166. Fenton in Obadyah Maimonides, Treatise of the Pool, Introduction, pp. 1–2. (Roman numerals in the text have been translated into Arabic numerals.) This section is heavily based on Fenton’s remarkable study.

167. Fenton, Treatise of the Pool, p. 3.

168. Fenton, Treatise of the Pool, p. 54; footnote 3 to p. 2.

169. Isaac Myer, Qabbalah, p. 3.

170. Fenton, Treatise of the Pool, p. 4.

171. Bokser, Jewish Mystical Tradition, p. 74.

172. Moses Maimonides, Letter to Rabbi Hisdai ha-Levi, quoted in Bokser, Jewish Mystical Tradition, p. 75, cf. Heschel, Maimonides: A Biography, J. Neugroschel, trans., p. 245.

173. Moses Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed, Pines, trans., III, 9; quoted in Heschel, Maimonides: A Biography, p. 245.

174. Moses Maimonides, Mishneh torah, hilkhot teshuvah (Repetition of the Torah, Laws of Repentance), 10:1, quoted in Bokser, Jewish Mystical Tradition, p. 81.

175. Jacobs, Schocken Book of Jewish Mystical Testimonies, p. 45.

176. Jacobs, Schocken Book of Jewish Mystical Testimonies, pp. 8–9.

177. Quotations on the following pages are from the Pines translation of Guide of the Perplexed, vol. 2, pp. 618–628; cf. Jacobs, Schocken Book of Jewish Mystical Testimonies, pp. 45–60. For certain passages, I have used the translation by Kaplan, published in his book Meditation and the Bible, where he brings out the spiritual meaning of the passages more clearly. I have also retranslated the unfortunate, ambiguous word “apprehension” as comprehension, knowledge, perception or enlightenment.

178. Cf. Kaplan, Meditation and the Bible, pp. 9–10.

179. Jacobs, Schocken Book of Jewish Mystical Testimonies, pp. 50–51.

180. Moses Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed, Pines, trans., vol. II, p. 623.

181. Moses Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed, Pines, trans., vol. II, p. 623.

182. Moses Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed, Pines, trans., vol. II, p. 622.

183. Moses Maimonides, Mishneh torah, yesodei ha-torah (Repetition of the Torah, Principles of Faith), 2:2, cited in Kaplan, Meditation and the Bible, p. 120.

184. Moses Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed, Pines, trans., vol. II, p. 627. Jacobs, Schocken Book of Jewish Mystical Testimonies, p. 58.

185. Jacobs, Schocken Book of Jewish Mystical Testimonies, pp. 58–59.

186. Moses Maimonides, Yad yesodei ha-torah 7:1, quoted in Kaplan, Medita- tion and the Bible, p. 22.

187. The Book of Direction to the Duties of the Heart, III:4, p. 149; cited in Fenton, Treatise of the Pool, pp. 5–6.

188. Fenton, Treatise of the Pool, p. 6.

189. Fenton, Treatise of the Pool, p. 6.

190. Kifayat al-abidin (Kifaya) (The Compendium for the Servants of God), II, p. 290, cited by Fenton, Treatise of the Pool, p. 7. In a Genizah letter (Taylor-Schecter Genizah Collection, Cambridge University Library, 20.44), he is referred to as “the head of the Pietists.” Fenton, Treatise of the Pool, p. 7. See also note 27 on p. 57.

191. Fenton, Treatise of the Pool, p. 7.

192. Kifaya II, p. 320, cited by Fenton, Treatise of the Pool, p. 8.

193. Fenton, Treatise of the Pool, p. 8.

194. Letter in Taylor-Schecter Genizah Collection, Cambridge University Library, 13 J 9.12, published by E. Ashtor, A History of the Jews in Egypt and Syria, III (Jerusalem, 1944–71), pp. 28–32. The letter is addressed to Rabbi Hayim, whose father was a judge at David Maimonides’ court and presumably also a pietist. Greetings are sent to both David and Obadyah. Quoted in Fenton, Treatise of the Pool, p. 25 and note 6 on p. 66.

195. See Fenton, Treatise of the Pool, Introduction pp. 26–53, for an overview of Treatise of the Pool.

196. Obadyah Maimonides, Treatise of the Pool, Fenton, trans., p. 93.

197. Obadyah Maimonides, Treatise of the Pool, Fenton, trans., pp. 35–36 and note 16 on p. 67. He writes that dawq is “a Sufi technical term meaning ‘to grasp through mystical experience,’ cf. Risala, I, p. 220. Moreover the term is frequently used by the Jewish Sufis to designate the esoteric sense of a verse. See nos. 47 and 58 of our [Fenton’s] ‘Some Judaeo-Arabic Fragments,’ and H. Corbin, L’Archange Empourpre, pp. 341–2.… Moses Maimonides claimed in the Introduction to his third volume of the Guide, Qafih, p. 449, that he had arrived at the comprehension of some of the esoterical mysteries of the Torah, the knowledge of which had practically disappeared.”

198. Obadyah Maimonides, Treatise of the Pool, Fenton, trans., p. 41.

199. Summarized by Fenton, Treatise of the Pool, p. 42 and note 39 on p. 70.

200. Obadyah Maimonides, Treatise of the Pool, Fenton, trans., pp. 112–113.

201. Obadyah Maimonides, Treatise of the Pool, Fenton, trans., p. 92. Fenton, in his footnote to this passage, maintains that Obadyah’s reference to the mediator or intercessor is to Reason, the Active Intellect, as the mediator between sensual and spiritual worlds. However, he also cites the opposing view held by the renowned scholar Georges Vajda, who wrote the introduction to Fenton’s volume, that the intercessor refers to the sayh or spiritual mentor. (Vajda in “The Mystical Doctrine of Rabbi Obadyah, Grandson of Moses Maimonides” in Journal of Jewish Spirituality, VI p. 221.) Fenton also concedes that in Sufi literature, Reason is often personified as the Prophet. Obadyah, writing in the Jewish context, parallels Moses with Reason. Thus the reference to the intercessor can be understood on two levels – as both Reason (the Active Intellect or Word), and as the spiritual master or mentor. (Note 88 on pp. 123–24.)

202. Fenton, Introduction to Obadyah Maimonides, Treatise of the Pool, p. 9.

203. Quoted in Fenton, Introduction to Obadyah Maimonides, Treatise of the Pool, pp. 9–10.

204. Kifaya, I, p. 142. Fenton remarks that this itinerary corresponds to the Sufi mahafa, mahabba, ma’rifa – “fear,” “love,” and “gnosis.”

205. Fenton, Introduction to Obadyah Maimonides, Treatise of the Pool, p. 11.

206. Obadyah Maimonides, Treatise of the Pool, Fenton, trans., p. 93.

207. Obadyah Maimonides, Treatise of the Pool, Fenton, trans., p. 90.

208. Letter in Taylor-Schecter Genizah Collection, Cambridge University Library, Arabic 1b.27, published in Paul Fenton, “Some Judaeo-Arabic fragments of Rabbi Abraham he-Hasid” in Journal of Semitic Studies, XXVI (Manchester, UK: 1981), pp. 47–72, quoted in Fenton, Introduction to Obadyah Maimonides’ Treatise of the Pool, p. 17.

209. Rubai 117, in Ezekiel, Sarmad, p. 261.

210. Rubai 108, in Ezekiel, Sarmad, p. 259.

211. Rubai 166, in Ezekiel, Sarmad, p. 272.

212. Cf. Verman, Books of Contemplation, p. 6.

213. Dan, Introduction to Dan and Kiener, Early Kabbalah, especially p. 27.

214. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, p. 102.

215. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, p. 81.

216. Sefer hasidim, §1, in Singer, trans., Medieval Jewish Mysticism, p. 3.

217. The five treatises collected in Sodei razaya have also been published as Sefer Raziel (The Book of the Angel Raziel). Sefer Raziel has become a key text of occult and magical practices in modern times.

218. They knew Saadia’s teachings through a “strange, lyrical, almost quasi-mystical Hebrew paraphrase of what was originally a dry, scholastic philosophic treatise.” (Dan, Introduction to Dan and Kiener, Early Kabbalah, p. 18.)

219. Dan, Introduction to Dan and Kiener, Early Kabbalah, p. 19.

220. Paraphrase by Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, p. 111, of Saadia’s ideas which Ibn Ezra and Judah adopted.

221. Eleazar of Worms, Sha’arei ha-sod ve-ha-yihud (Gates of the Secret and the Unity) p. 9, quoted in Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, p. 112.

222. Sefer Raziel (ed. 1701), folio 8b, quoted in Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, p. 108. Modernized rendition by the author for purposes of clarity.

223. Modernized rendition by the author from Scholem’s translation in Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, p. 108. Scholem attributes this poem to a disciple of Judah’s, but most modern scholars view it as the work of Judah’s father.

224. Quoted in Dan, “Emergence of Mystical Prayer,” in Dan and Talmage, ed., Studies in Jewish Mysticism, p. 94.

225. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, p. 116.

226. Quoted in Dan, “Emergence of Mystical Prayer,” in Dan and Talmage, ed., Studies in Jewish Mysticism, p. 98.

227. Jerusalem MS 8˚ 3296, frag.7r, quoted in Dan, “Emergence of Mystical Prayer” in Dan and Talmage, ed., Studies in Jewish Mysticism, p. 89; also in Marcus, “The Devotional Ideals of Ashkenazic Pietism,” in Green, ed., Jewish Spirituality I, p. 360.

228. Dan, “Emergence of Mystical Prayer” in Dan and Talmage, ed., Studies in Jewish Mysticism, p. 90.

229. Dan, Early Kabbalah, p. 21.

230. Dan, “Emergence of Mystical Prayer” in Dan and Talmage, ed., Studies in Jewish Mysticism, p. 91.

231. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, p. 100.

232. Quoted in Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, p. 85.

233. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, p. 104.

234. A story related by Isaac of Akko (Acre) cited in Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, p. 106.

235. Sefer hasidim, §1556, in Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, pp. 105–106.

236. Sefer hasidim, §161, in Singer, Medieval Jewish Mysticism, p. 97.

237. Aryeh Kaplan, trans., Bahir, p. xii.

238. A reference to the passage from the Bible, in Ezekiel: “Blessed be the Glory of God from its place” (Ezekiel 3:12). Joseph Dan explains that “in its place” in this parable means that “the Glory itself is known and present among the people …, only her place of origin is hidden. They bless the princess in her presence, and they refer to her origin as ‘wherever she comes from.’” (Dan and Kiener, Early Kabbalah, p. 64.)

239. Dan writes: “The Gnostic character of the Bahiric symbolism is apparent here more than in almost all other sections of the book. The picture of the ‘daughter of light,’ in exile in the material world, representing her hidden, unknowable place of origin ‘on the side of the light’ is a stark Gnostic one.” (Dan and Kiener, Early Kabbalah, p. 64.)

240. Bahir, §132, in Dan and Kiener, Early Kabbalah, p. 64, with reference to the translation in Kaplan, Bahir, pp. 48–49.

241. Bahir, §4, in Kaplan, Bahir, p. 2.

242. Bahir, §98, in Kaplan, Bahir, p. 46. For a complete discussion of the thirty-two paths of wisdom, see also Kaplan, trans., Sefer Yetzirah.

243. Bahir, §22, in Kaplan, Bahir, p. 9.

244. Bahir, §23, in Kaplan, Bahir, p. 9, and Bokser, trans., Jewish Mystical Tradition, p. 84.

245. Bahir, §119, in Kaplan, Bahir, p. 45 and Bokser, Jewish Mystical Tradition, p. 84.

246. Bahir, §195, in Bokser, Jewish Mystical Tradition, pp. 86–87.

247. Dan, Early Kabbalah, p. 5.

248. Cf. Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah, pp. 14–18, 233–238.

249. Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah, p. 238.

250. The quotation is taken from the important statutes Hukei torah (Laws of the Torah), published by M. Güdemann in Geschichte des Erziehungswesen und der Kultur der Juden in Deutschland und Frankreich (Vienna, 1880), 268. Quoted in Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah, p. 229.

251. Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah, pp. 229–230.

252. Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah, p. 231.

253. Sefer yestsirah, 1:6, quoted in Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah, p. 307.

254. Quoted in Hallamish, Introduction to the Kabbalah, p. 40.

255. See Scholem, Kitvei yad (Writings of the Hand), pp. 227–29. Quoted in Hallamish, Introduction to the Kabbalah, pp. 66–68.

256. Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah, p. 36.

257. Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah, pp. 35–36. Scholem also shares an interesting observation about a parallel source of revelation in mystical Islam: “A notion analogous to that of giluy Eliyahu can be found in Sufi mysticism in the accounts of revelations of Khidr (the Muslim metamorphosis of Elijah). Reports or testimonies concerning such revelations exist with regard to Muhi al-din ibn Arabi (1165–1240) of Andalusia, who shortly before 1200 – the time of Rabad and Isaac the Blind – was still wandering about in Spain.” (Cf. G. Husaini, The Pantheism of Ibn Arabi, 28, quoted in Origins of the Kabbalah, p. 246.)

258. Dan, Early Kabbalah, p. 31.

259. Menahem Recanti, Perush al ha-torah (Discourse on the Torah) (Jerusalem, 1961), Parashat naso (Portion: “Lift up”). Quoted in Fine, Physician of the Soul, p. 103.

260. Quoted in Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah, p. 206.

261. Quoted in Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah, p. 207.

262. Nahmanides, Derashah ’al kohelet (Interpretation of Ecclesiastes), in Part 1 of Kitvei ha-Ramban (The Writings of the Ramban), H. D. Chavel, ed., p. 190, quoted in Hallamish, Introduction to the Kabbalah, p. 108.

263. Shem Tov ibn Gaon, Baddei ha-aron u migdal Hanan’el (Linens of the Ark and the Tower of Hananel) (Jerusalem, 1978), p. 27; quoted in Hallamish, Introduction to the Kabbalah, p. 108.

264. Rabbi Jacob ben Sheshet, Ha-emunah ve-ha-bitahon (Faith and Confidence), in Kitvei ha-Ramban, Chavel, ed. (Jerusalem, 1964), 1:364. The English citation is based on Kiener’s translation in Dan and Kiener, Early Kabbalah, p. 122.

265. Quoted by Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah, p. 202.

266. Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah, p. 200.

267. Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah, p. 207.

268. Cited by S. Blickstein, Between Philosophy and Mysticism (Jewish Theological Seminary of America [JTSA] dissertation, 1983), 17, n. 45; referred to by Verman in Books of Contemplation, p. 188.

269. Quoted in Hames “Exotericism and Esotericism in Thirteenth Century Kabbalah.” Also reproduced in Hames’ The Art of Conversion: Christianity and Kabbalah in the Thirteenth Century, p. 51. Hames writes in his footnote to the letter: “I have compared between MS. Vatican Ebr. 202, ff. 59a–60a and G. Scholem’s transcription in ‘A New Document for the History of the Origins of the Kabbalah’ (Hebrew), in J. Fichman, ed., Sefer Bialik, (Tel Aviv 1934), pp. 143–4. A translation of part of the letter is to be found in Scholem’s Origins of the Kabbalah (Princeton 1987), pp. 394–95. My translation and interpretation differ somewhat from Scholem’s in both the aforementioned places.”

270. Hames, “Exotericism and Esotericism in Thirteenth Century Kabbalah,” p. 106.

271. Moses Cordovero, Shiur komah (Warsaw, 1883), folio 17a, quoted by Hallamish, Introduction to the Kabbalah, p. 25.

272. Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah, p. 277.

273. Isaac the Blind discussed in Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah, p. 282.

274. Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah, p. 284.

275. Thus in MS. British Museum, Margoliouth 752, folio 36a. A very similar passage also in Keter shem tov (Crown of the Good Name), in Jellinek, Auswahl kabbalistischer Mystik, 41. Quoted in Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah, pp. 451.

276. Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah, pp. 243–44.

277. Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah, p. 299. Scholem is quoting from Isaac’s commentary to chapter 3 of Sefer yetsirah. Hebrew: “Kol ha-devarim hozrim le-shoresh ikaram.”

278. Isaac’s commentary to the Sefer Yetsirah, translated by Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah, pp. 300–301.

279. Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah, p. 301.

280. This important prayer is recited at every service: “Hear O Israel, the Lord is Our God, the Lord is One [ehad].”

281. Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah, p. 309.

282. Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah, p. 279–80.

283. Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah, pp. 301–302. Although Scholem preferred to insist that the goal of kabbalistic meditation was not union with God, or unio mystica, but rather mystic communion – a less than total contact or an incomplete merging with the divine source – later scholars disagree, and point out that Scholem ignored evidence of unio mystica in some of the kabbalistic texts, and suggest that he held a traditionalist’s bias against the possibility of total mystic union. (Scholem refers to Tishby’s disagreement with him in fn. 206, p. 303. Moshe Idel also disagrees, as attested in his Mystical Experience in Abraham Abulafia, pp. 124 ff.)

284. Azriel of Gerona (thirteenth century), “Commentary on the Ten Sefirot,” in Meir ibn Gabbay, Derekh emunah (The Path of Faith) (Warsaw, 1850), 2b-c, {167} 3a-d; cf. Dan and Kiener, Early Kabbalah, 89–91, 93–94. As rendered by Matt, Essential Kabbalah, pp. 29–30.

285. Azriel on the Aggadoth, 38; quoted in Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah, p. 415.

286. Dan, ed., The Heart and the Fountain, p. 117.

287. Quoted in Dan, ed., The Heart and the Fountain, pp. 117–120.

288. Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah, p. 419.

289. Verman, Books of Contemplation, p. 3.

290. Verman, Books of Contemplation, pp. 37–42.

291. Dan, Early Kabbalah, p. 27–28.

292. Verman, Books of Contemplation, p. 61.

293. Verman, Books of Contemplation, p. 62.

294. Verman, Books of Contemplation, pp. 55–56.

295. See Verman, Books of Contemplation, pp. 142–144.

296. The detailed study by Mark Verman cited in this section brings to light, in the Hebrew with the accompanying English translation, several versions of The Book of Contemplation, The Fountain of Wisdom, The Book of Unity, and other fragments. Verman also presents a detailed historical overview of the mystic circles of the period and analysis of their teachings and symbolism.

297. Dan, Early Kabbalah, p. 12.

298. Taken from Isaac’s diary, Sefer divrei ha-yamim, which is cited in Avraham Zacuto’s Sefer ha-yuhasin, and quoted in Matt, trans., Zohar: Book of Enlightenment, pp. 3–4. Reference also to a translation of the original text of Zacuto in Tishby, Wisdom of the Zohar, vol. i, Introduction, pp. 13–17.

299. “Contemporary scholarship on the Zohar (here we are indebted especially to the pioneering work of Yehuda Liebes and its more recent development by Ronit Meroz) has parted company with Scholem on the question of single authorship. While it is tacitly accepted that de León did either write long or edit long sections of the Zohar including the main narrative-homiletical body of the text, he is not thought to be the only writer involved. Multiple layers of literary creativity can be discerned within the text. It may be that the Zohar should be seen as the product of a school of mystical practitioners and writers, one that could have existed even before 1270 and continued into the early years of the fourteenth century.” (Green and Fine, Guide To The Zohar, p. 166.)

300. Moses de León, Or zaru’a, Alexander Altmann, ed., Qovez al yad, n.s. 9 (1980): 249. Quoted in Matt, trans., Zohar: Book of Enlightenment, pp. 6–7.

301. Green, preface to Matt, trans., Zohar: Book of Enlightenment, p. xiii.

302. Hellner-Eshed, Language of Mystical Experience in the Zohar: The Zohar Through Its own Eyes. In Hebrew, doctoral dissertation, Hebrew university, 2000, p. 19. Quoted in Green and Fine, Guide to the Zohar, p. 69. English translation published as A River Flows in Eden: The Language of Mystical Experience in the Zohar.

303. Zohar 3:152b, Sperling and Simon, trans.,The Zohar, vol. V, p. 211.

304. Zohar 1:5a, Sperling and Simon, trans., The Zohar, vol. I, pp. 20–21.

305. Zohar 1:11a, Sperling and Simon, trans., The Zohar, vol. I, pp. 45–46.

306. Zohar 3:36a, Sperling and Simon, trans., The Zohar, vol. IV, p. 395.

307. Throughout Jewish history, back to the time of the merkavah mystics, we find the fellowship of mystics sitting in an idra, which is the Greek word for a semi-circle. In fact, the term is used in the Zohar for the important subdivisions of text, suggesting the fellowship and its pattern of interaction that produced the text, such as idra zuta (small idra), and idra rabba (large idra). Kabbalists in later periods even called their fellowships benei idra (companions of the idra). (Hallamish, Introduction to the Kabbalah, p. 61.)

308. Green and Fine, Guide to the Zohar, p. 72. Emphasis in original.

309. Zohar 3:79b, in Tishby, Wisdom of the Zohar, vol. 1, p. 150.

310. Schachter-Shalomi, Spiritual Intimacy, p. 12.

311. Zohar 2:149a, in Tishby, Wisdom of the Zohar, vol. 1, pp. 148–149.

312. Zohar 2:14a–15a, Midrash hane’elam, in Tishby, Wisdom of the Zohar, vol. 1, p. 134.

313. Zohar 2:14a–15a, Midrash hane’elam, in Tishby, Wisdom of the Zohar, vol. 1, pp. 134–35.

314. Zohar 2:14a–15a, Midrash ha-ne’elam, in Tishby, Wisdom of the Zohar, vol. 1, p. 131.

315. Zohar 3:287b–288a, Idra zuta, in Tishby, Wisdom of the Zohar, vol. 1, p. 162.

316. Zohar 3:144a–144b, Idra rabba, in Tishby, Wisdom of the Zohar, vol. 1, p. 159. By calling him “Sabbath,” he is likening him to the seventh day of the week which illumines the other days with its holiness.

317. Zohar 3:296b, Idra zuta, in Tishby, Wisdom of the Zohar, vol. 1, p. 164.

318. Zohar 1:216b–217a, in Tishby, Wisdom of the Zohar, vol. 1, p. 165.

319. Zohar 1:216b–217a, in Tishby, Wisdom of the Zohar, vol. 1, p. 166.

320. Green and Fine, Guide to the Zohar, p. 71.

321. Zohar 1:5a–7a, in Tishby, Wisdom of the Zohar, vol. 1, pp. 173–174.

322. Wolfson, “From Mystic to Prophet,” extracted from “Jewish Mysticism: A Philosophical Overview,” in History of Jewish Philosophy, Frank and Leaman, ed., reprinted on website http://www.myjewishlearning.com.

323. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, p. 131.

324. Otsar gan eden ha-ganuz (Treasury of the Hidden Garden of Eden), folio 162a, MS. Oxford 1580, in Idel, Mystical Experience in Abraham Abulafia, p. 143.

325. Idel, Mystical Experience in Abraham Abulafia, p. 143.

326. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, p. 133.

327. Sha’arei tsedek (Gates of Virtue) quoted in Jacobs, Schocken Book of Jewish Mystical Testimonies, p. 84. This passage also quoted in Idel, Mystical Experience in Abraham Abulafia, p. 79.

328. Ve-zot le-Yehudah (This Is for Judah), p. 16, corrected according to MS. New York – JTS 1887, and MS. Cambridge Add. 644, quoted in Idel, Mystical Experience in Abraham Abulafia, p. 83.

329. Quoted in Scholem, Ha-kabbalah shel sefer ha-temunah ve-shel Avraham Abulafia (The Kabbalah of the Book of the Figure and of Abraham Abulafia), J. Ben-Shlomo, ed., Jerusalem 1965, p. 208; Bokser, trans., Jewish Mystical Tradition, pp. 104–105.

330. MS. Oxford 1582, folio 52a, quoted in Scholem, Ha-kabbalah shel sefer ha-temunah ve-shel Avraham Abulafia, J. Ben-Shlomo, ed., Jerusalem 1965, p. 210f.; quoted in Bokser, Jewish Mystical Tradition, pp. 99–101.

331. Idel, Mystical Experience in Abraham Abulafia, p. 40.

332. Idel, Mystical Experience in Abraham Abulafia, pp. 39–40.

333. Hayim Vital, Sha’ar ha-kavanot shel ha-shemonah she’arim (The Gate of Intention of the Eight Gates) (Yehudah Ashlag edition, Tel Aviv, 1962), 2a-b; quoted in Fine, Safed Spirituality, p. 11.

334. “Cordovero’s mystical life was by no means restricted to the scholarly study of kabbalistic tradition.”… “That Cordovero also took an interest in the more esoteric forms of contemplation is evidenced by his use of writings of Abraham Abulafia, a thirteenth-century Spanish mystic”… “Cordovero’s importance as an author is equaled, if not surpassed, by the incalculable influence he exerted as a teacher.” (Fine, Safed Spirituality, p. 31.)

335. “Joseph ben Ephraim Karo was born in 1488 in Spain and died March 24, 1575, in Safed. He was also the principal rabbi of Safed and is best known for having written the last great codification of Jewish law, the Bet Yosef (House of Joseph). Its condensation, the Shulkhan arukh (The Prepared Table or The Well-Laid Table), is still authoritative for Orthodox Jewry.” Article on Karo, Joseph ben Ephraim, in Encyclopedia Britannica Premium Service. http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId=9044760 [Accessed April 4, 2009].

336. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/JosephKaro .html [Accessed April 4, 2009].

337. Fine, Safed Spirituality, p. 8.

338. Quoted in Fine, Safed Spirituality, p. 9.

339. Fine, Safed Spirituality, p. 9.

340. Fine, Safed Spirituality, pp. 34–36.

341. “When Luria arrived in Safed he was presumably an unknown quantity (although he quickly established himself as a teacher following Cordovero’s death), and it stands to reason that he would have sought out the renowned master. While one can only speculate about how differently things might have turned out had Cordovero lived longer than he did, the fact is that his death at the age of forty-eight left the kabbalists of Safed bereft of their most prominent authority and teacher. These circumstances could only enhance the opportunity for Luria to attract students of his own, thus filling the vacuum left by Cordovero’s passing.” (Fine, Physician of the Soul, p. 82.)

342. Likutei shas (Collection from the Talmud) (Livorno, 1790), 3c, quoted in Fine, Safed Spirituality, p. 62.

343. Hayim Vital, Ets hayim 1, quoted in Bokser, Jewish Mystical Tradition, p. 143.

344. Hayim Vital, Sha’arei kedushah (Gates of Holiness) 3, end, quoted in Bokser, Jewish Mystical Tradition, p. 143.

345. “Clearly, the act of repairing the world is arrogated to the Jewish people exclusively in this system (Lurianic Kabbalah). At first, God was hoping that Adam would be a perfect human being and therefore would complete the redemption by himself, but Adam’s sin shook down more of the sparks. When God chose the Jewish nation and they heard the Revelation at Sinai, it became their task to restore the world.

“The responsibility placed on the Jewish people is a collective one; under Luria’s terms, the Jewish people should be seen as a fighting army under siege. No days off, no respite, a hard battle to live by the Commandments and to repair the world. If one falters, others must take up his burden. Consequently, Lurianic thinking combines a radical understanding of God and Creation with a profoundly conservative attitude towards Jewish observance. But it also reanimates the daily routine of observing the mitsvot, giving them a new and more intense significance than ever before.” (Robinson, Essential Judaism, p. 384.)

346. Fine, Physician of the Soul, p. 139.

347. Hayim Vital, Sha’ar ha-hakdamot (The Gate of Introductions), Introduction, is included in Vital’s Ets hayim (Tree of Life) (Warsaw 1891). This version, Moshe Miller, trans., appears on several websites, namely http://www.kabbalaonline.org/Safedteachings/sfari/ and http://www.meta-religion.com/World_Religions/Judaism [accessed July 3, 2009].

348. Fine, Safed Spirituality, p. 65.

349. Hayim Vital, Sha’ar ha-mitsvot, parashat Noah (Gate of the Commandments, Section “Noah”), p. 9, quoted in Fine, Physician of the Soul, p. 89. Also quoted in Fine’s Safed Spirituality, p. 68.

350. Hayim Vital, Sha’ar ruah ha-kodesh (Gate of the Holy Spirit), p. 33, quoted in Fine, Physician of the Soul, p. 91. Also quoted in Fine’s Safed Spirituality, p. 65.

351. Hayim Vital, Sha’ar ha-mitsvot (Gate of the Commandments), Hakdamah (Introduction), p. 1, quoted in Fine, Physician of the Soul, p. 193.

352. Hayim Vital, Sha’ar ha-kavanot (Gate of the Intentions) of the Shemonah she’arim (Eight Gates), 2a-b, as assembled by Meir Benayahu, Sefer toldot ha-Ari (The Book of the Events of the Ari’s Life), pp. 315–344, as quoted in Fine, Safed Spirituality, pp. 11 and 66.

353. Luria’s Hanhagot as presented by Hayim Vital in Shemonah she’arim, and later assembled by Meir Benayahu, Sefer toldot ha-Ari, pp. 315–344, as quoted in Fine, Safed Spirituality, p. 69.

354. Vital writes: “There is no doubt that these matters [i.e., esoteric knowledge] cannot be apprehended by means of human intellect, but only through Kabbalah [that is] from one individual [directly] to another, directly from Elijah, may his memory be a blessing, or directly from those souls that reveal themselves in each and every generation to those who are qualified to receive them.” (Vital, Introduction to Ets hayim [Warsaw, 1891], p. 7, quoted in Fine, Physician of the Soul, p. 99.) It should also be emphasized that according to Vital, Luria’s master was Elijah, whom he first encountered in spiritual union while on the Nile.

355. Fine, Physician of the Soul, p. 163.

356. “The whole idea underlying atonement, according to the rabbinical view, is regeneration – restoration of the original state of man in his relation to God, called tekanah … ‘As vessels of gold or of glass, when broken, can be restored by undergoing the process of melting, thus does the disciple of the law, after having sinned, find the way of recovering his state of purity by repentance’ (Rabbi Akiva in the Talmud, Tractate Hagigah 15a).” (From article on “Atonement” by Kaufmann Kohler in JewishEncyclopedia.com, 2004. http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view .jsp?artid=2092&letter=A#6428 [accessed April 4, 2009]).

357. Fine, Physician of the Soul, pp. 321–322, 329.

358. Fine, Physician of the Soul, p. 276.

359. Fine, Physician of the Soul, p. 277.

360. Fine, in Physician of the Soul, explores the subject in depth in Chapter 8.

361. The actual rite that he taught is somewhat similar to that of the Sufi sects of the Qadiriyah and Naqshbandiyah who had contact with and influenced Safed kabbalists. (Paul Fenton, “The Influence of Sufism on the Safed Kabbalah” [Hebrew] in Mahanayim 6 [1994], pp. 170–179. Cited in Fine, Physician of the Soul, p. 274.)

362. Fine, Physician of the Soul, p. 270.

363. Zohar 3:71b, quoted in Fine, Physician of the Soul, p. 272.

364. Hayim Vital, Sha’ar ruah ha-kodesh, p. 108, quoted in Fine, Physician of the Soul, p. 266.

365. Hayim Vital, Sha’ar ha-gilgulim (Gate of the Reincarnations), Hakdamah (Introduction) 36, pp. 127–128; Hakdamah, 38, pp. 132–37; Sefer ha-hezyonot (Book of the Visions), pp. 146–147, 152–54, 157. Quoted in Fine, Physician of the Soul, p. 286.

366. Fine, Physician of the Soul, p. 108. Quote is from Vital’s Introduction to Ets hayim (Warsaw, 1891).

367. Fine, Physician of the Soul, p. 326. Quotes are from Vital’s Introduction to Ets hayim (Warsaw, 1891).

368. Nathan Shapira in his addenda to Vital, Sha’ar ha-amidah Peri ets hayim (Gate of the Amidah Prayer, Fruit of the Tree of Life), ch. 19, quoted in Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi, Weblowsky, trans., pp. 56–57. Scholem also remarks that among the Spanish kabbalists the messiah born in every generation is considered the reincarnation of Adam and King David.

369. Idel, Messianic Mystics, p. 127. He used the term “intellectual” to mean using the mind and mental techniques for purposes of concentration.

370. Idel, Messianic Mystics, p. 129.

371. Quoted in Lenowitz, Jewish Messiahs, pp. 101–102.

372. Quoted in Lenowitz, Jewish Messiahs, p. 102.

373. Lenowitz, Jewish Messiahs, p. 104.

374. Shlomo Molkho, The Beast of the Reed [Hebrew], A. Z. Aescoly, ed., (Paris, 1938), pp. 7–8; quoted in Lenowitz, Jewish Messiahs, p. 116.

375. Idel, Messianic Mystics, p. 150.

376. MS. Moscow-Guensburg 302, n.p.; quoted in Idel, Messianic Mystics, p. 150.

377. Scholem writes: “The talmudic statement that God had intended to make [the biblical eighth–seventh century BCE] King Hezekiah the messiah indicated to the kabbalists that God sent a spark of the messiah-soul into this world in every generation.” (Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi, Weblowsky, trans., p. 56.) A kabbalistic book commonly read in Shabatai’s time, quoted by Scholem, says: “In every generation He creates one perfectly righteous man, worthy – like Moses – on whom Shekhinah rests, provided that also his generation merits it; … he will redeem Israel, but everything depends on the transmigration of the souls and their purification. It is in the hands of God whether to prolong or to hasten the creation of souls.” (Emek ha-melekh [Valley of the King], folio 33a., quoted in Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi, Weblowsky, trans., p. 56.)

378. A book attributed to Shabatai, the Raza de-mehimanuta (Mystery of the True Faith), which discusses this secret teaching, is considered a forgery written by Abraham Miguel Cardozo, one of his disciples, who attributed it to his master. (Liebes, Jewish Myth and Messianism, p. 109.)

379. Idel, Messianic Mystics, p. 197.

380. Liebes, Jewish Myth and Messianism, p. 110.

381. Letter published by A. Amarillo, “Sabbatean Documents from the Saul Amarillo Collection” [Hebrew], Sefunot 5 (1961): 266–268; quoted in Liebes, Jewish Myth and Messianism, p. 110.

382. Cf. Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi, Weblowsky, trans., pp. 146–47; Idel, Messianic Mystics, p  193.

383. As quoted in Scholem, Researches in Sabbateanism, p. 19; cited by Idel, Messianic Mystics, p. 198.

384. Idel, Messianic Mystics, p. 203.

385. Idel, Messianic Mystics, pp. 202–203.

386. Liebes, Jewish Myth and Messianism, p. 106.

387. Liebes, Jewish Myth and Messianism, p. 106.

388. Liebes, Jewish Myth and Messianism, p. 100.

389. Accounts of Paul Rycaut, quoted in Freely, Lost Messiah, p. 177.

390. Correspondence of Jacob Sasportas, Sisath nobel Sevi (The Fading Flower of Tsevi), manuscript copy made by Dr. Z. Schwarz, Isaiah Tishby, ed. (Jerusalem, 1953), pp. 260–62; also Baruch of Arezzo, pp. 59–61 (with minor variants); quoted in Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi, Weblowsky, trans., p. 741.

391. Shabatai quoted in a letter from Nathan to their followers, quoted in Freely, Lost Messiah, pp. 177–178.

392. Quoted in Freely, Lost Messiah, p. 85.

393. Israel Hazzan, quoted in Freely, Lost Messiah, p. 179.

394. Israel Hazzan, quoted in Freely, Lost Messiah, p. 179.

395. Freely, Lost Messiah, p. 182.

396. Fenton, “Shabbetay Sebi” in Approaches to Judaism in Medieval Times, vol. III, no. 134, p. 81.

397. Fenton, “Shabbetay Sebi,” p. 82.

398. Fenton, “Shabbetay Sebi,” p. 84.

399. Halperin, Abraham Miguel Cardozo, Introduction, p. xxi.

400. Lenowitz, Jewish Messiahs, p. 167.

401. Lenowitz, Jewish Messiahs, p. 180.

402. Letters published by S. Ginzburg in Rabbi Moshe Hayim Luzzatto u-benei doro (Rabbi Moshe Hayim Luzzatto and Members of His Generation) (Hebrew: 1937), pp 18–20; cited in Jacobs, Schocken Book of Jewish Mystical Testimonies, pp. 169–170.

403. Moshe Hayim Luzzatto, Derekh ha-shem (The Way of the Name), 3:3:5–3:4:1, in Kaplan, Meditation and the Bible, p. 32.

404. Moshe Hayim Luzzatto, Derekh ha-shem, 3:4:10, in Kaplan, Meditation and the Bible, p. 68.

405. Moshe Hayim Luzzatto, Derekh ha-shem, 3:4:2, 4, in Kaplan, Meditation and the Bible, p. 66.

406. Letters published by S. Ginzburg in Rabbi Moshe Hayim Luzzatto u-benei doro, pp. 36–40; cited in Louis Jacobs, Schocken Book of Jewish Mystical Testimonies, pp. 172–173.

407. Lenowitz, Jewish Messiahs, pp. 225–262.

408. Buber, Tales of the Hasidim, pp. xvii-xviii.

409. Elior, Mystical Origins of Hasidism, p. 34.

410. Ya’akov Yosef, Tsofenat paneah (Revealer of the Hidden) (Lemberg, Druker ed., 1866) 16a, Ben porat Yosef (Son of the Fertile Vine of Yosef) (Balaban ed., n.d.), 17d, 99c; author’s paraphrase of translation by Dresner in The Zaddik, pp. 34–35.

411. Ya’akov Yosef, Toldot Ya’akov Yosef (Lemberg, Stand ed., 1863), 158d, quoted in Dresner, The Zaddik, p. 83.

412. Ben-Amos and Mintz, trans. & ed., In Praise of the Ba’al Shem Tov, §19, p. 34.

413. Elior, Mystical Origins of Hasidism, p. 66.

414. Ben-Amos and Mintz, trans. & ed., In Praise of the Ba’al Shem Tov, §15, p. 31. By “torah” here he probably means a scriptural interpretation.

415. Etkes, The Besht, p. 8.

416. Etkes, The Besht, p. 47.

417. Dresner, The Zaddik, p. 48.

418. Recounted in A. Kahana, Sefer ha-hasidut (Book of Piety) (Warsaw, n.p., 1922), p. 105; trans. and quoted in Dresner, The Zaddik, p. 39.

419. Ben-Amos and Mintz, trans. & ed., In Praise of the Ba’al Shem Tov, p. 62, quoted in Dresner, The Zaddik, p. 45 (in Dresner’s translation from the Hebrew).

420. Ben-Amos and Mintz, trans. & ed., In Praise of the Ba’al Shem Tov, §62, p. 83, with reference to English version in Etkes, The Besht, p. 183.

421. Ben-Amos and Mintz, trans. & ed., In Praise of the Ba’al Shem Tov, §36, p. 51, with reference to English version in Etkes, The Besht, p. 184.

422. As translated in Etkes, The Besht, p. 92, with reference to Ben-Amos and Mintz, trans. & ed., In Praise of the Ba’al Shem Tov, §41, p. 56.

423. Etkes, The Besht, p. 110.

424. Recounted in Dresner, The Zaddik, pp. 189–190.

425. Elior, Mystical Origins of Hasidism, pp. 66–67.

426. As published in Jacobs, Schocken Book of Jewish Mystical Testimonies, pp. 184–185.

427. Jacobs, Schocken Book of Jewish Mystical Testimonies, p. 185.

428. Jacobs, Schocken Book of Jewish Mystical Testimonies, p. 186.

429. Cf. Judges 18:6, Proverbs 5:21.

430. Cf. Proverbs 4:21.

431. Jacobs, Schocken Book of Jewish Mystical Testimonies, p. 186.

432. Elior, Mystical Origins of Hasidism, p. 81.

433. Elior, Mystical Origins of Hasidism, p. 127.

434. Proverbs 10:25.

435. Ya’akov Yosef, Toldot Ya’akov Yosef, 100a, in Dresner, The Zaddik, p. 126.

436. Quoted in Green, “The Zaddiq as Axis Mundi in Later Judaism” in JAAR XLV/3 (1977), p. 338.

437. Ya’akov Yosef, Tsofenat paneah, 50d, quoted in Dresner, The Zaddik, p. 130.

438. Ya’akov Yosef, Toldot Ya’akov Yosef, 183a, in Dresner, The Zaddik, p. 183.

439. Ya’akov Yosef, Toldot Ya’akov Yosef, 118d, quoted in Dresner, The Zaddik, p. 176.

440. Dresner, The Zaddik, p. 124.

441. Ya’akov Yosef, Toldot Ya’akov Yosef, 99a, in Dresner, The Zaddik, p. 124.

442. Ya’akov Yosef, Toldot Ya’akov Yosef, 137c, in Dresner, The Zaddik, p. 124.

443. Ya’akov Yosef, Toldot Ya’akov Yosef, 59b, quoted in Dresner, The Zaddik, p. 174.

444. Passage from M. Zelikson, Kol mevaser ve-omer (The Voice of the Herald Brings Good News and Proclaims), 32, 48–49 (Abraham Pariz-Slonim) (?Jerusalem, ?1965), quoted in Elior, Mystical Origins of Hasidism, p. 133.

445. Buber, Tales of the Hasidim, Book Two: The Later Masters, p. 90.

446. Jacob Leiner of Radzhyn (son of Mordekhai Joseph Leiner), Beit Ya’akov (House of Jacob), “Shemot” (Exodus), 14a (Lublin, 1904), quoted in Elior, Mystical Origins of Hasidism, p. 128.

447. Kalonymus Epstein, Ma’or va-shemesh, quoted in Elior, Mystical Origins of Hasidism, pp. 146–147.

448. Elior, Mystical Origins of Hasidism, p. 147.

449. Elior, Mystical Origins of Hasidism, p. 147.

450. Elimelekh of Lyzhansk, No’am Elimelekh (Discourses of Elimelekh), Section “Terumah,” 48 (Lemberg, 1788; repr. Jerusalem, 1952), Gedaliah Nigal, ed. (Jerusalem, 1978), quoted in Elior, Mystical Origins of Hasidism, p. 142.

451. Jacob Isaiah Horowitz (Seer of Lublin), Zikhron zot (In Memory of This), Section “Yeshayahu” (Book of Isaiah), 139 (Warsaw, 1869; Munkacs, 1942, repr. Ashdod, 2003), quoted in Elior, Mystical Origins of Hasidism, p. 144.

452. Elimelekh of Lyzhansk, No’am Elimelekh, Section “Bo,” 31. (Lemberg, 1788; repr. Jerusalem, 1952), Gedaliah Nigal, ed. (Jerusalem, 1978), quoted in Elior, Mystical Origins of Hasidism, p. 144.

453. Quoted p. 121 in Dresner, The Zaddik, primary source in Buber not given; emphasis added.

454. Ya’akov Yosef, Ben porat Yosef, 70c, quoted in Elior, Mystical Origins of Hasidism, p. 75, with reference to the translation in Etkes, The Besht, p. 135. Other versions of the story appear in Ya’akov Yosef’s Keter shem tov, 51, p. 8a, and other sources.

455. Ya’akov Yosef, Ben porat Yosef, 70c, quoted in Elior, Mystical Origins of Hasidism, p. 75.

456. Buber, Hasidism and Modern Man, p. 70.

457. Dresner, The Zaddik, p. 182, cf. Toldot Ya’akov Yosef, 31c.

458. Elior, Mystical Origins of Hasidism, p. 79.

459. Dov Baer of Mezherich, Magid devarav le-Ya’akov (He Speaks His Teachings to Ya’akov) (Korets 1781), Rivka Schatz-Uffenhimer, ed., (Jerusalem, 1976), p. 240; emphasis added, quoted in Elior, Mystical Origins of Hasidism, p. 79.

460. Etkes, The Besht, p. 143.

461. Cf. Etkes, The Besht, pp. 144–147.

462. Ben-Amos and Mintz, trans. & ed., In Praise of the Ba’al Shem Tov, §133, p. 156.

463. Ephraim of Sadlikov, Degel mahaneh Ephrayim (The Banner of the Camp of Ephraim), Jerusalem, 1994), p. 177, quoted in Etkes, The Besht, p. 146.

464. Etkes, The Besht, p. 130.

465. Keter shem tov (NY: Otzar Hasidim Press, 1987), sec. 129, pp. 16b, 17a; sec. 88, p. 12b; see also sec. 27, p. 5a. Quoted in Etkes, The Besht, pp. 130–131.

466. Pinhas Shapiro of Korets, Sefer midrash Pinhas (The Book of Pinhas’s Commentary) (Jerusalem: Yom-Tov Zipa Weiss Publishers, 1953), p. 10, quoted in Schachter-Shalomi, Spiritual Intimacy, p. 149.

467. Pinhas Shapiro of Korets, Sefer midrash Pinhas, no. 34, p. 7b, in Jacobs, Holy Living, p. 66.

468. L. Newman and S. Spitz, The Hasidic Anthology: Tales and Teachings of the Hasidim (NY: Schocken Books, 1963), p. 327, quoted in Schachter-Shalomi, Spiritual Intimacy, p. 149. Translation modernized slightly.

469. Shneur Zalman of Lyady, Ma’amrei Admor ha-zaken ha-ketsarim (Short Sayings of the Old Rebbe) 61, quoted in Rachel Elior, Mystical Origins of Hasidism, p. 111.

470. Jacobs, Holy Living, p. 70.

471. Keter shem tov, 121, 16a quoted in Etkes, The Besht, p. 131.

472. Dresner, The Zaddik, p. 188.

473. Etkes, The Besht, p. 106.

474. Ya’akov Margaliot, Gedolim ma’asei tsadikim (Great Deeds of the Tsadikim), p. 23, quoted by Etkes, The Besht, p. 107.

475. Shivhei ha-Besht, p. 238, as translated by Etkes in The Besht, p. 190. See also In Praise of the Ba’al Shem Tov, §168.

476. Meshulam Feibush Heller, Yosher divrei emet (Honest Words of Truth and Faith), in Sefer likutim yekarim (Book of Precious Gleanings) (Jerusalem, 1974), p. 110a, quoted in Etkes, The Besht, p. 258.

477. Etkes, The Besht, p. 184.

478. Retold in Kaplan, Chasidic Masters, p. 37.

479. Buber, Tales of the Hasidim, Book One, pp. 17, 18.

480. Both quotes from Buber, Tales of the Hasidim, Book One, p. 17.

481. Recounted in Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, p. 344.

482. Kaplan, Chasidic Masters, p. 37.

483. Schachter-Shalomi, Spiritual Intimacy, p. 63.

484. Rabbi Yits’hak Isaac Kalov, in E. Steinman, Rishonim aharonim (Early and Later Masters) quoted in Schachter-Shalomi, Spiritual Intimacy, p. 51.

485. Schachter-Shalomi, Spiritual Intimacy, p. 70.

486. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, pp. 337–38.

487. Buber, Tales of Rabbi Nachman, trans. Maurice Friedman, p. 36.

488. Buber, Tales of Rabbi Nachman, trans. Maurice Friedman, p. 37.

489. Rabinowicz, The World of Hasidism, p. 80.

490. Rabinowicz, The World of Hasidism, p. 80.

491. Nahman of Bratslav, Likutei moharan (Gleanings from our Master Rabbi Nahman) 19, in Bokser, Jewish Mystical Tradition, p. 237.

492. Nahman of Bratslav, Likutei moharan, 19, in Bokser, Jewish Mystical Tradition, p. 238.

493. Nahman of Bratslav, Likutei moharan, 192, in Bokser, Jewish Mystical Tradition, pp. 239–240.

494. Nahman of Bratslav, Likutei moharan, 224, in Bokser, Jewish Mystical Tradition, p. 240.

495. Nahman of Bratslav, in David Hadran, Leket II, Me-olamo shel rebbe mi-Braslav (Gleanings II, From the World of the Rabbi of Bratslav), pp. 22f, in Bokser, Jewish Mystical Tradition, pp. 244–245.

496. Buber, Tales of Rabbi Nachman, Maurice Friedman, trans., p. 31.

497. Buber, Tales of Rabbi Nachman, Maurice Friedman, trans., p. 31.

498. Buber, Tales of the Hasidim, Book One, pp. 5–6.

499. Schachter-Shalomi, Spiritual Intimacy, p. 153.

500. Dov Baer of Lubavitch, Kuntres ha-hitpa’alut (Tract on Ecstasy), ch. 1, quoted in Kaplan, The Chasidic Masters, p. 159.

501. Dov Baer of Lubavitch, Kuntres ha-hitpa’alut, ch. 1, quoted in Kaplan, The Chasidic Masters, p. 160.

502. Dov Baer of Lubavitch, Kuntres ha-hitpa’alut, ch. 2, quoted in Kaplan, The Chasidic Masters, p. 167.

503. Schachter-Shalomi, Spiritual Intimacy, p. 47.

504. Schachter-Shalomi, Spiritual Intimacy, p. 131.

505. Schachter-Shalomi, Spiritual Intimacy, p. 50.

506. Schachter-Shalomi, Spiritual Intimacy, pp. 126–129.

507. Schachter-Shalomi, Spiritual Intimacy, p. 119.

508. Schachter-Shalomi, Spiritual Intimacy, p. 88.

509. Schachter-Shalomi, Spiritual Intimacy, p. 9.

510. Isaac Safrin, Megillat setarim (Scroll of Secrecy), pp. 13–14, in Jacobs, Schocken Book of Jewish Mystical Testimonies, pp. 293–294.

511. Isaac Safrin, Megillat setarim, pp. 13–14, in Jacobs, Schocken Book of Jewish Mystical Testimonies, p. 294.

512. Isaac Safrin, Megillat setarim, pp. 13–14, in Jacobs, Schocken Book of Jewish Mystical Testimonies, p. 297.

513. Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, Derekh ha-melekh (The Way of the King), pp. 306–07. Cohen-Kiener, trans., in Conscious Community: A Guide to Inner Work, pp. 102–103.

514. Kook, “Pangs of Cleansing” in Abraham Isaac Kook, pp. 261–64.

515. Abraham Isaac Kook, Orat ha-kodesh (Lights of Holiness) II, p. 307, in Bokser, Jewish Mystical Tradition, pp. 264–265.

516. Abraham Isaac Kook, Musar avikha (Your Father’s Moral Teachings), p. 93, Section 4, in Bokser, Jewish Mystical Tradition, p. 267.

517. Abraham Isaac Kook, Arpele tohar (Clouds of Purity), p. 22, in Bokser, Jewish Mystical Tradition, p. 265.

518. Abraham Isaac Kook, Talalei orot (Dewdrops of Light), pp. 17f., in Bokser, Jewish Mystical Tradition, p. 266.

519. Alfasi and Bari, ed., and L. Dolinger, trans., Baba Sali, p. 29.

520. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, p. 350.

521. Finkelstein and Silberman, Bible Unearthed, p. 13.

522. More information on the writing of the Pentateuch can be found in Friedman, Who Wrote the Bible?

523. Blenkinsopp, History of Prophecy in Israel, p. 262.

524. Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, chapter: “Ancient Theurgy,” 167–71.

525. Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, pp. 164–165.

526. Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, p. 166.

527. Tola’at Ya’akov (The Worm of Jacob), fol 4a, quoted in Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, p. 175.

528. Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, p. 176.

529. Commentary on the Song of Songs, in Chavel, ed., Kitvey ha-Ramban II (Writings of the Ramban II), quoted in Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, p. 118.

530. Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, p. 179.

531. Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, p. 179.

532. Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, p. 180.

533. Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, p. 181.

534. Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, p. 182.

535. Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, p. 189.

536. Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, p. 180.

537. MS. New York, JTS 1786, folio 43a; MS Oxford 1812, folio 101b–102a; quoted by Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, p. 193.

538. Sefer ha-navon, quoted in Dan, Studies in Jewish Mysticism, p. 130. Quoted in Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, p. 194.

539. Translated by Scholem and included in Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, pp. 147–155, as well as in Jacobs, Schocken Book of Jewish Mystical Testimonies, pp. 80–91. It was originally published by Scholem in Hebrew in Kiryat sefer (1924), vol. 1, pp. 127–139. It was found in two of the four extant manuscripts of a book called Sha’arei tsedek (Gates of Virtue), written by an anonymous kabbalist. According to both Jacobs and Scholem, although Abulafia isn’t mentioned by name, he is obviously the teacher being referred to here.

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