Lurianic Kabbalah

The purpose of this research is to publish a manuscript of the treatise Sefer Habri’a (The Book of Creation), written in 1670 by Rabbi Avraham Binyamin Nathan ben Elisha Chaim Halevi Askhenazy, also known as Nathan Ghazzati or Rabbi Nathan of Gaza. It has been copied into several manuscripts, which ended up scattered around the world, until they were ultimately collected by professor Chaim Wirszubski Z.L. of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in the 1930s and 1940s. Wirszubski set out on a project of conducting a scientific edition of the treatise, and even published a small part of it.  However, misfortune has prevented him from finishing his great work, and he was called upon to teach in the Great Yeshiva in heavens. Now, the reader is presented with a full edition, accompanied by a comprehensive and methodical research. The research is separated from the original text, to allow the reader to focus on the text itself, if they so wish. Those who would seek to also delve into the analysis, can easily do so.
It is not everyday that a person is awarded the great privilege of returning a lost book to the collective Jewish library. Even more so when it is a book written by one of the greatest rabbis in recent generations, least of all a halakhic figure of the magnitude of Rabbi Nathan. We are faced with an unparalleled text in Rabbinic messianic and Hebrew literature. It is the central text of the Sabbatean movement after Sabbatai Zevi’s conversion to Islam. Sefer Habri’a was written by the progenitor of the movement, Rabbi Nathan of Gaza. Rabbi Nathan was famously considered a prophet by the spiritual leaders of the Jewish world in his time, and was one of those who declared Sabbatai Zevi to be a messiah. He was the one who explained the profound meaning of Zevi’s conversion, and the one who tried to prevent the masses from converting along with him.
If we wish to be certain that we can indeed declare “thou art our brother” to Nathan, we must look at this renewed text from every possible perspective. The text’s uniqueness, it’s complexity, length and meaning introduce many challenges, both on the technical-philological level and on that of semantic analysis. We should also pay heed to how socially problematic the Sabbatean movement is, following the heated debates that arose several generations after Zevi’s conversion. On that subject, we can view Sefer Habri’a as a treatise which ascribes profound meaning to Zevi’s ‘foreign acts’, through the Ha’ari’s hyper-nomic system. That is, the Lurianic Kabbalah, which unequivocally accepts the Jewish Halakha as sacred, is the treatise’s main method of discourse. It seems that the survival and continuity of Jewish tradition after the crisis was Rabbi Nathan’s main motivation in writing this immense work. That is, the desire to give a profound kabbalic meaning to the commandments of halakha, in the face of a shifting historical reality is at the heart of the text.
Sabbateanism is a grave subject in Jewish history. Therefore, whenever a new Sabbatean document is published, we must ask ourselves how its publication will affect the existing knowledge we have. When people read new material that contradicts what they perceive to be true, they often develop a ‘resistance front’, assuming that every new claim must be proved out of the existing body of knowledge, as if the unknown can be explored from the confines of the known. The problem here is evident - new information cannot be added in this way, and true learning cannot be achieved. All that can happen is that we pour old knowledge into a slightly different mould, at best. That said, there are times when a newly published document is so important that it demands of us to re-examine all of our previous held knowledge. More often than not, those who are tasked with preserving knowledge are not enthusiastic by the appearance of a new research which undermines the well known system to which they adhere. Therefore, if we wish the new knowledge to be properly accepted by people in that position, upon publishing such a document we must present in detail what we retain, and what we reconsider. It is possible that Sefer Habri’a would lead us into rethinking the Sabbatean movement in its entirety. It is, after all, a fundamental text written by the movement’s progenitor, immediately after the conversion. We will soon see that Sefer Habri’a would lead any observant reader to a clear understanding that it is a Kabbalah book that follows directly the writings of the Ha’ari. It is a direct continuation, and some would even say the highlight, of the Lurianic corpus. In this manner we can also see that Torat Israel, the Jewish halakha and the well-being of the nation at a time of crisis were undoubtedly on the mind of the author, Rabbi Nathan of Gaza, and that he was a loyal grand sage of Israel.

King David is one of the most colorful, complex, and controversial, personalities in Jewish lore. While numerous studies have focused on David's centrality to biblical literature and late antiquity, to date no comprehensive scholarly attempt has been made to investigate his image in the kabbalistic literature. This study contributes to the understanding of the connection between messianic thought, gender and mysticism. By focusing on the centrality of the figure of King David in Jewish culture the book discusses psychoanalytic perception of the self, and illuminating issues of identity, sexuality, and gender fluidity in Medieval kabbalistic literature.

At the center of piety there stands an image of the ideal life; the prescribed paths of virtue and spiritual cultivation are reflected in the radiance of a paradigmatic persona. And just as religions the world over have developed both discrete and common orientations to sacred time, space, and text-so too has the image of the holy man functioned as a powerful axial point in the demarcation of sacrality and cultural ideals.1 But more than anything else, * It is a special pleasure for me to thank my father, Michael Fishbane, for his learned and very helpful comments on the penultimate draft of this essay. I am also delighted to acknowledge the students at The Jewish Theological Seminary who participated in my seminar on the image of the holy man in Shivhei ha-'Ari. I learned much from their questions and insights, and the stimulating conversation of that course contributed greatly to the formation of my thinking on the subject of this essay.

This paper deals with the representation of David as a "feminized Messiah" appearing in the image of the Shekhinah in Kabbalistic literature, and with the connections between femininity and heresy in Jewish messianic movements. In the course of this analysis, I focus on the development of the concept of David as "fourth leg of the Divine Chariot,” from the origins of Kabbalah (the Bahir, R. Asher Ben David, R. Jacob Bar-Sheshet) to Castille and beyond, in the Zohar and the Theosophical-Theurgical Kabbalah in 13th–14th Century (in texts written on the Iberian Peninsula), up to the portrayal of David as the Shekhinah in Lurianic Kabbalah and Sabbateanism. I claim that in the cases of David and Shabbatai Zevi, heresy indeed accompanies femininity. If the present order and its law are typically gendered as masculine, the threatening, disruptive forces that attempt to bring forth redemption are identified as feminine.

In this paper, I seek to present the range of issues involved in the efforts of sixteenth-century kabbalists to understand the nature of selfhood, and the paths prescribed for the formation of an ideal life. I reflect on the mystical writings of Moshe Cordovero, Eliyahu de Vidas, and Hayyim Vital-probing their conceptions of core identity, the polarity between body and soul, and the ethical guidance for a life well lived. In so doing, I consider the following additional themes, and their relation to the matrix of self-formation and religious identity: reincarnation and rebirth; the virtue of humility and self-effacement; the cultivation of wisdom; ideals of piety and prophetic experience; asceticism; and the spiritual transcendence of desire. In presenting this wide range of constituent themes, I argue that sixteenth-century kabbalists understood the soul to be the ultimate marker of personal identity (nuanced and complicated by the doctrine of reincarnation), and that they formulated a vision of an ideal ethics in which the human being functions as an earthly vessel for the divine presence. What is more, the preparation of that vessel required a degree of humility so extreme that the attainment of ideal personhood ultimately involved the effacement of that very identity.

In the story of the exile of Hagar and Ishmael, God responds to the crying of Ishmael and not to the crying of Hagar. Ishmael’s tears represent the crying of the infant at the beginning of life. Why does the baby cry? And how do we integrate the tears of the newborn into the way we live in the world? What do the tears of the baby teach us?
The crying of the baby is in part the crying of survival fear. The baby is hungry; the baby is afraid; the baby is vulnerable; the baby is lonely; the baby is a newly arrived stranger to this life. The baby’s cry is a primal survival scream. The Shofar on Rosh Hashanah is called by the Talmud yeulelei yallil,1 “the howling of the jackal.”2 There is a moment in the sound of the Shofar in which we also hear the cry of the baby. It is a kind of intuitive shriek; a pre-personal crying that conveys a feeling of threat and a deep need for protection. The cry of a baby, then, is motivated at least in part by fear.

This is a numerical or numerological analysis of the GLGL Wheel mandala that I conducted in 2013. It shows the major numerological patterns that exist within the Wheel. These patterns are based on the numerical values of the Hebrew letters that compose the GLGL Wheel.

THE PURPOSE OF OUR LIVES is to undergo a gradual transformation. We are born with a self-centered nature, but we can acquire a nature in which the focus is on the other. Through spiritual work, we can slowly learn to overcome our innate desire to find some form of self-gratification in all we do. Union with God is the result of desiring to give to others with no interest in reward of any kind. This is the essential teaching of the Kabbalah as portrayed in the essays by Baal Hasulam that are translated in this book. Rabbi Gottlieb’s commentary adds details on the winding road toward spiritual transformation.

Shamati is the most valuable book in the world, because it has the power to bring a person to the purpose of his life. Shamati is the main Kabbalistic source text. It contains all the foundations of man’s spiritual work. The articles contained in this book summarize everything one needs to enter the Upper World. They encompass the infinite depth of all 125 degrees that a person can and must go through in his spiritual path, whose summit is the goal of creation. This book is the most special book in the world, because no book in the entire history of mankind has gone deeper into man’s spiritual work.
source:
https://laitman.com/2008/08/shamati-the-most-valuable-book-in-the-world/

Lo Shamati è il libro più prezioso del mondo, perché ha il potere di condurre una persona allo scopo della sua vita. Lo Shamati è il testo kabbalistico più importante. Nei suoi contenuti si trovano le basi del lavoro spirituale dell’uomo. Gli articoli che si trovano in questo libro riassumono tutto ciò di cui si necessita per entrare nel Mondo Superiore. Comprendono l’infinita profondità dei 125 gradi che una persona può e deve attraversare nel suo cammino spirituale, la cui cima è lo Scopo della creazione. Questo è il libro più straordinario del mondo, perché nessun altra opera nella storia dell’umanità è penetrata tanto profondamente nel lavoro spirituale dell’essere umano.
fonte::
http://laitman.it/2010/04/24/shamati-il-libro-piu-prezioso-del-mondo/

When one knows a number of things and understands how they are categorized and systematically interrelated, then he has a great advantage over one who has the same knowledge without such a distinction. It is very much like the difference between looking at a well-arranged garden planted in rows and patterns, and seeing a wild thicket or forest growing in confusion. (Derech HaShem, paragraph 1) 1 The human mind is not capable of grasping the universe. We are like a little child entering a huge library. The walls are covered to the ceilings with books in many different tongues. The child knows that someone must have written these books. He does not know who or how. He does not understand the languages in which they are written. But the child notes a definite plan in the arrangement of the books-a mysterious order which he does not comprehend but only dimly suspects. (Albert Einstein)

The purpose of this research is to publish a manuscript of the treatise Sefer Habri’a (The Book of Creation), written in 1670 by Rabbi Avraham Binyamin Nathan ben Elisha Chaim Halevi Askhenazy, also known as Nathan Ghazzati or Rabbi Nathan of Gaza. It has been copied into several manuscripts, which ended up scattered around the world, until they were ultimately collected by professor Chaim Wirszubski Z.L. of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in the 1930s and 1940s. Wirszubski set out on a project of conducting a scientific edition of the treatise, and even published a small part of it.  However, misfortune has prevented him from finishing his great work, and he was called upon to teach in the Great Yeshiva in heavens. Now, the reader is presented with a full edition, accompanied by a comprehensive and methodical research. The research is separated from the original text, to allow the reader to focus on the text itself, if they so wish. Those who would seek to also delve into the analysis, can easily do so.
It is not everyday that a person is awarded the great privilege of returning a lost book to the collective Jewish library. Even more so when it is a book written by one of the greatest rabbis in recent generations, least of all a halakhic figure of the magnitude of Rabbi Nathan. We are faced with an unparalleled text in Rabbinic messianic and Hebrew literature. It is the central text of the Sabbatean movement after Sabbatai Zevi’s conversion to Islam. Sefer Habri’a was written by the progenitor of the movement, Rabbi Nathan of Gaza. Rabbi Nathan was famously considered a prophet by the spiritual leaders of the Jewish world in his time, and was one of those who declared Sabbatai Zevi to be a messiah. He was the one who explained the profound meaning of Zevi’s conversion, and the one who tried to prevent the masses from converting along with him.
If we wish to be certain that we can indeed declare “thou art our brother” to Nathan, we must look at this renewed text from every possible perspective. The text’s uniqueness, it’s complexity, length and meaning introduce many challenges, both on the technical-philological level and on that of semantic analysis. We should also pay heed to how socially problematic the Sabbatean movement is, following the heated debates that arose several generations after Zevi’s conversion. On that subject, we can view Sefer Habri’a as a treatise which ascribes profound meaning to Zevi’s ‘foreign acts’, through the Ha’ari’s hyper-nomic system. That is, the Lurianic Kabbalah, which unequivocally accepts the Jewish Halakha as sacred, is the treatise’s main method of discourse. It seems that the survival and continuity of Jewish tradition after the crisis was Rabbi Nathan’s main motivation in writing this immense work. That is, the desire to give a profound kabbalic meaning to the commandments of halakha, in the face of a shifting historical reality is at the heart of the text.
Sabbateanism is a grave subject in Jewish history. Therefore, whenever a new Sabbatean document is published, we must ask ourselves how its publication will affect the existing knowledge we have. When people read new material that contradicts what they perceive to be true, they often develop a ‘resistance front’, assuming that every new claim must be proved out of the existing body of knowledge, as if the unknown can be explored from the confines of the known. The problem here is evident - new information cannot be added in this way, and true learning cannot be achieved. All that can happen is that we pour old knowledge into a slightly different mould, at best. That said, there are times when a newly published document is so important that it demands of us to re-examine all of our previous held knowledge. More often than not, those who are tasked with preserving knowledge are not enthusiastic by the appearance of a new research which undermines the well known system to which they adhere. Therefore, if we wish the new knowledge to be properly accepted by people in that position, upon publishing such a document we must present in detail what we retain, and what we reconsider. It is possible that Sefer Habri’a would lead us into rethinking the Sabbatean movement in its entirety. It is, after all, a fundamental text written by the movement’s progenitor, immediately after the conversion. We will soon see that Sefer Habri’a would lead any observant reader to a clear understanding that it is a Kabbalah book that follows directly the writings of the Ha’ari. It is a direct continuation, and some would even say the highlight, of the Lurianic corpus. In this manner we can also see that Torat Israel, the Jewish halakha and the well-being of the nation at a time of crisis were undoubtedly on the mind of the author, Rabbi Nathan of Gaza, and that he was a loyal grand sage of Israel.

Introducing the articles as Guest Editor of Volume 13 on "Kabbalah and Art" for the journal Images, published by Brill (December 23 2020). I had the privilege to oversee an outstanding collection of eight articles by important scholars of Kabbalah and art historians.Please look for them on this site. 1. Zvi Mark, "Picture and Story Visual Imagery Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav" ; 2. Mirjam Knotter," From Angel to the Shekhina in Work of RB Kitaj"; 3. Batsheva Goldman-Ida, "Jonathan Leaman - In Conversation"; 4. Batsheva Goldman-Ida "Introductory Remarks on Georg Langer 'Mezuza,' 1928"; 5. Eliezer Baumgarten, "Faces of God: Ilan of Rabbi Sasson ben Shandukh"; 6. J. H. Chajes, "Diagramming Sabbateanism"; 7. Judy Jaffe-Schagen, "Displaying Mysticism Exhibition Design," 8. Elliot R. Wolfson, "Metaphor, Dream,, and the Parabolic Bridging of Difference - A Kabbalistic Aesthetic" (published in Vol. 14, pp. 1-14).

Extrait de Cabale et Cabalistes, petite anthologie ayant trait à la nature du monde divin par rapport à notre monde de matière par divers penseurs entre le IIème et le XVIIème siècle raéssemblée par Charles Mopsik publiées chez Bayard presses en 1997.

Recent years have seen the flourishing of research on Lithuanian Kabbalists in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, to the point that some scholars speak of a defined and delineated stream of Kabbalah, a school unto itself dubbed "Lithuanian Kabbalah." Such scholars include within this stream all those who saw the Vilna Gaon as their teacher in Kabbalah (parallel to the position of the Baal Shem Tov in Hasidism) and they ascribe to it such fixed categories as its "Articles of Faith." In their conception, this stream was part and parcel of the broader and well-known nationalist-messianic current that had its source, supposedly, in the Vilna Gaon himself; this current reached its full fruition in the twentieth century, and so too has the smaller stream within it, now a clearly defined "school," developed in various ways until the present. As if this were not enough, scholars have joined the later ideological trend which seeks to revise the history of Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in a decidedly messianic way, presenting it in a continuous line from the Vilna Gaon to the emergence of Zionism and then to the founding of the State of Israel. Again, the Vilna Gaon is not merely presented as a "herald" of Zionism but as one who encoded within his Torah the secret of redemption, the beginning of which, apparently, we are witnessing today. The article conducts a critical analysis of the concept of "Lithuanian Kabbalah," and uses as its case study the life and teachings of Rabbi Shimon Tsvi Horowitz.


בשנים האחרונות צומח ועולה מחקר סביב למקובלים בני ליטא במאות התשע עשרה והעשרים, עד שיש כאלו המדברים על זרם מוגדר ומובחן, אסכולה בפני עצמה, המכונה 'קבלה ליטאית'. בתוך זרם זה כוללים את כל אלו שראו בגר"א את מורם בקבלה, כמעין בעש"ט לחסידות, ומונים קטגוריות מקובעות של 'עיקרי אמונה' של אותו זרם הרוכב על מהלך משיחי ולאומי ידוע שמקורו כביכול בגר"א עצמו והגיע לגמר בישולו במאה העשרים. עד שנוצר בעיני כמה חוקרים מעין 'חוג' ברור ומוגדר שמתגלגל באופנים שונים עד לימינו. אם לא די בכך, הרי שהמדברים על אותו זרם קבלי רוכבים למעשה על קו אידיאולוגי מאוחר שבא לפרש מחדש את ההיסטוריה של היישוב היהודי בארץ ישראל במאה התשע עשרה ברוח משיחית וליצור מעין המשכיות מימי הגר"א עד להופעתה של הציונות ולמאורעות שהתרחשו עם הקמת מדינת ישראל. שוב אין הגר"א מצטייר רק כ'מבשר' הציונות אלא כמי שצפן בתורתו את סוד הגאולה שאנו עומדים לכאורה בפתחה. המאמר עוסק בניתוח ביקורתי של המשוג "קבלת ליטאית" וכמקרה מבחן יש כאן דיון בדרכו של ר' שמעון צבי הורביץ

Résumé: « Tikoun Olam », signifie littéralement Réparation du Monde. Ce concept, bien que répandu aux Etats-Unis, est souvent galvaudé, et utilisé dans tous les sens. Bien que lʼorigine du Tikoun se trouve dans le Talmud, cʼest le Zohar et la Kabbale (et surtout celle de Rabbi Isaac Luria) qui donneront le sens authentique et métaphysique à ce principe.
Nous tenterons dans cet ouvrage  de présenter une théorie sur la réparation du monde selon le kabbaliste Rabbi Moïse Hayyim Luzzatto, appelé aussi Ramhal (1707-1746), qui avait le souci philosophique pour expliquer les notions complexes de la kabbale lurianique.
Lʼanalyse de lʼUnité absolue, de lʼunité du monde ainsi que de lʼunitude de lʼhumanité nous permettra de percevoir le Tikoun, La Réparation du Monde sous un nouvel angle.
Si nous voulons comprendre le fonctionnement du monde, ses manques, et sa réparation, il faudrait remonter à la connaissance de lʼUnité absolue, et son expression à travers tous les existants qui forment lʼunitude de tout lʼunivers. Cʼest alors quʼon pourra saisir le sens de lʼexistence et le rôle de chaque-un pour amener le monde à sa complétude.


Summary: “Tikkun Olam”, means, literally, Repair (or: Fixing) of the World. This concept is widespread throughout the United States, but often cliched, and used in all senses. Although the origin of the Tikkun can be found in the Talmud, its genuine metaphysical meaning will appear with the Zohar and Kabbalah (and mostly the Kabbalah as taught by Rabbi Isaac Luria).
We will attempt, in this book, to present the reader with the theory of Fixing the world according to kabbalist Rabbi Moshe Hayim Luzzatto, also known as the Ramhal (1707 – 1746), who had the philosophical concern to explain the complex notions of the Lurianic kabbalah.
The analysis of the Absolute Unity, the unity of the world and the unity of humanity will give us a sense of the Tikkun, The Repair of the Word, from a new angle.
If we want to understand the functioning of the world, its deficiencies, and its reparation, we must go back to the knowledge of the Absolute Unity, and its expression throughout all the existents which form the unity of the whole universe. Then, and only then, will we be able to perceive the meaning of life and our own role of each-one, in this tikkun, to bring the world to its completeness.

Часть 10 Первый ибур Зеир Анпина * 1 1) После того, как были обустроены АвИ, приходит время устроения ЗоН, и до́лжно быть им обустроенными через ибур, когда света́ шести некудот ЗА войдут в качестве ибура во чрево его матери (мэи имо), а также там будут выявлены и сосуды, которые разбились и спустились в Брия, и будут там обустроены..

Following the passing of Arizal the import of the tzimtzum narrative became a matter of disagreement among the Mediterranean kabbalists, and later became a seminal bone of contention in the explosive confrontation between Chassidim and Mitnagdim in the latter half of the 18th century.

The worshippers of the Rabbis attempt to explain Judaism and to change the religious speech till our current time. Some of them consider The Kabbalah connected to the core part of the Jewish creed while others reject such thoughts at all.
In the medieval age, a number of sects are derived from the Rabbis. Such sects adopted the Kabbalah Thoughts. They named themselves the Kabalistic (Kabales), from such sects, the Hasidic sects and others. These are a lot of sects derived from Hasidic. All of the sects depend on explaining and interpreting Judaism through Kabbalah.
The strangest thing in such thesis is that we found a Kabalistic- who was not a Rabbi or religious man but a physicist called "Michael (Mikhail) Laitman (Lightman) Simovic- whose nickname is "Michael Laitman"- tried to spread the Kabbalah among the Jews and the Jews and the Non- Jews throughout the world countries. Laitman got the PhD in 2004 from Higher Institute for Philosophy- Science Academy in Moscow in the field of Kabbalah Science. He considers the Kabbalah Science the origin of all sciences. His first book written and composed in this field was published in 1983 under the title: "A point in The Heart". It was written in Russian. He has more than forty books written in Hebrew. He gave a lot of world lectures about the Kabbalah affairs. Most of his works were translated into more than seven languages. Laitman launched a teaching sessions entitled "Sons of Baruch" (Sons of the blessing) to spread his principles till it changed into an international organization. The number chose name in an attribution to rabbi "Baruch Ahlag"- professor of Laitman and his instructor.

A systematic look at colour on the four worlds of the Qabalistic Tree of life, it's historic evolution and meditational use, especially in terms of energy circulations between Da'ath and Yesod in the Body.  Presentation to Servants of the Light,  Convocation of the Lodges: Gathering of the Lights 18-20 November 2011.  Slides, notes and visual meditations downloadable from the Tree In Colour website, created by the author can be found on an updated website called The Luminous Tree https://echtrai.org

The focus of that site is stories from and about the Tree of Life including a systematic look at colour in the Four Worlds of the Qabalistic Tree, its history and meditational use. The Golden Dawn Colour Scales and Colour in Medieval Jewish Kabbalah area among the topics addressed.  Launched 4 Nov 2021.

"La Lumière primordiale" fait allusion à lumière de premier jour de la Création. Quelle est la nature de cette Lumière. Dans un article publié dans un ouvrage collectif: "Fondements de l'Humanité", aux Ed. du Cerf, Paris 2010, je mets en exergue les différents commentaires rabbiniques ainsi que l'approche kabbaliste de ce sujet  poignant.
Mordékhai Chriqui, iNSTITUT RAMHAL
www.ramhal.com

The Russian philosopher Nikolai Onufrievich Lossky (1870–1965) adhered to an evolutionary metaphysics of reincarnation according to which the world is constituted of immortal souls or monads, which he calls “substantival agents.” These substantival agents can evolve or devolve depending on the goodness or badness of their behavior. Such evolution requires the possibility for monads to reincarnate into the bodies of creatures of a higher or of a lower level on the scala perfectionis. According to this theory, a substantival agent can evolve by being gradually reincarnated multiple times through a sort of process of metamorphosis from the level of the most elementary particles all the way up to the level of human beings or even higher. In “Ученiе Лейбница о перевоплощенiи какъ метаморфозѣ” (“Leibniz’s Doctrine of Reincarnation as Metamorphosis,” 1931), Lossky argues that the works of Leibniz contain scattered elements of such a systematic evolutionary doctrine of reincarnation as metamorphosis and he attempts to reconstitute this doctrine. The present article is intended as an historical introduction to the translation (published in the same journal issue) of Lossky’s “Leibniz’s Doctrine of Reincarnation as Metamorphosis.”

Full Article: https://www.academia.edu/39244534/Sefer_%E1%B8%A4alomei_Qets_Pela_ot_Meoraot_Tzvi_1814_and_the_Image_of_Sabbatianism_in_the_18th_and_19th_Centuries_Jewish_Thought_Journal_of_the_Goldstein-Goren_International_Center_for_Jewish_Thought_1_2019_pp._125-167_Hebrew_


ההרצאה היא פתח לפרוייקט רחב במסגרת האקדמיה הלאומית למדעים
ISF
שעניינו - מהדורה מוערת ומבוארת של ספר מאורעות צבי
וניצוח של עיצוב השבתאות במאה התשע עשרה


הקונגרס העולמי למדעי היהדות
מושב
250

Sabbatianism, Science and the Bounds of Religion
Tuesday, 08 August, 2017 09:00-11:00, Room: 2717

Maoz Kahana (he)
Rabbi Jonathan Eybeschutz’s Conception of the Sceintific Revolution and the Rediscovery of the Lost Manuscript of `Sefer Meirav’

Pawel Maciejko (en)
The Coat of Arms of Wolf Eibeschütz

Jonatan Meir (he)
Sefer Me’ora’ot Tzvi and the Image of Sabbatianism

Leiner had hidden in the folds of his text a great secret. Said simply, Leiner was the lineage heir and inheritor of the ancient Wisdom of Solomon. According to Leiner's hidden code, the covert teachings of the Wisdom of Solomon had been transmitted personally from master to student, down through the generations, until they reached him. But it was more than that. The very core of my being shuddered with some mixture of fear and joy when I realized that Leiner wanted to transmit these same teachings to me. – Marc Gafni

The Culture of Victimhood
The Hagar Complex
In rejecting Hagar’s tears, biblical consciousness speaks with great power to the epidemic of victimhood that threatens to cripple much of what is great and good in Western society. Hagar is abused. She is hurt. She is a victim. And Hagar has power. She has options. She can turn fate into destiny. She can embrace the desert. Her tears become not the ritual bath of her purification but the swamp of her drowning. She falls prey to the Hagar complex of victim identity.
In the mid-nineteenth century, Naftali of Ropshitz, a Hassidic Zen master of sorts, was once called upon to attempt an intervention with the son of a Polish nobleman.
For some reason, the boy has been crying nonstop. He refuses to be comforted. No one is quite sure what is the source of his pain. Days have gone by, and he simply continues to cry. All the great physicians and healers have been brought in to stop the boy’s crying and restore him to the land of the living—what we moderns like to call functionality.
None succeed.

The Aramaic prayer ʻBerikh Shemehʼ (= Blessed be His Name) whose source is commonly identified as Sefer ha-Zohar, began to be included in siddurim (prayer books) during the seventeenth century. Until now it was thought to have been first introduced by individuals circa the mid-sixteenth century, with a direct connection to the distribution of the Zohar, and that it gradually spread, following practices instituted in Kabbalistic circles, until it reached many communities and was included in siddurim. However, this article shows that this process took place much earlier.
According to the documents discussed in the article, the practice of reciting ʻBerikh Shemehʼ began long before the middle of the sixteenth century, and at first it was not related to Sefer ha-Zohar, its distribution, or its reception. In fact, the character of this Aramaic prayer is foreign to Sefer ha-Zohar and was artificially embedded in it. Using manuscripts, the author reconstructs the ancient versions of the prayer and tracks the historical and liturgical context in which it might have been created, evolved, copied alongside the Zohar, and eventually entered siddurim.
‘Berikh Shemehʼ is first documented as a late prayer, whose origin remains unknown, present in various geographical areas, in the margins of regular and high-holiday prayer books or as an appendix to them, originally without attribution. Later, the prayer began to be associated with R. Shimon Bar Yohai and copied as an apostil alongside Aramaic passages on the customs relating to the Torah scroll in the Zohar on Parashat Vayakhel.
The last part of the article raises conjectures regarding the ancient sources of ʻBerikh Shemehʼ and examines its relation to prayers familiar from the liturgical canon and to other prayer customs whose origins are obscure.
An edition of the early versions of the prayer is presented in the appendix to the article.