kabbalah Gershom scholem

CONTENTS
PART ONE: KABBALAH
1.
2.
3.
INTRODUCTION
General notes 3
Terms used for Kabbalah 6
THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF KABBALAH
The Early Beginnings of Mysticism and Esotericism 8
Apocalyptic Esotericism and Merkabah Mysticism I 0
Esoteric Literature: the Heikhalot, the Ma'aseh Beres hit, and
the Literature of Magic 14
Jewish Gnosis and the Sefer Yezirah 21
Mysticism in the Geonic Period 30
J:lasidic Movements in Europe and Egypt 35
The Establishment of Kabbalah in Provence 42
The Kabbalist Center of Gerona 48
Other Currents in 13th Century Spanish Kabbalah 52
The Kabbalah in the 14th Century up to the Expulsion
from Spain 61
The Kabbalah after the Expulsion from Spain and the
New Center in Safed 67
The Kabbalah in Later Times 79
THE BASIC IDEAS OF KABBALAH
God and Creation 88
Emanation and the Concept of the Sejirot 96
Details of the Doctrine of the Sejirot and their Symbolism I 05
Earlier Worlds, Lower Worlds, and Cosmic Cycles
(the Doctrine of Shemittot) 116
The Problem of Evil 122
The Doctrine of Creation in Lurianic Kabbalah 128
The Kabbalah and Pan theism 144
3
8
87