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Libra Esoterica

Kabbalah and Catastrophe

Historical Memory in Premodern Jewish Mysticism

by Hartley Lachter

  • First published:
  • 21st century
  • Language: English

Description

Description from K10plus Union Catalog (opens in a new tab)

"While premodern kabbalistic texts were not chronicles of historical events, they provided elaborate models for understanding the secret divine plan guiding human affairs. Hartley Lachter analyzes innovative kabbalistic doctrines, such as the idea of reincarnation and the notion of multiple successive universes, through which Jewish mystics sought to demonstrate that the misfortunes of Jewish history were in fact necessary steps toward redemption. Lachter argues that these works, mostly composed between the early 14th century and the generation affected by the Spanish expulsion in the early 16th century, enabled Jewish readers to make sense of the troubling misfortunes of their own time. Kabbalah and Catastrophe uncovers the remarkable variety of ways that kabbalists deployed esoteric tradition to argue that God had not abandoned the Jews to the inscrutable forces of history. Instead, they suggested to readers that Jews are history's primary actors, and that despite their small numbers and lack of military power, Jews nonetheless secretly push history forward. For scholars of Jewish mysticism and medieval Jewish history, Lachter articulates how premodern mystical texts can be crucial sources of insight into how Jews understood the meaning of history"--

Provenance

Why this book is in the catalog

Included because retained bibliographic metadata links this work to Afterlife, reincarnation, and near-death experiences, Consciousness, mysticism, and metaphysics, Kabbalah and Jewish esotericism, and Occultism and esotericism.

  • Occultism and esotericism

    Retained metadata contains “esoteric” in the description.

    • “esoteric”· in description
  • Kabbalah and Jewish esotericism

    Controlled discovery queries from k10plus matched “Kabbala”. Retained metadata contains “Kabbalah” in the title, “Kabbalah” in the description, “Cabala” in the subject metadata, and 3 additional metadata match(es).

    • “Kabbala”· via K10plus Union Catalog
    • “Kabbalah”· in title
    • “Kabbalah”· in description
    • “Cabala”· in subject
    • “Kabbala”· in subject
    • “Kabbalah”· in subject
  • Afterlife, reincarnation, and near-death experiences

    Retained metadata contains “Reincarnation” in the description, “Reincarnation” in the subject metadata, and “Reincarnation” in the edition notes.

    • “Reincarnation”· in description
    • “Reincarnation”· in subject
    • “Reincarnation”· in edition notes
  • Consciousness, mysticism, and metaphysics

    Retained metadata contains “Mysticism” in the subtitle, “Mysticism” in the description, “Mysticism” in the subject metadata, and 2 additional metadata match(es).

    • “Mysticism”· in subtitle
    • “Mysticism”· in description
    • “Mysticism”· in subject
    • “Mysticism”· in edition subtitle
    • “Mysticism”· in edition notes

Membership records how this book met the catalog’s discovery criteria — relevance to a tradition, not a judgment of the book’s claims.

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Editions

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Historical Memory in Premodern Jewish Mysticism

K10plus union-catalog record

1 Online-Ressource (362 p.); Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1 Terrors of History: Finding Order in a World of Chaos -- 2 Meaning in Exile: Kabbalistic Readings of History Gone Awry -- 3 The Shape of Time: History and Cosmic Cycles -- 4 Living across Time: Reincarnation and the Course of History -- 5 History’s Ends: Apocalyptic Secrets in the Present Tense -- 6 Shaping History: Kabbalistic Writing and Historical Agency -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index; Stanford Studies in Jewish Mysticism

[2024]Stanford University PressEnglish
  • 9781503640900
Catalog record

Subjects

24 subject headings

Identifiers & provenance

How this record was assembled, and the authority identifiers it carries.

Cataloged from

Catalog id
k10plus:1907185054
Edition coverage
K10plus source record
Retrieved