Abraham ben Samuel Abulafia
(1240–c.1291).A wandering Spanish kabbalist. He wrote a number of mystical essays, and in 1280 went to Rome to persuade the pope to relieve the sufferings of the Jews. He ...
Abraham ben Shmuel Abulafia
(Saragossa, 1240–c.1291)The founder of the prophetic school of Kabbalah. He combined Maimonides’ philosophical esotericism with the linguistic techniques of the Rhenan Jewish pietists, known as ...
Abraham Joshua Heschel
Religious philosopher (1907–72). Heschel was descended on both his father's and mother's side from a long line of Hasidic Zaddikim. Heschel himself seemed destined to occupy the role of a Hasidic ...
Adam Kadmon
Primordial man, a term used in the Kabbalah to denote the stage of the divine unfolding which provides the link between En Sof and the Sefirot.
Anne Conway
(1631–79)Anne Finch was the daughter of Sir Henry Finch, Speaker of the House of Commons. She studied Descartes at an early age, and through her brother, a student at Cambridge, became acquainted ...
Avraham Ben Eliʿezer Ha-Levi
(1460–1528), kabbalist in Spain before the expulsion of 1492, who after that time wandered in many communities of Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Egypt, finally settling in Jerusalem in 1514. In ...
Avraham Ibn Daud
(c.1110–1180), Spanish philosopher, historian, physician, and astronomer; known by his initials as Ravad. He was born in Cordova, Spain; fled from the Almohade persecutions to Castile in 1146; and ...
Baʿal Shem
(Heb., ‘master of the divine name’).Title given in ḥasidic and 'kabbalistic literature to those who possess secret knowledge of God's name. See also ISRAEL BEN ELIEZER, who, as a founder of ḥasidism, ...
Baal Shem Tov Israel ben Eliezer
(1700–60).Founder of E. European Ḥasidism. Many legends are circulated about the life of Israel Ben Eliezer. On his thirty-sixth birthday, he is said to have revealed himself as a ...
Bahir
‘Brightness’, the earliest book of the Kabbalah, of unknown authorship, which first appeared in southern France at the end of the thirteenth century and in which the doctrine of the Sefirot is ...
Baḥya Ben Asher
(13th cent. ce).Jewish commentator and kabbalist. Serving as Dayyan in Saragossa, he produced a commentary on the Pentateuch (Be'urʿal ha-Torah, 1291) which interpreted the text literally, ...
bible Exegesis
The interpretation and exposition of the biblical text, in order to apply it practically or as a form of study in its own right. The earliest exegesis can be found ...
cabal
A group or association of political intriguers. In England in the 17th century it was a precursor of the English cabinet, but in modern times the term is applied to any political group which pursues ...
Cava dei Tirreni
Early in the 11th c., a nobleman of Salerno, Alferius, who had been sent to Germany by the prince, encountered Abbot Odilo of Cluny, received his monastic training at cluny ...
chosen People
Those selected by God for a special relationship with him, especially the people of Israel, the Jews.
David Ben Shelomo Ibn Avi Zimra
(1479–1573), rabbinical authority and kabbalist, known by the acronym Ridbaz. Scion of a distinguished family in the Spanish town of Zamora, he was among the refugees of the expulsion of ...
Dov Baer of Mezhirech
Hasidic master (d. 1772), leader, theoretician, and organizer of Hasidism after the death of Israel Baal Shem Tov. Although Dov Baer was a competent Talmudist he was never a town Rabbi, occupying ...
Ein Sof
(Heb., ‘the Infinite’).Kabbalistic designation of God in his transcendence. The term first appeared in the 13th century in the circle of Isaac the Blind. It was used to distinguish ...
Eleazar Azikri
Safed Kabbalist (1533–1600), autl or of Sefer Haredim (The Book of the God-fearers), in which the precepts are given an original classification corresponding to the various organs and limbs of the ...
Elijah ben Solomon Zalman
(1720–97).The Vilna Gaon, known as Ha-Gra, a Lithuanian Jewish spiritual leader. He was famous for his great learning and produced more than seventy works and commentaries on the Bible ...
