Amongst the Zionists, the kabbalists are the ones to watch, especially the masters of the lore. ❋ Unknown (2008)
We also find this attitude, which attributes evil and impurity to women, in the writings of R. Hayyim Vital (1542 – 1620) and other kabbalists. ❋ Unknown (2009)
Around 1987, in an introduction to a facsimile edition to a work by Rabbi Yehoshua ibn Shuaib (first half of the fourteenth century), Shraga Abramson (b. 1915) claimed that the work was written by Ezra ben Solomon of Gerona (d. 1238 or 1245), one of the significant kabbalists of the thirteenth century. ❋ Unknown (2009)
She thereby transcended “the world of the flesh” and embraced a celibate “male” identity, expressed by the adoption of male ritual observance, dedication to study and prayer, and the ascetic piety that was traditionally the preserve of male kabbalists. ❋ Unknown (2009)
In accordance with this attitude, we find among the edicts of the sixteenth-century kabbalists of Safed the following regulation: “As much as possible, avoid looking even upon a woman clothed.” ❋ Unknown (2009)
This point of view found extreme expression among the sixteenth-century kabbalists, especially in the writings and behavior of the hasidic-kabbalistic groups in Safed. ❋ Unknown (2009)
The domain of the body — the effective Sabbatean arena for “restorative” action — had long been associated with women, in line with the dualistic scheme, adopted by medieval philosophers and kabbalists alike, that juxtaposed the female domain of “body” with the male domain of “spirit” or “soul.” ❋ Unknown (2009)
Various positions were espoused by different kabbalists, some seeing physical menstruation as encouraging of the sitra ahra while others used it as a description of cosmic rhythms. ❋ LeBeit Yoreh (2009)
The second doctrinal development that might have facilitated the empowerment of women was the transformation in some Sabbatean circles of the nature of tikkun — “reparation” or “restoration to perfection,” which is how the kabbalists had conceived of eschatologically charged religious action. ❋ Unknown (2009)
Many of these new publications (including Hebrew tehinnot, supplemental prayers for men) developed out of and popularized a mystical pietism originating among the kabbalists of Safed; others originated among secret followers of Sabbetai Zevi (1626 – 1676), the failed mystical messiah. ❋ Unknown (2009)
On to this syncretistic notion of the holy messianic “Maiden” Frank grafted the kabbalistic conception of the female emanation of the godhead, the sefira Malkhut (Kingdom), which was traditionally associated with the messianic soul and was envisaged by the kabbalists as rising, at the time of the Redemption, from her lowest position in the hierarchy of the sefirot to its highest and most sublime point. ❋ Unknown (2009)
For example, some have argued that Scholem intentionally downplays the mythic components in rabbinic Judaism and the ways in which early kabbalists also fashioned themselves as philosophers. ❋ Magid, Shaul (2008)
This polemic (between philosophers and kabbalists and between Talmudists and kabbalists) continued until the end of the sixteenth century when Kabbala won the hearts and minds of many Jews after the Spanish expulsion in 1492 and the forced conversions and expulsions in Portugal in 1496. ❋ Magid, Shaul (2008)
In the late Middle Ages it was a gathering place for kabbalists. ❋ Unknown (2008)
Guess the crack kabbalists are reaching out these days. ❋ Unknown (2006)
These kabbalists, while protesting such rationalism, were themselves very influenced by two dominant trends: Gnosticism and Neo-Platonism. ❋ Magid, Shaul (2008)
Those emissions formed demons in the lower atmosphere that the kabbalists say can appear to us as animals, men or angels. ❋ Unknown (2007)
Rabbi Crispe says kabbalists believe that after the snake entered the garden, the quality of doubt separated Adam and Eve for 130 years. ❋ Unknown (2007)
