Hekhalot Literature in Context

Between Byzantium and Babylonia

Edited by Peter Schäfer Edited by Ra'anan Boustan Edited by Martha Himmelfarb

Book cover: Hekhalot Literature in Context

Extent: 463 pages

Publisher: Mohr Siebeck

Subjects: Jewish Studies, Religious Studies

Series: Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(July 2013)

ISBN: 9783161525759

6.38 x 9.41 inches

Price: $254.00

In stock

Scholars of early Jewish mysticism have, with increasing confidence, located the initial formation of Hekhalot literature in Byzantine Palestine and Sasanian or early Islamic Babylonia (ca. 500-900 C.E.). Yet questions remain regarding the specific cultural contexts and institutional settings out of which the various strands of Hekhalot literature emerged as well as the multiple trajectories they subsequently traveled. In the present volume, an international team of experts explores, from a variety of disciplinary perspective, the literary formation, cultural meanings, religious functions, and textual transmission of Hekhalot literature.


Scholars of early Jewish mysticism have, with increasing confidence, located the initial formation of Hekhalot literature in Byzantine Palestine and Sasanian or early Islamic Babylonia (ca. 500-900 C.E.). Yet questions remain regarding the specific cultural contexts and institutional settings out of which the various strands of Hekhalot literature emerged as well as the multiple trajectories they subsequently traveled. In the present volume, an international team of experts explores, from a variety of disciplinary perspective, the literary formation, cultural meanings, religious functions, and textual transmission of Hekhalot literature. Contributors: Gideon Bohak, Ra’anan Boustan, David M. Grossberg, Klaus Herrmann, Reimund Leicht, Rebecca Lesses, Michael Meerson, Noam Mizrahi, Ophir Munz-Manor, Andrei A. Orlov, Peter Schafer, Alexei Sivertsev, Michael D. Swartz, Moulie Vidas, Annette Yoshiko Reed

Ra'anan Boustan: Introduction
I. The Formation of Hekhalot Literature: Linguistic, Literary, and Cultural Contexts
Noam Mizrahi: The Language of Hekhalot Literature: Preliminary Observations - Peter Schäfer: Metatron in Babylonia - Michael D. Swartz: Hekhalot and Piyyut: From Byzantium to Babylonia and Back - Alexei Sivertsev: The Emperor's Many Bodies: The Demise of Emperor Lupinus Revisited - Klaus Herrmann: Jewish Mysticism in Byzantium: The Transformation of Merkavah Mysticism in 3 Enoch - David M. Grossberg: Between 3 Enoch and Bavli Hagigah: Heresiology and Orthopraxy in the Ascent of Elisha ben Abuyah - Moulie Vidas: Hekhalot Literature, the Babylonian Academies and the tanna'im
II. The Transmission and Reception of Hekhalot Literature: Toward the Middle Ages
Peter Schäfer: The Hekhalot Genizah - Gideon Bohak: Observations on the Transmission of Hekhalot Literature in the Cairo Genizah - Ophir Münz-Manor: A Prolegomenon to the Study of Hekhalot Traditions in European Piyyut
III. Early Jewish Mysticism in Comparative Perspective: Themes and Patterns
Reimund Leicht: Major Trends in Rabbinic Cosmology - Rebecca Lesses: Women and Gender in the Hekhalot Literature - Andrei A. Orlov: "What is Below?" Mysteries of Leviathan in the Early Jewish Accounts and Mishnah Hagigah 2:1 - Michael Meerson: Rites of Passage in Magic and Mysticism - Annette Yoshiko Reed: Rethinking (Jewish-)Christian Evidence for Jewish Mysticism

  • Edited by Peter Schäfer
  • Edited by Ra’anan Boustan
  • Edited by Martha Himmelfarb