Search

Kabbalah (Hebr.  kabbala, literally “reception,” understood as the adoption or transmission of an esoteric tradition) is the most important form of Jewish mysticism. From its origins in the Middle Ages, it has undergone manifold transformations and interpretations within Judaism – and since the early modern era increasingly from the outside. Although it was exemplary as a Jewish-philosophical paradigm within humanism, the representatives of the Haskalah and even more of the Wissenschaft des Judent…

The German language plays an important and ambivalent role in Jewish history. On the one hand, it became a medium of secularization, integration, and emancipation. In this capacity, it advanced in the 19th century to become the lingua franca of the Ashkenazi Jews and of large parts of Eastern Europe, where it was seen as a expression of progress, education, and science. On the other hand, it became a locus of social and cultural inequality between Jews and Germans. Cultural antisemitism deprived…

Die Kabbala (hebr. kabbala, wörtl. Empfang, verstanden als Annahme oder Überlieferung einer esoterischen Tradition) ist die bedeutendste Ausformung der jüdischen Mystik. Seit ihrem Entstehen im Mittelalter erfuhr sie innerhalb des Judentums – und seit der frühen Neuzeit zunehmend auch von außerhalb – vielfältige Umformungen und Ausdeutungen. Während sie im Humanismus als jüdisch-philosophisches Paradigma modellhaft wurde, wiesen sie die Vertreter der Hask…

[German Version] (Jun 8, 1779, Oberursel, Taunus – Mar 23, 1860, Frankfurt am Main), late Romantic philosopher of religion and the author of the last major outline of a “Christian Kabbalah” (III) in the tradition of G. Pico della Mirandola and J. Reuchlin. Molitor studied law and philosophy with those close to of Isaak Sinclair, G.W.F. Hegel, F.W.J. Schelling, and J. v. Görres, and worked as a teacher from 1807 to 1828, notably at the Jewish Philanthropin in Frankfurt. In 1808, he was one of the f…

Kircher, Athanasius, * 2 May 1602 (Geisa/Röhn), † 27 Jan 1680 (Rome) Kircher was one of the great universal scholars of the 17th century. His life is well documented in early biographies. His comprehensive education began with his theologian father's homeschooling in music, Latin, geography and mathematics. From his tenth year, Kircher attended a series of Jesuit schools, firstly in Fulda, where he learnt Hebrew from a rabbi, then in Mainz. In 1618 he entered the Jesuit order as a novice in Paderborn, where…

Knorr von Rosenroth, Christian, * 15/16 Jul 1636 (Alt-Raudten/Schlesien), † 4/8 May 1689 (Groß-Albershof bei Sulzbach) Knorr von Rosenroth studied theology, philosophy, medicine, classical and modern languages at the University of Leipzig, from 1655 to 1660. In 1659 he joined the “Deutschgesinnte Genossenschaft” of Philipp von Zesen (1619-1689). From 1663 to 1666 he made an educational journey through the Netherlands, France, and England. In April 1663 he enrolled at the University of Leiden as a student of the…

[German Version] I. Philosophy of Religion – II. Jewish Kabbalah – III. Christian Kabbalah I. Philosophy of Religion Since c. 1200, Kabbalah has been the designation for Jewish mysticism (III, 2). According to the name, the term Kabbalah means “reception” or “tradition”: the reception of an orally transmitted, esoteric knowledge concerning the “secrets of Scripture” ( rasin de oraita; sitre tora). The material that can be considered Kabbalah can be described in terms of (a) the philosophy of religion or phenomenology, or (b) history. A phenomenologica…

The Hebrew alphabet ( Alef-Bet) has been used in Jewish theosophical and kabbalistic representations of ideas from Antiquity to the Modern Era, not just as a system of graphic representation of the Hebrew language but also to convey symbolic and metaphorical meaning. The status of scribes of sacred texts in Antiquity and the Middle Ages corresponded to the sacredness (Kadosh) of the Hebrew letters, and so did the development of printing. In the context of modernization, the Hebrew alphabet was the f…

Jewish Influences I: Antiquity The nature and extent of contacts between ancient Judaism and the assortment of sources commonly labelled “Gnostic” (or more recently “biblical demiurgical”, see Williams) is one of the most fiercely debated issues in Gnostic studies. This, however, is a relatively new phenomenon. The Church Fathers localized the origins of the Gnostic movement in Palestine (→ Simon Magus, Dositheus), but the adherence to a Gnostic sect was never seen as a relapse to something Jewish. For centuries, → Gnosticism was seen predominantly as a Christian heresy. Modern rese…