Abraham Abulafĳia’s “Mystical” Reading of the Guide for the Perplexed

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" Abraham Abulafĳia’s “Mystical” Reading of the Guide for the Perplexed "
Nathan Hofer

Document Type	:	AL
Record Number	:	1079133
Doc. No	:	LA122762
Call No	:	‭10.1163/15685276-12341265‬
Language of Document	:	English
Main Entry	:	Nathan Hofer
Title & Author	:	Abraham Abulafĳia’s “Mystical” Reading of the Guide for the Perplexed [Article]\ Nathan Hofer
Publication Statement	:	Leiden: Brill
Title of Periodical	:	Numen
Date	:	2013
Volume/ Issue Number	:	60/2-3
Page No	:	251–279
Abstract	:	The Spanish kabbalist Abraham Abulafia (d. 1291) wrote three Hebrew commentaries on the Guide for the Perplexed of Moses Maimonides (d. 1204). Abulafia’s third and final commentary, Sitrey Torah (The Mysteries of the Torah), is an uncovering and extended treatment of 36 “secrets” that he believed to be hidden within the text of the Guide. In this article I investigate the specificities of Abulafia’s mystical hermeneutic as he applies it to the Guide and how this mystical system is made to fit with Maimonides’ neoplatonic philosophy. I argue that Abulafia’s commentary is not actually a mystical text in and of itself. Rather, he intends the mystical text to be generated within the mind of the reader, who is meant to join experientially the text of the Guide with Abulafia’s commentary. The result is a paradoxical disclosure of secrets in which the linguistic mysteries must be disclosed discursively before they can become experiential mysteries to be disclosed mystically. Such a conception might offer scholars a new way of thinking about what constitutes a mystical text as well as problematizing the ways in which we categorize and analyze the “mystical.” The Spanish kabbalist Abraham Abulafia (d. 1291) wrote three Hebrew commentaries on the Guide for the Perplexed of Moses Maimonides (d. 1204). Abulafia’s third and final commentary, Sitrey Torah (The Mysteries of the Torah), is an uncovering and extended treatment of 36 “secrets” that he believed to be hidden within the text of the Guide. In this article I investigate the specificities of Abulafia’s mystical hermeneutic as he applies it to the Guide and how this mystical system is made to fit with Maimonides’ neoplatonic philosophy. I argue that Abulafia’s commentary is not actually a mystical text in and of itself. Rather, he intends the mystical text to be generated within the mind of the reader, who is meant to join experientially the text of the Guide with Abulafia’s commentary. The result is a paradoxical disclosure of secrets in which the linguistic mysteries must be disclosed discursively before they can become experiential mysteries to be disclosed mystically. Such a conception might offer scholars a new way of thinking about what constitutes a mystical text as well as problematizing the ways in which we categorize and analyze the “mystical.”
Descriptor	:	Abraham Abulafĳia
Descriptor	:	Kabbalah
Descriptor	:	Moses Maimonides
Descriptor	:	mysticism
Descriptor	:	philosophy
Location & Call number	:	‭10.1163/15685276-12341265‬