Cultic and Further Orders: Semiotics of a Kabbalistic Culture

Maurizio Mottolese (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

242 Seiten

2022
Brill (Verlag)
9789004498976 (ISBN)

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Through an unusual investigation of kabbalistic commentaries on prayer and ritual from the viewpoint of cultural semiotics, this book attempts to illuminate the features of a lasting Jewish tradition, showing in particular the relevance of ordering structures in Sephardi Kabbalah.

This book starts from the assumption that semiotics of culture and social-anthropological studies can offer useful tools to understand large segments and lasting aspects of the kabbalistic tradition. It attempts to study from this perspective the Sephardi Kabbalah, by examining 16th-century emblematic commentaries that collect, rearrange and carry on the earlier kabbalistic interpretation of the rabbinic ritual system. In this unusual light, much kabbalistic culture appears as an ongoing semiotic intensification of deep structures governing the discourse and practice of the Jews – so that, for instance, institutional cultic orders are integrated by other forms of order in imagination, thought, writing and experience.

Maurizio Mottolese earned a Ph.D. both at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2003) and at the Sapienza University of Rome (2014). He has published monographs and articles on rabbinic and kabbalistic traditions, including Bodily Rituals in Jewish Mysticism (Los Angeles, 2016).

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1 The Disclosure of Sense and Order

Rhetoric and Hermeneutic Modes of Kabbalistic Semiotics

1Rhetorical Patterns. The Quest for an Organization of Knowledge

1.1Collecting and Rearranging Stances in two 16th-Century Kabbalistic Commentaries

1.2A Kabbalistic Cultural Subset and Its Strategies for Cultural Memory

1.3Some Emblematic Discussions on Morning Rituals

2 Hermeneutic Perspectives. Proliferation and Articulation of Meanings

2.1Unfolding Layers of Meaning and Reality

2.2Constructing Patterns of Order

2.3Binary Oppositions and Vertical Connections

2 The Imagery of Cosmic and Human Orders

Semantic Dimensions of Kabbalistic Semiotics

1Cosmological Assumptions. Establishment and Maintenance of Orders

1.1A Mixture of Imaginative Patterns of Different Origin

1.2Forms of Mediation and Supernal Structures

1.3Anthropomorphic Orders and Ritual Orders

1.4The Impact of Human Action on the Cosmic Architectonics

2Lexical and Narrative Semantics. Reviving Cosmic Orders through Ritual Orders

2.1Mythical Accounts on the Restoring Power of Human Action

2.2The Use of s-d-r and the Related Narrative Elaboration

3 The Focus on Ritual Sequences

Syntactic Aspects of Kabbalistic Semiotics

1Dwelling on the Formal Structures of Cultic Life

1.1The Engagement of all Ritual Dimensions, and the Triadic Pattern Thought-Speech-Act

1.2The Attention to all Ritual Items, Including Formal Units and Sequences

2Re-Organizing the Ritual Syntax

2.1Narrow Sequels

2.2Broader Structures

2.3Temporal Patterns

3Generating Mythical and Mystical Accounts from Ritual Syntax

3.1The Disclosure of Deep Syntactic Orders

3.2The Elaboration of Dense Narrative Sequences and Ascending Experiential Routes

4 The Construction of a Liturgical-Mystical Discipline

Pragmatic Effects of Kabbalistic Semiotics

1Remolding, Extending and Intensifying Institutional Halakhic Orders

1.1Conservative Reinforcement through Renewal

1.2Variation and Change in Social Pragmatics

1.3The Production of Directional Mystical Techniques

2Shaping Kabbalistically-Oriented Community Conduct and Experience

2.1Elements of Distinction and Cohesion

2.2Towards a Communal Mystical Discipline?

2.3Hypotheses on Psychosocial Effects

2.4Reflections on Socio-Cultural Functions

Final Remarks

Kabbalistic Orders from the Perspective of Cultural Semiotics

1The Search for Methodologies Moving between Structure and History

2On Semiotics of Culture and Its Fecundity for Kabbalah Studies

3On Ordering and Disordering Vectors in Kabbalistic Literature

Bibliography

Index

Erscheinungsdatum	31.01.2022
Reihe/Serie	Studies in Jewish History and Culture ; 71
Verlagsort	Leiden
Sprache	englisch
Maße	155 x 235 mm
Gewicht	531 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Judentum
ISBN-13	9789004498976 / 9789004498976
Zustand	Neuware