Literature

Jewish Magic Before the Rise of Kabbalah

Jewish Magic Before the Rise of Kabbalah

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  • Type：Epub+TxT+PDF+Mobi
  • Create Date：2021-08-16 04:41:02
  • Update Date：2025-09-23
  • Status：finish
  • Author：Yuval Harari
  • ISBN：0814348815
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Summary

Magic culture is certainly fascinating。 But what is it？ What， in fact， are magic writings， magic artifacts？ Originally published in Hebrew in 2010， Jewish Magic Before the Rise of Kabbalah is a comprehensive study of early Jewish magic focusing on three major topics: Jewish magic inventiveness， the conflict with the culture it reflects， and the scientific study of both。



The first part of the book analyzes the essence of magic in general and Jewish magic in particular。 The book begins with theories addressing the relationship of magic and religion in fields like comparative study of religion， sociology of religion， history， and cultural anthropology， and considers the implications of the paradigm shift in the interdisciplinary understanding of magic for the study of Jewish magic。 The second part of the book focuses on Jewish magic culture in late antiquity and in the early Islamic period。 This section highlights the artifacts left behind by the magic practitioners-amulets， bowls， precious stones， and human skulls-as well as manuals that include hundreds of recipes。 Jewish Magic before the Rise of Kabbalah also reports on the culture that is reflected in the magic evidence from the perspective of external non-magic contemporary Jewish sources。

Issues of magic and religion， magical mysticism， and magic and social power are dealt with in length in this thorough investigation。 Scholars interested in early Jewish history and comparative religions will find great value in this text。

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Reviews

Zhelana ，

This book was less a study of Jewish magic before the rise of Kabbalah and more a historiography of magic that spent the first three chapters looking for a definition of magic discussing all the possible definitions back to the armchair anthropologists and coming more recent。 I'm willing to accept a porno definiton of magic， something like "I know it when I see it" in order to get on with it and talk about what they were doing and why they were doing it。 It didn't seem like we were ever going to This book was less a study of Jewish magic before the rise of Kabbalah and more a historiography of magic that spent the first three chapters looking for a definition of magic discussing all the possible definitions back to the armchair anthropologists and coming more recent。 I'm willing to accept a porno definiton of magic， something like "I know it when I see it" in order to get on with it and talk about what they were doing and why they were doing it。 It didn't seem like we were ever going to get on with it and discuss Jewish magic， so I wound up giving up on this book。The book was really dense and hard to read， certainly on a graduate school level and not for anyone before that level。 It was not at all entertaining。 I came up with very little information I could actually use for teaching a class on magic and superstition in the SCA。 Everything was like。。。 those things that academics bicker about that don't matter at all。 In this case it was several different people's definitions of magic that they're bickering about， and I fail to see that it is important at all。 Just tell me the 5 W's。 Or at least include the 5 W's。 。。。more

Liz ，

There was a quote， misattributed to Abraham Lincoln and meant to be derogatory， "people who like this sort of thing will find this is the sort of thing that they like。"Precisely， although without undertones of dismissal。 If you enjoy reading critical academic treatments on topics you want to know more about， this book is a really good example of the genre。 Harari is consistently coherent and makes it very clear when he is providing information and advancing an argument。I thought the beginning， w There was a quote， misattributed to Abraham Lincoln and meant to be derogatory， "people who like this sort of thing will find this is the sort of thing that they like。"Precisely， although without undertones of dismissal。 If you enjoy reading critical academic treatments on topics you want to know more about， this book is a really good example of the genre。 Harari is consistently coherent and makes it very clear when he is providing information and advancing an argument。I thought the beginning， where he articulates and opines on the problem of defining magic， was particularly helpful and the last chapter was the most interesting to me， as a scholar and collector of rabbinic narratives。Yeah， if this is your thing， this is a great thing。Also， serious shout-out to Batya Stein for the translation。 Translating academia is never easy and part of the reason I think this work was so readable was the effort she made to make sure that she wasn't writing just for people who expect to find sentences confusing。 。。。more

Julia ，

This is not for the casual reader。 If you are not interested in the topic of magic at an collegiate academia level than do not read this book。 It is not entertaining。 I’m sure it’s informative but I couldn’t really even finish it to find out。

Asma ，

Good intro。

Ketzirah ，

Great place for beginners just learning about the history of Jewish magic to begin。 It summarizes the work of 4-5 other books， and is more accessible than beginning with those。

Reference

google book https://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&q=Jewish Magic Before the Rise of Kabbalah

hathitrust digital library https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/ls?q1=Jewish Magic Before the Rise of Kabbalah&field1=ocr&a=srchls&ft=ft&lmt=ft

The British Library https://bll01.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/search?query=any,contains,Jewish Magic Before the Rise of Kabbalah&tab=LibraryCatalog&search_scope=Not_BL_Suppress&vid=44BL_INST:BLL01&lang=en&offset=0