Imagery Techniques in Modern Jewish Mysticism

Description

This book analyzes and describes the development and aspects of imagery techniques, a primary mode of mystical experience, in twentieth century Jewish mysticism. These techniques, in contrast to linguistic techniques in medieval Kabbalah and in contrast to early Hasidism, have all the characteristics of a full screenplay, a long and complicated plot woven together from many scenes, a kind of a feature film. Research on this development and nature of the imagery experience is carried out through comparison to similar developments in philosophy and psychology and is fruitfully contextualized within broader trends of western and eastern mysticism. Translator’s Note Contents Introduction Section I: Imaginative Models Chapter One Models of Imagination Section II: Parameters for Mystical Praxis Chapter Two Empowerment Chapter Three Prophecy, Ecstasy, and Mysticism Section III: Imagery Techniques Chapter Four Imagination as an Empowering Factor in R. Kalonymous Kalman Shapira’s Thought Chapter Five Imagination as a Prophetic Factor: The Yearning for Prophecy in the Twentieth Century Chapter Six A War of Imaginations: Imagery Techniques in R. Menaḥem Ekstein’s Teachings Chapter Seven War of the “Senses:” Imagination in the Musar Movement Section IV: Adventures of Ideas: West and East Introduction: Similar Thought Patterns Chapter Eight “My Heart is in the East and I am at the Ends of the West”: Imagery Techniques in Light of the West Chapter Nine “A Voice Calls from the East:” Imagery Techniques in Light of the East Afterword Bibliography Index of Persons Subject Index