Abstract
It was inevitable that [Gershom Scholem]'s passing from the scene would call forth a series of revisionist studies. Until now these have emerged only in specific areas, especially the earliest period of Jewish mysticism, tied so closely to the emergence of Christianity and the rich realm of Gnostic studies. But now Moshe Idel, among the youngest of Scholem's students and an associate professor of Jewish thought at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, has taken on the task in its entirety. ''Kabbalah: New Perspectives'' is a magisterial work of scholarship, the like of which has not been seen in Judaic studies since Scholem's own ''Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism,'' to which this work will inevitably be compared, or perhaps since the great histories of Jewish philosophy by Harry Austryn Wolfson. Like Wolfson, Mr. [Idel] writes as a scholar's scholar. His book presupposes extensive knowledge of the field and will make tough reading for the uninitiated. But Mr. Idel's book is studded with major insights and innovative approaches to the entire history of Judaism, and mastery of it will be essential for all serious students of Jewish thought. The theurgic kabbalist is the classic symbol maker, well known from Scholem's work. But Mr. Idel rightly shows how deeply tied this symbolism is to the essential practice of Judaism, called halakhah, or Jewish law. He convincingly argues that something like a theurgic faith (''The Torah sustains the universe''; ''Israel give strength to their Creator'') motivated even the earliest rabbis in their extreme concern for proper performance of the commandments. Thus, he presents kabbalistic theurgy as a late articulation of values that underlay rabbinic Judaism from the beginning, rather than as a medieval reaction to Aristotelian rationalism. Even the essential symbolic skeleton of kabbala, the 10 Sefirot, or aspects of the Godhead, has its roots in ancient Jewish speculations, Mr. Idel claims. Starting from this premise, he performs a stunning reversal of all prior scholarship, asserting that Gnostic texts from late antiquity were themselves influenced by a now-lost Jewish speculative literature, rather than being the sources for the kabbala.