Word and Image in Medieval Kabbalah

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xv

   PDF

2. Word and Image in Medieval Kabbalah: Interpreting Diagrams from the Sefer Yetsirah and its Commentaries

   • Marla Segol

   Pages 1-20

3. Situating the Text

   • Marla Segol

   Pages 21-37

4. Genre as Argument in the Sefer Yetsirah: A New Look at Its Literary Structure

   • Marla Segol

   Pages 39-63

5. Thinking in Lines and Circles

   • Marla Segol

   Pages 65-87

6. The Letter forms: How Did He Combine Them?

   • Marla Segol

   Pages 89-104

7. Golem Diagrams: Golem Making, Astrology, and Messianism

   • Marla Segol

   Pages 105-139

8. Conclusions

   • Marla Segol

   Pages 141-153

9. Back Matter

   Pages 155-197

   PDF

The Sefer Yetsirah (the Book of Creation ) is a core text of the early kabbalah, yet scholars have struggled to establish even the most basic facts about the work. This project attempts to discover the ways in which diagrams accompanying the text and its commentaries show trends in the development of the kabbalistic tradition as a whole.

• body
• corpus
• genre
• kabbalah
• Medieval Literature
• messianism
• Middle Ages
• project
• structure
• tradition

'Segol provides a clearly-written guide through the maze of medieval commentaries and modern academic scholarship surrounding the Sefer Yetsirah. With remarkable lucidity, she introduces us to the mind-set of medieval Jews who sought through Hebrew letter combinations, ritualized dance, and the creation of a golem to alter the earthly and divine realms. Readers interested in a central work of medieval mysticism and Kabbalah will welcome this new methodological approach to Sefer Yetsirah, a central though utterly enigmatic classic. Yet, scholars of Religious Studies, even those not versed in medieval literature, will be rewarded by Segol's use of the medieval texts, diagrams, and commentaries as a means to address the larger issues that have shaped academic scholarship, particularly the issues surrounding magic and religion.' - Jody Myers, California State University, Northridge

Marla Segol is the Fannie Kestenbaum Paull Professor of Jewish Studies The Institute of Jewish Thought and Heritage at SUNY University at Buffalo.

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