Bibliographia Kabbalistica

In such works, especially those originating from mystical circles, there is still much beneficial material to be discovered. The unbiased critic will find objective insight and depth in many strange works—even those that are completely flawed from a philological original: Philologischen; the study of language in oral and written historical sources perspective—provided they were conceived with intellectual honesty. Indeed, historical-philological intuition and objective-philosophical intuition have, for the most part, unfortunately drifted apart in Kabbalah research. Anyone who strives to understand spiritual connections, such as a researcher of mystical movements and doctrines, should not disdain any such source. One must be careful not to reject "unscientific" statements with that gesture of arrogance which contradicts the dignity of research. Furthermore, the boundaries between intellectual honesty and dishonest bluffing are, as far as I can judge, not difficult to draw among the works listed here.

To help understand the intent of this bibliography and its limits, I would like to offer the following preliminary remarks.

Included here are works specifically dealing with Talmudic mysticism and Jewish Gnosticism original: Gnosis; a prominent philosophical and religious movement emphasizing secret knowledge, as well as everything concerning the mystical movement from the post-Talmudic period to the present: Gaonic mysticism, the Kabbalah in the narrower sense (that is, the classical form of the movement as it recognizably emerged since the 12th century), the Messianic movements and sects of a mystical and mystical-antinomian original: antinomistischen; the belief that under gospel dispensation, the moral law is of no use or obligation character originating from it—such as Sabbatianism and Frankism—and Hasidism, which represents the final historical stage of this long development. Finally, I have included the magical and occult realms and disciplines of the so-called "Practical" Kabbalah, which represents the border province between mysticism and folklore.

In individual cases, the boundaries were often difficult to draw; I have endeavored to decide doubtful cases based on the significance of the work in question for the knowledge of mysticism. For instance, the exact boundary between mystical and non-mystical material in Talmudic literature has yet to be determined and is currently quite controversial. Therefore, only works specifically dedicated to the subject are included here. The same difficulty applies to the very fluid boundaries between scholarly and popular magic. I have fundamentally excluded the extremely extensive literature on the Essenes a Jewish sect during the Second Temple period, except for those works in which the (true or alleged) relationships between Essenism and later Jewish mysticism and the Kabbalah are the subject of specific investigation. Especially regarding...