Bibliographia Kabbalistica

Regarding the literature on the Essenes A Jewish sect during the Second Temple period, there are already enough existing bibliographic references. Likewise, works specifically concerning the Biblical period are not included here, as I have not been able to convince myself that there was a mystical movement in Judaism during that period—let alone one connected to the 2,000-year historical continuity of Rabbinic Jewish mysticism treated in this work. For Philo Philo of Alexandria, a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher and the apocalyptic movement, both of which also border the subject of this work, all necessary bibliographic work has already been performed by philologists and theologians. To increase the scope of this book infinitely by including such material, which is well-known elsewhere, would have meant making its publication practically impossible. The prehistory, appearance, and branches of the Kabbalah alone remain the subject of this bibliography.

I have excluded Hebrew biographies belonging to the mystical literature itself—such as those of Isaac Luria, Hayyim Vital, and the endless series of (often valuable) biographies of Hasidic Zaddikim righteous leaders of Hasidic communities written by their own followers—because they possess the character of primary sources. As previously stated, a bibliography of primary sources cannot be provided here. In borderline cases, I have decided in favor of inclusion. Furthermore, a considerable amount of material, particularly of a biographical nature, could likely still be identified in Yiddish periodical and newspaper literature, which is probably only fully accessible in Poland or America and has remained unknown to me.

Naturally, a bibliography of Jewish mysticism should not include writings that a closer examination shows to have the word "Kabbalah" or "Kabbalistic" in the title, but otherwise have nothing to do with the subject and are of no importance for the knowledge of Jewish mysticism. The number of such writings is large. I have become aware, directly or indirectly, of many German, English, French, Latin, and Polish books of this kind. In these cases, "Kabbalah" stands either as a symbolic designation for any kind of secret knowledge in general—as in a wealth of alchemical and occultist writings, such as "Kabbalah, Mirror of Art and Nature" original: Cabbala, speculum artis et naturae and the like¹—or for various other subjects that were labeled with the pseudonym of Kabbalah at different times and for different reasons, such as writings...

¹ A large number of such works are listed in Kopp (No. 672 of this bibliography) as well as in Caillet's Bibliographic Manual of Psychic Sciences original: Manuel bibliographique des sciences psychiques, though their material cannot claim any degree of completeness.