From Philosophy to Mysticism: How Neoplatonism Influenced Early Kabbalah

Did Neoplatonism influence Kabbalah? Exploring the reception of Neoplatonism in Early Kabbalah via three themes: Negative Theology, Unio Mystica and Emanationism.

Part 3: Plato, Kabbalah and the Italian Renaissance
   • The Untold Story of Plato and Kabbala...  
If you missed the intro: From Neoplatonism to Kabbalah: A Mystical Exploration    • From Neoplatonism to Kabbalah: A Myst...  

Check out the rest of our wonderful collaborators:
‪@LetsTalkReligion‬ What is Neoplatonism:    • What is Neoplatonism?  
Neoplatonism and Islam:
‪@TheEsotericaChannel‬ The Neoplatonic Attack on Gnosticism, Plotinus vs the Gnostics:    • The Ancient Neo-Platonist Attack on G...  
‪@drangelapuca‬ Plotinus and Iamblichus on Theurgy and Magic:    • Plotinus & Iamblichus on Magic and Th...  
‪@TheModernHermeticist‬ The Platonic Philosophers' Creed:    • What Do Platonists Believe?  
‪@johnvervaeke‬ Neoplatonism & 4E Cognitive Science:    • Levels of Intelligibility:  Neoplaton...  

00:00 Three Themes from Neoplatonism to Kabbalah
00:37 Collab shout out
01:01 What is Emanationism & the Theory of the Forms?
05:12 What is Unio Mystica?
05:56 What is Negative Theology?
06:45 Disclaimers: Pitfalls of Comparison
08:09 The Jewish Neoplatonists
12:44 Mystical Union in Early Kabbalah
17:02 Philo tho…
21:19 Negative Theology in Early Kabbalah
28:29 The Tension
33:43 An Esoteric En Sof
36:51 Sefirot & Emanation in Early Kabbalah
45:36 Exogenous vs Endogenous
47:22 A Human Question
52:10 Summary
53:28 Shout out and Thank you

Sources and Further Reading
• Adam Afterman, “And They Shall Be One Flesh,” On the Language of Mystical Union in Judaism, BRILL (2016), pp. 25-7, 79-101, 130-50
• Daniel Matt, “Ayin: The Concept of Nothingness in Mystical Judaism,” in The Problem of Pure Consciousness: Mysticism and Philosophy by Robert Forman (ed.), New York, 1990, pp. 121-159
• Gershom Scholem, Kabbalah (Jerusalem, 1974), p. 88
• Gershom Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah, 1950, pp. 265-71, 431-45
• Moshe Idel, “Jewish Kabbalah and Platonism in the Middle Ages and Renaissance” in Lenn Goodman, Neoplatonism and Jewish Thought, State University of New York Press, 1992, pp. 325-27, 338-340
• Moshe Idel, Metamorphoses of a Platonic Theme in Jewish Mysticism, pp. 67-8
• Moshe Idel, Absorbing Perfections: Kabbalah and Interpretation (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002), pp. 239–49
• Moshe Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, 1988, pp. 31-2
• Sarah Pessin, “Jewish Neoplatonism: Being above Being and Divine Emanation in Solomon Ibn Gabirol and Isaac Israeli” The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Jewish Philosophy, edited by Daniel H. Frank and Oliver Leaman, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003, pp. 91–110
• Raphael Jospe, "Chapter Three. Jewish Neoplatonism: Isaac Israeli and Solomon ibn Gabirol". Jewish Philosophy in the Middle Ages, Boston, USA: Academic Studies Press, 2009, pp. 79-131


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