Introduction

Summary

Kabbalah’s impact as a catalyst on mass social movements, effect on European intellectual life, quantitative vastness and global reach, and its qualitative complex diversity in theosophical systems, techniques, experiences and conflicts cannot be overstated. Nonetheless, the serious treatment of these topics has been limited to specified studies. This book represents the first attempt to provide modern Kabbalah with a comprehensive history, beginning from the mid-sixteenth-century spiritual revolution that took place in the Galilean town of Safed, up until the present day. The implications of the book include the need to place modern Kabbalah within its own context both as autonomous from but also continuous with earlier periods, as well as within a broader Jewish and extra-Jewish historical context. It will offer an account of central schools, figures, works and themes, and a treatment of recent and contemporary developments. Moreover, it will provide a critical history of scholarship in various languages but will prioritize the texts themselves, reflecting their prominence in Kabbalah. Finally, it will point toward areas for further research in the study of modern Kabbalah.