Moshe Idel (Hebrew: משה אידל; born January 19, 1947) is a Romanian-born Israeli historian and philosopher of Jewish mysticism. He is Emeritus Max Cooper Professor in Jewish Thought at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, and a Senior Researcher at the Shalom Hartman Institute.

Life and scholarship

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History Pre-Kabbalistic Jewish mysticism Tannaim Heichalot Sefer Yetzirah Chassidei Ashkenaz Medieval Bahir Toledano tradition Prophetic Kabbalah Zohar Kabbalistic commentaries on the Bible Mainstream displacement of rationalism with Kabbalah Renaissance Selective influence on Western thought Hermetic Qabalah Mysticism after Spanish expulsion Mystics of 16th-century Safed Cordoveran Kabbalah Lurianic Kabbalah Maharal's thought Popular Kabbalistic Mussar Early modern Baal Shem-Nistarim Sabbatean mystical heresies Emden–Eybeschutz controversy Immigration to the Land of Israel Traditional Oriental Kabbalists Beit El Synagogue Eastern European Judaism Hasidic Judaism / philosophy Lithuanian Jews Hasidic-Mitnagdic schism Modern Hasidic dynasties Mysticism in religious Zionism Academic interest in Jewish mysticism Non-Orthodox interest in Jewish mysticism English James Lees'
Practices Torah study Mystical exegesis Mitzvot Minhag Customary immersion in mikveh Meditation Kavanot Teshuvah Deveikut Prayer Nusach Tikkun Chatzot Tikkun Leil Shavuot Pilgrimage to Tzadik Pilgrimage to holy grave Lag BaOmer at Meron Asceticism Rosicrucianism Practical Kabbalah
People 100s Four Who Entered the Pardes Simeon bar Yochai 1100s Isaac the Blind Azriel 1200s Nahmanides Abraham Abulafia Joseph ben Abraham Gikatilla Moses de Leon Menahem Recanati 1300s Bahya ben Asher 1400s 1500s Meir ibn Gabbai Joseph Karo Shlomo Alkabetz Moshe Alshich Moses ben Jacob Cordovero Isaac Luria Chaim Vital Judah Loew ben Bezalel 1600s Isaiah Horowitz Abraham Azulai 1700s Chaim ibn Attar Baal Shem Tov Dov Ber of Mezeritch Moshe Chaim Luzzatto Shalom Sharabi Vilna Gaon Chaim Joseph David Azulai Nathan Adler Schneur Zalman of Liadi Chaim Volozhin 1800s Nachman of Breslov Ben Ish Chai Shlomo Eliyashiv 1900s Abraham Isaac Kook Yehuda Ashlag Baba Sali Menachem Mendel Schneerson
Role History Torah Tanakh Prophecy Ruach HaKodesh Pardes exegesis Talmudical hermeneutics Midrash Jewish commentaries on the Bible Oral Torah Eras of Rabbinic Judaism Generational descent in Halacha Generational ascent in Kabbalah Rabbinic literature Talmudic theology Halakha Aggadah Hakira Classic Mussar literature Ashkenazi Judaism Sephardi Judaism Modern Jewish philosophies Jewish studies Topics God in Judaism Divine transcendence Divine immanence Free will Divine providence Kabbalistic reasons for the 613 Mitzvot Jewish principles of faith Jewish eschatology Primary texts
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Jewish philosophy
Hellenistic Positions: Hasmonean Sadducean Pharisee Boethusian People: Aristobulus of Alexandria Philo of Alexandria
Medieval Influenced by: Brethren of Purity Ibn Bajjah (Avempace) Ismaili philosophy Jewish Kalam Kabbalah Rabbinic Judaism Spanish and European: Hasdai ibn Shaprut Ibn Gabirol Abraham bar Hiyya Bahya ibn Paquda Judah Halevi Abraham ibn Daud Joseph ibn Tzaddik Abraham ibn Ezra Maimonides Nachmanides Samuel ibn Tibbon Joseph ben Judah Shem-Tov ibn Falaquera Gersonides Moses of Narbonne Isaac ben Sheshet Hasdai Crescas Joseph Albo Elia del Medigo Judah Minz Isaac Abarbanel Judah Leon Abravanel Yemenite: Natan'el al-Fayyumi Mansur ibn Sulayman al-Ghamari Other: Isaac Israeli Saadia Gaon al-Mukkamas Hibat Allah Abu'l-Barakat Ibn Kammuna Positions: Maimonidean / Anti-Maimonidean Kabbalist Karaism Talmudic Tosafist
Modern Positions: Orthodox Sephardic Chabad Chassidic Conservative Reform Existentialist Reconstructionist Holocaust Renewal Neo-Hasidic Mussar Rambamist People: Francisco Sanches Uriel da Costa Baruch Spinoza Salomon Maimon Joseph Solomon Delmedigo Elijah Ba'al Shem of Chelm Eliezer ben Elijah Ashkenazi Tzvi Ashkenazi Jacob Emden Samuel Hirsch Shneur Zalman of Liadi Simcha Bunim of Peshischa Samson Raphael Hirsch Jacob Abendana Isaac Cardoso David Nieto Isaac Orobio de Castro Moses Mendelssohn Samuel David Luzzatto Elijah Benamozegh Moses Hess Eliezer Berkovits Eliyahu Dessler Monsieur Chouchani Emmanuel Levinas Martin Buber Gershom Scholem Abraham Isaac Kook Joseph Soloveitchik Menachem Mendel Schneerson
Topics Anger Chosen people Eschatology Ethics Faith God Happiness Holiness Holocaust Messiah Microcosm–macrocosm Righteousness
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Born in Târgu Neamț, Romania, on 19 January 1947. Idel was a precocious child, with a passion for reading which made him read all the books in the town, cooperative, then High school Library, in addition to buying more books with the money earned by singing at weddings.^[1] Although the Holocaust did not directly affect the Jewish population of Târgu Neamț, they were affected by the so-called “population displacements”. In 1963 he immigrated with his family to Israel, settling in Haifa.^[2]

Enrolled at the Hebrew University, he studied under Shlomo Pines. After earning his doctorate with a thesis on Abraham Abulafia, he eventually succeeded Scholem to the chair of Jewish Thought. He has served as visiting Professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, UCLA, Yale, Harvard, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania and the Collège de France.^[3]

Idel has undertaken a systematic revision of the history and analysis of Jewish mysticism. His explorations of the mythical, theurgical, mystical, and messianic dimensions of Judaism have been attentive to history, sociology, and anthropology, while rejecting a naïve historicist approach to Judaism.^[4] His 1988 work, Kabbalah: New Perspectives (Yale University Press), is said to have revolutionised Kabbalah studies.^[5] His historical and phenomenological studies of rabbinic, philosophic, kabbalistic, and Hasidic texts have transformed the understanding of Jewish intellectual history and highlighted the close relationship between magic, mysticism, and liturgy.^[4] He is also a three-time fellow at the University of Pennsylvania's Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies.^[6]

Awards

In 1999, Idel was awarded the Israel Prize for excellent achievement in the field of Jewish philosophy, and in 2002 the EMET Prize for Jewish Thought.^[7] In 2003, he received the Koret Award for Jewish philosophy for his book Absorbing Perfections.^[1] He has been conferred honorary doctorates by the universities of Yale,^{[citation needed]} Budapest,^{[citation needed]} Haifa,^[8] Cluj,^{[citation needed]} Iasi^[9] and Bucharest.^{[citation needed]} In 1993, he received the Bialik Prize for Jewish thought.^[10]

Book awards

• 1989: National Jewish Book Award in Scholarship for Kabbalah: New Perspectives^[11]
• 2007: National Jewish Book Award in Scholarship for Ben: sonship and Jewish mysticism^[11]

Works

The following is a list of Idel’s publications in English.

• Kabbalah: New Perspectives (Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1988).
• The Mystical Experience in Abraham Abulafia (tr. from the Hebrew by Jonathan Chipman. Albany, State University of New York Press, 1988).
• Studies in Ecstatic Kabbalah [Albany, N.Y., State University of New York Press, 1988]
• Language, Torah and Hermeneutics in Abraham Abulafia (tr. Menahem Kallus. Albany, State University of New York Press, 1989).
• Golem: Jewish magical and mystical traditions on the artificial anthropoid (Albany, State University of New York Press, 1990).
• Hasidism: Between Ecstasy and Magic (SUNY Press, Albany, 1994).
• Mystical Union and Monotheistic Faith, An Ecumenical Dialogue, eds. M. Idel, B. McGinn (New York, Macmillan, 1989; 2nd edn, Continuum, 1996).
• Messianic Mystics (Yale University Press, New Haven, London, 1998).
• Jewish Mystical Leaders and Leadership, eds. M. Idel, M. Ostow (Jason Aronson, Northvale, 1998).
• Abraham Abulafia, An Ecstatic Kabbalist, Two Studies (ed. Moshe Lazar, Labyrinthos, CA, 2002).
• Absorbing Perfections, Kabbalah and Interpretation (Yale University Press, New Haven, 2002).
• Ascensions on High in Jewish Mysticism: Pillars, Lines, Ladders (CEU, Budapest, 2005).
• Enchanted Chains: Techniques and Rituals in Jewish Mysticism (The Cherub Press, Los Angeles, 2005).
• Kabbalah and Eros (Yale University Press, New Haven, 2005).
• Ben: Sonship and Jewish Mysticism (Continuum, London, New York, 2007)
• Old Worlds, New Mirrors, On Jewish Mysticism and Twentieth-Century Thought (University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 2009).^[12][13][14]
• Kabbalah in Italy 1280-1510 (Yale University Press, New Haven, 2011).
• Saturn’s Jews, On the Witches’ Sabbat and Sabbateanism (Continuum, London, New York, 2011).
• Mircea Eliade: From Myth to Magic (Peter Lang, New York, 2014).
• Representing God, eds. H. Samuelson-Tirosh, A. Hughes (Leiden, Brill, 2014).
• Vocal Rites and Broken Theologies: Cleaving to Vocables in R. Israel Ba'al Shem Tov's Mysticism (Crossroad, New York, 2020).

Students

• Prof. Jonathan Garb, Hebrew University

• Prof. Boaz Huss, Ben-Gurion University

• Prof. Haviva Pedaya, Ben-Gurion University