Kabbalah: New Perspectives

«This distinction involves different types of religiousness, transcending the question of interest in various themes or clusters of themes.» — Idel insiste en que la línea que separa las dos corrientes no es temática sino de tipo de religiosidad: no se trata de que unos cabalistas se ocupen de unos asuntos y otros de otros.

«The major issues discussed in ecstatic Kabbalah—such as devekut, the importance of isolation, or the centrality of letter combination—are far more than themes treated in a scholastic manner.» — los asuntos que Idel pone del lado extático —el *devekut*, la importancia del aislamiento, la centralidad de la combinación de letras— no son para él temas tratados escolarmente.

«Rather, they are cardinal matters that strongly molded the via mystica of the ecstatic Kabbalist; he was practically oriented to mystical goals other than those of his fellow, the theosophical-theurgical Kabbalist.» — sino, dice, materias cardinales que moldearon la *via mystica* del cabalista extático y lo orientaron en la práctica hacia metas distintas de las de su colega teosófico-teúrgico.

«According to the characterization of the Kabbalah by an early fourteenth-century Kabbalist,! the topics dealt with by this lore are the nature of the» — la evidencia con que Idel apoya la distinción del lado teosófico: la caracterización que da un cabalista de comienzos del s. XIV; la frase sigue en la plana siguiente, cortada aquí por el folio xi.

«ten Sefirot and the mystical meaning of the commandments, which is an \excellent definition of theosophical-theurgical Kabbalah.» — continuación de esa caracterización, que Idel toma por definición excelente de la cábala teosófico-teúrgica: la naturaleza de las diez sefirot y el sentido místico de los mandamientos (la contrabarra es ruido del escaneo).

«On the other hand, Abraham Abulafia, the main representative of ecstatic Kabbalah, described his Kabbalah as focused upon the divine names, in contradistinction to what he considered to be a lower type of Kabbalah, referred to by him as “the way of the Sefirot,” evidently a reference to the theosophical Kabbalah.» — y la del lado extático: según Idel, Abulafia describió su propia cábala como centrada en los nombres divinos y opuesta a un tipo inferior que él llamaba el camino de las sefirot.

«The differences between the two kinds, however, are not merely a matter of self-perception or a scholar imposing his own categories on the material; the historical development of the two trends itself confirms the necessity for a clear distinction between them.» — Idel se adelanta a la objeción de estar imponiendo una rejilla ajena: sostiene que el desarrollo histórico de las dos corrientes confirma por sí solo la necesidad de distinguirlas.

«From the very beginning, the ecstatic Kabbalah was attacked by a major representative of theosophical-theurgical Kabbalah; the first clash between Kabbalists was a sharp criticism of Abulafia’s prophetic and messianic activity, as well as of his Kabbalistic theory, issued by R. Solomon ben Abraham ibn Adret, a leading figure of theosophical Kabbalah.» — el episodio con que lo apoya: según Idel, el primer choque entre cabalistas fue la crítica de R. Solomon ben Abraham ibn Adret a la actividad profética y mesiánica de Abulafia y a su teoría cabalística.

«This attack generated a sharp reaction on the part of Abulafia, who noted the theological danger inherent in the doctrine of the ten Sefirot as divine potencies and compared some Kabbalists, probably including Adret, to the Christians who believed in the Trinity.» — y la respuesta que según Idel dio Abulafia: señalar el peligro teológico de la doctrina de las diez sefirot como potencias divinas y comparar a algunos cabalistas con los cristianos que creen en la Trinidad.

«The result of this controversy was the exclusion of ecstatic Kabbalah from Spain, which became from the 1280s onward the scene of the most important developments within theosophical-theurgical Kabbalah.» — el resultado que Idel adjudica a esa controversia: la cábala extática queda excluida de España, que desde la década de 1280 es el escenario de la teosófico-teúrgica.

«The ecstatic trend migrated to Italy and the Orient, where it developed in a Muslim ambience,° strikingly different in its mystical conceptions from the Christian environment of the theosophical-theurgical Kabbalah.» — y a dónde emigró: Italia y Oriente, en ambiente musulmán, que Idel presenta como marcadamente distinto del entorno cristiano en que se desarrolló la otra corriente.

«Instead of presenting a historical sequence of Kabbalists or of ideas, I adopt an essentialist attitude to the contents of Kabbalistic material that places greater emphasis upon their religious countenance than on their precise location in place and time.» — la actitud que Idel declara adoptar en lugar de la secuencia histórica: esencialista respecto del contenido, con más peso en el semblante religioso del material que en su ubicación precisa en el tiempo y el espacio.

«The unfolding of the key concepts that characterized and directed Kabbalistic activity and thought, their exposition as atemporal modes, and the understanding of their interplay in various Kabbalistic schools is the “inner” history of Kabbalah or of Jewish mysticism,» — cómo llama Idel a ese despliegue de conceptos clave expuestos como modos atemporales y a su juego recíproco entre escuelas: la historia interna de la cábala.

«the theurgical approach was part of the classical rabbinic conception of the commandments and could justifiably be regarded as an important rationale for the mzzvot that, inter alia, helped motivate the persistent observance of the commandments by Jews.» — una de las tesis que Idel anuncia en la introducción: el enfoque teúrgico ya formaba parte de la concepción rabínica clásica de los mandamientos y ayudó a motivar su observancia persistente (*mzzvot*, errata del facsímil por *mizvot*).

«This theocentric attitude assumed an “open” theology or theosophy, conditioned by the dynamics of human activity; centered on the halakhah, it was a strictly nomian system and, consequently, exoterically open to all Jews and therefore obligatory.» — el tipo de teología que Idel le atribuye a esa actitud teocéntrica: abierta, condicionada por la dinámica de la actividad humana, centrada en la halajá, estrictamente nómica y por eso exotéricamente abierta y obligatoria para todos los judíos.

«I want to emphasize that theosophical motifs and structures also existed among the Jews in ancient times;» — el énfasis que Idel pone contra una lectura solo medieval de la teosofía: sostiene que motivos y estructuras teosóficos existían ya entre los judíos en la antigüedad.

«These theosophical structures were effectively suppressed by the rabbinic authorities, however, who focused their literary activity on the presentation and elaboration of the halakhah rather than on its conceptual superstructure.» — y qué habría pasado con ellos, según Idel: las autoridades rabínicas los suprimieron eficazmente al concentrar su actividad literaria en la halajá y no en su superestructura conceptual.

«On this ground, it is easy to understand why the emergence of more complicated theosophies was accompanied by the composition of larger com-_ mentaries on the mystical rationale of the commandments.» — según Idel, cuanto más complicada la teosofía, mayores los comentarios sobre el sentido místico de los mandamientos.

«Indeed, the bulk of thirteenth-century Kabbalistic literature was dedicated to ta'amey ha-mizuot.» — y la consecuencia que saca: el grueso de la literatura cabalística del s. XIII se dedicó a las razones de los mandamientos (*ta'amey ha-mizvot*; el facsímil imprime *mizuot*).

«The first full-fledged Kabbalistic treatment of this issue, however, seems to have been done by R. ‘Azriel, who integrated within his commentary the views of R. Isaac the Blind and others, paralleling some terms and concepts recurring in the literature close in time and subject matter to the Book of 'Iyyun.» — a quién adjudica Idel el primer tratamiento cabalístico completo de la oración: R. ‘Azriel, que integró en su comentario las posiciones de R. Isaac el Ciego y de otros.

«Nahmanides Kabbalah seems to have revolved uniquely around the Kabbalistical understanding of the commandments, !? although he only tantalizingly hinted at the existence of such a meaning, without disclosing its details.» — lo que Idel dice de Nahmánides, con su grado: su cábala parece haber girado únicamente en torno a la comprensión cabalística de los mandamientos, pero él solo insinuó ese sentido sin detallarlo.

«The golden age of the Kabbalistic ta'amey mizvot, however, occurred during the last two decades of the thirteenth century.» — la época que Idel señala como edad de oro del género.

«An interesting commentary on the commandments spuriously attributed to R. Eliezer ben Nathan, Ma'amar ha-Sekhel, was composed during this period and included some important Kabbalistic discussions.» — un caso de atribución que Idel marca como espuria: el Ma'amar ha-Sekhel adjudicado a R. Eliezer ben Nathan.

«With the emergence of the Lurianic system, a large exegetical literature of commandments and prayer was produced that reinterpreted the ritual and the significance of the mizvot in terms of Lurianic theosophical concepts.» — lo que según Idel trajo el sistema luriánico: una gran literatura exegética que reinterpretó el ritual y el sentido de los mandamientos en términos teosóficos luriánicos.

«As I have already pointed out, the theurgical-theosophical Kabbalists were not interested in extreme types of devekut, their religious focus being the Kabbalistic performance of the mizvot.» — el contraste que Idel viene sosteniendo: los cabalistas teosófico-teúrgicos no se interesaban por los tipos extremos de *devekut*, porque su foco religioso era la ejecución cabalística de los mandamientos.

«Its first clear state is to be found in the Heikhalot literature,?° where the use of anomian techniques was intended to induce paranormal experiences of ascent to the realm of Merkavah and contemplation of the Divinity.» — dónde sitúa Idel el primer estado claro de la corriente extática: la literatura de Heikhalot, con técnicas anómicas para inducir el ascenso a la Merkavá.

«It is worth emphasizing that this type of contemplation was not a regular response to the request of the Divine, as were the commandments, nor was God seen as the beneficiary of this kind of human activity.» — y qué la distingue de la teurgia, según Idel: esa contemplación no respondía a una petición divina ni tenía a Dios por beneficiario.

«It was mostly a human initiative that brought the individual to undertake the perilous path of ascending to the high for the sake of attaining an extraordinary and fascinating experience.» — sino que era, dice, iniciativa humana: emprender el camino peligroso del ascenso por una experiencia extraordinaria.

«In contrast to rabbinic theurgy, Heikhalot ecstasy was fraught with dreadful dangers that threatened to annihi» — y el precio que Idel le adjudica frente a la teurgia rabínica: peligros que amenazaban con aniquilar al místico indigno; la frase se corta aquí por el cambio de plana.

«Whereas the theurgical interpretation of the commandments did not detract from their fulfillment by ordinary people, the ecstatic nature of the path of Heikhalot literature made it usually, although not always,2! appropriate only to the elite few.» — el corolario social que Idel saca: la teurgia no restaba nada al cumplimiento de la gente común, mientras que la vía de los Heikhalot quedaba, casi siempre, para unos pocos.

«Like their ancient predecessors, the Ashkenazic masters employed divine names rather than halakhic precepts in order to obtain their mystical revelations or visions.» — lo que según Idel conservó el hasidismo asquenazí de esa herencia: nombres divinos en lugar de preceptos halájicos para obtener revelaciones o visiones.

«The next stage was the ecstatic Kabbalah, which was influenced by Ashkenazic mystical techniques used to attain a goal formulated by the Judeo-Arabic philosophical epistemology: the perfect act of cognition was interpreted mystically as the union of the knower with the Divine as intelligibilia.» — cómo describe Idel el paso siguiente: la cábala extática toma técnicas asquenazíes para una meta formulada por la epistemología filosófica judeoárabe, la unión del cognoscente con lo divino como *intelligibilia*.

«Even more now than in its two preceding stages, the ecstatic Kabbalah emphasized the need for isolation for the effective performance of its anomian practices; it had also since the early fourteenth century included equanimity as a prerequisite of the mystical process.» — y los dos requisitos que Idel le atribuye desde el s. XIV temprano: aislamiento y ecuanimidad.

«The medieval mystic, however, was endangered not by malevolent angels but by the weakness of his own physical or psychic structure, which might be unable to resist the pressures of the Divine invading his personality so that he would die a “death by kiss’—a beatific one.» — el riesgo que Idel le adjudica al místico medieval, distinto del de los Heikhalot: no ángeles malévolos sino la propia flaqueza física o psíquica ante lo divino, y una muerte por beso.

«But this school of Kabbalah paid a price for its anthropocentrical emphasis: a retreat from collective worship as the central and highest form of religious experience and concentration on an individualistic escapism.» — el precio que Idel le cobra a la escuela extática por su antropocentrismo: retirada del culto colectivo y concentración en un escapismo individualista.

«Leading Safedian Kabbalists, such as R. Moses Cordovero and R. Hayyim Vital, conceived the ecstatic practices as the highest type of Kabbalah, superior to the theosophical-theurgical version.» — según Idel, Cordovero y Hayyim Vital tuvieron las prácticas extáticas por el tipo más alto de cábala, superior a la teosófico-teúrgica.

«They nevertheless practiced both, regarding the theosophical one as more appropriate for dissemination to a larger public and the ecstatic as suitable for more limited audiences.» — y con qué reparto, según él: practicaban las dos, dando la teosófica por más apta para difundirse y la extática para públicos reducidos.

«This appraisement was inverted in Hasidism; theosophy was regarded either as a subject too difficult to be studied and practiced by the masses or as theologically suspect.» — la inversión que Idel señala en el hasidismo: la teosofía pasa a verse demasiado difícil para las masas o teológicamente sospechosa.

«The founders of Hasidism, however, did emphasize some of the mystical values that characterized ecstatic Kabbalah; devekut understood as unio mystica, inspiration and revelation, the need for seclusion and equanimity for concentration, the psychological understand_ ing of theosophy, and a unique interest in linguistic mysticism formed the basic structure of Hasidic mysticism.» — qué valores de la cábala extática ve Idel en la estructura básica de la mística hasídica: *devekut* como *unio mystica*, inspiración y revelación, reclusión y ecuanimidad, teosofía entendida psicológicamente y mística lingüística.; el escaneo imprime *understand_ ing* por *understanding*

«Notwithstanding these affinities, Hasidism also emphasized the importance of the mystical performance of the commandments—a nomian technique—as a vital key to mystical life.» — y el límite que pone en la misma página: el hasidismo subrayó también la ejecución mística de los mandamientos, técnica nómica.

«Therefore, we may consider the emergence of Hasidism not so much as a reaction toward Sabbatianism or Frankism but as a restructuring of Jewish mysticism already initiated by the Safedian Kabbalists.» — la tesis que Idel deriva de ahí sobre el origen del hasidismo: menos reacción al sabatianismo o al frankismo que reestructuración ya iniciada por los cabalistas de Safed.

«Phenomenologically, we indeed can see R. Isaac of Acre a precursor of the Safedian and Hasidic synthesis, although the major impact of this novel approach was felt only after its “canonization” by Cordovero and Vital.» — a quién adjudica Idel el papel de precursor de esa síntesis, y con qué grado: R. Isaac de Acre, aunque el impacto mayor solo se sintió tras la canonización del enfoque por Cordovero y Vital.

«This emphasis on individual mystical experience may be one of the major explanations for the neutralization?? of nationalistic messianism in Hasidism.» — una explicación que Idel ofrece con grado —*may be one of*— para la neutralización del mesianismo nacionalista en el hasidismo.

«Let me dwell briefly upon the manner in which I understand the term mysticism and its derivatives in the context of the following discussions. I consider a phenomenon to be of a mystical nature when there is achieved a contact with the Divine, differing from the common religious experiences cultivated in a certain religion both in its intensity and in its spiritual impact.» — la definición operativa de místico que Idel declara para el libro: contacto con lo divino que difiere de la experiencia religiosa común por su intensidad y su impacto espiritual.

«I also, however, consider certain types of experiences as mystical even when they differ substantially from the previous type of mysticism: I refer to the theurgical performance of the commandments as this appears in certain texts.» — la ampliación que hace de esa definición: también cuenta como mística la ejecución teúrgica de los mandamientos.

«Moreover, the performance of the commandments in a Kabbalistic manner not only entailed the capacity to influence the supernatural world; it consisted of an initiation of the Jew into the secrets of the mizvot, that is, into their rationale, including the theosophical systems that facilitated their Kabbalistic performance.» — y por qué: según Idel, esa ejecución no solo daba capacidad de influir en el mundo supernal, sino que iniciaba al judío en los secretos de los mandamientos.

«The transition from the self-perception of the Jews as observant of the mizvot with no particular mystical implication to that of the theurgist whose religious activity was fraught with cosmic and theosophical implications and repercussions must have had a profound impact upon the initiated.» — el cambio de identidad que Idel le atribuye a esa iniciación: del judío observante sin implicación mística al teúrgo cuya actividad tiene repercusiones cósmicas.

«Although I assume that such a passage was different in nature from the more well-known rites of passage, it seems likely that a change of weltanschauung was indispensable for the new attitude to the idea of God and religion in general.» — y con qué reserva lo dice: supone que ese paso no es un rito de paso de los conocidos, pero le parece probable que exigiera un cambio de cosmovisión.

«Therefore, whereas the ecstatic Kabbalah strove mainly toward a drastic change of personality that brought the Kabbalist into a direct relationship to god, in theurgical Kabbalah the change sought was in the sefirotic pleroma.» — el contraste que Idel cierra: la cábala extática busca cambiar la personalidad; la teúrgica, el pleroma sefirótico.

«The main approach in this book is phenomenological: my assumption is that the two main foci of Kabbalistic mysticism were the ecstatic-unitive and the theosophical-theurgical.» — Idel declara el método del libro y el supuesto que lo sostiene.

«In other words my starting point is the unfolding of the phenomenological affinity between two mystical patterns of experience, preceding their historical analysis per se.» — el punto de partida que Idel declara: desplegar la afinidad fenomenológica entre dos patrones de experiencia mística antes de analizarlos históricamente.

«In this sense, history plays a significant, but not central, role in the discussions included in this work.» — y el lugar que le deja a la historia en el libro, dicho con su límite.

«My principal interest is not, however, to prove the antiquity thesis—an issue to be dealt with in detail elsewhere—but to allow for the comparison between ancient Jewish sources and the medieval mystical literature that derived from them.» — la abstención que Idel declara sobre la antigüedad de la cábala: no le interesa aquí probar la tesis, sino permitir la comparación entre fuentes judías antiguas y literatura mística medieval.

«My approach therefore combines phenomenology with history, thereby avoiding “pure” phenomenological descriptions.» — la combinación que Idel declara y lo que con ella evita.

«From this point of view, I am rather a pragmatist, allowing myself to be directed by the problems generated by the texts rather than attempting to superimpose one method upon all analyses.» — cómo se describe a sí mismo como método: pragmático, dejándose llevar por los problemas que generan los textos en vez de imponer un método a todo análisis.

«I hope that this methodological “inconsistency” will avoid the reductionist attitudes that characterize those scholars who subscribe to “pure” methodologies.» — y qué espera ganar con esa inconsistencia declarada: evitar las actitudes reduccionistas de quienes se atienen a metodologías puras.

«Phenomenology, textology, history, and psychology must in principle be used intermittently and combined in order to do justice to all the various aspects of Kabbalistic texts and ideas.» — las cuatro aproximaciones que Idel pide usar de modo intermitente y combinado.

«The structure of this work consists of the exposition of the two mystical concerns of the Kabbalists. Following the first two chapters, which deal with the state of research and some methodological observations, are three chapters devoted to the subject of mystical experience and some of the mystical techniques of the Kabbalists; theurgical and theosophical aspects of the Kabbalah are the subjects of the next three chapters.» — el plan del volumen tal como Idel lo enuncia: dos capítulos de estado de la cuestión y método, tres de experiencia y técnicas místicas, tres de teurgia y teosofía.

«These two extreme phenomena have been neglected by modern scholarship, and I hope that an elaborate exposition of them will contribute to a more variegated picture of Kabbalah.» — por qué dedica los capítulos 4 y 8 a los extremos —unión mística y teurgia audaz—: dice que la investigación moderna los ha descuidado.

«I should like to emphasize that the phenomena treated in chapters 4 and 8 are not merely marginal or bizarre but part of an inner development of the particular Kabbalistic trends they represent, albeit in a more accentuated way.» — y el énfasis con que se adelanta a la objeción de estar fichando rarezas.

«Finally, the last two chapters deal with more general issues shared by the two main Kabbalistic lines referred to above: an interest in hermeneutics and symbolism crosses these lines, while some features of Kabbalistic anthropology are a common denominator of Kabbalah in general.» — lo que Idel reserva para los dos capítulos finales: hermenéutica y simbolismo, que cruzan las dos líneas, y antropología cabalística como denominador común.

«The aim of this short survey of Jewish Kabbalah scholarship is to point out the main trends in the critical approaches to this mystical lore.» — el propósito acotado con que Idel abre el capítulo 1.

«Accordingly, it is neither an attempt to summarize the achievement of the scholars nor a criticism of their findings.» — y lo que declara que ese capítulo no es.

«A full account of the evolution of scholarship regarding this lore is still a desideratum, without which an accurate understanding of the achievements made in modern times in the portrayal of Kabbalah is impossible.» — el vacío que Idel señala: falta una historia completa de la investigación sobre la cábala, y sin ella no se entiende con precisión lo logrado en tiempos modernos.

«The earliest critical discussions of the phenomenon of Kabbalah are found in Provencal literature produced shortly after the appearance of the first Kabbalistic documents.» — dónde sitúa Idel las primeras discusiones críticas sobre la cábala.

«R. Meir ben Simeon of Narbonne sharply criticized both the polytheistic implications of the Kabbalistic doctrine of prayers to varied divine manifestations and specific books containing Kabbalistic ideas.» — según Idel, R. Meir ben Simeon de Narbona criticó las implicaciones politeístas de la oración cabalística dirigida a manifestaciones divinas distintas.

«Strangely enough, despite the gradual broadening of Kabbalah as a religious movement, the critique against it became silenced,» — lo que Idel señala como extraño: al ensancharse la cábala como movimiento religioso, la crítica contra ella se acalló.

«The independent events that took place in the circle of Christian scholars connected to the family of the Medicis in Florence contributed to the emergence of a critical attitude to Kabbalah, and thus to the attempts to understand it with the help of philological-historical tools.» — dónde ubica Idel el nacimiento de una actitud crítica y de herramientas filológico-históricas para la cábala: el círculo de los eruditos cristianos ligados a los Medici en Florencia.

«The first event was Marsilio Ficino’s translation of a large corpus of Platonic and Neoplatonic writings from Greek into Latin; for the first time, the Western intellectual world had the opportunity to study Platonic thought in its various Neoplatonic or Hermetic versions.» — el primero de esos acontecimientos, según Idel: la traducción del griego al latín del corpus platónico y neoplatónico por Marsilio Ficino.

«Two leading figures in the intellectual life of the Jews, and even in that of the Christians, in northern Italy—R. Elijah del Medigo and R. Yehudah Messer Leon—were Aristotelian philosophers;> their acquaintance with Platonic views enabled them to perceive the affinities between Platonism, which they rejected as a philosophy, and Kabbalah, with which they were already acquainted.» — y quiénes lo aprovecharon, según él: del Medigo y Messer Leon, aristotélicos, que al conocer las tesis platónicas vieron su afinidad con la cábala.

«R. Yehudah accused the Kabbalists of attributing corporeality, change, and plurality to God;® in the same context, he indicated that their concepts were close to Platonic ones,» — el cargo que según Idel levantó Messer Leon contra los cabalistas: atribuirle a Dios corporeidad, cambio y pluralidad.

«He described the views of the Kabbalists in the following words: “They are in line with what was said by the ancient philosophers, who have been totally rejected by those who know. Whoever has seen what the ancient philosophers and some of the Platonists said, as well as what these (Kabbalists) said, know that this is the truths?» — las palabras con que, según Idel, del Medigo describió las tesis de los cabalistas; la interrogación final y la grafía *truths* son del facsímil.

«The recent access to Platonic views in their Latin versions facilitated their articulation of Kabbalah as cognate to Platonism, and thus as a negligible way of thinking.» — para qué sirvió esa afinidad en manos aristotélicas, según Idel: articular la cábala como emparentada al platonismo y por eso desdeñable.

«Until the period of the Renaissance, references to the affinity of Kabbalah to Plato's corpus had invariably carried a positive significance, mainly among the Kabbalists.» — y el contraste que marca: hasta el Renacimiento, emparentar la cábala con Platón había tenido siempre sentido positivo entre los cabalistas.

«Messer Leon drew no historical conclusions from his remarking of the resemblance of Platonism and Kabbalah; del Medigo, however, did.» — la diferencia que Idel establece entre los dos aristotélicos.

«Although he did not explicitly mention any linkage between the nexus of Platonism-Kabbalah and his assertion that the book of the Zohar is a late forgery, it seems to me that such a linkage was implicit;» — y con qué grado la sostiene, sin atribuirle a del Medigo lo que no dijo: el enlace entre el nexo platonismo-cábala y su tesis de que el Zohar es falsificación tardía le parece implícito.

«According to del Medigo, or his anonymous sources—if he indeed had such!>—the Zohar had been known for only about three hundred years, that is, since the end of the twelfth century.» — la datación que Idel le adjudica a del Medigo, con la duda sobre sus fuentes anónimas incluida: el Zohar conocido desde hacía solo unos trescientos años.

«An interesting parallel to this use of a comparative approach in order to demonstrate the forgery and, implicitly, the lateness of an allegedly ancient mystical classic is found in Lorenso Valla’s assertion that Dionysius Areopagita’s works were spuriously attributed to a contemporary of Paul, as they were influenced by Neoplatonism.» — el paralelo que Idel propone: la tesis de Lorenzo Valla sobre la atribución espuria de las obras del Areopagita (el facsímil imprime *Lorenso Valla*).

«Finally, before leaving this issue, it should be added that this recognition of the Platonic bent of Kabbalistic thought must be seen against the background of the growing trend to interpret Kabbalah Platonically, a direction shared by Pico della Mirandola, Yohanan Alemanno, and later on, R. Isaac and Yehudah Abravanel.» — el trasfondo contra el que Idel pide leer ese reconocimiento del sesgo platónico: la corriente que interpretaba la cábala platónicamente, con Pico, Alemanno y los Abravanel.

«Those same resemblances that helped del Medigo to postdate Kabbalah helped his» — la consecuencia doble que Idel extrae de esos parecidos; la frase sigue en el segmento siguiente del troceo.

«contemporaries to regard it as a source of Platonism, and hence as of greater antiquity.» — y su segunda mitad: a los contemporáneos de del Medigo los mismos parecidos les sirvieron para tener la cábala por fuente del platonismo y por más antigua.

«del Medigo, was apparently its diffusion in Christian circles and its use as an important tool in the missionary efforts of Pico della Mirandola.» — la segunda razón que Idel da para la crítica de del Medigo: la difusión de la cábala en círculos cristianos y su uso misional por Pico della Mirandola.

«it is, however, worth emphasizing—a point to which we shall return at greater length later—that the Kabbalah’s becoming a sociointellectual problem for the Jews contributed to its closer examination and, indirectly, to a more critical approach to this sacrosanct lore.» — y el efecto indirecto que Idel le adjudica: volverse un problema sociointelectual para los judíos acercó la cábala a un examen más crítico.

«Del Medigo’s work was written in 1491, but remained in manuscript until 1629. For the entire sixteenth century, no detailed criticism of Kabbalah is extant;» — las fechas que Idel da para la obra de del Medigo y el silencio crítico del siglo XVI.

«although the antiquity of the Zohar was queried in a veiled manner by R. Elijah (Bahur) Levita and R. ‘Azariah de Rossi, no systematic criticism was addressed to the Kabbalah as the result of the infiltration of alien concepts.» — con la salvedad que añade: Elijah Levita y ‘Azariah de Rossi cuestionaron veladamente la antigüedad del Zohar.

«But under the impact of the publication in 1629 of Behinat ha-Dat, del Medigo’s critique became influential in the first work devoted to a sharp and extensive attack on Kabbalah: in his Ari Nohem, R. Yehudah Aryeh of Modena (Leone da Modena) expanded upon some ideas of del Medigo, especially upon the assumption that Platonic motifs penetrated into Kabbalah and thus can be dated as medieval.» — según Idel, el Ari Nohem de Yehudah Aryeh de Modena amplió la idea de del Medigo de que motivos platónicos penetraron en la cábala y por eso es medieval.

«Modena indeed considered Kabbalah a definite distortion of Greek thought.» — y cómo resume Idel la posición de Modena sobre la cábala.

«Interestingly, he did not accept del Medigo’s dating of the Zohar in the late twelfth century, but regarded the entire Kabbalah as a post-Maimonidean phenomenon that emerged in Spain.» — la diferencia que Idel señala entre los dos críticos: Modena no aceptó la datación del Zohar de del Medigo y tuvo la cábala entera por fenómeno posmaimonídeo surgido en España.

«One of his reasons for writing this critique of Kabbalah was to counteract the sharp criticism of Maimonides characterizing such Kabbalistic writings as R. Shem Tov ibn Shem Tov’s Sefer ha-'Emunot and R. Meir ibn Gabbay’s Tola'at Ya'akov and ' Avodat ha-Kodesh.» — el motivo que Idel le adjudica a esa crítica: contrarrestar los ataques a Maimónides en escritos cabalísticos de Shem Tov ibn Shem Tov y Meir ibn Gabbay.

«Strangely, Modena does not elaborate on his opinion that Kabbalah originated in Spain at the beginning of the thirteenth century in the tense atmosphere of the anti-Maimonidean controversy.» — y lo que Idel echa en falta en Modena: no desarrolla su tesis del origen español a comienzos del s. XIII en la atmósfera de la polémica antimaimonídea.

«Kabbalah, far more than in the times of del Medigo, had become a leading force in the intellectual milieu of northern Italy, and Modena had gradually become isolated in his anti-Kabbalistic attitude.» — el otro motivo que Idel le atribuye: en el norte de Italia la cábala se había vuelto fuerza dominante y Modena había quedado aislado.

«His relative R. Aaron Berakhiah of Modena was an accomplished Kabbalist;24 his son-in-law, R. Jacob ben Kalominus Segal, whom he highly esteemed, and his most brilliant student, R. Joseph Hamiz, turned before his eyes into fervent Kabbalists.» — el detalle doméstico con que Idel lo ilustra: pariente, yerno y discípulo predilecto de Modena hechos cabalistas.

«The core of Ari Nohem, however, is his criticism of the Zohar; he introduces an important document to strengthen del Medigo’s view of the Zohar as a medieval forgery.» — dónde pone Idel el núcleo del Ari Nohem.

«Modena quotes in extenso and elaborates upon R. Isaac of Acre’s story of his inquiries into the relationship between R. Moses de Leon and the Zohar.» — el documento que según Idel introduce Modena: el relato de R. Isaac de Acre sobre sus averiguaciones acerca de Moisés de León y el Zohar.

«Since then, all scholarly discussions on the history of Kabbalah have reiterated this testimony of R. Isaac.» — y el alcance que le da: desde entonces toda discusión erudita sobre la historia de la cábala ha reiterado ese testimonio.

«In his famous Discorso circo il stato de Il’Hebrei, he compared the Kabbalistic view of the Sefirot with the Platonic and Philonic parallels,3! mentioning also later Neoplatonic authors, the “Syrians,” such as Plotinus, Iamblicus, and Porphyrius.» — según Idel, Simone Luzzatto comparó las sefirot con paralelos platónicos y filónicos y con los neoplatónicos tardíos; el título va como lo imprime el facsímil.

«Luzzatto noted what seemed to him a major difference between Platonic and Neoplatonic ideas and the Kabbalistic “ideas”: that the Kabbalistic Sefirot formed a hierarchy that bridged the gap between the spiritual and the material, thereby constituting an important ring in the “great chain of being.”» — la diferencia que, según Idel, le pareció mayor a Luzzatto: las sefirot forman una jerarquía que salva el hueco entre lo espiritual y lo material, anillo de la gran cadena del ser.

«Judging from the manner in which Luzzatto formulated his view on Kabbalah, it appears that he believed in its antiquity, although he himself is not to be considered either as a Kabbalist or as an opponent of this lore.» — y el grado con que Idel lo consigna: le parece que Luzzatto creía en la antigüedad de la cábala, sin ser cabalista ni oponente.

«The affinity of Kabbalah to Platonic thought was, as seen above, recognized by both the medieval and the Renaissance authors interested in Kabbalah or in its critique; modern scholarship has only elaborated, deepened, or explicated their findings.» — el balance que Idel hace del asunto platónico: la erudición moderna solo elaboró, profundizó o explicitó lo que ya habían reconocido medievales y renacentistas.

«The first author to note a specific resemblance between Kabbalah and Gnostic views seems to have been Cornelius Agrippa of Nettesheim.» — a quién adjudica Idel la primera nota de parecido entre cábala y gnosticismo, con su grado (*seems to have been*).

«In his De Incertitudine Scientiarum, this author suggests that the Jewish Kabbalistic superstitions had influenced Gnostics as the “Ophitae, Gnostici, et Valentiniani haeretici,” and he hints at usages of “numbers and letters.”» — y qué dice ahí Agrippa, según Idel: que las supersticiones cabalísticas influyeron en los gnósticos ofitas, gnósticos y valentinianos.

«allusion is very vague, and it is rather difficult to fathom the precise significance of his assumption of pernicious Kabbalistic influence on the various Gnostic schools;» — la reserva que Idel pone sobre la alusión de Agrippa: es muy vaga y difícil de precisar; la frase arranca en la plana anterior.

«however, it seems that he might have had in mind the affinity between such works as Shi’ur Komah and the related Heikhalot literature, which he had already mentioned in his earlier De Occulta Philosophia,%® as well as the Gnostic theory of Marcos, as cited by Irenaeus, concerning the great size of the divine figures, whose descriptions are combined with numbers and letters.» — y su conjetura sobre lo que Agrippa tenía en mente: el Shi‘ur Komah y la literatura de Heikhalot, más la teoría de Marcos citada por Ireneo.

«For Agrippa, the similarity between Kabbalistic and Gnostic motifs showed the heretical potential of Jewish mysticism; like his older Jewish contemporary, del Medigo, he thought that the discovery of a resemblance between Kabbalah and another body of thought evinced the heretical nature of the former.» — qué le servía a Agrippa el parecido, según Idel: mostrar el potencial herético de la mística judía, igual que a del Medigo.

«After dealing with Kabbalistic theosophy, Luzzatto wrote that, from its ideas, “the Valentinians, Gnostics and other ancient heretics have deviated like bastards, as it can be seen from Epiphanius, the Greek doctor, or from Irenaeus, the Roman.”» — cómo invierte Luzzatto el sentido del parecido, según Idel: los valentinianos y gnósticos se desviaron de las ideas cabalísticas como bastardos.

«Agrippa’s emphasis on the pernicious quality of Kabbalah is replaced here by the consideration of Gnosticism as a deviation from Jewish ancient lore.» — y qué reemplaza a qué en esa inversión, según Idel.

«It was Adolphe Franck alone who wrote: “We are, therefore, forced to admit that Gnosticism borrowed a great deal, if not precisely from the Zohar as we know it today, at least from the traditions and from the theories contained therein.”» — la excepción que Idel señala en la erudición moderna: Adolphe Franck admitiendo que el gnosticismo tomó mucho de las tradiciones del Zohar.

«The main thrust of modern Kabbalah scholarship, however, followed the opposite direction; time and again, Kabbalah was presented as a mystical movement influenced in crucial issues by Gnostic thought.» — y hacia dónde fue el grueso de la erudición moderna, según Idel: presentar la cábala como movimiento influido en asuntos cruciales por el gnosticismo.

«As part of his anti-Sabbatian struggle, Emden incisively analyzed the zoharic corpus, demonstrating the existence of medieval material that was included in the ancient book of the Zohar authored by R. Simeon bar Yohai; this analysis is primarily philological, and his insights are still valu» — el aporte que Idel le reconoce a Jacob Emden: análisis filológico del corpus zohárico que muestra material medieval dentro del libro atribuido a Simeón bar Yohai.

«Viewing it as a kind of Jewish science that symbolically comprised insights into psychology, physics, morals, and politics, he wrote that it had, however, degenerated as a result of the tendency to discover analogies everywhere into “an art of madness according to method” or a “systematic science resting on conceits.”» — cómo veía la cábala Solomon Maimon, según Idel: ciencia judía degenerada por la manía de hallar analogías, arte de la locura según método.

«Important also are his remarks on Hasidism, his penetrating observations serving as starting points for modern research into this school of mysticism.» — y qué le queda vivo de Maimon, según Idel: sus observaciones sobre el hasidismo como punto de partida de la investigación moderna.

«One of the earliest representatives of the school of Wissenschaft des Judentums, Nachman Krochmal,®° had a sympathetic attitude toward Kabbalah, whose antiquity was, in his eyes, obvious.» — según Idel, Nachman Krochmal tuvo actitud simpatética hacia la cábala y por obvia su antigüedad.

«This ancient lore, he suggested, had reached Europe from the Orient and had proliferated in the West, this process being, however, part of its degeneration and the Zohar part of its decline.» — y el recorrido que le suponía: llegada desde Oriente y proliferación en Occidente como parte de su degeneración, con el Zohar en la decadencia.

«Notwithstanding many historical mistakes that spoil his surveys of the early Kabbalah, Landauer inaugurated serious study of this subject in the nineteenth century with extensive use of manuscript materials;» — el balance que Idel hace de M. Landauer: pese a muchos errores históricos, inauguró el estudio serio con uso extenso de manuscritos.

«he accepted the view of the Zohar as a medieval composition, adding to it the fantastic assumption that its author was Abraham Abulafia.» — y la tesis que Idel le califica de fantástica: que el autor del Zohar fuera Abraham Abulafia.

«We can conclude, then, that the first two scholars to be interested in the world of Kabbalah in the early nineteenth century became so under the aegis of German idealism, which, as we now know, was sometimes influenced by Kabbalistic thought via the Swabian Pietists (led by F.C.» — la conclusión de Idel sobre los dos primeros estudiosos decimonónicos: llegaron bajo el signo del idealismo alemán, que a su vez recibió cábala por los pietistas suabos.

«Oetinger) who, in turn, absorbed Kabbalistic concepts from the Kabbalah Denudata.» — y por dónde le llegó al idealismo, según Idel: Oetinger absorbiendo conceptos de la Kabbalah Denudata.

«If the Renaissance contribution to Kabbalah research was mostly historical and provided the Neoplatonic corpus as an indispensable point of comparison to the Kabbalah (although commonly with negative overtones), the idealistic philosophy encouraged phenomenological Kabbalistic approaches, mostly sympathetic to this lore, whose repercussions are felt even in contempo» — el contraste que Idel establece entre las dos herencias: la renacentista, histórica y comparativa; la idealista, fenomenológica y simpatética.

«The first major work devoted to a detailed description of mainly zoharic Kabbalah and making use of historical, philological, comparative, and conceptual perspectives was Adolphe Franck’s La Kabbale ou la philosophie religieuse des Hebreux printed in 1843 in Paris.» — cuál fue, según Idel, la primera obra mayor de descripción detallada de la cábala zohárica.

«Franck suggested that the Zohar, and Kabbalistic ideas in general, are of a hoary antiquity predating the Alexandrian philosophical school and Christianity.°° The sources of important concepts of Kabbalah, according to Franck, were Chaldean and Persian, that is, Zoroastrian.» — las tesis de Franck que Idel recoge: antigüedad anterior a la escuela alejandrina y al cristianismo, y fuentes caldeas y persas.

«Notwithstanding this basic assumption on Franck’s part—which was rejected by subsequent research—he regarded Kabbalah as a uniquely important» — y cómo consigna Idel el destino de ese supuesto —rechazado por la investigación posterior— sin dejar de recoger lo que Franck sostenía; la frase sigue en el segmento siguiente.

«We cannot possibly consider the Kabbalah as an isolated fact, accidental in Judaism; on the contrary, it is its heart and soul. For, while the Talmud took over all that relates to the outward practice and performance of the Law, the Kabbalah reserved for itself the domain of speculation and the most formidable problems of natural and revealed theology. It was able, besides, to arouse the veneration of the people by showing inviolate respect for their crude beliefs and teaching them to understand that their entire faith and religion rested upon a sublime mystery.» — el pasaje de Franck que Idel cita in extenso: la cábala no como hecho aislado y accidental del judaísmo sino como su corazón y su alma.

«In his view, Jewish thinkers in Alexandria and Palestine influenced both Neoplatonism and Gnosticism by their combination of Oriental and Occidental doctrines.» — la tesis que Idel le adjudica a Salomon Munk: pensadores judíos de Alejandría y Palestina influyeron en el neoplatonismo y el gnosticismo por su combinación de doctrinas orientales y occidentales.

«The emphasis Munk placed on the influence upon Gnosticism of doctrines that were later to become part of Kabbalah is notable.» — y lo que Idel destaca de esa tesis: la dirección de la influencia va de lo que luego será cábala hacia el gnosticismo, no al revés.

«Munk considered Kabbalah as a ramification of Alexandrian thought;®® furthermore, there were striking affinities between the Gnostic doctrines of Basilides and Valentinus and the Kabbalistic Sefirot.» — las dos filiaciones que según Idel propuso Munk: la cábala como ramificación del pensamiento alejandrino y afinidades entre las sefirot y las doctrinas de Basílides y Valentín.

«Munk pointed out the influence of ibn Gabirol, as well as other Jewish Neoplatonic thinkers, on the Kabbalah, 7° and believed that the Zohar was composed in the thirteenth century, ’! on the basis of earlier lost traditions and Midrashim.» — y la datación de Munk según Idel: influencia de ibn Gabirol y de otros neoplatónicos judíos, y Zohar compuesto en el s. XIII sobre tradiciones perdidas y midrashim.

«Franck’s evaluation of Kabbalah as the “life” of Judaism was, however, rejected by his contemporaries. Jellinek, his German translator and a scholar sympathetic to Kabbalah, reacted promptly, remarking in a footnote to Franck’s passage: “The author should have added: ‘Judaism after the return from the Babylonian exile until the conclusion of the Talmud.’ For present-day Judaism, the Kabbalah is an entirely alien element.”» — la objeción de Jellinek que Idel reproduce en nota: la valoración de Franck valdría solo hasta el cierre del Talmud, y para el judaísmo presente la cábala es elemento del todo ajeno.

«It must be noted that Jellinek does not here contradict Franck; he merely qualifies his assessment as applicable only to an early period of Jewish religion, whereas in the present Kabbalah is “an entirely strange element.”» — cómo lee Idel esa objeción, sin convertirla en refutación: Jellinek no contradice a Franck, acota su alcance a un periodo temprano.

«This sense of alienation from the Kabbalah is also evident in the Dialogue sur la Kabbale et le Zohar by S. D. Luzzatto, who took full advantage of de Rossi's and Modena’s critiques, as well as of a work by Jellinek, in order to rid the Mishnaic and talmudic masters of the spurious attribution of views contrary to their authentic thought.» — dónde ve Idel el mismo extrañamiento: el Dialogue sur la Kabbale et le Zohar de S. D. Luzzatto, que usa a de Rossi y a Modena para librar a los maestros mishnaicos y talmúdicos de atribuciones espurias.

«Luzzatto was sharply critical of Franck, writing: “les Textes de ce mysticisme que l’ignorance a appelé la Philosophie religieuse des Hebreux, n’appartiennent point aux auteurs de la Mishna et du Talmud et ne sont que des pseudonymes.”» — y el pasaje francés con que Luzzatto lo dice: esos textos no pertenecen a los autores de la Mishná y del Talmud y son solo seudónimos.

«As Luzzatto frankly acknowledged, this reaction was stimulated not only by Franck’s work but also by “les dangereux effets que la fanatisme Kabbalistique, sous le nom de Khassidisme ennemis de toute culture.”» — el motivo que el propio Luzzatto reconoce, según Idel: los efectos peligrosos del fanatismo cabalístico bajo el nombre de jasidismo.

«only an academic aim for his Dialogue—which is actually an attack on Kabbalah—but also religious and cultural motivations.» — lo que Idel saca de ahí: el Dialogue —que él llama ataque a la cábala— no tenía solo fin académico sino motivaciones religiosas y culturales.

«It may indeed be that later negative attitudes of Heinrich Graetz, Moritz Steinschneider, and Solomon Rubin toward Kabbalah were also based upon their reaction toward Eastern European Hasidism.» — y la conjetura con que Idel extiende ese diagnóstico —con su grado— a Graetz, Steinschneider y Solomon Rubin.

«Moreover, the relatively positive attitude toward Kabbalah expressed in the writings of Krochmal, Franck, Munk, and ben Amozegh predated most of the anti-Kabbalistic critiques launched by Jewish scholars in the second half of the nineteenth century.» — el orden cronológico que Idel establece: las actitudes favorables de Krochmal, Franck, Munk y ben Amozegh preceden a las críticas antikabalísticas de la segunda mitad del siglo.

«These two giants of Jewish scholarship must be seen not only as critics of Kabbalah but also as two of the founders of its academic study.» — y qué pide Idel que se les reconozca a Steinschneider y a Graetz.

«Graetz performed the first major historical survey of Kabbalistic literature, larger than that of Landauer, and Steinschneider’s articles dealing with such Kabbalistic personalities as R. Asher ben David and R. Jacob ha-Cohen and with Kabbalistic works such as those of Abraham Abulafia are pioneering discussions, although they are colored with partiality.» — lo que Idel les acredita en concreto: el primer panorama histórico mayor de la literatura cabalística y los artículos pioneros sobre Asher ben David, Jacob ha-Cohen y Abulafia.

«Far from being negatively biased against Kabbalah, some of the pioneers of Jewish studies in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries not only were interested in this lore but also made several original contributions that were to lay the foundation for the later study of Kabbalah.» — y qué les adjudica: aportes originales que fundaron el estudio posterior de la cábala.

«It is regrettable that their achievements are at times ignored by contemporary scholars.» — el reproche con que Idel cierra ese balance.

«At the turn of the century, the feeling that Kabbalah had much more to reveal than scholars had previously understood emerged in Western Europe.» — el estado de ánimo que Idel sitúa en el cambio de siglo.

«He wrote: “I am strongly of the opinion that our Cabbalists have not always been fairly treated by Jewish» — el pasaje de S. A. Hirsch que Idel toma por representativo de ese ánimo; la frase se corta aquí por el cambio de plana.

«writers of the present time. The whole subject requires an entire overhauling — but about this we need not be concerned. Jewish historiography is a comparatively recent growth. Time will assuredly show where the truth lies.”» — y su continuación: Hirsch pide una revisión entera del asunto y confía en que el tiempo mostrará dónde está la verdad.

«By decoding the symbols and discerning the lines of historical development of key concepts together with minute biobibliographical work, he attempted to approach the “mountain,” namely, the core of that reality.» — y con qué método, según Idel: descifrar símbolos, trazar el desarrollo de los conceptos clave y hacer trabajo biobibliográfico minucioso para acercarse a la montaña.

«Taken together, these personal confessions may reveal his recognition that the scholarly approach has its limits; by transcending it through spiritual orientations, the scholar can be saved from the aridity of the academic, presumably by practicing some mode of spiritual experience.» — la lectura que Idel propone de esas confesiones, marcada como conjetura (*may reveal*).

«I use the term s¢heoretical mystic not intending either a pejorative or a positive reflection upon his stand as a theorist.» — y la aclaración con que la despoja de carga valorativa (el facsímil corrompe *theoretical* en *s¢heoretical*).

«Characteristic of their writings is the integration of Kabbalistic themes within their comprehensive studies along the line of the history of ideas, which included treatments of themes and motifs current in the Judeo-Arabic thought.» — lo que Idel señala como propio de esos dos: integrar temas cabalísticos en estudios de historia de las ideas con material judeoárabe.

«between ancient Jewish material and Gnosticism, as well as the relationship between Kabbalah and postmedieval thought, both Renaissance and modern.» — y en qué consiste ese campo: la relación entre material judío antiguo y gnosticismo y la de la cábala con el pensamiento posmedieval.

«The study of the philosophical-Kabbalistic synthesis was continued by younger scholars, such as Sarah Heller-Wilensky and David Blumenthal.» — quiénes continúan esa línea, según Idel.

«The importance of Platonism for Jewish thought in general was stressed in Yizhak Baer’s studies on Second Commonwealth Judaism. Baer traced a» — dónde sitúa Idel el subrayado del platonismo para el pensamiento judío: los estudios de Yizhak Baer sobre el judaísmo del Segundo Estado.

«significant number of ancient Jewish notions to the influence of Plato’ thought either on the philosophy of Philo in Alexandria or on that of the Palestinian rabbis.?! Thus, a Platonic substratum was laid for Jewish mysticism; Baer refers in some footnotes to Kabbalistic formulations that reflect these older Jewish motifs.» — y qué hizo Baer con él, según Idel: rastrear nociones judías antiguas hasta la influencia de Platón sobre Filón o sobre los rabinos palestinos, dejando un sustrato platónico para la mística judía.

«Baer, however, has the merit of having offered an implicit alternative vision of the development of Jewish mysticism as a phenomenon growing organically from ancient to medieval times;» — el mérito que Idel le reconoce a Baer: una visión alternativa implícita de la mística judía como crecimiento orgánico de lo antiguo a lo medieval.

«This brief survey of Western European Jewish scholarship of Kabbalah shows a constancy of interest in the relationship of Kabbalah and philosophy.» — lo que Idel señala como constante de todo ese recorrido.

«For Franck, Kabbalah was the “philosophie religieuse” of the Jews; for Munk, it was a ramification of Alexandrian speculations; for Krochmal, Kabbalah was appreciated as connected to the imaginative faculty, which is inferior to the intellectual one—again, an implicit comparison to philosophy; even Amozegh, the nineteenth-century thinker most sympathetic to Kabbalah, repeatedly compared it to Neoplatonic views.» — y cómo lo declina uno por uno: Franck, Munk, Krochmal y Amozegh, todos midiendo la cábala contra la filosofía.

«just as the Renaissance authors preferred the speculative aspects of this type of mysticism, neglecting its more practical and experiential sides, so did these nineteenth-century scholars.» — el sesgo que Idel ve heredado de los renacentistas a los eruditos del s. XIX: preferir lo especulativo y descuidar lo práctico y experiencial.

«Kabbalah was envisaged as a peculiar type of esoteric knowledge, a Jewish “gnosis,” rather than as a full-fledged mystical body of literature.» — y a qué reduce ese sesgo la cábala, según Idel: a una gnosis judía, saber esotérico peculiar, en vez de a un cuerpo místico completo.

«Kabbalistic symbolism is envisaged as a way to penetrate the texts and to understand the divine structure, rather than as a path to experiencing the divinely revealed texts.» — y en qué se nota, según Idel: el simbolismo cabalístico leído como vía para penetrar los textos y entender la estructura divina, no como camino para experimentarlos.

«According to these scholars, Kabbalah is less a religious phenomenon using philosophical terminology in order to express idiosyncratic views than a philosophy reminiscent of other brands of speculations, albeit expressed in strange terms.» — cómo queda la cábala en manos de esos estudiosos, según Idel: menos fenómeno religioso con terminología filosófica que filosofía en términos extraños.

«Finally, the centrality of the discussions of the commandments and the particular manner of their performance were attenuated, if not completely eliminated—a tendency that can easily be understood against the background of the religious changes that had been taking place since nineteenth-century Western Judaism.» — y el tercer efecto que Idel señala, con su explicación: se atenuó o eliminó la centralidad de los mandamientos y de su ejecución, cosa que él vincula a los cambios religiosos del judaísmo occidental decimonónico.

«Roughly speaking, the history of Kabbalah has been regarded as including two main stages: the Spanish one, from the beginning of the thirteenth century until 1492 when the Jews were expelled from Spain, and the Safedian one, which flourished during the second and third quarters of the sixteenth century.» — las dos etapas en que suele dividirse la historia de la cábala, según Idel: la española hasta 1492 y la de Safed en el s. XVI.

«But at least two additional centers have contributed certain esoteric traditions and concepts and the authority of their spiritual masters to the larger river of Kabbalistic lore. I refer to Ashkenazic Hasidism of the Franco-German provinces during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and the Hasidism that flourished in the East—Egypt, the Land of Israel, and their environs—from the beginning of the thirteenth century.» — los dos centros que Idel añade a esa división: el hasidismo asquenazí franco-alemán y el hasidismo oriental de Egipto y la Tierra de Israel.

«Although the mystical literature written in these centers has been studied per se, the impact for the history of Kabbalah of the ideas that were transmitted or emerged there has not been sufficiently evaluated.» — y el hueco que declara: el impacto de esos centros sobre la historia de la cábala no se ha evaluado suficientemente.

«The problematics of the relationship between Kabbalah and Ashkenazic Hasidism, however, have been dealt with only peripherally, most such discussions dealing with the influence of Kabbalah on the Hasidic masters.» — el estado de la cuestión que Idel describe: la relación entre cábala y hasidismo asquenazí se ha tratado solo de pasada, y casi siempre en un solo sentido.

«Dan elaborated upon the details related to these motifs, 1°? and his final conclusion is: “It seems that we may say that the Ashkenazi Hasidim did not know the Kabbalah as it was known to the sages of Provence, and even in those instances when quasi-Kabbalistic or proto-Kabbalistic sources were available to them, the Kabbalist-Gnostic element was unknown to them.”» — y la conclusión de Joseph Dan que Idel cita entera: los hasidim asquenazíes no conocieron la cábala como la conocían los sabios de Provenza.

«Therefore, he concludes, it seems that we must regard “Ashkenazic Hasidism as a speculative movement, totally separated from the Kabbalah, at least until the middle of the thirteenth century.”» — el corolario de Dan, también citado: el hasidismo asquenazí como movimiento especulativo separado de la cábala hasta mediados del s. XIII.

«These clearcut assessments issued by the most important authority on the thought of Ashkenazic Hasidism remain, for the time being, /e dernier cri on the question of the influence of Hasidic thought upon the early Kabbalah.» — el estatuto que Idel le da a esas tesis: por ahora el *dernier cri* sobre el asunto, dichas por la mayor autoridad del campo.; el escaneo une *clear-cut*, que el impreso parte con guion de fin de renglón

«It seems to me that the entire question must be reopened on the ground of the existence of additional “Gnostic” motifs in Hasidic texts.» — y su desacuerdo, con el grado que él mismo pone: le parece que la cuestión debe reabrirse por la existencia de más motivos gnósticos en los textos hasídicos.

«Moreover, quotations by R. Jacob ben Sheshet and Nahmanides of ideas from Ashkenazic Hasidism seem to be symptomatic of the greater influence exercised by Ashkenazic theology on the early Kabbalists.» — la evidencia que aduce: citas de Jacob ben Sheshet y de Nahmánides que le parecen síntoma de una influencia asquenazí mayor sobre los primeros cabalistas.

«The emergence in the East of a center of Jewish mysticism based upon Sufic elements remained, until the end of the thirteenth century, without influence on the European Kabbalah.» — lo que Idel sostiene sobre el centro oriental de base sufí: sin influencia en la cábala europea hasta fines del s. XIII.

«Such Hasidic-Sufic masters as R. Abraham ben Moses (Maimonides) and his followers did not make use of either theosophical or ecstatic Kabbalistic elements; but as late as the last two decades of the thirteenth century, an encounter took place between the ecstatic Kabbalah of Abraham Abulafia and Sufic elements, apparently in the Galilee.» — y el encuentro que sí fecha: entre la cábala extática de Abulafia y elementos sufíes en las dos últimas décadas del s. XIII, al parecer en Galilea.

«This synthesis may have been eased by the previous existence of Sufic motifs in» — la conjetura con que Idel explica esa síntesis; la frase se corta aquí por el cambio de plana.

«Eastern Jewish Hasidism of the thirteenth century, although there is no solid evidence of the intermediary role played by this Jewish Arabic-language mystical literature in the infiltration of Sufism into Kabbalah.» — y el límite que le pone de inmediato: no hay evidencia sólida del papel intermediario de esa literatura mística judía en lengua árabe.

«It may well be that some Jewish scholars in Galilee introduced Sufic concepts and practices directly from Muslim Sufism, then flowering in Damascus.» — la vía alternativa que ofrece, marcada como posibilidad: introducción directa desde el sufismo musulmán de Damasco.

«Finally, the relationship between Kabbalah and such classical Jewish literary genres as Midrash and Halakhah has been largely neglected by modern scholarship, an outstanding exception being Jacob Katz's recent pioneering treatment of the relationship between Kabbalah and Halakhah.» — el último hueco que Idel señala en el capítulo: la relación de la cábala con el midrash y la halajá, con Jacob Katz como excepción.

«Nevertheless, Kabbalah does not yet enjoy the same degree of honor as Islamic, Hindu, and Buddhist mysticism.» — el diagnóstico con que Idel abre el capítulo 2: la cábala no goza aún del mismo honor que las místicas islámica, hindú y budista.

«What is troubling about this state of affairs is not, however, the paucity of references to Jewish mysticism per se but the manner in which it is referred to even by serious scholars.» — lo que a Idel le preocupa de esa situación, dicho con precisión: no la escasez de referencias sino el modo de referirse.

«The usual caution associated with scholarly research seems to be absent here; there is a widespread failure to distinguish between the authentic material and the opinions of scholars on the content of this material.» — y cómo lo nombra: falta generalizada de distinción entre el material auténtico y las opiniones de los estudiosos sobre él.

«First, one generally unnoticed fact is the huge quantity of Kabbalistic works.» — la primera de las razones que Idel da para ese estado de cosas.

«At present, there is no comprehensive bibliographical survey of this body of literature in its entirety.» — y la carencia que la sostiene: no hay un censo bibliográfico completo de la literatura cabalística.

«as to the number of the thousands of Kabbalistic works and fragments, most of which are still in manuscripts and a great number of which are anonymous or unidentified; furthermore, even a list of the names of the Kabbalists is still unavailable.» — hasta dónde llega la oscuridad que Idel declara: ni el número de obras y fragmentos, casi todos manuscritos y muchos anónimos, ni siquiera una lista de nombres de cabalistas.

«On the basis of these efforts, he produced some important bibliographic studies; one of them, written in 1933, which deals with the genre of treatises devoted to the explanation of the scheme of ten Sefirot, alone comprised at the time 130 entries, most of them extant solely in manuscripts and most of them anonymous.» — y el ejemplo con que lo cuantifica: un estudio de 1933 sobre los tratados de las diez sefirot con 130 entradas, casi todas manuscritas y anónimas.

«First, the selection of books chosen to be described bibliographically and to be used in phenomenological analyses itself had a decisive impact upon the picture offered of the field.» — la segunda dificultad que Idel expone: la selección misma de libros descritos decide la imagen del campo.

«The concentration of efforts on a particular field immediately gave an unexpected importance to that figure or school.» — y su efecto: concentrar el esfuerzo en un campo da importancia inesperada a esa figura o escuela.

«A balanced approach is, in this incipient stage of research in Kabbalah, utopian.» — el juicio que Idel saca de ahí sobre el estado del campo.

«But ina series of studies on Kabbalistic subjects to which Abulafias thought is pertinent, he is not mentioned at all.» — y su reverso: en una serie de estudios donde el pensamiento de Abulafia sería pertinente, no se lo menciona (el facsímil pega *ina* y suprime el apóstrofo de *Abulafia’s*).

«is overwhelming and a scholar is nevertheless interested in providing a comprehensive survey, such an effort is likely to be biased either by technical factors—for example, the greater availability of works in print over those in manuscript—or by conceptual presuppositions on the centrality or importance of a given figure, school, or work.» — los dos sesgos que Idel prevé cuando el material desborda y aun así se busca un panorama completo: los técnicos —lo impreso frente a lo manuscrito— y los presupuestos conceptuales sobre qué figura o escuela es central.

«I should like to stress that, in the present state of research, an adequate and balanced description of Kabbalistic lore is impossible, a fault that lies in the very nature of the material.» — y la conclusión que subraya: en el estado presente de la investigación una descripción adecuada y equilibrada de la cábala es imposible, y la falta está en la naturaleza del material.

«It goes without saying that my attempt here to survey central Kabbalistic concepts suffers from the same deficiencies.» — y la misma limitación aplicada a sí mismo, que Idel declara sin rodeos.

«Even the totality of the printed works and manuscripts, notwithstanding their huge number, hardly encompasses the whole of Kabbalistic lore, for at least two reasons.» — el primer límite que Idel pone a la base documental entera.

«The more obvious, although less important, reason is the loss of several interesting books written by central Kabbalistic figures, the loss having been caused in part by the vicissitudes of Jewish history; pogroms and expulsions are not conducive to the preservation of unique manuscripts.» — la primera razón de esa pérdida, según Idel: libros perdidos por los vaivenes de la historia judía, y la observación de que pogromos y expulsiones no preservan manuscritos únicos.

«This seems to be the reason, for example, for the loss of some of the writings of R. Moses of Burgos, R. Moses de Leon,‘ R. Isaac of Acre® and R. Abraham ben Eliezer ha-Levi.» — los cuatro casos que aduce, con su grado: escritos perdidos de Moses de Burgos, Moses de León, Isaac de Acre y Abraham ben Eliezer ha-Levi.

«Another important reason for the disappearance of Kabbalistic works was the self-censorship imposed by the Kabbalists themselves.» — la segunda razón que da Idel, y la que le interesa más: la autocensura de los propios cabalistas.

«The loss of Abraham Abulafia’s prophetic works,’ the fragmentary nature of the extant portions of Sefer ha-Meshiv,8 and the reduction of R. Joseph Karo’s maggidic revelations» — los ejemplos con que la documenta: las obras proféticas perdidas de Abulafia, lo fragmentario del Sefer ha-Meshiv y las revelaciones magídicas de Joseph Karo; la frase se corta aquí por el cambio de plana.

«to one-fiftieth of the original,? are sufficient examples of the tendency to suppress certain extreme aspects of Jewish mysticism.» — y su continuación: reducidas a una cincuentava parte del original, ejemplos suficientes según Idel de la tendencia a suprimir los aspectos extremos de la mística judía.

«The survival of certain unique manuscripts in remote corners of the Jewish universe, such as Dublin, Palo Alto, and Melbourne, is evidence of the uncertain fate of these works.» — y el dato con que mide lo azaroso de esa transmisión: manuscritos únicos sobrevividos en Dublín, Palo Alto y Melbourne.

«Yet in comparison to the corpus of Kabbalistic writings in our possession today, the total loss is not so great. Even during the period of the expulsion from Spain and Portugal, when the most important center of Kabbalah was destroyed, a list of the books lost would include hardly more than ten items.» — el límite con que Idel acota su propia queja: incluso en la expulsión de España la lista de libros perdidos apenas pasaría de diez.

«More important is the loss of Kabbalistic material that was never written down because it was in principle not intended to be committed to writing.» — y dónde pone entonces la pérdida grande: en el material que nunca se puso por escrito porque no se quería escribir.

«When we attempt to reconstruct the various concepts of the different Kabbalistic schools, we must remind ourselves that these ideas were meant, from the beginning, to be limited to a small intellectual elite.» — lo que Idel pide recordar al reconstruir esos conceptos: estaban destinados desde el principio a una élite intelectual pequeña.

«The main medium of transmission of these traditions was, as the Kabbalists themselves indicate time and again, oral teaching.» — el medio de transmisión que Idel declara principal, apoyándose en lo que los propios cabalistas repiten.

«Although this fact is clear from a variety of Kabbalistic sources, modern research has failed to draw the implications from this major characteristic of Jewish mysticism.» — y el reproche que sigue: la investigación moderna no ha sacado las consecuencias de ese rasgo.

«The first, and more important, one is the necessity to presume the existence of oral stages preceding the earliest written documents of Kabbalah.» — la primera consecuencia que Idel extrae: hay que presumir etapas orales anteriores a los primeros documentos escritos.

«The explicit statements of some important early figures are irrefutable evidence for the existence of esoteric traditions several generations before they were first committed to writing.» — la evidencia con que la apoya, y el peso que le da.

«Nahmanides, another teacher of Kabbalah and an outstanding figure in the Jewish world generally, likewise warns those interested in Jewish esotericism to study it solely from authoritative masters, as this lore could be revealed only orally.» — el segundo testimonio: Nahmánides advirtiendo que el esoterismo judío se estudia solo con maestros autorizados porque esa ciencia solo se revela de viva voz.

«Moreover, such masters of Ashkenazic esotericism as R. Eleazar of Worms refer to a long genealogy of ancestors who handed down the secrets of prayer that were finally committed to writing only by them under very peculiar historical circumstances.» — y el tercero: R. Eleazar de Worms remitiendo a una larga genealogía de antepasados que transmitieron los secretos de la oración.

«The people I just mentioned—R. Abraham ben David, father of R. Isaac the Blind; Nahmanides; and the Ashkenazic Hasidim—exemplify what I suppose to be the conservative mind of medieval rabbinism.» — a quiénes toma Idel por ejemplo de la mentalidad conservadora del rabinismo medieval.

«formulate new ideas that they would later present as the esoteric meaning of Judaism.» — el argumento que Idel saca de ahí, con su grado —la frase abre diciendo que no parece probable que esas personas lo hicieran—: formular ideas nuevas para presentarlas luego como el sentido esotérico del judaísmo.

«Moreover, the manner in which some of them wrote down the earliest esoteric traditions, whether Provencal or Ashkenazic, attests to the fact that these texts reflect prior stages.» — el segundo argumento: el modo mismo en que escribieron las tradiciones esotéricas más antiguas atestigua etapas previas.

«We must particularly consider the fact that both the remnants of the works of R. Isaac the Blind and those of his contemporaries, such as R. Eleazar of Worms, are elaborate bodies of mystical thought that, although they may be difffcult to understand, nevertheless reflect comprehensive approaches rather than brief insights or remarks.» — y la observación concreta que lo sostiene: lo que queda de R. Isaac el Ciego y de R. Eleazar de Worms son cuerpos elaborados de pensamiento, no ocurrencias breves.

«The fullness of these first mystical documents thus reflects earlier stages of development that have eluded historical documentation.» — la conclusión que Idel extrae de esa plenitud.

«I must note that this remark is not to be understood as an assertion of the antiquity of the Kabbalah.» — la abstención expresa con que Idel corta la lectura fácil de lo anterior.

«Without here entering into this highly complicated question, I would like to stress that Kabbalah may well be the result of certain religious developments without, however, stemming in its entirety from such earlier periods.» — y cómo formula entonces su posición: la cábala puede ser resultado de ciertos desarrollos religiosos sin proceder entera de esos periodos anteriores.

«The importance of oral transmission was not drastically attenuated by the appearance of the Kabbala in the historical arena.» — lo que Idel sostiene sobre la vigencia de la transmisión oral una vez aparecida la cábala.

«It should be noted, too, that certain Kabbalistic ideas were transmitted orally even to Kabbalists, and only after they attained the age of forty.» — el dato con que lo aprieta: había ideas que se transmitían oralmente incluso a cabalistas, y solo después de los cuarenta años.

«As late as the early fourteenth century, a Kabbalist such R. Shem Tov ibn Gaon was ready to compose a supercommentary to Nahmanides hints of Kabbalistic secrets, but repeatedly mentioned that there were also matters that could not be revealed.» — el caso de R. Shem Tov ibn Gaon, que según Idel supercomentó las insinuaciones de Nahmánides repitiendo que había materias irrevelables.

«Replying toa letter from one of his students who asked him to explain a certain Kabbalistic matter, R. Shem Tov wrote that he had not revealed it when he was teaching him because the student was then younger than forty; now that he had reached this age, he was far away, and such an issue could not be committed to writing.» — y la anécdota con que lo cierra: Shem Tov le escribe a un alumno que no le reveló cierto asunto porque no llegaba a los cuarenta, y que ahora, ya lejos, no puede ponerlo por escrito.

«Thus, we can readily see that, more than 150 years following the emergence of historical Kabbalah, some of its tenets were withheld even from relatively mature Kabbalists.» — la conclusión cronológica que Idel saca del caso.

«This example illustrates the need to distinguish carefully between what was understood as Kabbalah according to Kabbalistic masters, who revealed it only fragmentarily, and what contemporary scholars, who assumed that the discipline was disclosed in written documents, believed to be Kabbalah.» — la distinción que Idel pide sostener: lo que los maestros entendían por cábala y revelaban solo a fragmentos, frente a lo que los estudiosos contemporáneos creen que es la cábala por estar en los documentos.

«It is reasonable to suppose that those Kabbalistic matters that were kept secret even from younger Kabbalists concerned sensitive pivotal subjects.» — y la suposición que le parece razonable sobre el contenido de lo callado.

«Hence, if we do not attempt to uncover the hidden problems of the Kabbalists and to decode» — la consecuencia para el oficio que Idel enuncia: si no se intenta descubrir los problemas ocultos de los cabalistas; la frase se corta aquí por el cambio de plana.

«them, our view of Kabbalah may be, at least toa certain extent, misleading.» — y su desenlace: la visión de la cábala puede ser, al menos hasta cierto punto, engañosa (el facsímil pega *toa* por *to a*).

«As far as I know, consciousness of this methodological question is absent in modern research of Kabbalah; rather, this lore is described and analyzed on the implicit assumption that all major Kabbalistic views are presented as such in documents in an articulate manner.» — y el estado de la cuestión, con la reserva de Idel sobre su propio alcance: hasta donde él sabe, esa conciencia metodológica falta en la investigación moderna.

«Another important indicator of the crucial role of oral traditions can be found in Kabbalistic epistles and responsa, which afford a better understanding of Kabbalah.» — el segundo indicio del papel de lo oral que Idel propone: las epístolas y los responsa cabalísticos.

«The short discussions contained in the epistles of R. Isaac the Blind addressed to R. Jonah Gerondi and Nahmanides, in the letters of R. Abraham Abulafia, and especially in the responsa of R. David ben Yehudah he-Hasid to his students contain a variety of major subjects, some of which are unknown from other sources.» — los tres cuerpos epistolares que nombra y lo que contienen, según él.

«At least in the case of R. David, in responsa intended for his students rather than for the public, certain issues are discussed in such a way as to provide clues to his esoteric doctrines.» — y el caso que le parece más claro: los responsa de R. David ben Yehudah he-Hasid a sus alumnos como pistas de su doctrina esotérica.

«Other Kabbalistic masters who did not write down their views, such as R. Solomon ibn Adret, were frequently quoted by their students, providing conclusive evidence for the oral transmission of Kabbalistic tradition.» — la evidencia complementaria: maestros como R. Solomon ibn Adret, que no escribieron y a quienes citan sus alumnos.

«At this stage in the research of Kabbalah, it is difficult to evaluate the depth of the changes in our view of Kabbalah that could be brought about by a decoding of some esoteric layers of Kabbalah.» — la abstención con que Idel mide su propia propuesta.

«It may be possible, through an analysis of R. David ben Yehudah’s responsa, to fathom a level of theosophical and mystical doctrines hitherto unnoticed by modern research.» — y hasta dónde se permite llegar, en condicional.

«The existence of advanced states of ecstatic Kabbalah, taught orally, is suggested by the question the anonymous Kabbalist who authored the book Sha'arey Zedek asked his master: “In heaven’s name, can you perhaps impart to me some power to enable me to bear this force emerging from my heart and receive influx from it?”» — el testimonio con que Idel sugiere estados avanzados de cábala extática enseñados oralmente: la pregunta del cabalista anónimo del Sha‘arey Zedek a su maestro.

«I would suppose that further discoveries of Kabbalists epistles and responsa will entail major corrections in the academic understanding of Kabbalah.» — la expectativa que declara, con su grado.

«Concentration on the philological-historical approach has resulted in the nearly complete rejection of the comparative study of Jewish mysticism.» — el efecto que Idel le adjudica a la concentración filológico-histórica.

«Bibliographical, historical, and textual research demanded a deliberate postponement of more elaborate comparisons of Kabbalah to other religious structures of thought, which would have had to be speculative, hence premature.» — y el aplazamiento que esa tarea imponía, según Idel.

«Only such “stars” of research of mystical thought as Ernst Cassirer or Evelyn Underhill occasionally shine in the firmament of these studies.» — y los pocos que sí asoman, según él.

«These remarks, it should be noted, refer to the one-sided approach to texts based upon mythical and mystical concepts without taking into account the major developments in recent research of myth, symbolism, and mysticism.» — la precisión con que Idel acota su propio reproche.

«His views have been repeated time and again with no proper attempt to add new theoretical perspectives influenced by modern research in comparative religion.» — y cómo describe la repetición.

«I would like to be properly understood: I prefer a solid textological study toa bad comparative one. But the narrowness of textology when it alone is applied to mystical literature ought to be self-evident.» — la precaución con que Idel se sitúa: prefiere un estudio textológico sólido a uno comparativo malo, pero la estrechez de la textología sola le parece evidente (el facsímil pega *toa*).

«On the other hand, I consider the simplistic addition of some comparative type of studies to textology to be equally pernicious.» — y el otro lado del mismo límite.

«their Platonic perspectives are highly reductionist and hermeneutical approaches to the variety of religious experiences and concepts.» — cómo califica las dos perspectivas.

«The mechanical application of the results of such types of research to Kabbalistic materials can only obfuscate an appropriate understanding of them.» — el riesgo que ve en aplicarlas mecánicamente al material cabalístico.

«become aware of the possibilities inherent in various fields of modern religious research can, one hopes, fertilize the aridity of the conceptual approach to Kabbalah in the last decades.» — lo que Idel espera del esfuerzo contrario, con su grado: tomar conciencia de lo que ofrece la investigación religiosa moderna puede fertilizar la aridez del enfoque conceptual de las últimas décadas.

«Only a balanced combination of textual and comparative approaches to Kabbalistic material will contribute to a better formulation of the unique nature of certain Kabbalistic views.» — la combinación que Idel propone como única salida.

«Because of scholars restraint in regard to utilizing current concepts and notions of comparative and phenomenological studies of religion, they have rarely succeeded in integrating the study of Kabbalah into the larger discussion of mysticism.» — el precio que Idel le cobra a esa reserva: la cábala casi no se integra en la discusión general sobre mística.

«Kabbalah has seldom merited mention in the studies of Joachim Wach, R. C. Zaehner, W. T. Stace, and Frits Staal.» — los cuatro estudiosos de mística general en cuyas obras, según Idel, la cábala apenas aparece.

«Moreover, the structure of Kabbalistic thought has been only poorly elucidated in a conceptual manner, which could fructify the modern research of religion in general and mysticism in particular.» — y el reverso: la estructura del pensamiento cabalístico apenas se ha elucidado de un modo que pudiera fecundar el estudio de la religión.

«This last observation expresses the possibility or probability that Kabbalah was actually a practical-experiential type of mysticism more than a speculative theory.» — la tesis que Idel opone, con el grado que él mismo le pone: la cábala como mística práctico-experiencial más que como teoría especulativa.

«It was comprehensive, as it commonly included both mystical perceptions of being and attempts to modify it.» — y qué abarcaba, según él: percepciones místicas del ser y a la vez intentos de modificarlo.

«A scholar who approaches Kabbalistic literature only textologically (almost the single main perspective in present research) is unable to be sensitive to vital aspects of Kabbalistic phenomena.» — el límite que Idel le adjudica al estudioso puramente textológico.

«But there is no reason to refrain from careful use of other branches of humanistic studies —for example, psychology.» — la disciplina que Idel propone añadir con cuidado.

«As some Kabbalists refer covertly or overtly to spiritual experiences, we cannot neglect the contribution of one or another psychological theory to the fathoming of certain Kabbalistic phenomena.» — y por qué: porque algunos cabalistas remiten, velada o abiertamente, a experiencias espirituales.

«reductionist approach to these texts.» — el remate de esa objeción.

«Furthermore, analysis of the psychological implications of using Kabbalistic techniques to attain paranormal experiences cannot be avoided.» — lo que Idel declara inevitable.

«If the approach proposed here to see Kabbalah far more in terms of experiential phenomena than has been previously done is correct, then psychology, as an invaluable tool, must gradually be integrated into future study of this kind of mysticism.» — y la condición bajo la cual lo dice, que él mismo formula.

«It has been suggested that practical involvement of the scholar of mysticism in the mystical experience itself can contribute to his better understanding of the mystical phenomena.» — la propuesta ajena que Idel examina: que el estudioso participe él mismo de la experiencia mística.

«This assertion seems to me problematic, albeit not devoid of some truth.» — y cómo la califica, con las dos mitades.

«An experience undergone by a given individual may be highly idiosyncratic, so that any use of his own impressions and feelings in order to better understand and express those of another person may be misleading to the same extent that they are helpful.» — la objeción que le pone: una experiencia propia puede ser idiosincrásica y confundir tanto como ayude.

«But contact with Kabbalists who both study and conduct their lives in accordance with the requirements of the Kabbalah can enrich the academic vision of what Kabbalah is.» — lo que en cambio sí propone: el contacto con cabalistas que estudian y viven según la cábala.

«Direct contact with the manner in which Kabbalists approach mystical texts during their studies, the sight of Kabbalists praying, and especially, discussions with them regarding mystical issues can substantially contribute to the crystallization of the scholar’s perception of Kabbalah.» — y en qué consistiría ese contacto: verlos leer, verlos orar y discutir con ellos.

«Strangely enough, despite the close proximity of Kabbalistic circles in Jerusalem and Benai Barak to the academic centers for the study of Kabbalah, such contacts are not regarded by the academic establishment as productive, all research in Kabbalah instead being focused exclusively on written texts.» — lo que Idel señala como extraño: los círculos cabalísticos de Jerusalén y Benai Barak están al lado de los centros académicos y esos contactos no se tienen por productivos.

«For this reason, no up-to-date picture is available on current Kabbalistic thought.» — la consecuencia que saca.

«More than one hundred years after ethnologists came to regard the collection of data and contact with remote tribes as essential for their descriptive work, and two decades after the introduction of the psychophysiological study of mystical experiences, researchers in Jewish mysticism work exclusively in relation to» — la comparación con que mide el retraso: cien años después de la etnología de campo y veinte después del estudio psicofisiológico de la experiencia mística; la frase se corta aquí por el cambio de plana.

«texts, without even an awareness of the necessity of making the acquaintance of their close neighbors, the Kabbalists.» — y su remate: sin conciencia siquiera de la necesidad de conocer a los vecinos.

«The latter are numerous: the scholar and the Kabbalist share a considerable body of knowledge of exoteric religious issues from the outset; they speak the same language (or languages—to the extent that knowledge of Yiddish is widespread among scholars of Hasidism); they have both already studied a certain amount of esoteric literature.» — lo que según Idel facilita ese trato: conocimientos exotéricos comunes, la misma lengua y lecturas esotéricas de ambos lados.

«The Kabbalist is, at the outset, suspicious of the strange “monstrosity” he is going to meet: a nonreligious person—such are most of the scholars of Kabbalah—who is involved in the study of the Holy of Holies of Judaism, a realm reserved, according to the Kabbalists, for the very few and even saintly persons who are already accomplished students of halakhah.» — y lo que lo dificulta, dicho desde el punto de vista del cabalista: un no religioso metido en el Santo de los Santos del judaísmo.

«But notwithstanding any initial reticence, a dialogue is not impossible, even for women scholars, who are—from the traditional Jewish perspective—not supposed to study Kabbalah at all.» — la salvedad que Idel añade, incluida la de las mujeres estudiosas.

«More problematic is the great difference in their respective perceptions of texts and concepts, inherent in the difference between the academic attitude and the traditional one.» — lo que le parece más problemático de todo.

«The historicist bias of the academic perspective, if not coupled with the sensibility that grows out of the phenomenological effort to understand a mystical phenomenon as an entity in itself, may cut the dialogue short at the beginning.» — el sesgo historicista y la condición que Idel le pone para que no corte el diálogo.

«For example, modern research is notorious in religious circles for its denial of R. Simeon bar Yohai’s authorship of the Zohar, a very important issue for the Kabbalists.» — el ejemplo con que lo concreta: la negación académica de la autoría del Zohar por Simeón bar Yohai.

«One may ask why a Kabbalist would wish to embark on such a suspicious dialogue. The reasons on the part of the academician are obvious.» — la pregunta que Idel se plantea a sí mismo, y el reparto desigual de motivos.

«He may enrich himself both as a person and as a scholar through his direct contact with a mentality he attempts to penetrate; moreover, he may learn of traditions that are circulating only orally or of the existence of manuscripts otherwise unknown.» — lo que gana el académico, según Idel: contacto directo con una mentalidad y noticia de tradiciones orales o de manuscritos desconocidos.

«On the other hand, the Kabbalists today are in a strange situation: at times they are isolated individuals in their own milieu, even when they are leading figures.» — cómo describe Idel la situación del cabalista contemporáneo.

«Interested in a more nuanced self-definition, they may endeavor to stand face to face even with the “heretical” academy.» — y el motivo que les atribuye, con su grado.

«In addition, the great achievements of academic studies in the fields of bibliography and history of Kabbalah turn the scholar into a potential source of information regarding certain technical details, even for the most erudite among the» — el segundo motivo: la bibliografía y la historia académicas hacen del estudioso una fuente de datos técnicos incluso para los cabalistas más eruditos.

«The systematic classification of biobibliographical knowledge of Kabbalah in the academic world far outstrips the poor acquaintance of the Kabbalists with this particular area.» — la desproporción que Idel señala en ese terreno.

«Now, for the first time, academicians can not only learn from the Kabbalists and their works but also help them by providing information on manuscripts or. biographical data on Kabbalists that would otherwise be inaccessible to them.» — y la reciprocidad que ve posible por primera vez.

«The impression received from a perusal of the scholarly descriptions of Kabbalah is that of a system of theosophical conceptions, various beliefs, and hermeneutical devices.» — la impresión que, según Idel, dejan las descripciones eruditas de la cábala.

«Kabbalah is often presented as a body of theoretical lore, more a gnosis than a practical or experiential attitude to reality.» — y cómo la nombra: cuerpo de saber teórico, más gnosis que actitud práctica o experiencial ante la realidad.

«Since the beginning of the present decade, however, some scholars have insisted upon the nonexperiential nature of the various works forming this literature.» — y el giro posterior que registra: estudiosos que insisten en el carácter no experiencial de esa literatura.

«Some, such as E. E. Urbach, have depicted some of the mystical descriptions belonging to the Heikhalot literature as elaborations upon prior discussions in the Talmud and Midrash concerning the experience of revelation at Sinai.» — la posición de E. E. Urbach según Idel: las descripciones místicas de Heikhalot como elaboración de discusiones previas del Talmud y del Midrash sobre la revelación del Sinaí.

«According to this view, the proper approach to these texts is literary: the uncovering of their written source transforms these seemingly mystical texts into literary elaborations of earlier material, a perspective adopted as well by David Halperin.» — y qué implica esa posición, con su segundo firmante.

«Minute inspection of the manuscripts of the Heikhalot texts led Peter Schafer to the conclusion that these works are redactions of earlier traditions, implicitly reducing the possibility of regarding them as descriptions of authentic mystical experiences.» — la conclusión de Peter Schäfer según Idel, con lo que implícitamente reduce.

«For the time being, this “literary” approach is the dominant one.» — el estado del campo que Idel registra.

«The next step in the development of Jewish mysticism, Ashkenazic Hasidism, has been described as an “esoteric theology” rather than a properly mystical movement.» — cómo se ha descrito el hasidismo asquenazí, según Idel.

«There is sufficient evidence, however, to justify the attempt to present the experiential facets of this theology.» — y su objeción.

«figures from the Rhineland and northern France as “prophets” and the existence of techniques implying a deep interest in experimental mysticism are solid proof for the occurrence of mystical experiences also among the Franco-German authors; but again, no one has initiated such a project.» — la evidencia que aduce —profetas renanos y del norte de Francia, técnicas de interés experimental— y el reproche de que nadie haya emprendido ese trabajo.

«Scholars have analyzed the literary structures of some Kabbalistic treatises and engaged in lengthy discussions on the nature of the Sefirot, of the source of evil, of the feminine aspects in the divine realm, and so on. To understand Kabbalah is, accordingly, seen as tantamount to understanding its tenets.» — cómo describe Idel el trabajo hecho hasta ahora y el supuesto que lo gobierna: entender la cábala equivaldría a entender sus doctrinas.

«This approach is not new; it has been in use since the Renaissance, when Christian authors interested in occult lores involved themselves in the study of the Kabbalah.» — de dónde viene ese supuesto, según Idel.

«For them, Kabbalah was primarily a concealed philosophy whose inner message had to be decoded, owing to the obscurity of its terminology and symbolism.» — qué era la cábala para aquellos cristianos, según Idel: filosofía oculta cuyo mensaje había que descifrar.

«This attitude was also embraced by various thinkers of the Enlightenment period and ultimately adopted by modern researchers of Kabbalah.» — y por dónde llegó esa actitud hasta la investigación moderna.

«But the evaluation of Kabbalah as predominantly theoretical rather than practical is misleading.» — el juicio de Idel sobre esa evaluación.

«Although the large body of printed Kabbalistical literature indeed deals with theoretical issues, an understanding of Kabbalah based primarily upon this material is highly problematic, as it cannot be aptly appreciated without taking into consideration what seems to me to be the ultimate goals of Kabbalah.» — y por qué: lo impreso trata cuestiones teóricas, pero fundar en ello la comprensión le parece problemático sin considerar los fines últimos de la cábala.

«According to the perceptions of the Kabbalists themselves, this lore is primarily practical and experiential, and only secondarily theoretical.» — lo que Idel adjudica a la percepción de los propios cabalistas: la cábala es primariamente práctica y experiencial y solo secundariamente teórica.

«The practical and experiential aspects, however, are found mainly in manuscript treatises, which were intentionally preserved for the use of the few.» — dónde está entonces ese material, según Idel, y por qué: en tratados manuscritos guardados a propósito para unos pocos.

«It is sufficient to mention here the scores of R. Abraham Abulafia’s works, including several handbooks. of mystical techniques that were never printed.» — el primer ejemplo que da: decenas de obras de Abulafia, con manuales de técnicas místicas nunca impresos.

«The many books written by Kabbalists belonging to the school of ecstatic Kabbalah likewise remained in manuscript, including the fourth gate of R. Hayyim Vital’s Sha'arey Kedushah, which is heavily influenced by this branch of Kabbalah.» — y el segundo: la cuarta puerta del Sha‘arey Kedushah de Hayyim Vital, que según Idel acusa la influencia de la cábala extática.

«Another major example of suppression is the voluminous Sefer ha-Meshiv, a text that originally consisted, as I understand it, of several hundred folios.» — el tercero, con la reconstrucción que Idel declara como propia: el Sefer ha-Meshiv, de varios cientos de folios en su forma original tal como él lo entiende.

«Despite its influence on Safedian Kabbalah as well as on Sabbatian thought, substantial parts were never published, and others were apparently lost.» — y su destino según Idel.

«This work includes divine and angelic revelations, as well as instructions on how to attain them.» — qué contiene ese libro, según Idel.

«The Kabbalists considered both the content of the revelations and the techniques—which shall be discussed below—too sensitive to be published for a large audience.» — y por qué se guardó, según él: cabalistas que juzgaron demasiado sensibles tanto las revelaciones como las técnicas.

«Yet the academic study of Kabbalah has neglected even this masterwork of Kabbalistic mysticism.» — el reproche con que Idel cierra el caso.

«Another major genre of Kabbalistic literature that has passed nearly unnoticed by scholars is the extensive literature concerning the rationales for the commandments.» — el segundo género desatendido que Idel señala.

«As I have already remarked, since Kabbalah’s beginnings as a historical phenomenon, Kabbalists produced an impressive number of» — lo que Idel recuerda haber dicho: desde los comienzos históricos de la cábala los cabalistas produjeron una cantidad considerable de esos comentarios; la frase se corta aquí por el cambio de plana.

«theosophico-theurgical commentaries on the commandments—several thou» — y de qué se trata: comentarios teosófico-teúrgicos sobre los mandamientos, varios miles de folios según su cuenta.

«Only a small part of these were published, the other, greater portion remaining in manuscript form. The contents of this field of Kabbalah have been neglected by scholarly research.» — y en qué estado están.

«The publication and detailed analysis of this material, which is of great importance for a more profound understanding of the spiritual aspect of Kabbalah, may contribute to a change in our perception of this lore from a theoretical to a more practical and experiential emphasis.» — lo que Idel espera de publicarlos y analizarlos, con su grado.

«Through performing the commandments with Kabbalistic intentions, a Kabbalist not only was acting according to a prescribed and fixed ritual but also was entering into a particular experience of participating in, and influencing, the divine life.» — la tesis que sostiene sobre ese cumplimiento: no solo rito fijo sino experiencia de participar en la vida divina y de influir en ella.

«Although this particular commandment was analyzed more than any other, some of the Kabbalistic commentaries on prayer are still in manuscript, ignored by those scholars who have surveyed mystical prayer in Judaism.» — el caso de la oración: analizada más que ningún otro mandamiento y aun así con comentarios cabalísticos inéditos, según Idel.

«Even the scores of commentaries on the prayerbook—some of which are highly interesting, such as those of Moses Cordovero or Naftali Hirtz Treves— remained beyond the scope of various studies on prayer.» — y los que nombra: los comentarios al libro de oraciones de Moisés Cordovero y de Naftali Hirtz Treves.

«This neglect has affected a large portion of Kabbalistic literature and contributed to the formation of a one-sided image of the nature of Kabbalah.» — el efecto acumulado que Idel le atribuye a ese descuido.

«Being for the most part a topography of the divine realm, this theoretical literature served more as a map than as speculative description.» — la tesis de Idel sobre el sentido de la literatura teórica: topografía del reino divino que sirve más de mapa que de descripción especulativa.

«Maps, as we know, are intended to enable a person to fulfill a journey; for the Kabbalists, the mystical experience was such a journey.» — y la imagen con que la explica.

«Though I cannot assert that every “theoretical” work indeed served such a use, this seems to have been the main purpose of the greatest part of this literature.» — el grado que Idel le pone a esa tesis, sin generalizarla.

«I likewise presume that there were Kabbalists who never undertook mystical journeys, but were content to collect, classify, and afterward describe the material stemming from the labors of their predecessors or colleagues, just as one can sketch a map without ever having actually seen the territory involved.» — y la reserva que añade: hubo cabalistas que nunca hicieron el viaje y solo recogieron y clasificaron, como quien traza un mapa sin haber visto el terreno.

«This reservation notwithstanding, however, an organic conception of the various bodies of Kabbalistic literature may reveal unexpected affinities among seemingly disparate literary genres; thus, for example, commentaries on the ten Sefirot may serve as aids for the performance of commandments, or for praying, with Kabbalistic intention.» — lo que espera de una concepción orgánica de esos géneros: afinidades inesperadas, como comentarios a las diez sefirot usados para cumplir mandamientos o para orar con intención.

«This notion of the emergence of the theories of the Kabbalah theoretically allows for the contributions of the earlier strata of Jewish thought: Talmud and Midrash, Heikhalot literature, pzyyut and Jewish philosophy, and, finally, Ashkenazic Hasidism.» — las capas judías previas que esa teoría permitiría contar, en teoría.

«Practically none of these, however, was envisaged as a major source of those elements that constitute the peculiar physiognomy of the Kabbalistic phenomenon; basically, Kabbalah was seen as the result of an outbreak of new ideas that reinterpreted rabbinic Judaism according to religious categories comparatively alien in the literature of classical Judaism.» — y lo que Idel señala que no ocurrió: ninguna de ellas se consideró fuente mayor, y la cábala quedó como irrupción de ideas nuevas ajenas al judaísmo clásico.

«This is, mutatis mutandis, a much more elaborated, detailed, and documented version of the perspective of Adolphe Franck and Heinrich Graetz.» — y en qué linaje la inscribe.

«Far more than did scholars in the first half of the twentieth century, contemporary scholars of Gnosticism refer to Jewish influence on the emerging Gnostic literature;» — el giro que Idel registra en el estudio del gnosticismo.

«studies of Gilles Quispel,*? George MacRae,?? B. Pearson,34 Gedaliahu Stroumsa,>° and Jarl Fossum>° have altered the earlier Iranian-Egyptian-Greek explanations of Gnosticism.» — quiénes lo produjeron, según Idel, y qué explicaciones desplazaron.

«The potentially far-reaching significance of these modern studies for the history of Jewish mysticism has not yet been noticed.» — y lo que Idel dice que aún no se ha advertido.

«The assumption that Jewish mythologoumena were influential on ancient Gnostic literature, but not the other way around, allows for a completely different hypothesis for the sources of Kabbalah.» — el supuesto que, invertido, abre para Idel otra hipótesis sobre las fuentes de la cábala.

«Furthermore, the assumption that the so-called Gnostic elements that were formative factors in early Kabbalah were originally non-Jewish cannot explain why Jews were interested in absorbing them in general and how they came to be understood as the esoteric interpretation of Judaism.» — lo que, según Idel, la hipótesis contraria no explica: por qué los judíos habrían absorbido esos elementos y cómo llegaron a entenderse como la interpretación esotérica del judaísmo.

«Furthermore, if such a metamorphosis indeed took place in antiquity and remained subterranean, it is hardly reasonable to assume that the first Kabbalists, some of whom were members of the rabbinic establishment, would be prepared to accept these traditions as constituting an authoritative understanding of Jewish texts.» — el segundo argumento, con su grado: no le parece razonable que los primeros cabalistas, algunos del establecimiento rabínico, aceptaran tales tradiciones como lectura autorizada.

«Such experts in texts as R. Abraham ben David, Nahmanides, or R. Solomon ben Abraham ibn Adret can hardly be described as naive thinkers who would accept, as the mystical core of Judaism, traditions that were in principle unrelated to it.» — y a quiénes nombra para apretar el argumento.

«It is, however, possible to assume that, if the motifs transmitted in those unknown circles formed part of an ancient weltanschauung, their affinities to the rabbinic mentality would be more organic and easily absorbed into the mystical cast of Judaism.» — la hipótesis que Idel prefiere, marcada como suposición.

«According to this hypothesis, we do not need to account for why ancient Jews took over Gnostic doctrines, why they transmitted them, and, finally, how this “Gnostic” Judaism was revived in the Middle Ages by conservative Jewish authorities.» — y las tres preguntas de las que, según él, esa hipótesis dispensa.

«Furthermore, an attempt to study Jewish mysticism along the lines I have proposed has a manifest methodological advantage: it postulates a relatively organic evolution of Jewish mysticism that can be demonstrated by using Hebrew material found in the various layers of Jewish literature and that, consequently, can also be rejected» — la ventaja metodológica que Idel reclama para su propuesta: una evolución relativamente orgánica demostrable con material hebreo.

«by philological or historical analysis of the texts.» — y la condición que él mismo pone: que por eso mismo pueda ser rechazada por el análisis filológico o histórico.

«It is obvious that my proposal is consonant with some of the assertions of the Kabbalists themselves, who repeatedly asserted that the Kabbalah is a genuine ancient tradition which is an esoteric interpretation of Judaism.» — la coincidencia que Idel declara sin ocultarla: su propuesta concuerda con lo que los cabalistas afirmaban de sí mismos.

«This self-perception has been systematically disregarded by modern research of Kabbalah, with no detailed analysis.» — y el reproche que le hace a la investigación moderna en ese punto.

«The traditional understanding of Kabbalah needs, therefore, to be carefully reevaluated and checked against findings in the related fields of Gnosticism, Midrash, and Talmud.» — lo que Idel pide hacer con esa autopercepción: reevaluarla y contrastarla, no darla por buena.

«I do not propose to neglect Gnostic material but rather to examine it in order to extract evidence for the existence of Jewish views that were partially or totally neglected by ancient Jewish texts.» — el papel que le deja al material gnóstico.

«The most serious work, however, must be invested in Jewish texts, which need to be meticulously inspected as relevant sources for later mystical or mythical motifs.» — y dónde pone el grueso del trabajo.

«Not only can they provide evidence for the antiquity of some of the Kabbalistic views, as I have pointed out; these medieval mystical treatises elaborate upon seemingly ancient concepts that can eventually provide important clues for the better understanding of their meaning or of the structures in which they were incorporated.» — el doble uso que Idel le da a las afinidades entre conceptos cabalísticos y material judío antiguo.

«Theosophical Kabbalah is, as a whole, a systematic exposition of» — cómo caracteriza Idel la cábala teosófica; la frase se corta aquí por el límite de chunk.

«a worldview, which surpasses the fragmentary treatment of theological topics either in the Talmud and Midrash or in Gnostic literature.» — y contra qué la mide: el tratamiento fragmentario de los asuntos teológicos en el Talmud, el Midrash y la literatura gnóstica.

«If Kabbalah preserved some material historically linked with ancient Jewish concepts that can still be detected in ancient literature, it is also plausible that early Kabbalistic literature preserved other ancient material no longer extant in other bodies of literature.» — la inferencia que propone, marcada como plausible.

«This is a highly hypothetical assumption, but one that cannot be rejected without more profound examination.» — y el grado con que la deja.

«On the basis of a series of studies published in recent years, I should like to propose what I call the reconstructionalist approach, which may be described as an attempt to use the more elaborate conceptual structures of the Kabbalah in order to examine various ancient motifs and to organize them in coherent structures.» — el nombre que Idel le pone a su método y en qué consiste: el enfoque reconstruccionista, usar las estructuras conceptuales de la cábala para examinar motivos antiguos.

«This approach is based on the assumption that not only unrelated motifs of ancient extraction reached medieval Kabbalah but also more complex structures, no longer extant in other texts.» — el supuesto en que se apoya.

«individual motifs and as a source of inspiration for constructing larger structures to permit a broader understanding of ancient mysticism is certainly complicated and must be attempted only with great caution.» — la cautela con que Idel acota su propio enfoque reconstruccionista; la frase arranca en la plana anterior, donde habla del uso de la literatura cabalística.

«A prudent and meticulous examination of both the Kabbalistic material and the pre-Kabbalistic traditions may yield significant results.» — y lo que espera de él, en condicional.

«I assume that Kabbalah has probably preserved some ancient conceptual structures that supply a more unified view of the otherwise unrelated and sometimes unintelligible motifs and texts.» — el supuesto que Idel declara, con doble grado: la cábala habría preservado estructuras conceptuales antiguas que unifican motivos y textos por lo demás inconexos.

«This reconstructionalist approach mostly concerns the pre-Kabbalistic texts, the understanding of which can be improved by applying a previously unexpected conceptual structure to an ancient text.» — sobre qué material recae ese enfoque, según él.

«The adequacy of this method, however, is indirectly important for the question of the antiquity of the Kabbalah; the possibility of approaching some ancient material with the help of modes of thinking preserved in Kabbalah may demonstrate that this lore not only makes use of older motifs but also continues more comprehensive intellectual patterns.» — y qué demostraría indirectamente, con su grado: no solo que la cábala usa motivos antiguos sino que continúa patrones intelectuales más amplios.

«I cannot exemplify this methodological approach here, but I have made use of it in several articles in which I have attempted to show that anthropomorphic perceptions of the angelic world? and of the Torah*® preserved in an explicit and elaborated way only in Kabbalah can illuminate our understanding of earlier midrashic, talmudic, and Gnostic texts, as well as certain remarks found in the Heikhalot literature.» — los ejemplos que Idel remite a sus propios artículos: percepciones antropomórficas del mundo angélico y de la Torá conservadas solo en la cábala.

«Similarly, the Kabbalistic equation of Metatron with the “supernal anthropos’ is corroborated by several ancient texts, which reflect the existence of a notion of Enoch’ ascent as a return to the lost state of Adam, viewed as a cosmic anthropos.» — y el segundo: la ecuación cabalística de Metatrón con el antropos supernal, corroborada por textos antiguos sobre el ascenso de Enoc como retorno al estado perdido de Adán.

«I shall check the earlier Jewish sources for both the conceptual attitudes of Kabbalah and the mystical techniques it employed.» — el programa que Idel anuncia para lo que sigue.

«This task is by no means an easy one; the potentially relevant material is spread over hundreds of treatises, including talmudic, midrashic, and poetic literature in Hebrew, and apocryphal works in a variety of languages.» — y la dificultad que declara: material repartido en cientos de tratados talmúdicos, midrásicos, poéticos y apócrifos en varias lenguas.

«The main stumbling block, however, is not the huge quantity of material but the fact that it has been treated to date in a peculiar way; the mythical elements inherent in its conceptual structure were neglected by scholarly analyses that commonly preferred a nonmythical reconstruction consonant with the theological inclinations prevalent in the rationalistic approaches to Judaism of the Wissenschaft des Judentums.» — el obstáculo mayor, según Idel, y dónde lo pone: no la cantidad sino el tratamiento previo, que descuidó los elementos míticos por inclinaciones teológicas racionalistas.

«mythical, and theurgic motifs and concepts or the broader intellectual structures found in the ancient and early medieval Jewish literatures, Kabbalah is doomed to remain a medieval revolution that enigmatically exploded in the bosom of “nonmythical” rabbinic centers.» — la consecuencia que Idel anuncia si no cambia esa lectura —la frase arranca en la plana anterior con *Without a new understanding of the mystical,*—: la cábala condenada a quedar como revolución medieval que estalla enigmáticamente en el seno de centros rabínicos no míticos.

«Romantic and charming as such an explanation may be, it does not take into serious consideration the conservative trend of the rabbinic mind or its critical acumen toward texts;» — y qué le objeta a esa explicación.

«nor can the scholarly evaluation of Kabbalah as a novelty explain how it came to be accepted—first in a few elite circles and later on by a wider public—without significant opposition during the first hundred years of its appearance as a historical phenomenon, and with only limited and ineffective protests after the late fifteenth century.» — el segundo cargo: la evaluación de la cábala como novedad no explica su aceptación sin oposición significativa durante su primer siglo.

«There seems to be a great gap in the estimation of the Kabbalah between its popular understanding as an ancient authentic esoteric Jewish lore and the scholarly disenchantment with this phenomenon as an intrusion of Gnosticism and Neoplatonism under the misleading guise of esoteric Judaism.» — el hueco que Idel señala entre dos estimaciones de la cábala, la popular y la erudita.

«mysticism is the quintessence of religion, the quintessence of mysticism is the sense of union with God.» — la frase con que Idel abre el capítulo 3, condicional en el original (*If mysticism is…*).

«The intensification of religious life that characterizes most forms of mysticism culminates at times in paranormal experiences, whose literary expression appears in descriptions of unitive relations with supermundane beings and sometimes ultimately with God himself.» — adónde culmina, según Idel, esa intensificación de la vida religiosa.

«Without taking a stand in the dispute over the ultimate nature of mystical experience as such, a scrutiny of its expression in the literary medium reveals rather limited forms of semantic articulation: erotic imagery, noetic propositions, and unitive phrases constitute most of the stuff of these descriptions.» — la abstención con que se sitúa ante la disputa sobre la naturaleza última de la experiencia mística, y las tres formas de articulación que sí registra: imaginería erótica, proposiciones noéticas y frases unitivas.

«The assumption, implicit or explicit, that these documents describe experiences that transcend normal consciousness is generally accepted by both mystics and scholars of mysticism; however, little attention has been paid by the latter to the implications of such an assumption for the study of mystical experience.» — el supuesto compartido por místicos y estudiosos que Idel señala, y lo que él echa en falta: nadie ha sacado las consecuencias metodológicas.

«At its best, the mystic’s testimony is a veil covering a psychic process that as such must remain beyond the scope of textual studies.» — lo que en el mejor caso es un testimonio místico, según Idel.

«At worst, it reflects conventions accepted in their social and religious milieu and may be helpful for the understanding of their intellectual parameters.» — y lo que es en el peor.

«It is my conviction that psychological or psychoanalytical approaches to mystical texts must be employed with care, given the reductionist tendency inherent in their hermeneutical techniques.» — la convicción que declara sobre el uso de la psicología en textos místicos.

«success in reconstructing the nature of a mystical experience from written texts is close to nil.» — cuánta posibilidad le da Idel a reconstruir una experiencia mística desde los textos escritos; la frase arranca en la plana anterior con *The chance of*.

«As the components of this experience—the human psyche, the external and inner conditions, and the divine aspects that enter the experience—are either fluid or incomprehensible, or both, any reconstruction is mostly an approximation based more on the presuppositions and tendencies of the scholar than on recombination of the authentic components of the original experience.» — por qué: los componentes de la experiencia son fluidos o incomprensibles, y toda reconstrucción refleja más los presupuestos del estudioso.

«It follows that the psychological processes described by mystical literature as unitive experiences are beyond the scope of academic research.» — la conclusión metodológica que Idel saca.

«If so, the scholar making a serious comparison among mystics, even when they belong to the same religious group, must limit himself to an analysis of their motifs, ideas, and sources, abjuring inferences as to the similarities or differences between the actual experiences.» — y a qué obliga esa conclusión al comparatista: analizar motivos, ideas y fuentes, y abstenerse de inferir semejanzas o diferencias entre las experiencias.

«Another important consequence is that attempts to characterize the mystical experiences in a given religion must be limited to the expressions found in its literature alone, without attempting to infer from them the typology of the experiences themselves.» — la segunda consecuencia, que acota lo que puede decirse de la mística de una religión.

«These approaches, although intentionally refraining from defining the psychic processes themselves, transcend mere literary interpretation by focusing attention upon the self-understanding of the mystic, on the one hand, and on the religious-sociological categories accepted by both the mystic and his intellectual milieu, on the other hand.» — qué gana, según Idel, el enfoque textual y comparativo pese a esa abstención: atención a la autocomprensión del místico y a las categorías de su medio.

«I assume that the conscious or unconscious impact of the mystic’s prior intellectual structures is discernible, more in the form of the written expression of his allegedly unitive experience than in the contents of that experience itself.» — el supuesto de Idel sobre dónde se ve la huella de las estructuras intelectuales previas del místico.

«Therefore, more room must be allowed for hermeneutics and history of ideas than for psychology or psychoanalysis.» — y el reparto de espacio que propone entre disciplinas.

«Again, without denying the psychological and/or ontological aspects of mystical union, the focus of study must be upon their manifestation rather than on their inner essence.» — la reserva con que lo dice, sin negar los aspectos psicológicos ni ontológicos de la unión mística.

«My argument against the possibility of the reconstruction of unitive experience or any experience in general does not apply to the study of mysticism as a whole; as far as the mystical path is concerned, including such subjects as mystical techniques, revelations, or theosophical systems, I believe we can benefit to a far greater extent from both psychological and theological approaches.» — el límite que Idel le pone a su propio escepticismo: no alcanza al estudio de las técnicas, las revelaciones ni los sistemas teosóficos.

«The less the matters to be analyzed depend upon momentary experiences, idiosyncratic characteristics of the mystic, or extreme anomalous or paranormal states of consciousness, the greater the likelihood that they can be successfully articulated to persons living on relatively “normal” psychologi» — y la regla que Idel formula: cuanto menos dependan los asuntos de experiencias momentáneas o de estados anómalos, más probable es articularlos para quien vive en niveles psicológicos normales; la frase se corta aquí por el cambio de plana.

«Again, the argument against projection of postexperience confessions concerning unio mystica onto the experience itself is in a sense related to the famous “ineffability” argument of the mystics themselves.» — con qué emparenta Idel su propio argumento: la conocida tesis de la inefabilidad, sostenida por los propios místicos.

«Whether this type of experience is indescribable or not is beyond my line of argumentation, as I propose to refrain from the use of descriptions for reconstruction of the experience insofar as it is defined as a mystical union, even when the mystics maintain that these descriptions ‘may be appropriate for their experience.» — y la abstención con que zanja su parte: no entra en si esa experiencia es indescriptible, se abstiene de usar las descripciones para reconstruirla.

«Two differing states of unio mystica may be expressed in the same phrase taken from the same sacred text, whereas similar experiences may be expressed in various ways because of the differences between the literary sources available to the mystic.» — el ejemplo con que Idel muestra por qué el texto no da la experiencia.

«We must, therefore, be aware that similar shells may cover different cores, just as the same core may eventually hide under various shells.» — y la imagen con que lo formula.

«For more than one reason, the study of mysticism is similar to the attempt to imagine the content of a shell whose core has never been seen by the scholar.» — cómo describe Idel, con esa imagen, el oficio entero.

«This skeptical attitude toward the possibility of fully reconstructing the meaning of mystical experiences also implies a hesitant attitude toward the approach that overstresses the importance of traditional elements for the emergence of these experiences.» — la segunda consecuencia de su escepticismo: reserva también ante quien sobreacentúa los elementos tradicionales en la génesis de la experiencia.

«Without denying the probability that the mystic is sometimes conditioned by images, concepts, and various realia that may indeed mold his experience, whereas other times it is amorphous, > I think that their impact is on the manner of expression rather than on the mode of the experience itself.» — y su posición, con la concesión incluida: el impacto de imágenes y conceptos previos recae en el modo de expresión más que en el de la experiencia.

«To put it in Paul Ricoeur’s terms: “Another reason for having recourse to exegesis rather than theology is that it invites us not to separate the figures of God from the form of discourse in which these figures occur. . . . Because the designation of God is in each case different.”» — y la cita de Paul Ricoeur con que lo refuerza.

«As I have proposed above, there is a good chance that theological and sociological factors enter into the experience.» — lo que Idel concede sobre los factores teológicos y sociológicos, con su grado.

«I have tended, however, to emphasize the centrality of text over the variety of possible theological issues that may be relevant for an understanding of a given mystical phenomenon.» — y qué ha preferido acentuar él.

«Nevertheless, the cautious attitude toward granting a central role to pre-experiential elements is superfluous in the specific case of mystical techniques.» — la excepción que Idel declara a su propia cautela.

«certain mystic used specific practices in order to induce his mystical experience, it would be methodologically advisable to employ the components of the» — el caso en que se levanta esa cautela —la frase arranca en la plana anterior—: cuando consta que un místico usó prácticas concretas para inducir su experiencia, Idel juzga metodológicamente aconsejable emplear los componentes de la técnica.

«techniques in order better to understand the contents of the text.» — y qué propone hacer entonces: emplear los componentes de la técnica para entender mejor el contenido del texto.

«Cleaving to God is an explicit biblical imperative; its multiple recurrence in the Pentateuch strongly points to the importance attached to this commandment.» — de dónde arranca Idel el recorrido del *devekut*: un imperativo bíblico explícito, repetido en el Pentateuco.

«Less clear, however, is the peculiar meaning of this cleaving; given the numinous nature of the Divine in the eyes of biblical Jews, an understanding of the verb db& as referring to union or to “mere” communion between the human and the divine essence is improbable.» — y lo que declara poco claro, con su grado: entender ese adherirse como unión o como comunión entre la esencia humana y la divina le parece improbable para los judíos bíblicos.

«We can assume that this imperative must be regarded as a demand for devotion to the divine will or to the way promulgated in the divine revelation.» — cómo propone entenderlo: como exigencia de devoción a la voluntad divina o al camino de la revelación.

«Understood in this manner, devekut indicates a rather active attitude, a call upon the Jew to strengthen the bond between himself and God.» — y qué tipo de actitud implica así entendido.

«The elite was supposed to cleave to God's ways or attributes by various versions of imitatio dei,8 whereas the vulgus could participate in this cleaving only indirectly.» — el reparto que Idel adjudica: la élite se adhiere por *imitatio dei* y el vulgo solo indirectamente.

«A certain holding back from the mystical implications of this term is evident in some talmudic-midrashic passages that, according to A. J. Heschel, stem from the school of R. Ishmael, in which devekut is interpreted in terms of one performing pious deeds, such as marrying one’s daughter to a scholar.» — la lectura no mística que Idel atribuye, siguiendo a A. J. Heschel, a la escuela de R. Ishmael: *devekut* como obras piadosas, casar a la hija con un sabio.

«On the other hand, R. ‘Akiva, a contemporary of R. Ishmael, is regarded as the author of a mystical perception of cleaving that maintains: “‘But ye that did cleave unto the Lord your God’—literally cleaving.”» — y la contraria: a R. ‘Akiva se le adjudica la percepción mística del adherirse, con el *literalmente* del texto.

«The use of the word mamash (literally) in this context is intriguing; it suggests a distinctly mystical understanding that is corroborated, according to Heschel, by another passage found in the same talmudic source.» — lo que a Idel le llama la atención de esa palabra, y quién corrobora su lectura.

«Rav, a mystically oriented amora who tended to follow R. ‘Akiva’s views, indicated that the same verse in Deuteronomy points to the cleaving together of “two [palm] dates.”» — el segundo testimonio que aduce: Rav leyendo el mismo versículo como el adherirse de dos dátiles.

«From the context, we may conclude that cleaving is a closer kind of contact than “attaching,” as exemplified by the contact of a bracelet with a woman's arm.» — y qué se sigue de ahí, según Idel: adherirse es contacto más estrecho que el mero adosarse de un brazalete al brazo.

«Though devekut apparently cannot be regarded here as mystical union in the extreme sense, it nevertheless seems to imply real contact between two» — el grado con que Idel lo consigna: no unión mística en sentido extremo, pero sí contacto real entre dos entidades; la frase se corta aquí por el cambio de plana.

«According to R. Eleazar, “Whoever cleaves to the divine presence, the divine spirit will surely dwell upon him.”!? This text presupposes the possibility of cleaving to the Shekhinah;» — el dicho de R. Eleazar que Idel usa para mostrar que se suponía posible adherirse a la Shekhiná.

«from the context, it is not clear whether this entity is identical with God or is to be understood as a manifestation of him.» — y la abstención que declara sobre la identidad de esa entidad.

«Even if the latter alternative is the more congenial interpretation, assuming a certain independence of the Shekhinah from God, it is nevertheless considered to be a divine entity, cleaving to which was negated in other classical rabbinic texts.» — el resto que a Idel le queda en pie aun tomando la lectura más suave.

«R. 'Akiva’s younger contemporary, Numenius of Apamea (in Syria), is regarded as one of the two sources of Plotinus conception of mystical union;}3 the other is, directly or indirectly, Jewish, as E. R. Dodds has proposed.» — el dato con que Idel abre la vía comparativa: Numenio de Apamea como una de las dos fuentes de la concepción plotiniana de la unión mística, y la otra, judía según E. R. Dodds.

«As is well known, Numenius was acquainted with Jewish conceptions; it stands to reason that not only might Philo’s mystical thought! have been the source of Numenius view, but also concepts related to R. ‘Akiva, who was close to Numenius in both space and time.» — y la conjetura que Idel construye sobre eso, con su grado: no solo Filón sino conceptos ligados a R. ‘Akiva pudieron ser fuente de Numenio.

«The fact that a certain mystical view of devekut occurs in both rabbinic and Philonic!” texts would seem to point toa common source. This ancient, presumably Jewish, conception might have influenced Numenius and Plotinus.» — la inferencia que saca, con doble condicional: una concepción antigua, presumiblemente judía, que habría influido en Numenio y en Plotino (el facsímil pega *toa*).

«Explicitly mystical interpretations of devekut occur in Jewish medieval and postmedieval texts. Some of them may convey real mystical, possibly unitive, experiences; others may represent exegetical attempts to interpret sacred texts.» — la distinción que Idel mantiene abierta sobre los textos medievales: unos pueden transmitir experiencias reales y otros ser ejercicios exegéticos.

«There is no way to either confirm or negate the possibility that such types of experience existed among Jews, even before the written evidence on unitive experiences emerged.» — la abstención expresa con que zanja la antigüedad de esas experiencias.

«The fact that this happened, however, only after the appearance of philosophical terminology demonstrates that philosophical concepts were a garb used by mystics in order to articulate their experiences.» — y lo que sí infiere del momento en que aparecen: la terminología filosófica como ropaje para articular la experiencia.

«I should like to propose a typology of concepts and images used to communicate the unitive perception of a mystical experience that will show the gamut of divine nomenclature in this domain. One can distinguish three main types of devekut terminology: Aristotelian, Neoplatonic, and Hermetic, according to the specific bodies of speculative literatures that generated the various themes.» — la tipología que Idel propone: aristotélica, neoplatónica y hermética, según los cuerpos de literatura especulativa que las generan.

«Aristotelian terminology primarily provided concepts for what was called intellectual union.» — qué aporta la primera de las tres.

«According to Aristotelian epistemology, during the act of cognition the knower and the known, or the intellect and the intelligible, are one; this is true of both human and divine acts of intellection.» — el principio del que sale esa unión intelectual.

«It is only logical to suppose that the act of intellection wherein God is the object of the human intellect amounts to what is known as mystical union.» — y el paso que Idel considera lógico dar desde ahí.

«of Kabbalah were the unitive notions of intellection (union with the Active Intellect or with God) discussed by such Jewish and Arabic thinkers as Maimonides, Samuel ibn Tibbon, Avicenna, Abubaker ibn Bajja, and Averroés.» — los pensadores judíos y árabes de cuyas nociones de unión depende, según Idel, el desarrollo de la cábala en este punto.

«It should be noted, however, that the possibility of union (“conjunction” with immaterial entities (“separate intellects’), let alone with God, was a problematic issue in these sources.» — y el límite que pone: en esas mismas fuentes la unión con entidades inmateriales, y más aún con Dios, era cuestión problemática.

«The pertinent texts of these philosophers were translated into Hebrew and represent milestones of Jewish thought: some of the Kabbalists who studied them or were in personal contact with one of these thinkers, ibn Tibbon, absorbed and adopted the Aristotelian philosophical jargon.» — cómo llegó esa jerga a los cabalistas, según Idel, incluido el contacto personal con ibn Tibbon.

«As we shall see later, an entire tradition of intellectual union can be traced from the earliest Kabbalistic documents in Gerona down to Hasidism.» — el arco que Idel anuncia para la tradición de la unión intelectual.

«The impact of Aristotelian terminology, however, is more evident in the ecstatic Kabbalah than in any other branches of this lore.» — dónde pesa más esa terminología, según él.

«This terminology likewise occurs in instances where descriptions of extreme types of union are intended, far more than in those cases in which mere communion or attachment is meant.» — y con qué se corresponde: descripciones de unión extrema más que de mera comunión.

«Therefore, at least in the case of Jewish mysticism, Aristotelian thought contributed a major share to the emergence of mystical terminology, a contribution tantamount to the Platonic one, and perhaps even greater.» — la tesis que Idel saca de ahí, con su grado: en la mística judía el aporte aristotélico a la terminología mística equipara al platónico y quizá lo supere.

«A general comparison of Jewish mysticism to that of Islam and Christianity would seem to support the assertion that, in the former, the role played by “intellectual” terminology transcends the importance of such terminology in the latter two.» — y la comparación con que la apoya, en condicional.

«Another important source of motifs, concepts, and terms supplying significant material to Jewish medieval mysticism was Neoplatonism, which was mainly interested in the union of the human soul with its root, the universal soul or, at times, God.» — la segunda fuente de la tipología y qué unión le interesa: la del alma humana con su raíz.

«Typical signs of the penetration of Neoplatonic thought are mention of the transformation of the particular soul into the universal soul or of the ascent of the soul or her return as central to the mystical experience.» — las señales por las que Idel la reconoce.

«Again, as in the case of Aristotelian terminology, Neoplatonism reached the Jewish mystics via the intermediacy of philosophers— Arab, Jewish, and only rarely Christian; its influence is easily discerned as beginning with Geronese Kabbalah and continuing into Hasidism.» — por qué vía llegó a los místicos judíos y con qué alcance temporal.

«The deep religious significance of this form of philosophy for mysticism has already been recognized in the cases of Islamic and Christian mysticism, and Kabbalah fully shares with these mystical systems a deep interest in Neoplatonism.» — y el paralelo que Idel traza con las místicas islámica y cristiana.

«The last major source of terminology for the description of mystical experiences is an undefined corpus of speculative writings, including Neoplatonic and Hermetic treatises, with strong magical interests, widely known also as theurgy.» — la tercera fuente, y el nombre con que se la conoce.

«Hermetic corpus and Iamblicus and Proclus, we are able to draw the spirits of the gods downward into humanly prepared statues, which thereby enter into communication with men.» — qué sostienen, según Idel, el corpus hermético, Jámblico y Proclo: que los espíritus de los dioses pueden atraerse a estatuas preparadas.

«Sometimes, according to these magical views, these spirits can enter the magician himself and take possession of him.» — y la variante que registra: los espíritus entrando en el propio mago.

«These experiences were attained by the use of certain technical devices: incantations, fumigations, and so on.» — los medios técnicos con que se obtenían, según esas obras.

«The contact between the magician and the higher beings was therefore achieved not by his ascent to them but by drawing them down into a lower realm.» — la dirección del movimiento que Idel subraya: no ascenso sino atracción hacia abajo.

«This “descent” magic gradually changed into a mysticism of descent, in which supernal spiritt—commonly designated as ruhaniut, spiritual beings—were drawn by the mystics upon themselves, the latter thereby attaining a mystical union.» — y en qué se transformó, según él: una mística del descenso en que el místico atrae sobre sí las *ruhaniut*, entidades espirituales.

«The descent of these spiritual beings was accomplished by detailed practices, mainly by the combination of letters and their recitation, as in the ecstatic Kabbalah, or by the concentration of mind and direction of the heart while performing the commandments, as in Hasidism.» — las dos prácticas con que se lograba ese descenso, cada una en su corriente: combinación y recitación de letras en la cábala extática, concentración e intención al cumplir los mandamientos en el hasidismo.

«Although the various types of terminology referred to above reflect different metaphysical assumptions and entered Jewish texts from varied sources, in more than one instance their influences merged.» — el límite que Idel le pone a su propia tipología.

«Abraham Abulafia, who was mainly interested in the Aristotelian and Hermetic views, was also influenced by the Neoplatonic one, as was the case with R. Moses Cordovero and Hasidic mysticism.» — el ejemplo con que lo muestra: Abulafia, interesado sobre todo en lo aristotélico y lo hermético, también influido por lo neoplatónico.

«We cannot, therefore, speak of three separate interpretations of devekut presented in distinct texts of mystics, but of the interplay of three major terminologies throughout Jewish mystical material.» — y cómo pide entonces leer la tipología: no tres interpretaciones separadas sino tres terminologías en juego.

«The centrality of philosophical terminology for Kabbalistic expressions of mystical experience is a significant indicator of the fertilization of Jewish mysticism by alien views;» — lo que esa centralidad indica, según Idel, dicho sin eufemismo.

«Notwithstanding the philosophical sources of that terminology, however, it underwent an important change when it was absorbed in Kabbalistic circles.» — y el cambio que sufre al absorberse, que es lo que a Idel le importa.

«Philosophical literature is poor in descriptions of personal experiences that are interpreted by speculative terminology; although there are a few examples—such as Plotinus or Porphyry—they are exceptions that confirm the rule.» — la diferencia que establece: la literatura filosófica es pobre en descripciones de experiencia personal, con Plotino o Porfirio como excepciones.

«In Kabbalah we find not only theoretical discussions on the possibility of union with God, the Sefirot, or the active intellect but also descriptions of spiritual experiences that were occasionally interpreted by using philosophical terms.» — y qué se encuentra en cambio en la cábala.

«experiences according to speculative concepts that were rendered in terms of Aristotelian or Neoplatonic thought.» — la fórmula con que Idel resume esa operación: espiritualizar el pensamiento filosófico descifrando experiencias místicas personales con conceptos especulativos.

«For some Kabbalists, Maimonides definition of prophecy was more than a philosophical statement about the prophetic process; it was the description of a mystical contact with a higher entity.» — el caso concreto: la definición maimonídea de la profecía leída por algunos cabalistas como descripción de un contacto místico.

«Philosophy not only served as a discipline based upon physics and psychology but also offered the ecstatic Kabbalist a better understanding of his own experiences; instead of dealing with “objective” issues, the philosophical terms were sometimes applied by Kabbalists to “subjective” processes.» — qué le ofrecía la filosofía al cabalista extático, según Idel: entender mejor sus propias experiencias, con términos objetivos aplicados a procesos subjetivos.

«One result of this metamorphosis was the attenuation of the “rational” burden attached to these terms; as we shall later see, the “cleaving of thought” possesses in early Kabbalistic texts emotional overtones that increase in the later Hasidic ones.» — el efecto que Idel le adjudica a esa metamorfosis, con el ejemplo del *cleaving of thought*.

«Early Kabbalistic material concerning the relationship between the human soul and higher entities reflects the obvious influence of Neoplatonic thought.» — lo que Idel sostiene sobre el material cabalístico temprano acerca del alma y las entidades superiores.

«The righteous causes his unblemished and pure soul to ascend [until she reaches} the supernal holy soul?? {and} she {that is, the human soul] unites with her [the supernal soul} and knows future things.» — el pasaje de R. ‘Ezra de Gerona con que lo ilustra: el justo hace ascender su alma hasta unirla con el alma santa supernal; los corchetes son del traductor.

«The terms used here to denote the unitive experience are worthy of closer scrutiny: the Kabbalist uses the verbs hityahed and hitahed, and the noun ythud, which are best translated as “unite” and “union.”» — los términos hebreos que Idel destaca de ese pasaje.

«The use of the adjective complete qualifying union bears evidence of the author's intention to convey the state of total fusion attained by the soul of the righteous or the prophet.» — y qué prueba, según él, el adjetivo *completa*: la intención de transmitir fusión total.

«More so than the more usual usage of devekut, which is ambiguous and lends itself to various interpretations, the occurrence of hitahed/ hityahed would seemingly demonstrate that the experiences of these ancient figures were perceived as having been close to mystical union.» — la comparación con que Idel mide esos términos frente a *devekut*, con su grado.

«Indeed, we can consider this passage as an interesting example of the overlapping of two types of union: the ontic one, explicitly referred to as “complete union,” and “epistemic union,”» — los dos tipos de unión que Idel ve superpuestos en el pasaje de R. ‘Ezra: la óntica, llamada unión completa, y la epistémica.

«Ontic union is in turn a prerequisite for epistemic union.» — el orden que Idel establece entre las dos.

«The same problematics appear also in R. ‘Ezra’s younger contemporary Nahmanides; he indicates that the human soul, “by her sharpness?° will cleave to the separated intellect, and will direct {her intention} to it; and this person will be called a prophet, since he is prophesying.”» — el pasaje de Nahmánides que Idel pone al lado: el alma que se adhiere al intelecto separado hace profeta a quien la tiene.

«Prophecy is here explicitly related to the state of cleaving to the higher intellect.» — lo que Idel subraya de ese pasaje.

«It would seem possible to trace the specific type of Neoplatonism represented in this text.» — y la posibilidad que abre, con su grado.

«Shortly before the text cited above, R. ' Ezra writes,?? “For man is comprised of all things,° and his soul is linked to the supernal soul.”» — el otro pasaje de R. ‘Ezra que Idel aduce: el hombre comprende todas las cosas y su alma está ligada al alma supernal.

«The Kabbalist regards the conjunction between the two souls as a natural state, facilitating the union between them after the ascent of the human soul.» — cómo lee Idel esa conjunción: como estado natural que facilita la unión tras el ascenso.

«This conception of a basic link even after the separation of the individual from the supernal soul apparently reflects Plotinus theory on the presence of the universal soul also in individual ones.» — y a qué la remite, con su grado: a la teoría plotiniana de la presencia del alma universal también en las individuales.

«Given this natural affinity, there is nothing exceptional about the achievement of a complete fusion.» — la consecuencia que Idel saca de esa afinidad natural.

«When the pious and the men of deeds [engaged in a state of mental} concentration, *? and were involved in supernal mysteries, they imagined, by the power of their thought, as if these things were engraved before them,» — el pasaje de R. Menahem Recanati que Idel cita, con los corchetes del traductor: los piadosos en concentración mental imaginaban por el poder de su pensamiento; se corta antes de la llamada a nota.

«and when they linked their soul to the supernal soul, these things increased and expanded and revealed themselves... . as when he cleaved his soul to the supernal soul, these awesome things were engraved in his heart.» — y su segunda mitad: al ligar el alma al alma supernal las cosas crecen y se revelan, y las cosas terribles quedan grabadas en el corazón.

«R. Menahem Recanati, an important Kabbalist at the turn of the thirteenth century, wrote as follows, apparently under the influence of Geronese Kabbalah:» — cómo presenta Idel a ese cabalista y de quién lo hace depender, con su grado.

«This passage is evidently based upon the perception of the soul as a mirror in which higher matters are reflected when she ascends to and cleaves with the supernal soul.» — la imagen sobre la que, según Idel, se apoya ese pasaje.

«The Kabbalist elaborated upon the talmudic dictum stating that the ancestor died by the divine kiss of divinity; originally pointing toward a blessed death, a death without pain, in the Kabbalistic-Neoplatonic interpretation, this dictum was seen as referring to an ecstatic experience:» — la reinterpretación que Idel le adjudica a Recanati: el dicho talmúdico de la muerte por el beso divino, que señalaba una muerte sin dolor, leído como experiencia extática.

«Know that, just as the ripe fruit? falls from the tree, it no longer needing its connection {to the tree}, so is the link between the soul and the body.» — el símil del fruto maduro con que Recanati explica el lazo entre el alma y el cuerpo, según Idel.

«has attained whatever she is able to attain,*© she cleaves to the supernal soul, and will remove its raiment of dust and sever {itself} from its place {that is, the body} and will cleave to the Shekhinah; and this is {the meaning of} death by the kiss.» — y su desenlace: el alma se adhiere al alma supernal, se despoja de su vestidura de polvo y se adhiere a la Shekhiná, que es la muerte por el beso.

«Thus, the ultimate experience of cleaving to the supernal soul enables her to attain the final union, namely, the cleaving to the divine presence; the preceding experiences are implicitly regarded as lower and intermediate states, culminating in this, a beatific union.» — cómo ordena Idel esos estados: las experiencias previas como grados intermedios que culminan en una unión beatífica.

«Again, the Neoplatonic scheme seems to be transpiring in Kabbalistic garb; in both ontological schemes, the supernal soul is only an intermediary entity that must be transcended in the final return of the soul to her origin.» — el esquema que Idel ve trasluciéndose, con su grado.

«The union with the universal soul is therefore a preparatory stage on the natural journey of the worthy soul toward her source;’ until then, the experience of union can be regarded as a series of intermittent acts that, as we shall see below, enable the person to remain alive and active in this world.» — y qué papel le queda entonces a la unión con el alma universal: etapa preparatoria y actos intermitentes que dejan al sujeto vivo y activo en este mundo.

«The kiss is a metaphor for the cleaving of the soul3?. . . but since he allegorized the cleaving of the soul to the kiss of mouth, he had to employ the phrase ‘his mouth,’ in order to link the allegory to it, as one of the sages of {our} generation has already written in his book.”» — el pasaje de R. ‘Ezra en que Idel se apoya: el beso como metáfora del adherirse del alma, con remisión a un sabio de su generación.

«Thus, the use of the kiss as an allegory for the cleaving of the soul is presented by the first Kabbalists, who referred to it as influenced by a sage who was a contemporary of R. ‘Ezra.» — la conclusión que Idel saca sobre el origen de esa alegoría.

«No Kabbalistic master would have been designated by R. 'Ezra simply as a sage without further qualification. It is reasonable, therefore, to suppose that R. 'Ezra refers here to a contemporary philosopher, perhaps R. Samuel ibn Tibbon.» — y el argumento con que identifica al sabio aludido, con su grado: no sería un maestro cabalista sino un filósofo contemporáneo, quizá Samuel ibn Tibbon.

«We can assume, then, that one of the earliest Kabbalistic understandings of cleaving stemmed from philosophical circles.» — la tesis que Idel deriva de ahí, marcada como suposición.

«At the beginning of the fourteenth century the death by kiss was understood as a metaphor for the cataleptic state of the righteous immersed in ecstasy.» — el giro que Idel fecha a comienzos del s. XIV: la muerte por el beso como metáfora del estado cataléptico del justo en éxtasis.

«The anonymous author of Ma'arekhet ha-' Elohut explained the significance of the death by kiss in the following words:42 “The soul of the righteous one will ascend—while he is yet alive—higher and higher, to the place where the souls of the righteous [enjoy their} delight, which is ‘the cleaving of the mind.’ The body will remain motionless, as it is said: ‘But you that cleave unto the Lord your God are alive every one of you this day.’» — el pasaje anónimo del Ma‘arekhet ha-’Elohut con que lo documenta: el alma del justo asciende en vida y el cuerpo queda inmóvil.

«The cleaving of the soul is presented here as a state wherein the body undergoes a temporary death that is in reality a symptom of “real” life.» — cómo lee Idel ese estado.

«refers to two distinct events: the spiritual one, which takes place between the human soul and a higher entity, one of the divine Sefirot, and the corporeal one, which is an anesthetic experience.» — los dos sucesos distintos que Idel pide no confundir en ese texto —la frase arranca en la plana anterior—: el espiritual, entre el alma humana y una sefirá, y el corporal, anestésico.

«The soul herself does not even metaphorically undergo a mortal experience; to the contrary, she attains true life.» — y lo que no ocurre, según él: el alma no pasa siquiera metafóricamente por una experiencia mortal.

«The Neoplatonic and Christian mystical views on the necessity of a preliminary “death” of the old man—that is, the death of his spirit—for the spiritual rebirth are not emphasized by these Kabbalists.» — el contraste que Idel marca con la mística neoplatónica y cristiana de la muerte previa del hombre viejo.

«Most of the above-mentioned citations are taken from a highly influential work, Recanati’s Commentary on the Pentateuch, which served as a source for the later Kabbalist, R. Yehudah Hayyat;*> from these authors, the theme of Neoplatonic union found its way to other Jewish Kabbalists.» — por qué vía se difundió ese tema, según Idel: el comentario de Recanati al Pentateuco y R. Yehudah Hayyat.

«Moreover, Recanati was one of the sources upon which Pico della Mirandola drew for his concept of death by kiss, which reverberated throughout Renaissance literature as “morte di bacio.”» — y hasta dónde llegó: Pico della Mirandola tomando de Recanati su concepto de muerte por el beso.

«Interestingly, Pico already recognized the affinity between Recanati’s Kabbalistic views and those of Plato regarding the ecstatic death by the kiss.» — lo que Idel destaca de Pico: que ya él reconoció la afinidad entre Recanati y Platón en este punto.

«Both medieval and Renaissance Neoplatonism met through the intermediacy of the Kabbalistic concept of devekut; no wonder the later Neoplatonists were so fond of Kabbalistic doctrines—they fit their unique form of philosophical thought.» — el encuentro que Idel describe entre dos neoplatonismos por mediación del *devekut* cabalístico.

«The concept of the miraculous powers of the perfect soul is an issue pervading Neoplatonic literature.» — el motivo neoplatónico que Idel introduce a continuación.

«In Jewish thought, this was adopted and discussed several times by R. Abraham ibn ’Ezra,4? who was one of the most important channels through which the perception of soul infiltrated into early Kabbalah.» — quién lo pasa al pensamiento judío, según Idel.

«His description of the cleaving of the individual soul to her supernal source, the universal soul, as the cause of the human soul’s ability to change the mundane world was especially influential in Jewish philosophy, *° as well as in Kabbalistic literature, reverberating both in theosophical and ecstatic Kabbalah.» — y qué versión de él tuvo más eco: el alma individual adherida al alma universal como causa de su poder para cambiar el mundo.

«The anonymous Kabbalist who wrote an epistle on sexual union indicated: “When the pious make their thought cleave to the higher {entities}, whatever they were contemplating and intending came immediately into existence, whether for good or for bad. . . . And from this matter, {you can learn} the matter of prayer and sacrifices, which is the secret of cleaving to the higher [entities}.”» — el pasaje anónimo con que Idel lo ilustra: el pensamiento adherido a las entidades superiores hace existir lo contemplado, para bien o para mal.

«For this Kabbalist, the union of human thought with the supernal beings facilitates the descent of the higher powers downward upon the object envisioned by the pious, thereby fulfilling his intention.» — cómo funciona esa operación según el cabalista anónimo, en la lectura de Idel.

«Less explicit, but still evident, is Nahmanides view of the relationship between devekut and wondrous acts.>4 Speaking of the cleaving to the Tetragrammaton, he refers to the Hasidim, who benefit from the “manifest miracles.”» — el segundo caso, con el grado que Idel le pone: Nahmánides ligando el adherirse al Tetragrámaton con los milagros manifiestos de los hasidim.

«This cleaving seems to have the Sefirah of Tiferet as its object; though Nahmanides does not specifically attribute the performance of miracles to the pious as an active deed, this is apparently the implication of his consequent use of the term Hasid, whether referring to an individual who cleaves to God>® or to the Tetragrammaton?’ in some texts or to the magical use of the divine name of seventy-two letters in another text.» — la reserva con que Idel lo consigna: Nahmánides no atribuye expresamente la obra de milagros al piadoso, aunque su uso del término lo implique.

«Closely related to the texts cited above are the discussions concerning “cleaving of thought.”» — el segundo gran conjunto de textos que Idel aborda.

«This subject relates to a distinct set of motifs, while nevertheless at times equating “union of the soul” with “cleaving of thought.”» — y la relación que guarda con el anterior, con su límite.

«The ancient pious men caused their thought to ascend to the place of its source, and they would recite the mizot and the {Ten} Commandments®! and through this recitation and this cleaving of thought, the things were blessed and increased, and they received a {divine} influx from the annihilation of thought.”» — el pasaje de R. ‘Ezra de Gerona sobre el ascenso del pensamiento, la recitación de los mandamientos y el influjo recibido de la aniquilación del pensamiento.

«As in the previous discussions, the ascent of thought now precedes the act of cleaving; the object of this cleaving is, however, different.» — lo que cambia en este conjunto respecto del anterior, según Idel.

«It seems that the pious have to return human thought to its supernal source in the divine world and, therefore, cleave it to the Sefirah of Hokhmah, whence it was generated.» — el objeto que Idel le adjudica a ese adherirse, con su grado: la sefirá de Hokhmá, de donde el pensamiento fue generado.

«As R. 'Ezra explicitly indicates, human thought cannot rise beyond its source, analogous to water, which cannot reach a higher level than that from which it descends.» — y el símil hidráulico con que R. ‘Ezra lo explica, según Idel.

«Thought therefore “stands below” the Sefirah of Keter, or “the annihilation of thought,” and receives its influx.» — dónde queda entonces el pensamiento.

«R. ' Azriel, apparently under the influence of R. ‘Ezra, wrote: “ ‘Say to Wisdom, you are my sister’; namely, to cleave {human} thought to Hokhmah, so that she and it [become] one entity.”» — el pasaje de R. ‘Azriel que Idel pone como complemento: adherir el pensamiento humano a Hokhmá hasta que sean una sola entidad.

«We may assume that when thought arrives at its source it becomes totally identical» — la suposición con que Idel lo interpreta; la frase se corta aquí por el límite de chunk.

«with it, just as water does when it returns to its source.» — y el símil que la cierra, el mismo del agua que vuelve a su fuente.

«This difference is worthy of elaboration: the union of the soul with a divine Sefirah is possible only when she is permanently separated from the body, whereas thought, a faculty of the soul, can ascend beyond the sphere the soul is able to mount.» — la diferencia que Idel subraya entre alma y pensamiento: el alma solo se une a una sefirá separada ya del cuerpo, mientras el pensamiento puede ascender más alto.

«According to R. ‘Ezra, an attempt to pass beyond the Sefirah of Hokhmah will end not only in confusion of thought but in the return of the soul to her source.» — el riesgo que R. ‘Ezra le adjudica al intento de pasar de Hokhmá, según Idel.

«This time, the Kabbalist is dealing with a “negative” kind of death, in comparison to the ecstatic one that may occur during the union of the soul to the universal soul.» — y los dos tipos de muerte que Idel distingue en esos textos.

«In other words, ontological union may culminate in an ecstatic death, whereas epistemic union, when forced, tends to end in dreadful and mortal experience.» — la fórmula con que resume la diferencia, con su grado.

«Extremely important in our context are Abraham Abulafia’s explanations of the mystical experience as cleaving or union of the human intellect to its source in the active intellect or even in God, described as the supreme intellect.» — cómo explica Abulafia la experiencia mística, según Idel: adherirse o unirse del intelecto humano a su fuente en el intelecto agente o en Dios.

«This union is the result of the epistemic act that, according to Aristotelian psychology, involves the complete identification of the intellect and its intelligibles— in this case, the active intellect or God.» — y de qué acto resulta esa unión, según la psicología aristotélica que Idel le atribuye.

«Man does not intellectualize by means of his matter, but by means of his intellect. Thus, when the righteous man intellectualizes his Creator by means of his kavvanah and his performance of commandments of God, he cleaves to God, as it is said: ‘But you that did cleave of the Lord your God are alive every one of you this day.’» — el pasaje de un contemporáneo más joven de Abulafia que Idel cita: el justo que intelectualiza a su Creador mediante la *kavvanah* y el cumplimiento de los mandamientos se adhiere a Dios.

«What is highly interesting in this passage is the interiorization of Aristotelian psychology by an antiphilosophical Kabbalist, who applied it to the mystical performance of the commandments as a way of attaining devekut.» — lo que a Idel le importa de ese pasaje: un cabalista antifilosófico interiorizando la psicología aristotélica y aplicándola a la ejecución mística de los mandamientos.

«As we shall see below, this avenue was later cultivated by Hasidic masters in similar contexts.» — y hasta dónde anuncia que llega esa vía.

«When your intellect becomes pure, though it is still in matter, in that same {material} substratum, it indeed attains a high degree, to cleave to causa causarum after the separation of the soul from the matter.» — el pasaje del anónimo Sefer ha-Zeruf, discípulo de Abulafia según Idel: el intelecto purificado se adhiere a la *causa causarum* tras separarse el alma de la materia.

«This Kabbalist seemingly discusses the union with God that takes place after death, but the main organ of this experience is the purified intellect.» — cómo lo lee Idel, con su grado.

«Let us turn now to an example of “return” and “cleaving” mysticism, taken from the mystical diary of R. Isaac ben Samuel of Acre, which evinces a clear echo of the Neoplatonic movement of the soul back to her source:» — de dónde toma Idel el ejemplo siguiente: el diario místico de R. Isaac ben Samuel de Acre.

«Namely, that God has comanded us to increase the power of our rational soul over that of our appetitive soul [during] three years, which allude to the three worlds. [This is to be done] in order to cleave our soul to the secret of the fourth year, which reflects the secret of the Godhead which transcends the three worlds. “And in the fifth year,” which refers to the 'Eiyn Sof?? which surrounds everything, ’? this {rational} soul will cleave to the 'Eiyn Sof and will become total and universal, after she had been individual, ’4 due to her palace, while she was yet imprisoned in it, and she will become universal, because of the nature of her real source.» — el pasaje de ese diario, que arranca en la plana anterior: el alma racional adherida al ‘Eiyn Sof se vuelve total y universal después de haber sido individual (el facsímil imprime *comanded*).

«Returning to her source, the soul regains her primordial plenitude, which is symbolized by the 'Ezyn Sof.» — cómo resume Idel ese retorno; el facsímil corrompe la transliteración del Ein Sof.

«It is important to emphasize that the organ of the mystical union is the human intellect or rational soul, a fact demonstrating the philosophical influence upon R. Isaac of Acre.» — y qué prueba con eso, según él: el órgano de la unión es el intelecto o alma racional, señal de influencia filosófica.

«The Great Maggid interpreted a talmudic homily concerning phylacteries in a remarkable manner:» — el ejemplo hasídico con que Idel cierra la sección: la homilía talmúdica sobre las filacterias del Señor del mundo.

«It is written in the works of Isaac Luria’? that the phylacteries are called brains—that is, brains, called pleasure and enthusiasm—by which we are united to him, be he blessed and praised.®° “And all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord,” as if you are called by the name of the Lord, blessed be he, since you become one unity with him, and this pleasure is called our phylacteries.» — el pasaje del Gran Maguid: las filacterias llamadas cerebros, es decir placer y entusiasmo, por los que se está unido a Dios.

«And who is like the people of Israel, a singular nation” —as they reach a state of unity which transcends number, but the number is under their control . . . for time is under their control to do whatever they want, as they transcend time.» — y el estado de unidad que describe: por encima del número y del tiempo.

«And he, blessed be he, is united to us, the only obstacle being our Capacity, as it is written: “Turn to me, {says the Lord of hosts}, and I will return to you,”®? as he, blessed be he, dwells in the thought.» — dónde pone ese texto el único obstáculo para la unión.

«The Mind is but a veiled reference to God, who is alluded to earlier in this passage in the following way: “as if when we perform worthy acts the world of the mind, blessed be he, is broadening. Therefore, the divine mind dwells in our thought, this state being regarded as one of union.”» — cómo identifica Idel a la Mente de ese pasaje, y el texto en que se apoya.

«The concepts used by the Great Maggid forcefully point to a description of an experience that may be designated as unio mystica;» — la lectura que Idel propone: los conceptos del Gran Maguid apuntan a una experiencia designable como *unio mystica*; la frase se corta aquí por el cambio de plana.

«transcends the mere connection between two unities since, in the end, they achieve a union passing beyond unity, an attribute reserved in medieval sources for God alone.» — y en qué consiste esa unión, según él: una unión que pasa más allá de la unidad, atributo reservado en las fuentes medievales solo a Dios.

«Even the atemporal nature of Israel at the moment of the cleaving is appropriate to the Neoplatonic view of the world of the intellect, here identified with Deity as surpassing time.» — y el rasgo neoplatónico que reconoce en ella.

«The divine phylacteries include the statement of the unique—literally, one—nation, whereas the human phylacteries, in which Israel is designated as if it is called by the divine name, hint at the state of union; it is the union of two thoughts that is performed out of enthusiasm and causes delight to God.» — cómo lee Idel la simetría de las dos filacterias, la divina y la humana.

«Nevertheless, we perceive the continuation of philosophical terminology—which flourished in thirteenth-century Kabbalah in order to express unitive experience—into early Hasidic thought.» — y lo que añade contra la lectura de novedad: la terminología filosófica del s. XIII continúa en el hasidismo temprano.

«More than any other set of concepts, the philosophical framework provided a relevant terminology to the Hasidic masters in matters of unio mystica.» — el peso que le da a ese marco entre los maestros hasídicos.

«As we shall see below, Hasidism preserved and continued earlier Kabbalistic terminology interpreting devekut.» — la tesis de continuidad que Idel anuncia para el hasidismo.

«The question, even when discussing a foremost Hasidic concept such as devekut, is to what extent Hasidism was a novel mystical phenomenon.» — y cómo formula la pregunta que le interesa.

«Since the Hasidic self-perception of its approach to devekut is that it is a novelty, no one has attempted to discover the sources of this particular interpretation of devekut.» — el efecto que Idel le adjudica a esa lectura: nadie ha buscado las fuentes de esa interpretación.

«reach the divine spirit, and from it {he will attain} prophecy, and he will prophesy and foretell the future.”» — y su desenlace: el espíritu divino y de él la profecía.

«It seems, however, that the sources for devekut as the starting point of the mystical path are to be found already in R. Isaac of Acre’s Me’ irat 'Eynaim:» — cómo formula Idel su objeción, con su grado.

«The reason for equanimity is the cleaving of the thought to God, may he be blessed, since the cleaving and connection of thought with God, may he be blessed, causes that man not to be sensitive either to the honor or to the contempt people show toward him.”» — el segundo pasaje de R. Isaac: la ecuanimidad como efecto de adherir el pensamiento a Dios, que vuelve insensible a honra y desprecio.

«R. Isaac of Acre’s book was a classic of early Kabbalistic literature, whose influence may be discerned in Safedian Kabbalah.» — el peso que Idel le da a ese libro.

«The second passage quoted above is adduced by R. Hayyim Vital in the unpublished part of his Sha'arey Kedushah.» — y el rastro concreto que aduce: R. Hayyim Vital citándolo en la parte inédita de su Sha‘arey Kedushah.

«R. Isaac’s placing of cleaving of thought at the beginning of a series of mystical states, and not at its apex, could easily have been known to the first Hasidic masters and molded their appreciation of devekut.» — la conclusión que Idel saca, con su grado: los primeros maestros hasídicos pudieron conocer esa colocación del *devekut* al principio de la serie.

«Furthermore, the concepts of devekut in R. Isaac and the first Hasidim share a highly significant common characteristic—it was a value that had to be cultivated even by common Jews:» — el segundo rasgo común que señala entre R. Isaac y los primeros hasidim.

«say to the elite as well as to the vulgus, that whoever wishes to know the secret of the connection of his soul to the supernal {world} and the cleaving of his thought to the high God. . . must set before his spiritual eyes the letters of the divine name.”» — el pasaje de R. Isaac de Acre dirigido a la élite y al vulgo: poner ante los ojos espirituales las letras del nombre divino.

«Hence, not only was devekut considered to be an initial step of a spiritual progress; it was, according to R. Isaac, recommended to the masses as well as to the elite.» — las dos conclusiones que Idel extrae de ahí.

«The connection between devekut and meditation upon the letters of the Tetragrammaton has a long and fruitful history, the most important stage of which was the Hasidic practice.» — la historia que Idel le atribuye a esa conexión.

«Whoever wishes to rejoice his soul must seclude himself for a part of the day and meditate upon the grandeur of the letters of the Tetragrammaton . . . .as it is said by King David, “I set the Tetragrammaton before me always.” . . . Therefore, by his meditation upon the ‘Tetragrammaton, the soul is enlightened... and rejoices... and this is the degree of the Zaddikim who cleave to the Tetragrammaton, so that even after their death they are considered to be alive, because of their cleaving to the Tetragrammaton.» — el pasaje del Reshit Hokhmah de R. Elijah de Vidas: reclusión y meditación en las letras del Tetragrámaton, y los *zaddikim* que por adherirse a él siguen contándose vivos tras la muerte.

«This cleaving is achieved by the Zaddikim, although it is recommended to everyone, as de Vidas maintains.» — el alcance que de Vidas le da, según Idel.

«spiritual enjoyment is simple enough and does not include any complicated exercises; the main element is the contemplation of the Tetragrammaton.» — lo que Idel destaca de esa vía —la frase arranca en la plana anterior—: sencilla, sin ejercicios complicados, con la contemplación del Tetragrámaton como elemento principal.

«Sing, O ye righteous, to the Tetragrammaton”!° . . . so that this name be before you, in order that you unify it in such a way that this song is the complete cleaving. And it is possible that the meaning of “song” is that its mere performance causes the cleaving ....R. Yehudah ha-Levi, the pious, has composed several laudatory poems to God, and whoever recites them causes the cleaving of his soul to God.» — el segundo elemento del mismo autor: el canto del nombre divino, y los poemas de R. Yehudah ha-Levi cuya recitación causa el adherirse del alma.

«The singing of the Kabbalist before the Tetragrammaton seems to be connected to Abraham Abulafia’s use of music during his recitation of the combination of letters of various divine names.» — con qué conecta Idel ese canto, y con qué grado: el uso de la música por Abulafia al recitar combinaciones de letras.

«Like de Vidas, Abulafia viewed music as part of a process the final aim of which was mystical union and prophecy.» — el paralelo que traza entre los dos.

«Moreover, an interesting passage on music quoted by R. Hayyim Vital states that-its final result is “supreme union and prophecy.”» — y el tercer testimonio, citado por Hayyim Vital.

«No ascetic element is mentioned by de Vidas in this context, and we find here a mystical technique that can be accepted even by the common Jew.» — lo que Idel señala que falta en de Vidas y qué se sigue de esa ausencia.

«It seems, therefore, that long before the emergence of Hasidism devekut was considered by Kabbalists to be a mystical status easily attainable by everybody; two of the components of the technique for attaining devekut— music and contemplation of the divine name—are common both to Kabbalah and Hasidism.» — la conclusión que Idel opone a la tesis de novedad, con su grado.

«At least one of the elements mentioned above was widespread at the time Hasidism first appeared; as evinced by the testimony of R. Pinhas Elijah Horowitz, the contemplation of the Tetragrammaton was a famous practice.» — el testimonio con que fecha esa difusión: R. Pinhas Elijah Horowitz.

«The practice of devekut by simple Jews was also related by a contemporary of the first Hasidim—R. Moshe of Satanov.» — y el segundo, contemporáneo de los primeros hasidim.

«It may well be that he hinted not at a “new” Hasidic practice—that is, one introduced by the Ba’al Shem Tov—but at a popular practice with a long history that was adopted by the new mystical masters who gave it a central place in their religious way of life.» — la lectura que Idel propone de ese testimonio, marcada como posibilidad: no una práctica nueva del Ba‘al Shem Tov sino una popular de larga historia.

«De Vidas’s recommendation that one contemplate the Tetragrammaton in isolation seemingly influenced a passage in R. Jacob Joseph of Polonnoye’s Toldot Ya'akov Yoseph: “When he is still isolated, let the letter of Tetragrammaton be before him.”» — el rastro textual con que lo apoya: un pasaje del Toldot Ya‘akov Yoseph de R. Jacob Joseph de Polonnoye.

«Devekut, in a previous text, already was regarded as an elevated state preceding such experiences as the acquisition of knowledge of the future or the reception» — cómo queda el *devekut* en los textos vistos: estado elevado que precede a otras experiencias.

«Indeed, only rarely was the aim the mystical union itself; rather, the goal was close encounters with higher entities that enabled the human soul, or thought, to act in an exceptional way.» — y cuál era el fin, según Idel, en la mayoría de los casos.

«In several early texts, however, Kabbalists indicated that devekut of the soul, or thought, seemed to be a prerequisite for performing certain commandments.» — el giro que Idel introduce: el *devekut* como requisito para cumplir ciertos mandamientos.

«When the priest offers the sacrifice, he attaches his soul to the altar, and his {higher} soul mounts above. . . . therefore, by the cleaving of the soul above, first the spirit of man mounts {above]...and returns to its source, whence it was taken... and afterwards it mounts even higher to the place of it source"... like the water which mounts until the level from which it. came. And this is the priestly blessing... . they {the priests} attach their souls above and bless the people {of Israel}.» — el pasaje de R. ‘Azriel que lo documenta: el sacerdote que liga su alma al altar, y la bendición sacerdotal.

«The connection between devekut and sacrifice can be conceived as part of the integration of the psychological process into ritualistic practices: sacrifice and priestly blessing.» — cómo lee Idel esa conexión.

«In comparison to the previous quotations, devekut no longer was related solely to exceptional psychic experiences, such as prophecy, but also to two important practices of ancient Jewish service in the Temple.» — y qué cambia respecto de los pasajes anteriores.

«The transition between R. ’Ezra’s discussion of devekut and “prophecy,” on the one hand, and R. ’ Azriel’s connection of devekut and priestly worship, on the other, represented a turn in the direction of integration of mystical experience into “normal” religious values.» — el giro que Idel ve entre R. ‘Ezra y R. ‘Azriel.

«Priests, unlike prophets, continued to bless the people of Israel also in R. 'Azriel’s times.» — y el dato con que lo apoya.

«It is well known to the masters of Kabbalah that human thought stems from the intellectual soul, which descends from above. And human thought has the ability to strip itself {of alien things] and to ascend and arrive at the place of its source. Then it unites with the supernal entity, whence it comes and it [the thought] and it {its source} become one entity.!!*...QOur ancient sages stated that when the husband copulates with his wife, and his thought unites with the supernal entities, that very thought draws the supernal light downward, and it {the light} dwells upon that very drop {of semen} upon which he directs his intention and thinks upon... that this very drop is permanently linked with the brilliant light . . . as the thought on it {the drop} was linked to the supernal entities, and it draws the brilliant light downward.» — el pasaje de la epístola anónima sobre la unión sexual: el pensamiento unido a las entidades supernales atrae la luz sobre la gota de semen.

«Here, the union of human thought to its source is a prerequisite for a common act: procreation.» — para qué sirve ahí la unión, según Idel.

«More so than in the passages of R. ‘Ezra and R. ’ Azriel, the mystical union is represented as a means to ensure an ideal behavior; common» — y el paso que Idel señala: la unión mística como medio para asegurar una conducta ideal; la frase se corta aquí por el cambio de plana.

«people—not only priests—can and even must combine devekut with impreg» — y a quiénes alcanza ya: no solo a los sacerdotes sino a la gente común, que puede y aun debe unir el *devekut* a la impregnación.

«As in the previous examples, the emphasis here is obviously upon the act that follows the mystical experience—prophecy, blessing, impregnation being the ultimate goals of the union, rather than the other way around.» — dónde pone Idel el énfasis de todos estos textos: en el acto que sigue a la experiencia, no en la experiencia.

«Furthermore, although devekut is a preeminently personal experience, it serves here as an opening toward an other-oriented action.» — y la paradoja que señala: una experiencia personal que se abre a la acción hacia otros.

«Mystical union, or communion, thus serves as a vehicle used by the individual in order to better serve the community; personal perfection is transformed into a means of contributing to the welfare of others.» — cómo formula esa función.

«A closer perusal of these sources, especially the last one, will reveal that the attainment of mystical union is tantamount to the change of the worshiper into a channel by which the supramundane influx reaches the terrestrial world.» — y en qué convierte al orante, según Idel: en canal por el que el influjo supramundano llega al mundo terrestre.

«The above-mentioned forms of unio mystica can consequently be considered as attempts undertaken by perfecti to reestablish a broken link between the divine and the lower worlds by the mediation of their spiritual faculties.» — la lectura de conjunto que Idel propone para esas formas de unión.

«This stand was concisely formulated in the Zohar, where the connoisseur of theosophic lore “who cleaves to his Lord” is portrayed as the Zaddik, the pillar of the universe, since “he draws blessings onto the {lower} world.”» — cómo lo formula el Zohar, según Idel: el que se adhiere a su Señor es el *zaddik*, pilar del universo, que atrae bendiciones sobre el mundo.

«Elsewhere, the Zohar describes “the virtuous man who with his soul and his spirit cleaves to the Holy King above with fitting love, has power over the earth below, and whatever he decrees for the world is fulfilled,” as it was for Elijah in the matter of the rain.» — y el pasaje zohárico sobre el poder del virtuoso sobre la tierra, con el ejemplo de Elías y la lluvia.

«Since you know that the Sefirot are designated as middot {that is, attributes], and they are not {limited]}?’ in attribute by their nature, but from our perspective, you ought to unify all of them twice during the day. 3°. . . As the 'A/eph139 in the word "EHaD stands for {the Sefirah of} Keter, and the het!° stands for [the Sefirah of} Hokhmah, with the other seven Sefirot .. . and the dalet... stands for {the Sefirah of} Ma/khut, and all the ten Sefirot are hinted at in the [word] 'EHaD... let {him} direct {the thought] as if he will cause all of them to enter the [Sefirah of} Keter, from whence they were emanated.» — el pasaje sobre la unificación de las sefirot en la recitación del Shemá: las letras de la palabra *’EHaD* como cifra de las diez sefirot, que el orante hace entrar en Keter.

«The unification of the Sefirot during the recitation of Shema' is also connected with the names that occur in the same context.» — con qué otro elemento se conecta esa unificación, según Idel.

«I would therefore consider this tradition as one component within the view represented by the first two passages on the unification of ten Sefirot, the other being of the type found in R. Abraham ibn ‘Ezra, who refers to cleaving to the Tetragrammaton.» — las dos tradiciones que Idel distingue en esos textos y cómo las combina.

«In the first component, the motif of cleaving is absent; in the latter, that of unification of Sefirot.» — y qué le falta a cada una.

«First of all, according to some Kabbalists, the object of cleaving is a dynamic system of divine manifestations, which must be unified before the higher cleaving can be attained.» — la primera implicación que Idel extrae: el objeto del adherirse es un sistema dinámico que hay que unificar antes.

«This process of unification is the subject of a continuous effort to be accomplished, as these texts reveal, twice a day.» — y con qué frecuencia se hace, según los textos.

«The theurgical act is therefore an ongoing experience the Kabbalist must contribute toward the unification of God's powers.» — cómo caracteriza Idel ese acto teúrgico.

«More than a self-oriented act, it is a theocentric operation, albeit the locus of this happening is the thought of the Kabbalist, who must integrate the ten Sefirot, as manifested in the letters of the Tetragrammaton or of the word 'EHaD, into their source.» — y dónde pone su centro y su lugar: operación teocéntrica cuyo escenario es el pensamiento del cabalista.

«This restitutio rerum ad integrum on the human spiritual level is considered to have sympathetic influence above, causing the return of the Sefirot to their source on the divine level.» — el efecto simpático que Idel le adjudica a esa restitución en el plano humano.

«I would assume that human pure thought parallels supernal pure thought, the Sefirah of Keter.» — la suposición con que lo explica.

«Thus, by the very act of contemplation of the most powerful symbol of the ten Sefirot, the divine name, human thought is “filled” with these contents and, presumably, becomes identical with them.» — y a qué lleva esa contemplación del nombre divino, con su grado.

«seems to be corroborated by the fact that no mention of the ascent of the human soul or thought to the higher world is made in these texts. As far as human thought is described as cleaving to God, it seems that this state is achieved by the meditation on the great name.» — el argumento con que Idel corrobora su lectura psicológica —la frase arranca en la plana anterior—: en esos textos no se menciona ascenso alguno del alma ni del pensamiento, y el adherirse se logra meditando en el gran nombre.

«My analysis is based on the assumption that inner mental processes are able to activate the divine powers by means of their reflections in human thought, an interiorization of the Divine that could have been perceived by the Kabbalist as a real mystical union with an imago dei.» — el supuesto que declara para su análisis: procesos mentales internos capaces de activar las potencias divinas por su reflejo en el pensamiento humano.

«We can therefore describe the stages of Kabbalistic worship, as presented in the above passages, as follows: (1) the primary cleaving of thought to the letters of the divine name; (2) the activation of these letters as symbols of higher entities so as to constitute a unified totality; and (3) cleaving to this unified divine totality.» — los tres pasos en que Idel ordena ese culto cabalístico.

«Most of the previous examples stemmed from early Provencal and Catalan Kabbalah or from that of R. Isaac of Acre; after the second half of the thirteenth century, Spanish Kabbalah became progressively indifferent to devekut as the highest ideal.» — el giro cronológico que Idel marca: desde la segunda mitad del s. XIII la cábala española se vuelve indiferente al *devekut* como ideal supremo.

«This is the case in the Zohar, and in the works of R. Moses de Leon, R. Joseph Gikatilla, R. Joseph of Hamadan, R. Joseph Angelino, and R. David ben Yehudah he-Hasid.» — en qué obras y autores lo ve.

«To the extent that devekut is mentioned, it is by those Kabbalists who echo the earlier Geronese texts, as does the Italian Kabbalist R. Menahem Recanati.» — y quién lo sigue mencionando, según él.

«The focus of religious activity is now theurgic; the biblical commandment to cleave to God is reinterpreted in a manner similar to that done by R. Ishmael’s school in the Talmud.» — adónde se desplaza el foco y con qué precedente lo empareja Idel.

«It is incumbent upon man to be in the supernal image, as it is said, ‘to Him you shall cleave’!*> and it is written, ‘and walk in his ways !4°—{namely] according to this very image.”» — el pasaje de R. Moses de León con que lo documenta: el hombre debe estar en la imagen supernal y andar en los caminos de Dios.

«Here, imitatio dei is referred to both as an accomplished fact and as an ideal to be achieved by proper acts. Cleaving turns out to be an assimilation by operation.» — cómo lee Idel ese pasaje: *imitatio dei* a la vez como hecho consumado y como ideal, y el adherirse vuelto asimilación por la operación.

«The emphasis is conspicuously on the structural relation of the human body to the supernal image—namely, the Sefirot—and on the resemblance of the activity of the human and divine entities.» — dónde queda entonces el énfasis.

«Following the view of Geronese Kabbalah, the Zohar presents the state of devekut as a precondition for theurgic influence on the Shekhinah; this state is, however, achieved at the moment of death, thereby attenuating the mystical nature of the act.» — lo que hace el Zohar con el *devekut*, según Idel, y qué se atenúa por el camino.

«This nexus thereafter reverberates in theurgic Kabbalah, and it represents the main way in which mystical experience was absorbed in religious systems that focus upon actions and their impact above.» — el alcance que le da a ese nexo.

«When a person unifies {the Sefirot} with a whole heart and wholehearted intention, then his soul is linked with and made to cleave to the love of God, !>1s it is written, “I have set the Lord before me always, surely he is at my right hand. . . . ”!5? Just as I do not forget my right hand, so I do not forget his love, as he is always before me. Know that whoever loves God with a wholehearted love causes love above, and the {divine} attributes {turn} their faces to each other with great passion and love.» — el pasaje de R. David ben Zimra: la unificación con corazón entero adhiere el alma al amor de Dios y causa amor arriba.

«This passage must be understood—in light of a statement preceding it—as pointing to the theurgical implications of love of and cleaving to God.» — cómo pide Idel entender ese pasaje.

«As evinced by the use of the verse from Psalms, R. David does not emphasize the unitive nature of this cleaving, as the awareness of the presence of God, rather than union with him, is the major feature of his sort of mysticism; setting God “before” one highlights the distance from him rather than its reduction.» — y qué distancia marca ahí Idel: la conciencia de la presencia de Dios, no la unión, y un poner a Dios delante que subraya la distancia.

«As in the preceding examples, the goal of the act of cleaving to a divine manifestation is the theurgical effect.» — dónde queda el fin del acto en todos esos casos.

«In Lurianic Kabbalah, for example, devekut was mobilized for the achievement of the main goal of Kabbalistic activity: the restoration, or t#kkun of the supernal anthropos:» — para qué se moviliza el *devekut* en la cábala luriánica, según Idel.

«Concerning the study of Torah . . . all his intention must be to link his soul and bind her to her supernal source by the means of Torah. And his intention must be to achieve thereby the restoration of the supernal anthropos, which is the ultimate intention of the creation of man and the goal of the commandment to study Torah. . .. As when studying Torah man must intend to link his soul and to unite her and make her cleave to her source above... and he must intend thereby to perfect the supernal tree {of Sefirot] and holy anthropos.» — el pasaje luriánico que lo muestra: estudiar Torá para ligar el alma a su fuente supernal y con ello restaurar el antropos supernal.

«It is evident that the mystical aspect of union with the supernal source—which was central in some earlier Kabbalistic sources in Gerona as well as later Hasidic ones—is here only a means of attaining a higher objective: theosophical restoration.» — cómo queda ahí lo místico, según Idel: medio para un objetivo mayor, la restauración teosófica.

«Following the Lurianic pattern, the Sabbatian theosophy portrays the Messiah as cleaving to the divine power in order to restore the divine system to its harmonious status:» — el paso siguiente que Idel describe, en la teosofía sabatiana.

«The soul of the King Messiah cleaves to the tree of life!57 [and] he is the master of all the treasures of his Father!9® and he performs restorations {tikkunim] in all aspects [of the divine powers} and {all levels of] existence. . . . by virtue of his adherence to the tree of life everything he does is a restoration.”» — el pasaje sabatiano: el alma del Rey Mesías adherida al árbol de la vida hace de todo acto suyo una restauración.

«Cleaving and adhering are strikingly presented as enabling the Messiah to play a restorative role on all levels of reality, the theurgical goal being achieved only after the accomplishment of the mystical experience.» — el orden que Idel señala en ese texto entre lo místico y lo teúrgico.

«devekut as instrumental for theurgical purposes but also the perception of devekut in ecstatic Kabbalah, in which the ultimate goals are the achievement and revelation of unio mystica.» — lo que la cábala de Safed absorbe de los dos lados, según Idel —la frase arranca en la plana anterior—: el *devekut* como instrumento teúrgico y también su versión extática, donde el fin es la *unio mystica*.

«The last phase of Jewish mysticism, Hasidism, not only continued the perception of devekut as unio but also interpreted, or factually misinterpreted, the major interest of the basic works of theurgical Kabbalah.» — y lo que hace el hasidismo, con la palabra que Idel elige y luego corrige él mismo: continuar el *devekut* como unión e interpretar, o de hecho malinterpretar, la cábala teúrgica.

«Nistar'©! is the name given to a matter which one cannot transmit to another person; just as the taste of {a particular} food cannot be described to a person who has never tasted this taste, !©? [so] is it impossible to explain in words how it is and what it is; such a thing is called seter {hidden}. Thus is the love and fear of God, blessed be he—it is impossible to explain to another person the love [of God] in one’s heart; {therefore}, it is called nzstar. But the attribution of the term nistar to the lore of the Kabbalah is strange, as whoever wishes to study {Kabbalah}, the book is available to him, and if he does not understand he is an ignoramus, as {indeed] for such a person, the Gemara and Tosafot are also nistar. But the concealed matters in the Zohar and the writings of R. Isaac Luria are those based upon the cleaving to God,'!©3 for those who are worthy to cleave and to see the supernal Merkavah, like R. Isaac Luria, to whom!64 and he walked on them {seeing his way} with his mental eyes, !©° like the four sages the paths of the firmament were clear who entered Pardes.» — el pasaje de R. Menahem Mendel de Premyshlyany sobre lo oculto: no lo que está en libros disponibles sino lo intransmisible, como el sabor de un alimento, y el adherirse a Dios de quien ve la Merkavá supernal.

«The significance of this passage lies not only in the characterization of Kabbalah as a mystical experience but also in the reinterpretation of the entire Kabbalistic heritage as a quest for mystical experience rather than as a theosophical gnosis.» — por qué le importa a Idel ese pasaje: reinterpreta la herencia cabalística entera como búsqueda de experiencia mística y no como gnosis teosófica.

«Thus, the gamut of conceptions of devekut in Hasidism is an intermingling of theurgic interpretations, in the vein of the zoharic-Lurianic tradition, and mystical interpretations, stemming from Geronese, Abulafian, and Safedian texts.» — cómo resume Idel el abanico hasídico del *devekut*.

«One of the most widely accepted theses regarding Jewish mysticism asserts the reticence of Kabbalists to express their experiences in terms that could be understood as pointing to a total union of the mystic with God.» — la tesis que Idel se propone discutir en el capítulo 4.

«Edward Caird has formulated this preconception in a lucid manner: “The Jew was always defended against the extreme of Mysticism by his strong sense of the separate personality of God and man, and, as a consequence, his vivid consciousness of moral obligation as involved in the worship of God.”» — la formulación de Edward Caird que Idel toma por ejemplo: el judío defendido del extremo del misticismo por su sentido de la personalidad separada de Dios y del hombre.

«Caird’s stand was expressed in contrast with Plotinus opposite perception of the relationship between the human and the Divine, which can reach a stage wherein “the barrier between the infinite and the finite is thrown down, and the former is brought into immediate contact with the latter, so that every distinction and relation of the finite vanishes away.”» — y contra qué la contrastaba Caird: la percepción plotiniana en que cae la barrera entre lo infinito y lo finito.

«fine scholar as Stace could regard wnio mystica as “an aberration from standard Jewish types {of mysticism].”» — hasta dónde llegó la aceptación de esa tesis, según Idel —la frase arranca en la plana anterior—: W. T. Stace pudo tener la unión mística por aberración de los tipos judíos (el facsímil imprime *wnio mystica*).

«A leading scholar of Judaica, Salo Baron, went so far as to affirm that exclamations of identity with God, such as are found in the Islamic mystic Hallaj, “would have sounded as execrable blasphemies in the ears of the most confirmed Jewish followers of Sufism. ...they never forgot the chasm which separated the Infinite from all his creatures. ... Individually, too, they sought mere communion not actual union, with the Deity.”» — y el segundo caso que aduce: Salo Baron negando que exclamaciones de identidad con Dios como las de Hallaj cupieran entre judíos.

«In the following pages, I shall propose an alternative view on expressions of uno mystica in Kabbalah: far from being absent, unitive descriptions recur in Kabbalistic literature no less frequently than in non-Jewish mystical writings, and the images used by the Kabbalists do not fall short of the most extreme forms of other types of mysticism.» — la tesis alternativa que Idel anuncia: lejos de faltar, las descripciones unitivas recurren en la literatura cabalística tanto como en la no judía.

«Such an assumption, however, is unfounded on both theoretical and factual grounds.» — y cómo lo califica.

«As we have seen above, the Kabbalists employed unitive philosophical terminology that had been in existence long before the composition of their works and that was recognized as acceptable in Jewish circles.» — el primer argumento de hecho: los cabalistas usaron terminología unitiva ya existente y aceptada en círculos judíos.

«Concepts regarding union with supernal entities, such as R. Abraham ibn ' Ezra’s view of devekut or Averroés’s notion of intellectual union, were well known and recurred frequently in Kabbalistic treatises.» — y los ejemplos que nombra: el *devekut* de ibn ‘Ezra y la unión intelectual de Averroes.

«Moreover, the transmutation of Enoch into the angel Metatron, an important motif in some ancient Jewish texts, could be understood in some instances as the fusion between the human patriarch and the angel that predated this experience.» — el segundo argumento: la transmutación de Enoc en Metatrón entendible como fusión del patriarca con el ángel.

«According to the ancient Jewish texts, Enoch was invested not only with garments of glory and a huge size but also with all-comprehensive knowledge.» — con qué fue investido Enoc según esos textos.

«Therefore, we cannot attribute the “reticence” concerning the use of unitive imagery to inhibitions caused by external conceptual factors, such as the lack of unitive motifs in Jewish theologies.» — la conclusión que Idel saca contra la explicación por factores conceptuales externos.

«To the contrary, philosophical terminology, for example, could and did serve as a conceptual frame that could at the same time facilitate communication with certain intellectual groups.» — y qué papel le adjudica en cambio a la terminología filosófica.

«The fact that a religion that gives rise to a certain mystical movement subscribes to a transcendental theology cannot be adduced as decisive proof for the suppression of unitive imagery.» — el argumento de principio con que Idel lo remata.

«For example, Islam, whose transcendental character is undisputed, gave birth to extreme types of mysticism.» — el primer caso comparativo que aduce.

«Islamic rationalistic theology, in its unsuccessful attempts to suppress mystical groups, was backed by strong sociopolitical forces that were absent in Judaism.» — y la asimetría que señala: la teología racionalista islámica contaba con fuerzas sociopolíticas ausentes en el judaísmo.

«The same was also the case in Christianity; despite the powerful domination of the intellectual arena by the church, which had condemned spiritual dissenters and sometimes even executed them, one finds from the end of the thirteenth century on an abundance of assertions of the possibility of union with God.» — el segundo caso comparativo, con su fecha.

«Against this background, the existence of a plethora of unitive expressions in Jewish mysticism is neither problematic sociologically nor curious from the religious point of view.» — la conclusión con que Idel cierra la parte teórica.

«Yet from the second half of the thirteenth century onward, Spanish Kabbalists tended to deemphasize devekut, giving primary emphasis to the theurgical significance of performing commandments with Kabbalistic intention.» — el desplazamiento que Idel fecha en la cábala española.

«Notwithstanding the vivid Geronese interest in devekut as one of the highest religious values, the late thirteenth-century Kabbalists overemphasized the centrality of theurgical practice for» — y el contraste con Gerona: los cabalistas de fines del s. XIII sobreacentúan la práctica teúrgica.

«Although these Kabbalists eventually mentioned devekut with respect, it never became the center of their religious outlook.» — el lugar que le queda al *devekut* entre ellos.

«Spanish Kabbalah followed this type of theurgical religion until the Expulsion in 1492, and continued doing so in northern Africa, Italy, and the Ottoman Empire.» — hasta cuándo y hasta dónde llega esa religión teúrgica, según Idel.

«Outside thirteenth-century Spain, the ecstatic Kabbalah of Abraham Abulafia regarded the attainment of ecstatic experiences as the summum bonum of human spirituality and at times described these experiences in unitive terms.» — y qué ocurría fuera de España: la cábala extática de Abulafia con la experiencia extática por *summum bonum*.

«I have devoted a detailed study to Abulafia’s views concerning mystical union, in an attempt to show that several passages in his works can be understood only as indicative of unitive tendencies.» — el trabajo propio al que Idel remite y lo que dice haber intentado mostrar.

«In one of his commentaries on the Guide, Abulafia asserts that the Kabbalist “prophesies, according to the entity which causes him to pass from potentiality into the final and perfect actuality, and he and He become one entity, inseparable during this act.”» — el pasaje de Abulafia con que lo documenta: el cabalista profetiza y él y Él se hacen una sola entidad, inseparable durante ese acto.

«The “inseparableness’ of the factors that enter the ecstatic experience is here explicitly referred to in the classical formula “he and He become one entity.”» — cómo llama Idel a esa fórmula.

«The philosophical gist of this passage is unmistakable: the transition from potentiality into the perfect actuality is tantamount to the transformation of the individual human intellect into the active intellect, which is achieved by an act of union.» — y qué sentido filosófico le da: el paso de la potencia al acto perfecto como transformación del intelecto individual en el intelecto agente.

«Elsewhere in the same work, Abulafia indicates that the human faculties gradually ascend to the active intellect!” “and will unite with it after many hard, strong, and mighty exercises, until the particular and personal prophetic {faculty} will turn universal,!® permanent and everlasting! similar to the essence of its cause, and he and He will become one entity.”» — el segundo pasaje de Abulafia: tras ejercicios duros la facultad profética particular se vuelve universal y permanente.

«This kind of unitive expression abounds in Abulafia’s works, many of which are extant in manuscript form and some of which are influential treatises.» — cuántos textos de ese tipo hay, según Idel, y en qué estado.

«Only by neglecting such a major Kabbalistic figure in a study devoted to devekut or by misinterpreting his views in others could a totally nonunitive picture of Jewish mysticism be constructed.» — y la condición que, según él, hizo posible el retrato no unitivo de la mística judía.

«Moreover, Abulafia was not merely a major exception; he opened an avenue that was followed by several interesting Kabbalists, some of whom were themselves as highly influential in the spiritual physiognomy of Jewish mysticism as he was.» — y por qué el caso no se salda llamándolo excepción.

«Let me illustrate the affinity among the perceptions of devekut in three mystical schools, which may be seen as constituting a continuum of interest in this» — las tres escuelas que Idel pone en continuidad; la frase se corta aquí por el cambio de plana.

«matter—the ecstatic Kabbalah, Safedian Kabbalah, and Hasidism. All these schools envisioned devekut as a reintegration of the human into the primordial unity, whose other half is the Divine.» — y qué comparten las tres, según él: el *devekut* como reintegración de lo humano en la unidad primordial cuya otra mitad es lo divino.

«He is the yod in this world, who has received the power from the all, and he comprises the all, like the yod in {the realm of} the Sefirot. Understand, therefore, that there is no discernible difference between this yod and that yod but a very fine one, from the aspect of spirituality, and that it {the letter yod} is the milluy {plene spelling} of the other yod.. . . And this is the secret [of the verse} “and cleave unto Him”—the cleaving of yod to yod, in order to complete the circle.» — el pasaje del anónimo Sha‘arey Zedek: el adherirse de yod a yod para completar el círculo.

«Each of the two yods are explicitly defined as halves of the circle, which is completed by the ascension of the lower man and his turning into “the higher man, the man who {sits} on the throne and?> shall be called: ‘The Lord our righteousness.’» — cómo se completa ese círculo en el texto, según Idel: por el ascenso del hombre inferior, vuelto el hombre que está en el trono.

«Man, then, is but half of a greater unit, the circle, and by his ascent he can reconstruct it.» — la fórmula con que Idel lo resume.

«Against this background, we may understand the elaboration of the two yods; in Hebrew, the word yod stands for ten, and in the plene spelling (YWD) the letters WD also bear the numerical value of ten. Hence, the form yod itself comprises two yods: one symbolizing the human, the other the divine part. Each of these is represented graphically by a semicircle, the shape of the yod in the Hebrew alphabet.» — la cuenta gemátrica con que Idel explica los dos yods y su forma de semicírculo.

«The cleaving together of these semicircles results in the formation of the complete circle.» — y qué resulta de unirlos.

«Abraham Abulafia indeed visualized a circle as part of his ecstatic experiences.» — el dato con que la ancla en la experiencia y no solo en la letra.

«The recurrence of the metaphor here allows us to understand that these two references to the circle are not only a literary description; they also point to a vision of a circle during an experience interpreted as unitive.» — y qué concluye de esa recurrencia.

«Moreover, the explicit formulation of wo mystica in the Bodleian manuscript to be quoted below helps us understand the significance of these passages, including the circle metaphor that occurs in Sha'arey Zedek; I assume that the anonymous Kabbalist who wrote this book understood the mystical experiences recorded in his work as unitive experiences.» — el supuesto con que Idel lee el Sha‘arey Zedek, apoyado en el manuscrito bodleiano (el facsímil imprime *wo mystica*).

«He told me: ‘Thou art my son, this day I have begotten thee,’3° and also: ‘See now that I, even I, am He.’3! And the secret {of these verses} is the cleaving of the power—that is, the supernal divine power called the circle of prophecy—with the human power; and it is also said: ‘I, I.’» — el pasaje del manuscrito bodleiano: el adherirse del círculo de la profecía, potencia divina supernal, con la potencia humana.

«The phrases “I, I” and “I even I, am He,” stand for the union of the Divine with the human; according to the plain reading of the texts, the “circle of prophecy” is tantamount to the divine power.» — la lectura llana de ese pasaje, según Idel.

«A closer reading, however, reveals another sense: the numerical value of the Hebrew phrase galgal ha-nevu' ah is 132; the same holds true of the phrase 'Aniy 'Aniy hu’, this gematria being a decisive» — la lectura gemátrica que Idel propone: *galgal ha-nevu’ah* y *‘Aniy ‘Aniy hu’* valen ambos 132; la frase se corta aquí por el límite de chunk.

«indication that the circle includes two Is—both human and the Divine.» — y lo que esa cuenta indica para él: que el círculo incluye dos yos, el humano y el divino.

«In both sources from the ecstatic Kabbalah, mystical union is presented as a process of assimilation to the Divine.» — cómo describe Idel la unión en esas dos fuentes.

«In Sha’arey Zedek, man ascends to the status of an entity sitting on the divine throne.» — y hasta dónde llega el hombre en la primera.

«The second passage uses three verses that forcefully point to a union of man with the Divine to the extent that the former is referred to by the same phrase as the Divinity: 'Aniy.» — y en la segunda.

«The universal soul is one, and she was divided into two {parts} because of the division of matter.”» — el pasaje del mismo anónimo sobre el alma universal dividida en dos por la división de la materia.

«This affinity enables the human soul to ascend to the soul of 'Aravot and change its nature.» — qué permite esa afinidad, según Idel.

«This description of the soul parallels the description above of the two semicircles, although this point cannot be proven definitively.» — el paralelo que propone y el límite que le pone en la misma frase.

«Some possible sources of the view of man as a semicircle, and of his soul as part of the universal soul may be the following: (1) Plato’ description of the division of the primeval androgynous spherical being into two halves, male and female,>° and (2) the medieval versions of this myth, both Arabic37 and Jewish,?8 which transferred the division from the body to the soul.» — las fuentes posibles que Idel enumera, marcadas como posibles: el mito platónico del andrógino esférico y sus versiones árabes y judías.

«Our anonymous Kabbalist seems to have drawn upon both versions, albeit introducing a substantial change: the whole is no longer the primordial man or his soul but the universal man and the universal soul; the division is no longer “vertical,” resulting in two sexually differentiated and “equal” beings, but rather “horizontal,” creating an asexual polarity of supernal man or higher soul, versus lower man or human soul.» — y el cambio sustancial que le adjudica al cabalista anónimo: la división ya no es vertical y sexuada sino horizontal y asexual.

«Phenomenologically, and perhaps also historically, the conceptions of Sefer Sha'arey Zedek, are close to those of R. Elijah de Vidas» — el parentesco que Idel propone, con doble grado, entre el Sha‘arey Zedek y R. Elijah de Vidas; la frase se corta aquí por el cambio de plana.

«It indicates that the souls are hewn from him, and he and they are two parts, like the matter of ‘half-bodies . . . and when the part of the lower soul unites with him, the two parts become united and one.”» — el pasaje de de Vidas: las almas talladas de Dios como medios cuerpos que al unirse se hacen una.

«The view of the union of the two semicircles as a metaphor for unio mystica has its closest counterpart in the famous interpretation by the Great Maggid R. Dov Baer of Mezherich*! of the meaning of the verse: “Make thee two trumpets.» — dónde encuentra Idel el paralelo más cercano de esos dos semicírculos: la homilía del Gran Maguid sobre las dos trompetas.

«Two halves of forms, as it is written “on the throne, a likeness in the appearance of a man above upon it,”4? as man {’ADaM] is but D and M,*4 and the speech*> dwells upon him. And when he unites with God, who is the ‘Alpha*® of the world, he becomes 'ADaM . . . .and man must separate himself from any corporeal things, to such an extent that he will ascend through all the worlds*” and be in union with God, until [his} existence will be annihilated, and then he will be called 'ADaM.» — el pasaje del Gran Maguid: el hombre unido a Dios se vuelve *’ADaM*, y ha de ascender por todos los mundos hasta que su existencia quede aniquilada.

«The Maggid bases his homily on the verse: “Make thee two trumpets of silver, of a whole piece shall thou make them.” The Hebrew word for trumpets, Hazozerot, is interpreted as Hazi-zurot, that is, “{two] half-forms.”» — la lectura del término hebreo en que se apoya la homilía, según Idel.

«This phrase occurs already in one of R. Joseph Gikatilla’s short treatises, in which he refers to the two halves of the original soul, which is divided into male and female souls.» — el precedente que Idel le encuentra a esa expresión, en R. Joseph Gikatilla.

«In Gikatilla, this partition of the soul reflects a higher one: that between the Sefirot of Yesod and Malkhut.» — y qué refleja esa partición en Gikatilla, según Idel.

«The earthly intercourse between male and female, who derived their souls from an original unity, is conducive to the attainment of the harmony on high.» — el efecto teúrgico que Idel le adjudica a esa doctrina.

«This theurgical perception of the two halves of souls was presumably known to the Great Maggid.» — y el grado con que la conecta con el Gran Maguid.

«R. Moses Hayyim Ephraim of Sudylkow reported an interesting version of R. Dov Baer’s interpretation of the trumpets, according to which they correspond to the name*? and heaven, who long to be united with each other;>° our duty is to facilitate this union.» — la versión de la misma homilía que Idel recoge de R. Moses Hayyim Ephraim de Sudylkow.

«The mystical conception of the two half-forms may thus represent a neutralization of an earlier theurgical view existing in thirteenth-century Kabbalah.» — la lectura que Idel propone, marcada como posibilidad: una neutralización de la tesis teúrgica anterior.

«This view, however, is far from being a definitive interpretation: the Great Maggid’s terminology—“union with God” and the annihilation of individual existence—support a rather more radical interpreta» — la objeción de Idel a esa lectura, sin declararla falsa: la terminología del propio Gran Maguid admite una interpretación más radical.

«It is equally valid to assume that “Adam” refers not to the mystic who has returned from the annihilative experience but to what remained absorbed in the depth of the Godhead.» — la lectura alternativa que Idel pone al lado, sin arbitrar entre ambas.

«The reference to union as a step preceding annihilation is evidence that the unitive experience culminates with the total loss of individuality.» — el argumento textual con que la apoya: la unión aparece como paso previo a la aniquilación.

«A similar sequence is found in another text of R. Dov Baer.» — y dónde encuentra la misma secuencia.

«The unqualified reference to the annihilation of existence leaves no room for the assumption that the term Adam persists beyond the state of annihilation.» — lo que, según Idel, esa referencia sin matices excluye.

«According to one version of this passage, the “complete form” is attained only when God and man are together, without any hint of the possibility that the phrase is applicable to either of these entities when separated.» — y la versión del pasaje que aduce para cerrar el punto.

«The same verse from Ezekiel was employed both by the author of Sha'arey Zedek and by the Great Maggid in order to refer to the new stage achieved by the mystic.» — el paralelo textual que Idel establece entre el Sha‘arey Zedek y el Gran Maguid.

«These authors likewise share similar linguistic techniques to demonstrate their view: Y plus WD,*? or A plus DM. Moreover, they use the term half to describe each of the entities involved in the mystical union.» — las técnicas lingüísticas compartidas que señala.

«These affinities, however, important as they may be, are insufficient as conclusive proofs of a direct influence of Sha'arey Zedek on the Great Maggid; but they clearly establish the similarity between an important aspect of ecstatic Kabbalah and mystical Hasidism.» — el límite que Idel le pone a su propio argumento: las afinidades no prueban influencia directa, pero sí establecen la semejanza.

«In all three mystical schools mentioned above, the Neoplatonic motif of the cleaving of the human soul to its source is prominent. This was combined with the Platonic theory of “halves,” and the synthesis functioned as a powerful expression to convey the state of mystical union.» — la síntesis que Idel describe en las tres escuelas: el motivo neoplatónico del alma que se adhiere a su fuente combinado con la teoría platónica de las mitades.

«to bring himself closer to the divine part which dwells in him, closer to the root of all, to him, blessed be he; and he becomes attached to the divine unity by means of the union of the part to the al1,©! which is 'Eiyn Sof. Consequently, the light of the holiness of 'Eiyn Sof shines in him, as the part cleaves to its root.”» — el pasaje de R. Menahem Nahum de Chernóbil con que Idel cierra el punto: la parte que se adhiere a su raíz, el ‘Eiyn Sof.

«The Neoplatonic terminology of “the part” (individual) cleaving to “its root” (all) is obvious.» — lo que Idel identifica en ese lenguaje.

«The fusion of the particular with the general, as presented here by a member» — la fusión de lo particular con lo general que Idel señala en ese pasaje; la frase se corta aquí por el cambio de plana.

«circle, has, in my opinion, nothing personalistic about it; what remains is the divine light that invades the individual in a unitive experience.» — y su lectura, declarada como opinión propia: nada de personalista, sino la luz divina que invade al individuo en la experiencia unitiva.

«At this stage in our analysis of deyekut, it would be worthwhile to survey the recurrence of another classical metaphor of unio mystica in Kabbalistic texts— namely, the dissolution of the drop of water within the sea.» — la metáfora que Idel se propone rastrear a continuación (el facsímil imprime *deyekut*).

«This metaphor is an ancient one that had already appeared in the Katha Upanishad 1V:15; in Zaehner’s rendering, it reads: “As pure water poured into pure becomes like unto it—so does the soul of the discerning sage become {like unto Brahman}.”» — de dónde la trae, con la versión de Zaehner: el agua pura vertida en agua pura.

«Both Muslim and Christian mysticism have employed this image as well.» — y dónde más aparece, según Idel.

«In Kabbalistic sources, it apparently appears for the first time in R. Isaac of Acre:® “She {the soul}® will cleave to the divine intellect, and it will cleave to her....and she and the intellect become one entity, as if somebody pours out a jug of water into a running well, that all becomes one. And this is the secret meaning of the saying of our sages: ‘Enoch is Metatron.’©” And this is the secret meaning of {the phrase] ‘a fire devouring fire.’» — el pasaje de R. Isaac de Acre en que, según Idel, la metáfora aparece por primera vez en la cábala: la jarra de agua vertida en un pozo corriente.

«For R. Isaac, the dissolution or absorption of the human soul into the supernal entity is total and presumably final.» — cómo lee Idel esa disolución, con su grado.

«No wonder that he warns against the dangers of sinking®® into the ultimate experience of union:» — y el peligro contra el que R. Isaac advierte, según él.

«When Moses our master said: “show me thy glory,”’° he sought his death in order that his soul should obliterate the barrier of her palace’! which separates her and the wondrous divine light, which she was eager to contemplate. But because Israel still needed Moses, God did not wish that Moses soul would leave her palace in order to apprehend this light of his.... Now you, my son, strive to contemplate the supernal light since I have certainly introduced you into “the sea of the ocean”’? which surrounds the {whole} world.’? But be careful and guard your soul from gazing and your heart from pondering {upon the light], lest you sink; and the effort shall be to contemplate but [at the same time] to escape from sinking. . . . Let your soul contemplate the divine light and certainly cleave to it, as long as she dwells in her palace.» — el pasaje de R. Isaac de Acre sobre Moisés que pidió su muerte para contemplar la luz, y la advertencia de contemplar sin hundirse.

«In principle, the great endeavor of the mystic is to attain the state of union without, nevertheless, being absorbed and lost in the divine abyss.» — cómo formula Idel el empeño del místico según ese texto.

«Sinking is envisioned here as a perilous possibility inherent in the unitive experience.» — y qué estatuto tiene el hundimiento en él.

«However, at least in the case of Moses, death—which I suppose is parallel to sinking’>—is portrayed as a higher mystical step that Moses attempted to achieve; it was denied him only because he was needed to lead the people of» — la excepción que Idel señala, con la suposición que él mismo marca: en el caso de Moisés la muerte aparece como grado místico más alto que le fue negado.

«Cleaving—and in R. Isaac's texts we can use the term wnion—is not the terminal point of the mystical path. Beyond that lies the “ocean,” tempting the mystic to accomplish his spiritual adventure by an ecstatic sinking.» — la conclusión que Idel saca de esos textos: adherirse no es el punto final del camino, más allá está el océano (el facsímil imprime *wnion*).

«It is worth emphasizing that, in fact, R. Isaac of Acre assumes that a total fusion with the Divine is possible and that Moses, the paragon of Jewish mystics, indeed strove to attain such an experience.» — lo que Idel subraya como lo importante del caso: R. Isaac supone posible la fusión total y se la atribuye a Moisés.

«Therefore, from the theological point of view, the abyss that separates the human and the Divine is not unbridgeable.» — y la consecuencia teológica que extrae, contra la tesis del abismo infranqueable.

«One of R. Isaac’s contemporaries and probably also a compatriot, the anonymous author of Sha'arey Zedek, explicitly expresses his overwhelming experience in oceanic terminology. He requested of his master:7® “In heaven’s name, can you perhaps impart to me some power to enable me to bear this force emerging from my heart and to receive influx from it?” For I wanted to draw this force toward me and receive influx from it, for it much resembles a spring» — el pasaje del anónimo Sha‘arey Zedek en términos oceánicos: la fuerza que brota del corazón y el influjo que el discípulo pide poder recibir; el tramo se corta aquí por el límite de chunk.

«filling a great basin with water. If a man [not being properly prepared for it} should open the dam, he would be drowned in its waters and his soul would desert him.» — y su continuación: quien abriera la presa sin la debida preparación se ahogaría en sus aguas.

«These texts all strongly illustrate that images of the ocean are to be found in Kabbalah as in other types of mystical literature.» — lo que Idel da por ilustrado con esos textos.

«Moreover, some of the earliest Christian mystics who used this simile in its most extreme mode— that of the absorption of a drop of water into the seaS'—-were condemned as heretics; one of them, Marguerite Porete, was even burned for heresy.» — el contraste que Idel introduce: místicos cristianos condenados por la misma imagen, y Marguerite Porete quemada.

«This happened at roughly the same time when the Kabbalistic sources above were being written, with no condemnation or even protest uttered by Jewish theologians or halakhists.» — y la asimetría que señala: por las mismas fechas, ninguna condena ni protesta del lado judío.

«The “drop” imagery is found in early Hasidism.» — dónde sigue Idel el rastro de la imagen.

«made all their powers cleave to their thought {and} to the Creator, blessed be he, as they were wont to do in the past. Therefore, they are very great, for the branch arrives at its root,®> this {arrival} being a union with the root, and the root is the 'Eiyn Sof; thence the branch is also 'Eiyn Sof, as its existence was annihilated®° as in the simile of the single drop®” which has fallen into the great sea, and arrived at its root, and hence is one with the water of the sea, so that it is totally impossible to recognize®® it per se.» — el pasaje de R. Yehiel Mikhael de Zloczow: la rama que llega a su raíz, el ‘Eiyn Sof, como la gota caída en el gran mar.

«The soul is therefore dissolved into 'Ezyn Sof, so that she can no longer be distinguished as a separate entity; she is completely obliterated in the ocean» — cómo lee Idel ese pasaje hasídico: el alma disuelta en el ‘Eiyn Sof, indistinguible ya como entidad separada.

«This passage seems to be more than just a random uncharacteristic utterance. It accurately expresses the view of the Great Maggid, with whose works it shares terminological and conceptual views.» — el peso que Idel le da a ese texto de R. Yehiel Mikhael frente a la lectura de excepción.

«R. Yehiel Mikhael’s far-reaching perception illuminates the Great Maggid’s concepts, bringing into sharper relief his more radical, impersonal stand.» — y para qué lo usa: iluminar la posición más radical e impersonal del Gran Maguid.

«The relationship between devekut and “death’—which has Kabbalistic precedents, some of which have been mentioned previously—is also found in the circle of R. Dov Baer.» — el nexo que Idel sigue a continuación y dónde lo encuentra.

«One who wishes to live should disregard the concerns of his body, and let his thought cleave to God, blessed be he. He will mortify himself and will depart? from himself; but he is nevertheless alive, as he cleaves to the life of [all] lives.94 . .. whoever is impoverished by his cleaving to God, blessed be he, is certainly considered...as if dead,?> as freed from {actual} death, but [nev» — el pasaje de R. Levi Isaac de Berdichev: mortificarse y adherir el pensamiento a Dios y así vivir por adherirse a la vida de las vidas.

«Devekut is here closely related to the state of poverty or “death”; indeed, cleaving leads to the emergence of the next mystical stage of total disengagement from the world.» — cómo lo lee Idel.

«We can formulate a three-stage mystical path hinted at by R. Levi Isaac: (1) detachment from one’s corporeal needs,” (2) attaching of one’s thought to God, and (3) spiritual “poverty,” or “death” at the culmination of the mystical path.» — los tres pasos en que Idel ordena esa vía.

«Like the annihilation that comes after union in the text of the Great Maggid, his disciple assumes a spiritual death that crowns one’s experience of union.» — el paralelo que traza con el Gran Maguid.

«There is nothing new in the argumentation about the true life that succeeds one’s dying to this world; it is a reverberation of a Neoplatonic motif?® already recorded in the Babylonian Talmud.» — y el precedente que le reconoce: un motivo neoplatónico ya registrado en el Talmud de Babilonia.

«The Hasidic text locates devekut as an initial step on the mystical path; only after cleaving does one “die,” and this “dying” ensures everlasting life.» — dónde queda el *devekut* en ese texto.

«In the last passage the term poor (‘aniy) bears an overt mystical overtone, implying the natural result of cleaving rather than a self-induced awareness of pauperitas sancta vis-a-vis God.» — el matiz que Idel le da al término *‘aniy*, distinguiéndolo de la pobreza santa buscada.

«Again a mystical state emerges without any initiative on the part of the mystic; no self-abasement is referred to by the Great Maggid, or at least not sucha state alone, but a passive experience of annihilation that seems closely related to “death” !» — y el rasgo que subraya: un estado místico que sobreviene sin iniciativa del místico ni autoabajamiento.

«The very end of R. Levi Isaac’s passage, ve-hay bahem (Lev. 18:5), is an obvious» — a qué remite, según Idel, la frase con que se cierra el pasaje de R. Levi Isaac; el tramo se corta por el cambio de plana.

«reference to the performance of commandments. Cleaving and total detachment cannot release one from the yoke of the commandments.» — y qué implica: adherirse y desprenderse no liberan del yugo de los mandamientos.

«Such a reference is indispensable since, according toa talmudic view, only the dead are free from the commandments.» — por qué esa referencia es indispensable, según Idel (el facsímil pega *toa*).

«Furthermore, according to the well-known perception of devekut—which was described above—cleaving is sometimes regarded as a prerequisite for the spiritual performance of the commandments.» — el otro sentido posible del nexo, que Idel recuerda.

«But this point was not elaborated by R. Levi Isaac in our passage; by comparing it to conceptions of prayer during unitive experiences in the Great Maggids circle, we may perceive that this performance has lost its activistic, intentional characteristics, being replaced by quietistic acts.» — el giro que Idel señala al comparar con la oración en el círculo del Gran Maguid: la ejecución pierde su carácter activo e intencional y se vuelve quietista.

«The very occurrence of the phrase ve-hay bahem evinces a sensibility toward the possibility that someone might understand devekut and “spiritual death” as states of consciousness that keep one from the performance of commandments, rendering them superfluous.» — de qué se está guardando ese texto, según Idel.

«Rather, the mystic reaches a state in which the mizvot are performed as if God himself performed them through him, the mystic having attained a state of Gelassenheit, to use Meister Eckhart’s term.» — el estado que Idel describe, con el término que toma de Meister Eckhart.

«“Death” in the metaphorical sense is here applied exclusively to the soul with no reference to the body, a fact that strengthens our observation that the performance of commandments is still going on.» — el argumento textual con que lo apoya.

«Again, as in the case of the earlier Kabbalists, no protests were raised, as far as I know, against these extreme statements and expressions, despite the fact that Hasidism was, in the very years these texts were written, under heavy attack from its opponents.» — y la observación que Idel repite, con la reserva sobre su alcance: no consta protesta contra esas afirmaciones extremas, aun estando el hasidismo bajo ataque.

«Another interesting image for mystical union can be found in the writings of the fourteenth-century Flemish mystic, John Ruysbroeck. According to him, “To eat and to be eaten? This is union. . . . since his desire is without measure, to be devoured of him does not greatly amaze me.”» — la imagen que Idel toma del místico flamenco John Ruysbroeck: comer y ser comido como unión.

«This text is considered an example of extreme unitive metaphor and is indeed a fascinating expression.» — el estatuto que se le reconoce a ese texto.

«Judged by the criterion of the presence or absence of the “devouring” type of imagery, Jewish mysticism also presents extreme tendencies.» — y el criterio con que Idel mide la mística judía por la misma vara.

«that thing which is swallowed by another. “And he cleaves to his wife [and they become] one flesh.”!!° When the pious mystic causes his soul to ascend {in order] to cleave in an appropriate cleaving to the divine mystery» — el pasaje de R. Isaac de Acre sobre el ser tragado: el místico piadoso que hace ascender su alma para adherirse al misterio divino; el tramo se corta por el cambio de plana.

«swallows her.!!? And this is the secret meaning of [the verse}, '!? “but they shall not come to see when the holy things are covered {literally, swallowed}'!4 lest they die.”» — y el desenlace de ese pasaje, con el versículo sobre lo santo cubierto o tragado.

«There can be no doubt that the cleaving referred to here, portrayed as a state of being swallowed up, takes place between the human soul and the Divine.» — lo que Idel da por seguro de ese texto.

«Not only does this passage precede the discussion of the jug of water and the running well, in which the divine intellect is mentioned; both images, those of fire and water, are supposed to reveal the significance of a phrase explicitly referring to divinity.» — y el argumento de contexto con que lo sostiene: las dos imágenes, la del fuego y la del agua, revelan el sentido de una frase referida a la divinidad.

«Another pertinent discussion is to be found in the Commentary to the Prayer Book by R. Shneur Zalman of Lyady, the founder of Habad Hasidism. According to him, the ritual of Nefilat Appayim (prayers recited in a semiprone posture) symbolizes the union of two different entities that become like one inseparable body.» — el segundo caso: R. Shneur Zalman de Lyady, fundador del hasidismo Habad, leyendo el rito de *Nefilat Appayim* como unión de dos entidades en un cuerpo inseparable.

«Even when a man continues his regular activity after prayer, he does not fall from this state of union.» — y el alcance que le da al estado.

«As we see that when man cleaves to God, it is extremely delightful for Him, and very sweet, !18 so much so that he will swallow it into his heart,!!9 and so on, as the bodily throat swallows. And this is the true cleaving, as he becomes one substance with God into whom he was swallowed, without being separate [from him] to be considered as a distinct entity!?° at all. That is the meaning [of the verse], “and you shall cleave to him”» — el pasaje de R. Shneur Zalman: Dios que traga al que se le adhiere como traga la garganta corporal, y el que se vuelve una sustancia con Él sin quedar como entidad distinta.

«This is more than a mere metaphorical usage; the beginning of the quotation expresses, through the simile of devouring, common experience.» — cómo lo lee Idel.

«As I remarked above, from the methodological point of view we are not in a position to compare the contents of R. Shneur Zalman’s experience either with that of R. Isaac of Acre or with that of Ruysbroeck.» — y la abstención que se impone a sí mismo, coherente con lo dicho en el capítulo 3.

«At least on the literary level, however, the similarity between their images is surprising.» — lo que sí se permite decir.

«The sequence “cleaving—swallowing,” obvious in R. Shneur Zalman, is presumably parallel to that of “cleaving—annihilation” occurring in some Hasidic texts, including some of those discussed above.» — el paralelo de secuencias que Idel propone, con su grado.

«Accordingly, “swallowing” is similar to the annihilation of the human soul after the act of union.» — y qué sería entonces el ser tragado.

«If this understanding is correct, then a major disciple of the Great Maggid envisioned mystical annihilation as the highest step on the mystical ladder, an interpretation confirming our previous allegedly radical understanding of the two-trumpets simile.» — la conclusión que Idel deriva, con la condicional delante: un discípulo mayor del Gran Maguid pondría la aniquilación mística en lo alto de la escala.

«First, R. Shneur Zalman’s view can be better understood against the background of the widespread Kabbalistic concept of elevation by ritualistic eating; as the vegetable and animal entities are elevated through their consumption by a human being, so is the latter elevated through being swallowed by the Divine.» — el trasfondo con que Idel propone leer a R. Shneur Zalman: la elevación ritual por el comer, aplicada ahora al hombre tragado por lo divino.

«In all these cases, the spiritual cores or the holy particles are liberated and thereby achieve their return to a pristine status.» — qué se juega en esa elevación, según él.

«And second, from both the R. Isaac of Acre and Shneur Zalman passages, we can gather that, in spite of the imagery used, the experience it reflects does not seem to be considered a final one. Neither of these authors is searching for a mystical death as an aim in itself, although the nature of this experience may indeed be attractive.» — la segunda observación, que acota la lectura anterior: ninguno de los dos busca la muerte mística como fin en sí.

«The possibility of total assimilation of the human to the Divine is also conspicuous in Kedushat ha-Levi, written by another disciple of the Great Maggid, R. Levi Isaac of Berdichev:» — dónde encuentra Idel otra vez la asimilación total.

«When the Zaddik cleaves to the nought, and is {then} annihilated, then {alone} he worships the Creator from the aspect of all the Zaddikim, since no division of the attributes is discernible there at all. . . . There isa Zaddik who cleaves to the nought and nevertheless returns afterward to his essence. But Moses our master, blessed be his memory, was annihilated all the time since he was constantly contemplating the grandeur of the Creator, blessed be he, and did not return to his essence at all, as it is well known, since Moses our master, blessed be his memory, was constantly cleaving to the nought, and from this aspect he was annihilated. . . . Since when he contemplates the Creator, blessed be he, then there is no essence in him, since he is annihilated . . . he contemplated the nought and was annihilated . . . .and Moses was constantly cleaving to the nought.» — el pasaje del Kedushat ha-Levi: el *zaddik* que se adhiere a la nada y es aniquilado, y Moisés que no volvía a su esencia.

«The distinction between Moses constant contemplation, which caused an annihilative state from which he did not return, and that of the Zaddikim, who» — la distinción que Idel destaca de ese texto: la contemplación constante de Moisés frente a la de los *zaddikim*; el tramo se corta por el límite de chunk.

«return from their unitive experiences, is highly significant.» — y el peso que le da.

«What is at stake is not the possibility of assimilation by or in God from the divine perspective— or, in other words, the possibility of bridging the distance between man and God—but the problem of human nature, which can hardly sustain a state of continuous immersion in a contemplative/annihilative experience.» — y dónde pone él el problema: no en la posibilidad de asimilación desde el lado divino sino en la naturaleza humana, que apenas sostiene una inmersión continua.

«Moses was seen as a mystic who was capable of maintaining this supreme state of union and hence served as an ideal for the Zaddikim; he was seen similarly by R. Isaac of Acre.» — el papel que le queda a Moisés en esos textos.

«Let us now return to the “swallowing” image, which is alluded to again ina later Hasidic text by R. Eliezer Zevi Safrin. God here expresses the relationship to the Zaddikim in these terms: “In the entire exile I have only» — el último eslabón que Idel sigue de la imagen de ser tragado: un texto hasídico tardío de R. Eliezer Zevi Safrin.

«namely, at certain {rare} times a union with a Zaddik, designated as ‘few,’ occurs. And eating is the holy union, as is known {in the phrase} ‘a little food.’» — y el pasaje en que Dios llama comida al *zaddik* con quien se une, según Idel.

«We may compare the “swallowing” imagery as reflective of mystical experiences to the type of imagery occurring in the initiatory ordeals of tribal rites.» — la comparación que Idel propone para esa imagen.

«In the mystical type of imagery, there is a clear fascination with being swallowed as the culmination of a long process of approaching the Divine.» — qué distingue al polo místico de esa comparación.

«In the mythical worldview of the archaic mentality, the initiate is involved in a dreadful experience of meeting with “the monster,” which, by “devouring” the initiate, enables him to attain a more mature level of behavior as well as a new social status.» — y qué al polo iniciático.

«In both types of experience, the person is elevated to a higher level: the primitive approach uses the technique of presenting to the youth the mysterium tremendum,'*7 and the mystical approach, that of seeking a meeting with the mysterium fascinans.» — los dos términos con que Idel opone las dos técnicas: *mysterium tremendum* frente a *mysterium fascinans*.

«In the former case, the personality is supposed to develop into a mature mode of perceiving reality; in the latter, we can assume that the encounter with the Divine brings about a disintegration of the “old man,” but without substituting a higher structure of social personality.» — y qué le pasa a la persona en cada caso, según él.

«In the tribal initiation, a person enters a new society; in extreme mysticism, man leaves society and enters God.» — la fórmula con que Idel resume la diferencia.

«The initiation ordeal is a rite of passage; the mystical experience is mostly an exit into God.» — y su segunda mitad.

«The ordeal is primarily physical; the mystical experience is essentially psychical.» — el último par de esa oposición.

«Given the material we have examined in this chapter, it is apparent that the rarity of the existence of mystical union in its extreme form in Jewish sources should be reconsidered; both the Kabbalistic theory and praxis call for such a revision.» — la conclusión con que Idel cierra el capítulo 4: la rareza de la unión mística extrema en fuentes judías debe reconsiderarse.

«Like mystics of other faiths, Kabbalists used certain techniques in order to induce paranormal states of consciousness.» — el punto de partida del capítulo 5.

«But despite the great importance of these practices, their history and description have received only scant attention in the modern study of Jewish mysticism.» — y el hueco que Idel señala en la investigación.

«The very existence of elaborate systems of mystical practices constitutes significant evidence for the reliability of the confessions of Jewish mystics.» — el argumento que Idel deriva de la existencia misma de esas técnicas.

«The fact that those Kabbalists who related their mystical experiences are the same Kabbalists who described mystical techniques enhances their credibility as to the practical use of the techniques and the experiential nature of their mystical life.» — y en qué se apoya: son los mismos cabalistas los que narran experiencias y los que describen técnicas.

«Unlike unitive terminology, which is heavily influenced by external sources, the descriptions of mystical techniques combine ancient and presumably authentically Jewish elements with practices that were absorbed from alien sources.» — la diferencia que Idel establece entre la terminología unitiva y las técnicas.

«One can distinguish between two main types of Kabbalistic techniques, which I will designate nomian and anomian.» — los dos tipos de técnica que Idel distingue.

«Nomian refers to the internalized halakhic practices that were performed by the Kabbalists with “intention” or kavvanah, one of the important goals of which was devekut.» — qué designa el primero.

«Thus, nomian stands for the spiritualization of the halakhic dromenon, which is thereby transformed into a mystical technique.» — y cómo lo define en una fórmula.

«Anomian refers to those forms of mystical activity that did not involve halakhic practice.» — qué designa el segundo.

«I should like to stress from the outset that anomian is far from synonymous with alien practices.» — y el malentendido que Idel se adelanta a cortar.

«Although some anomian techniques may indeed have stemmed from non-Jewish sources, others were practiced by ancient» — la precisión con su grado: algunas técnicas anómicas pudieron venir de fuentes no judías, otras las practicaban ya místicos judíos antiguos; la frase se corta aquí por el cambio de plana.

«Jewish mystics but did not become a part of the halakhic way of life.» — y su desenlace: esas otras no llegaron a formar parte del modo de vida halájico.

«It was precisely the anomian practices that, during the later stages of development of Jewish mysticism, became the most esoteric part of Kabbalistic techniques.» — y qué pasó con ellas después.

«Before I enter into detailed discussion, it should be remarked that part of the material to follow stems from anonymous treatises or from literary genres such as hagiographical and pseudepigraphic works.» — la advertencia que Idel hace sobre la naturaleza de sus fuentes.

«I decided to include such material when there was sufficient reason to suppose that, even if it did not reflect the actual practices of the persons to whom it was attributed, the details provided in these texts can nevertheless be useful for a better understanding of certain techniques.» — el criterio con que decidió incluirlas.

«Actual or spuriously attributed practices may have been imitated by the mystics.» — y la razón de fondo, con su grado.

«I shall present below four main mystical techniques.» — cuántas técnicas expone el capítulo.

«The first two— weeping and the ascent of the soul—exemplify the continuity of Jewish mysticism throughout the centuries, notwithstanding the changes in theological conceptions that occurred; the last two—combination of letters and visualization of colors—are representative of the more intensive types of techniques characteristic of the medieval period.» — cuáles son y qué muestra cada par, según Idel: llanto y ascenso del alma por la continuidad; combinación de letras y visualización de colores por lo medieval.

«I deliberately ignored a long series of other devices for attaining paranormal! states of consciousness, such as oneiric techniques,? isolation, or mental concentration,? which I have described elsewhere.» — lo que deja fuera a propósito y adónde remite.

«Of the four techniques dealt with here, the first two are analyzed extensively, whereas the third and fourth ones are, for various reasons, only generally surveyed.» — y el reparto de extensión que declara.

«I shall begin my description of the techniques by focusing on a practice— unnoticed before—that can be traced back through all the major stages of Jewish mysticism over a period of more than two millennia.» — cómo presenta Idel el llanto como técnica: una práctica no advertida antes, rastreable por dos milenios.

«I refer to the recommendation of the use of weeping as a means for attaining revelations— mostly of a visual character—and/or a disclosure of secrets.» — y en qué consiste.

«Within the nomian framework, weeping was incumbent for a limited time within the period of mourning for either a member of one’ family or an outstanding sage.» — el lugar nómico del llanto, según Idel.

«It is obvious from the halakhic regulations that, although weeping was obligatory during the period of mourning, it was not viewed as appropriate common behavior.» — y su límite dentro de la halajá.

«Weeping was likewise recommended in connection with mourning for the Destruction of the Temple, either as part of the rite of Tikkun Hazzot or as an integral component of the observance of the Ninth of Av.» — las otras ocasiones nómicas que registra.

«appreciated, God himself being portrayed as weeping for the Destruction of the Temple.» — hasta dónde llega esa valoración del llanto del Nueve de Av —la frase arranca en la plana anterior—: con Dios mismo retratado llorando la destrucción del Templo.

«All these occurrences of weeping were past-oriented, being directed toward an event or events that had already taken place.» — el eje temporal con que Idel ordena los usos del llanto.

«The future-oriented uses of weeping were more limited; repentance and weeping could contribute to the coming of the Messiah, and groups of mourners were established to hasten this event.» — los usos orientados al futuro que registra.

«According to another version, weeping was part of the effort toward repentance that aimed at safeguarding the Jews from the dreadful events anticipated in the period immediately preceding the arrival of the Messiah.» — y la variante que recoge.

«I shall discuss here two present-oriented uses of weeping elaborated upon in Jewish mystical texts. The first was mystical weeping: that is, the effort to receive visions and information about secrets as the direct result of self-induced weeping.» — el primero de los dos usos orientados al presente que Idel se propone tratar.

«The second type, the theurgical one, was intended to induce “weeping” above—internal processes within the Divine triggered by the shedding of human tears.» — y el segundo.

«The latter activity was essentially a theurgic reinterpretation of the nomian recommendations to weep; the focus of this technique was the supernal processes, the Kabbalist being the instrument and not the goal of this activity.» — la diferencia que Idel marca entre los dos: en el teúrgico el cabalista es instrumento y no fin.

«Mystical weeping, by contrast, posited as the ultimate goal of weeping the acquisition of paranormal consciousness by the Kabbalist.» — y qué persigue el otro.

«Although it can be viewed as a spiritual interpretation of nomian practices, it can just as easily be defined as an anomian activity, as nowhere was disclosure of secrets, or even study of esoteric topics, let alone visions of God, part of the midrashic-talmudic conception of things.» — por qué Idel lo cuenta como anómico.

«Moreover, the occurrence of the earliest evidence for this practice in pre-talmudic or midrashic texts is an important proof of its independence from classical halakhic regulations.» — el argumento cronológico con que lo apoya.

«On the other hand, there are only scanty references to this perception of weeping in classical rabbinic sources, an issue to which I shall return at the conclusion of this discussion.» — y el dato en contra que él mismo consigna.

«One version of II Enoch states that this patriarch was “weeping and grieving with [my] eyes. When I lay down on my bed, I fell asleep; and two» — el testimonio apocalíptico más temprano que Idel aduce: el Enoc eslavo, con el llanto que precede a la aparición.

«huge men appeared to me.”» — y el desenlace de esa aparición, que sigue en la plana siguiente.

«An interesting parallel occurs in IV Ezra; the angel who has previously revealed some secrets to the prophet ends his speech by saying, “and if you pray again, and weep as you do now, and fast for seven days, you shall hear yet greater things than these.”» — el paralelo de IV Esdras: el ángel que promete cosas mayores si se ora, se llora y se ayuna siete días.

«Later, ’ Ezra indicates, “I fasted seven days, mourning and weeping, as Ariel the angel has commanded me,” and he received a second vision.» — y el cumplimiento de esa instrucción.

«Similar statements occur in the Apocalypse of Baruch.» — el tercer cuerpo apocalíptico que Idel cita.

«we rent our garments and wept and mourned and fasted for seven days, and it happened after seven days that the Word of God came to me.”» — el pasaje de Baruc y Jeremías con la misma secuencia.

«A common feature of “apocalyptic” weeping was a state of desolation, associated with the Destruction of the Temple or other signs of religious decline;-the feeling of despair was expressed in weeping, followed by comforting revelations.» — el rasgo común que Idel extrae de todos ellos.

«One of the students of R. Simeon bar Yohai had forgotten what he learned. In tears he went to the cemetery. Because of his great weeping, he [R. Simeon] came to him in a dream and told him: “When you wail, throw three bundles,!° and I shall come.” The student went to a dream interpreter and told him what had happened. The latter said to him: “Repeat your chapter [that is, whatever you learn} three times, and it will come back to you.” The student did so and so indeed it happened.» — el relato midrásico del discípulo que olvidó lo aprendido y lloró en el cementerio hasta el sueño revelador.

«The correlation between weeping and visiting a grave seems to point to a practice intended to induce a vision. This was, to be sure, part of a larger context in which graveyards were sites where one might receive a vision.» — cómo lo lee Idel, con su grado.

«Falling asleep weeping, which is mentioned here, also seems part of the sequence: visiting a cemetery—weeping—falling asleep weeping—revelatory dream.» — y la secuencia que reconstruye.

«As we shall see later, this sequence, with the exception of the use of graves, repeats itself in R. Hayyim Vital’s experience.» — adónde anuncia que reaparece esa secuencia.

«It is evident that this story was preserved in the Midrash because it was focused upon obtaining a remedy—the mnemonic technique of repetition—for the forgetting of the Torah.» — por qué se conservó ese relato, según Idel: por el remedio mnemotécnico, no por la técnica.

«were anguished for the sake of the study of Torah, God opened for them an opening to [understand] the Torah, to those matters which the School of Shammai and the School of Hillel were unable to understand» — el pasaje del Midrash Hallel que Idel analiza —arranca en la plana anterior con ‘Akiva y ben ‘Azzai áridos como la roca—: su angustia por el estudio de la Torá les abrió una entrada a lo que las escuelas de Shammai y de Hillel no pudieron entender.

«This demonstrates that R. 'Akiva’s eye?? had seen the Merkavah, in the same manner that Ezekiel the prophet had seen it;» — y el remate del mismo midrash: el ojo de ‘Akiva vio la Merkavá como la vio Ezequiel.

«The metamorphosis from a rock into a fountain of water is a metaphor for R. ‘Akiva’s transformation from an ignoramus into the source of both halakhic and esoteric knowledge—a metamorphosis that was the result of his anguish, accompanied by weeping.» — cómo lee Idel esa metamorfosis.

«The anonymous interpreter evidently understood the verse as indicating that through “weeping” God caused the hidden things to surface;?4 decisive proof for the role of weeping in bringing about R. 'Akiva’s new status is the emphatic mention of his “eye.”» — el juego de palabras hebreo en que se apoya, según Idel, y su prueba: la mención enfática del ojo.

«The entire passage may be interpreted on two levels: weeping transformed R. ‘Akiva from a rock into a fountain; his eye, which caused it, received a vision of the divine chariot.» — los dos niveles en que Idel propone leer el pasaje.

«Following the two verses in the Book of Job, we may summarize the subjects hinted at in Midrash Hallel; suffering and weeping open the way to (1) revelation, that is, vision: “his eye sees every precious thing,” or the vision of the Merkavah; and (2) understanding of esoteric matters: “he brings forth the things which are hidden.”» — los dos efectos que Idel le adjudica al sufrimiento y al llanto: visión y comprensión de lo esotérico.

«It ought to be emphasized that the combination of vision and of the secrets of the Torah indicates that these secrets are more than unknown information hidden from the eyes of preceding generations; I assume that their understanding has some transformative value for “R. ' Akiva,” who is presented here as a “fountain,” presumably of the teachings of the Torah.» — y el supuesto que añade: esos secretos tienen valor transformativo, no son solo información oculta.

«Before proceeding with our discussion, however, it would be worthwhile to analyze briefly the combination of weeping with placing one’s head between one’s knees.» — la postura que Idel examina junto al llanto.

«This posture is mentioned in connection with Elijah on Mount Carmel, probably as part of his prayer;?° it recurs in the Talmud as part of R. Hanina ben Dosa’ prayer for the life of R. Yohanan ben Zakkai’s son.» — los precedentes bíblico y talmúdico que aduce, con su grado.

«In yet another passage, the Talmud mentions R. Eleazar ben Dordia’s attempt to repent, in which he places his head between his knees and weeps.» — el tercer caso: R. Eleazar ben Dordia arrepintiéndose con la cabeza entre las rodillas y llorando.

«The outcome of R. Eleazar's sorrow and weeping is death, envisaged by a talmudic authority as the acquisition in a moment of the bliss of the world to come.» — y su desenlace, según la autoridad talmúdica que Idel cita.

«This story cannot in itself serve as decisive evidence for the technical status of weeping; however, its association with the posture of Elijah is highly sug» — el grado con que Idel usa ese relato: no prueba decisiva del carácter técnico del llanto, pero sí sugerente por su asociación con la postura de Elías.

«as in both the Heikhalot literature and in a later description of its practices*® the mystical vision of the supernal palaces is attained by using Elijah’s posture.» — y por qué lo es: en la literatura de Heikhalot la visión de los palacios supernales se alcanza con esa postura.

«As we have already seen, R. ' Akiva attained his vision of the Merkavah through means of weeping.» — lo que ya había establecido sobre ‘Akiva.

«Nowhere in the texts related to the Heikhalot literature, however, are these two practices combined.» — y la ausencia que consigna: en los textos de Heikhalot las dos prácticas no aparecen juntas.

«R. Ishmael said: I devoted myself to the pursuit of wisdom and the calculation of the holidays and moments and of the [eschatological] dates and times and periods [of times}, and I turned my face to the Supreme Holy One through prayer and supplications, fasting and weeping. And I said: “God, Lord of Zevaot, Lord of Israel, until when shall we be neglected.”» — la excepción que Idel encuentra: R. Ishmael volviendo el rostro al Santo con oración, ayuno y llanto.

«R. Ishmael’s prayer had an overt messianic goal: to know the date of the redemption, that is, to receive a revelation whereby he might receive occult information thereof.» — el fin declarado de esa oración, según Idel.

«It seems that the more “mathematical” methods for achieving knowledge of the secret date of the end of the suffering of Israel either were inappropriate or had to be attained by a mystical technique, which included weeping, together with other types of ascetic practices.» — y la lectura que propone, con su grado: los métodos calculatorios resultaban insuficientes y el dato debía alcanzarse por técnica mística.

«Nevertheless, we may assume that such a combined practice existed in ancient Jewish mysticism, and not only on the evidence of the talmudic story about R. Eleazar.» — la suposición con que Idel sostiene la existencia de esa práctica combinada.

«The Zohar describes R. Simeon bar Yohai as both practicing Elijah’s posture and weeping in connection with a mystical experience.» — y el testimonio con que la apoya.

«The mystic asked who could disclose to him the secrets of the Torah and then “wept and placed his head between his knees and kissed the dust.”» — el gesto que el Zohar le atribuye a R. Simeón, según Idel.

«His friends encouraged him, saying, “be happy in the happiness of your Lord.”» — y el aliento de sus compañeros.

«He then wrote down all he had heard that night and learned it without forgetting anything. R. Simeon remained in this posture the entire night and in the morning lifted his eyes and saw a vision of light representing the Temple.» — el desenlace de esa noche, según el relato zohárico que Idel resume.

«Thus, for R. Simeon, as for R. Akiva in Midrash Hallel, weeping is connected both with the disclosure of secrets of the Torah and with a vision; although the Merkavah is not identical with the Temple, the similarity between Midrash Hallel and the Zohar passage is striking .» — el paralelo que Idel establece entre los dos relatos, con la diferencia que él mismo marca entre Merkavá y Templo.

«Can we perhaps infer from this that the author of the Zohar had available to him a source in which weeping and Elijah’s posture were already combined in the talmudic text?» — y la pregunta que deja abierta en vez de afirmarla.

«An important instance in which weeping was part of a larger pattern culminating in a mystical experience is found in a thirteenth-century Judeo» — el testimonio que Idel aduce a continuación; la frase se corta aquí por el cambio de plana.

«Arabic treatise, Perakim be-Hazlahah, spuriously attributed to Maimonides.» — y de qué obra se trata, con la atribución marcada como espuria.

«The one praying shall turn to God, blessed be he, standing on his feet and delighting in his heart and lips {!]. His hands shall be stretched and his vocal organs shall murmur and speak [while] the other limbs tremble and shake; he shall not cease singing sweet melodies, humbling himself, imploring, bowing and prostrating himself {and} weeping, since he is in the presence of the Great and Majestic King, and {then] he will experience an ecstatic experience and stupefaction, insofar as he will find his soul in the world of the intellects.» — el pasaje de esa obra sobre la oración: cuerpo, voz y llanto hasta la experiencia extática y el estupor.

«No doubt the anonymous author presents here an intentional device for an ideal prayer ending in a mystical experience.» — cómo lo lee Idel.

«The weeping technique is powerfully expounded by R. Abraham ha-Levi Berukhim, one of Isaac Luria’s disciples.» — quién expone con más fuerza la técnica del llanto, según Idel.

«the second condition: in all your prayers, and in every hour of study, in a place which one finds difficult, in which you cannot understand and comprehend the propaedeutic sciences or some secret, stir yourself to bitter weeping until your eyes shed tears, and the more you can weep—do so. And increase your weeping, as the gates of tears were not closed and the supernal gates will be opened to you.» — el pasaje de Berukhim: llorar amargamente ante lo que no se comprende, porque las puertas de las lágrimas no se cerraron.

«It is obvious that, for Luria and Berukhim, weeping is an aid to overcoming intellectual difficulties and receiving secrets.» — para qué sirve el llanto en esos dos, según Idel.

«It is plausible to interpret the final sentence as referring to a revelatory experience, in which the supernal gates are opened.» — y la lectura que propone de la última frase, con su grado.

«This text is recommended for a practical purpose; it appears that R. Abraham Berukhim indeed had the opportunity to apply this recommendation, as it is reported that Luria had revealed to him that he would die unless he prayed before the Wailing Wall and saw the Shekhinah.» — el caso práctico que Idel añade: Luria revelándole a Berukhim que moriría si no oraba ante el Muro y veía a la Shekhiná.

«When that pious man heard the words of Isaac Luria, he isolated himself for three days and nights in a fast, and [clothed himself} in a sack, and nightly wept. Afterward he went before the Wailing Wall and prayed there and wept a mighty weeping. Suddenly, he raised his eyes and saw on the Wailing Wall the image of a woman, from behind,*? in clothes which it is better not to describe, that we have mercy on the divine glory. When he had seen her, he immediately fell on his face and cried and wept and said:4° “Zion,*! Zion, woe to me that I have seen you in such a plight.” And he was bitterly complaining and weeping and beating his face and plucking his beard and the hair of his head, until he fainted and lay down and fell asleep on his face. Then he saw in a dream the image of a woman who came and put her hands on his face and wiped the tears of his eyes.» — el relato del ayuno, el llanto ante el Muro y la aparición de la mujer que le enjuga las lágrimas.

«and when Isaac Luria saw him, he said: “I see that you have deserved to see the face of the Shekhinah.”» — y el juicio que el relato le pone en boca a Luria.

«It is clear that the two visions of the woman—that is, of the Shekhinah—are the result of R. Abraham's bitter weeping: the former a waking vision of the back of the Shekhinah, the latter a vision of her face, which occurs only ina dream. The first one provokes anxiety; the second, comfort.» — cómo ordena Idel las dos visiones de ese relato: de espaldas en vigilia y de rostro en sueños, la primera angustiosa y la segunda consoladora.

«Akin to the story of R. Abraham Berukhim is the autobiographical confession of his friend, R. Hayyim Vital:42 In 1566, on the Sabbath eve, the eighth of Tevet, I said Kiddush and sat down to eat; and my eyes were shedding tears, and I was sighing and grieving since. . . I was bound by witchcraft*? . . . and I likewise wept for [my] neglect of the study of Torah during the last two years. . . . and because of my worry I did not eat at all, and I lay on my bed on my face, weeping, and I fell asleep out of much weeping, and I dreamed a wondrous dream.» — la confesión autobiográfica de R. Hayyim Vital que Idel pone al lado: llanto, aflicción por la brujería que lo ataba y por el estudio descuidado, y el sueño que siguió.

«As in the ancient apocalyptic texts and in R. Abraham Berukhim’ story, Vital seems to have combined here weeping, sorrow, and—to a certain extent—even fasting.» — los tres elementos que Idel reconoce combinados en Vital.

«The last is indeed curious, as the entire incident took place on the eve of the Sabbath, a time when the consumption ofa ritual meal is incumbent upon all Jews.» — y lo que le llama la atención del ayuno en ese caso.

«The content of the dream that followed is intricate, and this is not the place to deal with it.» — la abstención con que Idel deja fuera el contenido del sueño.

«It is sufficient to note that Vital had a highly elaborate revelation, paralleled by revelations already found in other Kabbalistic works: it is reported as a revelation rather than as a dream.» — lo que sí consigna de él.

«Why are you weeping, Hayyim, my son? I have heard your tears and I have come to help you.’. . . and I called to the woman: ‘Mother,“© Mother, help me, so that I4” may see the Lord sitting upon a throne, the4® Ancient of Days, his beard white as snow, infinitely splendid.’» — el pasaje del sueño de Vital: la mujer que dice haber oído sus lágrimas y la petición de ver al Anciano de Días sentado en el trono.

«The references to biblical prophetic visions, found only in Safrin’s quotation, are extremely relevant to our discussion.» — el detalle textual que Idel destaca: esas referencias proféticas solo aparecen en la cita de Safrin.

«In the first stage, Vital apparently wept in order to receive an answer to two problems that were troubling him: his sexual impotence and his interruption of the study of the Torah.» — por qué lloraba Vital en el primer momento, según Idel, y con qué grado.

«In the revelatory dream, he saw himself as weeping in order to obtain a vision of God.» — y para qué lloraba dentro del sueño.

«Vital’s request to see God, formulated in prophetic verses, reminds one of the» — el círculo que Idel cierra con el Midrash Hallel; la frase se corta aquí por el límite de chunk.

«end of the passage in Midrash Hallel, in which R. 'Akiva’s vision of the Merkavah is compared to that of Ezekiel.» — y su desenlace: la visión de la Merkavá de ‘Akiva comparada con la de Ezequiel.

«Also relevant to our subject is Nathan of Gaza’s description of his own vision. After a complacent description of his religious perfection, the Sabbatian prophet indicates:» — el testimonio siguiente que Idel aduce: la descripción que Nathan de Gaza da de su propia visión.

«In the same year, my force having been stimulated by the visions of the angels and the blessed souls, I was undergoing a prolonged fast during the week before the feast of Purim. Having locked myself in a separate room in holiness and purity, and reciting the penitential prayers of the morning service with many tears, the spirit came over me, my hair stood on end and my knees shook, and I beheld the Merkavah.°° And I saw visions of God all day long and all night, and I was vouchsafed true prophecy like any other prophet, as the voice spoke to me, beginning with the words “Thus speaks the Lord.” . . . The angel that revealed himself to me in a waking vision was also a true one, and he revealed to me awesome mysteries.» — el pasaje de Nathan de Gaza: ayuno prolongado, encierro, plegarias penitenciales con muchas lágrimas, y la visión de la Merkavá.

«The vision of the Merkavah, quite unusual in the medieval period, is depicted here as following a protracted fast that culminated in the shedding of tears.» — lo que Idel subraya de ese relato.

«Interestingly, Nathan was vouchsafed not only a visual experience but also “awesome mysteries.”» — y los dos frutos que recibe, que son los mismos del Midrash Hallel.

«Thus, the two topics mentioned in the early Middle Ages Midrash Hallel recur in the experience of the seventeenth-century Kabbalist.» — el arco que Idel traza entre el midrash y el cabalista del s. XVII.

«Again, as in the midrashic source, the vision of the Merkavah is apparently related to the “awesome mysteries’ —the latter concerning Sabbatai Sevi’s messianism, Nathan having envisioned Sevi’s image engraved on the Merkavah.» — y el contenido concreto de esos misterios, según él: el mesianismo de Sabbatai Sevi, con su imagen grabada en la Merkavá.

«Mystical weeping also seems to have been cultivated in certain Hasidic circles.» — el ámbito siguiente que Idel explora, con su grado.

«In his dream he saw an image of an altar to which the dead man ascended, and he saw him put his head between his knees and begin to cry the Se/ihah: “Answer us, O god, answer us. Answer us, our father,” and so on throughout the alphabet. After that he said: “Answer us, O God of our fathers, answer us. Answer us, O God of Abraham, answer us. Answer us, O revered of Isaac, answer us. Answer us, O mighty one of Jacob, answer us. Answer us, O compassionate one, answer us. Answer us, O king of the chariots, answer us.” Then he ascended to heaven.» — el sueño de R. Joseph Falk, cantor del Besht: el muerto que pone la cabeza entre las rodillas y recita la *selihah* antes de ascender.

«This technique of entreaty—Elijah’s posture and crying—seems to reflect the older motif of weeping while sitting in Elijah’s posture.» — cómo lee Idel esa técnica de súplica.

«R. Israel Ba’al Shem Tov interpreted it as an attempt to ascend to a higher level by the recitation of the “answer us’ formula.» — la interpretación que Idel le atribuye al Ba‘al Shem Tov.

«Therefore, according to the earliest Hasidim, crying and, I assume also tears, seem already to have been part of a mystical technique.» — y la conclusión que saca, con la suposición marcada.

«also presumably cultivated the device of weeping.» — el caso siguiente, del lado de los opositores —la frase arranca en la plana anterior nombrando al gaón de Vilna—: también él habría cultivado el recurso del llanto.

«His main disciple, R. Hayyim of Volozhin, reported to R. Elijah’s grandson that his grandfather had several times been very pained and had fasted and avoided sleeping for one or two days and wept copiously because God had withheld from him a certain secret of the Torah.» — el testimonio de R. Hayyim de Volozhin: ayunos, vigilias y llanto copioso del gaón cuando se le negaba un secreto.

«But, he continued, when the secret was revealed to R. Elijah, his face became joyful and his eyes lighted up.» — y su desenlace.

«R. Hayyim’s report points to a certain pattern of behavior intended to attain knowledge of hidden secrets of the Law.» — cómo lo lee Idel.

«The fact that it was used several times points to the apparently technical nature of the pattern.» — y el argumento con que le da carácter técnico, con su grado.

«We can see that in early Hasidism and in the practice of their opponents, the Mitnaggedim, weeping was employed as a component of mystical technique.» — el balance con que cierra: llanto como técnica en el hasidismo temprano y también entre los mitnagdim.

«An interesting example of the relationship between weeping and revelation is reported by R. Isaac Yehudah Yehiel Safrin, in his Megillat Setarim and Netiv Mizvotekha, in which he relates an experience of his own.» — el testimonio siguiente: R. Isaac Yehudah Yehiel Safrin narrando una experiencia propia.

«I shall present here a combined version of this mystical confession, based on the author's account in these two books:» — y cómo declara Idel haber armado la cita, con dos libros a la vista.

«In 1845, on the twenty-first day of the ‘Omer, I was in the town of Dukla.*° I arrived there late at night, and it was dark and there was no one to take me home, except for a tanner who came and took me into his house. I wanted to pray Ma'ariv and to count the ‘Omer, but I was unable to do it there, so I went to the Beit Midrash alone, and there I prayed until midnight had passed. And I understood from this situation the plight of the Shekhinah in exile,*° and her suffering when she is standing in the market of tanners.*’ And I wept many times before the Lord of the world, out of the depth of my heart, for the suffering of the Shekhinah. And through my suffering and weeping, I fainted and I fell asleep for a while, and I saw a vision of light,*® splendor and great brightness, in the image of a young woman? adorned with twenty-four ornaments.© . . . And she said: “Be strong, my son,” and so on. And I was suffering that I could not see but the vision of her back®! and I was not worthy to receive her face. And I was told that {this was because} I am alive, and it is written, “for no man shall see me, and live.”» — el relato de Safrin: el llanto por el sufrimiento de la Shekhiná en el mercado de curtidores y la visión de la joven adornada con veinticuatro ornamentos, vista solo de espaldas.

«The vision of the feminine apparition possessing maternal features—she calls R. Isaac “my son” —is characteristic of the Kabbalistic image of weeping, and is shared by the visions of R. Abraham Berukhim and R. Hayyim Vital.» — el rasgo común que Idel encuentra en las tres visiones.

«R. Levi Isaac of Berdichev must also have experienced such a vision.» — y el cuarto caso que añade, con su grado.

«And it happened to the holy R. Levi Isaac, that on the evening of Shavu'ot he achieved the vision of the Shekhinah in the image of. . . and she said to him: ‘My» — el pasaje que Safrin recoge sobre R. Levi Isaac y su visión de la Shekhiná; los puntos suspensivos son del propio texto, que censura la descripción, y el tramo se corta por el cambio de plana.

«son, Levi Isaac, be strong, for many troubles will befall you, but be strong, my son, for I shall be with you.’» — y lo que la aparición le dice: que le sobrevendrán muchas tribulaciones y que ella estará con él.

«R. Levi Isaac therefore also experienced a vision of Shekhinah, who appeared to him as a young woman, although R. Isaac Safrin censored this word, just as he did when he related his own vision shortly thereafter.» — lo que Idel señala del texto: Safrin censura la palabra que describe a la aparición, igual que al narrar la suya.

«Moreover, the time when the well-known master of Hasidism attained this vision is also significant for two reasons; the eve of Shavu'ot is close in time to the period when Safrin experienced his own vision, on the twenty-first day of the ‘Omer; in addition, the night of Shavu'ot was the precise time when two noted Kabbalists received their revalation of Shekhinah. I refer to the vigil of R. Joseph Karo and R. Solomon ha-Levi Alkabez.» — las dos razones por las que la fecha le importa a Idel, con la vigilia de Karo y Alkabez al fondo.

«Therefore, R. Levi Isaac attempted to imitate the experience of his Kabbalist predecessors.» — y la conclusión que saca.

«Safrin, however, does not even hint at the experience of these two sixteenth-century figures, although it is impossible to assume that he was unaware of it, as it was printed in the famous Sheney Luhot ha-Berit.» — el silencio que Idel señala en Safrin y por qué le extraña.

«His failure to mention it is all the more inexplicable since he alludes to the less well-known cases of R. Abraham Berukhim and R. Hayyim Vital.» — y qué lo hace más extraño.

«But the answer to the quandary is simple and highly relevant to the understanding of Safrin'’s view.» — cómo anuncia Idel la salida a esa perplejidad.

«The revelation of the Shekhinah {happens} by means of and following the suffering that one is caused to suffer, by means of which he feels the suffering of the Shekhinah, and the fact that this relevation has a form and an image is on account of his being corporeal.”» — el encabezado del propio Safrin, que Idel toma por respuesta: la revelación viene tras el sufrimiento, y tiene forma e imagen por la corporeidad del que la recibe.

«This title postulates a visual relevation of the Shekbinah as a female image resulting from suffering —two elements that are absent in the vigil of Karo and Alkabez.» — los dos elementos que, según Idel, faltan en la vigilia de Karo y Alkabez (el facsímil imprime *relevation* y *Shekbinah*).

«In their session, the Shekhinah was audible through the lips of Karo, but invisible.» — y en qué consistió aquella otra experiencia.

«Safrin and the examples he adduces deal exclusively with the visible revelations of the Shekhinah.» — de qué trata en cambio la serie de Safrin.

«Furthermore, in the Shavu'ot vigil the technique used by the Kabbalists entailed study of various passages excerpted from Jewish classical sources.» — la técnica de aquella vigilia, según Idel.

«If participation in and affliction for the fate of the Shekhinab occurred, these were the result of the revelation, not its cause.» — y el orden invertido que señala entre sufrimiento y revelación en los dos grupos de casos.

«In the cases of Abraham Berukhim, Hayyim Vital, Levi Isaac, and Safrin, weeping preceded the appearance of the Shekhinah.» — el orden que rige en la otra serie.

«In other words, Saftin viewed self-induced suffering culminating in weeping as a technique for contemplating the image of the Shekhinah.» — la fórmula con que Idel resume la posición de Safrin (el facsímil imprime *Saftin*).

«He seems to have striven for the vision of the face of the Shekhinah, a quest similiar to Vital’s desire, but he was prevented from doing so because of his human condition.» — y a qué aspiraba, con el impedimento que el propio texto declara.

«The activation of the eye ends in a visual experience.» — la correlación que Idel establece entre órgano activado y tipo de revelación.

«In the case of Karo and Alkabez, the organ activated was the lips; indeed, the Shekhinah spoke from» — y su contraparte en el caso de Karo y Alkabez; la frase se corta por el cambio de plana.

«The correlation between the technique and the nature of the revelation is striking; Safrin regarded weeping as a trigger for the mystical experience.» — el papel que Idel le adjudica al llanto en Safrin.

«We can propose an even more elaborate explanation: his presence at night in a small town was a premeditated device intended to induce a state of deep melancholy culminating in weeping.» — la explicación más elaborada que propone: la noche en un pueblo pequeño como recurso premeditado para inducir melancolía.

«His journey to Dukla can be seen as part of a self-imposed exile, a Ga/ut imitating the self-exile of the Shekhinah; the reward for this “participation mystique” was the revelation of the Shekhinah.» — y cómo lee el viaje mismo: un exilio propio que imita el de la Shekhiná.

«As it took place during the period between Passover and Shavu' ot, we can suppose that the journey was a preparatory exercise in suffering and weeping whose goal was the revelation on the eve of Shavu'ot; the Shekhinah, however, made its appearance sooner than expected.» — la suposición con que Idel fecha el ejercicio y la sorpresa que él mismo consigna.

«According to another passage from Safrin, penitential prayer performed with weeping and a broken heart may bring about the appearance of divine light and a “second birth.”» — el segundo efecto que Safrin le adjudica al llanto, con su grado.

«But the most important case in which weeping is used in order to induce an experience of the Shekhinah is absent from Safrin’s collection of examples in Netiv Mizvotekha.» — el caso que Idel echa en falta en la propia colección de Safrin.

«It was his [R. Zevi Hirsch’s} custom regarding the matter of holiness to pray in order to bring upon himself a state of suffering, uneasiness and affliction on every eve of Sabbath. This was done in order ro efface himself completely before the Sabbath, so as to be able to receive his light,’? blessed be he, during the prayer and the meal of the Sabbath [eve] with a pure, holy, and clear heart. This was his custom regarding the matter of holiness, owing to his constant fear lest arrogant and alien thoughts would enter his heart. Once, on the feast of Shavu'ot, hundreds of people crowded around him. Before the [morning] prayer, with the {first} light of dawn, I entered one of his rooms, but he did not see me, for he was pacing about the room to and fro, weeping and causing heaven and earth to weep with him before God. 7? And it is impossible to write it down. And he humbled himself before God with a mighty weeping, supplicating that he not be rejected from the light of his face.» — el relato sobre R. Zevi Hirsch de Zhidachov: la costumbre de pedir sufrimiento cada víspera de sábado y el llanto que hacía llorar al cielo y a la tierra.

«Shekhinah, and I opened the door and ran away.» — y el efecto sobre el testigo, que cierra el relato: un gran temblor ante el temor de la Shekhiná y la huida; la frase arranca en el segmento anterior del troceo.

«According to this report of R. Isaac Safrin, R. Zevi Hirsch’s self-afflictions were a means of preparing himself to receive the divine light on the Sabbath eve, as well as on at least some feasts; weeping, however, is related only in connection with the Shavu'ot account.» — cómo lee Idel esas autoaflicciones y el límite que pone sobre el llanto.

«Moreover, Safrin witnessed an overwhelming feeling of the presence of the divine countenance, seemingly induced by the self-abasement and weeping of his uncle.» — y lo que el testigo declara haber sentido, con su grado.

«an experience is clear evidence that R. Zevi Hirsch himself intended to induce such an experience;» — el argumento con que Idel sostiene que R. Zevi Hirsch buscaba esa experiencia, pese a que el texto no la nombre; la frase arranca en la plana anterior.

«that the occasion of this event is Shavu' ot is evidence, too, that the master from Zhidachov is continuing an already existing tradition concerning the possibility of experiencing the presence of the Shekhinah on Shavu'» — y qué prueba la fecha, según él: la continuación de una tradición ya existente sobre la presencia de la Shekhiná en Shavuot.

«but here we learn for the first time of the occurrence of weeping as part of an actual practice.» — lo que ese testimonio añade a los predecesores que Idel ya había nombrado.

«Safrin’s vision of the Shekhinah can now be seen in the context of a broader mystical endeavor, cultivated in Hasidic circles, to attain experiences of the Shekhinah, and we can well assume that this was a continuation of earlier Kabbalistic practices.» — el marco en que Idel sitúa entonces la visión de Safrin, con su grado.

«By much weeping, like a well, and suffering I became worthy to be transformed into “a flowing stream, a fountain of wisdom”;’© no secret was revealed to me, nor a wondrous apprehension, but afterward I became like dust and wept before the Creator of the universe like a spring, lest I should be rejected from the light of his face, and for the sake of gaining apprehensions out of the source of wisdom, and I became as a flowing well, weeping.» — la confesión de Safrin al final de su comentario al Zohar: llanto como pozo hasta volverse manantial de sabiduría.

«This voluminous commentary on the Zohar, one of the most comprehensive of its kind, was composed, according to the author's confession, with the help of revelations triggered by, among other things, weeping.» — cómo lee Idel esa confesión: un comentario extenso compuesto con ayuda de revelaciones desencadenadas por el llanto.

«As late as the second half of the nineteenth century, the old mystical technique of weeping was still being practiced in order to attain the same goals alluded to in Midrash Hallel: visual revelation and disclosure of secrets.» — hasta cuándo llega la técnica, según Idel, y con qué fines.

«I once woke in {the middle} of the night and wept greatly with a broken heart before God, for the exile of the Shekhinah and of the community of Israel, the holy ones who are suffering . . . and I woke up after the middle of the night on the second day as well, and I wept even more than the previous day for the same things. And before daybreak I went to sleep for half an hour, so that my mind would be calm and tranquil for the [morning] prayer. And during my sleep I saw in a dream that I was standing in the Land of Israel.’ . . . and it is possible that because of this dream which I was worthy to see, that Old Holy Man’? gave me the strength to interpret the holy book of the Zohar.» — el testimonio de R. Eliezer Zevi Safrin: dos noches de llanto por el exilio de la Shekhiná y el sueño que le da fuerza para interpretar el Zohar.

«In all the cases analyzed, the practice of weeping was attributed to, or practiced by, figures who were part of the Jewish elite; in other words, it was nowhere recommended that weeping be popularly used as a means of inducing the vision of the Shekhinah.» — la primera observación general de Idel sobre esa práctica: siempre atribuida o practicada por figuras de la élite.

«It was intended for, and indeed practiced by, the very few who were interested in experiencing such a vision.» — y para quiénes.

«The passages quoted above are excerpted from texts that did not belong to the mainstreams of talmudic-midrashic literature.» — la segunda observación: los pasajes no vienen de la corriente principal de la literatura talmúdico-midrásica.

«The absence of halakhic treatment of mystical weeping is no mere matter of chance; rabbinic thought proposed alternative means to attain the goals of mystical weeping.» — y cómo la explica Idel.

«According to one dictum, the study of the Torah for its own sake is rewarded by the disclosure of its secrets to the student;8° a midrashic statement recommends the study of the Torah in the Land of Israel for whoever wishes to contemplate the Shekhinah.» — las vías alternativas que el pensamiento rabínico ofrecía, según él.

«Thus, the nomian way of receiving secrets or visions of the Shekhinah did not include weeping but provided an avenue not only for the elite but for all Jews.» — la diferencia de alcance que Idel señala entre las dos vías.

«Again, the aforementioned revelations were described as attained in a state of desolation and mourning for the sake of the Shekhinah and participation in her suffering because of an incapacity to learn Torah.» — la tercera observación: el estado de desolación y duelo en que se describen esas revelaciones.

«A talmudic-midrashic view concerning the indwelling of the Shekhinah, however, affirms that “the Shekhinah does not dwell {on one] either through sadness, or laziness, or frivolity of mind, but through the joy of performing a commandment.”» — y el dicho talmúdico-midrásico que Idel pone al lado: la Shekhiná no mora por tristeza ni por pereza sino por el gozo del mandamiento.

«Thus, there is an overt contradiction between the talmudic requirements and the mystical weeping triggered by an initial state of desolation.» — la contradicción que Idel consigna sin armonizarla.

«These remarks heighten the anomian character of the weeping technique; whatever it promises can be attained as well within the framework of classical halakhic activities, such as the study of Torah or the performance of commandments.» — lo que esas tres observaciones subrayan, según él.

«As the earliest evidence of the existence of this technique is ancient, it seems to me that the practice must have been suppressed in rabbinic sources for a long period but was revived upon the emergence of Kabbalah, which was interested in attaining mystical experiences far beyond the “normal mysticism” inherent in the rabbinic system.» — la hipótesis que Idel propone, con su grado: una práctica antigua suprimida en las fuentes rabínicas y revivida al surgir la cábala.

«A closer inspection of the ancient materials in the above discussions seems to deny the likelihood that the medieval practices were propagated through the perusal of ancient literary evidence alone.» — y lo que descarta como explicación, con su grado.

«It is hardly reasonable to assume that Midrash Hallel, for example, is the source of the later practices.» — el caso concreto que descarta.

«Therefore, assuming that there are no crucial texts that have escaped my examination of the pertinent literature,» — la salvedad con que Idel prepara su conclusión, referida a su propio barrido; la frase se corta por el cambio de plana.

«we can presume the oral transmission of this ancient mystical technique, probably among the elite.» — y la conclusión misma, con su grado: transmisión oral de la técnica, probablemente entre la élite.

«I should like to note that early Christian ascetic traditions may have been influenced®4 by ancient Jewish traditions concerning the mystical possibilities inherent in weeping and, directly or indirectly, Sufi asceticism as well.» — la conjetura comparativa que añade, marcada como tal.

«These kinds of ascetic practices have been presented in unrestrained ways, as neither Christianity nor Islam was interested in obliterating extreme types of asceticism.» — y la asimetría que señala entre las tres religiones.

«This proposal is, for the time being, a hypothesis, as no significant research has been conducted in this direction.» — el estatuto que le da a su propia propuesta.

«But the very fact that such an ascetic practice existed in ancient Jewish texts, as well as later on, may foster a novel approach to this issue.» — y lo que espera de ella.

«Finally, a brief remark on the psychological mechanism triggering these experiences: weeping is never described as a discrete practice; it is always part of a more elaborate sequence of ascetic exercises—fasting, mourning, self-induced suffering—and is commonly their last step.» — la observación psicológica con que cierra: el llanto nunca aparece suelto sino como último paso de una secuencia ascética.

«In some instances, the mystic is actually exhausted by the time he begins weeping; a state of falling asleep or sometimes previous fainting gives concrete evidence of this exhaustion.» — y el estado en que llega el místico a ese punto.

«On the other hand, the hyperactivation of the ocular system represents a concentration on one mode of perception at the very moment when all other doors of perception are progressively being repressed.» — cómo describe Idel el mecanismo: hiperactivación del sistema ocular mientras se reprimen las demás puertas de la percepción.

«This new balance of stimuli prepares the way for paranormal states of consciousness focused upon visual experiences.» — y adónde conduce ese nuevo equilibrio de estímulos.

«In such cases, the ideas or concepts upon which one has focused his intellectual and emotional activity tend to reveal themselves through the hyperexcited medium.» — qué se revela entonces, según él.

«From a more strictly psychological point of view, the visions that follow a painful and sorrowful state of mind can be related to what Marganita Laski designated as “desolation ecstasies.”» — y con qué categoría ajena lo empareja: los éxtasis de desolación de Marganita Laski.

«The next type of mystical technique I wish to present is the ascent of the soul in order to perceive the supermundane entities—the Merkavah, the seat of glory, the angelic company, or God himself—as well as to receive sublime secrets.» — la segunda técnica que Idel expone y para qué sirve.

«The following presentation will exclude discussion of bodily journeys to heaven, on the one hand, and the mental ascent from the material to the spiritual, on the other.» — lo que deja fuera de esa exposición.

«My focus will be, rather, on the celestial ascent of the soul, in which the body is left below, commonly in a cataleptic situation or during the night’s sleep, in order to undergo a paranormal experience and return to the body thereafter.» — y en qué se centra: el ascenso celestial del alma con el cuerpo abajo, cataléptico o dormido.

«This device is part of a more complex technique, including reciting divine names, chanting hymns, fasting, and assuming special bodily postures.» — los componentes de esa técnica.

«These components, as well as the act of ascent, have nothing to do with halakhic prescriptions and may therefore be classified as an anomian type of mystical technique.» — y por qué Idel la clasifica como anómica.

«The ascent of the soul has been repeatedly discussed by scholars of ancient religions; the long sequence of studies dedicated to this topic renders superfluous any further presentation of the basic facts concerning this matter.» — por qué Idel se ahorra la exposición básica del asunto.

«As Smith indicates, Paul attributed an ascent to Jesus,?* saying that he was caught up to the third heaven “whether in the body or out of the body.”» — y el apoyo paulino que Smith aduce, según Idel.

«Therefore, the conception of the soul ascending to Paradise— “out of the body” —for the sake of an ineffable experience, even before death, was current among Jews of the first century.» — lo que Idel da por establecido con eso.

«This obviously represents a concept different from the more widespread belief in the possibility of bodily ascent to heaven, which seems to have prevailed much earlier.» — y de qué lo distingue.

«This mystical perception of celestial ascent is a remarkable parallel to the frequent ascent of the soul to heaven in order “to draw life” for her body during the night.» — el paralelo que Idel señala con el ascenso nocturno del alma para traer vida al cuerpo.

«According to some discussions in Heikhalot literature, it is obvious that, alongside what was seemingly conceived as bodily ascent, the ancient Jewish mystics also practiced ascent of the soul.» — lo que Idel sostiene sobre la literatura de Heikhalot.

«In Hezkhalot Rabbati, R. Nehuniya ben ha-Kaneh is described as sitting in the Temple, apparently in Elijah’s posture, while contemplating the divine chariot and the wondrous glory.» — el pasaje del Heikhalot Rabbati en que se apoya: R. Nehuniya sentado en el Templo, al parecer en la postura de Elías, contemplando la carroza.

«As it is evident that R. Nehuniya was in the world and at the same time also contemplating on high, it must be assumed that it was his soul that ascended above.» — y el argumento con que Idel lo lee como ascenso del alma.

«There, the “descenders to the chariot” were requested to employ worthy amanuenses, whose role was to record the revelations of the mystics.» — el segundo pasaje: los descensores a la carroza pidiendo amanuenses que registraran las revelaciones.

«Thus, those who did not ascend (or descend) to the Merkavah heard what was revealed to those who did, from the latter's mouths.» — cómo circulaba entonces lo revelado, según Idel.

«I presume that the mystics, whose bodies remained in this world while their souls wandered in the higher realms, functioned as transmitters of supernal secrets through the collection of their speeches by their amanuenses.» — y la suposición con que lo formula: los místicos como transmisores de secretos supernales por boca de sus amanuenses.

«Many scholars thought that one who is distinguished by many qualities described in the books, when he seeks to behold the Merkavah and the palaces of the angels on high, he must follow a certain procedure. He must fast a number of days and place his head between his knees and whisper» — el responsum de R. Hai Gaón que Idel cita: ayunar, poner la cabeza entre las rodillas y susurrar himnos para contemplar la Merkavá.

«many hymns and songs whose texts are known from tradition.» — y de dónde vienen esos himnos, según el mismo responsum.

«his heart] as if he saw the seven palaces with his own eyes, and it is as though he entered one palace after another and saw what is there. And there are two mishnayot which the sannaim taught!> regarding this topic, called the Greater Heikhalot and the Lesser Heikhalot, and this matter is well knownand widespread. Regarding these contemplations, the tanna taught: “Four entered Pardes’—those palaces were alluded to by the term Pardes, and they were designated by this name... . For God . . . shows to the righteous, in their interior, the visions of his palaces and the position of his angels.» — la continuación del responsum: el que percibe en las cámaras de su corazón como si viera los siete palacios, y la lectura de los cuatro que entraron en el Pardés.

«The contemplation of the Merkavah is here compared to the entrance into Pardes, both of which activities are, according to R. Hai Gaon, allegories for the inner experience attained by the mystics.» — cómo entiende R. Hai Gaón esa contemplación, según Idel: como alegoría de una experiencia interior.

«I believe that the mystical flight of the soul to the Merkavah has here been interpreted allegorically; the supernal palaces can be gazed at and contemplated not by referring to an external event but by concentrating upon one’s own “chambers.”» — la lectura que Idel declara como creencia propia.

«The scene of revelation is thus no longer the supermundane hierarchy of palaces, but the human consciousness.» — y adónde se traslada el escenario de la revelación.

«According to a younger contemporary of R. Hai Gaon, R. Nathan of Rome, the gaon’s intention was that the ancient mystics!©° “do not ascend on high, but that they see and envision in the chambers of their heart like a man who sees and envisions something clearly with his eyes, and they hear and tell and speak by means of a seeing eye, !°° by the divine spirit.”» — la glosa que R. Nathan de Roma le da a esa posición, según Idel: no ascienden, sino que ven en las cámaras de su corazón.

«Therefore, the earliest interpretation of R. Hai’s view emphasizes inner vision rather than mystical ascent.» — lo que Idel concluye de esa glosa temprana.

«This type of mystical epistemology is congruent with Hai’s view concerning the revelation of the glory of God to the prophets through the “understanding of the heart”—’ovanta' de-libba’.» — con qué otra tesis del mismo autor la hace congruente.

«Therefore, far from expounding a mystical ascent of the soul, the gaon offers a radical reinterpretation of ancient Jewish mysticism.» — cómo caracteriza Idel la operación de R. Hai Gaón.

«In the vein of more rationalistic approaches, he effaces the ecstatic or shamanic aspects of the Heikhalot experiences in favor of their psychological interpretation.» — y qué borra esa reinterpretación, según él.

«Although I imagine that this recasting of an earlier religious mentality was motivated by R. Hai’s adherence to rationalist thinking,1°” I cannot ignore the possibility that his psychological perception» — el motivo que Idel le imagina y la posibilidad que no descarta, ambos marcados por él mismo.

«But even if such early understandings of Merkavah mysticism indeed existed, they were seemingly marginal in comparison to the bodily and spiritual ascent cultivated by the Heikhalot mystics.» — el límite que Idel le pone a su propia conjetura sobre lecturas tempranas de la Merkavá.

«This kind of rationalization consistently reveals a reserved attitude toward the object of interpretation;» — lo que revela toda racionalización de ese tipo, según Idel.

«therefore, R. Hai Gaon seems to have been reacting against a relatively common practice, as we may infer from his remark “and this is a widespread and well-known matter.”» — y qué deduce de ahí sobre R. Hai Gaón, con la frase del propio responsum como apoyo.

«Even the opening statement of the quotation, although formulated in the past tense, bears evidence of the recognition of the technique by “many scholars.”» — el segundo indicio que Idel extrae del mismo texto.

«On the ground of R. Hai’s passage we can therefore conclude that the use of Elijah’s posture in order to attain paranormal states of consciousness perceived as visions of the Merkavah was still on the agenda of Jewish mystics, notwithstanding R. Hai Gaon’s attempt to attenuate some of its “uncanny”» — la conclusión que Idel saca: la postura de Elías seguía en la agenda de los místicos judíos pese al intento de R. Hai Gaón de atenuar sus rasgos inquietantes.

«The main heirs of Heikhalot mysticism were the Ashkenazic Hasidic masters of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, who preserved the ancient texts, probably redacted parts of them, and, I assume, also continued the practice of their mystical techniques.» — a quiénes adjudica Idel la herencia de la mística de Heikhalot, con la suposición que él mismo marca.

«Some of the figures related to Franco-Ashkenazic Jewish culture were regarded as “prophets”! or as having various types of intercourse with the higher worlds.» — cómo se designaba a algunas de esas figuras.

«asked questions, and his soul ascended to heaven in order to seek [answers to} his doubts. He shut himself in a room for three days and ordered that it not be opened. But the men of his house peered between the gates {!], and they saw that his body was flung down like a stone. And so he laid for three days, shut in and motionless on his bed like a dead man. After three days he came to life and rose to his feet, and from thence on he was called R. Mikhael the Angel.» — el relato sobre R. Mikhael el Ángel: tres días encerrado, el cuerpo tendido como una piedra, y el regreso.

«Thus, the ascent heavenward was a technique to solve problems.» — para qué servía el ascenso en ese caso, según Idel.

«The nature of the questions is not specified in this passage, but on the basis of the range of questions asked of heavenly instances, they may include both halakhic and theological issues.» — y la abstención con que trata el contenido de esas preguntas.

«The soul of the prophet from the city of Moncontour ascended to heaven and heard the living creatures singing before God a certain song;» — el relato sobre R. ‘Ezra de Moncontour: el alma que asciende y oye el canto de las criaturas vivientes; el tramo se corta por el cambio de plana.

«awoke he remembered this song and told his experience as it was, and they wrote down the song.”» — y su desenlace: al despertar recordaba el canto, lo contó y lo pusieron por escrito.

«This particular technique of composing verses is not, however, unique.» — lo que Idel dice de esa técnica de componer versos.

«The prominent early medieval paytan R. Eleazar ha-Kallir is described as having ascended to heaven and asked the Archangel Michael the manner in which the angels sing and how their songs are composed. Afterward he descended and composed a poem according to the same alphabetical order.» — el precedente que aduce: R. Eleazar ha-Kallir preguntándole al arcángel Miguel cómo cantan los ángeles.

«Interestingly, R. Eleazar ascended to heaven by the use of the divine name, an ascent technique attributed by Rashi to the four who entered Pardes!!®—no doubt an affinity expressing an attempt to include this famous poet among the Merkavah mystics.» — el medio de ascenso que ese relato le atribuye y lo que Idel lee en ello.

«This also seems to be the tendency of another report concerning this poet; R. Zedakiah ben Abraham! states in the name of his father, who heard it from his masters, the Ashkenazic sages, that while R. Eleazar was composing his well-known poem, The Fourfold Living Creatures, “fire surrounded him.”» — el segundo relato sobre el mismo poeta: el fuego que lo rodeaba al componer.

«This phrase has an obvious connection with the mystical study of sacred texts or discussions of Merkavah topics, particularly in the Merkavah tradition.» — con qué conecta Idel esa expresión.

«Again, ina third description of R. Eleazar, likewise of Ashkenazic origin, he is referred to as “the angel of God,”!?? an epithet reminiscent of R. Mikhael mentioned above.» — el tercer relato y el epíteto que comparte con R. Mikhael (el facsímil pega *ina* donde va *in a*).

«Thus, R. ’Ezra of Moncontour’s study in the celestial academy via the ascent of his soul, and his transmission of a poem he heard there, find close parallels in the tradition regarding a much earlier person, portrayed with the help of motifs connected with the Merkavah traditions.» — el paralelo que Idel cierra entre los dos casos.

«The ascent of the soul gained a certain impetus from the Safedian Kabbalah onward.» — el impulso que Idel le adjudica a la cábala de Safed en este punto.

«whose soul ascended nightly to the heavens, and whom the attending angels came to accompany to the celestial academy. They asked him: “To what academy do you wish to go?” Sometimes he said that he wished to visit the academy of R. Simeon bar Yohai, or the academy of R. ‘Akiva or that of R. Eliezer the Great or those of other tannaim and amoraim, or of the prophets. And to whichever of those academies he wished to go, the angels would take him. The next day, he would disclose to the sages what he received in that academy.» — el relato sobre Isaac Luria: los ángeles que cada noche lo llevaban a la academia celestial que él pidiera.

«This quote reveals one of two ways by means of which the mystic may acquire supernal secrets of the Kabbalah: he may either ascend to study Torah together with ancient figures, as above, or else be taught by Elijah or others who descend in order to reveal Kabbalistic secrets, as we read in other texts concerning Luria.» — las dos vías que Idel distingue para adquirir secretos supernales: ascender a estudiar con los antiguos, o ser enseñado por Elías u otros que descienden.

«The frequency of heavenly ascent is indeed remarkable: every night Luria visited one of the celestial academies and thereafter transmitted the teachings» — lo que a Idel le llama la atención de ese relato: la frecuencia del ascenso.

«This perception of Luria is no doubt closely connected to the huge amount of Kabbalistic material he communicated that produced the extensive Lurianic literature.» — con qué relaciona Idel esa imagen de Luria.

«Nor is the description of the celestial academies as the mystical source of this esoteric lore any novelty in Kabbalah.» — y el límite que le pone a la novedad de ese motivo.

«to ascend from the lower academy to the supernal academy and to subsist from the splendor of the Shekhinah!?6 and not worry about his sons or the members of his family, because of his great cleaving.”» — el pasaje de R. Shem Tov ibn Gaon: ascender de la academia inferior a la supernal y subsistir del esplendor de la Shekhiná sin preocuparse por los suyos.

«Significantly, immediately prior to this passage, R. Shem Tov mentions the need to fathom intellectually the secrets of the Merkavah and the structures of the Creation.» — el contexto que Idel destaca de ese pasaje.

«The result is not only beatific or divine visions but also an impressive explosion of literary creativity, consisting in “copying” the contents revealed in his mind as if from a book.» — y el resultado que ese texto describe: una explosión de creatividad literaria, como copiar de un libro lo revelado en la mente.

«The affinity of this description to Luria’s own creativity is startling; we must remember that R. Shem Tov’s work quoted above was partially composed in Safed, where he lived during his last years.» — la afinidad que Idel señala con Luria, y el dato biográfico con que la apoya.

«Such perceptions of the celestial academy as a source of mystical revelations recur in the visions of Solomon Molkho, at least one of which appears shortly after a reference to dream revelations.» — el tercer caso: las visiones de Solomon Molkho.

«Although these texts make no explicit mention of the ascent of the soul, I assume, from the fact that these were events connected to dreams, that we can infer in Molkho as well the existence of a visionary technique perceived as a spiritual ascent to a higher academy.» — la inferencia que Idel propone sobre Molkho, con el supuesto marcado.

«Thus, Luria’s portrayal as a mystic adept in these celestial universes is not an invention of Kabbalistic thought.» — lo que concluye de esa serie.

«We find several discussions of spiritual ascent in the writings of Luria’s main disciple, R. Hayyim Vital.» — dónde sigue el rastro.

«Once I fainted deeply for an hour, and a huge number of old men and many women came to watch me, and the house was completely full of them, and they all were worried for me. Afterwards the swoon passed and I opened my eyes and said, “Know that just now my soul ascended to the seat of glory, and they sent my soul back to this world in order to preach before you and lead you in the way of repentance!?° and in matters of charity.”» — el sueño de R. Isaac Alatif que Vital consigna: el desmayo, el ascenso al trono de gloria y el retorno con encargo de predicar.

«Although the dream itself concerns Vital, one cannot infer from it his own stand regarding this technique.» — la abstención con que Idel trata ese testimonio.

«the seat of glory has a certain mystical implication, perhaps an effort to contemplate God, such as Vital attempted according to one of his dreams.» — lo que Idel sí se permite suponer sobre ese ascenso al trono de gloria; la frase arranca en la plana anterior.

«The cataleptic state here reminds one of the earlier description of R. Mikhael the Angel.» — el paralelo que traza con el estado cataléptico de R. Mikhael.

«R. Israel Ba’al Shem Tov was well known for his practice of soul ascent.» — el caso siguiente.

«On Rosh ha-Shanah of the year 5507 {1746}, I performed an incantation for the ascent of the soul, known to you. And in that vision I saw wondrous things, which I had never seen until then from the day that I became spiritually aware.» — la epístola del Ba‘al Shem Tov a su cuñado: el encantamiento para el ascenso del alma y la visión que dice no haber tenido nunca antes.

«But when I returned to the lower Paradise, I saw the souls of living and of dead persons, both of those with whom I was acquainted and of those with whom I was not acquainted . . . numberless, in a to-and-fro movement, ascending from one» — y lo que vio en el paraíso inferior: almas de vivos y de muertos en movimiento de ida y vuelta.

«after degree, until I entered the palace of the Messiah.» — y el final del ascenso, que en el troceo queda del otro lado del corte de chunk: grado tras grado hasta el palacio del Mesías.

«Thus, in 1746, R. Israel was already familiar with the practice of ascending heavenward. In order to attain this experience, which surpassed all his previous ascents, he made use of a device known also to his brother-in-law, R. Gershon of Kutow.» — lo que Idel fecha con esa epístola: en 1746 el Ba‘al Shem Tov ya conocía la práctica, y el recurso lo compartía con su cuñado.

«The mystical nature of the revelations received by R. Israel is obvious, concerning as they did the eschatological meaning of the dissemination of his mystical teachings.» — el contenido de esas revelaciones, según Idel.

«One of the anticipated results of the spread of Hasidic lore would be, the Messiah told R. Israel, that all Jews would become able to “perform yhudim and ascensions’ as he did.» — lo que el Mesías le anuncia en esa epístola: que todos los judíos podrían hacer *yihudim* y ascensos como él.

«This inclusion of the ascent as a common ideal is highly significant; until then a privilege for a small elite, it was included in the Hasidic program to be diffused to a larger public.» — por qué le importa a Idel ese anuncio: un privilegio de élite incorporado al programa hasídico.

«Another known ascent is that of 1750, introduced by the phrase “and on Rosh ha-Shanah 1750 I performed an ascent of soul, as is known.”» — el segundo ascenso fechado que Idel registra.

«From this epistle it seems obvious that the practice of spiritual ascent was a common experience for the founder of Hasidism.» — lo que deduce del conjunto de la epístola.

«Indeed, he is described as disclosing to one of his followers that each night, when he ascended above, he was preceded by R. Hayyim ben 'Atar, his older contemporary and a paragon of Eastern Jewish mysticism.» — el testimonio que añade: R. Hayyim ben ‘Atar precediéndolo cada noche en el ascenso.

«According to R. Israel, ben 'Atar was more rapid in his ascent, although he considered himself superior to the Moroccan sage.» — y la comparación que el propio Ba‘al Shem Tov establece.

«Moreover, this list can easily be expanded to include at least one leading figure of R. Israel's entourage. R. Yehiel Mikhael of Zloczow, a student of the Besht and of the Great Maggid, was portrayed by R. Abraham Joshua Heschel of Apt as sleeping for only two reasons, one of them being his wish to ascend to heaven.» — el nombre que Idel añade a esa lista: R. Yehiel Mikhael de Zloczow, que según R. Abraham Joshua Heschel de Apt dormía para ascender.

«In the generations immediately following the death of the Besht, the importance of such spiritual ascents of the soul was manifestly attenuated. In lieu of this mystical technique, commonly connected with the state of sleep or of dreaming, the major students of the Great Maggid preferred mystical activities performed in a waking state.» — el declive que Idel fecha tras la muerte del Besht y qué lo reemplaza.

«During the mid-nineteenth century, however, there was a revival of interest in spiritual ascent.» — y el renacimiento que fecha a mediados del s. XIX.

«In some of R. Isaac Yehudah Yehiel Safrin’s writings, R. Israel's ascents are mentioned and elaborated upon far more than in Hasidic writings of the preceding hundred years.» — dónde lo ve.

«R. Israel is portrayed as attaining spiritual perfections, and he mentions, inter alia, “the ascents of the soul and ascents to Pardes” and “the apprehensions of R. ‘Akiva and his companions.”» — las expresiones que Safrin usa para esos ascensos, según Idel.

«The affinity between ascent of the soul and ascent to the Merkavah or to Pardes is self-evident.» — la afinidad que Idel da por evidente.

«We can easily perceive the connection between the two also in Safrin’s Hetkal ha-Berakhah, in which the journey of the four who entered Pardes is described as a celestial ascent, taking place after one had stripped himself of corporeality and uncleanness.» — y el segundo texto en que la ve: el viaje de los cuatro que entraron en el Pardés descrito como ascenso celestial.

«In contrast to the ancient discussion of the Pardes journey in which the ascent seems to have taken place iz corpore, for Safrin it is a spiritual experience.» — el contraste que Idel marca entre la lectura antigua y la de Safrin.

«Moreover, according to this Hasidic master, even Moses ascent to receive the Torah was an ascent of the soul.» — hasta dónde extiende Safrin esa lectura, según Idel.

«was thrown in the cloud with but little vitality, 44 as it is for all those who practice ascents of the soul, such as our master R. Israel the Besht, and others like him. {But} their body is thrown down like a stone for only a short hour or two, no more; however, Moses’ body was thrown down for forty days and {the vitality} returned to it after forty days, and he was {again} alive.» — el pasaje de Safrin sobre el cuerpo de Moisés: como el de los que practican ascensos del alma, pero tendido cuarenta días y no una hora.

«Moses was thus the incomparable master of ascent of the soul, as he sustained his mystical experience for an uncommonly long period and nevertheless returned to life.» — cómo queda Moisés en esa lectura.

«Thus, even the receiving of the Torah is seen as accomplished by the help of this mystical technique.» — y qué se sigue de ello.

«I performed a yihud and linked myself with the soul of our divine master, Isaac Luria. And from this union I was overcome by sleep, and I saw several souls until I was overwhelmed by awe and fear and trembling, as was my custom. And from this it seemed that I shall rise to greatness. 47 And I ascended further and I saw R. {Abraham] Joshua Heschel . . . and I awakened.» — la confesión del diario místico de Safrin: el *yihud* con el alma de Isaac Luria y las almas que vio.

«This experience was doubtless closely related to that of R. Israel Ba’al Shem Tov.» — con qué la relaciona Idel.

«It is rare, however, for a later mystic to confess that he seemingly employed this technique in order to communicate with the souls of the dead.» — lo que a Idel le parece raro en ese testimonio, con su grado.

«In any event, as late as 1845, !48 this ancient practice remained viable enough to be used.» — la fecha con que Idel mide la vigencia de la práctica.

«Even a superficial examination of the above material will yield the impression that nearly all of the medieval authors mentioned above in connection with heavenly journeys were of Franco-Ashkenazic extraction.» — el rasgo geográfico que Idel extrae de todo el material.

«I know of no Sephardic mystic involved in this type of mystical technique: Vital’s report might have been the result of Luria’s influence, while R. Hayyim ben ‘Atar’s practice of this technique, as attested by the Besht, is uncorroborated by authentic evidence from his writings or other independent testimonies.» — la ausencia que declara, con la reserva sobre su propio conocimiento, y las dos excepciones que examina y descarta.

«It is difficult to determine if this is a mere coincidence or whether this sequence of Ashkenazic authors who reported on ascent of the soul can be described as a continuous tradition.» — la duda que Idel plantea sobre esa concentración asquenazí.

«I tend to accept the second possibility, notwithstanding the serious gap between the evidence for the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and Luria.» — y por cuál se inclina, con el hueco que él mismo consigna.

«Interestingly, the extant material concerning the technique of weeping would seem to suggest a pattern similar to that of the ascent technique.» — el paralelo que traza con la técnica del llanto.

«In that case, the only exception seems to be in my proposed understanding of the Zohar passage; otherwise, we find only persons who were Ashkenazic by origin or under obvious Ashkenazic influence, such as Berukhim or Vital.» — la única excepción que reconoce, marcada como lectura propia.

«This conclusion holds true also in the case of a practice of oneiric divination: the majority of earliest European evidences for the usages of She'elat Halom are of Ashkenazic origin.» — el tercer caso que apunta en la misma dirección: la *She’elat Halom*.

«As we shall see in the following section, Abraham Abulafia’s mystical technique also derives from Ashkenazic sources.» — y el cuarto, que anuncia para la sección siguiente.

«We may therefore infer that the Ashkenazic provinces were an important source of older esoteric traditions—in our case, mystical techniques!50— which were at times accepted and adopted by Spanish Kabbalah, whereas others remained the patrimony of Ashkenazic culture alone.» — la inferencia que Idel saca sobre el papel de las provincias asquenazíes.

«This conclusion holds true not only for the movement of these techniques from the Rhineland to Provence and Spain but also for the transmission of important segments of Kabbalah in general, a point to be elaborated elsewhere.» — y hasta dónde extiende esa conclusión, con la promesa de desarrollarla en otro sitio.

«Ongoing recitations of letters and divine names are well-known techniques for the attainment of paranormal states of consciousness; they are used alike by Christian, '°! Muslim,'? Hindu,3 and Japanese» — la tercera técnica que Idel expone y su difusión fuera del judaísmo.

«Most, if not all, of these techniques seem to operate upon the consciousness of the mystic by enabling him to focus his attention upon a short phrase or sentence—‘“There is no God but Allah,” “Jesus Christ,” “Namou Amida Boutso”—or even a few letters, as in the Hindu Aum.» — cómo operan esas técnicas, según Idel: fijando la atención en una frase corta o en unas pocas letras.

«This relatively simple device is comparable to fixing one’s vision upon a point;!>> the mystic must escape the impact of external factors, and in this respect his activity is similar to that of someone undergoing sensory deprivation.» — con qué las compara.

«Ancient Jewish sources, primarily those of Heikhalot literature, present a technique closely parallel to those found in non-Jewish forms of mysticism.» — el paralelo judío antiguo que reconoce.

«In another type of Jewish technique, however, the psychological result is different, given the discrepancy between this technique and its parallels on one important issue—namely, the use by Jewish mystics of a complex and intricate system of letters to be pronounced or meditated upon.» — y dónde pone la diferencia: un sistema complejo de letras que pronunciar o meditar.

«Instead of the simple formulas of non-Jewish techniques, the Jewish texts evince elaborate combinations of letters with hundreds of components.» — la magnitud de esa diferencia.

«Moreover, as we shall see, according to Jewish practice the mystic had not only to pronounce them according to strict, fixed patterns but had also actively to construct these combinations as part of the mystical practice.» — y la segunda diferencia: el místico no solo pronuncia las combinaciones sino que debe construirlas.

«The effect of combinatory techniques was the result both of the process of their utterance and of the hyperactivation of the mind required to produce the contents that were pronounced.» — de dónde viene el efecto de esas técnicas, según Idel.

«These monotonous repetitions of well-known phrases or divine names thus achieved not a calmness or stillness of the mind but rather a high excitation of the mental processes, triggered by the unceasing need to combine letters, their vocalizations, and various bodily acts—movements of the head or hands or respiratory devices.» — y qué produce ese mecanismo: no calma sino alta excitación de los procesos mentales.

«Although superficially similar to a variety of mystical techniques based upon language, the Kabbalistic practice possessed an idiosyncratic psychological mechanism, only rarely occurring in such techniques.» — lo que Idel reclama como idiosincrásico de la práctica cabalística.

«combination forming the divine name appears for the first time in a work of R. Eleazar of Worms and, under his influence, among Spanish Kabbalists.» — dónde aparece por primera vez, según Idel, la técnica sistemática de combinación de letras del nombre divino —la frase arranca en la plana anterior—: en una obra de R. Eleazar de Worms y, por su influjo, entre cabalistas españoles.

«More than in the other examples of mystical techniques attested by Franco-German sources prior to their appearance in Spanish Kabbalah, in this case there are reliable indications that the repercussions of this technique in Spain were directly connected to the Ashkenazic culture.» — y por qué este caso le parece mejor documentado que los otros.

«Abraham Abulafia explicitly mentions R. Eleazar’s works as books he had studied; thus, the transition can easily be proven.» — el eslabón concreto que aduce.

«The other two Kabbalists of the late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries acquainted with combination techniques—R. Joseph ben Shalom Ashkenazi and R. David ben Yehudah he-Hasid—were either Ashkenazic by origin (the former) or had visited Germany (the latter).» — los otros dos cabalistas familiarizados con esas técnicas y su relación con Asquenaz.

«We can reasonably conclude, then, that the mystical techniques surveyed below passed from Germany to Spain.» — la conclusión que Idel saca, con su grado.

«According to the historical evidence, this movement took place only from the middle of the thirteenth century, thereby excluding Provencal and most Catalan theosophical Kabbalah from its influence.» — la fecha de ese movimiento y a quiénes deja fuera.

«Thus, in contrast to the Ashkenazic influence on the emergence of the Kabbalah in those centers with regard to theosophical issues, this mystical technique was cultivated in Spanish circles relatively late.» — el contraste que Idel establece entre la influencia teosófica y la técnica.

«The delay can be understood in terms of the topic’s esoteric nature, a feature that seems to be corroborated by the fact that, even centuries after R. Eleazar of Worms had recorded some details of this technique, they remained in manuscript, as did the mystical handbooks of Abulafia and his disciples.» — cómo explica ese retraso y con qué lo corrobora: el carácter esotérico del asunto y la permanencia manuscrita de esos manuales.

«Several indications of recitations of names—either angelic or divine—are extant in Heikhalot literature.» — el precedente antiguo de esas recitaciones.

«There is conclusive evidence that the pronunciation of mystical names was known and cultivated in Germany, at least during the lifetime of R. Eleazar of Worms.» — y el testimonio que Idel considera concluyente sobre Alemania.

«He pronounces the holy names or names of the angels in order to be shown {whatever} he wishes, or to inform him of a hidden matter, and then the Holy Spirit reveals itself to him, and his flesh... trembles . . . because of the strength of the Holy Spirit.”» — el pasaje del anónimo Sefer ha-Hayyim: pronunciar los nombres para que se le muestre lo oculto, y el temblor de la carne.

«The fiery attack by R. Moshe of Taku, written shortly after the floruit of R.» — el testimonio hostil que Idel aduce como prueba de la práctica; el tramo se corta por el límite de chunk.

«Eleazar, is highly instructive. He speaks of persons “void of understanding” and “heretics who pose as!®° prophets and are accustomed to pronouncing the holy names; and sometimes, they direct {their heart} when they read them {pronounce the names} and their soul is terrified. . .. But when the power of the pronounced name leaves him, he returns to his initial state of confused reason.» — y qué dice ese ataque: herejes que se hacen pasar por profetas, pronuncian los nombres santos, se aterran y luego vuelven a su confusión.

«azar’s statement that neither the divine names nor their vocalizations ought to be written down, lest those “devoid of understanding” use them.» — cómo entiende Idel la prohibición de R. Eleazar de poner por escrito los nombres divinos y sus vocalizaciones; la frase arranca en la plana anterior.

«R. Eleazar’s fears can easily be understood in light of the criticism of a more conservative figure such as Taku; significantly, both use the same phrase, haserey da'at, in order to describe those who make use of the divine names.» — y el detalle que lo apoya: los dos usan la misma expresión hebrea para los que manejan los nombres.

«some future things and spirits were revealed to us by means of the {divine?] attributes!©? through the pronunciations of the depths of the names!7° in order to know the spirit of the wisdoms.”» — la confesión de R. Eleazar de Worms que Idel cita: cosas futuras y espíritus revelados por la pronunciación de las profundidades de los nombres.

«The use of the phrase “revealed to us’ clearly shows that this refers to a practical technique, not a repetition of no longer active formulas;» — lo que Idel deduce de esa fórmula.

«therefore, the three above-mentioned statements, like the analogous evidence in the preceding section concerning the ascent of soul, are conclusive proof of the experiential use of the pronunciation of divine names.» — y el peso probatorio que le da al conjunto.

«The names cited by R. Eleazar shortly before the above text are mystical names already occurring in Jewish texts related to Heikhalot literature, such as Adiriron, Bihriron, and so on.» — qué nombres son esos, según Idel.

«Moreover, the assertion of this Ashkenazic Hasidic master that each of the forty-two letters of the divine name is a divine name in itself obviously reflects an ancient Jewish conception.» — y la tesis de R. Eleazar que Idel remite a una concepción judía antigua.

«It is therefore reasonable to assume that R. Eleazar preserved ancient mystical material and techniques that had been passed down to Spanish Kabbalists via the intermediacy of Ashkenazic masters, the most important of whom, Abraham Abulafia, elaborated upon the received traditions in a relatively detailed fashion.» — la cadena que Idel propone, con su grado: material y técnicas antiguas conservadas por R. Eleazar y pasadas a los cabalistas españoles por intermedio asquenazí.

«Abulafia also explicitly refers to Heikhalot literature as an important source of his use of divine names.» — y el apoyo textual que aduce en Abulafia.

«In his Sefer ha-Shem,'7© R. Eleazar discusses the combination of the letters of the Tetragrammaton with each of the letters of the alphabet.» — el procedimiento que Idel describe en el Sefer ha-Shem de R. Eleazar.

«Moreover, these combinations are in turn combined with their vocalizations by two of the six vowels.» — y la segunda capa de ese procedimiento.

«R. Eleazar explains the combinations of these letters only on the cosmological and theological levels, with no reference to their possible use as a mystical technique.» — el silencio de R. Eleazar sobre el uso de esas combinaciones.

«However, the fact that not only letters but also vowels are included in this table points to a praxis of pronunciation.» — y el indicio con que Idel lo sortea.

«Against the background of the earlier evidence concerning R. Eleazar’s revelation using divine names, and the fact that he perceived their vocalization as connected with the use of these names, we can infer that, notwithstanding his silence, the author conceived these combinations as a mystical practice.» — la inferencia que saca, pese al silencio del autor.

«This assumption is corroborated by a description of the creation of a golem (the vivification of a humanlike form made out of clay) by R. Eleazar, in which he wrote that we must pronounce all the letters of the alphabet over every limb of the golem, combined with one of the letters of the Tetragrammaton and vocalized according to the six vowels mentioned above.» — el texto con que la corrobora: la creación de un golem pronunciando el alfabeto sobre cada miembro.

«Thus, despite the author's silence, the table found in Sefer ha-Shem was meant to be pronounced as part of a magical praxis for the creation of a golem by a certain incantation of combinations of letters.» — cómo queda entonces la tabla, según Idel.

«This assumption seems to be corroborated by R. Eleazar’s confession that he received a revelation by means of the divine names.» — y con qué la corrobora Idel.

«The table above was copied in its entirety by R. David ben Yehudah he-Hasid, who presumably learned it during his visit in Regensburg.» — quién copió esa tabla y dónde la habría aprendido, según Idel.

«He, however, considered the thirty-six combinations and vocalizations to be paralleled by the thirty-six movements of the /u/av, an issue I was unable to locate in Ashkenazic texts.» — el añadido de ese cabalista y el límite que Idel declara: no localizó esa correspondencia en textos asquenazíes.

«R. David's contemporary, R. Joseph Ashkenazi, an important source for some of his Kabbalistic ideas, elaborated upon R. Eleazar’s table in his Commentary on Genesis Rabbah'®} and in an unidentified discussion of the creation of a golem.» — el segundo cabalista que elaboró la tabla, según Idel.

«These two Kabbalists do not, strictly speaking, belong to the ecstatic Kabbalah; however, both of them were interested in combinatory techniques, as indicated in their works.» — cómo los sitúa Idel, con la salvedad incluida.

«R. Joseph quoted Abraham Abulafia’s Commentary on Sefer Yezirah and, as we shail see in the next section, preserved an important text on ecstasy and visualization of the divine names;'®? R. David apparently received revelations of Elijah.» — los datos con que lo apoya.

«Although I cannot conclusively describe these Kabbalists as following the mystical technique of R. Eleazar, the supposition that they were more than mere repositories of the Ashkenazic master’s views seems a reasonable one.» — la abstención con que Idel cierra el punto y lo que aun así le parece razonable.

«There is little room for doubt as to the use of R. Eleazar’s technique of combination for mystical purposes by his older contemporary, R. Abraham Abulafia.» — de quién sí no duda.

«In his mystical handbook, 'Or ha-Sekhel, one finds a similar table, albeit in slightly changed form: instead of six basic vowels, Abulafia prefers only five; thus, his tables consist of twenty-five basic combinations of letters» — la variante de la tabla que Idel encuentra en el manual de Abulafia: cinco vocales en vez de seis.

«According to this table, the pronunciation of the divine name involves many sublime matters, and whoever does not take care when performing it endangers himself.» — el peligro que ese texto declara.

«For this reason, asserts Abulafia, the ancient masters concealed it.» — y por qué los antiguos lo ocultaron, según Abulafia.

«But the time has now come to reveal it, since, as he says, the messianic eon has begun.» — la razón que Abulafia da para revelarlo ahora, según Idel.

«Abulafia’s assessment is indeed interesting: he argues that he merely reveals a hidden technique that has been in existence for a long time.» — lo que a Idel le interesa de esa declaración.

«This assertion strengthens the earlier assumption that R. Eleazar’s table was intended to serve mystical, and not only magical, purposes.» — y para qué la usa: reforzar su suposición sobre la tabla de R. Eleazar.

«Abulafia was more than a Kabbalist who disclosed esoteric techniques; his ‘Or he-Sekhel was an attempt to integrate this technique into a speculative system including a philosophy of language and a definition of the ultimate goal of the technique—the attainment of unio mystica.» — qué hizo Abulafia además de revelar la técnica, según Idel.

«Thus, he succeeded in imposing an elaborate mystical technique on a larger public, as convincingly indicated by the relatively large number of manuscripts of 'Or ha-Sekhel.» — y con qué mide Idel su alcance.

«In early sixteenth-century Jerusalem, R. Yehudah Albotini composed a mystical handbook, Sallam ha-'Aliyah, based upon Abulafia’s techniques, including among other things the tables found in ’Or ha-Sekhel.» — el primer heredero que Idel nombra.

«Moreover, Abulafia’s tables, accompanied by some of his explanations, were quoted in one of the classics of Kabbalistic literature, Cordovero’s Pardes Rimmonim.» — y el segundo, que las lleva a un clásico de la literatura cabalística.

«Significantly, this Safedian Kabbalist begins his extensive discussion of pronunciation of the divine name with Abulafia’s system, 7! afterward mentioning that of R. Eleazar of Worms, copied from a secondary source.» — el orden en que Cordovero las expone, que Idel destaca.

«As we learn from the testimony of R. Mordecai Dato, a disciple of Cordovero, his master, influenced by Abulafia’s works beyond their quotation, practiced Abulafian techniques and taught them to his students.» — el testimonio de un discípulo con que Idel documenta la práctica de Cordovero.

«Furthermore, he regarded Abulafia’s technique as a “Kabbalistic tradition transmitted orally, or the words of a Maggid {celestial messenger}.”» — qué estatuto le daba Cordovero a esa técnica, según Idel.

«It is no wonder, then, that he considered Abulafia’s type of Kabbalah as superior even to that of the Zohar.» — y hasta dónde llegaba esa valoración.

«Cordovero, however, not only contributed to the dissemination of Abulafia’s tables, as he did with those of R. Eleazar; quoting Abulafia’s explanations, he also propagated the view that the union of the human and divine minds was to be achieved through this technique,!9° which, as Abulafia put it, “draws down the supernal force in order to cause it to be united with you.”» — lo que Cordovero difundió además de las tablas: la tesis de que la técnica une la mente humana y la divina atrayendo la fuerza supernal.

«This Hermetical understanding of Abulafia’s technique!® had an important influence on the Hasidic perception of devekut as attained by causing divine spiritual force to descend upon the mystic.» — cómo llama Idel a esa lectura y qué influencia le adjudica en el hasidismo.

«had to travel throughout Spain and Italy, as well as Safed, before it eventually returned to Ashkenazic mysticism.» — el rodeo que Idel señala en ese recorrido —la frase arranca en la plana anterior—: la vieja técnica asquenazí tuvo que pasar por España, Italia y Safed antes de volver a la mística asquenazí.

«I have surveyed the history of one combinatory technique.» — el alcance que Idel le da a lo expuesto.

«A few others, connected with the recitation of the alphabet according to the permutations of letters given in Sefer Yezirah, were used both by R. Eleazar of Worms and by Abulafia.» — y las otras técnicas que menciona de pasada.

«The latter presented several elaborate techniques in his other handbooks: Sefer Hayye ha-'Olam ha-Ba, Sefer ha-Heshek and Sefer 'Imrei Shefer.» — los manuales de Abulafia que Idel nombra.

«This willingness to propose more than one technique as a suitable path for attaining a mystical experience is decisive proof that Abulafia transcended the magical perception shared by the mystics that there was one and only one way to attain the supreme experience.» — lo que Idel deduce de esa pluralidad de técnicas: que Abulafia superó la percepción mágica de una vía única.

«Although his various techniques shared some elements in common, such as the need for isolation, breathing exercises, bodily movements, and the wearing of clean garments, they differed in many basic details.» — los elementos comunes que reconoce y el límite que pone.

«Abulafia also cultivated the pronunciation of letters of the divine names inscribed variously in different kinds of circles, a technique having nothing to do with the table technique mentioned above.» — la otra técnica de Abulafia que Idel distingue: los nombres inscritos en círculos.

«These circles consisted of permutations of some of the biblical and later divine names according to different combinatory techniques; the use of circles is also conspicuous in Hayye ha-'Olam ha-Ba, which was aptly designated The Book of Circles.» — en qué consisten esos círculos y el apodo de la obra que los usa.

«No wonder, then, that one of the most elaborate visions reported by Abulafia is that of a circle, a Kabbalistic mandala including both cosmic and psychological structures.» — la visión que Idel enlaza con esa técnica, y cómo la nombra.

«Interestingly, the vision of circles recurs in the works of other ecstatic Kabbalists, who used Abulafian or similar techniques of combinations of letters, such as R. Isaac of Acre, R. Shem Tov ibn Gaon, and R. Elnathan ben Moses Kalkis.» — en qué otros cabalistas extáticos recurre esa visión, según Idel.

«In 'Or ha-Sekhel Abulafia emphasizes, more than does R. Eleazar in his works, that his tables, as well as his circles, are methods for facilitating all possible combinations of the letters of the divine names.» — qué subraya Abulafia sobre sus tablas y sus círculos, más que R. Eleazar.

«These letters are sometimes permutated without adding other letters; at other times—as in the table—the entire alphabet is used in order to pronounce the letters of divine names.» — las dos maneras de operar con esas letras.

«Although the pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton was conceived as a transgression of both biblical and rabbinic interdictions, there was no attack on Abulafia’s technique on this ground in the Kabbalistic material with which I am acquainted.» — la ausencia que Idel consigna, con la reserva sobre su propio conocimiento: ningún ataque a la técnica de Abulafia por ese motivo.

«Although it is a conspicuously anomian technique, the recitation of letters as described by Abulafia managed to escape the fierce criticism to which his prophetic ahd messianic activities were subjected.» — y el contraste con lo que sí se le atacó.

«We can summarize this short survey of one of Abulafia’s techniques by stating that the incorporation of R. Eleazar’s method of combination of letters into the Spanish Kabbalah fertilized it by allowing for the construction of a» — el balance con que Idel cierra: la incorporación del método de R. Eleazar fecundó la cábala española; la frase se corta por el cambio de plana.

«more elaborate technical path intended to attain mystical goals such as revelations and union with supernal beings.» — y para qué: un camino técnico más elaborado hacia revelaciones y unión con seres supernales.

«This technique remained the patrimony of a few, albeit important, Kabbalists, contributing to the emergence of extreme types of mystical experiences.» — y a quiénes quedó reservada.

«The final type of mystical technique to be surveyed here is a nomian one relating to a particular understanding of the Kabbalistic meaning of avvanah—that is, that intention which, according to the Talmud, should accompany the performance of the commandments.» — la cuarta técnica que Idel expone y su carácter nómico, ligado a la *kavvanah*.

«In Provence and Catalonia, the Kabbalists had already emphasized the mystical significance of such intention; it was no doubt connected to the theosophical system of Sefirot,» — dónde sitúa Idel el primer subrayado de esa intención mística.

«The basic assumption of earlier Kabbalah, which remained unchanged for centuries, was that the words of prayer were symbols of the supernal divine potencies and hence could serve either as starting points for the contemplation of higher entities or as ways of influencing them, or as both together.» — el supuesto que Idel le adjudica a la cábala temprana: las palabras de la oración como símbolos de las potencias divinas.

«According to this understanding, kavvanah effects an elevation of human thought from the words of prayer to the sefirotic realm, apparently achieved without any intermediary mental operation or external factor.» — qué opera la *kavvanah* así entendida, según Idel.

«The intrinsic affinity of language to its sources in the divine realm enables human thought to ascend to the Sefirot and to act upon them.» — y en qué se apoya esa elevación.

«Externally, the Kabbalist is supposed to recite the standard prayer text; the mystical kavvanah is an additional activity, in no way intended to change the halakhic regulations of prayer.» — el reparto entre lo externo y lo interno que Idel describe.

«Mystical kavvanah can therefore be defined as a nomian technique, using as it does the common prayers as a vehicle for accomplishing mystical and theurgical aims.» — y la definición que saca de ahí.

«But this presentation of mystical prayer fails to answer certain basic questions concerning the psychological processes enabling the shift from language to Sefirot.» — lo que esa presentación deja sin responder, según Idel.

«Is concentration on the symbolic connotations of a given word the only mental operation that ensures the mystical elevation of thought?» — la primera pregunta que formula.

«How does the linguistic medium, corporeal in both its written and its oral forms, enable human thought or soul to penetrate utterly spiritual dimensions of reality?» — la segunda.

«Can kavvanah be regarded as an attempt to interiorize the supernal pattern of Sefirot in some unknown way in order to cleave to and be capable of influencing it?» — y la tercera.

«No answers to these and similar questions regarding the psychological aspects of kavvanah have been proposed, since they were evidently never asked by academic research.» — el estado de la cuestión que declara.

«range of alternative answers, as the material involving the technical part of kavvanah is very scanty.» — la abstención que Idel declara —la frase arranca en la plana anterior con *no puedo proponer una respuesta*— y su motivo: el material técnico sobre la *kavvanah* es muy escaso.

«No descriptions of the stages of kavvanah are extant, nor are confessions concerning the inner changes in one’s consciousness provided by early Kabbalists.» — qué falta en concreto.

«I suppose that we can view this technique as involving an extensive process of deautomatization, every word being pronounced not as part of an automatically performed prayer but in a meticulous way.» — la lectura que Idel propone, marcada como suposición: un proceso extenso de desautomatización.