10 Concepts of Scripture in Jewish Mysticism

This chapter talks about the Jewish mystical movements concerned with what is known as kabbalah. In these movements, a conception of God as Ein Sof—infinite, transcendent, yet related to the world through several manifestations known as sefirot—emerges. Together with this understanding of God, a view of the Torah as infinite, transcendent, yet connected with the world emerges as well. Similarly, earlier mystical theologies of heikhalot literature, which refers to prekabbalistic Jewish mysticism of the Talmudic era, entails their own conceptions of Torah related to magical powers. The chapter illustrates the connections among these earlier and later conceptions of Torah in various types of Jewish mysticism. Particularly, these varied conceptions of Torah provide a lens through which one can study the development of Jewish concepts of God.