Language:
English
Year of publication:
2021
Titel der Quelle:
The Oxford Handbook of the Jewish Diaspora
Angaben zur Quelle:
(2021) 73-97
Keywords:
Jewish diaspora in rabbinical literature
;
Jewish diaspora Religious aspects
;
Judaism
;
Cabala History
;
God (Judaism)
Abstract:
Exile (galut)—and the attempt to end it—is one of primary aims and motifs of Jewish mysticism and Kabbalah. Kabbalists have conceived of exile as the existential state of man (the divine soul trapped in the body), the predicament and mission of the Jewish people (banished from Israel), and, most dramatically, the current condition of God and the cosmos. Classic kabbalistic works, such as the Zohar, explain that man’s original sin caused the initial rupture within God, while humanity’s ongoing transgressions increasingly intensify it. Since the earliest kabbalistic writings, in the twelfth century, and continuing until today, numerous Kabbalists have boldly asserted that the primary purpose of both the Torah and man’s deeds is to mend these fractures by unifying the male and female aspects of God, raising the dispersed divine sparks, and elevating man’s dislocated soul. Through these mystical processes, the exile will draw to a close, ushering in the messianic age.
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