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Asher Ben David
Asher ben David was a Provençal Kabbalist born in Posquières, who flourished about the middle of the thirteenth century. He was the son (some say, grandson) of Abraham ben David of Posquières, and a pupil of his uncle Isaac the Blind. Asher ben David is one of the earliest cabalistic writers. He was the author of ''Perush Shelosh Esreh Middot'' or (''Commentary on the Thirteen Attributes of God''), and his most important work, the ''Sefer ha-Yiḥud'' (''The Book of Unity'', an explanation of the Tetragrammaton and the '' sefirot''), which is the first Kabbalistic treatise to be preserved integrally. He identifies, on the one hand, the ten Sefirot with the ten spheres of the philosophers, and, on the other, explains the thirteen attributes of God as derivations of the three middle Sefirot: (love, justice, mercy), which he designates as fundamental principles. According to Gershom Sholem Asher ben David is the main transmitter of Kabbalistic doctrines to the Catalan rabbinic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hachmei Provence
Hachmei Provence () refers to the rabbis of Provence, now known as Occitania, France that was a great Torah center in the times of the Tosafists. The phrase literally means ''the wise ones of Provence''; hakham "wise one, sage" is a Sephardic and Hachmei Provençal term for a rabbi. In matters of Halacha, as well as in their traditions and custom, the Provençal rabbis occupy an intermediate position between the Sephardic Judaism of the neighboring Spanish scholars, and the Old French (similar to the Nusach Ashkenaz) tradition represented by the Tosafists. The term "Provence" in Jewish tradition is not limited to today's administrative region of Provence but refers to the whole of Occitania. This includes Narbonne (which is sometimes informally, though incorrectly, transliterated as "Narvona" as a result of the back-and-forth transliteration between Hebrew and Old Occitan), Lunel (which is informally transliterated ''Lunil''), and the city of Montpellier, not far (7 km) from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vauvert
Vauvert (; oc, Vauverd) is a commune in the far south of the Gard department in southern France. It was known as ''Posquières'' in the Middle Ages. The commune comprises the town of Vauvert and the villages of Gallician and Montcalm.Vauvert at Carmargue.fr accessed 11 August 2007 Over a third of the population work in industry, which is largely the food industry, especially wine production. The original settlement was called Posquières and was first mentioned in a document of 810. Since then the town has increased in importance and has had a rich history. At its heyday in the mid-nineteenth century it had a population of 6,000 but this decreased by a third after disease struck the grape crop, the mainstay of the economy of the area. Today, the population has grown again to over 11,000. |
Abraham Ben David
Abraham ben David ( – 27 November 1198), also known by the abbreviation RABaD (for ''Rabbeinu'' Abraham ben David) Ravad or RABaD III, was a Provençal rabbi, a great commentator on the Talmud, ''Sefer Halachot'' of Rabbi Yitzhak Alfasi and ''Mishne Torah'' of Maimonides, and is regarded as a father of Kabbalah and one of the key and important links in the chain of Jewish mystics. Biography RABaD's maternal grandfather, Rabbi Yitzhak b. Yaakov Ibn Baruch of Mérida (1035–1094), who had compiled astronomical tables for the son of Shemuel ha-Nagid, was one of five rabbis in Spain renowned for their learning. Concerning the oral history of his maternal grandfather's family and how they came to Spain, the RABaD wrote: "When Titus prevailed over Jerusalem, his officer who was appointed over Hispania appeased him, requesting that he send to him captives made-up of the nobles of Jerusalem, and so he sent a few of them to him, and there were amongst them those who made curtains an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isaac The Blind
Isaac the Blind ( he, רַבִּי יִצְחַק סַגִּי נְהוֹר ''Rabbī Yīṣḥaq Saggī Nəhōr'', literally "Rabbi Isaac, blind person"; c. 1160–1235 in Provence, France), was a French rabbi and a famous writer on Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism). The Aramaic epithet "Saggi Nehor" means "of Much Light" in the sense of having excellent eyesight, an ironic euphemism for being blind. Some historians suspect him to be the author of the '' Book of the Bahir'', an important early text of Kabbalah. Others (especially Gershom Scholem, see his Origins of the Kabbalah, p. 253) characterize this view as an "erroneous and totally unfounded hypothesis". Isaac was the son of the famous talmudist, Abraham ben David of Posquières (Raavad). The ''Bahir'' first appeared in the Middle Ages, around 1200 CE in France. It discusses a number of ideas that became important for Kabbalah, and even though the origins of the anonymous work are obscure, there were important Kabbalists who ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thirteen Attributes Of Mercy
The Thirteen Attributes of Mercy (י״ג מִידּוֹת) or ''Shelosh-'Esreh Middot HaRakhamim'' (transliterated from the Hebrew: ) as enumerated in the Book of Exodus () are the Divine Attributes with which, according to Judaism, God governs the world. According to the explanation of Maimonides these attributes must not be regarded as qualities inherent in God, but as the method of His activity, by which the divine governance appears to the human observer to be controlled. In the Sifre, however, these attributes are not called , which may mean "quality" as well as "rule" and "measure", but "derakhim" (ways), since they are the ways of God which Moses prayed to know and which God proclaimed to him. The thirteen attributes are alluded to a number of other times in the Bible. Verses where God is described using all or some of the attributes include , , , , , , , , and . Division The number thirteen is adopted from Talmudic and rabbinic tradition. There are divergent opinions as to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sefirot
Sefirot (; he, סְפִירוֹת, translit=Səfīrōt, Tiberian: '), meaning '' emanations'', are the 10 attributes/emanations in Kabbalah, through which Ein Sof (The Infinite) reveals itself and continuously creates both the physical realm and the chain of higher metaphysical realms (''Seder hishtalshelus''). The term is alternatively transliterated into English as ''sephirot/sephiroth'', singular ''sefirah/sephirah'', etc. Alternative configurations of the sefirot are interpreted by various schools in the historical evolution of Kabbalah, with each articulating differing spiritual aspects. The tradition of enumerating 10 is stated in the ''Sefer Yetzirah'', "Ten sefirot of nothingness, ten and not nine, ten and not eleven". As altogether 11 sefirot are listed across the various schemes, two (Keter and Da'at) are seen as unconscious and conscious manifestations of the same principle, conserving the 10 categories. The sefirot are described as channels of divine creative life for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gershom Sholem
Gershom Scholem () (5 December 1897 – 21 February 1982), was a German-born Israeli philosopher and historian. Widely regarded as the founder of modern academic study of the Kabbalah, Kaballah, Scholem was appointed the first professor of Jewish Mysticism at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Scholem is acknowledged by the sages as the single most significant figure in the recovery, collection, annotation, and registration into rigorous Jewish scholarship of the canonical bibliography of mysticism and scriptural commentary that runs through its primordial phase in the ''Sefer Yetzirah,'' its inauguration in the ''Bahir,'' its exegesis in the Pardes (exegesis), ''Pardes'' and the ''Zohar'' to its cosmogonic, apocalyptic climax in Isaac Luria, Isaac Luria's ''Ein Sof'' that is known collectively as Kabbalah, Kabballah. After generations of demoralization and assimilation in the European enlightenment, the disappointment of messianic hopes, the famine of 1916 in Palestine, and the ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
School Of Girona
A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools. The names for these schools vary by country (discussed in the '' Regional terms'' section below) but generally include primary school for young children and secondary school for teenagers who have completed primary education. An institution where higher education is taught is commonly called a university college or university. In addition to these core schools, students in a given country may also attend schools before and after primary (elementary in the U.S.) and secondary (middle school in the U.S.) education. Kindergarten or preschool provide some schooling to very young children (typically ages 3–5). University, vocational school, college or seminary ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kabbalists
Kabbalah ( he, קַבָּלָה ''Qabbālā'', literally "reception, tradition") is an esoteric method, discipline and school of thought in Jewish mysticism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal ( ''Məqūbbāl'' "receiver"). The definition of Kabbalah varies according to the tradition and aims of those following it, from its origin in medieval Judaism to its later adaptations in Western esotericism (Christian Kabbalah and Hermetic Qabalah). Jewish Kabbalah is a set of esoteric teachings meant to explain the relationship between the unchanging, eternal God—the mysterious ''Ein Sof'' (, ''"The Infinite"'')—and the mortal, finite universe (God's creation). It forms the foundation of mystical religious interpretations within Judaism. Jewish Kabbalists originally developed their own transmission of sacred texts within the realm of Jewish tradition and often use classical Jewish scriptures to explain and demonstrate its mystical teachings. These teachings are held by Ka ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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