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Description
This presentation examines Leon Modena's critique of Kabbalah, a Hebrew treatise composed in Venice in 1639 entitled Ari Nohem (The Roaring Lion). One of the primary causes of Modena's critique was the printing of kabbalistic books such as the Zohar, Ma'arekhet ha-Elohut, and Sefer Yetzirah. In Modena's argument, the printing of kabbalistic books in the sixteenth century had disrupted prior patterns of the transmission of kabbalistic knowledge. In particular, Modena argues that kabbalistic books had begun to be read in new ways by new audiences. Using Modena's analysis as a point of departure this presentation will focus on two questions: First, how did Leon Modena himself read kabbalistic texts? Second, did a new group of readers of kabbalistic texts indeed appear in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries?
This presentation is for the following text(s):
- Ari Nohem (The Roaring Lion) by Leon Modena (1639)
Event Website
https://research.library.fordham.edu/emw/emw2009/
Start Date
24-8-2009 1:00 PM
Location
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies, Harvard University
Included in
Cultural History Commons, European History Commons, History of Religion Commons, Intellectual History Commons, Jewish Studies Commons, Reading and Language Commons
Leon Modena's Ari Nohem Between Print and Manuscript
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies, Harvard University
This presentation examines Leon Modena's critique of Kabbalah, a Hebrew treatise composed in Venice in 1639 entitled Ari Nohem (The Roaring Lion). One of the primary causes of Modena's critique was the printing of kabbalistic books such as the Zohar, Ma'arekhet ha-Elohut, and Sefer Yetzirah. In Modena's argument, the printing of kabbalistic books in the sixteenth century had disrupted prior patterns of the transmission of kabbalistic knowledge. In particular, Modena argues that kabbalistic books had begun to be read in new ways by new audiences. Using Modena's analysis as a point of departure this presentation will focus on two questions: First, how did Leon Modena himself read kabbalistic texts? Second, did a new group of readers of kabbalistic texts indeed appear in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries?
This presentation is for the following text(s):
- Ari Nohem (The Roaring Lion) by Leon Modena (1639)
https://research.library.fordham.edu/emw/emw2009/emw2009/6
Comments
Audio and video of the workshop are available with each presentation and on iTunesU