Jewish Mystical Leaders and Leadership in the 13th Century by Moshe Idel, Mortimer Ostow

Buy this book at Amazon or for Kindle

During the first half of the 13th century, mysticism achieved a more or less simultaneous efflorescence in each of three Jewish communities, Catalonia, the Rhineland, and Cairo. These movements are examined in individual essays by distinguished scholars: Moshe Idel on the Catalan School of Kabbalah, Ivan Marcus on the Pietism of the Jewish communities of the Rhineland, Paul B. Fenton on the Egyptian, Sufi-like movement, and Israel Ta-Shma on the tension among philosophic, esoteric, and conventional religious pursuits in Spain. In each case special attention is given to the leader of each of these movements, Nachmanides, Judah the Pietist, and Abraham Maimuni, respectively, with regard to their aspirations, personalities, and practices, and with regard to their relations with the communities in which they lived and which they tried to influence.