{"product_id":"sefer-yeṣirah-and-its-contexts-other-jewish-voices-hardback-9780812249903","title":"\"Sefer Yeṣirah\" and Its Contexts; Other Jewish Voices (Hardback) 9780812249903","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003e\"Sefer Yeṣirah\" and Its Contexts\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eOther Jewish Voices\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eTzahi Weiss (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9780812249903\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eHardback, published 29 May 2018\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e208 pages\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.48 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\"Tzahi Weiss offers an innovative and daring thesis regarding a central text in the canon of Jewish mysticism and magic. \u003ci\u003e'Sefer Yeṣirah' and Its Contexts\u003c\/i\u003e will stimulate important discussions not only about the history of \u003ci\u003eSefer Yeṣirah\u003c\/i\u003e in Jewish intellectual history but also about the relationship of Jewish and Christian sources and the boundaries separating and uniting these two traditions.\" (Elliot Wolfson, University of California, Santa Barbara)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eSefer Yeṣirah\u003c\/i\u003e, or \"Book of Formation,\" is one of the most influential Jewish compositions of late antiquity. First attested to in the tenth century C.E. and attributed by some to the patriarch Abraham himself, \u003ci\u003eSefer Yeṣirah\u003c\/i\u003e claims that the world was created by the powers of the decimal number system and the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. This short, enigmatic treatise was considered canonical by Jewish philosophers and Kabbalists and has fascinated Western thinkers and writers as diverse as Leibnitz and Borges. Nonetheless, \u003ci\u003eSefer Yesirah\u003c\/i\u003e is nearly impossible to contextualize, mainly owing to its unique style and the fact that it does not refer to, nor is it referenced by, any other source in late antiquity. After a century and a half of modern scholarship, the most fundamental questions regarding its origins remain contested: Who wrote \u003ci\u003eSefer Yeṣirah\u003c\/i\u003e? Where and when was it written? What was its \"original\" version? What is the meaning of this treatise?\u003cbr\u003e In \u003ci\u003e\"Sefer Yeṣirah\" and Its Contexts\u003c\/i\u003e, Tzahi Weiss explores anew the history of this enigmatic work. Through careful scrutiny of the text's evolution, he traces its origins to the seventh century C.E., to Jews who lived far from rabbinic circles and were familiar with the teachings of Syriac Christianity. In addition, he examines the reception of \u003ci\u003eSefer Yeṣirah\u003c\/i\u003e by anonymous commentators and laypeople who, as early as the twelfth century C.E., regarded \u003ci\u003eSefer Yeṣirah\u003c\/i\u003e as a mystical, mythical, or magical treatise, thus significantly differing from the common rabbinic view in that period of the text as a philosophical and scientific work. Examined against the backdrop of this newly sketched historical context, \u003ci\u003eSefer Yeṣirah\u003c\/i\u003e provides a unique and surprising aperture to little-known Jewish intellectual traditions of late antiquity and the early Middle Ages which, despite their distance from the rabbinic canon, played a vital role in the development of medieval Jewish learning and culture.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eA Note on Transliteration of the Hebrew Alphabet\u003cbr\u003e Introduction\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 1. Discussions About Alphabetical Letters in Non-Jewish Sources of Late Antiquity\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 2. The Creation of the World from the Letters of the Ineffable Name\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 3. The Creation of the World from Twenty-Two Letters and the Syriac Context of \u003ci\u003eSefer Yeṣirah\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 4. Sounds of Silence: \u003ci\u003eSefer Yeṣirah\u003c\/i\u003e Before the Tenth Century\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 5. Reevaluating the Scientific Phase of \u003ci\u003eSefer Yeṣirah\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Epilogue\u003cbr\u003e Appendices\u003cbr\u003e 1. \u003ci\u003eSefer Yeṣirah\u003c\/i\u003e and the Early Islamic Science of Letters\u003cbr\u003e 2. \u003ci\u003eSefer Yeṣirah\u003c\/i\u003e's Long Version, According to Ms. Vatican 299\/4, 66a-71b, with the English Translations of Peter A. Hayman\u003cbr\u003e 3. The Midrash About \u003ci\u003eSefer Yeṣirah\u003c\/i\u003e and Ben Sira, According to Ms. Vatican 299\/4, 65a-66a\u003cbr\u003e Notes\u003cbr\u003e Bibliography\u003cbr\u003e Index\u003cbr\u003e Acknowledgments\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"University of Pennsylvania Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52681435545880,"sku":"9780812249903","price":41.89,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/sefer-ye%e1%b9%a3irah-and-its-contexts-other-jewish-voices-hardback-9780812249903","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}