The Gate of Intention

R. Isaac ben Shmuel of Acre and Its Reception

Moshe Idel

9781933379760

234 pages

Cherub Press

Hardback $72.00

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Overview

This monograph offers a detailed study of a short, fascinating and enigmatic text which bears the title Sha'ar ha-Kavvanah in many manuscripts. It was printed for the first time by Gershom Scholem and attributed by him to R. Azriel of Gerona. This volume includes a new edition of the Hebrew text, accompanied by a new English translation and detailed notes. It further offers a new interpretation of its context, its affinities to R. Isaac of Acre and other texts, as well as discussions of the manuscripts that contain this text, and its reverberations in Kabbalistic literature. The study demonstrates that this anonymous text was written sometime at the end of the thirteenth century in Spain.

Author Bio

Professor Moshe Idel is Professor Emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is a Senior Researcher at the Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. He is the recipient of the Israel Prize and is a Member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.