Israel and the Archons of the Nations: War, Purity and Impurity

This volume amounts to a sustained engagement with the themes and texts about evil in the theosophical works of the late thirteenth-century Kabbalist, R. Joseph Giqatilla. The study published for the first time the three Commentaries on the Ten Sefirot attributed to Giqatilla which focus on the struggle between Israel and the Archons of the Nations, and the war that takes place, throughout history, in heaven and earth. The volume provides critical editions, accompanied by detailed commentary and philological examinations of these three commentaries as well as other works attributed to Giqatilla, Sod ha-Qedushah (The Secret of Sanctity) and Sod ha-Nahash (The Secret of the Serpent).