Absorbing Perfections - Kabbalah and Interpretation

In this wide-ranging discussion of Kabbalah - from the mystical trends of medieval Judaism to modern Hasidism - one of the world's foremost scholars considers different visions of the nature of the sacred text and the methods used to interpret it. Moshe Idel takes as a starting point the fact that the postbiblical Jewish world lost its geographical center with the destruction of the Temple and so was left with a textual center, the Holy Book. Idel argues that a text-oriented religion produced language-centered forms of mysticism.

"Absorbing Perfections: Kabbalah and Interpretation is certainly Idel's most important volume so far. He has made Kabbalah his life's enterprise, and like Gershom Scholem his work has become essential for anyone who desires to confront Kabbalah."
from the Forward by Harold Bloom