Kabbalistic foundations of Jewish spiritual practice. Rabbi Ezra of Gerona: On the kabbalistic meaning of the Mizvot. Introduction, annotated translation, critical Hebrew edition (Nahmanides, Maimonides)

This dissertation is a critical Hebrew edition, annotated English translation, and detailed study of Rabbi Ezra ben Solomon of Gerona's kabbalistic exposition on the meaning of the biblical commandments (early thirteenth-century). Rabbi Ezra's text is a major component of his classic, Commentary on Song of Songs, erroneously ascribed to Nahmanides. Rabbi Ezra was a pioneer in popularizing Kabbalah and his exposition on the commandments was the first in what became a major genre in Kabbalah literature.; Research drawing from this text has been based on faulty versions. The present critical edition corrects this problem, providing a base for future studies. The annotated translation traces key sources and parallels, as well as the text's impact on later literature, while addressing many issues pertaining to kabbalistic conceptions of spiritual practice. The introductory chapters and appendices illuminate: (a) the literary foundations and early evolution of Kabbalah, and (b) the conceptual foundations of early kabbalistic spirituality.; This study presents the most detailed account to date of the Gerona fellowship of Kabbalists and Rabbi Ezra's pivotal role in the early thirteenth-century explosion of Geronese kabbalistic writings. It substantiates the view that this eruption was largely in response to the rationalistic writings on the commandments by the twelfth-century philosopher, Maimonides, and it demonstrates that Rabbi Ezra privileged rabbinic aggadot over esoteric texts when citing sources for his teachings. Analysis of key texts also reconfirms Rabbi Ezra's deep influence on the kabbalistic writings of Nahmanides.; Academic research on Jewish mysticism has tended to neglect the centrality of the biblical commandments and rabbinic ritual. This study systematically delineates both the contours of the kabbalistic cosmos in which the commandments are grounded, as well as the inner structures and functions of commandment-centered kabbalistic spirituality—as expressed by Rabbi Ezra and his contemporaries.; This work thus contributes to the field of Kabbalah in the areas of text criticism, historiography, thought, and phenomenology.