This study focuses on adjurations or elaborate ritual performances that form a part of the early Jewish mystical literature known as the Hekhalot literature, stemming from Palestine and Babylon in the fourth through eighth centuries. This literature also contains instructions for ascent to heaven, the liturgy of the angels, and descriptions of God and the divine world.
Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1:
Introduction
Defining the Question
Historical-Cultural Setting of the Hekhalot Literature
Manuscripts of the Hekhalot Literature: Redaction and Text-Critical Issues
History of Research
Ritual Practices to Gain Power
CHAPTER 2: Adjurations
in the Hekhalot Literature
Introduction
Survey of Goals of the Adjurations
Formulas Used in Adjuration
Summary of Texts for Analysis
Manuscript Exemplars of the Texts under Analysis
Catalog A: Goals of the Adjuration
Catalog B: Formulas of Adjuration
CHAPTER 3:
Ascetic Preparations for Hekhalot Adjurations
Introduction
Avoidance of Seminal Emissions and Sexual Activity
Avoidance of Women
Food Restrictions
Immersions
Length of Time
Conclusions
CHAPTER 4:
Adjurations as Performance
Introduction
Theoretical Approaches to the Study of Adjurations as Performance
Performance Analysis of Selected Adjurations
CHAPTER 5:
The Hekhalot Adjurations in the Matrix of Ritual Practices of Late Antiquity
Introduction
Revelatory Adjurations
Spells for Dream Divination from Late Antiquity
The "Mithras Liturgy" and Ascent Accounts in Hekhalot Rabbati and Hekhalot Zutarti
Palestinian Hekhalot Traditions
Visions of Ezekiel
Comparison with the Jewish Amulets and the Babylonian Incantation Bowls
Conclusions
CHAPTER 6: Conclusions
Introduction
Provenance and Dating of the Hekhalot Adjurations
Ritual Practices and Performance
APPENDICES:
A. Texts of Sheva Zutarti
B. Dream Question Texts
C. Selected Sar ha-Torah and Revelation Adjurations
D. Textual Criticism of Sefer ha-Razim
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