Semiotic Function of Kabbalah Mystical Experience in the Interpretation of Historical Situations

Abstract

These notes are the attempt to provide a semiotic interpretation of the Jewish mystical tradition of Kabbalah in the whole course of Jewish history that is understood here as a special kind of sign process. Symbolic systems of religious-mystical thought, such as the Kabbalah, are so universal that the attempts to do a broad comparative analysis with the ultimate goal of the explanation of life situations in which such complex systems of symbolic expression arise, tend to be unfruitful. Comparison of Kabbalah with the most ancient of known systems of other cultures and of similar structure / for example, the mysticism of Zoroastrianism, as well as Egyptian and Hellenic Gnosticism / or with the products of mystical philosophy directly in line with Jewish tradition of earlier centuries / at least compare with Ezekiel’s Revelation, or Philo’s gnostic teachings and his conception of the Logos, or Shimon ben Yochai’s interpretation of the Bible, or the Neoplatonism of S. Ibn Gabirol, etc. / preserves the meaning of Kabbalah in terms of the completeness of aesthetic, historical and religious judgment about the subject matter, and also often increases our understanding of the expressive means used by mystics when trying to explicate their experience. However, the comparative historical approach fails to reveal the internal motives of Kabbalistic activity of the Jewish community in medieval Spain and Provence / and Germany / from the eighth century to the fifteenth century. Nor does comparative historical methodology effectively explain all subsequent historical transformations and changes of the cultural function of the Kabbalah once created and “fixed” as a formal symbolic system with a definite symbolic structure.

First edition of this article was published in: Jews in the USSR, London 1973 (in Russian). Trans. by Robert Zwinger, – DZF.

From Catalog of Zilberman Archive at the MUGAR Memorial Library Boston University, 1.3.3, 1994: “The article “Semiotic function of Kabbalah mystical experience in the interpretation of historical situations” is a brilliant attempt to interpret the Jewish Mystical tradition from the position of semiotics, to analyze it within the whole history of Jewish culture and history, understood as a peculiar process of creation and operation of meanings and symbols. Semiotic interpretation of unique integrity of the ‘Jewish situation’ is presented as a direct insight into a real history by means of actions/signs and actions/symbols. One of the major approaches of this exploration is the explication of the inner ‘semiotic basis’ of Kabbalah not only as an ensemble of signs and symbols but also as a symbol as such, by itself.” – DZF.