The Love of God in the Jewish Mystical Tradition: Mysticism of Freedom and Commemoration versus Mysticism of Hope and Redemption

  • Rachel Elior
Chapter

Abstract

The love of God is demanded as a profound human obligation within the Jewish religious tradition; this love formulates a moral point of departure as a central obligatory commandment and has been maintained as a fundamental daily assertion since biblical times. Moses concisely delineated the inherent connection between the uniqueness and unity of God, the love of God, and the divine commandments as the source of eternal law and social justice with the sacred text expressing the inspiring divine word within intimate daily contact:

Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you arise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6: 4–9)

Keywords

Divine Commandment Human Love Divine Presence Mystical Tradition Jewish Publication Society 
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Notes

  1. 1.
    See: Rachel Elior, Jewish Mysticism: The Infinite Expression of Freedom ( Oxford, UK: Littman, 2007 ).Google Scholar
  2. 2.
    Rachel Elior, “From Earthly Temple to Heavenly Shrines: Prayer and Sacred Song in the Hekhalot Literature and Its Relation to Temple Traditions,” Jewish Studies Quarterly 4, no. 3 (1997): 217–267.Google Scholar
  3. 4.
    Rachel Elior, The Three Temples: On the Emergence of Jewish Mysticism ( Oxford, UK: Littman, 2004 ), pp. 1–29.Google Scholar
  4. 17.
    See: I. Tishby, The Wisdom of the Zohar (English translation by D. Goldstein) (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989 ).Google Scholar
  5. 18.
    Y. Baer, The History of the Jews in Christian Spain, trans. from Hebrew by L. Schoffman ( Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1992 ).Google Scholar
  6. 25.
    Rachel Elior, The Mystical Origins of Hasidism ( Oxford: Littman, 2006 ).Google Scholar

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© Sheelah Treflé Hidden 2014

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  • Rachel Elior

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