Demons, the Soul, and the Afterlife

This chapter traces Ezekiel Landau's Prague works that incorporate kabbalistic teachings related to the soul, such as gilgul neshamot and ibur. It reviews Landau's Prague homilies and commentaries that are replete with kabbalistic concepts concerning demonic spirits and the afterlife. It also investigates writings, other Prague sources, and recent research on popular Jewish and non-Jewish culture in pre-modern Europe, which reveal that the Jews of Prague were obsessed with notions concerning the satanic realm, the soul, and the idea that invisible demons cause suffering. The chapter recounts how the themes on demons and the afterlife played a prominent role in the spiritual life and outlook of Prague Jews in numerous eighteenth-century eastern and central European communities. It discusses Landau's mythic and daring remarks concerning the soul and the demonic that predicated his mystical understanding of these entities.

Conclusion

This chapter depicts the efflorescence of Prague's rabbinic culture and the mystical character that animated it during the latter half of the eighteenth century. It demonstrates how traditional society flourished during Ezekiel Landau's tenure despite the dramatic political changes imposed on Prague Jews, beginning with Joseph II's Toleranzpatent of 1781. It also recounts how the Jewish community maintained its independent judiciary system, housed several academies of higher Jewish learning, and was home to over fifty prominent rabbinic figures. The chapter talks about Prague's rabbinic scholars who produced a wide range of writings, focusing primarily on talmudic, halakhic, and kabbalistic matters. It reviews Landau's several talmudic commentaries, numerous sermons, glosses on kabbalistic treatises, and a two-volume collection of responsa that immediately gained authoritative status.

Introduction

This chapter describes the multi-layered mystical rabbinic culture of eighteenth-century Prague. It reveals the prominence of Kabbalah in traditional life, particularly in the biography and writings of one of the towering figures of Ashkenazi Jewry named Ezekiel Landau, Prague's chief rabbi from 1754 to 1793. It also explores the deep roots of mysticism of the rabbinic culture of eighteenth-century Prague and sheds light on a central aspect of the life and world-view of a large number of early modern Ashkenazi Jews. The chapter covers the neglect of Prague's rabbinic culture, the importance of Prague as a meeting ground between East and West, and the centrality of Kabbalah for Prague Jews and its persistence over the longue durée. It reviews a wide range of kabbalistic materials and sources that influenced seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Ashkenazi Jews.

The Path to Devekut: Ecstatic and Cordoverian Teachings

This chapter analyses how Ezekiel Landau appropriates Cordoverian expressions, motifs, and ideals aside from availing zoharic teachings in all his works. It explains the central mystical goal of devekut that is promoted in both ecstatic and Cordoverian writings, which claims that nothing less than the structure of the universe, the purpose of human activity, reward and punishment, and the nature of the next world can relate to this state. It also mentions how Landau frequently advocates the ideal of devekut and related mystical concepts in terms borrowed from Maimonides' philosophical and legal works. The chapter considers ideas that bear a striking similarity to elements of ecstatic and Cordoverian Kabbalah, in which Landau promotes the ideal of devekut. It discusses the presence of the goal of devekut that are regularly incorporated into Cordoverian works.

Prague’s Rabbinic Culture: Halakhah and Kabbalah

This chapter chronicles the continued importance of halakhah and Kabbalah within the rabbinic culture and surveys Prague's largely overlooked talmudic academies, Jewish court system, and numerous rabbinic scholars. It considers the kabbalist and poet Avigdor Kara, who composed the well-known elegy Et kol hatela'ah and the famed Judah Loew ben Bezalel, who was commonly referred to as the Maharal. It also explains that the Maharal was a prolific and influential author who was best known for his unique approach to the aggadah, ethics, Jewish philosophy, and mysticism. The chapter describes Prague's leading rabbis during the late sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, such as Ephraim Solomon of Luntshitz, popularly referred to as Keli Yakar. It recounts Pragues' long tradition of Jewish mysticism, kabbalistic study, and publication of important kabbalistic works.

Zohar and Early Mystical Sources

This chapter reviews the concepts originating in Sefer yetsirah or Book of Creation that are found in several of Ezekiel Landau's writings, including zoharic motifs that repeatedly appear in his Prague works. It considers Sefer yetsirah as the first systematic Hebrew mystical treatise and oldest mystical text used by Landau. It also explores other writings by Landau that appropriate theosophical-theurgical notions emphasized in the Zohar. The chapter details Landau's Prague writings that are replete with citations from the Zohar, such as the depiction of the sefirotic realm's three major aspects: the right, left, and centre. It mentions the research of the art historian Thomas Hubka, which showed that major zoharic motifs were incorporated into the architectural design and interior decorations of numerous seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Polish synagogues.

Lurianic Kabbalah: Berur, Final Sparks, and the Mission of Exile

This chapter talks about Lurianic Kabbalah as the dominant kabbalistic school that had a prominent place in Ezekiel Landau's writings despite the tremendous influence of Cordoverian doctrines in central and eastern Europe during the eighteenth century. It explains Lurianic Kabbalah as the branch of Kabbalah that primarily deals with complex systems of theosophical and theurgical doctrines at the expense of ecstatic traditions. It also cites the ideal of devekut and the modes of worship promoted in ecstatic Kabbalah that play a subsidiary role in most Lurianic works. The chapter recounts how Landau frequently uses the precise linguistic phrases, terms, and ideas found in Lurianic writings, which reveal his deep immersion in Lurianic Kabbalah during his youth in Poland. It mentions Hayim Vital, who wrote one of the first and most comprehensive books of Lurianic theosophy, the Ets hayim or Shemonah she'arim.

Introduction

BESIDES APPROPRIATING kabbalistic tenets unique to a specific kabbalistic school, Landau’s Prague works often draw on doctrines that are pivotal to numerous kabbalistic systems, as well as interlacing rabbinic concepts with a range of mystical motifs. The ideas examined in this section appear in a variety of kabbalistic sources, including Nahmanidean writings, the Zohar, and Cordoverian, Lurianic, and ...

Introduction

PARADOXICALLY, while various modernizing and mystical movements threatened to undermine Prague’s traditional values at the end of the eighteenth century, kabbalah remained an integral aspect of the city’s thriving traditional rabbinic culture. Kabbalah influenced the thought, and, at times, the practices of Prague Jews, whose distinguished institutions, including their academies and court system, were administered according to the principles of halakhah and largely devoted to halakhic study. Notably, many of the illustrious scholars who headed these legal and educational institutions, such as Landau, Eybeschütz, and Fleckeles, were deeply immersed both in the intricacies of halakhah and the esoteric lore of kabbalah....

Mystical and Modernizing Trends: Prague’s Rabbinic Culture Threatened

This chapter identifies various trends and developments which threatened Prague's traditional culture during the last decades of the eighteenth century. It analyses the unique responses of Prague's rabbinate to the Haskalah, the increasing centralization of the Habsburg state, and Sabbatianism. It also points out the importance of the state in the transformation of Prague's traditional Jewish society, particularly its embrace of German culture and cites Joseph II's systematic policy of Germanization that reshaped several of the central community institutions. The chapter highlights state-imposed secular education that forced the rabbinic authorities to modify the curriculum offered to Prague's Jewish youth. It discusses the traditional rabbinic assertion of the primacy of Torah, which precluded the study of extra-talmudic subjects.