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THE SEFER HA-BAHIR AND ANDALUSIAN SUFISM MICHAEL MCGAHA Pomona College Thanks to the pioneering research of Gershom Scholem (1897-1982), the Sefer ha-Bahir (Book of Brightness or ClarifY) is now widely recognized as the earliest significant literary manifestation of a new type of Jewish mysticism which would become known as the Kabbalah. Scholem in fact began his illustrious career as a scholar of Jewish mysticism by writing his doctoral dis- sertation, which he completed in 1923, on the Sefer ha-Bahir at the University of Munich. The dissertation was only the first stage of his research on the Bahir, which he pursued throughout most of the remainder of his long life. A quarter-century after completing the dissertation, he published important new findings in Reshit ha-Qabbalah (The Beginning qf the Kabbalah),' and his definitive statements on the subject appeared in Origins of the Kabbalah, first published in German in 1962, which remains today the most widely accepted study of the Bahir. As David Stern has recently observed, "whatever we know of the Sefer habahir we owe almost exclusively to Gershom Scholem. 112 Scholem described the book as follows: The Book Bahir, whosc few pages seem to contain so much that is perti-
Medieval Encounters – Brill
Published: Jan 1, 1997
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