Subject: From Sepharad to Safed: Organization of Knowledge in Sixteenth-Century Kabbalah.
Supervisor: Prof. Jonathan Garb
Abtract: My study presents a critical outlook on the role of organizational methods in theological texts. In the sixteenth century, following the Iberian expulsion, kabbalists began collating, sorting, and organizing kabbalistic knowledge on a grand scale with the aim of settling contradictions—previously considered non-perturbing—and making resolutions regarding crucial topics through recourse to the wealth of preceding kabbalistic literature. A defining characteristic of this corpus is the writers’ awareness that they are at the threshold of a new era—a shift that reverberated across generations. The study undertakes an in-depth analysis of primary sources with the extensive utilization of relevant research literature. Thus, it offers a new and comprehensive picture of an understudied intellectual phenomenon that has decisively influenced Jewish culture in modern times.