Venturing Beyond: Law and Morality in Kabbalistic Mysticism

By Elliot R. Wolfson

Are mysticism and morality compatible or at odds with one another? If mystical experience embraces a form of non-dual consciousness, then in such a state of mind, the regulative dichotomy so basic to ethical discretion would seemingly be transcended and the very foundation for ethical
decisions undermined. Venturing Beyond - Law and Morality in Kabbalistic Mysticism is an investigation of the relationship of the mystical and moral as it is expressed in the particular tradition of Jewish mysticism known as the Kabbalah. The particular themes discussed include the denigration of
the non-Jew as the ontic other in kabbalistic anthropology and the eschatological crossing of that boundary anticipated in the instituition of religious conversion; the overcoming of the distinction between good and evil in the mystical experience of the underlying unity of all things; divine
suffering and the ideal of spiritual poverty as the foundation for transmoral ethics and hypernomian lawfulness.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0199277796
• ISBN13: 9780199277797
• Release Date: July 2006
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.3"