Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism

Gershom Scholem's landmark survey, first delivered as a lecture series and published in 1941, effectively founded the modern academic study of Jewish mysticism. It traces the movement's major phases, from Merkabah and Hekhalot mysticism through medieval German Pietism, Abraham Abulafia, the Zohar, Lurianic Kabbalah, Sabbatianism and East European Hasidism. Though later scholarship has challenged some of its conclusions, it remains the essential starting point for any serious reader of the Kabbalistic tradition.