Ascensions on High in Jewish Mysticism: Pillars, Lines, Ladders (review)

The ascent from lower to higher realms is a central theme in the literary sources associated with Jewish mysticism. The most significant contribution of this book, written by one of the leading scholars of Jewish mysticism, is its engagement with the research agendas of Ioan P. Culianu and Mircea Eliade in their studies of ascensions to higher realms in various religions. The author enriches his analysis of images and imaginings about the ascent of the body, mind, or soul on pillars, lines, and ladders, which appear in Jewish sources, by giving critical consideration to the premises, methods, and results of Culianu's and Eliade's research, and, where possible, applying their categories to the analysis of the ascent in Jewish mysticism. The choice of ascension on high itself is a reflection of Culianu's research interests and is offered by the author as a memorial to Culianu (p. ix). The result is an interesting exploration of the contributions that Culianu's and Eliade's work can make to understanding the varieties of Jewish mysticism.

The exploration of the ascent unfolds in an introduction, five chapters, and concluding remarks. The introduction surveys eight approaches to the study of religion and introduces two additional approaches which form the methodological basis for the studies in the book. The first is "a general, loose approach called methodological eclecticism, which resorts to different methodologies when dealing with the various aspects of religion" (p. 9). The second is "perspectivism", which involves "the possibility of interrogating a certain religious literature from the perspective of acquaintance with another religious literature. . . . It is . . . an attempt to better understand the logic of systems by comparing substantially different ones and learning about one from the other" (p. 11). The introduction concludes with an exposition and critique of an aspect of Gershom Scholem's analysis of Kabbalah, in which the author argues that Scholem's historical analysis of Kabbalah rests on a theological understanding of Kabbalah as a symbolic system. In contrast to this approach, the author asserts that he "will try to emphasize . . . some other, and more experiential, aspects of this mystical lore" (p. 19).

Chapter One presents a typological analysis of ecstatic ascents undergone while alive. Here Idel presents the central thesis of his analysis of ascensions on high, namely that "one of the major developments in post-biblical Judaism is the continuous growth of the apotheotic vector in the general economy of Judaism, a theophanic religion in its first manifestation, through the emergence and flowering of some forms of Jewish mysticism" (p. 25). This reviewer is not convinced of this thesis, although Idel's analysis of the pillar does conform to the suggested pattern.

Chapters Two through Four present an extended analysis of the pillar in Jewish sources from Rabbinic texts to Hasidic texts. In these chapters, Idel adopts the perspectivist approach, comparing representations of pillars in Jewish sources with analyses of pillars in the works of Romanian scholars, particularly Eliade and Culianu. The thrust of Idel's analysis is to extend Eliade's and Culianu's distinctions and classifications concerning ascensions to representations of pillars as means of ascent in Jewish sources which were ignored or overlooked by Eliade and Culianu.

Chapter Two provides the background for analyzing the pillar as a means of ascent from one world to another by considering representations of the pillar itself in post-biblical Jewish mystical literature. Idel discerns an "architectural-static" (axis mundi) and a "ritualistic-dynamic" (the righteous as pillar) (p. 79) conception of the pillar in rabbinic literature and shows how these conceptions are harmonized in kabbalistic sources.

Chapter Three examines a purportedly new understanding of the pillar as eschatological in the Zohar and related sources. In these sources the pillar links an upper and lower paradise and becomes the means for the passage of the souls of the deceased righteous between these two paradises.

Chapter Four examines the convergence of the cosmic and...