Daphna Arbel (read by Robin Griffith-Jones)

Moshe Idel and Religious Experience in the Hekhalot Literature

Moshe Idel’s research features an open methodology – a pluralistic/interdisciplinary approach

His work is  representative of a new scholarly view of Judaism – based on experiential orientation

The focus of his research principally covers Judaism of the 4^th to 9^th century – the Hekhalot period (a.k.a. merkabah mysticism)

Idel doesn’t subscribe to evolutionary development of religion. His focus is on the interplay of experiential orientations in different schools of Judaism.

Merkabah Mysticism presents a continuous circulation between divine and human – an open circuit between heaven and earth – the possibility, or reality, of  interaction through open channels between the worlds

Unio mystica

The participation of humans in the divine being is the subject of many of Idel’s studies. Gershom Scholem argues that humans are not able to experience union with God in merkabah mysticism. Idel challenges these conclusions – he warns that we should not marginalize unio mystica. There is a certain theological perspective that ignores possibility of union. However, 3 Enoch (a hekhalot text) describes the transformation of Enoch into Metatron – this should be understood as an example of unio mystica – union with Enoch and angel Metatron.

Idel has been criticized for using later texts and Neo-platonic views as evidence for unio mystica. He believes that study of unio mystica should focus on types of experience – forms of experiencing the divine. Enoch’s transformation is a form of unio mystica even if it is not specifically a union with God. Enoch becomes similar to God – his bodily transformation allows for access to the presence of God and some kind of connectivity to Him. Various forms function differently in different situations, but should be seen as types of the same motif.

Ascent to Heaven is usually referred to as an ascent of the soul,  but Idel argues that it should be seen as ascent of the body (albeit perhaps the spiritual body). The corporeal body remains in a special stance on earth, while the “spiritual body” ascends.  Both spiritual and corporeal are involved (this involves certain practices).

Idel also emphasizes the experiential aspect of magic. Rabbi Akivah obtains secret names in heaven that have magical uses. The magical and experiential are linked together. Practice allows adept to travel to heaven and magical aspect involves bringing down knowledge with magical power.

Rabbi Ishmael felt that he had entered a new dimension while pondering “secrets” of Torah.

Moshe Idel’s research helps establish the significance of experience in the Hekhalot literature.

The first conference, held October 31 in London, England, is the 3rd Temple Studies Symposium, organized by Margaret Barker and the Temple Studies Group.

The second, held November 21-24 in New Orleans, LA, is the Society of Biblical Literature’s annual meeting.

The Temple Studies Group Symposium III — “The Holy Anointing Oil”

(From the Temple Studies Group website)

The next Temple Studies Group Symposium will be on Saturday 31 October 2009, 10am–4pm in the Temple Church, London.

Anointing with myrrh oil was the most holy mystery of the Jerusalem temple. It passed into Christianity and gave the faith its name. This symposium will explore the temple rite and its meaning, and then look at some of the ways in which Christians preserved the ancient tradition.

Confirmed speakers are:

Dr Richard Price [The Early Church];

Bishop Basil of Amphipolis [The Orthodox tradition];

Dr Sebastian Brock [The Syriac and Armenian tradition];

Dr Laurence Hemming [The Roman Catholic tradition];

Professor John Hall [The Anointing of the Gods in Egypt, Israel and Rome];

Dr Margaret Barker [The Temple Tradition].

I was blessed to be able to attend the last Temple Studies Group symposium, in May, on Temple Music.  It was absolutely incredible and inspiring to witness a group of scholars gathered to present material on and discuss themes related to the temple.  I was able to meet with many people I admire greatly, including Margaret Barker, Crispin Fletcher-Louis, Robin Griffith-Jones, and others.  I was also very pleased to meet, for the first time, Frederick Huchel and his wife.  It was a great experience and I am really looking forward to this next symposium.

This time, while  Bro. Huchel unfortunately will not be able to make it, Professor John Hall of BYU will be there, and also Gary Anderson, who is also LDS.  I look forward to meeting them.  Prof Hall, as you can see above, will be presenting a paper there.

If you’re interested, you can read my notes from the last Temple Studies Group symposium here.

SBL 2009 Annual Meeting in New Orleans

I will be attending, for the third time, the SBL (Society of Biblical Literature) Annual Meeting, this time being held in good old New Orleans, Louisiana. Actually, this will be the first time I will have ever been to that city (thank goodness it wasn’t totally washed away by Katrina or I would never have been able to say I ever went there).

This year’s meeting will be great.  Besides hearing presentations from some of the greatest biblical scholars in the world, there is the opportunity to meet and get to know many scholars and students in my field of study.  People come from all over the world to attend these meetings.

I will actually be presenting my first SBL Annual Meeting paper at this meeting.  I will be presenting at the Early Jewish and Christian Mysticism session on Monday, the 23rd. The session starts at 4:00pm and I will be the last speaker (session ends at 6:30pm).  The paper I will be presenting is entitled “And He Departed from the Throne: The Enthronement of Moses in Place of the Noble Man in Exogoge of Ezekiel the Tragedian.”  (I will be sure to share more about that paper with you in the future.)

Again, I will be taking careful notes at this meeting and will be sure to share it with you soon afterwards.

To see my notes from last year’s SBL conference, see here, here and here.

As for the conference, I attended sessions on Friday, Saturday, and Monday. On Sunday I went to a great fireside at David Bokovoy’s ward in Cambridge. The speakers were Dr. Bill Hamblin and Dr. Dan Peterson.  Dr. Peterson spoke on the relationship of Islam to Mormonism and Dr. Hamblin did a presentation on the continuation of the traditions and imagery of Solomon’s Temple over time. Both were wonderful and enlightening presentations.

I took many notes on the fireside and all the great sessions I attended, and I plan to post those within a week or so. I also want to post my thoughts on the organization of a new study group at SBL on the temple, started by BYU professors Bill Hamblin and David Seely. I am at the end of my semester here at Marquette and I am trying to finish up the last two of three papers that I have due this week. So please forgive me for the delay in posting.

In the end, this trip to the SBL conference was definitely worth it. I learned a lot and had the opportunity to meet many people. A partial list of some of the great people I met (or re-met in some cases):

• Dr. Bill Hamblin
• Dr. Dan Peterson and his wife
• Dr. David Seely and his wife
• Dr. Frank Judd
• Dr. John Welch
• Lynne Wilson–former LDS PhD student at Marquette
• Matt Grey–LDS PhD student at UNC Chapel Hill
• David Bokovoy–LDS PhD student at Brandeis
• Rev. Robin Griffith-Jones–Master of the Temple, The Temple Church
• Dr. Jim Davila
• Dr. John Gee
• Dr. Silviu Bunta
• Ben Spackman
• Dave Nielsen–BYU undergrad who presented at SBL

I also saw (but didn’t officially meet) George Nickelsburg, John J. Collins, April DeConick, and many others.

While that was very exciting for me, I hope what will be exciting for you are some of the notes I took while I was there. These notes will be forthcoming…