The Emergence of the Kabbalah: Early Sefirotic Theosophy as a Response to Contemporary Theological Challenges

This study offers a fresh view on one of the fundamental problems concerning the history of Jewish thought and religious discourse, namely, the cause for the sudden appearance of the Kabbalistic theosophy of the sefirot in the turn of the 13th century. Based on testimonies of 13th-century Kabbali…