Introduction : reading mysteries: the origins of scholarship on Jewish mysticism / Hartley Lachter -- Ancient Jewish mysticism / Michael D. Swartz -- The Zohar : masterpiece of Jewish mysticism / Eitan P. Fishbane -- Abraham ben Samuel Abulafia and the prophetic Kabbalah / Elliot R. Wolfson -- New approaches to the study of kabbalistic life in sixteenth-century in Safed / Lawrence Fine -- Mystical messianism : from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment / Matt Goldish -- Hasidism : mystical and non-mystical approaches to interpreting Scripture / Shaul Magid -- Christian Kabbalah / Allison P. Coudert -- Kabbalah at the turn of the 21st century / Jody Myers -- Gender in Jewish mysticism / Hava Tirosh-Samuelson -- Epilogue : Kabbalah and contemporary Judaism / Pinchas Giller
Over the past generation, scholars have devoted increasing attention to the diverse forms that Jewish mysticism has taken both in the past and today: what was once called "nonsense" by Jewish scholars has generated important research and attention both within the academy and beyond, as demonstrated by the popular fascination with figures such as Madonna and Demi Moore and the growing interest in spirituality. In Jewish Mysticism and Kabbalah, leading experts introduce the history of this scholarship as well as the most recent insights and debates that currently animate the field in a
