emanation | David Solomon

This Jewish Philosophy lecture explores the emergence of Neoplatonism in Jewish philosophical thinking. David examines the ideas and works of three Jewish philosophers living during the later years of the Golden Age of Spanish Jewry:

Shlomo Ibn Gabirol
Baḥya ibn Paquda
Yehudah haLevi.

Going in-depth into the contributions of Shlomo Ibn Gabirol, David discusses:

Keter Malkhut
Tiqun Midot haNephesh
Mekor Ḥayyim

looking at the philosopher’s exploration of:

Divine essence as primal cause
Matter and form
Divine will.

Watch the lecture here.

David delivered this Zoom talk in 2020 for Caulfield Shule in his capacity as scholar-in-residence.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 41:46 — 26.8MB)

Continue reading “#81 A Journey Through Jewish Philosophy (3)”

A Podcast on Jewish Mysticism and Kabbalah

The revelation of the Zohar saw an enormous shift in the landscape of Jewish mystical thinking, including in the techniques and ideas focused on the quest to engage with the Divine. In this podcast episode, David examines the ideas, practices, and approaches to encounters with Gd as explored in the Zohar, Lurianic Kabbalah, and Hassidism. This final instalment of David’s four-part series, A History of Mystical Encounters, also includes discussions on Maggidic revelation and Jewish mystical meditation.

The illustration below is a rendition of Tzimtzum, a concept discussed in this podcast episode. For a reminder about the sefirot illustration provided last week, please click here.

Emanation of Sefirot according to Lurianic Kabbala. Public Domain.

Continue reading “#40 A History of Mystical Encounters (part 4)”