Visual Kabbalah and the Diagramming of the Divine Most students of kabbalistic literature find themselves “visualizing” its cosmogonic and cosmological teachings. The iconic “Tree of Life” is certainly the best known kabbalistic symbol, and is often the first thing conveyed to those being exposed for the first time to this lore. What few realize is that complex graphical scrolls have been a genre of kabbalistic literature in their own right since the Renaissance, and that from the seventeenth century such scrolls became an indispensable tool to Lurianic kabbalists. In this presentation, Prof. Chajes will introduce this little-known genre and explain the origins and functions of these amazing kabbalistic artifacts.
Light kosher lunch provided.
 
 
J. H. (Yossi) Chajes (Ph.D., Yale University 1999) is Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in the Department of Jewish History of the University of Haifa.