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The Heart and the Fountain: An Anthology of Jewish Mystical Experiences
Joseph Dan is one of the world's leading authorities on Jewish mysticism. In this superb anthology, Dan not only presents illuminating excerpts from the most important mystical texts, but also delves into the very meaning of mysticism itself. Dan takes readers through the historical development of Jewish mysticism, from late antiquity to the modern period. He explores the Kabbalah, the esoteric tradition that delves into the secrets delivered by God to Moses on Mount Sinai, the emergence of Hasidism, and much more. He presents the great texts, from Hekhalot Rabbati, "The Greater Book of Divine Palaces," set in the temple in Jerusalem; to the apocalyptic vision of Abraham Abulafia in the thirteenth century; to the Zohar, perhaps the best-known volume of all. For each piece, he offers an extended introduction that deftly places the work in the context of its time and its antecedents.
"Mysticism is that which cannot be expressed in words, period," Dan writes. In this remarkable volume, he guides us through that seemingly impenetrable barrier to show how the inexpressible has been expressed in some of the most profound and challenging writing in existence.
"Mysticism is that which cannot be expressed in words, period," Dan writes. In this remarkable volume, he guides us through that seemingly impenetrable barrier to show how the inexpressible has been expressed in some of the most profound and challenging writing in existence.
336 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 17, 2026
Joseph Dan, professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, opens this anthology by informing the reader that the word "mysticism" has no Hebrew equivalent and that calling anything "Jewish mysticism" is a scholarly imposition borrowed from Christianity. Kabbalah, he cheerfully adds, is "completely wrong" as a synonym for mysticism, having been a secret legal-esoteric tradition, and most of the figures presented here would have been baffled to hear themselves called mystics.
The collection proceeds anyway, covering two thousand years of Jewish visionaries, from the ancient "descenders to the chariot" who crashed through seven celestial palaces into God's throne room, to twentieth-century Israeli poets who caught stray sparks of the same fire.
The anthology's second act introduces the cast. Rabbi Akibah and Rabbi Ishmael tour the divine palaces, counting billions of fire-chariots and dodging jealous angels. The boy Enoch, plucked from earth, grows seventy-two wings, sprouts 365,000 eyes burning like the sun, and is crowned "the lesser YHVH," a promotion that unnerves the rest of heaven.
Rabbi Moshe de Leon, destitute kabbalist of thirteenth-century Castile, writes the Zohar in secret and sells it to credulous buyers as an ancient manuscript, until his widow cheerfully confesses that he wrote it "from his head." Rabbi Bahya Ibn Paquda concludes that prayer contaminates the spirit because it involves lips.
The gallery grows stranger as the centuries pass. Abraham Abulafia, thirteenth-century master of divine letter combinations, attempts to convert the Pope. Joseph Della Reina, kabbalist turned sorcerer, tries to force the Messiah's arrival by magical means and ends badly.
Nathan of Gaza, prophet to the antinomian messiah Sabbatai Zevi, generates theological chaos across the Jewish world. Rabbi Simeon bar Yohai convenes secret assemblies so charged that three of his ten companions die on the spot, their souls departing "with a kiss."
Joseph Dan was born in 1935 in Budapest and spent his career at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he became the world's foremost authority on Jewish mysticism. He has written more than thirty books on the subject.
Mysticism, being by definition that which exceeds expression in words, has produced an enormous amount of words. The mystic and the rationalist share the same scriptures, the same prayer book, and a total mutual opacity about what any of it means.
Rabbi Ishmael at thirteen, struggling to retain his Torah studies, receives a secret divine mnemonic so potent that jealous angels file formal complaints about his preferential treatment.
Gabirol calculates Mercury as one twenty-two-thousandth the size of the earth with the serenity of someone who has personally verified this. Rabbi Judah the Pious decides that changing a single letter of the prayer book collapses a universal numerical harmony encompassing all history, departing the world with zero adherents to this theory.
The divine name must be transmitted while rabbi and disciple stand ankle-deep in water, fasting, dressed in white, reciting seventy-two psalm verses, which at least ensures committed students. Hayyim Vital maintains a forty-year messianic diary in which every dream and every angel confirms his destiny as the Messiah, then spends those forty years in studied inaction, hiding his manuscripts and behaving, as Dan observes, like a perfectly ordinary scholar.
Luzzatto writes a mystical gloss on his own marriage contract on his wedding day, concluding to his satisfaction that the ceremony simultaneously fulfills all messianic prophecy; the Venetian rabbinical court responds by banning his works and expelling him from Italy.
The Baal Shem Tov, during a Yom Kippur prayer, collects fifty stranded years of prayers in heaven, finds the gate locked with a lock the size of his entire town, and solves the problem with two letters from the Messiah, after which his wheat barrels begin to dance. His brother-in-law mockingly requests the same power, is given it for one Sabbath, immediately faints when the dead arrive in crowds, and wakes to learn the congregation has been instructed to beat him.
Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav, the Besht's own great-grandson and the dynastic heir to all Hasidism, spends his career with a handful of followers, derided as "dead Hasidim" for two centuries, a reputation currently drawing artists, anarchists, and, Dan notes, drug addicts. Joseph Della Reina captures the male demon near Rome but loses his courage before the female one, delaying the redemption on that account alone.
Religious discourse cleaves between those who read sacred texts as instruction manuals and those who read them as seismographs of an experience beyond language's reach. Dan's framework explains why fundamentalism and mysticism keep regenerating simultaneously from the same soil, each generation convinced the other has missed the point, both probably right.
❤️ 🇮🇱
The collection proceeds anyway, covering two thousand years of Jewish visionaries, from the ancient "descenders to the chariot" who crashed through seven celestial palaces into God's throne room, to twentieth-century Israeli poets who caught stray sparks of the same fire.
The anthology's second act introduces the cast. Rabbi Akibah and Rabbi Ishmael tour the divine palaces, counting billions of fire-chariots and dodging jealous angels. The boy Enoch, plucked from earth, grows seventy-two wings, sprouts 365,000 eyes burning like the sun, and is crowned "the lesser YHVH," a promotion that unnerves the rest of heaven.
Rabbi Moshe de Leon, destitute kabbalist of thirteenth-century Castile, writes the Zohar in secret and sells it to credulous buyers as an ancient manuscript, until his widow cheerfully confesses that he wrote it "from his head." Rabbi Bahya Ibn Paquda concludes that prayer contaminates the spirit because it involves lips.
The gallery grows stranger as the centuries pass. Abraham Abulafia, thirteenth-century master of divine letter combinations, attempts to convert the Pope. Joseph Della Reina, kabbalist turned sorcerer, tries to force the Messiah's arrival by magical means and ends badly.
Nathan of Gaza, prophet to the antinomian messiah Sabbatai Zevi, generates theological chaos across the Jewish world. Rabbi Simeon bar Yohai convenes secret assemblies so charged that three of his ten companions die on the spot, their souls departing "with a kiss."
Joseph Dan was born in 1935 in Budapest and spent his career at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he became the world's foremost authority on Jewish mysticism. He has written more than thirty books on the subject.
Mysticism, being by definition that which exceeds expression in words, has produced an enormous amount of words. The mystic and the rationalist share the same scriptures, the same prayer book, and a total mutual opacity about what any of it means.
Rabbi Ishmael at thirteen, struggling to retain his Torah studies, receives a secret divine mnemonic so potent that jealous angels file formal complaints about his preferential treatment.
Gabirol calculates Mercury as one twenty-two-thousandth the size of the earth with the serenity of someone who has personally verified this. Rabbi Judah the Pious decides that changing a single letter of the prayer book collapses a universal numerical harmony encompassing all history, departing the world with zero adherents to this theory.
The divine name must be transmitted while rabbi and disciple stand ankle-deep in water, fasting, dressed in white, reciting seventy-two psalm verses, which at least ensures committed students. Hayyim Vital maintains a forty-year messianic diary in which every dream and every angel confirms his destiny as the Messiah, then spends those forty years in studied inaction, hiding his manuscripts and behaving, as Dan observes, like a perfectly ordinary scholar.
Luzzatto writes a mystical gloss on his own marriage contract on his wedding day, concluding to his satisfaction that the ceremony simultaneously fulfills all messianic prophecy; the Venetian rabbinical court responds by banning his works and expelling him from Italy.
The Baal Shem Tov, during a Yom Kippur prayer, collects fifty stranded years of prayers in heaven, finds the gate locked with a lock the size of his entire town, and solves the problem with two letters from the Messiah, after which his wheat barrels begin to dance. His brother-in-law mockingly requests the same power, is given it for one Sabbath, immediately faints when the dead arrive in crowds, and wakes to learn the congregation has been instructed to beat him.
Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav, the Besht's own great-grandson and the dynastic heir to all Hasidism, spends his career with a handful of followers, derided as "dead Hasidim" for two centuries, a reputation currently drawing artists, anarchists, and, Dan notes, drug addicts. Joseph Della Reina captures the male demon near Rome but loses his courage before the female one, delaying the redemption on that account alone.
Religious discourse cleaves between those who read sacred texts as instruction manuals and those who read them as seismographs of an experience beyond language's reach. Dan's framework explains why fundamentalism and mysticism keep regenerating simultaneously from the same soil, each generation convinced the other has missed the point, both probably right.
❤️ 🇮🇱
April 24, 2017
“R. Ishmael said: Metatron, Prince of the Divine Presence, said to me: In addition to all these qualities, the Holy One, blessed be he, laid his hand on me and blessed me with 1,365,000 blessings. I was enlarged and increased in size till I matched the world in length and breadth. He made to grow on me 72 wings, 36 on one side and 36 on the other, and each single wing covered the entire world. He fixed in me 365,000 eyes and each eye was like the Great Light. There was no sort of splendor, brilliance, brightness, or beauty in the luminaries of the world that he failed to fix on me.”
March 17, 2025
It's always difficult to find the words to discuss works focusing on transcending language.
Prof. Dan's introductory paragraphs treating the difference between Hebrew and every other language as well as the poet Bialik's essay on the transcendental nature of language vis-a-vis "reality" bookended the volume with concepts that will occupy my contemplations for a long while.
Prof. Dan's introductory paragraphs treating the difference between Hebrew and every other language as well as the poet Bialik's essay on the transcendental nature of language vis-a-vis "reality" bookended the volume with concepts that will occupy my contemplations for a long while.
July 12, 2021
This is an interesting book. Jewish Mysticism is very complicated so it is a book to study and read again. He provides a lot of translations of texts from Jewish mystics throughout history. It is a very thoughtful book.
January 11, 2019
I wanted to read another book put together by Joseph Dan, since his book on Kabbalah was such solid gold. His insight into the various writings gathered here is very helpful.
January 13, 2009
A great survey and good place to start...
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews