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Spirit Possession in Judaism: Cases and Contexts from the Middle Ages to the Present (Raphael Patai Series in Jewish Folklore and Anthropology) » (New Edition)

Book cover image of Spirit Possession in Judaism: Cases and Contexts from the Middle Ages to the Present (Raphael Patai Series in Jewish Folklore and Anthropology) by Matt Goldish

Authors: Matt Goldish (Editor), Erika Bourguignon (Foreword by), Joseph Dan
ISBN-13: 9780814330036, ISBN-10: 0814330037
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
Date Published: January 2003
Edition: New Edition

Author Biography: Matt Goldish

Book Synopsis

A rich, multidisciplinary exploration of spirit possession among Jews.

	Foreword	9
	Preface	11
	Introduction	27
	The Taming of the Deviants and Beyond: An Analysis of Dybbuk Possession and Exorcism in Judaism	41
	Possession and Exorcism in the Magical Texts of the Cairo Geniza	73
	Benevolent Spirit Possession in Sixteenth-Century Safed	101
	City of the Dead: Spirit Possession in Sixteenth-Century Safed	124
	Pneumatic Mystical Possession and the Eschatology of the Soul in Lurianic Kabbalah	159
	Maggidim, Spirits, and Women in Rabbi Hayyim Vital's Book of Visions	186
	A Spirit Possession Tale as an Account of the Equivocal Insertion of Rabbi Hayyim Vital into the Role of Messiah	197
	Vision and Possession: Nathan of Gaza's Earliest Prophecies in Historical Context	217
	Kabbalah and Jewish Exorcism in Seventeenth-Century Italian Jewish Communities: The Case of Rabbi Moses Zacuto	237
	Dybbuk and Devekut in the Shivhe ha-Besht: Toward a Phenomenology of Madness in Early Hasidism	257
	Love and Death in a Contemporary Dybbuk Story: Personal Narrative and the Female Voice	307
	Dybbuk, Aslai, Zar: The Cultural Distinctiveness and Historical Situatedness of Possession Illnesses in Three Jewish Milieus	346
App. A	Texts concerning Spirit Possession in Sixteenth-Century Safed	367
App. B	Lurianic Texts concerning "His Portion and His Neighbor's Portion" - A Moral Problem	385
App. C	Laurianic Texts concerning the Hazards of the Self-Rectification of the Incomplete Tzaddik	403
App. D	Lurianic Texts concerning Rabbi Hayyim Vital and His Psychical Experience	407
App. E	On the Possession of Rabbi Hayyim Vital from His Book of Visions, book 5, chapter 12	415
App. F	Texts from Vital's Autobiography concerning the Vision of Pillars	417
App. G	Selections from Sefer ha-Hezyonot, by Rabbi Hayyim Vital	421
App. H	From Sha'ar Ru'ah ha-Kodesh (The Gate of Holy Spirit), by Rabbi Hayyim Vital	437
App. I	On How the Spirits of the Dead Enter the Bodies of the Living, from Sefer Nishmat Hayyim, by Rabbi Manasseh ben Israel, book 3, chapter 10	441
	Bibliographical Essay	445
	Glossary	449
	Contributors	455
	Index	457