Mikołaj Krawczyk
Studia Religiologica, Tom 40, 2007, s. 119 - 133
Golem. An Analysis of the Roots of the Modern Jewish Legend
The aim of the article is to present the semantic wealth concealed in the Jewish legend about “golem”, which became popularized in the 19th and 20th centuries. The author presents a semantic analysis of the Hebrew stem g-l-m as well as of its derivatives. He discusses the most important sources which treat about golem – beginning with the Bible, the Talmud, Midrashic literature and ending with the selected writings belonging to the Ashkenazi Chassidism and the ecstatic cabala. In the article the author lays emphasis on revealing the mystical background of the described rituals relating to the creation and destruction of the figure of golem and the multi-layered structure of meanings associated with this process, in the context of halachic and cabalistic assessments of this type of religiousmagical activity.
Mikołaj Krawczyk
Studia Religiologica, Tom 39, 2006, s. 189 - 190
PORFIRIUSZ Z TYRU, PRZECIW CHRZEŚCIJANOM, PRZEKŁAD, WSTĘP I KOMENTARZ: PIOTR ASHWIN-SIEJKOWSKI KRAKÓW 2006, ss. 159
Mikołaj Krawczyk
Studia Religiologica, Tom 41, 2008, s. 69 - 79
Abraham Abulafia’s Mystical Technique Presented in ’Ocar ‘Eden Ha-ganuz
The text presents the prophetic kabbalistic mystical techniques described in ’Ocar ‘Eden ha-Ganuz [The Hidden Treasure of Eden] by the 13th-century Sephardic kabbalist Abraham Abulafia (1240– 1292?). Composed in Messina in 1285 for a disciple named Saadia, the book is considered as a mature explanation of the mystical system. Together with his ’Or ha-Sekhel [Light of the Mind] and Chayye ha-‘Olam ha-Ba [Life of the World to Come], it constitutes one of the essential texts of Abulafi an kabbalah and prophetic kabbalah as such. The article includes, for the first time in Polish translation, a large fragment of Abraham Abulafia’s book concerning an explication of mystical practice of one of the ways of chochmat ha-ceruf (“wisdom of combination”) and descriptions of Abulafia’s mystical experiences.