Arnold Posy’s Mystic
Trends in Judaism tries to straddle a lot of lines, and winds up getting a muddled. Part legitimate history of
Jewish mysticism, but more a true believers account of the subject matter, the
fusion of these two elements is clumsy.
The book’s greatest success is Posy’s treatment of
the messianic element in Kabbalistic history. This part is not stressed in popular, liberal
treatments of the subject, since it does not conform to many progressive
ideas in Judaism.
But messianic expectations
were high in most Kabbalistic circles, and led, in some instances, to false messianic
movements. Posy does a great job in
mapping out these influences. He shows
the inherent dangers involved in this kind of messianic expectation, and also
its unassailable power.
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