Authority, Tradition, and the Creation of Meaning in Medieval Kabbalah: Isaac of Acre's Illumination of the Eyes

Abstract

In medieval Jewish mysticism, interpretive legitimacy was often a function of tradition. If a particular idea or practice was transmitted through reliable sources, if the teacher in question was deemed authoritative, then the content of the tradition was considered to be credible and therefore true. In this article I examine the living dynamic of reception and transmission in the writing of a fourteenth-century kabbalist—a figure who may be considered paradigmatic of a larger phenomenon in medieval Jewish religion. Through analysis of rhetorical tropes and types, I seek to demonstrate the ways in which meaning and authoritative status were construed in kabbalistic culture, how the Jewish mystic aims to determine exegetical and pedagogical legitimacy. This larger conceptual rubric is manifested through a variety of subissues, including orality and textuality in the reception and perception of tradition, the impulse to reconcile seemingly conflicting teachings, and the pursuit of authorial intent by the kabbalist in explaining the received words of a master.