Lost in Translation: The Improbable Task of Rendering Esoteric Jewish Mystical Works into English

Abstract

In this paper, I propose that we are in the midst of an English language “translation movement” targeting historic texts of Kabbalah. This translation project is a distinctive feature of recent American Jewish culture, beginning in the 1970s and continuing to this day. It has both a scholarly and evangelistic component. As a result, a not insubstantial library of heretofore inaccessible material has been made available to a general English-reading audience, making it possible to offer the English reader a gamut of primary texts in translation. I then consider some of the technical features of translating esoteric Kabbalah into English. I situate the key feature of esoteric aura which drips from such texts within George Steiner’s “hermeneutic motion.” I conclude that the only proven recourse for conveying the meaning of translated esoteric texts is through copious use of glosses and learned textual notes.