<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; "><div><font><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">Dear Richard Odier:</span></font></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">Jewish mysticism is always connected with sacred texts inspired by God and the angels, whether traditional texts or newly invented texts. But it always bases itself on sacred texts connected to the heavenly realm in one way or another. Thus great luminaries who are writing beyond the sacred text framework and beyond direct divine inspiration, are not Jewish mystics but great writers, thinkers and poets. They advance the insights of diversified human experience, but not of Jewish mysticism, which focuses its interest on the heavenly sphere.</span></font></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><div><font><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">Dear </span></font><font><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">Malcolm Schosha:</span></font></font></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><i>Sefer Yetzira</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"> in Hebrew has a poetical tone that may be lost in translation. We need to assess it as an ancient text that strives to challenge the biblical story of creation and to replace it with a challenging version, where language takes the central place. Language in all its different manifestations is the connecting bridge between the creative power of God and the creative power of human kind. The book of creation is the first book within the Jewish tradition that illuminates this point. It strives to conceptualize a new perception of creation where the divine and the human share the holy spirit and creative inspiration.</span></font></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">Shalom, Dalia<br><br><i>Hekhalot Zutarti </i>can be found in my edition published in Jerusalem, 1982 or in the synopsis to </span><i>hekhalot</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"> literature, edited by Peter Schafer in 1981. Both can be found in a university library that has a section on Jewish Studies. Mysticism is definitely a result of historical catastrophe in the Jewish case. This is not the case in Christian mysticism or Moslem mysticism. Prophecy is not mysticism -- prophecy is generated by God and reflects a connection to earthly situations that needs correction. By contrast, mysticism is generated by man, and focuses on the hidden heavenly plan and its connection to human hopes. My division between real world and inner world, pertains to the world perceived by senses shared by all (the real world) versus the world which is individual spiritual experience not shared by others (inner world). The </span><i>h</i><i>alakha</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"> certainly relates to the real world while the </span><i>kabbala</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"> builds its conceptual world on the basis of the inner spiritual experience of individuals, who commit their experience into writing. These two worlds can live together, but certainly can come to a conflict from time to time. </span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">All the best,</span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">Rachel Elior</span></font></div></span></span></font></div></span></body></html>