On Talismanic Language

in Jewish Mysticism
Moshe Idel

Linguistic magic can be divided into three major categories: the

fiatic, the Orphic and the talismanic. The first category includes
the creation of the signified by its signifier, the best example being
the creation of the world by divine words. The Orphic category
assumes the possibility of enchanting an already existing entity by
of vocal material. Last but not least is the talismanic, based
on the drawing of energy by means of language, in order to use
this energy for magical purposes. While the fiatic view assumes
the complete superiority of the creator over the created object, the
Orphic presupposes a certain similarity between the subject-magician and its object, whose role is to understand and follow the
instructions of the magician. In these two categories meaning
seems to be a crucial part of the magical linguistic activities. In the
third category, the talismanic, linguistic powers are used in order
summon higher powers which then descend to take possession of
it. By talismanic I refer to the inherent ability of an entity, material,
a moment in time, or a human act to draw upon these powers.
Unlike amulets, which are usually taken to be objects that protect
their possessor, the talisman is able to add power.
means

Divine and Human Names

as

Talismans

Ever since the Biblical interdiction against using the divine name
in vain, an entire mystical and magical tradition related to this
topic has developed. The holiness of this name has very rarely
been explained in detail in the ancient Jewish sources. Medieval
sources however, abound in various attempts to account for this
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feature of the letters that comprise the divine names.

Some of these explanations involve magical aspects, but for our
purposes we shall explore only the talismanic quality of the name.
The first source in Hebrew to give clear-cut expression to this
point of view is found in one of the most famous tracts on magic
of the Middle Ages. In the Hebrew version of the notorious magical treatise entitled Picatrix, or Takhlit he-Hakham, it is stated that,

particular

according to Aristotle,
in ancient times, divine names had a certain ability to bring spiritual forces
to bear down on earth. At times, these forces would come down ... and he
said that the incantation of sorcery [lahash ha-kishshuf] would not go
beyond the realm of this world .2

According to the context this quote, trust in God is crucial for the
of verbal activity, because God is the agent that enacts the
spiritual forces and commands them to descend. The claim that the
incantation does not transcend the mundane realm is important
because it implies we are not speaking of an Orphic type of magic namely, a persuasion of the celestial powers - but rather of powers
success

that descend into this world upon the divine names. Picatrix, which
had a considerable influence on Renaissance magic (as has been
pointed out by Yates and Garin),3 had a definite impact on Jewish
authors as well. Although it can not be stated with certainty, it
would seem that this magical treatise is the source of the views of
several Jewish authors. For example, the late 16th century Kabbalist, Rabbi Menahem Azariah of Fano, who elaborated upon the talismanic conception of names, insisted that the names of righteous
persons have a talismanic &dquo;preparation,&dquo; a point that influenced
subsequent developments in Jewish mystical talismanics :
a great preparation inherent in the names of the righteous [which
enables] the dwelling of the divine to overflow on them as it is written:4
&dquo;See, I have called you by name,&dquo; and only afterward [as it is written in the
next verse] &dquo;I shall fill him with the spirit of God.&dquo;5

There is

This view is to be understood, as the author himself points out,

in the context of another discussion found in the same book. Here
it is stated that Adams giving names to all the creatures is tantamount to the &dquo;completion of their form&dquo;, gemar tzurato. As an intermediary of Gods will, Adam had completed the forms in order &dquo;to
accomplish the preservation of the species.&dquo; Thus, the names of
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were conceived in ontological terms, namely to give the

final touch to a created entity. In fact, in some of the passages dealing with the giving of names, this Kabbalist assumes that Adam
obtained mastery over the creatures by confering names upon
them: he uses the noun pequdah. If I correctly understand one of his
other statements, the entities that receive the names in part conserve Adams spirit as well. We may assume that though all the
names reflect, according to this Kabbalist, the essence of the things
they designate, the names of the righteous are endowed with a
special quality, that of attracting celestial power to them. In his
compendium of Rabbi Moshe Cordoveros Pardes Rimmonim, called
the Pelah ha-Rimmon, Rabbi Menahem Azariah of Fano asserts that:

creatures

spiritual force of the Sefiroth is brought down and shines upon the
by dint of the [mystical] intention of the copyist or the person who
pronounces [it] on his lips in holiness and purity.6
the

names

Although this passage touches upon the divine names, what is

crucial for our discussion is the fact that the celestial forces are
induced to descend into the linguistic material through the mystical intention that may accompany the act of writing or speaking.
The talismanic nature is, therefore, not an actual property of the
divine names but a quality in potentia, which can be actualized by
certain expert persons.This understanding of the proper names of
the Zaddik, who is believed to possess magical qualities, did not
remain a matter of theory. According to one report, the founder of
Hasidism - the Besht - used his own name in the amulets he prepared. Although the magical use of the proper name is not necessarily explained by talismanic theory, it is surely plausible. At the
beginning of the 19th century, a follower of Rabbi Levi Yitzhaq of
Berditchev, an important Hasidic master, asserted that:
the letters of the name of each and every Zaddik are little channels, tzinoriot,
which receive the effluvia and bring them downward. This is why when
someone cares for the names of the Zaddiks in the Torah - such as Adam,
Seth, Enoch, Metushalem and Noah -, and understands which aspect of the
divinity the righteous worshipped, and he too worships God in just this
way, in holiness, cleanliness and awe, he will be able to draw down upon
himself this holiness and intellectual understanding, which [belongs] to that
righteous, by means of his name, and which is the channel of the effluvia .7

The names of the righteous ones in the Bible represent, implicitly, different forms of worship and different channels for drawing
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down emanations - emanations that apparently correspond to the

worship addressed to different aspects of the divine. The prerequisites mentioned in connection with the study of these names holiness, cleanliness, and awe - are reminiscent, to a certain
extent, of magical preparations. Moreover, the belief that the
names of the Biblical figures have talismanic properties is reminiscent of the use, on Muslim talismans, of the various Koranic
proper names of the &dquo;prophets,&dquo; some of which stem from the
Bible. Another important Hasidic master, Rabbi Elimelekh of
Lisansk, believed that someone could become a Zaddik just by
being called by the name Zaddik and that this caused a lightening
of the light of the Zaddik in the upper world. This view, which is
often expressed in various texts, assumes that the names of the
righteous are tantamount, or at least similar, to divine names,
which were understood to function talismanically.

The Talismanic

Interpretation of Language

While the above quotes deal with special names, envisioned as

possessing the talismanic quality, there are many passages where
Jewish authors conceived of the Hebrew language itself as possessing this quality. This means that language is found on the
supermundane level, and that the correspondence between linguistic activities and supernal language is to be understood in a
talismanic manner. The most explicit discussions of the quasiastral status of the letters are to be found in several passages
authored by Rabbi Yohanan Alemanno, a companion and teacher
of Pico della Mirandola. In one instance, the ontological status of
the concept of &dquo;the world of letters&dquo; is described as part of a more
comprehensive &dquo;spiritual world&dquo;:
The world of the spiritual forces, existing beneath the heavens, is not perceived by the senses: the world of heavenly angels is not known by syllogisms ; the world of the letters is not seen in the marketplace; and the world
of the sefiroth are not perceived as are other perceptibles.8

This ontological hierarchy is paralleled by an epistemological

the spiritual forces, the angels - that is, namely those angels
that move the spheres according to Avicenna -, the letters and the
one:

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sefiroth are not perceived by the senses, by syllogisms, by the sight

or by the intellect. In this ascending ladder the world of the letters
is posited just beneath the sefirothic world and higher than the
celestial bodies and their forces. In a different context Alemanno
asserts that the sefiroth and the vowels are the souls of the letters.
In fact, the sefiroth play, he says, a role similar to that played by the

separate intellects

in relation to the cosmic

spheres.

In other

words, the world of language transcends the spiritual forces

belonging to the celestial world. It should be noted, however, that
elsewhere Alemanno describes three of the four higher worlds
mentioned here as belonging to the spiritual world.
As different as the world of letters may be from the celestial
powers, at least insofar as its over-all shape is concerned, the two
evidently share a common anthropomorphic structure. This can be
seen by comparing two passages dealing with this issue in Alemannos Einei ha-Edah and Hesheq Shelomo. In the former, the shape of
the lower man, Adam tahton, reflects the shape of the celestial man,
which is also reflected in the median world, formed of &dquo;stars, zodiacal signs, and letters&dquo;. This formal affinity between all the worlds,
expressed in the anthropomorphic shape, is frequently asserted in
the Kabbalah: what is important here is that the world of the letters
is conceived of as an anthropomorphic structure. Alemanno elaborates on this view elsewhere, in a passage that attempts to offer
Sefer Yetzirah itself as the source of the above hierarchy.
The special status of man as the quintessence of all the worlds,
reminiscent as it may be of the dignity of man as understood by
Pico della Mirandola, seems nevertheless to stem from other
sources. What is crucial in this context is the explicit correspondence between the celestial world of letters - which stands in
between the worlds of the sefiroth and the spheres - and that of
human, earthly utterances. This cosmic correspondence assumes a
certain sympathy between the various levels of existence, which
can be manipulated talismanically, as we shall see below. In his
Collectanaea, Alemanno quotes the following passage from
Claduius Ptolemys Centiloquium :
The forms of the world of composition obey the forms of the spheres. This is
why the masters of the talismans draw the forms of the spheres: in order to
receive the emanation of the stars onto the object they intend to operate with.9

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quote, as in related ones, the pertinent relations are belower entities - animal, mineral, and vegetal - and their
corresponding celestial powers. It seems that only in the Jewish
milieu was the correspondence between human and celestial language perceived. Alemanno comments on the above quote in the
In this
tween

following terms:
This is the secret of the &dquo;world of letters&dquo;: they are forms and seals [made in
order] to collect the supernal and spiritual emanation just as the seals collect
the emanations of the stars.10

In this text the &dquo;the world of the letters&dquo; is not conceived of in

ontological terms: rather it is expressed in talismanic letters here
below, which function like the seals, described as a means of collecting supernal emanations. However, in other contexts, Alemanno uses the same phrase in order to designate the spiritual
world, which is identical to the world of the divine names. Thus
the lower world of letters can be conceived of as collecting, by
virtue of a sympathetic affinity, the effluvia emanating from the
celestial world of letters. For our purposes it is important to stress
that the astro-magical pattern has been translated into the world
of language. Just as regular talismans collect the celestial influx

emanating from the astral realm, language too functions talismanically, collecting an even higher form of the effluvia: while the
material talismans or seals collect the influx of the celestial bodies,
the linguistic seals collect the influx of the celestial world of letters. This talismanic understanding of language is corroborated by
a very important passage in Alemanno where Moses himself is
described in terms of linguistic talismanics:
Moses ... had precise knowledge of the spiritual world which is called the
world of the Sefiroth, and divine names, or the world of letters. Moses knew
how to direct his thoughts and prayers, so as to improve the influx ... By
means of this influx he could create anything he wished, just as God created
the world by various emanations. When he wanted to perform signs and
wonders, Moses would pray and utter divine names, words and meditaThe emanations then descended into the world and created new
tions
...

supernatural things.l
Once again the &dquo;world of letters&dquo; has been identified with the
divine names, and the activation of this world is realized through
utterance of &dquo;divine names, words and meditations&dquo;. According to
Alemanno, language functions as a means of collecting the influx

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from above; therefore linguistic activity here below is to be understood talismanically. This is the way that Alemanno understands
both the Torah and prayer. In this connection he makes some very
interesting observations about the three types of prayers:
know nothing about the things of
which they are speaking, and who do not pray out of choice or free will but
because of ancestral custom. [These prayers] receive the influxes that
descend onto them because of the existence of human voices, which are
arranged in such a way as to be worthy of receiving the influxes. These
influxes are ready to descend onto them even if the performers [of the
prayers] do not prepare them with [proper] intention, or [pray] not from
choice or free will but as a blind man wanders in the dark. This is exactly as
it is with the [four] elements that receive the influxes when they [the elements] are prepared and ordered ... [b] The prayers of the persons who
choose certain times, and who arise at [these] times in order to pray and
supplicate. They do so despite the fact that they do not know what they
speak, and do not understand how they exalt and praise, and by what
power their words operate on high, and what are the things that stir the
influxes or what are those that stir them not. Despite the fact that they only
follow in the footsteps of the ancients and pray their prayers, they too
receive the influxes that are ready to come onto those prayers in accordance
with those preparations; and these prayers are slightly better than those of
the first, because of the choice. This is just how the animal soul receives the
influxes on its deeds
[c] The prayers of the illuminati, [ha-anashim hamaskiliml who know what prayer is appropriate to what influx, and [also]
know the manner of the influxes and the manner of the lower preparations.
On them will dwell influxes that are more sublime than the previous ones,
because they have knowledge of the correct and appropriate way to prepare
all these issues. This is how it is with human souls, who receive the influxes
in accordance with their deeds and with the questions they perceive.l2

a) Prayers performed by persons who

...

The talismanic quality does not, therefore, depend upon mental

activity, and the prayers will be effective even if one is not aware
of their meaning. This is formulated in a rather explicit manner
elsewhere in Alemanno, when he points out that according to the

Kabbalists,
utterances affect existent

beings by [creating] wondrous operations, without

thought, but [merely] by means of activating the
sources of the voice, which have the inherent ability to affect the hyle or universal matter. This is because of its motion, just as the spheres have the
power to act upon it [the hyle] by means of motion and by the combination
of the alternating motions of the stars. According to this [principle] it is possible to understand and to believe what has been indicated by the sages of
the gentiles, such as Apollonius, in his [book] The Magical Arts, and by
Albertus Magnus, in Pileot Olam, [Wonders of the World] [adducing matters] in the name of Avicenna and Hypocrates, and other ancient sages .13
conceptualization

or

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Thus the mechanics of speech alone can activate the hylic nature
through the energy emanated in the act of utterance. This seems,
according to Alemanno, to be the principal cause of the linguistic
magic described by classic gentile and Jewish sources. Alemanno
assumes that just as the spheres leave an impression on the mundane world solely through their motions, so does human articulation affect this world by releasing energy without any strict
necessity for an act of thinking. However, as we shall see below,
Alemanno understands human speech to be the manipulation of
the speech organs by the cosmic agent intellect. The human intellect is apparently but a medium and the speaking person need not
be aware of the cognitive aspect of his activity.
Let us return to the quote on prayer: What is crucial for enhancing the power of prayer is knowledge of the correspondences
between a particular prayer, time and the kind of the influx that
the person who is praying would like to attract. By mastering this
gnosis, astrological in nature, a person will be able to pray more
effectively than someone who is ignorant. Indeed, according to
another very important insight by the same author, letters exist on
three levels: within the divine spirit, in the world - including the
human mouth -, and finally as written characters. Even in the latter two cases the letters still retain a &dquo;vitality,&dquo; (hiyyut), which is
identical to the &dquo;divine power,&dquo; (koah Elohi) and this is the why an
utterance

can

compel

spiritual forces, pure or impure, to do their will

prayers and blessings are built. 14

...

and

on

this

[principle] all

Thus the powerful Hebrew language - because Alemanno

intends explicitly to describe only Hebrew - unifies both the
&dquo;speech&dquo; (be-dibburam) and the canonic liturgical texts, endowing
both with magical qualities. It is my view that the correspondence
between the three levels has a talismanic role, since Alemanno
explicitly discusses the &dquo;causing of the descent&dquo; of the powers of
the celestial letters.
The double meaning that Alemanno attributes to the term
Olam ha-Otyiot seems to reflect both the ontological view of this
concept in the theosophical Kabbalah, and the manipulative one
found in the ecstatic Kabbalah. It would seem that Alemanno is
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the first thinker to offer a thorough-going synthesis of the two different ways the term &dquo;world of letters&dquo; had been used in the two
types of Kabbalah. This synthesis, based on an implied parallelism
between the two Kabbalahs, is a good example of the efficacy of a
panoramic approach to the development of Kabbalah: in many
cases latter Kabbalists are acquainted not only with the last phase
of the history of Kabbalah but know many layers of the tradition.
They are thus able to draw on this knowledge when formulating
their own views.
Alemannos talismanic attitude to language seems to have
antecedents in Jewish mysticism, such as the earlier Kabbalistic
sources quoted and analyzed above. At the same it is quite possible that the writings on talismanics translated by Marsilio Ficino
in Florence influenced Alemanno. Alemanno was for many years
an inhabitant of Florence and was close, at least for a time, to Pico
della Mirandola and perhaps to his circle, as the laudatio of
Lorenzo de Medici seems to prove. Thus in addition to the Jewish
sources, which were influential on Alemannos views of language,
we may assume that Neoplatonic and Hermetic views concerning
the concept of vis verbis had an impact on him. By the same token
we should not ignore the possibility that the Jewish sources, in
addition to Hellenistic ones, had an influence on the magical
vision of language found in Christian sources. This is obvious
insofar as Kabbalistic writings were translated, studied and
quoted by the Christian Kabbalists, such as Pico della Mirandola,
Johann Reuchlin or Cornelius Agrippa of Nettesheim. These
Christian Kabbalists, like many others, were especially attracted
by the magical view of language and were well acquainted with
the Kabbalah. Thus the above-quoted writings of Alemanno can
be seen as contributing both to our understanding of Renaissance
attitudes to magical language and, in some cases, offer a possible
source for some of the formulations occurring in this period
among Christian thinkers.
Alemannos interesting combination of the Abulafian theory of
permutating letters with the concept of drawing down spiritual
forces for both mystical and magical purposes was apparently not
very influential beyond Northern Italy. However, a talismanic
view of letters, though not of their permutations, was already pre31
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sent in the works of

Spanish Kabbalist, Rabbi

was copied and elaborated

Shem Tov ben

Shem Tov. This work
upon by other
as
the
Rabbis
such
Shelomo
Alkabetz and
authors,
Sephardic
Moshe Cordovero. The latter combined an astro-magical vision of
language with Abraham Abulafias theory of permutations of letters, creating again - probably independent of Alemannos earlier
synthesis - an astro-magical combinatory view of language and
prayer. Some instances of the Sephardic Kabbalistic discussion
will be mentioned below. It should, however, be emphasized that
unlike Alemannos talismanics, which were deeply affected by
philosophy - as the recurrence of the concept of the Agent Intellect proves -, the Sephardic authors were influenced instead by
the book of the Zohar. As a result, their unified universe included
a more dynamic and mythical vision of the metaphysical starting
point, the ten Sefiroth. In looking at the above texts, which were
written from the 14th to early 16th century, we can see that one
particular point is constantly emphasized: the inherent ability of
the letters to act independently of human knowledge, although
such knowledge can improve their performance. However, apart
from the particular gnosis of the inherent qualities of the letters, it
seems that no special religious attitude is required by the Jewish
texts. Indeed, although trust in God is mentioned as necessary in
the quote from Picatrix, this position was apparently not accepted
by the Kabbalists. After the middle of the 16th century, and in
especially in 18th century Hasidism, the emotional aspects began
to be viewed as more and more necessary: devotion, enthusiasm,
and ardent love are sometimes conceived as spiritual qualities that
must accompany the performance of the linguistic acts. This
change is particularly important for the more mystical side of the
magical linguistic. At the same time there existed, in the Medieval
Jewish texts, more pagan versions of talismanics, some of them
translated from Arabic, such as Takhlit he-Hakham, or influenced by
Arabic sources, such as the Pseudo-Ibn Ezras Sefer ha-Atzamim,
and still other Jewish Renaissance texts that were influenced by
the Arabic sources. However, starting with the Safedian sources,
these &dquo;pagan&dquo; aspects were substantially reduced. Instead of a
heavy reliance on the material aspects of the talismanic rituals such as the sacrifices of animals, which is described at length in
a

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-, a much greater emphasis was placed, at least after the

16th century, on the devotional aspects of the ritual. Indeed in
these later texts the language and body of the talismanic operator,
the Zaddik, becomes more prominent: in this way the emphasis
shifts from external objects and acts, such as sacrifices and fumigations, to the role of human emotion as the source of the drawing
down operation.

Picatrix

Divine Names and Inverted Talismanics

part the talismanic understanding of language presupposes a celestial source of energy, which is collected herebelow through the performance of liturgical texts. The assumption
is that there exists some hidden affinity between letters and
sounds and the higher beings, which are also the source of these
spiritual forces. Whether these sources are astral bodies, as in the
Arabic and Jewish texts, or the ten sefiroth, as in certain Kabbalistic
texts, the link between linguistic units and higher beings is crucial.
However, in some texts there is a phenomenon I propose to designate as &dquo;inverted talismanics&dquo;: the Sefiroth, that is to say the divine
attributes, are conceived of as the recipients of a human spiritual
power instilled in the letters by mans activity, itself considered to
be the source of this energy. If linguistic entities are regarded as a
meso-cosmos, mediating between the spiritual and material
realms or, roughly speaking, between God and man
For the most

when you shall think upon something which points to the Keter and proit with your mouth, you shall direct [your thought] to and visualize
the name YHWH between your eyes with this vocalization, which is the
Qammatz under all the consonants, its visualization being white as snow.
And he (!) will direct [your thought] so that the letters will move and fly up
into the air, and the entire secret is hinted at in the verse, &dquo;I have set the
Divine Name always before me.&dquo;[Ps 16:8]s
...

nounce

The visualization of the Tetragrammaton in a certain color,

which accompanies the pronunciation of a word corresponding to
a certain sefirah, causes the ascent of the letters to that sefirah. The
connection between the letters and the sefiroth is ensured by affinities that need not concern us here. What is important for our discussion is the fact that the letters absorb the human energy and
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ascend, by the dint of the preestablished affinity,

place

to their

proper

in the divine realm.

Cordoveros Synthesis:
Normal and Inverted Talismanics
While in the anonymous Kabbalistic responsum the inverted talismanics is to a certain degree metaphorical, in some writings of
Rabbi Moshe Cordovero the inverted talismanics is actually connected to the ordinary talismanics. So, for example, he claims that
There is no doubt that the letters that compose each and every pericope of
the pericopes of the Torah, and every Gemara and chapter [Pereq] being
studied, and which concern a certain commandment [Mitzwah], have a spiritual reality that ascends and clings to the branches of this sefirah, namely
that [particular] sefirah that hints at that Mitzwah, and when the person studies the [corresponding] Mitzwah or the chapter or the pericope or the verse,
those letters will move and stir &dquo;on high,&dquo; on this reality [Metziyut], by
means of a &dquo;voice&dquo; and a &dquo;speech&dquo; which are Tiferet and Malkhut and
Mahashavah and Reuta de-Libba ... since Mahashavah and Reutade-Libba are
like a soul to the &dquo;speech&dquo; and to the &dquo;voice&dquo;, which are the [lower] soul
[Nefesh] and the spirit [Ruah]. And behold, the voices and realities of the letters [produced by] the twist of the lips bestow on them a certain act and
movement [like that] of a body. And the reality of the letters ascends and is
found everywhere on the way of their ascent from one aspect to another, following the way of the [descending] emanation from one stage to another.16

Cordoveros concept of ascending letters as part of mysticomagical prayer, which is found here and in many other instances,
influenced Hasidism. This can be seen in the following excerpt
from Rabbi Jacob Joseph of Polonoy, one of the most important
disciples of the Besht, who says about the intention of prayer that
quintessence of the [mystical] intention [of prayer] is that the person who
prays should direct his intention to cause the descent of the spiritual force from
the celestial degrees onto the letters he pronounces, so that these letters will be
able to ascend to the celestial degree, in order to carry out his request. 17
The

In the middle of the 19th century, an important Hasidic figure,

Rabbi Isaac Aizik Yehiel Safrin of Komarno, offers what can be
described as one of the most elaborate expositions of Cordoveros
theory of talismanic language:
The holy letters possess the inner, spiritual force and vitality of the world.
Each of these letters has a spiritual form, a sublime light descending from

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the very essence of the Sefiroth, coming down - degree by degree - until the
light is clothed within the letter on his lips and the lips have within them
the celestial light; thus, from the vapors of his mouth supernal and holy
forms emerge, linked to their source, to the very essence of the emanation.
When one refrains from speaking idle things, his voice will be heard in the
celestial heavens, just as if he were one of the prophets. And it is incumbent
upon him to draw down the spiritual force onto the sounds being pronounced, so that he will be able to elevate these letters to the highest rank.
The human mouth, which is the seat of speech, voice and vapor, is itself
spiritual, and onto this spiritual power we should draw down the supernal
spirit force, so that by dint of this power the letters will be elevated on high.
This is achieved by means of devotion, joy, love and fear ... and so do the
sounds ascend and hasten to perform his request. 18

This view of the talismanic quality of language, the spoken

sounds, was inherited almost verbatim either from Cordoveros
Pardes ftimmonim or from later variants within the Hasidic movement. Still following the Safedian master, these Hasidic masters
believed that the spiritual force that descended upon the sound
provided the power to elevate both the sound and the vapor on
high. Talismanics therefore involves not only the creation of a vocal
substratum for the dwelling of the celestial power in order to
enwrap it and put it to the service of magical aims; it also involves
sending this sound - and this is part of any definition of the mystical intention of prayer - on high. Here talismanic theory provides
the means for the ascent of prayer. However this ascent will, in the
end, serve magical purposes. It is by operating on high that the
magic appears, not by putting the descending power in the service
of a magus. This is thus a case of inverted talismanics; the magical
act, which enhances the powers of the individual, does not - as in
classical talismanics - operate primarily in the mundane but in the
divine sphere. It is not the powerful individual but his powerful
sounds that are transported into the divine zone.
The ascending power is, according to this passage, an amalgam
of human sounds, vapors and the spiritual forces presiding over
the specific sounds created during the prayer. Voice and speech
are mentioned as distinct entities; the former stands, apparently,
for undifferentiated sound, the latter for distinct and meaningful
units. In fact it seems that the triad of qol, dibbur and hevel, reflects
the classical triad of qol, ruah and ve-dibbur that occurs in the Sefer
Yetzirah,19 in which the vapor plays the role of spirit or wind.
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However, the

ruah, for spirit, is also represented by the term

ruhaniyyut,
spiritual force. Likewise, the organ of the mouth,
which produces the three components of the amalgam, is also
term

the

regarded as crucial for the creation of the proper effect. It is only

the holy mouth, namely the mouth that does not express idle
things, that can generate powerful sounds. This organ is not seen
primarily as the generator of sound, though it is mentioned as
such, but as a holy site onto which the celestial force descends. Its
purity, more than loud pronunciation, ensures the descent of the
forces. Within the context of the Kabbalistic mystico-magical conception of the mouth - starting, in ovo, already in the Bible -, we
that the human mouth was envisioned as corremouth, whose utterances were understood
sponding
as analogous to the process of emanation. In any case, we can
deduce from the preceding remarks that the material aspects of
prayer are more important to its success than is the intellectualistic consciousness that some Jewish philosophers insisted should
accompany the act of prayer. Intense concentration of all the nonmental powers of the individual is required to ensure the efficacy
of mystical prayer. Also involved in this process is the emotional
attitude that accompanies the liturgical performance; it is through
deep devotion, as well as other feelings of a religious nature, that
the sounds of prayer are propelled on high.
A comparison between our mid-19th century text and the mid18th century one by Rabbi Dov Baer of Miedzirech invites reflection on the nature of the history of ideas and mentalities. In the
earlier text the more magical vision of language is attenuated,
although its talismanic nature remains apparent. However, the
later text - that of Safrin - returns to a more openly magical stand,
which is closer to the magical talismanics of Cordovero and his
sources. This return to Cordoveros view of prayer thus occurs in
the writing of one of the most Lurianic thinkers in the entire
Hasidic movement. It must therefore be questioned whether a linear explanation of the development of Hasidism, based solely
upon the theory of the preponderance of the Lurianic thought, can
do justice to such a varied and complex phenomenon.
There remains, in the above quote, a side-issue to be addressed:
the comparison of the talismanic process, and its impact on high,
may

assume

to the divine

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with the influence of the ancient prophets. The very link between
prophecy and talismanics on the one hand, and the linguistic
influence on the other, shows that a reinterpretation of magical
prophecy was intended. The divine spirit that descends upon the
prophet is to be understood talismanically. Prophecy is conceived
now as an almost natural phenomenon that can be induced by
means of religiously correct behavior.

Between Mentalism and

Linguistics

The emergence of talismanic linguistics is, indubitably, part of a

much deeper restructuring of the Jewish religion, which has been
going on in some circles since the Middle Ages. Its point is that
not only language, or more precisely ritualistic language, has been
invested with talismanic qualities: a broad range of religious
objects, such as the Temple in Jerusalem, the special clothes of the
high priest or even - more importantly- the human body have
been understood in this way. These magical reinterpretations are
the result of the encounter between Biblical and Rabbinic concepts
of efficiency with certain magical views stemming from Hellenistic circles and transmitted through Arabic texts that were absorbed by some Medieval Jewish authors. Although the influence
of Hellenistic concepts ought not to be underestimated, we must
nevertheless ask a more basic question about the patterns of
thought, already found in Judaism, which facilitated the absorption of this resonant Hellenistic magic. Indeed this &dquo;materialistic&dquo;
turn, inherent in the adoption of talismanics, seems, prima facie, to
go against the dominant tendency of Medieval speculative
thought, which was preoccupied with mentalist reinterpretations
of religion. Either in the form of Aristotelianism, which emphasized the ideal of intellection as the acme of the religious life, or in
Neoplatonism, which was more concerned with &dquo;spiritual&dquo;
processes, namely the cultivation of the life of the soul and its victory over the body, Medieval theologians stressed the importance
of the spiritual over corporeal faculties. The struggle of the spirit
against matter was the &dquo;real&dquo; war waged by many of the religious
perfecti of the Middle Ages. The introduction of talismanics stands
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apart from this tendency toward

Greek intellectualism and

interiorization characteristic of

spiritualism.

took part in this spiritual movement.

Either as Aristotelian or as Neoplatonic thinkers, they contributed
novel interpretations of canonic texts, following the lead of their
Muslim predecessors who had inherited the Greek intellectualistic
tendency The negative attitude toward the body, sex, the imagination, and sometimes even toward the world, testify to the depth of
this influence. However, this tendency does not easily coincide with
the more positive attitude toward these issues in pre-Medieval
Judaism. Because the mundane world, and even religious acts, were
reinterpreted by some Medieval Jewish theologians metaphorically,
allegorically or symbolically, this other-worldly hermeneutics
undercut the profoundly non-metaphorical message of the Biblical
and Rabbinic texts. Unlike the markedly metaphorical interpretations of religious texts characteristic of Philo and of early Christianity and Gnosticism, Rabbinic Judaism was more inclined to take the
texts, the rituals and the world at face value. A ritualistic religion
such as Rabbinic Judaism consists in a sanctification of concrete
acts, objects and sometimes even persons. From this point of view,
the ritualistic tendencies in certain Hermetic and Neoplatonic
writings, which emphasized the occult powers inherent in concrete
entities (unlike other, different trends in Hermeticism and Neoplatonism, which sacralized subtle types of religio mentis), could be reconciled with certain Rabbinic positions that were being challenged
by Medieval Jewish theologians under the influence of Greek intellectualistic trends. To a certain extent two forms of Greek speculation competed in some Medieval Jewish writings, providing
different answers to the spiritual concerns of European Jews.
The talismanic solution was relevant to the state of exile of the
Jews, that is to say in the context of the destruction of the Temple
and the loss of the land of Israel, both of which were considered to
have special occult qualities. In some circles these lost qualities
were thought to be counterbalanced by an emphasis upon the talismanic value of other ritualistic entities: the liturgical texts, the
Torah, and the Hebrew language itself were considered to have
magical qualities. These qualities had been denied, explicitly or
implicitly, by the exponents of mental religiosity, best represented
Most

Jewish theologians

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&dquo;great eagle&dquo; waged a fierce and

talismanics
in general, as well as against the
systematic
against
magic related to the divine names. The special role which even
Maimonides acknowledged for the Hebrew language was attributed by him not to its supposedly extraordinary qualities - as was
claimed by most Jewish mystics in general and by the talismanic
thinkers in particular - but to the absence of terms for naming the
sexual organs. A survey of the development of Jewish thought
between the 12th and the 19th centuries reveals an ongoing oscillation between, on the one hand, the talismanic approach that was
started in Judaism by ibn Ezra and his interpreters and was continued by some Kabbalists into the 15th and 16th centuries before
being taken up by the early Hasidic masters; and, on the other
hand, the more cerebral attitude of the Aristotelian and Neoplatonic thinkers. The theory of magic, examined here as it relates to
talismanic linguistics, served therefore as a speculative world-view
that strengthened the tendency in some Rabbinic circles to sanctify
material and active rituals in order to balance the mentalistic attitude. This balance was achieved by the emergence of systems that
treated the talismanic either as a higher realm than the mental or
by the addition of the talismanic to the mental. Let me quote here a
fascinating example of this move away from mentalism to talismanics. In one of his observations Alemanno writes the following:
in the works of Maimonides. The
war

as the separate intellects perform wondrous acts in creatures by means

of the movements of the stars, so does the Agent Intellect perform wondrous and powerful miracles in the hyle, by means of the movements of the
[five] places [of articulation] that are in the soul of man, [created] in order to
pronounce the letters. And these are the miracles realized by means of utterances emerging from the mouth of persons who do not even know nor
understand the meaning of what they are uttering. 20

Just

Agent Intellect influences various processes in the lower

world, epistemological or physical, is well-known to medieval Aristotelianism. However, what is new here is the concept that human
utterances can influence these processes. Man, like the spheres, is
conceived as activating the hyle. The effect of the utterance does not
depend upon the extent of a persons understanding, which is a fact
that is fascinating and bizarre if the person is conceived to be, so to
speak, the organ of the Agent Intellect. Equally, unlike the later SafeThat the

dian Kabbalists and the Hasidic masters, Alemanno is not concerned

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with the emotional aspect of talismanic activity. This indeed is a striking irony; according to Maimonides, the Agent Intellect is the source
of all knowledge; according to Alemanno, it is the source of linguistic, unlearned magic, which is identified in this context with linguistic
talismanics. Indeed, in the lines occurring immediately after this
remark, Alemanno mentions that speech is one of those acts that
&dquo;receive the influx&dquo;. Alemannos metaphysical concept of the Agent
Intellect was dramatically affected by another vision of language,
quite different from the views expressed by Maimonides, though
stemming from the most ardent Maimonidean among the Kabbalists:
Abraham Abulafia. In fact, the development of the magical theory of
language could be summarized as follows: the main line in Jewish
thought assumes that the Hebrew language is powerful; Maimonidess attempt to combat this view was not accepted by the Kabbalists, including even those among them who deeply admired the
great eagle. Indeed it is precisely in Abulafias writings, and those of
his disciples, that an elaborate metaphysics of language was built,
which remained influential in Jewish thought for centuries.
Thus we can trace in Jewish Medieval literature a confrontation
between types of religiosity that had already encountered each
other in the Hellenistic period, when theurgists compared their art
to the works of the philosophers and asserted that their practice
represented a higher form of religion. Yohanan Alemanno explicitly expresses this idea in an imaginary dialogue between a
philosopher and what may be called a talismanic thinker:
If you - namely the philosopher - say to me: what is this dream you entertain about the preparations hidden from the eyes of the philosophers, who

neither know nor understand what these [preparations] mean to you? For
they say: let us come to wisdom and [intellectual] union only by way of
intellectual speculation or by sudden intuition, not by magical actions and
buildings, vessels and prayers, vain things and many dreams. All these are
things unfounded in the eyes of the philosophers, who are men of intellect
and reason. All the things we say are the words of the ancients who knew
the nature of existing beings, the relations between them, the way in which
they were linked with one another and how to prepare a receptacle for the
reception of the influence of superior bodies.21

One additional point needs to be clarified: in many of the above

discussions the Hebrew letters, presented either as written charac-

pronounced sounds, are conceived as power-laden entiwithout, however, directly addressing the question of the

ters or as

ties

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letters of the divine name or names. Though all the Kabbalists

conceived of the Tetragrammaton as the most efficient of the powerful linguistic entities, their view of language as powerful did not
always depend upon the peculiar features of the letters of the
divine names. On the basis of Abraham Abulafias and Alemannos discussions it is possible to assume that language, as formed
of primary linguistic entities, can in itself function magically. Alemannos texts, however, should not be thought of as unique; the
preference for oral performance over the mental realm is clear-cut
in many texts of 18th century Hasidism. Moreover, we should also
be aware that even in the 20th century, Jewish thinkers like Franz
Rosenzweig have retreated from the idealistic vision of language
in order to embrace a more speech-oriented type of thought.

Notes
1. See Gershom Scholem, "Le nom de Dieu (II)," Diogène
, no. 80,1972 pp. 168-196.
2. Ms., Munich 214, fol. 51a.
3. Frances Yates, Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition
, Chicago, 1964, pp.
49-57, 70-72, 80-82, and Eugenio Garin, La cultura filosofica del Rinascimento Italiano, Florence, 1961, pp. 159-165.
4. Exode 31: 2-3.
5. Asarah Maamarot
, II, fol. 41b.
6. Quoted by Rabbi Baruch de Kossov in his Amud ha-Avodah, Chernovitz, 1863,
fol. 113c.
7. Rabbi Aharon de Zhitomir, Toledot Aharon, I. fol. 5c.
8. Sefer Einei ha-Edah, Commentary of Alemanno on the book of Genesis, Ms.,
Jerusalem, JNUL 8th 598, fol. 52b.
9. Ms., Oxford, Bodleiana 2234, fol. 95b.
10. Ibid
.
11. Collectanaea, Oxford 2234, fol. 17a.
12. Ibid
., fol. 3b.
13. Shaar ha-Hesheq
, Halberstadt, 1860, fol. 38b.
14. Traité sans titre, Ms. Paris, BN 849, fol. 77a.
15. Anonymous Kabbalistic Responsum, Ms., New York, JTS 255, fol. 59b.
16. Or Yaqar, Jerusalem, 1983, vol. XII, p. 147.
17. Rabbi Yaaqov Yosef de Polonoy, Ben Porat Yosef, Pietrkov, 1884, fol. 21a.
18. Sefer Notzer Hesed, Jerusalem, 1982, pp. 110-111.
19. I, 9.
20. Collectanea, Oxford 2234, fol. 3a.
21. Shaar ha-Hesheq
, fol. 34b.

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