Messianism, Apocalypse, and Eschatology in Isaiah Tishby's Unpublished Volume of MISHNAT HAZOHAR

• In Event: "Messianism and Kabbalah Scholarship: The Life and Works of Isaiah Tishby"

Abstract

In this paper I wish to discuss Isaiah Tishby's unfinished work on the last (and unpublished) volume of his fame masterpiece MISHNAT HAZOHAR. Tishby's original plan to shape his anthology as a trilogy—the last part of which dedicated to Messianism, Apocalypse and Eschatology—has never been accomplished. Yet countless notes, sketches, and a collection of preliminary translations to Zoharic passages left in Tishby's personal archive suggest that the general structure of this final part has come into being and in turn has affected the outline of the published parts.
Based upon this archival material and following a close study of Tishby's editorial decisions, I will focus in my lecture on The Wisdom of the Zohar's original agenda. Exploring Tishby's selection of texts and following his attempts to create historical narratives on national redemption and messianism, offers a glimpse into his approaches towards messianic concepts in the study of Jewish Mysticism more broadly. As I wish to propose, the absence of the eschatological parts from MISHNAT HAZOHAR published work has left its agenda incomplete and has played a dramatic role on the evolution of Zohar scholarship in the past two generations.

Author

• Avishai Bar Asher, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem