Exile and Redemption in Jewish Mystical Thought

Abstract

Th e article is concerned with the perception of exile of the Jews who experienced it for two thousand years. In the second millennium, in the wake of the Crusades, Jewish mysticism known as kabbalah was developed in conjunction with the spiritual perceptions of exile and redemption. The exile from Spain was a turning point that generated new mystical interpretations on the hidden meaning of history. The passage from exile to redemption was associated with the intense study of the kabbalah. The dissemination of kabbalah was perceived as a tool in hastening redemption and as part of human obligation to redeem the heavenly entity that was exiled. Divine exile and human exile were reassessed in the postexpulsion generation.