Introduction to Kabbalah | Judaism and Neoplatonism, 12th-13th Century

Attempting to explain the mystery of the emergence of 12th-13th Century Kabbalah of Isaac the Blind and Nachmanides in France and Spain, by examining the merger of the mythological genre of early Jewish mysticism with the Neoplatonic philosophy of Ibn Gabirol and Plotinus. And exploring the role that their metaphysics of the 'One and the Many', Unity and Multiplicity, Great Chain of Being and Emanationism, play in Kabbalah.  

00:00 The Historical Mystery to solve 

06:34 The Genre of Kabbalah 

08:43 Midrash-Mythos meets Chakira-Logos 

10:18 Neoplatonism: Plato, Philo and Plotinus  

14:52 Neoplatonism in Muslim and Jewish thought 

19:00 Ibn Gabirol: Mekor Chaim, Fons Vitae 

21:31 Kabbalah meets Neoplatonism   

23:04 Metaphysics of Neoplatonism: The One and the Many 

28:32 Kabbalah of 12th Century Provence  

31:09 Reaction against Maimonidean-Aristotelianism 

35:44 Kabbalah of 13th Century Catalonia and Girona  

41:49 Teaser and Recap 

43:48 Question Time