Philosophy, Pedagogy, Prophecy, and the Enigmatic Origins of Ilanot
Date and Time
Location
Houghton-Medieval Studies Lecture in Early Book History, sponsored by Houghton Library and the Standing Committee on Medieval Studies
Speaker: J. H. (Yossi) Chajes (Ph.D., Yale University, 1999), Sir Isaac Wolfson Professor of Jewish Thought at the University of Haifa
In the fourteenth century, Jewish mystics began producing parchment sheets inscribed with arboreal diagrams that mapped the kabbalistic Godhead: ilanot (trees). Rather than serving merely as pedagogical charts designed to introduce beginners to Kabbalah, these iconotexts represent a sophisticated convergence of medieval visual culture and esoteric practice. Exploring the genre’s enigmatic origins, this lecture examines its previously unstudied foundational artifacts, revealing the early ilan as a unique synthesis of systematic theology, philosophical speculation, and ecstatic trance.