#  Philosophy, Pedagogy, Prophecy, and the Enigmatic Origins of Ilanot 

 



    ![Image: Detail, MS O Hebr. 33:3, Uppsala University Library](/sites/g/files/omnuum11031/files/styles/hwp_5_4__480x385/public/2026-01/Screenshot%202026-01-23%20at%204.01.07%E2%80%AFAM.png?itok=fgPf2GoK) 

 



 

####  calendar\_today Date and Time 

 **February 25, 2026** 

 05:30PM - 07:00PM EST 

####  pin\_drop Location 

 **Edison and Newman Room, Houghton Library, Harvard Yard**  



 

 



 

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

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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.

[More Information](https://libcal.library.harvard.edu/event/16040145)



 

 



 

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