Editing Kabbalistic Texts

These conference proceedings present the current state of the art in the field of editing kabbalistic texts and features the lectures given at the online conference on this topic on February 2022 at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. The contributions cover fundamental editorial questions that result from recent research, such as the re-evaluation of individual manuscript transmission by copyists who were also kabbalists, or case studies that range from the early to the Lurianic Kabbalah and serve different genres. An initial editorial concept is presented for the main work of medieval Kabbalah, Sefer ha-Zohar (Book of Splendor). The editorial challenges of the treatises and commentaries of Christian kabbalists are also discussed. Textual theories, hermeneutics and the problem of translating kabbalistic texts, which often have multiple versions in the context of their historical reception, are linked to two key elements: first, philological approaches that broaden the way we read and interact with kabbalistic texts, and second, digital solutions that meet the multiple demands of studying and presenting texts.