The Experience Of Prophecy in the Mystical Diaries of Rabbi David Kohen
Yehuda Bitty
Modern Judaism - A Journal of Jewish Ideas and Experience February 9, 2022 DOI: 10.1093/mj/kjab021 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Historical analysis Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Mystical experience |
| Key points | Argues that Rabbi David Kohen (Ha-Nazir) developed an original interpretation of prophecy as a potentially present-day experience, combining philosophy and Kabbalah, and that his personal diary Megillat Setarim portrays him as a mystic seeking encounter with the beyond. The article's method reads the written, post-experiential record as connected to the mystical experience itself. |
Abstract
Abstract This article seeks to direct attention to one unusual figure who provided his own interpretation of the renewal of prophecy during the generation of redemption (i.e., the success of Zionism and the creation of the State of Israel). Rabbi David Kohen (1887–1972), known as Ha-Nazir, the Nazirite, was the author of a book entitled Kol ha-Nevu’ah [The Voice of Prophecy]. His original thought combines philosophy and Kabbalah, reason and experience, knowledge and creativity. He was also interested in questions of prophecy as a possible experience in the present, and many descriptions recounted in his personal diaries reveal the portrait of a mystic in search of an encounter with the beyond. This study will explore the man himself from his writings, especially through the descriptions of his mystical experiences that appear in his personal journal entitled Megillat Setarim. The methodology presented in this article is based on careful textual reading: an analysis of a phenomenon through its post-experiential written account, the product of later reflection, and based on the presumption that there is a connection between the mystical experience and the written record of that experience, despite the difference between the two.