Includes bibliographical references and index.

The paradox of esotericism : "and not on the chariot alone" -- The hidden and the sublime : vision and restriction in the Bible and in the Talmudic literature -- The ethics of vision : the attitude of early Jewish mysticism towards gazing at the chariot -- Concealment and power : magic and esotericism in the hekhalot literature -- Esotericism and commentary : Ibn Ezra and the exegetical layer -- Concealment and heresy : astrology and the secret of the Torah -- Double language and the divided public in the guide of the perplexed -- The breaching of the limits of the esoteric : concealment and disclosure in Maimonidean esotericism -- From transmission to writing : hinting, leaking and orthodoxy in early Kabbalah -- Open knowledge and closed knowledge : the Kabbalists of Gerona Rabbi Azriel and Rabbi Yaakov Bar Sheshet -- Tradition, closed knowledge and the esoteric : secrecy and hinting in Nahmanides' Kabbalah -- From tradition to literature : Shem Tov Ibn Gaon and the critique of Kabbalistic literature -- "The widening of the apertures of the showpiece" : Shmuel Ibn Tibon and the end of the era of esotericism -- Esotericism, sermons and curricula : Ya'akov Anatoli and the dissemination of the secret -- The ambivalence of secrecy : the dispute over philosophy in the early 14th century -- Esotericism, discontent and co-existence -- Taxonomy and paradoxes of esotericism : conceptual conclusion.

Electronic reproduction. Palo Alto, Calif. : ebrary, 2013. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ebrary affiliated libraries.