TY  - BOOK
AU  - Davila,James
TI  - Descenders to the Chariot: The People Behind the Hekhalot Literature 
T2  - Brill Book Archive Part 1, ISBN: 9789004472495
SN  - 9789004496996
AV  - BM526 
U1  - 296.1/6 21
PY  - 2001///
CY  - Leiden; , Boston
PB  - BRILL
KW  - Cabala
KW  - History
KW  - Hekhalot literature
KW  - History and criticism
KW  - Merkava
KW  - Shamanism
KW  - Comparative studies
N1  - Includes bibliographical references and index
N2  - The Hekhalot literature is a bizarre conglomeration of Jewish esoteric and revelatory texts in Hebrew and Aramaic, produced sometime between late antiquity and the early Middle Ages and surviving in medieval manuscripts. These texts claims to describe the self-induced spiritual experiences of the "descenders to the chariot" and to reveal the techniques that permitted these magico-religious practitioners to view for themselves Ezekiel's Merkavah as well as to gain control of angels and a supernatural mastery of Torah. Drawing on epigraphic and archaeological evidence from the Middle East, anthropological models, and a wide range of cross-cultural evidence, this book aims to show that the Hekhalot literature preserves the teachings and rituals of real religious functionaries who flourished in late antiquity and who were quite like the functionaries anthopologists call shamans
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/9789004496996
ER  -