The Three Temples

Rachel Elior demonstrates convincingly how the Jewish mystical tradition crystallized in its early stages. She attributes its origins to priests prevented by circumstance from serving in the Temple: replacing the earthly Temple liturgically and ritually with a heavenly Merkavah and heavenly sanctuaries known as Heikhalot, they created a mystical world in which ministering angels replaced Temple priests, thereby giving Judaism a new spiritual focus.

Professor Elior was awarded the 2006 Gershom Scholem Prize for the Study of Kabbalah and Jewish Mysticism by the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.