Rabbi Moses ben Nahman (c. 1194-1267), rabbi, commentator, Kabbalist, and public leader, was one of the most prominent and influential Jewish figures in the Middle Ages. His diverse works reflect the history of Jewish communities in Western Europe in the thirteenth century and particularly the story of his own life. This book seeks to illuminate Nahmanides' works and beliefs, on the background of the challenges during his life. How was his thought formed, and what were its sources? In what stage of his life was he acquainted with the Kabbalah? To what extent was his immigration to Eretz Israel the consequence of Barcelona disputation? This book offers a new – historical-biographical – perspective for understanding Nahmanides' religious and intellectual world.

The book 'Temple Portals: Studies in Aggadah and Midrash in the Zohar' deals with the Zohar, the most important book of Kabbalah, and discuss it as a latest strata of the Midrashic literature. The book concentrates on the 'expanded' biblical story in the Zohar, and especially on the relationship between it and the ancient Talmudic Aggadah. The book examines the Zohar as a collection of many late and developed versions of the ancient Talmudic stories. Each of its chapters discusses one of the biblical tale traditions in the Zohar. Among other things discussed here issues such as: the sin of Adam, the binding of Isaac, Esau's character, the status of Elijah, and others. By analytical and critical examination of each of these traditions, the composition reveals - the first time systematically - Aspects of continuity and change in the history of the old Aggadic story and its way into the Zoharic corpus. Moreover, the detailed description of this literary process also reveals the world of the authors of the Zohar, their spiritual distresses, mystical orientations , and self-consciousness. Some chapters of this book has been published during the past years, and to these chapters were added several new topics, as well as conceptual and methodological introduction to the Midrash and Aggadah in the Zohar .