One of the most eminent and influential scholars of Jewish mysticism in the world, will explore Kabbalistic and Hasidic notions of language, focusing on conceptions of “white letters.” Medieval Kabbalists and 18th-century Hasidic masters, especially rabbi Levi Isaac of Berditchev, imagined the existence of a “blank” alphabet of white letters in which the letters encircle the ordinary alphabet. Idel will examine attempts to define this alphabet and will critically assess the impact of such conceptions on post-modern literary theory, especially as reflected in the work of Jacques Derrida.

Idel is the Max Cooper Professor of Jewish Thought at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and has also served as a visiting professor and research scholar at numerous universities and institutions in the United States and Europe. His numerous publications include Kabbalah: New Perspectives; Studies in Ecstatic Kabbalah; Language, Torah, and Hermeneutics in Abraham Abulafia; Hasidism: Between Ecstasy and Magic; Messianic Mystics; and Absorbing Perfections: Kabbalah and Interpretation.