Hekhalot Literature in Translation

GOOD NEWS: I am pleased to report that my translation of an eclectic critical text of the bulk of the pre-Kabbalistic Jewish mystical literature know as the Hekhalot literature (current title: Hekhalot Literature in Translation: Major Texts of Merkavah Mysticism) has been accepted for publication by Brill. The table of contents:

1. Introduction

2. Hekhalot Rabbati: The Greater (Book of the Heavenly) Palaces

3. Sar Torah: The Prince of Torah

4. Hekhalot Zutarti: The Lesser (Book of the Heavenly) Palaces

5. Maʻaseh Merkavah: The Working of the Chariot

6. Merkavah Rabba: The Great (Book of the) Chariot

7. Some Shorter Macroforms

8. Geniza Fragments

I spent the 2011-12 academic year on research leave finishing the project (which I started in 1991!) and have mentioned it here, here, here, here, here, and here. The volume translates most of the Hekhalot texts (which are in Hebrew and Aramaic) and I have explained in the introduction why a few have been omitted. Notably, you can already find an excellent eclectic English translation of 3 Enoch by Philip Alexander in Charlesworth's Old Testament Pseudepigrapha.

Look for Hekhalot Literature in Translation: Major Texts of Merkavah Mysticism later this year. I will keep you posted!