Haim (Howard) Kreisel – Livyat Ḥen: The Work of the Chariot by R. Levi ben Avraham

Critical annotated edition of part one of treatise seven of R. Levi’s encyclopedia, which is devoted to an exegesis of the “Work of the Chariot”. This volume also contains an edition of the surviving section of treatise five of the encyclopedia (“Divine Science”) and a critical edition of the section of the poem “Battei ha-Nefesh ve-ha-Laḥashim” devoted to the “Work of the Chariot”, together with the four medieval commentaries written on this section. The introduction to this volume discusses at length the interpretation of the “Work of the Chariot” from rabbinic times to R. Levi. Towards the end of the thirteenth century, the Provençal Jewish philosopher R. Levi ben Avraham wrote a unique treatise – an in-depth Hebrew encyclopedia of the sciences and of Judaism entitled Livyat Ḥen. R. Levi was known already in his lifetime as a leading exponent of the philosophical-allegorical interpretation of the Torah and of rabbinic midrash. In the Jewish part of his encyclopedia he deals with a myriad of topics, including Jewish ethics, prophecy, the reasons for the commandments, the stories of Moses and the patriarchs, the principles of faith, the Work of Creation, the Work of the Chariot, and the interpretation of rabbinic midrash and aggadah. Prior to Livyat Ḥen R. Levi wrote an encyclopedic poem of over 1000 stanzas in rhymed meter entitled Batei ha-Nephesh ve-ha-Laḥashim. This poem is devoted to the same topics in science and Judaism that are later discussed in great detail in his treatise.