| Abstract: | This study suggests that there is a degree of truth to the first Kabbalists’ view that the philosophy of R. Abraham bar Hiyya resonates with their own theosophical speculations. My analysis focuses on the significance of the term ‘pure thought’, which these Kabbalists borrowed from bar Hiyya. According to them, it refers to the first or second of the sefirot, which function as intra-divine intellectual faculties. While bar Hiyya did not adhere to a notion of sefirot, I suggest that he did conceive of three intra-divine intellectual faculties, one of which is ‘pure thought’. Thus, the Kabbalists emerge as largely accurate in their interpretation of the term. This analysis points to a certain similarity between bar Hiyya’s conception of divine unity and that of some of the first Kabbalists. Each rejects the philosophical account of divine unity as simplicity and allows for multiple aspects to inhere in God. |
