The Book of the Sign and Messiah: A readable translation of Abraham Abulafia’s Prophecy (Kabbalah and the Influence of Jesus Christ and the Gospel on Kabbalah)

This study was triggered by a statement made by Gershom Scholem in his article on Abraham Ben Samuel Abulafia, the transmitter of the kabbalah of the prophets. He states regarding Abulafia's prophetic revelations, "The unintentional similarities of his "prophetic revelations" with Christian doctrine confused his pupils to such a degree that some accepted baptism" (Scholem G. , 1971, p. 186) If we add to this the statement of the Florentine prodigy Pico Della Mirandola(1463-1494) "No science can better convince us of the divinity of Jesus Christ than magic and the Kabbalah" and finally the statement of Idel on Abulafia "It is only in extremely rare cases that we find indications of religious encounters with Christians the Jews initiated.… Drawn in against their will in these religious discussions, the most Jews could hope for was survival; nevertheless, during the Middle Ages, a major exception to the state of affairs materialized." (Idel M. , A Kabbalist "Son of God" on Jesus and Christianity, 2012) For Idel, this exception was Abulafia. When Yehudah Liebes studied the Christian influences on the Zohar, he found at least nine distinct areas where Christianity probably influenced the Zohar[1] , and on completing his study, he noted, "I suspect that such material is incorporated in the Zohar in many other themes" (Liebes, 1993, p. 160). We turn our attention to a work of prophetic kabbalah produced by a man who not a few scholars for a time considered to be the compiler or even the writer of the Zohar. We pay attention to Liebe's proposition that "many other themes" probably reflect the Gospel's influence. We focus on Sefer Ha Ot, the only surviving piece of prophetic literature left by Abulafia from his thirty or so writings. We have arranged the English text in such a manner that it is readable.