Source books · Jewish mysticism and Kabbalah

Ma'aseh Merkavah

מעשה מרכבה

R. Ishmael and R. Akiva, in a dialogue frame · Late antiquity, 5th–9th century CE (contested)

How this book fits

Traditions
Jewish mysticism and Kabbalah
Role in the tradition
Primary source Written from inside the tradition: scripture, revelation, a grimoire, a manifesto or a practical treatise.
Public attention
Unmeasured No Wikidata entry could be matched to this book with confidence, so no attention label was assigned.

Read it

In this study

The most liturgical of the Hekhalot texts: a collection of prayers and hymns inside a dialogue between R. Ishmael and R. Akiva, which embeds the ascent instructions in recited prayer and treats the recitation itself as the technique.

Its many spoken prayers make the practical side of Hekhalot literature unusually clear: this is a text meant to be recited as well as read.