ABSTRACT
The introduction presents an overview of key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The Jewish mystical tradition, having always displayed a bold fascination with the Name of God, in some sense be seen as a two millennia long meditation on the nature of name in relation to object, and how name mediates between subject and object. The book offers a new analysis of theory and the texts on which it is based in order to disentangle the facts and discover what may stand at the heart of the notion of 'sealing with the Name', a concept which implies the role of the name in forming identity and difference. It analyses the emergence in the late Second Temple period of the hypostatised Name, personified as an independent being, while finding its definitive expression in early Christian writings, is present in several other textual groups. The book demonstrates the sefirotic presence of God is in fact fully integrated with the nominal.
