#  Houghton-Medieval Studies Lecture in Early Book History 

 



####  calendar\_today Date and Time 

 **February 25, 2026** 

 05:30PM - 07:00PM EST 

####  pin\_drop Location 

 **Houghton Library, Edison & Newman Room**  



 

 



 

**DUE TO THE CONTINUED CLOSURE OF THE HARVARD UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES, THIS EVENT HAS BEEN MOVED TO WEDNESDAY, 25 FEBRUARY**

[Yossi Chajes](https://jewish-history.haifa.ac.il/index.php?option=com_contact&view=contact&id=161:hy&catid=36&lang=en&Itemid=109) (Sir Isaac Wolfson Professor of Jewish Thought, University of Haifa), *Philosophy, Pedagogy, Prophecy, and the Enigmatic Origins of Ilanot*. Co-sponsored by the Committee on Medieval Studies and Houghton Library. Free and open to the public; please register [here](https://libcal.library.harvard.edu/calendar/main/philosophy-pedagogy-prophecy).

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I*n the fourteenth century, Jewish mystics began producing parchment sheets inscribed with arboreal diagrams that mapped the kabbalistic Godhead:* ilanot *(trees). Rather than serving merely as pedagogical charts designed to introduce beginners to Kabbalah, these iconotexts represent a sophisticated convergence of medieval visual culture and esoteric practice. Exploring the genre’s enigmatic origins, this lecture examines its previously unstudied foundational artifacts, revealing the early* ilan *as a unique synthesis of systematic theology, philosophical speculation, and ecstatic trance.*



 

 



 

 See also:- [ Committee on Medieval Studies ](/events/committee-medieval-studies)
- [ Houghton Library ](/events/houghton-library)
 
 

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