SOURCE: “Borges and the Kabbalah,” in Borges and the Kabbalah: And Other Essays on His Fiction and Poetry, Cambridge University Press, 1988, pp. 14-37.

In the following essay, Alazraki traces the significance of the Jewish mystical doctrine of the Kabbalah in Borges's work.

When asked several years ago about his interest in the Kabbalah, Borges replied, “I read a book called Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism by Scholem and another book by Trachtenberg on Jewish superstitions.¹ Then I have read all the books on the Kabbalah I have found and all the articles in the encyclopedias and so on. But I have no Hebrew whatever.”² These remarks, considering the number of interviews Borges has given, come rather late. Except for this single statement, nothing else has been added on the subject since Rabi's essay “Fascination de la Kabbale,”³ and Rabi's contribution lies in his merely having called attention to...