title: Pardes and PaRDeS: towards a psychotherapeutic theory.
abstract: The Hebrew term Pardes has two meanings in Jewish study: the Paradise entered by four eminent Rabbis in search of mystical truth, and PaRDeS, four levels of interpreting Biblical texts. By combining the legend of Pardes with the hermeneutic system of PaRDeS, a psychological theory is presented as a set of propositions which endeavor to demonstrate the following: 1) The combination of Pardes and PaRDeS may be used as a bridge between the rational and mystic approaches to life and death. 2) The rational and the mystic stages each contain two phases: the negative break and the positive possibility of the symbolic "forty years old" more mature active remedy. 3) The "Acher-Akiva" and the "Ben Zoma-Ben Azai" dimensions do not necessarily represent four psychological personality types, but rather inner psychological struggles which may be experienced by one person in part or in full during different phases of his or her life cycle. The successful resolution of these inner psychological struggles may be facilitated by people's ability and motivation to find their one or more personally suitable "faces" from the "seventy" that are available for them. Thus, the road to "Pardes-paradise" is paved by people's own intentions.
authors.affiliation: Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rotenberg
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D001633:Bible; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel; D007585:Jews / Q000523:psychology*; D007599:Judaism; D008016:Life Change Events; D010553:Personality Development; D011613:Psychotherapy; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D013561:Symbolism