Kabbalah: The Way of the Jewish Mystic

This book presents a history of Jewish Mysticism from Rabbi Akiva and Merhabah (throne mysticism), Safed to Hassidism and the Baal Shem Tov. Epstein presents a view of Safed, as a Jewish Shangri-La, as a center of creation of Kababalist tradition five centuries ago. "Because of its communal nature, Jewish mystical practice presents a double burden: one must not only learn to cleave to God, but he must take the entire community, the entire creation with him.". The largest part of this book is on Kabbalist practices, with an introduction to the path of the spheres; path of the letters; and path of ecstasy. The introductory tales of Rabbi Akiva, presents how ridiculous it is to someone to "casually" pick of Kabballah, and that should not be the intent of the reader. This is not a how to book, but rather an exploration of different practices. She presents interesting parallels between the Jewish saint (tzaddik), and the Buddhist bodhisattva as well as parallels to Taoist meditation. . I found this to be a good accompaniment to The Teaching Company course on "The Mystical Tradition".

Murder in Moab Murder in Moab It has been said that Judaism is a religion that became a people. If so, then God must be at the very center of the Jews' psyche. Their history with G_d has been a tortuous journey and the orthographic G_d acknowledges that He is, finally, unknowable. Then, also, His ways, and His timing, must be inscrutable. The First Temple was destroyed in the year 560 BCE; most of the Jews exiled to Babylonia and ten tribes disappeared. In the year 70 CE all but the west wall of the Second Temple was pulled down by the Romans and the Jews scattered to the winds, ethnographic remnants found in modern times as far away as South Africa and Burma. According to Jewish tradition G_d himself did these disasters, in anger at His chosen people for broken covenants. How does one understand a god who is at once indescribable, one whose name you cannot even speak, but one who manifests Himself so disastrously in the lives of the Chosen? How does one dare approach the unapproachable? After all, only three humans, Adam, Eve, and Moses have, or ever will, stood or ever will stand in His presence. What could someone so small and insignificant as a Jewish philosopher named Ibn Gabirol in eleventh-century Spain hope for? How could he find a way to pierce the veil, to understand the unknowable? The worst feeling in the world is of being lost. Even worse is that of being purposely abandoned. Imagine the terror of a child suddenly finding itself separated from its parents at a crowded mall. Many know the desperate pain of divorce or, worse, the death of a loved one. But only Jews have known the unimaginable divorce of themselves from G_d. And that twice. Now we imagine reconciliation. Try to image a man, Gabirol or some other Jewish mystic, on a night meditation in eleventh-century Spain. There are some large beeswax candles throwing lemon-and-apricot colored light on his ritual phylacteries and shawl. The scent of orange blossoms waft through Moorish arched window to where he sits, rocking, his chin held tightly to his chest, tears flowing freely as he gulps spasmodically in a meditation practice already more than three thousand years old. His conscious mind scatters with the pain of a longing for communion. He begins to fall, float, fly above the chaos, then falls into the center of it! This is his mind, his very psyche where he is whirling, is being tossed uncontrollably. It is the madness of a second intentional abandonment by G_d, one that has lasted seven hundred years. This is the horrifying psychic chaos Zim Zum. Then, in this abstract world, down the rabbit hole, the sensitive soul sees spheres begin to coalesce into a pattern. Almost as the Creator began his world out of nothingness, ten aspects of G_d begin to reveal themselves as a tree: Malkuth, or its feminine equivalent Shekkina, is the trunk, then the canopy makes itself up of Yesod/foundation, Hod/majesty, Netsah//endurance, Rahamim/compassion, Gevurah or Din, Hesed/love and me

I bought this book believing it would teach how to practise the Kabbalah.This book is more a history of Kabbalistic though and practises since the middle ages.If you want to learn the history of the Kabbalah this is a very good book, and is clearly written.If you want to learn to practise the Kabbalah keep looking. This is the seventh Kabbalaistic book I have read, and I can not recommend any of the others in clear conscience. I have have heard good things about "9 1/2 mystics:..." but I have not read that one yet.I will say one thing the "the tree of life" on page 15, and other places does not match the tree of life diagrams in other kabbalistic books I have read.Please E-mail me if you have questions or comments about my review. Two Bears.Wah doh Ogedoda (We give thanks Great Spirit)

This book was first written back in the '60's and published in the early 70's, when so many Jews were going to Eastern religions in search of the spirituality that (they thought) was not in Judaism. At that point in time, there was -- hard as it is to believe now -- very little material available about Jewish mysticism for the popular-level English reader. Seekers either had to struggle through the post-Ph.D.-level heaviness of Gershom Scholem's academic style, or learn Hebrew and read the source texts. Either was a daunting task for the casual seeker who just wanted some authentic info about kabbalah and how the Jewish mystics practiced its forms of meditation, etc.. Enter Perle Epstein (now Perle Besserman). She was already doing a series on the various forms of mysticism, and had already covered Buddhism, Zen, etc., so she decided her next project would be on the mysticism of her own Jewish background. (As an interesting aside: Like so many assimilated Jews of that era, Epstein came to mysticism and meditation through yoga and Hinduism first, and was not a religious Jew when she began the "Kabbalah" project. So, she had a two-fold struggle: (1) to find the teachings, and (2) to confront her own issues and stereotypes about the Orthodox Jews she was interviewing. The personal story of these struggles and how she collected the material for "Kabbalah" is told in "Pilgrimage: Adventures of a Wandering Jew" which, as far as I know, is out of print but well worth tracking down a copy.) The influence of her Eastern studies and practical experience with Hindu gurus and Zen masters can be seen in "Kabbalah," such as the way she describes the 16th-century Safed community of Rabbi Isaac Luria as a "Jewish Shangri-la" and a sort of ashram community, -- which, in a sense, it was. This made the teachings very understandable people who were already familiar with the Eastern forms of meditation. In fact, it was the first popular book I know of that clearly identified some of the practices as forms of visualization, use of mantras, etc. In my opinion, these types of cross-cultural comparisons are very helpful to Jews (and others) who want an introduction to how Jewish mysticism has been practiced down through the centuries. The book is not an academic tome, but is written in a clear popular, almost poetic style that I found a delight to read the first time around, and have returned to again and again. For many years during the 70's and 80's, this book was my #2 recommendation to Jewish beginners in kabbalah, as well as non-Jews wanting to know something about our spirituality. (my #1 recommendation was "9 1/2 Mystics" by Herbert Weiner). I am delighted to see that Epstein's book is available again, so I can recommend it on my website.