Synopses & Reviews
This comprehensive and accessible entrée into the world of Kabbalah covers 1,600 years of Jewish mystical thought and features a variety of thinkers—from the renowned to the obscure—unavailable in any other volume. It’s a fresh take on an ancient tradition compiled by Edward Hoffman, a psychologist and respected scholar of Judaism, who reveals how this supposedly esoteric material is relevant to a host of contemporary concerns, such as ethics, emotional health, intuition and creativity, meditation, social relations and leadership, and higher states of consciousness.
Contributors include: Moses Chaim Luzzatto, Moses Cordovero, Abraham Abulafia, Maimonides, Nachmanides, The Maharal, Nachman of Breslov, The Baal Shem Tov, The Gaon of Vilna, The Netziv, The Ben Ish Chai, Yehudah Ashlag, Kalonymus Shapira, Baba Sali, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, Adin Steinsaltz, Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi, Jonathan Sacks, and many others, along with excerpts from the Sefer Yetzirah, Sefer HaBahir, and Sefer HaZohar.
Synopsis
This comprehensive and wonderfully accessible entrée into the world of Kabbalah covers 1,600 years of Jewish mystical thought, and features a variety of thinkersfrom the renowned to the obscureunavailable in any other volume. Its a fresh and contemporary take on an ancient tradition compiled by a clinical psychologist who is also a respected scholar of Judaism, and who, by his selection, reveals how this supposedly esoteric material is completely relevant to a host of contemporary concerns, such as ethics, emotional health, and inner growth. The selections, arranged chronologically and including voices from the Muslim world, cover such concerns as dreams, meditation, intuition, emotional development, and the movement to higher states of consciousness.
Contributors include: Rabbi Moses Chaim Luzzatto, Rabbi Moses Cordovero, Rabbi Abraham Abulafia, and contemporary voices such as Abraham Joshua Heschel, Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, Rabbi Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi, and Jonathan Sacks, the head rabbi of Britain, among many others.
About the Author
Edward Hoffman is the author of numerous books on Judaism, Kabbalah, and psychology. He is a psychologist and adjunct professor at Yeshiva University in New York City. He writes extensively for leading Jewish newspapers and magazines, including the National Jewish Post & Opinion, and the Jewish Week, and his articles have appeared in New York Newsday, and Yoga Journal.