An Introduction to the Kabbalah (Suny Series in Judaica: Hermeneutics, Mysticism, and Religion)

Product Description

Provides an introduction to the world of the Kabbalah, focusing on both the Kabbalist as a person and the major teachings of the Kabbalah.

From Library Journal

There has been a veritable flood of books on Jewish mysticism in recent years. Many New Age practitioners are attracted to Jewish mysticism, with its emphasis on spirituality, meditation, nature, and even ecology. Hallamish (Jewish mysticism, Bar-Ilan Univ., Israel) has tapped into this trend and produced a readable overview of the main teachings of the Kabbalah, a shorthand expression for Jewish mystical experience. Hallamish discusses techniques for exploring mysticism, mystical doctrines, and the evolution of mystical thought. Scholars will especially appreciate this solid study, though informed lay readers will enjoy it, too. Libraries already owning either Kenneth Hanson’s Kabbalah: Three Thousand Years of Mystic Tradition (LJ 10/15/98) or Neil Asher Silberman’s Heavenly Powers: Unraveling the Secret Power of the Kabbalah (LJ 10/15/98) can pass. General readers may also enjoy David Cooper’s God Is a Verb (Riverhead, 1997), which is more of a how-to manual on Jewish mysticism.?Paul M. Kaplan, Lake Villa Dist. Lib., IL
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

“An Introduction to the Kabbalah is a lucid, scintillating guide to the esoteric teachings of Judaism. The book is very readable without sacrificing scholarly sophistication.” ― Daniel Matt, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley; Author of The Essential Kabbalah and God and the Big Bang

“This is an important work. It provides an overview of the world of Jewish mysticism with particular attention to the issues that are philosophically generated within that tradition. It examines these issues in a phenomenological way, free of the historiographical approach practiced by many students of Gershom Scholem. The book addresses a number of significant aspects of Jewish mysticism in light of their relationship to general Jewish thought, not in the light of other traditions. It also provides the newcomer to the field with important sources from across the historical continuum of the Kabbalah.” ― Pinchas Giller, Washington University

About the Author

Moshe Hallamish is Full Professor of Jewish Mysticism, Bar-Ilan University, Israel. He has authored and edited many books, and is editor of DAAT, a journal of Jewish Philosophy and Kabballah.