You-re no idiot, of course. You know Judaism predates Christianity and remains one of the world-s most practiced religions. However, the ideals and ethics expressed in such texts as the Talmud and the Kabbalah may not seem as accessible as the stories of the Jews in the Bible, and you-re intimidated at the thought of exploring these ancient texts. Discover their wisdom without learning Hebrew! The Complete Idiot-s Guide- to Jewish Spirituality and Mysticism will show you exactly where the spiritual side of Judaism originated. In this Complete Idiot-s Guide-, you get: -- The four goals of Jewish mystical thought: to understand ourselves on a deeper level; to understand the universeon a deeper level; to improve our character; and to understand the mind of God.--Life lessons found in the Biblical stories of Noah, Abraham, and Isaac.--The historical significance of the Exodus story and the role Moses played as a Jewish leader.--Important passages from the Bible and Talmud-fully explained.
--This text refers to the
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More About the Author
New York Times best selling author Michael Levin is an Amherst College graduate, Columbia Law School-trained attorney, and non-practicing member of the Massachusetts Bar, whose publishing career includes six novels, eleven works of nonfiction, dozens of ghostwritten books, a commissioned screenplay and the script for a DVD series.
The author of eight national bestsellers, three novels published by Simon & Schuster and two novels published by Putnam/Berkley, Michael's book Making Jack Falcone, with FBI agent Joaquin Garcia, appeared on 60 Minutes and was optioned by Paramount and producer Steven Soderbergh (Traffic, Erin Brockovitch, Ocean's 11, Sex, Lies & Videotape). His work has also been optioned by Disney (and made into the ABC Sunday Night Movie of the Week Model Behavior), and HBO.
Michael's recent books include the following:
2010
RULES OF ENGAGEMENT, with Chad Hennings, 3-time Super Bowl winner with the Dallas Cowboys and a fighter pilot in the first Gulf War, who flew 45 humanitarian missions to the Kurds, published in January, 2010 by FaithWorks. This book reached best seller status on amazon.com within days of its publication.
GIANTS, with Pat Summerall, to be published in September, 2010 by Wiley, detailing Summerall's experiences when he was coached by Tom Landry and Vince Lombardi in the same 1958 season with the New York Giants.
2009
WHERE'S MY FIFTEEN MINUTES? HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE IN THE MEDIA AGE, with famed Hollywood publicist Howard Bragman, published in 2009 by Penguin/Portfolio Books. Howard Bragman has represented everyone in Hollywood from Sinatra to Madonna and is a frequent guest on Larry King Live, CNN, and throughout the media. The book reached #10 on the national Barnes&Nobel.com best sellers list.
GHOSTWRITTEN NOVEL FOR PRIVATE CLIENT. This book, written by Michael, reached number two on the Barnes and Nobel.com best seller list (number one was a book by President Obama!) and was optioned as a series by HBO.
THE STICKING POINT, with Jay Abraham, America's leading marketing guru, published in 2009 by Vanguard Books; the book reached number 2 on amazon.com business best seller lists.
2008
MAKING JACK FALCONE with Joaquin Garcia, the true story of the FBI agent who infiltrated the Mafia and took down the top 32 members of the Gambino crime family, published by Simon and Schuster/Touchstone in 2008. This book was optioned in 2007 by Paramount for Steven Soderbergh, director of Traffic, Erin Brockovich and Ocean's 11. It was featured on 60 Minutes in October, 2008 and is a New York Times bestseller.
2007
DROPPING THE BALL with Hall-of-Fame baseball player Dave Winfield, published with Scribner in March, 2007, currently in its second printing, and reached number 2 on the Los Angeles Times nonfiction best seller list. The New York Times called it "unusually thoughtful;" the Boston Globe called it "eloquent," and it was noted as "recommended reading" in Esquire Magazine.
NO ORDINARY LOVE, with NBA star Doug Christie and his wife Jackie Christie.
Michael's books have received outstanding reviews in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the New Yorker, Esquire, Newsweek, People Magazine, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Examiner, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and Booklist, and other publications from coast to coast. He also consults to a broad variety of authors, ranging from international bestsellers to individuals seeking to become published authors.
He takes great pride in the skills and experience of his capable team of writers.
The author of eight national bestsellers, three novels published by Simon & Schuster and two novels published by Putnam/Berkley, Michael's book Making Jack Falcone, with FBI agent Joaquin Garcia, appeared on 60 Minutes and was optioned by Paramount and producer Steven Soderbergh (Traffic, Erin Brockovitch, Ocean's 11, Sex, Lies & Videotape). His work has also been optioned by Disney (and made into the ABC Sunday Night Movie of the Week Model Behavior), and HBO.
Michael's recent books include the following:
2010
RULES OF ENGAGEMENT, with Chad Hennings, 3-time Super Bowl winner with the Dallas Cowboys and a fighter pilot in the first Gulf War, who flew 45 humanitarian missions to the Kurds, published in January, 2010 by FaithWorks. This book reached best seller status on amazon.com within days of its publication.
GIANTS, with Pat Summerall, to be published in September, 2010 by Wiley, detailing Summerall's experiences when he was coached by Tom Landry and Vince Lombardi in the same 1958 season with the New York Giants.
2009
WHERE'S MY FIFTEEN MINUTES? HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE IN THE MEDIA AGE, with famed Hollywood publicist Howard Bragman, published in 2009 by Penguin/Portfolio Books. Howard Bragman has represented everyone in Hollywood from Sinatra to Madonna and is a frequent guest on Larry King Live, CNN, and throughout the media. The book reached #10 on the national Barnes&Nobel.com best sellers list.
GHOSTWRITTEN NOVEL FOR PRIVATE CLIENT. This book, written by Michael, reached number two on the Barnes and Nobel.com best seller list (number one was a book by President Obama!) and was optioned as a series by HBO.
THE STICKING POINT, with Jay Abraham, America's leading marketing guru, published in 2009 by Vanguard Books; the book reached number 2 on amazon.com business best seller lists.
2008
MAKING JACK FALCONE with Joaquin Garcia, the true story of the FBI agent who infiltrated the Mafia and took down the top 32 members of the Gambino crime family, published by Simon and Schuster/Touchstone in 2008. This book was optioned in 2007 by Paramount for Steven Soderbergh, director of Traffic, Erin Brockovich and Ocean's 11. It was featured on 60 Minutes in October, 2008 and is a New York Times bestseller.
2007
DROPPING THE BALL with Hall-of-Fame baseball player Dave Winfield, published with Scribner in March, 2007, currently in its second printing, and reached number 2 on the Los Angeles Times nonfiction best seller list. The New York Times called it "unusually thoughtful;" the Boston Globe called it "eloquent," and it was noted as "recommended reading" in Esquire Magazine.
NO ORDINARY LOVE, with NBA star Doug Christie and his wife Jackie Christie.
Michael's books have received outstanding reviews in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the New Yorker, Esquire, Newsweek, People Magazine, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Examiner, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and Booklist, and other publications from coast to coast. He also consults to a broad variety of authors, ranging from international bestsellers to individuals seeking to become published authors.
He takes great pride in the skills and experience of his capable team of writers.
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Complete Idiot's Guide to Jewish Spirituality and Mysticism,
By Richard A. KUlick (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Complete Idiot's Guide(R) To Jewish Spirituality & Mysticism (Mass Market Paperback)
This book is both the oddest and possibly best of the "Complete Idiot's Guide" series. It takes the most complex Jewish mystical ideas and practices, many of which are hundreds if not thousands of years old, and explain's them in laymen's English(and Hebrew) in a way that makes Jewish spirituality accessible to the layperson. Levin quite thoroughly covers the Biblical basis of Jewish Mysticism, also known as Kabbalah(Received Tradition), then proceeds with a brief history of the rest of it's development and those Rabbis and Saints who make up it's principal guides over the past millenium.He also discusses all the principal Jewish spiritual practices, such as Daily prayer, meditation, Torah study, and study of such mystical works as the Zohar. Lastly, he provides a mystical guidebook for those traveling to Israeli Holy sites in the context of the present violence, and the principal issues Jewish mysticism deals with currently, such as the coming of the Messiah, the nature of suffering, holidays, and more. In short, the author seems to have accomplished the impossible: a User Friendly Guide to Jewish Mysticism. However, by it's nature, such a book covers it's subject "once over lightly" and does not deal with some of the concerns that have bedeviled deep Jewish thinkers and mystics since ancient times. These are the nature of Divine Providence, or why history, whether personal or collective, transpires the way it does; whether Jewish prayer and mitzvah have efficacy or actual effects in the "real world" or not, and the effect on Jewish practice and faith of the Holocaust. While the author might say that his book is no place for these subjects, he mentions them very briefly and superficially, when it is good answers to these questions that motivate people to take up the Jewish spiritual practice he advocates. For solid well grounded answers to these issues within the context of Jewish tradition, the reader will have to look to works that especially deal with them. A strongly written treatment of these subjects by this writer, "Jewish History and Divine Providence: Theodicy and the Oddyssey" is available for review and purchase on this site.
13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Author took the title too seriously,
By
This review is from: The Complete Idiot's Guide(R) To Jewish Spirituality & Mysticism (Mass Market Paperback)
This is the first of the "Idiot's Guide" genre that I have read where the author really did assume the readers would be idiots. Spirituality was treated at the depth one uses when teaching Sunday School. The greatest detail was saved for "loshan hora" or politically correct speech.The most annoying portion of the book was his treatment of Kabbalah. In essence, the author said "Kabbalah is very difficult to learn and you wouldn't understand it anyway." Then I bought "Practical Kabbalah" by Rabbi Laibl Wolf and received a very good introduction to the subject. I HIGHLY recommend Rabbi Laibl's book. My question is "why did the author include the words 'and mysticism' in the title if he had no intention to cover it?" My guess is that the editor thought the inclusion of those two words would greatly increase sales. I hope reviews like mine have thew opposite effect.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Simple but Well-written,
By Heather (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Complete Idiot's Guide(R) To Jewish Spirituality & Mysticism (Mass Market Paperback)
This book, "Jewish Spirituality and Mysticism" manages to take a very complex topic and simplify it -- without "dumbing it down" -- so that the layman can understand it. While the areas it covers are brief, this book explains them very well. This book is best angled towards people with no background on the subject, or with a little background who are looking for a basic reference or memory refresher. Worth buying. :)
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
The purpose of this book is to bring together in one easy-to-comprehend volume all of the essential teachings about Jewish mysticism and spirituality that have evolved over the centuries. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
own shulchan aruch, lashon hara, mystical moments, jewish spirituality Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Spiritual Citations, Devine Devarim, Mystical Moments, Mount Sinai, The Least You Need, Rosh Hashanah, Chafetz Chaim, United States, Jewish Bible, Rabbi Levi Yitzhak, Ten Commandments, Western Wall, Eastern Europe, Rabbi Nachman, Rabbi Salanter, Red Sea, Shneur Zalman, Soviet Union, Jewish Sabbath, Joshua Heschel, Lubavitcher Rebbe, New York, Rabbi Schneerson, Garden of Eden, Guarding Your Tongue New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
The purpose of this book is to bring together in one easy-to-comprehend volume all of the essential teachings about Jewish mysticism and spirituality that have evolved over the centuries. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
own shulchan aruch, lashon hara, mystical moments, jewish spirituality Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Spiritual Citations, Devine Devarim, Mystical Moments, Mount Sinai, The Least You Need, Rosh Hashanah, Chafetz Chaim, United States, Jewish Bible, Rabbi Levi Yitzhak, Ten Commandments, Western Wall, Eastern Europe, Rabbi Nachman, Rabbi Salanter, Red Sea, Shneur Zalman, Soviet Union, Jewish Sabbath, Joshua Heschel, Lubavitcher Rebbe, New York, Rabbi Schneerson, Garden of Eden, Guarding Your Tongue New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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