Customer Reviews

Kabbalah: A Love Story

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Vladimir Nabokov, who taught literature to Cornell undergrads in the '50s, opined that one ought to read books twice. Only after you know the twists in the plot and how it all turns out are you free to fully experience the book. I believe it, but only rarely have I followed his advice.
I enjoyed reading Kushner's "Kabbalah: A Love Story" when it appeared a few weeks ago. I was drawn to read it again. I reread it with new eyes. What an extraordinary book! The first time through I thought it was about Kabbalah. I see now that that's not the case - it is Kabbalah. Those familiar with Kushner's writings know that he is a spiritual seeker, but they know not to look to Kushner for pious platitudes. His characters - like his readers - have one foot in Heaven and the other in the Subway. Read this book as a gripping, multi-layered tale of discovery. Or read it for glimpses of the God that Kushner describes as "The Oneness" - a theology that defies the most rational among us to settle for Atheism.

For many, knowledge of the term Kabbalah is limited to its association with pop culture icons like Madonna and Britney Spears or esoteric symbols like red string and magical water sold for $8 a bottle. To these casual observers, Kabbalah can safely be assigned to the same pigeonhole as a host of other dubious New Age spiritual practices. Readers seeking an alternative to such a superficial understanding of this ancient strand of Jewish mysticism will find a welcome antidote in Rabbi Lawrence Kushner's new novel.

Kushner is a San Francisco-based rabbi and highly-regarded author of numerous works of theology and spirituality, including HONEY FROM THE ROCK: An Introduction to Jewish Mysticism. In this novel he tries his hand for the first time at a full-length work of fiction. While the novel shows some of the weaknesses of a debut effort, chiefly in the depth of its characterization and occasionally wooden dialogue, its flaws are outweighed by the way in which it engagingly tackles the subject of divine and human love.

KABBALAH: A Love Story stitches together a series of interconnected narratives that range across more than eight centuries and transport the reader from 20th century New York to medieval Spain to Poland during the Holocaust. The main thread that links these tales is the story of Rabbi Kalman Stern, a congenial, if undistinguished, scholar of Jewish mysticism whose psychic scars from his first wife's decision to abandon him for another man early in their marriage have stunted his emotional life, preventing him from connecting with any other women.

In the binding of a 17th century edition of the Zohar, or The Book of Splendor, the preeminent text of Kabbalah --- casually obtained in a pile of discarded manuscripts on a trip to the Israeli city of Safed, one of the early centers of Kabbalistic teaching --- Rabbi Stern discovers a fragment of Aramaic text that will transform his life. The text refers to the "seed point of beginning" and the "mother-womb of being," concepts fundamental to the Kabbalistic view of creation. At the same time, it reads like a cryptic fragment of a love letter. The discovery launches Rabbi Stern on a quest to uncover the text's true meaning.

Rabbi Stern soon encounters Isabel Benveniste, a Columbia University astronomer specializing in cosmology, who shares his fascination with the origins of the universe. Damaged in her own way by the early death of her mother, Isabel slowly finds herself engaged by the Jewish scholar. Their exploration of complementary intellectual disciplines evolves into a genuine, if unlikely, affection.

Paralleling the story of Kalman and Isabel is the tale of Moshe ben Shem Tov de Guadalajara, otherwise known as Moshe de Leon, generally believed to be the principal author of the Zohar in the 13th century. In the novel, de Leon is engaged as the Hebrew tutor to the wife of a prominent Castilian Jewish financier. Their lessons quickly progress from arid discussions of the Hebrew alphabet and grammar to explorations of mystical theology. The senora reveals a penchant for profound spiritual insight, and de Leon is transformed from teacher into student, racing to transcribe her observations as quickly as she utters them, profoundly reshaping his mystical worldview.

True to its mystical context, KABBALAH stops short of offering a definitive resolution to Rabbi Stern's quest. Despite that, he achieves an insight that meaningfully links the cosmic and human realms in which Jewish mysticism dwells, and is transformed as a result. At the novel's end he concludes, "Moshe de Leon, the author of the Zohar, figured out that knowing ultimate truth and giving yourself to your lover are effectively identical. You move from this World of Separation to the World of Unity by giving yourself away, and once you can do that, new life is the reward." That insight leads him to a true understanding of his relationship with Isabel and lays the foundation for their relationship to flourish.

Gershom Scholem, the leading scholar of Jewish mysticism, has described portions of the Zohar's narrative as a "mystical novel." Rabbi Kushner's KABBALAH embodies that same spirit. While it offers only a brief glimpse into the complex and profound subject of Jewish mysticism, for some curious readers it no doubt will serve as a springboard to exploring that subject in greater depth. When they do that, they'll be equipped with tools more useful than the ones offered by pop culture.

--- Reviewed by Harvey Freedenberg (mwn52@aol.com)

Review of Kabbalah: A Love Story by Lawrence Kushner

As a very secular Jew, I have known nothing more about the Kabbalah than what most literate west coast people know: it has something to do with Jewish mysticism and has recently become popular due to the attention of Madonna.

It was therefore a great surprise and delight not only to enjoy Kabbalah: A Love Story, but to have my own "mystical" experience while reading the novel. As I followed the twists and turns of the timeline, interwoven plots, mysterious revelations and interpretations of the ancient texts, the transformation of the main character, Rabbi Kalman Stern, became a vehicle for the expansion of my own consciousness.

I have read many books about other people's ecstatic experiences, but few that conducted me into a realm where I felt my own connection with the Divine. And in this book it came not just with a sense of awe, but also with numerous chuckles and even several belly-laughs!

Sometimes in your life, you get a chance to hold something really beautiful. That is true for this book. It is so lovely that you just like to look at it and hold it. But that is only the smallest part of the beginning. A book is not only beautiful because it is an object but because it holds that most precious thing: possibility. The possibility that you will read a good story. That you will lose yourself in the book for a time. That you will perhaps find something that inspires you, terrifies you, enlightens you, or speaks to you as the YOU that you are.

Once you get past observing the dust jacket, the cover, the feeling of the paper, the weight of the book in your hand, and once you get to opening it and reading the first few paragraphs, you will be drawn into that good story that you are looking for. In fact you may, like me, just go ahead and read the whole book over the next few hours. I entreat you to resist that or, if unable to do so, to vow that you will read it first quickly and then read it again with more attention. This book deserves more attention. It is not simply a good story (though it certainly is that too!) but conceals so much more beneath the surface. The brevity of the text belies the lifetime of study this author has devoted to the understanding of creation, God, love, Judaism, mysticism, Kabballah, and humankind.

When I got the book, I figured it would be some kind of Judaic equivalent to "The DaVinci Code". I was wrong. This book is about opening the mind to the infinite expanses of God and universe, as expressed in the simplest experiences of life and love in "ordinary" human existence. This book did not come about because of a sudden "good idea" that precipated research leading to an adventure novel. It grew out of true and valid belief in, love of, and understanding for the most beautiful ideas of humanity, as seen through the lens of our first mono-theistic and ancient experience of creation, Judaism.

So I repeat: get this book now!

I remember many years ago, when I was very young, being in Temple with my father, when he leaned over to me, pointed to the newly elected president of the congregation, a gray man in a brown business suit, and whispered into my ear: that man's a mystic.

In "Kabbalah: A Love Story," Lawrence Kushner takes us deep into the world of the ordinary - where mystics wear business suits; a glimpse of the future lies hidden in a Doris Day and Cary Grant movie; and the signs are - literally - everywhere.

"Kabbalah: A Love Story" is a remarkable book. And Kushner is a remarkable writer. Two tales - one set in contemporary Manhattan, the other in 13th century Spain - interpenetrate each other, and the effect is nothing short of magical.

But magical is different than magic. Kushner is not proffering amulets, Kabbalah water, or $36 red strings here. Rather, he's trying to help us make sense of a world in which a dedicated lifetime of study offers no protection against brutal death; while one page, randomly ripped out of a book, can have the power - literally - to save a life. Did I mention that "Kabbalah: A Love Story" is worth reading more than once? Brilliant and wise, dangerous and deep - a love story of the highest order.

Although I'm Jewish and consider myself a mystic, I usually avoid books on kabbalah as astutely as I avoid, say, the horoscope in the daily newspaper. Too many books on mysticism are simply trite and/or superficial. This is never the case, however, with anything written by Rabbi Lawrence Kushner.

It takes a master, both of writing and of mysticism, to help spiritual seekers keep their feet on the ground without stripping us of our longing for transcendence and mystery. In "Kabbalah: A Love Story", Kushner demonstrates, once again, this very mastery. I came away from this book wanting to live a deeper spiritual life, a life full of wonder and mystery and love.

The colon in the title of the book has meaning (of course, in Kabbalah, everything on the page has meaning). Rabbi Kushner's delightful little book is both a primer on Kabbalah and a love story. The many readers of his earlier books on Jewish mysticism such as The Way into Jewish Mystical Thought, or Eyes Remade for Wonder, or any of his titles will find here as well a lucid and compelling introduction to Jewish mysticism but with the added bonus of a love story that romps through time and space in a delicious and humorous way. As in its half-namesake, Eric Segal's Love Story, we soon become involved in a soulful romance; this time not between doomed young lovers but between Kushner's middle-aged hero, the lonely Rabbi Kalman Stern, and the astronomer, Isabel Beneviste, as they search for ways to forgive their pasts and connect with each other. Unlike Segal's love story, however, this is not a tragedy but something new - a blend of the picaresque, the inspirational, the relevatory and the didactic - or is it new? Sounds like the Zohar to me....

A real gem! This little book is amazing. Rabbi Lawrence Kushner is to Jewish mysticism what Alan Watts was to Zen Buddhism. The writing is deceptively simple, the book is easy to read, but things are not as they first seem. What I initially found a little confusing was simply my brain not getting this message! The story follows two threads simultaneously. One thread is the tension between the main character, who is inexperienced with love, and his newfound astronomer girlfriend, and the second is his discovery of an ancient text hidden in the binding of an old copy of the Zohar, a medieval book on Jewish mysticism. How these two threads interweave in the mind of the reader is quite compelling: calling into question the nature of reality and our trust in perception; drawing attention to the function of religion and spirituality in our daily lives; and revealing the interconnectedness of all things.

I highly recommend this book!

In reading "Kabbalah: A Love Story", I did not come to understand the connection between spiritual transcendence and romantic love; I came to experience it. The author notes that many sacred texts (Hebrew Bible, New Testament, Koran) are actually novel-like stories, but reading them deeply often expands one's consciousness of the Divine. Well, so too with this book; it affected me in the same way Gibran's "The Prophet" has affected so many people.

Written in a style suggestive of "Einstein's Dreams" or a Borges short story, this brief, funny, but deceptively complex book intertwines several human sagas with fascinating asides on science, technology, and history. Who would have thought that this small attractive package of a book could be so profound? If you want to really get some sense of what mysticism is but don't want to spend the rest of your life in a monastic cell in South Asia, read this book.

This is an excellent novel with a bit of Kabbalah teaching thrown in. It is a very quick read, but has enough inside that you'll feel satisfied. Its really an introduction to Kabbalistic thought but told through a novel. There were times where I would have like a little deeper character development, but overall a very well written book. Definitely worth picking up to read.