Kabbalah: A Love Story [Paperback]

Rabbi Lawrence Kushner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 9, 2007

Sometime, somewhere, someone is searching for answers . . .
. . . in a thirteenth-century castle
. . . on a train to a concentration camp
. . . in a New York city apartment

Hidden within the binding of an ancient text that has been passed down through the ages lies the answer to one of the heart’s eternal questions. When the text falls into the hands of Rabbi Kalman Stern, he has no idea that his lonely life of intellectual pursuits is about to change once he opens the book. Soon afterward, he meets astronomer Isabel Benveniste, a woman of science who stirs his soul as no woman has for many years. But Kalman has much to learn before he can unlock his heart and let true love into his life. The key lies in the mysterious document he finds inside the Zohar, the master text of the Kabbalah.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Although Kabbalah has become one of today's pop-cultural buzzwords (yo, Madonna!), neither this mystical branch of Judaism nor its masterwork, the Zohar, a mystical commentary on the Torah, are well understood. In his first novel, Kushner bypasses the instructive tone used in his nonfiction and plunges into the heart of Kabbalah, opening up the topic so that stories about time, history, and love come swirling out. On one level, this is the story of Rabbi Kalman Stern, a failure, certainly, in love; deserted by his wife, he has not opened himself to a woman in 20 years. The most important thing in his life is a 1697 printing of the Zohar. A letter hidden inside the book, which offers startling insights into creation, heightens his search for meaning both in the outside world and in his own life, where an astronomer, Isabel Benveniste, is pecking at his shell. But Stern's is not the only story unfolding in this multileveled novel. A Kabbalastic scholar in thirteenth-century Spain meets an inspirational woman of intellect and beauty. A young man on a train to a concentration camp learns from an authority on the Zohar. Everything circles back on itself, paralleling the way the Zohar suggests the world is structured. As much meditation as mindbender, this is a book that one experiences rather than merely reads. Not everything works--the ending is predictable, bordering on hackneyed. But Lawrence poses many challenging questions, and the answers will be as individual as the readers. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

“This one is a gem.” —David Mamet, playwright

“Lawrence Kushner . . . revolutionizes our understanding of God, and shows how we discover our true nature by opening ourselves to love.” —Daniel C. Matt, author of The Essential Kabbalah

“Part damn-good storytelling, part mind-bending magic, Kabbalah isn’t really a novel; it’s an experience of Jewish mysticism—seductive, cerebral, and humorous, told in a wholly unique and beautiful voice.” —Debbie Danielpour Chapel

“Like all creative spiritual thinkers, Rabbi Kushner . . . blends humor, suspense, and the sublime in a contemporary amalgam of magical realism and the traditional religious fable.” —Bernard Horn, author of Facing the Fires: Conversations with A.B. Yehoshua

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Broadway (October 9, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767924134
• ISBN-13: 978-0767924139
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.5 x 7.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #438,843 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #73 in Books > Literature & Fiction > United States > Jewish American

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Zohar Redux, November 26, 2006

By 

Harvey L. Gordon (Houston) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kabbalah: A Love Story (Hardcover)

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.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An engaging approach to the subject of divine and human love, October 27, 2006

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kabbalah: A Love Story (Hardcover)

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 ([e-mail])

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Both Significant and Fun, October 20, 2006

By 

Linda Blackstone (concord, ca United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kabbalah: A Love Story (Hardcover)

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!