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The Way Into Jewish Mystical Tradition

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The extraordinary Rabbi Kushner takes the novice on a journey into the world of Kabbalah, the Jewish mystical tradition. He does this by presenting the reader with 50 short chapters that contain text from the great works of Jewish mystical literature with commentary on them by Rabbi Kushner. Some of the things examined are the ineffable name of God, nothingness, the shattering of the holy vessels, the repair of the world, the sefirot the ten emanations of God, and Adam Qadmon the cosmic template of the primal and ultimate human form (not to be confused with Adam haRishon the first Adam of the Garden of Eden). Included is a glossary of Hebrew terms used, as well as a bibliography for those who want to learn more. I didn't find this book as inspirational as some of his others, but still it is a very worthwhile basic introduction to Kabbalah for the beginner.

It is very difficult to write about mysticsm because the mystical experience is just that, an "experience." Rabbi Lawrence Hoffman, for example, could write about the structure and purpose of Jewish prayer in another book in this series. Although there are deeper meanings to prayer, the structure and meaning of prayer can be categorized. Here, however, Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, who is actually very prolific in his writings about mysticism, has the daunting task of writing coherently about something that must be experienced. He does a very creditable job but, the difficulties in doing so are apparent. Although all of the books in this series use direct quotes of primary sources, Rabbi Kushner's text is more than fifty percent direct quotes rather than his own writing. I found the text a little difficult to follow since direct quotes were used to make points rather than to merely illustrate them.

I have read other books in this series and, when you read about Judaism's conception of G-d, or of prayer, or of Torah, there are of necessity, allusions to Jewish mysticism. Therefore, I was aware of some of the concepts explored in this book, such as the Kabbalistic concept of broken vessels during creation and the attempt to repair the world by gathering the scattered sparks. Still, this is a complex topic and is difficult to understand unless the vision is experienced.

One important theme in this book is the importance of words. Since G-d created the universe by the use of words, obviously words must have greater power than appears on the surface. Accordingly, mystics ascribe deeper meanings to the words of Torah and the level of meaning goes deeper and deeper upon its study. Therefore, the words are parsed, the use of particular letters has deep significance and hidden codes are discovered. This is a fascinating topic; difficult to fathom but fascinating nonetheless. Rabbi Kushner has made a worthwhile contribution to the "Way Into" series published by Jewish Lights.

Lawrence Kushner has written quite a few books on Jewish mysticism that are published by Jewish Lights Books, including volumes on Chassidic thinking, stories, and several introductions to mysticism, even one directed to Christians. This volume is part of Jewish Lights Publishing's The Way Into series, which includes volumes such as The Way into Torah, The Way into Women and Men, and The Way into Jews and Non-Jews. Kushner offers a large number of page-length quotes from various mystical sources and his interpretations of them to show how different people understood mysticism.

Some people define mysticism as follows: Thinking people want to know the truth. There are three broad approaches to the truth. The first, the method of the ancient philosophers, is the scientific method, by carefully examining the world, just as a scientist dissects an animal and puts its pieces under a microscope to discover what one can about the makeup of an animal. This scientific method uses logic. It insists that it is a human obligation to think. The second approach is religion, which is based for the most part on ancient traditions, that is ideas that ancients had, and a belief that there was once a divine revelation that passed on information about the world and proper behavior. Passive people who are only interested in religion do not experiment or think independently, and most of them are bothered by people who do. The third approach is mysticism. Mysticism has its own traditions and its own view of revelation, even insisting that God revealed mysticism, but, like religion, it does not experiment and does not use logic. Mystics depend on intuition, on a flash insight they achieve that is not, like logic, based on any facts or reality. There are also many people, in fact most people, who combine aspects of each of the three approaches.

Kushner does not take this analytical, perhaps over-scholarly approach to understand mysticism. As stated previously, he spices his book with interesting, usually down-to-earth, and always thought-provoking quotes from famous mystics and from scholars who analyzed them. These include the fifteenth century Chaim Vital, the student of Ari, who lived in Safed in Israel, who did not write down his own ideas; Moshe Cordovero, his contemporary; the earlier thirteenth century Zohar and the fourteenth century Nachmanides; the still earlier Sefer Habahir and Midrash Tehillim; as well as from many later Chassidic rabbis, such as Dov Baer of Mezritch.

Kushner introduces many selections with words that have become code phrases in Jewish mysticism, such as astir panim, "God hiding His face," sitra achra, "the other side," and or ganuz, "the hidden light." The volume is also filled with expansive explanations of mystical concepts generally as well as explanations of the specific selections that are quoted.

One example is the biblical Ezekiel 1:1-28, which mystics consider "the paradigm Jewish mystical experience." Kushner explains it. He describes how in the first century Ezekiel's "vision of the chariot spawned whole communities, yordei merkavah ("descenders of the chariot") seeking similar epiphanies." He relates the prophet's vision to passages in the biblical book Exodus. He acquaints us with the term maaseh merkavah, "the tale of the chariots", a term that mystics translate as mysticism (but which the rationalist Moses Maimonides understood as metaphysics). Kushner ends this section by quoting the 28 Ezekiel verses. Thus, in short, readers of Kushner's volume, which is a fine introduction to mysticism, will read a host of mystical texts, have them explained, and learn mystical terminology.

"The Way into Jewish Mystical Tradition" presents an interesting pairing: The writing of Lawrence Kushner with a sampling of mystical texts from the past nine centuries.

This book from Jewish Lights' "The Way Into ..." series is organized around 51 short excerpts from the vast array of Jewish mystical writing.

This is a collection of the all-time greats: The Baal Shem Tov, Kook, Heschel, The Zohar, Nachman of Bratslav, and Buber, to name a few.

While some of the samples are inscrutable, others are so inspiring that I'm sure I'll return to this book again and again.

But it is Kushner's introductory commentaries to each classical text that gives this book true added value.

He makes an important point about Jewish mysticism:

It's not about self-realization. On the contrary, it's about self-annihilation, or bittul ha-yesh. To quote Yehuda Aryeh Lieb Alter of Ger (1847-1905), the goal is "annihilating one's self and in each deed submitting to the innermost divine life force."

Kushner's The Way Into Jewish Mystical Tradition is primarily a collection of source texts arranged around a central theme of Kushner's choosing. The book is well-written and clear, and Kushner provides the reader with a wealth of kabalistic literature (some familiar, some not) that spans the entire history of Jewish esoteric, mystical thought. Most importantly, of all of Kushner's books (which I have read) this is his most non-dualistic. In this work, God penetrates every area of creation. There is no place devoid of God. This is the mystic's credo, and Kushner shows how this plays out in various streams of the Jewish religious tradition deftly and clearly.

Kushner somehow manages to explain kabbalah in an easily digestible and easy to comprehend way that does not overly simplify nor "dumb down" the material. It is one of those few non-fiction books that I find hard to put down.