Dreams of Being Eaten Alive: The Literary Core of the Kabbalah (Hardcover)

by David Rosenberg (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
"The most important thing to say about the Kabbalah is that it is always the wrong idea to clarify it," writes David Rosenberg. This sentence comes near the end of his strange and beautiful book, Dreams of Being Eaten Alive: The Literary Core of the Kabbalah. The book is a brief exploration of sexuality, spirituality, and psychology. It is sufficiently grounded in biblical tradition to be understood by theological conservatives, and sufficiently unconventional in tone to appeal to theological liberals. "Yes, [Kabbalah] offers meanings," Rosenberg concedes, "but, of even more relevance today, it presents a way of searching for meaning. It ranges from dreams to fear and desire, putting aside all boundaries and taboos in the search for what is truly alive." The book begins and ends with essays entitled, "How to Read the Kabbalah" and "How to Receive the Kabbalah," both of which are less instructional than exemplary. Rosenberg describes his own longings for and experiences of epiphanic moments in waking life that have the feverish and all-consuming qualities of the most vivid dreams. Between these essays lies the real meat of the book, Rosenberg's own translation of the Kabbalah. (His previously published translations include The Book of J and The Poet's Bible.) In this rendering, Kabbalah is an urgent and sensuous book, with valuable (if vague) instructions for living faithfully and greatly. Here's just one example of its simultaneously unsettling and comforting lessons: "Now watch closely. A dream must be interpreted, or else it remains an unread letter.... Forget a dream and no enrichment from its interpretation will come to you." --Michael Joseph Gross

From Publishers Weekly
Poet, author and editor Rosenberg is perhaps best known for The Book of J (1991), a controversial bestseller in which he translated part of the Torah and, together with his co-writer, Harold Bloom, claimed that the sacred text's true author was a woman. In this new book, he tackles the Kabbalah, adding to its secret abstruseness the assertions that it is erotic and kin to what he calls "frontier ecology." Rosenberg opens with a hard-to-read section on "How to Read the Kabbalah," followed by his translations of selections from the Zohar, the Kabbalah's canonical book. The third section, "How to Receive the Kabbalah," contains explanations of the Zohar translations. Unlike Judaism's concern with belief and behavior expressed in a social philosophy and a theological framework, the Kabbalah deals with mysticism, myths, emanations, spirituality and dreams, including the cannibal dream that gives Rosenberg's book its title. Primarily, Rosenberg interprets the Kabbalah as a book "obsessed with failed sex." Rosenberg's ruminations range so widely that they are sometimes difficult to follow; alongside allusions to Kafka and Dante, he refers to the television series Touched by an Angel and devotes nearly an entire chapter to the spirituality exhibited on Oprah. Rosenberg struggles valiantly to elucidate what he means by "frontier Kabbalah," "creative Kabbalah" and "practical Kabbalah," but the end result is a muddle.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Harmony; First Edition edition (April 11, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 060960306X
• ISBN-13: 978-0609603062
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,730,563 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars True Kabbalah feelings, November 12, 2000

By	Miha Ahronovitz "myinnervoice" (Rocklin, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

David Rosenberg book is the first I read which does not explain Kabbalah. Like love, Kabbalah canot be explained.

The reader gets help to FEEL what Kabbalah is. The authors, David Rosenberg and Rhonda Rosenberg, use modern day sensations and ideas, accessible to a contemporary. I include Rhonda Rosenberg as an author, as she contributed to the most important chapter of the book, Part III, "How to receive the Kabbalah"

The lecture of this chapter is a sufficent reason for buying this book. No other spiritual book I read managed to 'click' more precisely that kabbalistic sensitivities, - from the same root as poetry - that any human being alive must have in various incipient stages.

The reader can not be passive. S/he must participate, s/he must execute its own 'applet' (pre-existent computer-program-like soul component)) to respond to that 'click'.

The Rosenbergs describe the reader pre-requirements as follows: "an affinity for play and abstraction, along with a sympathy for the necessity of it..."

In other words, did you ever dream? Then, after waking up, did you wonder what the dream means? Did you ask - one step further - why does one dream? Why don't we sleep solidly all the nights of our lives? If these questions are significant for you, then you MUST read at least part III of this book.

Because "the desire to come upon meanings in disguise is analogous to the wandering of the rabbi companions in Zohar." As we drive cars to work and let the mind wonder for a bit, as we stop a moment to reflect upon anything that happens to us, we realize that that is more to everything we see around us. Someone concealed to our mind meanings. We are so used to see the decor manufactured by ourselves, - cities and countrysides, shopping centres and TV's - that we read a meaning "in a more natural and wild way, unconfined by the human culture " only by surprise, as if by an accident.

One starling comparison is the author scrutiny of the spiritual in such TV icons as in an "Oprah Winfrey Kabbalah's show".

Because there is spiritual that encompasses everything we are, just as environmental ecology seems to have an intelligence of its own, that will survive long after people, - homo sapiens - will disappear as biological species.

Kabbalah, is another way to see life. We received wonderful messages and feelings, not visible by others. To see what this means, just look at the book jacket, with an inset detail of child from picture of Hieronymous Bosch. Is there a child? Or they are two children? One looks at us. The other looks elsewhere. One is terrified. Other is suspicious. Both are innocent. Or , are they? Why Bosch painted it? Why David Rosenberg wrote this book?

Can any one answer?

10 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Looking for something different?, July 4, 2000

By	"sealkeeper" (Alamosa, CO USA) - See all my reviews

If you're looking for a "Kabbalah 101" book, then this is not the book for you. Rosenberg does a wonderful job of explaining why the Kabbalah is, not what it is. This is a book of mystical truths and archetypes. His interpretations are insightful and provocative. A must read for the seeker of the non-traditional genre.

2.0 out of 5 stars Hmm, could have been better?, June 24, 2008

By	Maria (Eastern Coast) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dreams of Being Eaten Alive: The Literary Core of the Kabbalah (Paperback)

I bought this book wanting more information on the Kabbalah. I really rthought this book would be the one to give me the information I was seeking. I truly believe this book could have been written better, and could have been more descriptive, and give a deeper look into the Kabbalah.

First, this book could have been a little bit longer. I feel as if the author was rushing through it, and was throwing in extra information that really did not need to be there.

Second, I understand the Kabbalah and was looking for a deeper view into it, but I think this book has taken away from the Kabbalah itself. This author was putting in his personal beliefs, and how HE feels about it.

Overall I wouldnt recommend this book, and I will be searching for a better book than this one.