{"product_id":"kabbalah-isbn-9780767924139","title":"Kabbalah","description":"\u003ci\u003eSometime, somewhere, someone is searching for answers . . .\u003cbr\u003e. . . in a thirteenth-century castle\u003cbr\u003e. . . on a train to a concentration camp\u003cbr\u003e. . . in a New York city apartment\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003eHidden 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.“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 \u003ci\u003eThe Essential Kabbalah\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“Part damn-good storytelling, part mind-bending magic, \u003ci\u003eKabbalah\u003c\/i\u003e 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\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“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 \u003ci\u003eFacing the Fires: Conversations with A.B. Yehoshua\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“This one is a gem.” —David Mamet, playwrightLAWRENCE KUSHNER is a rabbi, writer, and teacher who has authored over a dozen books on Jewish mysticism and spirituality. He is a regular contributor to NPR's \u003ci\u003eAll Things Considered\u003c\/i\u003e and the\u003ci\u003e New York Times.\u003c\/i\u003e Kushner currently lives in San Francisco with his wife, Karen.* One *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMANHATTAN\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn this day the light had disguised itself as the first ordinary orange rays of a September sunrise over the East River. It easily eclipsed the big red  neon Tower Records sign and silhouetted all the sheets of newspaper  scurrying over Broadway's empty sidewalks. It ricocheted off the windows on  the building across the street and then flooded Kalman's office. And for a moment, light was everywhere. And everything was light.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKalman opened the door and squinted in the brightness. Winded from climbing  three flights up the utility stairwell, he was proud his forty-six-year-old constitution could still take them in stride. He set his coffee on the desk, hung his parka over the back of a chair, and began unpacking his  bag--teaching notes, books, a folder of last week's marked-up homework.  Finally, he peeled the tape from the flap of a bubble-wrap envelope  protecting a very old volume of Zohar, the master text of Kabbalah. Kalman had picked it up in Israel decades earlier; the caretaker of a little  out-of-the-way synagogue had given it to him.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Here,\" the old man had said. \"Take it, it's yours--has your name on it.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSo he took it. He'd been using it ever since as a pedagogic prop, a teaching  aid for his courses on mysticism. How could he possibly have imagined that,  after all these years, the back cover of the book was about to come unglued  and give birth to another page? That's the way it is with a good book: Just when you think you've read all its words, the damn thing falls apart in your  hands and you have to start all over again.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe leather of the cover was long gone; only the interior pastedowns had  survived the continents and centuries. Similarly, all that remained of the  binding was naked stitch work. The back cover was even more distressed--a  sandwich of several barely-glued-together and delaminating layers. The  extremes of New York's climate had taken their toll on whatever adhesive properties the old glue might still have possessed. Indeed, the book was so  insubstantial, it seemed more pneumatic than corporeal--a child's helium  balloon in imminent danger of floating away. The paper of the pages had a bluish cast and was so softly textured, it felt like cloth; wormholes  embroidered the edges and much of the gutter. Many margins were embellished  with handwritten notes. The title page bore the names or biblical verses  poetically alluding to the names of generations of owners. And at the bottom there was printed a verse from the Book of Job: \"What is hidden shall come  into the light.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThen, like a man swearing an oath in court, Kalman placed his open palm on  the book and mused, \"And what was hidden has come to me!\" He closed his eyes  and smiled.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKalman's office was at the back of the library stacks, a destination  distinguished primarily by the fact that it could be reached from the stairway door by at least half a dozen different paths. And each one was  through a different maze of aisles created by floor-to-ceiling gray metal  shelves of books and--if you bothered to flip on the switches as you walked  by--illuminated by overhead fluorescent lights. There were routes for every  mood: You could walk through medieval Europe and the Holocaust; you could walk through commentaries on the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, or the Koran; you could walk through the Talmud, the history of Israel, Jewish  ethics, or Jewish humor. But no matter which path you chose, it was through  books, literally thousands and thousands of them, all waiting patiently for readers like flowers for bees.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"So you're interested in becoming a rabbi. . . .\" Kalman set down her letter  and smiled at the red-haired young woman sitting on the other side of his desk.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Yes, I am, Rabbi Stern. I'm particularly interested in Kabbalah.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Which is why, I suppose, the dean asked me to meet with you.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe nodded.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKalman looked over his reading glasses. \"Does God talk to you?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Not that I know of.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Well, that's a good sign.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I majored in classics and religion at Brown. I even took a year of Hebrew.  For the past several years, I have tried Buddhist meditation, spent six months in India on an ashram, and then last year I had an epiphany. I was at my nephew's bar mitzvah, and it dawned on me that Judaism must have  something mystical, too.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Indeed,\" said Kalman. He reached over, picked up the Zohar, and handed it  to her. \"Be gentle, it's very, very old.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"When was it published?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Look at this line, here,\" he said, pointing to the verse from Job at the bottom of the title page.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Why are some of the letters bigger than the others?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Gematria.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"You mean where each letter has a numerical equivalent?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Excellent.\" He handed her a pencil and a notepad. \"How's your arithmetic?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"You'll have to help me.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Let's first wait and see if you need any. . . . Remember, only the \u003ci\u003ebig\u003c\/i\u003e letters.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Okay,\" she said, \"\u003ci\u003eAyin\u003c\/i\u003e is . . . Wait, don't tell me, \u003ci\u003emem\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003enun\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003esamekh\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eayin\u003c\/i\u003e, yes, seventy; \u003ci\u003elamed\u003c\/i\u003e is thirty; \u003ci\u003eyod\u003c\/i\u003e is ten. . . . \u003ci\u003eTsadi\u003c\/i\u003e. What's \u003ci\u003etsadi\u003c\/i\u003e?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Ninety,\" said Kalman.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Thank you. The \u003ci\u003ealephs\u003c\/i\u003e, of course, is one; the \u003ci\u003evav\u003c\/i\u003e is six; and the \u003ci\u003eresh\u003c\/i\u003e is .  . .\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Two hundred. Relax, this is not a test.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe tallied the numbers and replied with a hesitant grin, \"Four hundred and  eight?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    \"Bingo!\" said Kalman, clapping his hands together in mock applause. \"Pub date hidden in a scriptural verse.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"But how is four hundred and seven a date?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The publisher assumes you know which millennium you're in. So you add the  present millennium and get 5407. Then subtract that from the current Hebrew  year, 5757, leaving 350. Finally, subtract that from this year, 1997, which  tells us the book was published in 1647. Piece of cake. And if that's too  complicated for you, just add 240 to the Hebrew year and correct for the  proper millennium.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"But I don't understand, Rabbi Stern. Why didn't they just put the date?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Because the publisher believed that everything worth knowing is already in  the Hebrew Bible. That's what it means to say that God gave it. We only have  to learn how to read and interpret those words correctly. That's what we're  supposed to be doing here in this school: learning how to read them  properly.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSAFED: ITERATION ONE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKalman watched while the young woman contemplated the book in her hands.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"It's really beautiful, Rabbi Stern. What is it?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The red letters at the top of the page.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFalteringly, she sounded out the three words: \"\u003ci\u003eHa-Zohar al ha-Torah\u003c\/i\u003e. The Zohar on the Torah--awesome!\" Her cheeks flushed. \"I've read about it, but I've never seen one before.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"You are holding the first of a three-volume set that purports to be the  transcript of the peripatetic teachings and adventures of the second-century  mystic Shimon bar Yohai and his companions as they wander the Galilean  hills. Like other rabbinic texts, it humbly claims only to elaborate on the  real meaning of the Bible. Gershom Scholem . . . you know about him?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Historian of mysticism?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Yes. Scholem once pointed out that, in a revealed religion like Judaism,  creativity must masquerade as commentary.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I don't understand.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"If everything worth knowing is already in the Torah, then no one can say anything new of any real value. So if you're a Jew and you have a creative  idea, you must begin by demonstrating how it's already in scripture.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"And so that's why the Zohar claims to elucidate the Torah?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Correct. It was Scholem who also first suggested that the Zohar is a  mystical novel. That would make the Zohar a treatise on Kabbalah that has been disguised to \u003ci\u003elook like\u003c\/i\u003e a commentary on the Torah, which, in turn, is masquerading as a novel. Scholars now agree with Scholem that it was  pseudepigraphically written by the Castilian Kabbalist Moshe de Leon toward the end of the thirteenth century.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"It sort of gives ghostwriting a new dimension, doesn't it,\" she said.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKalman laughed. \"Well, if you believe in the transmigration of souls, I suppose. According to at least one document, Moshe de Leon feared that no  one would read something he wrote, so he invented--or I suppose you could say channeled--a more prestigious author. But whoever wrote it, the Jews bought the whole thing. After the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud, the Zohar has effectively become the third canonical sacred text in Judaism.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"May I ask, Rabbi, how you got the book?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe rotated it in his hands, examining it in the light. \"It's actually a pretty good story,\" Kalman said. \"The caretaker of a little synagogue up in Safed gave it to me. It must've been twenty, maybe twenty-five years ago. I  was leading a tour of Israel for members of my part-time congregation. We  were up in Safed, in the Galilee. After visiting the synagogue of Isaac  Luria, the group had had enough of my history of Kabbalah and wanted to go  shopping in the artists' quarter. So I wandered off down the hillside,  alone. Within only a few blocks the buildings began to thin out and the  narrow street became just a rocky, zigzag path down the side of the  mountain. That's when I noticed the entrance to the courtyard of a small  Spanish-Portuguese-style synagogue. I was tired, the gate was ajar, and the  place was deserted. So I walked in. . . .\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKalman closed his eyes for a moment, recalling that old Mediterranean prayer  hall. Its ceiling was high--easily two stories--and supported by four  slightly pointed, white plastered arches that, in turn, rested upon columns.  Each column was painted a bright, high-gloss blue. Most of the windows had  bright blue curtains that billowed lazily with every passing breeze. The big stone blocks paving the floor had been worn to a shine by the foot-shuffle genuflections of generations of worshippers. Every inch of mortar between every block of pavement was also painted bright azure. The bottom half of all four walls was also a bright, high-gloss blue.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBlue: the color of the sea and the color of the sky. \"And beneath God's feet  was the likeness of sapphire stones, like the purity of the sky  itself\"--Exodus 24:10. And blue: the color associated with God's fleeting feminine presence.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe top half of the room and ceiling was white and festooned with a  haphazard array of fluorescent lights, space heaters, bare incandescent bulbs, chandeliers, and sconces for candles, as well as an assortment of electric fans. The walls were interrupted regularly with cushioned benches and alcoves for bookshelves. Along the far wall were six high, narrow, arched windows. They had neither screens nor glass. Birds occasionally flew in and out. Rays of afternoon sunlight flitted across the prayer desks and  bookshelves, igniting them, one after another, with flashes of white light. And in the center, several feet above floor level, stood an ornate pulpit  surrounded by a turquoise railing.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"It was the most mysteriously beautiful place I think I've ever been in,\" said Kalman. \"I just stood there, mesmerized by the sunlight and the twittering of the birds, when the caretaker, an old Moroccan-looking man,  startled me out of my reverie. . . .\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eMincha\u003c\/i\u003e doesn't start for a few hours.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"What?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The afternoon service, it doesn't begin for a few hours.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"This is a beautiful synagogue.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"It needs a new roof; the plumbing's shot.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"What's it called?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The plumbing problem?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"No, the synagogue.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Benaiah, the Yosé Benaiah Synagogue.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Who is Yosé Benaiah?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Third-century Talmudic teacher.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I've never heard of him.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"We only have fragments.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Such as?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Tractate \u003ci\u003eTa'anit\u003c\/i\u003e 7a: 'If you occupy yourself with Torah for its own sake, your learning will become a source of life.' \"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Beautiful.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"My personal favorite is from tractate Baba Batra. It says that once Rabbi  Benaiah came upon Abraham's burial cave. There, in front, standing guard, he  found Abraham's servant, Eliezer. 'What is Abraham doing?' asked Benaiah.  'He and Sarah are making love,' said the servant.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Visiting the caves of people who make love for eternity--an interesting  character, this Benaiah guy.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Maybe that's why they named the synagogue after him.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"What a wonderful story. Thank you. Say, you wouldn't by any chance know  where I might find some old Kabbalistic books, would you?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Have you looked over there?\" The old man gestured toward what looked like a  pile of rubbish on a table in a darkened alcove. \"Go ahead, help yourself.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"But when I walked over to the table,\" said Kalman, \"I saw that it wasn't  trash; it was a heap of old Hebrew books. Most of them were in pretty bad  condition--individual pages, covers without contents, dozens of damaged prayer books. And that's when I noticed \u003ci\u003ethis\u003c\/i\u003e book. I asked the caretaker if it was for sale.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Doesn't belong to anyone now,\" he replied. \"Go ahead, take it. It's yours.  Has your name on it.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I couldn't possibly--\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Don't be silly. It's been lying there for years waiting for someone like  you. If it will make you feel better, you can make a donation.\" He gestured toward a small wooden box by the door. Carved on it were the customary words  \u003ci\u003eA gift given in secret\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I thanked him profusely,\" Kalman said, \"stuffed a twenty-dollar bill into  the slot, and walked back outside with the book you are holding.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe young woman looked at Kalman, then she looked down at the Zohar.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Here,\" said Kalman. \"You mentioned earlier that you had an epiphany. Let us  learn something together from the Zohar about epiphanies.\" He opened the  book to its first comment on Genesis. \"It's a very famous passage; I've  studied it many times before. Each time, I get something new.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"In the beginning . . .\" The beginning of the Holy One's interpretation [of  Scripture] was the scoring of a glyph in the supernal purity: a dark spark,  a hardened flash of light. It issued from what is beyond comprehension, from  the secret of the One without End. . . . Beyond that point, nothing can be  known. . . . \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"That's pretty much how everything begins,\" Kalman reflected. \"You wake up.  Before you open your eyes, there is only a mirror-smooth sheet of  unconscious ice. And then, from out of that nowhere--and it has to be a  nowhere, because there are no coordinates--suddenly a pinprick of light. And  the spark does only one thing. It chisels out a single mark, engraves one letter. And--whammo!--the unity is gone. Where once there was One, now there  are galaxies and migrating birds, mitochondria swimming in our cellular  protoplasm, giant Sequoias, refractor telescopes, that big red neon Tower Records sign down there across the street, and this mug of French roast  Starbucks coffee that I picked up this morning on my way here.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe young woman reached into her bag for a notebook.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Relax,\" said Kalman. \"This is not the sort of thing you can or should write  down. Trust your ability to absorb what's important. Remember, all the good stuff is already recorded in sacred text anyway.\"","brand":"Crown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46304711934181,"sku":"NP9780767924139","price":19.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780767924139.jpg?v=1767730606","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/kabbalah-isbn-9780767924139","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}