See how ancient Jewish mystical traditions and rituals can transform your life
Kabbalah For Dummies presents a balanced perspective of Kabbalah as an ‘umbrella’ for a complex assemblage of mystical Jewish teachings and codification techniques. Kabbalah For Dummies also shows how Kabbalah simultaneously presents an approach to the study of text, the performance of ritual and the experience of worship, as well as how the reader can apply its teaching to everyday life.
Table des matières
Introduction 1
Part I: So, What’s the Big Secret? Unmasking Kabbalah 9
Chapter 1: What Is Kabbalah? 11
Chapter 2: Magic, Mishegas, and Other Things that Kabbalah Isn’t 29
Chapter 3: Looking Back: A Brief History of Kabbalah 35
Part II: Cutting to the Core of Kabbalah 53
Chapter 4: The Link between Heaven and Earth: Kabbalah’s Own Top-Ten Countdown 55
Chapter 5: Everything (Even a Traffic Jam) Is for the Best 75
Chapter 6: Our Bodies Don’t Have Souls; Our Souls Have Bodies 91
Chapter 7: Like Déjà Vu All Over Again: Reincarnation in Kabbalah 101
Chapter 8: Instant Karma’s Gonna Get You 113
Part III: Livin’ La Vida Kabbalah 125
Chapter 9: Living One Day at a Time 127
Chapter 10: Living One Week at a Time 149
Chapter 11: A Year in the Life of a Kabbalist 173
Chapter 12: A Kabbalist’s Life Cycle 191
Part IV: Fine-tuning the Essential Skills of the Kabbalist 207
Chapter 13: Discovering the Kabbalistic Books that Really Matter 209
Chapter 14: Hitting the Books — and Kissing Them: Studying Like a Kabbalist 227
Chapter 15: Praying Like a Kabbalist 245
Chapter 16: Knowing the Unknowable God 269
Part V: The Part of Tens 287
Chapter 17: (Almost) Ten Myths about Studying Kabbalah 289
Chapter 18: Ten Great Kabbalists in History 297
Chapter 19: Ten Places that Kabbalists Visit 313
Part VI: Appendixes 323
Appendix A: Books and Authors You’ll Thank Me for Recommending 325
Appendix B: Patriarchs, Swindlers, Prophets, and Sinners: Meet 100 Torah Characters 329
Appendix C: A Glossary of Everything Kabbalah 335
Index 349
A propos de l’auteur
Arthur Kurzweil is known as America’s foremost Jewish genealogist. The author/editor of several books, he lectures extensively on the subjects of Judaica, magic, and mysticism.