Review: Kabbalah & Jewish Mysticism

1. Context

In 2023, my best friend (the one I mentioned in another book review) and I took a trip to Florence. On our last night, we realized that most of our adventures over the past five days had been spontaneous. One such adventure was to the Great Synagogue of Florence.

Since I'm technically Jewish (despite being raised Catholic, it's a whole thing) I wanted to dedicate some time to exploring this other side of a very Catholic city, perhaps as a sort of proxy for exploring a part of me I'm quite unfamiliar with. This is a book review, so I won't talk much about the synagogue itself, but I highly recommend you check it out if you're ever in Florence. It's truly astounding.

At the end of our visit, I stopped into the tiny bookshop just before the exit to see what further reading they had. Ideas for my next big writing project/novel were percolating in my head and I figured this was the best place to grab a proper book on Judaism—particularly anything about mysticism or death. I spotted Kabbalah & Jewish Mysticism: An Introductory Anthology by Dan Cohn-Sherbok and seized it from the shelf.

2. The Book

What it's about: The history and beliefs of Kabbalah, from the original Old Testament text to 21st Century interpretations and practices. It sets out the basic tenets of Kabbalah, then demonstrates how different scholars have interpreted and expounded these believes over time.

Why did I read it: To develop characters and the philosophical underpinnings of Terminal Lucidity, I want to focus on the most mystical sects of popular world religions.

Kabbalah is a set of teachings and recommended practices by Jewish mystics, with the aim of experiencing the divine and revealing a greater understanding of the world. As a field guide to this highly complex set of beliefs, this book delivers. Cohn-Sherbok does an excellent job of explaining every key figure, belief and term without creating a religious text of his own. It's for this reason that the book is aptly subtitled, "An Introductory Anthology"; it's a collection of concepts with key texts explaining each one. He even acknowledges in the Preface that "these various passages should ideally be read in connection with the introductory material, which provides a historical context for the emergence of mystical speculation," then lists an entire paragraph of book titles.

The starting point for Kabbalah is any piece of a religious source text (in this case, the Torah) that raises more questions than it answers, makes you hunger for explanations not because you're looking for ways to cheat death or foresee your fate, but because it may draw you closer to divine, objective understanding. Through meditation, study and contemplation, you just might achieve something brilliant. Or spontaneously combust (one of the earlier beliefs).

From that perspective, this book does what a series of religious parables and diktats cannot: it immerses you in the mindset of every key thinker who wanted to achieve that level of ascendance. In one chapter, you believe that sleep is a vulnerable state in which the sitra ahra, or "other side" penetrates your mind and causes "all human beings [to] experience a forestate of death"; in another you believe that the soul can be elevated to God's level at night. In one era, reincarnation was just a fact of life; in another, it was perceived as a form of torture; and more recently, it is considered a force separate from God, of souls constantly revisiting Earth, trying and failing to seek redemption.

Yet debate, nuance, and reinvestigation are all part of mysticism. For example, the book cites Jacob of Marvège, who in the 13th Century sent questions to the angels before going to bed. When asking for clarification about different opinions on a specific form of worship, the angels replied, "both opinions are the words of the living God. Just as there is a debate on earth, so is there a debate on high." Acknowledgement of nuance is something we are often deprived of in religious communication nowadays. Asking questions, challenging authority and exploring what else may lie beyond the text is often discouraged. But existence just cannot be that simple, and Kabbalah is a celebration of that complexity.

That said, I did appreciate the inclusion of visuals alongside the text, as they grounded me in what was often a very abstract, head-y discussion. I don't think you can talk about Kabbalah without diagrams; I constantly flipped back to them to understand which name, letter, or element was being referred to . The sefirah (divine emanations) are literally mapped onto the human body, each with its own symbol and divine name (i.e., one of God's names).

At the end, the book discusses Kabbalah in the 21st century, what current frameworks are employed to understand it, and what we do with the loss of spirituality. Indeed, that loss of nuance I mentioned earlier appears in one cited text: "Judaism is no longer spiritual and experiential, but has developed into a religious moral code"

Rav Berg, the main Kabbalist cited in this section, claims that it is imperative we connect with ourselves, and specifically with our past lives, in order to understand the world around us and not repeat the mistakes of our ancestors. He writes, "all we have to do to reach [past lives] is to clean out the rust that has accumulated within our metaphysical computers. With memory restored, we can recall and understand past incarnations and thus clarify and explain the present one." What I glean from present-day Kabbalah is a drive to maintain generosity and goodwill, to find room for spirituality when there is not much left.

3. Final Thoughts

   
   

As I've continued to research different mythologies for this writing project, I noticed several parallels between Kabbalah, Buddhism and other spiritual practices. I know theologians have (probably) already done this work for me. I know syncretism is a thing. But the process of discovery, of understanding and drawing these parallels myself, then writing little pieces of the novel/series is far more fulfilling than just being told by someone who's already figured it out. In that sense, I suppose I'm someone who learns by doing.

In this process, I'm trying my best not to cherry-pick whatever is convenient for the plot and leave it at that. I want to understand the bigger picture and, like Cohn-Sherbok, inspire readers to look further. This book is not only educational, but also patient and enlightening. I highly recommend reading it and welcome any suggestions you might have for what to read next.