In this enlightening paperback, Besserman unfurls the different levels of the Kabbalistic universe and ponders the teachings of such spiritual masters as Rabbi Akiva, the Baal Shem Tov, Isaac Luria, Abraham Kook, and Aryeh Kaplan.She explains meditation techniques including gazing, listening, chanting, recitation of Hebrew letters, and reflection on the names of God.

Besserman sheds light on the important roles of imagination and visualization in the Kabbalistic quest for dissolving the ego and union with the Ancient of Days. She writes cogently about the teacher-disciple relationship, correspondences, the supernatural (golems, reincarnation, and spirit guides), and Kabbalah in the twenty-first century. The timeless spiritual wisdom of Jewish mysticism speaks to the contemporary yearning for devotion, unity, understanding, and transformation.

Book Description
In this book, the world’s foremost scholar of Kabbalah explores the understanding of erotic love in Jewish mystical thought. Encompassing Jewish mystical literatures from those of late antiquity to works of Polish Hasidism, Moshe Idel highlights the diversity of Kabbalistic views on eros and distinguishes between the major forms of eroticism.

The author traces the main developments of a religious formula that reflects the union between a masculine divine attribute and a feminine divine attribute, and he asks why such an “erotic formula” was incorporated into the Jewish prayer book. Idel shows how Kabbalistic literature was influenced not only by rabbinic literature but also by Greek thought that helped introduce a wider understanding of eros. Addressing topics ranging from cosmic eros and androgyneity to the affinity between C. J. Jung and Kabbalah to feminist thought, Idel’s deeply learned study will be of consuming interest to scholars of religion, Judaism, and feminism.