The Way Into Jewish Mystical Tradition

"Jewish mysticism is not something one can 'do'" but rather "an attitude toward reality," writes Lawrence Kushner, the prolific Massachusetts rabbi whose books on mysticism include Honey from the Rock and The River of Light. Kushner notes this distinction at the beginning of The Way into Jewish Mystical Tradition, an excellent primer for lay readers who know nothing about mysticism, and a useful refresher for more advanced students of mysticism. The book's organization is inspired by Psalm 19, which Kushner says summarizes the "ways of Jewish mysticism" into three parts. It begins with "an inexpressible reverence before the awe and mystery of creation" then moves toward "the conviction that sacred text contains the key to unlocking the secret of being," and finally results in a "yearning to lead a life of holiness and righteousness." In The Way into Jewish Mysticism, each of these three stages is illustrated by key Jewish mystical ideas, drawn from every phase of Jewish history: Heikhalot mystics (beginning in the first century B.C.), for instance, developed a metaphor called shiur koma, which "attempted to describe the size of God's body"; and Lurianic mystics (in the 16th century) were preoccupied with the possibility of past lives and the transmigration of souls. Each of these ideas is preserved in a pithy phrase or biblical verse, offered in both English and its original Hebrew or Aramaic. And each idea, Kushner suggests, is just one part of the larger mystical worldview, which sees that "beneath the apparent contradictions, brokenness, and discord of this everyday world lies a hidden divine unity." --Michael Joseph Gross