Gershom Scholem

Gershom Scholem

Author: Amir Engel

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2019-10-04

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 022668332X

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Gershom Scholem (1897–1982) was ostensibly a scholar of Jewish mysticism, yet he occupies a powerful role in today’s intellectual imagination, having influential contact with an extraordinary cast of thinkers, including Hans Jonas, Martin Buber, Walter Benjamin, Hannah Arendt, and Theodor Adorno. In this first biography of Scholem, Amir Engel shows how Scholem grew from a scholar of an esoteric discipline to a thinker wrestling with problems that reach to the very foundations of the modern human experience. As Engel shows, in his search for the truth of Jewish mysticism Scholem molded the vast literature of Jewish mystical lore into a rich assortment of stories that unveiled new truths about the modern condition. Positioning Scholem’s work and life within early twentieth-century Germany, Palestine, and later the state of Israel, Engel intertwines Scholem’s biography with his historiographical work, which stretches back to the Spanish expulsion of Jews in 1492, through the lives of Rabbi Isaac Luria and Sabbatai Zevi, and up to Hasidism and the dawn of the Zionist movement. Through parallel narratives, Engel touches on a wide array of important topics including immigration, exile, Zionism, World War One, and the creation of the state of Israel, ultimately telling the story of the realizations—and failures—of a dream for a modern Jewish existence.


Kabbalah

Kabbalah

Author: Rabbi Lawrence Kushner

Publisher: Crown

Published: 2007-10-09

Total Pages: 210

ISBN-13: 0767924134

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Sometime, somewhere, someone is searching for answers . . . . . . in a thirteenth-century castle . . . on a train to a concentration camp . . . in a New York city apartment Hidden 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.


Scholar and Kabbalist: The Life and Work of Gershom Scholem

Scholar and Kabbalist: The Life and Work of Gershom Scholem

Author: Mirjam Zadoff

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2018-10-02

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 9004387404

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The articles collected in Scholar and Kabbalist: The Life and Work of Gershom Scholem offer new and fresh insights into the life and work of Gershom Scholem, one of the most prominent German-Jewish intellectuals of the 20th century.


Perdurabo, Revised and Expanded Edition

Perdurabo, Revised and Expanded Edition

Author: Richard Kaczynski

Publisher: North Atlantic Books

Published: 2010-08-10

Total Pages: 724

ISBN-13: 1556438990

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A rigorously researched biography of the founder of modern magick, as well as a study of the occult, sexuality, Eastern religion, and more The name “Aleister Crowley” instantly conjures visions of diabolic ceremonies and orgiastic indulgences—and while the sardonic Crowley would perhaps be the last to challenge such a view, he was also much more than “the Beast,” as this authoritative biography shows. Perdurabo—entitled after the magical name Crowley chose when inducted into the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn—traces Crowley’s remarkable journey from his birth as the only son of a wealthy lay preacher to his death in a boarding house as the world’s foremost authority on magick. Along the way, he rebels against his conservative religious upbringing; befriends famous artists, writers, and philosophers (and becomes a poet himself); is attacked for his practice of “the black arts”; and teaches that science and magick can work together. While seeking to spread his infamous philosophy of, “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law,” Crowley becomes one of the most notorious figures of his day. Based on Richard Kaczynski’s twenty years of research, and including previously unpublished biographical details, Perdurabo paints a memorable portrait of the man who inspired the counterculture and influenced generations of artists, punks, wiccans, and other denizens of the demimonde.


The Complete Idiot's Guide to Jewish History and Culture

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Jewish History and Culture

Author: Benjamin Blech

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 468

ISBN-13: 9781592572403

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An updated and revised edition of one of The Complete Idiot's Guidespopular religion and history titles. Additional information about Jews in early American history through the 19th century. Expanded coverage of Jewish history and culture in the places you might least expect - Asia and South America. Jewish history and culture brought up to date to 2004.


The Secret History of the Zohar

The Secret History of the Zohar

Author: Michael Berg (Rabbi.)

Publisher: Kabbalah Publishing

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 136

ISBN-13:

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Michael Berg’s overview of the Zohar is a virtual timeline showing its connection with great historical figures and events throughout time. He addresses the myths surrounding this sacred work, and covers who first revealed it, who wrote it down, and who studied it — not just Jewish scholars, but Plato, Sir Isaac Newton, the Knights Templar, and other inquisitive thinkers. Berg clearly demonstrates the profound influence Zohar and Kabbalah have had on all the major disciplines, from literature and art to medicine and science.