Sefer Ha-Bahir
Sefer Ha-Bahir

Author: Geoffrey W. Dennis

Publisher:

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780738749211

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Discover the Kabbalah classic that reveals the divine feminine, reincarnation, and the power of being human. This remarkable collection of fifty-one teachings from Sefer ha-Bahir features facing-page commentary by Geoffrey W. Dennis for easy understanding and readability. Enrich your spirituality with these fascinating entries, specifically chosen to help you learn the principle ideas and themes of Jewish mysticism. By translating the most stimulating and accessible passages from Sefer ha-Bahir with concise literary and spiritual commentary, Geoffrey W. Dennis modernizes each entry and brings the wisdom of the ancient text to the contemporary world. This compelling collection shows you the full scope of the Bahir and will give you a new appreciation for its teachings. Praise: "Geoffrey Dennis has provided a doorway into the brilliance of the Sefer ha-Bahir, deeply enriching us. Here is a truly significant model of how teachings can communicate over centuries to inform and expand our current vision. I am honored to recommend Rabbi Dennis's new book to all those desiring to enrich their own spiritual journey."--Rabbi Ted Falcon, PhD, spiritual counselor and author of A Journey of Awakening: Kabbalistic Meditations on the Tree of Life "Geoffrey Dennis's Sefer ha-Bahir is the best translation available of one of the hardest, yet most rewarding, texts of Kabbalah. Forget the pop stuff; this is the real thing, in all its lucidity, opacity, simplicity, and complexity. Best of all, Dennis's renderings and commentary give the text room both to breathe and to mystify. Highly recommended."--Rabbi Dr. Jay Michaelson, author of Everything Is God: The Radical Path of Nondual Judaism and director of the Elat Chayyim Meditation Program "What is constant throughout the book is the sense of Dennis's love for these early Hebrew teachings...He manages to lift the reader to the heights of mesmerized listener without sacrificing the academic/historical context of the teachings. This is a don't-miss book for anyone seriously interested in the Hebrew roots of modern mysticism."--Anna Jedrziewski, Retailing Insight "[Dennis] supplies a fluent translation of fifty-one key passages from [Sefer ha-Bahir], complete with annotations, commentary, and introductions that are both accessible to the general reader and insightful. A masterful achievement."--Richard S. Sarason, The Deutsch Family Professor of Rabbinics and Liturgy at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion

The Bahir
The Bahir

Author: Aryeh Kaplan

Publisher: Weiser Books

Published: 2001-01-15

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 1609254937

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The Bahir is one of the oldest and most influential of all classical Kabbalah texts. Until the publication of the Zohar, the Bahir was the most widely quoted primary source of Kabbalistic teachings. The Bahir is quoted in every major book on Kabbalah, the earliest being the Raavad's commentary on Sefer Yetzirah, and it is cited numerous times by Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman (Ramban) in his commentary on the Torah. It is also quoted many times in the Zohar. It was first published around 1176 by the Provence school of Kabbalists; the first printed edition appeared in Amsterdam in 1651. The name Bahir is derived from the first verse quoted in the text (Job 37:21), "And now they do not see light, it is brilliant (Bahir) in the skies." It is also called the "Midrash of Rabbi Nehuniah ben HaKana," particularly by the Ramban. The reason might be that Rabbi Nehuniah's name is at the very beginning of the book, but most Kabbalists actually attribute the Bahir to him and his school. Some consider it the oldest kabbalistic text ever written. Although the Bahir is a fairly small book, some 12,000 words in all, it was very highly esteemed among those who probed its mysteries. Rabbi Judah Chayit, a prominent fifteenth-century Kabbalist, writes, "Make this book a crown for your head." Much of the text is very difficult to understand, and Rabbi Moshe Cordevero (1522-1570), head of the Safed school of Kabbalah, says, "The words of this text are bright (Bahir) and sparkling, but their brilliance can blind the eye." One of the most important concepts revealed in the Bahir is that of the Ten Sefirot, and careful analysis of these discussions yields much of what will be found in later kabbalistic works, as well as their relation to anthropomorphism and the reason for the commandments. Also included is a discussion of reincarnation, or Gilgul, an interpretation of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, the Thirty-two Paths of Wisdom, and the concept of Tzimtzum.

Sepher Ha-Bahir
Sepher Ha-Bahir

Author: Nehunia HaKana

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 2015-05-31

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781514157640

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The Bahir contains commentaries explaining the mystical significance of Biblical verses; the mystical significance of the shapes of the Hebrew letters; the mystical significance of the cantillation signs and vowel points on the letters; the mystical significance of statements in the Sefer Yetzirah ("Book of Creation"); and the use of sacred names in magic. The paragraphs refer to each other in segments and are broken into five sections in the Aryeh Kaplan translation. These sections are loosely grouped together but they do more or less stay within the underlying themes given by their title.

The Early Kabbalah
The Early Kabbalah

Author: Joseph Dan

Publisher: Paulist Press

Published: 1986

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 9780809127696

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Here are previously unavailable texts, including The Book Bahir and the writings of the Iyyum circle, that were written during the first one hundred years of this movement that was to become the most important current in Jewish mysticism. This movement began in the late 12th century among Rabbinic Judaism in southern Europe.

The Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth, Magic and Mysticism
The Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth, Magic and Mysticism

Author: Geoffrey W. Dennis

Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 0738709050

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How are alchemy, astrology, magic, and numerology related to Jewish mysticism? The fabulous, miraculous, and mysterious are all explored in this comprehensive reference to Jewish esotericism-the first of its kind! From amulets and angels to the zodiac and zombies, the "Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth, Magic and Mysticism" features over one thousand alphabetical entries. Rabbi Geoffrey W. Dennis offers a much-needed culmination of Jewish occult teachings that includes significant stories, mythical figures, practices, and ritual objects. Spanning the Bible, the Midrash, Kabbalah, and other mystical branches of Judaism, this well-researched text is meant to trigger insight, spark inspiration, and illuminate one of the oldest esoteric traditions still alive today.

Zohar, the Book of Enlightenment
Zohar, the Book of Enlightenment

Author: Daniel Chanan Matt

Publisher: Paulist Press

Published: 1983

Total Pages: 340

ISBN-13: 9780809123872

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This is the first translation with commentary of selections from The Zohar, the major text of the Kabbalah, the Jewish mystical tradition. This work was written in 13th-century Spain by Moses de Leon, a Spanish scholar.

The Sepher Bahir
The Sepher Bahir

Author: Tarl Warwick

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 2018-05-26

Total Pages: 84

ISBN-13: 9781720346623

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The Sepher Bahir is one of the foremost works of all mystic Judaism, an important work of Kabbalah in which commentaries on sounds, words, and stories are presented in a somewhat choppy form (for it was a compiled manuscript, not a primordial single work.) The work is ascribed to a mystic rabbi named Nehunya circa the first century. It refers as well to another mystic work- the famous Sepher Yetzirah, equally as renowned for its spiritual lore.

Sepher Ha-Razim
Sepher Ha-Razim

Author:

Publisher: SBL Press

Published: 2022-05-02

Total Pages: 108

ISBN-13: 1628372664

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Michael A. Morgan translates Mordecai Margaliath’s text of Sepher Ha-Razim, a fourth century CE magical text, into English. Sepher Ha-Razim includes a story about the book’s transmission from the angel Raziel to Noah eventually down to Solomon, six sections describing the nature, function, magical praxis and angelic inhabitants of six of the heavens, and the divine throne in the seventh heaven. With parallels to Talmudic passages, Enochic literature, and Hekhaloth literature, Sepher Ha-Razim sheds light on Greco-Roman magic in general and more specifically Jewish life in the early centuries CE.

Knowledge of God and the Development of Early Kabbalah
Knowledge of God and the Development of Early Kabbalah

Author: Jonathan Dauber

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2012-08-01

Total Pages: 285

ISBN-13: 9004234276

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In Knowledge of God and the Development of Early Kabbalah, Jonathan Dauber offers a fresh consideration of the emergence of Kabbalah against the backdrop of a re-evaluation of the relationship between Kabbalistic and philosophic discourse.

The Scandal of Kabbalah
The Scandal of Kabbalah

Author: Yaacob Dweck

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2013-12-26

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 0691162158

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The Scandal of Kabbalah is the first book about the origins of a culture war that began in early modern Europe and continues to this day: the debate between kabbalists and their critics on the nature of Judaism and the meaning of religious tradition. From its medieval beginnings as an esoteric form of Jewish mysticism, Kabbalah spread throughout the early modern world and became a central feature of Jewish life. Scholars have long studied the revolutionary impact of Kabbalah, but, as Yaacob Dweck argues, they have misunderstood the character and timing of opposition to it. Drawing on a rang.