The movie Pi had plenty of kabbalistic connections. Turns out that a comic book was also produced in relation to it: Pi: The Book of Ants, written by Darren Aronotsky and illustrated by Edward Ross Flynn. The 28 page book was sold for $2.95 at the time. I learned about it from a 4 color commentary blog post:

“…a science fiction thriller about….a renegade mathematician attempting to decode the numerical pattern beneath the ultimate system of ordered chaos–the stock market. Pursued by an aggressive Wall Street firm and a Kabbalah sect….Max races to crack the code.”

Froward has a detailed review of Moshe Halbertal’s “Concealment and Revelation: Esotericism in Jewish Thought and Its Philosophical Implications.” Here is the key of the article:

As Moshe Halbertal shows in his brilliant new book, though, the way we understand the “hidden” has evolved over time. Halbertal argues that the three strands of Jewish esotericism that all developed in the 12th and 13th centuries — Kabbalah, philosophy and astrology — created new ways of understanding secrecy and disclosure, concealment and revelation, and that these movements had an impact well beyond the Jewish world.

Nextbook also mentioned the book. Jewish Book World has this to say about it:

Halbertal explains complex issues clearly and gracefully, moving smoothly from dense kabbalistic passages to abstruse texts on medieval philosophy in a way that allows the unspecialized reader to follow his train of thought without plumbing the depths of each theological system to which he refers.

The prolific Yehuda Berg published another book in April: “The Spiritual Rules of Engagement: How Kabbalah Can Help Your Soul Mate Find You.” Here is quickdfw.com’s (where I first found about the book) take on it

The basic idea: At the beginning of the universe, there was a Divine Force. It created a vessel, which was both female and male. But the presence of both genders made it shatter, and the pieces created the universe. So now we’re looking for our soul mate from that period. It’s a horrible oversimplification, which is why you should read this book. In it, Berg explains this mystic puzzle and makes it quite a bit less confusing.

I learned from Bob’s Book Reviews that the Steampunk anthology (edited by  Ann and Jeff VanderMeer) that intended to introduce the Steampunk genre to wider audiences includes “Ted Chiang’s “Seventy-Two Letters” a golem story, set in a world in which automata are animated by the magic of the Kabbalah (and face opposition from the equivalent of Luddites).”

Being focused on Kabbalah I have to mention that there is a new movie out, which incorporates some Kabbalistic themes into its horror story: The Unborn. Here is the Wikipedia synopsis:

“The Unborn is a supernatural thriller that draws upon the legend of a dybbuk, a malevolent spirit that refuses to leave the human world and inhabits the body of a person. Protagonist Casey Beldon (Odette Yustman) is plagued by merciless dreams, visions of strange looking dogs, and an evil child with bright blue eyes. After being hit with a mirror by her neighbor’s son, Casey’s eyes begin to change color and she learns she had a twin brother who died in the womb. Casey begins to suspect that the spirit haunting her is the soul of her dead twin, being possessed by a dybbuk, wanting to be born so it can transfer to the world of the living. Casey meets a woman named Sofi, who is revealed to be her grandmother. Sofi explains that she had a twin brother who was killed in Nazi experiments in Auschwitz when they were both just children. The boy was brought back to life by a dybbuk who intended to use his body as a portal into the world of the living. Sofi killed her twin to stop the dybbuk, and now it haunts her family for revenge. Sofi refers Casey to Rabbi Sendak (Gary Oldman), who can perform a Jewish exorcism to remove the dybbuk. The exorcism is performed, but things go awry as the dybbuk tries to stop Rabbi Sendak from completing the ritual. The dybbuk disappears after the exorcism and the death of Casey’s boyfriend. Soon afterward, Casey learns she is pregnant with twins.”

Rotten Tomatoes (a good movie review aggregation site) gave the film a rather low 14% score.

Larry Coleman wrote a review about Joseph C. Lisiewski’s “Kabbalistic Cycles and the Mastery of Life.” This is a non-Jewish, astrological approach. Here is a short segment from Larry’s review:

“This book describes the planetary hours and how to use them in your daily life. … The basic premise of the book is that there are cycles that affect everything that goes on. The cycles used in the book are daily and hourly, and correspond to the seven “planets” as known to the ancients: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury and the Moon. Each planet is given a day, and the 24 hours in each day are divided among the planets.”

AP posted a story about how Chabad managed a US judge to issue “a restraining order telling Russia to protect the documents and return any that may already have been removed from the Russian State Military Archives.” The 12,000 books (including the first editions of Tanya) and 50,000 documents were “formerly held by Rabbi Joseph Isaac Schneersohn, a leader of Chabad-Lubavitch who was born in Russia but forced by the Soviets to leave in 1927.” If the AP story expires at Yahoo, read at Chabad.

In the first issue of Equinaut Mindy Ribner ,aka Miriam Shulamit, wrote a column about the month of Shevat. That’s where I learned about her book, published seven years ago: “Kabbalah Month by Month: A Year of Spiritual Practice and Personal Transformation.” Rabbi Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi, whom I respect tremendously wrote this about the book:

“A remarkable contribution for helping to make the month-by-month Jewish spiritual journey. It is inspiring, and informing, and transforming. Based on Ribner’s genial control of the sources and her experiential know-how, this book is a treasure.”

Found it on Chabad.org:

New Book on Jewish Mysticism Released
Jan 27, 2009 1:45 PM
A new book on Jewish mysticism, written by Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi DovBer Pinson, has recently been published by Ben Yehuda Press.

“Thirty-Two Gates of Wisdom: Awakening Through Kabbalah” presents meditative practices as a way to achieve a deeper awareness of the spirituality inherent in the physical world.

Pinson runs Brooklyn, N.Y.’s Iyyun Center, a community-based yeshiva that focuses on Jewish law and Kabbalah, and directs Chabad of Carroll Gardens. …

Here is the description from Amazon.com

Kabbalah holds the secrets to a path of conscious awareness. In this compact book, noted spiritual teacher DovBer Pinson presents 32 key concepts of Kabbalah and shows their value in opening the gates of perception. From the Introduction: Simply translated, Kabbalah means “that which is received.” Looking deeper, the word Kabbalah can mean to be open and receptive, to challenge one’s own internal navigational system in order to see, hear, and be open to… more. We must be receptive to a teaching to fully absorb it. We turn ourselves into vessels and invite within that which we wish to understand or grasp. In this way, we become receptacles, dispensaries, and a part of the Kabbalah. We become vessels of this tradition by opening the self to a higher reality, and viewing the spirit within the matter. We raise our consciousness to the point where the Divine within all creation is revealed. As we pursue a deeper awareness, we become less ego-centered and more attuned to the deeper significance of our surroundings. About the author: Rabbi DovBer Pinson heads the Iyyun Center in Brownstone Brooklyn. He has written several books, including Inner Rhythms: The Kabbalah of Music; Reincarnation & Judaism: The Journey of the Soul; Meditation & Judaism: Exploring Meditative Paths and Jewish Wisdom of the Afterlife.

Taiwanonymous pointed out that the title of Rabbi Nilton Bonder’s “The Kabbalah of Money” has been translated to Chinese as “The Jews’ Art of Getting Rich.” Details at his post.