Today is the Day of Kabbalah in Manhattan. It is an all day conference, hosted by Rabbi Naftali Citron, who used to be the Chabad rabbi in Santa Cruz, CA, where I met him a few times. It is co-sponsored by The Carlebach Shul, the JCC in Manhattan (where the event takes place) and SinaiLive.com, a “nonprofit initiative committed to assisting high quality Jewish organizations fully realize their multi-media potential.”) Here is the list of all the lectures/workshops,

• Prof. Lawrence Fine: Scholar, Mystic, Saintly Teacher: The Life of the Ari as Perceived and Experienced by His Closest Disciples
• Avraham Sutton: Reincarnation: The Collective Drama of Souls: The Ari’s Teachings on Gilgul
• Prof. Shaul Magid: Redemption and Identity: Can Gentiles be Prophets? The Case of Balaam in the Eyes of the Ari
• Rabbi DovBer Pinson: Intention and Prayer: The System and Practice of Using Kavanot in Prayer in Lurianic Kabbalah
• Miriam Shulamit Ribner: Kabbalah of Healing: A Meditative Workshop Inspired by Teachings of the Ari
• Nathaniel Berman: Zohar: The Faces of God: The Zohar as the Source for the Ari’s Mystical System
• David Solomon: Vessels and Sparks: Tzimtzum: An Idea Explored in Context and Evolution
• Rabbi DovBer Pinson: Soul and Purpose: The Idea of Divine Inspiration /Ruach HaKodesh for the AriZal
• Prof. Larry Fine: Love and Spiritual Friendship: Rabbi Isaac Luria’s Mystical Fellowship and the Repair of the Cosmos
• David Solomon: Redeeming the World: Mystical Errors of the Righteous: The Concept of Ta’ut in Lurianic Kabbalah
• Avraham Sutton: Faces of the Divine: Partzufim : A Central Idea in the Ari’s Cosmology
• Rabbi Naftali Citron: Come Let Us Greet the Bride: The Kabbalistic Origins of Kabbalat Shabbat

For more information go to these pages:

• The Carlebach Shul
• JCC
• Sinai Live

Jewish Lights Publishing is still having its winter sale. I was having a bit of had time what to include and what not from their 70+ books, if my objective is to include books on Jewish meditation/spirituality. On one hand the idea of practice of Jewish meditation grew out Kabbalah. On the other hand JLP is offering lots of titles about different forms of it. Not all of them are necessarily related to Kabbalah. Not having read these books I could not judge whether they should be listed on this site or not, based on the narrow definition/interest of Kabbalah. Nevertheless, here is a small selection. (The links lead to the books’ Amazon page. To get the discount price at JLP go directly there.)

• Criminal Kabbalah: An Intriguing Anthology of Jewish Mystery & Detective Fiction by Lawrence W. Raphael
• Discovering Jewish Meditation: Instruction & Guidance for Learning an Ancient Spiritual Practice by Nan Fink Gefen
• Finding Joy: A Practical Spiritual Guide to Happiness by Dannel L. Schwartz
• First Steps to a New Jewish Spirit: Reb Zalman’s Guide to Recapturing the Intimacy and Ecstasy in your Relationship with God by Rabbi Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi and Donald Gropman
• God in All Moments: Mystical & Practical Spiritual Wisdom from Hasidic Masters by or N. Rose and Ebn D. Leader
• God in Our Relationships: Spirituality between People from the Teachings of Martin Buber by Dennis S. Ross
• Handbook of Jewish Meditation Practices: A Guide for Enriching the Sabbath and Other Days of Your Life by David A. Cooper
• Jewish Lights Spirituality Handbook: Understanding, Exploring & Living a Spiritual Life by Stuart M. Matlins
• Meditation from the Heart of Judaism: Today’s Teachers Share Their Practices, Techniques and Faith by Avram Davis
• Our Dance with God: Finding Prayer, Perspective and Meaning in the Stories of our Lives by Karyn D. Kedar
• Parenting as a Spiritual Journey by Nancy Fuchs and Nancy Fuchs-Kreimer
• Reclaiming Judaism as Spiritual Practice: Holy Days and Shabbat by Goldie Milgram

Today at 5 PM PST Howard Smith will present a free, 90 minute webinar titled “Modern Cosmology and Kabbalah Religion in the Age of Science An Introduction“. It is free of charge, but one needs to register in advance. And it comes with a similarly titled 68 page ebook titled. Howard A. Smith, PhD, is a senior astrophysicist at the Harvard- Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. He also studied Judaism and Kabbalah from Rabbi Baruch Bokser z”l, Rabbi Saul Berman, Rabbi Herman Pollack z”l, Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach z”l, and Rabbi Dr. Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. He is the author of Let There Be Light: Modern Cosmology and Kabbalah: A New Conversation Between Science and Religion, published in 2006. Let me quote the book’s preface.

This is a book for people wondering about modern science and religion, and what each has to say to the other, if anything. It is also for people curious about the discoveries of modern cosmology and physics, or about the insights of Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism, but who know little about them.

I received the information via email that Laibl Wolf from Australia will tour the US.  For details please contact the organizers:

• Los Angeles (Valley), CA - Tues, 12th February - 818 758 1818 rabbi@chabadsc.com
• Mill Valley, CA - Tues 22nd January 415 381 3794 rabbiscop@comcast.net
• Palo Alto, CA - Wed. 23rd January - 650 424 9800 chabad1@pacbell.net
• Boulder, CO - Thurs. 7th February - 303 444 2775 rabbi@jewishcu.com
• Fort Lauderdale, FL - Fri/Sat. 1/2 Feb. - 954 568 1190 chabadflorida@aol.com
• Grand Rapids, IL - Tues. 5th February - 517 214 0525 chabadlm@aol.com
• Lansing, IL - Mon. 4th February - 517 214 0535 chabadlm@aol.com
• Bethesda, MD - Sun. 27 Jan.-2.00 pm - 301 913 9777 rabbi@shalomchabad.com
• Gaithersburg, MD - Sun. 27 Jan -7.30 pm - 301 926 3632 rabbict@aol.com
• Minneapolis, MN - Wed. 6th February - 651 699 0575 mr770@msn.com
• St. Louis, MO - Sun. 3rd February - 314 725 0400 narishkite@aim.com
• Old Tappan, NJ - Wed. 30th January - 201 421 1551 rabbi@chabadot.org
• Las Vegas, NV - Mon. 11th Feb. - 702 498 7308 chabadofsummerlin@yahoo.com
• Comack, LI - Mon.28th January - 631 543 3343 rabbi@chabadmidsuffolk.com
• Oyster Bay, LI - Sun. 10th Feb.10.00am - 516 682 0404 deer8@optonline.net
• Roslyn, LI - Tues. 29th January - 516 484 8185 yaakov.reiter@verizon.net
• Allentown, PA - Fri/Sat. 8/9 Feb. - 610 351 6511 RabbiHalperin@aol.com
• Philadelphia, PA - Fri/Sat. 25/26 Jan. - 215 238 2100 rabbi@phillyshul.com

Ez emailben jott:

Kabbalaszeminárium a Mazsike szervezésében

Z’ev Ben Shimon Halevi április 13-15.-én 3 napos kabbala-szemináriumot tart a Magyar Zsidó Kulturális Egyesület szervezésében

“Bevezetés a Kabbalába” címmel.

Ez a nemzetközi tanfolyam eloször kerül megrendezésre Magyarországon, és célja az, hogy eljuttassa a magyar érdeklodokhöz Z’ev ben Shimon Halevi (Warren Kenton), a XXI. század nemzetközileg egyik legmeghatározóbb és legismertebb élo kabbala-kutatójának tanítását.

Z’ev ben Shimon Halevi (Warren Kenton) több mint negyven év tanulás és a kabbala európai, észak-afrikai és izraeli osi központjainak meglátogatása után feladataként látja a kabbala zsidó vonalának modern formába történo átültetését minden olyan ember számára, aki a Kabbala útját kívánja járni vallási, nemi, nemzetiségi és faji hovatartozásra való tekintet nélkül. Több csoportot tanít Nagy-Britanniában és az európai kontinensen, és tanfolyamokat tart Kanadában, az Egyesült Államokban, Mexikóban, Ausztráliában, Japánban, Brazíliában és Izraelben is. A kabbaláról szóló tizennégy könyvét, eleddig tizenhárom nyelvre fordították le, hetvenkét kiadásban. Magyarországon eddig megjelent könyve A Kabala útja és a Pszichológia és kabbala. Feleségével Londonban él és dolgozik.

A szombati és vasárnapi szemináriumra a résztvevok száma korlátozott, ehhez elozetes regisztráció szükséges. A pénteki nyitóeloadás mindenki számára nyitott, belépodíj csak a pénteki eloadásra: 900 Ft.-

Részvételi díj (mind a három napra érvényes)

Elovételben 15000 forint
Helyszínen 18000 forint
Diákok és nyugdíjasok részére 10000 forint

További információ, részletes program, jelentkezés a http://www.mazsike.hu/2007/0703_kabbala.html internetes oldalon

On January 1, 1837 an earthquake shook and destroyed most of the city of Safed and Tiberias at 2 PM. There were between 2 and 4000 victims. This HaAretz article covers the story through the eyes and words of the people who gathered to commemorate the event. They quoted Rabbi Avraham Dov Auerbach of Avritch [1765-1840, a Rebbe in Europe for forty years and in Zefat for ten, a disciple of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berdichev] saying that “this city is the place from which the Kabbalah, the Zohar and the piyyutim (liturgical poems) went out, and therefore it is forbidden to leave.” This page recalls the traditional version of the miracle how he protected his community during the quake. Meanwhile the HaAretz article put it in current political context how “in times of hardship, the residents of Safed remained constant to the rabbi’s remarks on.” (To have some connection to a “Kabbalah book” I would like to point out that the story found at my second link is probably from Rossoff’s book: Safed: The Mystical City.)

I read this blog entry and I realized it is a copy of an article from the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle. It describes a retreat designed for Jewish Chabad women. What grabbed my attention is the list of speakers at the end. It gave a peak for me into the world of Chabad books on Kabbalah. Most of the invited authors wrote several volumes and from the summarizer’s point of view some of them relate to Kabbalah. I will have to do a little bit more search on them, because so far I couldn’t find any extensive or sufficient information which I could use to evaluate the works.. For the time being let the edited list speak for itself.

• Rabbi Sholom B. Wineberg, director of Kansas City’s Chabad House, has written more than 25 books on Jewish mysticism, Torah and marriage. His newest three-volume work is titled “Healthy in Mind Body and Spirit.”
• Rabbi Yosef Y. Jacobson is a world-renowned expert on Kabbalah and Chassidut. He will be featured throughout the weekend teaching classes on Tanya, the seminal book of Chabad Chassidut. He is the author of the acclaimed tape series, “A Tale of Two Souls” and “Captain, My Captain,” and teaches Kabbalah, Chassidic spirituality and Talmud at the Rabbinical College Chovevay Torah in Brooklyn, N.Y.
• Devorah Alevsky is one of the creators of a series of Rosh Chodesh women’s groups and the Inner Visions Kabbalah workshop. Her topics include the significance of the three special mitzvot of the Jewish woman; lighting candles, making challah and Taharat Hamispacha - family sanctity - as well as the origins of the wedding ceremony.

The question above was on the mind of enough rabbis and academics to organize a conference around it. As I read the summary in the JewishJournal.com almost everybody who is somebody in today’s world of Kabbalah was there. Just look at the list of speakers and panelistst on the conference’s homepage. (I will be adding more books to my list based on that page.) The subtitle, setting the agenda for the event was: The Promise and Problems in Mainstreaming Jewish Mysticism. Based on the Jewish Journal piece it sounds like they managed to do that.

I came across this press release, announcing Robert Waxman’s new service: Kabbalah Lessons By Phone. His latest (and as far as I can tell only book is Kabbalah Simply Stated: A Conversation with the Rabbi, from 2004. I have not read it, but I am sure that my personal approach is different than his. He advocates that Kabbalah can and should be studied by everyone. For him Kabbalah provides a living, for me that would taint the experience/knowledge. Looking at his references I had the idea how interesting it would be to create a visual map of all (or the most-known) kabbalist masters. Representing teacher-student relationships, and familial ties too. One of these days… Till then his book will be added to the list of books on Kabbalah in English.

Here is the transcript of an conversation with Rabbi David Cooper–the author of God Is a Verb: Kabbalah and the Practice of Mystical Judaism–in an Australian radio show. He talks about Kabbalah as a universal practice, Abraham Abulafia, practice and tradition, red strings, the Kabbalah Center and Madonna. Informative, little quick piece. I liked that he didn’t outright condemn the Kabbalah Cneter but put a perspective on it saying “when it’s putting out good teachings and when it’s helping people, then I would applaud it.”