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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.”

Bob Waxman, the author of Kabbalah Simply Stated issued a press release: ” Announces His New Schedule of Kabbalah Educational Events”. However the events are not listed in the press release itself. It took a bit of thinking to find them on his poorly designed website, but then the state was not listed. It looks to me that he is doin a small circle in his neighborhood only. None of this means anything of course on the quality of his work, which I am not familiar with. Yet.

Here is an article describing a Shabbaton, led by Rabbi Laibl Wolf, the author of Practical Kabbalah. I think it’s great that Chabad is organizing this event for the much freer spirited Australian teacher. I am a bit behind reading my Kabbalah books, but heard good things about his.