The Way Into the Jewish Mystical Tradition

The Way Into

by Lawrence A. Hoffman

The Way Into Jewish Mystical Tradition, guided by Lawrence Kushner, explains the principles of Jewish mystical thinking, their religious and spiritual significance, and how they relate to our lives. Kushner offers us a step-by-step exploration of:
What "Jewish mysticism" means—the key concepts in mysticism, with classic texts to explore and learn from. Why mysticism is a part of the modern Jewish experience. The goals of mysticism, and how they relate to broader Jewish spirituality.
Here is a book that allows us to experience and understand the Jewish mystical approach to our place in the world.

Genres: Judaism, Judaica, Religion, Jewish

224 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2001

About the author

Dr. Lawrence A. Hoffman was ordained as a rabbi in 1969, received his Ph.D. in 1973, and has taught since then at the Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion, in New York. From 1984 to 1987, he directed its School of Sacred Music as well. In 2003, he was named the first Barbara and Stephen Friedman Professor of Liturgy, Worship and Ritual. He teaches classes in liturgy, ritual, spirituality, theology and synagogue leadership. For almost forty years, he has combined research, teaching, and a passion for the spiritual renewal of North American Judaism.

Rabbi Hoffman has written or edited over forty books, including My People's Prayer Book (Jewish Lights Publishing), a ten-volume edition of the Siddur with modern commentaries, which was named a National Jewish Book Award winner for 2007. His Rethinking Synagogues: A New Vocabulary for Congregational Life (Jewish Lights Publishing) and his Art of Public Prayer (Skylight Paths) are widely used by churches and synagogues as guides to organizational visioning and liturgical renewal. In 2011, he received a second National Jewish Book Award for co-authoring Sacred Strategies: Transforming Synagogues from Functional to Visionary (Alban Institute).

His articles, both popular and scholarly, have appeared in eight languages and four continents, and include contributions to such encyclopedias as The Macmillan Encyclopedia of Religion, The Oxford Dictionary of Religion, The Encyclopedia of Judaism and The Encyclopedia of Religion in America. He syndicates a regular column which appears, among other places, in The Jewish Week and The Jewish Times; and writes a blog entitled "Life and a Little Liturgy."

For many years, Rabbi Hoffman served as visiting professor of the University of Notre Dame, and has lectured at such places as the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, the University of Southern California, and the Yale Divinity School.

In 1990, Dr. Hoffman was selected by the United States Navy as a member of a three-person design team, charged with developing a continuing education course on worship for chaplains. He is a past-president of the North American Academy of Liturgy, the professional and academic organization for liturgists, and in January 2004, received that organization's annual Berakhah Award, for outstanding lifetime contributions to his field.

In 1994, he co-founded "Synagogue 2000," a trans-denominational project to envision the ideal synagogue "as moral and spiritual center" for the 21st century. As Synagogue 3000, it has launched Next Dor, a national initiative to engage the next generation through a relational approach featuring strong communities with transformed synagogues at their center.

He founded and is Academic Coordinator of the Tisch Fellowship Program.

Reviews

[E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Something sacred is at stake in every event."--Abraham Joshua Heschel

I enjoyed this book. An introduction to Jewish mysticism focused on 50 key ideas structured under 9 overarching themes. And with each idea the author introduces us to an important figure or text in the tradition. So you learn a little of the history at the same time you learn the main ideas.

I highlighted a number of lines and passages that I will likely use in my teaching and preaching. Here's a good one from the 18th century mystic Menachem Nachum Twersky of Chernobyl:

"God is the fullness of the world; there is no place empty of the divine. There is nothing besides God and everything that exists comes from God. And, for this reason, the power of the Creator resides within each created thing."

[Brian Schuster · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tikkun olam: restoration of order.
Tsimtsum: God's concealment.
The author says that prayer is not meant for much other than asking for divine involvement in people's actions.
Job 3:19: Rabbi Isaac of Akko (144-145): impulses are given to us so we can learn to control them in a way that is pleasing to God.
Mystics believe that God is responsible for good and evil.

[Simcha York · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lawrence Kushner's The Way Into Jewish Mystical Tradition, the fourth book in the Jewish Lights Publishing The Way Into... series is a bit of a mixed bag. It is essentially a reader offering writings from the various periods of the Jewish mystical tradition. As such, it provides an interesting array of outtakes from a variety of mystical writings along with some interesting historical information about the authors of these works.

What this book doesn't offer though, is any broader in-depth insight into the role this tradition can play for modern Jews. The epilogue briefly discusses the role (or, actually the lack of a significant role) of the mystical tradition within liberal (non-Orthodox) Judaism, but while Rabbi Kushner seems to see the mystical tradition as a deep well on which liberal Judaism can and should draw, he doesn't offer any ideas about how this would be done. He briefly discusses the emphasis of the mystical tradition on the performance of mitzvot, but he doesn't go so far as to explore the ramifications this tradition would have on the attitude towards halakha in the liberal Jewish tradition.

[Jeffrey Spitz Cohan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the Greatest Hits of Jewish Mysticism.

"The Way into Jewish Mystical Tradition" presents an interesting pairing: The writing of Lawrence Kushner with a sampling of mystical texts from the past nine centuries.

This book from Jewish Lights' "The Way Into ..." series is organized around 51 short excerpts from the vast array of Jewish mystical writing.

This is a collection of the all-time greats: The Baal Shem Tov, Kook, Heschel, The Zohar, Nachman of Bratslav, and Buber, to name a few.

While some of the samples are inscrutable, others are so inspiring that I'm sure I'll return to this book again and again.

But it is Kushner's introductory commentaries to each classical text that gives this book true added value.

He makes an important point about Jewish mysticism:

It's not about self-realization. On the contrary, it's about self-annihilation, or bittul ha-yesh. To quote Yehuda Aryeh Lieb Alter of Ger (1847-1905), the goal is "annihilating one's self and in each deed submitting to the innermost divine life force."

[Ari · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've used this book twice now, one in an Intro to Jewish Mysticism class at the graduate level and once in an ongoing synagogue adult education class. I've learned different things from it each time I read it; something I consider to be the mark of a living text. The author includes a fairly wide variety of authors and writing styles, and is able to incorporate everything from ancient to modern texts in this introductory book in small doses that a beginner can handle. I particularly like the chapter on Nothingness. If you're interested in beginning to build a foundation in Jewish mystical tradition(s), this is a good place to start.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my launching pad into an exploration of Jewish mysticism. Even after Kushner's very clear introductions, some parts were still way over my head However, most other parts were all too clear, to the point where it was kind of frightening to me to be confronted with some of the ideas. Great stuff to learn, ponder and meditate upon.