Ecstatic Kabbalah

by David A. Cooper

Kabbalah—the secret is out! From Madonna’s controversial conversion to the Dalai Lama’s acknowledgment and support, this mystical tradition is gaining unprecedented recognition. But how do we put this powerful and esoteric worldview into practice? With The Ecstatic Kabbalah, Rabbi David Cooper— author of God Is a Verb (100,000 copies sold, Riverhead, 1998), and a renowned leader of the Jewish meditation movement—provides practical exercises on the path toward "mending the soul," the fundamental Jewish experience that brings union with the Divine. With meditation techniques for both beginning and advanced practitioners, The Ecstatic Kabbalah guides listeners into awareness of the "presence of light" with experiential practices for touching the four worlds of mystical • Physical—breath work and mind-body harmonization • Emotional—tone the divine names as an expression of devotion • Mental—learn the histories of these techniques • Spiritual—stabilize your connection with divine presence Finally, the long-sequestered doors of Kabbalah are open to all listeners, as they are invited to dwell in the embrace of the Divine with The Ecstatic Kabbalah’s practices of daily renewal.

Genres: Spirituality, Mysticism, Judaism, Religion

97 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Rabbi David A Cooper lived with his wife in the Old City of Jerusalem for over six years during the 1980’s, studying Kabbalah and Hasidism with a number of different masters of those traditions—who typically choose not to be identified. He has also been a student of Sufism, initiated by Pir Vilayat Khan, as well as Zen Buddhism with Roshi Bernie Glassman, and Tibetan Buddhism with Tsoknyi Rinpoche. He has studied and sat on retreat with many Vipassana teachers, from both the East and the West, in the Theravadin tradition.

Prior to his time in Israel, Cooper owned a business in Washington D.C., doing political consulting, and before that he worked at the Democratic National Committee in the infamous Watergate, as the Director of Research. He has studied the world’s wisdom traditions from the time he was a teenager, over fifty years ago. He has studied with dozens of teachers in the Jewish world. His primary teachers have been Rabbi Zalman Shachter-Shalomi and Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach. He was ordained by R. Zalman in 1993.

Rabbi Cooper has written about many of his experiences in seven books and two sets of CDs. His most popular book, God Is a Verb, has been a national best seller, with over 125,000 copies in print in English, plus being available for Dutch, Portuguese, Rumanian and East Indian readers. His best selling audio set, The Mystical Kabbalah, was for a while one of the top ten best selling series at the well known firm of Sounds True. He has led workshops and retreats in almost every state of the union as well as Holland, Germany, Poland, Israel, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. He has appeared on public radio and public television, as well as the main subject in a Dutch produced documentary on Jewish Mysticism.

Obviously, Cooper is comfortable in dialogue with many different traditions; some have called him the Buddhist Rabbi. This identification has a certain degree of truth in that Cooper openly acknowledges his indebtedness to the cross-fertilization of esoteric teachings from various traditions, while at the same time deeply honoring the powerful themes of virtue, respect, study and service that are found in his root tradition of Judaism. All of this comes through clearly in his published works and his private communications, much of which appears on his website.

Rabbi David is a dedicated retreatant and he commits himself to extended silent retreats at a fairly steady frequency, either teaching, or for his own personal reasons. This contemplative life style, for both he and his wife, is itself the hallmark of the teachings—walking the talk, as some would say.

He has done many three-month retreats and currently is planning to set aside three months each year from now on for personal retreating. When not on retreat, he is engaged in writing, teaching and the ongoing fulfillment of a ever-blossoming relationship with his wife, Shoshana.

Reviews

[Lewis Summers]

A nice look into Jewish mysticism. I still struggle with the idea of numerology/deeper meaning in words, but I did like this overview of Kabbalah and its base philosophy.

[Alex Shrugged]

I liked this book with some warnings to the reader and a few warnings about me on this subject.

Kabbalah can be misleading... meaning that it can lead you into some really weird places if you are not careful.

I'm not kidding. You have to be reasonably mature to study this stuff. You also (usually) have to have some familiarity with Hebrew and Aramaic... not a lot to get started, but a few basics. HOWEVER, The author manages to avoid most of these prerequisites by focusing only on the meditative aspects of Kabbalah. You will learn some Hebrew phrases here and there although you won't be required to read Hebrew.

Luckily, an audio CD comes with the book. I can't tell you how many people I've run into who mispronounce Hebrew words they read in transliteration but never heard. It's embarrassing to me to correct them, but I would feel bad if I let them embarrass themselves further.

WARNING: It seems likely that you will pronounce G-d's Holy Name if you practice these meditations. That makes me very nervous. It is against normative Jewish practice but not against normative kabbalistic practice, so the author is not going wild here... unless you consider kabbalah wild which many people do.

Also, I study kabbalah myself, but I am not a kabbalist. I treat the texts like midrashim (I suppose you might think of a midrash as a parable although it is a little stronger than that.) Some people take kabbalah as law. I take it as advisory.

There is a lot of useful information in this book, but some of it irked me. For instance, he said that the Talmud is 2,000 years old. It isn't. I was barely begun in the year 200. If we are going for round numbers, the core parts of it were written down maybe 1,800 years ago. Of course the ideas behind it have existed since the time of Moses, but if you are counting that far back, then that is much, much longer than 2,000 years. So what was he talking about? It's those sort of errors that make me nervous about the author.

The rabbi was ordained by Rabbi Zalman Shachter-Shalomi. OK. Never met him, but I read one of his articles. It was helpful. I wouldn't follow him as a spiritual leader though.

I feel the same way about this author. He has some reasonable, practical suggestions on meditation. I wouldn't follow him as a spiritual leader though.

I would prefer that you read two other books instead, if you are just getting started:

Practical Kabbalah: A Guide to Jewish Wisdom for Everyday Life by Laibl Wolf.

and

Jewish Meditation: A Practical Guide by Aryeh Kaplan. Just this one book for beginners. His other books are too advanced.

I hope this helps.

[Emily]

This is a really helpful practical guide! I would have liked it to be more geared towards Jews and tied in with our observances, but I do appreciate it's accessibility.

[Mark Matzeder]

Simple, easy to follow guide for beginning a practice which is both complex and difficult to follow.
Cooper provides a starting point for those interested in exploring a practice of Presence.

[Caroline]

A little too dense for my taste. I still haven’t found a book that clicks with me for Kabbalah.