Return to Gary Dale Cearley Home Page
The Kabbalistic System of The Ari: The Hidden Meaning, Symbolism and Sexuality of Lurian Mysticism
By Leonard R. Glotzer
ISBN-10: 1432708767
ISBN-13: 978-1432708764
The author Rabbi Leonard Glotzer should be commended for his work in this volume on Lurian mysticism. In the 16th Century there was Isaac Luria, known to Jewish scholars and mystics as “the Ari”. Luria was most likely the most famous and widely read interpreter of the Kabbala. He was a master of Hebrew and the scriptures and his studies on the subject are not only still with us today but are very important to Kabalistic interpretations.
Having not been raised a Jew I do not have the pleasure to have a classical Jewish education which in some ways may have been better for me as a tool to delve into this volume. But quite honestly, I believe that my learning was enhanced by not having this background. For that reason I am glad to have spent time with Rabbi Glotzer’s book.
As I have learned to expect from those who have studied the Kabbala I was constantly learning while reading this book, yet after laying it down I realized that I really knew nothing about the subject. This was not the fault of the author but rather the depth of the subject. Yet one of the things that really struck me was in reading about the tetragrammaton, which is the Hebrew word for God consisting of the four Hebrew letters yod, he, vav, and he, transliterated consonantally usually as YHVH, (now pronounced as Adonai or Elohim), I have learned that the various Hebrew names for God actually do not mean “God” but are rather words that describe specific attributes of God. This is a profound thing to know.
The levels of understanding only multiplied when trying to tackle the gematria, the kabbalistic system of interpretation of the scriptures by substituting for a particular word another word whose letters give the same numerical sum. Having studied a bit of Hebrew and Arabic helped greatly to understand these concepts but to get it down properly I would need a near fluency in Hebrew – or at least a greatly enhanced vocabulary.
Rabbi Glotzer has produced a true scholarly work of the Ari’s eternal system. This book is a must to anyone who wishes to greatly deepen their own study of the Kabbala through Lurian mysticism. Again, maybe this is not the best tome to start with if you are a beginner to the Kabbala but it is damned interesting to plow through if your mind is opened to it.
Gary Dale Cearley’s Reviews on BookPleasures.com |
