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Summary: Spiritual Awakening
Review: David Aaron's book in an important step upon the path to enlightenment and awareness. The spiritual exercises that he suggests are most helpful. If you work them through, the book can bring you to new heights of Divine awareness in your life. Like no other book, Seeing God brings it home that the world we inhabit is largely one of our own perception and creation. It is suprememely empowering. Definitely worth a read...but more importantly, go through the exercises, don't just skim over them.
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Summary: Rabbi David Aaron is a spiritual optometrist! Buy this book!
Review: I just finished Seeing God last week and was thoroughly impacted by the book. I kind of approached "Seeing God" as a rich chocolate cake, one that to appreciate you need to take little bites over a long period of time, lest you not taste every flavor or get overfull. Little by little I would read the book, sometimes only one page, sometimes I repeated chapters (I think I did this with Netzah & Hod, which was a bit hard for me to wrap myself around at first). Over time, I could feel the blindfold being removed from my eyes as I realized that I have been seeing God all along. There God was, right in front of me the whole time!!! It is almost ludicrous how hard I was looking & couldn't see until I read Seeing God!
I plan to read it again and again. Great gift, I bought it for all my friends and family.
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Summary: writes about the Kabbalah, but not enough info.
Review: Rabbi David Aaron writes about the Kabbalah, but does not provide enough information to practise the Kabbalah.I have read several books on the Kabbalah, and many more books on other forms of mysticism. He calls the bottom sephiroth "Malkus". The other sources I have read on the Kabbalah call it Malkuth. The material about the 10 Sephiroth appears to be sound (based on my limited knowledge of the subject). I wish he had given meditations, and directions to assist people in practising the Kabbalah; but I fully understand why he did not (even though I do not agree with it) Traditionaly; the Kabbalah is not taught until a person is 40 years of age, and is well grounded mentaly and Spiritually. This was tradition. Not a rule set in concrete. However; there needs to be books that teach this knowledge to people that seek it, and do not have easy access to Kabbalists. I only have one minor complaint. The Rabbi habitually states that Abraham was the first person to acknowledge a single Creator. This is true in the faith of Judaism. However; there are other faiths that predate Judaism that acknowledged a single Creator (not everyone was an "idolator". Using Mr. Aaron's label). Abram (later called Abraham) was born in the 10th generation (after the flood), Genesis Chapter 11 gives the lineage from Shem (Noah's son) to Abraham. So Judaism could only be about 3600-3800 years old. Depending on which set of numbers you accept. Taoism and acknowledgement of "The Tao" goes back 5000 years or more. Taoist prinnciples are in the treatise on internal medicine written in 2445 BCE. The American Indians many of the nations did not have a written language until recently. but they acknowledged the Great Spirit, and passed on the information oraly. Many people become confused when they see indians mentioning Wakan Tanka, Manitou, Untalanti, Ogedoda, and many other names. There were more than 500 American Indian nations speaking 175-200 languages. It is only natural they would use different names. Wah doh Ogedoda (We give thanks Great Spirit)
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Summary: "The God you don't believe in, I don't believe in either."
Review: That quotation is from a colleague of Rabbi David Aaron, and it serves as a nice summary of R. Aaron's theological approach in this book. For the very first thing R. Aaron does is to "get rid of God" -- that is, of inadequate conceptions of God that interfere with actually perceiving the Divine presence.
After laying some initial groundwork along these lines, R. Aaron presents a helpful intuitive/experiential introduction to the ten _sefirot_ -- the divine qualities or attributes by which God is, or may be, apprehended. His aim here is to provide not philosophical explanations but a series of "lenses" through which the reader can recognize God in experience. In consequence the discussions are filled with helpful examples and illustrations, and blessedly free of technical jargon. Each chapter also concludes with a short set of exercises.
R. Aaron's book thus makes a nice introduction to Kabbalistic thought and "advaita" Jewish panentheism. I wish he had included an index and a bibliography, but since his intent is to promote experience rather than scholarship, the omissions are perhaps not very important.
My real (but still minor) complaints are what they usually are about works like this one: such works tend to exaggerate the difference between idealistic panentheism and the more or less "classical" understanding of theism, and they tend to denigrate the importance and/or the effectiveness of rationality, intellect, reflective thought, and philosophy. R. Aaron's book is no exception, but his tendencies in this direction are quite mild. (My own view, for whatever it may be worth, is that rationality is precisely the respect in which we are made in the Divine image, and that if doing philosophy doesn't bring you to direct knowledge of God, you're doing it wrong. Then, too, I also reject the identification of "rationality" with left-brain abstract thought.)
For more of this sort of thing, the reader might want to investigate the work of Rabbi Rami Shapiro; the opening chapters of his book _Minyan_, for example, contain an extremely helpful summary of panentheistic/nondualistic theology (although without much direct reference to Kabbalah).
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Summary: "Seeing God" is INDEED "Life Changing"
Review: This book is so profound and yet so practical. It really opened my eyes to a more sophisticated understanding of God. Rabbi Aaron makes the Kabbalah come alive. These lessons are priceless jems! I recommend this book to anyone seeking a closer relationship with God, Jew and non-Jew alike.
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Summary: Fantastic! You will want extra copies for your friends!
Review: This extra-ordinary book speaks to the mind and the heart. Although written by a rabbi, it has universal appeal. As someone who grew up in a Catholic home with a Systine Chapel image of God as Zeus, I very much appreciate Rabbi Aaron's idea of "getting rid of God" in order to finally see the "real" God. I also appreciate, Rabbi Aaron's "user-friendly" presentation of deep Kabbalistic ideas like the Ten Sefirot -- the channels of energy through which we see God in the world. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to improve not only his or her undersatnding of God, but also his or her spiritual connection to the Endless One.
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Summary: Great way to begin seeing God around us all.
Review: This was a very interesting & thought-provoking book based on Kabbalistic teachings. It helps people to quit living with our pre-conceived ideas of God & church, the real world around us & how life should be lived. What we were taught about who God is when we were children needs to become redefined when we are adults, or we live in fear of a man-god who can show anger & wrath like a parent. Sometimes these pre-conceived ideas that are so ingrained in ourselves are exactly what is hurting every one of us. David Aaron uses ancient Jewish words & teachings from the Sefir Yetzira and connects them to our daily lives in today's modern world of fears. I was disappointed in some of the latter chapters that said to include reading the Torah daily or going to worship on a regular basis; I'm from a Catholic background so I was a little turned off with that, even tho I can understand the importance of practicing regular good deeds & daily rituals. But the majority of this book was very enlightening to what I have already been learning & rediscovering in my own life. This helps anyone & everyone see the world & all its participants in a much less narrow-minded view & hopefully can open your eyes as well as your hearts.
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Summary: A wonderful introduction to the Kabbalah
Review: This was one of the few books that I've read that I hated to finish, rather like these last few days of spring we have in Texas- you want to hang on and enjoy every minute.Rabbi Aaron has a way of provoking deep thought through a style that is lighthearted, amusing and easy to read. Torah characters come to life, and make sense to the contemporary mind. The book is heartwarming and elicits many ah-ha! experiences. He explains why the Kabbalah was viewed as off-limits for an ordinary Jew, and offers a bridge to it, with insights for use in our every-day lives.One chapter I will read to my art students, so that they might realize the state of mind that is most fertile for creative thinking. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who would like to share in the light of the Kabbalah.
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