The Complete Idiot's Guide(R) To Jewish Spirituality & Mysticism

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Summary: Complete Idiot's Guide to Jewish Spirituality and Mysticism
Review: This book is both the oddest and possibly best of the "Complete Idiot's Guide" series. It takes the most complex Jewish mystical ideas and practices, many of which are hundreds if not thousands of years old, and explain's them in laymen's English(and Hebrew) in a way that makes Jewish spirituality accessible to the layperson. Levin quite thoroughly covers the Biblical basis of Jewish Mysticism, also known as Kabbalah(Received Tradition), then proceeds with a brief history of the rest of it's development and those Rabbis and Saints who make up it's principal guides over the past millenium.

He also discusses all the principal Jewish spiritual practices, such as Daily prayer, meditation, Torah study, and study of such mystical works as the Zohar. Lastly, he provides a mystical guidebook for those traveling to Israeli Holy sites in the context of the present violence, and the principal issues Jewish mysticism deals with currently, such as the coming of the Messiah, the nature of suffering, holidays, and more. In short, the author seems to have accomplished the impossible: a User Friendly Guide to Jewish Mysticism.

However, by it's nature, such a book covers it's subject "once over lightly" and does not deal with some of the concerns that have bedeviled deep Jewish thinkers and mystics since ancient times. These are the nature of Divine Providence, or why history, whether personal or collective, transpires the way it does; whether Jewish prayer and mitzvah have efficacy or actual effects in the "real world" or not, and the effect on Jewish practice and faith of the Holocaust.

While the author might say that his book is no place for these subjects, he mentions them very briefly and superficially, when it is good answers to these questions that motivate people to take up the Jewish spiritual practice he advocates. For solid well grounded answers to these issues within the context of Jewish tradition, the reader will have to look to works that especially deal with them. A strongly written treatment of these subjects by this writer, "Jewish History and Divine Providence: Theodicy and the Oddyssey" is available for review and purchase on this site.

Rating:
Summary: Simple but Well-written
Review: This book, "Jewish Spirituality and Mysticism" manages to take a very complex topic and simplify it -- without "dumbing it down" -- so that the layman can understand it.

While the areas it covers are brief, this book explains them very well. This book is best angled towards people with no background on the subject, or with a little background who are looking for a basic reference or memory refresher.

Worth buying. :)

Rating:
Summary: Simple but Well-written
Review: This book, "Jewish Spirituality and Mysticism" manages to take a very complex topic and simplify it -- without "dumbing it down" -- so that the layman can understand it.

While the areas it covers are brief, this book explains them very well. This book is best angled towards people with no background on the subject, or with a little background who are looking for a basic reference or memory refresher.

Worth buying. :)

Rating:
Summary: Author took the title too seriously
Review: This is the first of the "Idiot's Guide" genre that I have read where the author really did assume the readers would be idiots. Spirituality was treated at the depth one uses when teaching Sunday School. The greatest detail was saved for "loshan hora" or politically correct speech.

The most annoying portion of the book was his treatment of Kabbalah. In essence, the author said "Kabbalah is very difficult to learn and you wouldn't understand it anyway." Then I bought "Practical Kabbalah" by Rabbi Laibl Wolf and received a very good introduction to the subject. I HIGHLY recommend Rabbi Laibl's book.

My question is "why did the author include the words 'and mysticism' in the title if he had no intention to cover it?" My guess is that the editor thought the inclusion of those two words would greatly increase sales. I hope reviews like mine have thew opposite effect.