The Kabbalistic Tradition: An Anthology of Jewish Mysticism by Alan Unterman
By Alan Unterman
A complete survey of the Jewish mystical tradition
An quintessential advisor to millions of years of religious inquiry, The Kabbalistic culture positive factors writings from quite a few literary forms-from the earliest biblical assets via twentieth-century studies-as good as functional details and practices for the trendy reader. those choices be aware of the 3 major parts of Kabbalistic creativity-the literature of Zohar, the Lurianic corpus, and the Chasidic mystical culture. Alan Unterman's enlightening creation examines the original features of the Kabbalah and areas this quantity in its right ancient and philosophical context.
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Extra info for The Kabbalistic Tradition: An Anthology of Jewish Mysticism (Penguin Classics)
Example text
Again, again—and it was not the ear that heard the pulsing rhythm, it was the midriff; the wail and clang of those recurring harmonies haunted, not the mind, but the yearning bowels of compassion. The President made another sign of the T and sat down. The service had begun. The dedicated soma tablets were placed in the centre of the dinner table. The loving cup of strawberry ice-cream soma was passed from hand to hand and, with the formula, “I drink to my annihilation,” twelves times quaffed. Then to the accompaniment of the synthetic orchestra the First Solidarity Hymn was sung.
Work, play—at sixty our powers and tastes are what they were at seventeen. ” Bernard Marx was saying to himself, as he walked down the corridor to the lift. “Now—such is progress—the old men work, the old men copulate, the old men have no time, no leisure from pleasure, not a moment to sit down and think—or if ever by some unlucky chance such a crevice of time should yawn in the solid substance of their distractions, there is always soma, delicious soma, half a gramme for half-holiday, a gramme for a week-end, two grammes for a trip to the gorgeous East, three for a dark eternity on the moon; returning whence they find themselves on the other side of the crevice, safe on the solid ground of daily labour and distraction, scampering from feely to feely, from girl to pneumatic girl, from Electro-magnetic Gold Course to…” … The group was now complete, the solidarity circle perfect and without flaw.
We wish to acknowledge the contribution of Robert Barker, a director of The Fitz Hugh Ludlow Memorial Library, who conceived of this anthology and provided source material and research. We thank Joan Wheeler Redington for providing the transcript of the “Visionary Experience” record album, and for comparing the French and English versions of the Planeté and Fate articles. We are very grateful to Mrs. Laura Huxley for her invaluable support and assistance at every stage of our endeavors, and to Michael R.