Tamar Frankiel

"Jewish mysticism - Kabbalah - has long fascinated people of all faith traditions and spiritual backgrounds. At least in name, this ancient teaching is familiar to practically everyone.". "Kabbalah is primarily a path of action, one that enables us to transform the world. This accessible, intelligent guide to Kabbalah is designed to quench your curiosity with learning and depth of spiritual insight. Frankiel introduces you to this ancient wisdom and invites you to use Kabbalah to tap into a richer spiritual perspective than the one to which most of us unconsciously limit ourselves.". "The Gift of Kabbalah gives you the vocabulary and the tools to begin to understand this long-standing mystical tradition. It shows that the intricate world of Kabbalah is not a passing fad or only for scholars, but an enduring wisdom - a gift - for people of all faiths and backgrounds."--BOOK JACKET.

Using as models the Central female figures of Jewish tradition, she shows how the tradition affirms a distinctly feminine approach to religious experience.

Lineaments - an outline, feature, or contour of a body or figure, especially of a face. In this culmination of his life's work, the popular Orthodox lay theologian and translator of the Philokalia draws from the depths of tradition the "face" of Christianity as a world religion. Through a critique of the modern scientific and rationalist paradigm, Sherrard seeks to restore the foundations of Christian cosmology and ecology, and to reaffirm the prime importance of sacred symbolism and art. The book includes a creative engagement with non-Christian traditions, with the "metaphysical logic" of Rene Guenon, and with distinctively modern thinkers such as Nietzsche and Jung.

"The dreams retold in this book come from nearly two decades of dream experiences. Most, but not all, come from my own dream journals. I don't usually distinguish between my dreams and those of others, however. One reason is to preserve privacy for the dreamers and their friends and loved ones who are dreamed. Another, however, is that dreams are not necessarily personal. Even a dream that clearly alludes to a personal situation of the dreamer may have meanings for other people, hints on how to read dreams, or teachings about mystical cosmology. As Kaplan teaches, dreams do not belong to us. In that light, I also want to note that the dreams herein were chosen to illustrate specifics of the various mystical Worlds, so I focus on how a dream represents one type. Many dreams are a mixture of types, as a dreamer's psyche may be touched by different soul energies on the same night. So if your dreams seem more chaotic or scattered than the ones recorded here, don't be discouraged. We learn to sort them out and hear the soul's messages more clearly as we mature in dreaming work together"--

An insightful exploration of Jewish mysticism--written especially for Christians. Kabbalah is well known as the foundation of the Jewish mystical tradition, but few are aware that Kabbalah's spiritual applications extend beyond Jewish life. In this accessible, intelligent guide, Tamar Frankiel, PhD, a leading teacher of Jewish mysticism, demystifies the intricate world of Kabbalah. You will find that the teachings of Kabbalah are not only for Jewish scholars--anyone can incorporate this enduring wisdom into everyday life if they have an open mind and a willing heart. Unlike the faddish books that discuss Kabbalah as simply a "magical system," this book discusses the evolution of Kabbalah from its origins in Judaism and gives Christian readers the vocabulary and tools to begin to understand this long-standing mystical tradition. It also explores the similarities and differences between Jewish and Christian mysticism, placing both in a larger and more comprehensive framework.

"This book is intended as a study guide to the morning service in the Jewish prayer book, to help those who struggle with the prayers. Perhaps you would like prayer to be your spiritual practice but you can't find your way. Perhaps you lose interest too easily and would like a framework that sustains your involvement. Perhaps you are already familiar with the prayers, but they have become rote for you, and you are looking for new insights. We begin with the consciousness that Jewish prayer is a liturgy, best thought of as a cousin to drama, dance, or symphony. It is not someone's spontaneous prayer written down for others to imitate. Liturgy is composed, crafted, arranged for a purpose. I like the analogy of drama because I can think of the segments of liturgy as scenes. The comparison also invites me to identify with characters or actions as well as to contemplate ideas and themes. A certain kind of consciousness will develop as you take on this approach to practice: an imaginative interaction with the words of the siddur. Unlike a play that you watch from the audience, much of the liturgical drama goes on in your imagination. Actually, we are using our imaginations with a stage play as well - we "identify" with the characters and our bodies respond with pleasure or sadness or thrill to the action in empathic imagination. With Jewish prayer, we need to extract the drama from the words before us and carry it along in our minds"--