Kabbalah: The Way of the Jewish Mystic

In the foreword, psychologist Edward Hoffman explains the book's importance: when it was written, English readers had little beyond Gershom Scholem's dry academic histories and Martin Buber's stylised Hasidic tales, while «magicians'» books on Kabbalah were full of half-truths. He especially values Epstein's strong historical emphasis, her direct quotations from sacred texts, and the parallels she draws between techniques such as breathing, posture and visualisation and those of yoga and Taoism.

The introduction opens with a thirteenth-century anecdote: a disciple asks a master to teach him meditation; the master asks whether he is hurt when insulted and proud when praised. When the disciple admits he is, the master sends him away for a few more years to detach from worldly pain and pleasure. Epstein stresses that this does not mean retreating to a cave: Jewish mysticism is lived in the midst of daily life — in the blessing over bread, in dealings with neighbours, in family life. That is the book's core thesis: the Jewish mystic must live with «feet on the ground and head in the heavens».

The author shows that Jewish mysticism has always been communal: even the revelation at Sinai came not to one person but to a whole people. She briefly recounts how Sabbatai Zevi, who proclaimed himself Messiah in seventeenth-century Izmir, shattered communities, then the rise of eighteenth-century Hasidism and the problems later caused by cults around the «tzaddik». This background explains why the mystical tradition was transmitted orally and in secret, from master to disciple.

The «Secret Garden» section of Chapter 1 likens studying Kabbalah to entering a magnificent but dangerous garden. Epstein retells the famous Talmudic story of «Pardes»: of four sages, Ben Azzai looked and died, Ben Zoma lost his mind, Ben Abuyah became an apostate, and only Rabbi Akiva, perfectly balanced in spirit, entered and left in peace. The explanation that the letters of «PaRDeS» stand for the text's four layers of meaning — plain, allusive, homiletic and secret — is among the book's most interesting details.

The next section introduces Bahya ibn Paquda of eleventh-century Spain, whose «Duties of the Heart», influenced by Islamic Sufis, called for attention to the spiritual meaning of the law rather than its form. Epstein notes this influence openly, which is valuable for comparative religion. Some historical statements are imprecise, however: the Talmudic sages are placed «in the early Middle Ages», whereas they belong to the 1st–2nd centuries CE, and the claim of a «five-thousand-year» tradition reflects a traditional rather than historical view.

The Turkish translation is reasonably clear, but there are many scanning errors and some Hebrew terms are garbled. The book is written sympathetically from within the religious tradition — both its strength and its weakness: the reader feels the spirit of mystical experience but does not get critical historical analysis. As a first introduction to the subject, it is worthwhile.

• Each section is built around a master's life and quotations from his texts
• Anecdotes and legends bring abstract mystical concepts to life
• Parallels with yoga, Taoism and Sufism are drawn throughout
• A glossary of Hebrew terms and a bibliography close the book