Kabbalah: An Illustrated Introduction to the Esoteric Heart of Jewish Mysticism by Tim Dedopulos

Kabbalah: An Illustrated Introduction to the Esoteric Heart of Jewish Mysticism Reviews

• 
  Jordan Graham

  The information was accessible for beginners, which has been super hard to come by. There is a bizarre use of large, only vaguely related stock photos to bulk up the page count, which is jarring.
• 
  Scar

  A good introduction on the topic. Stock photos are not always so relevant but keep it visually interesting. I’ve come to understand how little I agree with and why I didn’t like much. Reading this cleared my confusion and ignorance around why Kabalistic practices circle close to the occult. They have much influenced each other. I easily disagree with several core principles of Kabalah, such as the idea that God split into fragments which made up humanity and this world. We are not all one nor are we divine. We were made in his image and with his breath of life. There are many themes and ideas that with a word change or tweak would aline to truths from the Torah. But they are sightly off. My still developing thoughts around this subject are that there is nuggets of wisdom and truth in Kabalah. That it’s foundation is Jewish philosophers begging the questions who is god and how do we get closer to him. But since it’s start it has been mixed in with thoughts and ideas and cultures and traditions ranging as broadly as the centuries that saw it’s development. And now it’s pretending that all these massively contradicting theologies and self worshiping ideas all fit in one soup and it’s all true and all good, you just don’t understand it right if you think otherwise. But truth does not mix with lies and remain sole truth. You can practically bring any religion or school of thought and sit just as comfortably under this umbrella, so it’s no wonder it has become popular again in our modern world so eager to say we are all one, all divine, and all right.
• 
  Susan

  I would have loved the book had it had a table of correspondences but instead of doing the hard work to synthesize this Dedopolus merely describes -- a far easier job. I guess no Binah. Too much Chokmah. I do not know where he gets his associations for planets to the sefirot but they make no astrological sense...Kether is Pluto? Malkuth is Earth and so where is Uranus? I would put Kether as Uranus and Malkuth as Pluto. But then again the book is geared towards the Kabbalah as a religion not Kab as a philosophy, and that I believe was a missed opp.
• 
  Tucker

  The illustrations are coffeetable-quality and the text is substantial enough to use as a reference or to read straight through. It felt like two different books, however. The first half was an excellent historical overview. The second half was way out there in the woo with photographs of mind-expanding healing crystals and at that point the author seems to presume that the reader has some particular occult beliefs that inspire them to continue.
• 
  Alex Hummel

  A nice intro for beginningers. The writing was a little dry and I thought the use of weird stock images to be a bit much. It also contains some solid practices.
• 
  Danijel

  
  
  Str. 11- Eseni so verjeli, da je cilj duhovnosti očistiti sebe in 'vodnjak' luči znotraj nas in tako doseči stanje najvišje popolnosti in podobnosti Bogu.
  
  Str. 28- doktrina razdvojitve izraza vso resničnost kot vidik Božjega radeljenega sebstva, ki išče vnovično združitev z božanskim in je na vseh stopnjah povezano s samim seboj. To je presnetljivo podobno sodobnim teorijam kvantne mehanike, ki govorijo o tem, da vsak del vsebuje celoto - "hologramsko vesolje". Znanost in kabala pravita isto: vse je bilo eno, se nato razdelilo in postalo vesolje, vendar je ostalo povezano in bo nekega dne ponovno eno samo.
  
  Str. 100- (napisano leta 2006) ljudje živijo v stalnem strahu po zaslugi nenehnega obstreljevanja novinarjev in vlad. Javni in zasebni dolgovi so vrtoglavo visoki. Cene nepremičnin in trga vrednostnih papirjev so tako napihnjene, da se zdi, da je nova svetovna gospodarska kriza neizogibna. Nafta dosega cene, ki obetajo krizo. Kamorkoli se obrnete, vidite bleščeče reklame za stvari, ki si jih ne morete privoščiti in jih ne potrebujete, a so narejene prav za to, da bi čutili, da jih morate imeti, da bi se dokazali za uspešne.
  
  Str. 105- notranji dvogovor vokaliziranih misli, ki nas stalno nadleguje, je skupek strahov, krivd in starih porazov. V njegovem molku boste našli moč.
  
  ~~~
  Prisrčen pozdrav
  
  mag. Danijel Brestovac | 040185969 |
  www.danijel-brestovac.weebly.com
• 
  Tina

  Just an excellent book, I will buy this as a point of reference for the meditations at the end of the book. I borrowed this book from the library initially.
• 
  Lise

  A very nice introduction to the material. It covers history and symbolism, and lightly touches upon mystical implications. I found it entertaining enough that I may continue to read up on the subject.
  
  I am particularly amused by the fact that I picked this up as source material for developing a character for a White Wolf game without realizing that Mr. Dedopulos has written White Wolf source material.
• 
  Mark

  I'm 40% sure I disliked this book because Kabbalah itself is rubbish and 60% sure it's because this books is a rubbish introduction to the subject.
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  Jeremy

  Very interesting book. Good information and really well laid out.