Kabbalah: A Love Story

Vladimir Nabokov, who taught literature to Cornell undergrads in the '50s, opined that one ought to read books twice. Only after you know the twists in the plot and how it all turns out are you free to fully experience the book. I believe it, but only rarely have I followed his advice. I enjoyed reading Kushner's "Kabbalah: A Love Story" when it appeared a few weeks ago. I was drawn to read it again. I reread it with new eyes. What an extraordinary book! The first time through I thought it was about Kabbalah. I see now that that's not the case - it is Kabbalah. Those familiar with Kushner's writings know that he is a spiritual seeker, but they know not to look to Kushner for pious platitudes. His characters - like his readers - have one foot in Heaven and the other in the Subway. Read this book as a gripping, multi-layered tale of discovery. Or read it for glimpses of the God that Kushner describes as "The Oneness" - a theology that defies the most rational among us to settle for Atheism.

Sometimes in your life, you get a chance to hold something really beautiful. That is true for this book. It is so lovely that you just like to look at it and hold it. But that is only the smallest part of the beginning. A book is not only beautiful because it is an object but because it holds that most precious thing: possibility. The possibility that you will read a good story. That you will lose yourself in the book for a time. That you will perhaps find something that inspires you, terrifies you, enlightens you, or speaks to you as the YOU that you are. Once you get past observing the dust jacket, the cover, the feeling of the paper, the weight of the book in your hand, and once you get to opening it and reading the first few paragraphs, you will be drawn into that good story that you are looking for. In fact you may, like me, just go ahead and read the whole book over the next few hours. I entreat you to resist that or, if unable to do so, to vow that you will read it first quickly and then read it again with more attention. This book deserves more attention. It is not simply a good story (though it certainly is that too!) but conceals so much more beneath the surface. The brevity of the text belies the lifetime of study this author has devoted to the understanding of creation, God, love, Judaism, mysticism, Kabballah, and humankind. When I got the book, I figured it would be some kind of Judaic equivalent to "The DaVinci Code". I was wrong. This book is about opening the mind to the infinite expanses of God and universe, as expressed in the simplest experiences of life and love in "ordinary" human existence. This book did not come about because of a sudden "good idea" that precipated research leading to an adventure novel. It grew out of true and valid belief in, love of, and understanding for the most beautiful ideas of humanity, as seen through the lens of our first mono-theistic and ancient experience of creation, Judaism. So I repeat: get this book now!

The colon in the title of the book has meaning (of course, in Kabbalah, everything on the page has meaning). Rabbi Kushner's delightful little book is both a primer on Kabbalah and a love story. The many readers of his earlier books on Jewish mysticism such as The Way into Jewish Mystical Thought, or Eyes Remade for Wonder, or any of his titles will find here as well a lucid and compelling introduction to Jewish mysticism but with the added bonus of a love story that romps through time and space in a delicious and humorous way. As in its half-namesake, Eric Segal's Love Story, we soon become involved in a soulful romance; this time not between doomed young lovers but between Kushner's middle-aged hero, the lonely Rabbi Kalman Stern, and the astronomer, Isabel Beneviste, as they search for ways to forgive their pasts and connect with each other. Unlike Segal's love story, however, this is not a tragedy but something new - a blend of the picaresque, the inspirational, the relevatory and the didactic - or is it new? Sounds like the Zohar to me....

Review of Kabbalah: A Love Story by Lawrence Kushner As a very secular Jew, I have known nothing more about the Kabbalah than what most literate west coast people know: it has something to do with Jewish mysticism and has recently become popular due to the attention of Madonna. It was therefore a great surprise and delight not only to enjoy Kabbalah: A Love Story, but to have my own "mystical" experience while reading the novel. As I followed the twists and turns of the timeline, interwoven plots, mysterious revelations and interpretations of the ancient texts, the transformation of the main character, Rabbi Kalman Stern, became a vehicle for the expansion of my own consciousness. I have read many books about other people's ecstatic experiences, but few that conducted me into a realm where I felt my own connection with the Divine. And in this book it came not just with a sense of awe, but also with numerous chuckles and even several belly-laughs!