Title
Introduction
About This Book
Conventions Used in This Book
What You’re Not to Read
Foolish Assumptions
How This Book Is Organized
Icons Used in This Book
Where to Go from Here
Part I : So, What’s the Big Secret? Unmasking Kabbalah
Chapter 1: What Is Kabbalah?
Getting to Know Kabbalah, “The Received Tradition”
Hey, What Are the Big Ideas?
A Constant Search for God
Who Can Study Kabbalah?
Different Approaches to the Study of Kabbalah
Picking a Kabbalah that Works for You
Chapter 2: Magic, Mishegas, and Other Things that Kabbalah Isn’t
Setting the Record Straight
Trying to Figure Out Who’s Legit and Who’s Not
Chapter 3: Looking Back: A Brief History of Kabbalah
Kabbalists in the Bible
Kabbalah in the Rabbinic Period
Thriving in Spain in the 13th Century
Coming of Age in the Mystical City of Tzfat
The Bigger You Are, The Harder You Fall: The Shabbatai Tzvi Affair
The Great Revival: Hasidism
Kabbalah Today
Part II : Cutting to the Core of Kabbalah
Chapter 4: The Link between Heaven and Earth: Kabbalah’s Own Top-Ten Countdown
Seeing below the World’s Surface
The Ten Fundamental Forces that Sustain the World
Ways to Look at the Tree of Life
Pulling the Strings of Existence: The Work of the Kabbalist
Chapter 5: Everything (Even a Traffic Jam) Is for the Best
How Can Everything Possibly Be for the Best?
Getting the Words Right: Gam Zu L’Tovah
Don’t Confuse Acceptance with Passivity
Training Oneself to See Like a Kabbalist
Picking up the Pieces: In the Beginning a Vessel Was Shattered
Figuring Out Individual Divine Assignments
Chapter 6: Our Bodies Don’t Have Souls; Our Souls Have Bodies
A Spark of God in Everyone
Getting to the Soul of the Matter
Descent for the Sake of Ascension — That’s Life
Introducing the Four Worlds of Kabbalah
Going Up? The Soul’s Journey of Five Levels
Chapter 7: Like Déjà Vu All Over Again: Reincarnation in Kabbalah
What Is Reincarnation?
Birth and Death (Also known as Homecoming and Graduation)
Understanding the Significance of Reincarnation to Kabbalah
Chapter 8: Instant Karma’s Gonna Get You
Everything Has Meaning — Everything
Angels: The Kabbalistic Key to Karma
Suffering Hurts but Isn’t Random: The Kabbalistic View
Part III : Livin’ La Vida Kabbalah
Chapter 9: Living One Day at a Time
Three Daily Tasks of the Kabbalist
Waking Up
Getting Washed and Dressed
Offering Prayers and Meditation
Grabbing a Bite
Repairing the World
Bed Sheets and Balance Sheets: Ending the Day
Chapter 10: Living One Week at a Time
The End of the Week Is also the Beginning
Keeping Your Eye on the Sabbath
Preparing to Receive the Gift of the Sabbath
Greeting the Sabbath the Kabbalistic Way
Transforming the Shabbat Dinner Table into a Holy Altar
Observing and Enjoying the Sabbath
Saying Goodbye to the Sabbath: A Fond and Fragrant Farewell
Gearing Up for the Sabbath All Over Again
Chapter 11: A Year in the Life of a Kabbalist
Ringing in the New Year without a Noisemaker
Ten Days in the Early Fall for Introspection and Turning
The Day of “At-One-Ment”
Acknowledging with Joy That Life Is Temporary
Meditating on Light for Eight Days
Seeing God in Everything
Liberating Oneself from Narrowness
A 49-day Kabbalistic Meditation on the Ascent to God
Receiving God’s Teachings Constantly
Mourning the Loss of Wholeness
Celebrating Birthdays Kabbalisticly
Chapter 12: A Kabbalist’s Life Cycle
Beginning with a Bang: Birth
Coming of Age Kabbalistically
Kabbalistic Marriage
Death and Dying in Kabbalah
Part IV : Fine-tuning the Essential Skills of the Kabbalist
Chapter 13: Discovering the Kabbalistic Books that Really Matter
The Essential Kabbalah Library
Other Classic Books Worth Adding to the Collection
Don’t Forget a Few Hasidic Books
Chapter 14: Hitting the Books — and Kissing Them: Studying Like a Kabbalist
When Kabbalists Hit the Books, They Really Hit Them!
Understanding the Importance of Study in Kabbalah
Where and When Do I Begin?
Can I Study Kabbalah in English? (You Already Are!)
When the Student is Ready: Finding a Good Teacher
Pairing with a Study Buddy
Studying Ancient Scripture: The Torah
Discussing Life’s Issues with the Sages: The Talmud
Chapter 15: Praying Like a Kabbalist
An Overview of Prayer in the Life of a Kabbalist
How to Imagine an Unimaginable God While Praying
Addressing God Directly
Speaking Most Public Prayer in the Plural
Inner Attitude Is What Counts
The Kabbalist’s Prayer Book
A Kabbalist’s Daily Prayer Routine
Chapter 16: Knowing the Unknowable God
Understanding that You Can’t Understand is the First Step Toward Understanding
What Kabbalists Know about God, Even Though They Know Nothing about God
Developing a Personal Relationship with an Unfathomable God (Yes, It Can Be Done)
Calling God by Name (Even Though God’s Nameless)
Part V : The Part of Tens
Chapter 17: (Almost) Ten Myths about Studying Kabbalah
You Have to Be a Man
You Have to Be Married
You Have to Be an Orthodox Jew
You Have to at Least Be Jewish
You Have to Be Over 40
You Have to Buy Expensive Books in Hebrew
You Have to Follow a Dress Code
You Have to Know Hebrew
Chapter 18: Ten Great Kabbalists in History
Adam
Abraham
Rabbi Akiva
Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai
Rabbi Isaac Luria, the Holy Ari
The Shelah HaKodesh, Rabbi Isaiah Horowitz
Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov
The Vilna Gaon
Rabbi Adin Steinstaltz
What? How Could You Have Left Out . . .
Chapter 19: Ten Places that Kabbalists Visit
Jerusalem
Tzfat
Meron, Israel
Holy Gravesites in the Holy Land
Holy Gravesites in Europe
A Holy Gravesite in the United States
The Mikvah
The Synagogue
The Bedroom
Here and Now
Part VI : Appendixes
Appendix A: Books and Authors You’ll Thank Me for Recommending
The Books of Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan
The Thirteen Petalled Rose by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
The Way of Splendor: Jewish Mysticism and Modern Psychology by Edward Hoffman
The Books of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi
Souls on Fire by Elie Wiesel
91⁄2 Mystics: The Kabbala Today by Rabbi Herbert Weiner
Kabbalah: Selections from Classic Kabbalistic Works by Rabbi Avraham Yaakov Finkel
The Artscroll Prayer Book
Mishneh Torah: Yesodei HaTorah by the Rambam
The Fundamentals of Jewish Mysticism by Rabbi Leonard Glotzer
Appendix B: Patriarchs, Swindlers, Prophets, and Sinners: Meet 100 Torah Characters
Appendix C: A Glossary of Everything Kabbalah