Mystics move
The reading assignment this week for the "Introduction to Judaism" class I am taking at our shul in Galveston is on the mystical tradition within Judaism. The book we are reading, Essential Judaism , is not written in a style that makes for quick reading to begin with*, but I am finding myself taking longer than usual this week. And this is not the first time I have stalled out trying to get a basic grasp of Jewish mysticism, commonly referred to as Kabbalah: about half a year ago, I picked up an audiobook on Kabbalah for beginners and found that I couldn't get past the introductory chapters (which, to be fair, took up about 2/3 of the book) to the part where you supposedly find out how Kabbalah is actually practiced or what impact it actually has in anybody's life. I had thought at the time that this was simply a bad introduction to the subject, that there must be some entry point into the Kabbalah that would make me a Jewish mystic myself one day, but this week