I love this, from Andrew Harvey’s introduction to the great Daniel Matt’s book Zohar: Annotated & Explained:

‘Twenty years ago in Jerusalem – momentarily at peace and flowering in a fragrant and golden spring – I made a friend whose wisdom has sweetened my life; I shall call him “Ezekiel”, after one of the wild ecstatic prophets he loved most. He was a wizened, nut-brown, wiry old man in his early eighties with hair so energetic it seemed to dance in white flames on his head. Although his life had seen every kind of suffering and violence (he had been in a concentration camp and fought in the early days for the establishment of the Jewish state before losing faith in any kind of nationalism), just to be in his presence was to be intoxicated by his passion for God, his unique amalgam of fervor, dry wit and long rich quotations in several languages, and a laugh so wild and loud it sounded, his wife used to say, “like one of the trumpets of the seraphim”. We met through mutual friends (who were also friends of the great Scholem, master of modern Jewish mystical studies). They had told me before introducing me, “Now you are ready to meet a real no-holds-barred kabbalist.”

‘And that is what Ezekiel proved to be.’

Indeed it was, as you’ll discover if you read the introduction in full.

What a guy. The world needs Ezekiels more than ever right now…