Kabbalah: A Very Short Introduction

Elementaire Deeltjes #27

by Joseph Dan

In Kabbalah: A Very Short Introduction, Joseph Dan, one of the world's leading authorities on Jewish mysticism, offers a concise and highly accurate look at the history and character of the various systems developed by the adherents of the Kabbalah.
Dan sheds light on the many misconceptions about what Kabbalah is and isn't--including its connections to magic, astronomy, alchemy, and numerology--and he illuminates the relationship between Kaballah and Christianity on the one hand and New Age religion on the other. The book provides fascinating historical background, ranging from the mystical groups that flourished in ancient Judaism in the East, and the medieval schools of Kabbalah in Northern Spain and Southern France, to the widening growth of Kabbalah through the school of Isaac Luria of Safed in the sixteenth century, to the most potent and influential modern Jewish religious movement, Hasidism, and its use of kabbalistic language in its preaching. The book examines the key ancient texts of this tradition, including the Sefer Yezira or "Book of Creation," The Book of Bahir, and the Zohar. Dan explains Midrash, the classical Jewish exegesis of scriptures, which assumes an infinity of meanings for every biblical verse, and he concludes with a brief survey of scholarship in the field and a list of books for further reading.
Embraced by celebrities and integrated in many contemporary spiritual phenomena, Kabbalah has reaped a wealth of attention in the press. But many critics argue that the form of Kabbalah practiced in Hollywood is more New Age pabulum than authentic tradition. Can there be a positive role for the Kabbalah in the contemporary quest for spirituality?
In Kabbalah, Joseph Dan debunks the myths surrounding modern Kabbalistic practice, offering an engaging and dependable account of this traditional Jewish religious phenomenon and its impact outside of Judaism.

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction, History, Philosophy, Judaism, Jewish, Spirituality

144 pages, Hardcover

First published October 6, 2005

Reviews

[فؤاد · Rating 4 out of 5]

برای آشنایی ابتدایی با قبالا (یا کابالا، سنت عرفانی یهود) کتاب خیلی خوبیه. اما برای آشنایی کامل باید سراغ کتاب گرشوم شولم رفت: گرایش‌ها و مکاتب اصلی عرفان یهود

[Ivy-Mabel Fling · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting read but, in my opinion, not for beginners. It would benefit from having a vocabulary list at the end as there are many terms the reader could do to look up.

[Seyed Morakabi · Rating 4 out of 5]

چرا رفتم سراغ این کتاب؟ دنبال معنای مستقل حروف الفبا در زبان‌های سامی بودم و چون در عربی منبع قابل اتکایی نیافتم، رفتم سراغ عبری و خیلی زود رسیدم به درخت زندگی و برای فهم درست و حسابی‌اش ترجیح دادم این کتاب آکسفورد را بخوانم. چرا دنبال معنای مستقل حروف الفبا در زبان‌های سامی بودم؟ چون در زبان‌های سامی (مثل عربی) بر خلاف زبان‌های هند و اروپایی (مثل فارسی) تکواژ‌های قاموسی به هم نمی‌چسبند مثلا هیچ واژه‌ای مثل کتاب+خانه نداریم بلکه گونه‌ی خاصی از ریخت‌شناسی داریم که با پیچاندن بن‌ها معانی تازه می‌آفریند مثلا ریشه‌ی کتب را تبدیل می‌کند به مکتبة. اما ظاهرا این فقط شیوه‌ی پیچش بن‌ها نیست که معنا می‌سازد بلکه حروف تشکیل‌دهنده‌ی بن‌ها هم معناساز هستند به‌گونه‌ای که گویش‌وران این زبان‌ها هنگام برخورد با بن‌های تازه و حتی مجعول به قیاس بن‌هایی که پیش‌تر می‌شناسند می‌توانند معنای آن‌ها را بفهمند. پس رفتم سراغ درخت زندگی. به شیوه‌ی نگارش کتاب پنج ستاره می‌دهم و به محتوایش سه ستاره که میان‌گینش شد چهار. هرگز هنگام برداشتنش فکر نمی‌کردم در این کتاب خواهم خواند که یونگ در عین یهودستیز بودن یک قبالیست و دانشمند علوم غریبه بوده و به مخیله‌ام هم خطور نمی‌کرد که قرار است کتاب با مارتین بوبر به پایان برسد!

[Diana Willemsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Niet slecht. Zeker niet geweldig. Ik zocht een naslagwerkje voor bij mijn lessen. Sommige termen wil ik graag nog even nalezen. Hiervoor is dit boekje zeker niet geschikt. Het is meer een verzameling meningen over kabbala. Een oud-huisgenoot van me had als vaste uitspraak “En daar staan weer andere meningen tegenover”. Ik moest er vaak aan hem denken tijdens het lezen.

https://www.olamot.online/ Mocht je interesse hebben in nog een visie op kabbala en eventueel studie.

[Sleepless Dreamer · Rating 5 out of 5]

More like 4.5 but who cares really?

This book is excellent! It's a solid introduction, explaining both ideas and the history of Kabbalah. The author is incredibly aware of how religious books can be problematic and I admire that.

A word of caution: I know Hebrew and live in Israel so all the Hebrew phrases were easily understood and I am familiar with a lot of the names and different sects (though wow, I learned so much). If you aren't, this book might be difficult to understand. There's a lot of terminology.

I don't have much to say actually. I think I need to let this book sink in a bit. I can see myself returning to it.

what I'm taking with me
• Judaism is really really varied.
• There's a Jewish version of Nietzsche.
• Safed= צפת. Read like half of the book until I realized that.
• Hasidic Judaism is pretty similar to Christianity in the sense that tsdikim are like smaller scale messiahs. This is something that makes me rethink all the Haredim I've meet.
• The collective view of how salvation will come when all Jews will follow the halakah isn't something that's actually part of the Jewish cannon forever. In fact, it's a new idea, wow.
• so much more, just read the book!

[Xenophon Hendrix · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted an introduction to the kabbalah that was written by an authoritative non-crank. This book served that purpose.

The author mostly confines his presentation to the Jewish kabbalah. Approximately seven percent of the text describes Christian and western esoteric kabbalah.

Given my level of interest in the subject, the book being short is one of its most attractive features. Unfortunately, it is also dry. Over a period of several days, I fell asleep several times as I made my way through the text. Given that the kabbalah is a root work of contemporary mysticism and one of my interests is how mysticism influences humanity, I'm not disappointed that I stuck with the book and finished it, but it was tough going.

It would be nice to find a similarly authoritative description and history of Christian kabbalah, perhaps one that's more lively.

[Shakhla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite short, but very interesting and highly informative

[Kitty Red-Eye · Rating 2 out of 5]

Perhaps I'm being unfair to the author here when I say the book is "boring", maybe it is only my own lack of patience with the oh-so-many paths to a god I don't believe exists, I might as well read about the hidden meanings in the gospel of Batman. Or something. I can kind of see the appeal, though, in the idea of kabalah (or similar), it's esoteric, you must study to gain "knowledge", and it's definitely not for everyone. I can't help myself but prefer when the kabalistic system is used to tell a great story, though, like that crazy-but-awesome Norwegian church organist who's looking for hidden codes in Shakespeare's works, claiming old William was actually Francis Bacon, and that (possibly) the holy grail and/or the lost ark is hidden at that mystery island off the Canadian coast, and that all this has been preserved in tons and tons of freemasonic symbolism, which again owes a lot to kabalah, and so on. Dan Brown has absolutely nothing on this guy, do check it out. As said, pretty crazy, but still really awesome. http://shakespearethehiddentruth.com/

Anyway, back to kabalah, as said I prefer it when used as a narrative element in a cool story, not as an alternative path to a god I don't believe exists. But for anyone with esoteric leanings, or a real interest in religion (either as a subject of objective study or as a path to a god they believe in), I'm sure this book can be enlightening.

A small plus for some bonus Hebrew, but I'd prefer it had been more. My interests are more of that kind. Another plus for the artwork, which I wish had been in colour printing. Thank, erm, THE NAME for google.

One quote from the book, p.9-10, I found useful, but for other purposes:

The role of the historian of ideas is not to uncover what something "really" is, but to present the development of a concept's meanings in different historical and cultural contexts, seeking to determine as far as possible the many usages and definitions that it has acquired throughout its history. It is not the task of the historian to state that Gershom Scholem was right and Simo Parpola is wrong or vice versa. It is not his task to declare that Johannes Reuchlin was "really" a kabbalist and Carl Jung was not. It is a historical fact that in the last half millenium hundreds of thinkers used the term in different ways, departing from the cultural context in which the kabbalah emerged. The story of this process has to be told in historical terms, avoiding the designation of one meaning as more "true" than the others.

[Luis · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an amazing mind-blowing book, I love how scientific he is, how he is so scholarly and organized. An expert in Kabbalah, Joseph Dan recognizes the difficulties in talking about religious books and ideas, and how previous scholars made mistakes in attributing gnostic characteristics to the medieval Kabbalah. It served the purpose, and it made me want to read more of Dan's books on the subject.

[Stefan Gugler · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hm, it's maybe even a 1.5* rounded up. Certainly one of the bottom 10% in the Very Short Introduction. As always, I feel a bit bad rating it so low. I feel that with novels, it's possible to just not like it. But the VSI series has a clear objective of a concise introduction for amateurs and it's consistently not living up to it.

The Kabbalah is of course an extremely difficult topic to summarize. But again, many topics are and it's sort of the expert's job to try and do it anyways. Joseph Dan spent almost a fifth of the book prefacing and disclaimer-ing that it is hard to summarize yet goes on just listing people and names and schools without clear outline or narrative to it. Maybe it's just me, but even *if* there are so many different definitions, it might be instructive to just pick one that you like and explain that one a bit more thoroughly. This happened a bit naturally towards to end where modern incarnations were discussed but the meat should really have been in proper ancient and medieval stuff. I learn more by reading Foucault's Pendulum and check some of the things on Wikipedia than with this VSI.

[Michelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Instead of "A Very Short Introduction", the subtitle of this book should be "A Very Boring History of People and Books Related to the Word Kabbalah". Ugh. I'm sure it's all very accurate, but it sure as hell isn't interesting.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book may be short, but it is densely packed with information. In my quest for information related to a book I'm working on, I typed notes on most of this book. It is highly informative and I strongly recommend it to anyone interested in knowing how Kabbalah came about.

[Marsha Altman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Surprisingly good and thorough evaluation of Kabbalah. Didn't know it could be summarized this well.

[David N. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written and clear summary of a vast field of history, religion, and philosophy. Excellent for beginners.

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joseph Dan doesn't mince words and the taut spare academic style will not be to everyone's tastes. Its a positive virtue in his area of expertise (and he is clearly an expert) because the subject is infected with so much claptrap and nonsense that a surgeon's calculating knife is exactly what is needed to get clarity.

In particular the chapters linking the development of Lurianic Kabbalah with the development of both modern messianic (Sabbatean) mysticism and modern Hasidic orthodoxy is very helpful. He draws a very clear line connecting all three which demystifies a great deal about the social and political realities of the modern Jewish world.

I think more sociological elements such as post-kabbalistic practices would have been interesting (for example, the subject of the Donmeh is raised and immediately passed over - how much do we know about their beliefs? what is the relationship of other Ottoman sects to Sabbateanism? what is the role of kabbalah in the current Uman cult?)

Also given his expertise in Christian kabbalah that chapter feels too brief - in particular were there any connections between the Safed and Florentine movements? How did Christian scholars learn kabbalah and is there any evidence of cross-fertilization?

For me the merit of the book is that it at least raised all these questions, some of which would be resolved with further reading; in that sense the introduction did its job.

[Jody Mena]

A great introduction to Kabbalah. For one thing, it is, indeed, very short, which is good if you're looking for information but don't have a lot of extra time on your hands to mull over a mire of minutae. There was a good amount of general information without overmuch detail, just the right amount for an introduction - ideal for those who don't know what kabbalah is really all about and are just starting out learning about it.

It is a clear and concise account of the history and practices of the movement and gives a good account of how it ties into other, more mainstream and better understood religions of today. For one not intimately acquainted with much Jewish tradition and history and who's wondered about the recent kabbalah craze in Hollywood, it's a really good book for satisfying curiosity about the roots of the movement and what it was all about before it became a fashion statement.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely one of my favorite books on the subject. The research work is mesmerizing, pretty much al there's to know (on a general basis) is described from a very formal point of view. The citations are always on point and the explanations left me satisfied at every moment.

The sincere and direct speech of the author very valuable, as is his objectivity. His tone is solid and confident enough to be perceived wise and studied but not as super authoritative or rigid as some authors on the field may sound sometimes.

An easy, enjoyable and eye opening lecture for anyone interested in the topic.

[Rita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting book, but poorly written. It is a great introduction into Kabbalah. It's amazing that Kabbalahists believe that they can affect the future in the present. There are many ideas and beliefs mentioned in this book that I'd like to learn more about.

Overall, worth a read for a brief intro.

[BoBandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative, but rather academic for an introduction. Could have used a glossary for all the Hebrew words!

[Elena J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kabbalah: A Very Short Introduction by Joseph Dan is an erudite and clarifying exploration of one of the most complex and misunderstood traditions in Jewish mysticism. With the precision of a scholar and the accessibility of a teacher, Dan distills centuries of esoteric development from the early mystical circles of late antiquity to the flowering of Hasidism into a compact yet deeply insightful volume.

What makes this work stand out is its balance between history and interpretation. Rather than mystifying the Kabbalah or reducing it to pop-cultural spirituality, Dan situates it firmly within its intellectual, linguistic, and theological contexts, showing how mystical speculation, symbolic language, and biblical exegesis evolved into an intricate system of thought.

He engages not only with the foundational texts the Sefer Yetzira, Bahir, and Zohar but also with their reinterpretation by later figures such as Isaac Luria, offering readers a panoramic understanding of Kabbalistic symbolism and its enduring influence. The result is a book that illuminates both the depth and the diversity of Jewish mysticism, separating authentic tradition from modern myth.

For students of religion, comparative mysticism, or spiritual philosophy, Kabbalah: A Very Short Introduction provides a concise yet authoritative guide to one of humanity’s most profound explorations of divine mystery and meaning.

[Steve Wiggins · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Very Short Introduction series is always helpful in reaching your Goodread’s reading challenge goal with intelligent, informative books. “Kabbalah” has been a popular concept since about the 1970s. The understanding usually given—arcane mysticism with hints of Jewish magic—doesn’t approach any kind of grasp of its complexity. This brief book by Joseph Dan offers a great starting point.

I have studied religion through bachelors, masters, and doctoral programs. My focus has been Judaism-adjacent (typically material that influenced what became the Bible), but even so I know very little about Kabbalah. This book made me feel better about my lack of knowledge by pointing out that the term has several connotations. Not all of them are mystical or magical. And the “meaning” of the word is hardly fixed.

There’s no way, and the author says as much, to adequately explain the concept in less than 120 pages. There are several takeaways from this small book: the concept of Kabbalah is ancient and it’s not always magical or mystical. It continues to have several different usages today, but these tend toward the mystical aspects. I wrote a bit more about it here: Sects and Violence in the Ancient World.

[Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

While generally reliable, some of these short intros go above and beyond. For as thorny a topic as kabbalah, it is particularly important to be brief and exceptionally clear. Dan's work is precisely that. After some quick definitional and etymological work, he offers a succinct survey of the meanings of the term over time. He notes its origins in Jewish circles of Provence with the Book Bahir and then the Zohar. He usefully delineates the Christian offshoots originating in the circle of Marsilio Ficino and Pico in Renaissance Florence. Naturally, much of the work is concerned with Isaac Luria and developments in mainstream Lurianic kabbalah. There is brisk and clear summary of Sabbatian Messianism before an explanation of how kabbalah relates to modern Hasidism. Throughout, the writing is clear. There's a lot of emphasis on the scholarship of Gershom Scholem running through most of the chapters. If there is one beef here, it is that the copy editors at Oxford have done a particularly shoddy job of proofreading the text. 'sefirot' is sometimes rendered 'serifot', 'coarser' as 'courser', and a host of other minor misspellings abound. It's not merely below the standards of the series, it's just substandard period.

[Cosette · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book immensely. It's clear, engaging, and far more informative than its slim size suggests. Dan keeps Kabbalah firmly within its Jewish home, tracing its development and its shaping over the centuries by Jewish thinkers, texts, and communities. He acknowledges its later receptions—its integration into strands of Christian theology, its influence on European philosophy and science, and its appropriation by esoteric circles, theosophists, psychologists, occultists, and various New Age movements—but, true to the constraints of a 'very short introduction', he doesn't linger on how those crossings unfolded.

What you get is historical clarity and conceptual framing, not a how-to or a deep dive into technical symbolism and methods. You come away with a lucid map of the territory—the big ideas (the sefirot and the Tree of Life, mystical exegesis, the Zohar’s place) and the historical currents that carried them—without much granular detail. In that sense, I now understand Kabbalah in context far better, even if I don’t feel markedly more fluent in its inner grammar.

Kabbalah: A Very Short Introduction is excellent as a doorway into the subject for readers who want to grasp what Kabbalah is within Judaism before exploring wider adaptations.

[Viperr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, detailed historical compendium of the Kabbalistic sources. The transition from Lurianic to Sabbatian does seem to be a deviation, and the desire for the Messiah has led believers to ignore the truth of the matter and force a spiritual meaning to the apostasy of the false prophet - and Messianic fervor has been alive in the history of the Kabbalah until today, even though those even after the death of those leaders, believers still look forward to their reincarnation (and thus give an opportunity to any opportunist who claims to be a reincarnated person). And we can use this to compare and contrast the messianic fervor of other new religions and how it leads to disaster
Messianic fervor also seems to be seen as a kind of politicization of new religion, in which one can observe how the desire for spirituality is transformed into a dependence on power: a shift from self-salvation to dependence on external salvation. The ever-selling Messianic fervor is a true reflection of the weakness of the individual soul and the fear of its own responsibility.
The disadvantage of this book is that there is too little information about the New Age Movement

[Maxwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely more than I expected from something titled “short introduction,” though at the same time that’s exactly what this was. Despite clocking in at only 112 pages, this does indeed cover the entire scope of kabbalah throughout history with surprising detail, approaching all stages of the topic’s “life” with fair-handed academic rigour.
Would-be readers should be warned: despite being an introduction this is not for just anyone; the depth and complexities of kabbalah are such that even a brief intro like this does demand that the reader have a fair grasp on many Judaic terms and concepts, a good understanding of Jewish history, and some familairity with kabbalah itself which can then be built upon and refined by this book. By no means do you need to be an expert in any of these, but if terms like mitzvot and even kabbalah are completely foreign to you, come back to this one later.

[Ella · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was useful, if slightly incoherent. I also get the feeling that although this is presented as an authoritative intro, there’s a lot of the author confidently asserting his view as the correct majority view, and I’m wondering if there’s some more recent scholarship I might find more useful. (Also, I take issue with his very Jamesian definition of mysticism, and the ways in which he uses this to preclude kabbalah from itself being a mystic discipline. There’s a lot in current (Christian) mysticism studies on mysticism as exegesis, as opposed to a purely experiential spiritual approach, for example, and I feel like that fits in with the exegetical tendencies of kabbalah explored here).

[John Ledingham · Rating 4 out of 5]

cool stuff... love this kind of cosmological esoterica. just reading the word "godhead" sends a nice current to my brain. also fuck yes that Exodia explanation of god's body in sefirots. sort of wish the author was a bit less scientific and a bit more off his rocker absorbed in this shit but it was a pretty good textual history and overview admitting the vairous and often contradictory meanings of khabbala. reading in conjunction with elaine pagels' gnostic gospels proved pretty cool - a lot of overlap by both influence and analogy.

[Benjamin Fasching-Gray · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a scholarly work that answers the question “what do people mean when they say ‘kabbalah’?” It follows some mystical traditions in Judaism and the broader European environment from the Middle Ages to the present but doesn’t get into detailed discussions of each sefirah or other kabbala concepts. Like other books in this series, it is a good introduction to the topic and is helpful in framing the consensus on stuff like who wrote what and when.

[Grant Hartley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this book would satisfy my curiosity for a niche topic, and so I was pleasantly surprised to discover how much I learned about Judaism as a whole. It is an impossible task, to summarize this Jewish mystical tradition in around a hundred pages, but the author did well at giving a broad overview and pulling a few interesting examples to keep my attention. Very readable; I finished it in three days. Also good at pointing to other resources and putting them in context!

[Unpil · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an outstanding introduction to the various forms of Kabbalah, starting from its genesis to the modern Hasidic and Lithuanian movements. It cleared a lot of the mysterious aura that surrounded my scant understanding of Jewish mysticism. Recommended for anyone interested in the Jewish traditions and how it came to be.