Kabbalah

I really don't know why this book is recommended. The first part is just his interpretation of comparative religion and Jewish identity. This book feels more like a historigraphical study than one on the kabbalah.

That’s the catch-22 of Religious Studies. If you want to be taken seriously in the field you can never treat religion as though it is objective or true, yet you can never deny it being true either. The only workaround is to do what Scholem does and present multiple interpretations. However, there is some good stuff regardless, it explains what the concept of Shekhina and Malkuth are, the possibly metamorphic nature of the Torah, Adam as God, the sexuality of God, the traumatic change from Ayn Sof to Yahweh. I still think it’s a better first step than occultist writers who will try to sell one version of the Kabbalah as if it’s the definitive interpretation.

Zohar, good luck if you don't know hebrew, massive pleb filter.

There was an user a month or so ago, who seemed fairly knowledgeable on the subject and said Aryeh Kaplan is the best and doesn't add any Hermetic or occultist bullshit either.

Kabbalah is a medieval fabrication inspired by "neo"Platonism, nothing about it is ancient or special.

Attached: ea4d840fe78860fed2112f87a603db61--ancient-greek-greece.jpg (544x715, 46K)

why would you waste your time on this meme. Just read about real judaism, it's more interesting

The fucking boy. Scholem-Benjamin gang for life

>Putting Crowley with gnostic books

Cringe

What are some good starting points? I thought it would be good to start here since I know some things about the Kabbalah and understanding it further would be an alright stepping stone for reading more stuff like it.

Orphic Poems
Golden Sayings of Phytagoras
Timaeus
Chaldean Oracles
Iamblichus' On the mysteries
The Theology of Arithmetic
The Elements of Theology

I guess I would start from the Talmud and get into Rabbinic commentary.

jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/FullTalmud.pdf

There's a reason rabbis are stereotyped as deeply introspective, pondersome men. Lots of wisdom in this work. Also some stuff about how Christians suck

Alternatively, if you don't want to slog through the Talmud and look for things that interest you, you can look at the decisions of modern day rabbinic authorities on contemporary issues. I think it's pretty neat

Check out reb Feinstein's rulings on some major 20th century topics

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moshe_Feinstein#Notable_decisions

>gatekeeping is cringe
Tumblr exodus

Talmud is not Kabbalah; there's only a few oblique references to studying the Chariot
Check out David Chaim Smith for an interesting take on the subject
Also, see this article for more explicit information on Jewish Tantra: esoteric.msu.edu/VolumeII/Blake.html

More specifically, there is a thread of ancient wisdom running from Plato and Philo through to the Gnostics and Kabbalists. It is absurd that Jews would appropriate the ideas of a Christian heresy, so it must be that it represents authentic Tradition. Harmonize and synthesize.

>it is absurd that Jews would X
doesn't sound absurd at all

Evangelion

>Umberto Eco
This board man wtf

try asking in the occultism and magic general on /x/

why is Joyce on that list?