Word: judaisms
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...theology is wilder still--nothing less than the division of God's personality, which Judaism had always seen as a unity, into 10 interacting emanations, two of them female. One of these, the Shekhinah, was the Zohar's obsession, the portal through which it pulled believers willy-nilly into the divine drama. Only their prayer and good deeds could save her from hordes of demons and effect her mystic marriage to God's male aspect, a reunion described in sometimes erotic detail. "Without arousal below," de Leon noted, "there is no arousal above...
Remarkably, his book caught on. By 1600 the Jewish world saw the Zohar as its third holiest text, preceded only by the Bible and the Talmud. Cabalistic study and meditation flourished, and zoharic principles formed the basis of Hasidic Judaism. The Zohar's use faded as Judaism absorbed the just-the-facts influence of the European Enlightenment, but it left behind dramatic mementos such as the Bar Mitzvah coming-of-age celebration and the gorgeous Friday-evening song welcoming God's "Sabbath bride." The Zohar also informs the current Cabalistic resurgence, so fascinating to Jews and spiritual adventurers like Madonna...
...time that he will regret. "When I wake up, it's all I want to do," he says. "I feel like I'm inside De Leon's mind now. I know the tricks he's up to. And he's a genius. This is the most astounding book in Judaism." It is a judgment his own work makes even clearer...
...most difficult way to be popular is to tell people what they can eat. When Christians retooled Judaism, they didn't excise the Old Testament rules on adultery or idolizing graven images; they started drawing up plans for Tony Roma's and Red Lobsters. Martin Luther could have saved himself 94 theses just by posting one about getting rid of fish on Friday. The Scientology Celebrity Center in Hollywood has a Sunday brunch buffet you would not believe...
Oppenheimer’s journey concludes at Temple Sinai in Lake Charles, Louisiana, where his grandmother grew up. There, Oppenheimer witnesses the b’nai mitzvah of two adults, Jacob and Rena, who have converted to Judaism. Oppenheimer is puzzled by the survival of Judaism in Lake Charles, “the kind of town where Judaism lives but where Jewish rituals...