Book of Letters

“The Book of Letters by Rabbi Kushner is a book which is in love with Jewish letters. It gives us a feeling which the Kabbalists always knew-that the letters of the alphabet are not just letters but symbols of our history, of our philosophy, and of the life of the Jewish people. In this respect this book is unique.” -Isaac Bashevis Singer

Book of Words

“According to the Hebrew Bible, G-d made the world with words. G-d just spoke and the world became reality. (The Aramaic for ‘I create as I speak’ is avara k’davara, or in magician’s language, abracadabra.)…. This does not protect words from the numbing effects of overuse in any religious tradition….We need to dust off the words, shake away the accretions, wonder again about what they originally might have meant and enable ourselves to live in the word.” - from the introduction

Building Blocks of the Soul

In this intensive study of Hebrew letters and words, Rabbi Matityahu Glazerson uses gematria (interpretive Jewish numerology) to reveal the mysterious correlation between numeric values of the Hebrew words which name and describe them. This profound and lucid exploration uncovers the deep spiritual resonance of Jewish thought, and explains a variety of theological issues using the ancient Hebrew language as a key to understanding.

Rabbi Glazerson compares the Hebrew letter to the atom - just as the atom is the basic module of physical life, so the Hebrew letter is the basic component that contains the essence of Jewish spiritual life. Hence, Jews have used gematria for centuries to understand spiritual and moral teachings embedded in the Hebrew language.

Filling Words with Light: Hasidic and Mystical Perspectives

Jewish mystics teach that every word a person utters in prayer should radiate light. Even the letters of the words of prayer carry sparks of the Divine that yearn to join together in holiness.

In this inspiring spiritual companion, Reform rabbi Lawrence Kushner and Orthodox rabbi Nehemia Polen join together to provide a window into the liturgy for people of all backgrounds by offering fresh insights and meditations that bring the traditional prayerbook to life. Drawing from the Torah, Zohar, and ancient and contemporary Hasidic masters, Kushner and Polen reflect on the joy, gratitude, compassion, mystery, and awe embedded in traditional prayers and blessings, and show how you can imbue these familiar sacred words with your own sense of holiness.
Insightful, fresh, and wise, Filling Words with Light will enrich your understanding of the prayer book and guide you on how to put more of yourself into the holy words of the Jewish tradition.

Letters of Fire

This intriguing study explores the wondrous world of hidden meanings in the letters and words of the Sacred Tongue. The "fire" which burns in these ancient letters is the Divine creative force through which Hashem reveals Himself to man.

Rabbi Glazerson opens a window on this realm of splendor where even the very form of each letter has profound significance. The relationships between the letters, their sequence, the Kabbalistic concepts inherent in various words and phrases, are all examined and elucidated here.

Drawing on the fundamental precepts of the Holy Torah and on the wellsprings of the Sages' teachings throughout the ages, the author presents a scholarly, yet popular work filled with precious pearls from this treasure-trove of mystical insight.(278 Pages)

Oracle of Kabbalah

The Hebrew word for letter, ot, also means sign or wonder or miracle. For thousands of years, Jewish sages have taught that the letters of the Hebrew Alphabet, the Aleph Beit, embody wonderful and miraculous powers.

According to the earliest known book on Jewish mysticism, The Sefer Yetzirah (The Book of Creation), written more than fifteen centuries ago, God formed the entire universe through speaking aloud the twenty-two letters. Out of the nothingness of silence, with the vibration of God's cosmic utterances, all things spring to life. "God said, 'Let there be light.' And there was light."

The letters of the Aleph Beit, as the manifestations of God's speech, are therefore the energetic and vibrational building blocks of creation. They are analogous to physical elements. Just as, for example, an atom of oxygen gas unites with two atoms of hydrogen gas to form a molecule of water, so does one letter combine with another to create new entities. Rabbi Marcia Prager writes, "This perception of Hebrew words and letters as the constituent spiritual elements of existence undergirds most Jewish mystical teaching."

In the form of a book and card set, The Oracle of Kabbalah explores the ancient teachings regarding the Hebrew letters and how these teachings can be made practical in our contemporary lives.

Using The Oracle of Kabbalah
To use this book as a means of divination, become quiet for a few minutes and enter into a receptive, meditative attitude. Take three slow, deep breaths from the belly. Formulate a question for which you seek the guidance of the Hebrew letters. Avoid "yes" or "no" questions. A good generic question is, "What perspective on this matter would help me proceed in the best way?" Pray for inspiration and receptivity.

Then, keeping your question in mind, shuffle the cards and spread them out face down on a table or in your hand. Select a card, and discover what sign is revealed to you. Look up the description of that letter in the text and see how the ideas there correspond with or illumine your situation or question. Meditate upon the letter's associations and also the emotional tone it evokes within you. Be receptive to any glimmers of intuition that may arise.

The thirteenth century mystic, Abraham Abulafia, advised students to concentrate on the letters "in all their aspects, like a person who is told a parable, or a riddle, or a dream, or as one who ponders a book of wisdom in a subject so profound...." Ponder the answer to your question as you would a riddle or a dream.

In your imagination, become the letter. You are not just someone who "chose, for example, the letter Dalet, which means "door," you are the door itself, opening up. You are not just a human who happened to pick Gimmel, the symbol of the camel, you are the camel, making your way steadily through a desert. You are not just a person who is reading about Nun, the energy of "fish," you are the fish itself, swimming through the ever-changing waters of life. Experience the cards in this way and they will speak to you more intimately. As Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel has written, "The ultimate way is not to have a symbol but to be a symbol, to stand for the divine."

Another way to use the cards is to select one and then meditate upon it, carefully tracing its shape in your mind's eye and seeing what thoughts, images, feelings, or inspirations come. Jewish mystics describe the black letters on the white page of the Torah as "black fire on white fire." Visualize the letters in this fiery way and they come to life with vibrant energy. After doing this, you may choose to refer to the text to see how the ideas there correspond with your own discoveries, or you may simply be content with the fruits of your own meditation.

Early Kabbalist practitioners reported that after periods of meditating upon the alphabet, the letters came to life and began talking. Others said they saw the letters grow wings and fly from the surface of the page. Even if your experience is less dramatic, perhaps the letters will speak quietly to you.

Seek My Face

The new Jewish spirituality lies somewhere between God’s elusive presence in our world and our search for authentic language to describe it.
Personal journeys seldom have a clear beginning, and they rarely have a definite end. If there is an end to our journey, surely it is one that leads to some measure of wisdom, and thence back to its own beginning. But somewhere along the way, we come to realize that we must know where we have been going, why we have been going. Most of all, we come to understand as best we can the One who sends us on our way.
—from the Introduction
Rabbi Arthur Green leads us on a journey of discovery to seek God, the world, and ourselves. One of the most influential Jewish thinkers of our time, Green has created a roadmap of meaning for our lives in the light of Jewish mysticism, using the Hebrew letters that make up the divine name:
Yod— Reality at the beginning. God as the oneness of being at the outset, before it unfolds into our universe.
Heh— Creation and God’s presence in the world. A renewed faith in God as Creator has powerful implications for us today.
Vav— Revelation, the central faith claim of Judaism and the claim it makes on our lives.
Heh— Redemption and our return to God through the life of Torah and by participating in the ongoing repair of the world.
A personal and honest framework of understanding for the seeker, this revised and updated edition of a classic sheds new light on our search for the divine presence in our everyday lives.

The Hebrew Alphabet: A Mystical Journey

Judaism has always regarded Hebrew as a sacred language, the medium of divine communication. And its letters are no ordinary forms. The very word for letter, or, means sign or wonder. The Hebrew Alphabet: A Mystical Journey reveals the spirituality and power of all 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, from aleph, which signifies creative energy, to tar, symbolizing wholeness and joy. Each concise, historical, and poetic letter profile, written by Judaica scholar Edward Hoffman, is accompanied by a lustrous illustration wrought in hues of olive, blue, and silver. An exquisite gift and introduction to a beautiful spiritual practice, this insightful meditation delves into the rich mystical heritage of the letters, offering a modern link to ancient times, when contemplating the Hebrew alphabet could enlighten the inmost soul.

The Hebrew Letters: Channels of Creative Consciousness

The Hebrew alef-beit (alphabet), despite its apparent simplicity, contains within it the deepest secrets of Creation. In the present book, Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh unveils before the modern English reader some of the infinite dimensions hidden beneath the surface of the holy letters.

The Kabbalistic classic Sefer Yetzirah (Book of Formation) teaches that creative consciousness exists in three states (space, time, and soul), which are reflected in the form, name and numerical value of each letter. Rabbi Yisrael Ba'al Shem Tov (founder of the Chassidic movement) taught that each letter also exists in each of the three dimensions of Worlds, Souls, and Divinity.

Through Rabbi Ginsburgh's treatment, based on these teachings, the alef-beit emerges from this work as the key to opening up the entire panorama of Jewish spirituality.

The Wisdom in the Hebrew Alphabet

From the very first Kabbalistic work, through the Talmud, through an impressive array of rabbinic literature, great minds have found the Aleph-Beis to be a gold mine of wisdom and guidance. This fascinating best-seller weaves these golden threads into a glorious tapestry, presenting hundreds of ideas and comments on the Aleph-Beis, including: the Aleph-Beis as the force of Creation, as a primer for Jewish living, and as a fountainhead of Torah insight and mystical meaning. The product of decades of learning, thinking, and teaching by the revered educator, lecturer, and community activist Rabbi Michael L. Munk. A treat not to be missed.