Physician of the Soul, Healer of the Cosmos: Isaac Luria and his Kabbalistic Fellowship
“...among the finest works of recent Judaic scholarship.”—The Forward\ “We come away from this book awed by Fine’s scholarship, and with a better understanding of how Rabbi Isaac Luria, who wanted his writings to be concealed after his death, nevertheless produced ideas so powerful that they transformed the nature of Judaism for centuries.”—San Diego Jewish Journal
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This is a study of Isaac Luria (1534-72), one of the most remarkable and influential figures of late-medieval and early-modern Jewish mysticism. It looks primarily at Luria as a real historical figure, in the context of his relationship with his circle of disciples in the Galilean city of Safed, the great center of kabbalistic thought and teaching. Boston Herald (A) gripping journey from self-consciousness to self-discovery...(Readers will) close the book with a new ear attuned to the world.
AcknowledgmentsNote to ReadersAbbreviationsIntroduction: Embodying the Study of Lurianic Kabbalah11Rabbinical Scholar, Spice Dealer, Contemplative Ascetic: Luria's Life in Egypt192Lamenting Exile, Striving for Redemption: Pre-Lurianic Safed413Saintliness, Heavenly Communication, and the Divinatory Arts: Luria's Charismatic Religious Authority784Lurianic Myth1245Physician of the Soul1506Tiqqun: Healing the Cosmos Through the Performance of Mitsvot1877Tiqqun: Healing the Cosmos Through Devotional Prayer2208Communing with the "Very Special Dead": The Practice of Yihudim2599Metempsychosis, Mystical Fellowship, and Messianic Redemption300Notes361Select Bibliography445Index469
\ Ship Sooner explores the pain-drenched life of an emotionally fragile family...compelling.\ \ \ \ \ Allan Nadler...a stunning new biography of the 16th-century kabbalist of the Galilee... Lawrence Fine's new book, Physician of the Soul, Healer of the Cosmos: Isaac Luria and His Kabbalistic Fellowship, will dramatically change all that. Anyone genuinely interested in understanding Lurianic teachings and subsequent developments in Jewish mysticism must now take this book into account, as it richly provides the missing historical and biographical data sorely needed to contextualize Luria's esoteric teachings.\ —Haaretz\ \ \ Boston Herald(A) gripping journey from self-consciousness to self-discovery...(Readers will) close the book with a new ear attuned to the world.\ \
