The Bahir
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Book Summary Information
Translator: Aryeh KaplanEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1989-04-01
ISBN: 0877286183
Number of pages: 269
Publisher: Weiser Books
Book Reviews of The Bahir
Book Review: A Concise Breakdown of Kabbalistic Translation From Hebrew
Summary: 4 Stars
After researching and studying Kabbalah for over 20 years, I found this book to contain detailed technical translations of Jewish Mysticism so often unavailable to a beginning student of Hebrew. After studying 12 languages, actually 13 including Hebrew now, I found detailed alphabetical descriptions and related materials to be a great primer for the Hebrew language, especially in relation to Jewish Kabbalistic interpretation of its relativity to this religion. I absolutely recommend this book to anyone who wants to study this language, although there are relatively little provisions for syntax, linguistic descriptions, etc. other than a detailed descriptions of letters relating to interpretations.
I still recommend Gershom Sholem's translation for the beginner Kabbalah student, although one should really wait (as recommended by the sages) until at least their 35th birthday! It can get very depressing and mess with your heart, mind and soul, if you are not already prepared for the depth of Kabbalah study in general!
The Bahir is very unique from previous Kabbalistic works that I have studied in the past, including the Sefer Yetzirah, the Zohar, etc. I had studied these for quite some time before indulging in the study of the Bahir, and I am very glad I did, because I would probably be very lost in some of the interpretations and relative inferences to what I had previously studied.
In relation to previous studies, the Bahir is EXTREMELY detailed and technical in orientation and provides a deeper understanding of the values of Hebrew letters in relation to their "relative mystical meanings", especially in relation the the 10 Seiferot and their mystical significance.
Aside from a few English typos, I found the book to be quiet professional in addressing details about interpretations of Kabbalistic mysticism. For a gentile lacking general knowledge of many aspects of the Jewish language, religion and culture, except for a few friends in Malibu that probably have never heard of this book, or if so, probably are barely aware of its contents, just as I am pretty unfamiliar with my Catholic religious heritage...(I flunked freshman religion at my Catholic high school!) I really learned more about the "Christian" old testament through studying the Jewish religion(s)and Kabbalah, as I found mysticism to be more intersting and closer to truth than mainstream "religions".
Kaplan provides exceptional translations of this work, however I have nothing with which to compare this work, as this was my first Bahir experience. I found several of the other reviews here to be quite helpful and accurate in representing the significance of this work and translation, also contributing to my selection of this work by this specific author/translator. He does give a very detailed historical representation of progression of Kabbalah in general in the introduction.
My primary interest in this book was the "technical interpretations" of more detailed aspects of mystical interpretation of the Sefer Yetzirah, the ten Seiferot, etc.
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