God Is a Verb: Kabbalah and the Practice of Mystical Judaism

by David A. Cooper

Hardcover, 1997

Status

Checked out

Call number

283 COO

Genres

Religion & Spirituality

Collections

ADULT COLLECTION, 27X Movements_in_Judaism (incl. Mysticism), 283 Mysticism

Publication

Riverhead (1997), Edition: 1st, Hardcover, 333 pages

Description

Since medieval times, the mystical tradition of Kabbalah was restricted to qualified men over forty--because it was believed that only the most mature and pious could grasp its complexity and profound, life-changing implications. More recently, Kabbalah nearly disappeared--as most of its practitioners perished in the Holocaust. In the national bestseller God Is a Verb, this powerful spiritual tradition, after centuries of secrecy and near-extinction, is explained clearly by one of its most prominent teachers. Who are we? Where did we come from? Where are we going? How do we get there? These questions have fueled Kabbalists for nearly a millennium. Rabbi David A. Cooper is the first to bring this obscure and difficult tradition to a mainstream audience in a way that gently leads us to the heart of the subject, showing us how to transform profound teachings into a meaningful personal experience--and appreciate fully this great mystical process we know as God.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member medievalmama

Having started my kabbalah training with a Rabbi, this was an interesting followup 30+ years later. While I was writing a book on psychological applications of mystical kabbalah on spec (never published) Rabbi Cooper was putting together this very different version of kabbalah.
Cooper begins with a

20 page introduction plus preface, author's note, and acknowledgments, and then divides his text into four main sections: The Past -- Ma'Asey Bereshit; the Present --Olam Ha-Zeh; the future (entitled Higher Awareness -- Ma'Asey Merkevah); and Beyond This Life -- Olam Ha-Bah. He ends with 20 pages of notes that include all his sources and an index. I wish he had separated notes from a Work Cited or a more extensive Bibliography, but he did not.
At the end of Part II, Cooper offers a series of meditations on the angels and archangels, including attempts to invoke one or more of them. In Part III, Cooper offers more practical everyday practices to advance on what he refers to as the 12 Paths -- paths of learning, respect, generosity, lovingkindness, moderation, purity, joy, selflessness, awe, equanimity, extraordinary mind states, and life eternal, which he also calls God Consciousness.
I've come back to this book several times trying to decide how to rate it. He is a compelling author. Some of his suggestions, such as invoking angels into one's consciousness, I would consider with a great deal of caution.

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LibraryThing member millsge

A good introduction to something as intensely complicated as anything. Some will find it overly simplified, some might find it patronizing, but the majoriity of those who are sufficiently blessed to have found the work will be very much better from having read it.

LibraryThing member melsmarsh

Well this seems to be a very common book to cite in the other kabbalah books. There are a ton of meditations that I have seen repeated in others. I just don't have the time to do all of these, but they are all very good!

LibraryThing member jsabrina

This is an excellent book for anyone who is open to the mystical Wisdom Tradition in any of its forms. It provides a coherent spiritual cosmology and ethical framework which I think makes sense even outside of its Jewish roots. Kabbala 'opens up' monotheism and allows for a discussion of good and

evil, suffering, justice, death and beyond in a much more satisfying way than mainstream Christian theology. (I don't know much about mainstream Judaic teaching, so I can't comment on that.)

Rabbi Cooper is scholarly but approachable, both mystical and practical, serious and lighthearted. He shares enough stories about his personal life to make it clear that he truly does live according to these teachings, but it never becomes a "me-me-me" book.

Update: February 3, 2015
Now reading for the second time (in as many years), as part of a "spiritual book club" I started with my daughter.

Update: May 17, 2015
Just as good this time around. Truly, this is a book to buy, read, and re-read.

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