Pillar of Prayer

Rabbi Dr. Aubrey L. Glazer
Rabbi Dr. Menachem Kallus

$28.95

Out of stock

Teachings of Contemplative Guidance in Prayer, Sacred Study, and the Spiritual Life from the Ba’al Shem Tov and his Circle

The Pillar of Prayer is the long-awaited translation of the Baal Shem Tov’s seminal collection of teachings on prayer in early Hasidism. Menachem Kallus’s felicitous translation and extensive notes and annotations make this important work available to a general audience for the first time.

Categories: ,

  • 9781891785795
  • 275

Product Description

The spiritual involution that swept through Eastern Europe in the eighteenth century continues to resonate for spiritual seekers today.
While we continue to search for the vessels to contain the overflowing light of its illumination, the mystic, Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer (1700-1760), known as the Master of the Good Name or the Baal Shem Tov [BESHT] revealed profound teachings of great insight that continue delineating the foundations of Jewish contemplative spiritual practice.
In his thirty-sixth year, while residing in Miedzyboz, Podolia, the BESHT revealed these perennial teachings of contemplative guidance in Prayer, Sacred Study, and the Spiritual Life.
What remains to be rediscovered is a remarkable journey into the mystical foundation of Jewish prayer life including: The Union of Worlds, Souls and Divinity in Prayer, Study, and Speech; Preparation for Prayer and Entering into Contemplation; Constricted Consciousness and Actualizing Genuine Presence; Lurianic Transformations and Simple Transformations; Preaching Reproof and Prayer; Prayer With Lurianic Kavvanot, and Identifying the Mystical in Kabbalah; Sincere Prayer – The Union of Speech and Thought; Distracting Thought and Thought Transformation; Teachings on Sincerity, Spontaneity, and Volition; Prayer for the Shekhinah and Prayer for one’s Enemies; God’s Will and Knowledge; Messianic Prayer, and Creative Union.

No adept will be the same after traversing the garden of these mystical delights.
The Pillar of Prayer: Guidance in Contemplative Prayer, Sacred Study, and the Spiritual Life from the Baal Shem Tov and his Circle is the largest organized collection of spiritual guidance on Jewish meditative-prayer and the contemplative lifestyle from the earliest and most creative period of Hasidic Mysticism.

In addition to furnishing the reader with more than double the material ever assembled on this subject in previous Hebrew-language collections, this accessible, bilingual volume provides original translations and commentaries that make its unique treasures intelligible to scholar and seeker alike.

Reviews

The Pillar of Prayer is the long-awaited translation of the Baal Shem Tov’s seminal collection of teachings on prayer in early Hasidism. Menachem Kallus’s felicitous translation and extensive notes and annotations make this important work available to a general audience for the first time. In addition to the translation, Kallus’ critical apparatus makes The Pillar of Prayer a significant contribution to the broader study of Hasidism in the academy. The work is introduced by a lucid and valuable assessment of Hasidism by Miles Krassen. Aubrey Glazer’s Spiritual Affinity situates this early classic in the context of the Ottoman Empire and Turkish- Sufism and offers insightful suggestions as to the symmetry between early Hasidic and Turkish-Sufi spirituality that flourished in close proximity in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This book will expose readers to the complex and passionate world of Hasidim in comparative context like few others.
— Shaul Magid, Jay and Jeannie Schottenstein Professor of Modern Judaism, Indiana University/Bloomington
Kallus, whose previous research on the theurgy of prayer in Lurianic Kabbalah has made him the most appropriate scholar for this task, has achieved a vibrant, insightful, and deeply spiritual rendition of this classic text. His detailed annotations, adduced from Kabbalistic and early Hasidic teachings, richly contextualize issues involving mystical union (debequt), Zoharic-Lurianic unification practice (yihud), cosmic reparation (tiqqun), and personal spiritual development. In launching this Spiritual Affinities Series, Glazer initiates a convergent dialogue between devotional traditions, expanding the reach of these mystical concepts.
— Paul Fenton, Professor of Oriental Studies, Sorbonne, Paris