The Book of Letters: A Mystical Hebrew Alphabet - Hardcover

Kushner, Lawrence

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 187904501X ISBN 13: 9781879045019

Publisher: Jewish Lights Pub, 1994

Synopsis

Rare Book

About this title

Review:

The Book of Letters: A Mystical Alef-Bait is written in English, but the format is classically Talmudic. The book opens from right to left, ending on the page where most readers are accustomed to beginning. Lawrence Kushner, a Massachusetts rabbi whose writings have helped restore a mystical dimension to popular Judaism in America, wrote The Book of Letters in beautiful calligraphy that is reproduced on every page of this finely bound edition. The text does not so much analyze or explain the letters of the Hebrew alphabet as play with them, teasing their forms and functions for hints of their significance. Noting that aleph, the unpronounceable first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, is also the first letter of the names of the first man (Adam), the first Jew (Abraham), and the herald of the last man (Elijah), as well as the first letter of the first commandment, Kushner notes that "The most basic words there are begin with the most primal sound there is." The Book of Letters is full of seriously playful insights like this. It's a marvelous guide to meditation, a primer for students of Hebrew calligraphy, and a fun introduction to learning Hebrew. --Michael Joseph Gross

From the Back Cover:

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

About this edition

• Publisher: Jewish Lights Pub
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 187904501X
• ISBN 13: 9781879045019
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 80