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

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic!! What a book!
Review: The author does a wonderful job of presenting the Kabbalah. His presentation is superb. He includes very enlightening stories to teach the us the meaning of life and what God really is. I have read this book more than once and each time it was just as exciting as the first.
I would also recommend Rabbi Cooper's audio set on the Kabbalah. Rabbi Cooper is a master teacher/

Rating:
Summary: This is a great book.
Review: This book may be read and appreciated by anyone interested in the subject. It is of particular use, though, and interest to Jewish people interested in the religion of their forbears who find that there is nothing at all spiritual in most modern Jewish practice. I found that this book really delivered on this front. Reb Cooper draws excellent analogies to mystical Eastern traditions with which he is very familiar as well as mystical Islam (sufism) and Christianity (also called Cabbalah). Along the same lines, "The Jew and the Lotus" also gives a good glimpse of more spiritual aspects of Judaism with which most modern Jews (like me) are, unfortunately, wholly unfamiliar. I so enjoyed this book that I bought an older series of tapes with meditations by Reb Cooper. The tapes were not half as enjoyable to me as this book (and much of the material was repetitive of the book). I recommend this book to anyone looking for more/some "spirituality" in Judaism. It will not disappoint. Reb Cooper's Hasidic tales are enjoyable for their own sake and add greatly to the book's great readability.

Rating:
Summary: Fine Book
Review: This is a very well written book on Kabbalah, including some stories, exercises, etc. for the aspiring student practitioner. It well-illustrates that Judaism had and still has a mystical core. He included a wondrous quote I've added to my collection, on page 217, "Inner silence means having the ability to perceive the feathers weight of the subtlest thoughts that can arise in the mind." I'd recommend a more basic book first (perhaps Halevi's "Introduction to Cabala" (sic), then this one, then onto Halevi's "Kabbalah and Exodus," Kaplan's three meditation books ("Meditation and the Bible," "Meditation and Kabbalah," and lastly, "Jewish Meditation" for more experiential work and Gershom Scholem's many works (especially, "Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism"). After these one might tackle Kaplan's commentaries on the Book Bahir and Sefer Yetzirah. Finally, (after absorbing all of the above) you might tackle the Simon & Sperling translation (2000 pages in 5 volumes) of the Zohar. Have fun.

Rating:
Summary: A terrific book!
Review: This is a wonderful book! I have read it and re-read it and will continue to do so. Thank you Rabi Cooper.