Inner Space: Introduction to Kabbalah, Meditation and Prophecy

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Summary: Review of Inner Space b y Aryeh Kaplan
Review: Inner Space was based on a series of classes that Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan gave to a small group of students in Brooklyn in 198l. To delve into the spiritual dimension is not an easy one, but for Kaplan he was one of the most gifted and knowledgable men to address Jewish mysticism. This is a rather pop subject having been made so by Madonna and friends. Many such books can be found dotted within the Judaica section of bookstores, but as indicated above few are written by such a gifted author.The amount of misinformation is staggering according to the author and he wanted to give the reader a view of the hidden worlds and how they relate to us in human experience. Although the topics of the various universes, Sefirot, meditation and prophecy are difficult to grasp, few people in recent times could explain them better than Rabbi Kaplan. While alive he wrote some forty books, all of them exceedingly popular for those of us who look for authentic Kabbalah. This is one book that should definitely be purchased by the serious student of Jewish mysticism.

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Summary: A wise guide to an incomprehensible subject
Review: One should study Kabbalah according to the classical sources only when one has already learned Torah and Mishnah and Gemarah and reached the age of forty. I once learned with a great Talmid Chacham who whenever he was asked about the Kabbalah would say that he had never studied it, and therefore could not answer. This is all to differentiate the traditional Jewish reservation before the study of Kabbalah and the wave of popular Kabbalah study which seems to involve many other kinds of things.
Aryeh Kaplan was a great teacher who had a masterful ability to understand and make clear very difficult concepts. In this work he introduces the reader to the Kabbalah to the Sefirot, and then in the second section of the work writes of another difficult subject Meditation and Prophecy. Kaplan's great learning is evident throughout the work and it is highly readable, a great introduction to a most difficult subject matter. I myself however did not feel I was really in the reading mastering the material properly. But then I am not so high in the world of learning, and am not the best example.