Showing results for "Sacred Texts" in Judaism

In this iconoclastic and provocative work, leading scholars Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman draw on recent archaeological research to present a dramatically revised portrait of ancient Israel and its neighbors. They argue that crucial evidence (or a telling lack of evidence) at digs in Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon suggests that many of the most famous stories in the Bible - the wanderings of the patriarchs, the Exodus from Egypt, Joshua’s conquest of Canaan, and David and Solomon’s vast empire - reflect the world of the later authors.

Guarded for centuries, its secrets once passed by word of mouth only, the Kabbalah remains one of our oldest mystical paths for union with the divine. What is the Kabbalah, and why are its teachings so treasured by those who know them? On The Beginner's Guide to the Kabbalah, you will join Rabbi David Cooper for an uplifting introduction to this living cornerstone of Judaism's esoteric tradition.

The success of books such as Elaine Pagels's Gnostic Gospels and Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code proves beyond a doubt that there is a tremendous thirst today for finding the hidden truths of Christianity - truths that may have been lost or buried by institutional religion over the last two millennia. In Forbidden Faith, Richard Smoley narrates a popular history of one such truth, the ancient esoteric religion of gnosticism, which flourished between the first and fourth centuries AD, but whose legacy remains even today, having survived secretly throughout the ages.

The co-editors of Gnosis magazine explore the many esoteric traditions that Western culture has to offer. While terms from Eastern spiritual practices such as Zen, mantra, and karma have become part of our daily lexicon, the traditions of Western spirituality have been largely unexplored by people searching for non-mainstream routes to spiritual experience. But for those who identify with Western culture, Western religious traditions have their own wisdom teachings that are more suitable to their needs and expectations.

When the prophet Ezekiel described his great vision of a holy chariot flashing like lightning, with eyes all around, he bequeathed to us a mystical tradition that has endured 2,500 years. For Judaism's first mystics, this chariot was a vehicle leading to the Upper Worlds and the Throne of God, states of supreme awareness that unify all of creation with the divine. Now this original system for reaching beyond the heavens is fully revealed on Rabbi David A. Cooper's Seeing Through the Eyes of God.