Avinoam J. Stillman

Jul 15, 2024 | jewishreviewofbooks.com | Eli Rubin |Akiva Schick |Avinoam J. Stillman |Abraham Socher

University of Pennsylvania Press 424 pp., $64.95 Kabbalistic literature presents its teachings as simultaneously original and ancient—milin hadatin atikin, in the Zohar’s memorable idiom. Those who embrace Kabbalah often do so in the belief that all contemporary mysteries and problems can be resolved, or at least understood, through the ancient wisdom it conveys.

Apr 17, 2023 | jewishreviewofbooks.com | Kate Elinsky |Shai Secunda |Avinoam J. Stillman

The Kabbalistic Tree Penn State University Press 456 pp., $99.95 Nothing sounds more idolatrous than drawing God. The God of the Jews has long been said to transcend and despise images. Despite all this, J. H. Chajes’s remarkable new book unveils not just a few stray Jewish visualizations of God but a veritable genre devoted to mapping and diagramming divinity.