The Bahir: Illumination

The best edition

Of course, the text of the Bahir itself is not the work of Rabbi Kaplan, but more than half of this book consists of his analyses of the text and guide notes thereon. After reading the introduction I found myself actually reading a large portion of the commentary before realising that I had barely touched upon the text itself. The text is a beautiful treat of esoteric writing which would be understood by very few, the commentary itself attempts to elucidate this cryptic writing and for the most seems perfectly on point. It would be best read as intended, to take in the text on its own and see what can be understood through exploring the writing in a meditative state, The commentary can almost be read as a book in itself if you already have a form of understanding what is being explained, but even the commentary is of course speaking of concepts which require some form of mystical work and vision to truly understand. As someone who is most closely a Hermetist, it is fascinating to read into this area and see the way that the Jewish mystics have interpreted the universal workings and relationship to the Divine and also to explore the beautiful hieroglyphic language of Hebrew and the joyous coding of the Hebrew scripture. I am exploring this alongside study of the Zohar and Sepher Yetzirah, and though the concepts of Divinity may already be understood it is just beautiful to see it stated in such a way and fascinating to see it all stated in such an expansive manner and to learn more about such misunderstood Hebrew scripture which has been so unfortunately rejected by the so called "rationalists" in our world. Perhaps if these people were able to understand the Qabalistic keys then they would not so blindly reject the notion of "God" as can even in this sense be explained through modern science as it finally catches up with the truths of the Ancients. It is plain to see, even more so from his work with the Sepher Yetzirah, that Rabbi Kaplan has truly been raised to the Greater Mind and he is one of the only writers on the subject of Qabalah with whose writing I can really connect. This is a subject which has been greatly diluted and profaned by the New Age movements even since the writers on the Golden Dawn. Many write on Qabalah, many hold the concepts in theory, but it seems that very few writers truly understand.

Fantastic read highly recommend

great book, as described. arrived on time. grateful. thank you

However you must have prior knowledge of he Hebrew to really get any benefits from this, a very heavy and deep read....

Aryeh Kaplan's life work seems to have been to make the mysteries of the Kaballah accessible without cheapening or symplifying them. His other works - MEDITATION AND KABALLAH, SEFER YETZIRAH - go together with this to make a tritych of Kaballistic writing which is full of inisght and illumination. A truly liberating vision of religion which frees us from the dry, confining aridity of so much mainstream faith. The Bahir is not as well known or as famous as the Zohar. Kaplan has therefore done us a service in translating it here. The text is clearly and lucidly rendered into English. Obscure and baffling as it is at first, Kaplan provides and exhaustive commentary but also shows us how to read it - non linearly, like a lattice, with passages referring and echoing off each other everywhere. The Bahir is a beautiful book, full of the joy, wisdom and divine humanism of the Kaballah. A real book of hope. My only regret is that Kaplan never did a version of the Zohar itself. It would have been so helpful!

One of those books that you always wanted to buy but always procrastinated. So I finally bought it and yes, fantastic reading. Perfect for a long flight or a lazy summer afternoon by the pool and anything in-between. There is a lot of wisdom in this book and just as much knowledge and info. Very well sourced as well.

An excellent book about the origins of Man and our Universe. Now I am learning Aramaic so that I can go back and read and understand the Bible.

Learning book

It is a must read for beginners of Kabbalah..it is a great translation and has a very good comments and explanation on a very encompassing and hard subject.

So happy to find this book. It’s worth the wait.