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It was more than his acknowledged purpose,“to introduce the psychoanalytic study of the Kabbalah as a serious discipline,” that motivated Mortimer Ostow to both edit and contribute to this rather labyrinthine journey into Jewish mysticism: An anecdote on the last page of the epilogue is more revelatory:
Professor Saul Lieberman, a most distinguished scholar and professor of Talmud at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, a confirmed mitnaged,1 who is reported to have had only contempt for Kabbalah, was called upon at a formal meeting to introduce Professor Gershom Scholem [a renowned expert on Jewish mysticism and the first scholar to lay a solid foundation for its study]. … Lieberman, with his usual charm and wit, began as follows:“Ladies and Gentlemen. We all know that nonsense is nonsense, but the history of nonsense is scholarship.” (p. 362)
Ostow then comments:“Many of us who cannot accept the non-rational assumptions necessary to embrace mysticism might nevertheless find a certain degree of comforting spiritual experience [emphasis added] in studying what it is, what it does, how it has influenced the lives of millions of people of every religion over the centuries, and where it might take us in the future” (p. 362). Like Scholem, Ostow has spent much of his own life studying and writing about the “nonsense” of mysticism—but not merely as a scholarly pursuit. It is a “spiritual experience.” Ostow enjoys playing in this transitional space.
His preference is largely to our benefit. The book is rich with information, ideas, scholarship; we are treated to ancient and marvelous texts; we are provided a peek into esoteric chambers; we are engaged with experts. There is much to learn from Ostow himself. However, there is a downside: Ostow is an overinvolved enthusiast. Therefore, this legitimately complex study of a vividly intricate domain is overconstructed