A vast bounty of tales recounting mystical experiences among the
rabbis can be found in the Talmud, the Zohar, Jewish folktales, and
Hasidic lore. Now, in Gabriel's Palace, scholar Howard Schwartz has
collected the greatest of these stories, sacred and secular, in a
marvelously readable anthology.
Gabriel's Palace offers a treasury of 150 pithy and powerful tales,
involving experiences of union with the divine, out-of-body travel,
encounters with angels and demons, possession by spirits holy and
pernicious, and more. Schwartz provides an informative introduction
placing these remarkable tales firmly in the context of centuries
of post-biblical Jewish tradition. The body of the text presents
spellbinding tales from the Talmud, Zohar, the Hasidic masters, and
an enormous range of other sources. Here are stories of Shimon bar
Yohai, reputed to be the author of the Zohar; Isaac Luria, known as
the Ari, who was the central figure among the Safed mystics of the
16th century; Israel ben Eliezer, known as Baal Shem Tov, who
founded Hasidism; Elimelech of Lizensk, possessor of legendary
mystical powers; and Nachman of Bratslav, the great storyteller
whose wandering spirit is said to protect his followers to this
day. Together, these tales paint a vivid picture of "a world of
signs and symbols, where everything that took place had meaning, a
world of mythic proportions....A world in which the spirits of the
dead were no longer invisible, nor the angels," where the master
and his disciples labor to repair the world so that the footsteps
of the Messiah might be heard.
Drawn from rabbinic, kabbalistic, folk, and Hasidic sources, these
collected tales form a rich genre all their own. In Gabriel's
Palace, the powerful tradition of Jewish mysticism comes to life in
clear, contemporary English.
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