Zev Ben-Shimon Halevi Books

The Cabalistic Tree of Life has been with us for two thousand or more years. Every age has seen it through its own eyes and this book is an attempt to cast it into twentiethcentury terms so that its blossoms may flower for another season. The Tree of Life is an analogue of the Absolute, the Universe and Man. Its roots penetrate deep into the earth below and its top branches touch the uppermost heaven. Man, meeting point between heaven and earth, is an image of his Creator. A complete but unrealised Tree in miniature, and lower than the angels, his is to choose to rise higher by climbing the branches of himself, and so gain the ultimate fruit.

Traces the evolution of various forms of kabbalah, outlining the early period of biblical and talmudic cosmology and using ideas developed during the medieval era to set forth a kabbalistic view of the origins and structure of existence.

The horrors and injustice of the Spanish Inquisition are well known and often seen as a dark part of the past, from which we have learned and progressed. The Anointed provides an stunning example of personal fortitude in the face of adversity that echoes many aspects of contemporary life. Halevi shows how, despite all odds, it is tolerance, wisdom, compassion, and understanding that undermine the efforts of prejudice, fear, ignorance, and hate. Most importantly, Halevi demonstrates that God is bigger than all humans, and that we can never truly judge, lest we be judged. Bibliography. Index.

The biblical accounts of slavery in Egypt and the Promised Land are shown to be allegories of the human condition, while the story of Jacob and Esau symbolize the psyche and the body, and Jacob's encounter with the angel marks a turning point for inner growth.