Reading list

Jewish Mysticism

From the Zohar and the Kabbalah of Safed to Hasidism and Martin Buber.

Intermediate. 7 steps

Orientation

Tradition
Kabbalah
The main ideas of Kabbalah and its history, from Provence to Safed.
Text
Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism
Gershom Scholem, 1941
The classic survey; read the lectures on the Zohar, Luria and Hasidism first.

Concept
Sefirot
The ten powers of the divine, the key to reading Kabbalistic texts.
Text
The Zohar
Moses de León, tr. Harry Sperling, Maurice Simon, 1931
Sample the commentary on Genesis to hear the Zohar’s voice.

Text
Physician of the Soul, Healer of the Cosmos
Lawrence Fine, 2003
Isaac Luria’s teaching and his circle, in a readable modern study.

Text
In Praise of the Baal Shem Tov
tr. Dan Ben-Amos, Jerome R. Mintz, 1970
The earliest stories of the Baal Shem Tov, as his followers told them.
Text
Tales of the Hasidim: The Early Masters
Martin Buber, tr. Olga Marx, 1947
Buber’s retellings of the masters’ stories, then his I and Thou.

Cite this entry

Chicago (bibliography): “Jewish Mysticism.” Reading list. The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society. Last modified November 7, 2026. https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/reading-lists/jewish-mysticism-reading-list.
Chicago (note): “Jewish Mysticism,” reading list, The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society, last modified November 7, 2026, https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/reading-lists/jewish-mysticism-reading-list.
MLA: “Jewish Mysticism.” The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society, 7 Nov. 2026, www.unitiveknowledge.org/reading-lists/jewish-mysticism-reading-list.
BibTeX: @misc{reading-lists-jewish-mysticism-reading-list, title = {{Jewish Mysticism}}, howpublished = {The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society}, note = {Reading list. Last modified November 7, 2026}, year = {2026}, url = {https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/reading-lists/jewish-mysticism-reading-list} }