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Book Reviews of The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon

The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon
The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon
Author: Richard Zimler
ISBN-13: 9781585670222
ISBN-10: 1585670227
Publication Date: 3/15/2000
Pages: 318
Rating:
  • Currently 3.4/5 Stars.
 18

3.4 stars, based on 18 ratings
Publisher: Overlook Press
Book Type: Paperback
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

2 Book Reviews submitted by our Members...sorted by voted most helpful

reviewed The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon on + 17 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
Its nice to know that even advanced kabbalists were subject to superstition and angst - but this author confused a few things: knowledge of Torah with knowledge of Kabbalah; knowledge of historical events with knowledge of cause and effect. To my mind this book was to disjointed and did not provide the reader with the basic kabbalah concepts necessary to understand.

Did the author really expect a neophyte to understand the upper and lower realms? If, instead, he only expected persons who do have such knowledge to read the book, the author was too simplistic.

of course that's the PASHAT understanding, the book really failed to illuminate the knowledge and use of emanations, and for some unknown reason hide them in a genizah.

Further, though I'm sure that things may have been better for Jews in Constantinople, I'm not sure that it wasn't just by comparison to Portugal.

On a more basic level, the protagonist was simply not sympathetic.
tracymar avatar reviewed The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon on + 408 more book reviews
An international mystery bestseller which transports the reader into the universe of the Jewish Kabbalah during the Lisbon Portugal massacre of 1506. A young manuscript illuminator tracks the killer of his Kabbalist uncle, attempting to to decode the secret language which may lead to the truth about his uncle\'s death.