Friday, May 11, 2012

Lectures by Daniel Matt

DANIEL MATT is lecturing in Baltimore:
Reform Temples Hosting Top Kaballah [Sic! Sigh.] Scholar

Bernie Hodkin (Baltimore Jewish Times)

In the past decade, kabbalah, Jewish mysticism, has experienced a massive surge in popularity, largely owing to an interest by mega-celebrities such as Madonna. But with such spotlights often comes a dilution of the original tradition and intent of its creators.

That’s where Dr. Daniel Matt, a famed scholar of kabbalah and translator into English of its foundational central work — the “Zohar” — comes in. He will give four lectures in the next three days at area Reform temples as the Hoffberger Foundation’s scholar-in-residence.

His passion, he tells the Baltimore Jewish Times, “is the attempt to re-imagine God. The “Zohar” really offers an alternate approach to the nature of God.”

[...]
An interesting inteview that, unusually, moves into devotional territory. Background on Dr. Matt's work on the Zohar is here with a great many links.