In the beginning, there was Madonna. At least that's how most see the modern history of Kabbalah--the New Agey revival of traditional Jewish mysticism recently linked in the tabloids to a love triangle involving the Material Girl and married New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez. Yet despite its high-profile Hollywood associations, the Kabbalah tradition--which involves the attempt to more directly understand God through contemplation and arcane textual study--stretches back centuries.
Kabbalah cohered and still revolves around its essential book, the Zohar--a gargantuan work penned in 13th century Spain by Moses de León--that explores divine mysteries under the guise of a commentary on the Torah. But it wasn't until the 18th century emergence of Hasidism as a Jewish movement in Eastern Europe that Kabbalah began to expand beyond its tiny group of scholars. Many Kabbalist masters, however, were...