Mystical Vertigo

Mystical Vertigo immerses readers in the experience of the contemporary kabbalistic Hebrew poet, serving as a gateway into the poet’s quest for mystical union known as devekut. This journey oscillates across subtle degrees of devekut—causing an entranced experience for the Hebrew poet, who is reaching but not reaching, hovering but not hovering, touching but not touching in a state of mystical vertigo. What makes this journey so remarkable is how deeply nestled it is within the hybrid cultural networks of Israel, crossing over boundaries of haredi, secular, national-religious, and agnostic beliefs among others. This volume makes a unique contribution to understanding and experiencing the mystical renaissance in Israel, through its multi-disciplinary focus on Hebrew poetry and its philosophical hermeneutics.

Glazer Aubrey :

Aubrey L. Glazer is senior rabbi of Congregation Shaare Zion and director of Panui, an incubator for contemplative practice and conscious community building. Aubrey’s most recent books include Mystical Vertigo (Academic Studies Press, 2013) and Tangle of Matter & Ghost: Leonard Cohen’s Post-Secular Songbook of Mysticism(s) Jewish & Beyond (Academic Studies Press, 2017).Aubrey L. Glazer (PhD University of Toronto) is an independent scholar and a rabbi at the Jewish Community Center of Harrison, New York. His book Contemporary Hebrew Mystical Poetry: How it Redeems Jewish Thinking (2009) has been awarded the Adele Mellen Prize for its distinguished contribution to scholarship. His most recent book is A New Physiognomy of Jewish Thinking: Critical Theory After Adorno as Applied to Jewish Thought ( 2011).

Daniel C. Matt author of the multi-volume annotated translation of the Zohar (The Zohar: Pritzker Edition):
"A fascinating exploration of the intersection of Jewish mysticism and contemporary Israeli poetry. In reading this challenging book, one is compelled to question the familiar distinctions between religious and secular, traditional and radical, ethereal and earthly. Highly original, erudite, and provocative."

Eitan Fishbane, The Jewish Theological Seminary:
"In an original post-modern voice, Aubrey Glazer captures the mystical yearnings that pulse within contemporary Israeli poetry. Glazer reveals the longing for devekut and intimate transcendence that shines through and reimagines this new lyric landscape, both absorbing and re-visioning the older mystical tradition."

Dr. Melila Hellner-Eshed, Shalom Hartman Institute:
“Aubrey Glazer is a relentless spiritual seeker whose scholarship conveys a deep search for concealed links, surprising facts, unconventional interpretations and new perspectives, awake at all time for traces of the divine. In this book he explores contemporary Israeli culture, mostly poetry, reading into the Israeli experience as a poetic spiritual text.”