Introduces renderings of, and commentary on, Kabbalistic verse that emerged directly from Jewish mysticism and that reveals the foundations of both language and existence itself. A collection that presents a body of poetry from the world of Jewish mysticism. Taking up Gershom Scholem's call to plumb the "tremendous poetic potential concealed" in the Kabbalistic tradition, it provides English renderings of works composed on three continents over a period of some fifteen hundred years.

Includes bibliographical references.

Poems of the palaces and early liturgical hymns The Book of Creation al-Andalus and Ashkenaz The Kabbalah in Spain The Safed circle (Galilean Kabbalah)

Extensions East and West Jewish Muslims, Muslim Jews Italian Kabbalah Hasidic devotion The seeds of secular mysticism.