Kabbalistic Tarot: Hebraic Wisdom in the Major and Minor Arcana »

Dovid Krafchow has studied Kabbalah and practiced the Tarot for more than 30 years. He began his study of the Torah at the Hadar Hatorah Institute for Rabbinical Studies in Brooklyn, New York, and lived for 10 years in Zefat, Israel, the city where the Kabbalah was received by the Ari Zal (Rabbi Isaac Luria) 500 years ago. He lives in Vancouver.

When the Greeks invaded Israel and forbade study of the Torah, the Jewish people began a secret method of Toranic study that appeared to be merely playing cards, enabling study of the Torah without detection. In Kabbalistic Tarot, Dovid Krafchow details how the true meaning of the tarot is locked within the Kabbalah.

Library Journal

Originally self-published in 2002 as Listening to the Soul, this work contends that the Jewish mystical tradition of Kabala holds the true meaning of the tarot. Krafchow, who has studied Kabala and practiced tarot for more than 30 years, describes the Kabalistic meanings contained in the 78 tarot cards, details relationships between the Torah and tarot, and shows how he believes the Tree of Life relates to tarot and Kabala. Krafchow discusses both the Minor and the Major Arcana, positing correspondences between the 22 Major Arcana cards and the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet and suggesting a relationship between the four suits and the four Kabalistic worlds of Briah, Yitzerah, Asiyah, and Atzilut. Readers intrigued by the currently popular Kabala who also have some familiarity with the use of tarot cards for divination and life guidance will not find a reference book but a compelling work that combines and explains the historical and current use of both traditions. For larger collections.-Brad Eden, Univ. of Nevada, Las Vegas Libs. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.