PRACTICAL KABBALAH FOR MAGIC & PROTECTION

This latest passenger to ride the Kabbalah bandwagon is practical, as promised in the title, but not remarkable. Lampert, a New Age healer, adopts a conversational tone, relating Kabbalah tips as imparted by her parents, as well as traditional, textual teachings. However, there is an overdose of the former and not enough of the latter—too often, this primer devolves into a compendium of folk superstitions, masked under the generic rubric of "Kabbalah." Readers are told, for example, never to sew a garment while they are wearing it, praise any newborn baby, cut anyone's fingernails during a new moon or gaze into a broken mirror. The book is better when it seeks to apply textual Kabbalah directly to issues of self-protection; to this end, Lampert includes a helpful section relating the 10 Sephirot to various parts of the human body, to aid in health and healing. As in many other Kabbalah books, this mystical spirituality is essentially divorced from its Jewish roots, although Lampert does provide an introductory chapter on Kabbalah's origins. A final section on Kabbalah and the Hebrew alphabet would have been better placed toward the beginning, since Lampert refers to numerology and the significance of the 22 Hebrew letters throughout, but does not clarify their importance. The full-color illustrations, which appear on every page, are nicely arranged to interpret the text, but not aesthetically sophisticated. In all, this basic guide is accessible—no esoterica in sight—but only mediocre. (July)