Kabbalistic Tarot

TAROT / KABBALAH Kabbalistic Tarot is an introduction to the ancient kabbalistic origins and meanings of the tarot that reveals the intimate relationship of the tarot to the esoteric teachings of the Torah. 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 a simple way to fill time: playing cards. These first tarot decks enabled study of the Torah without detection. Once the Maccabees expelled the Greeks from Israel and Israel once again became a Jewish kingdom, tarot cards dropped from sight. Fifteen hundred years later, in response to political and religious persecutions, and ultimately the Inquisition, the cards resurfaced as a secret learning tool of the Torah. The author shows the correspondence between the 22 Major Arcana cards and the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet and how the four suits correlate with the levels of the four kabbalistic worlds: Atzilut (Soul), Briah (Intellect), Yetzirah (Emotions), and Asiyah (Action). He explores the kabbalistic meanings of each of the 78 cards and provides insight into the Tree of Life spread through detailed kabbalistic readings. DOVID KRAFCHOW has studied Kabbalah and practiced the tarot for more than thirty years. He began his study of the Torah at the Hadar Hatorah Institute for Rabbinical Studies in Brooklyn, New York, and lived for ten years in Zefat, Israel, the city where the Kabbalah was received by the Ari Zal (Rabbi Isaac Luria) 500 years ago. He lives in northern California.