Dovid Krafchow’s Zohar—Beneath The BlackWhole Marries the Profound to the Profane

Krafchow illuminates the connections between age-old Jewish knowledge and modern issues like COVID-19 and Trumpism with an unconventional intellect.

LOS ANGELES, CA, UNITED STATES, October 28, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ -- When asked to describe himself, Los Angeles writer and Jewish mystic Dovid Krafchow responds with the unforgettable epithet “Einstein on Acid.” This intriguing moniker only becomes more interesting with further context. Using his numerological insight, Krafchow has uncovered a relationship between his and Einstein's lives centered around the number 666, which appears predominantly throughout Krafchow’s life and scholarship as well as the year of the Jewish calendar (5666) when Einstein first published his theory of relativity. “Einstein published two books within one year, which changed the course of the world by revealing a new paradigm, quantum physics,” Krafchow says. In his new book, "Zohar—Beneath the BlackWhole," Krafchow examines the meaning of this infamous number in Jewish thought. The text not only engages Einstein’s work, but features Krafchow’s interpretation of a Russian Rebbe’s treatise on the number 666, also published in 5666 just weeks after Einstein’s landmark theory. The companion to Krafchow's earlier book "Zohar—Beyond the BlackWhole," published on August 17, 2021, the new volume promises to shatter paradigms of its own.

"Zohar—Beneath the BlackWhole" and its predecessor both engage with the "Zohar," the key text in the system of Jewish mystical thought known as Cabala. Krafchow has spent fifty years studying the "Zohar" and other Jewish writings in their original languages of Hebrew and Aramaic, developing a unique connection to the mysterious passages that scholars have translated and retranslated for generations. While the aim of "Zohar—Beyond the BlackWhole" is to explain the essence of space, "Zohar—Beneath the BlackWhole" explores the essence of time. “Together they represent the harlequin divide of time and space elucidated,” Krafchow writes.

Although the books work together in tandem, "Beneath the BlackWhole" ventures further away from the celestial language of "Beyond the BlackWhole" and engages more straightforwardly with the obscene. This mixture of profundity and profanity is a signature characteristic of Krafchow’s work. His first experience of enlightenment occurred during his service in the U.S. Navy in the 1960s, when he was in his late teenage years. During this time, he was surrounded by the magnificent and expansive ocean, often compared to the Talmud for its vastness and diversity, but simultaneously immersed in the “foul-mouthed” culture of his fellow Navy sailors. After he was discharged in 1965, Krafchow continued to be drawn to the combination of the sacred and profane. One of his influences was the comedian Lenny Bruce, whose satirical style combined insights on religion and politics with sex and vulgarity. Krafchow was also immersed in the 1960s countercultural movement, a spirit exemplified by the rising popularity of LSD. The national discourse around this controversial hallucinogen encompassed both the feelings of unity and holiness described by many of its users and the conservative backlash that was scandalized by casual drug use. Coming of age among these seemingly paradoxical combinations of reverence and irreverence gave Krafchow an unusual perspective into the full spectrum of the spiritual realm. “Knowing happens through experience—the knowledge of life,” Krafchow says, emphasizing the need to engage with all aspects of reality, including the raw and worldly, in order to reach a new spiritual understanding.

When it comes to scholarship on the "Zohar," "Zohar—Beneath the BlackWhole’s" inclusion of contemporary life is a rare beacon in the scholarship of ancient texts. Krafchow illuminates the connections between age-old Jewish knowledge and modern issues like COVID-19 and Trumpism with an unconventional intellect that is truly unprecedented. "Zohar—Beneath the BlackWhole" is not only a guide to the "Zohar’s" teachings, but an all-encompassing thesis on time and Cabbala that calls to mind the young Krafchow’s journeys in the Navy fleet: awestruck, foul-mouthed, and ultimately divine.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Dovid Krafchow has been an independent, non-religious scholar of the Torah and other Jewish texts for over 50 years, studying them in their original language of Hebrew and Aramaic. He has been practicing the Tarot for the last twenty years. Krafchow is the author of twenty books of fiction and non-fiction related to Jewish life and mystical secrets. He has hitch-hiked 30,000 miles, been in two wars, and spent fifty years independently studying the secrets of creation through the Zohar and Cabala.


ABOUT THE BOOK:
"Zohar—Beneath the BlackWhole" will be published on November 9, 2021, by dovidHouse² Publishing. It can be purchased in paperback or ebook at $14.95 on Amazon.com and in bookstores.


REVIEW COPIES AND MEDIA INTERVIEWS:
To request a review copy of "Zohar—Beneath the BlackWhole" or to schedule an interview/event with Dovid Krafchow, contact publicist Nanda Dyssou of Coriolis Company at nanda@corioliscompany.com or 424-226-6148.

Nanda Dyssou
Coriolis
+1 424-285-4143
email us here

¹ https://www.dovidhouse.com/
² https://www.dovidhouse.com/