Thanks very much for all those book recommendations, and links, you've given me a lot of great help.
As for the Sacred Text, is Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan's 'The Living Torah' a good copy to get?, I've seen that recommended as a good source/translation before.
Kaplan's "Living Torah" isn't bad. It is certainly better than the Stone Tanakh that Artscroll puts out-- I can't stand their translations. That said, I still think the Artscroll chumash with Rashi is probably the best option out there for learning chumash with Rashi in English. And the fact that they go phrase by phrase, and they give you the Rashi in block script Hebrew with vowels, as well as the English translation, is a great learning tool.
As with any Tanakh translation, I think it is absolutely critical to have several, and read in tandem. Any translation, no matter how good, has biases, obscurities, faults, and simple failures to capture the original. Kaplan's "Living Torah" would be a good one; Robert Alter's various translations (he's done the Torah, Psalms, some of Ketuvim, and Samuel, with part of Kings...maybe something else, too) are excellent and very worth having; I cannot recommend Everett Fox's
Five Books of Moses highly enough: I think it is without question
the finest translation of the Torah done to date, and his notes are also quite helpful; the JPS translation is useful, but most useful if in the form of
The Jewish Study Bible. Very good notes in that, and deeply worth having.
Nehama Leibowitz's collection of commentary on the Torah is an indispensible tool. She does a magnificent job of giving essential highlights of many traditional commentators and explaining the interweave of Torah and commentary.
If I recall right, there are some translations of Ramban on the Torah, and Ibn Ezra's commentary, also. Maybe some other calssical commentators are available in English also-- I think maybe I once spotted an English Sfat Emet, and maybe one or two suchlike.... These are very worth having. A key part of learning Torah is learning how to think about it in various ways, and to understand the nuances of different interpretations.
Some of the great midrashim have been translated, also. The Soncino Midrash Rabbah is helpful, but I find it very dry and difficult to cut through. If I recall right, there are some translations of the Mekhilta that are okay, and maybe Sifre or Sifra.... Midrash is never bad to learn.
That said, I think it's critical not to limit yourself to Tanakh only in studying sacred text.
Jacob Neusner's translation of the Mishnah is an excellent tool to begin learning Mishnah with, and his notes are excellent (though I disagree with some of his academic conclusions). If you happen to really have some extra money, there is a very good English translation of the Kehati edition of the Mishnah, which is well worth owning. But it is expensive: Neusner is much more affordable, though less traditionally nuanced.
There are any number of translations of Pirke Avot out there, and most are really not bad. You really can't go wrong learning Pirke Avot: it's just a terrific introduction to the Rabbis and their mindset, and it actually does contain some lovely wisdom.
If you can afford it, a set of Artscroll's Schottenstein edition Talmud would be a great tool. Even if you can't afford the set, buy a couple of volumes, and begin to learn. I recommend starting with tractate Berachot, and maybe moving on to Yoma or Pesachim. That's not how they start you in yeshivah, but I think for true beginners, starting with discussions of ritual rather than with discussions of pure law is much easier to get into. There are some pronounced biases in Artscroll's translation agenda, but their translation is definitely the best currently available.
I know that's a lot. It can seem overwhelming, the amount out there to learn. But it gets more manageable with time, the more you're used to living in the Jewish experience; and once your Hebrew starts to improve a little, it gets much easier.
Stick with it as best you can, and don't be afraid to ask for help if you need it!
I am interested in learning more about the the mystical traditions of Judaism, so, if there any good titles on Jewish mysticism you (or others) could recommended, I'd appreciate that (I've read parts of 'Meditation and the Bible' by Aryeh Kaplan, and really liked what I read, and his 'Jewish Meditation' sounds very interesting).
Again, thanks for all the help.
OK, so this is tricky. The best of Jewish mysticism is very hard to translate, and is deeply dependent upon a lot of traditional knowledge as background.
That said, there are some good materials to begin with.
Aryeh Kaplan is always a great way to start. Not only with
Jewish Meditation and
Meditation in the Bible, but also
Meditation and Kabbalah, Inner Space, Outpouring of the Soul, and
If You Were God. His two translations of the tales of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov are absolutely spectacular. But most of all, he published a magnificent translation of
Sefer ha-Bahir (Bahir: The Book of Splendor), and a stunningly brilliant translation and commentary on
Sefer Yetzirah (Sefer Yetzirah: The Book of Creation). These are absolutely indispensible tools for beginning to learn Jewish mysticism.
For some academic discussion of Kabbalah and its history, read the works of Gershom Scholem, such as
Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, On The Kabbalah and Its Significance, On The Mystical Shape of the Godhead (I recommend this in particular-- a superb resource)
, Kabbalah, Origins of the Kabbalah, and
The Messianic Idea in Judaism: and Other Essays on Jewish Spirituality. Moshe Idel is also excellent, although I caution you that he is much more difficult to read.
Daniel Matt is in the midst of a very long project of translating the Zohar, and if you feel up to the challenge, it makes excellent learning so far. His notes are copious and high quality. But Aramaic or English, the Zohar is just really not easy-- it is incredibly complex-- and this may be very hard going without a lot of background learning first.
I believe Eliyahu Munk has done a translation of the
Shney Luchot Habrit, and I think there are also translations available of the Ramak's
Tomer Devorah (The Palm Tree of Deborah) and the Ramchal's
Mesilat Yesharim (The Path of the Just), which would be interesting and probably helpful to learn. Also, I know Aryeh Kaplan translated the Ramchal's
Derech Hashem (The Way of God), and that is a very good translation. It is worth a caution, that all these books are fusions of Kabbalah and Mussar (moralistic homiletics), and have a pronounced ascetic bent that many readers today find difficult or unpalatable. However, they are important works, and if read carefully, with a grain of salt, can be very illuminating.
It may be of some help to read some of the Hasidic masters: their writing, though not usually mysticism per se, is steeped in Kabbalistic thought, and is both fascinating and gracefully nuanced. There are some translations available of the works of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, and I think also maybe of some of the classics like
Noam Elimelech and
Kedushat Levi. Adin Steinzaltz did a lovely set of two works introducing and explaining the
Tanya of the first Lubavitcher Rebbe.
Shabbat shalom!
