Can I understand Kabbalah if I don know Hebrew or Aramaic?
You can understand a lot about it, but 1) Kabbalah teaches that the world was literally created out of Hebrew letters, so it really helps if you know them; 2) much of what kabbalists do is study deep, esoteric interpretations of intrinsically difficult texts that were composed in Hebrew and Aramaic (an ancient language using Hebrew letters but a somewhat different grammar). Since no translation is ever perfect, you’re bound to lose something. Finally, 3) a form of biblical interpretation called Gematria that many kabbalists engage in is based on the fact that Hebrew letters are also used as numbers. Some of the correspondences are impossible to render in English. That said, there are some really wonderful modern English translations of kabbalistic texts-Daniel C. Matt’s “The Essential Kabbalah” (HarperCollins) is a good place to start.
