This book examines one of the most exotic & least known Jewish communities, the descendants of the followers of Shabbetai Zevi, the pseudo-messiah. Though outwardly integrated in Turkish society, inwardly they preserve a semblance of Jewish identity.

Caught in the Crack: Encounters With the Jewish- Muslims of Turkey--A Spiritual Travelogue

Travel

Alpert, Reuven

Asia

Jason Aronson

In 1666, the mystic Shabbetai Zevi of Izmir (Smyrna) convinced most of the Jewish world that he was the righteous Messiah come to redeem his people Israel. Much of the Christian world, particularly Protestants in Western Europe, were equally fascinated by the tidings from the East (though they might have cast Shabetai Zevi in the role of Antichrist). All this came to a dramatic end with the Messiah's forced conversion to Islam by the Sultan in Edirne (Adrianople). Was this truly the end? Does a Messiah ever truly end?Reuven Alpert has doggedly tracked the remnants of Shabbetai Zevi's followers in Greece and Turkey. A highlight of his journey is a visit to the home of this controversial personality in Izmir. Caught in the Crack is a search for the Messiah in time and space. Beyond that, Caught in the Crack has some disturbing things to say concerning Messiahs-Bar Kochba, Shabbetai Zevi, Jacob Frank-and the entire phenomenon of Messianism.Reuven Alpert describes himself as a "spiritual anthropologist." He has devoted several years to exploring exotic Jewish communities around the globe. He studied Talmudic law and Jewish philosophy in yeshivot and universities in the United States and Israel. His travelogs have appeared in Lifestyles magazine and elsewhere. Most recently, Mr. Alpert authored God's Middlemen: A Habad Retrospective (White Cloud Press, 1998)."On our globe, perhaps no rift is so profound as that separating Jew and Muslim. This is the story of a sect of some 25.000 souls who for over three hundred years have lived a double identity of Jewish Muslims. It is also the story of intense longing for the Messiah, of the apocalypse, of deep disappointment, and of faith beyond faith."

Orot Inc

A brilliantly conceived novel imagining the little understood lives of Moses de León, the 13th-century Spanish kabbalist thought to have authored the Zohar, the central work of Jewish mysticism, and Carlos Castaneda, a 20th-century Peruvian anthropologist who claimed extraordinary experiences in the modern mystical classic, The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge. In this novel, Alpert matches their visions with his own conjurings of their inner lives. Dreams of strange figures; encounters with kabbalists and curanderos; and studies with unlikely spiritual guides, intertwine across traditions in uncanny ways.

The Books of Splendor: The Testaments of Moses de León and Carlos Castaneda: A Historical Novel

Literature & Fiction

World Literature

Albion-Andalus Books

Gods Middlemen is a fascinating collection of stories of Jewish mystical rabbis from the Hasidic tradition know as Habad. Reuven Alpert has journeyed among the Hasidim and Gods Middlemen presents his meetings with remarkable rabbis and recollections of earlier masters of the Habad way. From Crown Heights, Brooklyn to Jerusalem, from White Russia to the Andes, we encounter well-known rabbis and unknown holy men through short, poignant stories of faith, exile, and hope. Running through the stories is the melancholic anticipation among the Habad faithful of the appearance of the long-awaited Messiah, particularly the expectations centered on the legendary Schneer-sohn dynasty of rabbis, culminating with the intense messianic fervor recently focused on the late Rabbi Menahem Mendel Schneersohn (d. 1994), the last of the Lubavitcher line of rabbis. 
Reuven Alperts stories read like good fiction, providing intimate details of the rhythms, cadences, and flavors of Jewish spirituality, taking the reader into the heart of this vibrant mystical tradition. Gods Middlemen provides us with a glimpse into the essence of the Habad tradition through the lives of Jews who have experienced the ineffable of the Infinite within the inevitable sufferings of human experience. Gods Middlemen is introduced by Rabbi Bezalel Naor, who provides a succinct survey of the Habad movement.

God's Middlemen: A Habad Retrospective : Stories of Mystical Rabbis

Religion & Spirituality

Naor, Betsalel

Judaism

White Cloud Pr

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Books by Alpert, Reuven