In the early 1970's, the Work of the Chariot Trust published a landmark series of translations of the primary Hebrew and Aramaic works of the Mystical Qabalah, many of which had never been rendered into English. Until that time, most books in English on the Qabalah were written either by scholars, who approached it from a pedagogical or historical angle, or by Hermetic/Practical Qabalists who framed it within an occult perspective. Over twenty-five thousand copies of the Trust's translations were distributed through metaphysical bookstores in the United States, Canada, and Europe, as well as, given away at no cost to thousands of students who attended a private seminar hosted by the Trust.
The Trust was rooted in the oral teachings of an accomplished mystic who is a genuine master of the Tree of Life, a real "Man of the Ayn." The emphasis of his teaching was to engage in practices that would lead each individual to their own experiential understanding, their own ascent of the Tree. After he was recruited by an ancient order of Mystical Qabalists, called "Ma'aseh Merkabah" (Work of the Chariot), to engage in work specifically intended to "water the mystical roots of the children of Abraham," he formed the religious trust through which to publish his original translations of primary qabalistic texts. He never put his name on any of the translations he published, nor took credit for his work.
The mentor of the Work of the Chariot, who is now retired from the world, held informal meetings in his home on Thursday nights for over two decades. His teaching displayed an encyclopedic knowledge of all mystical traditions, anchored in and corroborated by his own extensive direct experience. While he wholeheartedly shared his extensive knowledge and insights with thousands of people over a period of two decades, he never referred to himself as a teacher. In fact, he repeatedly said that "The Lord is the only teacher; the Lord is the only rabbi; the Lord is the only guru." As an accomplished physicist, he exhorted students to be mystical scientists: to test the hypotheses of the mystical worldviews, to engage in the meditation practices as if they were experiments, and to "collect data" on all that we experienced. He told us to regard our lives as our own mystical laboratories.
The next section of this site provides extensive background material on the Mystical Qabalah.