Leo Schaya was perhaps the most masterful interpreter of Jewish esoterism in the light of perennialist wisdom. In this essay, Schaya offers many keys to understanding the function of the prophet Elijah (or Elias) within Jewish mystical tradition, but then Schaya expands this, still using traditional Jewish sources, to encompass a universal function for Elijah. This mysterious prophet seems to have a function that should apply to all traditional peoples, namely reinvigorating the esoteric dimensions within their respective traditions in times of need. These times of need are particularly acute as the world lurches through its modern paroxysms toward the end of this cycle of time.

Besides Biblical descriptions, author Leo Schaya turns to some Talmudic and rabbinical writings and oral traditions to give a general, but also a more esoteric, understanding of Jewish doctrines concerning the Temple of Jerusalem. Schaya reviews a number of aspects under which the Presence of God dwells within the physical Temple, but also, by extension and in an immanent sense, within the heart of the Jewish seeker after God. The symbolism of the Temple's features is related, Schaya tells us, to spiritual realities that come to inhabit man's inner reality as well.

Rather than reviewing The Cipher of Genesis, by Carlo Snares, J. C. Cooper merely summarizes the main thesis of the book. This thesis is that the chapter of Genesis is entirely symbolical and must be interpreted accordingly. It is, says Carlo Snares, part of the Cabala. The reader is left to guess that Cooper is either undecided or is skeptical on whether or not the entire chapter of Genesis is in a sort of "code" and nothing means what it seems to mean. In other words, we do not know from this review if Snares' deciphering of this "cipher" can be reconciled with traditional Jewish or Christian hermeneutics or whether it is a view that reflects a fantastical interpretation of just one busy mind.

This article discusses the issue of revelation, as well as the concept of creating or developing tradition within the historical and religious context of Judaism. On the subject of tradition Scholem argues that “tradition asserts itself ever more emphatically as a new religious value and as a category of religious thinking. It becomes the medium through which creative forces express themselves.” He further addresses this issue by discussing the development and use of the Oral Torah and the Written Torah, and how they relate to the process of creating tradition and then examining it. Scholem also draws from numerous historical and textual sources that support his argument.