In sixteenth-century Safed, Moses Cordovero and his fellowship undertook one of Judaism's most intense experiments in mystical transformation. Through fasting, sleep deprivation, voluntary homelessness, sexual restraint, and cultivated silence, these married scholars sought divine connection and cosmic repair through the disciplined use of the body and mind.

This study examines their practices through multiple lenses: kabbalistic theology, historical context, contemporary neuroscience of altered states, and the psychology of discipline and desire. Drawing on rare manuscripts and modern research, it confronts difficult questions about the boundary between spiritual growth and pathology, reverence and critique, liberation and control.

Both rigorous and accessible, this book illuminates how ancient ascetic traditions shaped consciousness—and why their insights, warnings, and unresolved tensions still matter in an overstimulated age.