Idra is an independent academic publisher based in Tel-Aviv, Israel, and publishing titles in the humanities and the social sciences. Although we publish primarily in Hebrew, we also have titles in English. We have a particular specialism in research and primary sources in religious studies. Our aim is to make accessible to readerships in Israel as well as overseas the most significant primary sources and the most influential academic research focusing on religions of the world, faiths and beliefs, mysticism and spirituality, philosophy and science. In addition, we publish original and translated titles in popular science, in particular in the humanities and the social sciences, with the aim of making science accessible to a general audience. At the crossroads of these two main interests is our popular series of science and spirituality.
What is Idra?
The name Idra is inspired by the Zohar (The Book of Splendour), which is the major text of the Kabbalah, the Jewish mystical tradition. The origin of the word is in Aramaic, and it literally translates as ‘granary’ or ‘threshing floor’. These were round flat surfaces used for separating out grain. In the Zohar the term is used figuratively to refer to the mystical gatherings of the Zohar group, led by RASHBI, Rabbi Shimon bar Yoḥai, the legendary second-century sage to whom the Zohar is attributed. The etymology refers to the granary-shaped half-circle in which contributors in these gatherings were portrayed as sitting, so they might be able to see each other’s faces. Idra’s mission statement is thus expressed in this poignant metaphor: the bringing together of learners and scholars and making scholarship widely accessible.
Prof. Avi Elqayam – Head of Department of Jewish Thought, Bar-Ilan University; Director of the Shlomo Moussaieff Center for Kabbalistic Research, Bar-Ilan; one of the leaders of The Path of Abraham, an organization devoted to spiritual dialogue, promoting peace and tolerance between Jews and Moslems worldwide.
Dr. Daphna Levin – Senior researcher at the Shlomo Moussaieff Center for Kabbalistic Research, Bar-Ilan; a leading researcher and practitioner of the transpersonal disciple focusing on psychic regression to the distant past.