When I first started reading on the renaissance of Kabbalah in Safed in the 16th and 17th centuries, I was simply overwhelmed by the sheer amount of bibliography on the subject. There I was, writing on a subject I was hardly familiar with, and which is only accessible to a chosen few who have dedicated their lives to unravelling some of the numerous truths hidden within the Torah. As a scholar, I have always felt that with enough dedication, time and focus, most subjects within certain fields of expertise can be broached, broken down to their principles and assimilated. But this time, I felt completely out of my depth. It was exciting, especially as this was the only part of the book where I wanted to recreate a fictional meeting between famous Jewish scholars of the 17th century. I took hundreds of pages of notes, discussed various portions with Hebrew scholars and a rabbi, and I eventually produced 4 pages in the thriller… it has to make you laugh!
