Jay McCrensky is author of Understanding Evil: Insights from Kabbala and a Ph.D. candidate in Kabbalah and Jewish Studies at the Baltimore Hebrew University. He and his wife, Barbara Hess, are founders of Machaya Klezmer Band, a Jewish band that masters the style, feeling and dynamism of authentic East European Jewish music. Jay is also the founder and President of the Contemporary Kabbalah Institute (CKI), a new rabbinic and scholarly center for the development and promotion of contemporary Kabbalah.