A descendant of the Baal Shem Tov, Perle Besserman has studied Jewish mysticism with Rabbis Zvi Yehuda Kook and Aryeh Kaplan. She has written several books on mysticism, including Kabbalah: The Way of the Jewish Mystic (published under the name Perle Epstein), and is the editor of an anthology in the Shambhala Pocket Classics series, The Way of the Jewish Mystics. She presents workshops on women's spirituality around the United States and in Europe.