PENGUIN CLASSICS

THE KABBALISTIC TRADITION

DR ALAN UNTERMAN, born 1942 in Watford, is married to Nechama, a Manchester solicitor specializing in crime, with three children. He attended Talmudic college in England and Israel, and the Universities of Birmingham, Oxford, and Delhi, India, where he received his Ph.D. Dr Unterman has worked as a Lecturer in Comparative Religion in Melbourne, Tel Aviv and Manchester, and as Minister of the Yeshurun Synagogue in Cheshire. Among his publications are The Wisdom of the Jewish Mystics (1976), Jews, Their Religious Beliefs and Practices (1981) and Dictionary of Jewish Lore and Legend (1991).

Contents

Preface

Introduction

Further Reading

1 GOD

Anthropomorphism

Anthropomorphism and Sefirot

Anthropomorphism and Isaac Luria

Anthropomorphism According to Joseph Irgas

Anthropomorphism and Symbols According to Joseph Irgas

Anthropomorphism According to Ramchal

Anthropomorphism and Literalness

Anthropomorphism, Literalness of Tzimtzum

The Infinite Godhead (Ein Sof)

Ein Sof According to Isaac Luria

Ein Sof and the Created World

God in Relationship

Committing Oneself Entirely to God

Searching for God

God Behind All Activity

Good Deeds All Performed by God

The Mercy of God

Holy Spirit

Achieving the Holy Spirit

Prophecy and the Holy Spirit

Holy Spirit and Holy Speech

Idols

Worship of Man

Even to Worship Holiness in Man Is Idolatry

Divine Immanence

Divine Immanence, a Parable

Suffering and God

Divine Immanence Even in Stories

Prayer about God Hidden in Everything

Divine Even in Gentile Stories

Sefirot

Sefirot Expounded by the Prophet Elijah

Sefirot as Vessels

Sefirot and Human Thought

The Divine Presence (Shekhinah)

The World Maintained by the Shekhinah

God Inside Man

Exile and Redemption of Lost Souls

Marriage and the Shekhinah

Tetragrammaton

Tetragrammaton and Divine Immanence

Torah

Torah and Garments

Torah the Source of All

Torah of the Messiah

Essence of Torah Revealed in Messianic Times

Torah Is God

The Torah Renews Itself

Continuous Giving of the Torah

Mystical Secrets of the Torah

Torah Learning

Small Talk Is Also Torah

Transcendence

Divine Transcendence and Freedom

Perceiving Divine Transcendence

2 COSMOS

Astrology

Astrology and Torah

Creation

Creation of the World

Ein Sof and Creation

From Reality to Nothingness

Purgatory (Gehinnom)

Gehinnom and Exile

Gehinnom and Mondays

Gehinnom and Abraham

Gehinnom and This World

Accepting Punishment in Gehinnom

Paradise

Four Sages in Paradise

Why Four Sages Entered Paradise

Light

Hidden Light of Creation

More on the Hidden Light of Creation

Hidden Light Revealed and Concealed

Location

Location and Revelation

Torah Is the Map of the World

Divine Contraction (Tzimtzum)

How Tzimtzum Came About

Tzimtzum, Like a Father to His Infant Child

Tzimtzum and Faith

Tzimtzum as God Hiding Himself

Tzimtzum, Yet No Place Empty of Him

3 ANGELS

Angelology

Invoking Angels and Demons

Angels and the Human Soul

Formation of Angels

Angels and Men

Angels Punishing the Wicked

Guardian Angels

Guardian Angels, Healing and Sin

The Angel Metatron

Enoch and Metatron

Metatron and Samael

Enoch’s Journey

Enoch and Adam in Heaven

Metatron and Ruth

4 HOLY SCRIPTURES:
BIBLE CHARACTERS AND THEMES

Abraham

Abraham, Patriarchs and the Merkabah

Abraham and the Tree of Life

Adam

Adam and His Mystical Book

The Book of Adam

Adam, Eve and Kelippot

Adam and Souls Affected by Sin

Adam’s Expulsion from Eden

Adam Truly Knew God

Elijah

Elijah and Covenant

Elijah in Heaven

Elijah and the Angel of Death

Elijah and Revelation

Elijah, Enoch and the Patriarchs

Elijah’s Identity as an Angel

Elijah and Hidden Revelation

Elijah and Messianic Revelation

Elijah and Clandestine Revelation

Elijah, Reincarnation and Impregnation

Seeing Elijah While Waking

Elijah’s Revelations

Elijah’s Revelation a Gift

Elijah and Hospitality

Memory and Elijah

Enoch

Mystic Book of Enoch

Enoch’s Dual Nature as Metatron

Moses

Moses and His Knowledge

Ascension of Moses

Moses and God’s Back

Psalms

Psalms and Personal Experience

5 NATURAL AND SUPERNATURAL
WORLDS

Alphabet and the Potency of Language

Anthropomorphism and Letters

Male and Female Letters of the Alphabet

Alphabet and the Soul

Amulets

Amulets and the Wicked

Aramaic

Aramaic Language of Sitra Achra

Heavenly Voice (Bat Kol)

Bat Kol and Dreams

Bat Kol and Resurrection

Literature and Mystical Parables

Sefer Yetzirah and Abraham

Rebbe Nachman’s Mystical Parables

The Clay Diggers’ Fortune

The Treasure under the Bridge

The Parable of the Turkey

The Diseased Wheat

Mysticism

Who Should Study Kabbalah

Kabbalah Texts Hidden and Revealed

The Correct Manner of Study of Kabbalah

Need for Study of Kabbalah

Kabbalists and Literalists

Conditions for Kabbalah Study

Zohar, Soul and Upper Paradise

Kabbalistic Meaning of the Talmud

True Works of Kabbalah

Few True Works of Kabbalah

Kabbalah Inspired by Holy Spirit

True Kabbalah Inspiration

Secret Meaning of the Talmud

Mysticism of the Talmud

Simeon bar Yochai and Moses

Names of God

Speech and the Divine Name

Divine Name and Creation

The Torah Is the Name of God

6 SUPERNATURAL POWERS

Cleaving to God (Devekut)

Devekut, Commandments (Mitzvot) and Secular Matters

Progress in Devekut

Devekut and the Dark Night of the Soul

Strange Thoughts

Devekut and Torah Study for Its Own Sake

Torah as Devekut

Artificial Man (Golem)

Golem in the Talmud

Can a Golem Make Up a Quorum (Minyan)?

The Golem’s Soul

Creating a Golem

Herbs

Herbs and Angels

Medicine

Medicine Depends on Faith

Medicine and God

Secrets and Magical Remedies (Segulot)

The Origins of Kabbalah

Correct Methods of Practical Kabbalah Not Known

Dangers of Practical Kabbalah

Magic and Enosh

The Righteous Person (Tzaddik)

The Tzaddik and the Individual

God and the Righteous (Tzaddikim)

A Dead Tzaddik May Help the Living

The Righteous Men in Each Generation

The Thirty Six Righteous Men

The Seventy Two Righteous in Each Age

The Tzaddikim of Each Generation

The Nature of the Tzaddik

The Tzaddik’s Teaching and Its Interpretation

The Tzaddik and the Commandments

The Tzaddik and the World to Come

The Tzaddik in This World and in the Next

The Tzaddik Has No Rest

Martyrdom and Sacrifice of the Tzaddikim

Water

Water on the Sabbath

7 MEN AND WOMEN

The Body

The Three Bodies of Man

Being Nice to Lice

The Body and Cloak (Chaluka) of the Rabbis

The Trembling of Bodily Organs

Bodily Movements

Suffering and Providence

Nothingness of the Righteous

Body and Purity

The Nature of Man

The Value of Each Individual

Free Will

Human Independence

Everyone Can Become a Holy Person

Jews and Gentiles

Jews and Heathens

Jews, Not Gentiles, Called ‘Man’

Revelation to the Gentiles

Maintaining Jewish Identity among the Gentiles

The Evil Other Side (Sitra Achra) and Gentiles

Gentiles and the Torah

Male and Female

Male and Female Soul Mates

Male and Female Blessings

Sexual Relations

Sexual Intercourse and Holiness

Sex, Holiness and the Spiritual Garment

Prayer as Sexual Union with the Divine Presence

Silence

Silence and Wisdom

Asceticism: No Vain Talk for Forty Days

Rebbe Mendel of Warka on Silence

Sleep and Awe

Silent Prayer

Nothing and Torah

A Time to Speak

Three Hidden Qualities

Holding Back from Torah

The Silent Cry

Finding the Hidden God

Nullifying the Self

Soul

Greatness of the Soul

Soul in Children

Soul Levels

Soul Roots and Torah

The Soul, the Shell (Kelippah) and Adam’s Sin

Soul and Shells

Worldly Occupation, Suffering and God

Faults Lie Within

Worldly Occupations and God

The Soul of a Vessel

Singers and Sin

Man and the World

The Thought Is the Man

Repentance and the Soul of Israel

Souls in Heaven and Earth

Universal Soul and Its Heavenly Source

Speech

Truth and Falsehood

Truth and Words

The Scarcity of Truth

Israel and Speech

Speech Is the Soul of Man

Anger and Compassion

The Sin of Anger

Compassion for the Suffering of Others

8 RITUALS

Altar

Altar Fire

Amen

Amen and Gehinnom

Blessings

Blessings and Divine Flow

Male and Female Blessings

Charity

Charity Is Itself a Gift

Circumcision

Circumcision of Isaac Luria

Circumcision, Holy Covenant and Sexual Sins

Dance

Dance and Ecstasy

Dance Removes Harsh Judgements

Dancing with the Jews of Russia

Dances of Religious Joy

The Focus on God

Setting God Always before One

Renewing One’s Service to God

Food

Food and Beauty

Food and Trapped Souls

Eating and God

Grace after Meals

The Divine Presence at the Table

Hair

Hair and Its Symbolism

Hair Removal Prohibited

Meat

Meat Eating

The Ritual Bath (Mikveh)

Mikveh and Inner Purity

Commandment (Mitzvah)

Mitzvah and God Are One

Mystical Intentions of Commandments (Mitzvot)

Mitzvah in Joy Not Sadness

Phylacteries (Tefillin)

Phylacteries and the Evil Other Side

Prayer

Prayer by Moses Cordovero before Study of Kabbalah

Prayer by Isaac Luria before Study of Kabbalah

Prayer from the Zohar

Zohar Prayer for Sabbath Eve

Prayer and Joy

Prayer and Mysticism

Prayer and Meditation

9 SACRED SPACE AND SACRED TIME

Sacred Space

The Earth Is Round

Jerusalem Is the Heart of the World

The Third Heavenly Temple

Temple and Synagogue Below and Above

Sacred Time: Fasting and Festivals

The Correct Mindset for Fasting

The Festival of Pentecost (Shavuot) and Divine Marriage

Sabbath (Shabbat) and Festivals (Yomtov)

10 DEATH AND AFTERLIFE

Avoiding Death

Redemption from Death through Name Change

Name Changing to Avoid Early Death

Afterlife

Life after Death of the Righteous

The Righteous Live on after Death

Burial

Burial and the Cave of Machpelah

Death and Dying

Death and the Angel of Death

Death of the Righteous and Angels

Death, the Soul and Resurrection

Death and Original Sin

Death and Its Causes

Death and Punishment

Purgatory (Gehinnom) and Exile

The Shadow

The Shadow That Hovers

The Shadow and Death

Protection from the Divine Shadow

Man’s Shadow and God’s Light

Reincarnation

Belief in Reincarnation

Justification of Reincarnation

Men and Women Reincarnate Together as Spouses

Reincarnation Not for Females

Reincarnation Only for Males, Not for Females

The Need for Reincarnation

Reincarnation and Resurrection

Tzaddikim Attract Extra Righteous Souls

Reincarnation and Epilepsy

Reincarnation and Eating Bad Souls

Reincarnation and Singular Rectification

Reincarnation and Impregnation While Alive

Reincarnation of Two Souls Together

Reincarnation into Animals and Vegetables

Reincarnation as Raven, Dog, etc., for Cruelty

Reincarnation of Male into Female

Ritual Slaughter (Shechitah) and Reincarnation

Reincarnation and Impregnation

Simeon bar Yochai a Reincarnation of Moses

Reincarnation into Birds

Soul Elevation and Reincarnation

Reincarnation as Plants and Mixed Species (Kilayim)

The Purpose of Reincarnation

Reincarnation of up to Four Souls in One Body

Transmigration of Sinners

Reincarnation of the Righteous

11 THE DARK FORCES EVIL AND SIN

Abyss

The Abyss and the Foundation Stone

The Dark Powers of Evil

Levels of Worldly Existence

Evil and the Soul

The Two Types of Evil Men

Evil Inclination

Evil Inclination and the Shattering of the Vessels

Shells (Kelippot) and the Evil Inclination (Yetzer Hara)

Good and Evil Inclinations and Converts

The Lower and Higher Evil Inclination

The Yetzer Hara in Future Times

Good Inclination, Evil Inclination and Man

Evil Inclination and the Parable of the Prostitute

Self Delusion and Spiritual Truth

Original Sin

Adam’s Sin

Original Sin and the Soul

Repentance

Repenting for Repentance

Sin, Repentance and Ascent

Shells

Holiness and the Evil Shell (Kelippah)

The Power of the Shells and the Animal Wisdom

Souls Are Trapped by the Shells

Heathen Women Trapped by Shells

Sin

Sin and Learning Kabbalah

Sin Can Be the Will of God

Sins Are Also from God

The Power to Sin Comes from God

God Is the Agent Even for Sin

Forbidden to One May Be Allowed to Another

Temptation

Sparks of Holiness

Soul at Birth and Sparks of Holiness

Sparks of Holiness and Shells of Evil

Sparks of Holiness Everywhere

DEMONS

Asmodeus

Asmodeus’ Advice on Purification

Asmodeus and Magic

Asmodeus and Black Magic

Demonology

Demons and Their Use

Demon Children

From Demons to Angels

Demon Kings

Lilith

Lilith and Naamah

Demons: Mortal and Immortal

The Threat to Adam and Eve from Lilith

Samael

Not to Mention the Name ‘Samael’

Samael and Demons

Samael Is the Evil Inclination (Yetzer Hara)

Samael and the Halls of Impurity

Samael and the Public Domain

God’s Vengeance on Samael

Samael and the Tree

Samael and the Sabbath

Satan

Satan as God’s Test for Man

The Serpent

The Battle with Evil Inclination

12 REDEMPTION

Messiah

Sufferings and Wars in the Age of the Messiah

Secrets of the Torah Revealed in the Messianic Age

The Messiah and the Freeing of Trapped Sparks

The Messiah Is above Time

The Delay in the Coming of the Messiah

Redemption in the Messianic Age

The Messianic Age and the Third Temple

The Messiah Loves the Wicked

Individual and General Redemption in the Messianic Age

The Letter of the Besht and the Messiah

The Besht’s Letter and Redemption

Messianic Revelation of God Who Hides in the World

Resurrection

The Body at the Resurrection

World to Come

Death and the Family in the World to Come

The World to Come and the Sabbath

Prayer for Peace

Glossary and Select Biographies

Bibliography

Index

Preface

There is a Mishnaic teaching, ascribed to a second-century Palestinian sage Simeon ben Zoma: ‘Who is truly wise? He who continues to learn from every person’ (Avot 4:1). This is somewhat problematic since, as Rabbi Chaim Vital points out, what we have here is surely the definition of an able student, not of a truly wise person. Vital resolves this by explaining that all Israelites have a letter of the Bible which is their personal dimension of divine revelation. In order to understand what God is saying in Holy Scripture a complete picture is needed, and this can be done by assimilating other people’s insights and combining them with one’s own.

The implication of all this is that wisdom is an ongoing process not a state, a journey rather than a destination. We can perhaps extend Vital’s explanation to include everyone in this teaching, in line with the universal scope of the original Mishnaic statement about learning from ‘every person’.

I am grateful for what I have gained from my own spiritual guides and academic teachers and from my colleagues, clerical and lay, Jews and Gentiles. I am particularly grateful to Lindeth Vasey, my Penguin Books copy-editor, who by raising objections and queries helped me to clarify things I thought I knew.

More than from my teachers and from my colleagues I have learnt from those I sought to teach. This is true of my students particularly at the University of Manchester and of my congregants, the men, women and children of the Yeshurun Synagogue, Gatley. For the past twenty-six years the Gatley Yeshurunites, through their response and criticism, and through sharing their religious insights with me, taught me while I sought to teach them. It is to the Yeshurun community that I dedicate this work.

Introduction

THE NATURE OF JEWISH MYSTICISM

‘Kabbalah’, also known as ‘the Secret Wisdom’, is a term loosely used by Jews to refer to the various traditions of Jewish mysticism down the ages. It is more specifically associated with the mysticism of the Zohar in medieval Spain. ‘Kabbalah’ may be spelt ‘Qabbalah’ or ‘Cabbalah’ - a Hebrew word which means ‘that which has been received’; it has the implication of someone receiving their mystical teaching directly from an enlightened master. Most Jewish mystics seem to have had such masters from the living and the dead. A popular teacher of Kabbalah of the latter kind was the prophet Elijah, who was taken up alive into heaven (2 Kings 2:11) and serves as God’s messenger to mankind in each age. It is believed that secret teachings are brought to earth by Elijah, who appears in various guises to human beings.

Were Kabbalah merely the passing on of mystical teachings from master to disciple one would expect little change, over time, in the nature of Kabbalistic ideas. The opposite is actually the case, and alongside evolutionary developments in its ideas there have been revolutions in Kabbalistic thought. These were supported by the claim that they originated either with heavenly masters, or with hidden earthly ones, or with newly discovered ancient texts, unknown to previous Kabbalists. One influential modern Kabbalist, Rabbi Yehudah Leb Halevi Ashlag (1886-1955) says about his own master:

Because these claims could not easily be authenticated considerable freedom was provided to Jewish mystics to develop new insights. No doubt they genuinely believed that their original innovations were really ‘old-new’ teachings, and the true meaning of what was previously taught.

Change and novelty are accommodated by Kabbalists on the assumption that new breakthroughs in Kabbalah depend on the receptivity of those able to accept such mystical teachings. The teachings are ancient but they can only be received when people are ready. Rabbi Ashlag in the introduction to the Sulam, his Lurianic commentary on the Zohar, explains why the Zohar was unknown to earlier generations before the late thirteenth century, why the Lurianic exposition of the Zohar was unknown before the sixteenth century and why a correct interpretation of Lurianic teaching was unknown before the twentieth century. His answer is couched in terms of the need for the completion of the vessels that would convey the divine light and the subsequent revelation of this light to generations that would be able to absorb it.

Followers of Kabbalah view the teachings of the mystical path as the true inner meaning of the Jewish religion itself, handed down as an esoteric tradition. Its authority comes not merely from the charisma of a particular Kabbalistic mystic, but also from the great sages of the past, whose ideals and insights inspired him.

While academic scholars take an historical interest in Kabbalistic texts, seeking to discover when they were written, who their authors were and what influences shaped their particular teachings, Kabbalists are not really interested in all this. They simply accept the different elements within Kabbalah as either genuine ancient teachings, or as later, authentic interpretations of such teachings. If a mystical work is recognized as an authoritative work of spiritual insight, as the Zohar is, then whether it was an eyewitness account of the proceedings of a group of mystics in a particular era, or was written by mystics more than a thousand years later, its mystical authority is not in doubt.

ORIGINS OF JEWISH MYSTICISM

The Bible

It is unknown when Jewish mystical traditions began. Although the Bible is full of communications between God and man – revelation and prophecy, visions and heavenly journeys – there seem to be essential differences between mysticism and prophecy. Prophets are called by God while mystics undertake techniques to come into contact with the divine, or to understand the mysteries of the divine world.

The fact is, however, that we do not know a great deal about certain aspects of biblical religion, except what is explicit in the texts themselves. So it is possible that elements of later Jewish mysticism do indeed have their roots in the Hebrew Bible. For example, the Bible tells of groups of prophets who engaged in ecstatic prophesying, but we know little about this ecstasy, or about techniques for bringing it about, apart perhaps from the use of music. The prophet Samuel, having anointed Saul as King of Israel, says to him:

Kabbalists invariably read texts from the past as if they contained their own ideas and practices, so for them the Bible is alive with the mystical insights of later generations. They justify this anachronistic attitude by claiming that what is hidden behind a text is an essential part of its meaning. Since mystical teachings are transmitted orally, texts need deciphering in the light of any accompanying oral traditions.

Merkabah Mysticism

The earliest Jewish mystics of whom we have any written records are called Merkabah (‘Chariot’) mystics. The origin of the name is not known, but it is associated with the heavenly vision of the prophet Ezekiel (Ezekiel 1). Merkabah mystics are described as those who ‘descend in the chariot’ (yordei merkabah), and this form of mysticism is known as Maaseh Merkabah.

These Merkabah mystics flourished in the first few centuries of the Common Era (CE) in Palestine and Babylonia, and developed exercises and meditations to enable the mystic to ascend (or ‘descend’), on his spiritual journey, through a series of halls and heavens that separate man from God. Such exercises were strenuous and not meant for ordinary people. At the end of their journey Merkabah mystics were granted a vision of God ‘sitting on His throne in heaven’, and when they returned to normal consciousness, they brought back the gift of magical and miraculous powers.

The Merkabah mystics seemed to believe that God could not be found in the here and now of the mundane world, but primarily in heaven. Perhaps God had abandoned the world, and withdrawn to heaven, following the trauma of the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 CE. Their image of God was of a holy, transcendent Being. It was therefore necessary to leave the mundane world behind, in order to rise to a higher spiritual level and find God.

Some of the ideas of the Merkabah mystics have survived in a series of texts, known as Heikhalot texts, which describe the way through the heavenly halls, the meditative techniques undertaken by the mystics and the effects of this journey on the mystic.

Sefer Yetzirah

One of the works of the period of the Merkabah mystics is the Sefer Yetzirah, the ‘Book of Formation’, which is the earliest Hebrew work that outlines the way the world has been created by God. This short work belongs to the tradition of Creation Mysticism (Maaseh Bereshit), which was more interested in the mystical nature of the world and of God than the manuals of the Merkabah mystics.

The Sefer Yetzirah outlines the thirty-two mysterious paths of wisdom out of which the world is constituted. These are made up from the Ten Sefirot and the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet; the latter are the foundations of all creation, constituting reality. The Sefer Yetzirah became a handbook for ‘white’ magic in the Talmudic∗ period. Use was made of the combination of letters, referred to in it as the heart of the creative process, for magical transformation of things. It was even used in the creation of a golem, or artificial man.

The Sefer Yetzirah was composed during the second or third centuries CE, in the same circles that produced Merkabah literature. The work is very ambiguous and has provoked much commentary. Some Kabbalists ascribed it to the biblical Patriarch Abraham, while others maintained it was written by the second-century Palestinian sage Rabbi Akiva, based on traditions going back to Abraham.

Rabbinic literature mentions the Sefer Yetzirah and also has a series of accounts of the experiences of Merkabah mystics. Particularly significant is the warning in the Mishnah, the first official text of Rabbinic Judaism, not to expound Creation Mysticism to two students at the same time, and not to expound Merkabah Mysticism even to one student on his own, unless he is wise enough to understand things by himself (Mishnah Chagigah 2:1).

Sefer Ha-Bahir

In the post-Talmudic period there is little information about the development of Jewish mysticism. One short work, however, points ahead to major developments of Kabbalah in the Middle Ages. This was Sefer Ha-Bahir, from the eleventh or twelfth centuries in its current form, the original of which Kabbalistic tradition ascribed to a first-century Palestinian sage Rabbi Nechunya ben Hakanah. It was first printed in Amsterdam in 1651.

Kabbalists explained that all of the Rabbinic writings are really based on the secrets of the Torah. However, these secrets are hidden within the text and are not apparent to those who study them. Nechunya ben Hakanah was the first to compose a Rabbinic work where the secrets were explicit. The attitude of the Bahir is that if one removes oneself from this-worldly things and contemplates mystical teaching, it is as if one were praying all day.

The Bahir expands the doctrine of the Sefirot and their role in the creation of the world, using a variety of expressions for them. It interprets biblical verses in mystical terms, and explains how rituals have cosmic significance, affecting the divine realm. The Bahir also refers to the use of holy names in magical practices. It is the first Jewish mystical text to promote the doctrine of transmigration of souls, which it uses as an explanation of why righteous people seem to suffer in this world and wicked people seem to prosper: the former have sinned in a past life, while the latter have merits from a previous incarnation.

The Merkabah texts, the Sefer Yetzirah and the Sefer Ha-Bahir all had considerable influence on the German Pietist Movement (Chasidei Ashkenaz) of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. This was an ethical and mystical movement which left its mark on the beliefs, rituals and liturgy of Ashkenazi Jewry. The main development of Kabbalah, however, took place in Spain.

KABBALISTIC MYSTICISM

The Zohar

In the centuries following the flourishing of Merkabah mysticism and the Sefer Ha-Bahir, there were various new responses to the mystical search for God. The most influential sought an understanding of the different ways in which the divine is present, albeit in a hidden way, within the world itself, and devised new methods of bridging the human–divine gap.

Attempts were made to crack the codes underlying the seemingly profane world and to read the Bible text in a new way. The Spanish mystics wished to understand how the Jewish religion itself and its practices were means for seeking out the immanent, but hidden God. This type of mysticism, a theosophical reflection on the nature of the divine and on the secret meaning of Judaism, is characteristic of the Zohar, the main text of Kabbalah. The Sefer HaZohar (‘Book of Splendour’) and works of a similar nature, such as the Tikkunei Zohar, were produced in Spain in the late thirteenth century by a fellowship of mystics associated with Moses de Leon (1240–1305).

Although the transcendence of God is emphasized in the idea that the Infinite Godhead (Ein Sof) is completely unknowable, the world also partakes of the divine because it is structured out of divine emanation, through the Ten Sefirot. The Sefirot may be understood as different vessels which give shape to the divine light, the flow of divine energy, which produced and sustains the world. They were even seen as aspects of God Himself, viewed from a human perspective.

Zoharic literature conveys a sense of God’s omnipresence and immanence. This is close to pantheism, the belief that everything is God, and has been called ‘pan-en-theism’: ‘everything is in God’. For some of the Zoharic mystics everything is a reflection of the upper worlds. As in the Sefer Yetzirah, man himself is a microcosm, the divinely structured universe in miniature. God is hidden everywhere in the mundane world and the whole universe partakes of the divine.

Kabbalah, implicit in the Sefer Ha-Bahir, really only becomes a fully developed mystical system with the Zohar, which is a text like no other that preceded it. Zoharic literature brought together many of the themes of Jewish mysticism up to the end of the thirteenth century.

The main body of the Zohar, whose form is a meandering Aramaic commentary on the Pentateuch and certain other biblical books, was ‘published’ by Moses de Leon, who sent copies of the text to his colleagues. He told them that he was copying an ancient manuscript, which had been composed in the second century CE, about the exploits and teachings of the Palestinian sage Rabbi Simeon bar Yochai. We do not know whether his colleagues actually believed that de Leon had such an ancient manuscript, or whether they accepted that he had simply composed a powerful, and in many ways unique, mystical text himself and had chosen second-century Palestine as a setting for his writing.

Modern scholars believe that Moses de Leon was the actual author of the Zohar, and that he and members of his mystical fellowship composed the other sections that comprise Zoharic literature. This view is based on a careful study of the language, mostly a literary Aramaic which may never have actually been spoken, of the setting which reflects thirteenth-century Spain rather than second-century Palestine, and of some of the ideas which seem to be the culmination of mystical writings up to de Leon’s time. We also have an account from a younger contemporary of de Leon’s, Isaac of Acre, who heard of an attempt to obtain the original manuscript from his widow shortly after his death. She denied its existence and claimed that her husband had written it himself.

Kabbalists utterly reject this scholarly estimate of the work. The power and authenticity of the Zohar convinces them that it must have come from someone of the status of Simeon bar Yochai, a great sage who is said to have spent thirteen years hiding in a cave with his son and being instructed by Elijah the prophet.

Rabbi Ashlag, in his introduction to the Sulam, says that if the Zohar’s author were shown to be Moses de Leon he would have to value this Kabbalist more than any of the great sages of the Mishnaic period, including bar Yochai himself. In fact Ashlag could not accept its ascription to de Leon, since the wisdom of the Zohar indicates that it could be by one of the prophets, or even by Moses. For Ashlag the Zohar was at least composed by someone of the status of the Mishnaic sage Simeon bar Yochai. Of course, given the Kabbalistic belief in the transmigration of souls, these conflicting views can be reconciled if de Leon was a reincarnation of some aspect of the soul of bar Yochai. Ultimately, however, bar Yochai himself was merely a conduit for secret teachings which were part of the divine revelation to the ancients.

Once the Zohar spread to wider circles it became the point of reference for all further mystical development. Its mythological language is highly anthropomorphic, and much richer in images and symbols than anything preceding it. It firmly established the doctrine of the Ten Sefirot, using a variety of terms for them, as the accepted way for mystics to conceive of God. The Zohar spread the belief in reincarnation (gilgul), and affirmed the masculine and feminine dimension of all things, including God Himself. It also emphasized the reality of evil, and put the idea of a world literally emanating from God at the heart of Kabbalah.

Lurianic Kabbalah

The dominance of the Zohar, with its emphasis on divine immanence, lasted for several centuries. It was eventually superseded by Lurianic Kabbalah, which set a new agenda from the late sixteenth century onwards. After a struggle to be accepted as the authentic voice of Jewish mysticism, it eclipsed the Zohar and influenced all subsequent Jewish mystical enterprises.

Unlike the Zohar which was the product of a fellowship of mystics, Lurianic Kabbalah originated with one man, Isaac Luria Ashkenazi (1534–72). He only taught his version of Kabbalah during the last two years of his life after he arrived in Safed, in the Galilee region of Palestine. Safed was a centre of Kabbalah, and was populated by a group of mystics of Iberian origin whose parents had been exiled from Spain and Portugal at the end of the fifteenth century.

Before arriving there Luria had spent seven years meditating on an island in the Nile in Egypt, where he studied the Zohar and developed his new interpretation of Kabbalah. It is not clear who his human teachers were, but legends tell of how he came into possession of unknown manuscript texts of Kabbalah. They also say that Elijah appeared to him, that the Holy Spirit rested upon him and that he ascended to the heavenly academy to learn from the souls of departed sages and mystics. Later generations believed that Luria’s soul was indeed a reincarnation of the soul of Simeon bar Yochai, the spiritual hero of the Zohar.

After arriving in Safed, Luria gathered around himself a group of gifted disciples, whom he instructed orally, teaching them his original Kabbalistic views. His custom was to go out into the fields with his followers on a Friday afternoon, dressed in white, to welcome the Sabbath bride identified with the Divine Presence (Shekhinah), the feminine aspect of God, and to chant Kabbalistic hymns.

He also led his disciples in new practices of an ascetic nature, some of which were messianically inspired. Luria’s Kabbalah was originally meant for an elite group of mystics, but after his death his teachings began to spread rapidly.

Chaim Vital, Luria’s main disciple, only studied with him for a short time, yet he wrote extensively about his teachings. Kabbalists explain that Luria gave Vital magical water from the well of the prophetess Miriam to drink, and this attuned Vital’s soul to absorb Luria’s teaching. Other disciples made their own notes of Luria’s teachings which they published in versions differing from that of Vital. When Luria was asked why he did not write down any of his own Kabbalistic ideas himself, he replied that he was simply unable to do so because as soon as he began to expound them the ‘fountains of wisdom’ opened up and overflowed.

According to some legends the Rabbinic authorities tried to prevent Luria from teaching Kabbalah publicly, until Elijah appeared to them and persuaded them not to object. Once when Luria was asleep a disciple saw his lips moving, so he bent over him to try to hear what he was saying. Luria awoke and explained that he had been waiting several years for that teaching from heaven, which he had been reciting in a trance state, and it had now been interrupted and lost.

Lurianic Kabbalah introduced and enhanced a series of new Kabbalistic ideas. At its core was the idea of the self-contraction (tzimtzum) of the Infinite Godhead (Ein Sof), who had withdrawn so as to leave a vacant dimension into which the world could be created.

During the creative process, which took place in this vacant dimension, the vessels holding the divine light broke (shevirat ha-kelim), and some holy Sparks (Nitzotzot) of the divine became entrapped in the broken Shells (Kelippot) of the vessels originally meant to hold them.

This fractured world needs rectification (tikkun), and it is man’s task to free (berur) the holy Sparks from their entrapment in the broken Shells. This can only be done by means of Kabbalistically inspired Jewish religious activity. The culmination of all these acts of rectification will be the advent of Messianic redemption.

The Zohar had taken evil very seriously, not attempting to explain it away as the mere absence of good. Evil exists as a whole structure, mythologically depicted under the sway of Samael, the Prince of Demons, and his consort Lilith. This problem of how evil can come to exist in a world created by a good God was variously dealt with in Lurianic Kabbalah. One response was that evil is a by-product of the creative process, of the self-limitation of God. It is the dross which inevitably emerges from the refining process, and without it no finite world could come into being. A more radical thesis exists in some Lurianic works where evil represents actual forces within God that are resistant to the creative process and had to be jettisoned so that a world could come into being. This means there is an ongoing confrontation between evil and the dimension of the holy in the mundane world.

Ultimate redemption can only come about when the Jew performs rituals with the correct mystical mindset. This removes the Sparks of holiness from their exile among the Shells. Once this process is complete the Shells are bereft of power, since they have no life of their own, and the Messianic Age will dawn. There is an aspect of exile in God Himself, in His self-contraction and withdrawal, and also in the entrapment of the Sparks of the divine light within the evil dimension of the Shells of the broken vessels. This emphasis on exile spoke to a ready audience of those who were living in the shadow of exile, after the expulsions from the Iberian peninsula.

Lurianic Kabbalah embraced the immanence of God, whose light fills all worlds, yet it gave a new importance to the transcendence of God whose essence surrounds all worlds, having withdrawn in the cosmic act of tzimtzum.

Antinomian Messianism

The approach of Lurianic Kabbalah to the role which individuals play in bringing about the era of the Messiah led to a crisis in the seventeenth century in the form of a Messianic movement which grew up around a young Kabbalist Shabbetai Tzvi (1626–76), who lived in the Ottoman Empire. Shabbetai was proclaimed the Messiah, and the news spread throughout the Jewish world. Many of his supporters were eminent Kabbalists and scholars, yet this mystically inspired Messianism also led to an upsurge in popular enthusiasm. Ordinary folk began to see visions, to prophesy and to speak in tongues. The opposition to Shabbetai increased greatly when he was forcibly converted to Islam in 1666, although believers in him interpreted this as an aspect of the process of tikkun, redeeming the holy Sparks trapped within Islam.

Freedom from the constraints of Jewish law (halakhah) was characteristic of many of the surviving Shabbatean groups. These were led by charismatic Kabbalists, some of whom claimed to be Messianic figures or even divine incarnations. They were severely condemned by the Rabbinic establishment, who tried to limit the unbridled use of Kabbalah and of Messianism. The Shabbatean Movement brought home to its critics the dangers inherent in Kabbalah, which set up its own basis of authority in the inspiration which individuals claimed came directly from a heavenly source.

Chasidic Mysticism

The post-Shabbatean period was one of chaos for followers of Kabbalah, since many were suspected of Shabbatean sympathies. This was the fate of the Chasidic Movement, founded by Israel ben Eliezer Baal Shem Tov (1700-60), known by an acronym of his title as ‘the Besht’. His teachings were developed and spread by his followers among the Jews of the Ukraine, Poland and White Russia. Although we know more about the Chasidic Movement than about any of the mystical movements in Judaism that preceded it, detailed knowledge of the life and times of the Besht are surrounded by the legends that his followers told about him long after his death.

Like Luria the Besht wrote little and yet was able to inspire a generation of disciples who interpreted his teachings in a variety of different ways. He based his teachings on the Zohar and the Lurianic corpus, but legend tells that he too had access to handwritten anonymous Kabbalistic texts. His earthly teachers in Kabbalah are unknown but he was instructed from the other world by the biblical prophet Ahijah the Shilonite, who himself was the teacher of Elijah according to the Rabbinic view.

The Besht and his disciples used all the rich imagery of the Zohar and the Lurianic tradition, but rejected the extreme asceticism associated with Luria’s teaching. Their emphasis was on the immanence of God, hiding within the world. At the core was the idea that if God is indeed everywhere, then He can always be found, and there is nowhere that man can hide from Him, no area which is ultimately profane rather than holy. Man’s devotion to God, known as cleaving to God (devekut), takes place not only in following religious precepts but in all walks of life. The highest point of this devotion involves the act of unifying God, bringing together the lower and upper world, and fostering unity of the masculine and feminine elements within the divine and human worlds.

Much of Chasidic teaching was oral, delivered by Chasidic masters at gatherings of disciples and edited afterwards by devoted followers. It thus often takes the form of extended sermons. Some of the literature was penned by Chasidic scholars interweaving Kabbalistic and halakhic themes. The wider Chasidic community told stories about their wonder-working rabbis (known as ‘Rebbes’), which were collected in hagiographical anthologies. It was through these stories, and the messages they contained, that Chasidic teaching was conveyed to the masses.

In its origins Chasidism was something of a rebel movement, and its adherents were ostracized by other East European Jews, Kabbalists and non-Kabbalists alike. It was criticized by the religious establishment, and suspected of being a renewal of Shabbateanism. This was because there were similarities between the two groups, particularly in the Chasidic belief in great-souled men, the Chasidic Rebbe or Tzaddik, who act as intermediaries between man and God.

Chasidic emphasis on the immanence of God clashed with the rigid structures of Jewish religion, where there is a clear separation between the holy and the profane. In the pre-Chasidic period Lurianic Kabbalah, particularly its Messianism, had sometimes led mystics away from the norms of Rabbinic Judaism. There was a danger that serving God through everyday activities would have the same effects, since Chasidism promoted serving God in joy, through pipe smoking, alcohol, dancing and singing. Its masters replied that since God could be found everywhere, therefore He could be served in every way. The saying found in the Tikkunei Zohar, ‘There is no place empty of Him’ (Tikkun 70:122b), was widely quoted in Chasidic writings. God may have withdrawn from the world in the act of tzimtzum, but that withdrawal was not God’s absence, rather it was God hiding within the world. The very thoughts of man partake of the divine, so for the early Chasidic masters strange thoughts of lust and covetousness could be raised back to God. Wherever one is there God is, and one can attach oneself to Him. The light of the Infinite Godhead shines even in the darkest abyss, and the life force of God is to be found in the Shells themselves.

For the Zohar, Lurianic Kabbalah and Chasidism a balance had to be maintained between the experience of divine transcendence and of the immanence of God. Although the belief that true service of God cannot be limited by laws is found among some Chasidic thinkers, the movement maintained a respectful attitude to the halakhah. It eventually became a central part of the Orthodox establishment, and helped preserve both traditional Judaism and the continuity of Jewish mysticism in the age of Enlightenment rationalism.

MODERN TIMES

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when the Jewish Enlightenment swept through Jewish communities in Central Europe, many Jews reinterpreted their Judaism in a non-mystical way. This was particularly true of Reformers, but even some Orthodox thinkers, who sought to recreate Judaism in a modern image, avoided any reference to Kabbalah. They regarded it as a cumbersome dimension of the religion, too close to superstition, and referred to it as ‘magical mechanism’ (Samson Raphael Hirsch, ‘The Nineteen Letters on Judaism’, Eighteenth Letter, p. 122).

The situation began to change in the latter part of the twentieth century when, partly through the enthusiastic work of the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber (1878–1965), people rediscovered the romance of the Chasidic outlook. The academic rediscovery of Kabbalah also took place around this time after Gershom Scholem (1897–1982), a professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, expounded the message of the Zohar and of Lurianic Kabbalah in a scholarly context, not only making Kabbalah academically respectable, but making it intellectually comprehensible to the non-mystic.

Today Jewish mysticism has begun to find its rightful place in the hearts and minds of many Jews and Gentiles. Contemporary interest is in line with the New Age recognition of the limits of rationality, and disenchantment with traditional religions. There has also been a renewed interest in the occult which has led to a positive evaluation of Kabbalah. Its universal elements have been found attractive by Jews and non-Jews, and it is currently studied and esteemed even outside of the framework of Jewish religion.

Kabbalah has also attracted the interest of women who, paradoxically given the emphasis on the feminine side of God in Kabbalah, made little contribution to the Jewish mystical tradition in the past. Among the few records we have of female mystics are those of women speaking in tongues, prophesying ecstatically and even leading sectarian groups during the Shabbatean Movement and its aftermath. The position of women as wives and mothers, in a patriarchal society, partly explains their absence from any roles as Kabbalists. They were not encouraged to engage in the profound study of Judaism, let alone Kabbalah, and male Kabbalists were not able to maintain close contact with them as students.

There are few accounts of exceptional women engaging in Kabbalistic studies. One consists of legends about a female Chasidic leader Hannah Rachel Werbemacher (1805–92), who was known as the Maid of Ludmir. She claimed that she was granted a new and higher soul, and taught her followers in the Ukraine from behind a modest barrier separating her from her male disciples. When she was persuaded that she should marry, it seems her public teaching role ended. Unfortunately none of her Kabbalistic teachings has survived.

Traditional Kabbalists, who are generally very conservative, regard modern interest in Kabbalah with suspicion. The classical texts focus on the almost exclusive role of Israel in the redemptive process, and any universal elements are set in a highly exclusive framework. Involvement with Kabbalah was considered dangerous in the past, and it is not considered a subject for Jewish, or non-Jewish, dilettantes, or for women, today. In the Middle Ages the study of Kabbalah was discouraged till a man reached the age of forty, which in Jewish terms is the age of understanding. It was also not supposed to be taught to someone who was not yet married, and to those who had not ‘filled their stomach with the bread and wine’ of Jewish religious teaching (Shulchan Arukh YD 246:5). Despite these caveats some Chasidic and non-Chasidic groups today do believe in the active promotion of Kabbalistic teaching to everyone. One branch of the followers of Rabbi Ashlag, calling itself ‘The Kabbalah Centre’ and led by Rabbi Philip Berg, has set up Kabbalah Centres throughout the world, for Jews and Gentiles alike, attracting famous people. Berg, however, has not won the support of more traditional followers of Ashlag or of the religious establishment. The teachings of his ‘Kabbalah Centre’ have been condemned as more cult than Kabbalah.

The Chabad/Lubavitch Chasidic subgroup teaches its version of Kabbalah to young and old. This practice has been somewhat controversial but has been eclipsed by condemnation of Chabad for its recent Messianism. Some Chabad adherents believe that their previous Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneersohn (1902– 94), will come back from the dead as the Messiah. A minority of them even believe that the Rebbe never really died but went into hiding, or that he was an incarnation, in purely Kabbalistic terms, of aspects of the divine. These claims have been criticized as negating Jewish teaching.