Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Why is Kabbalah popular? The allure of allegory.

Aryeh Tepper wrote an article for Jewish Ideas Daily called Kabbalah and its Discontents (link), while Jameel reports that Ashton Kutcher dipped 151 times in a mikvah in Gush Etzion (what would he have done if he dipped 152 by mistake?) which got me thinking about the perennial popularity of Kabbalah by esoteric-wisdom seekers in all ages.

In Rabbi Berel Wein's Herald of Destiny: the story of the Jews in the medieval era , 750-1650 (pg. 237-38) in a section called The Influence of Kabbalah we read:
The spread of Kabbalah was not restricted to the Jewish people. During the Renaissance, Christian scholars exhibited great interest in Kabbalah. . . . Thus Kabbalah became a dominant strain of thought in Protestantism in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. . .

33 . . . For reasons undiscernible to later generations, early Protestantism was convinced that Kabbalah would vindicate the truths of its version of Christianity.
Actually there's nothing undiscernible [sic] about it. It is precisely for the same reason that Kabbalah so frustrates pashtanim: it's very congenial for making stuff up. Or to put it another way -

The Catholic mystic William Postel (whom I blogged about here, who was partially responsible for the very first printing of the Zohar) published a Kabbalistic broadsheet which he called אור נרות המנורה. Postel:



Here is the heading of אור נרות המנורה:



And here are the opening words:



There you have it: התורה כלה היא סוד ודרך משל מהדברי' העליונים כאשר נגלה ונראה למרע"ה בהר סיני. The Torah is entirely a mystery and allegory consisting of esoteric matters revealed to and by Moses at Sinai. This is the crux of the matter.

20 comments:

  1. >This is the crux of the matter.

    Are you sure that this is the issue? What you write is sufficient to explain the popularity of pop-kabbalah. But what we have seen since the post-wissenschaft 20th century is the interest of the intellectual community in kabbalah. I am not just talking about Scholem and his students. kabbalistic themes are pretty common in almost every Jewish denominational group today.

    In fact, the only active Jewish groups which still have very negative attitudes towards kabbalah are either anti-religious in general or orthodox rationalists and academics which are embarrassed by the superstition caused by the spread of pop-kabbalah.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm talking about popular kabbalah of the sort that sees kabbalah as secret wisdom with answers. Intellectual students of kabbalah may find much wisdom in kabbalah, but they don't see it as actual secret wisdom which they get to tap into.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think you have to expand upon this post. Here are some other reasons for the popularity of kaballah in previous times.


    1. It opened up "learning" or pseudo-learning, to the masses. Kabballah is basically a license to say whatever you want, however riddiculous, and no one can challenge you if you say it's a "sod" or "al pi kaballah". As you say, its congenial for making things up. That is why today, when everybody goes to yeshivah, kaballah is not so popular anymore.

    2. It gave meaning to being in exile, at least the sheviras hakelim and kelipos ideas. [R. Berel Wein also points this out somewheres.]

    DF

    ReplyDelete
  4. In the last volume of the Pachad Yitzchak there is a rant from an editor against the Ramchal. I don't have it in front of me and it does not seem to be in the Hebrewbooks.org version. In it he talks about a former Talmid who was shmad and brought 10 "proofs" from the zohar for Shilush (I believe they are there.). Frank SR'Y was the 2nd coming of Shabtzi Zvi.

    As an aside There was a feature in the Yated which mentioned the blog as as one his sources. An alias and choice of material might provide you with a wider audience. (I didn't think it was written by you)

    Midwest

    ReplyDelete
  5. DF, Well of course it requires expansion.

    Speaking of "al pi kabbalah," on a certain email list right now the following is being discussed: some people expressed surprise that the halacha is that klaf can be made from tahor animals which did not die from shechita. Talk about counter-intuitive, if you didn't already know that! Some others pointed out that nevertheless there is a "hiddur" to use only kosher slaughtered animals to make klaf. Someone else challenged the notion, opining that something you can't see can't be more mehudar (beautiful). The response is "It has more kedusha. Of course its more mehudar."

    I believe the source of this idea is in a maaseh rav of the Rema mi-fano that he had a Torah written from such klaf. Now since it's al pi kabbalah, you can't say "this isn't a thing ("inyan")." You're supposed to just agree that it is, even though the Gemara and poskim who also knew how to write a kosher Torah scroll and tefillin never required it.

    And in fact this sort of thing is bad news economically, because think of how much more expensive such sifrei Torah necessarily must be. And who that is chareid le-devar Hashem would want a sefer Torah that isn't so mehudar? So here you have, potentially, another pure waste of money. If the Rema mi-fano had a private practice then he did.

    Since I'm on my soapbox, I recently read a comment by Rabbi Dovid Cohen to the effect that about half the slaughtered cows are glatt.

    http://www.kashrut.com/articles/gelatin_revisited/

    Nice, so with all our financial woes as a community we just through half the kosher beef into the toilet (okay, sell them cheaper). Brilliant, we are.

    Midwest, thanks. I was cited in the Yated twice recently. The first time was a surprise. So was the second, albeit the author of the article (who publishes it under a pseudonym, as I now realize) asked me permission if he may use some of my sources in an article he was writing, and kach hava.

    Honestly, when it comes to things like attacking historical figures, there is what to say but really if you dig deeply you can also drag many of the "niglah" people through the dirt, and what do you accomplish? I am all for putting things into context - for example, I wish people would realize that R Nosson Adler, the heilige rebbe of the Chasam Sofer was banned for his failure to conform with Daas Torah and so forth, and his rehabilitation as a major tzaddik was mainly because his talmidim grew up into big people. But maybe that doesn't mean that RNA was a bad guy - maybe persecution is what's not so good.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Do you know which volume of the Pachad Yitzchak it was in? Volume 9?

    ReplyDelete
  7. >But maybe that doesn't mean that RNA was a bad guy - maybe persecution is what's not so good.

    Do you think that anyone would have batted an eyelash if he was active about 200 miles east of frankfurt? The Gra had very similar positions to those of RNA but he lived in vilna, not ashkenaz and therefore became a hero. RNA was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

    ReplyDelete
  8. >Now since it's al pi kabbalah, you can't say "this isn't a thing ("inyan")." You're supposed to just agree that it is

    I agree with your consternation regarding this type of phenomenon but "al pi kabbalah" is not the only source of such religious behavior. I am not even sure if it is the biggest one. I would argue that the brisker/mishne brurah "satisfy all opinions" approach is far more guilty. When you look of the major humras of the recent past. Hadash in Chu"l, Rabbeinu Tam zemanim LeHumra, Glatt meat for ashkenazim, Glatt poultry(!), Pas Palter during the 10 days. All these behaviors exist and are justified by those who practice completely independent of "al pi kabbalah".

    I think we have a wider phenomenon in which the pop-kabbalah crowd are but one component. In nigla and in nistar, the average hareidi "ben Torah" approaches texts not as something that must be analyzed but rather as "shitos" all of which are at their core justified independent of their arguments or validity (either their historical importance or the quality of the analysis). When texts shift from being potential sources of wisdom to being inherently authoritative, then you get the situation we have today.

    ReplyDelete
  9. > "Jameel reports that Ashton Kutcher dipped 151 times in a mikvah. 151 is the numerical equivalent "gematriya" of "Mikva. What would he have done if he dipped 152 by mistake"

    Technically speaking, the article said, "(he) even dipped in a local natural spring "Mikva" no less than 151 times!"

    If he had dipped 152 times, well of course, that's the gematria of ביצים. Depending on how cold the water was... Oh, never mind.

    Phil

    ReplyDelete
  10. Fred:

    "on a certain email list right"

    which list

    ReplyDelete
  11. Chardal

    >Do you think that anyone would have batted an eyelash if he was active about 200 miles east of frankfurt? The Gra had very similar positions to those of RNA but he lived in vilna, not ashkenaz and therefore became a hero. RNA was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

    It's like that with many - not all - such cases. I'm not saying the Frankists could have done alright in another place (or should have). Here's a quote I like from Rabbi Bernard Drachman's autobiography The Unfailing Light, concerning his trip to Galicia in the 1880s (during the time he was studying in the JTS at Breslau). In Lemberg, he writes (pg. 140) about how many Jews there dressed in modern fashion, as opposed to the other parts of Galicia. "Many of those who no longer wore the traditional Jewish attire were otherwise strictly observant. In any other country they would have been considered shining examples of Jewish Orthodoxy; here, however, they were under the shadow of non-conformity." (emph. mine).

    ReplyDelete
  12. cont.

    Since I'm quoting him, here's another passage, relevant to the topic and also to our own time of year (pg. 137-8):

    "A few minutes later the doors of the station were opened and the people entered the train. I found a seat in a section where a group of Galician co-religionists were already seated. Hardly had the train begun to move than my fellow travelers donned their tallithoth and tephillin and began to chant the morning service. I did not do so as, in accordance with my custom, I had already performed my devotions in the hotel. No on paid any attention to me. They evidently considered, since I was dressed in Occidental costume, that I was either a Gentile or a Deitsch (German) a recreant Jew who had adopted the customs of Germany and the Western world and was no longer to be counted among the faithful of Israel. But something occurred which called their attention to me quote strongly and sharply. It was the month of Elul when, in accordance with Jewish precept and in spiritual preparation for the solemn days of the New Year and Atonement Day, the Twenty-seventh Psalm is added to the daily service. Strange to say, my pious co-religionists omitted it. Noticing the omission and not averse to showing that one not of their sacred circle might also know something of Jewish things, I gave my neighbor, a fully costumed and bearded individual, a not very gentle poke in the ribs. Startled, he turned to me and demanded, "Wus willt Ihr?" (What do you want?)

    "My friend," I answered, "you have forgotten something."

    "What?"

    "You have forgotten to say the Twenty-seventh Psalm. Do you not know that it is the month of Elul, in which we must recite the Twenty-seventh Psalm morning and evening?"

    He glared at me for a moment and then said, "Takke emess" (That is really true). Turning to his neighbor, he communicated to him what I had said. A moment later the entire group recited the psalm in unison. I then heard him say to his friends:

    "It is a shame and a disgrace that a Deitsch should have to remind us Galician Jews that we must say the Twenty-seventh Psalm. It is very nice of him to be so learned and pious and to remind us, but it is a disgrace for us to need to be reminded." Whereupon one of his comrades sagely remarked, "I will tell you something. A Deitscher Deitsch (a real German, one to the manner born) can be all right, but the Lord protect us from a Polish Deitsch!"


    >I agree with your consternation regarding this type of phenomenon but "al pi kabbalah" is not the only source of such religious behavior. I am not even sure if it is the biggest one. I would argue that the brisker/mishne brurah "satisfy all opinions" approach is far more guilty.

    >I think we have a wider phenomenon in which the pop-kabbalah crowd are but one component.

    I agree, but as you may have realized, this post was more about pop-kabbalah, and Christian kabbalah (and Rabbi Wein's failure to understand a very understandable thing). The "Al pi kabbalah" thing was the expanded discussion that resulted. I might even argue that part of the reason why the classical yeshivishe gedolim stay away from kabbalah is because they don't *want* to have to take heed of such things, and their satisfy-all-shitos approach would require them to, if they paid attention to it. Fortunately too there is a "What do I have to do with kabbalah?" tradition which they can rely on, which sounds like "Kabbalah is kadosh elyon, and us mere mortals can't hope to understand it," but equally may well mean "It's irrelevant."

    Phil,

    Very sharp indeed. ;-)

    LoZ

    Areivim.

    ReplyDelete
  13. why is learning about sepherot and the zimzum more interesting than the ox that gored the cow? Are you seriously asking this? Hey I am all for Gemara. But really kabalah is interesting and if you happen upon someone like the Arizal then you have a very profound powerful system.

    ReplyDelete
  14. >tradition which they can rely on, which sounds like "Kabbalah is kadosh elyon, and us mere mortals can't hope to understand it," but equally may well mean "It's irrelevant."

    It's a queue from the corporate world. There is two ways to deal with an incompetent employee. fire him or promote him to irrelevancy. You can't fire the kabbalah, but you can sure promote it. :)

    ReplyDelete
  15. >take a queue

    should be take a que. I have been programming way too much today. :)

    ReplyDelete
  16. Err, how about "take a cue"?
    I have been playing pool way too much today. :)
    Phil

    ReplyDelete
  17. I have to add a point. Kabbala is very integrative, which is the other side of the point that has been made above. As such, it is a perfect tool for bringing together all of one's knowledge in a single framework. That's why intelligent people are attracted to it.
    avakesh

    ReplyDelete
  18. דבר נפלא ראיתי בספר ראשית חכמה להגאון ראש לכל הצדיקים האמיתיים הוד כ"ק צי"ע מוהר"ר יוס"ף זצוקלל"ה וכן אמר, דהשותה י"ג בארילקיס יי"ש הוא ממתיקן, בחינת חסד, אותיות י"ש מספר ש"י אך הוא גימטריא קר"י ומהפכו ליק"ר, ומשם ויסב פניו אל הקי"ר, ומהפכו לרי"ק!

    ReplyDelete
  19. I appreciate the second gematria.

    ReplyDelete

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails
'