Why Would Anyone Want to Study
Kabbalah?
By Rabbi Barry Leff
Madonna, Britney Spears, Demi Moore, Paris Hilton, and Marla Maples all
study Kabbalah. What’s the fascination? What’s it all about?
I can’t speak to what Madonna and Britney Spears are studying—it’s a sort of
“New Age” Kabbalah, where “malchut,” which means “kingdom” gets translated
as “the Age of Aquarius.”
But the real deal—authentic Kabbalah—is a 2,000 plus year old Jewish way of
approaching and understanding God. Study of Kabbalah was once limited to men
over the age of 40 who were married and had a very solid grounding of
knowledge in Torah and Talmud. There were two reasons for this: 1) Kabbalah
includes some exotic and esoteric ideas which could conceivably lead an
ignorant person to heresy; and 2) at its heart, Kabbalah was really meant as
a way to bring deeper spirituality and a deeper connection to God in the
performance of mitzvot. It was assumed that the follower of Kabbalah was
observant—studying the teachings of Kabbalah was a way to bring a greater
sense of connection to God into one’s pre-existing spiritual practice. To
the Kabbahlists of old, to study Kabbalah without being an observant Jew
would be like reading a cookbook but never making a meal.
But times and the world change. Many Jews are exposed to all sorts of once
esoteric ideas from different traditions—Buddhism, Hinduism, paganism. Jews
who have explored those traditions wondered whether we have mystical ideas
in Judaism. We do have those mystical ideas and concepts within Kabbalah.
Instead of being a way to deepen an existing spiritual practice, for many
Jews Kabbalah has become a way in—a way to find a concept of God that opens
the door to taking on a spiritual practice filled with mitzvot and good
deeds.
The major texts in Kabbalah were written over a period of more than a
thousand years stretching from the 2nd century to the 16th century. They are
mostly written in Aramaic, and even when translated into English, they can
be hard to make sense of without a good explanation of the fundamental
concepts.
There are two major types of Kabbalah, and a few minor ones. The two major
types are ecstatic and theosophic. Ecstatic Kabbalah, as typified by the
approach of Abraham Abulafia of the 13th century, seeks to achieve knowledge
of God through mystical union, typically brought on by specialized types of
meditation. Theosophic Kabbalah, such as the Lurianic school which developed
in Israel in the 16th century, seeks to understand God and the Universe in a
more rational sort of way, and to apply that knowledge to our performance of
mitzvot.
Kabbalah presents teachings which are of profound importance. Kabbalah
teaches that Man is God’s partner in bringing about the repair or healing of
the world. Kabbalah teaches that God and the Universe are so closely bound
together that in essence our actions ARE God’s actions. The things we do in
this world have an impact on worlds beyond us, and that impact is
communicated through what Kabbalah calls angels (but forget the wings and
halos). I once saw a sign outside a church which read “God doesn’t care what
your opinion is.” Kabbalah says the exact opposite: God DOES care what your
opinion is. What’s more, your actions of cosmic importance.
For many years, Kabbalah, with its mystical approach, was out of favor in
the Jewish mainstream. Heavily influenced by the Haskalah, the
Enlightenment, Jews favored more rational and intellectual approaches to
God. Kabbalah and mysticism were denigrated as illogical and superstitious.
But many people today find a strictly intellectual approach to God too
sterile. It fails to engage the neshamah, the soul. So Kabbalah is enjoying
a resurgence as Jews and people of other faiths as well turn to the mystical
wisdom of Kabbalah as a path for connecting with God.
No longer restricted to Talmud scholars over 40, there are books and
teachings which make Kabbalah much more accessible to a general audience. On
Tuesday nights from January 24 through May 9 at 7:30pm I will be teaching an
Introduction to Kabbalah class called “Koffee and Kabbalah” at the Brewed
Awakenings Coffee Shop on Central near Douglas. The class is free and open
to the public. We will be studying Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz’s classic text on
Kabbalah, “The Thirteen Petaled Rose.” I hope you can join us.
