What is Kabbalah?

thanks to the great courses plus for supporting this episode go to thegreatcoursesplus.com religion for breakfast to check out their huge library of lectures and courses taught by top-notch scholars in their fields kabbalah sometimes anglicized as kabbalah is often defined as jewish mysticism but it's one of those concepts that's not only difficult to define but constantly exoticized and stereotyped for example the pop star madonna embedded kabbalistic imagery into her 2002 music video for the james bond film die another day which we'll examine later in this video generally speaking though mysticism refers to an experiential spiritual endeavor to encounter or invoke the divine in this world so this would include religious experiences of the divine like ecstatic visions rituals to try to access divine presence or to trigger transformative inner experiences mysticism can also refer to works of literature related to these themes and though many kabbalists could be described as ecstatic visionaries the earliest kabbalists were jewish teachers theologians and philosophers most were the educated elite of medieval europe living in spain and france writing new and innovative studies on jewish texts and concepts about mystical contemplation of the divine realms the nature of god the purpose of humanity and the creation of the universe the hebrew word kabbalah derives from the verb to receive and could be translated as that which has been received or simply tradition the scholar joseph dan writes that kabbalah is thus a claim by jewish spiritualists from the middle ages to this day that they received a tradition that was held secret for many centuries secret or hidden wisdom that they believed was originally passed down to moses at mount sinai and transmitted through the centuries to medieval kabbalists kabbalah should not be described as a distinct branch of judaism in the same way that we talk about conservative judaism or orthodox judaism or reconstructionist judaism nor should it be defined as a unified or coherent system but rather traditions encompassing several modes of reading a library of texts a series of concepts and a range of practices within judaism that is concerned with mystical contemplation there's a lot to cover so let's get into it first the origins of kabbalah kabbalah emerged in southern europe in the 12th century in several major centers of learning including provence and southern france and areas on the iberian peninsula including girona and the region of castile but jewish mysticism has a long history that stretches back hundreds of years before this you can find mystical texts in the hebrew bible itself such as the book of ezekiel or the vision of the prophet isaiah when he beholds the throne room of god surrounded by divine beings called seraphim crying out holy holy holy then we have the so-called hekalo literature and the merkava literature together these include a few dozen jewish mystical texts stretching from the second temple period all the way through the late antique period these texts focus on the creation of the universe and journeys into the heavens to reveal the structure of the divine realms there's also late antique jewish magical texts like the seifer harzim the book of secrets which describes among other things how to conduct magical incantations using the names of angels but despite this rich body of jewish mystical texts scholars do not consider them to be kabbalistic texts according to gershom shalem the father of the modern academic study of kabbalah the first true work of kabbalah is probably the safer habba here which dates to the late 12th century scholars argue that the bahir is the earliest kabbalistic text because it introduces three new ideas into jewish mysticism that almost all later kabbalists adopted number one the idea that the divine world is composed of ten divine powers known in later texts as spirot number two the idea that one of the divine powers is feminine which formally introduces the idea of gender dualism into later kabbalah and number three the idea that the divine powers can be described with the allegory of a tree you've probably seen schematic drawings of this tree around the internet if you've done even a cursory study into kabbalah the bahir was not created in a vacuum though it reworks proto-kabbalistic ideas found in earlier books such as the safer yetzera which was probably composed sometime in the late antique period we're really not sure but by the 10th century jewish scholars were writing all sorts of commentaries on this book the safer yetzera laid out the groundwork for kabbalistic speculation about the 10 divine powers or emanations called spirot as well as the mystical meaning of numbers and hebrew letters both topics we'll return to shortly so the general takeaways for the origins of kabbalah kabbalah emerged in the 12th and 13th centuries in southwestern europe following the appearance of the bahir several circles of kabbalistic teachers and mystics emerged including around isaac the blind and provence nakhmanides and girona and abraham abbalafia in the region of castile who was known for experiential ecstatic kabbalah each and every one of these men deserve their own thorough going examinations but in general all of them were participating in a scholarly endeavor writing commentaries on the torah essays on rabbinic law sharing prayer techniques and sermons in other words they were writing the same sort of genres that jewish writers were making for centuries it's not like there was an official division between kabbalistic texts on one hand and non-kabbalistic texts on the other hand the scholar of kabbalah dr joseph dan argues that these three components that i mentioned earlier are generally useful for identifying a work as being part of kabbalah but here i'll add the disclaimer that this is not a perfect rubric because kabbalah is so diverse there's almost always an exception but let's turn to some of the most prominent ideas first one of the main ideas shared by almost all kabbalists is the concept of ain sof literally translated as no end or infinite we can think of anesoph as an infinite and personal god or supreme entity that we cannot describe with our own human faculties in the words of the medieval french rabbi isaac the blind ainsof is that which is not conceivable by thinking to use an example from astrophysics aimsoff is kind of like dark matter it's a placeholder for something we just cannot perceive ourselves with our own senses ain sof is important not just because it illustrates how mystics viewed god but also how they viewed the universe the great 16th century kabbalist isaac luria developed a theory of cosmogeny or in other words an explanation for the beginning of the universe and he based it on ain sofe calling it sim sum translated as contraction his theory of simpson goes something like this first in the beginning there was only a sof ainsof then contracted leaving a space in which our world developed this means that our world only occupies a small portion of the universe between ain sof and our world though there are things called sphyrot which i mentioned in the earlier discussion about the book bahir now it's impossible to define spirot because kabbalists throughout time have held many different ideas about them but some think of them as layers of existence ten divine powers or emanations of ain soof that are ordered in a hierarchy that together represent the power of the godhead like i said earlier you've probably seen depictions of the ten spirot since they're often portrayed as a tree or corresponding to different parts of the human body some scholars would say that the concept of spherot is the clearest indication of a kabbalistic worldview if a text mentions the spherote it's a pretty safe assumption that it relies on kabbalistic tradition though again there are always exceptions we can think of this we wrote as divine intermediaries between us and the ultimate unknowable godhead the one at the top is the closest to ainsof and the one at the bottom called the shkina is the one that we humans most intimately interact with the divine power closest to the material created world interestingly the spheroid are gendered kabbalists conceived of the shekinah as feminine and often described as god's bride each of the spherote is male or female but most have both male and female parts and each one can be male in relation to one and female in relation to the other this gendering of the godhead gives us a look into another important part of kabbalah sexuality the best example of this comes in the most important book in all of kabbalah the zohar or the book of radiance one scholar of kabbalah calls the zohar the highest expression of jewish literary imagination in the middle ages it's considered by many the core text of kabbalah and although i call it a book the zohar really should be described as a body of literature the stanford university press translation and commentary of the zohar required 12 volumes to publish it so yeah it's not a book in the strictest sense of the word the zohar emerged in the 13th century from castile one of the major centers of kabbalah most critical scholars today agree that it was composed by a rabbi named moses de leon de leon wrote it in a distinct dialect of aramaic mixed with hebrew and he framed the text as being written in the 2nd century by its main character shimon bar a real historical sage living in the second century many orthodox jews today maintain that it was written by shimon bar yochai himself the zohar is primarily a commentary on the torah but it reads somewhat like a mystical novel in the book shimon bar yochai travels with his disciples around the galilee meeting different characters learning and sharing mystical teachings the zohar develops many of the major themes of kabbalah including the gendering of both the spherote and the mystic's ultimate mission the connection between spherot becomes erotic some are givers some are receptors and the mystics ultimate mission is to initiate an erotic marriage between god and the shekinah even the search for mystical knowledge becomes sexualized in the zohar in one romantic passage based on the intensely erotic song of songs a man passes by the house of a female lover who is a metaphor for the torah the man waits time and time again for the woman to reveal herself to him fully the text says hence the torah is revealed and concealed and lovingly goes to its lover to arouse love with him this passage is an analogy for how some jewish mystics view kabbalistic practice the kabbalist peels back layers upon layers of understanding until the most hidden and therefore most holy knowledge of the scripture reveals itself one way to describe this layered approach of the torah is through an acronym called pardes which means orchard in this acronym each hebrew letter stands for a different level of meaning we won't get into what each letter stands for but the last letter sonic stands for sod which means secret soda refers to the ultimate esoteric knowledge that every kabbalist seeks kabbalists try to reach sod through the text literally the 22 hebrew letters biblical passages and hebrew names of god are central to kabbalah for kabbalists hebrew is a divine language and the torah is a living divine document the school of the kabbalist abraham abhilafiya believed that each letter has mystical meaning writing or chanting letters in specific ways brings them to life or can help you achieve communion with the divine abelafia wrote when you begin to recite the letter aleph since aleph points to the secret of unity do not lengthen its recitation except according to the measure of one breath enchant the aleph and every letter you recite with terror awe and fear coupled with the gladness of the soul in its comprehension which is great from this quotation you can see how meditation on the letters was experiential it was a technique involving breathing and head movements and meditating not just on the meaning of the letters but the sound of the letters even with years of study or practice and chanting like from the passage above secret mystical knowledge is nearly impossible to gain the prophet ezekiel is held up as an example in the first chapter of the book of ezekiel often called the merkava vision we see a strange description of creatures and chariots that later kabbalists viewed as evidence that ezekiel actually attained sowed but testimonials of visions like this are relatively uncommon in kabbalah in fact many kabbalistic circles prohibited describing visions for fear that revealing secret knowledge could be catastrophic to the wider world thus many kabbalistic circles in the middle ages were made up of small groups of elite rabbis and intellectuals that were already well known in the community a crisis in the 15th century moved the center of gravity for kabbalistic teachings eastward although the iberian peninsula was for a long time a major hub for kabbalah it came to an end when the spanish and portuguese christian monarchies expelled or forcibly converted the jewish communities in their territories those who fled settled primarily in eastern europe and the ottoman empire leading to new centers of kabbalah the town of said in the upper galilee region became one of these hubs the rabbi isaac luria also called the ari moved from jerusalem to safety in 1570 and formed a group of disciples who went on to revolutionize kabbalistic teachings he confronted head-on some of the biggest philosophical questions you could possibly imagine why does anything exist instead of nothing why does god exist why does evil exist what is our purpose as humans here on earth he put forth revolutionary new theories like the one we already discussed his creation of the universe theory called symtom about how the universe was created by ainsof contracting what was so transgressive about this theory is that he argued this process of creation actually damaged creation and introduced evil thus the purpose of existence is to repair this flaw through human action or tikkun olam which translates as repairing the world luria's kabbalah inspired several movements in the following centuries especially a movement founded by a ukrainian man who rocked the world of kabbalah and all of eastern european judaism rabbi israel ben eliezer or the balshem tov in the early 18th century he jump-started what is now known as the hasidic movement a movement that quickly spread across eastern europe the balshem tov disagreed with the idea that mysticism should be reserved for the intelligentsia and instead taught that everyone should try to commune with god hasidism taught that communion with god or knowledge of the divine was possible even for the masses during ordinary everyday life especially through prayer another core change that hasadism makes to traditional kabbalah is the notion of divine transcendence which teaches that god is wholly outside our universe hasidism by contrast professes that god has an imminent quality meaning that god is present in our world and that we can climb toward communion through our everyday life through everyday actions hasidism is still thriving today and exemplifies modern jewish mysticism and practice now i should be clear hasidism is not synonymous with kabbalah it does include mystical practices and beliefs but it's much more than that in fact if you read the holocaust testimonial night by elie wiesel you can clearly see a distinction in the book ellie describes how he grew up in a romanian hasidic community but throughout the book he mentions that kabbalah is a supplement to usual religious study of the torah and the talmud today scholars generally categorize hacidism under the broader category of haredi jews often called ultra-orthodox jews but the two are not synonymous okay now that we've covered all of that background what's the deal with madonna and here we turn to what i'm going to call pop kabbalah but it's worth mentioning that stricter adherents would not even call this kabbalah in the first place throughout the 20th century kabbalah hit the mainstream in pop culture one big neo-kabbalistic movement is the kabbalah center in the united states whose members included celebrities like madonna britney spears ariana grande and ashton kutcher started by philip berg and his wife kerenberg in 1984 the center sought to popularize and spread kabbalistic teachings even outside of judaism madonna became one of their most famous adherents and that's why we get her james bond music video during the video she is being tortured in a north korean bunker of some sort which is featured in the film itself she is depicted wrapping her arm with tefillin and at the end the hebrew letters lamid alef vav are burned onto the electric chair where they were just trying to kill madonna these letters are from one of the 72 names of god according to jewish tradition a tradition that became especially popular among medieval kabbalists and are mentioned in the here and used in kabbalistic magical practice though her performance sparked controversy in part because most within the orthodox jewish community viewed a non-jewish woman wearing to fill in as sacrilegious or at least viewed it unfavorably other movements of modern jewish mysticism have also sprung up in the past century and a half the neo-hasidic movement and other revival movements have sought to reimagine mystical doctrine for a modern era some have even likened mystical experiences to the effects of psychedelic drugs the jewish scholar and leader of neo-hacidism arthur greene shared one of his psychedelic experiences in one of his books as one who tried psychedelics after some years of studying the kabbalistic and hasidic masters i found that the drug-induced experiences confirmed a great deal of what i found in their writings though he warns that such a path should never replace traditional mystical practices from throughout kabbalah's history overall one thing that kabbalah teaches is a different way to use the mind kabbalah breaks its students out of a strictly logical way of thinking and pushes them to uncover new modes of contemplation it's a powerful tradition that has survived for many centuries in esoteric circles but shows no indication of slowing down here in the 21st century for those of you who would like to learn more i'm including a bibliography in the description below and you could also check out today's sponsor the great courses plus the great courses plus is a subscription video learning service with lectures and courses taught by actual experts and when it comes to content about religion in general and judaism in particular the great courses plus has a very impressive lineup including a 24 episode long series on jewish intellectual history this one is taught by the ivy league historian dr david rudderman the great courses plus also has a general overview of judaism with the scholar isaiah gaffney as well as an archaeology of the holy land series taught by the archaeologist jody magnus i've met her personally her books were assigned in my graduate level courses during my phd so i can say that these series draw on peer-reviewed scholarship all of them are taught by top-tier scholars in their respective disciplines but no tests no homework you can watch as many different lectures as you want anytime anywhere the great courses plus is offering religion for breakfast viewers a free trial just go to thegreatcoursesplus.com religion for breakfast through your subscription you gain access to their huge library of video lectures that you can stream from any device click on the link in the description below to start your free trial today thanks everyone

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Length: 19min 59sec (1199 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 24 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/sirbuttmuchIV]

Just watch Evangelion

[u/Greg_Alpacca]

Such a cool literary device honestly

[u/ClarkTwain]

It feels like a weird coincidence that I watched Pi last night and now this pops up.

[u/Snotmyrealname]

Thank you!