Friday: Hasidic Jews.
• P. 123-124
• MONDAY: HASKELAH ENLIGHTENMENT
– SPINOZA
– MENDELSSOHN
Kabbalah
Mysticism
• Hekhalot:
• Merkabah:
• Kabbalah:
“Palaces
“Chariot”
“Received” “tradition”
• Hasid:
“Pious” Baal Shem Tov.
2 Kings 2:9-12
• As they were going along and talking,
behold, there appeared a chariot of fire
and horses of fire which separated the two
of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind
to heaven. Elisha saw it and cried out, "My
father, my father, the chariots of Israel and
its horsemen!" And he saw Elijah no more.
Hebrew Bible. Ezekiel 1:1-17
• Now it came about in the thirtieth year, on the
fifth day of the fourth month, …, the heavens
were opened and I saw visions of God. … As
I looked, behold, a storm wind was coming
from the north, a great cloud with fire flashing
forth continually and a bright light around it,
and in its midst something like glowing metal
in the midst of the fire. Within it there were
figures resembling four living beings. …
Cont.
• In the midst of the living beings there was
something that looked like burning coals of fire,
like torches darting back and forth among the
living beings. … Now as I looked at the living
beings, behold, there was one wheel on the
earth beside the living beings, for each of the
four of them. The appearance of the wheels and
their workmanship was like sparkling beryl, and
all four of them had the same form, their
appearance and workmanship being as if one
wheel were within another.
Merkavah
“Chariot” Mysticism
• Early Rabbinic speculations on God’s
Throne / Chariot described in Bible.
• Early centuries C.E.
• Attempt to enter throne room.
3 Enoch
5-6 century C.E.
• “Enoch walked with God and he was not, for
God took him.” Rabbi Ishmael said:
When I ascended to the height to behold the
vision of the chariot, I entered 6 palaces, one
inside the other, and when I reached the door of
the 7th palace I paused in prayer before the Holy
One, blessed be he; Then I entered the 7th
palace and he led me to the camp of the
Shekinah and presented me before the throne of
Glory so that I might behold the chariot.
Fear and Fascination
• Rabbis restricted teaching of mysticism
• Best not to ask what is
before
• above
• below creation
b
…
Bavli: Chagigah 14b
• "Our masters taught: Four men entered
the Pardes ('Orchard' of mystical teachings),
Ben Azzai.. died,
Ben Zoma.. became demented,
Aher became a heretic.
Rabbi Akiva departed unhurt." -
Kabbalah
• Sephardic Medieval tradition
• Many books written
• Torah has many levels of meaning.
• Mystic wants uncover the deepest.
Lady torah
Torah “disrobes” before the mystic.
Superficial meanings
Midrashic meanings
Mystical meanings: the ultimate truth.
Rituals
• Link between human and divine realms.
• Ritual transforms reality:
• Sabbath: divine forces reunited
• Sabbath as bride of Israel
God:
Ein Sof
• Without End.
• God can only be described by what he is
NOT!
• How then, can one approach God?
Ascent and Decent
People must elevate themselves spiritually.
God has created the world in a series of 10
projections or “Emanations” of himself
Sefirah / Sefirot.
Mystic’s quest: self perfection to understand
the Sephirot
Feminization of God
• Different aspects of God are masc. and
feminine.
• Goal is unification with God.
Zohar “Book of Splendor”
• 13th Century
• Most important Kabbalah text
• Aramaic
• Commentary on Biblical readings.
Baal Shem Tov
• With the light created by God during the
six days of Creation, Adam could see from
one end of the world to the other. God hid
the light away for the righteous in the
hereafter. Where did he hide it? In the
Torah. So when I open Zohar, I see the
whole world.
Zohar
Sefirot
Sometimes likened
to a person
Unity of Tiferet &
Shekinah influenced
by human sin /
righteousness
“Garment of Torah”
• Physical torah not the real torah.
• Handout:
Kabbalah
• Magic
• Reincarnation
• Miracles
• Golem: artificial man.
Mysticism and Messiah
• Isaac Luria 1534-1572
• taught that a saintly teacher could redeem
a generation
• Revolutionary Messiah replaced by
Heroic messiah
Lurianic Kabalah
• Tzimzum:
Ein Sof (GOD)
contracts to open a space for creation
remnant of divine light remains
light preserved in jars.
Lurianic K.
• Breaking the vessels
Light cannot be contained.
Shards of vessels are root of evil
Light scattered and surrounded by
matter
Lurianic K.
• TIKKUN: Repair.
Rebuilding the primordial ADAM.
separating divine sparks from shards.
Obedience to torah etc:
elevating worlds to original purity
Luria:
Gradual redemption.
Acts of righteousness prepare the way for
Messiah
Jews have special obligation to help bring
Messiah
Breslauer, p. 100
• Torah a secret code
– Open to any interpretation outside of Oral Torah
• Prayer has magical power
– New prayers will replace the old
• Disorder is fundamental to nature
– Descent into disorder necessary to restore
cosmos
• Leader is essential to salvation.
– Small step to Messiah
1648 “Messiah will come…”
• Eastern European Kabbalists determined
that Messiah will come in 1648
1648-1649 Ukraine / Poland
• Slaughter
• Cossack rebellion
• 300,000 Jews left dead?
New prediction: 1666
Sabbatai Zvi 1626-1672
• 1648 Claimed to be Messiah.
• Overturned traditional Halakhah
• Turks imprisoned him, forced conversion
to Islam
• Many followers saw his “descent into sin”
part of mystical repair of the universe.
Messianism & Mysticism
Fall from favour