The Kabbalah

Most people have heard something or other about Kabbalah. But it is highly unlikely that what is going around in the general marketplace posing as Kabbalah is anywhere close to the real thing.

What most people have been exposed to is a smorgasbord of pop psychology and self-help that pretends to have some connection to Jewish mysticism, but it rarely, if ever, does.

It is easy to see how people are fooled. In most disciplines, you expect to know and understand something after studying it. But when it comes to mysticism, people expect to be mystified. So they are willing to accept incomprehensible mumbo-jumbo. Kabbalah is supposed to be mysterious and enigmatic. It's mysticism, after all! However, the basic tenets of Kabbalah include:

Kabbalah is theology in the fullest sense - including ontology, cosmogony and cosmology.

It is not speculative philosophy based on human insight, nor theories derived from human reasoning.

It is a study, as it were, of Divinity and of the relationship between God and His Creation, based on the premises of revealed truth.

The Kabbalah takes man beyond the normative understanding of reason.

It goes beyond the exoteric part of Torah and transcends normative existence.

It uncovers many of the infinite layers of the secrets of life, of Creation, of the soul, of the heavenly spheres.

It penetrates beyond the garments and the body of the Torah.

It is the very core and soul of Torah, the ultimate revelation of Divinity - exposing the inner meaning, effects and purpose of Torah and mitzvot.

The illumination emanating from the Kabbalah ignites the soul of man, setting it on fire in the awareness of a deeper and higher reality. Its study and insights are themselves mystical experiences.

The Kabbalah is all this - but always and exclusively within the context of Torah.

As a body cannot function without a soul, so the soul is ineffective without the body.

The soul of the Torah (nistar, the esoteric part of the Torah) can never be separated from the body of the Torah (nigleh, the exoteric parts; Halachah, the commandments and practices prescribed by the Torah).

Kabbalah reduced to spiritual or philosophical symbolism, stripped from the observance of the mitzvot, is worthless mumbo-jumbo, an empty shell.

This is the first and foremost difference between Jewish mysticism and all other kinds and forms. That is why Jewish mysticism can never fall into the category of a cult.

The great mystics and philosophers outside Judaism, in the East and in the West, were honest and sincere sages.

They did seek truth.

They did not look for answers to justify or verify any of their preconceived notions. They were not indulging their egos. And many did discover and develop profound theories and insights which stir the imagination and move the human spirit.

Some had glimpses of ultimate reality. Yet, in spite of all this, they worked in a chameleonic void. They could move only as far as finite and fallible man is able to reach on his own.

Their insights or findings, therefore, are either humanly verifiable (that is, logically self-evident truth or tautologies) or else speculative truth which at best contains an element of possibility but never the assurance of certitude.

The Kabbalah, on the other hand, builds on the revealed truth of Torah.

The validity of its speculative theories and subjective experiences must be, and is, tested and verified by that truth in order to be worthy of consideration, to be viable and acceptable. It has, and continually uses, objective criteria to make it consistent with, and as reliable as, Halachah.

WHAT KABBALAH IS AND ISN'T

In order to understand what Kabbalah is and what it isn't, let us use the following illustration.

A researcher sits in his lab examining all sorts of atomic phenomena. He smashes atoms at great speeds, and records what he sees happening. He is very meticulous in his work, and may even draw some immediate conclusions from the data at hand. But he leaves it at that.

The kabbalist describes the abstract but we can still sense that there is a concrete and solid reality that he is grappling with.

A great scientist picks up these notes, reads them and ponders their meaning. He begins to construct a mega-picture. He tries to envision what the entire system may be like. He knows that there are no instruments, nor can there be, to actually see the particles he imagines, and therefore he gropes for metaphors that will accurately connect the bits of data that the physicist collected. Thus, he begins to speak of "super strings," "atomic tunnels," "energy bridges," and "ten dimensions."

A third person, who has a highly fertile mind but with no sense of science, is eavesdropping. His imagination has been fired and, in no time at all, he is carrying forth about people that have mysteriously disappeared in "atomic tunnels," and unlimited sources of energy contained in various of the "ten dimensions."

These three people illustrate the different approaches to Kabbalah.

The "data" or facts that Kabbalah deals with are the narrative of the Torah, and its entire body of religious law. The "researcher" represents a person who sees the laws and narrative as they are, understands their immediate meaning, but does not get the larger picture.

The "great scientist" represents the Kabbalist who sees the various local points and then begins to get a feel for the greater picture. He needs metaphors to describe the abstract unity he perceives, and he is aware that this tool is likely to be vague and only approaching the understanding that he has acquired. Although limited by the tools at his disposal, the complex picture the great scientist communicates can still give us a sense of the reality that he is grappling with.

And then there is the pseudo-Kabbalist — "the eavesdropper" — whose Kabbalah is basically unrelated to Torah, except perhaps as a springboard for his imagination. He has discovered "sources of energies," "divine emanations," and ways to "expand consciousness," but it all stems from his fanciful illusions.

IN SUMMARY

Kabbalah is to Torah what philosophy is to science.
Like science, the Torah gives us the facts that are fully perceived sensually and rationally quantifiable.
Like philosophy, Kabbalah gives us the grander abstract picture that the facts present.

Rabbi Leiberman is a leading Jewish educator in Israel and abroad, and has written a number of works on Jewish thought and Kabbalah.

To read some illustrative texts on different aspects of theoretical and practical Kabbalah, see the links below - note that these documents are presented for background use ONLY. To truly learn the mysteries of Kabbalah means studying with a qualified teacher - reading these texts and attempting to learn more than the most elemental concepts is guaranteed to frustrate and confuse the reader. Note that the Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to view these files.

Introductory Concepts of Kabbalah
PDF Download

The Mystical Significance of the Hebrew Alphabet
PDF Download (1 MB)

One Man's Journey into the Mystic
PDF Download - NOTE: this file is 4.3 Megabytes and comes to over 900 pages. It is an exhaustive and fascinating journal kept by a local Silicon Valley Engineer, Jeff Siegel of LSI Logic, regarding his Kabbalistic experiences and research.

Sefer HaShmoth (Book of the Names) of Master Adam. Divine Names and Angelic Tree Language
PDF Download--Sefer HaShmoth — Further discussion on the names of God may also be found here

Sefer Yetzirah (Book of Formation), manual on the Hebrew letters written by Master Abraham
PDF Download—Sefer Yetzirah

Sifra Detzniyutha (Book of THAT Which is Concealed). Innermost core text of the Zohar
PDF Download—Sifra Detzniyutha

Idra Rabba Qadusha (Greater Holy Assembly). Second core text of the Zohar.
PDF Download—Idra Rabba

Idra Zuta Qadusha (Lesser Holy Assembly). Third core text of the Zohar.
PDF Download—Idra Zuta

Ma'aseh Merkabah: Nabiyim (The Prophets)
PDF Download—Merkabah/Nabiyim

Ma'aseh Merkabah: Seferim HaChanokh (Books of Enoch ben Yared)
PDF Download—Merkabah/Enoch

Ma'aseh Merkabah: Shi'r Qoma (Measure of the Divine Body) from the Sefer Raziel HaGadol (Book of the Secrets of Raziel the Great)
PDF Download—Shi'r Qoma

Etz HaChayyim (Tree of Life), Branch 1, dictated by Rabbi Yitza'aq Luria to Chayyim Vital.
PDF Download—Etz HaChayyim