As the Kabbalah becomes more popularized, key
questions arise: What is the effect of all this atten-
tion on such a complex, mystical religious study?
Are these non-traditional teachers diluting its spiri-
tual message?
Most rabbis and scholars welcome the study
because it leads to the key mitzvah of tikkun olam,
"repairing the world." But they also caution against
courses that promote personal gain and inadequate
shortcuts to learning.
Why Kabbalah Now?
The rising interest in the Kabbalah is part of a
general revival in the pursuit of spirituality in the
Western world, says Arthur Green, Philip W.
Lown Professor of Jewish Thought at Brandeis
University in Waltham, Mass.
"It may coincide with the failures of the Western
world to offer spiritual satisfaction. Modern sci-
ence has failed to answer the great questions of the
meaning of life, and modern Western religion has
also somehow failed," he says.
"There's a sense that people want to turn back
to times of wisdom that modernity once rejected,
like the Kabbalah, the secrets of the East and the
occult traditions."
Passed down by rabbis and by oral traditions,
the wisdom of the Kabbalah now is accessible to
Jews and others through mainstream books and
classes, but there are differences in the approaches
to study.
The Kabbalah Centre offers many classes, geared
to reach a broader audience. Some rabbis and
scholars are disturbed, however, by the populariza-
tion of the Kabbalah.
A recent ad in the New York Times advertises "Free
Kabbalistic Palm and Face and Astrology Readings"
at the local Centre's open house. An "Introduction
to Kabbalah" class competes with such classes as
"True Prosperity: Success Without the Side Effects,"
"How to Date Your Soulmate" and "Your Hidden
Addictions and the Kabbalistic Cure."
Rabbi Yehuda Grundman i director of Chicago's
Kabbalah Centre, responds to criticism by saying
it's based on jealousy of the Centre's success.
When the Kabbalah Centre first opened, he
says, it was taboo for anyone outside of a select
circle of men to study Kabbalah. The center then
was seen as going against the establishment, but
now teaching the Kabbalah is more mainstream,
he adds.
Bronwyn Stanzler of Grosse Pointe is a student
at the Chicago center. She recently brought Rabbi
Grundman to - speak in Detroit and hopes to help
open a Kabbalah Centre in Grosse Pointe or
Birmingham.
"What's so exciting to me, after studying so
many belief systems and trying to learn the
essence of them," Stanzler says, is that "Kabbalah
basically explains creation and all of existence."
Most rabbis — even the most traditional — are
not against the spread of Kabbalah study.
In fact, says Orthodox Rabbi Chaim Bergstein
of Bais Chabad of Farmington Hills, "spreading
Kabbalah is a necessary element in the arrival of
the Messiah."
Much study of the Kabbalah
"The Kabbalah is about how
involves working toward making
each human being reflects the
the world a more peaceful place
structure of the universe," says
in preparation for the Messiah,
Green, "and about the parallels
he says. "Popularization of the
3 between the human soul, the
Kabbalah is a negative if people
Torah and the structure of the
get the wrong message," he adds.
universe."
"But the general awareness of a
The ideas of the Kabbalah
spiritual world in the Torah is a
are very powerful and present-
good thing."
ed in a mythic language,
That wrong message could be
Green adds. "They're very
spread by a too simplistic study
attractive and you can be
of the Kabbalah, which is com-
swept away by the romance of
posed of many writings and
these ideas and lose your criti-
teachings.
cal perspective."
"I'm a little wary of instant
But Kabbalah scholar Rachel
Kabbalah," says Humanistic
Eliot, Cohen Chair of Jewish
Rabbi Sherwin Wine of the
Philosophy at Hebrew
Birmingham Temple in
University in Jerusalem, says,
Farmington Hills. "Part of the
"There is no danger in reading
problem in teaching the
the Kabbalah any more than in
Kabbalah is that people get
reading a good poem or
pieces of it and not the whole.
Shakespeare."
They don't get the historical
The Kabbalah is a literary
context and fundamental philos-
tradition, an innovative inter-
IN THE BEGINNING
ophy; that's the danger."
pretation of textual tradition,
Green of Brandeis says, "I
like the Talmud, she says. "You
A mystical map of the first 27 words
don't believe in the many prom-
read and reflect using your
of the Torah based on the opening of
ises made by some so-called
imagination and creativity. Tr
Kabbalah teachers for prosperity, the Zohar.
can be very far out."
good fortune, etc., as a reward
Some hesitate to even
for the study of Kabbalah. That's
describe the Kabbalah.
a distortion of the tradition and
"I don't have an answer [for
vulgarization of Judaism."
what the Kabbalah is]. You can't make simple what
Rabbi Stacie Fine of Congregation Ahavat
is not simple. It's messy," says Reform Rabbi Paul
Shalom, a multi-stream congregation in Traverse
Yedwab of Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, who
City, adds that it's "safer and better learning the
teaches Kabbalah classes.
Kabbalah when grounded in normative teachings
"At its best," says Elliot Ginsburg, associate pro-
of the Jewish traditions."
fessor of Jewish Thought and Mysticism at
University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, "the
Kabbalah has symbols and an incredibly rich lan-
Kabbalah: Basic Ideas
guage of ecstasy and wonder, hope and fear ... to
"Kabbalah means received tradition," says Rabbi
experience the divine as impersonal and deeply
Fine, who studied with Zalman Schachter-
personal."
Shalomi, the chasidic rabbi credited with making
To Orthodox Rabbi Elimelech Silberberg of the
the Kabbalah accessible to non-chasidic Jews start-
Sara Tugman Bais Chabad Torah Center in West
ing in the 1960s. "It has to do with a mystical
Bloomfield, "the Kabbalah is the most sublime
approach to living."
discipline in Judaism. These esoteric parts [of the
Brandeis' Green adds that these esoteric tradi-
Kabbalah] are able to connect the soul with God
tions (not experienced with our physical senses)
in a more intimate way than with any other parts
have to do with humankind's relationship to the
of the Torah. My life is devoted to Jewish mysti-
universe and how we each have an effect on the
cism."
cosmos.
KABBALAH on page 16
"There's a clear prohibition
against teaching non-Jews
the Kabbalah."
— Rabbi Elimelech Silberberg,
Sara Tugman Bais Chabad Torah Center, West Bloomfield
11/30
2001
15