Jewish Mysticism & The Kabbalah Essays - Kabbalah, Hasidic Thought

Jewish Mysticism & The Kabbalah Jewish mysticism Three types of mysticism may be discerned in the history of Judaism: the ecstatic, the contemplative, and the esoteric (Agus). Though they are distinct types, in practice there are frequent overlapping and mixtures between them. The first type is characterized by the quest for God--or, more precisely, for access to a supernatural realm, which is itself still infinitely remote from the inaccessible deity--by means of ecstatic experiences; this method is sometimes tainted by theurgy. The second follows the way of metaphysical meditation pushed to the limit, always bearing in its formulations the imprint of the cultural surroundings of the respective thinkers, who are exposed to influences from outside Judaism; this was the case with Philo of Alexandria (c. 15 BCE-after 40 CE) and a few of the Jewish thinkers of the Middle Ages, who drew their inspiration from Greco-Arabic Neoplatonism and sometimes also from Muslim mysticism. The third type of mysticism claims an esoteric knowledge (hereafter called esoterism) that explores the divine life itself and its relationship to the divine level (the natural, finite realm) of being, a relationship that is subject to the law of correspondences (Agus). From this perspective, the divine is a symbol of the divine; that is, a reality that reveals another, superior reality, whence reciprocal action of the one on the other (which corresponds to it) exists. This form of mysticism, akin to gnosis--the secret knowledge claimed by Gnosticism, a Hellenistic religious and philosophical movement--but purged, or almost purged, of the dualism that characterizes the latter, is what is commonly known as Kabbala (literally tradition) (Milligram). By extension, this term is also used to designate technical methods, used for highly diverse ends, ranging from the conditioning of the aspirant to ecstatic experiences to magical manipulations of a frankly superstitious character. If the c oncept of spiritual energy acting on matter and at a distance originally underlay these practices, it finally became unrecognizable and all that remained was a collection of tricks of the trade. The favor with which the doctrine of correspondences was regarded by ancient and medieval science, as well as the tendency in the three monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) to reconcile the results of rational reflection with the data of revelation, had the result of turning speculation on the origin and order of the universe toward mysticism (Guttman). It must also be noted that the quest for God implies the search for solutions to problems that go beyond those of religion in the narrow sense and that arise even when there is no interest in the relationship between man and supernatural powers. Man ponders the problems of his origins, his destiny, his happiness, his suffering--questions that arise outside of religion, as well as within non mystical forms of religious life; the presence or absence of religious institutions or dogmas is of little importance when it comes to these questions (Guttman). They were all formulated within non mystical Judaism and served as the basis and framework for the setting and solution of problems in the various forms of Jewish mysticism. This mysticism, especially in its Kabbalistic form, brought about profound transformations in the concepts of the world, God and last things (resurrection, last judgment, messianic kingdom, etc.) set forth in biblical and rabbinical Judaism (Guttman). Nevertheless, Je wish mysticism's own set of problems about the origins of the universe and of man, of evil and sin, of the meaning of history, of the afterlife and the end of time is rooted in the very ground of Judaism and cannot be conceived outside of an exegesis of revealed Scripture and rabbinical tradition. The Kabbalah: Doorway to the Mind For millenia, aspects of the Kabbalah - the mystical offshoot of Judaism - have intimately addressed the nature of human consciousness and our relation to the divine. Key Kabbalistic texts have for more than fifteen hundred years dealt with such intriguing topics as dreams meditation, altered states of awareness, the mind-body relationship, awakening intuition and prophetic qualities, and attaining spiritual ecstasy. Yet Jewish mystics have always emphasized the importance of the seemingly more mundane-but perhaps, even more challenging - task of creating a pathway to the Holy One through the very midst of everyday life and the myriad distractions