Dangers and Distortions
Mysticism: A Definition
Mysticism is, first and foremost, the belief that there is more to life than meets the eye. Belief in G-d is primarily a mystical notion, because it asserts the existence of “something out there” that we cannot see or relate to through our senses and faculties. Mysticism acknowledges and explicates higher dimensions of existence; any concept or entity that is not part of the physical universe can be said to fall within the purview of mysticism.
Contrary to the view of many historians, Judaism is a patently mystical religion. Their contention that Judaism was originally a legal/ethical tradition, and that mysticism was introduced into Judaism at a later date, is clearly refuted by even a cursory survey of the biblical text. Even a child can see that the Bible is a thoroughly mystical document. G-d communicates with man and man with G-d throughout the Bible, an obvious indication of the Bible’s mystical content. The revelation of G-d at Mount Sinai to give the Torah to the Jewish people, the numerous miracles He performs and the prophecies of his prophets are all clear evidence of a mystical tradition. Judaism always combined mysticism and rationalism, and there is no need to create a non-existent dichotomy between them.
Even the Talmud, Judaism’s most comprehensive source of law and practice, is replete with mystical teachings. It is not uncommon for the rabbis of the Talmud to smoothly make the transition in their discussions from a strictly legal matter to a spiritual, mystical one.
Restrictions on Kabbalah
The Hebrew word Kabbalah means, “received.” Unlike other areas of knowledge, which one can study by oneself, Kabbalah must be received from an authority, who in turn, must have received it from another authority, going back to Moses, who received it from G-d. Some Kabbalists are known to have received their knowledge from Elijah the prophet, who received it from Moses. A student of other disciplines, such as math, history or physics, can take a book out of the library and learn the subject without the aid of a tutor. To a lesser degree, this can also be accomplished with the classic texts of Judaism, such as the Bible, Talmud and Midrash. Kabbalah, however, is unique. It must be received from a higher source; otherwise, it can be easily corrupted and rendered harmful.
Mysticism is, in and of itself, innocuous. However, the more advanced mystical pursuits can indeed be dangerous. Mysticism, when handled without care, has been implicated in many a Jewish tragedy. According to Jewish sources some of the false Messiahs used Kabbalistic knowledge to perform miracles that enabled them to mislead people and lure them into idolatry.
Shabbatai Tzvi, the notorious false Messiah of the 17th century, whose escapades led to unprecedented disillusionment among the Jewish people, was known to have dabbled in Kabbalah. Jacob Frank, another false Messiah, was a student of Kabbalah. (Incidentally, most of the legitimate Kabbalists were stridently opposed to these charlatans.)
The study of Jewish mysticism was considered so dangerous, that hundreds of years ago the rabbis decided that certain Kabbalistic texts should not be studied before the age of 30 and other not even before 40. These restrictions were based on Talmudic dictums. The Talmud (Chagigah 11b-16a) speaks of restrictions on teaching the “Act of Creation” and the “Act of the Chariot,” interpreted by rabbinical commentators as references to Kabbalah.
The Imagery of Kabbalah
There are several reasons why the teachings of Kabbalah have been responsible for such negative consequences.
First of all, Kabbalah, which has been called the “anatomy” of G-d, deals with G-d’s attributes and forces, through which the spiritual realms are generated. Inasmuch as there are no real words in our lexicon to describe G-dly forces (since language was created for human concepts and events), Kabbalah employs physical metaphors to describe the Divine forces and G- dly attributes. These metaphors were never meant to be interpreted literally. This is particularly true with regard to those passages that employ sexual imagery.
The study of Kabbalah can be harmful to those who take its figurative terminology literally. To do so is to attribute physical properties to G-d, which is tantamount to idolatry and blasphemy. This can best be compared to a person who takes a coded message and interprets it literally. Not only is the literal translation of the coded message incorrect, but others are prevented from gaining access to the secret meaning of the message. In a time of war this could lead to total disaster. Therefore many great Jewish leaders - particularly those steeped in the mystical tradition, such as the Ba’al Shem Tov, the founder of the Chassidic movement cautioned against the study of Kabbalah until the student was ready for it.
Lower is Higher and the Discovery of Fossils
One of the most famous and grave distortions of Kabbalah occurred when the followers of Shabbatai Tzvi, and later the Frankists, misapplied the Kabbalistic notion of “The higher something is, the lower it falls.” They reasoned that since evil is the very lowest form of behavior, it must come from the highest and most sublime spiritual domains. They believed, therefore, that by performing evil actions - the more immoral, the better - they could reach the greatest spiritual heights.
Under the sway of this perverse logic, these individuals engaged in the most immoral behavior. Later on we will learn how “The higher something is, the lower it falls” is actually a valid concept in the proper context. Taken out of context, however, and detached from the foundations of Torah and its commandments, this notion is sheer heresy and dangerous.
A modern-day illustration of how a Kabbalistic concept came to be misconstrued, even by learned rabbis, is the erroneous, literal interpretation of the statement found in the Midrash: G-d created worlds and then destroyed them until He created our world which pleased Him.
Some have taken this passage literally - to mean that there were previous physical worlds - to reconcile the discovery of fossils seemingly millions of years old with the Jewish tradition concerning creation. This sounds plausible at first, but in actuality the Kabbalists have always understood that this passage is speaking of spiritual worlds. These spiritual worlds were constantly being created and destroyed as a prelude to our world.
Acquisition of Powers
Another danger associated with Kabbalah is the attempt by some to use it as a way of acquiring supernatural powers. Although Kabbalah can provide these powers, the greatest Kabbalists would always warn against using Kabbalah in this manner. Only in the most dire of situations - such as when the Jewish community was being assaulted by frequent pogroms — did some Kabbalists permit the use of the mystical powers associated with Kabbalah as a defense, and even then they dreaded the possible negative “side effects.”
One of these exceptions is the case of the Golem. According to Jewish tradition, Rabbi Yehudah Lowe - known as the Maharal of Prague - one of the greatest Jewish thinkers and legal authorities of the 16th century, fashioned a creature out of clay and, using Kabbalistic powers, infused it with a soul to protect the Jewish Ghetto from the infamous charge of the blood libel.
The Maharal’s Golem - which possessed incredible strength, an uncanny ability to sense impending danger and the ability to scare off any potential attacker, but lacked the power of speech - was not the first in Jewish tradition. The Talmud (Sanhedrin 65b) recorded the creation close to 2,000 years ago of human and animal golems by some of the Talmudic sages using the ancient Kabbalistic work, Sefer Yetzirah, the authorship of which is attributed to the Patriarch Abraham. This work, when mastered, imparts the secret of creation - the ability to replicate G-d’s creation.
Belief in the golem was so strong that we find it asked in legal rabbinical literature (Responsa, Chacham Tzvi, She’ilat Ya’avetz) whether a golem can be counted in a quorum for praying!
(The answer is no. The golem is not even considered a human being because its creator is allowed to reverse the process that gave it life.)
Although he gave himself license to create the Golem in a time of emergency, the Maharal enjoined all those who were involved in its creation to not divulge anything about it during the Maharal’s lifetime. This is like a person employed by the CIA who has access to highly classified information. If he is a person with integrity he would never divulge this secret information. Only in a rare case, perhaps when an agent’s life is in danger, and sharing the classified information with the right people might save his life, would the employee be justified in divulging some of this information and even then, only as little as possible.
Don’t Leave Go!
Most, if not all, of the world’s mystical traditions accentuate the need for the soul to climb to greater spiritual heights. As mentioned in the previous chapter, the soul, feeling imprisoned in the body, seeks to “break out” of its confinement. This can lead to disinterest in physical things, a life spent as a hermit divorced from the rest of society. The greater danger, as the soul endeavors to break free, is that the soul might severe its ties with the body all together. Ultimately, this means death: the soul actually leaves the body and cannot return.
To be sure, many cultures considered that outcome to be perfectly fine. In fact, they engaged in mystical meditation for that express purpose - to escape the physical world. In some instances, the goal was death. In most cases, they were satisfied with “soul travel,” a temporary flight of the soul from the body. At the very least the mystic wanted to be divorced from material existence.
The desire to be totally divorced from the world is also found, sporadically, in Judaism. Nadav and Avihu, the eldest two sons of Moses’ brother Aaron, the High Priest, died when they brought an unauthorized offering to G-d on the day that the Tabernacle was dedicated. The Torah reports that a “fire from G-d descended and consumed them.”
According to Or HaChaim, a Bible commentator and mystic, death was not a punishment for their sin; it was the very objective of their sin.
They were so consumed with a passion to connect to G-d that their souls just “soared” to the heavens and did not return. They were truly “consumed” in their own fire.
The Zohar, the central work in the literature of Kabbalah, records other examples when mystical practices so excited the practitioners that their souls simply left their bodies.
Similarly in the last 200 years of the Chassidic movement there are many stories told of Chassidic masters whose lives were almost lost because of their ecstatic outpouring of love for G-d.
Despite these occasional references, most Jewish mystical experiences did not result in death or any other mishap. Separation from the physical world is at variance with the basics of Judaism. As will be explained later, Judaism is based on the belief that it is our task to make the world in which we live a “dwelling place for G-d,” by generating spirituality within the confines of the physical world.
The Heartbeat of Judaism
One is entitled to raise the obvious question: If wanting to leave the body is so contrary to the very tenets and objectives of Judaism, why do we find references to it scattered throughout the Torah? To answer this question, we need to look at life from the perspective of those Jewish mystics who were willing to give up life for the mystical experience.
Kabbalah conceives of every moment in time as a composite of two opposites - a movement away from and a movement back toward. Like blood, which is pumped in a constant flow away from the heart and back to it, and oxygen, which keeps circulating out and then back into the lungs, the soul lives in a world of incessant advance and retreat, or in the terminology of Kabbalah, Ratzo v’Shov.
During times such as prayer, the advance mechanism of our soul functions best. We feel then a natural desire to get closer to G-d, to divest ourselves of our materialistic crust. The Ba’al Shem Tov, the originator of Chassidic thought, used to say “farewell” to his wife before he would commence his daily prayers. He did not know whether he would return or not.
When we give tzedakah (charity) or do any other divinely ordained act, we reverse the process - from advance to retreat - by seeking to engage G-d and the soul in the physical world. To be able to “bring” G-d into the material world one must, however, first get closer to Him (advance) by becoming more G- dly and thereby having the capacity to “draw” that G-dly energy into the material world (retreat).
The natural, G-dly rhythm to which our souls are attuned demands that we both advance and retreat. We must remember, though, that the ultimate goal is retreat. Advancing toward G-d may be an expression of our desire, but retreating to the world is G-d’s desire.
Rabbi Schneur Zalman, one of the great Chassidic masters, was imprisoned by the Russians authorities after his enemies, who opposed his efforts to disseminate the mystical teachings of Judaism, promulgated a slander that he sought to overthrow the Czar.
During his interrogation it became clear to the officials that R’ Schneur Zalman was no ordinary person. One of the government officials, (the deputy culture minister) a theologian versed in Hebrew texts, came to R’ Schneur Zalman with a Bible question: When Adam and Eve sinned they were ashamed and they hid. G-d then called out to Adam saying, “Where are you?” “Doesn’t G-d know where everybody is?” asked the official. “Why did He have to ask Adam where he was?”
R’ Schneur Zalman replied by referring to the answer of the Bible commentator Rashi that G- d asked Adam where he was as a way to engage him in conversation, so as not to startle him.
The prison official was not satisfied: “I know Rashi’s answer, but I’d like to hear your answer.”
R’ Schneur Zalman asked the man if he believed that the Torah is eternal and speaks to every person in all times. The official answered in the affirmative. R’ Schneur Zalman replied that in every time, to every person, G-d comes with a question: “Where are you?” A person can be 52 years old (the age of the Russian official) and yet not have accomplished what G-d placed him in the world for. G-d says to him: “Where are you?” Needless to say, the prison official was pleased with R’ Schneur Zalman’s explanation.
At a later time, R’ Schneur Zalman remarked that this incident actually saved his life. He knew that his incarceration was his sacrifice for the deepest teachings of Torah. However, in prison he was visited from the other world by his mentor, Rabbi Dovber, the Maggid of Mezeritch, and the Ba’al Shem Tov, the founder of the Chassidic movement. After this experience his soul was so aflame with passion for G-d and His Torah that he was at the point of expiring. His soul, in an extreme state of advance, had about reached its capacity to stay within his body.
At precisely that moment R’ Schneur Zalman heard, via the official, the question “Where are you?’ And when he told the official that G-d asks every person where he is in fulfilling the purpose for which he was sent to this world, R’ Schneur Zalman realized that what he had told the official pertained to him in his present crisis. G-d sent him to spread the teachings of mysticism and to make the world a G-dly world - not to expire in his soul’s desire for absolute G-dly pleasure.
This incident saved not only R’ Schneur Zalman’s life, but the life of the fledgling Chassidic movement which had dedicated itself to spreading the teachings of mysticism to the entire world.
It is instructive that the incident that saved Jewish mysticism was one in which the mystic was about to experience the ultimate mystical event of his soul soaring to its heavenly Maker. Those words - “Where are you?” - are the defining words of Jewish mysticism: Don’t run away from your responsibilities to engage in what is pleasurable to you, even if it is the pleasure of the soul.
Crossing the Line
One final danger in the pursuit of mystical goals is the danger of being so overwhelmed by mystery and ecstasy that it leads to involvement with the mystical traditions of non-Jewish religions. Indeed, the idol worship that Jews have succumbed to, as described in the Bible and Talmud, was enticing because it was intertwined with a mystical experience. The pursuit of a mystical experience with improper motives can lead the novice to other religions and ultimately total rejection of the one G-d.
In recent years we’ve seen an explosion of books that deal with Kabbalah. Tragically, however, most of them combine snippets of Kabbalah with New Age philosophy, Eastern religion and pagan mysticism to make Kabbalah more appealing to those who have become captivated with New Age philosophies. It is very easy to cross the fine line between monotheistic mysticism (Kabbalah taught properly) and idolatrous mysticism.
The Orchard
The Talmud (Chagigah 14b) tells the ultimate story about these dangers. Four great sages of Israel - Ben Azai, Ben Zoma, Acher (Elisha Ben Avuya) and Rabbi Akiva - entered The Orchard and came out affected in different ways: Ben Zoma became mentally deranged; Ben Azai died; Rabbi Elisha became a heretic; and only Rabbi Akiva “entered in peace and left in peace.” What kind of orchard was this that led to such disastrous consequences?
Rashi and other commentators explain that this was not a physical orchard, but an excursion into the heavenly spheres and secret knowledge.
Only Rabbi Akiva, who had the right philosophy of life and who therefore entered in peace, was fortunate to leave in peace. The others had no restraints, and the power of their spiritual quest harmed them. “Peace” is the synthesis of two disparate entities. Rabbi Akiva realized that the ultimate goal is to bring together the physical and the spiritual and to avoid their annulment. He therefore knew how to regulate his spiritual excursion and return unscathed.
Interestingly we can find the five dangers we have been discussing in the side effects suffered by the rabbis who entered The Orchard.
The first danger we discussed is misinterpreting and distorting ideas by taking metaphors literally.
The second danger is distorting and misapplying the concepts of Kabbalah, as did the Frankists, who came to believe that evil is really good.
There is reason to believe that one of the first two factors, or both of them, were responsible for Acher’s downfall. This premise is based on a careful analysis of the Talmudic narrative concerning Acher’s reaction to his experience.
The third danger, using mystical powers incorrectly, and the fourth, seeking to escape from the world, may have caused the calamities of Ben Zoma, who became deranged, and Ben Azai, who died.
The fifth danger, making the leap from pure, monotheistic mystical experiences to pagan, polytheistic ones, describes Acher’s apostasy.
We can now better appreciate why the Jewish sages put so many safeguards on the study of Kabbalah and warned against its abuses. But this leaves us with a new burning question (which we will get to soon): If mysticism is so dangerous, why are we discussing it?
From the book Safe Kabbalah, Part One: Opening the Gates by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
