Why Was It Revealed
Revealed and then Hidden
For over three thousand years, Kabbalah was entrusted to an elite group of saintly people, who zealously guarded these secrets. At Mount Sinai G-d revealed the Torah to all the Jewish people. Nevertheless, the experience they had was the experience of the most hidden and sublime aspects of G-d and His celestial messengers, known as angels. The commandments they heard were overshadowed by the mystical experience of Sinai.
Once the revelation of Sinai was over, the spiritual and mystical experience receded into the background and was concealed from their view. What emerged from the Sinai experience was a set of commandments, laws and regulations as to how one should live ones daily life. On the surface, these laws were devoid of spirituality. But, deep down, the Sinai experience was still present. One had to search for it, but it was there.
There is a well-known Hebrew expression that encapsulates what happened at Sinai and what occurred after Sinai: It goes something like this:
At Sinai the hidden was revealed and the revealed was hidden; after Sinai the hidden was hidden and the revealed was revealed.
Why were the hidden energies revealed at Sinai, only to be concealed again?
Why is it being Revealed Now?
To answer this question let us first address the question we cited at the end of the last chapter: Why are we now attempting to popularize the mystical teachings of Judaism? After having established how inherently secretive the teachings of Kabbalah are, why would we try to reveal these teachings. Moreover, as was just mentioned, the process of Sinai revealed these teachings only for a brief period. Afterwards G- d Himself concealed this knowledge. Why would we try to override G-d’s own action, by popularizing that which He wanted to be kept secret?
There are two approaches to this issue. Upon deeper reflection, we will discover that they are interrelated.
Conversion through Exile
The first approach is to analyze Jewish history and to understand the essence of Jewish existence.
The Jewish people were entrusted with the teachings of the Torah, intended not only for themselves. In addition to the observances of all the Mitzvot, which were given to the Jewish people exclusively, we were charged with the special mission of bringing the light of G-d to the world. By serving as an example of righteous and holy behavior and by imparting the knowledge of the Seven Noahide commandments, the very bedrock of a civilized society, the Jews would be the catalysts for the refinement of the world.
When Jerusalem was at its spiritual prime; when the Temple stood in all of its glory; the mere presence of a people who were so holy, in the land of Israel, had the intended effect. The world was looking to Jerusalem for moral guidance and for a sense of awareness of the one G-d.
When the Jewish people themselves degenerated and were incapable of being a moral and spiritual force in the world, G-d had them driven into exile. On the surface it seemed that they were driven into exile as a punishment for their sins.
But, according to the mystical tradition, exile was not simply a punishment; it served a positive purpose as well.
Basing itself on the words of the Talmud, “The Jewish people were exiled in order to acquire converts,” the teachings of Kabbalah raise the obvious question. In the course of close to two millennia that the Jewish people have been living among the nations of the world, there were a relatively small number of converts. Particularly during the last thousand years, it was a capital crime for Jews and non-Jews to be involved in a conversion to Judaism. Why would we have to suffer in exile if the only benefit is a paltry number of converts?
Furthermore, Judaism does not and never did believe in actively seeking converts to its religion. To inspire a non-Jew to follow his Seven Noahide laws is one thing; it is an entirely different situation to convert them to Judaism.
Jewish mystical tradition teaches us that the Talmud was not referring to actual converts to Judaism. Our stay in exile among the nations enables us to acquire converts of an entirely different nature. Every time a Jew uses the resources that are available to him/her for a higher purpose, that object or resource has effectively been converted into something G-dly. The environment within which the mitzvah has been performed is a changed, or, converted, environment. In the argon of Kabbalah, this Had we remained in Israel, there would have been parts of the world that we would not have been able to affect by our actions. Our existence in exile thus, while painful and punctuated with sorrow and travail, has had a positive effect on the world.
The Jewish belief is that when enough of our collective efforts will be performed the world will become a holy world and one that is so perfect that evil will cease to exist. This utopian age, is what the Jewish people refer to as the Age of Moshiach.
Catch 22
There is a catch 22 situation here. Our purpose in exile is to change the world. However, being in exile has the opposite effect as well. Rather than Jews change their environment, the environment frequently changes the Jew. Whether it was persecution or assimilation, the Jewish people were decimated and crushed – physically, emotionally and spiritually – and were hardly able to survive, let alone “convert” the world.
Being in exile has made us extremely vulnerable to all the influences in the world. Everybody knows that people are most vulnerable when they are “on the way.” Cults prey on their victims when they are in bus stations, etc. because the natural defenses that we have when we are anchored are unavailable to us when we are not in our own home. If this is true physically, it is also true on a spiritual plane. When we are outside of our true home which is Israel, we lack the security to be able to withstand the pressures of our new environment.
Booster Shots
In order to survive and to be capable of discharging our role as the nation that makes the world holy, G-d was “compelled” to provide the Jewish people with extra measures of Divine inspiration and assistance, to be able to endure the hardships of exile. This assistance can come in the form of a very great charismatic Jewish leader, the publication of a major Jewish work or some form of Divine intervention.
As the exile continues and the Messianic Age of utopia appears to the average Jew as something far into the future, the exile becomes more difficult to endure. When this is compounded with devastating blows to the very lives and limbs of Jews, the situation becomes more desperate. When false hopes are dashed and disillusionment sets in, the situation assumes a crises mode and appears virtually helpless. At a time like that, G-d has no choice but to provide the world with a medicine that is so potent that it will get the Jewish people out of their pitiful plight.
This scenario actually happened during the seventeenth century. After the pogroms of 1648 and 1649’ led by the Cossack leader Chmelnicki that decimated virtually every Jewish community in Poland and Russia, the Jews were left devastated and demoralized. They had experienced an unprecedented attack on their communities. Perhaps, with the destruction of the Holy Temple previously and the future Holocaust as exceptions, Jews never experienced as concentrated an attack on their existence as during those pogroms.
If this was not enough, the economic conditions that ensued for the survivors were unbearable. The Jewish communities could not cope with the abundant number of destitute widows and orphans.
To aggravate the situation, the Jews experienced what can be considered perhaps their greatest disillusionment. Shabbatai Tzvi, the false Messiah, who flouted Jewish teachings, and who was therefore, by definition, not worthy and suited to be the Messiah, proclaimed himself to be precisely that – the long awaited Moshiach, who was to save them and bring about the state of Utopia.
Because of the lack of proper communications that we have today and the distorted images of him that were popularized, many Jews, including leading rabbis initially accepted him as the Moshiach. Only after he converted to Islam at the behest of the Sultan of Turkey who threatened to behead him if he would not convert, did the overwhelming majority of Jews realize that he was an imposter. But the damage was already done.
The dejection and mass depression that overtook the Jewish masses was indescribable. The Frankist “reincarnation” of Shabbatai Tzvi was a new misfortune with an old flavor. It too wreaked havoc on the Jewish community.
If they could have found some solace in their collective victim status and their unity, alas, even that remedy was denied them. The Jewish community was split into two classes. The more fortunate of them who were able to afford a proper Jewish education became the spiritual elite, who looked condescendingly at their less fortunate brethren who were functionally illiterate and materially and intellectually impoverished.
The simple Jew – who was then in the majority – was taunted and berated for his ignorance. To make things even worse, the itinerant Maggidim as they were called, would deliver fire and brimstone sermons in which they would threaten these poor Jews with all sorts of punishment in this and the next world.
In short, the Jewish people were at their lowest point, materially, emotionally, morally and spiritually. In the words of the Chassidic masters the world then experienced a state of “spiritual unconsciousness.” There was a dire need for G-d to intervene with a very powerful surge of spiritual energy that would rejuvenate the sagging if not hopeless spirit of the Jewish world.
This new surge of Divine energy took the form of a leader of unprecedented stature, imbued with boundless love and concern for all. This leader was also someone who infused life and soul into the Jewish community by revealing the soul and life of Judaism, — the teachings of Kabbalah.
This man was Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer, known as the Ba’al Shem Tov, the founder of the Chassidic movement.
Whispering their Hebrew Name Israel
According to a Chassidic tradition, the Ba’al Shem Tov possessed a unique soul that was best suited to reawaken the Jewish people and prevent them for falling into an “irreversible coma” that could have followed had he not come onto the scene.
In Kabbalah we are taught that when a person faints and the conventional methods of reviving the individual have failed, one should whisper the fainted person’s Hebrew name into their ear. In some desperate situations this can help awaken the fainted individual. The reason this method works is based on a principle of Kabbalah that our Hebrew name is actually a spiritual conduit to our soul’s connection to our bodies. When our soul’s connection to our body is tenuous, the last resort is to thus mention our Hebrew name, which has the capacity to elicit our souls’ energy back into the body.
Accordingly, when the Jewish nation was at a point of spiritual unconsciousness and in a dead faint, there was a need to “whisper” their collective name – Israel. Hence, the soul of Rabbi Israel Ba’al Shem Tov was introduced to the world to awaken it from its stupor.
A Three Pronged Strategy
The Ba’al Shem Tov’s appeal was universal. His message was intended for two audiences primarily: The simple demoralized masses and the scholarly elite. And while they required two distinct approaches, both approaches emanated from the same well of Jewish mystical thought and energy.
For the masses, the Ba’al Shem Tov cloaked the mystical ideas in stories, parables and simple homilies. Embedded in them, however, were profound and inspirational that one could detect, intuitively, that they emanated from the soul.
For the scholarly elite, the Ba’al Shem Tov’s message was that their arrogant use of Torah knowledge was not getting them closer to G-d. By teaching them the secrets of Judaism, its soul, he sought to bring life into their sterile brand of intellectual Judaism. His message of G- dly energy challenged them to throw away their egotistical obsession with their own intellectual achievements.
For the born leaders of the Jewish people, the Ba’al Shem Tov revealed some of the most profound mystical teachings of Judaism, enabling them to spread throughout the Jewish world and bring G-dly light to the masses.
Utilizing this three pronged approach – to the masses, the elite and the genuine leaders – the Ba’al Shem Tov started a movement that revolutionized Jewish life. Its primary force was the mystical and spiritual dimension of his teachings.
Emergency Measures
In conclusion, the answer to the question as to why the teachings of Kabbalah were being revealed, was that the Jewish people were dangerously close to spiritual death, and the only emergency measure that could revive them was a new surge of Divine energy, the teachings of mysticism.
There is a beautiful story that illustrates this point.
The great Chassidic master, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi (founder of the Chabad Chassidic movement) was once taking a stroll with Rabbi Pinchas of Koritz, a colleague of Rabbi Shneur Zalman’s mentor, Rabbi Dovber of Mezeritch, the leader of the Chassidic movement.
Rabbi Pinchas was not happy with the direction the Chassidic movement took under the leadership of Rabbi Dovber He felt that too much of the mystical knowledge was being revealed by Rabbi Dovber.
As they were walking, they noticed a torn page of writing floating in the air and finally resting in the mud. When Rabbi Pinchas bent down to pick up the page he realized that it was a student’s rendition of Rabbi Dovber’s discourse on some esoteric aspect of Torah. Rabbi Pinchas was incensed. Wasn’t this proof that Rabbi Dovber had gone too far. Now, as a result of his liberal approach to popularizing Kabbalah, the holiest teachings were literally floating in the air and landing in the mud!
Rabbi Schneur Zalman noticed Rabbi Pinchas’s reaction and was alarmed. He knew that a man of the spiritual caliber of Rabbi Pinchas had to be reckoned with. Rabbi Schneur Zalman was petrified that Rabbi Pinchas’ anger might actually cause irreparable harm to the object of his anger – Rabbi Dovber. Rabbi Schneur Zalman had to find a way to assuage the anger of Rabbi Pinchas. He did so by telling him the following parable.
Saving the Prince
There once lived a king whose greatest love was his only son, the crown prince. One day his beloved son took ill. From day to day his situation deteriorated. The best physicians were summoned to his bedside, but all their efforts were to no avail. The prince did not respond to any of their medications and he drifted into a coma. All the country’s greatest doctors gave up.
Only one doctor approached the king with great trepidation and informed him that there is one remedy left that was not tried.
“Anything, the king cried. I’ll try anything, no matter how expensive. Do anything, but save my son!” the king ordered.
“Your majesty, the only remedy known to me is in your crown. I must remove the crown jewel, the most exquisite jewel in the world, from your crown. Then I’ll have to grind it and dilute the powder with water. If the prince will drink even one drop, there is a good chance that he will be saved. His condition being as serious as it is, most of the powder will probable spill out and it is likely that only a few drops will make it into his mouth. But, even those few drops could save his life. Your majesty, should I proceed?”
The king responded, unhesitatingly, “Yes, certainly. Take my crown, remove the most precious jewel in the world which will destroy the crown and grind it and feed it to my son. If this is the only way to save him, I’m willing to squander anything, even my most precious and cherished possession.”
The happy ending to this story is that the crown prince did ingest a few droplets of this incredible potion and came out of his coma and survived, to the delight of all, especially the king.
Rabbi Shneur Zalman did not have to elaborate. The message was clear:
G-d is the king and we are the crown princes. We have become so spiritually ill that all the remedies that have been tried have failed to awaken us from our comatose position. In order to save the Jewish people, only one remedy was left. G-d would have to take His most treasured possession – His crown jewel – the hidden teachings of Torah and “grind” them and dilute them. Eventually, a few drops will enter the minds and hearts of the Jewish people and that will save them. In the process, however, much if not most of this knowledge will be squandered, wasted and end up in the wrong places, but as long as some of it will end up restoring the health Jewish people. It was well worth the sacrifice.
Rabbi Pinchas was mollified. Indeed, Rabbi Dovber subsequently thanked Rabbi Schneur Zalman for having saved his life.
While our ancestors were not in need of these teachings for their spiritual health, our generation cannot survive without it. With the advent of the Ba’al Shem Tov, the Jewish people were given a dose of a very potent medicine.
With the passage of time, the need for this potion has not decreased. With the onset of the modern age, the so-called “Enlightenment” movement and with the winds of secularism, materialism and assimilation blowing ever so strong, it became even more imperative that these mystical teachings revealed by the Ba’al Shem Tov, be disseminated to the world.
In our post-Holocaust generation, the need for added spirituality and mysticism is even more pronounced. Never before have the Jewish people been dealt a paradoxical double blow. Our century has experienced what was arguably the greatest mass extermination of a people in history – the Holocaust. In addition, the country where the majority of the world’s Jewish population resided – after suffering through decades of pogroms – were cruelly severed from their people and their faith by the Communist regime of the former USSR Simultaneous with these physical catastrophes, the Jewish community has in the last halfcentury experienced the largest “dropping out” of its members. The rate of assimilation and intermarriage is at an all-time high, while the level of Jewish education is at an all-time low. If the teachings of mysticism were necessitated two hundred years ago by the pitiful state of Jewish affairs then, how much more so, does our generation need more and more of an infusion of spirituality.
In conclusion, the changed attitude towards the promulgation of mysticism in modern times is due to the change in circumstances. The Jewish community and the world cannot survive without the added dimension of G-dly energy supplied by the mystical teachings of Judaism.
In the next chapter, we will explain – G-d willing – how the teachings of mysticism in modern times was necessitated by a positive consideration as well.
From the book Safe Kabbalah, Part One: Opening the Gates by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
