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Kabbalistic approaches to the sciences and humanities

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This article is about Kabbalistic cross-fertilisation with secular thought. For Kabbalistic views opposed to secular studies, see Torah Umadda § Criticism.

Kabbalists have included contemporary traditionalist Orthodox teachers of Kabbalah, as well as Neo-Kabbalistic and Academic scholars who read Kabbalah in a critical, universalist way.

Kabbalistic views

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Harmonisation or opposition

See also: Torah Umadda

Traditionalist Kabbalah and its development in Hasidic Judaism often took negative views of secular wisdoms. While some historical Kabbalists were learned in the canon of medieval Jewish philosophy, and occasionally mathematics and sciences, its relationship to medieval Jewish philosophy (built on Ancient Greek science and cosmology) was ambiguous. Kabbalistic dissemination began in the 12th century in order to stem the rationalist influence of Maimonides, in the context of controversies over his teachings. Nonetheless, philosophical terminology from Jewish philosophy, both Neoplatonic and Aristotelian, permeated the systems of Kabbalists, reinterpreted in mystical ways. The Kabbalistic dictum that "Kabbalah begins where philosophy ends" expressed their claim to superior knowledge, but can also be read as an appreciation of the foundations laid by Jewish philosophy. Kabbalaists held they could see further, giving mythological and psychological answers to philosophical questions, but by virtue of benefiting from the shoulders of philosophy. Kabbalists were certainly opposed to a dogmatic rationalism, but mystics such as the systemiser Moses Cordovero (16th century) expressed their influence from, and appreciation for, the profound philosophical purification of Jewish theology from mistaken corporeal interpretations universally established by Maimonides, in Cordovero's dialectical use of imagination to grasp then reject anthropomorphic conceptions in Kabbalah. Judah Loew ben Bezalel (16th century) expressed mystical ideas in the philosophical and scientific terminology of his day, appreciating the natural sciences if subservient to revelation.

Kabbalistic views on secular studies were shaped by both mystical views and social context. Shneur Zalman of Liadi (18th century) expresses the dangers of impure secular wisdoms to common faith, yet also the concealed divinity within them for great sages like the philosophical Maimonides (12th century) and mystical Nachmanides (13th century), who can clarify their unity with Torah, disclosing new esoteric dimensions:

"Occupying oneself with the sciences of the nations of the world is… included in the category of engaging in inconsequential matters insofar as the sin of neglecting the Torah is concerned… Moreover, the impurity of science is greater than the impurity of idle speech… Thus this is forbidden unless one employs as a useful instrument, viz., as a means of with which to be able to serve God… or unless he knows how to apply them in the service of God or to his better understanding of His Torah Maimonides and Nachmanides…"

— Shneur Zalman of Liadi, Tanya: Likutei Amarim, 8

Pre-Messianic era

See also: Year 6000 and Paradigm shift

Kabbalah (such as Nachmanides' commentary on the Torah) relates the 7 Days of Creation in Genesis chapter 1 to the 7 lower sephirot Divine attributes from Chesed to Malkuth. These comprise the "Revealed World" of Divine emotional expression, contrasted with the first 3 sephirot "Hidden World" of the Divine mind. The Talmud relates the 6 Days when God actively creates to the 6000 years of Creation, in the traditional Jewish calendar, with the 7th day corresponding to the messianic era 1000 years of Sabbath rest.

The Zohar central text of Kabbalah (disseminated 13th-15th centuries CE) commenting on the verse "In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, on the seventeenth day of the second month, on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened" (Genesis 7:11), relates that in the 600th year (or 600 years-6th century, 500-600) of the 6th millennium, the floodgates of wisdom above and below will open up, to prepare the world for the messianic age:

In the 6th century of the 6th millennium (ie in the years 5,500-5,600 in the Hebrew calendar corresponding to the years 1740-1840 CE) the gates of wisdom from above (Kabbalah) and the fountains of wisdom from below (science, technology, and secular thought) will be opened up and the world will make preparations to enter the 7th millennium just as one makes preparations on the 6th day of the week (Friday) when the sun is about to set (for the 7th day – the Jewish Shabbat).

Within the pre-messianic 6th millennium, leading up to the 6th century individual gates of the "50 gates of wisdom" will open sequentially, but from the year 600 (1840 CE in the secular calendar) all gates will open, enabling the cumulative discovery from then on of the upper and lower wisdoms which will flood the world, preparing it for the revelation of Absolute Divine Unity in the 7th millennium. This will especially take place in the last generation of the messiah, when "even young children will know the secrets of the Torah". This mystical prediction corresponds to the early advent of modernist secular thought from 1740s-1840s on, that broke the conventions, rigidities and limits of early modern thought. Among new ideas since then, some are overtly compatible with traditional Kabbalistic mysticism, some are compatible with extending non-fundamentalist Neo-Kabbalistic views of Revelation, some await deeper clarification of their divine unity with Torah. Among new ideas that overtly lend themselves to unity with Kabbalistic ideas, examples include Hegelian dialectics (early 1800s), Quantum mechanics (early 1900s), Freudian and Jungian depth psychology (early 1900s), postmodern Deconstruction (late 1900s), String theory (late 1900s).

Biological Evolution (developed since the 1860s from the foundations of Darwin and Mendel), while providing the basis of contemporary New Atheism, has been studied as potentially valid "fallen" aspects of Divinity by the traditional Kabbalist Yitzchak Ginsburgh. Atheist views such as Nietzsche's (late 1800s) have been welcomed by the Orthodox mystic Abraham Isaac Kook and Neo-Kabbalist scholar Sanford Drob as a necessary refining dialectical pole in Kabbalah's human-divine Panentheism view of God. The secular documentary criticism of the Torah (1700s on), and feminist criticisms are being discussed in Open Orthodox and Non-Orthodox Judaisms as outlooks that can expand evolving human understanding of Kabbalah's transcendent Mystical Torah.

The prediction of the Zohar states that in (or from) the years 1740-1840 CE (or the year 1840), both the "lower (human) wisdoms" of secular thought and the "higher (divine) wisdoms" of Kabbalah will open. The dissemination of the higher wisdoms today can be found in the contemporary flourishing of Jewish mysticism academia since the mid-20th century, who have catalogued, published and interpreted historical Kabbalistic texts, offering perceptive historical, phenomenological and comparative scholarly new understandings of formerly unpublished and esoteric manuscripts, development of thought, and mystical techniques. This disclosure is ongoing, as is the proliferation of Judaic Kabbalah in Jewish outreach. The source of the divine wisdoms from the era 1740-1840 is attributed among Non-Hasidic Lithuanian Jews to the esoteric messianic Kabbalistic school of the Vilna Gaon (1720-1797) that esoterically prepared the ongoing "Messiah ben Joseph" union of Kabbalah and Science, and the publication of early texts of Kabbalah. Among Hasidic Judaism, the new dimensions of "upper wisdoms" are Hasidic thought, initiated by the Baal Shem Tov from the 1730s and developing its classic schools by the mid-1800s, which related transcendent Kabbalah to the psychological inner divine experience of man. In Chabad intellectual school of Hasidism, Hasidic thought is a new level of Divine revelation above Kabbalah and the concepts and structures of Torah thought. The Pardes 4 levels of Torah interpretation correspond to the Four Worlds and ascending levels of the soul, with Kabbalah corresponding to Atzilut, Divine revelation, Wisdom and the transcendent soul. Hasidic thought corresponds to the Yechida essence of the soul, innermost Divine Delight rooted in the Atzmus Divine Essence, the essence of the Torah, and the messianic essence of the world. As essence permeates and unites all other levels of Torah, so Hasidism finds expression in both Kabbalah and materiality, esoteric and exoteric. By revealing the common Divine Essence within both spiritual and physical, Hasidic thought through its conceptual articulation in Chabad, is a foretaste of the messianic era. In Breslav Hasidism, Nachman of Breslov saw himself as the next revelation of Kabbalah succeeding and encompassing the revelations of Isaac Luria and the Baal Shem Tov. The Lubavitcher Rebbe quotes the midrash that "God looked into the Torah and created the World", saying that it is the new revelations of the divine "upper wisdoms" in this period that cause the "lower wisdoms" of secular thought, science and technology to also be opened.

Traditionalist Kabbalah versus Neo-Kabbalah

See also: Kabbalah § Criticism

Traditionalist Kabbalah embraces a Mosaic authorship fundamentalist view of Torah revelation, and the revelatory early origins of Jewish mysticism such as the Zohar. While rooting all creation and every individual entity in Absolute Divine origin, traditional Kabbalists also usually held a metaphysical particularist distinction in revealed Divinity between the souls of Jews and gentiles, concealed deep within the different forms of "divine spark" animating each. This view was bolstered in Kabbalist belief by the history of antisemitism until The Holocaust, replaced by antisemitism in Islam since the founding of the State of Israel. Traditionalist Kabbalah and modernist Neo-Kabbalistic adaptions represent two divergent directions in interpreting historical texts from Jewish mysticism. Traditional Kabbalists don't historically recognise the validity of Bible Criticism, or critical adaptions of Kabbalistic ideas to secular ideologies. Nonetheless, contemporary traditional Kabbalists who understand secular thought can see a true Divine element animating what to them are mistaken critical views of Torah.

Neo-Kabbalists, such as Neo-Hasidism, adapt Kabbalah and Hasidism to modern critical thought. They see positive benefit in the development of historical Kabbalah and Judaism to contemporary concerns, while retaining the spirituality of Jewish tradition and observance. They find fundamentalist and particularist notions problematic, welcoming non-fundamentalist views of Revelation in Judaism, and critical scholarship on the Biblical, Talmudic and mystical texts, including a late dating for the Zohar. Associated elements of historical Kabbalah, such as the numerical permutations of Torah text are downplayed, while new expressions and comparisons for Jewish mysticism are explored. They universalise the teachings of Kabbalah, translating Jewish Divine perception expressed through the spirituality of Jewish observance, into a personal existentialist spirituality. For Neo-Kabbalists, the problematic metaphysics differentiating Jews and gentiles dissolves in the antinomian boundaries to limited conceptions of Divinity highlighted in classic Kabbalistic hermeneutical implications of Infinite Divinity, expressed in the Zohar and other texts.

See also

Notes

  1. Moses of Burgos (late 13th century) declared, "these philosophers whose wisdom you are praising end where we begin". Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, Gershom Scholem, Schocken 1995, p 24
  2. The Jewish Religion - A Companion, Louis Jacobs, Oxford 1995, entry: Cordovero, Moses
  3. "Chapter 8 - Likutei Amarim". chabad.org. Retrieved 2015-10-26.
  4. Babylonian Talmud Rosh Hashana 31a and Sanhedrin 97a
  5. Zohar Vayeira, 117a
  6. The shemitot and the age of the universe from inner.org
  7. The Breath of Life: Torah, Intelligent Design and Evolution, Yitzchak Ginsburgh, Gal Einai publications. Torah, Evolution, and Intelligent Design Index from inner.org. Links to seminar audio currently out of service (retrieved 3/2020). Seminar considers Kabbalistic views to the question in Evolutionary Theory of why heredity evolved via inefficient process of 2 sexes
  8. “The Only God Who Can Save Us (From Ourselves):” Kabbalah, Dogmatism, and the Open Economy of Thought, Sanford Drob
  9. thetorah.com Modern and Open Orthodox debate on higher Bible Criticism in Torah studies, drawing from traditional Talmudic, Philosophical and Mystical views of Torah
  10. Expanding the Palace of Torah: Orthodoxy and Feminism, Tamar Ross, Brandeis University Press, 2004. Based on Abraham Isaac Kook's view of the transcendent Mystical Torah
  11. The Secret Doctrine of the Gaon of Vilna: Mashiach ben Yoseph and the Messianic Role of Torah, Kabbalah and Science (Volume 1), Joel David Bakst, City of Luz 2013
  12. ^ The Messianic Role of Science and Technology from cityofluz.com
  13. On the Essence of Chasidus Menachem Mendel Schneerson, Kehot 2012
  14. The Scroll of Secrets: The Hidden Messianic Vision of R. Nachman of Breslav, Zvi Mark, Academic Studies Press 2010 - "Mark highlights the innovative self-understanding of R. Nachman and his feeling of being the final revelation of Hasidism, higher even than that of his great-grandfather, the Baal Shem Tov and the Maggid of Mezerich". Mysticism and Madness: The Religious Thought of Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav, Zvi Mark, Continuum 2009, p 188-189, p 200 - "all 4 central figures whom R. Nachman saw as his spiritual predecessors: Moses, Shimon bar Yochai, the Ari, and the Baal Shem Tov"
  15. On the Essence of Chasidus, Menachem M. Schneerson, Kehot, Appendix on the nature of Hasidic thought, quoting this passage of the Zohar
  16. 19 Kabbalistic Ideas: Philosophical Implications of the New Kabbalah, Sanford Drob. "Is There But One 'Kabbalah'? The Kabbalah, like many of the world’s great spiritual and textual traditions, is multi-layered and multi-textured. Those who approach it must inevitably focus upon one or two of its several aspects, while de-emphasizing and even ignoring others....With the proliferation of interest in the Kabbalah, both within and beyond Jewish circles, it would seem that one can study a 'Kabbalah' studied by orthodox (e.g. Hasidic) Jews on the one hand and academic scholars of Jewish Mysticism on the other. Such a proliferation of interpretations is not necessarily a bad thing....My goal is to outline a series of 'Kabbalistic' ideas, ideas that, if not always explicitly stated by the Kabbalists themselves, are nonetheless implicit within their symbols and world-view....Undoubtedly many will quarrel with my characterization of these ideas as Kabbalistic, some even going so far as to hold that the Kabbalah requires the precise opposites of the ideas I am setting forth. This is inevitable for a variety of reasons, several of which (e.g. the Kabbalistic view of the infinite reinterpretability of texts, and their understanding of the coincidence of opposites) should become quite apparent as we proceed. Nevertheless, irrespective of what one believes regarding their Kabbalistic 'pedigree' I believe that the ideas set forth herein are worthy of consideration on their own merit, and warrant a place in what I have referred to as the 'New Kabbalah', a Kabbalah relevant and vital for our own age."
  17. Q&A: Is There Anything Holy About Feminism?, Jewish Feminism: a Chassidic Vision, Yitzchak Ginsburgh, from inner.org
  18. On the Kabbalah and its Symbolism, Gershom Scholem, Schocken 1996, "Chapter 2: The Meaning of the Torah in Jewish Mysticism". Expresses the unlimited transcendent Mystical Torah with Infinite plurality of meanings/No meanings related to the Ein Sof paradox above Being/Non-Being
  19. The Torah of the Tree of Life: Kabbalistic Reflections on the Hermeneutics of Infinity in Scholem, Idel, Dan, and Tishby, Sanford Drob. "Contemporary scholarship on the Kabbalah has focused considerable attention on the Kabbalist’s views of language and interpretation. One reason for this, as Moshe Idel and others have observed, is that there is an important affinity between the Kabbalistic conception of infinite layers of meaning in scripture and contemporary philosophical ideas regarding the infinite interpretability of both texts and the world. In this essay, I will review some recent scholarship on Kabbalistic hermeneutics. I will attempt to show how a careful consideration of Kabbalistic notions of 'infinite interpretation' will not only lead to a new understanding of the relevance of Kabbalah to contemporary thought, but also to a radical new understanding of the Kabbalah’s attitude toward 'Torah' and religious life."

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