Ask the
Clergy
Are Ordinary Jews Allowed
To Study Kabbalah?
by
Senior Rabbi, Alan Green
Published in the Jewish Post on
Wednesday,
September 3, 2008
It is a fact that Jewish tradition limits the study of Kabbalah
(Jewish mysticism) to married males over the age of 40, who have a
thorough grounding in Jewish knowledge and practice. In this,
rabbinic authorities were acting in accordance with the warning that
appears in the Talmud (Tractate Chagiga 14b) in connection with the
story of the “four (sages) who entered Pardes” (literally,
“the orchard”—but actually an acronym for the four main techniques
of decoding the Torah: P’shat, literal interpretation; Remez,
allegorical interpretation; Drash, the legal or homiletic
interpretation; and Sod, the mystical interpretation).
These four sages were the leading spiritual authorities of their
age. As a result of their overwhelming spiritual encounters, Ben
Azzai lost his life; Ben Zoma lost his sanity; and Elisha ben Abuya
lost his faith. Rabbi Akiva alone “entered in peace, and left in
peace.”
Later authorities reasoned that if Jewish mystical practice could
threaten the life, sanity, and faith of three of the greatest Torah
giants, how much the more so ordinary Jews like you and me?
Therefore, Jewish mysticism has remained the closely held property
of an elite group of scholars and their students for many centuries.
Today, an explosion of interest in Kabbalah has been fueled by the
surprising phenomenon of the Kabbalah Centre organization, as well
as many gifted Jewish teachers who offer classes in Jewish mysticism
in Israel and around the world. Also, a wide variety of good books
on Kabbalah in English are available to anyone of any religious
persuasion, at most local and on-line bookstores. Under these new
conditions, are ordinary Jews permitted to study Kabbalah, without
going against an important piece of received wisdom from the past?
The short answer in my opinion, is yes.
The traditional restrictions on the study of Kabbalah were designed
to protect the unsophisticated and uneducated among our ancestors
from themselves. But today, we have the opposite problem. It is
our education and sophistication that is killing us! God, faith,
prayer, meditation, and synagogue are foreign realities for the vast
majority of modern Jews. The future of a people bereft of these
spiritual treasures must surely be in doubt.
Today, we Jews have a desperate need to balance our considerable
expertise in history, philosophy, physics, mathematics, law,
medicine, and government with spiritual knowledge—specifically,
knowledge that throws down the barriers that keep our longing souls
far from the embrace of our Creator. The knowledge contained in
Kabbalah fulfills our fundamental need for D’veikut—“intimate
clinging to God”--in a magnificent way. For me personally, Kabbalah
has been the “spice” that has allowed me to feast at the Jewish
table, with pleasure and gusto for more than 30 years.
Do you have a question you would like answered in this column? Email
information@shaareyzedek.mb.ca. |
