NEWS FEATURE: Kabbalah provides mystical approach to the Jewish High Holy Days

c. 1997 Religion News Service UNDATED _ Naomi Hyman has prepared herself in recent weeks for the Jewish High Holy Days by daily reviewing her thoughts and actions of the past year, measuring them against”the standards I and my tradition have set for me.” Judaism encourages all Jews to prepare for the High Holy Days […]

c. 1997 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ Naomi Hyman has prepared herself in recent weeks for the Jewish High Holy Days by daily reviewing her thoughts and actions of the past year, measuring them against”the standards I and my tradition have set for me.” Judaism encourages all Jews to prepare for the High Holy Days _ its most important period _ by engaging in such self-reflection. This year the holidays begin at sundown on Oct. 1 with Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and end Oct. 11 with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

But Hyman’s approach to the task is unconventional: She engages in meditative practices drawn from”kabbalah,”Judaism’s mystical approach to the divine mystery.


Hyman, a 39-year-old rabbinical student and Jewish educator who lives in Stevensville, Md., said the practices deepen her introspection and lead to insights that have led her to view the world as a web of interconnected”divine emanations.””Kabbalah creates an opening of the heart that creates a compulsion to act differently in the world,”said Hyman.”It enhances my ability to reflect and to pray, which allows me to feel I can be in the real presence of God.” Hyman is one of a growing number of American Jews who in recent years have plunged into the esoteric and once-guarded teachings of kabbalah in hope of gaining an understanding _ and direct experience _ of God, known to kabbalists as”ein sof,”the infinite.

Aiding their quest are scores of recent books and audiotapes, plus a slew of courses and workshops offered by mainstream and alternative academic institutions, Orthodox and New Age-oriented rabbis alike. All seek to explain a spiritual path traditionally reserved for Judaism’s most learned and pious practitioners.

Many of those now exploring kabbalah previously sought to satisfy their spiritual longings by studying Eastern mysticism. For many of them, kabbalah has been a way to reconnect with religious Judaism.

For others already connected to the faith, kabbalah has provided an alternative viewpoint to the rational-minded Judaism commonly practiced today in most mainstream liberal and Orthodox communities.

Both formal and informal kabbalah study groups have sprung up around the nation.

Hyman, for example, attends gatherings of the Kabbalistic Circle, a group of about a dozen friends who meet twice monthly in Annapolis, Md., to discuss kabbalah.

More formally, the New York-based Kabbalah Learning Center offers popular 12-week courses in a dozen U.S. cities _ as well as Mexico, France, Israel and elsewhere _ that have attracted thousands. The group’s Los Angeles activities have gained considerable media attention for attracting several Jewish and even non-Jewish celebrities, including comedian Roseanne and singer-actress Madonna.

One sign of the increased mainstream acceptance of kabbalah is the course on the subject led by Rabbi Abner Weiss of Beth Jacob Congregation in Beverly Hills, Calif. The 700-family synagogue is the largest Orthodox Jewish congregation west of the Mississippi River and Weiss is a pillar of the Los Angeles-area Jewish establishment.”It’s definitely a phenomenon,”said Stuart Matlins, president of Jewish Lights Publishing in Woodstock, Vt., which has released three books on the subject in the past year alone.”Book sales on the subject are steady, reflecting a constant influx of new readers. I think we can expect to see a lot more on the subject.” (BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)


In common usage, kabbalah _ which translates from the Hebrew as”to receive tradition”_ has come to refer to the gamut of Jewish spirituality.

Among scholars, however, the term refers to several distinct, though connected, schools of Jewish spiritual teachings that date from the 12th century. Kabbalistic practices include various forms of meditation and visualization in which the mind is focused on the letters of the Hebrew alphabet and the names of God.

Gershom Scholem, the late Hebrew University of Israel professor and kabbalah expert, wrote that from the early 16th through the early 19th century, kabbalah constituted the core of Jewish theology, only to be cast aside as western rationalism eroded traditional Jewish beliefs.

Kabbalistic fervor reached its height in the 16th century with the teachings of Isaac Luria, a mystic who lived in Safed in what is now northern Israel. Luria developed a highly complex theology that holds the purpose of life to be the liberation of divine emanations _ God’s presence _ embedded in the material world during the act of heavenly creation.

Since these emanations can only be set free by acts of human holiness, Luria taught, humans must work in partnership with God to spiritually advance the world.

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Kabbalists believe the secrets of the universe _ and direct experience of God _ can be realized by studying the”sefirot,”10 emanations generally represented graphically as a”Tree of Life”and said to represent God’s plan for creation. These include the will of God, wisdom, discernment, loving-kindness, judgment, beauty, eternity, glory, righteousness and the divine presence.


To conceptualize the world kabbalistically requires looking beyond surface appearances. It means reading the Bible and other Jewish texts in a non-literal manner and searching for esoteric meaning _ the divine emanations _ in the most mundane of happenings.”There is an assumption by kabbalists,”said Shimon Shokek, a professor of Jewish philosophy and mysticism at Baltimore Hebrew University,”that Judaism as a religion carries with it not only its history, but also a hidden language, which the Jewish people are obligated to reveal in order to achieve the ultimate goal of Judaism, which is communion with God.” Mainstream Judaism has regarded kabbalah as so spiritually powerful _ and potentially dangerous _ that its study was traditionally limited to married men over age 40. The belief was that only learned, responsible and pious individuals _ traditionally that meant men _ were capable of handling kabbalah’s consciousness-altering mystical concepts.

Until recently, this mystique surrounding kabbalah confined its study to some ultra-Orthodox Hasidic Jewish groups _ who wove kabbalistic practices and beliefs into their daily life _ and academic, often non-practicing observers.

Today, said Rabbi David A. Cooper, it no longer makes sense to limit access to kabbalah to an elite group.”Worldwide communication has made the mystical teachings of traditions readily available,”said Cooper, author of”God is a Verb: Kabbalah and the Practice of Mystical Judaism”(Riverhead Books).”It doesn’t help to keep kabbalah secret when the teachings of other traditions are so openly taught and are attractive to many Jews.”One reason the study of kabbalah has become popular is because Jews are realizing the insights into God they thought they had to experience elsewhere are also available in their own faith,”said Cooper, who lives in Jamestown, Colo.

Kabbalah also attracts mystically minded Jews because it”feels familiar,”said Daniel C. Matt, professor of Jewish mysticism at the Graduate Theological Union’s Center for Jewish Studies in Berkeley, Calif.

Rona Warner, a 48-year-old middle school teacher, is an example of this.

As a University of Maryland student in the early 1970s, Warner said she felt the need to connect with a spiritual tradition, but was uncomfortable with the plethora of non-Jewish paths that confronted her.

Kabbalah, which she began studying about six years ago, was different.”Kabbalah was Jewish,”said Warner, a member of the Annapolis Kabbalistic Circle.”The answers came from a place that was comfortable to me. It felt safe.” By and large, said Matt, author of”The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism”(Harper San Francisco), the wave of popular interest in kabbalah today has resulted in a”dumbing-down of the concepts”to attract a wider audience.”You can’t really understand kabbalah if you don’t know Hebrew and are not grounded in the traditional texts. A lot of what’s being offered is very suspect,”he said.”The plus side is that exposure to even simplistic kabbalah can excite people to learn more and dig deeper.” Weiss, who is also a clinical psychologist, emphasizes kabbalah’s psychological component in his workshops in an effort to make its teachings more accessible.”When kabbalah speaks about breaking the ego and allowing the real self to emerge, that is psychology pure and simple,”he said.”It’s also a level at which someone with limited Jewish learning can understand some very complex concepts.” Shokek said most Jews newly attracted to kabbalah are drawn primarily by its emotional impact.”It’s not intellectual stimulation they want most, but an inner experience, so it’s okay with them if the intellectual aspect is not of the highest standard,”he said.


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To prepare for the High Holy Days, Hyman has meditated on the sefirot, seeking to understand their meaning and”repair the damage and clean up the debris”of her actions”to better become the person I was born to be.” Cooper suggested meditating on God’s mercy, which kabbalists stress over God’s judgment, a theme closely associated with the High Holy Days in mainstream Judaism.”The kabbalah teaches that we are co-partners in creation with God, which means there is always opportunity to heal wrongs,”he said.”That’s terribly empowering.” Matt offered yet another kabbalistic technique for enhancing the High Holy Days experience.

Rather than seeking to keep up with the entire Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur liturgies, he suggested taking time during holiday worship services to silently contemplate the four-letter Hebrew Tetragrammaton, or biblical name for God, usually rendered in English as YHWH.”Try listening to the silence,”said Matt.”Kabbalah teaches that not only are the letters of God’s name magical, but that their hidden meanings become apparent to those who praise the name through their silence.”

MJP END RIFKIN

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