Kabbalah and Contemporary Spiritual Revival

edited by

Boaz Huss

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Press

The Goldstein-Goren Library of Jewish Thought Publication No. 14

ISBN 978-965-536-043-1

All Rights Reserved Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Press Beer-Sheva 2011 Printed in Israel

Contents
Contributors Preface From Neo-Hasidism to Outreach Yeshivot: The Origins of the Movements of Renewal and Return to Tradition Yaakov Ariel Performing Kabbalah in the Jewish Renewal Movement Chava Weissler Self, Identity and Healing in the Ritual of Jewish Spiritual Renewal in Israel Rachel Werczberger The Contemporary Renaissance of Braslov Hasidism: Ritual, Tiqqun and Messianism Zvi Mark Towards the Study of the Spiritual-Mystical Renaissance in the Contemporary Ashkenazi aredi World in Israel Jonathan Garb Building a Sanctuary of the Heart: The Kabbalistic-Pietistic Teachings of Itamar Schwartz Elliot R. Wolfson The Boundaries of the Kabbalah: R. Yaakov Moshe Hillel and the Kabbalah in Jerusalem Jonatan Meir Kabbalah for the Gentiles: Diverse Souls and Universalism in Contemporary Kabbalah Jody Myers Toward a Social Psychology of Spirituality Philip Wexler Yoga and Kabbalah as World Religions? A Comparative Perspective on Globalization of Religious Resources Vronique Altglas 7 13

17 39

75

101

117

141

163

181 213

233

Kabbalah in Gnosis Magazine (1985-1999) Wouter J. Hanegraaff Paganism: Negotiating between Esotericism and Animism under the Influence of Kabbalah Graham Harvey Radical Religious Zionism from the Collective to the Individual Shlomo Fischer Precursors to Postmodern Spirituality in Israeli Cultural Ethos Tamar Katriel Between Universalism and Relativism: The Acquiring of a Continuously Liberating Self by Buddha-Dhamma Israeli Practitioners Joseph Loss Contemporary Kabbalah and its Challenge to the Academic Study of Jewish Mysticism Boaz Huss

251

267

285 311

329

357

Contemporary Kabbalah and its Challenge to the Academic Study of Jewish Mysticism
Boaz Huss
Introduction In the last decades of the 20th century, and the first decade of the second millennium, Kabbalah and Hasidism, which seemed to have declined by the mid 20th century, became prominent in both Israel and the Jewish communities around the world (especially in the United States); interest in Kabbalah has become widespread also in non Jewish circles in the Western world. Various hasidic and kabbalistic groups have grown more active and influential, new forms of Kabbalah were created, and kabbalisitc themes were integrated in a range of forms of contemporary cultural productions literature, visual arts, cinema and popular music. Until about a decade ago, the revival of Kabbalah and Hasidism received little scholarly attention.1 Since then contemporary forms of
* 1 The research for this study was supported by the Israel Science Foundation (grant no. 809/05). I am grateful to Jody Myers for her helpful comments. The first scholarly review of later developments of 20th century Kabbalah, which I am familiar with, was published in 1997 in Charles Mopsik, Cabale et Cabbalists (Paris, 1997), 239-270. Several studies of the new development in the Chabad movement were published in the 1990s, such as Aviezer Ravitsky, The Contemporary Lubavitch Hasidic Movement: Between Conservatism and Messianism, Accounting for Fundamentalism, eds. Martin E. Marty and R. Scott Appleby (Chicago, 1992), 303-324. A study of Neo-Braslovianism, dealing with Rabbi Eliezer Shick and his followers, was published by Mendel Piekarz, adisut Braslav (Hebrew; Jerusalem, 1995), 199-218. Also, since the late 1970s, various aspects of contemporary Kabbalah were examined in Yoram Bilus extensive publications on traditional healing and saint veneration practices in Israel; see, for example, Yoram Bilu, Demonic Explanations of Disease Among Moroccan Jews in Israel, Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry 3 (1979): 363-389; idem, The Woman who wanted to be her Father: A Case study of Dybbuk-Possession in a Hasidic Community, Journal of Psycoanalytic Anthropology 8 (1985): 11-27; idem, Jewish Moroccan Saint Impresarios in Israel: A Stage-Developmental Perspective, Psychoanalytic Study of Society 15 (1990): 247-269; Yoram Bilu and Eyal Ben-Ari, The Making of Modern Saints: Manufactured Charisma and the Abu atseiras of Israel, American Ethnologis t 357

Boaz Huss

Kabbalah and Hasidism have attracted much more scholarly notice. Several study and research groups, as well as conferences and sessions within the framework of academic meetings were dedicated to contemporary kabbalisitic revival,2 and many studies were written about the new forms of Kabbalah and Hasidism.3 From the various types of

19 (1992): 29-44. Mention should be made also of Herbert Wieners 9 1/2 Mystics: The Kabbalah Today (New York, 1969), the first survey of Kabbala h in the second half of the 20 th century, which was written from a journalistic, rather than an academic perspective. During1998-2000, a research Group on contemporary Kabbalah headed by Avi Elqayam and Boaz Huss convened in The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. The groups organized a conference on Kabbalah, Mysticism and Israeli Society in June 2000. Sessions dedicated to contemporary forms of Kabbalah, Jewish Mysticism and Jewish Spirituality have been held in most of the AJS annual conferences since 2002, as well as in the 14th and 15th World Congresses of Jewish studies, held in Jerusalem in 2005 and 2009, and during the 2008 AAR annual meeting. A conference entitled Reaching the Infinite: The Lubavitcher Rebbe-Life, Teaching and Impact was held at NYU in November 2005, a conference on Kabbalah and Modernity was held at Amsterdam University in July 2007, and a conference on Kabbalah and Contemporary Spiritual Revival was held at Ben-Gurion University on May 2008. A research group on The Sociology of Contemporary Jewish Mysticism in Comparative Perspective, headed by Yoni Garb and Philip Wexler convened at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Jerusalem in 2008/2009. The group held an international conference on Contemporary Jewish Mysticism: Social and Comparative Perspectives in July 2009. A monograph on 20th century Kabbalah, Yoni Garbs The Chosen Will Become Herds: Studies in Twentieth Century Kabbalah (New Haven, 2009) was published first in Hebrew, in 2005. General surveys and discussions of contemporary Kabbalah are found in: Boaz Huss, The New Age of Kabbalah: Contemporary Kabbalah, New Age, and Postmodern Spirituality, Modern Jewish Studies 6 (2007): 107125; idem, Contemporary Forms of Kabbalah in the Late 20th and Early 21st Centuries, The Cambridge Companion to Kabbalah, ed. Elliot R. Wolfson (forthcoming); Jody Myers, Kabbalah in the Modern Era, Cambridge History of Judaism, Volume VIII: The Modern Period, c. 1815 c. 2000, eds. Mitchell B. Hart and Tony Michels (forthcoming); idem Kabbalah at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century, Jewish Mysticism: New Insights and Scholarship, ed. Frederick E. Greenspahn (forthcoming). For a survey of printing of kabbalistic literature in the 20th century, see Zeev Gries, The Printing of Kabbalistic Literature in the Twentieth Century, Kabbalah 18 (2008): 113-132. Recent collective volumes on modern and contemporary forms of Kabbalah are: Kabbalah and Modernity: Interpretations, Transformations, Adaptations, eds. Boaz Huss, Marco Pasi, and Kocku von Stuckrad (Leiden and Boston, 2010), and the present volume. Studies of contemporary Kabbalah are also included in Philip Wexler and Yoni Garbs forthcoming volume, Contemporary Mysticism: Social and Comparative Perspectives. For studies of specific contemporary Kabbalistic and Hasidic movements, see the following notes.

358

Contemporary Kabbalah

contemporary kabbalistic and hasidic revival, it is mostly the Chabad movement4 and the Jewish Renewal5 which attained scholarly attention.
4 Monographs on the last Lubavitcher Rebbe and contemporary Chabad are: Avrum M. Ehrlich, Leadership in the aBad Movement: A Critical Evaluation of aBad Leadership, History and Succession (Northvale and Jerusalem, 2000); Yitzhak Kraus, The Seventh: Messianism in the Last Generation of abad (Hebrew; Tel-Aviv, 2007); Elliot Wolfson, Open Secret, Postmessianic Messianism and the Mystical Revision of Menaem Mendel Schneerson (New York, 2009); Samuel C. Heilman and Menahem M. Friedman, The Rebbe: The Life and After Life of Menachem Mendel Schneerson (Princeton, 2010). See also David Bergers polemical work, The Rebbe, the Messiah, and the Scandal of Orthodox Indifference, (London, 2008). An edited volume, Reaching for the Infinite: The Lubavitcher Rebbe Life, Teachings, and Impact, eds. Naftali Loewenthal, Lawrence H. Schiffman and Elliot R. Wolfson, is forthcoming. Recent articles on contemporary Chabad include: Maya Balakirsky Katz, On the Master-Disciple Relationship in Hasidic Visual Culture: The Life and Afterlife of Rabbinical Portraits in Chabad, Image 1 (2007): 55-79; idem, Trademarks of Faith: Chabad and Chanukah in America, Modern Judaism 29 (2009): 239-267; Yoram Bilu, With Us More Than Ever, Making the late Rabbi Present in Messianic Chabad, Leadership and Authority in the Ultraorthodox Community: New Perspectives, eds. Kimi Caplan and Nurit Stadler (Hebrew; Tel Aviv, 2009), 186-209; Michal Kravel and Yoram Bilu, The Work of the Present: Constructing Messianic Temporality in the Wake of Failed Prophecy among Chabad Hasidim, American Ethnologist 35 (2008): 1-17; Michal Kravel-Tovi, To See the Invisible Messiah: Messianic Socialization in the Wake of a Failed Prophecy in abad, Religion 39 (2009), 248-260; Tomer Persico, Chabads Lost Messiah, Azure 38 (2009): 82-127. Studies of Jewish Renewal and related groups include: Yaakov Ariel, Hasidism in the Age of Aquarius: The House of Love and Prayer in San Francisco, 19671977, Religion and American Culture 13 (2003): 139165; idem, Can Adam and Eve Reconcile: Gender and Sexuality in a New Jewish Religious Movement, Nova Religion 9.4 (2006): 53-78; Marie Josee-Posen, Beyond New Age: Jewish Renewals Reconstruction of Theological Meaning in the Teaching of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, New Age Judaism, eds. Celia Rosenberg and Anne Vallely (London, 2008), 73-94; Shaul Magid, Rainbow Hasidism in America The Maturation of Jewish Renewal, The Reconstructionist 68 (2004): 34-60; idem, The Jewish Renewal Movement, Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd ed., (Farmington Hills, 2005), vol. 7, 48684874; idem, Jewish Renewal A New American Religion? Tikkun Magazine (January/February, 2006); idem, Jewish Renewal, American Spiritualism, and Postmonotheistic Theology, Tikkun Magazine (May/June, 2006); idem, The Necessary Heresy of Translation: Reflections on the Hebrew Writings of Zalman SchachterShalomi, Spectrum: A Journal of Renewal Spirituality 3 (2007); David Roper, The Turbulent Marriage of Ethnicity and Spirituality: Rabbi Theodore Falcon, Makom Ohr Shalom and Jewish Mysticism in the Western United States, 19691993, Journal of Contemporary Religion 18 (2003): 169-184; Celia E. Rothberg, Hebrew Healing: Jewish Authenticity and Religious Healing in Canada, Journal of Contemporary Religion 21 (2006), 163-182; idem, Jewish Yoga: Experiencing Flexible, Sacred, and Jewish Bodies, Nova Religio 10 359

Boaz Huss

Several studies have been dedicated to contemporary saint veneration practices,6 Philip Berg and the Kabbalah Center,7 Michael Laitman and Bnei Baruch Group,8 Isaac Ginsburgh,9 contemporary Braslav
(2006): 57-74; Joanna Steinhardt, American Neo-Hasids in the Land of Israel, Nova Religio 13 (2010): 22-42; Chava Weissler, Meanings of Shekhinah in the Jewish Renewal Movement, Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Womens Studies & Gender Issues 10 (2006): 53-83; idem, Art is spirituality!: Practice, Play, and Experiential Learning in the Jewish Renewal Movement, Material Religion 3.3 (2007): 354-379; idem, Women of Vision in the Jewish Renewal Movement: The Eshet Hazon [Woman of Vision] Ceremony, New Age Judaism, eds. Celia E. Rothenberg and Anne Vallely (London, 2008), 52-72. See also Yakkov Ariel, From Neo Hasidism to Outreach Yeshivot: The Origins of the Movements of Renewal and Return to Tradition, and Chava Weissler, Performing Kabbalah in the Jewish Renewal Movement, in the present volume. Yoram Bilu, The Saints Impresarios: Dreamers, Healers and Holy Men in Israels Urban Periphery, (Hebrew; Haifa, 2005). On the Kabbalah Center see: Jody Myers, Kabbalah and the Spiritual Quest: The Kabbalah Centre in America (Westport, Connecticut, 2007); idem, The Kabbalah Centre and Contemporary Spirituality, Religion Compass 2 (2008): 409-420; idem, Marriage and Sexual Behavior in the Teachings of the Kabbalah Center, Kabbalah and Modernity: Interpretations, Transformations, Adaptations, eds. Boaz Huss, Marco Pasi, and Kocku von Stuckrad (Leiden and Boston, 2010), 259-282; Boaz Huss, All You Need Is LAV: Madonna and Postmodern Kabbalah, The Jewish Quarterly Review 95 (2005): 611-624; Jonatan Meir, The Revealed and the Revealed within the Concealed: On the Opposition to the Followers of Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag and the Dissemination of Esoteric Literature (Hebrew), Kabbalah 16 (2007): 170-190. See also Vronique Altglas, Yoga and Kabbalah as World Religions? A Comparative Perspective on Globalization of Religious Resources, in the present volume; idem, The Challenges of Universalising Religions: The Kabbalah Centre in France and Britain, Nova Religio (forthcoming); and Boaz Huss, Kabbalah and the Politics of In-Authenticity: Controversies over the Kabbalah Center, Religion and Identity Politics, eds. Tim Jansen and Olav Hammer (forthcoming). Meir, The Revealed and the Revealed within the Concealed, 190-216; Shai Ben Tal, Bnei Baruch The Story of a New Religious Movement (Hebrew), Akdamot 25 (2010); 147-168. See also Jody Myers, Kabbalah for the Gentiles: Diverse Souls and Universalism in Contemporary Kabbalah, in the present volume. See Shlomo Fisher, The Ethical Crisis of Spirituality: on the Thought of Rabbi Isaac Ginsburgh (Hebrew), Eretz Aeret 26 (2005): 53-57; idem, Nature, Authenticity and Violence in Radical Religious Zionist Thought, Generations, Locations, Identities: Contemporary Perspectives on Society and Culture in Israel, Essays in Honor of Shmuel Noah Eisenstadt, eds. Hannah Herzog, Tal Kochavi and Shimshon Zelniker (Hebrew; Tel Aviv, 2007); Garb, The Chosen Will Become Herds, 48-50; Motti Inbari, Jewish Fundamentalism and the Temple Mount: Who Will Build the Third Temple? (Albany, 2009), 131-160; Don Seeman, Violence, Ethics and Divine Honour in Modern Jewish Thought, Journal of the American Academy of Religion 73 (2005): 1017-1028. Ginsburgh is discussed

6 7

360

Contemporary Kabbalah

Hasidism,10 and contemporary Kabbalah in the Sephardic and UltraOrthodox communities.11 Other types of contemporary Kabbalah and Hasidism have been gone into only briefly, or not at all.12 Scholars from a variety of disciplines, anthropologists, sociologists, historians and researchers of New Religious Movements occupy themselves with contemporary Kabbalah. Interestingly, not a great number of scholars of Jewish mysticism engage in the study of contemporary Kabbalah and Hasidism. Furthermore, contemporary Kabbalah is usually not included in thematic and general studies of Kabbalah, and some scholars of Jewish mysticism disparage contemporary forms of Kabbalah and Hasidism and deny their authenticity and relevance to the inquiry into earlier, true expressions of Jewish mysticism.13 The fact that the majority of work done on contemporary Kabbalah and Hasidism is not conducted within the framework of the academic discipline of Jewish mysticism, and that most scholars of Jewish

10

11

12

13

also by Myers, Kabbalah for the Gentiles, and by Shlomo Fischer, Radical Religious Zionism from the Collective to the Individual, in the present volume. See Piekarz, adisut Braslav, 199-218; and Zvi Mark, The Contemporary Renaissance of Braslov Hasidism: Ritual, Tikkun and Messianism, in the present volume. See: Jonathan Garb, Mystical and Spiritual Discourse in the Contemporary Ashkenazi aredi Worlds, Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, 9 (2010): 17-36; Pinchas Giller, Leadership and Charisma among Mizrai Modern Kabbalists in the footsteps of Sharabi Contemporary Kabbalistic Prayer, The Journal for the Study of Sephardic & Mizrai Jewry (2007): 21-41. See also Jonathan Garb, Towards the Study of the Spiritual-Mystical Renaissance in the Contemporary Ashkenazy aredi World in Israel; Elliot Wolfson, Building a Sanctuary of the Heart: The Kabbalistic-Pietistic Teachings of Itamar Schwartz; and Jonatan Meir, The Boundaries of the Kabbalah: R. Yaakov Moshe Hillel and the Kabbalah in Jerusalem, in the present volume. Israel Yakov Ifargan, Ha-Rentgen is discussed by Liora Sarfati, Imported Rituals, addiq Veneration in Israel, UCLA Center for Modern and Contemporary Studies (2004). Ariel Bar Zadok is discussed in Myers, Kabbalah for the Gentiles, in the present volume. David Basri, Bnayahu Shmueli, Warren Kenton and many other contemporary Kabbalistis have not been studied yet. See Matt Goldish, Kabbalah, Academia, and Authenticity, Tikkun Magazine (September/October 2005): 63-67; Boaz Huss, Authorized Guardians: The Polemics of Academic Scholars of Jewish Mysticism against Kabbalah Practitioners, Polemical Encounters: Esoteric Discourse and its Others, eds. Olav Hammer and Kocku von Stuckrad (Leiden, 2007), 104-126; idem, Kabbalah and the Politics of In-Authenticity. 361

Boaz Huss

mysticism are not interested in the contemporary manifestations of Kabbalah and Hasidism, seems significant to me. I do not mean to criticize the actuality that most students of contemporary Kabbalah and Hasidism come from other disciplines on the contrary, I believe that the study of contemporary Kabbalah from various disciplinary perspectives enhances its understanding, and should be encouraged also in other areas of Kabbalah and Hasidism. Yet, the reluctance of scholars of Jewish mysticism to study contemporary Kabbalah and integrate it into their vision of Jewish mysticism requires an explanation. In the following, I will analyze the reasons for the marginality of contemporary Kabbalah and Hasidism in the academic research of Jewish mysticism; consequently I will suggest that the revival of Kabbalah and Hasidism both defy and challenge some of the methodological assumptions, fundamental categories and theological presuppositions of the academic perusal of Jewish mysticism. I will assert that because of these challenges, the study of contemporary Kabbalah and Hasidism is not only an opportunity to enlarge our understanding of the historical developments of Kabbalah and Hasidism, but also offers an opening for a critical examination of the discursive framework which regulates the academic study of Jewish mysticism. The Academic Study of Jewish Mysticism and its Attitude to Contemporary Kabbalah Western academic research of Kabbalah and Hasidism, which began in the 19th century, was established as an academic discipline by the scholarly enterprise of Gershom Scholem and his disciples. Following earlier scholars, Scholem defined Kabbalah and Hasidism as Jewish mysticism and determined the major categories and methodologies for its study and the main suppositions concerning its essence, historical development, and cultural impact. Scholems interest in Jewish mysticism was first and foremost historical; yet, he believed in its metaphysical significance. Paradoxically, he maintained that the only way to reach the metaphysical import of Kabbalah was through philological historical research.14
14 Andreas B. Kilcher, Philology as Kabbalah, Kabbalah and Modernity: Interpretations, Transformations, Adaptations, eds. Boaz Huss, Marco Pasi, and Kocku von Stuckrad (Leiden and Boston, 2010), 20-26.

362

Contemporary Kabbalah

Scholem identified the beginning of Jewish mysticism in the Heikhalot literature, its later developments in medieval and early modern Kabbalah, and its last stage in 18th century East European Hasidism. According to Scholems historiography, which was embedded in his Zionist ideology, the later stages of Jewish mysticism led, dialectically, to modern Judaism and Zionism. Scholem, who regarded Jewish mysticism as a manifestation of the vital force of the Jewish nation in the Diaspora, believed that the creative element of Jewish mysticism was invested in his times in the Zionist secular endeavor of building a modern Jewish nation;15 he asserted that Jewish mysticism, in its traditional forms, lost its historical significance: At the end of a long process of development in which Kabbalism, paradoxical though it may sound, has influenced the course of Jewish history, it has become again what it was in the beginning: the esoteric wisdom of small groups of men out of touch with life and without any influence on it.16 In accordance with this perception, Scholem ignored in his studies contemporaneous forms of Kabbalah, and disparaged Neo-Romantic and Western esoteric interests in Kabbalah.17 He did not deny the possibility of a continuation of Jewish mysticism, but declared that such continuation would not be in the form of traditional Kabbalah, but rather in the framework of secular Zionism and the modern academic study of Kabbalah. Since the 1980s, major revisions have taken place in the academic research of Jewish mysticism. Moshe Idel, Yehuda Liebes, Elliot Woflson and other scholars offered new directions and perspectives in Kabbalah studies, and modified many of Scholem`s methodological and theoretical suppositions; a great number of his theories concerning the history and the significance of Kabbalah have been challenged.18

15 16 17

18

Gershom Scholem, On the Possibility of Jewish Mysticism in our Time and Other Essays (Philadelphia and Jerusalem, 1997), 17. Gershom Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (New York, 1971), 34. See Boaz Huss, Ask No Questions: Gershom Scholem and the Study of Contemporary Jewish Mysticism, Modern Judaism 25 (2005): 141-58; idem, Authorized Guardians. For reviews of the new perspectives and directions of Kabbalah scholarship see: 363

Boaz Huss

One of the central issues criticized by this next generation of Kabbalah scholars was the question of the origins of Jewish mysticism. Idel, Liebes and others rejected Scholems theory of the Gnostic origins of Kabbalah, and regarded it as a continuation of earlier Jewish mythical, theosophical and theurgical themes, which can be traced back to talmudic and biblical literature. These scholars of Jewish mysticism, especially Moshe Idel, criticized the exclusiveness of Scholems historicalphilological method and suggested using different methodologies, in particular comparative and phenomenological, in the study of Jewish mysticism. Notwithstanding the new perspectives and directions of study, these scholars still held on to some of the major suppositions of Kabbalah studies, specifically, the identification of Kabbalah and Hasidism as Jewish mysticism. While many of the new scholars rejected Scholems theories concerning the origins of Jewish mysticism, and extended the scope of Jewish mysticism and Jewish myth to talmudic and biblical times, Scholems perception of Hasidism as the last significant stage of Jewish mysticism has remained, until recently, unchallenged.19 Although Moshe Idel suggested in his 1988 Kabbalah: New Perspectives that contact with living kabbalists can enrich the academic vision of what Kabbalah is,20 the study of contemporary Kabbalah was not part of the revision of Kabbalah studies in the late 1980s and 1990s; only in recent years has the scholarship of Jewish Mysticism turned its attention to this area. As stated above, in the field of Jewish mysticism the study of contemporary forms of Kabbalah is still marginal and some scholars reject and disparage the contemporary revival of Kabbalah and Hasidism.

19

20 364

Hava Tirosh-Rothschild, Continuity and Revision in the Study of Kabbalah, AJS Review 16 (1991): 161-192; Amos Funkenstein, Annals of Israel among the Thorns (Hebrew), ion 60 (1995): 342-344; Boaz Huss, The New Age of Kabbalah Research: Book Review of Ron Margolin, The Human Temple; Melila Hellner-Eshed, A River Flows from Eden; Jonathan Garb, Manifestations of Power in Jewish Mysticism (Hebrew), Theory and Criticism 27 (2005): 246-253. Moshe Idel asserted: The last major development in Jewish Mysticism is the Hasidic movement. See Moshe Idel, Kabbalah Research: From Monochromatism to Polymorphism, Studia Judaica 8 (1999): 36. See also his Absorbing Perfections: Kabbalah and Interpretation (New Haven, 2002), 12. Moshe Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives (New Haven and London, 1988), 25.

Contemporary Kabbalah

The Challenges of Contemporary Kabbalah to the Academic Study of Jewish Mysticism Medieval and early modern Kabbalah and Hasidism can be explored mostly through their literary output. Gershom Scholem and his followers, whose studies were based on meticulous textual analysis, regarded philology as the exclusive method for Kabbalah research. Moshe Idel, who criticized Scholem and his disciples textology,21 called the attention to practical and experiential forms of Kabbalah, and suggested the use of other methods, first and foremost, phenomenology.22 Notwithstanding Idels criticism of textology, contemporary Kabbalah scholars analyses of the experiential and practical aspects of Kabbalah are still based almost exclusively on the description of such experiences and practices in kabbalistic speculative texts. The historical-philological exploration of kabbalistic literature is still central in the study of Jewish mysticism; in the main it is supplemented by methods and theories taken from phenomenological and comparative studies of religion. However, methods and theories common in the social sciences are employed much less by scholars of Jewish mysticism, some of whom regard them quite disparagingly.23 Most scholars of Jewish mysticism accept that Kabbalah and Hasidism operated in social, economic and political contexts. Yet, they regard Jewish mysticism as a religious phenomenon, whose essential features cannot be reduced to political and social factors. Hence, the tools used for social science are considered inept of explaining the religious core of Jewish mysticism. As Jonathan Garb stated in the conclusion of his study of the contemporary revival of Jewish mysticism: Although I have centered in most of this article on an explanation of a sociological nature, I do
21 22 23 Ibid, 23. Ibid, 22-25, 27-29. Yehuda Liebes declared: One should aspire for maximal understanding and minimal external intervention; to avoid distanced patronizing as well as parasitic manipulations. I do not appreciate very much the Sociological-AnthropologicalPsychological research, which tends to deteriorate to tendentious publicistics. See Yehuda Liebes, Thoughts on the Religious Significance of Kabbalah Scholarship, The Path of the Spirit: Eliezer Schweid Jubilee Volume, ed. Yehoyada Amir (Hebrew; Jerusalem, 2005), vol. 1, 202. 365

Boaz Huss

not accept, in principal, a reduction of spiritual possibilities to a social level.24 Unlike in the case of earlier forms of Kabbalah, the study of present day Kabbalah and Hasidism allows observation of actual kabbalistic practices which calls for the application of methodologies of the social sciences. As contemporary Kabbalah produces not only textual artifacts, but also other types of cultural productions amulets, jewelry, pop songs, video clips, etc. its study requires methodologies used in media and cultural studies. Hence, exploring contemporary Kabbalah challenges the research practices of scholars of Jewish mysticism. Indeed, in recent years we find that not only anthropologists and sociologists, but scholars of Jewish mysticism as well, employ ethnographical methods and cultural studies theories in their inquiry into contemporary Kabbalah.25 These methods and theories can also be utilized for the study of earlier forms of Kabbalah and Hasidism, and may change the negative stance of scholars of Jewish mysticism towards social science and cultural studies and augment the methodological and theoretical tools applied in the study of Kabbalah and Hasidism. Furthermore, the possibility to observe contemporary kabbalistic movements and the use of social and cultural studies methods in their study, accentuates the social, economic and political aspects of kabbalistic practices and cultural productions and challenges the possibility to distinguish between the religious or spiritual core of Kabbalah and its external social and political manifestations. Contemporary Kabbalah challenges not only the methodological research practices of scholars of Kabbalah and Hasidism, it calls into question the historiographical framework and some of the fundamental research categories that regulate the academic research of Jewish Mysticism. First and foremost, the emergence of contemporary Kabbalah and Hasidism and their growing cultural and social power defies the presupposition that Hasidism was the last significant stage of Jewish
24 Jonathan Garb, The Understandable Revival of Mysticism Today: Innovation and Conservatism in the Thought of Joseph Achituv, Jewish Culture in the Eye of the Storm: Festschrift in Honor of Joseph Achituv, eds. A. Sagi and Z. Zohar (Hebrew; Ein Zurim, 2002), 199. See: Huss, All You Need is Lav; Garb Towards the Study of the SpiritualMystical Renaissance.

25

366

Contemporary Kabbalah

mysticism, and that Kabbalah has lost its influence on modern culture. At the same time the conspicuous revival of contemporary Kabbalah turns attention to less prominent developments in later Kabbalah and Hasidism from which some of the current kabbalistic movement developed (such as Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag and the kabbalistic yeshivot in Jerusalem in the early 20th century), which were ignored by Scholem and most of his followers. Furthermore, seeing that the canonical opus studied by contemporary kabbalists differs from the kabbalistic canon as perceived in modern scholarship,26 the study of contemporary Kabbalah may modify scholars perception of that canon, and contribute to the study of early modern forms of Kabbalah (such as Rabbi Moshe ayyim Luzatto, The Vilna Gaon, and Rabbi Shalom Sharabi), which are central for contemporary Kabbalah, but were neglected in academic scholarship. The new shape contemporary Kabbalah has taken challenges the essentialist perception of Kabbalah, as an organic phenomenon, which has a number of defining common denominators in all of its manifestations. Although there exists no accepted definition of Kabbalah, and disagreements subsist concerning its fundamental characteristics, certain assumptions, concerning the nature of Kabbalah and Hasidism are accepted by most researchers of Jewish mysticism. Thus, almost all scholars of Kabbalah and Hasidism agree that these cultural formations are Jewish forms of mysticism.27 Notwithstanding the common clich that mysticism is difficult, if not impossible, to define, almost all scholars go along with the common perception of mysticism as an unusual experience of contact with a divine, or transcendent reality. Furthermore, most of them follow Scholems characterization of Kabbalah (or at least, some of its major currents) as theosophy, which he defined as a mystical doctrine, or school of

26 27

Jonathan Garb, The Modernization of Kabbalah: A Case Study, Modern Judaism 30 (2010): 3-4. For reservations concerning the definition of Kabbalah as Jewish Mysticism, see Joseph Dan, The Heart and the Fountain (Oxford, 2002), 7-9; Yehuda Liebes, Spirituality and Spirit (Hebrew), Makor Rishon 20/10/06: 6; Boaz Huss, The Mystification of the Kabbalah and the Modern Construction of Jewish Mysticism, BGU Review (Summer, 2008), http://web.bgu.ac.il/Eng/ Centers/review/summer2008/Mysticism.htm. 367

Boaz Huss

thought, which purports to perceive and to describe the mysterious workings of the Divinity, perhaps also believing it possible to become absorbed in its contemplation.28 With Moshe Idel, who qualified Scholems perceptions regarding the nature of Kabbalah, many today agree that the two major trends of Jewish Kabbalah are the theosophicaltheurgical and the ecstatic.29 The presently accepted view in Kabbalah scholarship is that mystical speculations concerning the divine realm, the belief that human behavior affects the inner dynamic of the divine system, and the aspiration to experience and unite with the Divine, are the major components of Kabbalah and Hasidism. Another common perception in research accentuates the mythical element of Kabbalah. Scholem perceived Kabbalah as a revival of the repressed mythical element of Judaism;30 some of his disciples, first and foremost, Yehuda Liebes, employ myth as a basic category in their research, and regard Kabbalah as a new formulation of an essential, ancient Jewish myth.31 Symbolism is also considered a central feature of Kabbalah, as Tishby, in Scholems footsteps, asserted: There is no topic dealt with in kabbalistic literature which is not connected to, in one way or another, with symbolism and there is no kabbalist who did not use symbols when expressing his conceptions.32 Scholars have observed the centrality of exegesis in Kabbalah, and many studies have been dedicated, especially in recent years, to kabbalistic hermeneutics.33 Finally, following the common perception of Kabbalah

28 29 30 31

32

33

Scholem, Major Trends, 206. Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, xi. Scholem, Major Trends, 22, 34-35. See Yehuda Liebes, Studies in Jewish Myth and Jewish Messianism (Albany, 1993), 1-64. See also Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, 156-157, and the articles on Kabbalah included in volumes on Jewish myth, such as: Myth in Judaism, ed. Haviva Pedayah (Hebrew; Beer Sheva, 1996); The Seductivness of Jewish Myth, ed. S. Daneil Breslauer (Albany, 1997); Myth in Judaism: History, Thought, Literature, eds. Ithamar Gruenwald and Moshe Idel (Hebrew; Jerusalem, 2002). See Isaiah Tishby, Paths of Faith and Heresy (Hebrew; Ramat Gan, 1984), 11 (I follow Idels translation in Kabbalah: New Perspectives, 201). See also Scholem, Major Trends, 26-28. According to Idel (ibid, 200-201), symbolic expressions are central only in theosophical Kabbalah. Such as: Elliot Wolfson, Along the Path: Studies in Kabbalistic Hermeneutics, Myth and Symbolism (Albany, 1995); idem, Language, Eros and Being:

368

Contemporary Kabbalah

as a secretive knowledge, torat ha-sod, numerous Kabbalah scholars perceive of esotericism as one of its essential aspects. Contemporary forms of Kabbalah and Hasidism challenge the reigning scholarly assumptions concerning the defining characteristics of Jewish mysticism. Although most of the new forms of Kabbalah adopt earlier kabbalistic terms, themes, and practices, most of the elements accentuated by Kabbalah scholars as basic characteristics of Kabbalah, do not play a central role in them. First and foremost contemporary Kabbalah challenges the common identification of Kabbalah as Jewish mysticism. Although ecstatic and meditative practices, considered as indicative of the mystical elements of Kabbalah, are central in some new Kabbalah movements,34 they are absent from many other of the contemporary kabbalistic and hasidic movements. Furthermore, contemporary Kabbalah calls into question the assumption concerning the essential Jewish nature of Kabbalah. Indeed, in earlier periods there usually was a sharp distinction between Jewish and non-Jewish forms of Kabbalah and Jewish kabbalists on the whole objected to the study of Kabbalah by non-Jews. Today, however, many kabbalistic movements teach Kabbalah to nonJews and declare that Kabbalah is a universal knowledge, which is not necessarily connected to Judaism, thus it can be studied and practiced without association with the observance of Jewish law and Jewish way of life.35 By the same token several other themes which were recognized as essential elements of Kabbalah are less accentuated, and sometimes even completely absent, form contemporary forms of Kabbalah. Although the notion of the sefirot, usually considered the prime expression of kabbalistic theosophy, appears in most kabbalistic movements today, theosophical speculations into the nature of the divine world and its inner life do not play a central role in most
Kabbalistic Hermeneutics and the Poetic Imagination (New York, 2005), Moshe Idel, Absorbing Perfections: Kabbalah and Interpretation (above n. 19). See Boaz Huss, The Formation of Jewish Mysticism and its Impact on the Reception of Abraham Abulafia in Contemporary Kabbalah, Religion and Its Others, eds. Heicke Bock, Jrg Feuchter, Michi Knecht (Frankfurt and New York, 2008), 142-162. Myers, Kabbalah for the Gentiles. 369

34

35

Boaz Huss

contemporary kabbalistic and hasidic formations. Similarly, the mythical elements of Kabbalah, especially the dynamic relations between the male and female components of the divine and the anthropomorphic depictions of the divine realm are downplayed (and many times denied) by contemporary kabbalists. Likewise, theurgy, i,e., the notion that human beings (mostly, Jewish men) are capable of influencing the workings of the divine system through the observance of the Jewish precepts, is absent from many forms of contemporary Kabbalah. Nowadays the theurgical themes of Kabbalah are often replaced by notions of spiritual improvement, psychological and physical healing, social and ecological activity. This change comes to the fore in the new interpretations given to the kabbalistic theurgic concept of tikkun, in the midnight ceremonies of R. Yacov Israel Ifargan (HaRentgen), or in the idea of tikkun olam in the Jewish Renewal Movement. Symbolic depictions of events in the divine world, as well as interpretations of canonical texts as symbolic references to the divine system are conspicuously absent from most kabbalistic movements today. Exegesis, which was central in previous forms of Kabbalah, does not play any role in most contemporary Kabbalah schools; amongst the vast literary productions of contemporary kabbalist, we find very few commentaries to earlier texts.36 Finally, esotericism, which played an important role in earlier Kabbalah, and captured the attention of many contemporary scholars of Jewish Mysticism, is missing from almost all present day forms of Kabbalah, which claim that Kabbalah today is an open knowledge; much effort is put into disseminating and publicizing Kabbalah.37 The decline of theosophy, theurgy and myth in contemporary practices of Kabbalah, the prevalent universalistic perceptions of Kabbalah together with its separation from observance of Jewish law, the marginal place of symbolic expressions and exegesis, and the overtly
36 See Huss, The New Age of Kabbalah, 119-120. Exceptions are the commentaries written by some the contemporary aredi kabbalists, esp., Itamar Schwartz. See Garb, Towards the Study of the Spiritual-Mystical Renaissance in the Contemporary Ashkenazy aredi World in Israel, and Wolfson, Building a Sanctuary of the Heart, in the present volume. Huss, The New Age of Kabbalah, 119.

37 370

Contemporary Kabbalah

exoteric nature of Kabbalah today, are perceived by many of the Kabbalah scholars as indicating its inauthenticity. Consequently, these scholars belittle contemporary forms of Kabbalah and deny their relevance to the study of Jewish mysticism.38 Differing from such an approach, I see the new formations of contemporary Kabbalah as an opportunity to reexamine the scholarly assumptions concerning the defining characteristics of Kabbalah and the essential traits of Jewish mysticism. I believe that the new emphases of contemporary Kabbalah may alter scholarships assumptions concerning its central themes, and draw attentions to some, as yet, uninvestigated aspects of Kabbalah. But more than that, the differences between the new forms of Kabbalah and earlier kabbalistic schools accentuate that Kabbalah has no defining common denominators. The study of contemporary Kabbalah emphasizes that Kabbalah and Hasidism do not have an intrinsic nature and have not developed organically.39 Rather, they are cultural constructs defined only by changing contingent historical and social factors. Finally, I would like to note that the study of contemporary Kabbalah both stresses and problematizes the theological perspective of Kabbalah scholarship, which I believe underlines much of academic scholars condemnation of and struggle against contemporary kabbalistic movements. As mentioned above, not a few scholars of Kabbalah tend to disparage contemporary kabbalistic movements and deny their authenticity, because of their diversion from themes which these scholars perceive to be intrinsic traits of Kabbalah. Thus, for instance, Joseph Dan deplores that numerous gurus are presently operating in Israel, healing spiritual ailments and offering ways of confronting the hardships of modern existence; they are routinely called kabbalists even though there is hardly any element of the authentic traditions of the Kabbalah in their teachings.40 Similarly, Arthur Green asserts: Some versions of what is proferred as Kabbalah today can be described only as
38 39 See Huss, Authorized Guardians; idem, Kabbalah and the Politics of InAuthenticity. On the notion of an organic development of Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism, see, for instance, Idel, Kabbalah, New Perspectives, 31; Garb, Manifestations of Power in Jewish Mysticism (Hebrew; Jerusalem, 2005), 272. Dan, The Heart and the Fountain, 42. 371

40

Boaz Huss

highly debased renditions of the original teaching and include large elements of folk religion that have little to do with actual kabbalistic teachings.41 In their criticism of contemporary forms of Kabbalah, academic scholars juxtapose themselves to the in-authentic kabbalists and position themselves as representatives and guardians of true Kabbalah. Green, in the continuation of the above cited passage, contrasts his own academic work to the debased renditions of Kabbalah and expresses his hope that his Guide to the Zohar will help and guide todays readers of the Zohar to the more authentic and profound aspects of its teachings.42 Similarly, Greens former student, Or N. Rose, posits against the teaching of the Kabbalah Center and other swindlers, novices and fundamentalists the small, but growing cadre of American and Israeli religious teachers and scholars, such as Daniel Matt, Arthur Green, Melilah Hellner-Eshed, Havivah Pedayah, and Elliot Wolfson, who are engaging in the thoughtful exploration of the classical teaching of Kabbalah, asking what of this ancient tradition remains compelling to seekers today, and what is better left aside.43 As Matt Goldish observed, this stance indicates that academics are now near the forefront of popular Kabbalah as a part of Jewish religious practice.44 According to Goldish, the polemics against contemporary kabbalists is part of a debate among different Kabbalah factions about the proper reconciliation between Kabbalah and modernity.45 The role of authoritative caretakers and religious teachers which scholars of Jewish mysticism take upon themselves in their encounter with contemporary kabbalistic movements is embedded in the theological framework of Kabbalah scholarship. As I have argued elsewhere,46 mysticism, which is used as a main analytic category in the study of Kabbalah and Hasidism, is a theological concept that

41 42 43 44 45 46 372

Arthur Green, Guide to the Zohar (Stanford, 2004), 187. Ibid. Or N. Rose, Madonnas Challenge: Understanding Kabbalah Today, Tikkun Magazine (November/December 2004): 24. Goldish, Kabbalah, Academia and Authenticity, 64. Ibid, 67. Huss, The Mystification of the Kabbalah.

Contemporary Kabbalah

posits encounters with a divine or transcendent reality as an explanation of historical, social and cultural events. Many scholars of Jewish mysticism declare explicitly that their interest in Kabbalah is metaphysical and religious (or spiritual), rather than just historical and sociological. Thus, Gershom Scholem asserted that his intention was writing not the history but the metaphysics of Kabbalah.47 Moshe Idel wrote that instead of presenting a historical sequence of kabbalists or ideas, I adopt an essentialist attitude to the contents of kabbalistic material that places greater emphasis upon their religious countenance than on their precise location in place and time.48 Melila Hellner-Eshed declared: I have a deep personal interest in mystical experience and the hidden potential of human consciousness in the Zohar I find spiritual possibilities that are capable of redeeming aspects of Jewish tradition of which I am part from fossilization.49 The theological stance of scholars of Jewish mysticism brings them into conflict with contemporary kabbalists, who offer different (and at times similar) understandings of the metaphysical significance, religious countenance and spiritual possibilities of the Kabbalah. The theological framework of the academic study of Jewish mysticism which impedes upon the research of contemporary Kabbalah also obstructs the historical study of earlier periods of Kabbalah and Hasidism. The encounter with new developments of Kabbalah and Hasidism which challenges the methodological assumptions and essentialist presuppositions regulating the study of Jewish mysticism, opens an opportunity for Kabbalah scholars to abandon the role of authorized guardians, theological interpreters and religious teachers of Kabbalah and take on the more humble role of academic scholars and researchers who study the past and present formations of Kabbalah and Hasidism as contingent historical-social phenomena.

47 48 49

David Biale, Gershom Scholem: Kabbalah and Counter History (Cambridge, Mass, 1982), 75 (for the original letter in German see ibid., 215-216). Idel, Kabbalah, xii. Melila Hellner-Eshed, A River Flows from Eden: The Language of Mystical Experience in the Zohar (Stanford, 2009), 9. 373