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Rabbinic Insights: Kabbalah Briefly
San Diego Jewish Times, January 13, 2006
By Rabbi Wayne Dosick
All
great spiritual traditions are universal. They belong to everyone.
Each
religion and faith community has its own unique stories and legends, language
and vocabulary, rituals and ceremonies, chants and dances. But the spiritual
journey is always the same: the deep desire to know God; the quest for eternal
truth; the search for answers to the mysteries of existence; the need to find
meaning and purpose in life; the wish to grow in heart and soul; the yearning
for love, for connection, and for Oneness.
Kabbalah
is Judaism's spiritual path.
The
Hebrew word "kabbalah" means "receive," implying the
reception, the access, to the word and will of God.
Kabbalah
is a way of looking at the universe beyond what is known or experienced. It is a
system of thought and a mode of feeling that seeks answers to the mysteries of
the existence, by asking lifes supreme questions:
Who
is God? Who am I? From where have I come, and where am I going? What is the
purpose of my existence? How do I think? How do I know? How do I know beyond
knowing? What do I believe? How can I best communicate with God, and hear God's
word to me? How do I best stay connected to God? How can I best know God's plan
for me? What is my mission, my destiny? How do I best live a life of meaning,
and worth? How does the universe continue to unfold? How do I evolve in mind, in
spirit, in consciousness? How do I feel the deepest soul-satisfaction, and how
do I find and fulfill the grandest desires of my heart?
Kabbalah
is the quest for ultimate meaning.
The
practice of kabbalah centers around delving into sacred texts to seek their
hidden meanings, and deep, contemplative meditation as an avenue to God.
You
may have heard about kabbalah, especially because of its recent
"pop-culture" popularity with contemporary celebrities. But, you
probably do not know much about it, or how much it can sweeten and enrich your
life. If you are Jewish, kabbalah has probably been hidden from you on the
esoteric edges of our faith. Because kabbalah dips into the well-hidden, by
custom, its study and practice has been limited to the "initiated"
that is well-learned, emotionally stable, married Jewish males over the age of
40. It was never given over to the Jewish masses, and was most-always shrouded
in an aura or veiled secrecy.
If you are of another religion or faith community or a spiritual seeker of
any kind kabbalah has most likely been "too Jewish," and too
mysterious for you to explore.
Kabbalah
does not have to be hidden away any longer. Kabbalah is for everyone. Kabbalah
is for every spiritual seeker.
With roots stretching back to the Bible and nurtured throughout Jewish history,
kabbalah began to grow and flourish with the publication of the Zohar
The Book of Splendor.
Tradition attributes the Zohar to the
second-century rabbinic sage Shimon bar Yochai. Modern scholarship argues that
the real author is Moses de Leon of 13th century Spain, who attempted
to make the reader think that bar Yochai was the writer, thus giving the Zohar
historical roots and authenticity.
Either
way, beginning in the 13th century, the new kabbalists moved Judaism
away from the philosophical rationale championed earlier by the 12th
century sage Moses Maimonides into the spiritual. Once again, in the long
history of Jewish thought, attempting to explain God through reason was replaced
by coming to God through faith.
The Zohar brings down mystical teachings on the five books of the Torah,
emphasizing that God and by extension every human Being who is created
"in the image of God" holds both male and female attributes; that in
addition to the communal covenantal relationship, there is a deep, personal,
intimate relationship between each and every person and God; that there are
higher truths beyond the literal, or even moral, meaning of the biblical text;
that every human act has a continuing ripple effect on the entire universe
including on God; and that the highest goal of a human Being is to reach for and
try to understand the innermost secrets of existence.
In
the 16th century, the center of kabbalah study and practice moved to
the city of S'fat (Safed) in the north of Israel.
In
the 18th century, the newfound Chasidic movement of Eastern Europe,
Russia, and Ukraine deepened kabbalistic meditation with ecstatic prayer and
joyous chants and dance.
The
Emancipation and the Enlightenment of the last 250-300 years
most-characterized by its embrace of rational, intellectual thought sent
kabbalah into the shadows, and pushed it to the "fringes" of Jewish
life, where it was essentially dismissed and largely ignored.
Now, in recent days, kabbalah has surged up from the Jewish underground. As the
modern-day exploration of "spirituality" has captured the human
imagination fueled in most part by exploration of the eastern religions, and
earth-based faith communities kabbalah has been rediscovered, and has been
hailed as the Jewish channel into the world of Spirit.
And kabbalah has entered the popular culture, as it has been embraced by a
number of famous celebrities, who in the midst of their sometimes shallow
and most-always material worlds have found meaning and benefit in kabbalah's
life-teachings.
Kabbalah's
world of Spirit is alive and well, and is being renewed in our day. And, despite
being oft-dismissed as counter-intuitive to the rational world, and
notwithstanding its occasional celebrity (and teachers') exploitations, and even
with the cloak of mystery that still surrounds it, kabbalah is really a very
simple, fascinating, exciting, gratifying life-enhancing, life-changing
endeavor.
Kabbalah
is an exquisite pathway to connect and communicate with God, and to delve into
the mysteries of the universe, and the ultimate meaning of human existence.
If
you would like to go, as our revered rebbe and teacher used to say to
"the highest of the highs and the deepest of the deep;" if you would
like to immeasurably enrich and ennoble your life, kabbalah is for you.
Kabbalah
the Jewish mystical tradition is our entry way into the world of the
Spirit, our magical pathway to God.
Beginning
on Wednesday evening, Jan. 18, at 7:30 p.m., and continuing for five more
consecutive Wednesdays, my wife, Ellen
Kaufman Dosick and I are guiding a class, sponsored by The Elijah Minyan,
entitled: 20 Minute Kabbalah: Magical Pathways to God, Your Soul and Your
Heart's Desires. We invite you to learn with us. For information about location
and cost, call 760-943-8370.
Rabbi Wayne Dosick, Ph.D., the spiritual guide of the Elijah
Minyan, an adjunct professor at the University of San Diego and the Director of
the 17: Spiritually Healing Children's Emotional Wounds. He is the
award-winning author of six critically acclaimed books, including Golden
Rules; Living Judaism; and Soul Judaism: Dancing with God into a New Era.