Q&A: On Kabbalah and Harmonism
On Kabbalah and Harmonism
Question
I spoke with a student of Rabbi Levi Nahmani of blessed memory, because he wrote about him (Rabbi Nahmani) that he would tell his students that after they finished studying Ramchal, they should study the Vilna Gaon, and he himself used to say that Chabad is the Einstein of Kabbalah. So I called him and we spoke about the issue of different approaches in Kabbalah, and in the end he said that every approach is 100% correct on its own terms, but each approach is a different aspect, and therefore no one is really correct in the absolute sense 100%. Is that what you mean by the harmonious approach? Also, with regard to Kabbalah too, do you think there can be legitimate error and that in the end only one person was right?
Answer
I don’t know who Levi Nahmani is. Indeed, that is what I mean. These things are explicit in the Talmudic passage in Gittin 6 (“he found a fly and did not mind it”; “say that he found a hair and minded it”). As for Kabbalah, I do not have a clear position. I have serious doubt regarding its source and therefore its validity. It is clear that there are quite a few useful and interesting intuitions there. I don’t see any necessity to say that everyone is right.
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Questioner (another one):
Does the Rabbi maintain Professor Yeshayahu Leibowitz’s position regarding the Zohar and Kabbalah?
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Rabbi:
In my view, it is not clear what their source is, but there are quite a few important intuitions in them.
Discussion on Answer
(From: The General Encyclopedia of Demagoguery, s.v. “Ad Hominem”; and see also under “Selective and partial cherry-picking for demagogic purposes”)
If we’re already getting into “ad hominem” arguments, who compares to our early rabbis? Let Abraham Vazana look at responsa Rivash, responsum 157, on this matter. Of course, that changes nothing; rather, one has to examine the Book of the Zohar on its own terms.
By the way, what practical difference does it make whether the book was written by Rashbi? Does that mean the book is 100% correct?
That responsum of the Rivash is well known, and there too one should look inside the responsum itself and not only at the headings that quote it, and he will see that the Rivash heard an explanation from a kabbalist of his generation and wrote: “The aforementioned pious man explained to me the intent of the kabbalists, and it is very good indeed.” And see the Tzemach Tzedek of Lubavitch of blessed memory in the book Derekh Mitzvotecha, in the commandment of prayer, for a long and profound explanation regarding this responsum of the Rivash.
I refer to the testimony of our master Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin in his introduction to the Vilna Gaon’s commentary on Sifra DeTzniuta, regarding what the Vilna Gaon told him face to face about his learning with Rashbi in the academy on high through the holy Book of the Zohar.
And we, who are diligent in honoring the splendor of the greatness of these world-class sages, know and believe in the holiness of the Book of the Zohar, and we go with simple faith, and about us it is said: “The integrity of the upright guides them,” and as in the words of the Talmud in Sabbath 88, in Rava’s answer to that heretic there, and similarly it may be said: “The crookedness of traitors destroys them.”
And a person should place on the scales, on the one hand, the giants and mighty ones of the earth in all generations, and on the other hand, Leibowitz and his colleagues.
And even if we descend to investigation, one will see in the words of Rabbi Nazir of blessed memory about the antiquity of the Zohar and its sources.
And we are believers, children of believers, and in the words of our master Rabbi Abraham Isaac HaKohen Kook of blessed memory, about the immense holiness of the Book of the Zohar; and as was said in the name of the great ones, that one who does not openly believe in the hidden, presumably does not secretly believe in the revealed.
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With God’s help
See the article of our master Rabbi Kook of blessed memory to Rabbi Yehiya Qafih regarding the truth of the wisdom of Kabbalah and its holiness. World-class giants, before whom we are insignificant—such as the Vilna Gaon, Ramchal, the Baal Shem Tov, the holy Or HaChaim, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, our master the Beit Yosef, the Rema, Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin, the author of Leshem, the Ben Ish Chai, and many more giants beyond number; time would run out before one could count them all—everyone acknowledges, praises, and extols the inner wisdom, and bows before the holy splendor of the holy Zohar and the writings of the Ari. And opposite them stands Rabbi Michael Abraham and answers: “It is not clear what their source is.” And the chooser may choose.