Q&A: The Teachings of Kabbalah and Mysticism
The Teachings of Kabbalah and Mysticism
Question
Hello Rabbi,
I’m currently a student in a hesder yeshiva, and I’d like to know what exactly your approach is regarding Kabbalah and mystical teachings (if you have an organized article on the subject, I’d be glad if you could point me to it). I have a hard time with a lot of the things I see coming out of there. On the one hand, all the things that appear in places like the Zohar sound strange and bizarre to me—the opposite of the rational approach that I believe Judaism is supposed to follow. On the other hand, it’s also clear to me that if I believe the Torah came from God, then it makes sense that there would be different layers that might seem irrational at first glance. In the end, I do believe there is something beyond the plain meaning of the text, but how am I supposed to know what is authentic and what consists of things that were made up, or simply superstitions that entered over time?
Answer
It’s hard for me to answer, since I don’t really have a fully worked-out doctrine on this issue. My impression is that Kabbalah is a collection of spiritual intuitions developed by various people over the years. They have value, and they point to interesting connections between things, but they are not binding as Jewish law. If some of it was accepted within the framework of Jewish law, then it may have the status of custom, no worse than any other custom, of course.
And all this is not because I assume the commandments must be understandable. Quite a few commandments and halakhot are not understandable, and I assume they have some explanation that I do not understand. But even so, there is no necessity to say that Kabbalah is the correct explanation that came down from Sinai. I am not under the impression that it came down from Sinai (except perhaps for a few very basic principles).
As a rule: respect it, but be wary of it. If there is something that really bothers you, or that for some reason you are convinced is not correct—don’t do it.