Q&A: Questions about the Kabbalah of the Ari
Questions about the Kabbalah of the Ari
Question
Hello Rabbi,
You wrote in the past that you had occasion to study Kabbalah and the world of esotericism several times.
There are interesting quotations brought in articles from the Ari, but I have never found an exact reference for them. Nor have I ever found his wording for these ideas.
For example:
1. It was claimed that in the Kabbalah of the Ari there is a god who created the universe, but this is not the biblical God. He is in fact completely indifferent to the existence of the world, and those who actually govern the world are the sefirot, through which the biblical God is also revealed.
2. It was claimed that according to the Kabbalah of the Ari, all the gentiles are the result of Adam's sin, in a very radical sense. Their souls are defiled, and so are their bodies. And the whole purpose of repairing the world, involvement in external wisdoms and the like, is to extract from them those sparks of holiness within them and return them to Israel—and once that happens, all the gentiles in the world will be finished off (that is, they will die, since they have no soul and exist only by means of that spark that does not belong to them).
3. The intensity of the doctrine of reincarnation in the Kabbalah of the Ari: from what I have read, many claim that according to his teaching a person has countless reincarnations to go through until reaching his rectification. In fact, every event that happens in a person's life—that is, all kinds of afflictions, suffering, sin, sin itself, and likewise all righteousness, happiness, and so on—is explained by things that happened to the person in a previous reincarnation. And in fact he explains many biblical passages in this way.
Has the Rabbi had a chance to study the topics mentioned above, and if you remember, could you direct me to a source where he discusses these issues? And in general, which book explains his doctrine in the best way?
Answer
I don't know. To the best of my knowledge, all of these are matters of different interpretations of his words.
Discussion on Answer
The Last Decisor, where does your blessed hatred for kabbalistic nonsense come from?
Kabbalah is anti-Jewish in its essence.
It was able to be accepted into Judaism because Judaism had turned into a sect of simpletons who believe anything. Rabbis who taught their students that they are stupid and must not ask questions.
Instead of learning from our father Abraham, who smashed idols as a result of asking questions, the leaders of their flock decided that the righteous are those who do not ask questions and accept what they are told. Just as our ancestors were at the beginning.
As for the matter itself, Kabbalah is founded on ad hominem. Nobody comes and explains why it is true. Everyone comes and invents theories with scribbled-up concepts that have no connection to reality. After that they create relationships between them. And that's it—it is true. Why? Because so-and-so said it.
"No wisdom proves to us the divinity of Christ with greater certainty than Kabbalah does" (900 Theses of Pico)
The site doesn't allow one long comment, so I'll split it up.
First, please define: who/what is the biblical God? Even the God of Maimonides, whose limbs, heaven forbid, fell off, and who has no body and no likeness of a body, is not the biblical God.
Kabbalah gives its own interpretation of Judaism, and as such it is no more novel in essence than any other interpretation.
I wrote that what the kabbalists call the Infinite is "indifferent," but that is not so. It is not a thing, just like the God of Maimonides; it is indifferent exactly in the same way that it is not indifferent.
You didn't write this explicitly, but from your words it seems that you understand the sefirot as an intermediary between God (the biblical one?) and the world, and that is not so. The main novelty of the sefirot is that they are an aspect composed of both divinity and "vessels." You wanted sources? There is an entire gate about this at the beginning of Pardes Rimonim, "whether the sefirot are essence/the Infinite" or something in that style. See also Shomer Emunim by Ergas.
2. In a very rough generalization I would say: although everything that was done through Adam's sin includes the souls of the gentiles, not all gentile souls were made through Adam's sin.
In fact, from my studies in the doctrine of reincarnations: Adam was a "gentile," and included all souls. Balaam was a gentile and was attached to a level of knowledge like that of Moses our Rabbi. Jethro was a gentile and was from the root of Cain, and there are many more such cases, numerous and noteworthy.
True, we do find that certain gentiles are attached to the kelipot—the kelipah of Egypt at the nape, the kelipot of Ammon and Moab, etc.—and the kelipot are the product of Adam's deeds. But the meaning is not that all gentiles have their root in the kelipot; rather, those whose root is in the kelipot—since the kelipot are a result of Adam's sin—one could say, if one wanted to, though it would not be a good idea because it is crooked, that the gentiles are the product of Adam's sin.
3. Correct. But it is worth noting: we are not speaking of dictates, but of tendencies. The most you will find is that since a certain person was aware of his reincarnation, and wanted to repair his flaw and sin, he chose—knowingly and willingly—to do a certain act that would repair what he was charged with repairing. There are also external events. But there is no dictation of commandments and transgressions.
Obviously Kabbalah and Hasidism, after the fact, began to realize that their ideas weren't consistent. So they had to explain where those sefirot come from. Because in the chain of continuity there is no place where something could create them, so they had to say that they already existed there at the source. In short, this is a scribbled-up theory. Because either there is an Infinite without sefirot, and then it is unclear where the sefirot came from (a second authority?), or the sefirot are in God, and then again it is unclear where they came from. And if they always existed, then there is no creation here and God is not one.
And the central point is that Kabbalah does not put itself to the test, and therefore it is a false theory, and anyone for whom truth matters should stay away from it as from any other idolatrous falsehood.
Last, and not endearingly so—you are mistaken and misleading others.
Now I have been forced to return even to your first remarks.
The doctrine of Kabbalah is not very different from ordinary Torah. There is a raw foundation that one accepts in faith, and upon it splendid and sophisticated structures were built, all of them bound by the accepted rules of inference and study in the study halls.
It is evident between your lines that you belong to those people who, after acquiring one coin, are careful not to add anything more to it so long as it can still rattle loudly enough. I think it would be better for you and for the Torah of Israel if you stopped talking about things you do not understand and are not knowledgeable in. If you truly care, go back and study, and take it upon yourself not to speak until you have filled your belly. Please study Pardes Rimonim by Rabbi Moses Cordovero, and the methods of study the author used there. Please study the Ari's commentary on Sifra DiTzni'uta, which is the foundation and basis for all the writings of the Ari, and see the methods of study the author used in order to "produce his innovations." Dust in your mouth.
Again it was long, and again I had to split it. Here is part 2.
And regarding your last response—how the many came into being from the One. Again, it seems far-fetched to me that you will actually sit down and read something properly, but if by chance the spirit should rest upon you, then please undertake to study the books of Rabbi Abraham Cohen de Herrera. Then come back and share your insights with us.
With all best wishes.
And it is worth looking here: https://forum.otzar.org/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=42986&hilit=%D7%A2%D7%9C+%D7%94%D7%90%D7%A6%D7%99%D7%9C%D7%95%D7%AA&start=40#p504039
And in the attached PDF.
Go back and study, go back and study…
Oz, when the foundation is false, everything that follows from it is false.
That is a simple rule when one understands what truth is. Truth is not based on falsehood. And even if I fill my belly and from all the confusion can no longer tell what is the beginning and what is the end, there is still the simple truth: that all of this is based on falsehood, on inventions. And on every matter there were opinions like this and the opposite. And every person fantasizes out of his own heart whatever his eyes see and his mind feverishly cooks up.
And nobody asks the simple question: "How do you know this is true?"
What you are basically saying is that it doesn't matter whether it's true; the main thing is to fill the belly.
And it is a simple fact that you cannot explain these simple questions. Instead you tell me to go read someone else's mind-numbing confusion.
There are many people for whom the very fact that their minds were confused serves as proof that what is being said is true.
That is the foundation of the falsehood of all religious leaders: they confuse the simple-minded, and those people think this is proof of the truth of the claims.
If you read but did not review, and if you reviewed but did not review a third time.
I did not preach to you, and I am not preaching to anyone to believe in the doctrine of Kabbalah. I only said that before you deny it, deny the Oral Torah.
Will you say that one is a bit earlier than the other? Granted, but that is not essential. Sabbath peace.
A decisor with charm.
Kabbalah is founded on falsehood.
Whoever believes in Kabbalah believes in the ways of falsehood.
One of the ways of falsehood is not to check, not to ask, and not to investigate its correctness and truth (because then the falsehood will be exposed).
Regarding your comment about the Oral Torah.
How is it possible that after all the mental fog you went through in studying the falsehood of Kabbalah, you still do not understand the simple and basic difference between prescribing to people how they ought to behave, and determining facts about reality?
The Oral Torah is about determining laws and Jewish law—how one ought to act—and in these matters there is no truth and falsehood.
Kabbalah, by contrast, comes to determine something about reality. And in that there is truth and falsehood.
The god in Kabbalah is certainly not the God in the Torah.
The god in Kabbalah is called the Infinite, from which an emanation came forth (the light of the Infinite, the supernal light). This light filled reality, until it arose in His will to create, and then He cleared a place within that light at the central point, and an empty vacuum was formed in the shape of a sphere, and there the ten sefirot were created, also in the shape of a sphere (like onion peels). And everything inside this empty sphere receives the flow from the Infinite light that surrounds it in the form of the sphere's envelope.
So this whole business is a static description (except for the part where it arose in His will), and obviously that is not the God of the Torah.
The God of the Torah is directly involved in every act of creation ("And God said"), and there is no chain of emanation there, no sefirot, no vessels, no lights and radiances and nullifications and annihilations and akudim and nekudim and the rest of the nonsense that came out of God.