Q&A: Kabbalistic Explanations
Kabbalistic Explanations
Question
Happy holidays,
For certain questions in faith, I get the answer that “there are explanations according to Kabbalah, and if you understood anything about it you wouldn’t have questions. Just as there are professors of physics who understand how the world works even though we understand nothing. And even if explanations were given that satisfied us, the physics professors would still know what is true better than we do, and we would just be fooling ourselves. And so it is with the kabbalists.” I wanted to know your position on the matter. For example: technological development, which brings ignorance among the youth in its wake and intensifies sexuality and abomination, is because we are before the redemption and the Other Side is about to pass from the world altogether (after all, the evil inclination will be slaughtered), and therefore it is raging with all its might. That is the real explanation.
That is still fairly understandable.
But for example, if I ask a somewhat scarier question, like how to reconcile foreknowledge and free choice (I read your approach 🙂 ), then I might get something like: “It is stated in Nahar Pelagav, the knowledge of the Holy Ancient One, in the first letter yod, regarding which it is written, ‘In the beginning [God] created’—this is what we say: ‘Israel is My firstborn son.’ For in the upper forehead there is no choice at all, and father and mother know this, and the joy of them all is seen in the world.” I hope I haven’t cut down the saplings.
In short, I remember that in this context you once quoted Noam Chomsky: if I don’t understand something, I can ask someone to explain it to me in a language I understand, or study it myself and understand. And if I still can’t manage, then it is probably nonsense.
So since I don’t see myself studying Kabbalah anytime soon, I’m asking you, since you spent quite a few years dealing with it. Are there really topics that require explanations that cannot be stated in a non-kabbalistic language, and where one must use concepts like these that are understood only by a select few? Could it be that the real answers are in the hands of the kabbalists (behind the scenes), and that we are really just fooling ourselves?
Sorry for the length.
Answer
One must distinguish between contradictions and questions. Foreknowledge and free choice is a contradiction, and therefore there is no point in talking about answers that exist in Kabbalah. If there is an explanation for why this is not a contradiction, it can apparently also be presented in the revealed, non-mystical realm. But regarding questions, it is possible that there are answers in Kabbalah that cannot be understood in the revealed realm. Of course, that does not mean that the kabbalists necessarily know them, but one may assume that in principle there are some answers. It is like a question in physics that no expert is able to answer. Does that mean there is no answer? There is some answer, even if no expert knows it.