Q&A: Kabbalah in Halakhic Rulings
Kabbalah in Halakhic Rulings
Question
In your opinion, is it correct to take the views of the kabbalists into account when issuing a halakhic ruling, for example regarding putting on tefillin on Hol HaMoed, the number of tekhelet strings, and so on?
Answer
To my understanding, where their words contradict the revealed halakhah, one should not rely on them. The Magen Avraham writes this as well in the laws of tefillin. Of course, this follows from the approach of those who deal with the revealed dimension. The kabbalists certainly would not agree with this.
Discussion on Answer
There ought to be harmony. The question is what to do when there isn’t.
How would you check in such a situation what is more logical? What would you compare it against? In my view, the revealed dimension is the foundation, and the hidden dimension is supposed to fit with it.
What I meant to ask was: when there is a dispute among the halakhic decisors, is it at least נכון to take the view of the kabbalists into account?
There is no clear answer to that either. If your practice is to follow kabbalists, then yes. But ordinary halakhic decisors are not an authoritative source either.
Why specifically should one not rely on them?
It would seem that there ought to be harmony between the two parts—Kabbalah and the revealed dimension—each describing a certain side and some layer. The essence of the content does not change; rather, it is interpreted differently on each level.
So maybe it is the masters of the revealed dimension who are mistaken in this case? It seems that in every topic one should check which view is more reasonable, no?