Kabbalah (9 page)

Rabbi Isaac was one of the writers of a school of kabbalists that flourished in Castile in the middle and second half of the thirteenth century. Other writers of this group, including his elder brother, Rabbi Jacob ben Jacob ha-Cohen, did not participate in the development of these dualistic ideas, nor do we find in any of their works a trace of the messianic apocalypse presented by Rabbi Isaac. Only one of his disciples, Rabbi Moshe of Burgos, wrote a treatise that follows the worldview of the
Emanations on the Left
. All other kabbalists completely ignored it, with one most meaningful exception. Rabbi Moses de Leon, the author of the Zohar, accepted Rabbi Isaac’s mythology and put it at the center of the teachings of the Zohar. Rabbi Isaac’s works were almost completely forgotten in the history of kabbalistic literature, and only a handful of later writers were familiar with them, until they were published by Gershom Scholem in the 1920s and 1930s. Yet, his worldview became one of the most important images and ideas of the kabbalah as a whole, after it was included and developed in the sermons of the Zohar, and was, therefore, regarded as a traditional foundation of the kabbalah. De Leon even preserved a hint to the title of Rabbi Isaac’s treatise. In the Zohar the realm of evil is 52

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called
sitra ahra
, an Aramaic phrase meaning “the other side.”

“Other” is the unmentionable left side, which is also the name of God’s archenemy, Samael.

Judaism entered the High Middle Ages in Europe in a disad-vantageous position compared to the two other scriptural religions that dominated the medieval world. Christianity and Islam preceded it in adopting and accommodating their spiritual world to the teachings of Greek philosophy. The concept of God as infinite and purely spiritual demanded that religious life emphasize the spiritual aspects rather than the practical and material ones. The concept that God is absolutely perfect and eternal denied any possibility of interaction between God and the world. The ancient Platonic dualism, which positioned matter and spirit, body and soul in opposition, became paramount in the three scriptural religions. In such a context values such as the love of God, faith, and trust became paramount, while anything that involved physical activity was regarded as spiritually inferior, emphasizing the distance between man and God rather than bringing them together.

The traditional Jewish concept of mitzvah (precept, commandment) demanded physical action. The list of 613 such commandments, which every Jew was required to perform (or, in case of prohibitions, abstain from performing) hardly included any purely spiritual demand. Even prayer was not regarded as properly performed unless one’s lips moved during recitation. Judaism thus had an image, and a self-image, of being an earthly, physical practice, remote from pure divine spirituality. Jewish theologians, deeply aware of this contradiction between their tradition and the spiritual norms in which they believed, sought ways of emphasizing the spiritual aspect of Judaism. From the beginning of the Middle Ages, Jewish rationalistic philosophers developed systems of
taamey mitzvot
, “reasons of the commandments.” They pointed out the nonphysical 53

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reasons for complying with the ancient demands, discovering new layers of meaning in rituals and social requirements. In medieval Germany, the Jewish pietists developed a system that emphasized the aspect of spiritual trial in every commandment.

They maintained that the physical instructions were difficulties that God presented on the path of individuals trying to achieve spiritual perfection. By subjugating their physicality to divine commandments the righteous achieve the spiritual goal of obedience to God and overcoming earthly desires. Both the rationalists and the pietists thus denigrated the importance of the physical commandment and attributed its religious meaning to the underlying spiritual significance of its performance.

The kabbalists developed a system that had similar results, but one that carried with it unusual spiritual power and became dominant in Judaism. Prayers and other rituals, physical and social demands, ethical deeds, and every other aspect of religious practice was associated by the kabbalists with the dynamic concepts that they developed concerning processes in the divine realms. From the late thirteenth century, the subject of
taamey mitzvot
became a central, and often dominant, one in kabbalistic literature. It is a central message of the Zohar, and almost every section of this vast work includes one or another interpretation of a commandment in light of the needs and demands of the divine powers. This put in the center of the kabbalistic worldview a powerful concept of interdependence between man and God, in which the commandments were the instruments used by man in order to influence the processes of the divine world, and ultimately shape his own fate.

The mythical processes that dominate this interaction are described in the Zohar and later works as being based on one dynamic aspect of the divine world. It is usually called the
shefa
, the flow of divine spirituality from the extreme, highest stages in the divine world down to the lower divine powers, and then to even lower realms, those of the archangels and angels, and finally the material world and to human beings. This divine flow is the necessary sustenance of all existence, even of the 54

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divine emanations themselves. Nothing can exist without deriving spiritual power from this divine flow. When this flow is diminished, the existence of every being is weakened. The upper realm may still derive its due from this flow, but lower strata of creation are deprived and threatened. According to the Zoharic myth of the dynamic world of the
sefirot
, the situation is always in flux: the right side may become stronger or weaker, and at the same time the realms on the left, of evil, may become stronger. The positions of the various powers are not fixed; they may become more elevated and thus closer to the origin of the
shefa
, or slide lower, receiving less divine flow.

The masculine and feminine aspects of the divine world sometimes get closer to each other, thus increasing divine harmony and the flow of the
shefa
, or they may move apart, diminishing the divine flow. When the
shefa
flows in abundance, the good powers are stronger, whereas when it is diminished the powers of evil become stronger and their hold and dominance over the material world increase.

The decisive factor that determines to a very large extent the flow of this divine sustenance is, according to the Zohar, the behavior of human beings, the people of Israel. Righteous deeds of man increase the divine flow, tilting divine harmony to the right side, away from evil. Thus, any benevolent social act of charity and justice, every prayer said with devotion and proper intention, any compliance with the physical and ritual-istic commandments, any avoidance of temptation and rejecting of sin and evil thoughts, enhances the divine flow. Sins, injustice, evil thoughts, unethical behavior, transgressions of the divine commands all diminish the
shefa’s
flow, weakening existence, strengthening the evil powers, and increasing suffering and wickedness in the created world. The proper observance of the Sabbath, for instance, brings the
shekhinah
and her divine husband close together, even to erotic union, which exerts the greatest positive influence over the divine flow and brings bliss and harmony to the divine and material worlds alike.

If the Sabbath is not properly observed, the opposite occurs: 55

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the masculine and feminine powers are separated, the harmony is disturbed, the divine flow diminishes, and the lower worlds are deprived of their sustenance.

The commandments thus are deprived from their immediate, earthly context and relegated into the dynamic myth of the processes in the divine realms. God did not give human beings these commandments in order to achieve any earthly purpose.

What God demands of man is participation in the vast drama of the dynamic occurrences in the divine world. The fate of the divine powers is thus relegated to the hands of human beings.

Their well-being is decided by people’s religious, social, and ethical behavior. Ultimately, however, it is the people who ben-efit from their obedience to divine commandments, because the increase of divine flow causes harmony and quiet on earth as well, rescuing the Jews from persecutions and enhancing the well-being of every individual, both in this world and in the world to come.

It is very difficult to find a parallel to this radical concept of interdependence between human beings and divine powers.

It is certainly a dramatic spiritualization of religious life, for the physical commandments are described as having enormous spiritual impact on the highest realms of divine powers. The dynamic variations of the
shefa
give every individual an almost magical power to influence developments in the divine world.

This impact is sometimes called theurgy, indicating the power of man to dominate the behavior and welfare of the divine powers. Indirectly, by observing the commandments a person decides his own fate together with those of the universe and the divine realms. The commandments are thus conceived as instruments that wield enormous spiritual power, shaping the fate of everything above and below. Instead of being an embarrass-ing heritage from ancient times, kabbalistic thinkers transformed the mitzvot into the expression of a unique spiritual force that dominates all aspects of human and divine existence.

Some indications of these conceptions may be found, in a vague and imprecise way, in pre-Zoharic kabbalistic works.

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Since the Zohar, however, they became universal in the literature of the kabbalah and the most important and meaningful message that kabbalists conveyed to nonkabbalists. Some kabbalists composed manuals that explained the spiritual message of each commandment in detail, and later, since the sixteenth century, a distinct literary genre developed—kabbalistic ethical literature—that described the impact of every human deed on the world of the
sefirot
. It should be emphasized, however, that as a rule (with a few exceptions) the kabbalists did not demand knowledge, or even awareness, of the significance of the commandments in order to make them effective. Prayer, charity, observance, purity, and other acts carried their power within themselves, independent of the intention and understanding of the person performing them. The kabbalah, thus, did not compel people to follow particular practices in order to achieve a meaningful religious status. Yet kabbalists did convey the message that the highest levels of religious perfection cannot be attained except by people who are aware of the meaning and purpose of the commandments. This was often presented as the contemplation of the spiritual meaning of deeds, sometimes called
kavanot
, spiritual intentions that accompany the performance of the physical commandments.

Since the seventeenth century, this theurgical conception of the commandments was enhanced and reformulated by the forceful idea of the
tikkun
in the Lurianic kabbalah. The Zohar itself did present some connection between this system and the achievement of final, messianic redemption, but the Lurianic kabbalah made it its central message, which was then embraced by Judaism as a whole. The myth developed within the framework of Lurianic teachings presented the
tikkun
as the process that will redeem first and foremost the divine powers from the results of the primordial catastrophe called the breaking of the vessels. When the vessels are mended, divine perfection will signal the achievement of universal perfection. The only weap-ons people have in the struggle against the evil powers that 57

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dominate the universe are those of the commandments and ethical behavior. Following the divine demands signifies overcoming the physical and evil within man, and thus denotes the spiritual victory of good over evil. The accumulation of such minute victories enhances the completion of the
tikkun
, while sins and transgressions strengthen the evil powers and delay the achievement of redemption. Here again, knowledge of the mythical significance of the commandments is helpful, but not a necessity: the power of redemption is inherent in the deeds themselves, and the theurgic impact of their performance is automatic. Every person, every deed, every moment is integrated in the vast mythical project of the
tikkun
, whether they know and wish it or not. One cannot resign from this cosmic struggle; such a resignation constitutes a sin, which empowers the satanic forces.

It should be emphasized that these theurgic concepts, both in the Zoharic system and in the Lurianic kabbalah, constitute a formidable conservative power, despite their appearance as radical, revolutionary new ideas. The dynamic system of the
sefirot
, the myth of the breaking of the vessels and the
tikkun,
and especially the dependence of the divine powers on human religious deeds are new, unexpected, somewhat unsettling images in a Jewish context. Yet the bottom-line message is purely a conservative one. If one accepts and internalizes these new conceptions, what should one now do? How shall one conduct one’s daily life? The answer is, one should do what one was commanded to do anyway, independent of the kabbalistic theories. One should pray devoutly, pursue social justice, help the poor, observe the Sabbath and other holidays, observe the laws concerning kosher food and physical cleanliness—everything that a nonkabbalist is obligated to do just because this is what the halakhah demands. Medieval and modern kabbalah never offered any spiritual shortcuts, any recipe for spiritual achievement without strictly observing the tedious daily observance of the multitude of the mitzvot. The flowing of the
shefa
and the process of the
tikkun
cannot be achieved but by the strict ad-58