Within all three of the monotheistic religions there are those who advocate a more mystical, imaginative and intuitive approach to belief. In Judaism, that movement is known as Kabbalah. Its key text, the Sefer-ha-Zohar (or “brightness”), first appeared in Spain in the 1280s, but its devotees claim the book represents a hidden erotic spiritual tradition within Judaism that dates back to the first century CE and beyond. It has reinvigorated the prayer and spiritual life of many Jews, and helped them to discover a meaning to their faith that goes beyond its rules, rites and rituals. However, others in mainstream Judaism regard modern manifestations of Kabbalah as superstitious and overly concerned with visions of evil spirits.
The Zohar was written or compiled in 1280 by a Spanish rabbi, Moses de Leon (c.1250–1305). He claimed to be working from a much earlier text by Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai, a prominent teacher around 70 CE when the second Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed. How he had come about the text was never made clear. The ancient document, a collection of Shimon bar Yohai’s oral commentaries on the Torah, had, according to de Leon, subsequently been left out of the Talmud and lost or concealed.
There has been much debate about Moses de Leon’s claims for the Zohar. The text contains references to events that happened well after 70 CE. Believers maintain that these prove that Shimon bar Yohai was a prophet. Some even claim that he predicted that his writings would be concealed for 1,200 years before miraculously reappearing to guide the Jews.
However, it is widely reported that after de Leon’s death, his impoverished widow responded to an offer to purchase the original text from which he had worked by saying that no such document had ever existed. Her husband had simply made it up. Devotees of the Zohar hold that the book’s words were produced under divine influence.
Sefirot
The sefirot in Kabbalah are the ten “emanations” of God with which he creates the universe. They correspond to various levels of creation, or branches on the tree of life, and are the means by which God progressively reveals himself and his ethical principles to his people. They are keter (will); chochmah (wisdom); binah (understanding); chesed (mercy); gevurah (justice); tiferet (harmony); netzach (victory); hod (glory); yesod (power); and malkuth (kingdom).
Inner meaning In its examination of the Torah, the Zohar describes four levels of interpretation—literal, allegorical, that guided by rabbinic teaching, and finally an inner response, or sod. The initials in Aramaic (the ancient language used by Moses de Leon) of these four levels together spell a word that means “orchard” or “paradise.” In searching for inner meaning, the Zohar preaches, Jews must engage with God’s love in obedience and prayer by embarking on a spiritual journey that will be marked by holy visions and measured out in seven color-coded stages of ecstasy. The final stage will be colorless as the believer contemplates the dazzling mystery of God.
“[Kabbalah] frightens people, so they try to denigrate it or trivialize it, so that it makes more sense.”
Madonna, 2005
Overall there is an erotic tone to the Zohar’s descriptions of humankind’s relationship with both God and the Torah, so much so that in the seventeenth century there was a move to restrict access to the Zohar to men over the age of 40.
Unknowable God The main tenets of religion presented in the Zohar are broadly empowering of humanity. The good man or woman can, it claims, enhance the universe by their actions and so prompt an outpouring of divine grace. This remains one of the principal propositions of the broader Kabbalah movement, which seeks to make a connection between an infinite and eternal creator God and those individuals who populate his finite creation.
Kabbalah consists of ways to attain spiritual self-realization. These include prayer, reflection, and commitment to a mystical journey that will reconcile the external practice of religion (Jewish rites and rituals) with its inner meaning. It is, however, a broader theological and mystical system than just the Zohar. Its adherents would argue that it dates back to the tenth century BCE, when it was the norm for the Jewish people living in ancient Israel. It was only during subsequent upheavals, battles, exile and sufferings, they claim, that it became buried or hidden.
In the Talmud, the word kabbalah simply means “received knowledge,” but over the centuries that followed the wide dissemination of the Zohar among medieval Jewry, the mystical principles it outlined entered the mainstream of Jewish theological thinking. This process was accelerated by the destruction and scattering of the Jewish community in Spain from the 1490s onward. In the process, Kabbalah moved from something academic, the preserve of upper-class Jews, to a popular movement, with kabbalistic anthologies circulating throughout the Jewish diaspora, prescribing an esoteric route for direct communion with God.
“More valuable than the garment is the body which carries it, and more valuable even than that is the soul which animates the body. Fools see only the garment of the Torah, the more intelligent see the body, the wise see the soul, its proper being; and in the Messianic time the ‘upper soul’ of the Torah will stand revealed.”
Zohar
Kabbalah became the subject of many debates and revisions, most notably by Isaac Luria (1534–72) in his school of kabbalistic studies at Safed in northern Galilee. Lurianic Kabbalah places special emphasis on the cosmos, meditation, and the coming of a Jewish Messiah. It makes a clear distinction between Ein Sof—that aspect of God that will forever be unknowable because it is endless and impersonal—and the sefirot, the ten revealed aspects, that shape the lives of Jews, the fate of Israel and human history.
Madonna and Kabbalah
Though raised as a Catholic, the singer Madonna became a prominent devotee of Kabbalah after being introduced to it in 1997 by her friend, the actress and comedian Sandra Bernhard. She credits it with enabling her to find a greater sense of self-worth and spiritual direction. As part of her connection, she adopted a Hebrew name, Esther, and wore in public a red Kabbalah wristband, knotted seven times, said to ward off evil spirits. She follows a particular form of Kabbalah promoted by Rabbi Philip Berg, who has established 50 Kabbalah centers worldwide since founding his first in Jerusalem in 1969. On her 1998 album Ray of Light Madonna credited the Kabbalah Centre for its “creative guidance,” and in the children’s book she published in 2003 she reflected the movement’s moral disapproval of greed and envy.
the condensed idea
The mystery of God can be partially unraveled
| timeline | |
|---|---|
| c.70 CE | Shimon bar Yohai records teachings |
| 1280 | Moses de Leon produces Zohar |
| 1480s | Jews expelled from Spain |
| c.1500 | Isaac Luria refines Kabbalah |