What Is Kabbalah?
Kabbalah* gets called “mysticism,” and I think that’s accurate in practice, but to the extent that Kabbalah is mysticism, it’s a mis-application of the wisdom.
* I am not talking about that Euro-woo shit spelled with a Q, I have literally no idea what that is
Kabbalah was/is kept secret by the same ultra-Orthodox forces that locked everyday Jewish practice into the 1700s for social control. If regular Yidden found out about Kabbalah, why, they’d be liable to start practicing spontaneous devotion instead of following protocol.
That is, of course, why it was invented. And why the Ḥasidic movement tried (and mostly failed) to rebuild. Kabbalah is a corrective against literalism and rote execution of static forms. What one so inclined as myself might call “idolatry.” Which, you may recall, is a no-no.
Having infiltrated whatever chauvinistic fortresses one may encounter trying to learn Kabbalah (read: try the Conservative/Masorti movement, they’re only like ~20 years behind culturally instead of 100+), there is indeed a lot of kabbalistic writing one might call “mysticism.”
You know, ridiculously trippy descriptions of G!d’s anatomy and many levels and aspects, angels and their very particular functions, diagrams of the universe, etc. Secrets. All presented as revealed truth to be studied and internalized, because that’s what Jews do with books.
In the format of rabbinic commentary, the foundational Kabbalistic texts do cite scripture extensively, by way of explaining the “hidden” meaning behind plain readings of the text, which are sometimes just impossible from any historical distance anyway.
But it’s not like any of this stuff is IN there. Sure, the most famous recorded Kabbalistic visions are colored by words and imagery from the Torah, because of course they are. No different from how Elon Musk thinks the universe is a self-driving car or whatever.
But Kabbalah reveals new vision and practice on top of the prophetic tradition. How is that acceptable? Because its source material is the accepted rabbinic religious structure, to which it applies a new METHOD. That method — not the secrets — is the essence of what Kabbalah IS.
The method of Kabbalah — and this is actually the part that Euro-woo occultists dig the most, as I understand — is that of exploding the semantic container of the Hebrew language, which, I remind you, is the language of G!d in which the Bible is written. You have to know Hebrew.
The transmission of Hebrew scriptures over millennia of near-destruction is the only reason there are still Jews. If you have ever wondered why Judaism seems so intense about steadfast, legalistic adherence to what those words say (or why they’re sacred at all), this is why.
Given history, how could the words not accumulate magic powers over time? How could they NOT be the Word of G!d? Kabbalah solved the threat of idolatry in this problem. Apply the principle that these words contain The Truth to the utmost possible extent and see what happens.
The Kabbalistic method is a little bit like kōan practice. How can these words POSSIBLY be true? In a plain sense, they’re obviously FALSE, so what’s true about them? It has to be something. Examine this thoroughly in practice.
Trust me, the material here is very volatile. (I mean, look at history if you don’t believe me.) It’ll crack you like an egg. We live in a universe that contains this text. It is revealed truth in the most obvious sense. Once you see that, it’s just love.
More on HOW it works:
You may be aware that Hebrew letters also have numerical values, so fun mathematical correlations can be made that add another layer of meaning. This is called gematria. And indeed, some key numbers and beautiful patterns emerge. This is mostly just stoner stuff to me, though.
Of endlessly more value is the actual LEXICAL network of meanings available in the three-letter roots of Hebrew words. When I say “you have to know Hebrew” to read Tanakh/do Kabbalah, this is what I mean. This post about my moniker is an example of how deep it is.
As in most languages, there are often words that seem to mean the same thing. Take דבר and אומר. Those both mean “say” or “speak,” something that happens a lot in the Bible. But they aren’t the same word. Their roots entangle them with whole different families of other words.
So just imagine the webs and nets of meaning that stretch across thousands of pages for thousands of years, and you’ll get the sense of how psychedelic this makes the very act of reading. Now imagine PRAYING using those words.
Explode the language enough, repeat the 20-odd thousand words of daily prayer for enough days, and it’s not unusual for semantic satiation to hit. But for a normie frum person, that might just render the words empty. To a Kabbalist, it renders them as mantra. Parasamgate.
I think that’s the gist. This has been my practice in the past, it’s not now and may never be again (who knows), but it’s certainly what I do when I’m in a Jewish situation. Just wanted to do my part to banish all secrets. Even though Secrets is my name.
