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“The Only
God Who Can Save Us (From Ourselves):” Kabbalah,
Dogmatism, and the Open Economy of Thought Recently, at a lecture in I have considered the
problem of evil from a Lurianic perspective in Symbols of the Kabbalah,
in a Chapter entitled “Kellipot
and Sitra
Achra,
The Kabbalistic Myths of Evil.” There “evil” is discussed in the context of
the Lurianic symbols of Tzimtzum, Shevirat
ha-Kelim, Tikkun
ha-Olam , and the Sitra Achra or
“Other Side,” and the integral relationship between evil, freedom and
knowledge is explored. Here I will expand on certain ideas regarding the
relationship between evil and dogmatism that are implicit in the Lurianic symbol of the Kellipot;
the “husks” which, according to Luria, imprison
sparks of divine light that were emanated at the dawn of creation. According to Luria, the Sefirot, the values, vessels or
archetypes which comprise the world, were unable to fully contain the divine
light that was (and is) poured into them during the process of creation. All
ten sefirotic vessels overflowed
with divine energy, were displaced, and seven of them shattered, their broken
shards falling through the metaphysical void, each shard trapping a spark of
divine light. These shards, together with the light they imprison, form the Kellipot, the
“husks” which comprise the Sitra Achra, the Other Side, and which penetrate deeply
into world of Assiyah, the world of “making”
or “action” within which we reside. According to Luiria,
it is our divinely appointed task, through spiritual and ethical action, i.e.
the mitzvoth, to extract (birur) the
sparks from their husks and to liberate the imprisoned divine energy, so that
it can be placed in the service of Tikkun
ha-Olam (the emendation and restoration of the
world). In the meantime, the divine light entrapped within the Kellipot lends
vitality to the Other Side, thereby sustaining the forces of evil and
destructiveness. What is the significance of
divine light entrapped in the husks of the Other Side? We should recall that this light was
originally destined to fill vessels which represent intellectual, spiritual,
ethical, emotional and aesthetic values, and for this reason we can
understand the husks as symbolizing a certain imprisonment of, or rigidity in
thought, faith, ethics, emotions and taste. Psychologically, the Kellipot lead
to dogmatism in intellect, and constriction in emotion and behavior.
In short, the Kellipot
represent what in recent philosophy has come to known as a “closed economy”
i.e. thought, faith, emotion, etc. one that is closed to change in response
to dialog and experience. The doctrine of the Kellipot symbolizes that such a
dogmatic, closed economy is the source and sustenance of much of the
destruction generated by humankind. On
the other hand, the process of Tikkun,
in which divine light is liberated from the Kellipot, produces a continual
emendation of the world through an open economy of ideas, experience, action
and interpretation. The idea that a religious
or spiritual perspective on the world should involve an “open economy” of
thought and experience is implicit in the biblical ban against graven images,
a ban against limiting the divine to any single representational form. The
call to an “open economy” is beautifully expressed in two passages I will
quote from the writings of the Lurianic Kabbalah; the first from a contemporary of Isaac Luria, R. Chayyim Vital, and
the second from a later Lurianist, R. Moses Chayyim Luzzato: At every hour
of the day the worlds change, and each hour is not the same as the next. If you consider the movements of the
constellations and the shifts in their position, how in one moment they are
different, and how someone born at a certain time will experience different
things than someone born slightly beforehand (you will see) the upper worlds
are unlimited in number. You have to
come to some kind of intellectual middle ground because a human mind cannot
understand it all. With this you'll understand how the worlds change (with)
the garments of Ein-sof, and, according to these changes, the statements in Sefer haZohar
change.[1] Moshe Idel
quotes R. Moses Chayyim Luzatto,
a later (18th century) expositor of the Lurianic
Kabbalah, on the multiplicity of Torah meanings,
which are like the many nuances of flame that emerge from a hot coal: So
too is the case with the Torah that is before us, whose words and letters are
like a coal…and whoever is preoccupied and busy with it enflames the coals,
and from each and every letter a great flame emerges, replete with many
nuances, which are the information encoded in this letter…All the letters we
see in the Torah point to the twenty-two letters found on high…there are six
hundred thousand interpretations to all the Torah, divided between the souls
of the six hundred thousand [children of] Israel…This is the reason why
though the Torah [as a whole] is infinite, even one of its letters is also
infinite, but it is necessary to enflame it and then it will be enflamed, and
so too the intellect of man.[2] When the intellect of man is enflamed
like a burning coal, the Kellipot are effectively unknotted, the divine sparks are
freed, and the possibility of an infinity of interpretations is achieved. Idel, in his book, Absorbing Perfections: Kabbalah and Interpretation, suggests that the infinite plenitude of meaning which the Kabbalists attribute to the Torah text and the world at
large points to an immanent God who is the source and totality of all
significance whatsoever, a significance that is embodied in the infinite
interpretability of any text. Such a God, we might say, stands in opposition
to all rigid, dogmatic points of view, symbolized in the Kellipot and the Other Side. My own thinking here is
influenced by the contemporary French philosopher Jacques Derrida’s views on messianism. Derrida writes that a view of the messiah
within which it is possible that the messiah can actually come, be realized
and be recognized in time, is a view that paradoxically negates the concept
of the messiah as an ideal, a justice, and a good that we do not have, but
which we expect, hope, and wait for. A messiah that actually comes and is
recognized will, of necessity, partake in the finitude, authoritarianism and
closed economy of a faith that divides truth from error, and believers from
infidels. Similarly, a God, who reveals his (or her) truth to a select group,
who can be known in some absolute way, and the knowledge of whom is a
condition for personal and world salvation, is a God who closes off
possibilities of thought, faith, emotion and behavior, and who ultimately
leads one into the dogmatism and rigidity of idolatry. It is an exclusive,
parochial, dogmatic view of God and/or truth the produces the Crusades,
Pogroms, Hitlers and Al Qaedas
of this world. Unfortunately, such a dogmatic view of God is not unheard of
amongst various segments of even the Jewish religion, even though Judaism
(and the Jewish historical experience) should be understood as providing the
light against such dogmatism. The Kabbalistic notion of Tzimtzum, Ein-sof’s withdrawal and concealment
from the world, assures that the divine can never be grasped or known with
any certainty. For the Kabbalists, divine
concealment, is one of God’s essential features, as it assures that the
thought, quest and debate about ultimates will
continue, and will never be closed. A God
who is fully revealed is no longer a God who encourages, or even permits,
thought and inquiry, and, paradoxically, is in serious danger of becoming a
mere idol. The view that God must be
understood in the context of an open economy of thought, follows from the
mystical view of God in general, and the Kabbalistic view of God in
particular. Mystics the world over have affirmed that the God they experience
in states of mystical union and ecstasy is so vast, so all-inclusive as to be
undefinable and subject to no attributes
whatsoever. Thus “negative theology” the idea that the divine can only be
understood through “negative attributes” which define what it is not, has been closely linked to various mystical
traditions. Indeed, the Kabbalists used a variety of negative epistemological
terms to make reference to the hidden God; “the concealment of secrecy”, “the
concealed light”, “that which thought cannot contain” etc.,[3] each
of which signifies that this God is somehow beyond human knowledge and
comprehension. Of this God, Sefer Yetzirah
had earlier said “restrain your mouth from speaking and your heart from
thinking, and if your heart runs let it return to its place”.[4] According to the Kabbalist
R. Azriel of Ein-Sof cannot be an object of thought, let alone of
speech, even though there is an indication of it in everything, for there is
nothing beyond it. Consequently, there
is no letter, no name, no writing, and no word that can comprise it.[5] While such negative theology has not always
dissuaded mystics and even Kabbalists from making
more positive assertions about God, it serves as a warning that such
assertions are tentative, metaphorical and open to interpretation. What I am about to say now
will be disturbing to some, although properly understood, it should be
obvious and indeed, liberating. It is precisely because evil has its origin
in the dogmatism and the closed economy of the Kellipot, that (a certain understanding
of) God is the source of evil. This
is because behind every dogmatism is a vision of God or gods, one that is
dogmatic, exclusive and absolute. In Sefer ha Bahir we
read “The Blessed Holy One has an attribute that is called Evil.”[6] That attribute, which the Kabbalists associate with the Sefirah Din (Judgment) involves a judgment of truth, virtue,
faith, etc. that is no longer subject to emendation; in Kabbalistic terms, it
is a judgment that is so final, so enmeshed in the Kellipot, that it lies beyond
the reach of Tikkun (the restoration
and emendation that completes both the world and God). To the extent that one, anyone, believes
that he/she has exclusive knowledge of God, or that one system of thought,
faith and belief, is the exclusive avenue to the divine, he/she worships an
aspect or trait of God that the Bahir calls evil.
Indeed, the worship of an exclusive God, one that is circumscribed by
a closed economy of faith and belief, is idol
worship, the very idol worship that Abraham presumably shattered when he
had a vision of the one, invisible and undefinable
God. One should, in my view,
sooner adopt atheism or agnosticism as a system of belief than a religion of
dogmatism. Indeed if atheism or agnosticism is an individual’s route to an
open economy of thought, emotion and action, than becoming such an atheist
leads one far closer to the infinite, Ein-sof,
than aligning oneself with those who proclaim the absolute truth of their so-called piety and faith. Unfortunately
atheists can be equally dogmatic (if one doubts this one need simply recall
the communist regimes of the last century). Nevertheless, there is need for a
healthy dose of atheism at the heart of our conception of Ein-sof, and it is for this reason, I
believe, that the great Kabbalist Azriel can say that
Ein-sof, “is the principle in which
everything hidden and visible meet, and as such the common root of both faith
and unbelief” (my italics).[7]
In interpreting this aphorism, we should again not underestimate the
importance of God’s “hiddeness,” for it is indeed
such hiddeness, concealment and unfathomability
that serves as a condition for free thinking. It is only a God who is supposedly fully manifest and known that can
become the foundation for a dogmatic system of belief. Why then should we not rest
with atheism or agnosticism pure and simple? The reason is that in many if
not most (but not all) cases atheism or agnosticism blinds one to the
spiritual dimension in life, inhibits one from experiencing and expressing
awe, reverence, and gratitude for one’s life and world, and cuts one off from
the possibility of participating in the forms of spiritual life offered by
the great religions. Just as it is difficult to have an aesthetic sensibility
without turning one’s gaze upon objects of aesthetic experience, I believe it
is difficult to have a spiritual sensibility without turning one’s (inner)
gaze on an object of spiritual experience, whether it be called Ein-sof, Brahman, the Absolute, the
World Soul, or God. It is also, on my
view, difficult (though again not impossible) to formulate an atheistic
ground for the meaning and purpose of one’s existence and one’s place in the
overall structure of humanity and the world, and conversely, comparatively
simple to do so in a theistic context, especially one that is shared by other
members of a religious community. On the other hand, if by adopting
spirituality and theism one develops an arrogant belief that one is in
possession of “the truth” then I would say that atheism or agnosticism is by
far the better alternative. Agnosticism, relativism,
and “deconstruction” were all, to my way of thinking, advances in the
development of human reason, and under certain guises have, by virtue of
limiting human, and in particular religious, ethnic and national arrogance,
led to increased tolerance, human rights and respect for the environment.
Such ideas are also. To my way of thinking, these ideas are absolutely
necessary stages in the development of a fuller “unknowing” conception of the
divine. They are, Kabbalistically speaking,
necessary tools or stages for cracking the husks and liberating the spiritual
energy that is entrapped in the dogmatic shells. Unfortunately, however, an agnostic/relativist/postmodern
mindset threatens to leave the individual, community and nation spiritually
empty-handed, poised for a crisis of existential and communal
meaninglessness. Whenever reason, relativism, open-mindedness, and
free-thinking prevail, the dogmatist has his opening, an opening that is
itself conditioned by the anxieties regarding death, responsibility and
meaninglessness, that are the inevitable consequences of intellectual
freedom. The dogmatist is all too ready to close the individual’s and
community’s existential void through a promise of salvation, eternal life, as
well as through the participation in a community of the like-minded
closed-minded. Against this, the free-thinking relativist can offer only
existential angst as an alternative to divine salvation. The effort to be both an
open-minded, free-thinking relativist and a spiritualist, as one sometimes
finds amongst “adherents” to the liberal branches of Judaism and
Christianity, has not generally proven successful. First, if one is a true
free thinker it is very difficult to adhere
to anything. Second there is something about the orthodox form of life and
the thinking it engenders that manages to concentrate a form of spiritual experience
in those who do adhere to it, an experience that is generally unavailable to
the free-thinker.[8] What is needed is a deep
and committed spiritual outlook that is multiperspectival, respects
difference, and is open to change; and a God whose very essence is to be
subject to varying interpretations , transformations, and deconstructions.
The very being of such a God is determined and made manifest through the full
flowering and expression of thought, humanity and nature in each and all of
their manifold forms; each idea, each culture, each species, each individual,
fully actualized according its particular nisus, (and in all relevant cases
critiqued in the marketplace of reason and experience) and contributing to
and returning to the spiritual totality which is the soul of the world. I never tire of quoting the
dictum of the Chabad Chasidic Rabbi Arron ha-Levi: ...the
essence of His intention is that his coincidentia be
manifested in concrete reality, that is, that all realities and their levels be
revealed in actuality, each detail in itself, and that they nevertheless be
unified and joined in their value, that is, that they be revealed as
separated essences, and that they nevertheless be unified and joined in their
value.[9] I believe that such a universal God, a God who is realized and
completed only when the full garden of earthly species, peoples, cultures and
ideas is permitted to bloom, emerges from a deep reflection on the
Kabbalistic and Chasidic tradition. It is also, I believe, the God who
blossoms forth not only from philosophical reflection, but from mystical
experience as well; it is a God that becomes the spiritual arena within which
we can address our utmost existential concerns, without turning to a closed
economy of thought, feeling and faith. It is such an open, tolerant,
infinitely interpretable, transforming God that, to my mind, is the only God who can save us from
ourselves. All other so-called “Gods;” national Gods, Gods of certain
religions and peoples, are in danger of becoming idols. This is the simple message of Abraham, but it must be
repeated with great force today. The
idol Gods of tribes, nations, and religions are divisive and potentially
destructive, unless they are seen
as manifestations of a single essentially unknowable God, a God who is
subject to interpretation, transformation and emendation; who is the province
of all and who embraces all peoples, cultures, species, and ideas. It is such
a God that must be liberated from the husks of the Kellipot, and it is just this
liberation that is a fundamental task in our engaging in Tikkun ha-Olam. The Lurianic Kabbalah is treated in
detail in Sanford Drob's Symbols
of the Kabbalah and Kabbalistic
Metaphors . Sanford L. Drob holds doctorates in Philosophy and Clinical
Psychology. He is the author of Symbols of the Kabbalah:
Philosophical and Psychological Perspectives, and Kabbalistic Metaphors:
Jewish Mystical Themes in Ancient and Modern Thought (both published by Jason
Aronson, 1999). He is currently completing a book on Carl Jung, Jewish
Mysticism, and Anti-Semitism, working on studies on Kabbalah
and Psychotherapy and the Kabbalah and Postmodern
thought, and developing a Kabbalistic "Tree of Life,"
"axiology" or "firmament of values" (progress on which
appears periodically on this website). Dr. Drob served as head psychologist
on the Bellevue Forensic Psychiatry Service from 1984-2003 and was for many
years the Director of Psychological Testing at Dr. Drob is available for
psychotherapy consultations In Click here for An Interview with Sanford Drob on Kabbalah and Psychotherapy. Click here for Dr. Drob's CV in clinical and forensic psychology. Click here for a description of Brownstone Brooklyn Psychological Services, for which Dr. Drob and his wife, Dr. Liliana Rusansky Drob are co-directors. If you entered this site via a search engine, and there are no
"flash contents" on the left hand side of your screen, the site
will function better if you click here and go directly to www.newkabbalah.com and follow the
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