A tension exists within Kabbalistic/Hasidic thought between two outlooks on God, man and the world that are so different that it is hard to imagine that they co-exist within a single system of religious thought and practice. On the one hand we find in the Kabbalah, and especially amongst the Hasidim, what can only be […]
Read MoreEmail inquiries with my response are subject to editing for length and clarity. I will not post your comments if you do not want me to, so if you are not willing to have your inquiry or comments posted please let me know. You can email me at forensicdx@aol.com. Dialog on this page is initially […]
Read MoreThe publication of Erich Neumann’s The Roots of Jewish Consciousness, Vols. 1 and 2[1] in 2019 opens up new vistas into the relationship between Jungian thought and the Jewish tradition. Neumann (1905-1960) was amongst Jung’s preeminent disciples, and this work, especially “Volume Two: Hasidism,” sheds considerable light on Jung’s late life claim that “the Hasidic […]
Read MoreWhile the Lurianic Kabbalah is highly complex and recondite in its symbolism and ideas, its understanding of the meaning of life is neither hidden nor obscure: It involves the endeavor to realize objective values in the face of the obstacles, suffering, and tragedies of this world. This view if life-meaning follows from what I have […]
Read MoreFreud and Chasidism: Redeeming the Jewish Soul of Psychoanalysis by Dr. Sanford Drob by Dr. Sanford Drob Jewish Review: Volume 3 , Issue 1 (Sept, 1989 | Tishrei, 5750) The identification of psychotherapy, particularly of psychoanalysis, with Jews and Judaism, is certainly nothing new. In fact, in the early days of psychoanalysis, its detractors, most notably […]
Read MoreJewish Review Volume 4 , Issue 1 Sanford L. Drob, Ph.D. The kabbalistic concept of tikkun haolam, the repair of restoration of the world, has been reignited in the Jewish imagination in recent years. Jewish philosophers have adapted this concept for their own use and a major Jewish periodical, Tikkun, has emerged which explicitly adopts […]
Read MoreThe following article, a biography of the author’s grandfather, was originally published in Conservative Judaism, Volume 35, No. 3, Spring, 1987. Apart from the addition of photographs, it has been left in its original form. My grandfather, Rabbi Max Drob (1887-1959), belonged to the earliest generation of ‘European-born, Americanized graduates of the Jewish Theological Seminary. […]
Read MoreThe following is a verbal representation of Lurianic Kabbalah account of God, humanity and the world. The story it tells is circular as the end is also the beginning. The Lurianic theosophy represents an “absolute” (Ein-sof) which evolves with, and who is completed by creation. Left: The Discourse on Light. Aquarelle on paper. SanfordDrobart.com. […]
Read MoreThe symbol of the Sefirot is the defining notion of Kabbalistic theosophy. The Sefirot (singular Sefirah) which are almost always conceived to be ten in number, are the building blocks of creation, the archetypes of existence, the traits of God, and the primary values of the world. The earliest reference to the Sefirot is in the proto-Kabbalistic source, Sefer Yetzirah (The Book of Formation), where […]
Read MoreThe following essay utilizes the kabbalistic idea of the sefirot to provide a theory of personhood analyze the question of whether it is possible to create a digital person. __________ The word “golem,” which in Hebrew has the connotation of “raw material,” is used in the Bible (Psalms 139: 15,16) to refer to the imperfect […]
Read More
In 1944, C. G. Jung experienced a series of visions which he later described as “the most tremendous things I have ever experienced.” Central to these visions was the “mystic marriage as it appears in the Kabbalistic tradition”, and Jung’s experience of himself as “Rabbi Simon ben Jochai,” the presumed author of the sacred Kabbalistic […]
Read More
In “Archetype of the Absolute: The Union of Opposites in Mysticism, Philosophy and Psychology,” Sanford Drob traces the “problem of the opposites” in the history of ideas and develops the thesis that apparent oppositions in philosophy, including those that underlie competing paradigms in psychology, are complementary rather than contradictory. The doctrine of the complementarity and […]
Read MoreAbstract: Creative negation, wisdom, understanding, love, power, beauty, endurance, splendor, foundation, sovereignty – the ten dimensions of the Kabbalists’ universe form a guide not only to the godhead’s inner nature but to the psychological development of the human personality. The forty-nine days between Passover and Shavuot are known in Jewish tradition as the sefirat ha-Omer, […]
Read MoreThe symbol of Tikkun ha-Olam embodies the most distinctively Jewish, as well as the the single most important ethical injunction of the Kabbalah: the command that humanity must restore and redeem a broken and fallen world (see Shevirat ha-Kelim). As articulated by Isaac Luria in 16th century Safed, Tikkun is a symbol with both metaphysical and theological implications. Luria and his disciples understood every event in the created universe, […]
Read More“Concerning everything that cannot be grasped its question is its answer” – Shimon Labis, Ketem Paz [1] Abstract The riddle of existence is approached through an analysis of the meaning and existential significance of the question, “Why is there something rather than nothing?” The author contends that that a focus on the question provides […]
Read MoreThe impact of Judaism on Freud and psychoanalysis has been the subject of a number of treatments over the years. However, it was only in David Bakan’s (1957) Sigmund Freud and The Jewish Mystical Tradition, that an attempt was made to draw parallels between psychoanalysis and Jewish mysticism. Bakan attempted to show that Freud was […]
Read MoreThe following article is based on a presentation delivered at the American Psychological Association’s Annual Convention, August, 1998. It originally appeared in History of Psychology. May, 1999 Vol 2(2), pp. 102-118. Frontispiece of “Kabbala Denudata,” a Latin compilation of kabbalistic works that Jung read and referenced in his Collected Works. A more detailed discussion of […]
Read MoreHegel, who was extremely disdainful of Judaism in his early theological writings, presents a mature philosophy, which can be understood as an attempt to rationally explicate the basic metaphors of the Lurianic Kabbalah. However, the extent of the impact of the Kabbalah on Hegel is difficult to determine. Hegel discusses the Kabbalah briefly in his Lectures on […]
Read MoreGnosticism refers to a group of second century self-defined Christian sects that were regarded as heretical by the early church. Scholars have differed regarding the identity and defining characteristics of Gnosticism. Some point, for example, to its dualism of good and evil, others to its theories regarding the aeons, and the demiurge, etc. However, a […]
Read MoreThe influence of Greek philosophical thought, particularly that of Plato and Neoplatonism, upon the development in the Kabbalah has long been recognized. A number of Kabbalists took note of a close relationship between the Kabbalah and Platonic philosophy, and some went so far as to suggest that the Kabbalah itself was a source for Platonic […]
Read More