Kabbalah: A Very Short Introduction JOSEPH DAN OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Kabbalah Kabbalah A Very Short Introduction JOSEPH DAN 2006 Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright © 2006 by Joseph Dan Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Dan, Joseph, 1935– Kabbalah : a very short introduction / Joseph Dan. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-19-530034-5 ISBN-10: 0-19-530034-3 1. Cabala I. Title. BM525.D355 2005 296.1'6—dc22 2005017169 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper Contents Illustrations VII Preface IX 1 Kabbalah: The Term and Its Meanings 1 2 Ancient Jewish Mysticism and the Emergence of the Kabbalah 11 3 The Kabbalah in the Middle Ages 25 4 Main Ideas of the Medieval Kabbalah 37 5 Modern Times I: The Christian Kabbalah 61 6 Modern Times II: Safed and the Lurianic Kabbalah 71 7 Modern Times III: The Sabbatian Messianic Movement 85 8 Modern and Contemporary Hasidism 93 9 Some Aspects of Contemporary Kabbalah 103 Further Reading 113 Index 119 V Illustrations 1 A Latin translation of Library of the Jewish Shaaey Ora (“The Gates Theological Seminary of of Light”). Courtesy of America 28 The Library of the Jewish 5 A Latin schematic Theological Seminary of drawing of the ten divine America xiv emanations, the sefirot. 2 The ancient Sefer Yezira Courtesy of the Library of (The Book of Creation, the Jewish Theological Latin translation, Seminary of America 36 Amsterdam, 1642). 6 An amulet designed to Courtesy of the Library of repel the power of Lilith. the Jewish Theological Courtesy of the Library of Seminary of America 12 the Jewish Theological 3 The book Zohar, the Seminary of America 51 Book of Splendor. 7 The Kabbalah Denudata. Courtesy of the Library of Courtesy of the Library of the Jewish Theological the Jewish Theological Seminary of America 26 Seminary of America 60 4 Permutations of divine 8 Henry More’s Vision of names and names of Ezekiel. By permission of angels in a protective Houghton Library, amulet. Courtesy of the Harvard University 65 VII ILLUSTRATIONS 9 The structure of the ten 11 The holy name of God. sefirot. Courtesy of the Courtesy of the Library of Library of the Jewish the Jewish Theological Theological Seminary of Seminary of America 94 America 70 12 Esther represents the 10 Portrait of Shabbatai Jewish feminine divine Zevi. Courtesy of the power, the shekhinah. Library of the Jewish Courtesy of the Library of Theological Seminary of the Jewish Theological America 84 Seminary of America 104 VIII Preface Every author of a “very short introduction” is faced with the difficult task of finding a way to present his subject in a brief and coherent manner, addressing readers who seek only the basic, yet most important, aspects of the discipline to which the book is dedicated. In the case of the kabbalah, however, there is an added difficulty: many readers will seek in the few pages of this book not only new information, but also a confir- mation of their own impression of what the kabbalah is. Some will even, knowingly or unknowingly, seek here a description of what the kabbalah should be. For fifty years I have been try- ing to respond to the question “what is the kabbalah?” And, in many cases my answer was accepted with disappointment or even resentment: this is not what I believe that the kabbalah is, and certainly it is not what I feel that the kabbalah should be. The term “kabbalah” has never been used as often and in so many contexts as it is today, yet now, as in the past, it does not have a “real,” definite one meaning. From its early begin- nings, it has been used in a wide variety of ways. Every medi- eval kabbalist gave the term his own meaning, which differed slightly or meaningfully from the others. In modern times nu- merous Jewish and Christian theologians, philosophers, and even scientists have used it in various, sometimes contradic- tory, ways. It has been an expression of strict Jewish orthodoxy IX PREFACE as well as a vehicle for radical, innovative worldviews. The ex- planation of the meaning of the term must, therefore, be de- fined within a clear, historical context, stating the time, place, and culture that used it in the past or is using it today. From the point of view of the historian of religious ideas there is no “true” meaning that is above all others. This short introduc- tion is intended, therefore, to present some of the most promi- nent characteristics of the different phenomena that were described as “kabbalistic” in various periods, countries, and cultural contexts. Our libraries contain many hundreds of works of kabbalah, printed or still in manuscript form. And, beside these, there are thousands of works—collections of sermons, ethical treatises, and commentaries on the scriptures and the Talmud—that use a little or more kabbalistic terminologies and ideas. As a result, there is hardly a Jewish idea that cannot be described as “kabbalistic” with some justification, as most of these ideas are found in works that use kabbalistic terminology. How can one distinguish between a traditional Jewish ethical norm and a kabbalistic one? Today, it often seems that designating an idea as “kabbalistic” makes it more welcome to outsiders than if it were described as “Jewish.” The main work of the medieval kabbalah, the book Zohar, contains 1,400 pages that deal with every conceivable subject. There is nothing that cannot be con- firmed by a quotation from the Zohar. A friend of mine who was teaching kabbalah at a university in California in the 1960s produced a beautiful quote from the Zohar to confirm that it is forbidden to study the kabbalah without, at the same time, smoking pot, and he demanded that his students do so in class. I failed in my attempt to persuade him to change his attitude; my authority could not compete with that of the Zohar as he understood it at that time. This small book should therefore be regarded as a subjective selection, augmented by my experi- ence as a historian of religious ideas, of the most prominent meanings attached to the term kabbalah through the ages, with- out designating any of them as more truthful than the others. X