Chicago Tribune journalist Deborah Horan wrote about Kabbalah's rising popularity in a recent article - Kabbalah's popularity, controversy are no secret - that has surfaced as part of Kabbalist Rav Michael Laitman's current lecture tour of the United States and Canada.*
Kabbalah Confusions and Mis-labelings
A few things in Horan's article could be confusing to a first-time reader on Kabbalah. She associated common Kabbalah labels such as mysticism and Judaism with the Kabbalah that Rav Laitman teaches, and such labels are mistaken when it comes to Rav Laitman's teaching of Kabbalah.
Rav Laitman teaches what can best be labelled "Authentic Kabbalah," meaning that it has no association with religion, mysticism, amulets, red bracelets, or any other associations that the word "Kabbalah" has been receiving in its recent popularization. The following are three quotes from Horan's article with brief comments, aiming to clarify Rav Laitman's teaching of the Kabbalah from its common mis-labeling:
Mysticism - the #1 Mis-label of Kabbalah
1. Horan labelled Rav Laitman a "white-bearded Jewish mystic."
Rav Laitman is no "Jewish mystic." He is a Kabbalist. A Kabbalist is a researcher of the laws and forces that are hidden from our five senses, using an additional sense that one attains through the Kabbalah method. It would have been more accurate to label him a "white-bearded Jewish scientist," or more simply, "a Kabbalist." The following point aims to help explain the commonly made misconnection between Kabbalah and mysticism...
2. Horan wrote: "Curious newcomers to his teachings also can read any of Laitman's 30 or so books on Jewish mysticism"
Kabbalah is not Jewish mysticism. Mysticism can be considered to be an openness to things not literally provable. Kabbalah says the opposite. It says that what is achieved through the method of Kabbalah is provable, testable and verifiable, and that what one comes to achieve through the method is perceived the same among all who come to achieve it.
Judaism - the #2 Mis-label of Kabbalah
3. Horan described the Kabbalah that Rav Laitman represents as the "metaphysical side of Judaism."
Kabbalah dates back 5,000 years ago. Judaism dates back 2,000 years ago. Kabbalah stems from the time when humanity was united as one family, when there was no separation by races or nations and everybody in the world lived as one united entity. Kabbalah offers the method of how humanity can re-attain this state with additional understanding and sensation to how we lived in it thousands of years ago. Moreover, the Kabbalah that Rav Laitman teaches is specifically designed for our era's situation of extreme egoistic separation from one another.
Judaism is one of the results of our separating from our initial connectedness. It emerged at the time when humanity lost its connection as one family, and began separating into different races and nations. Judaism contains the first corporeal interpretation of the Kabbalistic texts, or in other words, "the corporeal side of Kabbalah." This label is actually also completely incorrect because there is no corporeal side of Kabbalah, since Kabbalah does not speak a single word about our corporeal world. As for Horan's label, it would have been more correct to call Kabbalah the method for attaining spirituality, per se.
The Purpose of Kabbalah - More Important than its Definition
Putting all name-calling and labelling aside, the purpose for which Rav Laitman is touring the United States and Canada is much more important than trying to define and clarify the word "Kabbalah." One of the comments Horan received for her article makes a note of this, by Inna from Huntington, NY: "All we have to do is to stop listening to our egos and start helping each other. And it really doesn't matter how the teaching is called - Kabbalah or New Age or something else. Our growing egos are our growing problems. Is it really hard to grasp?"
Authentic Kabbalah teaches how to help each other reach the same connected state we were in before our egoistic separation grew to what it is today. It teaches how to unite humanity back together again as one family, where each person works for the wellbeing of the other. When we reach this state, the need to clarify a word like "Kabbalah" just won't be relevant anymore. We will simply be living in perfection: a completely different level of existence than the one we're used to today.
Related Material:
- Kabbalah.info - all concepts presented in this article were learned from the free materials and resources available at the Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education and Research Institute - www.kabbalah.info
