• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 455 0

be questioned in the context of our contemporary religious path.3 We do not possess a set of theurgic keys that will sustain or transform the cosmic order. We are not certain that any person has the power to bend the divine will (whatever we might mean by that term) to our own. What we believe to be of greatest value in the Kabbalistic legacy is largely psychological, in the broadest sense of that term, having to do with psyche, or “soul,” as well as mind. Especially in its insights into deeper levels of human experience, reflecting on aspects of the contemplative mind that are still little understood, the mystical tradition has much to teach us. Insofar as we then come to see each of our individual minds as a subset or a manifestation of a single collective Mind, coursing through all of existence, we may move to another level of truth claim. But this is still far from the old view that Kabbalah contained all the “secrets of Creation.” In our day, if we want to understand how the universe originated, we will most sensibly turn to nuclear physicists and astronomers, not to Kabbalists. But if we want to appreciate the depths to which humans can enter into transtemporal states, including the attempt to open the mind to identify with Being as it first emerged, we might do well to study the testimony of the Zohar. When we then discover that the Zoharic language around contemplation of the uppermost sefirot, based on experience of inner mind, bears a striking resemblance to some of the language used by today's scientists in talking about the first few milliseconds of existence, we can only stand in silent awe. There is indeed much that we do not know.

But here we need to restate the goal. We seek a Jewish spiritual language that will serve us as a reminder and a gateway to the oneness of Being. Torah can still serve in that role, raising our spiritual awareness and guiding us into these mysterious aspects of existence, as it has done for so many generations. We continue to revere the profound mysteries that so many teachers have brought forth by delving deeply into the text of Torah, and we seek to carry that process forward, revealing old — or new—secrets appropriate to our current era. Like the natural world, Torah too may contain entire dimensions that are not yet apparent to us. These may disclose themselves to us through new interpretive tools, or by fresh new uses of the old ways of reading. Or we may find that simple concentration on the Hebrew letters themselves can lead into deeper states of mind.4 Study of the Hebrew language's system of roots and the patterns of association that emerge from it can also serve as a powerful source of insights, used by the masters of Midrash over many centuries. All of these methods of reading, deeply anchored in tradition, remain accessible to us, and none of them requires a literalist or naive view of revelation. We should strive to remain open to learning on as many levels, and by as many methods, as we are able to. In this way, Torah will become for us, as it was for earlier generations, a way to navigate those mysterious channels of existence. To put it differently, Torah — both its study and the life it calls forth — is our way of reshaping mystery into meaning, of rendering the Silence articulate, without losing our sense of awe as we stand before the great Unknown.

Rereading Judaism as a vehicle for mystical consciousness requires that we enter into the ancient stream of Torah interpretation, the creative lifeblood of the Jewish tradition. We need to become intimate with the Torah text, an intimacy that combines familiarity and openheartedness. Knowing and loving the text in this way permits us to turn to the tools of interpretation, both old and new, allowing them to do their work of seducing the spirit, of awakening our minds to the deeper truth of the One that underlies all being. These readings of Torah are poetic attempts to reinvigorate our spiritual lives through a contemporary remythologization of Judaism. They will all lead us to the Torah beyond the text, the word that