Practical Kabbalah

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Practical Kabbalah (

magic. It was considered permitted white magic by its practitioners, reserved for the elite, who could separate its spiritual source from qlippoth realms of evil if performed under circumstances that were holy (Q-D-Š) and pure, tumah and taharah (טומאה וטהרה).[1] The concern of overstepping Judaism's strong prohibitions of impure magic ensured it remained a minor tradition in Jewish history. Its teachings include the use of Divine and angelic names for amulets and incantations.[2]

Practical Kabbalah is mentioned in historical texts, but most Kabbalists have taught that its use is forbidden.[3] It is contrasted with the mainstream tradition in Kabbalah of Kabbalah Iyunit (contemplative Kabbalah), that seeks to explain the nature of God and the nature of existence through theological study and Jewish meditative techniques.

According to Gershom Scholem, many of the teachings of practical Kabbalah predate and are independent of the theoretical Kabbalah which is usually associated with the term:

Historically speaking, a large part of the contents of practical Kabbalah predate those of the speculative Kabbalah and are not dependent on them. In effect, what came to be considered practical Kabbalah constituted an agglomeration of all the magical practices that developed in Judaism from the Talmudic period down through the Middle Ages. The doctrine of the Sefirot hardly ever played a decisive role in these practices..."[4]

History

Jewish mysticism
Dead Sea Enoch Scroll c.200-150 BCE
Forms
Hasidic schools
 1730s CE – today
Academic study c. 1920s – today

Early practices

Halakha (Jewish religious law) forbids divination and other forms of soothsaying, and the Talmud lists many persistent yet condemned divining practices.[5] The very frequency with which divination is mentioned is taken as an indication that it was widely practiced in the folk religion of ancient Israel, and a limited number of forms of divination were generally accepted within all of Israelite society, the most common being oneiromancy (interpretation of dreams for prophetic meanings).[6][need quotation to verify] Other magical practices of Judaic folk religion which became part of practical Kabbalah date from Talmudic times and include the making of amulets and other folk remedies using the esoteric names of angels.[2]

Merkabah mysticism

Main article: Merkabah mysticism

In Talmudic and Gaonic times, rabbinic mysticism focused around exegesis of Ezekiel's vision of the divine Chariot-Throne, and meditative introspective ascent into the heavenly chambers. This elite practical mysticism, as described in the esoteric Hekhalot literature, incorporated and merged into magical incantation elements. The Talmud and Midrash refer to this as "using the Divine Name" for theurgic-practical ascent, as in the story of the Ten Martyrs who enquired in Heaven of the decree. In the Hekhalot literature, angels guarding each level are meditatively bound by formulae and seals to allow entry.[citation needed]

Medieval Hasidei Ashkenaz and the Sefer Yetzirah

Úštěk Synagogue with statue of the Golem of Prague, Czech Republic
Main article: Golem

In the 13th century, one problem which intrigued the Ashkenazi Hasidim (literally "the Pious of Germany") was the possibility of the creation of life through magical means. They used the word "golem" (literally, shapeless or lifeless matter) to refer to an hypothetical homunculus given life by means of the magical invocation of Divine names. This interest inspired an entire cycle of legend revolving around the golem which continued into the 18th century.[7] The identification of the ancient Sefer Yetzirah concerning the creative force of the Hebrew letters as the means to create a golem was derived from interpretation of two statements in the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin. One relates that amora Abba ben Joseph bar Ḥama ("Rava") created a person; in the second, two other Sages were studying "the laws of "creation" and created a "third-born calf" that they ate for a celebration.[8]

Medieval separation of Conceptual and Practical Kabbalah

See also: Kabbalah

The separation of the

magical elements of Kabbalah, dividing it into speculative theological Kabbalah (Kabbalah Iyyunit) with its meditative traditions, and theurgic practical Kabbalah (Kabbalah Ma'asit), had occurred by the beginning of the 14th century.[9] Many traditional speculative Kabbalists disapproved of practical Kabbalah, including Abraham Abulafia, who strongly condemned it.[2][need quotation to verify] While the great majority of historical Kabbalistic involvement, writing and development concerns the theological Kabbalah, the majority of practical Kabbalaistic writings were never published.[10]

One important tradition of practical Kabbalah thrived in Spain during the second half of the 15th century, before the

Joseph Della Reina's (1418–1472) failure with his students in this, was considered a warning by later Kabbalists of the potential perils of involvement with Kabbalistic practice.[13]

Ban of Safed Kabbalistic Renaissance

In the 16th century

Red Heifer to purify, the pursuit of the realm of practical Kabbalah by a person with an impure body is very detrimental.[15]

Early modern Baalei Shem and other developments

The traditional role of the

Mitnagdic Lithuanian Judaism, the Kabbalist Vilna Gaon (1720–1797), related that in his youth he had attempted to make a golem, but stopped when he perceived a spirit of impurity involved.[17]

Rabbi Aharon Yehuda of Chelm, a practitioner of practical Kabbalah, and baal shem, was said to have created a golem through use of the divine name.[18]

Rabbi Yhitzak Ayhiz Halpern, a practitioner of practical Kabbalah, and baal shem, was said to have saved a ship from capsizing, and to have exorcised a dybbuk.[19]

Rabbi Naftali Katz of Posnan was said to have brought a dead man back to life to free his wife from agunah.[19]

Rabbi Hirsch Fraenkel was sentenced to imprisonment in Germany in 1713, on the basis of having a library of books said to contain examples of sorcery, such as how to use oaths, and amulets to overcome demons, see the future, and speak to the dead.[19]

Divine intercession through Deveikut by the Hasidic Tzadik

Main article: Tzadik

In

deveikut (cleaving to God), and cleaving to the Tzadik (Hasidic Rebbe). In Hasidic doctrine, the tzaddik channels Divine spiritual and physical bounty to his followers by altering the Will of God (uncovering a deeper concealed Will) through his own deveikut and self-nullification. Dov Ber of Mezeritch is concerned to distinguish this theory of the Tzadik's will altering and deciding the Divine Will, from directly magical process.[21]
This rendered the external methods of practical Kabbalah, its willed power over angels and lower spiritual forces, as unnecessary and a hindrance, though some Hasidic leaders retained use of traditional amulets at the borderline of practical Kabbalah.

This change was manifested in the personal life of Hasidism's founder, the Baal Shem Tov (1698–1760), in his move from

Hasidic thought teaches that its internalised mysticism enables the divine soul to affect the world through its essential connection to God, rather than Divine manifestations
of Kabbalah.

Methods

See also: Kavanah and Jewish meditation
sigils
(סגולות segulot in Hebrew)

Despite the prohibition against divination of the future, there is no prohibition against understanding the past nor coming to a greater understanding of present and future situations through inspiration gained by the Kabbalah (a subtle distinction and one often hard to delineate). The appeal to occult power outside the monotheist deity for divination purpose is unacceptable in Judaism, but at the same time it is held that the righteous have access to occult knowledge. Such knowledge can come through dreams and incubation (inducing clairvoyant dreams), Metoposcopy (reading faces, lines on the face, or auras emanating from the face), ibburim and maggidim (spirit possession), and/or various methods of scrying.[22]

The Midrash and Talmud are replete with the use of names of God and incantations that are claimed to effect supernatural or

rabbinical literature seeks to curb the use of any or most of these formulae, termed Kabbalah Ma'asit ("practical Kabbalah"). There are various arguments for this; one stated by the Medieval Rabbi Yaakov ben Moshe Levi Moelin
is that the person using it may lack the required grounding, and the ritual would be ineffective.

Yet the interest in these rituals of power continued largely unabated until recently. The Talmud mentions the use of charms for healing, and a wide range of magical cures were sanctioned by rabbis. It was ruled that any practice actually producing a cure was not to be considered superstitious and there has been the widespread practice of medicinal amulets, and folk remedies (segullot) in Jewish societies across time and geography.[23]

Image gallery

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "A Little Hebrew". Retrieved 2014-03-26.
  2. ^
    ISBN 1-59337-546-8
  3. ^ Rabbi Chaim Vital. Keys to True Prophecy: Practical Kabbala Today (kabbalaonline.org). Retrieved October 3, 2008
  4. ^ Scholem, Gershom. Kabbalah, p. 183. Keter Publishing House Jerusalem, Ltd., 1974.
  5. ISBN 0-8074-0883-2
  6. ISBN 0-8028-0635-X
  7. ^ Trachtenberg, Joshua. Jewish Magic and Superstition, pp. 84-86. New York: Behrman's Jewish Book House, 1939. Available online at [1]
  8. ^ Kabbalah: a very short introduction, Joseph Dan, Oxford, p.106-107
  9. ^ Josephy, Marcia Reines. Magic & Superstition in the Jewish Tradition: An Exhibition Organized by the Maurice Spertus Museum of Judaica. Spertus College of Judaica Press, 1975
  10. ^ Thirty-Two Gates of Wisdom, DovBer Pinson, Ben Yehuda Press, p.3-5
  11. ^ Idel, Moshe. Kabbalah: New Perspectives. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988, p. 269 (as quoted in Girón-Negrón, 2001)
  12. ISBN 90-04-11957-4
  13. ^ Thirty-Two Gates of Wisdom DovBer Pinson, p 5
  14. ISBN 0-8122-3724-2
  15. ^ a b What is Practical Kabbalah? from www.inner.org
  16. ^ a b Ginsburgh, Yitzchak. Are Amulets Considered Practical Kabbalah? from www.inner.org
  17. ^ The Vilna Gaon: The Life and Teachings of Rabbi Eliyahu the Gaon of Vilna, ArtScroll History publications, Betzalel Landau and Yonason Rosenblum
  18. ^ The Besht: Magician, Mystic, and Leader, Immanuel Etkes, UPNE, 2012 - Biography & Autobiography, pg 25
  19. ^ a b c The Besht: Magician, Mystic, and Leader, Immanuel Etkes, UPNE, 2012 - Biography & Autobiography, pg 26
  20. ^ Hasidism: Between Ecstasy and Magic, Moshe Idel, SUNY Press 1995. The term "Magic" used here to denote divine theurgy affecting material blessing, rather than directly talismanic practical Kabbalah magic
  21. ^ Studies in East European Jewish Mysticism and Hasidism, Joseph Weiss, Littman Library; chapter: "The Saddik - Altering the Divine Will
  22. Sefer Chasidim [page needed], and Rabbi Hayyim Vital, Sefer ha-Hezyonot (translated as Book of Visions in Faierstein, 1999 [page needed
    ]).
  23. ISBN 0-8074-0856-5

References

External links

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