Thursday, April 25, 2013

Will Kabbalah Drive You Mad?

LAG BAOMER BONFIRE THIS SATURDAY NIGHT- see below 

 

Question of the Week:

 

I grew up hearing that to learn Kabbalah you have to be married, over forty, and an accomplished scholar. Otherwise you will go mad. Yet these days it seems everyone and anyone studies Kabbalah. So is what I heard not true or have the rules changed? Or have we all gone mad?

 

Answer:

 

The origin of the belief that Kabbalah study is dangerous seems to be a Talmudic tale.

 

There were four rabbis who shared an out-of-body mystical experience, where their souls wandered off into the higher realms. They were Ben Azzai, Ben Zoma, Elisha ben Avuya and Rabbi Akiva.

 

Each of these scholars was impacted differently by the experience. For three of them, it was not a happy ending.

 

Ben Azzai died. Ben Zoma went mad. Elisha ben Avuya lost his faith. Only Rabbi Akiva was able to internalize and process this mystical experience, and come back down to earth unharmed.

 

They all shared the same vision, yet they were impacted so differently. When we analyze some biographical details of these four scholars we can understand why.

 

Ben Azzai was a permanent bachelor. He refused to get married, feeling that having a family would interfere with his spiritual life. His celibacy left him unattached to the here and now, so when he tasted the bliss of heaven he didn't want to come back. He had nothing to come back for. So he didn't. He died.

 

Ben Zoma was a promising young scholar. But he was undeveloped. He didn't have the maturity and stability to handle such high levels of revelation. His gifted but unripe mind was overloaded, and he went crazy.

 

Elisha ben Avuya was a brilliant man. But he had a weakness. He mingled his Kabbalistic ideas with concepts from Greek philosophy. He diluted the purity of the Torah by trying to fit it into worldly wisdom. And so in the end his confused spirituality led him astray, he misunderstood the visions he saw and became a non-believer.

 

Why was Rabbi Akiva different? We know about Rabbi Akiva that unlike Ben Azzai, he was married. We also know that unlike Ben Zoma, he was mature. This is derived from the fact that until he was forty, he could not even read Hebrew. It was his wife Rochel who inspired him to start at the beginning and learn Torah from scratch. And unlike Elisha ben Avuya, he studied Torah in purity.

 

So from Rabbi Akiva we learn that safe entry into the mysteries of Kabbalah requires the maturity and groundedness of a married scholar who is over forty. Anyone else who dares to wander into the esoteric orchard risks losing their mind, or their faith, or even their life.

 

So can young, unripe and uninitiated novices study Kabbalah? Absolutely. Because there is a difference between Kabbalistic study and Kabbalistic experience. These three scholars were harmed because they were experimenting with out-of-body journeys, using divine energies to enter higher worlds. You've got to be a Rabbi Akiva to dabble in that.

 

But studying the wisdom of Kabbalah is a different story. It doesn't matter so much who is learning Kabbalah, the question is more who is doing the teaching. If you have a good teacher with authentic training, you can study Kabbalah anytime. If you plug in to the right sources, Kabbalah won't drive you mad. On the contrary, it will give you some spiritual sanity in the mad world we live in. 

 

Good Shabbos,

Rabbi Moss

  

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LAG BAOMER BONFIRE AND JAM SESSION
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Drum Circle, Jam session, BYO instrument

Toasted marshmallows and Barbecue

Songs and stories by the fire

Zohar study session

 

Saturday night April 27 from 7:30pm

at 30 Rosslyn St Bellevue Hill

$10 at the door

 

 

NINE to FIVE!

Shavuos All Night Learning at Nefesh

Tuesday May 14, 9pm to 5am

 

One night a year we conquer sleep and study Torah. This is it. Come for some or come for all, we have a compelling line-up of speakers and topics:

 

 

9pm-9:45pm A Soul on Fire - tales of the Baal Shem Tov with Rev Amzalak

 

9:45pm -10:30pm In the Footsteps of a Moabite Princess - a virtual trip from Jordan to Bethlehem with Shlomo Ben-Haiem, JNF National Education Shaliah

 

10:30pm-11pm with Chazan Isser Feiglin

 

11pm-11:45pm Scholarship and Stupidity- refuting academic attacks on tradition - matrilineal descent, authorship of the Zohar and more with Rabbi Moss

 

11:45pm break for cheesecake

 

12am Organ Transplants and the New Legislation in Israel with Rabbi Moshe Gutnick, Sydney Beth Din

 

1am Hot Topic - Is Kosher Slaughter Humane? with Rabbi Aaron Groner, Shochet (ritual slaughterer)

 

2am Talmud Study mind bending logical gymnastics

 

3am Open Mike without a Mike Community Members Speak (volunteers needed)

 

4am- 5am Pre-Dawn Kabbalah Study

 

 

  parenting course

SERVICES AT NEFESH ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Friday Night Candlelighting 5:03pm

Mincha 5:10pm

Shabbos Service - NEW WINTER TIME 6:00pm followed by Kiddush sponsored by Nissim Chai ben Yaakov N"Y in honour of his father's yahrzeit Yaakov Ben Nissim Chai A"H - Long Life

 

Shabbos Day

Shiur 9:00am

Morning Service 10am -12:20pm- Followed by Kiddush in honour of the Call-Up and wedding of Greg Bloom and Dina Gridiger - Mazal Tov!

 

Mincha 4:55pm followed by Seudah Shlishis and Maariv

Pirkei Avos 4

Shabbos ends 5:58pm

 

Shachris Mon- Fri 7am

  

Chassidus Shiur  Mon and Thurs 8-8:45am

 

Latest Shema 9:09am

 
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