Just the Gist

• Kabbalah comes out of hiding

• Change is a coming

• Why now and not before

• Kabbalah and the “anything goes” spirit

The Book of Zohar, the pinnacle of Kabbalah books, writes that Kabbalah will boom and prosper at the end of days. With today’s popularity of Kabbalah, it appears that the end of days is here.

Kabbalah illuminates and describes the laws of the spiritual world. It’s not religion. It’s a spiritual science, and for almost 2,000 years, it has been shrouded in mystery.

In the Spotlight

Kabbalah has traditionally been closed to all but a few select and serious students. No longer. Like never before, Kabbalah has become hot, chic, cool, in. Moreover, Kabbalists, who were previously so hesitant to open their secrets to the public, have become the key players in doing just that.

From Small Groups to Mass Exposure

But Kabbalah wasn’t always so popular, and Kabbalists weren’t nearly so open. For almost 2,000 years, Kabbalah was kept secret, shunning the public’s eye for faintly lit quarters of Kabbalists who meticulously selected their students and taught them in small groups.

Tidbits

Searching for “Kabbalah” on Amazon.com returns over five thousand books, almost none of which were written before 1980. Very few were written before 1990, and only a few more were written before the turn of the century. The vast majority of books on Kabbalah were written after the year 2000. In the last few years, Kabbalah really has been mass exposed!

For instance, the 18^th century Ramchal Group, the students of Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzato, made it especially difficult to join its ranks. Membership required agreeing to a rigorous pact of lifestyle and study that had to be met all day, every day, for as long as one remained a member.

Other groups, such as the Kotzk Group (named after a town in Poland), used to dress in worn-out clothes and treat nonmembers with offensive cynicism. They deliberately distanced themselves from others by appearing to disobey the most sacred Jewish customs like The Day of Atonement. Group members would scatter breadcrumbs on their beards to appear as if they’d been eating on this day of fasting. Naturally, most people were repelled.

Nevertheless, the same Kabbalists who hid the wisdom also made tremendous efforts to write the books that remain the pillars of Kabbalah to this day. Rabbi Isaac Luria (The Holy Ari) at once would take only one student and state that, from his time on, the study of The Book of Zohar (The Zohar, for short) is permitted to all who wish it.

For this reason, in his lifetime, the Ari taught a group of students, but at his deathbed he ordered all except Rav Chaim Vital to stop studying. The Ari said that only Chaim Vital understood the teaching properly, and he was afraid that without a proper teacher, the rest would go astray.

Breaking the Iron Wall

Spiritual Sparks

At the outset of my words, I find a great need to break an iron wall that has been separating us from the wisdom of Kabbalah since the ruin of the Temple to this generation. It lies heavily on us and arouses fear of being forgotten.

—Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

It was not until the last decade of the twentieth century that Kabbalah really began its advent to the center stage of public awareness. The single most dominant figure in the worldwide dissemination of Kabbalah is undoubtedly Rav Yehuda Ashlag, known as Baal HaSulam (Owner of the Ladder) for his Sulam (Ladder) commentary on The Book of Zohar. He was the first Kabbalist to not only speak in favor of dissemination, but to actually do it.

Baal HaSulam published a magazine, ha-Uma (The Nation), on June 5, 1940. He also tried to convince David Ben-Gurion and other leaders of the Jewish settlement in Palestine (today’s Israel) to incorporate Kabbalistic principals in the education system. Baal HaSulam also stated that in the future, people of all religions would study Kabbalah while maintaining their birth religions, with no collision between the two.

Such statements and the act of disseminating Kabbalah seemed so unorthodox and unacceptable at the time that The Nation was shut down after just one issue by the British Mandate in Palestine. In justification, the British Mandate stated that it had been told that Ashlag was promoting Communism.

Kabbalah—because Now We Need It

Kabbalah has but a single purpose: it offers an approach that helps answer the question, “What is the meaning of my life?”

Now, more than ever before, people are asking about the meaning and the purpose of their lives. With material needs met—and met even beyond imagining, in some cases—people still feel emptiness in their lives. Kabbalah is a discipline that invokes insights and new perspectives on life, which in turn provide a spiritual fullness. This is the key to its popularity.

In The Study of the Ten Sefirot, an extensive commentary on the writings of the great Ari, Baal HaSulam wrote that you are ready for Kabbalah if you sometimes…

• Question the meaning of your life.

• Wonder why you and all life exist.

• Question why life can sometimes be so difficult.

The Right Wisdom for Its Time

In the perfect cycle of life, each part has its designated function. No part of creation is free to do as it pleases because the well-being of each part depends on the well-being of all other parts of creation. Nature’s law of interdependency guarantees that no creature will overpower other creatures because to destroy other creatures would mean destroying itself.

Human beings are no exception to this rule, but many—if not most—do not appreciate this idea and in one way or another act in ways that hurt others and thus themselves, as well. By controlling others or our environment, we think we can manipulate and shape the world to our liking. But a quick glimpse at the news makes you reflect on the results; all we have achieved is unhappiness for ourselves and for others. Yet, as we will show in Part 3, nothing is created without a reason, not even human destructiveness.

Today, it seems our destructiveness is causing great unhappiness to people and threatening our environment. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that people are beginning to ask questions about life that the wisdom of the Kabbalah can help us if not completely answer, at least explore more deeply.

As more people are beginning to realize that greater wealth, more sex, and additional power do not make them happier, they are no longer asking “How to?” questions, but “What for?” questions. At such a time, any doctrine that can help us answer “What for?” questions has a good chance at popularity.

Because Kabbalah specifically explores questions about the meaning of life, it’s not surprising many people find it appealing. This, coupled with the publicity generated by its celebrity adherents, has brought it to the attention of seekers everywhere.

Kabbalah with Anything

In the “anything goes” spirit of today’s world, everything’s mixed with everything else: science with religion, rock and roll with Beethoven. There is even sushi ice cream (bet you didn’t know that). Following the trend, Kabbalah has been associated with more doctrines and teachings than there are toppings for pizza.

But there is another, more serious reason for the sudden emergence of this ancient discipline. Kabbalah has always had a reputation of possessing insight into the highest forces of nature, of the spiritual worlds, and of the nature of God. As a result, people have always wanted to connect Kabbalistic terms with all kinds of teachings.

The problem with such connections is that they undermine the power of Kabbalah to help us understand our human and spiritual natures. This, after all, is at the heart of today’s interest in this teaching, and the reason Kabbalah was developed in the first place.

So, to clear up any misconceptions, let’s look at what Kabbalah is not. It is not, and has nothing to do with religion, magic, mysticism, divination, cults, holistic medicine, meditation, philosophy, theosophy, psychology or parapsychology, ESP, telepathy, dream interpretation, tarot cards, yoga, red strings, holy water, blessings, past-life regressions, numerology, reiki, channeling, astrology, astral travels or projection, communicating with the dead, out-of-body experiences, voodoo, freemasonry, reflexology, UFO’s, creationism, Sufism or any ism.

Kabbalah has been around for a long, long time and is only now taking its place in the general public awareness. Those who embrace it as the latest fad will perhaps move on to something else. But those who dig deeply into its principles are likely to find enough to keep them going for a lifetime.

In a Nutshell

• Kabbalah is a method that answers life’s deepest question: “What is the meaning of my life?”

• Kabbalah has been waiting in hiding until the questions it answers arose.

• Kabbalah has been incorrectly associated with many flavors of spiritual teachings.

• Kabbalah is not a passing fad, but a time-tested, practical method to understanding human nature and the nature of the Creator.