On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism

by Gershom Scholem

Book Overview

In On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism, Gershom Scholem guides the reader through the central themes in the intricate history of the Kabbalah, clarifying the relations between mysticism and established religious authority, the mystics' interpretation of the Torah and their attempts to discover the hidden meaning underlying Scripture, the tension between the philosophical and the mystical concepts of God, and the symbolism employed in mystical religion...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805210512
• ISBN13: 9780805210514
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: Schocken Books Inc
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

The Basic Primer

Murder in Moab It has been said that Judaism is a religion that became a people. If so, then God must be at the very center of the Jews' psyche. Their history with G_d has been a tortuous journey and the orthographic G_d acknowledges that He is, finally, unknowable. Then, also, His ways, and His timing, must be inscrutable. The First Temple was destroyed in the year 560 BCE; most of the Jews exiled to Babylonia and ten tribes disappeared. In the year 70 CE all but the west wall of the Second Temple was pulled down by the Romans and the Jews scattered to the winds, ethnographic remnants found in modern times as far away as South Africa and Burma. According to Jewish tradition G_d himself did these disasters, in anger at His chosen people for broken covenants. How does one understand a god who is at once indescribable, one whose name you cannot even speak, but one who manifests Himself so disastrously in the lives of the Chosen? How does one dare approach the unapproachable? After all, only three humans, Adam, Eve, and Moses have, or ever will, stood or ever will stand in His presence. What could someone so small and insignificant as a Jewish philosopher named Ibn Gabirol in eleventh-century Spain hope for? How could he find a way to pierce the veil, to understand the unknowable? The worst feeling in the world is of being lost. Even worse is that of being purposely abandoned. Imagine the terror of a child suddenly finding itself separated from its parents at a crowded mall. Many know the desperate pain of divorce or, worse, the death of a loved one. But only Jews have known the unimaginable divorce of themselves from G_d. And that twice. Now we imagine reconciliation. Try to image a man, Gabirol or some other Jewish mystic, on a night meditation in eleventh-century Spain. There are some large beeswax candles throwing lemon-and-apricot colored light on his ritual phylacteries and shawl. The scent of orange blossoms waft through Moorish arched window to where he sits, rocking, his chin held tightly to his chest, tears flowing freely as he gulps spasmodically in a meditation practice already more than three thousand years old. His conscious mind scatters with the pain of a longing for communion. He begins to fall, float, fly above the chaos, then falls into the center of it! This is his mind, his very psyche where he is whirling, is being tossed uncontrollably. It is the madness of a second intentional abandonment by G_d, one that has lasted seven hundred years. This is the horrifying psychic chaos Zim Zum. Then, in this abstract world, down the rabbit hole, the sensitive soul sees spheres begin to coalesce into a pattern. Almost as the Creator began his world out of nothingness, ten aspects of G_d begin to reveal themselves as a tree: Malkuth, or its feminine equivalent Shekkina, is the trunk, then the canopy makes itself up of Yesod/foundation, Hod/majesty, Netsah//endurance, Rahamim/compassion, Gevurah or Din, Hesed/love and mercy, Binah/inte

Gem of a book

This absorbing work by the famous scholar of Jewish mysticism is profound yet accessible to the lay reader. Kabbalah which means `tradition' played an important part in religious life until the late 18th century. With the coming of modernism and emancipation it lost its universality in Jewish life until interest revived in the 20th century. Its symbols are intimately interwoven with the history of the Jewish people and its core message is one of Messianic hope. The Kabbalah represents a majestic image of exile, redemption & rebirth. In order to get the big picture, Scholem combined historical analysis with a phenomenological approach in order to capture the totality; only thus can Kabbalah be understood. In all traditions there's tension between religious authority & mysticism. The author discusses the problematic position of the mystic who operates within a paradigm of values, doctrines & dogmas; very rarely in a void. The obscure, anonymous mystic exists also but this study is concerned with mysticism as historical phenomenon, which contains two complementary aspects: the revolutionary and the conservative. In communication, mystics mostly use the symbols and theology of their own tradition, simultaneously transforming & developing the tradition. The mystic discovers new meaning in scripture; mystical exegesis may be compared to a key. The conservative aspect of the practice is rooted in the established framework of a religious tradition. The interesting case of Richard Maurice Bucke is mentioned as an example of a seeker after the universals of religion. Chapter 3 investigates the meaning of Torah in Jewish mysticism. This rich tapestry encompasses the role of the Name of God, explication of the Name, the concept of a fabric woven of many names & Torah as a living organism. The distinction between the written & oral Torah with regard to the two trees of paradise and the two sets of tablets given to Moses at Sinai is analyzed here. Scholem then explains the multiple or infinite meanings of the text & the various levels thereof. He explores the history of the 4-fold "Pardes" interpretation: the literal, allegorical, Talmudic/Aggadic & mystical layers. According to the sages, the Absolute Torah varies with the state of mankind, the historical period and the cosmic cycles. In this chapter one learns of the great Kabbalists like Moses de Leon, Bahya ben Asher, Joseph Gikatila and the School of Safed where legendary names like Moses Cordovero & Isaac Luria taught the mysteries. Scholem observes that the original impulse of Judaism was a reaction against mythology. Rabbinical Judaism attempted to avoid mythical images & symbols while ordinary people have a need for them; in this way developed the split between pure theological formula versus the concept of a living God. The appearance of the Book Bahir with its innovative cosmology initiated the tension between the Maimonidean philosophical view and the mystical concept of the

Introdaction to Kabbalah

As it's titel, this book is a must book for every freshman student in Kabbalah & Jewish Mysticism (although not easy to read).But not only for freshmen. As a Ph.D student,I need to use this book & the other musterpiece works of Prof. Scholem. Although many criticism was written about Scholem's views (mainly by Prof. Idel & Prof. Libbes), his books & his other works are & will remaine the masterworks of the Kabbalah study.

kabbalah

I learned a great deal from Herr Doktor Gershom Scholem (1897-1982) through his text, "On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism". Dr Bernard McGinn, Divinity School, University of Chicago, wrote in the introduction, "I believe that all students of mysticism should read Scholem, not only for his profound insights into the Jewish mystical tradition, but also to deepen their understanding of the dynamics of other mysticisms -- Christian, Islamic, and even those further afield." Professor Scholem presents an historical perspective with the full knowledge that there are other approaches. "From an historical point of view", he writes, "the sum of religious phenomena known as mysticism consists in the attempts of mystics to communicate their experiences to others." Within this context, this text explores broad sweeping topics in each chapter -- topics that deservedly have receieved attention by intelligent scholars for centuries. In the first chapter, "Religious Authority and Mysticism" Herr Doktor Scholem presents a thesis fundamental to his research, "there is no mysticism as such, but only the mysticism of particular religious systems, Christian, Islamic and Jewish mysticism, and so on". The mystic working within a religious system is, according to Scholem, at the same time both conservative and revolutionary. "Conservative" because the mystic tries to preserve the sources of traditional authority, and "revolutionary" because the mystic also may subsititue his own opinion for that prescribed by authority. In the second chapter, titled, "The Meaning of the TORAH in Jewish Mysticism", Scholem explains the dynamic relationship between the TORAH and the mystic. Scholem presents three fundamental principles on which the Kabbaslistic conceptions of the nature of the TORAH are based: (1) YWVH; (2) TORAH as oganism; (3) Infinite meaning of the divine word. As an example of the third, in addition to the the concept of written and oral TORAHs, the author of the "ZOHAR" speculates four levels of meaning: (1) literal (2) hermeneutic (3) allegorical and (4) mystical. The history of Judaism, Scholem explains in the third chapter, is a tension between the purity of the reality of GOD. The dynamic involved is clearly presented in the realization that the price of GOD's purity is the loss of her living reality. Scholem offers that the Book Bahir, a cornerstone of 12th century Kabbalistic thought, introduces myth into Judaism. Remarkably, it contends evil as an attribute of GOD. In a similar vein, the commentary on the Sefer Yetzirah by Judah ben Barzilai introduced speculative thinking to Jewish theosophy. The fourth chapter, "Tradition and New Creation in the Ritual of the Kabbalists" presents a solution to a problem faced by each new generation. Namely, how are the traditions passed on in a vital and meaningful medium. The Mishnal codified Jewish religious law and ritual for an agrarian community had survived for centuries. As the agrarian society dimin

Excellent Intro to Jewish mysticism

This book is a reprint of the now-classic work that was first published by Scholem in the 1960's, and still an excellent intro today. Not a "New Age" work by any means, Professor Scholem's book takes an academic (but readable) approach to such questions as: The meaning of Torah in Jewish mysticism, the nature and purpose of kabbalistic rituals, religious authority vs. mysticism, etc. Of special interest is the chapter, "The Idea of the Golem," which presents the theory that, contrary to popular folklore, the Golem was not some sort of physical automaton. Rather, it was a group exercise in meditative visualization!