There is a rather comical vision of God and Moses in what seems like the argument of what we often call "an old married couple." On 7a we find Moses asking God why God won't show him God's face, and God replies "I wanted to show you, back at the burning bush, but you didn't want to see it. You hid your face. Now, you are ready for me to show you? Well, now I don't want to!"
I am finding these early pages of Brakhot to show many characteristics of God, as considered by the Amoraic authors, that resemble characteristics of people, often to a degree of humor - or disappointment. After all, this is the God that created the whole world?
Perhaps, the rabbinic authors, like their later early Medieval compatriots, were considering the transcendent, creative God separate from the imminent, personal one. For me, looking at Jewish texts through the lens of the Sefirot, I'm comfortable with the 'personalization' we see of God in the Talmud, because I can interpret (like the Medieval kabbalists) the term 'HaKadosh Baruch Hu' as a name for Tiferet and not Ein Sof. Tiferet is the aspect that was at Sinai, and at Sodom, and in the Talmud - but its several degrees away from the original creative impulse.
ReplyDeleteThat's just one reading on the immanence/transcendence issue in Judaism. The Sefirot neatly account for it by explaining God as a series of degrees.
I often think about God as multi-faceted (much in the way Hindus see all of their Gods as iterations of Brahma), but I have a hard time keeping up with the sfirot so it's difficult for me to identify these attributes in the text. Can you recommend a good introduction to Jewish mysticism? I would love more of a background to be able to try on your lenses with you. Since daf yomi itself is a challenge, not sure I have time to dive into the Zohar just yet. Any recommendations for nice intros?
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. The Hindo model of the other deities as manifestations of a greater Divinity is very very very close to the Kabbalah. The Sefirot can really be understood as instruments of a comprehensive God, of whom the Creator/Ein Sof is really quite distant. It allows for different understandings of God in different contexts, and different relationships to be discussed with the different Sefirot and among them.
ReplyDeleteThe best introduction is by David Ariel and its called Kabbalah: The Mystic Quest. It's intellectually honest, academically rigorous, but also written by a Jew who sees Kabbalah as a spiritual path in addition to a topic of inquiry. He does a great job of explaining the models of the Sefirot and how they can act as a lens for almost any Jewish content (for instance, the Zohar understands the Sh'ma in a totally different way than non-Kabbalistic texts do: it sees the two lines of six words each as representing the sexual union between Malkut and Tiferet).
Kabbalah really speaks to me, and I find it to be the lens on Judaism that makes me want more out of Judaism and gets me excited about religion. That's not true for everyone - but I would say that David Ariel's book is the best way to get a comprehensive lens at what a Kabbalistic understanding of Judaism looks like.
I'm also happy to share what I know (which is very limited and superficial) and help clarify stuff.
Here's a link to the book: (there's used copies for like 3 dollars) http://www.amazon.com/Kabbalah-The-Mystic-Quest-Judaism/dp/0742545644/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1344533633&sr=8-1
:)