An Interview with Assistant Professor Sharon Flatto

Sharon Flatto teaches Brooklyn College's first course on Kabbalah.

What is Kabbalah's place in current Judaism? Is it becoming more central or should we look at it as a curious historical development?

We are living in a period when Kabbalah is in many ways being "rediscovered" by numerous segments of society, ranging from extremely acculturated Jews to ultra-orthodox circles to rock stars in America, Israel, and Europe. This is not, however, the first time in history when Kabbalah has had so much influence. During various periods, particularly from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, kabbalistic teachings and practices played a prominent role in Jewish culture among Jews living in both Muslim and Christian lands. (My dissertation even addresses the centrality of Kabbalah in the important eighteenth-century Jewish community of Prague).

Yet, from the late eighteenth century onward various factors, including increasing acculturation and a growing emphasis on secular studies (especially philosophy and science), led to a neglect of Kabbalah. This neglect, I should add, was accompanied by the neglect of many other traditional Jewish disciplines. Indeed, until recently, most Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment Jews have had little appreciation, if not outright disdain, for Jewish mysticism and Kabbalah. Consequently, an important dimension of Judaism was ignored for much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

How would you explain the current revival of kabbalistic studies?

One of the interesting aspects is that it is occurring simultaneously on both the academic and the popular levels.

On the academic level this phenomenon is largely the result of the pioneering studies of Gershom Scholem (1897-1982). Scholem, who taught Jewish mysticism at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, is largely responsible for making Kabbalah into a respected academic discipline. Scholem's scholarship was largely a response to the nineteenth-century German-Jewish scholars who promoted Wissenschaft des Judentums ("Science of Judaism") and who wrote many of the earliest critical-historical works in Judaic studies. These Wissenschaft scholars viewed Kabbalah as a foreign element grafted on to the essential core of Judaism and antithetical to the rationalism that they prized. Scholem demonstrated, however, that Jewish mysticism was not the superstitious belief of marginal and eccentric individuals, but rather constituted a central aspect of Judaism during many stages of Jewish history. Much of the cutting-edge academic research that is being done in the field of Jewish studies today is influenced by, or in dialogue with, Scholem's work.

On the popular level the resurgence of so-called Kabbalah is largely due to the fact that Kabbalah is often misunderstood as a synonym for spirituality. Its current popularity is therefore part of a larger trend in American popular culture of focusing on spirituality. New Age spirituality has even appropriated various kabbalistic teachings and practices along with eclectic teachings from other mystical traditions.

Another reason for the immense popularity of Kabbalah (both now and at other points in history) is that it attempts to respond to many of the "larger" questions facing humanity, which by and large are not addressed by Jewish law. These larger themes include the nature of God, the root of evil and suffering, the process of Creation, the effects of human deeds, the workings of divine providence, man's spiritual mission, and the nature of redemption and messianism.

What should students who are interested in studying Kabbalah watch out for?

There are several particularly disturbing aspects about the current popularization of kabbalistic study. Students of Kabbalah should be aware of the following:

1. Kabbalah is one part of a larger Jewish tradition, which is largely a legal tradition. The study of this lore cannot be entirely separated from the rest of Jewish tradition. The popular view of Kabbalah has overlooked the fact that this "spiritual" dimension of Judaism is in many ways interwoven (both in terms of the concepts it utilizes and its practices) with Jewish law, Halakhah. This pervasive legal system largely focuses on mundane matters pertaining to everyday living.

2. I would also warn students that one cannot speak monolithically about "Kabbalah" just as one cannot speak monolithically about "Jewish philosophy." Kabbalah consists of numerous distinct schools and traditions that emerged in different places and at different times. It is not static, but rather a lore that evolves in reaction to historical trends and internal factors. One of the primary foci of my course is the varied historical contexts in which the major kabbalistic schools, figures, and trends emerged. Although (as my students learn) the extent of Kabbalah's reaction to external historical events is the subject of much recent scholarly debate, all scholars agree that the numerous kabbalistic systems that have evolved have been shaped, at least somewhat, by external factors. Along these lines, I would also emphasize that there are many genres of kabbalistic writings, ranging from the more philosophically oriented works of R. Moses Cordovero (1522-1570) to the extremely mythical writings found in the Zohar ("The Book of Splendor") and the works of R. Isaac Luria (1534-1572), commonly referred to as the Ari, and his disciples.

3. Students should also be aware that much of this literature was intended to be a restricted lore for an educated elite, who were proficient in Bible, Talmud, and the Codes, or to use the rabbinic phrase, whose "bellies were full with the Talmud and Codes." In many traditional circles prerequisites for the study of this esoteric material are being male, forty, married, and a scholar. Consequently, most kabbalistic literature is interlaced with biblical, rabbinic, and talmudic concepts and difficult to comprehend without a basic familiarity with this material. (Of course, at Brooklyn College we do not insist that students of Kabbalah have all the traditional qualifications.) Nonetheless, the student of this lore should approach it with the appropriate humility.

In a somewhat similar vein, I would warn students about the tremendous gap between the secondary literature on Kabbalah and the kabbalistic texts themselves. For, although many of the great secondary studies (i.e. the writings of the late Gershom Scholem and of such contemporary scholars as Moshe Idel, Elliot Wolfson, Yehuda Liebes, and many others) are difficult reads (though well worth it), they pale in comparison with the difficulty of primary kabbalistic works. Unfortunately, most students of Kabbalah acquire their knowledge of this discipline solely from secondary works, thereby gaining a skewed view of this lore. Kabbalistic texts are frequently impenetrable to those unschooled in kabbalistic symbolism and myths.

Still, it should be noted that from the very first stages of Kabbalah, two conflicting views appear among the kabbalists: a desire to limit the esoteric knowledge of Kabbalah to an initiated elite and the wish to disseminate, at the very least, basic kabbalistic teachings, which kabbalists deemed to be the "Truth," to a wider audience. Some kabbalists even believed that the popularization of Kabbalah would lead to the advent of the messianic age.

What advice do you have for people interested in knowing more about Kabbalah?

To get their hands on any of the incredibly important works by Scholem. I would start with his classic work, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, as well as all the entries on Kabbalah that he wrote for the Encyclopedia Judaica. (These entries have conveniently been collected in a book entitled Kabbalah.) For those students who cannot read Hebrew, there are various English translations of at least sections of classic kabbalistic works. I particularly recommend Isaiah Tishby's Wisdom of the Zohar for those who would like to become acquainted with one of the central works of Kabbalah, the Zohar. Finally, it is best to find a knowledgeable teacher who can guide you through this difficult material. In fact, the Hebrew word "Kabbalah" means to receive, denoting an oral tradition that was received or passed down from teacher to students.

What do I recommend? Well, obviously for beginners that they come take my course
at Brooklyn College.