Madonna does it. So do Roseanne and Sandra Bernhard. The famous and wealthy, the middle-aged middle class, up-and-coming Generation X-ers, Jews and non-Jews are all becoming students and practitioners of the Jewish mystical tradition of kabbalah. What was once a secretive discipline, practiced by an erudite minority of Orthodox Jews and restricted to married men over 40, is now a staple of many religious and spiritual diets.
While kabbalah has recently garnered much attention from the general public, its inherently mysterious and complex nature is rarely fully and articulately explained. “Kabbalah is to Torah what philosophy is to science,” writes Rabbi Shimon Leiberman on the Web site of Aish HaTorah, an Orthodox Jewish outreach organization. “Like science, the Torah gives us the facts that are fully perceived sensually and rationally quantifiable. Like philosophy, kabbalah gives us the grander abstract picture that the facts present.”
Early mystical interpretations of the Hebrew alphabet developed into Lurianic kabbalah–kabbalah’s modern version–in the sixteenth century. Central to kabbalistic thought are sefirot, the ten emanations or “lights” through which God interacts with and relates to His world. Kabbalah looks at various events in the world or the Torah, and classifies and describes them in terms of these ten sefirot. Traditionally, students of kabbalah are guided through the kabbalistic texts and philosophies by a teacher, usually an experienced rabbinic scholar. Kabbalists strive to become closer to God and understand the workings of His universe by finding hidden meanings in the Torah and engaging in meditation, scholarship, prayer, and intense pietism.
With the Reform movements of the nineteenth century, however, mainstream Jewish culture veered sharply away from the numinous imagery and sublime spirituality of kabbalah in favor of rationalism. But in recent years, this form of Jewish mysticism has come to attract a following among liberal Jews, mid-life crisis victims, and celebrities.
In cities around the world there are now kabbalah centers with large followings, among which there exists a wide range of approaches and levels of adherence to religious tradition. Many adapt the tenets of kabbalah to a contemporary or New Age self-fulfillment message. (Some of the kabbalah centers are quite controversial, their instructors sometimes accused of being charlatans.)
There are also countless books in print on the subject of Jewish mysticism, from kids’ kabbalah and comic books to annotated translations and arcana. A Google search for “kabbalah” yields 106,000 sites, ranging from the Jerusalem Kabbalah Healing Centre to WebPagan.com. Some are esoteric or just plain bizarre, proposing “Science as Applied Kabbalah,” (ProjectMind.org) or “How to transform Kabbalah from magic to the divine to benefit your gaming” (Ars Magica). Others are more established and are connected with international institutes of study. One place you’re not likely to find kabbalah, however, is at your campus Hillel.
In 1997, United Jewish Appeal officer Alan Bayer tried to explain kabbalah’s burgeoning popularity, telling Time magazine that kabbalah provides an answer to ordinary Jews’ “hungry, thirsty, bottle-of-water-in-the-desert need for connection with transcendent meanings.” Today, many of those seeking spiritual transcendence are young, liberal Jews who have grown disenchanted with mainstream American Reform and Conservative Judaism. In their quest for awe, members of Generations X and Y are looking to kabbalah.
And kabbalah does have a presence on campus. Academics have long studied Jewish mysticism, and many universities’ religion and Judaic studies departments offer courses related to the subject. Elliot Wolfson, a professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University, teaches courses in medieval Jewish mysticism and intellectual history. He says that his undergraduate classes are a “mixture of all types of students. Some are seeking information about an aspect of Jewish history; others are Jews seeking something about their own identity. There is, I suspect, a strong element of self-identity.”
But while Jewish mysticism may be a hot path to enlightenment right now, campus Hillels provide surprisingly little in the way of kabbalah-related programming. Out of 12 campus Hillels contacted by New Voices, none reported having conducted programs on kabbalah in recent memory, and only one had a kabbalah workshop planned.
Colorado State University Hillel had planned an event entitled “Spirituality, Kabbalah, and College.” Hillel Director Hedy Berman says the class would try to address questions about spirituality and its relationship to college life. “How do you maintain your spirituality as a college student?” asks Berman. “Kabbalah is only a piece of it.”
For most Hillels, however, kabbalah is not a part of Jewish education at all; instead the focus tends to be on other areas of Jewish tradition. “We’ve avoided the topic because no one seems to know much about it,” says Peter Cohen, the Hillel faculty advisor at Clemson University. “Most people have enough on their hands with more mainstream Judaism to really give it much thought.”
A number of Hillel campus professionals raise concerns about the preparedness of students to study kabbalah. “There’s a reason why it’s called mysticism,” says Simon Amiel, executive director of George Washington University Hillel. “It’s not a simple thing to get your hands around.” For Amiel, kabbalah is a challenge to be approached carefully. Most students, Amiel says, don’t have what he considers the necessary background in Jewish law to get a full sense of mysticism or, in some cases, the necessary emotional maturity. “Kabbalah can be a dangerous thing if one is not grounded,” he says.
Cohen likewise believes that a strong background in Judaism is necessary for a mature understanding of kabbalah, citing the traditional age restrictions on its study. “There is much truth to the 40 years old guideline,” he says. “There is much to know before one delves into mysticism. If you don’t know the mainstream religion, you will be unprepared and that can be unsafe.”
Students who approach the study of kabbalah without what many Jewish educators consider a requisite background may be drawn to mysticism because of its current popularity. Like many of his colleagues, Amiel worries about kabbalah being popular for the wrong reasons. “I’d hate to see students get into it because of Madonna,” says Amiel. “It shouldn’t be about, ‘Hey, check out this cool new thing.'”
Some Hillel staff say that there simply has not been much interest among students on their campuses in exploring Jewish mysticism. “I have spoken to many of my students about doing a kabbalah program…they didn’t seem overly enthused,” says Kate Lester, program director at Princeton’s Center for Jewish Life. “I have not had any students approach me in terms of doing a project or obtaining more information.”
Lester says that the university is an appropriate setting for the study of kabbalah because it is a place that accommodates “spiritual, academic, and personal growth.” But even though she sees students as very serious, both academically and spiritually, she doesn’t expect kabbalah to take off on her campus: “I see that there is not, nor will be, a strong desire to bring kabbalistic programs to campus.”
Are resources for kabbalah study on campus limited by the spiritual disinterest of college students? Or are they limited by the hesitation of Hillels to tackle the subject? Perhaps students are waiting for campus organizations to take the initiative in approaching the mystifying discipline. Laibl Wolf, a Lubavitcher rabbi and director of an institute for kabbalah study, believes that Jewish educators have an obligation to reach out to students with questions about mysticism. “The suggestion that one had to attai
n 40 years of age was good advice at [one] time,” he says. “But in a world where so many Jewish people seek the wisdoms of the Torah in greater depth, given the complexity and fear-laden nature of the world we live in, it becomes essential that we meet these Jewish searchers fairly and squarely in their wish to seek depth in their lives. Not doing so is abnegating our responsibility as Jewish teachers.”
