Kabbalah

Dreamear · #1 07-22-2008, 11:26 AM

My friend sent me an email earlier today that got me thinking. It was a simple email in which she stated:

"What do you think of the blurb below and the story? Are we actually deserting our family or healing ourselves so we can take better care of our children? A-Rod on the other hand, I guess his story is a little different.

After reading this, I'm interested in learning. My opinion of the Jews reasoning of not teaching this (teacher to scholar, over the age 40, etc.) - is like biblical times when people couldn't read and had to get the Bible's interpretations directly from the Bishops, Cardinals, and Priests who sometimes were just as crooked as the next. Who's to say that teaching a younger interested person won't do the world some good?

A-Rod, Madonna Learn Kabbalah, Promote Jewish Identity?

There is a saying by Yeshua, who came to the earth as a Jew to reveal
the heart of the Father, that you will know a tree by its fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can an evil tree produce good fruit.
Committing adultery and deserting ones family does not constitute good fruit by Torah standards (or by those of most religions, for that matter). Therefore, we must question the goodness of the tree."

I went out and read the article and thought it might make an interesting debate since we have many different types of believers and non-believers at this site. I only ask that we all be adults and conduct ourselves appropriately....

Here is the article:

A-Rod, Madonna Learn Kabbalah, Promote Jewish Identity?
July 21, 2008
Comments (3) | Add | E-mail this to a friend

Could the alleged extra-marital affair of New York Yankees superstar Alex Rodriguez and self-proclaimed Kabbalist Madonna be good for promoting Jewish identity?
Citing Jewish mysticism for her broken marriage, A-Rod’s soon-to-be ex-wife is blaming Kabbalah (rather than her husband’s widely reported indiscretions) for destroying six years of wedded bliss.

Is Alex Rodriguez under Madonna's Jewish spell?
A publicly scorned Cynthia Rodriguez alleges that her Catholic husband’s relationship with pop star Madonna has persuaded him to abandon his family for a new-found religion. Friends of the couple agree the third baseman has been “brainwashed,” turning what may have been just another tabloid divorce story into a religious debate, the latest boost for Kabbalah’s fame -- and a sore point for some rabbis.
Rabbi Avi Heller, director of Jewish education at Boston University Hillel, does not approve of the popularization of this mystical branch of Jewish learning. He insists that the study of the Kabbalah should be reserved only for the most learned Jews.
“It's elite, obscure, esoteric,” he says. “The requirement to study Kabbalah is that you are well-versed in Torah, pious, Jewish. The idea of inviting anyone to study is a betrayal of Kabbalah.”
"Madonna's Kabbalah," the oxymoron mash-up of the new millennium, has become a part of the everyday lexicon. In an ironic twist, the "Material Girl" has made a form of Jewish spiritual learning popular. Once a secret tradition studied only by advanced Jewish scholars, public Kabbalah classes are now offered for men and women of all ages and faiths. Kabbalah has become a fad, complete with its own fashion accessories: The red string bracelets popularized by Madonna in 2004, intended to ward off the Evil Eye, can be purchased online by anyone willing to pay (prices range from $7-$36).

Illustration by Maria Radacsi.
Many college students have been turned on to Kabbalah thanks to Madonna’s influence. “For a good number of students, the reason they've even heard of Kabbalah is [through] popular culture,” explains Rabbi Aaron Levy, the multi-campus rabbi of Hillels of Greater Toronto. “I think it leads to a positive thing in terms of helping Jews become more familiar with our own tradition especially because it interests Jewish students who aren't otherwise interested in Judaism.”
But these Jewish educators must balance Jewish law’s prohibition of teaching Kabbalah to novices with the benefit of introducing young people to any form of Jewish learning. Kabbalah, they explain, is an intensely complex and deeply spiritual learning process which is traditionally passed on orally only from master to scholar, and only once the scholar has reached 40 years of age.
“The question,” Rabbi Heller asks, “is should students be learning the parsha of the week or Kabbalah? What if they aren't going to learn the parsha and they only want to learn Kabbalah? If Kabbalah is the only thing they will carve out time in their schedule to learn, do we teach them?”
Levy and Heller have solved this problem by offering introductory classes about Jewish mysticism, but not Kabbalah itself. Rabbi Levy says that because many common Jewish concepts such as tikkun olam (repairing the world) and the Tu B’Shevat seder are Kabbalistic ideas, he uses the draw of Kabbalah to delve into more traditional study with curious students. Rabbi Heller likens his teachings on Kabbalah to the way one teaches a child to read – not by putting an encyclopedia in front of them, but by introducing letters one at a time.
At Rutgers Hillel, Rabbi Esther Reed recalls an introductory course on Kabbalah was taught four years ago, the same time that red strings started appearing on celebrity wrists. The class reached a mix of students including Jews with no prior Hillel involvement which, she says, is a good thing for Jewish life on campus.

Illustration by Maria Radacsi.
But Rabbi Levy cautions: “The skewing of Kabbalah to make it fit into the larger North American culture of self-help is very problematic. Studying Kabbalah should make someone's life more complex. It’s not the key to pleasure and success in five simple steps. I don't want to continue those sorts of tropes as a method of trying to attract students.”
Rabbi Seth Goren, Hillel director at Lehigh University, is less offended by pop culture’s interpretation of Kabbalah and more intrigued by non-Jews’ and non-observant Jews’ reasons for imitating its teachings.
“It's difficult to generalize what that red string means to that person,” says Rabbi Goren. “For some, it can mean something deep, perhaps a physical reminder of a powerful spiritual experience in Israel or a sartorial remnant of a transformative encounter with the Divine. It's important to gain a better understanding of what the red string means to that individual and not to impose what we may believe that string to be on them.”
Superficial dalliance or transcendent experience, Kabbalah has never been considered the sustenance of Jewish life. “Kabbalah is like dessert,” says Rabbi Heller. “It’s sweet and it comes at the end of dinner. It’s not a substitute for the meat and potatoes.” Traditional Jewish learning (and not its mystical counterpart), he says, is the actual meal.
You can learn more about Kabbalah in this week’s Learn Something Jewish.

For more news like this and up-to-date briefs about Jewish campus life, subscribe to our free eNewsletter Hillel Campus Report.

Dreamear · #2 07-22-2008, 11:27 AM

Personally, I think Kabbalah is only a small portion of Judaism as Judaism is a multi-faceted religion. I also think what the Rabbi is trying to say is that you need to learn the basis of Judaism to fully realize what Kabbalah is all about. You may not be Jewish and you might take classes and learn about Kabbalah but are you getting the full meaning of what it really means? Without the Jewish background, I don’t think you can fully grasp its meaning. I don’t necessarily agree with an age limit, but from what I understand of Judaism they expect everything to happen and to be learned at various ages and stages of life. It seems to me Judaism is the one religion in which you honestly never stop learning throughout your life. I think a non-Jewish person could read and take Kabbalah and apply it to their every day life, but I do not think they are getting as much out of it as the people who have studied Judaism their whole life. I also think there is plenty of room for error for a non-Jewish person.

In a way I liken Kabbalah to theological teachings of the Catholic Church, to become a Theologian of the Catholic Church there are many steps and pieces of the Catholic Religion you must uncover and learn. Just because you take a liking to the Soteriology (the piece that deals with Salvation through Jesus Christ) portion of theology does not mean if you read it you will have a complete understanding of it. To have a complete understanding of Soteriology you must first read and understand the bible and there are other lessons (including the Trinity) that you must understand and accept in order for it to be of complete value to you. Yes you could probably take a class and read about Soteriology and apply it to your life as you see fit, but does it have the value it was meant to have to a true Theologian, probably not.

Do I think Kabbalah is bad? No I don’t, but I don’t believe people like Madonna or A Rod are using its teachings the way it was meant to be used or to it to true meaning. That being said, I don’t think that makes them any better or any worse off. People have been bending religion and using it to how they see fit for millions of years, how do you think other religions have come around or even how Baptist or Methodist as a whole was invented. Of course they were based off of general Christianity and the rules that were in place were bent to someone else’s meaning, the story of King James and how the King James Bible came to be and was introduced is very interesting and takes you through the Catholic/Christian revolution in a day where people were persecuted for their beliefs all depending on which part of the world they lived in. The Torah had it’s own revolution of sorts not only is it read by the Jewish but by Muslin as well and yet there takes are very different, once again at some point someone took it and bent it to their liking.

These are my thoughts… what are yours?

frogman68 · #3 07-22-2008, 11:39 AM

I (dont even like the guy) thought A-Rod would of had higher standards then Maddonna

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Dreamear · #4 07-22-2008, 11:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by frogman68

I (dont even like the guy) thought A-Rod would of had higher standards then Maddonna

Yea me too, but then again Warren Beatty dated her too and I thought he had higher standards as well....

Bada Bing · #5 07-22-2008, 11:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by frogman68

I (dont even like the guy) thought A-Rod would of had higher standards then Maddonna

That's less crazy than following Kabbalah.... IMO. all due respect to kabbalists.

SCRAPPY · #6 07-22-2008, 11:51 AM

Ugh.. Madonna.. Ugh..

All I can say..

Bada Bing · #7 07-22-2008, 11:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SCRAPPY

Ugh.. Madonna.. Ugh..

All I can say..

Don't you mean "oiy" "oiy" ??

(okay, come on, I waited til my 2nd post to make a Jewish joke...)

bl0ndie87 · #8 07-22-2008, 12:27 PM

Here I thought I was the only person on God's green earth who DOESN'T like Madonna.........

Roogle · #9 07-22-2008, 12:37 PM

Kabbalah is the study of Hebrew magic. You must learn hebrew to understand the nature of the magic itself. Madonna is known as Esther. A high priestess of Kabbalah. You don't really have to be Jewish to study it as long as you don't mind learning Hebrew.

I have no clue why she is bringing A-Rod into it.

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Last edited by Roogle; 07-22-2008 at 12:39 PM..