UW prof to open door on mystical world of Kabbala

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

By Jake Nichols

Man’s longing to glimpse God, to understand the inner workings of a Creator’s grand design, is as old as man himself.

Perhaps not since the days of Aristotle and other ancient Greek philosophers contemplated the answers to questions like “Who am I?” and “Why am I here?” has a society been so consumed with ideas of metaphysics.

Bookstore shelves explode with new products on existentialism and ontology. Even science has gotten into the act, offering titillating postulates in the realm of quantum physics and string theory that not only complement some religious and spiritual beliefs but seem to confirm them.

The latest cosmic revelation to gain steam worldwide is Kabbalah. The theosophy has deep roots in Jewish antiquity, but it has recently expanded into non-Jewish and even non-religious segments of the population.

The Hebrew word “Kabbalah” translates literally as “receiving.” The end goal of Kabbalists is an intimate understanding of and spiritual closeness to God by paying careful attention to the symbolic meanings of even the most insignificant of our everyday acts.

“One of the motifs of mysticism and Kabbalah is that we are able to sort of apprehend things that are beyond our ability to accurately describe them,” said Seth Ward, a professor of religious studies at the University of Wyoming. “Kabbalah will push you beyond the nuts and bolts of rational thinking on religion.”

Ward will lecture on Kabbalah and its teachings at 7 tonight at the Teton County Library. Ward will explore the usefulness of Kabbalistic knowledge when applied to many of today’s religious practices.

“Every religion or community ideology or social ideology has, intrinsic in it, a sense that we have to strive to something spiritual,” Ward said. “Kabbalah takes one beyond the limiting ways of the classical system, of looking at things as clear cut.”

For Ward, Kabbalah attempts to go beyond faith – to a spiritual maturity where practitioners move from “believing that” to “believing in.”

A Yale graduate, Ward directed the University of Denver’s Institute for Islamic-Judaic Studies for 10 years. Previously, he spent six years in Israel teaching at the University of Haifa and the Technion. Ward professes a strong interest in the historical aspects of religious backgrounds in the Middle East and Islamic nations.

In the beginning …
“As a historian, I like to trace the origins of things,” Ward said. Many orthodox Jews and traditionalists believe Kabbalah has been around from the beginning, with angels handing down special knowledge to Adam. Biblical passages abound, according to classical Kabbalists, with obscure references to Noah, Moses, Abraham and Jacob all being taught the cosmic secrets of creation and heaven.

Ward acknowledged there may be some evidence to the Biblical prophet Ezekiel being “very much involved in mystic tradition.” The earliest documented writings pertaining to Kabbalah are the Sepher Yetzirah, or the Book of Formation. Some Jewish scholars attribute it to Abraham, but most, including Ward, believe it to be the work of Rabbi Akiva.

“Rabbi Akiva believed you could go up to heaven and come back,” Ward said. “The Book of Creation or Book of Formation talks about how 10 numerals and 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet were used in the formation of the world. Counting, writing and telling are different ways to show how the world was created.”

Later, Kabbalist teachings swept through Europe. “Kabbalah really arose in its modern form about 1,000 years ago in Germany or France, and then it was mainly throughout Spain from the 1200s on,” Ward said.

Moses De Leon, a 14th-century Spanish Kabbalist, offered to the world the Zohar, an extremely influential book in Kabbalistic philosophy. While he claimed to have found the scrolls in a cave, most name De Leon as the author of the Kabbalist’s “bible.”  Ward said a passage of the book can be heard recited in the movie “Raiders of the Lost Ark” when a Nazi sympathizer quotes from the Zohar before unleashing the power of the Ark of the Covenant.

“The Zohar is, on one hand, totally opaque. It doesn’t mean anything that it says,” Ward said. “Metaphorical interpretation is needed.”

The group of books comprising the Zohar is written in an eccentric style of old Aramaic with what Ward called “delightful prayers and meditation.” Scholars who have elected to read between the lines find endless interpretation.

Then came Isaac Luria (1534-1572). “Luria popularized Kabbalah,” Ward said. “He taught it much more broadly.”

Before Luria, and among purists today, teachings of the Kabbalah and of God’s heavenly seat could not be done in public. They were available only to married, Jewish men over the age of 40.

Modern day Kabbalah
Some of the modernistic approaches to Kabbalism are mystifying to Ward. Hollywood followers such as Madonna and Demi Moore have been spotted wearing red string bracelets – always on the left wrist – to ward away the “evil eye” and help balance the soul. It is part of a more “MTV approach” to the Kabbalah preached by the Kabbalah Centre, founded in Jerusalem in 1922.

“It’s one of these Kabbalah Centre things,” Ward said of the red string. “I’ve never seen a tremendously coherent definition. I don’t know if it holds water.”
Other tangents of Kabbalah are speculation that reincarnation may be referenced in the Zohar.

“Reincarnation is a toughie,” Ward admitted. “The Zohar may have believed in it. Reincarnation is much more associated with Luria and his circle. It is also a Buddhist or Hindu idea usually.”

Ward said there are also Jewish legends much earlier than the time of Israel concerning the reincarnation of Moses.

If life and the universe are not merely the opportunistic result of the chaotic behavior of gasses and germs, some answers to deep questions may lie hidden in the pages of the Zohar and the teachings of Kabbalah. The book is a guide to inner divinity, pantheism, and immanent view of God in the abstract. Dr. Seth Ward will bring the centuries-old, new age teachings to life tonight.

Courtesy
Kabbalah healing mandala

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