This week’s daf yomi curriculum covers the second chapter of Chagigah – a chapter which lies at the epicentre of rabbinic mysticism. Jewish mysticism is strongly associated in popular thought with kabbalistic texts, innumerable combinations of God’s names, attempts to manipulate the world by use of such names, amulets and secretive rites. This week provides an opportunity to pause and reflect on what the Talmudic tradition – itself an interpretation of earlier prophetic texts – has to say about Jewish mysticism.
What then is contained in what the Talmud labels “mysteries of the Torah”?
A second point, which is particularly striking to the modern Jew whose bookshelves, shiurim and even social media feed is frequently trespassed upon by claimed divine secrets, kabbalistic charms, and influential passages to recite, is that true Jewish mysticism is the subject of a strict prohibition. It can only be transmitted to specifically qualified individuals, and even then only its “chapter headings” may be disclosed.
In the first section of Moreh Nevuchim, Rambam offers guidance to those seeking to relate to a metaphysical God but find themselves constrained by the limitations of human language and thought categories which naturally relate to the physical realm. He teaches that the process of improving one’s comprehension of God involves a lengthy training of the mind to negate the physicality introduced by human language. By doing this, one gradually enables the mind to transcend the limitations of human thought which otherwise anchor the mind in physicality and cause a person to perceive God through the lens of human attributes and activity.
It is sometimes wrongly claimed that Rambam’s negative theology effectively prevents any meaningful relationship with God and largely removes Him from the religious experience. As discussed in a previous post however (linked below), Rambam understands that true Jewish mysticism begins where negative theology leaves off. Having trained the mind to relate to God in a proper manner, one is ready to begin one’s journey into the “Pardes” of meditating upon Maaseh Bereishit and Merkava. At this stage, the mind can start to fathom and conceptualise the Creation and nature of divine interaction with the physical world.
This is the sort of mysticism which must not be communicated because –as Rabbi Jose Faur describes in his Homo Mysticus – its true content transcends human language. It cannot effectively be transmitted. Only oblique hints and chapter headings can be shared by the initiated (and Chagigah dwells upon Tannaitic masters examining their students to see if they are ready to start exploring these areas of the Torah).
Finally, Rambam’s own interpretation of the Ma’aseh Merkavah, apparently through the lens of Aristotelian metaphysics is the subject of pointed comments and criticism. As I argue in Judaism Reclaimed, however, insufficient attention is paid to his introductory comments, where he expresses extreme caution concerning his approach:
“regarding these matters I followed conjecture and supposition; no divine revelation has come to me to teach me that the intention in the matter in question is such and such, nor did I receive what I believe in these matters from a teacher … it is possible that they are different and something else is intended.”
It would seem that Rambam was engaging in a genuine attempt to fathom and give meaning to these texts in the spirit of the prevailing ideas of his era. He was approaching this task with humility and trepidation, well aware of the possibility that his interpretations, and the premises upon which they were based, may not represent the true meaning of God’s word. Perhaps most significantly, he was not claiming his understanding to represent any secret transmitted code. In the spirit of negative theology, it may be far easier to assert what Jewish mysticism is not than what it genuinely does consist of.
First posted to Facebook 23 February 2022, here.
