Kaballah

One thing i found very interesting was that Hasidism teaches happiness over knowledge.  To me it always seems as if judaism wants you to slave away over the bible for hours a day until you fully understand every aspect of its teachings We have seldom discussed being genuinely happy about your relationship with God in this class thus far.  During the horrific violence against Jews in the 1600s, i would imagine that turning to a religion such as Kabbalah and Hasidism was extremely freeing.  All over Europe Jews were being killed, traditional Judaism would have possibly suggested a staunch study of torah in order to understand how to respond to such events where as Hasidism would’ve been an amazing way to free yourself of tough learning and let go of the pain around you.

Another aspect of Kabbalah i found interesting was the explanation of the various mystical experiences in the ascent through levels of the palaces.  It reminded me a lot of the native american tradition in which young men have to have a mystical experience in order to enter manhood.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

Leave a Reply