27 October 2003
Question
I noticed you are teaching Kabbalah for beginners. Isn't that a bit of a contradiction? I thought you were supposed to be a scholar over forty to study Kabbalah.
Answer
There was a period during the middle ages in Europe when Kabbalah was seen to be dangerous when studied by the uninitiated. This was following the appearance of a false messiah, Shabtai Tzvi, who used corrupted Kabbalah as a base for his claims to being the redeemer. The rabbis of the time decreed that Kabbalah is off-limits to anyone but a seasoned scholar. They felt that its abstract and esoteric nature was too prone to abuse.
But this was a temporary measure. Soon after, a revolutionary new movement swept Europe - the Chassidic movement. Chassidism took Kabbalistic concepts and explained them in a relevent and accessible way. This began a renaissance of Kabbalah study. Over the last two hundred years the Kabbalah has increased in popularity in a way never seen before.
In fact, this phenomenon was predicted long ago. Rabbi Isaac Luria of Tzfat, known as the Ari, wrote almost five hundred years ago, "The time will come when young children will be studying these words". In this context, "young children" can mean not only young in years but also young in scholarship. So the Zohar predicted that one day even beginners will study Kabbalah; a prophecy that we can see coming true before our eyes.
All the best,
