I continued to be amazed by what the synthesis of modernity and tradition can produce - sometimes unexpected beauty and wonder, sometimes... not.
It is not that I necessarily object to popularization of Kabbala. There is certainly a precedent to this, from chassidus to widespread learning of the Zohar among the Sephardim. The former distilled out main Kabbalistic ideas and applied them to prayer, psychology and daily life. The latter ritualized it to become a part of the devotional, but not intellectual, lifestyle for the common man.
What is different now is the admixture of New Age thinking and terminology and the incessant and careless dumbing down of profound ideas to fit the needs of the audience. The line between popularization and desecration is thin. Popularization is good but the classic works of Kabbalah are full of warnings about the consequences of carelessness and lack of seriousness in the the study of hidden wisdom.
i actually like how the new-age pop-kabbala universalizes itself, and removes the essentialist antigoyism that is found in too many forms of "serious" kabbala.
Posted by: Steg (dos iz nit der šteg) | March 24, 2008 at 08:10 PM