In the last post in this series we spoke of the connection between philosophy and Kabbala. It is important now to specify that this connection progressively weakened with the ongoing revelation of kabbalistic mystery but the connection was not broken until the coming of the Ari Hakodosh. True, early kabbalists in Spain competed with philosophy ( with works such as Sefer Ho-emunos, available in "Amudei Hakkabala"), but this just underscores the common language and conceptual systems that they shared. As we move forward in history, you find farther and farther separation in language and approach between philosophy and Kabbala but what they continue to share is the methodology. At this point, kabblasits still use reasoning and analogies to understand the content of the mysterious books of Zohar, Sifra D'Tshniusa, Sefer Hatemuna, Sefer Yetsirah, Sefer Habahir etc. We find, for example, as late as the Ramak, the use of reasoning to evaluate various positions in order to decide which are correct and the use of analogies from everyday experience to make sense of obscure kabbalistic teachings. The experience of studying the Pardes is that of sitting at the feet of a wise and patient teacher who slowly clarifies every point, considers every details and carefully constructs and puts a structure together in front of your eyes .
That is not the experience of studying Lurainic writings. Instead one finds himself in a weird and beautiful landscape where nothing is familiar and things happen according to rules that one cannot fathom. There are terms that are outrageously unfitting to the concepts they are said to represent, wild anthropomorphisms, allusions that are taken for granted and events that follow some other inner logic than the one we know and understand. Nothing is familiar and, if a thing for a moment looks familiar, it suddenly and unexpectedly dissolves into something unrecognizable. One stands, or perhaps, floats in a fantastic, symbolic landscape, without tools to make sense of his experience. I am not talking about some mystical vision but of reading standard Lurainic texts.
This is where many beginners flounder. Even accomplished talmidei chachamim, whose bellies are filled with Shas and Poskim can spend years in the frustrating effort to make sense of what they read. Many give up at and walk away from the whole experience.
That is not to say that Lurainic Kabbala does not make sense. Rather it means that one needs the keys. As we will discuss, there are several approaches to this conundrum, including the return to a philosophical language, accepting the Lurianic corpus as something not to understand but fulfill (mostly through kavvonos and yechudim) or using it as a guide to inner experiences, the path of Baal Shem Tov. But it does mean that immersing oneself directly in the writings of the Ari, unless one has a teacher, is not the best way. For one who studies by himself, and has the requisite philosophical background, the best approach, I believe, is spending a few years on gaining familiarity with either Pardes or Avodas Hakodesh. One finds then that their clarification of the basic concepts, such as what are the sefiros, how does Divine light descend, permutations of the Names, goes a long way toward understanding the Lurianic landscape. But this takes time and persistence and ...a philosophic background. R. Kaplan's translations and commentary to Sefer Yetzirah and Bahir can also.serve as a good beginner's introduction to kabbalistic terminology, if not conceptualization.
As an aside, the unique features of Ari's kabbala as transmitted by R. Chaim Vital do not appear to be found in the teachings of the other great student of the Ari, R.Yisroel Serug. We don't know much about what R. Yisroel Serug actually taught, except though the prism of two of his greatest student. R. Menachem Azaria MiPano and R. Avrohom Hakohen Herrera. (I do not know enough about Ma'abor Yabok to be able to comment). Both used reasoning and discourse as their method of study. The latter, in fact, dedicated his life's work to the reconciliation of Ari's kabbala as taught by R. Yisroel Serug and the philosophical tradition.
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