Exploring Kabbalah: In the Beginning
This episode introduces the central themes of Jewish mysticism which will be developed throughout this series. The themes are spiritual awareness and consciousness, monism (God is the oneness of ALL being) or pantheism (God is the oneness in all reality), cultivation of contemplative experiences, the principle of Ineffability (what lies beyond the ability of ordinary language and knowing), and theurgy (human actions can impact divine realms). While there are many biblical texts that contain mystical elements, Dr. Fishbane focuses on the experiences described in Ezekiel 1 and Isaiah 6, which provide foundational elements for Jewish mysticism.
Show notes
Further Reading:
Connections to Seeing the Unseeable: Kabbalistic Imagery from the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary
Ilan known as Magnificent Parchment, first created in Italy around the year 1500. This shows part of Ezekiel’s vision of the chariot, among many other things.
Transcript
Announcer: Welcome to Exploring Kabbalah—a JTS podcast with Dr. Eitan Fishbane, professor of Jewish Thought. Throughout this seven-part series, we’ll trace the evolution of Jewish mysticism—from Biblical and Rabbinic times, to the explosive creativity of the Medieval period, to the Hasidic movement in Eastern Europe. Join us for a tour through time and space in which Professor Fishbane provides insight into the thinkers, texts, and concepts that became central not only to the Jewish mystical tradition but to the fabric of Judaism itself. In our introductory episode, we’ll introduce key concepts and explore the mysticism of the Bible.
Dr. Eitan Fishbane: In the course of this podcast, Exploring Kabbalah, we will study the ways in which mysticism has been a central pillar of Jewish thought and experience throughout the history of Judaism from biblical times to the present. We will survey the themes and stages in the development of Jewish mysticism in general and Kabbalah in particular. Each episode focuses on a specific time period: from the biblical foundations through the flourishing of Kabbalah in medieval Spain; to the Renaissance and revival of Kabbalah in 16th century Tzfat; ending with the rich spiritual creativity of Hasidism in modern Eastern Europe. In the process I will offer reflections on how I see the major features and characteristics of Jewish mysticism throughout its historical span, considering prominent thinkers, ideas, texts, as well as geographical, cultural, and social context.
Let’s start out with the major features of mysticism. As I see it, there are five core characteristics of mysticism generally and of Jewish mysticism specifically, all of which can clearly be perceived by the time we get to medieval Kabbalah, though some of these aspects emerge in earlier sources.
First, spiritual awareness and consciousness–the discerning of divine meaning beneath the surface of perception and how the world around us alludes to divine mysteries. This element of mystical consciousness places an emphasis on how things are not always as they seem at first glance.
That superficiality and literalism do not reflect the deeper truths of divine reality.
The mystics claim that everything that is encountered in the world — from the words of the Torah, the sacred letters of Hebrew, the life of the mitzvot, the natural world, the human body — all of these point to the transcendent mystery of divinity.
Second, I argue that there is a dominant theme in Jewish mysticism of monism or pantheism. Monism — in contrast with monotheism—is not just the belief in one God and not more than one God. In monism, God is the All and the Oneness of all Being and existence. Pantheism, for the mystic, means that God is ultimately all that there is. In case there is confusion, pantheism is not and has never been polytheism, or the belief in many gods; to the contrary, it speaks of the complete oneness of all reality, all of which is divinity.
Nothing other than God exists! God is the Totality, the All of Being. God is the One that interconnects and underlies the seemingly fragmented and manifold character of existence as we experience it.
A third major feature of Jewish mysticism as I see it: The cultivation of intensive, contemplative experiences seeking unity, or at least dramatic connection and bondedness to God. Mystics often yearned for an intensive, religious, revelatory, even sensory experience of Divinity in their attempts to ascend in their minds to God, to contemplate God, to connect to the sacred.
A Fourth major characteristic is the principle of Ineffability (this concept might be more familiar from the writings of Abraham Joshua Heschel in his works Man is Not Alone and God in Search of Man): Mysticism is that dimension that lies beyond the ability of ordinary knowing and ordinary language. Instead, mystics cultivate a rhetoric and experience of mystification, where the person is stunned beyond all language and rational thought to encounter the mystery of Being and to bask in its sublime glow.
And finally, a fifth pillar of thought: Theurgy — the belief that human actions and intentions have the power to impact the divine realm, to heal ruptures, to bring about tikkun, to repair, to heal, and to draw down the emanation of divine blessing and energy through the cosmos into the world.
Thus the mystics believed deeply that every thing that one engages in , particularly the life of the mitzvot and the life of kavanah, of intention, not only has impact on the self, it also has a formative impact upon God.
These five features are my take on the defining characteristics of Jewish mysticism broadly conceived and will emerge in different ways throughout the series.
The story of Jewish mysticism begins its literary history in several famous texts from the Hebrew Bible—particularly the first chapter of Ezekiel, Isaiah 6, and a variety of Psalms. In all of these very different sources from ancient Israel, we encounter representations of powerful, revelatory religious experience, much of which can be characterized as mystical. Ezekiel 1 specifically, played a key role in the development of early Jewish mysticism during the rabbinic period.
It is in the first chapter of Ezekiel that the prophet, while in exile in Babylon, testifies to an extraordinary vision of the heavenly realm, perhaps even of God’s self. “In the 30th year, on the fifth day of the fourth month, when I was in the community of exiles by the Khebar Canal, the heavens opened and I saw visions of God.” He witnesses, “Flashing fire, surrounded by a radiance in the center of the fire, a gleam as of amber.”
Ezekiel beholds a luminous heavenly chariot whose wheels contain mysterious angelic creatures that rotate and cause the chariot to take flight. This seemingly bizarre, intricate, and ecstatic state of prophetic reverie culminates with a final vision of light and divine manifestation: “in appearance like Sapphire, like the appearance of the bow which shines in the clouds on a day of rain. Such was the appearance of the surrounding radiance. That was the appearance of the semblance of the presence of the Lord. When I beheld it, I flung myself down on my face. And I heard the voice of someone speaking.”
This classic and highly evocative first-person testimony to a mystical experience combines both the visual and the auditory, sight and sound.
This may be characterized as an experience of the mysterium tremendum, as it has been called in the study of religion. A type of experience in which there is first, a powerful, revelatory encounter with the mystery and allure of the divine and sacred, and at the same time the tremendous fearsome power of that experience. This is reflected in Ezekiel’s statement , “When I beheld it, I flung myself down upon my face.”
Ezekiel’s response to this divine revelation is similar to other Biblical encounters like that of Moses and Aaron. The overwhelming sensory experience of God leads to a dramatic gesture of prostration. In these ways, the Ezekiel 1 is one of the most paradigmatic and powerful examples of mystical experience in all of the Hebrew Bible, a touchstone for the subsequent history of Jewish mysticism.
Another notable example of mystical experience in the Tanakh is Isaiah 6, where the prophet beholds God in the divine throne room, which becomes the basis for the liturgy of the Kedusha.
The visions recorded in Ezekiel 1 and Isaiah 6 become foundational for one of the core aspects of Jewish mysticism in the rabbinic period, which we will discuss in episode 2. These two elements are the maaseh merkava, the Work of the Chariot, and Maaseh Bereishit, the work of creation. Maaseh Merkava is most famously mentioned in Mishnah Hagigah and in many other texts. Maaseh Bereshit involved speculation on the mystery of the world’s origins and eventually became a major feature of medieval Kabbalah and beyond. These two themes are the core topics of early Jewish mystical thought and practice. We will explore both of these topics in greater detail in the next episode.
Announcer: Thanks for listening to Exploring Kabbalah with Professor Eitan Fishbane, a JTS podcast. It was recorded and produced by Ellie Gettinger, with editing assistance from Sarah Brown. I’m Rabbi Julia Andelman, JTS’s Director of Community Engagement. The music for this series is Yah Notein Binah by sixteenth-century Kabbalist Israel Najara, from the album Seeds of Song, produced by JTS. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts. For those who want to dig deeper, visit jtsa.edu/podcasts, where you’ll find sources, archival material, and more in the Exploring Kabbalah show notes—along with the complete library of JTS podcasts.
