A 'Very Short Introduction' to a Very Intriguing Jewish Subject
Kabbalah: A Very Short Introduction
by Joseph Dan
Hardcover - 144 pages (2005), Oxford University Press US; ISBN: 0195300343
reviewed by Allan Gould
If numbers were truly important, then the Jewish people—a small fraction of one-per cent of the world's population—are not important. But we know that they are, and always have been, central to human history, culture, thought and destiny. If length is important, then any thousand-page novel is of far greater cultural value than, say, a 100-page theatrical script (such as, say, Hamlet or King Lear). Also untrue.
So, what to say about a thin little book called Kabbalah: A Very Short Introduction, which is barely over 100 pages in length? There's lots to say, because the author is Joseph Dan, the Gershom Scholem Professor of Kabbalah at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, who also teaches at Harvard Divinity School—surely one of the top handful of scholars of this extraordinary topic in the world today. This recent Oxford University Press volume is simply wonderful: insightful, concise, witty, a pleasure to read and a joy to re-read and contemplate.
Interestingly, the word kabbalah comes from the Hebrew, meaning "to receive," as in the 'received tradition.' Professor Dan wittily points out in his opening chapter ("Kabbalah: The Term and Its Meanings") that every hotel in Israel displays the word "Kabbalah," meaning "reception," in its lobby; so much for a "mystical" term in everyday life in the Holy Land!. Kabbalah also means 'bill' (as in receipt) in modern Hebrew. Ther term is also used frequently in Orthodox Jewish circles at their weddings, where the "Kabbalat Panim"—to view the bride just before the wedding ceremony—is central to this special event.
Now, how on earth can one "cover" such a complex subject as Kabbalah in so few pages? Simple. By sharing with us the insights gleaned from a lifetime of scholarship in as few, well-chosen words as possible—along with a dozen lovely illustrations. Someone with less knowledge of this giant topic than Dr. Dan would probably need thousands of pages, but how many would choose to pick up a massive text like that? So, barely a few sentences into this lovely work, we get profound and thought-provoking lines such as these: "The kabbalah, according to the kabbalists, is never new; it can be newly discovered or newly received, but essentially it is millennia-old divine truth. Scholars, of course, hold the opposite view. From the point of view of historians of ideas and historians of religion, the kabbalah is a new phenomenon, which first appeared in southern Europe in the last decades of the twelfth century." No, this is no work of debunking; it is serious and respectful scholarship—yet "modern" enough to refer to the dangerous move of the Lubavitch community toward believing (in shockingly large numbers) that their recently-deceased leader, Menachem Mendel Shneersohn, may actually be the Messiah, and to describe the silly flirtation of such "super-stars" as Madonna with Kabbalah as an example of its enduring (if shallow) power to gain and obsess followers.
At times, the author can be almost laugh-out-loud funny, as in this sentence: "A common denominator, I believe, of answers to the question 'What is kabbalah?' is that the kabbalah is something that I have a vague notion of, but somebody, somewhere, knows exactly what it means." Professor Dan reminds us that the term has often denoted "secret, dark, and evil intentions" (think of the word "cabal" in English), and in current Hebrew spoken in Israel, "kabbalist" and "magician" are almost identical in meaning (!) This tiny book is overflowing in sometimes surprising, even shocking gems: that there were no Jewish or Muslim "mystics" until the 19th century. That the Hebrew term "shekhinah"—nearly always seen as the feminine aspect of Gd—had, into the late 12th century, "no hint of. . .being feminine." That Kabbalah had great impact on Christian and Muslim thought as well.
There are beautiful (and joyfully-brief) descriptions of the impact of Kabbalah on early modern Hassidic thought (from the Baal Shem Tov on); the evil rise (and fall) of Shabbtai Tzvi, Jacob Frank and other disastrous false messiahs of the 17th century (the former converting to Islam when threatened with torture; the latter—after years of grotesque sexual orgies—to Catholicism, and both followed into apostasy by many thousands of "true believers"); how Isaac Luria was able to ask the Really Big Questions which most faiths—and most of us—almost deliberately avoid asking: "Why does God exist? Why did the creation occur? What is meaning of everything?" The answers may inspire you, even enthrall you.
Kabbalah: A Very Short Introduction is hardly definitive; it's too short to achieve that, and what single volume could? But this little volume proves, beyond any doubt, that the more a great scholar knows his or her subject, the less words he or she really needs to spend on it. This book is highly recommended, so that if it moves you to fulfill the demand to "Tzay Ul'mad"—go and study—you will have a solid (if brief) foundation to do so, in this irresistible field—which is far, far deeper than Madonna and her followers tying little red ribbons around their wrists. Bravo, Professor Dan.
Allan Gould is a regular book critic for Kolel. He is the author of over three dozen books, his latest being Anne of Green Gables vs. G.I. Joe—Friendly Fire Between the U.S. and Canada, a work of political satire.
