[Avodah] The Transmission of Kabbalah

[Micha Berger]

I just received a link to this
<http://www.torahlab.org/download/shomer_emunim.pdf> in my email
box. 27 pp.

> The Transmission of Kabbalah
> Introduction to Shomer Emunim Hakadmon
> Translated by Rabbi David Sedley
...
> A PROJECT OF TORAHLAB
...
> Foreword
> Shomer Emunim, also known as Shomer Emunim HaKadmon, by Rabbi Yosef
> Irgas was first published in Amsterdam in 5496 (1736). It is written in
> two sections and explains the basic principles and concepts of kabbalah
> in the form of a dialogue. Written as an introductory book for beginners
> in kabbalah, it also provides a history of the development of kabbalah
> as well as the importance of its study. In 5725 (1965) Rabbi Yitzchak
> Stern, Rabbi of Givat Shaul, republished Shomer Emunim in Jerusalem with
> several introductions. His first introduction traces the history of the
> transmission of kabbalah, based primarily on pieces taken from the text
> of Rabbi Irgas. Rabbi Stern thenwent on to update this history to the
> modern era.The following is a translation of that first introduction.

It includes claims such as:
> The crumbling of the foundation of the spiritual status of the Jewish
> people began in that time when the Concealed Torah disappeared and the
> Zohar was buried and hidden. The Concealed Torah was a sealed vision;
> there were very few individuals who merited receiving the kabbalah by
> word of mouth, to such an extent that there was noone who could properly
> understand even those books of Concealed Torah that remained such as
> Sefer Yetzirah and others.

> Darkness reigned in those difficult times and hid the world of Jewish
> thought from a large numbers of the Jewish people. The science-philosophy
> of both the Greeks and the Arabs began to take the place of kabbalah. All
> difficult questions of divinity were answered in the light of philosophy,
> and the Jewish philosophers made the Torah fit in with this type of
> science-philosophy. Philosophy was considered as if it were the hidden
> part of the Oral Law. Some Jews went so far as to switch beliefs and
> put philosophy, which is fabricated wisdom from a nation which does not
> believe in the Torah of Moshe, in place of the Concealed Torah....

> Rav Hai Gaon, who was one of the few at that time who merited to receive
> the Concealed Torah, was extremely angry with this kind of thinking,
> and he wrote strongly against it...

> From the time of the Gaonim onwards, the kabbalah and the Concealed
> Torah continued to disappear, and through the passage of time faded
> away. Eventually even the greatest of Sages, such as the Rambam, thought
> that it had been completely forgotten. The Rambam struggled to explain
> how a whole section of Torah could have been forgotten. This is what
> he writes:...

And of course in this history, the Rambam learns Qabbalah at the end of
his life, too late to modify his writings. The event is credited as
something the Abarbanel writes he heard. Moreso:
> The Abarbanel concludes: "There is no doubt that these things that he
> heard at the end of his life were words of kabbalah".6 Rav Irgas had a
> manuscript from the Rambam in which he wrote deep and hidden secrets
> to his students. From what is written in this letter it is clear how
> devalued philosophy had become in the eyes of the Rambam after he merited
> to receive the true kabbalah. He writes there, "most of my life I was
> confused with examining existence... based on philosophy, and with their
> signs... the ways of logic confused the mind and troubled it. But with
> true kabbalah the paths are free of stumbling blocks and this is the
> path of the prophets. This is how they achieved knowledge of the future,
> and were able to do miracles outside nature".

As for the restoration... If the Rambam erred, who do you think will be
given key role in correcting the error?

...
> In those days, when all of Spain, Provence and the surrounding countries
> were steeped in philosophical investigations, a holy genius, Rabbi Avraham
> ben David, lived in the city of Poshkira in Provence. He is also known
> as the Raavad who wrote the glosses on the Rambam. With great dedication
> he studied the Concealed Torah....

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Today is the 25th day, which is
micha at aishdas.org        3 weeks and 4 days in/toward the omer.
http://www.aishdas.org   Netzach sheb'Netzach: When is domination or
Fax: (270) 514-1507                          taking control too extreme?