Monistic Agendas

 

By: Jonathan Seidel

The multi-varied origins of medieval kabbalah: 

There is always controversy around why certain traditions emerge. The answers given are reflected in the textual history of the culture. The culture tends to fill its origins with fantastical myths that empower the heritage. Yet, beyond the origins, when new movements rise there is a cultural reason for them. The Middle Ages brought two novel intellectual movements philosophy and mysticism. The external force is marred by internal apologetics. Yet, it is not solely the external force that does the trick. The idea of external effect does not coerce change it influences it but there is more than one variable. It is a combination of internal and external forces. 

The origins of kabbalah have been debated. Was a response to gnostic or catholic influences or a pagan inspiration. The Scholem-Idel controversy followed a social construction or an original thought. Scholem posed kabbalah was formed out of gnosticism and Idel that it preceded the world. Both search the text to find an academic answer that is rooted in history. Idel does not deny any external motivation for the rise of kabbalah in the Middle Ages but does not relent to the entire project is a rabbinic creation. Idel is willing to have it both ways. Jewish mysticism is old but its appearance in various generations had its own external affect. Given the prophetic stories, apocalyptic literature, and talmudic allegories, mystical properties aren’t foreign. 

The Talmud makes note of the mystical layer but marginalises it to the elite. Only those on a certain level can study it. This may be the the origin of the tradition of not reading the Zohar until the age of forty. This not necessarily a supernatural avoidance but more a lack of comprehension. Don’t open the Zohar because you will be struck by lightning or face melting from seeing the spirits in “Raiders of the Lost Ark”. It is more disclosure to advanced cosmology that could be misinterpreted and lead to heresy. The four who entered pardes may reflect an actual spiritual place or an allegorical one. The former presents the consequences of entering imperfect: Ben Zoma died, Ben Azzai went crazy and Elisha ben Abuyah apostatised. The semantic phraseology follows the mystical charm. There are additional mystical elements such as animals or other worlds that attest to a higher plane of existence. 

There is a mystical origin that predates the Kabbalistic emergence. Yet, this does not negate the distinctions between talmudic or even merkavah mysticism and medieval Kabbalah. The systematic celestial cosmology forwarded by medieval Kabbalists is a novelty in jewish history. Whether Sefer Yetzirah was written by Abraham or the Zohar by Rashbi, they contained Jewish secrets. They are a powerful layer of religiosity but its less important here if kabbalah was invented in medieval southern France and more important why it became so central. Even if Idel is correct, the oscillation from outside minority to inside majority is pretty cataclysmic. 

The internal rationales for its emergence are connected to the legalistic nature of talmudism that overshadowed Jewish religiosity. A spiritual yearning ensued to answer burning questions. Rabbinic Judaism was densely ritualistic and focused more on the collective than the individuals self transcendence. Spiritual fervour was more attractive than the stale legalism. Greek philosophy was antagonised but the classical model was insufficient. Talmudism allegorised the mystical layer and retained it in the hideaway palaces of the rabbinic elite. Boxed away, the spirit was drowning. The Andalusian school had persisted in the allegorisation yet the ashkenazi rabbis broke away from this tradition. Their novel peshat take on scripture altered the perception of allegories by reading them literally. Rashi’s mystical allusions to higher celestial elements akin in the pardes story supports a mystical forefront. The ashkenazi beginning only further travelled into sephardi lands abroad. The mystical element was crucial for empowering religiosity at the dawn of a new age.

The second internal rationale is the Maimonidean controversy. Maimonides’ philosophy was perceived as a cancer to Jewish perpetuity. His books were burned not only by rabbis but with the state’s aid. The esoteric rise hinged on countering rationalism. Rationalism was dangerous. Maimonides was following the muslim heretics and erasing core angelology and other magical factors. The Talmud had inserted many of these supernal concepts and mitigating their reality by excessive allegorisation was denying divinity. The other issue with Maimonideanism was its deconstruction of traditional hierarchies. It was not only the philosophical side that medieval rabbis took issue with Maimonides, but also his legal codex. He usurped halakhic tradition by compiling a code outside the Talmud. While the French scholars canonised the Talmud and subsequently sephardi thinkers as well, Maimonides placed it all in his go-to book. The anti-maimonidean track sought esoteric thinking as a way of realigning the hierarchy. Though may sound like paranoia (and it may have been), there is a benefit of the doubt attributed to maintaining the status quo transmission of Torah. The introduction of kabbalistic lore was to stop Maimonidean victory. 

Before explaining the two external inspirations, there is a middle ground influence: the crusades. There is a logical impulse to resort to spiritual longing after a tragedy. There does seem to be logic to the merkvah movement following the temple’s destruction, Safed Kabbalah following the inquisition and Hasidim following the sabbateans. There seems to imply messianic plights after a travesty of sorts. The Middle Ages experienced the bloody crusades massacring Jews left and right. Martydrom became an accepted religious position contrary to talmudic law. The prior mild mystical form exploded to cope with the tragedy. There is a historical trauma that is perpetuating these ideas. The mystical power seeks to clarify in moments of tenuous doubt. The crusaders were the cause of formulating the mystical identity bringing it to the centre and overtime it spread to other lands. The sephardi thinkers did not envision the crusaders nor should the hasidei ashkenaz be pointed as crusader syndrome but an organic layout that developed. Persecution persisted in both sectors and it was a powerful coping tool.  

 

The two external strands were philosophical impact and religious influence. Religiously the christian strand of mystical thought filled the anti-maimonidean strand with artillery. The christian assault on Aquinas paralleled the attack on Maimonides. This was the second moment of christian comparison. The French canonisation of the Talmud mimicked the resurrection of Justinian’s canonical work as the heart of Christian Europe. The anti-maimonidean stream highlighted theology over halakha as did Pauline Christianity by abrogating the law. They broke away from traditional interpretation with the peshat model that sought to uncover the original meaning by the author like christian thinkers. Granted Maimonides poised his thirteen principles, the anti-maimonidean doxological branding eschatology and other angelic messianism. Meddling in christian force attributed an authoritarian leadership to maintain their pure hegemony. Their interpretive skill modelled after christian hermeneutics. Though the Catholic Church condemned necromancy, many practitioners were of the christian clergy. Yet, it was the islamic world that has persisted in its oracles and magic. The sephardic acceptance of superstitions and symbols to this day is relevant. Nahmanides and his contemporaries sought astrology and magic as methods of divine connection. The christian doxology has its effect on esoteric ontology but the celestial elements of angelology and demonology were more islamic linked. 

The last influence was the philosophical inspiration. Neo-aristotelianism pervaded the continent. Islamic and Christian rationalism followed suit in responding to the new intellectual trend. Philosophy was the more progressive route. Immersing the study of metaphysics was untraditional. The conservative response was to avoid the external coercion with an internal strand of religiosity. The islamic world responded to neoplatonic ideology into their own monotheism. The formalisation of sufism in the twelfth century may reflect the Jewish ordeal as well. The mystical marginalisation pivoted centerstage to combat rampant rationalism. The philosophical duping was a defence mechanism against intellectual invasion. The evolved esoteric metaphysics provided that internal philosophy and particularist cosmology that was sought after in Aristotelianism. The mysticism did not come out of thin air. Neoplatonic philosophy hoarded mystical elements that supported the esoteric indulgence. Though this foreign threat was in the form of Maimonides, the mystical confrontation was bolstered by its own hellenistic routes. Solomon Ibn Gabriel was one of the first medieval mystical writers well versed in neoplatonism. The neoplatonic elements bolstered the mystical enforcement into the Middle Ages aided by islamic interference. 

Each of these five rationales demonstrates an emergence of Kabbalah at the inception of the Middle Ages. Neither of the five constitutes an obvious choice nor the only one. Each of these rationales was picked from a different author. Each had an agenda to display the impact of kabbalah relationally. None has a monopoly but each presents a divergent consequence of mystical practice.