Judaism

[flexibeast]

In recent times i've been doing a lot more reading about Jewish Kabbalah¹.

My initial interest was in Qabalah, via Ellen Cannon-Reed's "Witches Tarot" (a lovely tarot deck, which i sadly rarely see referenced). But apart from Dion Fortune's fascinating Mystical Qabalah, i've not found many readable texts on hermetic Qabalah (although i'm pretty sure that they're probably less scarce than i think).

This had frustrated me, because i'm what one might call a foundationist². By this, i mean that i tend to try to understand a particular topic by heading right back down to the foundations of that topic. So, for example, in trying to learn Haskell, i've ended up going right back to the basics of functional programming, and learning about the lambda calculus. Similarly, in wanting to learn more about Qabalah, i've ended up doing a lot of reading about Kabbalah - going back to the Sefer Yetzirah, Lurianic Kabbalah (e.g. via Rabbi Chaim Vital's Etz Hayyim), and bits of the Zohar (via Gershom Scholem's selected excerpts). And after having three separate dreams in which i was about to read or purchase Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed, i found a copy of it through Sacred-Texts.com, and have been working my way through it.

i've never felt comfortable with Christianity. For a long time, Christianity has to me been a religion which spits on reason, treated women and queers like dirt, and generally felt that it has the right to interfere in the lives of non-Christians. At the same time, i have made an effort to seek out interpretations of Christianity which are less literalist / fundamentalist and more broad-minded, to ensure that i have a more balanced view of the diversity of Christian thought. Nonetheless, Christianity is not a religion i feel at all comfortable with.

Yet in doing all this reading of Jewish religious texts, i've come to realise just how 'at home' i feel with Judaism. It's not like i'm unaware of the fact that Judaism, too, has its literalists / fundamentalists, has its share of patriarchal / queerphobic / generally intolerant perspectives. But i'm also aware of the existence of several more progressive strands of Judaism, such as Reform Judaism and Reconstructionist Judaism and the Jewish Renewal movement, (particularly as represented by Michael Lerner and Tikkun magazine). And here's the weird bit: despite being a goy³, i feel so 'at home' in Judaism that i'd be happy to describe myself as a 'skeptical Judeo-pagan', to indicate how much of an influence Jewish spirituality and philosophy is having on my beliefs, if it weren't for the fact that i worry about being disrespectful, and for the fact that 'Judeo-paganism' apparently already means something else anyway. (Although related Web sites, such as lilitu.com discussion boards and Jewitchery seem right up my alley.)

In any event, i'm really excited about all the Kabbalah-and-related reading i'm currently doing. :-)

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1. In this, and other, posts, i follow the convention of transliterating the Hebrew word 'קבלה' as 'Kabbalah' when referring to its use in a Jewish context, and 'Qabalah' when referring to its use in a Hermetic context, even though the latter is probably the more accurate transliteration overall.

2. Unless one has read too much Isaac Asimov, or watched too much Babylon 5, in which case 'foundationist' has a rather different meaning. :-)

3. Apart from the actual Yiddish meaning of this word, there's also the fact that i'm not just a girl, i'm not just a boy, i'm a goy! ;-)
 

Comments

[porcineflight.livejournal.com]

Yay for self-discovery n stuff! :D

[flexibeast.livejournal.com]

Heh, indeed! :-)

[winterkoninkje.livejournal.com]

I've always had a fondness for Judaism. Back at Reed (and further back at CTY) I tended to go to a lot of the events my jewish friends threw, seders and such. I was invited to attend them at PSU here, though I've never gotten the chance to. We were all raised generic protestant, but my brother actually converted and married a nice jewish woman, peace be with her.

There are two things I like most about Judaism (or three, the food, oi!). First is the way that they keep the culture as a part of the religion; being jewish isn't about worshipping the right deity, it's about being part of a community, part of a cultural tradition. And second is all the little ways the religion takes a humane perspective on the sacred (e.g. the idea of "duress" and the forgiveness that comes with it; forgiveness that comes easily when being jewish means being a part of a community no matter your failings, a forgiveness preached but rarely practiced by christians who've divorced their religion from daily life).

In the end though (like many of my jewish friends, perhaps ironically), I cannot believe in the religion itself. Much of what it teaches, certainly, but the belief in one god with a nature of such and such... not so much. Though I would like to take a bigger part in the jewish communities around me; the people, the teachings, the food, this is what is important in life, the reasons behind it I find less and less essential as I age.

And speaking of duress and Judaism's take on homosexuality, the aforementioned Rabbi Greenberg is very much an Orthodox Jew by the by. You don't need to go reform etc to find friends of queers (though it may be easier).

[flexibeast.livejournal.com]

First is the way that they keep the culture as a part of the religion; being jewish isn't about worshipping the right deity, it's about being part of a community, part of a cultural tradition.

Interesting that you should say that; through the Tikkun Web site, i came across an article (http://files.tikkun.org/current/article.php?story=20070402150836379) by an ultra-orthodox rabbi who, as a prelude to blaming the Holocaust on Zionist Jews, wrote:

Judaism is a religion. Judaism is not a race or a nationality. That was and still remains the consensus amongst the rabbis.

sacred_harlot has some Jewish background and has always been interested in Jewish culture as well as Jewish religion (she was planning to convert at one stage); but myself, at the moment, i'm mainly studying the more theosophical / mystical Jewish spiritualities and their non-mainstream interpretations of the Tanakh.

the idea of "duress" and the forgiveness that comes with it

Sorry, i'm not sure what you're referring to here; could you elaborate?

And speaking of duress and Judaism's take on homosexuality, the aforementioned Rabbi Greenberg is very much an Orthodox Jew by the by. You don't need to go reform etc to find friends of queers (though it may be easier).

Ah, okay - i was aware that Conservative Judaism had softened its stance a bit, but i didn't realise that similar things had been happening in Orthodox Judaism . . . .

[winterkoninkje.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I don't mean Zionism when I say "the culture of Judaism", incidentally. The two are very different to my mind (as with most Jews I'm sure).

The nature of practicing Judaism requires a certain community. You can't retell the story of passover if you're the only one in the room, you can't study the torah over oranges without a rabbi, you can't give forgiveness for the wrongs others've done you and ask it of them for what you've done without there being "others", you can't keep vigil over the dead until they're interred or have someone keep vigil over you, etc. Well, I suppose you can, but it's not quite right. Basically, practicing Judaism requires a community practicing together, it's not the sort of thing you can do alone very well (though of course possible under extreme situations). Judaism is the religion of a tribe in exile, whereas Christianity/Catholicism is the religion of martyrs.

Even if ultra-orthodox rabbis are always claiming it's different, that's how it is with every jew I've met (ethnic and not). Untangling what is from the sacred side of Judaism and what is from the cultural side is neigh impossible. Since a lot of people who are raised jewish become atheists or agnostics, a lot of them pick and choose the parts they like and use that to justify calling something "religious" vs "cultural". And a lot of them trouble with the issue of what it means to be atheist if that means denouncing this whole culture and community they were raised with. Certainly there is a religion outside of the cultural and physical trappings, but it can be hard to tease apart, more so than with a number of other religions IMO.

So, duress refers to things like if someone holds a gun to your head and tells you to eat a shrimp cocktail (not kosher), then YHWH isn't going to hold it against you and damn you for all eternity. There's an understanding that extreme circumstances can lead to the need to break laws for one's survival/wellbeing. This has also been extended to the notion of "cultural duress", which is, there was a time when jewish babies were being kidnapped and raised apart from the community. Eventually they'd make their way back home but they'd always be breaking jewish laws, because they didn't know any better. It's not that they failed to be jewish, it's that they didn't know how. Obviously they're expected to work to better themselves, but there's this idea that their upbringing must have been so horrible, so different, that there's no way we (i.e. the jews) could understand what it's like to have lived with whatever it was that would cause them to behave this way; and rather than condemning them for it, because humans are limited and simply can't understand, we should welcome them and forgive them and let YHWH figure out whether they were right or wrong.

Ah, okay - i was aware that Conservative Judaism had softened its stance a bit, but i didn't realise that similar things had been happening in Orthodox Judaism

Well, to be fair, Greenberg's arguments aren't accepted by all orthodox rabbis. But the support for the arguments is there within the framework of that praxis. Orthodox jews don't have a central authority that says what they believe, instead an orthodox jew believes whatever their rabbi believes, and so spreading change of thought means convincing rabbis and communities one at a time. It's much more communal/anarchistic than the hierarchical way that, say, Catholicism works.

[haw-thorn.livejournal.com]

Some Western Esoteric Tradition interpretations:

The Chicken Qabalah of Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford: Dilettante's Guide to What You Do and Do Not Need to Know to Become a Qabalist, by DuQuette, Lon Milo Weiser Books, 2001. DuQuette is one of the sanest occultists around, especially for an OTO member!

'A Garden of Pomegranates' and 'The Tree of Life' by Israel Regardie. Regarded as a classic.

'The Kabbalah Unveiled' by Macgregor Mathers, http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/tku/index.htm
A classic by the head of The Golden Dawn

[flexibeast.livejournal.com]

Ah dear, how could i forget Regardie! *blush* Thanks for the reminder. :-)

i was aware of Kabbalah Unveiled, but have been leery of it due to several claims that Mathers was *cough* fairly free with his translations.

The first two sound interesting - i'll definitely keep an eye out for them. Thanks! :-)

[haw-thorn.livejournal.com]

To tell the truth I have never read Mathers, I'm not really into QBL, but given his position in the G.D. his ideas were pretty influential, so I would think that any delving into the roots of 'Hermetic' QBL would have to take him into consideration. DuQuette has written or contributed to quite a few books, many of which touch on QBL, in my experience he is always good value, even though I don't practice the same style of magick as him!

[flexibeast.livejournal.com]

Oh, i just realised that "the first two" are actually one book. %-} Don't mind me . . . .

[sacred-harlot.livejournal.com]

Heya Gorgeous,

"i've never felt comfortable with Christianity. For a long time, Christianity has to me been a religion which spits on reason, treated women and queers like dirt, and generally felt that it has the right to interfere in the lives of non-Christians. At the same time, i have made an effort to seek out interpretations of Christianity which are less literalist / fundamentalist and more broad-minded, to ensure that i have a more balanced view of the diversity of Christian thought. Nonetheless, Christianity is not a religion i feel at all comfortable with."
"i've come to realise just how 'at home' i feel with Judaism."

Great post Sweetie, full of references that I will take pleasure in looking at, thanks :-). I have to say how much I agree with and resonate with your feelings and observations on Judaism, as you know this has been a long standing relationship for me too! It is wonderful to have someone to share thoughts and feelings with who just gets it!

Lotsa lurve, passionate hugs and kisses*

Sacred Harlot XxX.