garb the modernization of kabbalah

8/8/2019 garb THE MODERNIZATION OF KABBALAH

1/22

Jonathan Garb

THE MODERNIZATION OF KABBALAH:

A CASE STUDY

THE VICISSITUDES OF THE STUDY OF MODERN KABBALAH

There is no time like the present for calling attention to the emer-gence of a new field of scholarship, that of the modernization ofKabbalah, which is in turn part of a wider reconsideration of themodern Jewish world taking place in recent years, especially amongstyounger scholars. These convergent developments open diverse possi-bilities for profound change in the agenda of Jewish Studies as such.I wish to offer a textual case study, that of a kabbalist operating withinthe Italian Enlightenment, in order to propose a reevaluation of theplace of modern Kabbalah within Jewish Studies, as part of a wider

revision of traditional orientations of the field. These new theoreticaland methodological horizons can best be appreciated through anintroductory overview of the fate of the modern in the history of

Jewish Studies in the twentieth century. This overview joins recentmoves towards writing such a history [such as volume 74 (2009) of

Zion, the organ of the Israel Historical Society, on the history of Jewishhistorical studies in Israel].

The classical paradigm of twentieth century Jewish studies,as exemplified in the work of luminaries such as Isaac Baer, Julius

Guttmann, Saul Lieberman, Shlomo Pines, Gershom Scholem,Ephraim Urbach and Harry Wolfson, was founded on intensivestudy of texts ranging from later antiquity to the medieval period.The only one of the above to dedicate a significant degree of inquiryto the modern period was of course Gershom Scholem. Yet, the latterdeeply believed in the primacy of origins in scholarly investigation anddevoted only one book-length study to the modern period: SabbataiSevi: The Mystical Messiah, 1626-1676.1 Precisely through this exquisitelyresearched exception, which was limited to half a century (as its title

demonstrates), we can see how central sabbateanism and especiallyone figure, Sabbetai Tsevi, were for Scholems understanding ofmodernity.2

As a result, from Scholems time onwards, numerous giantsof Jewish modernity, such as R. Yonathan Eybeschutz, R. Moshe

doi:10.1093/mj/kjp022 Advance Access publication February 3, 2010 The Author 2010. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions,

please e-mail: [email protected].


2/22

Eayyim Luzzatto and even R. Elijah (the Gaon) of Vilna, have beenresearched mostly with respect to one question: If and how sabbateanthey were. Of course, one might argue that an influential figure in

twentieth century Jewish Studies, Martin Buber, foregroundeda modern movement: Hasidism. As this is not the place to addressthis issue, I shall merely confess to sharing Scholems own opinion(which profoundly affected Bubers reception in Jewish Studies inIsrael), namely that the latters writing on this topic was that of apublic intellectual rather than research in the classic sense.

As a result, entire mystical worlds, such as the circle of Luzzatto,the center in Prague, the Oriental school of R. Shalom Shar6abi andLithuanian Kabbalahnot to mention many schools of nineteenth

century Hasidism and twentieth century Kabbalah, are absent inScholems Sabbato-centric scheme, which was largely upheld by hisstudents.3 One can note similar choices with regards to Mussar litera-ture, surely one of the most widely disseminated forms of Jewishwriting in the modern period: The focus of Scholems followers, espe-cially Joseph Dan, was mostly on medieval works in this genre, andagain modern classics, such as R. Eliyahu Itamaris Shevet Mussar or theanonymous Hemdat Ha-Yamim were examined only with regard to theirpossible connection to Sabbateanism.

As opposed to dramatic developments in other areas, this picturewas not changed by the new directions that emerged in Kabbalahscholarship in the late twentieth century. Moshe Idel did write ofthe modern move from esotericism to exotericism in his earlieropus KabbalahNew Perspectives, however his focus there was more onthe connection between Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages as well ason the influence of thirteenth century ecstatic Kabbalah.4 As a result,relatively speaking, Idel did not especially address the above men-tioned schools and works in his other writings. This state of affairs

changed somewhat in the course of the 1990s. Yehuda Liebes devotedimportant studies to central modern figures such as R. NaftaliBakhrakh, R. Shimson of Ostropolye, R. Naftali Katz and R. Elijahof Vilna. Charles Mopsik introduced modern texts throughout hisextensive overview of kabbalistic theurgy, suitably entitled Les grandstextes de la cabbale. Besides his detailed studies of Sabbateanism, ElliotWolfson devoted an article to gender and messianism in Luzzatto,discussed R. Isaiah Horowitz of Prague and also analyzed the hermen-eutics of R. Elijah of Vilna, drawing on contemporary theories of

writing.As a result, at the turn of the century an increasing number ofstudies were devoted to some of the neglected modern schools, includ-ing book-length treatments of R. Sabbetai Sheftel Horowitz of Prague,Luzzatto, Lithuanian Kabbalah, the school of Shar6abi, and twentieth

2 Jonathan Garb


3/22

century Kabbalah (by Bracha Sack, Joelle Hansel, Raphael Shuchat,Pinchas Giller and Jonathan Garb). Shaul Magid has recently analyzedthe beginnings of modern Kabbalah utilizing the tools of the school

of New Historicism. Finally, Haviva Pedaya has included importanttheoretical comments on the modernization of Kabbalah in severalthematic articles.5

At the same time, we are far from a comprehensive picture ofmodern Kabbalah, even on the basic textual level. One need but con-sult Scholems encyclopedic survey of this period, which is itself farfrom exhaustive, in order to observe how many key texts and figures,including such luminaries as R. Emanuel Eai Ricci, have hardly beendiscussed.6 It is of interest to compare the state of academic textual

scholarship with the recent awakening of interest in early modernKabbalah in the kabbalistic circles in Jerusalem, which has led, tocite but two instances, to the publication of numerous earlier andcontemporary commentaries on Riccis Mishnat Hasidim and editionsof several works from the Kloiz fellowship in Brody.

More significantly, we do not yet have a full integrative accountof the unique nature of modern Kabbalah, its response to broadercultural and historical developments and the various stages of itsdevelopment in various cultural contexts, European and Oriental.

Such an account would in turn require a far more advanced state ofresearch into other areas of modern Jewish religiosity, such as custom,liturgy, Halacha, Talmudic methodology, and Mussar, which likeKabbalah, have suffered from the pre-modern focus of classical

Jewish studies. At the same time, we should be encouraged fromrecent and forthcoming work by mostly younger scholars such asZeev Gries, Maoz Kahana, Haviva Pedaya, David Sorotzkin, andRoni Weinstein, who provide useful tools and insights for a newunderstanding of modern Jewish religiosity.7

MODERN KABBALAH AS A SELF-CONTAINED DOMAIN OF INQUIRY

The neglect of the modern in Jewish studies is one case of many inwhich one can see how the modernistic attempt to differentiate aca-demic scholarship from traditional learning created a gap between theagenda of the universities (as well as those institutions influenced by

the university, such as the contemporary Batei Midrash in Israel andrabbinical schools in the United States) and that of the Yeshiva world,whose very development was greatly accelerated by modernity. Forcontemporary kabbalists in Yeshiva circles, the classics are not Sefer

Ha-Bahir, nor the writings of the Gerona circle, nor somewhat later

Modernization of Kabbalah 3


4/22

classics such as Sefer Ha-Temuna and Ma6arekhet Elohut. Even the zoha-ric literature, in and of itself, is not the classic that contemporaryKabbalah links to or, at times breaks with.

One major reason for this choice is that all of the above workswere anonymous or pseudo epigraphic. Contemporary Kabbalah, andindeed modern Kabbalah in general, is first and foremost a cult of theexceptional individual and his mystical biography, so that non-personalwritings cannot serve as a model.8 Rather, the classics for contempor-ary Kabbalah are the works composed by the great figures of modernKabbalah, namely R. Isaac Luria, R. Moshe Cordovero, R. MosheHayyim Luzzatto, R. Elijah of Vilna, the Ba6al Shem Tov, R. ShalomShar6abi, and R. Shneur Zalman of Lyady. It is no coincidence that

amongst the most widely circulated texts in contemporary circles onemust count the hagiographies depicting some of these figures. For thisreason, the one medieval figure that is central for almost allbranches of contemporary Kabbalah is the most autobiographicaland self-conscious of medieval kabbalists, R. Abraham Abulafia.9

Actually, this general observation largely holds for other realms in Jewish discourse. For halachists and advocates of Mussar, the classicsare also modern works. Thus, just as the Zohar is mediated for con-temporary kabbalists through the commentaries of Luria, Cordovero

and Luzzatto, the medieval halachic classics, such as the Arbah Turimand the Yad Ha-Hazaka are mediated through later works, and espe-cially the triad of Karos works: Sulhan Arukh, its main source, BeitYosef on the Arbah Turim, and Kesef Mishne on the Yad Ha-Eazaka.Even in pure Talmudic study, the focus (despite constant critiques ofthis tendency), is on the Ahronim, or later authorities, especially theproducts of the renaissance of Talmudics in early twentieth centuryLithuania. Likewise, although the modern Mussar movement valuesthe medieval works of R. BaAya ibn Paquda and especially those of

R. Yonah Gerundi, its major sourcebook is of course Luzzattos MesilatYesharim. Above all, due to the effect of the Gutenberg revolution,coupled with the staggering demographic explosion in the modern

Jewish world, most Jewish texts (at least those available to us) werecomposed after the sixteenth century, so that the traditional choice ofstudy material makes perfect bibliographical sense.

For this reason, a scholarly orientation which is more in synchwith the subject matter studied and its emic view can afford tobreak with the classic orientation of Jewish studies and build

modern Jewish discourse as a self-contained area of study. However,there is a far more compelling motivation for such a strong move:Weinsteins recently completed manuscript on Kabbalah and Jewishmodernity demonstrates that the transition to modernity, especiallyin the Golden Age of Safed, affected a vast sea change in kabbalistic

4 Jonathan Garb


5/22

discourse and indeed in Jewish religiosity as a whole. Just as I have alsosuggested above, the cult of the exceptional individual is suggested byWeinstein as a central aspect of this change. However, one needs

to take Weinsteins analysis still further, in both period and scope,as I shall proceed to do in the following section.

THE RISE OF MODERN KABBALAH

There is a prevalent belief that the Middle Ages represent the era offaith and the modern is the Age of Reason. However, in many ways,

it is equally plausible to argue that rationalistic philosophy, as well asrational forms of mysticism, was the common language of religiousintellectuals, as evidenced by the phenomenon of Averroism. Therecent work of two young scholars, Adam Afterman and Sandra

Valabregue-Perry, demonstrates the deep connections betweenKabbalah and philosophy in the middle ages. This move is reinforcedfrom the other direction by David Blumenthals study of the philo-sophical mysticism of figures such as Maimonides.10

In fact, one possible way of understanding the dramatic rise of

Kabbalah from the sixteenth century onwards is place it against thebackground of the decline of philosophy, which had reached anadvanced stage by this time. R. Isaac Lurias famous rejection of kab-balistic knowledge derived from the intellect, as opposed to revelation,or in other words of much of medieval Kabbalah, exemplifies thisshift, as this stance was then adopted by numerous modern kabbalistsfaithful to Luria.

Another striking example is that of R. Yehuda Loewe, or Maharal,of Prague, whose influence in the contemporary Jewish world cannot

be overstated.11

Although Loewe took part in broad intellectual centerin central Europe, he sharply critiqued philosophical approaches andcreated a new form of writing which then became emblematic formodern Kabbalah. This new genre in turns demonstrates a secondmajor departure from medieval Jewish mysticismthe merger ofKabbalah with other forms of Jewish discourse and religious life.It is this strategy which largely accounts for the prominence ofKabbalah in the modern period, described somewhat misleadingly byScholem as the transformation of Kabbalah into authoritative Jewish

theology, but actually a process that was most evident in areas suchas custom, Halachah, liturgy and poetry.12 It must be added that theplain fact that is was only in the modern period when Kabbalah trulycame into its own renders the relative neglect of this period in existingoverviews of its history all the more striking.



6/22


7/22

As for Halachah, following up the most important study of its place inthe Zohar, Israel Ta-Shmas Ha-Nigle She-Banistar may reveal that weare speaking mostly of the integration of customs rather than the

profound talmudics characteristic of thirteenth century Spanish Jewry, or the professional Halachic argumentation characteristic ofthe responsa literature. Finally, the major Spanish alternative tozoharic Kabbalah, the school of Nahmanides, maintained a ratherstrict separation of Kabbalah and Halachah, as shown in MosheHalbertals (Hebrew) book By Way of Truth: Nachmanides and theCreation of Tradition. Our rebuttal to this counter-argument returnsus to the thesis that the true integration of Kabbalah with Jewishdiscourse as a whole was part of the encyclopedic drive of the modern.

This integrative effort became rather common amongst modernCentral European Jewish intellectuals: R. Isaiah Horowitz of Praguewrote a massive and hugely influential book, Shnei Luhq ot Ha-Brit, inwhich it is hard to differentiate halakahah, exegesis, kabbalah, mussarand homiletics. R. Jonathan Eybeschutzs kabbalistic world was ratheresoteric, yet the numerous works of mussar and homiletics penned bythis greatly influential halachist are clearly infused with Kabbalah.Kahana has made a valuable contribution by showing that the halachicverdicts of the hugely influential halachist Moshe Sofer, author of the

Hatam Sofer series, were evoked by mystical experiences, and similarmoves can be made with regard to his commentary on the Bible.Likewise, Kahana has lately begun to bridge the gap between the cur-rent interest in the intense and venerated Talmudic and mysticalworld of the Kloiz of Brody within the Yeshiva world, and its neglectby scholars, with the important exception of Elhanan Reiner.15

A center much influenced by Prague and traditionally inclined toview Kabbalah in broader horizons was that of Italy. Perhaps the singlemost influential modern kabbalist, R. Moshe Hayyim Luzzatto, or

RamAal, emulated Loewe in presenting kabbalistic concepts innon-specialized language, as in his later works: Derekh Hashem, Da6atTevunot, and Mesilat Yesharim. Indeed, Luzzatto wrote in a markedlywide range of genres, including rhetoric, Talmudic methodology,theatre, logic, and grammar. Both Loewe and Luzzzato were emulatedin turn by the most striking kabbalist of the twentieth century,R. Abraham Isaac Kook, partly in the wake of late nineteenthcentury Hasidic schools, such as Ger, but far more as a result of hisadherence to the school of R. Elijah of Vilna, to which he essentially

belonged.The latter circle, though not truly translating Kabbalah into otherterms, due to its strongly elitist inclination, nonetheless substantiallycontributed to reflections on the relationship between mysticism,history, and even science. These may be found especially in the



8/22

voluminous works of the disciple of R. Elijahs disciples, R. ItzAaqHaver (yet to be addressed at any length in academic writing) aswell as in the encyclopedic Sefer Ha-Berit, by R. Pinchas Elijah, also

of Vilna. R. Kook, who rendered Kabbalah into political, poetic andpsychological terms, was joined by some of his contemporaries fromthe modern Mussar movement, for whom Luzzatto was a toweringpresence. The influence of Luzzatto, not only on these figures butalso on another hugely influential twentieth century kabbalist, R.

Yehuda Leib Ashlag, who mixed more technical works with politicalessays, is far from universally recognized.

Indeed, it is from the perspective of the twentieth and currentcenturies that Luzzatto can be most easily described as the most influ-

ential of modern kabbalists. Waves of publication of his works beganalready in the early twentieth century, propelled, amongst others, bythe prominent Lithuanian kabbalist and R. Kooks erstwhile teacher,R. Shlomo Elyashiv, known as Ba6al Ha-Leshem. In recent decades, thisproject was continued by the influential Israeli Mussar teacher,R. Eayyim Freidlander and currently by an institute devoted to pro-pagating his works and ideas, the Francophonic Institut Ramhalin Jerusalem. One should also note the activity of a figure on theborder-lands of research and kabbalism, Joseph Avivi, as well as

more popular commentaries on Luzzattos works (by ItamarSchwartz, in his Bi-Lvavi Miskhan Evne series, and AlexanderMandelbaums Be-Mesila N6ale).

Luzzattos wide contemporary appeal is facilitated by his elo-quent synthesis between the two major theoretical moves ofEuropean modern Kabbalah: The psychological and the political.16

This re-interpretation of classical kabbalistic concepts in this-worldlyterms of psychic and political powers and processes began alreadyin the sixteenth century and has peaked in recent decades.

Here I shall not go into the psychological move, which is famouslyassociated with Hasidism, but in my view should be seen against thewider Western background of the rise of the religion of the heart inthe seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. I am currently preparing abook on the psychological theory of modern Kabbalah, where I hopeto show that the importance of the heart and soul within the overalleconomy of kabbalistic discourse profoundly increased with the tran-sition to modernity, as part of the wider process of development ofnew forms of modern selfhood. Here, I shall stress the political move,

glimmerings of which are found already in Lurias writings and trulydeveloped in the seventeenth century by Loewe, R. Isaiah Horowitzand R. Naftali Bakhrah, peaking later with Luzzatto and the circle ofR. Elijah of Vilna and triumphing in twentieth century circles, espe-cially that of R. Kook.

8 Jonathan Garb


9/22


10/22

understood in turn in vitalistic terms, as seen clearly in the followingtext from Valles early period:

God gave power and spirit of life to man according to his place andtime and government. To the individual he gave little spirit, enoughto govern himself. To the head of the household somewhat more,so as to govern his house. To the head of the city or the state more,enough for all men of the state. And to the king most of all, so thathe may be worthy of governing all matters of the kingdom with goodtaste and reason. And this is what Samuel told Saul when he becameking: and you shall be turned into a new man [1 Sam, 10:6] for heliterally received a new spirit when he transformed from a commonerto a king . . . and all the more so for the king, the Messiah, who willrule the entire world, who needs a great spirit which encompasses all

matters of governance.21

Here, the figure of the Messiah, which Tishby almost exclusivelyfocused on, is subsumed within a wider reflection on the ratiobetween power, as vitality, and government (hanhaga), perhaps themost central term in Luzzattos thought. Indeed, in his commentaryon the proof text from Samuel (and on the chapter in which it isembedded), Valle describes the added pneumatic power and adher-ence (dvekut) of the kings soul to the upper world which accompanyhis necessary transformation upon assuming the royal role. It appearsthat this description echoes Valles own self-perception as a mysticalMessiah.22 However, one should not only read this text merely interms of individual self-perception, but also in the broader culturalframe offered here: The paternalistic move from the head of thehousehold to the king echoes other religiouspolitical Italian thinkersof his time, such as Ludovico Antonio Muratori (16721750) ofModena.23

In further reflecting on this text, one should especially note

the place of the city at the center of this set of concentric circles ofempowerment and transformation. Indeed, Valles reflections onpublic life are closely related to his thought on the urban, as well asto political economy, the centerpiece of political thought in eighteenthcentury Italy. In another early text, Valle describes the public inorganic terms as a facial configuration (partzuf)in Lurianic termsand a body comprised of limbs: The wise and the leaders are theaspect of the head, those who carry the burden are the aspect of theshoulders, all artisans are the aspect of the hands and all those who

travel in service of the public (tsorkhei tsibur) are the aspect of the feet. Valle then moves from the concept of the public as corporatebody, a commonplace of political thought of his time, to themakeup of urban life: Observe again and note His general and indi-vidual Providence: That he directed the hearts of all men to take up

10 Jonathan Garb


11/22

different trades, so that each city will be comprised of all that is ofgeneral need, and thus with goods and food. For you see that thepeasants who work the land enter the city, one bringing with him

one item and one another . . . and their intention is undoubtedlyonly for their own benefit, and God has calculated this for the generalgood.24 The Lurianic model of interconnected structures is translatedhere into a theory of the general good emerging through the hiddenhand of providence from the free operations of the market and fromdivision of labor.

Several decades before Adam Smiths The Wealth of Nations,a Jewish contemporary of prominent pro-regulation thinkers such asAntonio Genovesi and Ferdinando Galiani enlisted a metaphysical

theory against the prevalent Mercantilist critique of the free marketand its assumption of a zero sum game of conflicting interests. Oneshould situate Valle, as marking the beginnings of the Golden Ageof economic theory in eighteenth century Italy, in which public hap-piness (pubblica felicita), and the reciprocal nature of the market werekey concepts. His specific mention of agriculture could hint at a con-nection (somewhat rare in the Italian context) to the Physiocrats, who

joined alascera-fare approach with an insistence on agriculture as thesole source of wealth (as opposed to the mercantilist privileging of

trade over agriculture).25

Indeed, elsewhere Valle identifies agricultur-al labor with the rectification of the Sekhinah, the main theurgicalproject of Luzzattos circle, as shown by Elliot Wolfson.26

At this point, a methodological clarification is called for: Myapproach, though far from narrow positivism, differs somewhat fromthat of New Historicism, despite my sympathy for the later approach(and especially its application to Kabbalah research on the part ofMagid). I assume the influence of surrounding cultural, social andeconomic trends only where the text itself makes an explicit or virtu-

ally explicit allusion to them. Furthermore, as we shall see towards theend of our case study, I do not assume that Jewish discourse operatesin the precise time frame of general trends, and thus seek to distancemyself from the proximist approach, as Idel has termed it. In myconcluding remarks, I shall further address the complex question ofthe relationship between extra-Jewish influence and internal Jewishdevelopments.

This method of adhering to the text can be further exemplifiedthrough a slightly later discussion devoted specifically to the city,

where Valle extends and embellishes the midrashickabbalistic modelof the two cities of Jerusalem, supernal and temporal (which hasfamous parallels in early Christian thought). In including all cities inthis model, he posits that the supernal is literally the soul of the tem-poral, so that all towns in the world have a supernal counterpart.27



12/22

This move enables him to merge this reflection with hisapocalyptic-messianic vision of the fall of the power of governmentof the forces of evil, which he discussed in an adjacent passage:

At the time when God desires to subjugate the Other Side, Hethen also wishes to destroy their locales both above and below andall the more so the places which are the metropolii (metropolin) ofimpurity, both above and below, such as Rome above and Romebelow, Constantinople above and Constantinople below.28

The general notion of the supernal as the soul of the temporal isalso the key to understanding Valles views on the soul of countries,and especially the Holy Land. Generally speaking, Valle devoted farlengthier discussions to this topic than Luzzatto, despite the influence

of the latter on topocentric schools such as R. Kooks. This importantissue will be touched on below, yet cannot be discussed in depth inthis study. However, one should note Valles innovative claim that thesoul of the Holy Land resides on the Jews in Exile, and it is thisconnection which ensures that the body of the land will remainbarren while under foreign rule and will eventually return to the

Jews in the messianic era.29

Valles interest in cities was not restricted to metropolii. Hedevoted two pages of an early text to the northern Italian cities, and

especially to his own Padua: The latter is demonized as the powerfulaspect of the wisdom of the husks (hokhmat ha-qelipah), associated withthe archetypical arch-enemy of Amalek. This power explains thefar-reaching reputation of the city, which was used to lure many peo-ples with harlotry, as well as the cruelty of its masses, and especiallyits leaders. Indeed there is no kingdom as cruel and exceedinglyproud.30

Delving knowledgably into the earlier history of the town, Vallewrites that generations ago the fierce dogs were greatly exalted, and

above all Ezzelino [de Romano, 1194-1259] the cruel, most wicked ofthem all (and described in many accounts as a rabid dog or thedog Ezzelino). However, this situation improved greatly once Paduacame under Venetian rule (1405), as Venice, the princes of Edom,corresponds to a more sweetened (in kabbalistic terms) and exaltedaspect of Amalek, so that peace was restored.

One should not regard this discussion of the aspect of Amalekas purely theoretical, as in a later text Valle describes the biblicalcommand to erase the memory of Amalek as a prophetic promise,

which is fulfilled gradually. According to this text, The matter ofthe promise of the erasure of Amalek is not performed at once, butagain and again throughout the generations . . . for in one year one ofits aspects is erased and in another year a different aspect, untilthe year of the redemption in which the erasure of all levels shall

12 Jonathan Garb


13/22

be completed. It is likely that Valle viewed the transition of powerfrom one Italian city to another in these terms. As he puts it there,Amalek is the fiercest enemy of Gods kingdom, so that it would only

be logical for a circle of messianic kabbalists to be located in the citieswhich represent its highest aspects.31

This reading is also apparent in Valles treatment of Venice,identified with the aspect of Understanding (binah) of impurity. Thispositioning, described as closer to the realm of holiness, rendersthe leaders of the city wise and its judgments or negative aspects,sweetened. As a result, it will be the first city to submit itself to therule of the Messiah, with whom Valle himself identified, as shownalready by Tishby. The reason for this positioning in his spatial

model of the metaphysical realm is the coastal location and navalpower of the city, as an image and reincarnation of the trading portof Tyre near the Land of Israel, a city whose pleasures Valle comparesto those of the Elysian Fields (Campi Elisi). Based on this parallel,one can deduce that Valle did not predict that the sweetness ofthe negativity of Venice will be long-lasting, for as he writes in alengthy text devoted to Tyre, Ezekiel prophesized that in the redemp-tive process God will remove the sweet aspects of the city, leaving onlythe harsh, unsweetened judgments.

In political terms, the details of Valles interpretation of thisprophecy entail a transition from wise leaders (similar to the currentrulers of Venice) to proud and foolish ones. As a result of their errors,rather than being a hub for maritime traders and dignitaries, Tyre willbe despoiled by a coalition of the very same nations who contributedin the citys success. The reason for this harsh judgment is that God isespecially rigorous with the powers that are closer to the Jews, just asTyre was close to the Holy Land.32

Here we see that as cities have souls, they can also be reincar-

nated, and I know of no parallel to such a concept in Jewish mysticalliterature on the soul. Indeed, this text is cross-referenced by Valle inhis previous theoretical exposition on the soul of the city, and in anadjacent discussion he writes that the individual soul resides in theHereafter in the supernal counterpart of the city in which it dwelled.One should also mention the gendered dimension of Valles readingof both Venice and Tyre, which rests on Valles general inclination todescribe nations in feminine terms. Even more than in Padua, prosti-tution is described as rife in Venice, the ruling harlot of cities (just

as Tyre was the whoring woman).33

In an adjacent discussion of north Italian cities, Valle bemoansthe lure of prostitution for the Jews of the town, who are exiled inthis husk. Venice, has taken the secret of the evil kisses, so that itsconduct is that of flattery, which forms part of his definition of the



14/22

false nature of human politics, as we have seen in the beginning of ourcase study. On the other hand, the foulmouthed and evil-hearted resi-dents of Padua cannot speak peacefully to each other, their visage is

that of dogs, and thus they have taken the secret of the bite.The description of the Paduans as dogs may echo his description

elsewhere of the demonic nature of rebels with similar canine images,in turn a possible allusion to the revolt of 1509 against Venice.34

Valles interest in history is predictable in the age of Gibbon, Vico,and Voltaire, yet he retains metaphysical interpretations which werealready of decreasing popularity in his time and which would moreproperly belong to the Baroque.35 In other words, despite the clearsigns of influence of extra-Jewish cultural trends in Valles writing, one

should not expect Jewish circles to be entirely synchronized with thetime-frame of their surroundings.

The image of the Cortezan of Venice, though actually morerelevant for slightly earlier periods, was a commonplace in Europeandiscourse, as was the trope of flattery, prominent famously in a latesixteenth century portrayalThe Merchant of Venice. However, it isimportant to observe how Valle blends it with his attempt to preservea demonic image of even this relatively benign Gentile center. Vallesextensive discussions of gender and sexuality cannot detain us here,

yet their place in the overall economy of his discourse must be under-lined. The constant employment of metaphysical models to describespecific locations and structures in his own world, especially Italy,is a trademark of Valles writing, and exemplifies the conflation ofother-worldly and this-worldly discourse in modern Kabbalah. I amnot familiar with any previous kabbalistic text which reveals such inter-est in local history. One should also note the fierce demonization ofthe Gentile world, described at times as animals.

Valles views on the latter can be best appreciated by recalling

that in a text cited above, he wrote of Rome and Constantinople asthe two centers of impurity which will be destroyed in the future. Ofcourse, at the time of his writing, the latter city had been in Muslimhands for over 250 years, and re-named variously as Konstantiniye andStamboul. However, what was important for Valle was the traditionaldual structure of Esau and Ishmael as the main representatives of theforces of impurity. In a later discussion devoted to the precise place ofIshmael in this scheme, Valle opens with the animal imagery that wehave seen in our text: the husk (qelipah) is considered only as an

animal, for holiness alone is the secret of Man, and Ishmael on themothers side was of the root of the husk, and on the fathers side ofthe root of holiness, so that he had an admixture of Man and beast.36

Ishmaels median status accounts for Ishmaels limited adherenceto holiness, as exemplified in a gendered manner through his

14 Jonathan Garb


15/22

imperfect circumcision, which grants his descendants kingdom anddominion in this world, or as Valle put it elsewhere, all forms ofsuccess in worldly matters.37 One should recall that at the time of

the composition of Valles later works, in the mid-eighteenth century,the Ottoman Empire, though no longer at the height of its power, wasnot yet the sick man of Europe, being quite strong in economicterms, recently defeating Russia and gaining Belgrade from Austria.

An alternative formulation offered there, echoing the text on thesoul of cities that we saw above, is that while Esau resides in the mostdegraded realm of the external aspect of the world of souls, Ishmaelresides in its higher aspect and thus merits domination of the Land ofIsrael, albeit in a state of infertility and ruin, as we have also seen

above. However, Ishmael, contaminated as he is with filth, has notaccess to the interior aspect, which is reserved for the Jews. Vallerepeatedly wrote that true adherence to the divine is restricted tothe Jews, who are perfectly circumcised, so that the kingdom of theuncircumcised is a sham.38 While similar locutions, on Esau andIshmael, and on the Gentiles in general, are frequent, especially inthe gendered mode, in various periods of kabbalistic writing (asdescribed at length by Elliot Wolfson), they intensified in themodern period.39

Our case study demonstrates, to conclude, that kabbalistic dis-course cannot be disengaged from the extra-Jewish context. Onesuch context is localthe Italian Illuminismo. Although this intellectualrenaissance took place mainly in the Neapolitan area, nonetheless anorthern thinker like Valle was clearly influenced by it, if only by wayof osmosis. However, some scholars have insisted that the ItalianEnlightenment must be viewed within a broader European context.40

Indeed, the circle of Luzatto can be seen as an international network,as it included his close student R. Yekutiel Gordon of Vilna, whose

correspondence with Vienna provoked the famous polemic surround-ing Luzzatto and his works, which in turn involved figures from vari-ous centers in Europe. In this debate, Luzzatto was supported byR. Raphael KimAi, the emissary from Safed. Luzattos later trajectory,which included Germany, Holland and Palestine, also expressed theinternational nature of his career, as did the eventual reception of hisworks in Eastern Europe, which was facilitated by Gordon. It is alsointeresting to note that this broader orientation, as expressed in theconnection with Gordon, was criticized by R. Isaiah Bass6an, whom

some, perhaps incorrectly, have described as Luzzattos teacher.41

As Randal Collins has noted in his pioneering study of intellectualnetworks, the development of such networks, or philosophicalmeta-territoriality, was a characteristic of early modernity. However,Collins, like many others, ignores Italy, as well as missing the specific



16/22

intensification of trans-regional networks during what Franco Venturihas termed the cosmopolitan century.42 Valles mystical experience,such as his identification with the soul of King David (which I hope

to discuss at length elsewhere) cannot be divorced from his reflectionson politics and public life in general. Although I cannot describe

Valles mystical biography in detail here, it must be noted that itwas precisely in the formative early period (of collaboration withLuzzatto), in which he intensively developed his mystical-messianicself-perception, when he composed most of the political reflectionscited above.

Thus, alongside with the specific implications of such contextualiz-ing moves for the study of modern Kabbalah (which are virtually

absent in existing studies of Luzzattos circle), Valles exampleweighs in favor of the contextualistic approach to the study of mysticallife and experience, as developed mainly by Steven Katz.43 Vallestendency to refer to specific local details is especially valuable whencompared to the anonymous medieval texts mentioned above, whichlend themselves far more easily to decontextualized readings. Indeed,it is regrettable that despite the far greater historical and culturaldetail available for the modern period, most researchers writing onmodern Kabbalah, especially in Israel, tend to place their studies

within an exclusively Jewish framework.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

By way of conclusion, I wish to return to the state of research onmodern Jewish discourse and especially to the simple bibliographicalfact mentioned above: The majority of Jewish writings and specifically

kabbalistic writings are modern.44

If one peruses the GershomScholem Library catalogue, which quite accurately reflects the stateof research up to 1997, one finds a striking inversion: Most primarytexts are modern, and most secondary texts deal with the pre-modern.Gries has accurately placed this literary explosion within the broadercontext of the history of Jewish writing, as opposed to the approachof Scholem, who separated Kabbalah from other branches of Jewishdiscourse, especially through his intense focus on Sabbateanism andother antinomian phenomena.

Doing justice to the vast literature of modern Kabbalah thusrequires several convergent moves. Modern Kabbalah should bestudied as an independent area of investigation, which should notbe detached from earlier forms of Jewish mysticism, yet must beappreciated within the broader contexts of modern Jewish discourse

16 Jonathan Garb


17/22

and of modernity in general. One result of this program would be toend the prevalent enclosure of Hasidism as a semi-autonomousdomain of study, a practice which has no real textual or historical

justification.Understanding kabbalistic literature within the modern context

brings us to the broader question of the relationship between thedevelopment of mystical expressions and the background of modern-ization, which is often equated with secularization. This was indeed thedirection initiated by the historian Jacob Katz, who should be creditedwith rebelling against the classic approach of Jewish studies by promot-ing a sociological approach focused, predictably, on modernity.Another highly significant move on the part of Katz was to conjoin

the study of Kabbalah and Halachah, as in his monograph bearing thistitle. However, my sense is that we are entering a post-Katzian epochin scholarship, as signaled by a recent critical collection of essays onhis historiography.45

I wish to relate this critique to the topic at hand. Sorotzkin andmyself (especially in my recently submitted manuscript, ShamanicTrance in Modern Kabbalah), have questioned the Katzian assumptionthat Jewish modernity is essentially a process of secularization, insti-gated by extra-Jewish influences, cultural and social. We have also

questioned the accompanying assumption that so-called Orthodoxdiscourse, or in other words most of modern Jewish writing, is aresponse to secularization. The current Katzian orthodoxy actuallygoes so far as to describe parts of modern Kabbalah as conservative,reactionary and declining.46 In contradistinction, Sorotzkin and I havefollowed the model of multiple modernities, developed by a giant ofIsraeli social science, Shmuel N. Eisenstadt.47 I believe that this emer-ging scholarly vision is also supported by Kahanas work on radicaland mystical elements in the halachic works of R. Moshe Sofer,

supposedly a stalwart of Orthodox reaction.Based on this model, one can see Jewish modernity as an inde-

pendent variant of modernization, which is not at all bound to followthe general trajectory of modernity. Although of course there areresponsive elements in this process, these are far from exhaustingthe creative aspects of modern Jewish discourse, which have also influ-enced non-Jewish modern thought at times. The model of multiplicityshould be extended, so as to differentiate between various forms of

Jewish modernization. Thus, secularization is but one vector, while

mystical revitalization, as exemplified in the proliferation of modernKabbalah, is another.48 Furthermore, one should distinguish betweenvarious regions and periods, rather than assuming an uniform pattern.Actually, appreciating mystical modernity does not at all preclude rec-ognition of extra-Jewish influences, which we have foregrounded here,



18/22

as there were similar forms of mystical modernization in other culturalworlds, including the above-mentioned religion of the heart, the variedtexts assembled by Michael De Certeau (whose analysis is essentially

similar to that offered here), various Russian developments and paral-lel Sufi trends.49 To opt for a far-ranging comparison, the nineteenthcentury Rime movement in Tibet can likewise be understood as amodern re-organization of mystical life.50 In these terms, the currentmystical revival should be seen not merely as a response to late cap-italism, though this is of course a factor, nor as somehow skippingcenturies and going back to the Renaissance, nor again as merelyreflecting the Romantic stream in modern culture.51 Rather it canbe viewed, as in the Jewish context, in terms of the ongoing develop-

ment of mystical modernities, or to use a phrase current already in thefourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Devotio moderna.52

THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM

NOTES

1. Gershom Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah, 16261676(Princeton, 1976).

2. For Scholems view on the last centuries of Kabbalah, see alsoBoaz Huss, Ask No Questions: Gershom Scholem and the Study ofContemporary Jewish Mysticism, Modern Judaism, Vol. 25, No. 2 (2005),pp. 141158.

3. There were a few notable exceptions, such as Isaiah Tishbysimportant but unfinished work on the circle of Luzzatto [Messianic

Mysticism: Moses Hayyim Luzzatto and the Padua School, trans. M. Hoffman(Oxford, 2008)] and Rachel Eliors study, R. Nathan Adler and the

Controversy Surrounding him, In Mysticism, Magic and Kabbalah in Ashkenazi Judaism, (eds.), Karl E. Grozinger and Joseph Dan (Berlin,1995), pp. 223242.

4. See Moshe Idel, KabbalahNew Perspectives (New Haven, 1988),pp. 256260.

5. Shaul Magid, From Metaphysics to Midrash: Myth, History and the Interpretation of Scripture in Lurianic Kabbalah (Bloomington, 2008);Haviva Pedaya, Two Types of Ecstatic Experience in Hasidism, Daat,No. 55 (2005), pp. 9495 [Hebrew]; idem, Some Notes on The LatestPhase in The Latest Phase: Essays on Hasidism by Gershom Scholem, (eds.),

David Assaf and Esther Liebes (Jerusalem, 2008) [Hebrew], pp. 2529(as well as below).

6. Scholem, Kabbalah (Jerusalem, 1974), pp. 7486.7. See Zeev Gries, The Book as an Agent of Culture, 17001900 (Tel

Aviv, 2002) [Hebrew]; Maoz Kahana, The Chatam Sofer: A Decisor in his

18 Jonathan Garb


19/22

Own Eyes, Tarbiz_, No. 76 (2007), pp. 519556 [Hebrew]; DavidSorotzkin, The Super-Temporal Community in an Age of Change: TheEmergence of Conceptions of Time and the Collective as the Basis for the

Development of Jewish Orthodoxy in Early and Late Modern Europe,PhD diss., The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2007. [Hebrew]; RoniWeinstein, Juvenile Sexuality, Kabbalah, and Catholic Religiosity among

Jewish Italian Communities. Glory of Youth by Pinhas Baruch b. PelatyaMonselice (Ferrara, XVII Century (Leiden, 2009).

8. See Moshe Idel, On Mobility, Individuals and Groups:Prolegomenon for a Sociological Approach to Sixteenth-CenturyKabbalah, Kabbalah: Journal for the Study of Jewish Mystical Texts,No. 3 (1998), pp. 145173; Jonathan Garb, The Cult of the Saintsin Lurianic Kabbalah, Jewish Quarterly Review, No. 98 (2008),

pp. 203229; Pedaya, Two Types of Ecstatic Experience in Hasidism,"pp. 9598.

9. See Boaz Huss, The Formation of Jewish Mysticism and Its Impacton the Reception of Rabbi Abraham Abulafia in ContemporaryKabbalah, in Religion and its Other, (eds.), Heike Bock and others(Frankfurt, 2008), pp. 142162.

10. Adam Afterman, Intimate Conjunction with God: The Concept ofDvekut in the Early Kabbalah (Provence and Catalonia), PhD diss., TheHebrew University of Jerusalem, 2008. [Hebrew]; Sandra Valabregue-Perry, Chapters on the Concept of Eyn Sof (Infinity) in Theosophical

Kabbalah: From Isaac the Blind to Isaac of Acre, PhD diss., The HebrewUniversity of Jerusalem, 2008. [Hebrew]; and David Blumenthal,

Philosophic Mysticism: Studies in Rational Religion (Ramat Gan, 2006).11. See for now Jonathan Garb, On the Kabbalists of Prague,

Kabbalah: Journal for the Study of Jewish Mystical Texts, No. 14 (2006),pp. 347383, [Hebrew] as well as below.

12. Gershom Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (New York,1941), p. 38; Moshe Hallamish, Kabbalah in Liturgy, Halakhah andCustoms (Ramat Gan, 2000). [Hebrew]; Meir Qadosh, Kabbalistic Jewish

Laws in Responsa from the 13th Century to the Early Years of the 17thCentury, Ph.D diss., Bar Ilan University. Ramat Gan, 2004. [Hebrew];Komiko Yayama, The Singing of the Baqqashot of the Aleppo JewishTradition in Jerusalem, PhD diss., The Hebrew University of Jerusalem,2003. [Hebrew]

13. See Elliot Wolfson, Open Secret: A Postmodern Reading of Menachem Mendel Schneerson (New York, 2009); Jonathan Garb, TheChosen will Become Herds: Studies in Twentieth Century Kabbalah(New Haven, 2009).

14. See Boaz Huss, Like the Radiance of the Sky: Chapters in the Reception

History of the Zohar and the Construction of its Symbolic Value (Jerusalem,2008). [Hebrew]; Daniel Abrams, The Invention of the Zohar as aBook: On the Assumptions and Expectations of the Kabbalists andModern Scholars, Kabbalah: Journal for the Study of Jewish Mystical Texts,No. 19 (2009), pp. 7142.



20/22

15. Elhanan Reiner, Wealth, Social Position and the Study of Torah:The Status of the Kloiz in Eastern European Society in the Early ModernPeriod, Zion, No. 58 (1993), pp. 287328.

16. See Jonathan Garb, Rabbi Kook and his Sources: FromKabbalistic Historiosophy to National Mysticism, in Studies in Modern Religions, Religious Movements and the Babi-Bahai Faiths, (ed.), M. Sharon(Leiden, 2004), pp. 7796, as well as Raphael Shuchat, A World Hidden inthe Dimensions of Time: The Theory of Redemption in the Writings of the VilnaGaon: Its Sources and Influence on Later Generations (Ramat Gan, 2008).[Hebrew]. This European modernization of Kabbalah was rejected bymany Sephardi kabbalists, as can be observed in texts ranging fromthe attacks on Naftali Bakrakh in the seventeenth century to recentpolemics by the prominent R. Ya6akov Moshe Hillel (in his Shorshei

Ha-Yam series).17. For the former, see, e.g., Moshe David Valle, Likutim, Vol. 1

(Jerusalem, 1998), pp. 64, 7374, 85, 93.18. Idem, Commentary on Psalms, Vol. 2 (Jerusalem, 2008), pp. 267268.

See also idem, Mosi6a Hosim: Commentary on Samuel (Jerusalem, 1998),p. 73.

19. Idem, Teshu6at Olamim: Commentary on Isaiah (Jerusalem, 1999),p. 36.

20. Idem , Or Olam: Commentary on Genesis, Vol. 1 (Jerusalem, 2001),p. 199.

21. Idem, Likutim, Vol. 1, p. 113.22. Idem, Mosi6a Hosim, pp. 7074.23. See, e.g., Till Wahnbaeck, Luxury and Public Happiness: Political

Economy in the Italian Enlightenment (Oxford, 2004), p. 57.24. Valle, Likutim, Vol. 1, p. 442.25. See Lars Magnusson, Mercantilism: The Shaping of an Economic

Language (London, 1994), pp. 199200; Wahnbaeck, Luxury and Public Happiness: Political Economy in the Italian Enlightenment; ErnestoScrepanti and Stefano Zamagni, An Outline of the History of Economic

Thought, 2nd ed., trans. D. Field and L. Kirby (Oxford, 2005), pp. 5863; T. J. Hochstrasser, Physiocracy and the Politics of Laissez-faire, inThe Cambridge History of Political Thought, (eds.), Mark Goldie and RobertWokler (Cambridge, 2006), p. 439.

26. Valle, Teshu6at Olamim, p. 26.27. Compare to James Hillman, City and Soul (Dallas, 2006).28. Valle, Teshu6at Olamim, p. 31, and see also idem, Commentary on the

Five Scrolls (Jerusalem, 1988), p. 150.29. Idem, Brit Olam: Commentary on Exodus, Vol. 1 (Jerusalem, 2001),

pp. 226227.

30. Idem, Likutim, Vol. 1, pp. 386387. For theoretical and politicaldiscussions of cruelty, see idem, Commentary on the Five Scrolls, pp. 89, 167,181182, 186187.

31. Idem, Brit Olam, Vol. 1, p. 265. See also idem, Commentary on theFive Scrolls, p. 140.

20 Jonathan Garb


21/22

32. Idem, Mamlekhet Kohanim: Commentary on Ezekiel (Jerusalem, 2008),pp. 212233. Compare to idem, Commentary on the Five Scrolls, p. 130.

33. Idem, Mamlekhet Kohanim, p. 215, and compare to p. 121.

34. Idem, Or Olam, Vol. 1, pp. 200201.35. On the question of Luzzatto, the Baroque and the Englightenment,see Israel Bartal, On Periodization, Mysticism and Enlightenment TheCase of Moses Hayyim Luzzatto, Simon Dubnow Institute Yearbook, No. 6(2007), pp. 201214. On the central role of the supernatural in Baroquepolitical thought, see Peter Rietbergen, Power and Religion in Baroque

Rome: Barberini Cultural Policies (Leiden, 2006).36. Moshe David Valle, Or Olam, Vol. 1, pp. 225226 and compare to

idem, Commentary on the Five Scrolls, pp. 94, 192, as well as the moregeneral statement in idem, Commentary on the Minor Prophets (Jerusalem,

2009), p. 489.37. Idem, Or Olam, p. 242.38. See, e.g., ibid, pp. 233, 236, 240241, and compare to idem,

Commentary on the Five Scrolls, pp. 192, 194.39. See Elliot Wolfson, Venturing BeyondLaw and Morality in Kabbalistic

Mysticism (Oxford, 2006), especially pp. 129165. On Luzzatto and gender,see idem, Tiqqun Ha-Sekhinah: Redemption and the Overcoming ofGender Diomorphism in the Messianic Kabbalah of Moses HayyimLuzatto, History of Religions, No. 36 (1997), pp. 289332.

40. John Robertson, The Enlightenment above National Context:

Political Economy in Eighteenth-Century Scotland and Naples, The Historical Journal, No. 40 (1997), pp. 667697. Cf. Roy Porter andMikulas Teich, (eds.), The Enlightenment in National Context (Cambridge,1981).

41. Mordekhai Chriqui, (ed.), Letters of Ramhal and his Generation(Jerusalem, 2001), p. 39 (Letter No. 13).

42. Randal Collins, The Sociology of Philosophies (Cambridge, MA, 1998),especially pp. 575617; Franco Venturi, Italy and the Enlightenment: Studiesin a Cosmopolitan Century, trans. S. Corsi (New York, 1972). See also Paul

Korshin et al., (eds.), The Widening Circle: Essays on the Circulation of Literature in eighteenth-century Europe (Philadelphia, 1976). Compare toHaviva Pedaya, The Ba6al Shem Tovs Iggeret Ha-Kodesh: TowardsA Critique of the Textual Version and an Exploration of the Conver-gence of the World Picture: Messianism, Revelation, Ecstasy and theSabbatean Background, Zion, No. 70 (2005), p. 343. [Hebrew]

43. For a comprehensive review and evaluation of the positions on thisquestion, see Jesse Byron Hollenback, Mysticism: Experience, Response and

Empowerment (Philadelphia, 1996), pp. 217, 7593.44. One can get a sense of the scope of material in just one textual

domainthe Lurianic corpus and its later commentaries and rescissionsthrough the recent massive project of Joseph Avivi, Kabbala Luriana(Jerusalem, 2008), Vols 12. [Hebrew]

45. See Israel Bartal and Shmuel Feiner, (eds.), Historiography Reappraised: New Views of Jacob Katzs Oeuvre (Jerusalem, 2008). [Hebrew]



22/22

46. See, e.g., Mendel Piekraz, Between Ideology and Reality: Humility, Ayin, Self-Negation and Devekut in Hasidic Thought (Jerusalem, 1994).[Hebrew], pp. 142, 147.

47. Shmuel N. Eisenstadt, Comparative Civilizations and MultipleModernities (Leiden, 2003).48. See Philip Wexler, Mystical Interactions: Sociology, Jewish Mysticism

and Education (Los Angeles, 2007), pp. 8790.49. Michel de Certeau, The Mystic Fable, Volume 1: The Sixteenth and

Seventeenth Centuries, trans. Michael Smith (Chicago, 1992).50. See Geoffrey Samuel, Civilized Shamans: Buddhism in Tibetian

Societies (Washington, DC, 1993), especially pp. 536531.51. See, e.g., Jeremy Carrette and Richard King, Selling Spirituality: The

Silent Takeover of Religion (London, 2005); Walter Hanegraaff, New Age

Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought(Albany, 1998); and Paul Heelas, Spiritualities of Life: New Age

Romanticism and Consumptive Capitalism (Oxford, 2008), pp. 2546.52. Hein Blommestijn, Charles Caspers and Rijcklof Hofman, (eds.),

Spirituality Renewed: Studies on Significant Representatives of the ModernDevotion, (Leuven, 2003).

22 Jonathan Garb

garb the modernization of kabbalah

Documents