Recently, Orthodox Jews, who had gathered to have fun in honor of the anniversary of the death of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, staged a stampede, as a result of which half a hundred participants in the celebration were crushed and three times the same number were seriously injured. This was not a terrorist attack at all. It was just that someone slipped on the steps of one of the narrow streets of the town of Meron, after which a hundred thousand crowd of die-hard followers of Kabbalah immediately fell on him.
What is the meaning of Lag B'Omer? Shimon Bar Yochai, a disciple of Rabbi Akiva and the author of the book of Zohar, having died on this day almost two thousand years ago, managed to bequeath to his followers to celebrate and have fun on the day of his death, since on this day the disciples of Rabbi Akiva, a sage of the first century, “stopped dying” AD, who taught that our life is a shop in which everything is issued on bail.
The Book of Zohar is worthy of a separate article. For now, we'll focus on another aspect of the Meron Stampede. All the people who came to the celebrations from different parts of Israel, as well as from other countries, were united by a common goal, or rather, aspiration. This desire, if we try to describe it briefly, is expressed in confidence, or better yet, hope, to achieve, by the end of one’s life, an understanding of the secret encrypted in the teaching called “Kabbalah.”
Kabbalah is a kind of accompanying material to the initial part of the Old Testament, namely its first five books (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy), the purpose of which is to reveal a certain secret meaning contained in these works of ancient Jewish folklore.
Why is a separate teaching needed in order to understand the meaning that is supposedly “encrypted” in the stories invented by shepherds who once roamed the expanses of the Sinai Peninsula? If you have not yet tried to read the Bible, do not start with the first book, Genesis, which, in fact, is nothing more than a continuation of traditions that developed back in the days of the ancient Sumerian civilizations. Try reading Leviticus instead. There is no doubt that this book, which describes in detail the procedures for making sacrifices, will raise a lot of questions in you. The teachings of Kabbalah may be intended to answer some of them. At the same time, for some people, reading Leviticus just clears up their questions. Moreover, it removes it once and for all, making it clear how one should generally treat any religious work.
Another book to try is Numbers, the fourth in the Pentateuch of Moses series. In addition to making sacrifices, it describes how the Jews considered each other, and also gives instructions on how to properly carry the Ark of the Covenant and who can approach it and who should not.
It is difficult to estimate the percentage of people who have read all five of these books in full. Most likely it is not so great, because this task is quite difficult. However, compared to reading the Kabbalah, the Pentateuch is just a cakewalk. Trying to imagine a person reading Kabbalah and claiming at the same time that he understands what it is about is not easy. The imagination immediately begins to draw not very happy images.
Here, for example, is the beginning of the chapter "Vaetse", the first stanza of 175 stanzas in this book:
"And Jacob left Beersheba and went to Haran"
For reference: Jacob is the son of Isaac, the same one whom his father, Abram, almost killed as a sacrifice to the Jewish god Yahweh. And this is the same Jacob who, at the instigation of his mother, Rebekah, took possession of his father’s blessing by deception and was forced to flee home (went to Haran), fearing retribution from his brother, the red Esau, for whom this blessing was intended (details here).
But what follows next in the chapter of "Vaets", the wise book of Kabbalah, after the mention of this glorious descendant of Abraham? Try to think about this text:
1) “And Jacob left Beersheba and went to Haran” [1]. Rabbi Chiya said: “And Jacob came out” means rising, just as the sun comes out. "Be'er Sheva" is Bina, from which ZA receives her light. "Haran" - Nukva receiving the light of the sun, ZA. And it says: “And the sun rises, and the sun sets, and rushes to its place where it rises” [2]. “And the sun rises” is Yaakov, Zeir Anpin, when he was in Beersheba, i.e. in Bina. “And the sun goes down” - when he went to Haran, and this is Nukva ZA. As it is said: “And he reached that place, and he spent the night there, for the sun had set” [3]. “And it rushes to its place where it ascends” [2]. As it is said: “And he lay down in that place” [3]. The Nukva is called a “place,” and there he rushes and shines.”
2) Although the sun shines on the whole world, its movements are directed only in two directions: it goes south and turns north. For the south is the right line, and the north is the left line. And the sun rises and comes out every day from the east, and this is the property of itself, Tiphareth. And he goes to the south side, to the right line, Hesed. And then it turns to the north side, to the left line, Gevurah. That is, it includes the glow of these two lines. And from the north side it goes to the west side, Nukva. As it is said: “And he went to Haran.” The illumination indicated by the words: “And Jacob went out” is a perfect illumination, consisting of two lines, right and left, Hochma and Hassadim together.
3) Rabbi Shimon said: “He generally came out of the land of Israel, as it is written: “And Jacob came out of Beersheba” [1] - and this is the Nukva, which in its perfection is called the land of Israel. And he went to another possession, as it is written: “And he went to Haran” [1] - this is outside the land of Israel, and there is the power of another side (Sitra Achra).” Came out from the east, the middle line, which includes two lines - right and left. As it is written: “And Jacob went out from Beersheba” - shmita, Nukva. That is, he took from the highest depth, Bina, the light that shines and goes to the west. In other words, I took the light that goes to its setting in the west, and this is the left line without the right. As it is said: “And he went to Haran” - the place where judgment and wrath (charon) reside, the possession of the Sitra Achra, because the illumination of the left (line) without the right is the property of the Sitra Achra. And it goes towards its sunset until it stops completely due to the lack of light in the Hassadim of the right line, since Hochma cannot shine without Hassadim.
Beersheba, Bina, ZA, Haran, Nukva, Tiphareth, Hesed, Gevurah, Hochma, Charon, Sitra Achra, Hassadim…. What do these undoubtedly important terms mean and why can’t or won’t they be translated from Hebrew?
What does it mean to say that “Hochma cannot shine without Hassadim” or that the movements of the sun are “directed only in two directions”? And what are these luminous lines that “includes the glow of these two lines” and why “south is the right line, and north is the left line”? What does it even mean “Came out from the east, the middle line, which includes two lines – right and left”?
Note that this is only three paragraphs. You probably already guessed that all the other several thousand paragraphs of Kabbalah are no worse than these, taken at random. The main similarity between them is that any normal person to whom you suddenly, without preparation, give such a text to read, will look up at you in surprise, and then shrug his shoulders in bewilderment. He won't understand a single word. And you didn’t understand a single word, just like I, who re-read them many times. Please note that higher education and fifty years of life experience cannot help here.
"Here it is!" - serious followers of Kabbalah will say. "Of course!" - the Jews who were not suppressed in Meron will exclaim.
Yes, they are absolutely right: absolute incomprehensibility is a key property of Kabbalah. Let's say more, to be incomprehensible is its purpose, its goal. It is interesting that, being a teaching, it should, like any teaching, “teach” something, that is, give some useful skills that could then be applied in life. In any subject, especially a scientific one (yes, yes, Kabbalah is seriously considered a science), before starting to study it, the teacher usually explains what a student who has comprehended the wisdom of this science will be able to do, and what benefits it can bring him. However, what can Kabbalah “teach”?
Here is one of the descriptions of the “science of Kabbalah” given by the most active Russian-speaking Kabbalist, Michael Laitman (born Misha Leitman):
“The science of Kabbalah talks about the state in which a person is in another dimension - before birth in our world, before the appearance of the five sense organs in it, from what state he leaves after being in our world at each historical moment, in every cycle of your life."
Not bad, isn't it? “Science” talks about what dimension a person is in before the appearance of his five organs...
A huge number of similar pearls are available on his website kabbalah.info. This electrical engineer, who graduated from the Leningrad ZPI (correspondence polytechnic institute), without a shadow of a doubt and without even blushing, dumps tons of similar sophisms on his endless web pages. In particular, he states without hesitation that “Einstein dreamed of finding a formula that would include absolutely the entire universe, with all its details. He understood that if it was true, it should be very transparent: the interaction between several parameters through a simple functional dependence. Kabbalah leads us to this formula, which clarifies everything."
Poor Einstein, did he realize that the TRUE universe must be VERY transparent? It would be interesting to ask Mr. Laitman to draw on paper the nonsense that he sees in his imagination, spewing out these strange maxims. But, most likely, he doesn’t know how to draw either.
Remember, “And Jacob went out from Beersheba,” which translated into Kabbalah means “Hochma cannot shine without Hassadim”? These, apparently, are parts of the “formula” that “includes absolutely the entire universe, with all its details.”
Obviously, Kabbalah is needed not at all for its understanding (what kind of magician would want the audience to understand exactly how he is fooling them), but for being in some kind of endless, but always solemn and pompous process of pouring from empty to empty. At the same time, due to the fact that the text itself is 100% unclear and completely indefinite, a commentator is always needed to chew on the meaning of phrases like “When the north side awakens, Gevurah ZA, the left line, it is said: I have his left under the head – i.e. Malchut receives ZA from the left line.”
A generally trusted source like Wikipedia defines the goal of Kabbalah as “the individual’s comprehension of the unity of reality in his sensation and consciousness.”
How often have you thought about the “unity of reality”? It is quite possible that you have never worried about the existence of such a problem. It's okay, don't blame yourself for that. This completely indicates your lack of curiosity. On the contrary, this is a good signal and, most likely, things are still not so bad with you. Of course, you can enroll in physics and become a cosmologist or even a quantum mechanic. Then, perhaps, these words will take on a certain meaning for you (without Jacob’s participation in it, of course), however, this path is certainly not for everyone (at least not for the author of this text). But unfamiliarity with the intricacies of the laws of thermodynamics or lack of understanding of the behavior of particles at the subatomic level should not lead you to the lair of charlatans.
Kabbalah is an esoteric teaching based on religious mysticism and using mainly occult methods. Esoteric is not a joke definition, which consists in affirming the existence of some hidden, transcendental level of sensation of reality, accessible only to selected individuals. It is achieved most easily by drug addicts, with, however, dire consequences for their health. A much less harmful way to achieve the same thing is to read Hermann Hesse's book The Glass Bead Game.
Studying Kabbalah is perhaps the most difficult and long path. Its adherents explain their complete incomprehensibility and confusion as a certain end in itself of this endeavor, lovingly calling it all a “secret.” Understanding the secret is very difficult, they say, and it takes years. However, the Kabbalists themselves will immediately explain to you that not one of them ever comprehended it, but only came slightly closer to this happy state.
Esotericism and religion are similar things in the sense that neither one nor the other can be proven or disproved. The existence of God correlates with reality in the same way as the existence of a hidden esoteric dimension: in neither case is it clear what exactly and where exactly should be absent or present.
It would seem that the situation should be simplified by the fact that Kabbalah is based on the Old Testament. However, unfortunately, the Old Testament is also poorly understood. It is true that it is incomprehensible, for a completely different reason. Unlike Kabbalah, whose words are meaningless in the eyes of any “uninitiated” person, the Old Testament is written in more or less clear language and reads like an old fairy tale, written by extremely ignorant people inhabiting ancient times. The problem with it is that it is completely unclear why it should be read at all in the 21st century. Yes, it was undoubtedly necessary for the ancient Jews, who carried the flag of the Torah as a symbol of the unity of their people around a common goal. This goal is quite unequivocally explained in Genesis as the dominance of God’s chosen people throughout the world. Naturally, Judaism did not become dominant, but continues to live in the form of 0.2% of the total believing population.
In general, in those days, every people worshiped some deity and considered themselves, to one degree or another, chosen. Since all these peoples, without the slightest exception, it seems, fought with each other for a place in the sun, the justification for the desire to destroy the enemy was most often the assertion that he worshiped the wrong gods. There simply wasn’t enough imagination for more. This is quite natural for a time when all the tiny information accumulated about the world around us was passed down orally from generation to generation in the form of these bearded legends about the global flood or the murder of one’s own children at the behest of the Almighty instructor. However, there were more interesting, in my opinion, options. For example, according to the African Bushmen, the universe was created by the praying mantis. I am very impressed by this version, since, unlike a spirit hovering over the abyss, a praying mantis is not difficult to imagine. And the detail about how he created the moon by throwing his old slipper into the sky is simply absolutely divine! It is not surprising that the Bushmen are peaceful people.
So what to do, how to protect yourself from being smeared on the steps of Meron or some other town where adherents of various saving “teachings” and “sciences” gather, enthusiastically walking over their own heads behind their leaders, electrical engineers correspondence polytechnic institutes?
Let's talk about this seriously, it's not a joke. Real scientists and psychiatrists will help us with this. One of the main methods of charlatanism is parasitism on such a property of the human psyche as a tendency to magical thinking. Magical thinking is a phenomenon in which a person expresses confidence, even if only internally, that certain signs, such as certain movements, words, postures, as well as their sequence, place and manner of production, have a direct influence on the course of events in outside world.
Despite all the archaic nature of this trait of our consciousness, unfortunately, it still flourishes in the 21st century. Remember how your mother told you in an angry voice, “Don’t whistle in the house - there won’t be any money!” or “Don’t walk around in one slipper!” or “Don’t wear your shirt inside out!”? Of course, she had not read Kabbalah and had hardly even heard of it. The point here is the latent fear of our consciousness that the world around us is fraught with some obscure threat that can fall on our heads at any moment, turning out to be something that no one knew about before and no one could foresee.
Perhaps the roots of this fear stretch back to the times when ancient savages, sitting around a fire, could not for a second banish from their imagination the image of a saber-toothed tiger quietly creeping up on them from behind. They soon came to the conclusion that the only thing that could save them was to create a totem of a god that would protect them from saber-toothed tigers and pray to him intensely. Well, off we go, off we go. True, this did not stop them from killing all the saber-toothed tigers in a fairly short time. Apparently, the totems of the saber-toothed tigers could not protect them from the hunters sneaking up on them from behind, but that is a completely different story.
One of the properties of this approach to assessing reality is the unconscious desire to relieve oneself of responsibility for the consequences of one’s own actions or decisions. If the ancient Inca did not grow corn, who would he blame for this in the first place? Of course, the main priest, who apparently sacrificed not the most beautiful virgin, or she was not a virgin at all, or he simply misread the words of the prayer, or, even worse, he was bribed by priests from a neighboring tribe!
We all remember how we believed in all sorts of fables in childhood and constantly hoped for a miracle. Since then, life has pretty much poked us in the face of reality, and for most people, the belief in a miraculous outcome has subsided over time, and we more or less realized that for this we need to do something ourselves. So why is religion still alive and not just alive, but absolutely dominant (about 80% of the population believes in some kind of god)? Have we still not realized that there is no good uncle in heaven who is watching over us, wishing us every success and wishing our enemies a speedy death in fiery hell? The answer is sad: no, they didn’t understand, and the Meron stampede is a perfect example of this.
If we return to psychiatry (but in no case to psychology and certainly not to psychoanalysis!), then it will become clear that the magic of our thinking is better called its infantility. The infantilism of thinking is determined by the insufficient level of its criticality. Irrationality, lack of logic, excessive emphasis on “intuition,” a high degree of influence on our judgments and conclusions of momentary emotions.
Infantility of consciousness is not always a mental disorder. Quite the opposite, and if we’re being completely honest, this is a very common occurrence. Here's how psychiatrists describe it:
“Instead of a logical analysis of reality, the formation of quick, based on intuition, but not thoughtful, primitive judgments, subject to the distorting influence of emotions, prevails. One’s own desires and fears determine the biased assessments, the selectivity of the facts used in judgments, the distortion of reality in favor of momentary subjective ideas. Critical assessment of discrepancies reality with its subjective ideas about it does not arise.
People with infantile thinking are characterized by underdeveloped self-analysis, categorical judgments with a conviction that they are right, and an unwillingness to admit mistakes, despite the rapid change of beliefs under the influence of random circumstances and emotions. The lack of critical abilities leads to high suggestibility, gullibility (including in relation to relying on one’s own intuition), the formation of primitive beliefs and superstitions, and a tendency to fantasize. "Flight" reactions are typical when faced with life's difficulties."
The above diagnosis is quite suitable for describing people who consciously give the reins of forming their opinions and judgments about the world into the hands of various religious denominations. It is these kinds of people who seriously hope that years spent trying to decipher the Kabbalah writings can make them kinder, smarter and happier. In reality, all they can hope for is some archery on Mount Meron, if, of course, they make it there without being crushed.