Many decades ago I was standing outside my local Woolworth's opening packs of baseball cards. I was standing next to a trash can, and as I opened each pack I threw out the wrapper and non-kosher
bubblegum and kept the cards. A woman was watching me and came over and said, "My son does the opposite, he throws out the cards and keeps the gum." I learned then that a pack of bubblegum cards can mean very different things to different people.
I share this story with you because it reminds me of an experience I have had in online forums recently. I have read a number of people, some of whom I have learned to respect their knowledge and opinions, explains why they don't study, or are opposed to, Chassidus and Kabbalah. The thing I found fascinating was that when they then described their understanding of Chassidus or Kabbalah, it was clear that they were referring to something completely different than the Chassidus and Kabbalah with which I am so familiar, that which I love to study and teach. One writer mentioned that he doesn't study Chassidus because any time someone tries to tell him how great Chassidus is they try to impress him with a Gematria (and Gematrias don't impress him), and people who try to convince him to study Kabbalah try to explain how with Kabbalah he will then know who is a gilgul (reincarnation) of who, another subject which he finds disinteresting.
Now, while I am aware that Gematria is found in Chassidic works, and the Ariza"l did write about gilgulim, I would never say that they are the essence of either, nor would they come to my mind when someone would ask me what Chassidus or Kabbalah are.
It reminds me of someone who mentioned that he was going to Washington, DC because he was aware that Washington was the center of American political power and he wanted to see firsthand why this was so. On his return he explained what he saw that showed him the power of Washington. "First of all, there are the cherry blossoms, secondly there is the exhibit of First Lady inaugural gowns, and finally, the Bond exhibit at the Spy Museum." While we can perhaps all agree that these are very impressive sights, clearly the tourist had been so blinded by these scenes that he had missed the point altogether.
To which I will add that there are those who get lost in the metaphors of Kabbalah ,forgetting that they were never meant as anything but metaphors, and, correctly rejecting them as not being reality (and mistakenly thinking that Kabbalists see them as reality), they reject that which the metaphor seeks to illustrate as well. In most cases I find that this is also the result of people who are studying through secondary and tertiary sources that are misrepresenting how the matter has been traditionally taught, but a trip back to primary sources will present them with a completely different view on matters. Which is, perhaps, where I end with this essay. To truly understand something, and then make an intelligent and informed decision about it, it is necessary to go back and study primary sources, otherwise, you are relying on someone else telling you what to think and you may never know what the reality is.
I share this story with you because it reminds me of an experience I have had in online forums recently. I have read a number of people, some of whom I have learned to respect their knowledge and opinions, explains why they don't study, or are opposed to, Chassidus and Kabbalah. The thing I found fascinating was that when they then described their understanding of Chassidus or Kabbalah, it was clear that they were referring to something completely different than the Chassidus and Kabbalah with which I am so familiar, that which I love to study and teach. One writer mentioned that he doesn't study Chassidus because any time someone tries to tell him how great Chassidus is they try to impress him with a Gematria (and Gematrias don't impress him), and people who try to convince him to study Kabbalah try to explain how with Kabbalah he will then know who is a gilgul (reincarnation) of who, another subject which he finds disinteresting.
Now, while I am aware that Gematria is found in Chassidic works, and the Ariza"l did write about gilgulim, I would never say that they are the essence of either, nor would they come to my mind when someone would ask me what Chassidus or Kabbalah are.
It reminds me of someone who mentioned that he was going to Washington, DC because he was aware that Washington was the center of American political power and he wanted to see firsthand why this was so. On his return he explained what he saw that showed him the power of Washington. "First of all, there are the cherry blossoms, secondly there is the exhibit of First Lady inaugural gowns, and finally, the Bond exhibit at the Spy Museum." While we can perhaps all agree that these are very impressive sights, clearly the tourist had been so blinded by these scenes that he had missed the point altogether.
To which I will add that there are those who get lost in the metaphors of Kabbalah ,forgetting that they were never meant as anything but metaphors, and, correctly rejecting them as not being reality (and mistakenly thinking that Kabbalists see them as reality), they reject that which the metaphor seeks to illustrate as well. In most cases I find that this is also the result of people who are studying through secondary and tertiary sources that are misrepresenting how the matter has been traditionally taught, but a trip back to primary sources will present them with a completely different view on matters. Which is, perhaps, where I end with this essay. To truly understand something, and then make an intelligent and informed decision about it, it is necessary to go back and study primary sources, otherwise, you are relying on someone else telling you what to think and you may never know what the reality is.
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