What I Know From Kabbalah

Kabbalah is a mystical and esoteric system. Esoteric means hidden and the Hebrew word for mysticism, nistar, means hidden. Not all mystical systems are esoteric, but Kabbalah is, and for a very good reason: the nature of what it hopes to describe is in its very nature hidden. I cannot explain Kabbalah in this brief space that would leave a reader knowing what Kabbalah is. I would not want the reader to think that I could do so. But I can explain what I know because of Kabbalah.

I know from Kabbalah that whatever is born--whether it is the birth of a child, the birth of the next moment, or the birth of the cosmos--emerges from a shattering and is damaged in some way. We can read the story of this imperfection in the Torah, in human history, and in our lives. It is the same pattern on different scales: a withdrawal of meaning into the mystery of itself, followed by a terrible shattering of whatever inadequate vessels we have gathered to hold meaning, followed by the effort of repair. This is the pattern in our lives over and over again--it is the thumbprint of creation pressed into every moment.

I know that the first phase of creation, the initial withdrawal of meaning, gives us the freedom to make our own meaning, along with our own errors. This freedom also enables us to go back to the beginning and make a repair. In many ways our duty as human beings is to see what needs fixing, to adjust what is imperfect, and to seek to make it better. This is called tikkun--repairing--and it happens on many levels. On the physical level, tikkun is healing. On the political level, tikkun is a fight for justice, freedom, and dignity for all human beings. Tikkun on the spiritual level is focusing our intention with every prayer and every good deed. These levels of tikkun are all part of one effort.

I know from Kabbalah that God is hidden. I know that this is for a reason and is part of the mystery of creation, and of creativity. I know that the language Kabbalah uses to talk about God is necessarily obscure, not just accidentally obscure. And that understanding why it is necessarily obscure also explains why there is evil in the world, and imperfection all around. I know that our search for God involves names that are wrong, and that the process of lifting the veils is the same as the process of learning how the names are wrong, and learning the right names. We ourselves shatter and ruin the names of God by the way we use them. Only through a shattering of ourselves and the names we use for ourselves can we get a glimpse of the actuality behind the names of God.

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