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22093740? ago

Part 54 >

Slander of Rabbis and Halachic Authorities

More selections from Berg's Writings

In the introduction to the book THE ZOHAR: Parashat Pinhas, p. xxxiii-xxxv, Berg repeats his anti-orthodox diatribes: "There are those who pose as religious leaders who, for their own selfish reasons, spread false requisites for the study of the Zohar and discourage people from "indulging" in its sublime treasures. Either these rabbis fear for their positions, because people tasting of the Kabbalah might embarrass them with the incisiveness of their questions, or, perhaps, because their own upbringing deprived them of this because their own knowledge, they see no reason to allow others of "lower standing" to be given the opportunity of partaking of Kabbalah's spiritual elixir.

These kat (cults) of Rabbis have been, and are still in some quarters, blemishes and disfigurements on the face of Rabbinic Judaism. "The arid field of Rabbinism, the P'shat seekers are the fools and hate knowledge." (Tractate Sanhedrin, P. 99B) These Rabbis of ill-repute attempt to conceal from the layman the facts that the foremost Jewish legalists and Talmudists were also famous Kabbalists."

What a stupendous statement! All the great authorities who warned and cautioned about the study of Zohar and Kabbalah that this is for the properly qualified only, authorities which include Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai (author of the Zohar), the foremost Kabbalists like Rabbi Moshe Cordovero, Rabbi Isaac Luria and Rabbi Chaim Vital, the Vilna Gaon, the Baal Shem Tov, the Siftei Kohen, and so forth, in Berg's view "posed as religious leaders," made their pronouncements for "selfish reasons," "feared for their positions," and were "afraid of embarrassment"!!! They were "cultists" - "blemishes and disfigurements on the face of Rabbinic Judaism," "Rabbis of ill-repute." Berg, knowingly fully felt that his followers are even more ignorant than he and would never bother (or know how) to check his allegedsources, invents from his fertile imagination a quotation from the Talmud, "Tractate Sanhedrin P. 99B." It so happens that his quotation does not exist either there or anywhere else. There is nothing even remotely on that whole folio of the Talmud!

Berg claimed for a "fact" that "the foremost Jewish legalists and Talmudists were also famous Kabbalists." Some, indeed, were. Many, however, were most definitely not, such as, for example, the greatest of them all, i.e., Maimonides. In fact, many Kabbalists severely condemned the super-rationalist approach of Maimonides. Rabbi Isaac Luria who had the greatest respect and admiration for Maimonides, states nonetheless that Maimonides, being of the left pa'eh (corner) did not merit to know the wisdom of the Zohar!" (Sha'ar Hagilgulim, ch. 36. See also Rabbi C. J. D. Azulay, Shem Hagedolim, s.v. Harambam. See also Maimonides' introduction to his Guide, and the comments thereon by one of the foremost Kabbalists, Rabbi Joseph Ergas, Shomer Emunim 1:9)

And where is Berg's evidence for Rav Saadiah Gaon, Rashi, Rabbenu Tam and so many others? (If Berg assumes that a commentary on Sefer Yetzirah, implies involvement with Kabbalah, obviously he does not know anything about Sefer Yetzirah. Many, including Rav Saadia Gaon, read it from a philosophical, non-Kabbalistic - or, at least, not in the normatively understood Kabbalistic - perspective.) C. In this vein, Berg also presents an original revisionist account of history. He writes in the same introduction, pp. xliii-xliv: "The fundamental purpose of Hasidism, which borrowed from the example of the Sephardim, was to inject spirituality into the religion, as opposed to the thoughtless formalism prevailing within the liturgy and ceremonies of their fellow Jews in Lithuania, the Mitnagdim. For this reason the Hasidim did not enjoy either credibility nor popularity among MitnagdimŠ The place that was assigned to the Zohar in the scheme of prayer and ritual by the Hasidim was one of the basic points at issue between the two sectsŠ It was and is essentially a contest between the formalism of dogmatic ritual, as practiced by Mitnagdim and the spiritually-directed practices of the Hasidim. Like the Sephardic Jew, the Hasid maintained that the quintessence of the Jewish religion lay in the internal-spiritual study of Talmud, combined with a determined belief in the efficacy of prayer. Thus, both groups opposed the robotic, despiritualized form of prayer observed within all three factions of Judaism --[reform, conservative, orthodox]. The Mitnagdim, contrarily, although they could not reject outright the validity of the teachings of the saintly Tannah, R. Shimon bar Yohai and his Zohar, regarded Jewish life and religion as consisting of strict obedience to the laws based upon the literal study of the Talmud and the precepts. The Talmud, without the assistance of R. Shimon Bar Yoshai's interpretation, is, to the Kabbalist's way of thinking, an exercise in lifeless, rigid ritualism, the result of which has been an abandonment of the study of Talmud, not only by most Jews, but even by the majority of Orthodox Jews." One need not be a scholar at all to know that the foremost leader of the Mitnagdim, the fiercest opponent to Hassidism, was R. Elijah, the Vilna Gaon. To reduce that confrontation to an argument about the stature, study and use of the Zohar, is absolute ignorance about both the struggle between the Hassidim and the Mitnagdim and personality of the Vilna Gaon, his teachings and writings. The Vilna Gaon wrote some of the most incisive commentaries on the Zohar. Like few before or after him, he wrote extensively about the absolute necessity of studying the Kabbalah (see, for example, the anthology Even Shelemah). His prayer-book, and accounts of his practices and customs, follow Kabbalistic teachings and devotions. He taught Kabbalah to his disciples. Nefesh Hachayim, the major work of the Gaon's principle disciple Rabbi Chaim of Voloszin, is based completely on the Zohar and the writings of Rabbi Isaac Luria. The Lithuanian School of Kabbalah, founded by the Gaon, continued generation after generation, through the author of Aspaklaryah Hame'irah (which is partially printed in the margins of the standard editions of the Zohar) to the recent works of the late Rabbi Shelomoh Eliyashuv. So much for our alleged "doctor in comparative religion"-'s knowledge of Jewish history in general, and history and development of Kabbalah in particular.

See Part 55 >