Mysticism (
pronunciation (help·info); from the Greek μυστικός, mystikos, meaning 'an initiate') is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience of and even communion with a supreme being.I have found two ways of dealing with mysticism:
- dismissing it out of hand
- manipulating it until it fits what I already know/believe about the world.
This week method number two was especially appropriate for my class, which in part focused on the Kabbalistic idea of raising up the holy sparks.Rabbi Louis Jacobs describes the sparks this way:
Holy Sparks are the spiritual illuminations inherent in all things. The doctrine, as found in the kabbalistic system of Isaac Luria, the Ari, runs that when the light of Ein Sof, the Limitless Ground of Being, poured into the vessels which were to receive this light in order to produce the sefirot, the powers or potencies in the Godhead, the light was too strong to become limited in the vessels of the seven lower sefirot, those at a greater distance, so to speak, from the infinite light of Ein Sof.
As a result, there took place the "breaking of the vessels." When the vessels were broken, the lights returned to their source; but not all the lights returned. "Sparks" of the lights remained, adhering to the broken shards in order to keep them in being.
The sefirot were reconstituted after the breaking of the vessels, reinforced so that they could contain the light, using in the process the further light that streamed forth but also the holy sparks in the broken shards. This restoration resulted in an overspill of the light in the highest of the four worlds, the World of Emanation.
From this overspill the World of Creation was constituted but here, too, there was an overspill and this constituted the World of Formation and here again there was an overspill to constitute the lowest world of the four, the World of Action. The idea behind all this is that fewer sparks are required for the formation of the worlds as they descend; less energy is required to keep lower worlds in existence, so that as the sparks flash out those which are redundant so far as that world is concerned spill over to create the next, lower world.
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| The building blocks of life? |
According to the Big Bang theory, the Universe was once in an extremely hot and dense state which expanded rapidly. This rapid expansion caused the young Universe to cool and resulted in its present continuously expanding state. According to the most recent measurements and observations, this original state existed approximately 13.7 billion years ago, which is considered the age of the Universe and the time the Big Bang occurred. After its initial expansion from a singularity, the Universe cooled sufficiently to allow energy to be converted into various subatomic particles. It would take thousands of years for some of these particles (protons, neutrons, and electrons) to combine and formatoms, the building blocks of matter. The first element produced was hydrogen, along with traces of helium and lithium. Eventually, clouds of hydrogen would coalesce through gravity to form stars, and the heavier elements would be synthesized either within stars or during supernovae.
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| The building blocks of life. |
The Whole and Its Parts
What Kabbalah and the Big Bang theory have in common is this -- everything in the universe is made up of the original building blocks involved in the process of creation. For Kabbalah, those constituent parts are the 22 Hebrew letters and 10 numbers spoken by the divine being. They were the sparks that could not be contained in the vessels. We are not figuratively, but literally these holy sparks.
For the Big Bang the building blocks of all life atoms and their subatomic particles, as pictured above. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyon puts it best, "The atoms of our bodies are traceable to stars that manufactured them in their cores and exploded these enriched ingredients across our galaxy, billions of years ago. For this reason, we are biologically connected to every other living thing in the world. We are chemically connected to all molecules on Earth. And we are atomically connected to all atoms in the universe. We are not figuratively, but literally stardust."
So the answer is the same -- we are made up of tiny constituent parts that are common among every thing in the universe.
The Spiritual Difference
The goal of the Kabbalist is to elevate these holy sparks back to the top levels of holiness, the highest sefirot. Each thing - even, as we discussed in class, a lowly Girl Scout cookie -- has the letters of the l'shon kodesh (Hebrew, the holy tongue) within it.
"For each this has in it a number of letter permutations with which that thing was created. Through the perfection of the Holy Tongue by means of the tongue of Targum [the vernacular], the power of the letters in each and everything is aroused and enhanced. This is [Numbers 14:17] 'Now, I pray, let the power of the Lord be enhanced. ..." -- This from Likutey Moharan, the recorded teachings of Rebbe Nachman.
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| Likutey Moharan dates from 1811. |
You don't even have to be a tzadik (a great sage) to know the constituent letters. Every average wise person can have this knowledge and elevate the sparks. The purpose is to bring those sparks, and the sparks within us, back God. Everything is from God and contains God.
Where Kabbalah and I part ways.
Like Neil deGrasse Tyson, I have a great sense of wonder at the fact that we are stardust, that everything I can feel, touch, see, hear and taste originated billions of years ago in some corner of the universe long, long time ago and far, far away. It boggles the mind and makes me feel rather tiny in the scheme of things. I feel connected to other human beings, animals, and the earth -- and for a real mind-bender I also picture the kinds of elements I share with comets, planets and other species light years away.
But I do not believe that these molecular elements also include Hebrew letters or sparks from some source of divinity, or that there is any intention behind creation of the universe. It is, instead, the happiest of accidents.
For some, this is a scary reality -- that there is no divine component to the universe. No guiding hand. No holy sparks in the Thin Mints.
A Dangerous Pursuit
This week in class Rabbi Ben gave the best reason yet for waiting to study Kabbalah until the age of 40. There is danger in focusing on things like individual letters and working to elevate them to higher levels. Check out this page about one letter, aleph. If you're not careful, aleph can become like an idol to you, and young people are more susceptible to this trap.
I agree. By the time you're 40, you've given up on idolatry -- being 40 is being enmeshed in the mundane and the reality of life. Any of the idols you once created for your life have most likely been knocked off their pedestals back to the lowly earth. Personally, I have way too many things to think about -- raising kids, spending time with family, work, health, etc. -- to idolize a letter of the aleph-bet.
I can't help but wonder for how many people Kabbalah or even the spiritual pursuit itself becomes an idol. God says to have no idols before Him, but is it good for God to be your idol? Can the constant pursuit for something higher cause you to miss what already is?
I choose not to have any idols, even the Torah-approved kind. I wonder if Rebbe Nachman would approve.
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