An article I came across-
BS`D
THE STUDY OF THE ZOHAR
HA KADDOSH
BULLETIN 40
“Because of this work, the Book of the Zohar, [the Jews]
will be redeemed from exile” Zohar ha Kaddosh (3, 124b)
Our Great rabbis through all generations, taught that the complete
redemption depends precisely on the study of the Zohar ha Kaddosh. But it is
here that the Yetzer ha Ra found a great help in confusing people by telling
them: “If you don’t understand what you are reading in the Zohar ha Kaddosh,
you have no right to occupy yourselves with it”
And this is a great mistake that causes the redemption to be delayed for all
the Kabbalists have written that reading the Sefer ha Zohar and the Tikkunim,
with no understanding whatsoever, only saying it without knowing what one
says, effects a great Tikkun in the higher worlds, purifies and illuminates the
soul of man and brings the redemption closer. And thus wrote Rabbi Moshe
Zachuta ZTKL: “Fill your heart with the Zohar reading it and studying it. To
what does this compare? To a sick person that drinks a remedy which will be
beneficial to him even if he doesn’t know how it cures him”
Therefore every Jew should awaken to the study of the Zohar ha Kaddosh
without listening to fools who warn against it, for if all the wise men
recommended studying the Zohar ha kaddosh, how can one listen to someone
who does not know the benefit that studying the Zohar ha Kaddosh brings? If
all the great Kabbalists asserted that its study is beneficial even when one
doesn’t know what he is reading, why should you refrain from the great benefit
that it brings just because someone tells you with no basis whatsoever that
studying the Zohar ha kaddosh may be harmful to you? Or that you first need
to know all the Talmud? Or that you should be 40 years of age in order to begin
studying the Zohar ha Kaddosh?
This is a partial list of all the Tzaddikim and Gedolim who encourage the
studying of the Zohar ha Kaddosh even when you do not understand what you
are saying:
http://israel613.com/books/KKE_ZOHAR40.pdf
You just included that link there completely brainlessly. It has a list of rabbis without quoting a single one of them
The first one in the list is Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai.
I'd like you to quote him!!
It's even questioned whether he wrote the Zohar, but even if he did, where did he say there was no ban?
I doubt the Arizal said there was a ban lifted. I recall reading that the Ari told Rav Yosef Kairo to not bother listening to his kabbalah shiurim because he will fall asleep, and his task is to codify halacha
Widespread mysticism led to shabbetai tzvi. He misled many jews he came across..
Fortunately ashkenazim were far away from him and weren't misled by him. Ashkenazim had jacob frank, but I don't think he really misled rabbis or lots of jews. There is a great story that a rebbe sent his disciple to check out this shabbetai tzvi character. He came back and reported that he definitely was not the messiah. Because he slept on his back, which is against halacha! And the messiah would never do that.
Ashkenazi rabbis are stricter regarding the study of kabbalah.. (they are stricter regarding most things though)
But sephardim are usually more careful than you suggest.
Chassidim are more into study of kabbalah. The lubavitcher rebbe said there was a ban, lifted.. So does a Rabbi Avraham Azulai..
I include 2 links below.
They differ on the dates. that the ban was lifted.
And so it shouldn't be suprising that you have many rabbis that hold to the idea that there is a ban and it still remains in existance.
These rabbis that hold this way are not "fools".
I doubt your article would be willing to name them and call them fools!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabbalah"According to the Zohar, the six hundredth year is also the sixth millennium, and the “windows of Heaven” are opening to allow knowledge and discovery to flow into our world at an unprecedented rate. To illustrate: the year 5600 (the six hundredth year of the sixth millennium) corresponds to the year 1840 in the Common-era. A cursory inspection of that period reveals that it was in the late 1800s that the Industrial Revolution began. This brought with it innovations in transportation, communication, and technology— which included enormous advances in communication, something ChaBaD has taken advantage of fully in the ongoing effort to educate. "
This one says there was a ban but lifted. It puts it a a different date.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KabbalahBan against studying Kabbalah
"
The ban against studying Kabbalah was lifted by the efforts of the sixteenth century Kabbalist Rabbi Avraham Azulai (1570-1643).
I have found it written that all that has been decreed Above forbidding open involvement in the Wisdom of Truth [Kabbalah] was [only meant for] the limited time period until the year 5,250 (1490 C.E.). From then on after is called the "Last Generation", and what was forbidden is [now] allowed. And permission is granted to occupy ourselves in the [study of] Zohar. And from the year 5,300 (1540 C.E.) it is most desirable that the masses both those great and small [in Torah], should occupy themselves [in the study of Kabbalah], as it says in the Raya M'hemna [a section of the Zohar]. And because in this merit King Mashiach will come in the future – and not in any other merit – it is not proper to be discouraged [from the study of Kabbalah]. (Rabbi Avraham Azulai)[38]
The question however is whether the ban ever existed in the first place. Concerning the above quote by Avraham Azulai, it has found many versions in English, another is this
From the year 1540 and onward, the basic levels of Kabbalah must be taught publicly to everyone, young and old. Only through Kabbalah will we forever eliminate war, destruction, and man's inhumanity to his fellow man.[39]
The lines concerning 1490 are also missing from the Hebrew edition of Hesed L'Avraham, the source work that both of these quote from. Furthermore by Azulai's view the ban was lifted thirty years before his birth. A time that would have corresponded with Rabbi Haim Vital's publication of the teaching of Isaac Luria.
Furthermore Rabbi Moshe Isserles only understood there to be a minor restriction, in his words"One's belly must be full of meat and wine, discerning between the prohibited and the permitted."[40] He is supported by the Bier Hetiv, the Pithei Teshuva as well as the Vilna Gaon. The Vilna Gaon says,
There was never any ban or enactment restricting the study of the wisdom of Kabbalah. Any who says there is has never studied Kabblah, has never seen PaRDeS, and speaks as an ignoramous.[41]
Thus leaving the existence of a ban to be highly debated.
"