Kabbalah is misunderstood

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This material is from Mechon-Mamres site @ http://www.mechon-mamre.org/jewfaq/kabbalah.htm
Kabbalah:  The Misunderstood Doctrine

Kabbalah is one of the most grossly misunderstood parts of Judaism.  Some non-Jews (and even some Jews) describe Kabbalah as "the dark side of Judaism".  Many of these misunderstandings arose largely from distortions of the teachings of Kabbalah by non-Jewish mystics and occultists.  Kabbalah was popular among Christian intellectuals during the Renaissance and Enlightenment periods, who reinterpreted its doctrines to fit into their Christian dogma.  For example, one such source (the Kabbalah Denudata, commonly available in new age bookstores) states that the Ten Sefirot have something to do with the Christian Trinity because they are sometimes divided up into groups of three, despite that the Sefirot are divided up into many groups of varying numbers, that these groupings overlap, that the grouping he refers to is not comprised of a father, son, and spirit, but of a male, a female, and neutral, and so forth.  Others have wrenched kabbalistic symbolism out of context for use in tarot card readings and other forms of divination and magic that were never a part of the original Jewish teachings.

We do not mean to suggest that magic is not a part of Kabbalah.  The most hidden, secretive part of Kabbalah, commonly known as "practical Kabbalah", involves use of hidden knowledge to affect the world in ways that could be described as magic.  The Talmud and other sources ascribe supernatural activities to many great rabbis.  Some rabbis pronounced a name of G-d and ascended into heaven to consult with the G-d and the angels on issues of great public concern.  One scholar is said to have created an artificial man by reciting various names of G-d.  Much later stories tell of a rabbi who created a man out of clay and brought it to life by putting in its mouth a piece of paper with a name of G-d on it.  Some of these stories are no doubt untrue, at least as understood literally; but some are true.  However, this area of Kabbalah is known by very few, and practiced by even fewer.  One great rabbi has said that these practices should be totally avoided, except when the Temple stands; that seems very sound advice to us.

Ein Sof and the Ten Sefirot

To give you an idea of the nature of Kabbalah, we will briefly tell about one of the better known, fundamental concepts of kabbalistic thought:  the concept of G-d as Ein Sof and the Ten Sefirot.  This explanation is, at best, a gross oversimplification.

The true essence of G-d is so transcendent that it cannot be described, except with reference to what it is not.  This true essence of G-d is known in Kabbalah as "Ein Sof", which literally means without end, which encompasses the idea of His lack of boundaries in both time and space.  In this truest form, the Ein Sof is so transcendent that it cannot have any direct interaction with the universe.  The Ein Sof is said to interact with the created universe through ten emanations from this essence, known as the Ten Sefirot.

The Sefirot are not deities, as some think by taking this too literally.  They are G-d's separate created mechanisms for dealing with the world, and they are in contact with the universe in a way that the Ein Sof is not.  The Sefirot connect with everything in the universe, including humanity.  We would say that the point of the Sefirot is to give an explanation of how G-d really is ultimately in control of the world, sees all, and rewards and punishes as He sees fit; but he does this by way of these mechanisms, not directly.  And do not make the mistake of worshiping them or praying to them or by way of them, as all too many have, as that is idolatry punishable by death, exclusion from the Jewish people, and exclusion from the World to Come.

Suggested Reading

Readings in this area should be undertaken with extreme caution.  There is entirely too much literature out there under the name "Kabbalah" that has little or nothing to do with the true Jewish teachings on this subject.  Any book on the subject of practical Kabbalah should be disregarded immediately; no legitimate source would ever make such teachings available to a faceless mass audience.

Unless you are an expert in both the whole of the Hebrew Bible and the whole of the Law as summarized in the Rambam's Mishneh Torah (both in the original Hebrew, not in English translation), you should not even bother about learning Kabbalah.

If you are really serious about Kabbalah, once you have properly qualified yourself by learning Bible and the Law, you must get yourself a teacher that you can work with one-on-one, in person.  But be very careful about choosing a teacher, as some will teach you to worship idols in the name of our Holy Torah, as we have witnessed with our own eyes and heard with our own ears!  It is distasteful for us to mention this, but we would be irresponsible if we did not warn you.

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From AishHaTorah @ http://www.aish.com/spirituality/kabbala101/Kabbala_19_-_History_of_Kabbala_Part_II.asp


GOD'S UNITY

The second point made in the Torah which impacts Kabbalah appears in the most famous of verses -- the Shema. We are enjoined:

"Hear, O Israel, God is our Lord, He is One." (Deuteronomy 6:4)

The commandment is to believe in God's unity. While the belief in God's unity precludes believing that there are many gods, it also precludes the belief that God has component units. Maimonides states this as well:

God is One. Not two or more than two. One that is unlike any other unity. Not a unity that consists of parts, nor a corporeal unity which may be divided into parts and components, but rather a unity that is unlike any other unity. (Maimonides, The Foundations of the Torah 1:7)

This injunction presents a problem to the ability to divide God's actions into "components" such as the Ten Sefirot. This issue was raised many times over the centuries as a critique against Kabbalah (and was responded to), and its so-called "splintering" of God's unity into ten fragments.

The way that Kabbalah has dealt with this issue is best described by the Malbim, a 19th century commentator on the Torah in explaining the words of the Prophet Ezekiel. The prophet says:

"As the image of a rainbow in the cloud on a rainy day, so is the image of the glow surrounding it; it is the image of God's majesty." (Ezekiel 3:26)

The Malbim explains: a ray of light is one color. When it strikes a medium such as water, it is the trait of water that breaks it up into many colors. So too, God is one, unified whole. Our understanding however is limited and we must break it up into components. For instance, a child might not understand that the father who smacks him when he walks onto a busy highway is the same father that cuddles and loves him, and buys him toys. But the adult perceives it as one emotion.

So too, God's actions are only understood by us when examined separately. Yet we realize that breaking up God's actions into ten or any other amount is our inadequacy, not His reality. He is total oneness and unity.