By Joel Grossman,
This is the first of four articles offered throughout the coming year on Jewish Mysticism. A definition of “mysticism” is the developing a direct experience of the Divine, by finding personal meaning in spiritual practices.
Jewish Mysticism takes many different forms, the most well known is Kabbalah, of which one translation is (there are many) “receiving.” The form of kabbalah that is popular today is Lurianic Kabbalah, named after the Rabbi Issac Luria (1534–1572). Lurianic Kabbalah gave new meaning to the central Kabbalistic text, the “Zohar." It formed in Safed, a small mountain town in the northern Israel section called the Galilee, where after the 1492 expulsion of Jews from Spain, learned mystical rabbis gathered.
One element of Kabbalistic thought is PaRDeS (“orchard”), the four levels of interpretation of the Torah, the five books of Moses. Each level goes deeper, to a mystical understanding of the passages. Level 1: Pshat (“surface”), the literal meaning of the text. Level 2: Remez (“hints”), is allegorical or hidden meaning. Level 3: Drash (“inquire”), the meaning derived by drawing on related writings to the literal word/phrases, especially from Talmud, the written down discussions by rabbis from 200 C.E. to 500 C.E., of what the Torah means. And Level 4: Sod (“secret” or “mystical”) received through inspiration or revelation.
Here is an example of the Sod or mystical understanding of a line from the Torah: “What does G‑d, your Lord, ask of you? Only to fear (also translated of “respect “or “be in awe of”) G-d . . . to walk in His ways and to love Him.” The Rabbis interpretation of the quote on the mystical level note that the Hebrew word for “what,” is like the Hebrew word for one hundred. So from this is drawn the encouragement to say one hundred blessings each day. From this mystical interpretation,The Rabbis are saying “move from the idea of respecting and loving G-d to a practice to help bring that about.”
A way I practice a Sod—mystical interpretation—in my daily prayers, is when I do the practice of holding the fringes ("tzitzit”) of the prayer shawl (“tallit”) and reflect on the Torah passage, Numbers 15:38, "Speak to the children of Israel and you shall say to them that they shall make for themselves fringes (tzitzit) on the corners of their garments, throughout their generations, and that they shall affix a thread of blue on the fringe of each corner.” The formula for making the blue color has been lost, so the blue in no longer put on the fringes. As I say the prayer that speaks to this passage, I think about the ever present, but not always visible, blue of the sky, and this helps me let go of other things on my mind.
R
ev. Joel Grossman is one of the founders of the Chaplaincy Institute of Maine (ChIME), and was the Director of ChIME’s Massachusetts campus. He has been a hospice chaplain for over fifteen years. Joel has been a president of his local synagogue, Ahavas Achim, in Newburyport, MA, and has led Kabbalah and Jewish meditation sessions there. He is the leader of the “Spiritual Breakfast Club.”
