The Path of Judaism

The Kabbalah

Hear O Israel,
the Lord our God,
the Lord is One.

The impact of Judaism in the Western civilized world is evident everywhere we look. It shows itself in their perspectives on the deepest questions that life poses: the questions of life, and how God and religion is a part of our lives.

Although some may not see Judaism as a path to enlightenment, there are many aspects of this path which are basic necessities for any spiritual progress. Additionally there is a mystical side to this path involving meditation and the Kabbalah. As such, Judaism, or at the very least, some of its aspects are indeed a path to enlightenment. Mystical Judaism and the Kabbalah are definitely paths leading to the ultimate goal. Therefore it is worthwhile to get a basic understanding of this path's dramatic beginnings and some of its ritualistic beliefs.

Ritual is a basic part of Judaism. In Judaism its function is to hallow life - in principle the whole of life. This happens when the Jew sees the world as reflecting the source of all holiness, namely Yahweh (or God). The root to such seeing is piety. The opposite of piety is to accept the good things of life, most of which come to us quite apart from our own efforts, as if they were matters of course, without relating them to God. In the Talmud, to eat or drink without first making a blessing over the meal is compared to robbing God of His property. Jewish Law sanctions the good things of life -eating, marriage, children, nature - but on the condition that they be hallowed. It teaches that people should eat, and that when doing so, they should prepare their tables in the presence of the Lord. It teaches that people should drink, and that they should use wine to sanctify the Sabbath. It teaches that people should be merry, that they should dance around the Torah.

If we ask how this sense of the sacred can withstand the suction of life's monotony, a Jew would answer: by grounding life in tradition. Without attention, the human scene of wonder and the holy will stir occasionally, but to become a steady flame it must be tended. One of the best ways to do this is to steep oneself in a history that cries aloud of God's providential acts and mercy in every generation. The most historically minded of all religions, Judaism finds holiness and history inseparable. In sinking the roots of their lives deep into the past, Jews draw nourishment from events in which God's acts were clearly visible. The Sabbath eve with its candles and cup of sanctification, the Passover feast with its many symbols, the austere solemnity of the Day of Atonement, the ram's horn sounding the New Year, the scroll of the Torah adorned with breastplate and crown - the Jew finds nothing less than the meaning of life in these things, a meaning that spans the centuries in affirming God's great goodness to His people.

The Jews recorded Yahweh's revelations in a book: the Torah, and commentaries on them. These scriptures chronical actions and it was through those actions that God initially revealed Himself to them. The most decisive of these actions was the Exodus, an incredible event in which God liberated an unorganized, enslaved people from the mightiest power of the age. This event not only launched the Israelites as a nation, it was the first clear act by which Yahweh's character was disclosed.

That God was a direct party to their escape from Pharaoh, the Jews had no doubt. By every known sociological law, they should never have become a people, let alone survived. Yet here was the fact: A tiny, loosely related group of people who had no real collective identity and were in servitude to the greatest power of the age had succeeded in making their getaway, eluding the chariots of their pursurers. It seemed impossible to the Jews that their liberation was of their own doing. It was in fact a miracle! "I am the Eternal, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt." - Exodus 20:2

Vividly aware of God's ability to free them from the Pharaoh of Egypt, the Jews proceeded to see their earlier history in the light of this divine intervention. The sequence of events that led up to the Exodus was obviously God's handywork at every step of the way. From Abraham's leaving his home in Ur to assume the long, uncharted trek toward Canaan, Yahweh had called him to father a people of destiny. So it had been throughout their history, leading step by step all the way up to the Exodus. From their new perspective, everything fell into place. From the beginning, God had been leading, protecting, and shaping His people for the decisive Exodus event that made of the Israelites a nation.

And what was the nature of this God that the Exodus disclosed? Yahweh was powerful - able to outdo the mightiest power of all time as well as the gods that might have backed the Egyptians. But equally, He was a God of goodness and Love. Although this might be less obvious to outsiders, it was overwhelmingly evident to the Jews who were its direct recipients. Repeatedly their gratitude burst forth in song: "Happy are you, O Israel. Who is like you - a people saved by Yahweh" (Deuteronomy 33:29) Had they done anything to deserve this miraculous release? Not as far as they could see. Freedom had come to them as an act of sheer, gratuitous grace, a clear instance of Yahweh's unanticipated and astonishing Love for them.

Besides God's power and love, the Exodus disclosed a God who was intensely concerned with human affairs. Whereas the surrounding gods were primarily nature dieties, the Israelites' God had come to them not through sun or storm or fertility but in a historical event. That realization changed Israel's agenda forever. No longer would they be party to cajoling the forces of nature. They would attend to Yahweh's will and try to obey it. From His goodness, it followed that He would want people to be good as well. Hence Mount Sinai, where the Ten Commandments were established and given by God's hand to Moses.



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