TWO MASTERS OF THE KABBALAH ON RATIONALITY

Rabbi Avraham Abulafia (Born: Saragossa, Spain, 1240, Died: Greece after 1291) wrote:

"Here (in Torah) you will discover that which you seek and you will see that they all (all of the Teachings) cry out in protest against the absence of widsom, against unworthy deeds, and against limited understanding."

His student, whom he guided in the Way of Kabbalah Nevu'it, wrote:

"I did not, to be sure, experience the corporeal (magic) effects (of such practices); and even granting the possibility of such a form of experience, I for my part want none of it, for it is an inferior form, especially when measured by the perfection which the Soul can attain spiritually. Indeed, it seems to me tht he who attempts to secure these (magic) effects desecrates God's Name and it is this that our teachers hint at when they say: "Since license prevailed, the Name of God has been taught only by the most reticent priests."

Similarly, some claimed that: "It is a well-known and undisputed fact among the people of Spain, and a tradition handed down from their ancestors, that Rav Natronai came to them from Babylonia by means of a "leaping of the road." He taught Torah, and then returned. He was not seen to travel in any caravan, and nobody observed him on the road. "

A century afterwards, when the incredulous Rav Hai Gaon (born 939; died on March 28, 1038) was asked to express his opinion about this story, he dismissed it, suggesting that some imposter might have been passing himself off as the eminent scholar. "

There is no room for magic, superstition or irrationality in Torah - not only not even in the Kabbalah, but most especially not in the Kabbalah.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com