Crisis and Controversy

Is the Bible all we really need?  Yes.  The Bible is sufficient for us to know of HaShem, to learn what He wants and what His heart is toward humanity.  If we were stuck on a deserted island with only the Bible, we would be able to learn enough about our Creator and His Son to find salvation.  Is there any work that is authoritative like the Bible?  No.  The Holy Scriptures contain the very words of HaShem and no other book, that I know of, does the same.  No other record of communication is as precious and as important as the Holy Scriptures.

Is there more we can learn about the Bible:  it’s words, it’s authors, it’s culture, it’s context, it’s innuendos and it’s people that would help us understand more as we read the Bible?  Absolutely!  We can learn a lot about what is going on in the Bible if we are attentive to our history books.  We can learn lot about the culture that produced the Bible if we are willing to look at Jewish extra-biblical literature.   Are there some works that make us uneasy?  Sure there are.  So what do we do with these?  We either throw out the entirety of those books or we “eat the meat and spit out the bones”.  Sometimes we’re not mature enough to do either of these so we need to reserve judgement for another time.  Of course there are works that are plainly not worth our time but these are not what I’m talking about.

So just what is The Zohar?  I’m sure you are aware of different people’s opinions on The Zohar, but just what is it exactly?  To get a better idea of what it is, really, one needs to understand what PaRDeS is. PaRDeS is an acronym that describes four different approaches to Biblical interpretation.

• Peshat (פְּשָׁט) — “plain” (“simple”) or the direct meaning.  The contextual meaning of the text.
• Remez (רֶמֶז) — “hints” or the deep (allegoric) meaning beyond just the literal sense.
• Derash (דְּרַשׁ) — from Hebrew darash: “inquire” (“seek”) — the comparative (midrashic) meaning, as given through similar occurrences.  The metaphorical meaning of the text.
• Sod (סוֹד) (pronounced with a long O as in gold) — “secret” (“mystery”) or the mystical meaning, as given through inspiration or revelation.

This is a system of Biblical exegesis (drawing out of the text, a critical interpretation) that is common in Christian circles too but it is known in those circles by different terms.  These four approaches, PaRDeS, are never to contradict the plain and contextual meaning of the Scripture passage being studied.  These approaches are where we get volumes upon volumes of commentary from the Jewish Sages and from Christian teachers.  They all employ the same basic tenants of Bible study looking to answer one simple question:  ”What does this mean and what do I do about it?”

The Zohar works parshah by parshah trying to understand each weeks readings on a spiritual or relational level, it is like a compilation of the Sod interpretations and with more commentary and discussion, if I understand correctly.  For example, one would find issues such as “What does it mean that the Ruach (Spirit) hovered over the waters?  Who is the Ruach?  What was the Ruach doing?  What does this mean?”  in The Zohar.  There are little nuggets scattered throughout Jewish literature that open up a whole new understanding, often times a very clear understanding, of something being communicated in the Scriptures.  The Zohar is no different in this aspect.  It speaks of the necessity of having a relationship with HaShem, our Creator.  We, as talmidim of Messiah Yeshua, need to grow to learn how to “eat the meat but spit out the bones.”  This is why we often hear statements like, “It’s not for everyone” or “It’s only for the mature believer”.  Sometimes we’re not mature enough to peel the meat from the bones and we choke on the whole thing.  It’s like giving a lamb chops to babies, they’re just going to choke and it’ll be ugly.

The Zohar is the foremost Kabbalastic text.  Kabbalah is a scary subject for a lot of us and there are some aspects to kabbalah that are rightly concerning.  But if we stop and look, we will realize that this charismatic movement within Judaism isn’t totally different than the charismatic movement in Christianity.  And many of us have come from backgrounds that include a little bit of “mystical charisma”.  We are well aware of some of the more concerning aspects of Christian mysticism in our own circles so it shouldn’t be very surprising that the Jewish culture has their own mystical charismatic things too.  Just like there are sects of mystical Christianity that are rejected by Christian leaders, there are kabbalahs that are rejected by Judaism – Madonna’s kabbalah is one prime example.  Basically, Kabbalah is a set of esoteric teachings that is meant to explain the relationship between an infinite, eternal and essentially unknowable Creator with the finite and mortal universe of His creation.  We may disagree with some of the aspects of their basic description but if we think about it long enough we will agree with more than we might care to admit.

We would be wise to leave works like The Zohar to those who can carefully chew and discover the meaty morsels and let them share with the rest of us when they find some nugget that is fascinating.  For the most part, the rest of us would be wise to put our judgement of a work that we have never seen on the shelf until a later date.  What difference is it going to make in regards to your salvational status if you reserve judgement for now?  And if we are going to leave The Zohar on the shelf then we would be doubly wise not to dabble in kabbalah.

Reserving judgement and letting others carefully look is not intended to create a secret club or a play a dangerous game with our faith.  It’s just that for many of us, we’re not very mature in our faith and our understanding so that sometimes we get a bone caught in our throat and we choke.  You may know from your own experiences that choking is a very unpleasant experience.  It may not be fun to put ourselves in the “less mature” camp but ya’ know what – that’s maturity.  Maturity is the ability to admit that I’m not as mature as I thought or as I want to be.  I remember being a child and thinking that I was so grown up.  I was convinced I was oh so grown up.  But the simple fact remains:  I was still just a child.  Let’s let men, like Levertoff, who have an incredible foundation in both the Jewish mystical works and in Yeshua be the ones to compare and contrast mystical matters for us, to chew on the meat and spit out the bones and then to share with us what he has drawn from it.  I’m not mature enough in my walk to attempt to do such things.  We don’t need to dive into it for ourselves and really, and if we don’t want to read Levertoff’s work for ourselves, we need to reserve making hasty judgements on things we’ve not tested.  How can we judge a work we have never seen?  How can we judge a man we have never known, let alone known of until now.

So, is the authoritative position of the Holy Scriptures really being attacked?  The answer is a simple no.  Are we being asked to embrace The Zohar in order to grow in our faith and understanding of the Scriptures?  No.  Do we need to chastise and shun those who have compared the mystical aspects of the Gospels with the mystical aspects of Judaism and revealed to us where both ’sides’ have similarities?  Not at all.  If we do we may miss out some some treasures that serve to strengthen our faith.  To treat others with contempt for such a thing, that would be foolish.  Let’s not be hasty or foolish in our walk.  After all, we’re all in the process of working out our salvation with fear and trembling.  Let’s let each other progress and work things out, let us spur one another on to love and good works.  Let’s press on toward maturity.  For some of us that means we need to let others do the talking about such controversies while we step out of the ring and focus on our own studies. Controversy rarely brings about unity and brotherly love, it usually brings about anger and misunderstanding.  Anger and misunderstanding are not fruits of the Ruach HaKodesh, they do not promote love but hurt.  Let’s continue grow up and not get side tracked by such things.  It’s not our battle anyway, we sure don’t need to be spectators.

“If there’s no wood, the fire goes out; if nobody gossips, contention stops.” Proverbs 26:20