• What is your understanding of Kabbalah?
Kabbalah is Judaism’s esoteric mystical tradition, I believe it has existed in tandem with traditional Judaism from its very start. It is the spiritual meaning behind Judaism’s more formal religious observance. The soul of Judaism’s body, it animates it and gives it meaning and purpose. Kabbalah is Jewish theology, it discusses the nature of God, the nature of the World and the nature and purpose of Mankind.
• What are the basic beliefs behind the Jewish tradition Kabbalah?
It seems to be a little bit of a paradox but I believe that one of the main and fundamental believes of Kabbalah is that God is both truly Transcendent and yet perfectly Immanent. That means God is completely beyond the Universe and the limits of human thought and yet completely accessible and right here in the very place – time and space of the Universe – including You!
God mediates this paradoxical relationship through language – the ancient Hebrew Language & that of Mathematics (which the Hebrew Language is a language of Mathematics too). The bible – the Hebrew Torah is the blueprint which God creates and manifests the entire physical and spiritual universes.
Moreover, mankind are a reflection of God and thus there is a reciprocal and refectory relationship between the two – this is most clearly demonstrated by the Kabbalistic Tree of Life Diagram, which is meant to express both Man and Gods spiritual anatomy.
Nonetheless, even though the Kabbalistic tradition (which is quite eclectic in its theological approach and) has heavily borrowed from neo-platonic ideas of God’s 10 emanations (Tree of Life Diagram) – God is still completely and absolutely ONE!
• How do you feel the Kabbalah teachings are expressed through the media?
The main mistake is to equate the lovely little cult called the ‘kabbalah Centre’ run by Rabbi Berg – which the entire tradition of Kabbalah – which is as old as Judaism is not older. The Media have grabbed hold of this small cult and now think that it represents the entirety of the Kabbalistic tradition – which it doesn’t.
It’s like saying that the founding fathers of the United States must have been like ‘Ronald McDonald’ because he represents America in the world today and therefore that all Americans were red and white striped socks and eat hamburgers!
The Kabbalah Centre movement/cult is Kabbalah’s equivalent to McDonalds, and although it represents Kabbalah it like McDonals represents America it can not be said to truly express the entirety of American Culture – and the Kabbalah Centre does not represent the entirety of the Kabbalistic tradition.
• Do you think the Kabbalah teachings are positively or negatively promoted through the media? And why?
The media particularly in the United Kingdom (where I live) are very cynical of anything – let alone a weird kinda Jewish celebrity Cult and they have been extremely negative towards the Kabbalah Centre cult, and therefore also unfortunately to the kabbalistic tradition itself. On the other hand – as they say any News is good news - it has raised the profile of Kabbalah itself and now everyone has heard of Kabbalah even if they don’t know what it is.
• How do you think Kabbalah is perceived through the media by younger generations?
I don’t know – I hope that they can distinguish between a celebrity cult and an ancient spiritual tradition based within Judaism.
• What do you think is the most affective form of media used to promote religions and religious teachings in today’s society?
Myspace? And MTV – no but seriously ‘propaganda’ - TV. Radio, Internet, word of Mouth, Books, tapes, Videos
people don’t want complicated theologies – or philosophical religions – they want simple stuff that answers questions that tells them what is right and what is wrong –
The most effective form of media used to promote religion is ignorance and dissemblance!
• Do you think that celebrities use the media to an extent to promote their particular religion?
Sure!
This post was written by Urban Guru on September 5, 2007
