🧿 We begin a series today exploring the history of Kabbala from its medieval developments through its institution in the early modern world, up to the period of the Ari and Lurianic Kabbala.
hi, it is a modern invention to translate 'sichli' as 'rational' which means intellectual. that's not what it means. if you reinterpret 'rationalism' as access to the rational - spiritual - part of the soul (nefesh hasichli), which grants perception of the spiritual (hasogo sichli) - the tzura of everything, including knowledge of the sefirot and the shemot, then the picture becomes a lot clearer. the scots call it the 'second sight'. everybody else around the world knows this, but we live in a western (edom) culture that doesn't want to know.
Saul Lieberman: "Nonsense is nonsense, but the history of nonsense is very important science." in his "How Much Greek in Jewish Palestine?" in A. Altmann (ed.), Biblical and Other Studies (Cambridge: Harvard UP,1963), p. 135.
see also:
From: Morris M. Faierstein kotsker@yahoo.com: Concerning Steve Fine's question about the Lieberman introduction of Scholem. I heard the story from Prof. Seymour Siegel z"l at JTS about 1973. Prof. Siegel told me that he was present at the lecture and the "nusach" as I remember it was, "Nonsense is nonsense, but the history of nonsense is scholarship and Prof. Scholem is the greatest scholar of nonsense." The context was a lecture series that Scholem gave at JTS in 1958, which resulted in his book, "Jewish Gnosticism, Merkavah Mysticism, and Talmudic Tradition (published by JTS, 1960). This book contains an appendix by Prof. Lieberman z"l, which I was told was his way of making amends for the introduction. This incident is also mentioned in Chaim Potok's novel, "The Book of Lights" whose plot is built in part on this visit by Scholem's to JTS. Kach kibalti, kach mosarti. Morris M. Faierstein
hi, it is a modern invention to translate 'sichli' as 'rational' which means intellectual. that's not what it means. if you reinterpret 'rationalism' as access to the rational - spiritual - part of the soul (nefesh hasichli), which grants perception of the spiritual (hasogo sichli) - the tzura of everything, including knowledge of the sefirot and the shemot, then the picture becomes a lot clearer. the scots call it the 'second sight'. everybody else around the world knows this, but we live in a western (edom) culture that doesn't want to know.
The Liberman nonsense quote is not apocryphal:
Saul Lieberman: "Nonsense is nonsense, but the history of nonsense is very important science." in his "How Much Greek in Jewish Palestine?" in A. Altmann (ed.), Biblical and Other Studies (Cambridge: Harvard UP,1963), p. 135.
see also:
From: Morris M. Faierstein kotsker@yahoo.com: Concerning Steve Fine's question about the Lieberman introduction of Scholem. I heard the story from Prof. Seymour Siegel z"l at JTS about 1973. Prof. Siegel told me that he was present at the lecture and the "nusach" as I remember it was, "Nonsense is nonsense, but the history of nonsense is scholarship and Prof. Scholem is the greatest scholar of nonsense." The context was a lecture series that Scholem gave at JTS in 1958, which resulted in his book, "Jewish Gnosticism, Merkavah Mysticism, and Talmudic Tradition (published by JTS, 1960). This book contains an appendix by Prof. Lieberman z"l, which I was told was his way of making amends for the introduction. This incident is also mentioned in Chaim Potok's novel, "The Book of Lights" whose plot is built in part on this visit by Scholem's to JTS. Kach kibalti, kach mosarti. Morris M. Faierstein