Mr. Leyman,
I will respond to your various ideas in text.
“P. Ami begins by quoting me as follows: “Hashem is specific: the G-d of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. If this being is real, he is so because he has revealed himself as being in covenant with a particular people.” Mr. Laymen’s idea is not the accepted Jewish concept of G-d.
Later Mr. Ami says the revelations and covenant between G-d and Abraham are specific to him and his descendants. Those laws given to Moses on Mount Sinai are laws that set the Children of Israel apart as the chosen nation of servants to G-d.
I fail to see the difference between my formulation and Mr. Ami’s.”
— You have chosen to remove the context of my statement. Return to my original response and you’ll find my discussion of Noah and how the revelation of G-d’s laws to Noah is for all mankind and not only for Jews. The G-d of Abraham Isaac and Jacob (known to Noah as Elohim) is also Adam’s G-d and thus not specific to the Jewish people.
“Secondly, Mr. Ami identifies Hashem (“the name,” the holy inexpressible name for non-experts) with Ein Sof. But Ein Sof is a specifically Kabalistic (mystical) formulation. Mysticism and rabbinicism are two very different traditions, even if some rabbis were also Kabbalists.”
— Ein Sof is a name used to refer to an aspect of G-d. This endless aspect to G-d is referred to in many texts besides Kabalistic ones. They do not always use the name Ein Sof but that concept is clear. You seem to imply that Jewish mysticism is a post Talmudic phenomenon. This too is a misconception. I will qualify in the following paragraphs.
— The names we use to characterize G-d are partly defined by milieu. The Jewish names for G-d pertain to the only deity, “Hear O Israel, the Lord our G-d, the Lord is One” (Pre-Talmudic prayer taken from the Torah). To suggest that Jews are referencing a variety of deities runs counter Jewish thought. The various names are names for aspects of G-d. Being finite human beings we are incapable of understanding, let alone expressing, all of G-d’s aspects. As our culture evolves we come to recognize some other timeless aspect that we did not before. But, the endlessness and beginninglessness of G-d has been a Jewish concept since Biblical times.
“With all due respect to mystics of all the monotheistic traditions, I do not think it is the same deity of the Bible. To simply assert that it is, is to assert what must be proved. My all-too-summary brief against Prof. Mansur is also a brief against all mysticism.”
—YHVH; I Was, Am and Will Be. This is the name Moses used in communion with G-d.
“From the standpoint of the Jewish tradition, rabbinism was generally opposed to the kabbalistic interpretation. It was in any case a secret, esoteric lore, restricted to a tiny number of wise and mature adepts, not general knowledge for the average Jew.”
—Prophesy, is a mystic state of mind. The Talmudic rabbis were aware of this and taught its ways to their top students. According to Jewish tradition the first kabbalistic texts were written in the 2nd century C.E. This puts us squarely in the Talmudic era. If you take secular scholasticism to be more accurate then they were written in the 12th century C.E. This is a full 10 centuries after HaRav Shlomo Ben-Gabriel wrote the Adon Olam. The Adon Olam specifically refers to, “He was, He Is, He Will Be forever and ever”. This same rabbi is referred to in the Talmud a number of times. Many of the writers of the early parts of the Talmud (Mishna) are credited as writers of an early Kabalistic book, The Behir.
—While there are many more examples I will share a conclusive one that comes from a different angle. Maimonides, the great 12th century scholar, rabbi and doctor was a non-Mystic in every sense. Yet, in his 13 Principles of Faith (meaning Jewish faith) he states in his 4th principle “G-d’s eternity”. This is Ein Sof.
— Looking at Biblical period, looking at the Talmudic period and then again, just previous to the flowering of Kabbalah in Sefed, we find the concept of G-d, without beginning or end, fully actualized in Jewish thought. It would be most appropriate to recognize that this aspect of G-d is understood by Moses on down.
— All these concepts are mystical and scholastic in nature. Most aspects of Jewish thought are not for Jewish laymen. The important aspects of Jewish living were taught to whomever asked. People would send letters of advise to the great rabbinical centers, as regarded Jewish Law, and responses were sent back to the community from the rabbis. The most generally relevent questions and responses became the Talmud. These legal arguments were not the only studies made by the Rabbis. The Rabbis meditated on the Torah and other Jewish works. They discussed lessons from their masters. They honed their minds to be capable of dispensing such sound ideas that they survive to this day. What other legal code has been followed, uninterrupted, for over two thousand years? The honing of their minds included mystical practices meant only for the great minds of their time.
“I am certainly no expert in the Talmudim (the Bavli and the Yerushalmi), but I request from Mr. Ami a rabbinical text which identifies HaShem with Ein Sof. Until I see that, I suggest he is conflating two very different traditions within Judaism.”
— Kabbalah is not a separate tradition of Judaism. It is the mystical construction derived from the Jewish paradigm. The Talmud is the legal construction derived from the Jewish paradigm. Kabbalah was practiced by Adam and on down to the last prophets. I have already mentioned Moses’ meditation on the name YHVH. Rabbi Akiva was a known mystic. I have listed HaRav Ben Gabriel, who was a Kabbalist. Study Rebbe Shlomo Ben-Yochai and you will find Kabbalah there. All these men lived before Rabbi Luria or any other classic Kabbalist. To separate Kabbalah from rabbinical thought is like removing vowels from a great novel. You may understand the thrust of the writer’s intent but you will have missed the nuances.
