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Because of
considerations of space I shall only deal in detail with the most
important of these popular delusions: that the Jewish religion is, and
always was, monotheistic. Now, as many biblical scholars know, and as a
careful reading of the Old Testament easily reveals, this a historical
view is quite wrong. In many, if not most, books of the Old Testament
the existence and power of 'other gods' are clearly acknowledged, but
Yahweh (Jehovah), who is the most powerful god, is also very jealous of
his rivals and forbids his people to worship them. It is only very late
in the Bible, in some of the later prophets, that the existence of all
gods other than Yahweh is denied.
What concerns
us, however, is not biblical but classical Judaism; and it is quite
clear, though much less widely realized, that the latter, during its
last few hundred years, was for the most part far from pure monotheism.
The same can be said about the real doctrines dominant in present-day
Orthodox Judaism, which is a direct continuation of classical Judaism.
The decay of monotheism came about through
the spread of Jewish mysticism (the cabbala)
which developed in the 12th and 13th centuries, and by the late 16th
century had won an almost complete victory in virtually all the centers
of Judaism. The Jewish Enlightenment, which arose out of the crisis of
classical Judaism, had to fight against this mysticism and its influence
more than against anything else, but in latter-:lay Jewish Orthodoxy,
especially among the rabbis, the influence of the cabbala has remained
predominant. For example, the Gush Emunim movement is inspired to a
great extent by cabbalistic ideas.
Knowledge and
understanding of these ideas is therefore important for two reasons.
First, without it one cannot under- stand the true beliefs of Judaism at
the end of its classical period. Secondly, these ideas play an important
contemporary political role, inasmuch as they form part of the explicit
system of beliefs of many religious politicians, including most leaders
of Gush Emunim, and have an indirect influence on many Zionist leaders
of all parties, including the zionist left.
According to
the cabbala, the universe is ruled not by one god but by several deities,
of various characters and influences, emanated by a dim, distant First
Cause. Omitting many details, one can summarize the system as follows.
From the First Cause, first a male god called 'Wisdom' or 'Father' and
then a female goddess called 'Knowledge' or 'Mother' were emanated or
born. From the marriage of these two, a pair of younger gods were born:
Son, also called by many other names such as 'Small Face' or 'The Holy
Blessed One'; and Daughter, also called 'Lady' (or 'Matronit', a word
derived from Latin), 'Shekhinah', 'Queen', and so on. These two younger
gods should be united, but their union is prevented by the machinations
of Satan, who in this system is a very important and independent
personage. The Creation was undertaken by the First Cause in order to
allow them to unite, but because of the Fall they became more disunited
than ever, and indeed Satan has managed to come very close to the divine
Daughter and even to rape her (either seemingly or in fact - opinions
differ on this). The creation of the Jewish people was undertaken in
order to mend the break caused by Adam and Eve, and under Mount Sinai
this was for a moment achieved: the male god Son, incarnated in Moses,
was united with the goddess Shekhinah. Unfortunately, the sin of the
Golden Calf again caused disunity in the godhead; but the repentance of
the Jewish people has mended matters to some extent. Similarly, each
incident of biblical Jewish history is believed to be associated with
the union or disunion of the divine pair. The Jewish conquest of
Palestine from the Canaanites and the building of the first and second
Temple are particularly propitious for their. union, while the
destruction of the Temples and exile of the Jews from the Holy Land are
merely external signs not only of the divine disunion but also of a real
'whoring after strange gods': Daughter falls closely into the power of
Satan, while Son takes various female satanic personages to his bed,
instead of his proper wife.
The duty of
pious Jews is to restore through their prayers and religious acts the
perfect divine unity, in the form of sexual union, between the male and
female deities. Thus before most ritual acts, which every devout Jew has
to perform many times each day, the following cabbalistic formula is
recited: 'For the sake of the [sexual] congress of the Holy Blessed One
and his Shekhinah...‘ The Jewish morning prayers are also arranged so as
to promote this sexual union, if only temporarily. Successive parts of
the prayer mystically correspond to successive stages of the union: at
one point the goddess approaches with her hand- maidens, at another the
god puts his arm around her neck and fondles her breast, and finally the
sexual act is supposed to take place.
Other prayers
or religious acts, as interpreted by the cabbalists, are designed to
deceive various angels (imagined as minor deities with a measure of
independence) or to propitiate Satan. At a certain point in the morning
prayer, some verses in Aramaic (rather than the more usual Hebrew) are
pronounced. This is supposed to be a means for tricking the angels who
operate the gates through which prayers enter heaven and who have the
power to block the prayers of the pious. The angels only understand
Hebrew and are baffled by the Aramaic verses; being somewhat dull-witted
(presumably they are far less clever than the cabbalists) they open the
gates, and at this moment all the prayers, including those in Hebrew,
get through. Or take another example: both before and after a meal, a
pious Jew ritually washes his hands, uttering a special blessing. On one
of these two occasions he is worshiping God, by promoting the divine
union of Son and Daughter; but on the other he is worshiping Satan, who
likes Jewish prayers and ritual acts so much that when he is offered a
few of them it keeps him busy for a while and he forgets to pester the
divine Daughter. Indeed, the cabbalists believe that some of the
sacrifices burnt in the Temple were intended for Satan. For example, the
seventy bullocks sacrificed during the seven days of the feast of
Tabernacles were supposedly offered to Satan in his capacity as ruler of
all the Gentiles, in order to keep him too busy to interfere on the
eighth day, when sacrifice is made to God. Many other examples of the
same kind can be given.
Several
points should be made concerning this system and its importance for the
proper understanding of Judaism, both in its classical period and in its
present political involvement in Zionist practice.
First,
whatever can be said about this cabbalistic system, it cannot be
regarded as monotheistic, unless one is also prepared to regard
Hinduism, the late Graeco-Roman religion, or even the religion of
ancient Egypt, as 'monotheistic'.
Secondly, the
real nature of classical Judaism is illustrated by the ease with which
this system was adopted. Faith and beliefs (except nationalistic
beliefs) play an extremely small part in classical Judaism. What is of
prime importance is the ritual act, rather than the significance which
that act is supposed to have or the belief attached to it. Therefore in
times when a minority of religious Jews refused to accept the cabbala
(as is the case today), one could see some few Jews performing a given
religious ritual believing it to be an act of worship of God, while
others do exactly the same thing with the intention of propitiating
Satan - but so long as the act is the same they would pray together and
remain members of the same congregation, however much they might dislike
each other. But if instead of the intention attached to the ritual
washing of hands anyone would dare to introduce an innovation in the
manner of washing, a real schism would certainly ensue.
The same can
be said about all sacred formulas of Judaism. Provided the working is
left intact, the meaning is at best a secondary matter. For example,
perhaps the most sacred Jewish formula, 'Hear 0 Israel, the Lord is our
God, the Lord is one', recited several times each day by every pious
Jew, can at the present time mean two contrary things. It can mean that
the Lord is indeed 'one'; but it can also mean that a certain stage in
the union of the male and female deities has been reached or is being
promoted by the proper recitation of this formula. However, when Jews of
a Reformed congregation recite this formula in any language other than
Hebrew, all Orthodox rabbis, whether they believe in unity or in the
divine sexual union, are very angry indeed.
Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of
Three Thousand Years
by Professor Israel Shahak
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