Now, I want to speak about the, the last

at least for now, big wave of modern

Kabbalah.
That is still with us, we're still part of
this wave.
The late 20th, early 21st century, but in
a way, the whole 20th century in some
ways.
Now, we spoke about Hasidism.
And we saw how Hasidism develops
throughout
the 19th century, and it moves into
the 20th century and as I said, it's still
with us.
I want to speak about, just to mention
Hasidism, about two very much studied
streams of Hassidism.
And then a third one maybe mention, which
developed in the late 19th, early 20th
century.
First one in 19th century stream, which is
still very much with us.
Very psychological of Braslav or Bralsav.
Braslav.
Rebbi Nachman of Braslav, a very well
known figure, who also, just
like we spoke about [INAUDIBLE] about
[INAUDIBLE] went through very intense
psychological conflict.
And maybe again, somewhat manic depressive
in modern terms.
And through that, developed a whole system
of speaking to God, as
a kind of therapy of, of really confessing
to, to, to [INAUDIBLE]
to the Hassidic leader, but also
confessing to God, almost going to God in
a kind of psychoanalysis of, because also
in psychoanalysis you don't hear much
back.
You mainly you speak, right?
So just speaking to God like a friend,
that's what he called it.
And he developed a therapy for stories,
how through listening to stories,
bibliotherapy, you could call it, through
listening to stories, one can really go
deeper than one can go even through the
Torah, as he puts it, in one place.
We mentioned also that with winds, she
writes that the story is
like the boat that can carry you on the
river of time.
So, when Nachman used the story in order
to carry
people through their lives, through his
tales, the tales of Nachman.
But, Braslav was not a very important,
numerically Hasidic sect.
It was a much bigger group.
Much more were organized and more
separate,
also.
More, Nachman was also persecuted like
[INAUDIBLE], like [INAUDIBLE].
And the second group, which is still very
much with us, very famous.
Habad Lubavitch, especially well known
figure of later Lubavitch [INAUDIBLE].
Wolfson has a very important book about,
just came out recently.
And really, a very powerful figure, but
all
the seven levels of Habad to different
degrees,
but all of them were powerful, charismatic
figures,
who developed a very intricate, complex,
mystical psychology.
Psychology was really, the main focus, was
on the soul and the heart.
And developed a very interesting system,
which we won't go into, too much.
But just to say, that it's based on the
duality of two souls.
There's the divine soul and the animal
soul that are in conflict.
So conflict is really, the essence of
psychic life.
That the psyche's a battleground, as the
first
[UNKNOWN] of Habad put it, in his classic,
which
is known as, classic book which is printed
in
many, many copies, all over the world,
called Tania.
And in that book, he describes this
conflict, as the essence
of our, our life as, as people in, in, in
this world.
Now, the fifth level of Habad, of
Lubavitch, shalom [INAUDIBLE], acronym
Rashab.
He actually did psychoanalysis.
According to a couple of important studies
that came
out recently, it's also discussed in the
appendix of the
book I mentioned on trance, and he was
psychoanalyzed,
either by Freud or by a close student of
Freud's.
Those are the two possibilities.
So, here we see that finally, not just in
the case
of what we mentioned [FOREIGN] comes from
a Habad family, and writes
about Habad, and becomes a therapist.
But here, actually, [FOREIGN], in his
youth, goes
for psychoanalysis, at the very beginnings
of psychoanalysis.
So, psychoanalysis and Kabbalah now meet,
in the same location of
early 20th century yoga, for what we've
speaking about, quite a lot.
Now, the Psychoanalysis and Kabbalah,
begin this relationship,
and this is interesting because as I said
a
few times, in scholarship, through the
work of Wilson, of Daniel Abraham's
students, contemporary of my own, of the
same generation, of Kabbalah scholarship.
Through these people, really we've got an
insight into the relationship of,
psychoanalysis and Kabbalah.
Especially for focus on gender, that we
mentioned a bit before.
The whole issue of a male soul, the female
soul, etc.
The different gendered parts of a psyche.
And this is one path, that as we said,
from the very beginning, we're taking a
different path here.
Maybe watch Robert Frost the poet called,
the Road Less Traveled.
Which you see okay, sometimes Kabbalah has
met psychoanalysis.
I just gave an example of it.
However, Kabbalah usually develops its own
psychology and Hasidic psychology, that
of Braslav, that of Habad, is a big part
of it.
I'll just mention one more school, which
has become very popular recently.
At least since the 60s, the 1960s, that of
what's called, Izbiche.
That's I, Z with an accent, B, I, C, H, E.
Maybe interesting for me because my
ancestors
on my father's side, belong to this
Hasidism.
And very radical psychology, a bit
resemblance of [INAUDIBLE]
psychology in that way, of how one has to
go
through the, the yearnings of [INAUDIBLE]
of one's soul,
to listen to one's deep inner voice, even
if it's
against the law.
Even to set aside rules, in certain
moments because one has to go be
true to one's own search, at one's own
inner process of doubt and turmoil.
So, these are three, and we could mention
many others, Hasidic world is very rich,
very complex.
One could mention many others, but I think
this is enough to give a bit of a taste
of a Hasidic world in its later
developments, in
the 19th, 20th century, all the way
through into America,
over the 20th century.
[FOREIGN] and so on.
Now, when speaking about the 20th century,
as
I said, the other schools developed, the
school of Kramer, developed in Lithuania.
Later, it moved to Israel, to the United
States, to retain a certain connection to
Kabbalah.
It developed its own psychological system,
which is called Mussal.
And I studied with one
of the great teachers of Mussal of the
last generation, as I mentioned.
Rabbi [INAUDIBLE] and this is a whole
school, which I
was exposed to, in my youth, which works
on psychological work.
In group therapy, what's called Valdim.
In private, one on one sessions.
In group talks, in discourses, a, a whole
movement of
self scrutiny, of self examination, that's
a whole world in itself.
Which also reacts a bit to psychoanalysis,
they speak about Freud.
Some of the leaders of the movement.
They respond to him, in some way.
But I want to focus more, and I've got
this whole, whole
book really about this about 20th century
Kabbalah, which came out at Yale.
I want to speak about two main figures,
and
next lecture, next segment, I'm going to
speak about
Rabbi Kook, who was a great psychologist,
the great mystical psychologist
of 20th century Kabbalah, whose school is
still very much with us.
We now, still in the third generation of
Rabbi Kook's
school, which is still active, here in
Jerusalem and so on.
And had a big impact on Israeli society,
which we'll speak about.
I want to leave off with Rabbi Kook for
again, for next big class.
But here, towards the end of the second
lesson, I want to speak about this focus
on the last wave of Kabbalah, which
in some ways, becoming the biggest wave of
all times, in terms of popularization of
Kabbalah.
I want to speak also now, of one figure
who really popularized Kabbalah,
more than anyone else, in the 20th
century, and now, in the 21st.
And that's Rabbi Ashlag's, that's Ashlag,
Yehuda Leib Ashlag,
comes from Poland in the early 20th
century and moves to what was then
Palestine, later Israel, dies of, a bit
after the establishment of the state of
Israel, that's 1948.
He dies, a bit after that, in the 50s.
And Rabbi Ashlag and his
students, popularized Kabbalah, to
tremendous extent.
This was part of the agenda of Rabbi
Ashlag.
He said, you have to sell Kabbalah like
newspapers, and
now it's happening.
There are newspapers which are sold in
hundreds of
thousands of copies, based on the Kabbalah
of Ashlag.
So this vision of his, came true.
And he's become almost a, a household name
in many parts, of the world.
Because of his students, who developed
his Kabbalah like Rabbi Laitman, Michael
Laitman.
And his movement that he developed,
which has video channels and multimedia
channels.
And as I said, newspapers and so
on, and has captured celebrities, all over
the world, in many languages.
Russian and Spanish and French and Hebrew,
English.
Hundreds of thousands of students, or tens
of thousands at least.
And also for something which is less
related to Kabbalah in my
view, what's called the Kabbalah Center of
Philip Berg, who just passed away.
Which I see it more as, taking Kabbalah as
a logo
and using it as a marketing device, in
order to popularize Kabbalah.
The connection to classical Kabbalastic
texts has become weaker because they
themselves say, we don't even need the
Hebrew to read these texts.
So, the connection with the Kabbalistic
tradition as the [INAUDIBLE] understand
it,
as traditional Kabbalists understand it,
has become much more tenuous, much weaker.
And I won't go too much into this, it's
controversial issue.
And not all of my colleagues even, would
be
so happy, that I am speaking in this way.
However the, and like
any field, it's also a matter of opinion.
Even though my opinion is clear, as you
can see.
Now,
the most famous student of Philip Berg, of
course, is Madonna.
And here we see, how she uses Kabbalah in
a way, as a logo.
In one of her phases, she has the Material
Girl phase and then she has the Ashtanga
yoga
phase, becoming more mystical, and the
Kaballah phase, or
Kaballah phase, as it's usually put in
these circles.
So, here's an example of how celebrity,
uses Kabbalah to reinvent herself, in a
way.
I'm not saying, it's not
sincere, but one also has to look
at it critically, like academics do,
sociologically.
And I want to speak a bit about the
teachings
of Rabbi Ashlag himself, less about, how
they've been popularized today.
What's interesting about Rabbi Ashlag is,
he really
brings this issue of social psychology, to
the forefront.
Now, the teaching of Rabbi Ashlag, is
about
social psychology, that's his focus.
And he takes Kabbalah, and this is very
interesting,
in terms of 20th century, because he
writes at the
time of the socialist revolution in Russia
and elsewhere, and
he speaks about Kabbalah in terms of,
transcending the ego.
That for Rabbi Ashlag, the two main
psychological forces, as he puts it,
in the psyche are, the will to receive and
the will to give.
The two main
forces we have are, desire, our almost
[INAUDIBLE] in psycho-analytics terms, to
receive, to get.
Which that's how babies start out.
That's how they survive.
They receive, they suck, they take in.
And then, hopefully, and well, I can see
this with my
own children, hopefully as they grow up,
they begin to give more.
Begin to realize that, to be in this
world, you also have to give.
However, social structures can lock people
into receiving.
They can lock people, into the ego.
And Rabbi Ashlag is a critic of
capitalism.
And he has many predictions about
capitalism, and he writes, in
a books which was just published a few
years ago, The
Writings of a Last Generation he calls it,
published by Rabbi
Leisman, and he speaks about
how capitalism will eventually undermine
democracy.
Because if you develop so much, this will
to receive, this consumerism,
then basically, society would begin to
come apart, at the
seams, and you won't be able to have a
civic society.
Which is based also, on giving and on
generosity.
And he says basically, our purpose in this
world is to
develop, from the will to receive, to the
will to give.
And emulate God because God is the great
giver.
Who's given us his generosity, judt by
making us, in a way.
By making our souls.
And for Rabbi Ashlag, Kabbalah
is almost essential, for the survival of
society, which is something students also
say.
Because it says for Kabbalah, not as a
tradition belonging, only to the Jewish
people, which is
what I'll talk about in the next lesson,
but as a tradition, belonging to the whole
world.
It brings a message of, a deeper form of
socialism.
As it puts a deeper form of communism,
which is
not just a social structure, but a way of
transforming ourselves,
our psychology.
And you can't try and build a just
society, like the Soviet
revolution, without trying to transform
the self because the ego will take over.
As we maybe saw.
In cases of the people like Stalin.
That, the ego begins to take over and
undermines the just society.
But no, we have to change our souls, Rabbi
Ashlag says.
We have to refine and transform ourselves,
to put the
will to give in the center of our lives,
and
Kabbalah is not a system, so much of
emulating God, by following a set of
rules.
But it's more about emulating God, by
becoming givers.
And this is Kabbalah's message to the
world, so Rabbi
Ashlag, why does he want to sell Kabbalah
like newspapers?
In order to give something to the world,
not in order to build somebody's career,
or somebody's celebrityhood, but in order
to really give something to the world.
And I'm not saying,
celebrities can't give to the world, of
course they can.
However, the focus here is less about
marketing,
about merchandising, and so on and so
forth.
It's not even, he said, he was worried for
one moment, that it would happen to his
teaching.
And he said, no, people won't take a
complex spiritual teaching,
and make it into a marketing mechanism, so
much that he'd know.
In that sense, he wasn't such a good
prophet.
However, what his focus was, and he saw
himself as a prophet, is he wins this
vision
of the future of a just society, based on
Kabbalah.
And this is a very important stream for
understand the
last big wave of Kabbalah, in the 20th,
21st century.