Demystifying Mysticism and Decanting Kabbalah. Attempting to make sense of Seder Hishtalshelut, Kabbalah’s ‘Great Chain of Being.’ Exploring Cordovero’s liminal Keter, the middle-most point in existence, and Luria’s Tzimtzum, concealing and revealing, literal and non-literal. Dance with us between the cosmic curtains of consciousness, as we trace the traces of light lingering in the void, and find God hiding in plain sight.

Part of a series on Jewish Pantheological thought. Looking at the way thinkers within the Jewish tradition thought about the relationship between God and World, in creative, daring and inspiring ways.
This is the second instalment looking at the thinking of the Kabbalists on this issue, trying to get a glimpse of just how they go about thinking and unpacking nothing less than what they believe to be the mysteries of the universe, God and the human condition.

Previous Episodes:
Part 1: The Other God of Judaism    • The Other God of Judaism  
Part 2: The God of the Kabbalists    • God of the Kabbalists | Pantheism & K...  

00:00 Intro, Recap & Up Next
00:49 Demystifying Kabbalah
02:39 Seder Hishtalshelut?
07:56 A Living Question
09:37 Cordovero’s Keter
11:41 God and not God
14:40 Cordovero’s Caveats
16:24 Luria’s Tzimtzum
17:47 A Literal Tzimtzum
19:17 Tzimtzum Non-Literal
20:46 Reshimu: Traces of Light
22:17 Chaim Vital on God
23:22 Curtains of Consciousness
25:38 Revealing and Concealing
28:31 Double Talk?
29:27 Recap
30:18 Up Next & Thank you


Video credit:
17:12 Artistic depiction of tzimtzum
   • The Kabbalah concept of Tzimtzum  
   / @mystiekeschool  

Image credits:
Mapping Seder Hishtalshelut, throughout
http://iyyun.com/kabbalah/understandi...
http://iyyun.com/wp-content/uploads/2... (full res)

06:07 Tree of Knowledge: Dr. Gregg Henriques
https://www.unifiedtheoryofknowledge....
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/t...



I meant to include this as a post script to the vid but i forgot, whoops. So i'll add it for you here:

"Gershom Scholem, who we’ve been quoting copiously here, has come under criticism from the both the academic and traditional worlds of recent Kabbalistic scholarship. He’s been accused of many things, of imposing his Hegelian agenda or philological methodology ahead of the data itself, of sacrificing breath for depth, of ignoring the schools of Kabbalah in his own day in his own town, and even of seeing himself as the messianic herald of his own heterodoxical school of Jewish mysticism.

And while it’s true that Scholem may have make many mistakes, as humans are prone to, and may have had some outdated German methodological presuppositions that got between him and his texts, Scholem, I believe, still makes for a reliable source, as long as one is aware of the shortcomings and inaccuracies, charm and charisma, inherent in any founder of a given field. I happen to have a great amount of appreciation for Scholem’s scholarship, and for what I see as the philosophical and speculative side of his work.

The ability to hold appreciation for a founder, while remaining critical to their constraints and shortcomings is true in every field, for Freud in Psychology; Yates, Underhill and James in Hermeticism and Mysticism; as much as it is for Newton, Copernicus and Galilei in astronomy, science and physics.

I believe that a health balance can be struck between adoration and criticism, with an eye to a scholar’s flaws and a willingness to allow the historical datum to speak for itself, even in defiance of accepted scholarly consensus when necessary. “Love Plato, love Aristotle, but more than both, love the truth.”

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Tags: Kabbalah, Tzimtzum, Seder Hishtalshelut, Moshe Cordovero, Moses Cordovero, Ramak, Tzimtzum, Reshimu, Masach, Parsa, Isaac Luria, Ari, Arizal, Lurianic Kabbalah, Great Chain of Being

#Kabbalah
#SederHishtalshelut
#Tzimtzum