The follow is an excerpt from Rabbi David Katz' doctoral dissertaion on the Nodah B'Yehuda. Rabbi Katz is a rav in Baltimore and is a very well respected talmid chachom as well as very knowledgable about many other things. The full dissertation can be downloaded here from
the University of Maryland. The main point is that the Nodah B'Yehuda had a negative public attitude towards Kabbala but privately he had a strongly positive one. This also was true of Rav Yaakov Emden, Chasam Sofer and others. This duality was resulted from the concern for the followers of Shabtsai Tzvi and the Frankists as well as the well founded fear of the ignorant studying kabbala without a proper teacher or foundation.
It seems like the Nodah B'Yehuda was arguing against study of Kabbalah by those who were not prepared so it is reasonble to say that his position was not a duality. He respected Kabbalah but did not like that the uninitiated were studying it and getting a warped view of Torah.
ReplyDeleteThat is very different from R Emden and Chasam Sofer who were specifically casting doubts on the provenance of the Zohar as anything more than a forgery. There is no duality there. Either it is a forgery or it isnt.
You claim that "the Nodah B'Yehuda had a negative public attitude towards Kabbala but privately he had a strongly positive one. This also was true of Rav Yaakov Emden, Chasam Sofer and others." On what basis are you making this claim?
HIM:
ReplyDeletehttp://torahanytime.com/Rabbi/David_Katz/
not the same Rabbi Katz
Delete"HIM:
ReplyDeletehttp://torahanytime.com/Rabbi/David_Katz/"
That is someone else. There are a number of different people with that name.