Zohar (Bereishis 180b) Where is the cheerful spirit in the righteous man who is broken in body, seeing that he is tormented by his sufferings? And further, do we not know of many righteous men, beloved by the Almighty, who were never a prey to acute suffering or physical weakness? Why this discrimination? Why should these be physical wrecks and the others hale and hearty? One explanation given is that the latter were born of righteous parents, whereas the former, although themselves righteous, were not children of righteous parents. But the facts are against this, since we see many righteous men who are the sons of righteous parents, and who nevertheless are afflicted with bodily ills and are lifelong sufferers. But there is a deep mystery involved here, inasmuch as all the ways of God are based on truth and righteousness. In connection with this verse I have found in the books of the ancients a mystical doctrine, and next to it another mystical doctrine, both being in essence one and the same. It amounts to the following. There is a period when the moon is defective, judgement being visited upon her, and the sun being concealed from her. Now it is the moon that at all times and seasons releases souls to enter the sons of men-she having previously gathered them for the purpose. Of those souls, then, which she releases during the period that she is under sentence, every one will always be the victim of degradation and poverty and suffer other chastisements, irrespective of whether he be sinful or righteous. (Prayer, however, can avert any sentence of punishment.) But those souls which the moon sends forth when she is in the grade of completeness, and the perennially flowing stream plays about her, are destined to enjoy abundance of all good things-of riches, children, and bodily health-and all on account of the mazzal that flowed forth and joined itself to that grade in order to be perfected and blessed by it. We see thus that all things are dependent on mazzal, according to the dictum: Children, life, and livelihood do not depend on a man's merits, but on mazzal. Hence all those who are sorely afflicted in this world in spite of being truly righteous suffer through the mischance of their soul; but in compensation G-d has compassion on them in the world to come.’
This observation is made in koheleth.
ReplyDeleteI'm presuming this was not originally meant for the general population to read. When did the Zohar become popular literature?
ReplyDeleteWas the knowledge intended for great scholars with bellies full of meat - ie wide learning of shas, so why is it now almost required reading for the layman?
This is the fault of Chasidus. They took kaballah which was reserved for the brightest of the brightest and decided that all Chasidim should learn it.
DeleteI wonder if it was because, for the first several generations, they couldn't compete with the Litvish when it came to Talmud and halakha so they grabbed onto this to make themselves feel smart and holy.
and Philip S. berg
DeleteYes, agreed, but he was just building on what had already happened.
DeleteThere was an old discussion of different types of orthodoxy. One was orthoprax, which is keeping halacha, but not necessarily accepting any of the ikkarim.
ReplyDeleteIt might have been conservadox.
This position in Zohar is akin to atheism at worst, and deism at best.
Orthoprax is the practice without the belief. The guy who dresses the part, davens with intense shockling but doesn't believe there's anyone Above listening. He's just going through the motions.
DeleteAs for the Zohar, I recall an interesting insight someone pointed out to me when I was quite young. In the back of the Hertz Chumash there's an essay in which Rav Hertz, zt"l, contrasts our Creation narrative with the Babylonian myth. Ours is basic and tells the story with minimal embellishment. The Babylonian one would make a blockbuster fantasy movie with its monsters and gods all having wars with each other as the universe comes into form. And then he showed me the account of creation in the Soncino Zohar and said "Doesn't it sound similar?"
So it's also orthoprax. They believe in atheism and avodah Zarah.
DeleteI wouldn't call it atheism, not at all, but it is a polytheistic way of looking at God, giving Him multiple aspects that seem to function independently and which can be interacted with or manipulated with the right kavannos which, if gentiles did it, we'd call magic spells.
DeleteThe discussion is problematic.
DeleteRemember that sefer called the Torah? It says im bechukotai telechoo..
And has a bunch of if.... Then propositions, both positive and negative.
The argument brought by.. skeptics is that this doesn't always appear to be the case.
Koheleth raises the problem without a solution.
But if someone later book is claiming that actually there's no im.. bechukotai, it is denying the Torah.