Religion 101 (8 page)

Some people like matzah soaked in water and egg and then fried. There is even a Passover variation of latkes (which, by the way, are served on Chanukah) that are made out of matzah meal.

The bagel is a lonely roll to eat all by yourself, because in order for the true taste to come out you need your family.

— Gertrude Berg, actress

Arguably the most quintessentially Jewish food item is the bagel, a donut-shaped piece of bread that is boiled and then baked. Bagels are often topped with sesame seeds or poppy seeds or given a touch of flavor with other ingredients. The addition of cream cheese and lox is a custom born in America.

Bagels for Babies

The first printed reference to the bagel can be found in the Community Regulations of Cracow, Poland, in 1610. At that time, it was the custom to give bagels as a gift to pregnant women shortly before childbirth.

Another popular food item is the blintz. Looking a bit like an egg roll, a blintz is a flat pancake rolled around sweetened cottage cheese, mashed potatoes, jam, or fresh fruit. Blintzes are frequently accompanied with sour cream or applesauce.

Other common Jewish food items include:

• Borscht. Borscht is beet soup, served either hot or cold.
  
• Knishes. A knish is a potato and flour dumpling normally stuffed with mashed potato and onion, chopped liver, or cheese.
  
• Kasha.
  Kasha
  or
  kasha varnishkes
  is a mixture of buckwheat and bow-tie macaroni noodles.
  
• Kugel. Kugel is either served as a casserole of potatoes, eggs, and onions or as a dessert made with noodles, fruits, and nuts in an egg-based pudding.
  
• Kishkas. Parchment paper or plastic filled with either meat or celery and carrots, onions, flour, and spices.
  
• Gefilte fish. Originally, gefilte fish was stuffed fish, but today it looks more like fish cakes or fish loaf. Gefilte fish may be made from a variety of fish, though it’s most often made of carp. The fish is chopped or ground, then mixed with eggs, salt, onions, and pepper, or a vegetable mix.
  
• Stuffed cabbage. You can prepare stuffed cabbage in a number of ways, one of which is to fill it with beef and then serve in a sweet-and-sour sauce.
  

ABULAFIA

Father of the Mystical Tradition

Abraham Abulafia (1240–1291) is by far the most influential Kabbalist in the school of Ecstatic (or Prophetic) Kabbalah. In fact, he essentially founded this kabbalistic orientation. His personality was powerful, his ideas were radical and controversial, and his influence has been long lasting.

Abulafia was born in Saragossa, Spain. He spent his first twenty years in Spain before beginning a life that was often characterized by wandering. His rabbinical education was good, but far from outstanding. On the other hand, his knowledge of philosophy was quite extensive.

Abulafia’s father died when Abraham was only eighteen, and two years later, he journeyed to the land of Israel in search of the mythical river Sambatyon, beyond which, according to legend, the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel dwelled. From Israel he took a boat from Acco to Greece and spent the next ten years in Greece and Italy. Scholars speculate as to whether he made contact with Sufis (Islamic mystics) in the Land of Israel because some of his meditational methods seemed comparable to those of Sufis. Abulafia also focused on breathing techniques during meditation and scholars wonder whether he may have been indirectly influenced by Yoga via Sufism.

In 1271, at the age of thirty-one, Abulafia had his first transformative experience. He understood the experience as that of attaining prophetic inspiration and he began teaching his methods and insights to a small number of chosen students.

Prolific Author

Abulafia wrote close to fifty works. A little more than half were kabbalistic texts of various sorts. In addition to commentaries on
Sefer Yetzirah
(
The Book of Creation
) and the Jewish philosopher Maimonides’s
Moreh Nevukhim
(
Guide for the Perplexed
), he wrote numerous books in which he explains his meditation techniques, teaches the secrets of the various names of God, and writes his insights into the Torah and the
mitzvot
(commandments).

Abulafia also wrote another type of work, which he called his prophetic books. Of the more than twenty that he wrote, only one has survived,
Sefer HaOt
(
The Book of the
Sign
; the word
Ot
, however, also means “letter”). These emerge more out of his immediate experiences.

Going to See the Pope

In the summer of 1280, Abulafia went to Rome to see Pope Nicholas III, to speak on behalf of the Jewish people and to persuade the pope to improve the difficult conditions under which they lived. Nicholas, however, was suspicious of him and ordered him arrested and put to death by burning. However, the night of his arrest the pope suddenly died. Abulafia was kept for a month in the College of the Franciscans and was subsequently freed.

After his release, Abulafia went to Sicily and remained there for most of the rest of his life. During this period of time he composed the majority of his books. Abulafia believed that his meditative use of the Hebrew language could give you a deeper understanding of reality than philosophy could. Contemplating the letters and meditating with them would unlock secrets inaccessible by any other means. To Abulafia, the structure of the Hebrew language itself contained within it the secrets of the natural universe.

Functions of the Hebrew Language

For Abulafia, language had two essential functions. The conventional one was communication of our thoughts. The second function was for the attainment of prophecy. Hebrew was believed to be the original language, the language in which Adam named all the animals, the language through which Creation came about. All other languages were understood as in some way coming from it. Another belief was that there were seventy languages. In ancient times, some people took this literally, but by medieval times it was seen as a reference to all the other languages and to all knowledge that humans possess collectively.

Those, like Abulafia, who philosophized about human language in general, tended to think that language came about through human convention, but that Hebrew, the language of divine revelation, reflected reality on a different level. Some saw it as a revealed language, others as a language whose nature made it the ideal medium for communicating revelation.

The Kabbalistic Meaning of Letters

Abulafia wrote that different aspects of the Hebrew alphabet were filled with mystical meaning. The shapes of the letters themselves were not a matter of human convention, but were provided through prophetic insight by those who communicated God’s revelation. The names of the letters were deeply significant. The first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the aleph, for example, is spelled
aleph
,
lamed
,
pheh
. The name of the aleph, therefore, has the gematria (a form of biblical interpretation in which each Hebrew letter has a numerical value) of 111, which emphasizes its standing for “unity” (the gematria of the aleph itself is 1). In addition to the visual form and the names of the letters both being meaningful, the numerical equivalents of the letters were highly significant.

Abulafia saw the combining of letters as the construction of something, much as any living being is put together with different parts of the body.
Sefer HaBahir
had said that the vowels were the souls of words and Abulafia agreed with this perspective. The vowels provided various pronunciations of YHVH when using them as a meditation technique with this name. Also, the vowels indicated the head movements and breathing exercises that Abulafia practiced to accompany the pronunciation and meditation on the divine letters.

Permutations of the Divine Names

There are many elements to Abulafia’s techniques of letter combinations. He primarily worked with YHVH and with the seventy-two-letter name of God. When using YHVH, he combined each letter individually with the aleph and used five different Hebrew vowels (according to Sephardic Hebrew grammar) in changing combinations. So he might begin with aleph and yud and vocalize them with the same vowel and then proceed with different combinations from there. The vowels he used are the
kholam
(pronounced
oh
),
kamatz
(pronounced
ah
),
khirik
(pronounced
ee
),
tzereh
(pronounced
eh
), and
kubutz
(pronounced
oo
). With great care and concentration, Abulafia put each set of letters together with every possible combination of vowels.

Abulafia saw the divine name as reflecting the structure of reality and also as being embedded in a person’s soul. The manipulation of the letters and vowels of the name would consequently change a person’s soul and consciousness. Therefore it was especially important that a person undertake these processes with maximum awareness, to avoid causing harm to oneself.

CHAPTER 3
TAOISM AND CONFUCIANISM

Confucianism is not officially considered a world religion because it is not organized as such. It is often grouped with religions, however, perhaps because it is a spiritual philosophy, a social ethic, a political ideology, and a scholarly tradition.

The belief system began in China around the sixth to fifth century
B.C.
by Confucius. It has been followed by the Chinese people for over two millennia. A major part of the belief is its emphasis on learning; Confucianism is also a source of values. Its influence has spread to many other countries, including Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. Confucianism made its mark extensively in Chinese literature, education, culture, and both spiritual and political life.

Taoism arose in the first century
A.D.
The name came from the Chinese character that means path or way: Tao. In English it is pronounced “dow.” The Tao is a natural force that makes the universe the way it is.

Taoism advocates the philosophy of disharmony or harmony of opposites, meaning there is no love without hate, no light without dark, no male without female — in other words, yin and yang. Collectively the writings called
Tao Tsang
are concerned with the ritual meditations of the Tao.

Taoist thought permeated the Chinese culture in the same way that Confucianism did, and the two are often linked. Taoism became more popular than Confucianism, even though Confucianism had state patronage. Taoism was based on the individual and tended to reject the organized society of Confucianism. The traditions became so well entrenched within China that many people accepted both of them, although they applied the concepts to their lives in different ways.

Taoism was first conceived as a philosophy and evolved into a religion that has a number of deities. Lao-tzu (or Laozi), whom many believed was the founder of Taoism, was so revered that he was thought of as a deity. On the other hand, there were some who thought of him as a mystical character.

A key Taoist concept is that of nonaction or the natural course of things. It is a direct link to yin and yang. Yin (dark/female) represents cold, feminine, evil, and negative principles. The yang (light/male) represents good, masculine, warmth, and positive principles. Yin (the dark side) is the breath that formed the earth. Yang (the light side) is the breath that formed the heavens. Yin and yang are not polar opposites; they are values in people that depend on individual circumstances. So, what is cold for one person may be warm for another. Yin and yang are said to be identical aspects of the same reality.

The study, practice, and readings of yin and yang have become a school of philosophy in its own right. The idea is for the student to find balance in life where yin represents inactivity, rest, and reflection, while yang represents activity and creativity. The basic feature of Taoism is to restore balance. Extremes produce a swinging back to the opposite. Therefore, there is a constant movement from activity to inactivity and back again.

TAOIST WRITINGS

Accept What Is

The major piece of literature in Taoism is Laozi’s
Dao de Jing
(
Classic Way of Power
—
de
means power, the energy of Tao at work in the world). It has never been established that Laozi was the sole author. There are no references in the work to other persons, events, places, or even writings that could provide any evidence to assist in placing or dating the composition. The fact that the work can’t be authenticated as to its author or place is, again, somehow in keeping with the philosophy of Taoism; the work exists and that is everything.

The essence of the book is pure simplicity: accept what is without wanting to change it. Study the natural order and go with it, rather than against it. The effort to change something creates resistance. Everything nature provides is free; a person should emulate nature and consider everyone as an equal.

Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are.
When you realize there is nothing lacking,
the whole world belongs to you.

— Laozi

If people stand and observe, they will see that work proceeds best if they stop trying too hard. The more extra effort you exert and the harder you look for results, the less gets done. The philosophy of Taoism is to simply be.

The
Dao de Jing
was compiled in an environment that was racked by widespread disorder, wanton self-seeking rulers, and rampant immoral behavior. The popularity of the work has been, and is, widespread. An amazing number of translations have been produced, more than for any other literary work except the Bible. There have been eighty English translations alone.