Fallen Angels: Soldiers of Satan's Realm

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE Mysticism for the Masses

194 • • • Fallen Angels because astheredeemer hemust enter the"side of evil" in order to rescue theelements of holiness trapped therein. Theresult of this doctrine wasa more or less open antinomianism, a kind of sacramental violation of the precepts of the Torah, and inthe case of extremists like Jacob Frank, an unrestrained licentiousness . It was consistent with all this that many Sabbatians followed their messiah into Islam, while other heretical groups were baptized en masse. These messianists also elaborated a heretical theology. Likethe ancient Gnostics they distinguished between the Hidden God and the Demiurge, whom they called "theGodof Israel."But whereas the Gnostics considered the Demiurge to be evil, and the Hidden God alone worthy of worship by the enlightened, the Sabbatians regarded theFirst Cause, the Godof the philosophers , as too remote for worship, which should be a'ddressed only to the "Godof Israel."13 We need not pursue this subject further. No critical eyeis needed to see that such doctrines area repudiation of everything essential andsacred in Judaism. The rabbis who hunted out the Sabbatian heresy may have displayed a touch of fanaticism; and their zeal in destroying sectarian documents has made the historian 's task more difficult. But their attitude was basically sound. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE Mysticism for theMasses T; movement of Sabbatai Zevi was a naturaloutgrowth of Luria's Cabala; but the latter was not discredited in the eyes of the faithful because of its monstrous offspring. Jewish life continued to be dominated by the mystic mood, in thedark ascetic version of theSafed school. Comparatively few were concerned with thespeculative aspects of Luria's teaching. Even for Luria himself, the interest in doctrine had been subordinate to thepractical purpose of hastening theMessianic redemption. The chief means to this endwere scrupulously ethical conduct and self-effacing piety. It was tothese values that Luria's successors dedicated their efforts. R. Elijah di Vidas, a Mysticism for the Masses • • • 195 pupil of Cordovero, had already exerted great influence by his book, the Beginning of Wisdom, a handbook of morals and devotion . Though R. Elijah drew nearly all his material from talmudicmidrashic literature, his method of selection and presentation creates a darker atmosphere than that of the original sources. In the next century, no work achieved greater prestige than The Two Tables of the Covenant of R. Isaiah Horwitz. It is a sprawling compilation of counsels for every phase of the religious life, pervaded by the Lurian spirit, and with no pretensions to metaphysical system. The seventeenth century saw likewise the wide distribution of simpler manuals of piety, which circulated both in Hebrew and in Yiddish translations. The Kab haYashar (Honest Measure) of R. Zevi Hirsch Kaidanover, and the Shebet Musar (Rod of Rebuke ) of the Levantine R. Elijah b. Solomon Abraham quote Luria and the Lurians, as well as the older classics of Cabala. They often mention Satan, "the other side/' "the husks" and the demons, now euphemistically referred to as "outsiders/' But these popular writings do not attempt to explain the origin of evil or to define its place in the divine economy. Their aim is to arouse people—even to scare them—to repentance; and to this end they speak, now of Satan's wiles, now of God's grim justice. As the theoretical dualism of the great cabalists moves to the background , we hear again the suggestion that the forces of evil are somehow an integral part of the divine plan. Kaidanover, for example, relates a bizarre occurrence in Posen. Some demons refused to vacate the cellar of a house, alleging that the former owner was their father and they were but occupying their inheritance. The case was actually tried before a rabbinic court, and the defendants are said to have presented their arguments within the framework of talmudic law! True, they had to be constrained by powerful conjurations to accept the jurisdiction of the court and to obey its decision; yet in some measure they recognized the validity of the Torah. This tale does not lead the author to any inquiry into the nature of demons or the possibility of their mating with mortals. He cites it simply as a warning against sexual license which, bad enough in itself, may even lead a man into the embraces of a demon.1 The Rod of Rebuke displays a similar moralistic approach. But sometimes we meet the notion (we found it expressed most dra- 196 • • • Fallen Angels...