VV (1) - More fun with the Qabalah, 2 of 2

[Terence]

Jewish Mysticism  is very, very, very, very important to
GR.  Scholem was TRP's source. His book, "Major Trends In
Jewish Mysticism" is a beautiful series of lectures. It was
his life's work, his great passion, he dedicated the text to
Benjamin. To read his lectures, they are so organized, so
clear, so clean, so unlike so much of the language burdened,
jargon twisting critical nonsense of today. They are worth
reading. It's fascinating, you won't be able to put it down. 



As Gershom Scholem points out in "Major Trends",  "Mysticism
is a definite stage in the historical development of
religion and makes its appearance under certain well defined
conditions." Mysticism does not emerge as a religious
posture when men live in a mythical present. Nor does it
develop in the early stages of religious history when a
chasm between the world and the divine realm is experienced
and man accepts this fate finding comfort in prayer and in
the word of God. This acceptance and the comfort of prayer
is portrayed favorably in GR. However, the quest for a unio
mystica is treated unfavorably in GR. We find a whole body
of references to Merkabah mysticism, the book of Zohar,
Lurianic Kabbalah, Sabatai Zevi's Messianic movement, as
well as a plethora of Christian popularizations, which, as
Bloom says, "compounded Kabbalah with a variety of
non-Jewish notions, ranging from Tarot cards to the Trinity.