VV (1) - More fun with the Qabalah

[Terence]

Escaping History? Just some reflections from the notes I
took while reading Gershom Scholem's "Major Trends In Jewish
Mysticism" 

Like TRP ( as I have noted here, "dialectic" is always a
negative term  in GR) Gershom Scholem warned that the
dialectical process is "dangerous business" because it
"brackets negation with affirmation, the nihilistic denial
of value with sublime aspiration." 

According to Scholem, the mystic seeks the Absolute
(another  negative term in GR) and for the mystic, the
Absolute is not to be found in "mundane" history. The
Absolute must be sought either before history or after it.
In other words, the knowledge of the Absolute that the
mystic seeks, involves an eschatological salvation (a no no
in TRP's books). 

Entropic History in GR conspires against the Jews, the
Gypsies, the Herero, and most paradoxically Slothrop's own
family religion. 

The idea of Reversal in GR is important. Kabbalists (again
that "neoplatonism") believed that the way back, the return,
involved, (surprized?) REVERSAL of the procession by which
they emanated from god. 

Again, according to Scholem, the knowledge of the way of
Reversal is a secret and is confined to a chosen few, an
elite. 

Also, the Kabbalah did not arise as a reaction to against
philosophical enlightenment.

Also, on page 30 of his book, Scholem explains how the
religious Jew became a protagonist in the drama of the
world  (Dante fans will want to read the great philosopher
Santayan's essay on Dante). Interesting that Scholem's use
of the dramatic simile, where the religious Jew is behind
the scene manipulating the strings turns to a "less
extravagant simile" where the whole universe is a machine,
man  the moral machinist adding a few drops of oil in the
right place at the right time. Reminds of Adams and McLuhan,
the folklore of industrial man and the love goddess assembly
line and that while one cannot conceive of Catholic
mysticism without Women, Kabbalism, both historically and
metaphysically is masculine, not a trace of feminine
influence according to Scholem and he says that "the
demonic, according to Kabbalists, is an off-spring of the
feminine sphere."