Kabbalists believe that because the soul has her origin in the divine realm, she naturally desires to return to her source. Kabbalists seek this return through devekut, mystical cleaving to God. Devekut is the ultimate goal of the Jewish mystic. Scholem says devekut is “continuous attachment or adhesion to God,” “a perpetual being-with-God, an intimate union and conformity of the human and the divine will.”[233]
Isaac of Acco delineates degrees of devekut, including equanimity (the indifference of the soul to praise or blame), concentration or solitude (being alone with God), the Holy Spirit (a general term for enlightenment and inspiration), and prophecy.[234]
The thirteenth-century mystic philosopher Rabbi Nahmanides says that devekut means that
you should remember God and the love of Him always, that you should not cease thinking of Him, when you are on a journey, when you lie down or when you arise; so that when you converse with people you should do so with your mouth and your tongue, but your heart should be with God. And it is possible that the souls of men who achieve this state are bound up in the bond of eternal life even during their lifetime, for they are in themselves the abode of the Shekhinah.[235]
Nahmanides says that if you cleave to your Creator in this way, you are eligible to receive the Holy Spirit.[236] The twelfth-century Jewish philosopher and scholar M aimonides says that the person who has merited receiving the Holy Spirit is transformed and can perceive things that are not normally accessible:
His soul becomes bound up on the level of the angels ... and he becomes a completely different person. He can now understand things with a knowledge completely different than anything that he ever experienced previously. The level that he has attained is far above that of other men, who can merely use their intellect. This is the meaning of what [the prophet Samuel told] King Saul, “[The spirit of God shall descend upon you,] you shall prophesy with them, and you shall be transformed into a different man” (I Sam. 10:6).[237]
M oses Luzzatto also describes the Holy Spirit as a form of enlightenment that is above human reason and intellect. He calls it “bestowed enlightenment.”
“Bestowed enlightenment consists of an influence granted by God through various means,” says Luzzatto. “When such influence enters a person’s mind, certain information becomes fixed in his intellect. He perceives this information clearly, without any doubt or error, understanding it completely, with all its causes and effects, as well as its place in the general scheme.”[238]
Like Isaac of Acco, Luzzatto describes an even higher form of devekut than enlightenment—“the level of true prophecy.” He says:
This is a degree of inspiration in which the individual reaches a level where he literally binds himself to God in such a way that he actually feels this attachment.
He then clearly realizes that the One to whom he is bound is God. This is sensed with complete clarity, with an awareness that leaves no room for any doubt whatsoever. The individual is as certain of it as he would be if it were a physical object observed with his physical senses.
The main concept of true prophecy, then, is that a living human being achieves such an attachment and bond with God. This in itself is an extremely high state of perfection. Besides this, however, it is also often accompanied by certain information and enlightenment. Through prophecy, one can gain knowledge of many lofty truths among God’s hidden mysteries. These things are perceived very clearly, just as all knowledge gained through bestowed enlightenment.
Prophecy, however, comes with much greater intensity than Ruah HaKodesh [Holy Spirit].[239]
Kabbalists say that the opportunity to receive the Holy Spirit is not limited to Kabbalists or Jews. Elijah is said to have taught his disciples, “I call heaven and earth to bear witness that any person, Jew or Gentile, man or woman, freeman or slave, if his deeds are worthy, then Ruah HaKodesh will descend upon him.”[240]
Aryeh Kaplan points to the promise in the Book of Joel as evidence that God intends all humanity to receive his Holy Spirit: “I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.”[241]
According to Scholem, Kabbalists unanimously agree that devekut, mystical cleaving to God, is the ultimate goal of the spiritual path. However, there is disagreement among scholars as to whether Kabbalists taught that devekut leads to total union with God.
M oshe Idel notes, “Gershom Scholem stressed, time and again, that a total union with the Divine is absent in Jewish texts.”[242] Scholem wrote in his book Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism: “It is only in extremely rare cases that ecstasy signifies actual union with God, in which the human individuality abandons itself to the rapture of complete submersion in the divine stream. Even in this ecstatic frame of mind, the Jewish mystic almost invariably retains a sense of the distance between the Creator and His creature.”[243]
However, as Idel points out, Scholem was such a fine scholar of Jewish mysticism that many other scholars have accepted his views uncritically.[244] Using Kabbalistic texts for evidence, Idel shows that some Kabbalists did in fact pursue complete union with God.
For instance, Isaac of Acco uses a variation of the drop-in-the-ocean metaphor to describe the soul’s union with God: “[The soul] will cleave to the divine intellect, and it will cleave to her ... and she and the intellect become one entity, as if somebody pours out a jug of water into a flowing spring, so that all becomes one.... And this is the secret meaning of [the phrase] ‘a fire devouring fire.’”[245]
In the same text Isaac of Acco writes: “This [rational] soul will cleave to the Ein Sof and will become total and universal, after she had been individual, due to her [experience in the] palace, while she was yet imprisoned in it, and she will become universal because of the nature of her real source.”[246]
The Hasidic master Rabbi M enahem Nahum of Chernobyl also speaks of the union of the soul with its source: “He becomes attached to the divine unity by means of the union of the part to the all, which is Ein Sof. Consequently, the light of the holiness of Ein Sof shines in him, as the part cleaves to its root.”[247]
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The ultimate goal of the Jewish mystic is an intimate oneness with God, known as devekut, or mystical cleaving to God. Some Kabbalists describe prophecy as the highest level of devekut. The prophetess Deborah (above) was one of the greatest judges of Israel. The judges were charismatic leaders and military heroes, deliverers endowed with the Spirit of God. Deborah with Barak led the Israelites into battle and foretold their victory. (The Prophetess Deborah by Edwin Austin Abbey.)
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