David S. Ariel > Quotes

“The solution of rabbinic Judaism, however, served only to create another, more serious dilemma: How can the individual fulfill God’s will without experiencing Him directly as did his ancestors? If all of the force of religion is based on the compelling revelation of God to his predecessors, as it is transmitted by the Torah, why should not the experience of God be available to him as well?”
― David S. Ariel, Kabbalah: The Mystic Quest in Judaism

“On an even more fundamental level, a religious Jew might ask about the paradox of God’s essential remoteness even as his religion promotes nearness. Which shall it be? If God is transcendent, how is it possible for anyone to have a relationship with Him? And if there is no relationship with the hidden God, what is the meaning of the fundamental rituals of Judaism such as prayer? Finally, it is impossible to repeat the accounts of the ancestors’ direct encounters with God without, at some point, asking if these experiences are still possible. The desire to experience God as deeply as Abraham or Moses did lies at the heart of the mystical impulse in Judaism as much as does the temptation to bridge the abyss between the hidden God and the God who listens to, cares about, and answers the prayers of man.”
― David S. Ariel, Kabbalah: The Mystic Quest in Judaism

“Kabbalah teaches that God is the sum of all perfections including all human intellectual, emotional, sexual, spiritual, and ethical qualities. At the same time, for reasons we shall soon explain, Kabbalah identified and reduced the total number of these divine perfections to ten identifiable qualities. In other words, everything in the world can be reduced to ten basic building blocks. These include three intellectual principles (thought, wisdom, and understanding) two emotional principles (an overabundance of love and a just withholding of love, i.e., justice or severity), two sexual principles (maleness and femaleness), and three ethical or spiritual principles (prophecy, providence, and the covenant with Israel).”
― David S. Ariel, Kabbalah: The Mystic Quest in Judaism