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Four area Reform congregations this weekend are hosting the leading scholar of Jewish mysticism.
In the past decade, kabbalah, Jewish mysticism, has experienced a massive surge in popularity, largely owing to an interest by mega-celebrities such as Madonna. But with such spotlights often comes a dilution of the original tradition and intent of its creators.
That's where Dr. Daniel Matt, a famed scholar of kabbalah and translator into English of its foundational central work - the "Zohar" - comes in. He will give four lectures in the next three days at area Reform temples as the Hoffberger Foundation's scholar-in-residence.
His passion, he tells the Baltimore Jewish Times, "is the attempt to re-imagine God. The "Zohar" really offers an alternate approach to the nature of God."
In that seminal work, God is referred to as Ein Sof "without end" and beyond all names or descriptions. However, the kabbalistic tradition also recognizes the difficulty in grasping the concept of infinity. Thus, it goes on to describe God in more personal terms as well.
That's where the more popular concepts of the shechinah, or God's dwelling and feminine attributes, arises. In fact, the authors of the "Zohar" re-imagine God as half-male and half-female, the Kadosh baruch Hu, "Holy One Blessed is He," being the masculine side.
"The goal of life and religion is to unite the male and female halves of God through mitzvot and holy action," Matt explains. "Through virtuous living, human beings can actually unite the divine couple and promote divine union. Anything positive that we do stimulates that union and anything negative or evil that we do interrupts their union...