Author of Kabbalah

There is No Proof that the Arizal’s Kabbalah is Indeed by the Arizal

Ever since the Arizal’s kabbalah spread began to accelerate until our own time, many Jews did not believe in it.

Such as the Gaon, Rabbi Eliyahu of Vilna, as Rabbi Ovadyah Yosef attests (Yabbia Omer part 2, Orach Chayyim 25:12):

Although our rabbi the Arizal is as strong as one of the early ones, even so when most of the early authorities say the opposite and they are a majority, we follow the majority. Even more so according to what the book Iggerot HaTanya (97a) writes in the name of the Gra, that he doesn’t believe that the entire kabbalah of the Arizal as a whole comes from the prophet Eliyahu, but only a small portion comes from Eliyahu and the rest comes from his great wisdom, and there is no obligation to believe in it.

Indeed Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi writes in Iggerot HaTanya:

We are totally certain that the pious Gaon doesn’t believe that Arizal’s kabbalah as a whole is from the prophet Eliyahu, only a small portion comes from Eliyahu and the rest comes from his great wisdom, and there is no obligation to believe in it, etc. And the writings are also very defectively transmitted.

And such as the great writer Solomon Maimon, whose words are quoted in the book The Life of Solomon Maimon (Tel Aviv, 5702, page 110):

There are two main schools in kabbalah: the school of Rabbi Mosheh Cordovero, and the school of Rabbi Yitzchak Luria. The former was more realistic than the latter, meaning that he more closely approaches reason than him. However, the latter is more formal than the former, meaning that the construction of his method is more sophisticated than his. The modern kabbalists prefer the latter to the former, because they value only kabbalah which lacks any sense as true kabbalah. … It is self-understood that my preference was for the kabbalah of Rabbi Mosheh Cordovero more than that of the Arizal, yet I didn’t dare to reveal my opinion on this openly.

All the books in the Arizal’s kabbalah that we have were written mostly by Rabbi Chayyim Vital. However, he concealed them from the rabbis of his generation and transmitted them to his son Shemuel Vital, who engaged in the editing and publication of his writings after his father passed away. We thus learn that the Arizal told Rabbi Chayyim Vital that Eliyahu appeared to him and transmitted to him secrets of the Torah; however, the Arizal passed away a few months later. It is told that after he passed away, Rabbi Chayyim Vital began to write and decipher what he received from him orally. Rabbi Shemuel Vital recounted that his father passed his writings on to him, and requested that he conceal and edit them.

As can be seen here, everything is based on stories and concealing. Is this the way of the Torah? Who can prove that Sha’ar HaKavanot and Etz Chayyim and all the other books are indeed from the Arizal? Or perhaps they aren’t, and all his wisdom has been lost to us?

We, the Jewish people, believers and the children of believers from generation to generation, believe in HaShem and His holy Torah which was given to us on Mount Sinai by Mosheh Rabbenu who received it from God Himself. We didn’t receive the Torah through storytelling, but by action, as it is written (Parashat VaEtchanan):

Ask about the first days before you, from the day that God created man on Earth, and from one end of the heaven to the other end of heaven, has any great thing such as this happened, or has anything similar been heard? Has a nation heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of fire, as you heard, and lived?

We didn’t receive the Torah in secret, but in front of the entire world in great fanfare, as it is written (Parashat Yitro):

And on the third day, while morning, there was thunder and lightning and a heavy cloud on the mountain, and a very strong sound of shofar, and all the nation in the camp trembled.

The Torah has already been given to us on Mount Sinai, and since then it is not in heaven, but with us. Why should we believe in a new Torah which is based on stories and concealing, and also contradicts our Torah?

And for that we will bring a reliable testimony that the Italian kabbalists didn’t know or understand the secrets of the Torah, as the Ramak testified in Or Yakar (Tikkunim, volume 3, page 204):

It is forbidden to reveal the secrets of the Torah to a non-Jew … God forbid, so as not to bring an image into the inner chamber, so as not to contaminate the chamber and pour libations to idolatry, as the foxes destroyed the vineyard of HaShem Tzevaot right now in the land of Italy, where they taught priests the wisdom of kabbalah and they repurposed it for heresy, among our other sins. And the ark of the covenant of HaShem, wisdom itself, concealed itself, and blessed is He Who gave us the merit that neither they nor the nations know the difference between their right and left any more than speechless animals, because in the end they only enter into the midst of it as birds chirping.

Thus we have conclusively proven that there is no obligation to believe in the Arizal’s kabbalah, and also that there are no proofs that it belongs to the Arizal.