(tension rising music)
- Well, the Torah resembles a beautiful woman who was hidden
in a secluded chamber of her palace
and who has a secret lover
when he comes to her she begins from behind the curtain
to speak words and keeping with this understanding
until very slowly insight comes to him
only when he has become familiar with her
that she revealed herself to him face to face
and speak to him of all her hidden secrets
in all her hidden ways
which have been in her heart from the beginning,
such an individual is then called Hatantorah,
a bride groom of the Torah
to whom she discloses all her secrets, concealing nothing.
What do you make of this?
- A sexual metaphor comes into bride and bridegroom to say
that if it is approached the outer limit
of intimacy and together...
- That's, it's more than a sexual metaphor.
It's even more than that.
He's comparing the Torah to a flirtatious woman.
Well, I grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio,
actually as part of a very Orthodox family.
So my exposure to Judaism was very traditional
as a late teenager.
So I attended Hebrew speaking camps
where we did everything in Hebrew.
When I was 19, I enlisted in the army
and while stationed in France
I decided to make my first visit to Israel.
And so we're on this boat about to enter Israel
at dawn on a given day.
And I remembered a prayer that I had learned
when I was a kid.
(speaking in foreign language)
Blessed are you, Oh God who renewals your presence in Zion.
Tears came to my eyes
because what I had prayed was now actualized.
The reality of Israel, historically, biblically
contemporaneously was no longer theoretical.
It was experiential.
And once something is experiential it's unforgettable.
If there was any experience that overwhelmed me
and moved me to become a rabbi it was that.
I became more interested in aspects of the Jewish faith
et cetera, that were not Orthodox
and ultimately made a decision to become a reform rabbi.
Reform engages in the most liberal interpretation
of the Jewish tradition, Jewish practice,
Jewish rituals, et cetera.
For me, it was the most expressive way
of doing what I wanted to do.
It was the most open.
When I worked for our national reform movement,
it was my responsibility
to run two summer adult study programs.
And among the faculty were two professors
and they taught mysticism and I said, wow,
where have I been all my life?
It became part of my very being.
And when the opportunity came to teach it here
in Tucson first at temple Emmanuel,
and then at the Jewish museum,
I really jumped at the opportunity.
This is what the book looks like.
So some of you are panicking right now and saying, Oh wait
does this mean I have to buy this book
and figure it all out?
A lot of people are under the misapprehension
that Qabalah refers to a book. It does not.
The word Qabalah literally means to accept
or to welcome, to become a part of the Qabalist they said.
We have found the ways and means to understand the divine
and to experience God regularly daily.
Now the word Zohar means radiance.
And this is the book of radiance.
This compendia of material edited in the 13th century.
And so if you immerse yourself in this compendium
you will become radiant.
(speaking in foreign language)
You will shine like the radiance of the sky.
So that's how it all came about.
I wanna to see something real
and Judaism doesn't give me particular revelation.
And that is one of the basic reasons as we shall see
why the Qabalist came up with what they did.
Tucson may be the only place in the United States
where courses in Zohar are taught by rabbis,
under synagogue hospices.
I get into the material and I like to convey that excitement
and meaning to those in the class.
If we were reading the telephone book, I would get excited.
Look at this name, John Smith, that's a marvelous name
John Smith, somehow as a teacher, that's the way I teach.
I hope that it will transform their lives
in ways that they could not have imagined
The knowledgeable will be as radiant
as the brightness of the firmament.
So the Qabalist, because they studied the Zohar,
the book of radiance became as illuminated
as the beauty of the heavens.
And so all of you, hopefully
(phone ringing)
all of you by virtue of entering the mysterious
(phone ringing)
Hello, goodbye.
By entering the mysterious world of the Zohar
will become as radiant as the firmament.
(phone ringing)
Would I consider myself a mystic?
It's an interesting question.
I will consider myself a mystic to the extent
that I believe that there is another dimension of reality
above and beyond what we see in front of us.
When you pick up a baby, you inhale the fragrance
and that's the best word that I can use.
The fragrance of that infant, it's transformative.
I would call that a mystical experience.
Religion to be really profound and meaningful
has to encompass the emotional.
The intellectual is there and the intellectual is important
but you have to transcend it
unless you are really emotionally involved.
It loses its power.