if you’re not jewish, kabbalah is not for you.

you are not allowed to read about it. you are not allowed to wear red bracelets. you are not allowed to practice it or think it’s cool and mystical.

you are allowed to respect that it exists, and that it is not for you, and that’s it.

Yeah no but this needs some context.

Like, Kabbalah is not just “mysticism”. It was/is a Jewish spiritual/religious reformation, born/created very deliberately as a response to the surrounding social pressures.

And by “social pressures”, I mean “Medieval Christians were freaking jerks”.

Now, when discussing anything to do with medieval Judaism you need to know Jews place in medieval society. Which was somewhere close to the bottom. Jews were tolerated — Christians, technically, aren’t allowed to make money off of lending to other Christians, so Jews were tolerated politically so that someone could run the banks. “Jews run all the banks!” yes, because you literally forced us to. Also, it was pretty useful for the nobles to, whenever they built up a lot of debt, say “The Jews ate a Christian baby!” and kill them all and incidentally burn their records. Apparently that wasn’t well known, so have a wikipedia article.

But anyways, I was talking about Kabbalah. Jews were tolerated religiously for a different reason — the “Wandering Jew” was said to be an example of “that’s what happens when you deny Christ”. They were tolerated as, basically, a theological argument — “These people deny God, and look at how sucky God made their life! They worship God incorrectly, and so God doesn’t protect them! They were once right, and now look at them stuck in the past! Look at how inconsequential they are!”

The last bit, especially, was a big one. Being Jewish sucked and got you less than nothing and accomplished nothing. It felt like it was worth nothing — “Why are you Jewish?” “Well, God told me to.” “But God doesn’t really do anything for you, or help you at all, or…”. And that wasn’t just subtext — it was a fashion in medieval kingdoms to bring some random (or sometimes not) Jew in to court and have them debate with professional Christian theologists. Medieval Christians were weird. But, so it wasn’t just subtext — you were literally yelling that at us whenever you had a chance. Jews were being demoralized on a literally national scale.

And that’s where Kabbalah came in. Kabbalah was a brilliant invention — by God, if you believe the tradition, or by the Rabbis, if you don’t. Kabbalah is a set of mystic knowledge and interpretation passed down orally, secretly among the Rabbis. It notably reinterpreted, but didn’t reshape, Jewish traditions. What did a Kabbalist Judaism look like? exactly like anyone else’s. A Kabbalist would do the exact same lighting candles, saying prayers, ripping off a bit of the dough while baking it… but what Kabbalah added was meaning, was “your actions affect things at the highest spiritual realm”. Was “lighting Shabbat candles holds together the multiverse on a fundamental level”. Was “if no enough Jews prayed every day, the universe would stop.”

And that was exactly what medieval Judaism needed. “Why are you Jewish?” “Well, yeah, it isn’t easy, but somebody needs to keep the world spinning.” “You’re lying. I don’t understand how.” “Well, you can’t understand it — you’re not Jewish.” Kabbalah completely reshaped the purpose of being Jewish — and it did it without changing anything, or doing anything even the slightest bit unorthodox. The laws were still the same — and this wasn’t even the first time Oral traditions had been written down. It fit perfectly with Judaism, and spread like a wildfire from Spain out. Even if it’s fallen out of style, it’s probably one of the major reasons why there are still Jews today.

So what does that mean nowadays. Well, for one, it means that Kabbalah is basically intellectual sacred ground in Judaism. You — if you were Jewish — don’t even consider learning it until you’re 30. Taking it is saying “there’s literally no idea you can have that you can keep for yourself”. Christianizing it, Secularizing it, is saying “that thing that you, Jews, made, in order to save Judaism — it’s too Jewish. I don’t like it. I’d rather it be my way.” Kabbalah intellectually — and in stories, physically — shielded Jews and Judaism. Taking that says “you can’t have that shield because I want it.”

So yeah. Stop treating Kabbalah like it’s some sort of generic mysticism. It was literally our cultural antidepressants. Remember when I said before that medieval Christians were weird? And meant “weird” as in “theologically violent”? You’re still doing that. By taking and secularizing Kabbalah, you’re still saying that “Jews aren’t necessary, Judaism is outdated”. STAAAHHHP.

P.S. If my description of its place in Jewish culture piques your interest, then go ahead — study it as a cultural phenomenon. Compare it to other theological revolutions. Learn about its place in Jewish Cultural history. Compare and contrast its appropriation during the Renaissance and its appropriation now. Read stories about Golems.

Learning about Kabbalah is fine — Kabbalah is a really cool thing that happened. But learning Kabbalah? No.

(And if you don’t get what the difference is — then maybe just don’t.)

I would venture that actual theological scholars have very likely studied this text, alongside many others, in their respective cultural/religious contexts as part of their career. Which is something wildly different to this hippy feel good appropriative crap that I see everyone else being into and calling it “spirituality.”