Things that piss me off
When people appropriate Kabbalah because it’s cool and exotic and Madonna studied it.
Yeah.
Screw you.
I don’t mind when people read it because it’s interesting or because it offers insights into a culture. That’s great
When people fetishize it and exclaim that it opens the world of creation up to them, that’s bullshit.
Do you have a background in Mishnah? Do you even know what Mishnah is?
Didn’t think so.
Furthermore, Kabbalah is kept secret from almost everyone in the Jewish community until certain prerequisites are filled. When you just come in and pretty much take it, that’s not cool bro.
I have a lot of thoughts on the appropriation of Jewish mysticism, but none of them is coherent.
Well, I don’t think the Mishna is particularly spiritual/mystical, but I don’t have much training in halakha (because it’s literally the most boring segment of Judaism).
But yeah, you need a pretty solid Jewish background to learn kabbalah.
A lot of it is just stupid; I read a kabbalistic sex guide once. It gets good when it intersects with folklore. Kabbalah is woven through many aspects of Judaism and Jewish culture, and I particularly like it when know-it-all goyim tell you what is and isn’t Judaism; an ex-friend, who was gay and very catholic (and is now in seminary [?]), told me reincarnation wasn’t part of Judaism. Uh, pretty sure that’s the transmigration of souls, asshole.
