Re: Fwd: Spiritrave "Dancing the Tree of Life": February 20

[Eliezer Kaplan <zelwel...>]

>That's an interesting list, Gary, and surely deserves discussion on
>a list more focused on rabbinics than this one. But you need not go
>very far, even to the excommunication of hassidism by the above-mentioned
>Vilna Gaon, and the ongoing descriptions of hasidim in Jewish literature
>of the past couple hundred years in which they are referred to by mitnagdim
>as drunks and worse to realize that in their time, they were described in 
>much the same way as some have characterized the "spiritravers" of today.
>
>I did not intend this as a slap against kabala, but rather a slap against
>the intolerance directed at those who are exploring new edges. I apologize 
>for the ill-considered wording that would have had it appear otherwise.
>

Ari-
There's nothing wrong with exploring new edges- just don't go labeling it
'kabbalah'- since this is something that was not 'recieved' ('mekubal')
from anywhere other than somebody's over vivid imagination. And I don't
think a comparison with Hassidism is entirely just either- I believe that
when the whole thing was explained to the Gaon in his old age, he expressed
regret at his misunderstanding.
                        EK

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