What is it about?
In the Jewish tradition, doubt is often opposed to faith. In the late nineteenth century Hasidic dynasty of Izbicha-Radzin, we find the claim that doubt is an essential part of human existence, so much that God wishes to be worshipped through doubt. Even doubt regarding God's very existence! These ideas may have influenced the twentieth century kabbalist R. David Kohen, who was part of a circle that still greatly influences politics and culture in Israel.
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Why is it important?
The history of doubt in Kabbalah has not yet been systematically investigated. This article is part of a wider project, showing that although the majority tradition opposes scepticism, there are important mystical sources, going back to the middle ages, asserting that doubt is an important part of the divine world, and thus the human world. The importance of this finding is underlined these days, as religious belief is often associated with certitude and total conviction.
Perspectives
Both my family and my wife's family have ancestors who belonged to Izbicha-Radzin Hasidism. I myself have been studying these texts for 35 years. When I began, it was virtually impossible to get hold of them outside libraries. Although they are now widely taught and researched, there are still immense treasures of psychological and existential insight waiting to be translated and explained.
Jonathan Garb
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Doubt and Certainty in Late Modern Kabbalah, June 2022, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004506626_004.
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