Two weeks ago, Chabad started a new blog Hasidology dedicated to “Studies in Chassidic Thought and History.” It looks promising for keeping us informed about Chabad theological topics.. It seems like a return to the pre-Rebbe era when Chabad was known for speculative metaphysics bordering on the Advaita. There also seems to be a sub-group again involved in learning and propagating these discourses.
The first post was a speculative review essay on Jacob Gotlieb’s recent Rationalism In Hasidic Attire Habad`s Harmonistic Approach to Maimonides [Hebrew] Bar Ilan University Press. The reviewer Rubin cites Gotlieb that Chabad engages in harmonization because they believe in progressive revelation. To which Eli Rubin adds that own theological fancy that since Torah, Israel, and God are one and above time, then Torah is above any temporality. And then we get the known Chabad author Tzvi Freeman chiming in that it is post-modern.
Gotlieb cites the treatment of Maimonides by Chabad thinkers as an example of what he considers to be their view of “the developmental nature of Jewish Belief, which is continuously revealed from generation to generation… According to this view… [the doctrine of Jewish] Belief is continuously clarified and revealed over the centuries by the famed Sages of Israelwhose teachings become the inheritance of the community… Major currents in Jewish thought such as rational philosophy, the Kabbalah of theZohar, the Kabbalah of the Arizal, and Chassidic teaching, do not reflect different views of the Jewish faith, but a [single] developing view… The “revelation” of Chassidic teaching does not require the rejection of Maimonides, but its inclusion within the [Chasidic] framework… The interpretive approach… of Chabad thinkers is therefore characterized by harmonistic interpretation, based on a developmental approach.”
The very boundaries that define the Jewish People, the Torah and G d as three distinct identities standing in relation to one another, collapse into the essential core of ineffable Divinity… With the opening of each new window, the quintessence of Torah further unfolds and emerges, and all past applications are further illuminated by the broadening view.
Having reframed the very nature of the Torah’s relationship with time, the difficulties posed by the harmonistic interpretive approach earlier described, simply dissolve. The entire corpus of Jewish thought with all the conceptual, geographic and temporal diversity of its specific applications can indeed be seen as variant facets of the singular, eternally unchanging Torah, whose transcendent essence unfolds in a fragmented sequence of developmental interpretation.Is Chabad post-modern?
This view of the unfolding or unpacking of Torah within time has strong support from midreshei chazal, and yet stands in sharp contrast with the standard presentations. We generally speak about Torah as something of the past that we are trying to preserve. Or we are told that the Torah is “ever-evolving.”.. I get the feeling that Jacques Derrida would feel at home with such a concept. For one thing, he would see in it a deconstruction of text and meaning. Posted By Rabbi Tzvi Freeman
The second blog post was on the Discourses of the Rebeb Rashab from 1911-1912, called “Ayin Beis” one of the basic year-long series of discourses of the Rebeb Reshab. (It assumes that one has already mastered the 1905-6 smaakh vav series and his other works). The blog covers a lecture by Rabbi Yoel Kahn in Anticipation of Upcoming Centennial of Epic “Ayin Beis” Discourses. These works are basics for twentieth century Chabad theology and if they invited me to give a lecture on it, I would gladly do it. The discourse is on the nature of reality as an undifferentiated light that is divided by creation into limited views. Differentiated reality becomes a revelation of God’s reality. This creates a theology focused on the physical world and the performance of mitzvot int he physical world.
Central to the philosophical framework of Rabbi Shneur Zalman is the Kabbalistic concept of ohrot and keilim. Ohr (ohrot in plural) means light, and represents the formless simplicity of the divine essence. White light, or colourless light, actually contains all the colors of the visible spectrum, but combines them in a singular manifestation of uncolored unity. Kli (Keilim in plural) means receptacle; when the undefined ray of pure light is shone through a colored glass, the glass filters out all colors in the spectrum accept for its own color, which shines through. When shone through a prism, all the colors of the spectrum, are manifest as distinct colors. This paradigm reflects the dualism of reality; in the act of creation the essential simplicity of infinite divinity is made manifest in the finite forms of physical reality. Just as the colored light is a limited revelation of its source, so each created form is a limited view onto divinity.
Physicality is made transparent to the ultimate reality that must transcend both disclosure and concealment, which can be neither and must be both.
Similarly, the created realm, complete with its multiplicity of forms, which apparently conceals the manifestation of the singular simplicity of divinity, is actually itself a mode of divine revelation.
Having cast the concealed disclosure of divinity embodied in physical reality as a fuller expression of G‑d’s non-contingent being, the divergent forms experienced in the created realm are understood to be, not a fallacy or misrepresentation, but a disclosure of G‑d’s ultimate reality.
And the third post was announcement of a new index of the Rebeb’s writings.
Sefer Ha-Maftechot Le-Sichot KodeshSefer Ha-Maftechot Le-Sichot Kodesh (5695-5752) A Comprehensive Index to the Spoken Word of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe (Hebrew) By Rabbi Michael A. Seligson 1600 pp.
I am not sure that characterizing this as a Chabad blog is the best designation (even though it is hosted at chabad.org.) It appears that it is a single author blog, by Eli Rubin. Eli Rubin previously used this description: “Eli Rubin directs the Academic Resources Bureau at Chabad.org” but has recently changed it to “Eli Rubin is a writer and researcher. He is chiefly interested in Chasidic thought and history, rationalism and mysticism, as well as general Jewish studies.”
It’s on the original official Chabad website, founded by the late R YY Kazen. Somebody above him must have approved it. The change in bio could have been as much to appeal more to non-Chabad-affiliated readers, as to indicate a personal shift away from Chabad employment.
Thanks for posting.
Just one correction:
“To which Eli Rubin adds that own theological fancy that since Torah, Israel, and God are one and above time, then Torah is above any temporality.”
This isn’t my own fancy, this idea was elucidated by the late Rebbe, see sources cited in the article. Wolfson cites it in his recent book “Open Secret” as being central to the understanding the Rebbe’s thought.
Gottlieb was mainly discussing this matter in the writings of the Zemah Zedek. You posted from Hebrew books the link to the Rebbe on a different topic. – ayin sham, v’ain kan makom leha’arich.
You are right that the context is different, but the idea can be applied very broadly. Furthermore, Gotleib cited the Tzemach Tzedek, and the Alter Rebbe as examples of a trend that is most evident in the thought of the late Rebbe, it is the latter’s approach to Rambam that is the main subject of his book.