Whence Came You? - 0546 - Freemasonry: A Jewish Perspective
This week, we talked with a Brother of the Jewish faith about his particular experience in Freemasonry. Is Freemasonry compatible with Judaism? What's it like to join a fraternity that's overwhelmingly Christian, which uses a Jewish text as the foundation for the allegory and being Jewish In the fraternity? This week, we're talking to Brother Sean Rothberg and gaining a unique perspective on the Craft. All this and more. Stay tuned!
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Freemasonery is unlike any organization, you can belong, frome any religion, however you must believe in a Supreme Being of your choice. My lodge has catholics Jewish, Taoists, etc. Hindus,
ReplyDeleteThank you, Brother Rotherberg, for sharing your experience and perspectives and for the work you’re doing for your Jewish Masonic brethren. What a wonderful example!
ReplyDeleteI want to respectfully offer some counterpoints to some of the observations made in the episode. First, the argument that one must learn basic arithmetic before attempting calculus is an argument from an analogy, vulnerable to counter examples, and so isn’t very compelling as an argument. Second, I think it’s important to be clear about whether we’re talking about Kabbalah, Qabalah (Hermetic), or Cabala (Christian). Both the Hermetic (the most syncretic) and Christian forms draw upon Kabbalah but are distinct from it. Third, I think it’s important to draw a distinction between the practice of Kabbalah and the academic study of Kabbalah for the purposes of understanding the Qabalah that Freemasonry draws upon better. I agree completely that non-Jewish people can’t and shouldn’t attempt to practice Jewish Kabbalah. However, we can study it in order to understand Hermeticism and other influences on Freemasonry better. Further, I don’t think it’s necessary to understand any form of Kabbalah or practice it in order to understand or practice Freemasonry. In my opinion, I think most modern-day Freemasons are better served by learning and practicing hatha yoga, its underlying philosophy, and Neoplatonism and approaching Freemasonry from that perspective than they are by trying to go deep into Kabbalah. That is, I think Freemasonry isn’t some sort of Kabbalist puzzle that can be solved with the right amount of intellectual study and analysis; I think it’s a mnemonic system encoding a particular method of self-actualization and self-realization based on active practice that’s remarkably similar to the system of hatha yoga.
I’d also point out that Qabalah and Cabala came about by rabbis, Christians, and others working together to understand each others’ wisdom traditions. That is, sharing of secrets is not only happening, it has happened for many thousands of years (just read Philo, Josephus, and Maimonides). In fact many of the Kabbalist writers I’ve read (e.g., Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburg, whose The Hebrew Letters I’d recommend as the first place to start understanding anything at all about Kabbalah) believe that Kabbalah should be taught to everyone and that the day is coming when the whole world will understand Kabbalah and use it to improve themselves and the world. So, there are opposing views on that point of sharing, it seems, even in the Jewish community. However, I’d also concede that this study can’t be done properly without a rabbi to guide the student properly. So, my own conclusion has been to keep it academic (i.e., don’t attempt to practice) and focus on connecting the dots between hatha yoga, depth psychology, alchemy, Neoplatonism, and Rosicrucianism for understanding the *practice* that Freemasonry encodes in its semiotic-mnemonic system. For me, this has proven much more fruitful.
Wonderful episode, thank you again and warm regards!