Appendix F: Hasidic v. Kabbalistic
Published on 30 Mar 2008 at 7:12 am.
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Note the following from Wikipedia 9/23/06:
BAAL SHEM TOV
(“The Beshtâ€)
“The foundation-stone of Hasidism as laid down by Besht is a strongly marked panentheistic conception of God. He declared the whole universe, mind and matter, to be a manifestation of the pine Being…. for nothing can be separated from God; all things are rather forms in which God reveals Himself…â€
Note the following from Encyclopedia Judaica:
BASIC IDEAS OF HASIDISM
Creator and Universe
“‘The hasidic leader R. Menahem Mendel of Lubavich observes (Derekh Mitzvotekha (1911), 123) that the disciples of the Ba’al Shem Tov gave the “very profound†turn to the doctrine of the oneness of God so that it means not alone that He is unique, as the medieval thinkers said, but that He is all that is:…there is no other existence whatsoever apart from His existence, blessed be He. This is true unification…just as there was no existence apart from Him before the world was created so it is even now.†…as a corollary of hasidic pantheism (more correctly, panentheism)…’â€
(author’s note: there are no extant writings of the Besht)
Author’s editorial comment / perspective
on the classic and historic ‘dispute’
between Lurianism and Hasidism on the subject:
As the gemorah might say,
“Eylu v-aylu pre’ Elokim Chayimâ€
i.e. Both (exegesis) positions stand valid
side-by-side eternally
and, indeed, in this case,
both philosophical propositions:
The Lurianic*** [The universe as EMANATION from God] –
and the Hasidic position
[The universe as MANIFESTATION of God]
Both tether different (intertwined) aspects of the proposed Quest for Potential∞ paradigm.
*
Meaning, philosophical thrust #1 does not exclude philosophical thrust #2, as the respective theological / philosophical camps supposed; On the contrary, BOTH philosophical thrusts must be true side-by-side in order to explicate and outline – in even the most general terms – the contours of an all-embracing metaphysics.
*
*** Lurianic is a thrust of Kabbalistic
end of Appendix F
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