This page is also available in:
Selected passages from the Zohar and later Kabbalistic teaching are read through conscience, comparing two spiritual levels: interpretations of the Torah within Kabbalah and teachings that speak from wisdom, reason, and the voice of the soul.
This reflection continues the Tanakh commentary series, after the chapters on the Torah — Bereshit, Nevi’im — Prophets, Ketuvim — Writings and the geometry of the Star of David. Here the focus moves to selected parts of the Zohar and Kabbalistic teaching.
The purpose is to compare the spiritual level of different passages and to see what comes from conscience, wisdom, and true spiritual sight — and what reflects the low spiritual level of those who wrote such texts.
Contents: Kabbalah through Conscience — A Comparative Reading of Mystical Teachings
Key Questions
- Why must different spiritual levels be distinguished within Kabbalistic texts?
- Why do some interpretations of the Torah within Kabbalah reveal a low spiritual level?
- What distinguishes teachings spoken from wisdom, conscience, and the level of the soul?
- What kind of Temple has already been revealed?
- How should mystical teachings be weighed through conscience?
Two Spiritual Levels in Kabbalistic Texts
Let us examine some parts of the Zohar, which belongs to the teaching of Kabbalah.
One may hear the opinion that Kabbalah is the soul of the Torah. If this is so, then the Torah is the body of Kabbalah.
But it is doubtful that Kabbalah can wash its body clean from distortions, because it is already visible that the shepherds of the Torah have taken charge in parts of Kabbalah.
For this reason, the examples below compare the spiritual level of texts that interpret the Torah within Kabbalah with the spiritual level of texts from Kabbalistic sages.
When these levels are compared through spiritual sight, it becomes clear that they come from sources of opposite spiritual level.
For clarity, the examples of Torah interpretations within Kabbalah examined below are marked here as Spiritual Level 1.
The examples of teachings from Kabbalistic sages examined below are marked here as Spiritual Level 2.
The comparison is not made by external authority, institutional status, or the age of a text. It is made by spiritual sight: by conscience, reason, and the moral level revealed in the teaching itself.
Spiritual Level 1 — Interpretations of the Torah within Kabbalah
The Torah as a Blueprint of Creation
“The Holy One, blessed be He, looked into the Torah and created the world.”
Source: Zohar, Terumah 59:630 (Sefaria); compare also Genesis Rabbah 1:1.
My ears are ready to burst with curiosity if you do not tell me on which day of the week the Almighty created the universe by following instructions from the Torah.
As you can see, I understand Jewish humor of the fourth and fifth centuries CE.
A teaching that presents the Torah as an instruction manual by which the Almighty created the universe does not reveal the spiritual height of the Creator. It reveals the attempt to place a text above the living source of creation.
Tzimtzum — Assumption Presented as Truth
“When the Infinite desired to emanate the emanated beings and to create the created beings… He contracted Himself at the point in the center… and a place was formed in which creation could take place.”
Source: Later Lurianic formulation, commonly attributed to Etz Chaim, opening teaching on Tzimtzum.
The wise do not write assumptions into scripture and call them truth.
This is described as if someone stood opposite the Creator and watched how creation took place.
Symbolic language may be used to point toward mystery, but it becomes spiritually dangerous when human imagination is written as certainty and then presented as sacred truth.
The Torah as a Remedy for Evil
“I created the evil inclination, and I created the Torah as its antidote.”
Source: Kiddushin 30b:4 (Sefaria).
In other words, you are asked not to doubt that the Torah itself served as medicine for the townspeople who were robbed by lovers of the Torah, even while infants were killed.
Such a claim cannot be accepted by conscience merely because it is wrapped in religious language. If a teaching is called a remedy for evil, but its followers justify robbery, cruelty, and the killing of innocents, then the spiritual level of that teaching must be weighed honestly.
Religion cannot replace conscience. A text, tradition, or mystical formulation that demands blind acceptance while silencing moral discernment does not heal the soul. It obscures the voice of the Almighty — conscience.
Spiritual Level 2 — Teachings from Kabbalistic Sages
Now let us look into texts of Spiritual Level 2: teachings that speak from wisdom, conscience, and a higher understanding of the soul.
These passages are not weighed by whether they belong to a tradition called mystical, ancient, or authoritative. They are weighed by the spiritual level of what is said.
The Creator Beyond Image
Interpretive summary: Some mystical writers use light as an analogy for divine reality while insisting that the Creator cannot be reduced to anything physical, visible, or imaginable.
Source for comparison: Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed I:59; compare broader Kabbalistic use of light imagery in later tradition.
Excellently said, and truly spoken by the wise.
No one is capable of speaking accurately about the image of God. In each person, the level of understanding of God corresponds to the level of the soul.
Souls, Growth, and the Worlds of Eternity
Interpretive summary: Later Kabbalistic and musar formulations describe creation as intended to bestow goodness upon creatures, while also teaching that the highest good is not received passively but reached through moral growth, freedom, and conscious choice.
Source for comparison: Ramchal, Derech Hashem 1:2–1:3; compare later presentations linked with Etz Chaim.
Excellently said.
The Almighty does not create “biorobots.” He creates souls and gives souls the conditions in which they may grow.
But it is not correct to say that the soul descends into this world for growth. The idea of the soul descending to Earth was taken from the religions of India. The soul does not descend. It is born here in order to grow spiritually and become ready for the worlds of eternity.
Wisdom Spoken from Conscience
Interpretive summary: Other ethical and mystical teachings describe human life as a field of moral testing, where a person must choose between attachment to lower desires and the path of spiritual correction, compassion, and responsibility.
Source for comparison: later ethical and mystical summaries associated with free will, spiritual striving, and correction in Kabbalistic and musar literature.
Beautifully said. Wisely, humanely, and from conscience.
Where such teachings lead a person toward mercy, responsibility, self-correction, and spiritual growth, they speak from a different level than texts that demand blind obedience, justify violence, or place a book above conscience.
This is why the reader must compare the levels. The question is not whether a passage belongs to the Torah, the Zohar, Kabbalah, or another tradition. The question is what spiritual level speaks through it.
The Temple Already Built
When the Second Temple existed, the Judeans could observe and fulfill all 613 commandments. Yet, as is known, the Temple was destroyed nearly two thousand years ago.
Today, the part of the commandments connected with the Temple cannot be fulfilled in the former way. They may still be studied and known, while those commandments that can be fulfilled today may still be practiced.
But the indestructible Temple has already been revealed, and those who serve religious institutions have not recognized it yet.
The sages of Kabbalah are advised to pay special attention to the first part of the book, which was compiled by the will from Above.
Conclusion — Weigh Mystical Teachings Through Conscience
The examples above show why mystical teachings must not be accepted by name, age, authority, or tradition alone.
Texts of one spiritual level may demand blind acceptance, place a book above the living source of creation, or present human assumptions as sacred truth. Texts of another spiritual level may speak wisely, humanely, and from conscience, leading the soul toward growth, truth, and responsibility.
Therefore, the reader must weigh every teaching by spiritual sight. The measure is the voice of the Almighty — conscience.
* Source note: Direct quotations and cited passages in this chapter include Zohar, Terumah 59:630 and Kiddushin 30b:4. Other cited ideas are presented as interpretive summaries of later Kabbalistic, philosophical, or musar teaching associated with sources such as Etz Chaim, Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed I:59, Ramchal, Derech Hashem 1:2–1:3, and later discussions of the soul, gilgul, and spiritual correction.
Frequently Asked Questions — Kabbalah through Conscience: A Comparative Reading of Mystical Teachings
Kabbalah is a tradition of Jewish mystical teaching associated with the Zohar, later Kabbalistic writings, and interpretations of the hidden meaning of the Torah. In this chapter, Kabbalah is not accepted or rejected as a whole; its texts are weighed through conscience and spiritual discernment.
The Zohar is one of the central texts of Jewish mysticism. It contains symbolic and mystical interpretations connected with the Torah and later Kabbalistic thought, including themes such as creation, divine light, the soul, and hidden spiritual meaning.
This chapter compares two spiritual levels within Kabbalistic texts. The first level includes interpretations of the Torah within Kabbalah that reveal a low spiritual level. The second level contains words from Kabbalistic sages that speak wisely, humanely, and from conscience. The chapter asks readers to weigh mystical teachings not by authority alone, but by conscience, reason, spiritual sight, and moral clarity.
Related Themes
Choose Another Chapter:
Part One
Part Two