Jonathan Garb. Shamanic Trance in Modern Kabbalah. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011. x + 276 pp. $45.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-226-28207-7.
Reviewed by Ronald Kiener
Published on H-Judaic (July, 2012)
Commissioned by Jason Kalman (Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion)
This is a book that can be recommended not est phase” in the history of Jewish mysticism, and only to researchers working in the feld of Jewish that after a few generations of initial mystical cre‐ mysticism, but also to colleagues working in the ativity, Hasidism experienced a decline and de‐ feld of religious studies in general. Through its generation, marking a kind of end to the history very provocative title--and then through well-ar‐ of the movement. gued but dense chapters--it raises three chal‐ Another potentially disconcerting challenge lenges to the formerly regnant contours of Jewish ofered by the title of the book, shamanism is a mysticism studies, which to this day have been domain of religious studies typically linked to ru‐ dictated by the research agenda and ideological ral South America or Asia. Garb successfully ar‐ proclivities of Gershom Scholem. At least one of gues that modern Kabbalah can be readily under‐ these challenges has been tackled by Jonathan stood as bearing numerous shamanic traits. One Garb in earlier writings: the notion that there is a might begin the book with a sense that Garb is useful domain within the history of Jewish mysti‐ trying to ft a round peg into a square hole, but as cism which can best be characterized as “modern the book unfolds the reader is compelled to accept Kabbalah.” The very term “modern Kabbalah” that the traits of shamanistic phenomena are in‐ suggests that the developments, personalities, and deed present in modern Kabbalistic practice. For movements of Jewish mystical thought of the last that matter, “trance” can be a slippery and fuid four hundred years (Lurianism, Sabbateanism, term, but by carefully delineating the diference Hasidism, Mitnagdism, and all that fows there‐ between trance and concentrated meditation, from) can be regarded as representing a revitaliz‐ Garb demonstrates that the many diverse streams ing response of Jewish religiosity to modernism. of modern Kabbalah view the inculcation of This approach explicitly contravenes the Sc‐ trance states as an acme of the mystic way. These holemian view that Hasidism represents the “lat‐ trance experiences are comparatively described H-Net Reviews by Garb as “shamanic” insofar as they oftentimes ter. The book was carefully and expertly edited, invoke and promote the same themes of power, with only an instance or two of editorial miscues. transformation, and healing associated with This is not an introductory text--it is an ad‐ shamanic phenomena. vanced study clearly intended for a reading audi‐ The book is divided into six chapters. In the ence simultaneously well versed in the latest frst chapter, Garb provides an impressive survey methodologies of religious studies, and fully con‐ of scholarship on these three central issues: versant in the primary literature and secondary shamanism, trance, and modern Kabbalah. In the scholarship of Lurianism, Sabbateanism, and Ha‐ second chapter, he concentrates on the shamanic sidism. Of the former, Garb centers his book process of descent (often linked to ascent) and against the groundbreaking work of hypnotist fery transformations that often ensue. Here we Milton Erickson and his school (thereby efective‐ are introduced to the cluster of rituals known as ly dismissing the “psychological” interpretation of neflat appayim (falling on the face) during prayer Hasidism advanced by Scholem). Of the latter, and the many attestations of transformations in‐ Garb adduces a number of both well-known and volving light and fre that accompany trance fairly obscure samples from the modern Kabbalis‐ states. Chapter 3 deals with trance as transforma‐ tic corpus, and he acknowledges indebtedness to tive empowerment in modern Kabbalah. A series Moshe Idel’s experiential turn in Jewish mysti‐ of Kabbalistic texts from sixteenth-century Safed cism studies, as well as to the work of Elliot Wolf‐ (principally penned by Hayyim Vital) and son and particularly Haviva Pedaya. Garb is well Jerusalem (principally by Yehudah Albotini and aware that others before him have invoked Yosef Ibn Sayyah) are carefully examined, culmi‐ shamanism as a credible interpretive model for nating in a discussion of trance reports by the in‐ describing aspects of the path of Kabbalah. How‐ fuential eighteenth-century Italian Kabbalist ever, no one before Garb has attempted such a Moshe Hayyim Luzzatto and his associate Moshe broad and persuasive treatment, even as he David Valle. Chapter 4, “Shamanic Hasidism,” re‐ warns “that the term ‘trance’ (just like the term turns to some of the themes laid out in the frst ‘shaman’) is not indigenous to Kabbalistic dis‐ three chapters as it relates to a panoramic survey course” (p. 48). of Hasidic trance reports. Continuing the survey The book is densely packed, and while there of Hasidism, chapter 5 deals with Hasidic trance. is some efort to place matters within a synchron‐ The sixth and concluding chapter considers the ic arc of development, when it comes to Hasidism relationship between trance and “nomian” con‐ the range of sources are presented in a cross-gen‐ structs--the perhaps surprising fact that modern erational, cross-geographic fashion. Every efort is Kabbalistic trance is practiced within the context made to give expression to the eccentricities and of normative Jewish ritual conduct. Hasidic trance nuances of the myriad of Hasidic schools, but (often induced in group activities, such as Torah Garb’s intent is to interpret and describe a cluster study) is therefore not an indication of antinomi‐ of mystical experiences and hagiography in mod‐ an or even hypernomian tendencies, but falls ern Kabbalah. The book is therefore decidedly within the “four cubits” of the Law. A short epi‐ thematic. Essential to Garb’s approach is the well- logue that briefy reiterates the modernity of the known disagreement between Scholem and Mar‐ topic, and an appendix entitled “Psychoanalysis tin Buber as to the relative value of Hasidic theo‐ and Hasidism” round out the book. Eighty pages retical literature versus the hagiographical tales. of copious notes, twenty-nine pages of bibliogra‐ Garb explicitly comes down on Buber’s side: “I be‐ phy, and a helpful index constitute the back mat‐ lieve that the method proposed here can lead to a
2 H-Net Reviews more thorough utilization of this vast textual reservoir” (p. 78). Thus, hagiographical accounts of tzaddikim who manifest faints, waking sleep, trance states, and magical healing powers (to enu‐ merate just a few types) are combined with auto‐ biographical accounts and intricate homilies to provide evidence for shamanic trance. It has been thirty years since Scholem has passed. A new generation of scholars has built on and reconstructed the feld. Garb’s exciting re‐ search is the happy outcome of the feld passing into an even greater maturity and relevance for the study of religion. As such, Shamanic Trance in Modern Kabbalah is an impressive and powerful statement of the “state of the art” as practiced by twenty-frst century researchers, addressing the interests of specialists and generalists alike.
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Citation: Ronald Kiener. Review of Garb, Jonathan. Shamanic Trance in Modern Kabbalah. H-Judaic, H- Net Reviews. July, 2012.
URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=33666
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