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Can a non-Jew study Kabbalah?
Much of the Kabbalah is pertinent to the consciousness of Righteous Gentiles.
This arouses in them the true worship of God, to which they are also commanded.
The Torah anticipates that every human being become a righteous servant of God.
For a non-Jew, this means to become a Righteous Gentile,
unless he desires to proceed even further and to convert to Judaism.
The Torah ideally envisions every non-Jew as being righteous and worshipping
only the One God of Israel.
In order to worship, one has to be conscious of and to experience the emotions
of love and fear.
In order to experience these emotions, one has to have some meditative content
and input.
Chassidut teaches that the non-Jew also has to mediate on those truths and
depths of reality of Divine Providence in the world which pertain to him and
which will arouse
his heart to serve the One God of Israel. These sections of the Kabbalah are
prerequisites for him to come close to God.
The levels of Divine Light which are pertinent for the non-Jew to study are the
explicitly immanent levels of Divinity.
This is the influx of Divine energy which is present in the creative process. In
general, the non-Jew is not able to conceive of God's infinite Light, which is
absolutely transcendent.
Even though, the ultimate purpose of the Ba'al Shem Tov is to bring
transcendence into the perspective of immanence.
Until Mashiach comes, this is still relatively a state of Jewish consciousness.
Thus, the non-Jew should learn in Kabbalah those secrets of creation which help
him to appreciate and become aware of God's immanent light in creation.
This draws him closer to God and augments his desire to serve Him.
Clearly, in order for a non-Jew to study Kabbalah, he has to identify with
receiving this wisdom through the Jewish People and the Torah and to clearly
understand that the intention is to be able to worship to the greatest of his
ability the God of Israel
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