R. Areleh Roth's Pristine Faith

Abstract

Gershon Greenberg R. ARELEH ROTH'S PRISTINE FAITH Through Holocaust to redemptionGershom Scholem identified Roth's Shomer 'emunim, Rav Kook's 'Orot hakodesh and the writings of Menahem Mendl Schneersohn, as the outstanding twentieth-century representatives of traditional Jewish mysticism; and Shomer 'emunim as a text of indisputable mystical inspiration (Scholem 1976, 76). 1 Roth's writings (1931)(1932)(1933)(1934)(1935)(1936)(1937)(1938)(1939)(1940)(1941)(1942)(1943)(1944)(1945)(1946)(1947) articulated the path of pristine, primary faith ('Emunah peshutah) through the Holocaust. First experienced by Abraham,'Emunah peshutah became a timeless reality, latent within the people of Israel. By extricating it from beneath materiality and ego, and out of externalities which were identifiable with the kabbalistic shells (kelippot) enclosing points of light (nitsotsot), one could endure the tragedy in spiritual terms and then reach towards redemption. The sifting of the sparks (beirur) involved annulment of self-whereupon 'Emunah peshutah would be unveiled and one could enter the timeless, redeemed realm of Abraham, Moses, and the Baʿal Shem Tov and his successors. 2 Roth's path through the Holocaust lay between that of contemporary Polish hasidic thought and wartime kabbalistic reflection. Hasidic 'Admo"rim of Poland believed that an inner point of faith existed, which touched the higher cosmic movement from exile's darkness to the light of the Messiah. Yerahmiel Yisrael Dantsiger, the Admo"r (Adoneinu, Moreinu, Rabeinu-Our master, teacher, rabbi) of Alexander, for example, depicted a forward dialectical movement of the universe towards redemption, where illumination emerged through and from darkness. This metahistorical process was joined to the individual Hasid's nekudah penimit (inner point, Dos pintele yid), which, in turn, was centred in the higher, divine light. That is, while the soul, which acted in history to overcome sin, was inspired by the higher process, it also enabled that process. The 'Admo"rim correlated inner spark, history and meta-history as concentric spheres such that they shared illumination and influenced one another (see Greenberg 2013, 353-375). According to the Lurianic kabbalistic tradition, by contrast, divine sparks split away from the darkness for flight to the above. Its adherents sought to sift sparks out of the prison of impurity, redeem and then return them to their original higher realm. In the Siberian labour camps, 1941 Messer, certain that the evil side to existence would yield to the Messiah, devoted himself to pious activity to assist the cosmic transition, which in turn strengthened his piety. He believed that his piety would liberate sparks from their historical confines and open the world to the infusion of divine reality (shefa)-providing physical nourishment, blessings and peace (Greenberg 2012, 37-67). Roth's path of 'Emunah peshutah may be located between the non-dualism of the Polish 'Admo"rim and the dualism of Lurianic Kabbalah. Pristine faith was expressed within the ...