Jews who take the Kabbalah seriously enough to study and practice it at length are called mekubbalim. Generally speaking, they are a sceptical, university-educated lot who take up the Kabbalah not out of personal conviction but as a discipline. Once duly disciplined, some of them have referred to the medieval theosophical system - the first Judaic theology as such - as so much "junk" - it has been replaced by more rational or 'scientific' thinking.

But the counter-culture has taken the Kabbalah to heart along with everything else seemingly exotic. Madonna the superstar avows it as her religion, bringing many of her fans into the mystic fold.

Now most of us have heard a thing or two about the Kabbalah and its main text, the Zohar, but we take none of it very seriously, letting it rest in peace in Middle Ages. As for the popular Kabbalah, well, it is just another silly fad, it will pass soon enough, and in the meantime, we do not mind if people have fun with the Kabbalah if they like, for we are a tolerant people, and people will be people.

But lately we have heard rumours that the popular Kabbalah culture has built its bookstore on a scam, that it has no foundation but fraud, hence its leaders and  founders are false messiahs. Rumour has it that once everone reads all the Kabbalic books, humankind will be restored to the Light in Gilgulim; but first an infinite number of books must be written and sold and read; hence success requires an infinite number of reincarnations.

Even worse, it is feared that souls are being destroyed instead of being reincarnated on higher spheres, particularly troubled souls or mentally disturbed people, who should rightfully be attended to by licensed professionals instead of wronged by spiritual quacks.

Moreover, the welfare of those gullible people who think instant salvation can be bought is reportedly at stake along with zillions of dollars to be had by their saviors. Before you know it, young men and women will be abducted from posh suburbs and flown to Kabbalah Kibbutz, where they shall zimzum until they become McMekubbalim,  whereupon they will be bussed back to upscale neighborhoods to open up Tikkum  franchises.

Orthodox mekubbalim and scholars and rabbis frown on the counter-cultural Kabbalah; one reason given is that it attracts Kabbalah krackpots who have a messianic complex; that is, mentally unstable people who believe focusing on the godhead turns them into grandiose gods -may Heaven forbid, although every yogi worth his yoga wants unity with God. The case of Shabbetai Zevi is usually given by way of example:

"Remember Shabbetai Zevi!" they warn.

Who?

"I am the Lord your God," Shabbetai Zevi was wont to proclaim just before the Sultan had him arrested for sedition - Turkish Jews had replaced the Sultan's name with his name in their Sabbath prayers. Proverbially persecuted Jews sorely needed a messiah, and, for many Jews, Shabbetai was their man.

Shabbetai Zevi was born in 1626 into a wealthy Sephardi family in Smyrna. The Sephardim fled Spain after their Muslim employers were evicted around 1492 - Jews were given four months to leave or be executed. Sephardim in Muslim Spain were influenced by the Sufi movement. The Kabbalah culture was centered around the Torah, yet it incorporated a number of Sufi, Hindu, and Pythagorean elements. The Kabbalah  culture focused on theosophy, meditation, prayer, and on leading a purificatory ethical life of benevolence and compassion. The salvation of man and the cosmos as well required  fulfillment of 613 Torah injunctions, a task that might take several, reincarnated lifetimes; and eons, since no man was to be left behind.

Many Sephardim emigrated to the Mideast from Spain. Safed in ancient Galilee became the chief Kabbalah center. For example, Kabbalah leader Isaac Luria settled in Safed.  We mention him because, before his death in 1572 at age 38, he warned his followers to forsake the practice of magic and study spiritual wisdom. 

Shabbetai studied Luria's kabbalic teachings, and so had Rabbi Nathan in Gaza, the exorcist Shabbetai asked to cast out his demons. You see, Shabbetai was experiencing a manic-depressive psychological disorder. During a manic phase in Istanbul, he had, as if possessed by the Devil, gone about advocating breaking the laws of Moses in the name of God. His personal conduct was certainly not exemplary given Jewish mores of his day; for instance, he scandalized Cairo when he married a Polish prostitute.

"Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, who permits the forbidden!" Shabbetai exulted to the consternation of God-fearing, law-abiding citizens.

Antinomianism (anti-law) is as old as the law itself. Many are those who are greatly  relieved to break the law. Some murderers feel a profound sense of relief and power after killing someone. And many folks have religiously sanctioned such feelings of relief, lest guilt set in later, by legalizing and blessing murder; for example, with theories of just or holy wars. Many of the notorious Thuggee of India, who worshiped the goddess Kali, were highly respected members of their communities - some of them were judges. They secretly relieved unwitting travellers of everything they had on them including their lives, then drained their blood and tossed the corpses into a hole dug for Kali to receive the refreshments. Less criminal were members of the Kapalika Hindu cult, necrophiliacs who resided in cemeteries, fornicated with corpses, and received alms in skullcups. Less disgusting are devotees who still strain their guru's excrement and drink the liquid  remainder. Sri Ramakrisna worshiped Kali and ate excrement every once in awhile, to cultivate his equanimity. Christianity has had its fair share of antinomianism, sometimes rejecting the Old Testiment God with the claim that He is the Devil. The founders of Protestantism opined early on that Love rendered the old Law obsolete; Luther backtracked when peasant behavior got out of hand, and said Christ had come to fulfill the Law, not break it. The later antinomian behavior, of the Protestant Enthusiasts, was mostly limited to libertinism or free love - they argued that taking an ownership stake in a single mate was a mortal sin. Some of them had communist tendences, by the way.  

Rabbi Nathan in Gaza was duly impressed by Shabbetai's antinomian demons. He persuaded Shabbetai that he, Shabbetai, was none other than the messiah. His divine mission was to combat the forces of evil in the Realm of Darkness, to descend into Hell, in other words, and release  the sparks from the shards (kelippoth) which had fallen there when the lower spheres of the Tree of Light had accidentally been cracked by a power surge through the upper triad of the grid - the apex of the Tree.

The Tree of Light is a sort of transcendental Perfect Person (Adam Kadmon) comprising a hierarchical order of ten energy pots (sephiroth). Once the sparks are restored, the Tree of Light shall be in perfect order again, the cosmos and man in it shall be saved. Have we not here the perfect model for the mass production of year-round, Kabbalah Christmas trees? Why, a fortune could be made!

Some time after Shabbetai's arrest in 1666, he was given an ultimatum: convert to Islam or die. He converted to Islam and died on a royal pension in 1676. Some of Shabbetai's followers remained loyal after his conversion: they believed he had simply gone underground to recover more sparks, hence they followed suit, converting to Islam while remaining faithful to Judaism. In any case, did not one of the earliest Kabbalists and perhaps the first to think he was a messiah, Abraham ben Samuel Abulafia, want to rid Judaism, Christianity, and Islam of their differences, thus making them whole again?

But most Jews who were enthusiastic about Shabbetai's messiahship were shocked and outraged by the conversion of their prospective savior to Islam. And today they might associate his betrayal with dabbling in the Kabbalah, uniting with the Lord, proclaiming one's godhood, and setting oneself up as the messiah. That might not be so bad if the person with the messianic complex remained true to the Torah; after all, the messiah is coming. But only a Kabbalah Krackpot would convert to Islam instead of losing his head.