How Should We Think About Halacha?

An illustrative example of the fault line between the modern kabbalists and traditional halacha

Saying the words “Kel melech na’aman” before Keriyas Shema when davening alone is promoted in every single siddur I remember seeing. That’s not to say it’s a widespread custom: by definition, it’s not something that people do in public, so it’s kind of hard to track. But it’s certainly the minhag among publishers to push for it in their siddurim.

And yet according to the Tur (O.C. 61), one encounters three serious halachic problems - including a full-on Torah prohibition - each time one takes the siddur’s advice. Fascinatingly, kabbalistically-oriented halachic authorities acknowledge the problems but, without even attempting to address them, promote the custom.

Here are the basics:

The Tur, quoting הרמ”ה (Rabbi Meir ben Todros HaLevi Abulafia), sharply discourages adding those three words. For one thing, it’s a forbidden interruption in the middle of Keriyas Shema and its berachos. It’s also an extraneous addition which, unlike “ברוך שם כבוד מלכותו לעולם ועד", lacks the internal logic and authority of the Gemara (Pesachim 56a). But it also involves invoking the Name of God completely out of context (which, according to at least Ramban to Shemos 20:6, is a Torah prohibition). After all, those three words don’t appear together anywhere in Tanach, nor did the Sages authorize the formula.

However, the Bais Yosef justifies and recommends the practice without directly addressing the halachic issues. Instead, he notes how indirect references in older works (like ספר הפרדס and ספר חסידים) indicate that the custom had existed centuries earlier.

The Bais Yosef also quotes extensively from passages in Zohar and ספר תיקונים which assert that adding the three words is important in order to bring the total number of words within the Shema to 248 - equal to the traditional number of “limbs” in the human body. The claim is that reciting a 248-word Shema would “heal” each of the corresponding limbs of illness.

But that introduces entirely new problems. The Mishna in Avos (1:3) advises:

“One should not be like slaves who serve their master for reward, but like slaves who serve their master without regard for reward”

Traditionally, Jews would recite the Shema twice each day primarily because we were thus commanded by the Torah. But one would also hope to absorb and embrace the many moral lessons contained within its text.

Within this new kabbalistic formulation such goals are still possible of course, but they’re no longer necessarily dominant. With the promise (guarantee?) of personal profit, a decidedly selfish strain has been added to the mix.

Beyond that, there’s a larger philosophical issue at play here. The Taz (Yore Deah 179:8) rules that:

דברי תורה לא ניתן לרפואת הגוף אלא לרפואת הנפש

“The words of Torah were not given for healing the body, but for healing the soul.”

In other words, trying to co-opt God’s Torah for personal gain entirely misses its point.

It’s presumably for these reasons (among others) that the Chasam Sofer wrote (תשובת חתם סופר או”ח נא):

כל המערב דברי קבלה עם ההלכות הפסוקים חייב משום זורע כלאיים

“Anyone who mixes words of kabbala with determined halacha is liable for having planted kilayim (i.e., for having created an illegal mixture).”

For his part, the Bais Yosef (in the subsequent paragraph, “ויש מקשים”) defends the general approach not by denying the problems, but with an appeal to his sense of the authority of the Zohar, and the idea that:

“Those who established this practice certainly analyzed the matter and found it to be true and upright.”

Which is just why I find this discussion so illuminating. The traditional Judaism represented by the Tur relies on the Talmud and the halachic process for authority and moral guidance. To some degree, the innovations of Tzfas, by sharp contrast, shifted power away from such considerations.