# Smapti, Kabbalah, And Cultural Appropriation

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-kabbalah-and-cultural-appropriation/1019724>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [June 16, 2025, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-kabbalah-and-cultural-appropriation/1019724 "2025-06-16T21:26:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 16

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**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2025, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-kabbalah-and-cultural-appropriation/1019724/16 "2025-06-16T22:08:28Z")

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> [@Snarky\_Kong](#):
>
> He said he’s making it more accurate? Because that’s completely different than appropriate to his own needs.

[sorry, discourse has done something weird to formatting, the following was part of Smapti’s response to a longer post of DocCathode]

> [@I'm going to undertake a six-month Kabbalah ritual - ask me anything](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-going-to-undertake-a-six-month-kabbalah-ritual-ask-me-anything/1016475/9):
>
> > [@I'm going to undertake a six-month Kabbalah ritual - ask me anything](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-going-to-undertake-a-six-month-kabbalah-ritual-ask-me-anything/1016475/3):
> >
> > The qualifications to practice Kabbalah are debatable. But -must be an adult Jew, fluent in Hebrew and learned in the Talmud, must already have personal and moral fortitude.
> 
> As the author puts it in the text, he taught the pure Kabbalah to his oldest son and this method to his second, since he could only pass the former on to one child a la Isaac giving his blessing to Jacob rather than Esau. As with most writings of this nature there were probably emendations made by a Christian at some point to make it more accessible to a wider audience.

Without quoting or refighting the entire thread, that should serve as a small example of what I was referring to. Granted, I am giving a less-than-charitable interpretation of what the author (note, not Smapti) is doing, and I have not said that _Smapti_ is going into it with bad intentions. But knowingly or not, it is IMO cultural appropriation and objectionable.

BUT.

As @DocCathode has repeatedly said for himself, and now I for myself, I don’t have the right to _deny_ him doing so. He’s got every legal and personal right to do so, but I am agreeing that I find it distasteful. Not illegal, not even against the rules, but distasteful.

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