# Smapti, Kabbalah, And Cultural Appropriation **URL:** \ **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:** 52
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2025, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-kabbalah-and-cultural-appropriation/1019724/52 "2025-06-17T04:12:14Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > Modifying Kabbalah to fit any other religion is inherently disrespectful. “Modifies the ritual based on his best understanding” The larger problem is that @Smapti doesn’t really have any deep understanding of the Jewish traditions from which the _Kabbalah_ emerged, and so his musings on it come out as ill-informed, naff, and even offensive to scholars who have spent years studying at _yeshiva_ to understand both the mundane and esoteric aspects of Talmudic interpretation and study of _mishnah_ as relates to both Jewish belief and cultural life. He gives the appearance of skipping all of that in order to dive head-forward into the more fantastical aspects of Lurianic Kabbalah. I personally don’t care because I’m not religious and don’t have any traditions or beliefs to be offended about but I can certainly understand how someone taking a nickel tour through your belief systems without even bothering to check their ‘research’ with someone who actually has studied in this tradition can seem offensively obtuse, especially when making comparisons like this: > [@Jewish Dopers - what do you think of gilgul (reincarnation)?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-dopers-what-do-you-think-of-gilgul-reincarnation/1017157/1): > > As part of this, I’ve been reading up on Judaism and Jewish history and lore in general, and just now while reading up on Sheol and various Jewish ideas of the afterlife I came across the concept of gilgul - the idea that a human soul can be reborn again and again, and not necessarily in human form, until it achieves a state of spiritual perfection similar to the Hindu/Buddhist concept of death and rebirth until one achieves Nirvana. If someone made an images of Sylvester the Cat up on the Crucifix saying “Sufferin’ succotash!”, I’m sure many Christians would be offended at both the desecration of their core iconography and the lack of decorum or respect in how fundamental what that representes is to their belief. That doesn’t mean that someone shouldn’t use that imagery in service of a particular message–personally, I think “Always Look On The Bright Side of Life” from _Monty Python’s Life of Brian_ effectively eviscerates the seriousness that Christians take in the religious traditions and institutions built around their core myth while actually treating the personage of Christ with utmost respect–but you also shouldn’t be surprised when some people find the treatment of their cherished beliefs opprobrious. > [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > People got one short primate life to live, and shit’s _hard_. If taking parts of a ritual from here, and parts of a ritual from there, is making their life better, and if the only harm is that someone else feels disrespected when they find out, the simplest solution to me is for the person feeling disrespected to shrug it off and wish the other person happiness in their short monkey life. I’m sure this seemed like sage wisdom to you when you wrote it but…it’s not. Stranger --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-kabbalah-and-cultural-appropriation/1019724)._