The Kabbalah Red String Misconception
- There is no connection of authentic Kabbalah to red strings.
- The so-called “Kabbalah red string” is a lucrative commercial invention created in the past three decades.
- No authentic Kabbalistic sources relevant to our era discuss “Kabbalah red strings” because they possess absolutely no spiritual use or benefit.
Introduction to the Kabbalah Red String Misconception
There is no connection of authentic Kabbalah to red strings. The so-called “Kabbalah
red string” is a lucrative commercial invention created in the past three decades.
The method of Kabbalah is a method of human connection, which involves transforming our
egoistic qualities into their altruistic opposite, and experiencing a total shift of reality from one that is incomplete, transient, and detached to one that is whole, eternal, and
completely connected.
This transformation takes place at the level of our perception and sensation of reality, and
Kabbalistic texts only discuss this change and the higher reality we discover through it.
Kabbalah calls the attainment of such a change “the attainment of the higher reality,” and we
achieve it by studying in a Kabbalistic group with Kabbalistic texts and a Kabbalistic guide. We
require no other means to achieve this purely inner transformation.
No authentic Kabbalistic sources, from Adam HaRishon through Abraham, Moses, Rabbi
Shimon Bar Yochai, the ARI, Baal HaSulam, and RABASH, mention red strings as a means of
spiritual attainment. It is a practice that holds mere psychological significance. For instance, a person might hear that by applying a certain piece of clothing, they receive a certain kind of
protection or luck in this world. It might indeed provide psychological comfort to a person who places their belief in such a concept, but it nonetheless holds zero spiritual significance.
The goal of the wisdom of Kabbalah is to elevate a person above this world to the spiritual
world, correcting themselves from their inborn egoistic qualities of desiring to enjoy for personal benefit alone to altruistic qualities of desiring to benefit others and nature—and discover their eternal soul and the upper force of love, bestowal, and connection, which Kabbalah calls “the Creator.” That attainment is the only practical aspect of the wisdom of Kabbalah, and no redstrings or any other physical item holds any importance in this process of inner transformation and self-correction.
What Is the Problem With Buying and Wearing a So-Called “Kabbalah Red String”?
The problem with buying and wearing a so-called “Kabbalah Red String” which we have clarified actually has nothing to do with Kabbalah, is not the action itself. It is also not the feeling of psychological comfort that might result from such an action.
The problem is that this action can change our attitude toward the soul’s correction, interfering with bringing us to the purpose of creation—adhesion with the Creator, i.e., the quality of love, bestowal, and connection. In other words, it might serve to block our self-transformation to become more loving, giving, and better connected to others and nature, and instead give us thoughts that we are already “doing something good” with its help.
If we engage in buying and wearing a red string, will we discover our egoistic quality within
ourselves afterward, wishing for its correction? Will we feel a growing need for the special force of correction called “the reforming light” or “the surrounding light” to show us the negative aspects of our egoistic nature, and to help increase our desire to exit our egoism and rise to become more connected, loving, and giving like the Creator?
There is indeed a subtle—albeit very significant—point here. We are not saying “Don’t put on
red strings. ” On the contrary, if it provides psychological support for the time being, for instance, if it helps a person with their edginess or stress in life, and perhaps the person wearing it grew up with their mother always telling them how putting on a red string protects them, then in such cases, it can indeed possess a calming psychological effect on a person. Likewise, if this person wishes to use it for this purely bodily purpose, then there is no problem in doing so. They could also take a tranquilizer, but they choose to put on a red string as they feel it helps calm and comfort them. Afterward, they could relate to life more calmly, and then seek out the true place of correction within themselves. There is no problem in using a red string in that kind of way.
The problem is when it disturbs our process of correction, when we think that we are doing “something spiritual” just by buying and/or wearing a red string, when in reality it has absolutely no spiritual effect on anybody. A spiritual result comes about when we direct our ego through the spiritually-supportive environment, i.e., a group of friends who share a common desire for spiritual progress—the point in the heart—in order to attain contact with the Creator, the quality of love, bestowal, and connection.
If buying and wearing a red string does not divert our aim at achieving life’s purpose—adhesion with the Creator, balance with nature, equivalence of form with the quality of love, bestowal, and connection—then it is absolutely no problem to engage with it.
How Do You Tell the Difference Between Celebrities Like Madonna, Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore, or Ariana Grande Wearing Red Strings and Somebody Who Studies Authentic Kabbalah?
There is only one way to know for sure: according to the sources from which they study the
wisdom of Kabbalah.
The wisdom of Kabbalah has specific sources. It begins with Adam HaRishon’s The Angel
Raziel, and then Abraham’s The Book of Creation (Sefer Yetzira), then the Torah, written by
Moses, and The Book of Zohar, written by Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, which is the primary and
most fundamental book of the wisdom of Kabbalah. Following these books are those of the ARI (Kabbalist Isaac Luria) from medieval times and the writings of Baal HaSulam (Kabbalist
Yehuda Ashlag) from the 20th century. If someone studies according to these sources, they are considered to be studying the wisdom of Kabbalah.
If Kabbalistic Sources Don’t Discuss Kabbalah Red Strings, Then Why Do Kabbalah Organizations Sell them?
To start with, the word “Kabbalah” has been misconceived and misused in myriad ways over the generations, and much of what is used with that word has no connection to
authentic Kabbalah.
Therefore, any mention of a “Kabbalah organization” should be thoroughly checked: What is
their purpose? What is the purpose of Kabbalah as they teach it? Also, what Kabbalistic sources do they teach and study from?
There is a business of selling red strings and other products such as holy water, amulets, Tarot
cards, as well as dream interpretation, fortune telling, and meditation techniques, which other organizations do using the name of “Kabbalah”. However, nothing they do accords with the authentic method of Kabbalah, which is a method of connection in order to discover the higher reality of love, bestowal, and connection while we are alive in this world.
But There Are Mentions of Red Strings in Kabbalistic Sources. How Do You Reconcile Those?
Both Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) and Kabbalist Baruch Ashlag (RABASH), who
are the most relevant Kabbalists for teaching the wisdom of Kabbalah to people living in our era, made absolutely no mention of red strings in their voluminous texts.
Its few mentions in other texts by other Kabbalists needs to be understood through the lens of
Kabbalistic languages, such as the language of branches. The wisdom of Kabbalah makes no
mention of corporeal, physical phenomena in their texts. Kabbalists are researchers of theupper spiritual worlds, which is a reality of forces, desires, thoughts, attitudes, and intentions, and which has no corporeal or physical form. Therefore, any mention of such a phenomenon as “red strings” by other Kabbalists needs to be spiritually contextualized, without any connection to a corporeal form.
Here are some excerpts by various Kabbalists that explain this concept of the languages used by Kabbalists:
-Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam),
“The Freedom. ”
– The Book of Zohar with the Sulam [Ladder] Commentary. VaYetze, item 139.
– Rabbi Nachman of Breslev,
Collections of the Moharan, 225
– Kabbalist Abraham Kook (RAIAH), Letters Vol. 1, 162.
– Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam),
“Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” item 156.
If we do take one such Kabbalistic source—which is not usually our way since it does not optimally influence us with the force of surrounding light (Ohr Makif) that can elevate us to the spiritual world—it is Reshit Chochmah by Rabbi Eliyahu de Vidas. He mentions tying a red string on one’s arm as being from the ways of the Amorites, which signifies aligning oneself with the impure side that opposes the quality of bestowal, i.e., the quality of Bina, which Mordecai represents. Here is that quote:
– Rabbi Eliyahu de Vidas, Reshit Chochmah,
chapter “Derekh Eretz.”
In other words, in a place where we find a quote discussing tying a red string on one’s arm
directly, it is also mentioned as an action that resists spiritual progress rather than
supports it.
Therefore, other than applying psychological support to such an action, which has no
connection to spirituality, and where literally anything could serve as a psychological
support—including sewing oneself in a toga and wandering around like in Ancient Rome—then red strings have no connection to spirituality and cannot help anyone enter spirituality.
We hope that this clarification of how authentic Kabbalah has no connection to red strings will shorten people’s path to the genuine approach to authentic Kabbalistic sources.
