The Kabbalah Holy Water Misconception
- Kabbalah holy water is a misconception. Authentic Kabbalah focuses on inner transformation, not external objects.
- Kabbalah does not call anything in our physical world “holy.” Everything with a spiritual quality is above our world.
- Genuine spiritual attainment comes through study and inner transformation, not rituals or external influences.
Introduction to the Kabbalah Holy Water Misconception
Associating Kabbalah with holy water is one of the many present-day misconceptions connected with this teaching. Just like Kabbalah has nothing to do with red strings or amulets, it likewise has nothing to do with holy water. The perception that Kabbalah endorses the use of holy water is a modern distortion, far removed from its methodology and goal.
What is Kabbalah’s methodology and goal? Kabbalah is a method for attaining the fundamental laws that govern reality. It does not deal with magic, mysticism, or external rituals, but rather with our inner transformation. Over the centuries, Kabbalah remained hidden from the general public to prevent its misuse. During this period of concealment, various groups and individuals misinterpreted and also exploited its name, introducing foreign concepts such as holy water, charms, and fortune-telling into the public perception of Kabbalah.
This false association stems from a broader tendency to mix concepts taught in Kabbalah with their incorrect understanding by the corporeal mind. What is an “incorrect understanding” in this context? If we do not attain the spiritual reality that Kabbalah guides us to discover, then our understanding of Kabbalistic concepts is incomplete and bound to be flawed. However, many people over the generations without spiritual attainment took whatever understanding they could make of Kabbalistic concepts and fused them into their own teachings. Therefore, several misconceptions about the wisdom of Kabbalah abound, including its connection to holy water.
Such misconceptions stem from a hope that external objects and rituals might influence our destiny. However, Kabbalists have consistently rejected such practices. Holy water, red strings, blessings, and amulets serve only a psychological purpose. They grant no spiritual attainment, nor do they connect us to the comprehensive perception and sensation of nature that authentic Kabbalah describes.
It is important to understand that authentic Kabbalah is a method that guides any person who wishes to apply its methodology to the discovery of nature’s laws and forces that are concealed from our inborn perception—a new and higher perception of reality. It teaches that the only way to change ourselves is through inner transformation, by developing qualities of bestowal and love for others, aligning ourselves with the all-encompassing altruistic laws of nature. Unlike the illusion that external objects can bring about change, Kabbalah insists that spiritual attainment comes from within.
Throughout history, charlatans and opportunists have misrepresented Kabbalah, using its name to sell talismans and amulets. This phenomenon persists today, as people seek quick fixes for their problems instead of engaging in genuine self-correction. Authentic Kabbalah dispels all such seeming shortcuts as leading to nothing even remotely spiritual. Transformation from our corporeal perception and sensation to a spiritual one comes through the study of Kabbalistic sources from an attained Kabbalist guide, participation in a supportive environment, and if one persists in such a direction, they gradually develop a new, spiritual perception and sensation of reality. Kabbalah calls this new perception “the attainment of the upper worlds.”
As more and more people today lose faith in the notion that physical objects and external phenomena hold spiritual value, more and more people are thus drawn to authentic Kabbalah. They recognize that it offers real answers—not in the form of external objects like holy water, but through inner transformation. It is this transformation that Kabbalah offers to those who genuinely seek the purpose of life.
What Is the Meaning of "Holy" in Kabbalah?
In the wisdom of Kabbalah, holy means a state of love, bestowal, and connection that we attain, which is similar to the quality of love, bestowal, and connection that dwells
throughout nature.
The Hebrew word for “holy” (“Kadosh”) means “separate” or “set apart.” However, in Kabbalah, this separation refers to rising above our inborn nature, egoistic desires to enjoy for self-benefit alone, and entering a state of complete connection to a higher field of consciousness, where we are held together by the force of love and bestowal dwelling in nature. It can be somewhat likened to how an ocean holds together all the sea life residing in it. This force of love and bestowal dwelling in nature is called “holy” (Kadosh) because it exists solely to give an abundance of pleasure and fulfillment to its creations. Therefore, we too can be considered holy when we attain that quality, becoming loving and giving like nature at its very source.
Therefore, being holy means detaching from our inborn self-serving desires and attaining a new intention to benefit others and nature. This is why The Book of Zohar describes holiness as a spiritual connection where people relate to one another in a manner of mutual love and bestowal, forming a positively connected network where nature’s positive force of love and bestowal can dwell. The more we cultivate this quality of love and bestowal in our connections to each other, the more we enter into balance with nature’s laws.
The Torah, a key Kabbalistic text, refers to a “holy nation” (Goy Kadosh) not as an ethnic, religious, or nationalistic grouping of people, but as people in whom a desire for spirituality arose, and through which they attained nature’s source quality of love and bestowal in their connection. In ancient Babylon, Abraham gathered people from all walks of life who had such a desire. He directed them to positively connect with one another, and by doing so discover the force of love and bestowal in their connections. Then they became known as a “holy nation” (Goy Kadosh)—a nation constructed on holiness, i.e., on rising above their egoistic selves and attaining a supreme connection among themselves and with the positive force of love and bestowal dwelling in nature—the Creator.
What Is the Meaning of “Water” in Kabbalah?
While there is no significance to holy water as a physical object in the wisdom of Kabbalah, when we read Kabbalistic texts, we find many mentions of water. What then are Kabbalists talking about when they mention “water”?
Water, in its spiritual context, represents the spiritual force of bestowal that sustains all life. Unlike other elements in nature, which are laced with the quality of reception in their function, water possesses an inherent altruistic quality. It serves as a connector, a solvent, and a carrier of information. Without water, existence is impossible, both physically
and spiritually.
Water as the Carrier of Life and Information
Kabbalah teaches that water, in its spiritual context as a quality of bestowal above our corporeal world, acts as a medium for transmitting spiritual information. It has a unique ability to store and transfer knowledge across generations, functioning as a bridge between different levels of existence. This perspective aligns with the scientific idea that water has memory, but in Kabbalistic terms, it means that water serves as a connector between the individual souls within the common, single soul of Adam HaRishon.
Life’s origins are deeply tied to water. Before organic life could emerge, a vast accumulation of water was necessary to facilitate the transition from inanimate to animate existence. In spirituality, this process mirrors the gathering of spiritual potential that leads to new stages of attainment and ascent. Water, in this sense, is a fundamental element that enables spiritual development, just as it lets biological life flourish.
The Dual Nature of Water: Bestowal and Judgment
While water is associated with life and renewal, it can also manifest as a destructive force. Floods and tsunamis exemplify how water carries destructive potential. This duality reflects the way spiritual forces operate: when aligned with the principle of bestowal and positive connection, water nourishes and sustains. But when influenced by selfish and divisive forces, it brings chaos.
More broadly speaking, this state of nature—including the behavior of water—is a reflection of humanity’s inner spiritual condition. When people act out of a loving, kind, and caring attitude to one another, nature’s forces act harmoniously toward them. However, when human behavior is driven by egoistic and divisive motives, the natural world reacts accordingly, and we thus bear witness to several cases of natural disasters and other environmental imbalances.
Water in Terms of Spiritual Transformation
In the language of Kabbalah, water represents the quality of Bina, which is the quality of bestowal. We thus find mentions of how water cleanses, purifies, and elevates. This is why water plays a central role in various practices, including immersion in a Mikveh, the inner meaning of which represents self-transformation through cleansing and purification.
Water is also intrinsically tied to the action that brings about our spiritual transformation: prayer. The raising of MAN and the descent of MAD represent the raising and response to a prayer for self-transformation, which leads the person to the revelation and attainment of the upper, spiritual world. MAN is an acronym for Mayin Nukvin, which is Hebrew for “female waters.” It represents the yearning, request, and spiritual deficiency that rises from the created being to the Creator, in the created being’s request to become like the Creator in its qualities. In response, MAD (Mayin Dechurin, “male waters”) descends to the created being as an upper fulfillment: the granting of a measure of the Creator’s quality of love and bestowal to the created being. This exchange of giving and receiving mirrors the way water interacts with life—absorbing, nourishing, and replenishing.
The Torah contains many symbolic references to wells and fountains, particularly in the stories of the Patriarchs. The wells that Isaac re-digs, for instance, represent the uncovering of hidden spiritual abundance. The process of digging a well signifies the inner work required to access the “water of life,” i.e., the spiritual life that flows between us when we connect to the quality of bestowal.
The Spiritual Root of Water and Human Connection
Water’s spiritual root is the force of Hassadim (mercy)—pure bestowal. This force acts in many aspects of our physical and emotional existence. For instance, we are born in water, our bodies are composed primarily of water, and we instinctively seek water for survival. Yet, as humanity advances, emotional connections between people tend to “dry up.” This reflects the growing influence of the ego, the desire to enjoy for self-benefit alone, which isolates us and reduces our ability to connect to the flow of spiritual bestowal and love.
Water scarcity in the physical world is a direct consequence of this spiritual dryness. If humanity cultivated a genuine connection based on bestowal and love, there would be no lack of water in our physical world. Nature’s abundance mirrors our inner attitudes to each other—when we are internally detached from each other, with egoistic calculations, divisions, and hatred in our relations, we experience shortages. However, when we are united, we let the quality of love and bestowal flow between us, and likewise, resources in our world also flow freely.
This principle applies not only to water but to all aspects of life. The development of a mindset of bestowal lets us align ourselves with the natural laws that sustain harmony and balance in the world. Precisely the human is the highest of nature’s four levels—inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human—and thus the attitudes we have to each other on our level hold an immense rippling effect throughout nature.
Therefore, as many communities over the course of history have depended on wells for survival, humanity today must “dig” into its inner nature to reveal the spiritual water hidden beneath layers of egoism and selfish desires. The process of uncovering these wells requires growing awareness of our egoistic human nature as a negative quality, yearning for a much higher and more powerful connection above it, and moving ourselves more and more toward that harmonious connection of love and bestowal.
Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam), in his “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” explains that when the people of Israel, i.e., people who possess a desire for spiritual ascent, begin their correction—the transformation from our inborn egoistic state to the spiritual-altruistic perception and sensation of reality—then the upper, spiritual abundance, which water represents, will flow to the world. This highlights the unique spiritual role of Israel: not as a national, religious, or superior entity, but as a group of people who share a desire for spirituality through which the quality of love and bestowal can pass through to all of humanity. Moreover, after this initial critical mass of people let the spiritual force of love and bestowal flow through to humanity at large, when humanity then acquires the ability to positively connect upon that same basis of love and bestowal, then we will not only solve global-scale problems such as water shortages, but we will also access the spiritual “water of life”: a state of total unification, harmony, and peace in eternity and perfection.
