The Psychology of Tzimtzum: Self, Others and God by Mordechai Rotenberg, Maggid Books, New Milford, CT, ©2015, ISBN 978-1-59264-384-4, p. 109, plus appendices, $24.95
By Fred Reiss, Ed.D.
WINCHESTER, California – The sixteenth century Safed mystics employed the Hebrew word Tzimtzum, meaning contraction, to answer the question: why is there something, rather than nothing. If God’s presence fills the universe, after all, how can there be room for the world? They responded by saying that God contracted Himself, providing room for the world to exist.
Award-winning psychologist professor emeritus Mordechai Rotenberg, author of The Psychology of Tzimtzum, distinguishes between the coming-of-age narrative told in Western civilization with one that can be called uniquely Jewish. The former is the story of father killing son, what Freud calls the Oedipus complex. The latter is derived from the biblical story known as the Binding of Isaac, which he couples with the Hasidic tradition, claiming that “Although the Hasidic tradition is no manual for therapeutic practice, it is possible to deduce educational strategies from the Hasidic tradition.”
Throughout The Psychology of Tzimtzum, Rotenberg offers numerous Hasidic stories and parables showing how the Hasidic worldview, based on Kabbalah, gives an entirely new perspective of interpreting mental-health issues. One interesting story involves a prince who sees himself as a chicken and lives naked under a table. None of the king’s advisers is able to bring the prince back to reality, until one undresses, goes under the table and slowly gains the confidence of the prince and only then successfully nurtures him back to his father.
The Kabbalists say that to redeem the world, sometimes one needs “to go down in order to go up.” This is the idea of Tzimtzum, where one contracts—making less of him/herself in order to make room for the afflicted person. The outlook of The Psychology of Tzimtzum differs substantially from the Protestant Revolution, which brought rationalism and self-reliance as core beliefs; thereby rejecting those with differing mental underpinnings, what some might call a strong mystical or spiritual side.
Christianity asserts that good comes from God, evil from the devil. Judaism says that all things, both bad and good, come from God. If Judaism’s view is accepted, then those in need of mental-health professionals should be considered “abnormal,” but not “sick.” Psychotherapy focuses on the past, Tzimtzum emphasizes the future, allowing the person to change: what Judaism might call teshuva.
To relate the interpersonal dimension of Tzimtzum, Rotenberg brings two biblical brothers to the reader’s attention—Issachar and Zebulun, the first representing continuous Torah study, the other a commitment to business. At his death, Issachar is told that he is to be rewarded with just two days of Torah study in heaven because his brother’s business allowed him his worldly study time. Zebulun, on the other hand, is greatly rewarded for providing substance to his brother so that he could study Torah. Zebulun refuses the reward, demanding that it be given to Issachar, but Issachar rejects the offer, insisting that the reward go to Zebulun. In the end, because of brotherly love, God enlarges heaven to make way for both of them. The point being made by Rotenberg is that Tzimtzum is “self-reduction, not self-negation.”
Additionally, Rotenberg attempts to move away from the present-day mental-health position of just talking about psychosis to one of engaging the problem at the patient’s level and grappling with it. The Psychology of Tzimtzum is an interesting and fascinating book for both mental-health professionals and interested readers because of its counter-intuitive perspective, saying that there is an substitute, a Jewish-based alternative, to seeing the irrational as madness, allowing the individual to redirect and rewrite his/her own future.
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Editor’s Note: For another review of this book, see https://www.sdjewishworld.com/2016/05/15/the-psychology-of-tzimtzum/
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Dr. Fred Reiss is a retired public and Hebrew school teacher and administrator. He is the author of The Standard Guide to the Jewish and Civil Calendars; Public Education in Camden, NJ: From Inception to Integration; Ancient Secrets of Creation: Sepher Yetzira, the Book that Started Kabbalah, Revealed; and a fiction book, Reclaiming the Messiah. The author may be contacted via fred.reiss@sdjewishworld.com. Comments intended for publication in the space below MUST be accompanied by the letter writer’s first and last name and by his/ her city and state of residence (city and country for those outside the United States.)