Thanks, onedoug. I guess you and I must have heard different programs, the times I heard Prager he sounded like he was on the side of the Kabbalists. He was defending witchcraft and magic saying it isn’t all that bad, etc.
There is only a minority of Jews who are not Talmudic/Kabbalists nowadays - Karaite Jews, they are vehement against both Talmud and Kabbalah, holding the Torah only. For which their fellow Jews have persecuted them terribly throughout the centuries, almost to the point of extinction.
The Karaites are what Christians would identify with as Old Testament Judaism. Ask one of them, and they will tell you in no uncertain terms that it was for what you see in the Kabbalah that Jerusalem was overthrown in 600 BC.
I´m not Jewish by birth, but have been to synagogues of all modern trends in Judaism, particularly Orthodox. You can´t really link phrases like ¨Talmud/Kabbalists¨ since they are two separate things. With the exception of one elderly Conservative rabbi, I´ve never known religious Jews to make any big deal over Kaballah. It´s talked about to be sure, but seldom seems more than something best left for specialists, so-called. Obviously, I don´t fancy it either.
Talmud, on the other hand, is a sort of case law compendium of commenteries of and about Torah. It would seem difficult to conceive of modern rabbinic Judaism being handed down from antiquity without Talmud....
“Karaite Jews, they are vehement against both Talmud and Kabbalah, holding the Torah only.”
Actually, they consider the Talmud advisory, like a commentary, and not divinely inspired. They reach much of the same results.
“For which their fellow Jews have persecuted them terribly throughout the centuries, almost to the point of extinction.”
News to me. They appeared in 700 CE in Iraq, became quite numerous, and their persecutors were muslims.
There are probably 75,000 in Israel now, including one of my IDF roomates. We got along fine, except he would unplug the refridgerator on Shabbos because he did not want to pay for electricity that day, as that would be “going to the marketplace.” Turned off the A/C, too. Pissed me off.