Editing Panentheism (section)

=== Judaism ===
While mainstream [[Rabbinic Judaism]] is classically monotheistic and follows in the footsteps of [[Maimonides]] (c. 1135–1204), the panentheistic conception of God can be found among certain mystical Jewish traditions. A leading scholar of [[Kabbalah]], [[Moshe Idel]],<ref>''Hasidism: Between Ecstacy and Magic'', SUNY, 1995, p. 17 f.</ref> ascribes this doctrine to the kabbalistic system of [[Moses ben Jacob Cordovero]] (1522–1570), and in the eighteenth century, to the [[Baal Shem Tov]] (c. 1700–1760), founder of the [[Hasidic Judaism|Hasidic movement]], as well as his contemporaries, Rabbi [[Dov Ber of Mezeritch]] (died 1772) and Menahem Mendel, the Maggid of Bar. There is some debate as to whether [[Isaac Luria]] (1534–1572) and [[Lurianic Kabbalah]], with its doctrine of [[''tzimtzum'']], can be regarded as panentheistic.

According to [[Hasidism]], the infinite [[Ein Sof]] is incorporeal and exists in a state that is both [[Transcendence (religion)|transcendent]] and [[immanent]]. This also appears to be the view of non-Hasidic Rabbi [[Chaim of Volozhin]]. [[Hasidic Judaism]] merges the ideal of [[kenosis|nullification]] with a transcendent God via the intellectual articulation of inner dimensions through Kabbalah and with emphasis on the panentheistic [[divine immanence]] in everything.<ref name=ariel>{{cite book|last1=Ariel|first1=David S.|title=Kabbalah: The Mystic Quest in Judaism|date=2006|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|location=Lanham, MD|isbn=978-0742545649|pages=184–85|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SEDMBtWDSNIC|access-date=17 August 2015}}</ref>

Many scholars would argue that "panentheism" is the best single-word description of the philosophical theology of [[Baruch Spinoza]], a Jew.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Diller |first1=Jeanine and Asa Kasher |title=Models of God and Alternative Ultimate Realities |date=2013 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |location=Dordrecht |isbn=978-94-007-5218-4 |pages=425–26 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jZhEAAAAQBAJ |access-date=1 October 2015}}</ref> It is therefore no surprise that aspects of panentheism are also evident in the theology of [[Reconstructionist Judaism]] as presented in the writings of [[Mordecai Kaplan]] (1881–1983), who Spinoza strongly influenced.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Scult |first1=Mel |title=The Radical American Judaism of Mordecai M. Kaplan |date=2013 |publisher=Indiana University Press |location=Bloomington |isbn=978-0-253-01075-9 |pages=7–8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YRJpAQAAQBAJ |access-date=1 October 2015}}</ref>