Are there still anti-Kabbalah Orthodox Jewish movements?

Question

Throughout history, there were Orthodox Jewish Rabbis who were against Kabbalah, the doctrine of reincarnation, etc. Are there still today Jewish movements that are anti-Kabbalah?

Answer 1

There are several contemporary (or recently deceased) rabbis, with followings, that express anti-kabbalistic attitudes and ideas. I'm not so sure that I would go quite so far as to call them formal "movements" as such, but such ideas are definitely still in circulation within the Orthodox world.

Rabbi Israel Chait, the Rosh Yeshivah of Yeshivah Bnei Torah in Far Rockaway, NY has a long history of advocating on behalf of a rational approach to Judaism. You can learn more about the specifics of his perspective by scrolling down to the section titled "Kabbalah" on the Fundamentals page and listening to those shi'urim.

One of R. Chait's talmidim, R. Moshe Ben-Chaim started a site and organization called Mesora, that is very active on this front. You can read various entries on Kabbalah, the Zohar, reincarnation, etc. on the philosophy page. There is also an 78 page volume available for download titled Tohar ha-Yihud that attempts to demonstrate the propriety and antiquity of such views within Judaism.

Rabbi Yihyeh Qafih was the Hakham Bashi of Yemen and founder of the Dor Deah movement in the early 20th c. He faced tremendous institutional opposition from those that condemned his Maimonidean anti-kabbalistic views, he was persecuted greatly. His grandson, Rabbi Yosef Qafih (who was raised by R. Yihyeh), perpetuated his grandfather's legacy of Maimonideanism but was very reticent to publicly express any views on Kabbalah and generally avoided making statements on the matter. Some speculate that this was intended to foster reconciliation, others speculate that he did not want to arouse against himself the type of persecution his grandfather faced. After R. Yosef Qafih passed away, a volume titled שיחת דקלים was posthumously published in which R. Qafih in the form of a dialogue deconstructs various Kabbalistic ideas (such as the Ten Sefiroth). R. Yosef Qafih's students, such as Rabbi Dr. Rason 'Arusi (Chief Rabbi of Qiryath Ono) very delicately sidestep all such questions in public and attempt to redirect questioners (for examples see his responses to questions on the topic of קבלה ותורת הסוד here). Many students of this school avoid public discourse on the topic, though in private feel more comfortable expressing their views. Other students of this school today are quite a bit more publicly vocal and unhesitatingly lambast anything Kabbalah related. Rabbi Dr. Adir Dahuah-Halewi, started an organization and site Ohr HaRambam, that takes this approach.

R. Nathan Slifkin (currently director of the Biblical Museum of Natural History in Beit Shemesh) has publicly expressed his skepticism of the authenticity of the Zohar and all things mystical. He has circulated this anonymous (purportedly by a Haredi author) analysis of the question of the text's authenticity: An Analysis of the Authenticity of the Zohar discussed it further here and authored a book titled Rationalism vs. Mysticism; Schisms in Traditional Judaism

Hakham Yosef Faur (who was a rabbi of the Syrian community in Brooklyn for many years, and a professor of Talmud at several academic institutions), has expressed views critical of Kabbalah and Kabbalah based mysticism. He wrote an essay A Crisis of Categories: Kabbalah and the Rise of Apostasy in Spain exploring this and in Section 5 of his book the Horizontal Society, he has many subsections dedicated to this topic. His views on the topic are well known and discussed by his students. His son Hakham Abe Faur, and other students of Hakham Yosef Faur such as Hakham Aharon Halewa do not deny that there is a mystical aspect to Judaism, however they affirm in the Maimonidean tradition that it is of a post-rational variety and unrelated to what is popularly known as "Kabbalah".

Rabbi Dr. Norman Strickman (rabbi of Merkaz Yisrael in Marine Park, Brooklyn) has long been vocal on the topic and has translated and published several of the Ibn Ezra's writings to English and written a book titled Without Red Strings or Holy Water exploring the topic through a Maimonidean lens.

Rabbi David Bar-Hayim, founder of Machon Shiloh, has lectured and written on the topic of Kabbalah and sees it as a regressive product of exile that is preventative of the redemption. You can listen to a lecture he gave on the topic here: How the Galuth Influenced Kabbalah, and search the Machon Shiloh site for terms such as Kabbalah, Zohar, reincarnation, etc. to find more content.

I'm sure there are others that are escaping me currently, and if anyone would like to add any in the comments, I would be glad to add them to my answer.