Being Holy

The Past in the Future

2007-07-23T19:13:00.000-07:00

Kabbalah says the beginning is in the end; all things connected, so it is with truth.

As ageing civilizations of the world grow wiser they begin to recognize 'truth'. In time we will all come to know that assumed axioms, like the example from the introduction to this blog; the Earth rotates around the Sun are an oversimplification, an inaccurate play on words, the promotion of an ignorant state. (http://beingholy.blogspot.com/#115552044093364303)

The creation of the Universe and the significance of life on our planet are not just some impossible combination, chance events of random science, after all how would even that chance come into existence? Rather, we must surely be the center of a deeply conceived and unified System of Greater Wisdom that rules over all. Interstellar planetary discoveries will come and go, we will continue to find the big and the small, the super hot and the super cold, but we will never discover another planet like Earth located in the unimaginable balance, established in a galaxy in a solar system that provides the perfected environment for an abundance of life and living.

On the contrary, let me propose; as man discovers more, the reverse will occur, we will see the hostility of space well beyond our solar system, we will discover the miraculous, but volatile sub atomic building blocks of nature and through these windows we will progressively realize that Earth is the center of the universe, the Sabbath that was intended in the advent of His creation.

Kabbalah, which extrapolates the meaning of 'mans creation in the image of G-d' talks of 'man' in the broader sense of the word, a sense in which all of 'man' could operate as if it were One Soul, One Mind and One Body, each knowing their respective place, each with a role, each making a contribution to the greater Unity. In this sense Judaism governed by its Greater Wisdom would represent the head, Christianity governed by Kindness the right arm, Islam governed by its greater Strength the left arm with the balance of the worlds religious orders making the functional body of Supernal Man. In this analogy all people functioning as One Soul could only ever emerge if each recognized and submitted to the vision of man in the image of G-d, a greater image than any individual or society could conjecture or conceive.

Greater sensitivity and awareness in all respects is called for! An awareness that arrives at a deeper more meaningful path, one that inspires, motivates and directs people to see deeper, act deeper and think deeper to become more intelligent about existence and each transcendent soul. Armed with this greater knowledge, we could work together, play together, create together, live together, care together and think together in ways that are far more intelligent than man has ever been able to apply in the past. With new knowledge we could shift from the savages of our dog eat dog material world to a world facilitated by once unbelievable emerging technologies, but founded in their spiritual purpose. A world, which begins to support a more closely integrated global society, which focuses less on physical growth and more on spiritual growth, primarily through the qualities imbued by each person reaching for their higher holy state in the presence of The Maker.

Truth and holiness are the cornerstones of societies that will progressively see the world for what it is. Identifying the superfluous lies and rhetoric that insulate insecurities will pave the way for improved logic in the choices that societies make. As the masses discover their collective power and begin to protect their rights to discover truth, more balanced societies and improving life will cause global economics to yield to the demands of that truth. Taking all factors into consideration the worlds active minds will be increasingly applied to causes of righteousness and holiness because the incentive systems of the world will begin shifting back to the sensitive values of old where holy people with knowledge, wisdom and powers of perception were recognized for their abilities and were rapidly sought out by the mainstream. These mentors of society will electronically connect through the world assisting people with real needs, people who wish to complete themselves in ways that make them happier, more productive and satisfied through there own confidence, self worth and discovery of purpose. Then, the world will begin to change in ways that bring revelations to all people, miracles that we cannot perceive or conceive.

It all starts and ends in the beginning[1], in the creation of G-d’s perfect world, the one He positioned in the center of His universe, the one around which the aggregate of all galaxies and star systems rotate. The one for which He created man in perfect knowledge, after which came the events of the forbidden tree of Knowledge and for almost 6000 years we have been on a track to restore that moment in time, to restore intellectual man in the image of G-d.

There is a known inner meaning of the unique day on the Hebrew Calendar, 15-Menachem-Av, on which the verse from The Book of Job speaks with regard to the redemption and the world to come, ["He will put an end to and terminate all darkness," “לחשך שם קץ= 888 = "I am G-d without ever changing" “שניתי לא י׳ה׳ו׳ה אני”] = [(24 (all the possible combinations of the 4-letter explicit name) x 37 (Yechidah, unique-essence, יחידה and our highest soul state)].

[1] http://www.chabad.org/dailystudy/tanya.asp?tDate=10/10/2005
Iggeret HaKodesh, middle of Epistle 20 – 8 Tishrei – Pg 400

The Temple

2007-07-13T15:25:00.000-07:00

It is prophesied in the end of days, the times of the Messiah, that the third and final temple will be built in Jerusalem on the exact site at which Isaac was circumcised by Abraham. The Zohar states the land on which the temple will be built will not be re-occupied by a building until the earth is ready to receive this meaningful building. In the chronology of events and prophecies of the Torah, 5765 (2005CE) through 6000 is the approach to the Messianic era, being the eve of the Sabbath millennium (the 7000th years). The time is approaching when religious cultures of the world, particularly Christianity and Islam, will recognize and support revealed truth. This is the line of truth that George Bush 'stumbled' upon and against which radical Islam is currently fighting.

Continuing revelations that modify societal perspectives make it difficult to disregard the heightened importance of the Wisdom, Understanding and Knowledge revealed through deep devotion and study by Jews and righteous non-Jews of Torah and its prevailing logic. By continuous delving into the deepest source of the Hebrew Torah texts (not the confusing translations or derivatives which have lost touch with the truth by virtue of language disconnect), man will be guided to a better world and through the popular emergence of Kabbalah and the mystical science of Torah all cultures and civilizations will benefit.

Regardless, there remains no apparent reason to reject the wisdom of any peaceful teachings especially those of the world’s oldest and most recognized religious cultures. The prevailing logic amongst the major religions of our world must find, through their teachings, a support for co-existence with those that believe in the greater unity of one G-d along with those that embrace and promote humility. Further and on the basis that we all have something significant to loose, there is no logical reason to reject the established views of each of these doctrines to discover, debate, adopt and embrace the prophecies that are said to bring about the redemption of man. Every person on earth is, by default, a beneficiary of this Temple the pinnacle holy event of humanity. Only thoughts that emanate from the side of Severity empower the reverse logic.

When the land at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem was occupied by Arabs in the late part of the first millennium after the beginning of the Common Era, the struggle by Jews to occupy even a small part of this holy space became the prime focus of anti-Jewish activity for a thousand years. In 1948 and finally in 1967 the Jews after a 2000 years struggle re-gained access to this holiest of sites. In the past 40 years it has become increasingly evident that the world, albeit tenuously, intends to support Israel's right to occupy its holy land. This will become increasingly entrenched in decades to come, but only if civilizations recognize the importance of a unique Jewish culture who, throughout history, have shown their capacity to act and who do act as the barometer of human consciousness through the precepts of Torah that are engrained into their genetic psyche. However, most Jews in the world will first face their own serious challenges as they struggle to accept and find language to reveal Torah's inner logic.

Each day there is a line in prayer that says;

“…break the yolk of nations from our neck and speedily lead us upright to our land”

As the holy people of Israel are progressively recognized for the value they bring to the world, so people will realize that the alternative national holy systems and icons and the political regimes that once were established to challenge and dismantle Judaism no longer embody the same anger and jealousy that helped power those vessels in the first instance. We are coming to the realization that we are indeed one world, one people who believe in one G-d, all seeking a common goal, to bring ourselves closer to a life that is aligned with G-d's greater System, to restore the world to the Garden of Eden that it once was. Only then will we all begin to understand that our ways must lead us to find a change for the better. A change that causes our thinking to converge, a change enabling people to become settled with their roles in the Greater Scheme of G-d’s Plan and a change that recognizes the importance of the holy people of Israel who are ultimately charged with a very significant responsibility to lead the world on its march to its higher state of holiness.

During this the last few hundred years before the coming of the Messiah, the time we are all now living, it is known there will be a period of great Supernal Light when pure knowledge, devoid of distortion is accessible to all and exponentially abundant, where the falsehoods of the past are corrected and our lives improved, where the known truth begins to move toward its position in the centre. During a time like this perhaps some can see how a very different positive world can rapidly evolve.

As technology is rapidly shifting the balance to empower ‘us’ of the mainstream populations of the world, we can demand that which we collectively believe realizing that G-d’s Greater System of Holiness can be revealed on earth in ways that are simply profound and to most people, unbelievable. Clearly the future remains to be seen, but we can and do achieve miracles at a faster rate today than we have ever been able to in the past. We are smarter and wiser. As long as we remain G-d’s children, as long as we continue to honor Him and all He stands for and as long as we converge our thinking to fully respect and discover the plan that G-d intended for us, perhaps then we will envisage a future that is filled with enormous promise and hope.

After receiving the 10 Commandments at Mount Sinai Israel were commanded by G-d to build a temple, the place in which the world could be united with the heavens above, a temple that could travel with them during their time in the desert. Known as the Mishkan, Betzalel was selected by G-d who commanded that Moses appoint him to build the Mishkan. The specific reason Betzalel was chosen can be seen when we peer deeply into the meaning of his name;

The relationship between the names of Adam and Betzalel are alluded to in the first verse of the Torah (Genesis 1:27) where G-d creates man in His own image. The values in the names of Adam and Betzalel highlight many esoteric secrets that allude to the relationship of their souls including the equivalence of their normative (inner) and ordinal (outer) values as well as the relationships to 'good' 'life'. In each of these names the smaller values of the ordinal and normative letters = 9. Nine is the known eternal number.

From this and many other sources we see that Betzalel was able to see and know as much as Adam was able to feel and be and it is for this reason that G-d specifically chose Betzalel requiring his soul to be in the midst of the nation of Israel at the time the Mishkan was to be built. When one takes a closer look at the enormously intricate detail of the Mishkan’s design and construction one is able to glimpse the soulful objectives, which this temple embodied through the craftsmanship of Betzalel. The Mishkan was founded in the mystical logic of Kabbalah and brought down to form the blueprint for the construction of the first and second temples almost 1000 and 1500 years later.

The actions of man have brought us all to a confused state, but one which will be rectified by our actions. Take a look at what Rabbi David Aaron has to say on www.sinailive.com to catch just a small glimpse of how we remain limited by our self perceptions and characterizations of that which we have simply learned to refer to as G-d.

Unification

2007-06-28T22:50:00.000-07:00

The words of Torah were dictated to Moses and gifted to the nation of Israel in the desert at Mt. Sinai. They contain the seeds for teachings which are uncannily wise. From them, we derive wisdom's using meanings obtained through the multi-dimensional holy Hebrew language as well as references from the oral Torah established through experiences of the Jewish Nation.

Law originates from Torah, philosophy, science and medicine are based on its teachings, mathematics comes from the core of its numeric construct, but most of all, Torah explicitly tells us how we can be better people. It is the most widely documented system for the teaching of moral values and of all things spiritual. There are literally tens of thousands of books devoted to it expounding and articulating its inner meanings.

The U.S. Congress officially recognized Torah's universally accepted Noahide Laws in legislation passed by both houses. The President of the United States, George Bush Snr., indicated in Public Law 102-14, of the 102nd Congress, that the United States of America was founded upon the Seven Universal Laws of Noah. They went further stating that these Laws have been the bedrock of society since the dawn of civilization. They acknowledged that the Seven Laws of Noah are the foundation upon which civilization stands and that weakening of these principles threatened the very fabric of society. Educating the Citizens of the United States of America and future generations therefore became a priority for which Public Law designated March 26 as Education Day, U.S.A.

The Noahide Laws are specifically stated in the Torah as being those that apply to all people who are not members of the nation of Israel. They are a well known precepts that outline judicial guidance for ordered law abiding communities. These laws have been expounded upon by students of the bible and developed through analysis to the effect that the 7 laws of Noah are in fact the main branches of a significant branching tree of prohibitions which ultimately became the laws of modern societies. The main branches of the tree are;

- Idolatry is forbidden. Man is commanded to believe in the One G-d alone and worship Him only.

- Incestuous and adulterous relations are forbidden. Humans are beyond simplified objects of sexual desire and baseless submission to sexual desire does not benefit humanity.

- Murder is forbidden. The life of a human being, formed in G-d's image, is sacred.

- Using the Name of G-d in vain is forbidden. Honor and respect G-d's Names and know from this precept that our speech must be sanctified, as it is the distinctive sign that separates man from beast.

- Theft is forbidden. The world and its possessions are not ours to do with as we please.

- Eating the flesh of a living animal is forbidden. Be sensitive and respectful of all animals.

- Man is commanded to establish courts of justice and a just social order to enforce the first six laws and enact other laws or customs.

Though the Noahide laws have progressively developed into the laws governing non-Jewish societies, Israel's laws were specified in detail at the time Torah was granted. 613 positive and negative commandments and 7 Noahide laws or the 7 laws of Israel’s sages make 620 commandments in total. The details contained in the 248 positive commandments and 365 negative prohibitions of Israel's Torah law automatically formed the basis for a society which would be ordered by its commitment to holiness and complete regard and submission to one G-d.

The principles in Torah provided guidance to early societies. Today, those same modernized societies have abandoned their recognition and knowledge of Israel’s principal purpose, inherent in its' Torah laws ,whilst they pursue a track that ignores the past iterations of their societal development. Even secular laws of Israel that are meant to reflect the origin of Torah law fail to do so. Israel's multi-cultural society continues to adopt secular laws that water down the underlying higher purpose of Torah's more caring and purposeful focus intended to defend humanities heart and soul epi-center. Israel’s political regime ought to recognize more fervently the role the 620 commandments have played in the developing consciousness of humanity, because they are not disposable items, in them is a continual source of higher guidance of significant benefit to the world's modern legal doctrines.

Jews, the world over, who intensely study Torah continue to reveal aspects of and provide guidance from these commandments so that their meanings ultimately find their way into the precedents of the law courts every day. The role of Jews in this respect is akin to that of a feeder system where new understandings are bubbling to the surface all of the time, where discussions and revelations point the world toward a higher level of consciousness so that legal and moral environments become more humane and more representative of the world that was intended by G-d.

Through the common laws of society, the Noahide laws and the 620 commandments we must bring our societies closer to focus on self rectification and repair. Our world must recognize its faults and responsibility to turn out better people through improved integration of holy laws and precepts that are integrated into political regimes. Look a little deeper, with an open mind to learning, then perhaps we will all discover that the laws of the Torah are based on enormously deep precepts that are continuously being studied and expressed.

The extrapolation of Torah's 620 commandments lead to new understandings that will continue to turn the world right side up pointing it toward a more humane and adjusted path, a unification of divergent views, a path to peace and blessings, which is Israel's purpose in the world.

Soul Searching

2007-06-15T15:43:00.000-07:00

Spend more time contemplating the makeup of your soul or meditating frequently, then you will be better prepared to deflect the noise of your life, to reach into your deeper intellect and higher soulful state. This process is akin to a slow unraveling of an onion’s layers, but in this case each is a layer of 'noise' that distracts and prevents you (the average person) from connecting with your inner 'self'. People who are able to invoke a meditative process through truthful prayer begin a journey to cleanse and remove the layers that surround their soul. This is applicable to everyone regardless of how well connected to G-d you may be, regardless of how holy you feel, how rich your are or how important you are, when this process is conducted thoroughly it will reveal weakness surrounding every soul, weakness that needs to be contemplated in order to remove layers and find ones true sense and true purpose on earth and to be strengthened on the journey. ‘Soul searching’ is a well known phrase, but soul searching armed with an understanding of the soul’s construct and ways to reach deeper, is a very different process, which can lead to a continuously productive and very healthy outcome for all.

Without you making this connection there can be no resolution and cleansing of the impurities that are attached to the soul, there can be no recognition of the issues that cause the decay, the decline or the walk down the slippery path on which man traverses life on this planet. Fundamentally a world, which devoted more of its time to self discovery, is a wiser world for sure, but there are dangers lurking in dead end and blunt solutions that mask themselves to be the solutions we seek. Lifestyle, living and well being occupy more and more of our collective time these days, but too often people compromise and follow systems that are flawed or do not carry with them the capacity to set vast societies of large numbers of people on a credible path that is imbued with the eternal wisdom necessary to answer every question and solve so many of the daunting issues we face.

The path forward to a perfectly defined system of the soul is already in existence. It is so deep and perplexing that it’s compelling enough to retain the interests of the most advanced minds ever. Man has already worked out how to analyze the minds of people, we already know how to identify compatibility, we know how to spot dangers, but we don’t apply these thoughts and we don’t seek to create a society that benefits from this perfected logic. A strange, but compelling contradiction!

The world is filled with great souls, holy people that play second fiddle in the orchestras of society, people who make their life in the study of holiness, in teaching righteousness and rightfulness, people who dig very deep into the ancient wisdom's of minds that are mostly ignored because we are all too busy with our material world to pay attention. These people are the fabric of our society the defenders of the truth, the balanced minds that bring a sense of equilibrium to attitudes and positions of good and evil, these are the people that guide us, that we identify with because they are special, yet lurking, intermixed with these holy souls are those that profess the qualities of holiness, but themselves are incomplete. If we fail to identify the right people to advise us and to connect with, we may just continue to support a self inflicted spiral toward hopelessness. Modern fundamentalism bordering terrorism is an obvious trait housed within religious groups who appear to be holy in their construct. Even though these people have chosen a path of holiness and may identify with holy people, their ways and their causes are not holy at all they are often the evil souls that know no good.

Holiness has a specific and very particular meaning associated with words like purity, G-dliness, righteousness, sanctity, saintliness, devoutness and devotion. Mostly it can only be associated with those people who have truly sacrificed themselves to the benefit of other people and to those who seek cleansing and completeness of their own souls before seeking ways to correct others.

Dedication

2007-06-02T20:32:00.000-07:00

To achieve anything in life one must become dedicated to achieving it. Only an investment of time, focus and action will produce desired results. When Israel emerged from their captivity in ancient Egypt after a 210 year exile they were a loosely assembled nation in a state that was about to undergo a massive spiritual metamorphosis.

As Moses led Israel out of Egypt in this great exodus, of more than 2 million people, those that followed were overwhelmed, confused, bewildered and uncertain of the future that lay before them, yet they followed because they believed that some greater force was directing the masses. This time, which is frequently mentioned in Torah is constantly referenced in Jewish prayers and rituals, it is a time during which these people simultaneously elevated themselves to the highest most intense points of holiness as the spiritual worlds descended, greatly affecting the way they thought and acted.

During the 49 days from the time they left Egypt to the day they received the Torah, the soul of every person was exposed to this most intense spiritual experience. The events leading to their departure, the pursuit by Pharaoh in the desert, the parting of the Sea and the revelation at Mt. Sinai are the significant high points during which overwhelming and massive feelings of righteousness and holiness rapidly ascended in the minds and the bodies of each person living through the experience. The souls of all those people were intensely affected as they were freed from their consciousness by these special energies and emotions.

They were immediately restored their once heightened state igniting within them the desire to return to the practice of prayer and meditation that had been obscured from them during their lifetimes in captivity. Thereafter, the establishment of the priesthood and the sanctuary (Mishkan) in the desert served to direct the actions and practices of Israelites enabling them to attain and maintain these heightened states of holiness in the presence of G-d.

In the midst of their experience after crossing the sea, but before receiving the Torah, the people refused to succumb to the higher experience of their soul state, instead they questioned Moses leadership and G-d’s reasons for their lack of water. G-d commanded and Moses decreed that anyone over the age of 20 (the age of permanence when the soul manifests in the body) were never to enter the Holy Land and Israel was banished to a 40 year period of spiritual cleansing in the desert. This became the nations preparation for their entry to a land in which their entire purpose was to be directed to the establishment of a permanent dwelling place for G-d.

After receiving the Ten Commandments and Torah, the entire community turned their attention to connect with their higher soul state. Those banished to remain in the desert, particularly men, would spend most of their days in deep states of prayer and meditation. Their food was basic, their bodily excretions were almost non-existent, consuming exactly what their bodies required and their mental and physical states were completely integrated and directed to remaining in the highest spiritual order.

Those who were 20 or older knew they were going to die in the desert and they eventually submitted entirely to this will of G-d, because the nation of Israel could not go into the holy land until the generation (above 20) that fled Egypt had passed on.

At nightfall many who meditated from sunrise to well beyond sunset would position themselves in holes they had dug in the sand in preparation for the event that in their highest states their souls would pass to the higher worlds. Many people died in this dedicated way because it had become their objective to reach and retain such intense spiritual states so that their generation would essentially pass to the highest worlds that had enveloped them in the desert.

This intensely holy period of history established the origins of Judaism and of all religions and spiritual doctrines which followed, to varying degrees, the dedication to the holy practices and principles of monotheism that emerged amongst cultures from the time of Abraham and continuing through the time of Moses.

Getting There

2007-05-18T16:45:00.000-07:00

Each of our souls is sourced from the One Soul which is the Light of the Essence of G-d.

Each one of us is capable of making change in our lives, but when confronted with issues that we don’t understand or don’t wish to understand, change often becomes daunting, scary and most times undesirable. Problems in ones life are at times suppressed because they are too hard to deal with. Jealousy, pain, drugs, marriage, divorce, kids, suicide, depression, education, career, peer groups, misbehavior, all types of disease, drinking and a myriad of other cultural sub-cluster issues impact on our ability to come up for a breath of clean air. The minute we do we are overwhelmed by the requirements of the material world in which most of us live our complex lives.

So have we forgotten our purpose?

Are we simply a victim of our own desires?

Has the noise of desire become too loud?

Can we turn back the clock?

Do we need to turn back the clock?

Where do we get Help!

In fact the answers are very easy, they are staring us in the face, they are with us every minute of every day, but we are blind to them.

Our soul is our purpose!

Our soul is the guiding light that empowers us!

Our soul is the energy that G-d has given us!

Our soul is the navigation device of life!

Your soul, if treated with deep regard, appreciation and a conscious sense of responsibility toward it, will benefit society by your special care of it. If we treat the soul as the separate entity that it is, then we may be able to re-build the necessary bridges to restore it to the forefront of our conscious minds, to the place that G-d intended for it when He created Adam in His image.

If we developed the conscious capacity to distinguish our physical presence, from the presence of the entity, the spiritual soul, we will improve our understanding and awareness of the things we do each day that distort our ability to be guided by our soul. With improved awareness of the soul we would naturally shift our perspective on life away from the issues that we perceive to be important to us, toward those that are actually important, but to which we pay lip service because of 'noise'.

The soul is our navigation device through which our consciousness is connected to G-d's higher worlds. If we build the capabilities required to listen carefully to what 'it' is telling us, we will be better off for it. Our free will is able to work with or against the pure inclination of the soul. Until and unless we listen to our soul we remain ineffective in the eyes of G-d! We may eventually arrive, by brute force, at the place our conscious minds want us to go, but we risk a danger of distortion, going beyond the point of no return where societies of souls can no longer be redeemed because our self inflicted actions do not serve the inner purpose each and everyone of us possess.

Learning how to listen to our soul is a skill that we once possessed and can re-establish or re-develop, but for now most of have lost the ability to connect with it. Perhaps we don’t have to discover how to listen to our soul in order to improve our lives, perhaps things are simpler and easier than all that, perhaps G-d, in His Absolute Wisdom already considered this point in the evolution of man. By recognizing the soul as the separate entity it is, by sub-consciously perceiving its' presence, its' connection to G-d and by consciously recognizing that it works in a defined way we will realize that it needs to be nurtured. Then for the sake of all souls and for the sake of man and G-d in the great struggle between evil and good, embracing and making a place for the soul in our conscious thought would enable us to reconnect with our individual purpose to make the world a better place for all.

Ritual

2007-05-03T23:28:00.000-07:00

Every day millions of Jews around the world follow rituals considered strange by most people, but a closer look reveals practices that are aligned with the souls’ purpose spoken of earlier and practiced by people who cherish their religious and spiritual connection with G-d.

Ritual states of purity and holiness are actively sought by Jews each day. The deepest of these pursuits is woven into the fabric of their lives and through this projected to the world in order to bring holiness to it. By example, in every Jewish community, dating back 3500 years, there is a person or persons who practice being a Scribe. The job of the Scribe is to write the sacred documents that community members require in order for them to remain holy, to cleave to the commandments of G-d and to be protected from forces of Evil. The Scribe deals with several types of documents, however there are three primary places that require the Scribes meditative focus to commit on parchment the writings of the prayers and commandments that were handed to the Jewish people by G-d. Most importantly, the Scribe practices a ritual purification each day before he writes any of these parchments in order that G-dliness can be drawn down, through the holy letters committed to the document and the connection he makes with G-d in the process of his writing it.

Like many Jews, each day the Scribe goes to a place called the Mikvah, a fresh water spring (or modernized version of a spring) in which he in his naked state, submerges his head and body under water to be purified in readiness to write the holy names of G-d on the parchments. Others who attend the Mikvah do it for personal purification, which is required at prescribed times, some do it daily, but each and every one who attends the Mikvah in cities and towns around the world do so in order to remain sensitive and in touch with their righteousness and to bring holiness into the world.

Each day millions of Jewish people meditate, some engage in very deep meditation whilst others simply practice prayer. During the morning, except on Saturday (Sabbath and Holiday's), men meditate using an ancient and specially crafted holy adornment called Tefilin. A pair of Tefilin comprises two leather boxes that are tied with leather straps, to the forehead and on the upper left arm adjacent to the heart. In each of four compartments contained within the leather boxes of the Tefilin are the words written by the Scribe, onto parchment, reminding us of our obligation to remember G-d, His Commandments, His taking Israel out of bondage from Egypt, the obligation to teach traditions to our children, the words speaking of G-d’s unity, our mutual bond of love and man’s declaration of responsibility toward G-d. Each of these prayers are written on the parchment and placed in 4 separate compartments of the Tefilin whereby the Scribe connects the holiness of G-d in each universal realm through his work to the article. Tefilin are often considered by Jews to be their antenna to G-d and many Jews have Tefilin written and made especially for them where the Scribe concentrates his prayers during his writing on the person for whom the Tefilin are made. By Rabbinical decree, women are not required to wear Tefilin.

In addition to Tefilin, the Scribe regularly writes a holy document called a Mezuzah, which is attached to the right door post of all gates and external doors as well as doors leading to any room in a home or office that is permanently occupied by a Jewish person. The Mezuzah contains the prayer known as “Sh’mah” which is recited at the beginning and end of the day by righteous Jews. Many of the same precepts contained in the Tefilin are repeated. The Mezuzah contains the Holy names of G-d and as such provides an ever-present point at a gateway where the souls of Jewish people pass everyday. The Mezuzah is considered to provide a protective force against the side of evil.

Finally Scribes write and repair Torah scrolls regularly. For thousands of years, from the time of Moses, Scribes have painstakingly written each of the 304805 letters and their 300000 adornments into Torah scrolls beginning with the original document that was first transcribed by Moses when he wrote the first 68 chapters before receiving the ten commandments at the commencement of the 40 years the Israelites lived in the desert. Each time a Scribe takes on the responsibility for writing a Torah scroll he ensures his complete state of holiness and purification rising each day, he meditates toward his holiest state in order to bring G-d, through his actions and his writing, to the document that Jews rely upon as the centerpiece of their ongoing heritage.

Bringing holiness is a serious responsibility for the many Jews and righteous people of all religions around the world who participate in their various practices each day. The root practices of meditation and prayer in Judaism has been deeply buried in the texts of Kabbalah for thousands of years. The last recorded times that these were practiced in their ancient form, resembling some of the deepest and most intense meditations, were around the times of the first temple, some 2800 years ago. In the past 50 years there has been an attempt by many religious scholars to outline, document and re-assemble the details of these Jewish mediation mantra’s and the methodologies that were once the daily practice of some of the holiest souls our planet has ever had the privilege of accommodating.

Going Deeper

2007-04-20T15:27:00.000-07:00

The average family cannot trace their roots beyond 3 past generations. This means, within 50 years of your death, you are likely to be forgotten by the latest generation of your future family. This being the case, what is the purpose of your material life? The truth is that every day of your life is a day in perpetuity, preserved forever and affecting the future forever. In much the same way that every vote counts at the polling booth, every day, every decision, every word and every action counts toward the world you leave for future generations.

Every step on the journey to a more fulfilling existence begins with an exercise in self control, especially in your developing the ability to think, open mindedly, thoughts that are capable of seeing the whole picture, in detail, in order to put into context current events being experienced by you.

It is well know to practitioners of Torah and psychology that the intellect, once it grasps an idea, surrounds the concept such that the subject is firmly encompassed within the mind. It is only possible for the subject to be retained in the mind if it is fully enclosed and surrounded by the grasp your understanding provides your mind. The boundary established by your understanding an idea is therefore important because without boundaries there would be no possible way of grasping and retaining any idea. Therefore, the idea being grasped must contain one or more fixed precepts in order for the intellect to fully encompass, digest and ultimately articulate it. This often becomes apparent when ideas, which are not fully formed, present as being difficult to articulate, the mind looses focus because it (the idea) failed to capture and an attentive mind. When the defined boundaries (understanding) of the idea have not been sufficiently grasped it cannot be correctly articulated and its explanation will be insufficient to ignite the desired interest in the mind of the recipient of the information.

By studying the concepts written deeply into the hidden aspects of Torah one is drawn closer to its 'idea' which affects your sense of being as a direct result of the many important idea’s that are revealed and grasped in the process. This blog contains just a very small sample of those ideas.

By embracing knowledge of spiritual paths (Sefirot and the 32 paths of wisom) from where thoughts and ideas emerge and by total submission to G-d one can grasp deeper concepts (associated with any idea). This enables the conscious and subconscious mind to elevate to the spiritual level of the soul, outside the physical presence of the brain, through which the deepest appreciation of G-d's external influence can be realized.

When the mind is open, in the way of Torah, to contemplate the emergence of a thought the intensity of this internalized focus may lead some people to experiencee a 'holy light' (overwhelming spiritual intensity) that emanates from G-d's highest universal realm. Therefore, it is essential to correctly shield oneself, by being consciously aware of the excersise because without this grounding several potential disastrous outcomes can occur. In this state of mental openness, complete balance and order are required so that contemplations and meditations are not experienced in ways that could be harmful to the mind.

There is a well know story about three ancient and very famous Rabbis that went into an orange orchard to meditate, it goes like this;

Four entered the Orchard ( Pardes- an acronym meaning four specific modes of interpreting and learning Torah). They were Ben (Ben = Son of) Azzai, Ben Zoma, Acher (literally, "the Other", referring to Elisha ben Abuya), and Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Akiva warned them (speaking abstractly of the spiritual experience they were about to encounter); "When you enter near the stone of pure marble, do not say 'water, water,' (since there is actually no water there at all), and it is written, 'He who speaks falsehood will not be established before My eyes' (Psalms 101:7)."

-Ben Azzai gazed and died. Regarding him it is written, "Precious in G-d's eyes is the death of His pious ones" (Psalms 116:15).

-Ben Zoma gazed and was stricken with insanity; he went out of his mind. Regarding him it is written, "You have found honey, eat moderately lest you bloat yourself and vomit it". (Proverbs 25:16)

-Acher gazed and cut the plantings i.e. he became a heretic.

-Rabbi Akiva entered in peace and departed in peace....

This story illustrates the potential harm that deep spiritual mediation, as documented by Judaism’s ancient practices, can bring to a person if they are not fully prepared and in a stable mental state. This exaggerates the problem because the vast majority of people will never experience the intensity of the experience of these Rabbi’s and sages, but there is no way of knowing, in advance, who are the righteous ones amongst us, therefore each person trying this should be prepared. Rabbi Akiva was a teacher of Rabbi Shimeon bar Yochai whose revelations from the time he meditated in a cave for 13 years are to be found in one of the most famous interpretation of Torah, The Zohar.

Kabbalah includes some of the most intense meditation methods and it is known from the writings of the ancient Jewish prophets, priests and sages that properly prepared people can reach very high and holy states. However, as more is revealed, as people become aware of the deeper meanings within each of the Hebrew letters and as balanced and complete study of the Torah is restored to people, so our minds may begin to, once again, explore the methods that were once practiced and our souls may become elevated to the levels that enabled us to call out directly to G-d and to reach Him through the ways that He prescribed.

In Judaism there is a know precept that says Torah study is equal to all the other good deeds that one must do. This is because Torah is the gateway to life’s purpose and as such it is elevated above every other deed because it is known to shape people in the way that G-d wants them to be.

The System

2007-04-10T19:32:00.000-07:00

When looked at objectively Judaism, like many other religions and belief systems, is the most complete living meditation. It's true form is found in the hidden commitments, practices, rituals and prayers of Jewish people. Many of these are taken for granted, they are not properly understood, principally because we are presently unable to practice any of these ancient techniques in their entirety as they originated and were practiced. However, the world is changing and our lives with it and through discovery, awareness, sensitivity and knowledge we are slowly fitting the pieces back together to comprehend the reasons for many of the early mystical writings of the great prophets and sages that were laid down on stone, papyrus and wood discussing elevation in the spiritual world.

Judaism’s embedded system of meditation is an all encompassing life-long continuous upward spiral (a ladder) to reach higher levels of elevation in which prayers are made with more dedication, clarity and focus. This causes ones thoughts to rise in the higher worlds (even at an intellectual level) through which actions in the lower world (emotional level) can yield the desired objectives. Here efficiency depends on purity of mind and body. This practice is contained in the recipes for living ones life including the writings and teachings of Torah as expounded through Kabbalah, Gemara, Mishnah, Midrash, Kashrut and other significant works that document, in enormous detail, the way to achieve purity of purpose and spiritual enlightenment of the highest order.

The essence of Jewish mediation and prayer is contained in the simple explicit Name of G-d –י׳ה׳ו׳ה (YHVH). As alluded to earlier (http://beingholy.blogspot.com/#116591270228436053), this Name is of the highest order and contains everything within it, beyond this is The Deity Himself which we are unable to fathom in any way regardless of how one tries. We already learned that the letters י(Yud), ה(Heh) and ו(Vav) are the only possible suffixes for the first and last letters of Torah – creating words meaning 'to me', 'to her', 'to him', 'in me', 'in her', 'in him'. It is written in Sefer Yetzirah that with these six letters G-d created all things – י׳ה׳ו׳ה יה (Yah Y’H’V’H)[1].

Conceptually the brain is part of the physical world and the mind is of the spiritual world. It is said that an angel[2] (as the archetype of the spiritual) can only carry one mission and can never share the same mission, likewise a thought emerges as a singularity and the mind can never deal with more than one thought at any instant. In order for man to reach the highest levels of effectiveness, integration of the physical and spiritual is required. This explains the reasons for the many continued physical rituals and practices that exist in Judaism and many other religions, they all form part of a greater system of meditation in which the physical and the spiritual converge to yield an elevated state of holiness. These practices all stem from the 620 positive and negative commandments included in Torah (Keter (Crown) = 620 http://www.nefesh.com.au/kev/soul_elements.htm).

Throughout the prayer books of the orthodox Jews are the concepts alluding to the importance of the Name of G-d. Some of these examples include; "…then was His Name proclaimed King; …blessed is His Name; …praised and glorified His great Name forever;…may the Name of the L-rd be blessed; …the L-rd is His Name; hallow and ascribe sovereignty to: …The Name of the Almighty G-d; …He endures and His Name endures; …and have in love brought us near, O our King, to Your great Name, that we may praise You, and proclaim Your Oneness and love Your Name; …on that day, The L-rd shall be One and His Name One". Each of these references serves as a reminder that the depth of His Name represents everything including all that we are (physically) and all that we experience (spiritually) and our steps toward holiness are made by first attaining an understanding of His Name.

All of the Sefirot (soul attributes) are reflected in His Explicit Name. In the Apex of the Yud is Keter (Crown), The Yud (י - Yud) is Chokmah (Wisdom), the first Heh (ה - Heh) is Binah (Understanding), the Vav (ו - Vav) represents the Six of Zer Anpin (emotional attributes - Chesed (Compassion), Gevurah (Strength), Tifferet (Beauty), Netzach (Victory), Hod (Humility) and Yesod (Foundation) – hence the value of Vav being = 6) with the last Heh being Malkhut (Kingship) - the seventh. In the physical world, specific interactions between the various attributes of the Sefirot can be realized by combining and considering the expansions of the names of G-d to unify the letters (or the energies represented by those letters) using the mystical secrets of Kabbalah and the meditative practices prescribed by it.

Every aspect of Jewish ritual that is deeply integrated into the fabric of a Jewish devotee enables a person to achieve a higher state of holiness. The constant reminder of G-d’s presence, through rituals, practices, prayer and meditation enable one to reach a place in the spiritual world, from their place in the physical world that is closer to G-d (perfection) where the light of His countenance can be experienced with increasing degrees of intensity. The worlds improving holistic knowledge of ancient Jewish practices increasingly clarifies their worthiness as an important people. Now the intricately woven pieces of all these practices can be bound together with our renewed knowledge of the words of Torah and their meanings, discovered from all the books that expound Torah, resulting in a vision of Judaism being a complete life commitment to a better world, through holiness, achieved using meditation and actualization.

For students of mediation there is no system more advanced and there will never be one that is as advanced and complete as the holistic system and practice of being Jewish.

[1] Sefer Yetzirah – Ariyeh Kaplan Pg 16, Pg 81
[2] Sefer Yetzirah – Ariyeh Kaplan Pg 60

Our Purpose

2007-03-30T16:00:00.000-07:00

People continuously seek purpose in their lives. There are times when things seems to be going well and ones purpose in life appears to be clear and then there are other times, in every life, when that purpose, which seemed so clear only a short time back is completely clouded and cannot become clear no matter how hard one tries. Perhaps we each have to analyze the validity of our various definitions of purpose, but to do so we must first look back to the source of our current day perspectives.

Zealous pursuit of material pleasure, motivated by our collective desires, has led us into a world which continues to be driven by this objective, yet “purpose” remains fleeting and people continue to seek 'it' in their lives. However, if mans' purpose was a lost cause then we would move more rapidly, as a human race, toward the brink of our own self inflicted destruction, but that's not quite the way it is...

Purpose is the central element of any culture, if it can be identified it can be nurtured to increasingly empower society, but when single minded devotion to purpose is diluted by other purposes that compliment the collective ‘noise’ of desire then our actual purpose is diluted. If we go back to the roots of our spiritual culture in the western world, particularly around the time of the revelation to the people at Mt. Sinai, we will see that purpose in life was centered on the soul. At this time, as is evident in the Torah and in Egyptian archaeological records, the passage of the soul was clearly the focus of so many aspects of society. Whilst the Egyptian records refer to the soul’s passage in the afterlife (to a greater degree), in everyday life passage remained the focus. Either way, the soul was at the absolute center of purpose and thought that prevailed in society.

Society’s absolute commitment to elevation of the soul was the living purpose of the mainstream so much so that their conscious minds were readily aware of and always centered on the potential impact their actions may have on the elevation of their souls in the afterlife. Negative moral behavior would lead to a demise of the energy of the soul, which was seen as the antithesis of ones G-d or god given responsibility. By the end of life’s term the body and mind should be elevated to the purest state so that the elevated soul be returned to rising to a higher heaven that its origin. Torah and Kabbalah resolved that a single purpose cannot be defined by multiple gods and that was the defining difference between the holy people of Israel and Egypt.

If we were all truly committed to the improvement of life on planet earth we would first begin to recognize our life purpose so that it could manifest in our thoughts and actions, in the way we operate and function as individuals and as societies and finally as a common race of human beings . In the absence of messianic intervention, a dramatic change is not possible, but if one contemplates the era in which we find ourselves and takes a global view of significant ecological, territorial and cultural events of recent history one can only begin to draw conclusions that improvement, through unity, is the only logical direction toward which society must move, in order that we can ultimately attain the peaceful objectives that are ultimately prophesized for the human race; to bring G-d to dwell amongst us in a direct and absolute fashion.

This objective is clearly referred to in the Torah, particularly in the lead up to messianic times when we (on earth) are to make a home for G-d to dwell amongst us. In Hebrew 'home' is written בית (bayit). The same word is used for the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet (bet - בית), the letter is ב (bet or beit) representing the number 2. The gematria of (ta’avah) meaning “desire” or passion בית = 412 = תאוה (bayit). Generally ta’avah is referred to as a negative desire, but when it is associated with a righteous person it becomes positive. The signs are therefore clear, our progressive return to a righteous state will correct the energy of our collective desires and bring with it the presence of G-d to dwell in the house that we make for Him. There are some very special connotations related to the energy associated with the letter ב (bet), particularly as they relate to the third and final temple in Jerusalem. The letter ב (bet) is the first letter of Torah.

Discovering our collective purpose as a human race seems to be a perplexing problem, but there can be no greater purpose than to bring G-d’s presence to dwell amongst us in a real and absolute sense.

Which Way from here?

2007-03-27T15:29:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of each day during services in synagogues and homes around the world several short blessings are pronounced before any other prayers are conducted. Amongst these blessings are particular paragraphs of interest including;

“My G-d, the soul which You have given within me is pure. You have created it, You have formed it, You have breathed it into me and You preserve it within me. You will eventually take it from me, and restore it within me in the Time to Come. So long as the soul is within me, I offer thanks to You, Lord my G-d and G-d of my fathers, Master of all works, L-rd of all souls. Blessed are You, L-rd, who restores souls of dead bodies.”

…continuing…

“And may it be Your will, L-rd our G-d and G-d of our fathers, to accustom us to study Your Torah, and to make us cleave to Your commandments. Do not bring us into sin, nor into transgression or iniquity, nor into temptation or scorn; and may the evil inclination not have mastery over us. Keep us far from an evil person and an evil companion. Make us cleave to the good inclination and to good deeds, and compel our inclination to be subservient to You. Grant us this day, and every day, grace kindness, and mercy in Your eyes and in the eyes of all who behold us; and bestow bountiful kindness upon us. Blessed are You, L-rd, who bestows bountiful kindness upon His people Israel.

May it be Your will, L-rd my G-d and G-d of my fathers, to protect me this day, and every day, from insolent men and from impudence; from a wicked man, from an evil companion, from an evil neighbor, and from an evil occurrence, from an evil eye, from a malicious tongue, from slander, from false testimony, from men’s hate, from calumnious charges, from unnatural death, from harsh diseases, and from misfortune; from the destructive adversary and from harsh judgment; from an implacable opponent, whether or not he is a member of the Covenant; and from the retribution of gehinnom (hell).”

The prayer is said for the soul, for the things that are not tangible, the abstract and unknown. If one considers carefully what is actually being said, word for word, it becomes evident, once the soul is consciously called into focus, that the forces about which the prayer is most concerned are those of the dark side, the evil forces whether directly targeted or delivered by a carrier. This prayer is said in the morning time when the G-d in His merciful state shines His countenance upon us as we ask;

“and may the evil inclination not have mastery over us. Keep us far from an evil person and an evil companion. Make us cleave to the good inclination”.

Here the objective is clear and the request is straight forward; keep evil away and make us cleave to the forces of good, which we may not be able to consciously identify. If this statement came true, evil thoughts would be rejected and good thoughts promoted by our cleaving. Through this we would know the thoughts to which we ought to focus our attention. This then becomes the object of our thinking through the day whenever we think of anything, two questions should come to mind either prospectively or retrospectively;

Was it from the side of evil?
Was it from the side of good?

So long as we identify the source of our thoughts we will begin to manage our thinking so that our thoughts can be dominated by that side, which we choose to be dominated by. These thoughts are translated into prevailing actions, which over time will begin to modify the way we function.

Most people have experienced a concept referred to as ‘synchronicity” – this occurs when events appear to happen by apparent coincidence, particularly when things appear to be too coincidental. Then a simple explanation won’t suffice and one is left to ponder the reasons why the events occurred in such a specific manner. Could there be a meaning behind the events? Could there be a message? What should I do? In fact many people follow instincts at junctures like these where all their retained pragmatic logic gets shifted aside for the more esoteric logic, which is simply a reaction to the events they just experienced or is it?

Events like these are occurring all the time, but it is only the rare occasion that one consciously recognizes the synchronicity and only because at that moment the conscious mind happens to be in sync with the soul. Most times the intellectual ‘noise’ is too great for synchronicity be consciously noticed. Although it will continue to occur, without recognizing this phenomena decisions directed by free choice absent of this higher state of consciousness, may be squandered because of a simple lack of awareness and sensitivity.

One of the most important messages is that people build a greater awareness of the energy forces of G-d and the spiritual realm in which they occur so their perspectives can be elevated on the ‘wings of eagles’, the guiding forces that are constantly being sent through your soul to your sub-conscious and conscious brain. An awareness of these is the starting point for a journey to the inner realm where a holistic comprehension of each decision you face through each thought that comes to you can be better understood.

At the highest point of morning prayer the Daily Amidah, an ancient prayer that was once mediated over 3 times each day for 2-3 hours where each and every word was carefully concentrated upon such that rolling prayer continued throughout the day, there is a section as follows;

“Let there be no hope for informers and may all heretics and all the wicked instantly perish; may all enemies of Your people be speedily extirpated; and may you swiftly uproot, break, crush and subdue the reign of wickedness speedily in our days. Blessed are You, L-rd, who crushes enemies and subdues the wicked.

May Your mercies be aroused, L-rd our G-d, upon the righteous, upon the pious, upon the elders of Your people Israel, upon the remnant of their sages, upon the righteous proselytes, and upon us. Grant us ample reward to all who truly trust in Your name, and place our lot among them; may we never be disgraced, for we have put our trust in You. Blessed are You, L-rd, the support and security of the righteous.”

In this prayer we see that all righteous people are being prayed for, people of all nations, a unifying message that seeks to create a unifying prayer for G-d to strengthen all of us.

It is becoming increasingly clear as we develop a full perspective that the purpose of our lives has become distorted by intellectual noise spoken of earlier. The noise is prevalent because of the good and evil factors discussed and it continues to prevent our clarity of purpose to be revealed, or does it?

G-d’s Interactive Angels

2007-03-15T20:50:00.000-07:00

Well known to man for thousands of years are the works of G-d’s legions of angels and special souls. Each major angel, represented by one of G-d’s 10 ineffable names, is in charge of legions of lesser angels that perform their work according to His commands. These are the angels that interface directly with our souls, these are the energies that connect and steer us through every aspect of our life, these are the vessels that have been meditated upon, visited and which visit us frequently delivering all that is His will.

Visions of these angels have been contemplated and expounded upon by the greatest prophets and sages many of whom have described their experiences. Methods for elevating thought to the heights of these supernal beings have been well documented and exist in books that are only recently being published in English and other languages. Mediation techniques so specific they are arguably the most complex and sophisticated techniques known, revealing the perfected mind state that must be reconstructed in order that holiness of thought can yield a true perception of our connection to G-d. Spoken of as 'dangerous' even the most stable rabbinical sages have been psychologically scarred for life or have passed from this world as a direct result of their ascension and elevation away from the physical world of Asiyah through these meditations.

Consider that many of the thoughts you are stimulated to think originate by external Divine stimulus, by the activities of others around you and by desires that are ever present. Thoughts can be categorized, but the one we are interested to review is desire; the root of the ‘noise’ that we have grown accustomed to in our lives.

So where do these thought stimulation's come from? How do they arrive in our minds?

Contemplating ‘thought’ itself, prompts us to first classify types of thought most of which are generated by continuously recycling information – much like a washing machine that tumbles clothes around and around. In the undisciplined mind, the one without dominant intent or determination to achieve a purpose, thoughts that are continuously recycled can be classified as producers of ‘noise’. However, there are two primary thought categories and many different sub categories, which have been very carefully analyzed by psychologists, professional people, Rabbis, Priests and Clerics. Since we have already identified the first category as ‘desire’ we will now focus only on those thoughts in the second category ‘analytical’.

At the level of conscious thought, analysis is often the more substantive process. Generally analysis emerges by concentrating on a particular subject over time. Essentially thoughts are ‘brewed’, but this does not fully describe how they emerge, rather the process of ‘brewing’ relates to the concentration on the subject and not the emergence of the thought. Brewing simply enables the subject matter to be elevated and to permeate the conscious and sub-conscious such that the energy of the subject begins to infuse with the essence of the intellect through the Sefirot. By quieting the noise of desire and of the intellect, through silent concentration, gates (aspects) to each Sefirah are opened to receive the external energies that interact, intertwine and influence the sub attributes of each relevant Sefirah whose gates have been stimulated and activated to open. As mentioned earlier there are 49 major attributes of the lower (emotional) Sefirot each of which are meditated upon during the counting of the Omer. However, each 1/7th of each Sefirah also has 7 further sub gates, making a total of 49 sub-gates per Sefirah, which are the third dimension of its attributes. The 50th gate is the highest level, the body of the vessel and therefore the passage of transfer between Sefirah.

Interaction between the Sefirot of the soul and the Sefirot of the subject or object being contemplated are communicated through the brain. Acting as a large antenna and transceiver ultra sensitive energies, emerging through the soul, stimulate the most sensitive parts of the brain. This results’ in slight chemical changes, which begin to flow more actively as the neurons in the brain, responsible for the emergence of thought, convert this energy, by chemistry, into a specific neuron stream. By activating or de-activating memory agents, that store inert knowledge that your brain possesses[1], a direct thought is created. The quality of access to inert knowledge is contingent on low level impedance from the ‘noise’ of the intellect. There are significantly more complex descriptions that exist in the teachings of Rabbis who have studied the origin and passage of thought, this description attempts to summarize the quantum mechanics of the process and to reconcile it with modern psychology.

The Sefirot provide us with a reference defined as a web of highly sophisticated interconnected energies through which G-d interfaces with all that there is on a spiritual and physical level. G-d’s ministering angels can therefore influence our thinking by way of our soulful interaction with His Sefirot passed down through each universal realm.

Reducing intellectual noise enables us to achieve progressively intensified concentration for disciplined and corrected thought. When that thought is focused on purification, preparation and subjects of holiness, intrinsic wisdom and understanding locked by our minds can be released. The pathway for any thought is always clearly mapped and can be followed all the way up the line through the Sefirot of the world of Asiyah to the Sefirot of each of the higher worlds. Commanding the higher Sefirot that control Understanding and Wisdom comes by first reaching the lower Sefirot that control Justice and Mercy. The path through the Sefirot is well documented in many works of Kabbalah.

By way of meditation and deep prayer the minds capacity to conceptualize the soul and the angels of G-d’s universe that interact with the soul will emerge. In this framework of elevated mental holiness the perception of G-d’s legions becomes apparent. This is beautifully described in many ancient writings using elaborate terms like; Chariots, Hands, Wheels, Wings, Speaking Silence, Glowing husks and Living Creatures.

God’s angels are always hard at work communicating with our souls.

[1] The Society of Mind – Marvin Minsky

Truth

2007-03-01T12:21:00.000-08:00

The demise of Ancient Egypt's religious culture and growing acceptance of Israelite monotheism draws the natural conclusion that idolatry and paganism were deeply flawed, therefore it did not withstand the true test of time. In the period Abraham through Moses, Egypt’s intellectuals contested the perfect logic of Israelite mysticism. With Israels departure, Egyptians had finally met their spiritual match and it took less that 1000 years after that for Egypt to completely relinquish its belief system in its entirety.

A consistent doctrine that has strayed from its holy origin must ultimately re-orient with its source in order that its constituents benefit through prescribed methodologies to yield wisdom and understanding so that truth and knowledge can embellish their lives.

It is difficult to discover a depth of understanding from a literal reading of Torah and even more so through translations that do not share the same grammatical and numerical construct as its holy language source. Correct interpretation is made more complex because each Hebrew letter is founded upon particular energies that connect and flow in the 'spiritual vessels' attributed to G-d’s 10 names, His angels of the highest realm, the highest Sefirot, the essence of which is captured in every one of Torah's holy 22 letter alphabet. In the lower realms these energies take their form as the letters and words of thought and speech.

The word 'alphabet' originates by combining the first two letters of Hebrew 'Aleph and Bet'. Whilst those with an anti Semitic slant may present an argument in favor of the Greek letters Alpha and Beta, it is the source of the Greek language that owes a deep gratitude to its Hebrews origin. The Holy Hebrew tongue is not a man made code and The Torah is not a document dictated by a man, it is the words of G-d transcribed through a man in a language determined by G-d.

New found knowledge establishes the basis around which more people begin to understand these deeper 'mystical' insights of Kabbalah. Growing curiosity and increased desire for truth is destined to re-orient the masses of the world toward a holy path that will ultimately accomplish the prophecies about which the Torah speaks. However, in the absence of complete acceptance and reliance on ancient Hebrew's holy source documents other religions, which are based in whole or in part on some translation of Torah, cannot reference the complete source construct that reveals the inner (mystical) beauty of Torah.

Christianity and Islam have simplified Judaism such that neither are synchronized to their source!

Over time, mans ever improving awareness of historical and scientific fact, together with the revelations of Torah, enables increasing focus and distinction of 'truth'. Therefore, doctrines that are not true to their source will be exposed and eventually judged as being flawed. A blatant example is found in The New Testament prophecy of 'messianic return'. Jesus (Yeshu - Salvation), an orthodox Jew did not believe in Messiah in the absence of the third temple, nor in the 'messianic return', nor the concept of trinity, yet Christianity is founded on these precepts.

Deeply embedded in Torah is life's truth, how we ought to live it and most importantly how people can return to a state of 'inner peace' as individuals to bring peace, harmony and purpose to life for the benefit of all people. Through the mystical revelations of Kabbalah small diverse sub-sections of the mainstream are just beginning to see the deeper wisdom in the words of the Torah. As demands for this knowledge increase and access to it via the Internet improves, so other religions will become progressively marginalized as they are confronted by the 'dead end' of logic in the face of their increasingly sophisticated constituents.

Religions based on a relationship with Torah don't believe in different G-d’s, but each religion has its own systems that enable people to connect with G-d and there is no system quite like Israels' Kabbalah and Chasidus, which encapsulate the deep fabric of Jewish life, tradition and belief. These are the embodiment of the perfected logical construct containing the secrets through which people unite with G-d. Not all people interpret Kabbalah correctly, in fact most people get it wrong, nevertheless deep inside Torah the correct messages lie waiting. So long as we refine the methodologies for extracting truth and establishing proper guidelines for pursuing it we will move at an ever increasing rate toward the supernal light (spirituality) that is beginning to shine upon us during this pre-messianic period through which we are living.

The most advanced works of Kabbalah and Chasidus focus their attention on the mind and its relationship to the animal and Divine Soul. Many of these works, produced from their source in Torah, are the worlds most complete and truthful studies of psychology because they emanate from the psychology of the G-dhead itself. Since man was created in the image of G-d, what better source than Torah to reveal the mechanics of mans complex mind.

The Hebrew word for truth is אםת (emmet) numerically 1-40-400 . Of significance is the fact that the 3 letters of this word are, in order, the first, middle and last in the Hebrew alphabet.

G-d in Life

2007-02-23T13:47:00.000-08:00

Have you ever considered where the inspiration for the famous artworks of Raphael, Gabriel, Michael, Aziel or Haniel come from and why they were such an important study for artists of the Renaissance period?

These are G-d’s emissaries, His angels of the highest order and their depiction opposes Jewish Law. Their renderings are inspired by Kabbalah and their pictorial commissions, the result of Rome’s fascination with Jewish mysticism. Their importance to the Roman Catholic doctrine reflects a concerted effort by Rome to reach out to mainstream population groups through a progression of contemporary views. These artworks also represents a slap in the face of Jewish culture and belief and at the time would have been deeply hurtful and disrespectful to all who truly believed in and respected the Oneness of G-d and His omnipotence.

Each of these angels are a manifestation of the Sefirot in the highest universal realms and each is in turn linked to an attribute of G-d which is expressed by the use of His ten ineffable names as written in the Hebrew Torah. The mystical revelations of the Torah reveal the existence of angelic legions and supernal beings that administer G-d’s commands in the universal realms that He created. Included at the top of His infrastructure of supernal beings is His Heavenly Tribunal of Justice.

It is said that increased mystical revelations as evidenced by the growing mainstream awareness of Kabbalah is a direct result of the era of the supernal light, which is beginning to shine upon us more intensely. The flaming soul of Humanity ascends toward the descending supernal light as our awareness of truth, through knowledge, expands. Today we discover more through the advent of science, technology and communication and as we do we seek answers because, logically, we realize that we cannot progress humanity toward any particular point more beneficial than that which can be reached by our heightened spiritual understanding of the perfected construct of our one G-d.

On the tree of the Sefirot Da’at (knowledge) is the eleventh unformed vessel or attribute, it is this attribute that forms from our gathering knowledge which is the union of wisdom (Chokmah) and understanding (Binah) that brings down the supernal light from the higher Crown or Keter. Once we acquire this knowledge and the vessel of Da’at is formed, we are destined to proceed toward that which we come to know. So where is humanity headed?

Our final ascent to the Messianic age has commenced. This precept is spoken about at length in the Torah. It is widely recognized that G-d’s celestial year is represented by 1000 earth years, which puts us on the doorstep of the 7th millennium since we are now approaching 5800 years from the time of creation. The Sabbath millennium is the time when the presence of G-d will complete Her descent to dwell amongst us, when the 3rd temple will “fall from the sky” to be erected in Jerusalem, when miracles beyond our wildest imaginations will be brought to fruition in front of our eyes.

The prophecies predict this is to occur and in order that we become vessels able to perceive these events we must correct the application of our free will and free choice. According to prophecy we can bring the Messiah to our midst earlier, but only when the aggregate majority of our collective choices are made in the order of truth, righteousness and holiness, only then will the Messianic age and the Messiah be revealed to us. There is a narrow window through which this will occur, therefore man has to purify thought, speech and action in order that this can take place by our collective will. The majority of our thoughts have to be devoid of greed, perversion, moral emptiness, competitiveness and selfishness all thoughts of the material, instead they have to build toward a crescendo of caring, concern, responsibility, collaboration, community and action. These thoughts of the side of purity and spirituality have to be acted upon so as to counter the already established negative momentum that has preceded our time in the material world in which we live.

The most devastating and preventative acts delaying the coming of the Messiah are the invitations each of us extend for direct Judgment to be issued over our souls by G-d’s Heavenly Tribunal, specifically permitted by our expressions of hurtful gossip and slander. Believe it or not, [1]slanderous gossip[2] is The Crime of the highest order in the eyes of The Tribunal. Each time we speak badly of someone by spreading hurtful, unnecessary, slanderous gossip we open ourselves to immediate judgment. This is no ordinary judgment. If it were, it would not be executed in an immediate time frame, it would be delayed to that time of the year when the Heavenly Tribunal sit in session to hear admissions of guilt and then they would only hear those particular admissions. However, slanderous gossip invokes an immediate sitting of the Tribunal in judgment of your soul and because they preside by your invitation, all of your collective sins become subject to immediate judgment. The effect of this is devastating since all people who gossip and slander are being judged continuously and repeatedly because of the sins that they are continuing to commit in the eyes of G-d.

With each sin we commit we strengthen the side of evil. Each time The Tribunal sits in Judgment over our sins, the Satan, representing G-d’s angels of the evil side, is automatically invited to observe the trial and The Tribunal must, itself, be subject to G-d’s checks and balances. The Satan is therefore afforded the opportunity to impede the progress of G-d’s plan. With each sin he draws on the energy provided to him, strengthening his position and status through each sinful event that is called into judgment. This lifeline to the Satan saps at the very essence of all that is good, all that is positive and all that emanates from G-d’s good light.

Since darkness blots out the supernal light, we have to work harder to avoid slanderous gossip, which can easily be stopped by our simple decision not to participate in it, not to give life to its devastating effects and through this to stop confounding the wheel of humanity. With unchecked slander, each wrung of the ladder that humanity climbs up, reaching toward the light, is simply given back to the powers of darkness that draw us down toward the abyss and the power to stop this has been and is always in our hands. Each decision to speak requires careful consideration before loosely giving life to words, especially in public. By taking corrective action we make a giant leap, reducing the evil that endures.

[1] The Power of Speech – Rabbi Mendel Kessin – Tiferes Ramchal Institute - Chofetz Chaim Heritage Foundation
[2] http://www.chabad.org/dailystudy/hayomyom.asp?tDate=11/14/2005

The Purposeful Soul

2007-01-23T21:45:00.000-08:00

In order to obtain an understanding of our life purpose one needs to first obtain knowledge by uniting the attribute of understanding with the attribute of wisdom. However, a closed or narrowly focused mind can constrict this process resulting in the distortion of personality. One of the greatest ongoing difficulties in life is determining right from wrong, good from bad, positive from negative, the left fork in the road or the right. These are life's decisions, the ones that define the outcome of all of our lives and affect the makeup of our character.

In our desire for a better material existence (physical world) we often cloud judgment by focusing on the pursuit and not the purpose of our mission. To be cognoscente of purpose is to be aware of all that surrounds you, all that confounds you, all you invite, wanted and unwanted. Truth and happiness are fleeting unless you discover the purpose prescribed for your soul; herein lie’s life’s challenge.

We have learned the forces of G-d are everywhere, we have learned they are a two way street, we have learned, through Torah, that the forces of darkness and light are heralded by G-d’s ministering angels and we have learned that our soulful energy flows from the 10 Sefirot along 22 paths.

The teachings of Kabbalah explain that there are three Higher World Divine Attributes;

Keter – Crown
Chokmah – Wisdom
Binah – Understanding

and seven Lower World Divine Attributes (Sefirot) through which we relate and connect to G-d. These have been referred to earlier as the vessels;

Chessed - Love
Gevurah - Strength
Tiferet - Beauty
Netzach - Victory
Hod - Splendor
Yesod - Foundation
Malkhut – Sovereignty

In the human being, created in the "image of G-d," the seven lower Sefirot are mirrored in seven "emotional attributes" of the human soul:

Chessed - Kindness
Gevurah - Restraint
Tiferet - Harmony
Netzach - Ambition
Hod - Humility
Yesod - Connection
Malkhut – Receptiveness

Each attribute contains elements of all other attributes in varying degrees i.e., "Kindness in Kindness", "Restraint in Kindness", "Harmony in Kindness", Ambition in Kindness etc. for a total of forty-nine emotional personality traits that govern who we are and what we are. By our study, understanding, practice and mastery of each of these energies we are able to perform at higher levels of consciousness in the world.

Click here for a more detailed elaboration on the levels and makeup of the soul

In the 49 days it took Israel to leave Egypt, walk through the desert, cross the sea, experience the first revelation, camp at Mt. Sinai, witness the second revelation and receive the Torah, the souls of all people on this journey were elevated to reach an intensified state, an absolute union. As a nation, they became bonded and mentally prepared, open and ready to receive. Each of their Sefirah and those reflecting the nation as a whole had reached a state of perfected enlightenment. The flow of their energies, resulting from their righteous state, focus, concentration, meditation, purification, prayer and general disposition, enabled all of Israel to sufficiently open their souls, for just a brief moment, during which G-d revealed His Wisdom to the entire world. The people of Israel received this Wisdom in a profound way because they were ready to receive it, but the other 70 nations of the world failed to recognize the importance of what had transpired and their soulful states, which had not been ready, did not fully benefit by G-d's descent and their ascent to Him.

Each year beginning on the Jewish Festival of Passover and ending the day before the Festival of Shavuot there is a tradition to count the 49-days of the Omer. This practice is a 49 day (7 Sefirah x 7 influential energies of each Sefirah) process of self-refinement, with each day devoted to the "rectification" and perfection of one influential energy of one attribute of the 7 Sefirot, a process for elevating the soul. Amongst most modern secular Jews this practice has been forgotten. If counting the Omer were revived it would rapidly become an intensified period during each year when each person devotes time every day to contemplate and rectify every attribute of their soul, in effect an inventory of who we are and how we prioritize the order of our thinking to better our lives and those around us.

The counting of the Omer serves as a reminder that our souls are complex aspects of our makeup and that we have the free will and choice to treat the soul as the important element of our being that it is. Further, that it ought to be nurtured and cared for each day of the year and especially on the 49 days of the counting of the Omer, commemorating the days preceding revelation of the Torah to the Israelites camped at Mount Sinai.

Consider the soul a guidance system that projects itself from within you, hovering within and above and traveling in front and behind every step that you take and knowing every decision you are about to make. Consider it sensitive to every aspect of G-d. Now, consider that the potential insights, knowledge and wisdom we are able to receive and perceive are simply blocked out by the noise of our lives, by our busy minds that prevent us from functioning in an optimal fashion. Although we may not know it or experience it, the soul passes energy to our heart and brain through which sub-conscious followed by conscious thoughts are processed as a direct result. With each thought we should try to recognize the occurring process then we should identify all the influences that thought are susceptible to on their way to our consciousness. We have to determine the level of a thoughts purity or impurity, only then are we equipped to process it correctly and to make an optimal conscious decision. Of course most of us don’t function in this manner, but perhaps the world would be a better place if we learned how to do this and put the practice to use.

Our G-d given purpose lies somewhere behind the noise that stands in the way of our being able to identify the purity of our thoughts before we decide how to act on them. Recognizing the importance of purity 'quietening the noise' is therefore a critical factor in being able to identify the guidance your soul provides you in your life. The more accurately you perceive the energy and attributes of your soul, the less noise you will want it to contend with. This will release your powers of wisdom and qualities of understanding enabling you to make quantum leaps forward toward your true purpose.

Every thought has a source, unless we increase the frequency with which we find our way to its source we will never be able to determine its hidden qualities and thereby reach our true potential.

Are you an Israelite?

2007-01-12T17:13:00.000-08:00

Reviewing the course of history it’s now quite clear how the nation of Israel became so diversely spread across many countries. Around 4000 years ago, Abraham journeyed to teach in the lands surrounding modern day Iraq. On his travels he visited India where his influence is visible today primarily through the Brahman sect and there are also references to the mystical teachings of Kabbalah in the eastern philosposhies of China and Japan. Many teachers from these lands visited and were influenced by him.

At the time of Israel's exodus from Egypt there were approximately 600,000[1] Israelite men, 20 years or older. The total number of men, women and children exceed two million when they crossed the sea making their way to Mount Sinai. By a process of simple extrapolation that commences with the 70 direct descendants of Jacob that arrived in Egypt, one quickly becomes aware that the logical total number of 'dormant' Israelites in the world today, including deaths from persecution, conversion to other religions and assimilation must be in excess of 500 million people, perhaps significantly more.

Considering that the progeny of Jacob carried through the souls of his descendants and those that take the covenant to become Jews and the heritage of Jewish identity that passes from generation to generation through the mother, it is quite conceivable the direct Israelite lineage could apply to many more than the 15 million 'active' Jews around the world today. Many Christians, Muslims and people of other cultures may in fact be genetically Jewish by birth. However, when raised in families that have embraced different religious cultures over thousands of years they loose their traditional Jewish heritage. Nevertheless their souls remain Jewish forever, but to re-establish their Jewish identity they would be required, at some time, to re-confirm their covenant with G-d in accordance wit the laws of the Jewish Faith.

With the exception of the tribe of Levi (the priesthood), members from each of the 12 Jewish tribes throughout ancient history frequently married out of their faith. In instances where the male married out descendancy was lost. Over time, many children of these multi cultural marriages were integrated into the extended family units, that retained their Jewish identity and the new (non-Jewish) mothers adopted Jewish practices and the traditions of the day. The last functioning Sanhedrin (Rabbinical council of 71 elders) of The Nation of Israel, at the time of the destruction of the second temple (2000 years ago), ordained the rights of passage and the manner in which a man or a woman is considered to have made the conversion through the study of Torah, purification and the covenant of circumcision for males.

The relevance of a Jewish soul is directly associated with mans’ ultimate destiny to restore the world to a state of holiness, through the attribute of Wisdom (Chokmah) accessed through the side of Mercy (Chesed) that will enable the ultimate unification of higher and lower worlds at which time G-d’s presence will dwell amongst us.

[1] B’Or Ha’Torah v15 pg 105 – Solomon Dinkevich

Holy Constellations

2007-01-09T21:05:00.000-08:00

What was Jacob's aim when he conceived his twelve sons?

He contemplated the universal Soul of all creation to bring down a part of that Soul into each of his sons.

The Book of Creation (Sefer Yetzira) discusses The Creation in terms of the three fundamental aspects; Space, Time and Soul. The entire creation is for the sake of man and is structured accordingly. Man has twelve fundamental soul-functions: speech, thought, motion, sight, hearing, action, coition, smell, sleep, anger, taste and laughter. There are the twelve corresponding divisions of space and time. The twelve divisions of space are the twelve constellations (of stars) through which the sun moves in the course of the solar year. The twelve divisions of time are the twelve months of the year. Each sign of the Zodiac and its corresponding month is uniquely characterized with the associated soul-function[1].

The twelve divisions represented through six dimensions in space, time and soul correspond to the twelve diagonals on the tree of the Sefirot. (When the Sefirot are diagrammatically represented as a "tree" of ten points, there are twenty-two connecting lines, seven of which are vertical, three horizontal and twelve diagonal.) Jacob's twelve sons revealed, to perfection, all of the essential qualities of the inner soul for whom God created the world of Time and Space.

Each of the twelve was unique according to his respective orientation on the tree. They were all personalities of tremendous power, as illustrated in the many Bible stories that refer to them and their illustrious descendants in later generations. Each of the tribes received its own blessings from Jacob and later from Moses according to its unique trait. The tribes had their own emblems. Many of them are associated with animals (such as Judah with the Lion, Joseph with the Ox, Issachar the Donkey, Dan with the Serpent, Naftali with the Deer and Benjamin the Wolf.)

The Bible is testimony to the heritage of these founding tribal leaders. Following the 3 patriarchal generations from Abraham through Isaac and Jacob the roots of the future nation of Israel were finally and firmly established. The record is preserved and the mystical and spiritual analysis backs it up in every sense. By looking at examples, like the story of Jacob, we can unfold its deeper context by reviewing the inner meanings through word context,grammaticall commonality, letter substitution and gematria of each word in the Hebrew Torah. The Torah was handed by G-d to Israel through Moses as a complete code contained in the stones of the 10 commandments, in the teachings and in the writings of Moses, but for the most part the knowledge and energy of Torah was transferred by G-d to the souls of Jewish people.

It is said; "The nations heard and trembled, fear gripped the inhabitants of Philistia. Then the chieftains of Edom were terrified; the mighty men of Moab panic stricken and the inhabitants of Canaan melted away". Israel's departure from Egypt and the subsequent events ofrevelationn was immediately attributed to a power much greater than anything these kings could possibly imagine, after all Egypt was the most powerful nation on earth and Pharaoh its highest god. Like Pharaoh, these rulers were intellectually defeated.

Was Israel's liberation the cause of fear that came over kings and rulers of the land?
Was Israel redeemed by the power of their Omnipotent G-d?
Was their a mystical magic that can bring such a Liberation to so many people?
What would become of any ruler who did not suppress this power?

The magic of this liberation is to be found following the immediate departure from Egypt, during the 49 days when Israel was formed into the nation it ultimately became. Those 49 days are known as The Counting of the Omer, the deepest intellectual pursuit to the inner depths of our souls. This simultaneous process of meditation, prayer andrevelationn struck fear in the hearts of kings and rulers and brought a newfound intelligence to the world at large.

There are many meaningful insights that come from the deeper analysis of each of the tribes and the roles that they played in the development of the nation of Israel and the world, each of these insights are obtained through an understanding and perception of the Holy Sefirot, the engine room of our soul.

[1] (Sefer Yetzirah ch. 5)

The Mystery of Israel’s Birth

2006-12-31T14:42:00.000-08:00

The birth of Israel and its recorded lineage reveals some of the deepest most mystical aspects derived from Kabbalah or explained in the Talmud and the accompanying worls of Torah and by analysis of the Sefirot (The vessels of G-d’s defining light).

At 63 Jacob was blessed by his father Isaac[1] after which he moved to the land of his prosperous and well established uncle Laban[2] . The move was triggered to prevent retribution threatened by his twin brother Esau for the superior blessings that Jacob obtained. In the same year Esau married the daughter of Ishmael (Isaac's half brother) and Ishmael died.

Jacob asked Laban if he could marry his daughter Rachel whom he loved and felt destined to marry[3]. Laban was a well known sorcerer who operated intellectually and mystically at a very high level and as such had built a well established and devoted following. Laban demanded Jacob work 7 years before he would consent. He did not want Jacob to establish an independent nation under the progeny of Abraham and Isaac, preferring instead that his direct lineage would lead to a permanent heritage. Jacob completed the 7 years, but Laban surreptitiously desired that Leah (the elder sister) should marry first. From a young age Laban had established that Leah should marry Esau, but she is known to have wept incessantly in fear of marrying a person who was not dedicated to a life of holiness[5]. When it came to marrying Rachel, Laban conspired to have Leah marry Jacob instead. Rachel suppressed her feelings because she knew Leah would be destroyed by shame and guilt if the plot of her father was foiled[4]. In an act of abundant kindness and compassion she revealed to her sister the secret sign that Jacob and Rachel used to confirm they were meeting each other. This was necessary because woman were veiled from head to toe. On the morning after the marriage ceremony, when Jacob discovered the switch, he confronted Laban who advised Jacob he should have known that the younger daughter could not marry before the older one. Laban demanded a further 7 years of work from Jacob in order to marry Rachel. Understanding this to be the work of G-d, Jacob agreed and after 7 days of traditional wedding blessings with Leah he proceeded to marry Rachel.

Isaac’s father (Abraham) did not want him to take a wife from among the 7 pagan Canaanite nations whose lack of moral standing disqualified them from becoming part of the heightened spiritual nation of Abraham[6]. Therefore, he located Isaac's wife from among the family of his brother Nachor. Although the "other side" of Abraham's family had not made the same radical break as Abraham from the corrupt, idolatrous civilizations of the time, they did come from the line of Noah, Shem and Eiver who were guardians of the holy tradition, the Knowledge of Creation, its universal laws and its writings. Isaac and his wife Rebecca had no wish for Jacob to intermarry with the Canaanites preferring instead to send him to the "other side" of the family to find a wife.

Laban (Rebecca's brother) was from the side seen to be living in the evil realm, the Sitra Achra ('Other Side') a side disconnected from the inner aspect of G-dliness, of which Kabbalah and Chassidus speaks. Abraham saw many holy sparks, the potentially holy souls of future generations who were trapped by Laban, captured by the 'dark side'. In the higher worlds there is no distinction between 'good souls' that must first confront their inner evil and 'evil souls' that must first discover their inner good, ultimately all prevailing souls will be redeemed and returned to the higher worlds to be unified with G-d. Isaac and Jacob, considered their task, in the lower world, was to rescue these souls, prevail by overcoming their inner evil or reveal their inner good and bring them back into the light of holiness, the side of good orienting toward the attributes of the right side (Chesed -kindness). Whilst acting the kind, concerned, loving uncle, Laban did everything in his power to prevent any souls from escaping his clutches. For twenty years he mercilessly exploited Jacob to the point of destruction, together with his whole family, to prevent him from building the nation of Israel under his progeny, but Jacob continued to ask the question – What test does G-d make for me?

Jacob considered the unknown reason for his marriage to Leah and the work demands of Laban, like everything else in his life, to be an act of G-d's higher world, which he did not question. His marriage to Rachel was his own decision, a determining of the lower world, the world of the attribute of Malkhut. The result of Jacob’s marriages to Leah and Rachel together with Jacob’s children by their concubines Bilhah and Zilphah, were children born as follows (order of birth follows in parenthesis);

Reuben – Leah (1)
Simeon – Leah (2)
Levi – Leah (3)
Yehuda – Leah (4)
Zebulun – Leah (10)
Issachar – Leah (9)

Dinah (mother of Asenath) - Leah (11)

Dan – Bilhah (5)
Naphtali – Bilhah (6)

Joseph – Rachel (12)
Benjamin – Rachel (13)

Gad – Zilphah (7)
Asher – Zilphah (8)

In the closing verse of the 32nd chapter of Genesis; Jacob (then 99 yrs old) was commanded by G-d to return to the land of Israel, where he would uphold prophecy through the birth of his last son Benjamin whose birth, in Israel, would secure the land in which G-d's temple would ultimately be built. On the way he was struck by a myriad of apparent disasters. These included the death of Rachel, who he buried in Bethlehem and his mother Rebecca who he buried with her husband in the cave of the patriarchs and matriarchs. In addition he had to prepare his people for a major confrontation against the nation of Esau, the clan of his jealous brother, who wanted to kill him to reclaim the birthright blessing[7] he considered Jacob had stolen from him deceitfully. In preparation, Jacob stationed his animals, tribal members and possessions and ferried his family across a fork of the Yabok river. Then, he returned "remaining behind alone" (according to the Talmud, he returned to retrieve a sacred "small jar"of oil, destined for The Temple of the house of Jacob). There, that night, "an unknown man wrestled with him until dawn", Jacob received an injury to his hip in the struggle, but remained undefeated. At daybreak his combatant, an angel of 'darkness' that could not sustain its presence when 'the mercy of G-d' rose, pleaded with him to let him go. Jacob, who perceived this to be the angel of Esau, realized its predicament, demanding confirmation of his birthright saying: "I will not let you go until you bless me." The angel, fearing the ascending mercy of G-d, acceded and conferred upon him the name Israel, "because you have struggled with the divine and with men, and you have prevailed". Jacob had perfected the balance in each attribute of his soul - Yessod (Foundation) had risen, his soul was now dominant Tifferet (Balance)! [Zohar - Miqez 203b]

The value of Israel, ישראל = 541 consider:

· The Hebrew word 'Israel' possesses the symmetrical form of its own national emblem conforming to each of its 12 sides when they comprise 10 number points (on each side) for a total of exactly 541 individual number points, forming the Star of David, (Figure a), and;

· The outline (boundary) of the Star of David comprises 108 number points - identical with the outline of the 37th triangle representing the words from Genesis 1:1 "... and the earth." (Figure b) - 37 represents the inner aspect of Wisdom

· Each of these figures has 37 rows (top to bottom) - 37 having a particular significance in the numerical structure of Genesis1:1 and being equal to the word יחידה -Yechidah; unique-essence, known to be the highest soul state, the point of a Jewish souls connection to G-d.

· Isaac was 37 when offered as a sacrifice to G-d when, by his binding, the attribute of judgment was unified with the attribute of kindness such that it was said Isaac (dominant Gevurah - Judgment) looked exactly like Abraham (dominant Chesed - kindness).

The name “Israel” or ישראל can be rearranged to spell “YeS(h) RLA” or רלא יש which literally means 'there are 231', the total number of energy 'channel' combinations between the Sefirot (attributes / vessels) established by the complete array of the 22 Hebrew letters. (see images at http://beingholy.blogspot.com/2006/11/convergence.html).

The story takes place at the Yabok river, a tributary of the Jordan River, where mans penultimate struggle between good and evil occurs. Jacob overcomes the evil forces by making a permanent correction in his soul and in the soul of all Israelites thereafter, that the logic of life should prevail over the logic of death as the predominant soul construct for the future of Israel.

According to the cipher of swapping letters, a practice that originates when the 22 Hebrew letters are connected in the formation of the 231 Gates and more specifically with G-d's folding the heavens during creation, the letters א - ל (aleph – lamed, the first 11 letters) can be exchanged with letters , ב - ם (bet – mem, the second 11 letters). Then, the word יבק (YaBoK) makes the word שמח (300+40+8=348) - the root word 'same’ach'; happy, happiness, a term for heightened enlightenment and spirituality obtained through the study of Torah and by rearranging the order of letters, the word משח - MoShiaCh (Messiah). This can then be directly compared to its counterpart word יבק (Yabok; 10+2+100 =112). Jacob passed over the river to achieve a heightened level of holiness where the ruling logic of life prevailed over the ruling logic of death indicated by the numerical value of the letters which are equal to three names of G-d:

י'ה'ו'ה + א'ה'י'ה + א'ד'נ'י = (1+5+10+5+10+5+6+5+10+50+4+1 = 112).

These three names correspond to the high, middle and low Sefirot, Keter (Crown), Tiferet (Balance) and Malkhut (Kingdom), revealing that the Divine glory only descends toward enlightenment, joy (happiness). When G-d’s names, reflecting the higher attributes of judgment (א'ל'ק'י'ם = 86) and mercy (י'ה'ו'ה =26), are added they also = 112.

The first letter א (aleph) from two of these names is a particularly important letter reflecting convergence by; the higher world Yud (י) (10) (top right of the letter - א) and the lower world Yud (י) (10) (bottom left of the letter - א), separated by a Vav (ו) (6) (middle of the letter - א). Then, 10+10+6 = 26 the same value as (י'ה'ו'ה) Y'H’V’H. Kabbalah explains the peak of the Yud; ”י” reflects the point from which G-d’s creation and His works continuously emanate before descending into the lower worlds - the point of Yechidah - unique essence of the Jewish soul and the soul of a person who has converted to Judaism. ALePh (א) when written out in full = (אלפ) = 111, with the addition of a single unit for the letters of the full word, a common but less frequently used practice of gematria, we arrive at 112. We also see that the letters in the word ‘ALePh’ (אלפ) reverse to become the word ‘PeLeh’ (פלא) meaning 'miracle' or 'higher wonder', but when re-arranged can also become APhayL (אפל) or 'darkness' of the side of evil[8].

Who is this man with whom Jacob wrestled? According to the Sages, he is the "angel of Esau", and their struggle, which "raised dust up to the Supernal Throne", is the celestial and terrestrial struggle between two nations and two worlds represented by the spirituality of Israel and the physicality or materiality of Edom (representing Christianity in the time to come). The night through which they wrestled is long and dark, in the course, Jacob suffers bodily harm and spiritual anguish, but emerges victorious and enlightened.

Jacob, his family, their extended families and all the tribal leaders from the sides of good and evil who were well versed in the teachings of The Knowledge of Creation knew, by confirmation through their studies, when G-d changed Jacob’s name, to Israel, that his family was destined to become the future nation that would lead the world to its ultimate redemption. More than 50 years before Jacob’s death and only a few years after Joseph’s birth the future emergence of the United Kingdom of Israel had been confirmed and this became known to sorcerers and prophets by their reading and interpretation of the Sefirot and the astrological signs;

Jacob’s soul as the embodiment of the Sefirah of Yesod-Foundation, was elevated to its higher central realm the Sefirah of Tiferet-Balance/Beauty, through the even higher transcendent level represented by Da’at-Knowledge (not displayed in the diagram of the Sefirot provided in previous posts), which is the synthesis of Chokmah-Wisdom and Binah-Understanding and their associations with Keter - The Crown. In order to access Holy Wisdom - Chokmah, the attribute beyond Binah (Understanding), the highest attribute man can master (Jacob's 11th child to Leah was named Dinah, Din= judgment, the lower attribute of Binah), Jacob first had to contemplate and struggle with the unholy opposites: vision and intelligence not harnessed to serve love and creativity, but selfishness and destruction represented by Laban.

Just as there are 32 Pathways of Wisdom (32 in Hebrew = לב ('L'amed 'B'et) = Lev;Heart - see;http://beingholy.blogspot.com/2006/09/thirty-two-is-israel-special.html) so the first part of Laban's name is made up of the letters 'L'amed 'B'et (= 32). However, just as the 50th Gate of Binah-Understanding is the unattainable gate (each Sefirah has 50 gates through which energies flow), so the last letter of Laban's name is 'N'un (= 50). Therefore, the name Laban alludes to a level of divine wisdom known as the "Supreme Whiteness" (in the brain, the seat of wisdom, is considered white), this reflects on Laban’s soul and his desire to use sorcery to go beyond that which man in the lower world is capable.

After Jacob received his new name, his 3 names (found in Torah) were then; Y’israeL, YakoB, and Y’shruN (meaning My Love). Each name begins with the Yud (י), the first letter of G-d’s explicit holy name. Notice the last letter of each name spell L-B-N or LaBaN. This became clear to attentive observers that G-d had intervened and was further clarified by the events following Esau’s announced hostility toward Jacob. On the day Jacob received his new name he sent gifts of many animals forward of him then positioning himself between his camp, his family and Esau’s 400 man army who were poised to attack them he prostrated himself before Esau 7 times. Esau, upon seeing Jacob, ran up to him in the open field, embraced him, wept and immediately brought peace between there tribal nations without any fight taking place.

When considering these detailed passages, one should remember that Jacob and Esau were twins. When still in their mother’s womb G-d said to Rebecca, “Two nations are in your womb. Two governments will separate from inside of you. The upper hand will go from one government to the other, the greater one will server the younger”. At this point it is useful to recap earlier posts that Esau represents Edom (Rome - essentially Christianity) and that he married Ishmael's (essentially Islam) sister. Esau emerged first followed by Jacob whose hand clutched onto the heel of his older brother. In Hebrew the word for heel is NaBaL (NBL the B -Bet and V - Vet are the same letter, only a dot separates them). In NaBaL the Nun ('N') of the 50th gate precedes the word contrasting with LaBaN or LBN where the ('N') it follows.

Since the time that Adam was tempted by evil, through the serpent's deception, the sparks of evil were set free to co-mingle with good. It became know that the only way to access higher world Holy Wisdom is to first encounter good and evil in the "Palace of Exchanges" where everything is mixed up. Here evil masquerades as good whilst true good can appear as evil. Adam's eating of the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge caused a total mixing-up of good and evil. Therefore, the only way to separate these forces is to confront the confusion, to identify and separate the influential forces of good from the evil. This is why Jacob had to first struggle against Laban, a man of the highest spiritual order, for more than 14 years before he could resolve that which confronted and confused him in order to rise upward to the higher realm and carry his descendants with him.

The true goodness in Laban’s house was to be found in his daughters Rachel and Leah who had inherited the supreme holiness in their father’s perplexed soul. Together with their maids Bilhah and Zilpah, they were to be the mothers of Jacob's twelve sons, the fathers of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, root souls of all Jews, the souls of true good in the universe. Jacob was destined to marry these women and with them birth the future souls of Israel.

Jacob, by his complete faith in G-d, perceived Rachel as a soul of the lower world, therefore his marriage to her was to consummate through her dominant feminine Sefirah of Malkhut, which he perceived as the correct connection to his then dominant attribute of Yesod – Foundation (the point of Zer Anpin which connects it to Malkhut). On the other hand, his marriage to Leah was considered by him to be a decision of the higher world and was therefore a reflection through her dominant feminine Sefirah of Binah (the left side). This explains why Jacob, who had no expectations of Leah in fact, had no desire to be married to her, ended up having 6 sons by her, including Yehudah (Judas) whose lineage of Kingship built The Temple in Jerusalem (through King David and King Solomon) and Levi whose tribe became the High Priests of Israel. Leah had correctly perceived that her soul was not to be united with Esau because, although concealed to the lower worlds, through her was to come the universal vindication for the exchange of Esau’s birthright in favor of Jacob. Laban understood this, albeit from the perspective that caused him to believe and cleave to the desire that Leah’s marriage would be to the direct benefit of his lineage.

Esau taunted Jacob by showing his desire for Rachel, but she was terrified, submitting herself entirely to the mercy of G-d. After Jacob married Rachel she was unable to give birth, finally she conceived at the same time as Leah’s 7th child. At first Rachel fell into pregnancy with a girl and Leah a boy, but G-d switched their embryos because He heard the united higher world and lower world prayers of Leah and Rachel, that Rachel should become worthy of her sisters equal [9]. So, He altered nature to grant Rachel a boy and at that moment (on the same day as the birth of Adam, the death of Sarah and Rosh Hashanah - Jewish New Year, the day Torah was granted to Israel) He declared the conditions that would give rise to the birth of the nation of Israel. It was therefore necessary that the only girl in the family, Dinah (Din = Judgment), be born to Leah in order that her 6 boys correctly reflect the higher world masculine attributes of Zer Anpin and the 7th child of Leah be a girl reflecting the Feminine Sefirah Malkhut. To recap; Leah representing Binah connected the higher worlds to her 6 boys (Zer Anpin) and through Dinah representing Malkhut to the lower world. Separately Jacob – dominant Yesod (later Tifferet) and Rachel – Malkhut would give birth to Joseph and Benjamin.

Toward the end of Jacob’s life, his firstborn Reuben[10] (son of Leah) was slated to lead the tribes, but his higher world soul had been exposed, when he lay in the room of his concubine stepmother Bilah to prevent a further conception through Jacob. This meant he and the house of Leah would lose its traditional birthright. Rachel’s (Jacob's wife by choice) firstborn son Joseph would later become the beneficiary of these rights, but not in the manner expected. Since his marriage to Rachel had been undermined, Jacob saw[11] Joseph’s sons Menasseh and Ephraim as he did Leah’s first two sons Reuben and Simeon. Leah's (higher world) third son in line, Levi was granted The Priesthood and The Kingship went to Leah's fourth son Yehudah (Judas). Joseph's descendents thus comprised two tribes, Menasseh and Ephraim who through him received Jacob’s double portion and ultimately two territories in the Holy Land. It is these territories that eventually divide Israel into the north and the south, which were finally united at the time of the First Temple.

The origin of this unification is a hidden miracle, in the story of Israel, sourced from the time that Dinah was seduced and raped by Shechem (son of Chamor) when she was 8 years old. Asenath, her daughter from the rape, was therefore born out of wedlock. Levi and Simeon demanded the Idol worshipping tribe of Chamor be circumcised as part of the compensation for their dastardly act, they agreed. However, whilst healing from their circumcisions, the brothers led by Reuven and Shimeon killed Shechem, his father Chamor and their entire tribe to vindicate and rescue Dinah and Asenath. They wanted to murder Asenath to purge the sparks of un-holiness from their midst, but Jacob would not allow it, instead the brothers sent Asenath to Egypt where, by arrangement, she was adopted into the house of Poti-phera Priest of On. This highlights one of many early and prominent intra-religious connections between the priestly leadership of Israel and that of Egypt, which had been progressively established from the time of Abraham. Many years later Yehudah (Judas) influenced all the brothers, who were intent on killing Joseph, to trade him through the Ishmaelites and Midianites into Egypt. This act certainly avoided the almost certain demise of the future Jewish nation (the common term 'Jew' comes from Yehudah - Judas) and Joseph later became Viceroy of Egypt with all of the purity and holy integrity of his father and mother in tact. Then, after a serious attempt to seduce Joseph, by Aesnath's adopted Egyptian mother, Potiphars wife, she finally allowed Joseph to marry Aesnath and when he discovered her Israelite origin, established by the ancient Hebrew writing on her amulet, he agreed to immediately marry her. It was this miraculous event, 22 years after the rape of Dinah that resulted in the birth of Joseph’s sons Manaseh and Ephraim. This was the single event that finally united the higher world house of Leah and the lower world house of Rachel by forging the link and establishing the basis on which the Nation of Israel was built.

Jacob considered Joseph his first born by his choice. It was for this reason that Joseph's decendency received a double heritage. 290 years later the tribe of Manaseh and Ephraim became the only indirect descendants of Jacob to transcend their status being recognized as direct members of the 12 tribes of Israel when it came to the division of the holy land. They took the place of Levi (who was assigned the priesthood) and Joseph who, in the “end of days”, would be the first Messiah to prepare the world before being resurrected as the the final Messiah, King David (the tribe of Yehudah) the point of man’s ultimate redemption before the resurrection of the dead.

Logic would dictate Manaseh, the older brother, would retain the birthright over Israel’s future, but Jacob, on his death bed (like his father Isaac before him), switched his blessing, because he deduced the name MaNaSeh and NeShaMa (meaning: soul, spelled here using English equivalents to demonstrate the same letter usage) have the same Hebrew letters and therefore, by the rules of letter substitution and gematria, possessed the same Divine qualities. In Jacob’s eyes, Manaseh (like Leah) was a soul of the higher world, a child who possessed the the soul of Leah, through Dinah and Asenath. Whereas, Rachel was a soul of the lower world through her dominant Sefirah of Malkhut, resulting in Ephraim being blessed by Jacob to become the greater leader of Israel after the death of Joseph. It was the lower world with which Jacob was most concerned, it needed the full commitment of his descendents to make the necessary corrections and elevations in order to bring redemption by re-uniting lower with higher in the same way they were once united at the time of Adam. Jacob’s powers of perception were remarkable he could foresee the role of his future heritage. He was always consciously aware of the responsibility that he had to his own soul and to those of the future generations who would ultimately bring forth and be witness to this unification.

These soul level activities are complex, but they fundamentally align with the signs devised from knowledge of the Sefirot, handed down form Abraham, Isaac and Moses and by Jacob’s innate perception of his own soul. Had G-d not intervened or Jacob’s free will been incorrectly applied, the two second generation tribes of Israel would not have become the instrumental link to merge Israel into one united nation. As we now know Jacob’s decisions, through his deep faith, determined that his descendants would ultimately be the people G-d would designate His Chosen People.

The day that the name Israel was bestowed on Jacob was the 15th of Nissan 2206. It is the same day that;

-G-d made a covenant with Abraham to give him and his descendants the holy land
-Abraham was advised he was to have a son - Isaac, at the age of 99
-Isaac was born
-Moses appeared before G-d at the burning bush
-The exodus from Egypt occurred (Passover)
-Daniel, in the Lions Den after the destruction of the First Temple, received the prophecy that the Second Temple would be built after 70 years

By analogy to Yehudah who foresaw the survival of prophecy through the Jewish Nation by the sale of Joseph, it is now clear from the recently discovered Gospels of Judas (Yehudah at the time of Jesus) – translated in 2006 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_Judas (dated to 288CE) that Judas was not the deceitful character portrayed by common interpretations of the New Testament (which mirror some mainstream commentators on the Old Testament). Rather Judas was the person who foresaw the continuity of the Jewish Nation and its messianic prophecy through the death of Jesus (Yeshua) - a Jew, who concurred with the planned betrayal because he intuitively shared knowledge of G-d’s ultimate plan for the redemption of man.

With the imminent destruction of the Temple, originally built by Yehudah's (Judah's) King Solomon and the annihilation of more than 1 million Jews in Jerusalem by the Romans, the background story of Jesus and Judas, that took place almost 30 years earlier, became elevated to penetrate the conscience of the nations of the world, but why this particular story? The evolving Gospels of Christianity were adopted by Emperor Constantine for mainstream Romans in a similar period to the dating of the Judas Gospels, some 250-300 years after the death of Jesus.

It is the continuous misrepresentation of Judas's (Yehudah's) soul character that has led anti-Semitic retribution against the Jews. No more so than, in modern times, through the German people whose single minded adaptation of the New Testament enabled Hitler and his representative forces of evil to prey heavily on their restricted sense of lower and higher world reality.

And on April 13, 2006 (15 Nissan 5766) 3560 years later this is what the Pope had to say:

The Vatican, by word of Pope Benedict XVI, grants the recently surfaced Judas' Gospel no credit with regards to its apocryphal claims that Judas betrayed Jesus in compliance with the latter's own requests. According to the Pope, Judas freely chose to betray Jesus: "an open rejection of God's love". Judas, according to Pope Benedict XVI "viewed Jesus in terms of power and success: his only real interests lied with his power and success, there was no love involved. He was a greedy man: money was more important than communing with Jesus; money came before God and his love". According to the Pope it was due to these traits that led Judas to "turn liar, two-faced, indifferent to the truth", "losing any sense of God", "turning hard, incapable of converting, of being the prodigal son, hence throwing away a spent existence".

Perhaps the Judas scapegoat has been a necessary tool for the advancement and spread of Christianity, but to the Jews it has come at a serious and significant price. In essence, Judaism seeks and has always sought a world in which G-d's uninhibited blessings flow abundantly to every soul, regardless of the race, creed, color or religion of the body it occupies.

The Zohar states that the site of the Holy Temple, the centerpiece of Jewish life for more than 3500 years, stands vacant. Perhaps Christianity, Islam and Judaism's ultimate reconciliation with the actions of Yehudah will enable its reconstruction to commence, in haste, so that the world may benefit by the spiritual dedication of Jewish Priests who, once again, may be afforded the opportunity to perform their duties for the benefit of all.

[1] Genesis Ch27:28-29
[2] Ibid 29:14
[3] Ibid 29:18
[4] Gemara Bava Basra 123a
[5] Rashi 17 – Genesis 29:17
[6] Genesis 28:1
[7] http://www.truekabbalah.com/deh.php?p=TheKnowledge007 -
[8] The Gate of Return Chapter 5 Rabbi Dov Ber of Lubavitch
[9] Artscroll Machsor Rosh Hashanah Pg 313 - אבן
[10] http://www.aish.com/torahportion/moray/Reuben.asp
http://www.targum.com/excerpts/shvatim.html
[11] Genesis 48:3-5 : Zohar Vayehi - 222b

The Kabbalah

2006-12-22T13:51:00.000-08:00

To learn about the integrated 'spiritual' and 'physical' worlds we draw from works that have consistently survived the most ardent intellectual attack through the millennia; the surviving mainstream works of the most ancient sources. Since before time of Abraham, the most ancient mystical secrets of the Kabbalah, loosely meaning; to make or to be a vessel to receive[1], have been maintained by Israel’s forefathers and holy people often in secret and in the face of adversity from the authoritative view. Understanding the mystical construct, described in Kabbalah, requires one to have a considerable knowledge of Torah and the many prophetic, priestly and rabbinic interpretations handed down over thousands of years.

The principles of the Kabbalah emanate from the 32 Paths of Wisdom manifest in G-d's 10 names, the source of the 10 Sefirot (vessels) connected by the 22 energies contained in everything we know[2]. Everything from the highest heavens through the lower heavens is enabled through the vessels of the Sefirot. Their formation is described in enormous detail and their resulting energy-forces give life to everything physical and spiritual. In the highest realm, the Sefirot form the basis of 10 united or conjoined spiritual vessels and the 22 hybrid energy paths along which energy forces flow. Each path refflects the source energy embodied in each of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Each letter a different path, unique and specific, connecting G-d's 10 vessels of energy which cascade through the four heavenly realms to earth. In each re-gressive heavenly realm the 10 Sefirot and the 22 paths establish their varied lower realm qualities, connecting, as if chained, where the lowest link in the highest world forms the highest link in the world below reflecting a lowering of G-d’s light such that all is connected and all energy is affected in this multilevel, interconnected system.

At the top of this energy system the vessel 'Keter', which in the lowest heavenly realm of Asiyah is known as “The Crown”, the highest source, details of which are generally unable to be understood, comprehended or perceived by man. Keter of Asiyah is the absolute perfection of all that is “I”[3] and influences all energy-forces that fall beneath it. Below Keter, Chokmah the force of all wisdom; Binah the force of understanding; Chesed the force of kindness; compassion and love; Gevurah the force of strength and justice; Tiferet the force of compassion, beauty and balance; Netzach the force of victory; Hod majesty; Yesod foundation; and vertically below this Malkhut, kingdom, the force of action. There are many ways to look upon these vessels and how they manifest in each object and in our lives. The ancient teachings provide the most exceptional insights into their meanings, at the deepest of mystical interpretations, those that seek knowledge of Torah broadly find them presented in a manner consistent across all Jewish cultural groups.

At a detailed resolution, each Sefirot can be intricately and intimately analyzed and studied to reveal the most credible of mystical secrets that lie beyond literal interprestations and in depth understandings of even the most educated people. For thousands of years, people have written about these mystical secrets, these energy forms, these vessels and the ways in which we function through them to elevate our spiritual and physical states to realize their potential.

G-d is recognized in Jewish mystical studies as The Maker, The Creator of all. G-d is unbounded in His absolute soulful manifestation and can never be correctly imagined. Numerous Prophets, Sages and Rabbi’s have elevated their conscious states to the highest levels, they are known to have traveled to the highest heights, in the deepest meditative sense, to the universal realm of Beriyah by following the mystical paths of the Sefirot. In these higher realms they have received spiritual guidance from the energies that manifest in the 10 Sefirot and 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet as prescribed by G-d.

The teachings of The Zohar, which after the destruction of the second temple (100-200 CE) revealed Kabbalah in a concise form, tell how Adam received The Book (mystical Knowledge of Creation) from G-d, before the containment of all evil was shattered during the episode involving Eve, The Serpent and the fruits of the Tree of Knowledge. Much of this Knowledge was passed from Adam to his son Seth (the son that most resembled Adam’s character), then to Noah, Shem (Malchitzedek), Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and is found today in the book known as Sefer Yetzirah[4]. After Adam ate the forbidden fruit, he lost his complete comprehension of The Divine Knowledge of Creation, which was concealed from him. It was only through his repentance that G-d re-revealed The Knowledge, only this time in the written word absent of his complete esoteric understanding. Adam spent all his days studying the Knowledge he once posessed and which contained the deepest mysteries describing the instant of creation and everything that proceeded from it.

Studies of The Knowledge of Creation resulted in extensive writings continuing through the generations for around 2000 years leading to the time of Abraham and Isaac[5] and beyond. Jacob is known to have studied intensely for 14 years in the same cave that Shem studied in, in Tzefad in Northern Israel. It is quite clear that knowledge of the concepts contained in these writings were deeply engrained in the minds of all Israel’s forefathers. In the book, Sefer Yetzirah, the 10 Sefirot are described as if a Tree of Life including the 22 energy paths (branches) that result from the vessels of the soul defined by G-d.

The Tree of Life (see diagram above) around which the deepest mystical knowledge of the universe and life were formed. Only Torah, read and understood, in its highest most abstract representation contains the revelation that can accurately reflect the intricately detailed make-up of the energies of the Sefirot.

In each vessel (attribute) an aspect of G-d’s light exists which is described in our soulful realm by the Sages as follows;

1 - Keter – Crown – Higher world attribute governing pleasure and desire – closest to G-d therefore representing good. It is the highest dimension and is joined with Malkhut, its opposite, in the cascading heavenly scheme.

2 - Chokmah – Higher world intellectual attribute of Wisdom – Leading the right column it is the masculine form often described as being the right side of good – providing insight. Containing the fixed past, therefore representing the good that emenates from it. This forms the second dimension when joined with Binah. Since the past feeds the future, in a sense fertilizing it, Chokmah is thought of as male.

3 - Binah – Higher world intellectual attribute of Understanding, Awareness, Intelligence – leading the left column it is feminine. Enabling the future and therefore the application of free will often described as being the side of evil – stimulating analysis. Since Binah (the future) receives from the past it is thought of as female.

4 - Chesed – Lower world emotional attribute. Love, Compassion, Kindness, Righteousness – the quality of giving and revealing to others; emanating from Chokmah therefore good

5 - Gevurah – Lower world emotional attribute. Strength, Fortitude, Valor – the quality of withholding from others; emanating from Binah therefore evil

6 - Tiferet – Interfacing lower world (emotional )and higher world (intellectual) attributes. Balance, Beauty, Perfection – representing the center column – bringing down the light of mercy

7 - Netzach – Lower world emotional attribute. Victory, Eternity, Infinity – the desire to overcome obstacles

8 - Hod – Lower world emotional attribute. Splendor, Majesty, Greatness – the quality of grandeur; forming the third dimension when joined with Netzach

9 - Yesod – Lower world emotional attribute. Foundation, Principle – the desire to influence others

10 - Malkhut – Manifestation of Higher world and Lower world attributes through, speech or action by which all connections to our spiritual and physical are carried into life. Sovereignty, Kingship – the desire to rule over others; representing the side of evil in its opposite position to its crown being Keter

In the first chapter of the book of Genesis, (Elokim) The Deity that created the universe designates that Justice and Judgment were executed in His absolute form and not in His form where He presides over His celestial court. In this chapter His specific name is stated on 32 individual and specific occasions associated with His actions during the creation of the heavens, the universe, the world and man[6].

In the highest universal realm, the higher Sefirot (1-3) are commonly referred to as Arich Anpin (The Upper Three) and the lower Sefirot (4-9) – Zer Anpin (The Lower Six). Malkhut (10) is referred to separately as it is the vessel through which we connect to all the energies of the Sefirot, it is the active vessel through which we execute action, in a real world sense, to fulfill G-d’s commands and is generally referred to as Feminine and reflected as the Sabbath. The lower Sefirot are related to the six days of the week with Malkhut being the 7th day(Sabbath). Sabbath (from Friday evening through Saturday evening) is the day on which Jewish people welcome the “Sabbath Bride” when G-d’s holy Feminine presence (the Shekinah) descends to dwell amongst us in peace, protecting and re-invigorating our souls during the Sabbath and by her presence, negating the prominence of evil forces of the other side.

From the 32 times G-d’s name is mentioned in Genesis and the specific acts that emanated from His name, 22 letters and 10 digits are derived as the vessels through which creation took place. Every letter is revealed by and emanates from G-d’s four letter name (י'ה'ו'ה) (Y’H’V’H), which incorporates and is interchangeable with the mother letters א-Aleph-Air, מ-Mem-Water and ש-Shin-Fire. His name is a 6 dimensional analogy for all that exists, the last letter ה denoting the lower world-Malkhut. These 6 dimensions occur in lower and upper worlds often reflected by use of the number 12 representing the completion upper and lower. The array of the 4 letters of His name designates the multiplicity of every conceivable dimension and direction in space. By exhausting all possible arrangements of the letters of His name, the variable flow of energy between each of the vessels of the Sefirot is determined[7]. All roads of Kabbalah lead back to this point no matter how complex the path back may be. Although there are 4 letters in His name, one letter is duplicated the 3 remaining letters parallel 3 Mother Letters representing the elements of Air, Water and Fire reflecting thesis, antithesis and synthesis. The combinational arrays derived by the application of His name together with the Sefirot and their energy flow reveal the primary source for Kabbalah.

The triangle numbers from Genesis 1:1 (see: http://beingholy.blogspot.com/#116408936581140925) in particular the numbers 73 and its whole number midpoint 37 (the 37th inverted triangle that pierced the perimeter of the 73rd triangle on each of its 3 sides to reflect the number 666) establishes the relevance of these precepts. It becomes abundantly clear when we discover that Chokmah the attribute of wisdom in the Sefirot, the highest attribute through which man unites the higher (Keter – The Crown) and lower worlds (The nine remaining Sefirot), contains a unique numerical relationship in that (Chokmah; meaning: wisdom) חכמה = 8+20+40+5 =73. Further, when we look at the ordinal position of its letters we discover that (Chokmah) חכמה= 8th letter +11th letter +13th letter +5th letter = 37. This alludes to the mystery of wisdom being the attribute with the capacity to comprehend all information from the internal and external. However, we can only connect with this understanding through the purity and holiness of each Sefirah that procedes it. To realize our inner wisdom, we must first traverse from the lowest point Malkhut through Yesod, Hod, Netzach, Tiferet, Gevurah, Chesed and Binah to the attribute of Chokmah, only then can Divine Wisdom be accessed by which perfected cognitive reasoning, speech and action can be applied.

Yesod - Foundation (יסוד = 80), the attribute that connects Zer Anpin (the lower 6) to Malkhut - Kingdom (מלכות = 496; the 4th known Perfect Number), is the mystical attribute combination that enables the soul and spiritual essence of the higher world to be brought down to the pragmatic reality of the lower world. When one considers these numbers produce a sum of 576 and that 576 = 24^2 (squared) we are able then to assign a numeric relationship to the importance of the 24 possible permutations[8] of G-d’s explicit name (The letter array of all possible combinations of the Tetragramaton – Y’H’V’H or י'ה'ו'ה). In order to elevate ones thoughts through the ranks of each Sefirah to gain Divine understanding and insight, various ancient mediative techniques using the letter permutations of G-d's name were devised.

Within each attribute are the detailed profiles of each such that the pattern of Sefirot of the highest realm is repeated in a concealed manner within the vessels of the lower realms. Each Sefirah is governed by its unique and specific energy pattern contained in each of its 10 Sefirot, which specifically define the characteristics of that Sefirah. All of our personalities are governed by this balance. It is like the fingerprint of our persona, each one of us being absolutely and perfectly unique.

One of the teachings of the famous Maggid of the city of Mezritch, heard by the Alter Rebbe (the head of the Lubavitcher movement in Russia) in 5524 (1764) casts light on the source of the Sefirot:
"I (Anochi) have made the earth, and upon it created man."[9] Anochi, He who is the true "I",[10] unknown to and concealed from even the loftiest emanations, clothed His blessed Essence through numerous condensations to give rise to the emanations and creatures, to Serafim, Chayot, Ofanim, angels and "worlds" beyond number. Through countless condensations, "I made this (physical) world and upon it created (barati) man." Man is the end-purpose of Creation, and barati is the end-purpose of man. (Barati, "I created," has the numerical equivalent of 613, the number of written commandments in the Torah) and the number of know nerves, sinews and vessels of the human body.

[1] Inner Space – Aryeh Kaplan Pg3 - http://www.chabad.org/dailystudy/tanya.asp?tDate=12/23/2006
[2] Sefer Yetzirah – Aryeh Kaplan Ch1
[3] Inner Space – Aryeh Kaplan Pg 49
[4] See Sefer Yetzirah – The Book of Creation – In Theory and Practice – Revised Edition – Aryeh Kaplan
[5] Sefer Yetzirah – Aryeh Kaplan Pg xii
[6] Sefer Yetzirah – Aryeh Kaplan Ch 1
[7] Sefer Yetzirah – Aryeh Kaplan Pg 83 Table 13.
[8] Meditation and Kabbalah – The Hidden Eden
[9] Yeshayahu 45:12
[10] Lit.: "I, Whoever I Am."

Lessons in History

2006-12-13T18:50:00.000-08:00

When Adam received his soul, the pristine world retained a stronger 'memory' of the holy source from which it emerged. This compelled people of all emerging cultures to pursue their journey of spiritual discovery. After the flood and the physical re-population of the world, the most righteous people like Noah, Malchitzedek and Abraham continued their journey, delving toward the center of the mystical source that had left its magical imprint in the world that surrounded them. It is from this common root that today's cultures are still found to be sharing spiritual and mystical rituals as well as a single language source.

Ishmael (Abraham's son and the source of Islamic lineage) and his Egyptian mother Hagar (Pharaohs daughter in servitude to the house of Abraham to learn monotheistic mysticsm), were eventually banished from Abraham's increasingly spiritual home. They traveled back to Egypt where Ishmael established a family of 12 sons. Isaac (Abraham's son with Sarah) remained committed to a deep state of holiness and purity. He remained in the area which later became Israel where his wife Rebecca bore the twin sons of 'future nations', Jacob (representing Israel) and Esau (representing Rome - and all Christian nations). Esau was first and the Bible recounts that Jacob was born grasping Esau's heel, this is important in context of Torah's later prophecies for the development of humanity.

When Abraham died his grandchildren, Jacob and Esau, were 15 years old. Like Ishmael, Esau was more comfortable living and playing in the field while Jacob devoted his time to study and prayer in the continuation of Abraham and Isaacs deeply spiritual, doctrine. At 63, when Jacob received Isaac's blessing, he finally prepared himself for marriage, the ritual unification of the male and female soul. It was 50 years before Jacobs death when, at the Yabbok river, on his way to the site where Jerusalem is today, that he encountered Esau and fought the angel of death, prevailing over it and receiving its blessing, together with the name Israel that was bestowed on him. In the last 17 years of his 147 year life Jacob followed Joseph (his son) into Egypt with his 11 other sons and their families. After their long awaited reconciliation with Joseph, who by that time had become the most powerful man in Egypt next to Pharaoh, the sons of Israel (Jacob) became enormously influential in Egyptian culture and society, especially in the North. Within a few generations they had grown from 70 people to many thousands of influential descendants of Jacob all of whom enjoyed a privileged, aristocratic status in the Egypt.

The mystical construct of their monotheistic belief was substantially different from any other in Egypt and it fascinated the highly spiritual Egyptian intellectual class, including the priests. It is quite apparent from the detailed stories of Joseph that the Egyptian high priests and aristocracy, including Pharaoh, searched for and found a deeper meaning in their actions through Josephs mystical explanations. Pharaoh was consumed by Joseph's abilities of interpretation, foresight and prophecy. During Joseph's reign he opened the way for the rapid spread and integration of Abrahamic mysticism into Egyptian religious culture. The 90 years of Joseph's life in Egypt marked a peak of Israel's tribal growth and influence. Then, because of his death and that of the Pharaoh ruling at that time, Israel's demise was exacerbated by a hostile objenctionable aristocracy over the next 120 years, ultimately leading to their exodus from Egypt. The total exile period was 430 years (since Abraham's first arrival in Egypt), but this shorter 210 year period is arguably the most pivotal point in the history of all civilization. During their lives Jacob and Joseph were celebrated by Egyptians and upon their deaths, they were embalmed, receiving formal and extensive burials sponsored and endorsed by Pharaoh, the nation of Egypt and their allies.

After Israel's exodus from Egypt and at the end of Egypt's Middle Kingdom (a period of great turbulence in the Pharaonic lineage), the New Kingdom was formed, but things were never quite the same because, as the spiritual center of the world, Egyptian culture had been greatly diminished by the seismic shift of Israel's departure leaving behind a massive vacuum that could not be filled with anything as sophisticated, detailed or perfected as the deep mystical construct and logic of ancient Judaism. Israel's departure left Egypt in chaos, grappling with a return to its flawed past, eventually it led to the complete demise as the worlds primary spiritual authority 1000 years later at the end of the New Kingdom.

Following Israel's exile, at the crossing of the Sea and at Mt. Sinai, they (more than 3 million people) were simultaneously subjected to the most intense enlightenment any single mass population group has ever experienced. After 40 years in the desert, committed to a life of purity, the 12 tribes of Israel separated and settled in the land promised to Abraham. There was a hiatus of several hundred years as they built their new cities and integrated into or fought off some of the existing communities. Apart from each other for the first time in their approximate 300 year history since becoming a nation under Jacob, only their holy teachings and common faith, strengthened by G-d's revelation at the crossing of the sea and their receipt of Torah at Mt. Sinai, kept Israel's tribes bonded together as a common people with a common religious identity.

After several hundred years Israel's tribes gathered in two distinct groups represented by the Kingdom of Judah (including the priesthood) in the South and Israel more generally represented in the North. Their variation in religious practices and the influence of other cultures caused them to drift from their absolute common root, but each remained fundamentally connected to the Torah, to its mystical Kabbalah, and key prayers and meditations. Their principle and common belief in G-d, His commandments and their societal commitment to the laws of Torah, kept them from over zealously competing with each other and provided the magnetism that progressively drew them closer to ultimately become the Iron Age United Kingdom of Israel.

Around 800 BCE, King David fought for possession of the strategically placed Jebusite city and he purchased land that eventually led to the establishment of Jerusalem as a city and religious site. This was centered at Mt. Moriah the mountain, which contains the rock of creation, the foundation stone around which the entire world was formed, where Abraham offered Isaac to G-d and where Jacob pledged to build a house for G-d. David's son King Solomon built the first permanent Israelite Temple to house the Holy of Holies, the Ark of the Covenant holding the stones of the 10 Commandments that were transported through the dessert from Mt. Sinai. Jerusalem progressively became the undisputed mystical and spiritual center of the world, the place where people of all nations came to repent their sins and give sacrifice to G-d for their individual and collective redemption.

Following approximately 300[2] years of the first temple period, mainstream Israelites began to drift away from the purity of their post exile commitments including their direct and daily connection with G-d through the temple. During this time increasingly large groups from other cultures integrated and converted to Judaism. 150 years later, the Jews (including the priesthood) under the Kingdom of Judah, keepers of the land in the south, where the temple was based, were attacked by the Babylonians. The first temple was destroyed and all of Judah and Israel placed into a permanent state of exile, banished from the Holy Land to Babylon (Iran). This marks the beginning of Israel's long diaspora when the Jewish masses continued their migration to other countries and integrated more broadly into other cultures. Then Imperial Greece, under Alexander the Great, conquered Jerusalem and after 70 years of exile, the Holy Priests, with permission from the Babylonian King, cautiously began returning to Jerusalem. The rebuilding of the temple commenced immediately and later in Jerusalem, under Roman rule, massive construction of the second temple continued, and was ultimately completed making it arguably the most important religious site in history.

After 400 hundred years of the second temple period, toward the end of the first century of the Common Era (CE), Jews in Jerusalem, their temple and the increasingly recalcitrant priesthood were destroyed. This occurred because fragmented groups of increasingly powerful secular Jews, including many recent converts, spurred Imperial Rome's politicians to directly oppose Israel's religious core who remained entrenched and unwavering in their commitment to G-d over any national interests. Amongst the Jewish opposition, Yehoshua (Hebrew),Yeshua (Aramaic) or (Jesus), a particularly rebellious spiritual and mystical leader who, from amongst the many false Mesiah's at the time, was tried and crucified for his attempts to stop Roman corruption of temple priesthood and practices. Rome attacked and the Jews were placed into a deep and longlasting exile one more time. This time all Jews in Jerusalem were viciously persecuted and no Jew permitted to live within the cities walls. During this period Israel was scattered in the diaspora, North, through modern day Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq, Greece, Italy, France and Spain and South through Egypt, Libya and Morocco. Those Jews who remained committed to the core of their spiritual belief adopted the prescribed practices of the Great Council of Elders who after the destruction of the first Temple documented the entire body of Oral Torah handed down through the millennia. However, non-Jews who had previously benefited by bringing sacrifices at the Temple were left in a directionless spiritual void to fend for themselves.

By the end of the 4th century (CE), following Emperor Constantine's official adoption of Christianity (313CE) and the founding of the Byzantine Empire, the Land of Israel had become a predominantly Christian country. Churches were built on once Jewish holy sites in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and the Galilee. Around 600 years after this, Arab rulers, followed by the Turks of the Ottoman Empire attacked and took control of Jerusalem in the period before the beginning of Islam (around 800 CE). Successive attempts were made to destroy all that Jerusalem represented, its buildings, monuments, artifacts and articles of substance in order to remove any remnant of Israel's hated Jewish religious culture for fear that it may rise to undermine its opponents one last time. Then, following an appeal by Pope Urban II to reclaim the holy land, the Crusaders of Europe were sent. Initially successful in 1187 (CE) they were eventually overthrown by the Arab's under Saladin. The Arab communities who occupied Jerusalem at that time were particularly vigilant, building over and raising to the ground the remnants of anything that Rome had failed to destroy at the begining of the millennia prior.

At the time of the destruction of the second temple by the Romans (after the time of Jesus), it became evident to the most learned Rabbis that Kabbalah, its rituals, meditation and its teachings were to be strictly practiced underground in order to retain correct standards of its delicately constructed laws and avoid further persecution by those that opposed it. The Holiest Sages and Rabbis continued to move into the north, ( the old Kingdom of Israel) to Tiberias and Zefad where they continued to study and reveal the most mystical aspects of the Torah. Zefad is the site where Jacob studied for 14 years in the school of Malchitzedek. The practices of the Rabbi's began to change to meet the demands of the more modern pragmatic era and teachings of the Kabbalah (representing the scapegoat) became feared by Jewish mainstream communities for the tyranny that the Jews had experienced. Mysticism was buried, allowed only in the deepest underground groups, for almost 1000 years, until around 1100 CE,when the Zohar (the teachings of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and his pupils recovered from around 100 CE) was first published and open study resumed in certain European cities, but only amongst the most learned holy scholars. As these teachings began to re-emerge for the first time, Jews in exile were persecuted in Spain and throughout Europe. The spread of Catholicism caused serious spiritual, religious and cultural conflict and many newly established derivatives of Christianity and Islam had difficulty reconciling intellectually with their root teachings in Jewish mysticism, so they were forced to 'shape' the views of its teachers and commentators. It was not until approximately 1600-1700 CE when the Chassidic Jews in Russia and Eastern Europe re-established the study of Kabbalah and its' more practical application through the teachings of the Chassidic Masters (first taught by the ba'al Shem Tov) known as Chassidus. Progressively, although not without serious contention from their fellow Jews, certain Rabbi's (led by The Alter Rebbe - founder of modern Chabad) felt that the time had arrived to reveal more and more of the wisdom of Kabbalah through Chassidus.

Around the end of the First World War Russian and Eastern European Jews began to immigrate west toward the major cities of Europe. Following the pogroms in Russia under Stalin, wave after wave of immigrants joined their fellow Jews in Poland, Germany, France and Hungary causing significant social upheavel. Through their practice and study of Torah they remained motivated to struggle and survive despite very difficult conditions imposed on them. Speaking Hebrew and Yiddish, they were the outcasts of society almost everywhere they went, therefore secular Judaism became the 'easier' alternative causing assimilation to spread rapidly into the heart of European Jewish culture and society. This new wave of assimilated 'Jewishness' mixed in with the remnant of ancient Jewish righteousness and mysticsm, once again, became the wekest link, the focus of resentment, stirring up the darkest forces manifest in Hitler and his alien nation principals.

Hitler distorted the views of the role of Judas in the death of Christ, sourced in the comparatively independent and contained writings of the New Testament, which planted the seeds for anti-Semitism and established the ideal conditions for a headonistic disaster. Like a head-on collision of two oncoming trains, it was Hitler's train of steel that crushed and destroyed the train of Jews imigrating into Europe. Through this, the souls of the 6 million Jews, who perished by Hilters evil hand, were elevated to return to the higher worlds to empower the forces of good and G-d's heavenly tribunal was called to weigh scales, judging the nation of Israel and the world. A direct result of these events, 3 years after the end of World War II, was the establishment of the State of Israel. Finally the major nations of the world formally and officially recognized the national right of Jews to the land of Israel as a permanent home for the descendants of Jacob, the keepers of the Jewish faith.

Despite the re-establishment of the modern State of Israel, there remains a fundamental opposition to the Jewish mystical core that protects, shields and benefits all descendants of Israel. This is the same opposition that followed Abraham, Jacob and Joseph into Egypt, the one that caused Egypts resentment, the one that the Babylonians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Arabs, the Spanish and the Germans followed in order to crush and control Israel's spiritual ideal. This opposition, manifest in ongoing anti-Semitism, (see Iran's latest attempt to deny the holocaust) is so strong that only a comprehensive knowledge, understanding, possesion and identification with Torah and its' inner meanings by the nations of the world will finaly render opposition to the ideal neutral. This is the vision of the Ba'al Shem Tov who, in a deep meditation was told 'when the well springs (his teachings) burst forth and reach the furthest extremities' then the 'shells' (concealers of truth) will cease to exist and the Messiah will be seen in the world.

[1] http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Facts+About+Israel/History/Facts+About+Israel-+History.htm
[2] http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Facts+About+Israel/History/HISTORY-+Foreign+Domination.htm

Sensitivity and Attachment

2006-12-08T15:35:00.000-08:00

Our physical interface to the spiritual realm, from the lowest universe - Asiyah, through the holiest and highest - Azilut, is secured against the dimensional backdrop that gave birth to these universal realms. These are dimensions of such depth, such 'smallness', such infinitesimal nothingness, such purity that their incomprehensibly sensitive qualities manifest in every aspect of any and every possible physical form. In this sense, dimensional finite energies are integrated with the spiritual 'Life Force' energies of thInfiniteie Being (Ain Sof) manifesting in Azilut (our universal realm) and flowing through everything. In a physical sense, at a sub-atomic and atomic scale this is significant because it gives rise to the notion of energy inter-dependencies on a grand unified scale. At a sub-atomic scale this dependency is emphasized because G-d's spiritual forces exert significant influence over the physical structures and sub-structures of each atom in each physical particle, inside every physical object.

If this is the case then, how come we do not feel the presence of this phenomena? Are we oblivious? It is scientifically acknowledged that the predominantly unknown particles, like Neutrino's and other sub-atomic energy forces that take on wave or wave-like forms, pass through our physical bodies every second of every day at the rate of trillions of sub-atomic components per second. So small are these sub-structures and forms that we are unable to detect their presence yet we know they exist. They make up the dark matter and other unknown components of the universe, the jelly mass in which the galaxies, nebula, black holes, stars, planets and people float. We are born into this universal sub atomic jelly, we live in it and it is essential to the forces that sustain life.

So, let's look back at what we have learned: The Infinite Being - The Force of All Forces establishes His will, through which He applies His energy in the form of Eternal Light, which after a shattering of these initial, intensely spiritual energies gives rise to the first finite dimension. His force is applied in 4 major universal realms channeled into 10 cascading 'vessels' of pure spiritual energy of which 7 are the lower vessels, containing remnants of the His original 'light'. The energies of light (good) and darkness (evil) are captured in each of the vessels, which converge. Their intersection becomes the mixing pot in which pre sub-atomic forces are born. The intersection at the peak of the decent (the convergence point) itself is an almost infinite point. At the precise intersection (convergence of all vessels and all realms) the battle of light and dark cannot be resolved by returning to the infinite form because to do so would go beyond G-d's permitted boundary, therefore the only outcome is by reversal, birth and inflatifinitethe fintie force. His beaming spiritual light, drawn to the intersecting singularity of the vessels, releases with enormous force, all that is contained within them giving rise to the creation of the physical world of Asiyah, the lowest spiritual realm, the new home of our physical universe, which expands massively. The dimensions of the most outer spiritual realms remain closest to the forces of G-d. They are the most extremely sensitive dimensions and are instantly responsive to everything He wills.

The extremity of the spiritual dimension of Azilut makes an almost direct connection to The Ain Sof (The Infinite Being), but no connection is actually made. Nevertheless, Atzilut is in such close spiritual proximity that His affect on the extremity of the finite realm of Azilut is instantaneous. It is in Azilut that G-d's spiritual will is transferemanatinge emenating forces of spiritual light that form the basis for His Angels to come into existence. Each next dimensional realm, in turn, transcends each of the other dimensions that fall below Azilut[1]. As discussed earlier, these are the other universal realms; Beriyah (Creation - Something from nothing), Yetzirah (Formation - Something from something) and finally Asiyah (Action - Completion). Connecting and weaving their way through each of these universal realms are the same finite dimensions that originated in Azilut. Although each realm is finite, they and all that they contain remain bounded by the infinite dimension from which they originate and ultimately the root of everything is, The Essence of G-d.

The constrictions that gave rise to each of these universal realms and their cascading vessels, which enabled the light of the Ein Sof to be restricted, shaped the forms of the dimensional structures of the predecessors to space and time before the Big Bang. Consider these dimensions as fractal-like forms, strings, tubes and shapes that connect, weave, and establish the basis for the foundation and primitive structure of space before the emergence of our universal events. However, at the point of the intersection, in the moment of the creation of the singularity, they give rise to the sub-atomic world of our universe in which we now live.

Since these dimensions are the essential foundation of the finite they constitute the building blocks of everything that can ever be physically possible. They contain within them the information that connects every particle of every atom everywhere. At the lowest levels of the sub-atomic dimension, these sub-fractional components are extremely sensitive to force of any type. At a scale relative to the sub-atomic (smaller than anything science has evidence ofenoughbrave enought to theorize), it is the forces of G-d, connected by His Light through His 4 universal realms and their vessels that guide and influence structure in our universe.

Imagine the trillions of sub-atomic particles passing through every cell of your body every second. Imagine, these interact with and impact the atomic behavior of all molecules in your body, which in turn are interconnected and responsive to this External force maintaining its perfect influence over all structure. Under these circumstances, your body and your brain are being affected by this Force and in return the atoms of your body have the capacity to influence this force. This is a two way[2] street, a communication mechanism that connects every atom in your body to the forces of G-d. Every thought and every action has an impact on this External Force and vice versa. With this interpretation, it becomes easier to comprehend the ways in which G-d communicates with us and affects us, for He is able to determine the oscillation of every possible atomic substructure.

It is the inner spiritual workings of your electric pumping heart and your mind and the oscillation of your atoms (in your body) that determine how you ultimately synchronize with His already oscillating Forces. You are directly connected to His Force. His oscillations are directed to everyone and everything and the aggregate of our personal and human oscillations in turn are felt by Him acting as a barometer of our spiritual state and that of the human race. So how do we connect with G-d? How do we respond to Him? How do we tune our spiritual sense to harmonize with Him? How should we live our lives? What mental state should we aspire to? Should we become motivated to think more seriously about Him?

To comprehend this in real terms one must accept that the energies of your body, mind and soul are susceptible to the influence of the forces that surround you, including the input that your brain receives from the brains of other people. Here are a few examples that will set you thinking about this in the right way. If you've ever been in a busy airport catching a flight where the process of moving through lines is necessary, but mundane, your thoughts will in all likelihood sway from the focus of your simple objective - to get on the plane. You will be distracted by events surrounding you, people, stores, food, bathrooms and general activities. The mind noise that emanates from all of the people present, who each have different secondary objectives (gates and times) to consider, is too much for you to bring into order so you tend to drift around in thoughts that are interrupted by the collective minds of those people passing around you. Compare this to a visit to a major sporting event where the entire stadium is focused on the play in the game. Everyone's energy is directed toward a specific focal point and very few distractive thoughts take your attention away from the action in the center. From this example you can see that you are also affected by surrounding (His external indirect) forces that influence you.

Consider your inner voice, the voice that is repetitively heard by you and by no-one else. This is the place in your mind where you 'talk to yourself' confiding in your thoughts, strategizing, analyzing, summing up and determining what your free will course of action should be. It's the place where you silently judge those around you, the place from where you compartmentalize information to establish your personal perception of reality, your kingdom, the one that provides you with foundation from which you can function as a stable person in this world. Internally your thoughts manifest as words (you think in words), somehow they come into mind, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly and they cause reactions, similar thoughts to converge and opposites to repel causing new results that in turn spur other inner voice words, eventually settling with some form of acceptance. Then it starts again. Why do you 'speak' to yourself? Surely we have no need for letters and words especially when they are not expressed in speech itself, but this is not the case. Language, letters and words appear to be the essential elements of our inner voice. So where do these word combinations come from and how do they just form in our brains? Consider the mystical nature of letters and their relative Kabbalistic energy forms, then consider that these energies flow according to the attributes (Sefirot) discussed in Kabbalah. From this we can begin to comprehend that letters are not just some physical manifestation of language, but that they derive from a higher energy source which is universally connected and which affects each of our abilities to function in the world we live and the space that surrounds us.

Most people will find it difficult to tune into or recognize the specific inputs they are receiving. Unexplained events, people you think of who call you, forgotten people that re-connect with you, strangers that talk to you, what are they really saying or doing, is there a hidden higher purpose behind each thought, each action, each event you experience that you may not be interpreting correctly? The more conscious you are, the more you will perceive your higher purpose so that you can apply your free will to this perception, of direct or indirect input, in order to benefit you and those around you.

To many this will just seem like noise, a loud unending hiss, the pain of distraction, or worse, no recognition at all. These are the thoughts and interruptions that prevent you from getting to interpret the pure thoughts that ought to be occupying your conscious mind. These are the levels of thought that would propel all of us to become better people. Blanking out, or reducing the noise or learning to identify with the source of pure thought is a skill that can only be learned with practice, patience and time. It begins by recognizing the negative forces that impede your correct comprehension of thought. Light and dark forces of G-d exist in the ether that surrounds you and the ether within you, your choice is to question the origin of every thought by applying your 'free will' to perceive these spiritual and physical energies. This process has been spoken of and studied since the soul of Adam was 'blown' into him almost 6000 thousands of years ago.

The Chassidic Masters of Jewish teachings, meditations and prayers are some of the deepest thinkers on the mystical subject of 'Thought Energy'. Many of these people lived during difficult times in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries having drawn deeply on their ancient learning heritage. However, it was during this time they clearly defined the teachings that have subsequently helped many millions of people to successfully contain their unholy thoughts and convert them to the highest levels of holiness, elevating darkness into light. It is this ability to recognize and conquer evil thoughts, promoted by angels, people and events of the other side that will ultimately bring the light of redemption to the world and only by our sensitivity to these energies are we able to recognize their existence and respond to them in the appropriate manner. If we fail to recognize this we will simply continue along humanities journey toward the great abyss. However, we can change, we can spend more time devoted to these energies and we can make the penultimate difference to the path for the future of humanity.

[1] Etz Chayim, Shaar 47, ch. 12, et al. 4. Tikkunei Zohar, Introduction II (beginning Patach Eliyahu). http://www.chabad.org/dailystudy/tanya.asp?NavCal=Heb&Lang=&tDate=9/19/2004
[2] Inner Space Pg 34 Divine Providence

The Origin

2006-12-01T22:50:00.000-08:00

Highly reccomended reading by Isaac Mozeson - LINK

At the moment of conception, the soul of a father and mother are united to prepare the embryo, as a vessel, to accept its greatest gift; the soul.

At the precise moment of the male and female union, the conscious and subconscious (emulating the perfect unification of physical and spiritual worlds at the moment of creation) converge, causing the brain of the father to release the sperm (seed) that travels to meet the unfertilized egg in the womb of the mother. Chemicals released in the father's brain trigger immediate and rapidly firing nerve signals that travel down the spinal chord[1] to the genitals, bringing the state of the male body to a euphoric high. The divine point of potential holiness when the father is 'open' and elevated to become a vessel to draw down, from amongst the holiest souls of the side of good or evil forming, by his state of mind and directed through the living sperm, that originate in his brain, the spiritual vessel that will ultimately enable the child to receive its holy soul (N'shamah)[2].

A few seconds later, sperm and egg unite to determine, from a pool of more than 10 billion microscopic proteins that individuallyally activate and select, the connector sequences that define the DNA in the uniting chromosome of the nuclei of that sperm and egg cell. Each protein is individually triggered to establish the foundation for the final genetic blueprint of the child to be. If contemplated correctly this critical moment holds the key to bringing much holiness[3] into our world, but its ritual importance and our appreciation of its depth has been usurped by the rush to satisfy the desires of our distracted lives.

Figure; The enormously complex DNA or RNA genetic chromosome code of a cells nucleus is defined by 22 paired sequences represented by any 3 of 4 letter (codon) combination, plus one additional codon to determine sex. For example, the RNA sequence UUUAAACCC represents a protein sequence three amino acids long. From a pool of more than 10 billion proteins a determination event must construct a specific 22 pair chromosome sequence in order to properly define the function of a plant or animal cell and the future of the organism to which it belongs.

Kabbalah emphasizes that a man who carries out his conscious desire to release semen, outside of the act of the holy union of man and woman, is essentially reducing his potential because he relinquishes to physical desire that can only be subdued by elevating his thoughts, strengthening his mind and reaching for a higher state in which physical desire is ultimately nullified. The purposeless release of sperm is considered sinful because it interferes with the spirits and angels of the higher worlds each time they are summoned through a false call for the potential preparation of an earthly soul.

Most people believe they possess a soul and that their sense of the spiritual comes from it, but few people are aware of its origin or ways to improve their relationship to it. So where does your soul come from and how does it work?

Before Creation the Great Ain Sof in His eternal state, in His ultimate enduring manifestation, in His world beyond, is One and is therefore the origin of all souls. After creation of the perfected heavens and earth, G-d creates Adam and 'blows' his soul into him[4]. The name 'Adam' reveals that the soul is to be found circulating through the blood. The heart being the bloods central organ known as The King of the Soul[5]. The Hebrew name 'dam', (דם = 44) meaning blood, reflects the 22 male and 22 female (autosomes) chromosomes and '(a) + (dam)' [(א or 1)+ (דםor 44) = 45] demonstrates that by the 1 additional specific sex chromosome the sex of a cell is defined by separating from 44 chromosomes the correct pairing of 22 in each of the male and the female.

At first Adam's soul was the complete manifestation of G-d's male and female spiritual attributes, then G-d split from Adam's left side a new physical being into which He 'blows' the soul of Eve. Eve's soul, cleaved from the left side, set the stage for the future of humanity with the embodiment of the left, being the dominant feature of the female soul and the right being the dominant feature of the male soul.

Our souls originate in the higher heavens (worlds). Souls from the highest worlds are those of the holiest beings (complete tzadikim or righteous people who are not capable of evil thoughts[6]). A Souls purpose is made complete when it is elevated to its highest state through the actions of the bodies that possess it or that possessed it previously. A soul can be elevated or relegated by the actions[7] of a person during their life. However, not all souls are destined to return to the earthly dimension because the goal and purpose of our time on earth, through 'free choice' afforded to us in the physcal world, is to guide our soul to its ultimate destination, its origin in the cleft of the rock[8] in G-d's highest heaven. Only the holiest of souls make it to the highest point because G-d's conditions of return to Him are high. This is why all religions based around principles of Torah strive for the arrival of the Messiah, the time when all of our souls will finally be redeemed by G-d and elevated to their highest status in His heavens.

Without parents realizing it, the name they give to their child is the name of the child's soul, received by divine inspiration. Therefore your name is in fact the divine name of your soul and the mystical qualities hidden deep in your name are those which represent all that you are. Simply by analyzing your name (at its root language) almost everything can be deduced about you, because all names originate from a small nomenclature root set, which can be resolved back to the profile attributes of the soul, its name association in the Torah. Some Rabbi's possess a heightened awareness of the Torah and its meaning and are able to deduce, through your name, much of your past and future soulful state. Their sensitivity to this is accurate in the extreme and their impact on people who share the desire of this soulful sensitivity is remarkable and often immediate. When this and similar knowledge of a souls characteristic is accessed by those (of the other side) who apply their lower ego (in Hebrew 'Ani'[9]), particularly those who are intent on using it for wrongful purpose, it can often be pinpointed to the emergence of cults and wayward practices.

Your name is therefore a reflection of the soul that you possess. Your soul contains all of the attributes of your soul state that have come before your attachment to it. Its dominant attributes are indelibly etched into it. When you receive it at birth, you may be able to perceive it, but your correct perception of it dissipates with age when most minds become pre-occupied with other aspects of material life. Therefore, it is difficult to perceive your soul correctly during your life because interference of material culture and selective inability to overcome desire distort perception . Materiality is a distraction from soul culture which would require substantial elevation in order for the majority of us to correctly perceive all of our soul attributes.

One of the external methods used to understand the construct of your soul, according to the original practices of ancient Kabbalistic wisdom, is through astrology, which identifies your Zodiac influence by analysis of your name to reveal your star sign. Unlike the modified astrology inspired through Christian influence Jewish astrology is derived by using your name. Adding the numerical value of letters of your name (or Hebrew name root) with those of your mothers name and dividing by 12 determines the 'remainder'. The remainder is then applied to identify your one of 12 star signs. This is based upon the 12 Elemental letters in the Hebrew Alphabet, the 12 tribes of Israel, the 12 primary permutations of G-d's explicit[10] name and the 12 angular divisions of the sky.

Using the same logic and dividing by 7, to factor the 7 primary planets (reflecting 7 days of the week), the 7 attributes of the lower soul (Sefirot) and the 7 pillars (7 Double letters of the Hebrew Alphabet) from which those attributes extend to the upper soul, one is able to determine the major planetary influences. A further important determination is the 28 'camps' of the Divine Presence, corresponding to the one of the 28 days of the lunar month[11] on which you were born. This parallels the 28 times mentioned in Ecclesiastes, which relates back to the 7 double letters of the Hebrew alphabet and each sign is determined according to the extended sacred 42[12] Letter Name of G-d. Using a detailed process of Kabbalistic meditation based upon the 42 Letter Name of G-d, knowledge of the influence of these cycles is gained in specific detail. The 28 Camps are the key to defining the impact of Zodiac cycles on your soul and the qualities associated with each day as follows;

1. A time to be born (seed)
2. A time to die (desolation)
3. A time to plant (seed)
4. A time to uproot (desolation)
5. A time to kill (death)
6. A time to heal (life)
7. A time to wreck (death)
8. A time to build (life)
9. A time to throw stones (poverty)
10. A time to hoard stones (wealth)
11. A time to loose (poverty)
12. A time to seek (wealth)
13. A time to embrace (grace)
14. A time to shun (ugliness)
15. A time to safeguard (grace)
16. A time to discard (ugliness)
17. A time to be still (Wisdom)
18. A time to speak (Foolishness)
19. A time to sew (Wisdom)
20. A time to tear (Foolishness)
21. A time of War (Hate)
22. A time of peace (peace)
23. A time of hate (War)
24. A time of love (Peace)
25. A time of mourning (Subjugation)
26. A time of dancing (Dominance)
27. A time to weep (Subjugation)
28. A time to laugh (Dominance)

These most ancient of practices of Kabbalah, spanning back thousands of years and many like them, are the pre cursor to modern western astrology, tarot, palmistry and other similar systems, which over the millennia have been interpreted in different ways to reveal information related to life cycles. Most Kabbalistic methods directly relate to the soul and your name as a relationship to it.

Notably, at creation the 7 planets (Torah states there are 7 planets) are said to have been created in the sky one hour apart from each other based on their distance from earth. Each planet is therefore dominant based upon a 7 hour cycle that begins with their creation on the fourth day and extends through the day. On this basis the dominant planet in the first hour of each day has the most significant influence on the rest of the day and therefore becomes the source[13] for the day's name, which is the origin of the English (Roman) names of each day of the week.

We take for granted, in our everyday lives, the origin of much of the knowledge and adopted western practices, which were established through Torah culture and from the teachings that have emanated and been expounded from it over the millennia.

Considering the world of the sub atomic, in which we are all rooted, it is quite logical that the greater energies which influence it and the lesser energies from which our physical bodies originate are sufficient to alter reality itself. If our lives were sensitized to these phenomenon perhaps we would all seek a greater degree of knowledge from our root heritage in order to find a path that would more frequently recognize the preciousness of these life energies in the context of G-d the Highest Power.

[1] Bahir - Aryeh Kaplan Pg 56 - 155
[2] http://www.chabad.org/dailystudy/tanya.asp?tDate=11/27/2006
[3] Inner Space Pg 166
[4] Genesis 2:7
[5] Sefer Yetzirah - Kaplan Pg 240
[6] Lessons in Tanya - Pg 147
[7] Derech Chayim - The Way of Life. Pt1 ShÂar HaTeshuva Chapter 1
[8] Zohar - Mishpatim 97a The old sage - Saba : Parshah: Ki Tisa Verses: Shemot 30:11-34:35
[9] Inner Space - Aryeh Kaplan Pg 50
[10] Zohar III Mishpatim 96a
[11] Sefer Yetzirah - Aryeh Kaplan 5:10 Pg 221
[12] Sefer Yetzirah Areyeh Kaplan Pg224 - Table 53
[13] Sefer Yetzirah - Aryeh Kaplan Pg178 Table 33

Patterns in Creation

2006-11-24T16:00:00.000-08:00

1) Hebrew letter followed by its 2) order in the 22 letters (ordinal number), 3) its numerical value and 4) its transliterated name.

G-d used the energies attributed to each Hebrew letter to create the spiritual attributes of Heaven and the physical attributes of Earth. Those energies, reflected in each letter, are the source of Hebrew, which became the shared source for interpreted languages in use around the world today.

To discover more, we will focus only on the first 7 words of the Torah, which reveal more than simply meets the eye.

Creation occurred over a period of 6 days. Kabbalah segments[1] the first day as being energies from the side of the right followed on the second day by energies of the left. Both days occurred when creations process was not sufficiently complete to establish the foundation for life, but on the third day the energies of the left were drawn toward the right[2] in order to establish the center; balance and foundation. It was on this day that the earth was revealed above the water. Up to this point only 3 of the 4 elements necessary for human life were exposed, they were water, fire and air[3]. On the third day earth’s surface was exposed, above the water, dry land appeared and G-d created the perfected environment for an abundance of plant life to thrive. The third day is the letter gimel ג equals 3; the creation of the center, foundation, balance and stability from chaos, the concept of a triangle emerges from this point.

The root word for gimel - גמל (more on this number follows) = 3 + 30 + 40 = 73 or by its ordinal value = 3rd letter + 13th letter + 12th letter = 28, projecting the foundation onto the 28 letters in this first verse of creation; the completion of stability on the third day.

The total value for each of the 7 words of the first verse of Genesis = 2701.

The total of the first letter of each of the 7 words, is 2+2+1+1+5+6+5 = 22, equivalent to the total number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet all of which fall between the letters את (Aleph - the 1st letter and Taf - the 22nd letter) found in the 4th word, the mid point of these first 7 words.

The first word has 6 letters. Mathematically six is the first Perfect Number. A Perfect Number is one that is equal to the sum of all its positive whole numbers that can exactly divide into it, up to but excluding itself, in this case 1+2+3.

Within the first word we find the date on which creation was completed in the 7th month of the Hebrew calendar. The month is known as Tishrei (תשרי), the 7th day of Creation is the first Sabbath, the day on which G-d rested and bestowed His blessings, the day of Adam’s birth, the day the nation of Israel was conceived, the day Sarah (Abrahams wife) died and the day the Torah was received by the Jewish people at Mount Sinai. The 1st of Tishrei is written, א בתשרי (Alef B’ Tishrei), it is a reorganization of the exact letters found in the first word of the Torah (B’reishit) בראשית.

In the first verse, the letter aleph א appears in each word except the fifth word (the heavens). It is found in six letter positions, 3rd+9th+10th+15th+23rd+26th = 86 = א 'ל 'ה 'י 'ם (Elokim) the name of G-d stated 32 times in the first verse of Genesis[4].

All known Perfect Numbers are even and triangular. Six is the 3rd triangular number illustrated bellow by virtue of its 3 rows of number bricks of 6 numbers with 3 numbers at its base.

There are a total of 28 letters in this first verse - 28 is the 2nd Perfect Number and the 7th triangular number.

There are several geometries associated with the number 2701 - the numerical expression of Genesis 1:1 (2701 is obtained by adding together all values of each letter) - thus:

- The 37 x 73 rectangle = 2701 number bricks

- The 37 x 73 trapezium = 2701 number bricks

2701 is also the 73rd triangular number. It has 73 individual number bricks along its base. 37 is the whole number mid-brick of its base (36 + 1 (the tan brick at the base line) + 36 = 73).

Observe the geometrical compatibility in that the 37th triangle (tan), when inverted fits perfectly within the 73rd triangle leaving 3 equal blue triangles each with 666 number bricks (the 36th triangle) and the tan triangle of 703 tan number bricks (the 37th triangle).

Note the boundaries of each of these smaller blue triangles each comprise exactly 216 (blue bricks on their perimeter, which can be expressed as 6 x 6 x 6 = 216 and may be rearranged into a stack to create the unique 6 x 6 x 6 cube depicted below:

Note: The 6x6x6 cube is the only cube known to have a superficial area (bricks on the outside face) that is numerically equal to its volume (total bricks in the stack).

The numbers 73 and 37 are related geometrically in two distinct ways as hexagrams and hexagons see below.

73 as Hexagram. . ..73 as Hexagram
37 as Hexagon (insert). . .37 as Hexagram (insert)

Consider the following:

The value of the [6th word] 407 + [7th word] 296 (each a multiple of 37) = 703 the 37th triangle or the rectangle of 37 x 19. We know 37 is the whole number midpoint of the 73rd triangle likewise, 19 is the whole number midpoint of the 37th triangle. Here we find a geometrical relationship of a kind similar to that shared by 37 and 73, thus:

19 and 37 as Hexagon(insert)... 19 as Hexagon (insert) with
with 73 as Hexagram... 37 (insert) and 73 as Hexagram

Finally the value 703 can be expressed as a symmetrical hexagon within the 'star of stars' expression of Genesis 1:1:

The 73 'stars' in this figure each represent 37as a hexagram. The inner hexagon of 19 (tan) thus represents 703 (i.e. the sum of words 6 and 7), and the hexagonal ring of 18 (colored purple) represents 666.

Whatever you make of this unique set of numbers, it is clear that the numerical relationship of the letters in the first verse and in every verse of the Torah cannot be the result of tampering or by the pre-conceived notions of Moses or any other ancient author that scholars of the secular world may attribute its genius to. Finally, illustrating, by geometry, the penetration of Torah wisdom in our autonomous existence, the four triangular diagrams below represent ancient symbols of the alchemists, which continue to be used today. They represent each of the 4 elements that must exist to create and sustain life. As you ponder these shapes mentally align the base of the Fire triangle on the midline of Earth, then do the same with Water and Air, finally converge the merged shapes into one to reveal the Star of David.

At the mystical center, the 4th and middle word (in the 7 words of the first verse of Genesis) is 'et' את equals 400 + 1 = 401. These are the first and the last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. In a sense they stand alone in that the first verse can be read – “In the beginning G-d created[5] - ‘et’ – the heavens ‘v-et’ the earth”. In other words G-d first created ‘et’ and with ‘et’ came the heavens then with ‘v-et’ came the earth. This is a further insight to the thinking and meaning behind the mystical letters of Hebrew. Applying the same consideration to the 6th word ‘v-et’ ואת equals 400 + 1 + 6 = 407, the picture of G-d’s actions are clearly demonstrated because He formed the Heavens then connected them with ו - ‘v’(vav) = 6 to form the earth. The total of ‘et’ + ‘v-et’ or את ואת equals 808[6].

Removing the middle ‘et’ (fourth word) then subtracting the value of the first 3 words “In the beginning G-d created” from the value of the last 3 words “the heavens and the earth”, then 1202-1098 = 104. When divided by the 4 (elements) 104 / 4 = 26 = the number of G-d’s explicit name (The Tetragramaton - Y-H-V-H) י'ה'ו'ה, reflecting the elements that G-d created from the את ‘et’, by His mystical speech (energies), all of which are contained in the deeper significance of each of the Hebrew letters and from which the finite heavens and the earth were created.

Further analysis of the letter aleph א = (spelled)אלפ equals 80 + 30 + 1 = 111 and by its ordinal value 1st letter + 12th letter + 17th letter = 30 we are reminded that 3 (gimel – the third day, representing the left, the right and the center) x 37 (midpoint of the 73rd triangle) = 111. Analyzing the letter tav ת equals תו equals = 6+400 = 406 = 28th triangular number and by its ordinal value, 22nd letter + 6th letter = 28 reflecting on the 28 letters in the first verse of Genesis. Each ‘1’ of the aleph (1,1,1) refers to the 3 lower universal realms; the origin of all that is physical and spiritual in our world. By the application of the 3 unique letters in G-d’s name י'ה'ו (each a revealed dimension of time and space[7]) with the fourth letter ה being the digit that signifies higher and lower worlds, then 3 dimensional space in the higher and lower worlds reveals 6 dimensions[8] in all; 111 x 6 = 666 or the 36th triangle. It is primarily the numbers 36 and 37 in their triangular and squared forms that underpin the wisdom, strength and kindness revealed in creation through the words of the first verse of Genesis.

This gains further support when one analyzes the construct of the letter[9] (alef) א, representing the air that enables the synthesis[10] of fire and water to produce the 4th element, matter or earth. We can see that the letter alef is made up of a Yud י at the top (right) a Vav ו in the middle and a Yud י at the bottom (left) signifying the synthesis of the fire of heaven and the lower waters enabling the formation of earth and depicting creation.

It is well known in Kabbalah that the letters of the Tetragramaton, G-d’s explicit four letter name, represents all the dimensions through which energies flow in the physical world and the directions energies flow between the vessels (attributes) of the spiritual world. In the spiritual world, fire represents the radiation of energy the constant stream of thought that emerges by our desire to understand, water represents wisdom and our ability to absorb from spiritual energy and air is the medium through which these energies are transmitted. These energy flows and their respective attributes are represented in each letter in every word, which we use in every day life to express our thoughts by bringing those thoughts down from the higher spiritual worlds of our minds and souls into the physical world through the speaking actions of our mouth.

During creation “G-d said” and it came to be. It is possible that all wave energies, including light, emanate from a base sound wave principle and that that conversion from sound to light becomes possible at extreme and very particular frequencies. The principle sounds talked about in Kabbalah are the 10 Utterances which manifest in creation to derive physical objects by the spiritual Will of G-d. Here we are introduced to the importance of sound, the particular patterns that sound reflects and the use of letters and names that crystallize their particular sound energy. Edenics is a study that proposes the origin of all speech from the letters of Torah, which most people consider to be Hebrew. However, Modern Hebrew is a derivative of Torah Hebrew as are all other languages.

Edenics, the language of the Garden of Eden is rarely used other than for reading of Torah in synagogues and schools around the world, but hidden in its letters and words are the roots of the creative energy forces that G-d used to bring our world into existence, through sound. In every name of every object of our physical realm are the echoes of these Edenic sounds, these creative forces, G-d’s force that sustains existence and the finite from nullification by the infinite.

It only takes one of a myriad of examples to demonstrate how the morphing sounds of names or words, in various languages over the millennia, have caused the origin of Edenic words to be lost, but with careful work they can be recovered. The name for, ‘WORD’ in Edencis is DaVaR[11] (דור); by removing vowels D(ד)V(ו)R(ר) and applying known linguistic morphing it is revealed that DVR of Edenics eventually became VoRD (German / Yiddish) and finally WoRD (English).

Perhaps Hebrew’s recovery as the only language in history to come back from its 'dead' status to one that is now in daily active use, is a small sign that the world is finally ready to recognize THE language of its spiritual and physical origins.

[1] http://www.truekabbalah.com/SHY/Chapter31.pdf
[2] Inner Space Pg 62 para 5
[3] The Hebrew Letters Pg 61– Rabbi Yitchak Ginsburgh
[4] Sefer Yetzirah – Aryeh Kaplan Ch 1 Pg 7
[5] The Bahir – Aryeh Kaplan Pg 12 Pt 32
[6] Zohar 1 [15b]
[7] Sefer Yetzirah – Aryeh Kaplan Pg 81,82,83
[8] http://www.inner.org/string/string1.htm
[9] The Hebrew Letters – Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh – Pg 24
[10] Sefer Yetzirah – Aryeh Kaplan Pg 139
[11] The Origin of Speeches – Isaac E. Mozeson – Lightcather Books www.edencis.org

Convergence

2006-11-10T15:41:00.000-08:00

In the terminology of Kabbalah our universe exists in the spiritual realm of Asiyah[1], the lowest of G-d’s four universal realms that separate and protect man from being annihilated by the most intense spiritual light of G-d in its highest manifestation of The Ain Sof. In Hebrew G-d’s state of “Ain” – “nothing from nothing” is diametrically distinguished from the human ego state of “Ani” – something from nothing[2]. G-d’s essence exists outside of all the realms and all the universes that we can ever know. So how does G-d exist everywhere? How does He manifest Himself in the science of our world in the physical universe we call home?

Consider the following: G-d willed the infinite to accommodate and contain the finite, by transcending it to a point well beyond our scientifically restricted imaginations. This event, gave rise to a central infinitesimal singularity, teetering on the realm of the desire to return to its infinite state. However, only the infinite is absolute, everything else is finite requiring an external force to maintain its state at all times, bounded in some way. Everything finite is rooted in the infinite by the tendency of its energy to return to an un-bounded pre-infinite state, but it is not infinite because, in the absence of G-d’s external force, it never possessed the capacity to become infinite. Therefore, when anything finite is influenced by a finite external force that enables it to approach the point of infinity, progressing to enter the realm of the infinite will cause an event that will revert to its finite form.

Recent theories that appear to be gaining general support in the scientific community propose dimensional shapes and strings that connect sub atomic world substructures forming multiple new dimensions. These new dimensions do not necessarily conform to the laws of physics as commonly defined, so new laws are being sought to retrospectively fit within our current logical construct to make sense of these revelations. The sub atomic components and the dimensional strings that join them are beginning to resolve one of the biggest modern scientific mysteries, the puzzle of all matter, including dark energy and dark matter, the pieces that would solve the problems of the missing mass of our universal equation.

The enormously detailed teachings of Kabbalah: to receive, pre-defines the construct of many modern scientific conceptions. Most remarkably these teachings date back to the earliest books of the Torah and prior, to the time of Abraham and Adam[3]. To appreciate the Kabbalah in context of our secular scientific and materialistic perspectives, one must look back to the ancient literary works that reveal the identity of 3 lower universal realms each of which progressively shield our physical universe from the impact of G-d’s Infinite Heavenly Light emanating from His upper world realm and that which is beyond. The light of the Ain Sof is reduced in its intensity at each regressive realm. Ten cascading spiritual vessels know as the Ten Sefirot (see Sefirot link in right hand margin), each containing proportions of G-d’s Spiritual Light, each a carrier penetrating the length, breadth and depth of each realm and the universe in which we live, carrying the essence of His spirituality into the soul and spirit of man and all life. Our direct spiritual descendency from G-d, through each of 3 lower universal realms and the 7 lower Sefirot, permanently connect us through each spiritual layer and each of the cascading vessels ultimately ascending to the Ain Sof (The Infinite Being).

In the highest universal realm of Azilut (Emanation) the spiritual energy of all Sefirot originate, continuously pulsating, they run and return to receive nurture and replenishment from their higher source.

Figure 1 -A Kabbalistic artwork depicting the realm of The Ain Sof (אין סוף) outside and removed from the concentric rings of the Seffirot and universal realms before the shattering of the vessels.

Keter, the 10th Sefirot, is associated with the spiritual realm known as Adam Kadmon. This corresponds to the skull (the most outer layer of the vessel / attribute) of Keter[4] where the final details were complete, contained and the first universal constriction originated. Keter is said to be closest to G-d and therefore represents good. Below it the vessels of the Chokmah, the 9th and Binah, the 8th Sefirot originate in their spiritual manifestation. Thereafter, seven Sefirot originate in the next lower universal realm of Beriyah (Creation – Something from nothing [5]) where they were originally contained as individual Sefirot (vessels) until the penetrating energy of the Ain Sof became too great to retain causing the vessels to shatter, then to be rectified by finally regressing to their state of re-bounded containment in the lower spiritual realm of Yetzirah (Formation – Something from something[6]). By this the infinitesimally small connection to the Ain Sof was finally prepared and made ready for our universal realm of Asiyah (Action - Completion[7]). At the time that the vessels shattered there occurred a further division and separation in the highest world of Azilut this sealed our inability to have a direct and absolute spiritual and physical connection to The Ain Sof (The Life Force) instead His manifestations of reduced light retain their direct connection to us and them to Him. The journey of G-d’s physical presence through the universal realms and the Sefirot closely resembles the progression of many scientific theories that are just beginning to crystallize.

Figure - Geometry of the 231[8] gates. This illustrates the pulsating energy heart of creation derived by a combination of the array of all 22 Hebrew Letters, on the outer points of the circle, representing the pure energy form of each Hebrew letter as it is potentially connected to all of the other Hebrew Letters. The 231 Gates is referred to in ancient Kabbalistic meditations and is thought to be the spiritual foundation for all creative forces.

At the sub atomic levels of our physical universe scientists theorize that string dimensions connect the inner realms of atoms with other atomic realms forming long interconnected dimensional chains theoretically enabling communication to occur between the inner sub atomic spaces of particles. This is the cutting edge of science, yet Kabbalah wrote of these concepts more than 2000 year ago. So just what are these particles communicating? What are they coordinating? What do they enable? How was Kabbalah able to articulate these ideas at such an early stage?

When we think of G-d, we often look to the skies, thinking He is everywhere bigger than everything, but we seldom think of G-d as also being everywhere smaller than anything. Perhaps if we did we would realize that there is no real distance between ourselves and G-d in a physical sense, that distance is a perception of our own minds, because G-d in the physical and G-d in the spiritual dimension exists in parallel inside and outside of every atomic molecule of our bodies.[9] We have come to realize that dimensional strings chain everything by permeating the very essence of all that we know and all that we don’t yet know. Their connectivity stretches well beyond our bounded physical universe into the realm of new dimensions that we can only conceive in computer simulations. These structures and strings make up the mass of space, the jelly in which we live. Operating in their dimension, they vibrate, agitate, reverberate, contort and conform to the energies that influence them and influence everything connected through them. Like the 10 Sefirot and the 22 paths being present in everything spiritual and physical, these newly discovered dimensions penetrate all, connecting to the source of our Life Force in the infinite realm where everything, through them, ultimately responds to the oscillating energies of The Great Ain Sof[10]. It has become known to scientists engaged in String and Superstring Theory that either 6, 10 or 26 dimensions are required to support the theories. You will discover the importance of each of these numbers to the teachings of Kabbalah as you continue reading.

The Ain Sof, existing in the infinite realm, impacts on every atom in our universe and beyond. Oscillations that emanate by the Will of G-d invite our response, affect our lives shaping man and nature. In G-d’s ultimate state of ’nothingness’ His state is undisturbed. This is the perfected state, the state to which we all aspire in life and hope that in death we will experience in even the smallest way. The Ain Sof’s slightest reverberation is enough to cause massive ramification to the way all sub atomic and atomic particles behave. Our connections to G-d are therefore sourced in His dimension, and by our connection to it, it becomes the overall driving force for man on earth. We are truly G-d’s children tethered by umbilical cords of the sub atomic dimension that reach the boundaries of the infinite world of the Ain Sof.

With this two-way[11], parallel understanding of the physical and the spiritual we begin to appreciate the transcendence of our soulful essence as distinguished from our physical form. We see that we are connected to and can ultimately synchronize with and return to a dimension closer to G-d. During our time on earth those of us whose physical actions and energies are aligned to those of our higher spiritual purpose will cause our souls to be elevated reaching closer to G-d, connecting with Him and drawing toward His ultimate manifestation. Our personal purity and holiness satisfies Him!

We are approaching the 7th millennium, when it is prophesized that we will begin to understand G-d at a level that allows those of us who are open to receive, to reconcile the knowledge we have gained with the path that G-d set for all of us some 5800 years ago, only this time we will all recognize that the worlds of science and the world of G-d are inseparable. When our energies align to become synchronized and the aggregate chaos of our lives begins to subside He will be drawn toward us at an increasing rate shining His Supernal Light so that we may reach the perfected earth state that will lead to events described in the Torah as the coming of the Messiah. A time when we realize that science, technology and spirituality are inextricably linked and where mainstream populations of the world begin to discover truth in the purpose of their lives at faster and faster rates.

Next time you think of G-d, think small, think very small, think within your physical being to your inner spiritual sanctum, perhaps that will help you to connect and when you do you will be one more in number to synchronize your being with G-d’s infinite energy. As this happens G-d begins to reap the benefits of His plan, pleasing Himself through the actions of man, actions that must lead to a better world, a world in which we must first defeat of all that is evil!

[1] Inner Space – Aryeh Kaplan Pg 27
http://www.inner.org/worlds/olamasiy.htm
[2] Inner Space – Pg 49-51
[3] Zohar Beresith 55b (Soncino 176)
[4] http://www.inner.org/worlds/adam.htm
[5] Inner Space – Aryeh Kaplan Pg 25
[6] Ibid Pg 26
[7] Ibid Pg 27
[8] Sefer Yetzirah – Aryeh Kaplan Ch2:4
[9] Iggeret HaKodesh, beginning of Epistle 20 Pg 354 Lessons in Tanya
[10] Inner Space – The Universes Ch3 Divine Providence Pg35
[11] Lessons in Tanya – Epistle 20 – Pg 400- 8 Tishrei

Think small to connect your conscious mind!

2006-11-06T10:15:00.000-08:00

The following piece envisages conditions that lead to the moment we call the big bang a moment beyond the grasp of science. It is the convergence of science and Kabbalah that completes a picture bounded by physical and mystical logic.

Contemplate a ubiquitous state of comfortably warm light, evenly and perfectly distributed through space. Imagine the light extends in all directions from you, never stopping, always running ahead of your imagination infinitely. In this space, nothing else exists, no buildings, no trees, no earth, no planets, no stars, no objects, and no darkness, only light, perfectly even light. It permeates all directions and all dimensions, wherever you go, up down, right left, in, out, smaller, bigger, the light remains perfectly even from all points of view. Now imagine you are traveling through this light, absent of body, you are infused within the light, your consciousness is not distinguishable from it. You can think about the light forever, it will never come to an end for it is the eternal light of ‘The Ain Sof’, The Infinite Being.

Imagine the source of this light emanates from an even greater spiritual dimension by which all light and all space, is bound. A dimension that includes the Infinite Will of The Ain Sof infused within the infinite white light, just like you are, but always distinctly and spiritually separated from it[1]. Now The Ain Sof Wills the infinite white light be bound constricting and removing His Light from a region within it, forming a perfect finite dark vacuum like sphere. Imagine the sphere to be bigger than anything you can finitely conceive, substantially bigger than our universe, but not restricted to the same physical form. Imagine the massive scale of its formless dark spherical boundary, weaving and converging, toying with the light at its constricted edge. You can inspect the boundary, but no matter how hard you try or how small you scale your imagination, the intricately woven finite edge at the boundary continues to present itself in its infinite form, keeping the infinite warm light separate from the finite darkness of the sphere.

From the absolute center of the dark finite sphere a thin Ray of the unimaginably intense light is drawn. Sourced from somewhere beyond the infinite light,[2] it is immediately absorbed into the void, reflecting as a gentle dull, diffused haze. From points along the length of the Ray, gradient concentric atmospheres within the constricted space emanate. Now, beyond the sub atomic, you scale to view the diffused haze being channeled and reflected in these miniscule dimensions. Here, these new dimensions are a myriad of interconnecting tubes, like shapes that connect to each other in chaotic patterns, permeating the entire finite sphere to produce this beautiful diffused haze. The intensity becomes extreme, so much so that this single realm of finite light shatters into three lower realms each of lesser light intensity.

Figure - A 2D fractal image representing the ubiquitous sub atomic dimension at the edge of an object separating the finite from the infinite. Fractals are formed according to the mathematical theories of nature and are reflected in all shapes. Each of us may be closer than we think to the infinite realm by virtue of fractal theory.

Imagine at the exact center of the lowest of four major finite sub realms (spheres)including the outermost light, 6 smaller constrictions establish 6 new and independent spheres, which transform to conjunct, each producing a different absorption and gradient reflection within the white light. These 6 spherical bubbles of G-d’s spiritual light are bound containing varying degrees of the lights intensity.

Envisage these 6 [A11] separate bubbles converge at the central spiritual zone, marked as the end point of the Ray, to form the superset of the bubbles, bounded by the four major finite concentric spheres and all bounded by the infinite dimension of the Will of the Ain Sof. In this super spiritual region, G-d’s Ray of intense light, penetrates and reflects through the four concentric higher realms where the spiritual bubbles form new included smaller bubbles that are contained within bubbles, progressively filtering the intensity of the Ray of light. With each successive regression the dimension of the spiritual space converges on a finite spiritual singularity. At the precise center, in the final spiritual moment of constriction, the boundaries of spiritual emptiness are formed by His energy, immediately before the emergence of a physical singularity[3], where dark pre-sub atomic space, now devoid of almost all trace of spiritual light, progresses toward an absolute point of spiritual convergence.

At the exact focal point of G-d’s Ray of beaming higher world intervention, a big bang event releases unimaginable amounts of energy from the spiritual chambers at the intersection. In a time approximating 10^-43 through 10^-4, an incredibly small increment of physical space time, the growth of this fiery liquid sub atomic particle soup expands at a massive scale under massive force, well beyond the concepts of our present day knowledge, made possible only by the Spiritual Will, Design and Perfect Intervention of G-d.

As it is stated in the Midrash (an ancient and abstract interpretation of Torah),7 “By means of ten things was the world created: by wisdom, by understanding and by knowledge,...
…as it is written,8 ‘G‑d founded the earth with wisdom; He established the heavens with understanding; with His knowledge the depths of the abyss were burst open,’...“;
Bound and contained in the dimensions that surround and permeate the rapidly expanding pre atomic space of our physical universe, super small tubes connect to the outer spiritual dimensions of the spiritual realms from where the physical emerged. Dark space is fired by the powerful merging and splitting of the pre-atomic rapidly giving rise to basic sub atomic forces calculated to create the first basic sub atomic components that merge, collide, split and explode and gather to form atoms that aggressively collide and split fueling this newly forming rapidly growing space. With the passing of earth time, calculated to be some 13 billion years later and the cooling of our universe, energized atomic particles aggregate to form large active galactic stellar objects, cooling further to create planets and other material forms. At the center of this action, earth is formed, submerged below a primordial mass, in the vast spherical expanding darkness that we commonly call space.

Our physical universe continues to float in a soup of spiritual space!

At the fuzzy interconnecting boundary of infinite white light and the first sphere where spiritual dimensions first came into existence, The Ain Sof gently infuses His light surrounding it and infinitely penetrating it. At the more defined boundary between the last dull concentric sphere and the expanding space of our physical universe, only the subatomic dimensions remain connected through sub atomic tubular dimensional strings, like hairs, that enter our space at its edge.

“In the beginning G-d created the heavens and the earth” – Genesis - Bereishit 1:1 (The first 7 words of the Bible / Torah)

Three forces command the energy epicenter of the nucleus of each atom. These forces, known as a Quark are bound by dimensional strings, which form the basis of modern string theory. The space of these sub atomic string dimensions, when compared to the whole of the atom in which they are contained, is said to be on a scale as one atom is to the entire solar system[4]. At this scale one begins to conceive of the little that we actually know about the dimension of this super small, super sensitive world and even less about its connection with the infinite. In the convergence of science[5] and religion we glimpse the sensitivity of the super small and the ways in which the elements of G-d’s worlds logically influence all that we know and all that we don’t know. In man made scientific terms the big bang is the designated beginning of all we can know of the physical. Before that moment, when our atomic logic is pushed into the realm of the unknown, we can only perceive, follow and question that which we are taught.

[1] Zohar 4 164b “Who coverest thyself with light…”
[2] The Bahir – Aryeh Kaplan pg 102 Pt 25
[3] http://www.superstringtheory.com/cosmo/bang0.html
[4] Stephen Hawkings Universe – The Cosmos Explained - Pg 234
[5] http://www.superstringtheory.com/index.html
Scientific American - September 2004
A Brief History of Time – Stephen Hawking
B’OR HaTorah – Vol 15

[A11]This is an enormously complex area of Kabbalah and needs to be carefully considered in respect of Asiyah, the other Sefirot and the Seder Hishtalshelut