Ask about Kabbalah

[agricola]

Yes. One of the books I mentioned above (The Jew in the Lotus) makes note of this: all mysticisms are similar - no matter how wildly different the religions themselves are, once you start getting into the mystical ideas, the similarities just jump right out.

Of course, if you are inclined to be mystical, that is just one more sign of the underlying hidden reality of connectedness of everything!

What that means for someone trying to grasp a mystical idea, is that sometimes the metaphors 'work' for you, and sometimes they don't - in which case, the metaphors some OTHER group uses for the 'same' idea, might actually resonate with you more easily...but metaphors are tricky. Usually the 'best' metaphors come out of your pre-existing background. That's why (generally speaking) in Judaism, people weren't supposed to start working with the mystical ideas until they were 40 years old, married with children, and well versed in 'normal' studies. That sort of thing kept them grounded so they could stay anchored to the real world and not go flying off into a cloud of mysticism. It's important in Judaism to remain grounded - maybe not so much in other religions?

There is a story (Talmud):

"Four went into the garden--ben Azzai, ben Zoma, Elisha ben Avuya, and Rabbi Akiva.... Ben Azzai looked and died, and of him it is said, "Precious in God's eyes is the death of his faithful." Ben Zoma looked and was stricken [with madness]. Of him it is said: "Have you found honey? Eat what is enough for you, lest you become too full and vomit." Elisha ben Avuya cut the shoots [became a heretic]. Akiva entered in peace and departed in peace." (Babylonian Talmud, Chagiga 14b)

The garden is said to represent deep meditation, or profound mystical experience. Of the four who entered - one died, one went insane, and one lost his faith or denied the existence of God. Of the four sages who entered this dangerous realm of inquiry, only one, the most, learned, experienced, and aware, emerged unscathed.

[agricola]

OK back to Frankiel and Keter (Crown):

Crown is expressed in a particular name of God found in the Bible, the name revealed to Moses at the burning bush: Ehyeh asher Ehyeh, "I will be what I will be". this means that because everything is the unfolding of the divine will to be, all of creation is connected to God's ultimate oneness.....on a spiritual level, humanity (also) has only one source. In Kabbalah, this is referred to as the primordial Adam...

Ancient sources portray primordial Adam as a gigantic personage shining with light...every human being that exists or has ever existed is connected to that original Adam: collectively, we are that Adam. On the personal level, Judaism teaches that the soul is completely pure because of its connection to the divine essence represented in the Crown...nothing can harm the soul of disrupt its inherent connection to God.

We have free will, though, and we can tune out that connection and build walls or blockades that keep out that connection. But since the essence of the soul never can be changed,

it is always possible for a person to return...to God.

This absolute ability to return - in Hebrew teshuvah - is built into the structure of the universe itself.

Teshuvah in Christian terms is 'repentance'.

I'm pausing again now - the next part of chapter three talks about the sefirah of Chochmah (Wisdom). My wisdom says I should wait until tomorrow.

[agricola]

So - souls can be hidden or blocked away, but they cannot be LOST. And a person can always 'return' (make teshuvah, we call it) and reconnect with God.

A Jew who has been secular (or simply not orthodox) who decides to become orthodox, by the way, is known as a Ba'al Teshuvah: a Master (or Lord) of Repentance.

Reprinted from
The Jewish Religion: A Companion
, published by Oxford University Press.

Baal Teshuvah means a repentant sinner, or literally “one who returns” from his evil ways. That a sinner is to be encouraged to return to God and repent of his sins is stressed by the Talmudic rabbis, following the biblical teachings about sin and repentance. According to one opinion in the Talmud, the repentant sinner is greater than one who has never committed any grievous sin.

There are two kinds of penitents: the sinner who repents out of fear and the sinner who repents out of love for God. Once the former has repented his sins are considered as if he had committed them unintentionally, but when a sinner repents out of love his very sins are counted as if they had been virtues. The Rabbis teach that it is a serious offense to taunt a penitent with his former evil deeds.

For the Saints of Germany sin and repentance are seen as stages in the spiritual life. Even the saints, for these medieval teachers, can only advance in spirituality by repenting of minor sins which for lesser mortals would be mere peccadilloes, the baal teshuvah thus becoming one highly advanced in the spiritual way. In times when conversions to other religions were not unknown among Jews, the name baal teshuvah was given especially to a convert to Christianity or Islam who had returned to the Jewish fold.

In the second half of the 20th century, there has emerged a strong baal teshuvah movement in which the name is given to those, especially young persons, formerly estranged from or ignorant of full Jewish observance, who have now returned to the fully Orthodox way of life. The name baal teshuvah has here lost its original meaning, which bordered on the pejorative, to denote something of a status symbol.

There are nowadays special yeshivot for the training of such returners, in which they are introduced gradually to all the niceties of Jewish rituals and observances

They are called 'BT' as opposed to FBB (frum from birth) - frum means very observant.

[agricola]

Chochmah - Wisdom
(you may recall that the Book of Proverbs personifies 'wisdom' - and so do many near/middle eastern cultures. Hagia Sofia in Constantinople/Istanbul is the church dedicated to 'Sofia' or 'Wisdom'. No doubt our kabbalists are drawing on the tradition from Solomon's time for these ideas about 'chochmah'). see Proverbs 8:22-31

Energy from the Crown emanates forth a supernal luminescence that is called Chochmah - Wisdom. It is an experiment, an exploration, the emergence of the possibility of 'something' even though it is 'nothing' yet. This sefirah is the channel for creative force in the entire cosmos. In the natural world, the result is amazing and totally unpredictable diversity. In the human world the results of inspiration and revelation, including what is called illumination in mysticism. Experiences of Wisdom are the foundation of all the world's religious traditions and the origin of multitudes of creative endeavors.

I'm going to reduce the amount of quotes and reiterations of information going forward, because there are TEN of these sefirot, and I don't think I or anybody else has the patience to spend several digital pages on each -
BUT if there are questions/comments, we can certainly expand on anything you like.

Wisdom is 'the flash of inspiration'. It is like lightning. Exodus 20:15 says 'the people SAW the voices' They saw what was usually heard. They heard/saw the voice coming from every direction at once....
(midrash: they heard/saw the 'I Am' of the ten commandments like that and kept continually fainting but the Lord continually revived them)

Frankiel: synesthesia (experiencing confused senses), crossover of stimulus = altered states of consciousness.

souls 'root' in Wisdom - every person's soul has a kind of 'root' that emanates from Wisdom, kabbalist Aryeh Kaplan says 'it is on the level of Wisdom that all men are one'.

A soul is not limited to being a personal essence, but also, on a deeper and more hidden level, is connected to all other souls across time and space.

we are each a new creation

The next step in the unfolding is that the steams of light and ripples of sound from Wisdom embed themselves in the sea of consciousness called Understanding.

[agricola]

Pattern and Imagination:
Binah - Understanding

If Wisdom is waves of energy, Binah - Understanding is form

. But it is basically the structure of form - a template, the form itself is yet to - well, FORM.
Rabbi Nachman called Binah the 'world to come' (heaven is usually referred to as the world to come). It is potential form, or it is a form still hidden because we aren't ready for it yet.

You can picture these first three sefirot as if they are waves - circles of ripples, proceeding from a point. The point is 'Keter', then Chochmah, and encircling both you have Binah (nice graphic in the book). Frankiel says 'recalling a seed in the womb' but it looks more like ripples to me - but then, that's how mystic ideas are - mystical.

But it is common to imagine Binah as a 'womb' - it contains the 'fetus' (the template) which is not yet 'revealed'. Lurianic kabbalists would compare Binah to the first 'empty' space which God withdrew godself from, so that the mundane world of 'creation' as we know it could exist.

Remember, Crown is the upper part of the skull - the area of the fontanel (a baby's soft spot) above which the divine light emanates (the halo). Chochmah and Binah are the right and left temples. Together, they form the skull/brain (and Binah connects to the heart as well).

So far, Keter and Chochmah have been like sparks and energy waves - it is Binah that formalizes these and allows the formation of 'things' - patterns:

Understanding represents information - in-form-ation - that belongs to anyone.

Commonly, information coming from Understanding encodes itself in images, as in dreams.

The form-creating qualities of Understanding are represented in the Ten Commandments - ten principles that fleshed out the Wisdom and became a template for all of Jewish life for millennia to come. In other ways, the revelation of the Qur'an in Islam, the enlightenment of the Buddha, and Jesus's resurrection in Christianity formed a basic pattern for each religion.

This template (Binah - Understanding) can be filled (in other words) with a variety of 'contents'.

Understanding tells us that...there exists a pattern that governs our thinking. Every society imprints its unconscious patterns on its members through language and customary behavior.

If Keter says to a blade of grass 'Grow!' then Binah says to the blade of grass 'Grow toward this ideal!' (paraphrased)

Contemplation - bringing the 'template' into yourself. A physical temple creates a physical template of 'sacred space'. Repetitive prayers - meditative chants - do something similar to ourselves (build a 'sacred space' mentally).

The template helps us grasp in a personal way...the fundamental understanding that God wants to be manifest in this world. Keter-Crown seeks to evolve into Malkhut-Manifestation.

We suffer if our internal template is out of alignment. We need - spiritually - to make this deeper connection to the ultimate reality - this is the only way to be spiritually 'whole' and 'at unity'.

[agricola]

Unification and Intellect:
Da'at - Knowledge

Da'at (Knowledge) is 'the eleventh sefirah' or rather, is a derivative of Wisdom + Understanding. Da'at is also a kind of external look at the totally hidden 'Crown'.

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden is 'the Tree of Da'at' and 'da'at' is also the root of 'know' in 'And Adam KNEW his wife Eve'.

Da'at is when you have learned something so totally that you have 'internalized' is - you really REALLY know it, not just superficially.

Da'at is represented by the brain stem and spinal cord - the structures that communicate everything IN the brain (mind) TO the body parts.

So Da'at can be how we 'know' God - Da'at lets us get glimpses - we use rationality, inspiration, meditation, contemplation - all ways to understand and 'know'.

end chapter 3 (and the 'higher' sefirot) and on to chapter 4 (and the 'lower' ones - the ones in 'this world')

[agricola]

crickets

[zeek]

.

[teresa]

Just getting caught up today on reading this thread. Interesting stuff. A bit over my head.

If I am understanding correctly, the sefirot are understood to be self-manifestations of God, different ways in which God has self-revealed to the world, which when all are experienced by an individual make it possible for the individual to know God in his fullness (if he doesn't go insane or lose his faith). The diagram is not significant in itself, but rather a way to teach/organize God's self-manifestations and show their interconnectedness. Is that right?

If so, that sounds a lot like N T Wright's view that God self-revealed in Jesus (and Wisdom, and the Temple, among other things). And it seems -- to my surprise -- the classic Trinitarian view says much the same thing, where God and the Logos are understood to be NOT two beings.

God and the Logos are not two beings, and yet they are also not simply identical...The Logos is God active in creation, revelation, and redemption. Jesus Christ not only gives God's Word to us humans; he is the Word... He is the true word─ultimate reality revealed in a Person. The Logos is God, distinguishable in thought yet not separable in fact. This was decreed at the First Council of Constantinople. From h**ps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logos_(Christianity)

[agricola]

zeek - looking forward to you comments/questions -

teresa - SORT OF - they are more like stages moving FROM 'God' TO 'this world' - that is, there is a direction and internal logic to the 'order' of the sefirot, and from totally 'hidden' to totally 'apparent'.

what they are NOT, are 'personae' or 'things' with their own reality.

But I do think SOME of these ideas were already around during the first century (the full expression and explanation of 'the ten sefirot' is not really out there until later) so anybody who thinks they understand - for instance - the gospel of John, is probably WRONG unless he or she has at least some knowledge of the way first century Jewish mystics were using language and concepts. Certainly when John talks about the Logos and that being 'with' God at creation, you are seeing aspects of mystical interpretation.

It is a fairly standard Jewish mystical idea that 'the Torah' pre-existed Creation, and was present AT Creation, and God used that Torah as a 'blueprint' FOR Creation, and at Sinai that heavenly Torah (written with black fire on white fire) was brought down to earth and delivered to the people - - can you SEE how that idea is played out in the story of Pentecost in Acts?? perhaps with Jesus as the personification of that heavenly Torah in Christian belief-terms? Fire (especially non-burning 'eternal' fire) is a long time symbol of God - as well as Wisdom or Knowledge = Revelation.

(note also however, that this heavenly Torah was not ever God or a part of God - it was WITH God and was a product OF God, but it wasn't ever 'inside of' God)