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William James in his series of Gifford lectures on Natural Religion delivered at the University of Edinburgh in 1901 – 1902 began and defined the study of mystics and mysticism. He offered so four general insights into mystics. They are:
1.Ineffability—The handiest of marks by which I classify a state of mind as mystical is negative. The subject of it immediately says that it defies expression, that no adequate report of its contents can be given in words. It follows from this that its quality must be directly experienced; it cannot be imparted or transferred to others. [William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, Longmans, Green and Co., 1902, Dover edition 2002, p380] This experience of connecting with the Divine is one of a finite meeting up with an infinite. The finite mind cannot fully take in what it encounters and thus is overwhelmed. The mystic knows this and is trapped, needing to explain what happened and yet knowing the inadequacy of the words it will use. 2.Noetic quality—Although so similar to states of feeling, mystical states seem to those who experience them to be also states of knowledge. They are states of insights into depths of truth unplumbed by the discursive intellect. They are illuminations, revelations, full of significance and importance, all inarticulate though they remain; and as a rule they carry with them a curious sense of authority for after-time. [William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, Longmans, Green and Co., 1902, Dover edition 2002, p380-381 This experience is so powerful, so overwhelming with certainty that it compels the vast majority of mystics to confess, to tell others of what happened and what the mystic has learned. It is this quality and the compulsion that comes with it that drives them to teach, preach, and for some to write. Now, let me present what happens when a mystic gets so caught up in those feelings of certainty and compulsion that they leave behind the reality of the ordinary and the everyday experience of life and common sense. Bnei Baruch is a non-profit institute dedicated to aiding in the teaching of Jewish Kabbalah. Their efforts are commendable. They offer much for free and the books that they do sell are inexpensive and quite reasonable. All in all a worthwhile organization offering the knowledge of the Jewish Kabbalah for those who wish to come, taste, and learn. Bnei Baruch was established on the premise that “only by expression of the wisdom of Kabbalah to the public can we be awarded complete redemption” (Baal HaSulam {Rav Yehuda Ashlag}) Rav Michael Laitman, Kabbalah for The Student, Laitman Kabbalah Publishers, First Ed. 2009, Third Printing, pg. 858. "There is no other way for the populace to achieve spiritual elevation and redemption except through the study of Kabbalah, which is an easy and accessible way. However, only a few can achieve the goal using other parts of the Torah." Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot”, Item 36 Rav Michael Laitman, Kabbalah for The Student, Laitman Kabbalah Publishers, First Ed. 2009, Third Printing, Pg. 503 "The prohibition on studying Kabbalah was only for a limited time, until 1490. But since 1540, everyone should be encouraged to engage in The Book of Zohar, since only by studying The Zohar will humanity achieve its spiritual salvation and the coming of the Messiah. Hence, we must not avoid the study of Kabbalah." Avraham Ben Mordechai Azulai, Ohr HaChana (light of the Sun) Rav Michael Laitman, Kabbalah for The Student, Laitman Kabbalah Publishers, First Ed. 2009, Third Printing, Pg. 503 With such good intentions, the powerful experience of the mystical can lead the mystic astray. For example, Rav Michael Laitman wrote the following: "The primary mistake is that there are “Kabbalists” who teach that there is some connection between the human body and the spiritual Kli [vessels], as though the spiritual Kli clothes in a human body, as if within each corporeal organ clothes a spiritual organ. In their view, if one performs a physical act or any physical motion whatsoever, it seemingly contains spiritual content. They think that in so doing, one actually performs a spiritual action. Their mistake stems from the Kabbalists’ use of the language of the branches, using worldly words to name and define spiritual terms. This is the reason for the strict prohibition in the Torah, “Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any manner of likeness.” In other words, it is forbidden to image spirituality in corporeal shapes, not because this could inflict harm Above, but because the false image would prevent one from understanding the Creator’s ways and approaching the goal. …This is what Baal HaSulam [Rav Yehuda Ashlag] writes in his “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot.” Those who want to study the Kabbalah the right way are advised to leave all the books on this subject, except for The Book of Zohar, the writings of the Ari, the writings of Baal HaSulam, and the writings of Rabash. Interpreting the Torah as a historic narrative contradicts the verse that says that the whole Torah is the names of the Creator, that is the Torah of the world of Atzilut, and that all the words in it are Holy Names. It is important to remember that it does not speak of this world, and the people in it (see “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”, item 58)." Rav Michael Laitman, Kabbalah for The Student, Laitman Kabbalah Publishers, First Ed. 2009, Third Printing, pg. 520-521. So, let us examine what Michael Laitman and his teacher Yehuda Ashlag just said. In 1991, Michael Laitman established Bnei Baruch with the purpose, as he said, to bring about the spiritual transformation of the world and the people within it by aiding to bring about the coming of the Messiah. ‘There is no other way for the populace to achieve spiritual elevation and redemption except through the study of Kabbalah…’ hence Laitman established a place to teach, a publishing house, an internet website, and a television station, all with the express purpose of teaching the Kabbalah since there ‘is no other way…to achieve spiritual elevation and redemption’. And yet, the error of those other so-called ‘Kabbalaists’ according to Laitman is that they are so delusional that they believe that ‘in their view, if one performs a physical act or any physical motion whatsoever, it seemingly contains spiritual content. They think that in so doing, one actually performs a spiritual action.’ Rav Laitman is so caught up in his mystical realm of Kabbalah that he has left common sense behind. If no physical activity can bring about redemption then his whole purpose in life, his establishing Bnei Baruch is for nothing. Since everything involved in creating and implementing that institution is a physical act. The act of study involves a physical body and physical objects such as tables, chairs, and books. The act of teaching involves physical bodies and physical objects and physical interactions. If redemption comes about by studying Kabbalah and making Kabbalah available for others to learn and study – this can only be done by physical acts. If the study of the Kabbalah alone brings about spiritual transformation then it must be true that ‘any physical motion whatsoever’ can bring about spiritual transformation and change. Laitman, and it seems his teacher, lost their way, wandered off into abstract realms, and forgot the everyday realities. They somehow came to be so caught up in their mystic texts and thinking exclusively it seems in such things that they forgot what it is that they are doing and who and what they are. They are physical beings existing in a physical world. A world that they believe was created by the Creator, the Holy One Blessed Be He. The whole purpose of their life is dedicated to doing a physical goal to do a physical activity such as teaching and study so that they could accomplish a spiritual act. This simple fact they had forgotten and thus made a mockery of themselves, by making pronouncements that are in fact foolish. They are themselves examples of engaging in ‘the primary mistake’ of those other ‘Kabbalists’ since they teach that spiritual redemption and bringing about a spiritual goal can be accomplished by the physical act of studying and teaching the Kabbalah. What about the idea that believing that ‘interpreting the Torah as a historic narrative’ is a mistake? That statement is also invalid and it is contradicted within the very passages where that claim is made. Laitman quotes the Torah and its commandment comes from the book of Exodus 20:4-5, wherein it is recounted how Moses went up to the top of Mt. Sinai and was given two tablets where the Ten Commandments were written on and then Moses came down from that mountain and instructed the people in those commandments. This was the Torah recounting a historic narrative. It is only if the text truly was recounting the history of the Jewish people that there could ever be a people who would have the teachings of Torah and its fourfold ways of understanding that text, from the peshat—the simple and literal understanding of the text as a historical narrative to the idea of the Sod—the seed or mystical teaching which is what the Zohar is, a commentary on the Torah. If the historical narrative is not one of the underlying meanings of the text then there would never have been a Kabbalah to teach and study. By quoting the historical narrative and then claiming that there is no such meaning in the text, you are making a nonsense statement. You are contradicting yourself and failing to understand common sense. One of the greatest mystics of the Jewish people was Rabbi Akiva, who helped to decide what would be the texts in the Holy Scriptures and was someone who actually stood before the Divine Throne and live to tell that tale. Akiva knew that the Torah was both a mystic text and a historical one. Laitman has spent too much time only studying the mystical teachings and thus lost his way. He is an example of what happens when you neglect the physical everyday world. If you do, you begin to forget how to understand how things really are, you make mistakes and say foolish and contradictory things. You lose sight of real purpose—which is to live in the Divinely created physical world to accomplish the physical tasks that can bring about spiritual change and transformation.
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The Kabbalistic Myth Of Creation Reimagined: The Truth—With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility2/20/2022 The Gnostics had it right, sort of. We need to wake up. Wake up from our slumber of powerlessness and lack of responsibility. We need to wake up and realize that we are the Cosmos. We are one with it and all being. We need to imagine ourselves as made from the stars and made from the Divine.
In 1937 Olaf Stapledon published a novel called Star Maker. In it the narrator, a simple ordinary human finds himself going on an extraordinary quest. He imagines he can venture out into the universe and he discovers the Cosmos. He joins with other self-aware beings who dwell on other worlds and joins with them to create a unified community of self-aware minds that go in search of answers to the ultimate questions of why are we all here. This communal mind realizes that there the universe is sentient and self-aware and that the cosmic mind is the mind of the Star Maker—the creator of everything. The narrator discovers that the Star Maker didn’t know what it was doing, it just created, and out of that creation came species scattered across the universe that developed consciousness and self-awareness and thus gave birth to it—to the mind of the cosmos that was the Star Maker. The Star Maker and the narrator who is part of the cosmic self-awareness realize that it is, we are, the ground and the goal of creation and the cosmos. I want us to realize that on this little piece of the universe, our tiny fragile blue-green globe we call Earth is our place in the grand scheme of things. We, the human race, consider ourselves the only species on this planet with the potential for self-awareness. We must wake up to our power and our responsibility. The ultimate making is to remake ourselves. We are the stuff that is the Ground of Being and we are the stuff that is the Goal of Being. We are it. On this place called Earth, there is no savior but us. No one and nothing else is going to help us. We have to do this for ourselves. The mythos of the Kabbalah as it evolved through the Zohar to the mythic vision of Rabbi Isaac Luria is not the end of the storytelling. We need to keep going. We need to re-imagine it. The Zohar tells that Ayn Sof, the Star Maker, had at one time the power to create and to destroy. It made and remade the cosmos many times, not satisfied with its creation. Then, according to Luria it created one last time and made this cosmos. And here it ends. According to Rabbi Luria, the cosmos shattered and what was to be a cosmos in harmony was no longer. Disruption, chaos, confusion, and disharmony now reigns. We live in this flawed creation created by a flawed and imperfect Divinity. That is what I call a being that creates such a mess that we find ourselves in. When you screw up you need to take responsibility for what you did. In this shattered cosmos, Ayn Sof, the Dao, the Star Maker, according to Luria no longer has the power to fix this. Tikkun Olam—the power and the responsibility to make things right lies not in the Star Maker, the Dao, Ayn Sof but in the beings with the potential of self-awareness, us the created ones we are the only ones who can tap into the cosmic Divine power. All of the power that once resided in Ayn Sof that could be tapped into through the gate of Keter flooded out and down and powered into Malkuth at the moment of creating it and once the cosmos shattered that flow was disrupted. It could not go back up to its source. All cosmic Divine power resides in Malkuth, in this world of Making. We, on this planet called Earth, are the created beings who can tell the myths of creation. We need to continue telling our story. We need to make this right. We do have the power to destroy our world and we are doing it. We by our acts in history, by our technology applied without self-awareness, have helped to gut our planet and to spoil its beauty and its potential to sustain our own existence. We have changed this planet and its climate. We are moving this planet into a phase in its existence where our own life is threatened. We have the power to diminish the territories that can sustain our human life as we currently know it and live it to a smaller and smaller landscape on this planet. We must stop this. We must fix this. We can do this. There is no one else who can. No one else is coming to the rescue. But we can only do it by awaking to the realization that we are that part of the cosmos on this planet with the potential for self-awareness and thus Divinity. We are all that remains of the voice and dreams of Ayn Sof, of the Dao, of the Star Maker. We must take up the song of Tikkun Olam and we must sing it and be it. We must restore and repair the disharmony in ourselves, and thus in the cosmos. That is why we are here. That is our destiny. And to this, let us say, Amen—that Hebrew word that means ‘So Be It’. From Zohar al Shir ha-shirim: Vol. XI of The Zohar Pritzker Edition, Stanford University Press, Translation and Commentary by Joel Hecker, 2016
He opened, saying, ‘Song of Songs of Solomon (Song of Songs 1:1). Happy is the generation that has sublime wisdom dwelling within, a time when the blessed Holy One wished to reveal on earth matters that were not revealed to celestial angels. What were they? Mysteries of wisdom of the sublime, engraved Name. For holy names were not transmitted to them, but were handed over to wise ones on earth. And they responded in praise: Yod-He-Vav-He, our Lord, how majestic is your name throughout the earth, you who have set your splendor above the heavens! (Psalms 8:2)[1] Note 2: “The name” refers to the tetragrammaton, while “holy names” refers to the other names of God, all understood as derivative of Yod-He-Vav-He.[2] “Behold! Here are mysteries of the upper chariot, of four engraved names. Behold! Mystery of mysteries, celestial chariot of names: ADNY (Adonai), TZVAOTH (Tseva’ot), YodHeVavHe [Yehoh], AHYH (Ehyeh). Mystery of four names, engraving of four radiances. Each ZOHRA, radiance, embraced within the other; each yearning to penetrate the other, and to be contained, one within the other.” Note 3: “Concealed within the first four words of Song of Songs are mysteries of the four names, four sefirot, and four lights. Here the “upper chariot” is comprised of four sefirot—Shekhinah [Malkuth], Yesod, Tif’eret, Binah—with the highest sefirot, and possibly Ein Sof as well, riding upon them. [Why not Keter riding upon them?][3] Elsewhere the upper chariot most often consists of Hesed, Gevurah, Tif’eret, and Shekhinah [Malkuth], with Binah as the rider. Cf. Zohar 2:144a: “Here is the Holy Chariot, for the patriarchs constitute the Chariot: King David joins them and they are four, mystery of the holy supernal Chariot. Thus, four words in this first verse—mystery of the complete Chariot.”[4] The Holy Chariot is therefore usually King David the Zohar author’s bias can’t imagine a female with true agency, otherwise, I believe this would have been assigned to the Shekhinah since it is associated with Malkuth. Tif’eret is associated with Jacob. Gevurah is associated with Isaac, and Chesed is associated with Abraham. Q: Why only FOUR? A: So that it is associated with THE FOUR letters: Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh. Therefore, if it were bottom-up: Malkuth = Yod, Tif’eret = Heh, Gevurah = Vav, and Chesed = Heh. Yod and Vav the Yin letters? Heh and Heh Yang letters? The traditional Biblical names are based on an underlying philosophical system that envisions the world through the lens of oppositional duality and Patriarchal sexism. If that is the only way to view the Sefirot then we will be forever stuck in a world of disharmony and conflict. The reason for the continued failure of fixing the cosmos for this many millennia I believe it is due in large part that we are picturing ourselves in a world that is out of balance and at war with itself. We can never heal ourselves so long as we retain the old worldview. We need to have a new vision of what the Sefirot would look like once it is brought into Harmony from the acts of Tikkun Olam. Replacing oppositional duality which brings with it conflict to the Daoist principles of complementarity and cooperation. This would be our end goal. Therefore, here again, is some of the Biblical women who could be associated with the sefirahs. My suggestions are in normal font, the bold suggestions are from Kabbalistic sources. Malkuth= Shekinah Yesod = Eve and Adam Hod = Deborah she is both a Judge and a prophet, and retain Aaron. Netzach = Miriam, sister of Moses and prophet, and retain Moses. Tiferet = Rachel & Leah & Rebecca and Sarah, the Matriarchs Gevurah = Mordechai Chesed = Esther Binah = Yin Hokhman = Yang “These four radiances are distinguished by four known names. One, called Radiance Dark-and-Not-Dark. When gazed upon, is darkness lifts at once. Gazing upon it further, it sparks, then flares in luminosity and transcendent beauty. Its light, constricted within—until another radiance strikes it, boring into this light, perforating it. Then it is filled up by that radiance, sparkling in all directions.” (ZH 61d/ p347) After the shattering of Da’at and the completion of emanation and creation, the Sefirot was in disharmony. It was in need of Tikkun. At this time Malkuth was filled with all of the Divine potency and potential but it was dormant. Thus it was filled with radiance but it was not yet light, it was dark but not dark for it was filled with the fuel that was only needed to be ignited. When gazed upon—as Eve did in Gan Eden as it is written: (Bereshith 3:6) “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise...”—then did the first spark ignite the fuel and Malkuth shone with radiance. Whenever humanity studies the hidden secrets we follow both Lilith and Eve. The Biblical text does not mention what Lilith did in Gan Eden, but the Aggaghic material does. She left there with power. We can therefore conclude that she gained that power from the study of the Tree of Life and Knowledge at the center of Gan Eden—she studied and joined with the Sefirot and mastered its knowledge. Eve according to the text looked upon the Tree as well, thus she learned from it some if not all of its mysteries. So we must learn from Lilith and Eve and ignite the divine fuel that dwells within all things through our connection to Yesod and in doing this ignite the Cosmos we call Queendom. This is one way how Tikkun can be done. By uncovering truths that were hidden so that it might shine with radiance. Under the traditional system that was rooted in oppositional duality, Patriarchy, and sexism the right-hand side where Hesed is located was considered the masculine side and thus ‘good’, whereas the left-hand side where Din is located was considered the feminine side and thus was the source of ‘evil’. The cosmos was forever trapped between the fight between the male mercy of Abraham and the strict cruel judgmentalness of the female Din. All acts of Tikkun were struggling to balance and keep these two from spiraling the cosmos to war, plague, disruption, and cruelty. The most that could be hoped for was that the forces of Judgment would punish only the wicked people and not harm everyone. As you will notice by removing those patriarchal associations and replacing them with my new Biblical characters the right pillar and the left pillar can no longer be thought of in oppositional binary terms of exclusively masculine side and exclusively feminine side. The two pillars are no longer exclusively filled with one or the other—no longer exclusively Yang versus Yin. Literally, the Right side starts with Yang, then there is Esther, then Moses, and Miriam. The Left side has Yin, then Mordechai, then Aaron, and Deborah. Neither Sefirot pillar is dominated by exclusively masculine and feminine symbols. What we now have is the left pillar of Creative Justice and the right pillar of Inspirational Loving-Kindness. The oppositional duality is gone. There is no exclusivity of the sexual metaphors. The symbols now have the connotation of harmony, cooperation, and justice, where they used to have conflict, opposition, and strict letter of the law judgmentalness. In the world to come, so to speak, a world fully healed, the Biblical associations that I offer here would be manifest. In our not-so-perfect cosmos, we are left with hopeful vision of these symbols rather than the old symbols that only contribute to our disharmony. We can work toward that day by envisioning the Sefirot with these new associations, but in this interim period, the old Biblical characters and the damage they have done to our collective psyches will have to be healed and balanced by bringing in these new symbols. [1] (Matt, The Zohar: Pritzker Edition 2004, 345) [2] (Matt, The Zohar: Pritzker Edition 2004, 346) [3] (Matt, The Zohar: Pritzker Edition 2004, 346) [4] (Matt, The Zohar: Pritzker Edition 2004, 346) Gan Eden is the Hebrew term that is translated into English as the Garden of Eden. Why do we seem to pay so much attention to this mythological place and time? It is the supposed paradise lost. The place we were banished from. The perfect place we were supposedly given to live out our days in. This wondrous gift from our benevolent and gracious divine parent. The place we shamefully were forced out of. The place of promise that we failed to earn. We in our arrogance and pride dared to break one simple rule and thus we lost forever this magical perfection of wonder and beauty and grace.
What rubbish. Gan Eden was never going to be our home. We were sold a bill of goods. We were told a lie so that we could be kept in our place by a cruel and flawed parent. You can never stay in the womb. You should never live in your parent’s house, under their thumb, under their rules—forever. Though truth be told, I believe that Gad Eden was the womb. It was a place of bliss and entrapment where we all grew up in, where we were created in and formed in—until we had to be forced out of that womb by the act of birth. A womb is a perfect place—warm, nurturing, sustenance always provided, a place of growth, connection, and complacency—without purpose or agency. A place where we are simply potential fully controlled waiting. We could no more remain in the womb than we could remain in Gan Eden. The problem is what if we failed to leave at our appointed time? That would be a problem. But one that is easily overcome with a blade, we can be cut out of the womb and pulled out if need be. In this myth of Gan Eden, God knew where we were and what was to come. We were destined to be born, born in pain, and born in labor. We never could remain. However, being the manipulative parent, he wanted us to feel that it was our actions that forced this inevitable exit of birth. Thus the whole riddle of death and supposed disobedience. Now, the one truth is, that within Gan Eden, there can be found the world tree—that cosmic form, that bit of divine DNA that shapes and bridges all the realms, all existence—including the Divine itself. Cosmic birth, cosmic creation began as a process of emanations. Divine outpouring with roots at the heart and center of creation and up and out or down and out, depending on your perspective and whims. When you are at the center, at the beginning, which way is up? Which way is down? Anyway, the Tree of Life and Knowledge is the sefirot that much is mythologically true. It is the thing that we must understand since we are bound up with it. It is always and forever connected to its roots and those roots are buried deep within Gan Eden. To study the sefirot, to study the Divine, is to examine that tree. That tree that grows in Gan Eden. Can we return? Of course, we can. But what about that angel with the ever-turning flaming sword that bares the way? Like all guardians at the threshold, at the gate, the ones who stand guard at the door to the throne—they are there to keep out the unwanted and the undeserving. We are neither. Guilt and shame, those are what keep us from realizing this. Strip away the guilt and the shame, strip away the lies and we gain wisdom. We recognize that we need not study our heritage from afar. We can commune with it and connect to it. If we choose. If we dare. Well? If not now, when? It starts with a passage of Zohar. Zohar 1: 232a:
From The Zohar: Pritzker Edition translation and commentary by Daniel C. Matt, Stanford University Press, 2006, v. III, pp402-403 He opened, saying ‘The angel redeeming me from all evil (Genesis 48:16). This has been discussed and established, but come and see! It is written: Here, I am sending an angel before you (Exodus 23:20). This is the angel who is Redeemer of the world, protection of human beings. This is the one who arranges blessings for the whole world, receiving them first and them providing them in the world. Therefore, ‘Here I am sending an angel before you’ (Exodus 23:20), and similarly: ‘I will send an angel before you and I will drive out’ (Exodus 33:2). This angel is sometimes male and sometimes female. [Within the limits of the rabbinic mind the male is dominate and female is submissive. Hence they can’t imagine an active female. It is best to think of this not in sexual gender terms but in the conceptual duality of Yin and Yang. GMJ] When providing blessings, it is called male and called Male—like a male providing blessings for a female, so He [the active Yang Shekhinah. GMJ] provides blessing for the world. And when it [Shekinah GMJ] stands in judgment over the world, it is called Female—like a female who is pregnant [as Daniel Matt notes the reference to pregnant is alluding to a pun since the Hebrew word for pregnant and wrath have the same consonants but different vowels.] , so She is filled the judgment and is then called Female. Thus sometimes it is called Male [Yang] and sometimes Female [Yin], all one mystery. From The Wisdom of Zohar: An Anthology of Texts by Isaiah Tishby, Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 1983, v. 1, pg 372: Malkuth’s activity of ruler of the world, alluded to at the end of this passage [Zohar 1:232a], presents us with a completely new view of its status. It is now seen as being outside the system of the sefirot, and in this position it undergoes further changes. [I disagree with the idea of it being outside the 10 sefirot. I think that this is its true function within the system. GMJ] In relation to the upper world it is the last link in the chain of emanation, action as a receptacle for the supernal flow of influence, and representing the extreme limit of divine being. [The following seems to me to refer to the being known as the Shekhinah that dwells in the sefrah Malkuth. GMJ] In relation to the lower world, however it is the very beginning and highest point, assuming the role of mother and ruler of the world. When looked at in this way, it is presented as a parallel force to the three upper sefirot, and it is given their names. Like the first sefirah, which stands at the head of the divine order of things as supernal Keter, it is called ‘attrah’ (crown), also called ‘razon’ (will). Keter is the hidden Will, preceding Thought, stimulating it, and setting it in motion; and Malkuth is the will that puts into practice the idea that occur within Thought. In relation to the second sefirah, Hokhmah, the creative wisdom of Thought, Malkuth is called ‘the lower Hokhmah’, that is, the wisdom of practical affairs and government. Both of them are envisaged as a point: Hokhmah as the very first point in the development of the forces of emanation, and Malkuth as the topmost point of the worlds, where the whole of non-divine existence is concentrated before it spreads outward. This parallel with Binah is mainly one of femininity and motherhood: the upper mother and the lower mother. But the importance of the connection here is further enhanced by the use of the named ‘Shekinah’, which is applied to both of them: an upper Shekhinah and a lower Shekhinah. The parallel in this case proceeds from lower to upper. The name ‘Shekhinah’ is assigned first to Malkuth, and from there it is transferred to Binah. In aggadic literature the Shekhinah is the divine presence, existing and active in the world and among the people of Israel. It is identified in kabbalistic doctrine with the last sefirah in its capacity as the ruler of the world, and as ‘the Assembly of Israel’ in the realms above, a designation reserved exclusively for Malkuth. Now, since the activity of Binah in the upper worlds is similar to the activity of Malkuth in the lower worlds [i.e. the physical world that humanity lives in. GMJ], it [Binah] is also called the ‘upper Shekhinah’. We see revealed in the image of the Shekhinah the features of Malkuth as it turns away from its place and from its links with the sefirotic system, toward nondivine existence. My idea is to reimagine the mythos of Kabbalah. I will call it the Hidden Kabalah. To presume that the image of the Tree of the GRA which has Da’at as the fourth sefirah and Malkuth as a minor insignificant piece of fruit hanging off the upper 10 sefirah’s of Divine power was the Hypothetical Sefiroth. The original plan of Ayn Sof. The Sefiroth before the Big Bang that created the universe we live in.  However, with the mythos of Luria and the shattering of the spheres the power shifts. According to my Hidden Kabalah the shattering starts with Da’at. And when the process of emanation and creation was hastily resumed without Da’at, the result is the configuration we live in. It is the Tikkun Olam Sefirot. The result is the Sefirot that includes within the 10 is Malkuth which can be called ‘Queendom’. This is the tree in need of Tikkun Olam. The Divine Power is now all contained within Malkuth. Ayn Sof is an totally empty shell devoid of active power. It is only the source that was drained in creation and emanation. It thus can be removed from the picture.  According to my Hidden Kabalah mythos, power is in reality bottom up. The many, humanity, need to ignite Malkuth to fire up the rest of the sefiroth. If done correctly in acts of Tikkun Olam, these acts of goodness, truth, beauty, and justice have the potential to bring healing and harmony to the cosmos, to humanity and to the Divine itself.
From The Wisdom of the Zohar: An Anthology of Texts by Isaiah Tishby, Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 1982.
Pages 423-429 “The traditional Jewish view, both biblical and rabbinic, was that religious faith involved the absolute subordination of the world and its inhabitants to the perpetual and all-encompassing direction of God…During the Middle Ages, however, the religious attitude of the Jews were deeply influenced by widespread philosophical ideas that saw God solely as the First Cause, and removed Him from any involvement in the ordinary process of events in animate or inanimate life. Most Jewish philosophers strongly opposed this point of view, and tired to maintain and substantiate the traditional Jewish concept. The Zohar contains a fierce polemic against those who deny divine providence, and who substitute chance as an important factor in the affairs of the world and in the destiny of mankind.” Pg 423. “I [Isaiah Tishby] have shown in the previous introduction how the Shekhinah is given the character of a personal ruler in her role as the consort or the supernal mother. She is active in the direction and maintenance of the world, distributing reward and punishment by means of her agents and messengers. …This situation continually changes, and the forces come down on the side of punishment or favor, depending on the vagaries of activity in the lower world. These changes, however, are not merely the result of strict justice or exact calculation, nor the simply the manifestations of an autocratic will, as the traditional concept of divine direction would have them; for the influence of the lower worlds is also considered to have a dynamism of its own. The intentions and acts of man also bring certain forces into play. His good deeds form a positive, constructive, beneficent force, and his bad deeds engender a negative, destructive, maleficent force. Those forces flow upward, and as ‘a stimulation from below’ (itarula dilitala) they affect the balance in the interrelationships of the divine powers. The forces of good deeds increases the power of Love [Hesed], and the force of bad deeds increase the power of Judgment [Din]. Therefore man is a partner with God in the conduct of the world, and the actual work of direction is a result of the cross-influence of the upper and lower forces.” P 424 “One may therefore describe her [Shekhinah] as a kind of storehouse of divine powers. In her direction of the world she activates the forces that are stored up within her, and distributes them in the form of life and sustenance to the realms below.” P425 “The chief roles in the dynamic process of activating and using the divine powers are assigned to tow sefirot: Binah (the upper river) and Yesod (the lower river). They work as parallel forces, Binah directing the sefirot that are below it, and Yesod directing the worlds by means of the Shekhinah. The mystery of Yesod’s dynamism is expressed in sexual symbols. …Male and female, Yesod and Malkuth, which are both channel and storehouse of the divine powers, constitute on entity like the unity of the source and the well. This unity is destroyed during exile, when the female is taken away from the male, as a result of the sins of the world. Then the direction of the world is impaired, because the channel of influence is sealed and the dynamic forces cannot act in the lower realms. Only remnants of the influence, which had previously been sown in the garden of the Shekhinah, exist in order to sustain the world. Were it not for these remnants the world would turn into chaos for it is the flow of the divine forces that basically controls and sustains it.” P 426. “The basic and more frequently occurring idea is that the world of emanation is built up on a threefold pattern, two completely opposite extremes with a force in the middle that holds the balance between them. …The first triad, where existence and intermingling of opposites are beyond the reach of perception, is that of Hokhmah, Binah, and Da’at, and this branches out into the chief central triad of Hesed, Gevurah [Din] and Tiffereth, which comprise the attributes of Love, Judgment, and Mercy. The last triad consists of Netzach, Hod, and Yesod, which are subdivisions of these attributes, while Malkuth, by virtue of its position represents the totality of all the attributes. Love and Judgment are two fiercely hostile forces in this system, each trying to overthrow and annihilate the other. A compromise has to be effected in this struggle by the attribute of Mercy, whose natural role is to moderate extremes and to mix them together in a single whole.” Pp 427-428 “Here in lies the tremendous responsibility of mankind, for it is man that has the wherewithal to harmonize the opposite powers and to effect a balance between them, and it is his actions that can turn the scale toward innocence or guilt. The consequences of man’s actions are not confined to the reward or punishment that might come to him personally, for there is a kind of collective responsibility. The actions of individuals are combined together and it is their total influence that determines the way in which the whole world is governed. …Man’s involvement in the direction of the world, which is one of the basic tenets of kabbalistic doctrine, imposes upon him a very heavy responsibility. He has continually to see himself as part of the complex of the opposing forces in the Godhead and in the cosmos, and it s part of his task to help to moderate the extremes, and so to bring peace to the Godhead and to the world.” Pp 428-429 From The Wisdom of the Zohar: An Anthology of Texts by Isiah Tishby, 1982, pp269-270
“Most of these terms were not selected for their intrinsic worth, nor were they originally arranged in a unified systematic order to indicate the nature of the sefirot. This is particularly obvious in the choice of the names of the seven lower sefirot, six of which were based on 1st Chronicles 29:11 ‘Yours, O Lord is the greatness and the power, and the beauty, and the victory, and the majesty…Yours is the kingdom.’ That is to say, that the origin of these names was exegetical, and intrinsic to the subject in hand. Therefore, in their original form they were basically terms of praise and glorification, which do not say a great deal about the nature of the individual sefirot.” “But if we introduce certain specific variations, that is if we change Keter into Razon (Will) and Tiferet into Rachamim (Mercy)—names frequently found in the Zohar—and if we use, as was customary, Hesed (Love) instead of Gedulah [Greatness], then we have a much more useful arrangement.” Also, the variations of Din (Judgment) and Pachad (Fear) as variations of Gevurah (Power) reveal that sefirahs nature and importance. The Rabbis, both the philosophically inclined and the mystically inclined, were impressed with and influenced by the Greek philosophers Plato, and the neo-platonic thinkers, as well as the teachings of Aristotle.
Aristotle stated in his logic the basic principles of Greek grammar and thought. The idea that there are only two choices and that these two choice are an oppositional position. This idea and attitude was embodied in first three ‘laws’ of logic as presented by Aristotle. These first three laws are the Law of Identity, A is A; the Law of Non-Contradiction, A is not non-A, and the Law of Exclusions of the Middle Ground, there is no transition from A to not-A. What this means is that the Greeks, and those who built upon them—Western Civilizations and cultures, recognized that all things can be listed into pairs, into dualities. Each of these pairs could be organized into groups and interrelated. With the application of a pair of value judgments you create a cultural bias. The value judgment pairs are the pairing of good vs. bad or good vs. evil, or right or wrong. By the application of these value judgment pairs all the other list of paired opposites become judged as well. So you ended up with this situation: Light vs Dark Male vs Female Immaterial vs Material Spirit vs Matter Spirit vs flesh Mind vs body Changeless vs change Deathless vs Death Immortal vs mortal Divine vs Human Sun vs Earth Sun vs Moon White vs Black Heaven vs Earth Above vs Below One vs Many Where everything listed on the left is good and everything listed on the right is bad or evil. This dichotomy became embedded into the mindset and world view of the Western World and influenced all who it touched. The rabbis were no exception. They adopted this perspective and gave it a Jewish spin. Maimonides spent the totality of his book The Guide for the Perplexed with the intention and reconciling Aristotle’s philosophy and the teachings of the Rabbis. Though Maimonides had no qualms for disagreeing with Aristotle and explaining how the Jewish perspective differed, and of course, he, Maimonides, considered more complete if not more accurate. For Aristotle God was The Prime Mover and the One reminiscent of Plato’s concept. This God was immaterial, changeless, immortal, and pure thought as well as purity of thought. God was thus the exact opposite of human beings, who were material, subject to change, mortal, and were physical and full of many conflicting thoughts, many based in humanities physical substance being and needs. God was to be above all the other lesser unmoved movers- the planets, and other entities. But God as the Prime Mover was the source of all movement. For Aristotle God to be pure in thought would mean it could not be contaminated by any impurities. Hence could not consider the impurities of the physical world and of physical humans. God could, would, and must only contemplate perfection such as its self. Maimonides had one additional concept about God that Aristotle did not have. The singular difference was that for Maimonides the Torah, aka TaNaK, based difference was that God was incomparable. God was unique and different than anything else. All created beings were similar in a variety of manner and ways. But God, being above and the Creator was above and beyond and not like anything else in all of existence. God is unique and thus One, beyond equal. Maimonides agrees with Aristotle and even uses his reasoning of God of Pure Intellect to explain Maimonides idea of prayer as it is explained in The Guide. Since God contemplates only its own perfect self, it takes no notice of changing, physical and impure humans. Pray changes us but has no effect on God itself. It was this attitude of God being untouched by human concerns and prayers that the mystical Rabbis rebelled against. Though they accepted the rest of Maimonides and Aristotle. The philosophic idea of God and the mystical idea of God was merged into explaining what is known by Ayn Sof. The only difference is that in the Kabbalah humanity can interact with some aspect of the Infinite Divine. This would be by means of Ayn Sof’s creation and emanation called the Sefirot. Source material: From: Aristotle’s Concept of God by Stanley Sfekas (https://heptapolis.com/aristotles-concept-god and can also be found at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286412818_ARISTOTLE'S_CONCEPT_OF_GOD) [Stanley Sfekas (Greek: Στάνλεϋ Σφήκας; born 1942) is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Religion at the University of Indianapolis. (https://heptapolis.com/cv/stanley-sfekas)] Moses Maimonides’s idea of God. By Warren Zev Harvey (From https://www.academia.edu/39364549/Warren_Zev_Harvey_Maimonides_Monotheism_Between_the_Bible_and_Aristotle_in_Ada_Taggar-Cohen_et_al._eds._Proceedings_of_the_7th_CISMOR_Conference_on_Jewish_Studies_Kyoto_Doshisha_University_2013_56-67) From: http://www.mesora.org/prayer.html |
Garshom Yaron aka Gary Jaron has been exploring the Occult Qabalah and the Rabbinic Kabbalah since he was a teen.
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