Jewish Mysticism and Kaballah

Jewish Mysticism and Kaballah

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Throughout history, spiritual cultivators who wanted to attain direct experience and knowledge of God needed to study the scriptures, that is for sure. But that is not all there is. There is also the oral traiditon and the practice in daily life. The oral traditions and practices, which are in a way, the most important part for gaining direct contact with God, are passed from teacher to student intuitively and can't be obtained through only reading scriptures literally. The human mind is barred from heaven so heaven can only be understood intuitively through love, and understanding numerology, symbology and "myth" are but a few ways to understand the truth of things. The inner meaning, the numerical meaning, and the symbolic meaning of the scriptures is not ususally known or understood, but we know it exists and is in there.

Originally the bible was written very symbollically and the
"keys" to understanding a story were in the numerology. For example, 3 represents wholeness, and 4 or 40 represents transformation. 40 days and 40 nights is obviously representing a transformation and purification. Over time the numerical keys to the metaphoric teachings were lost or deliberately obscurred by the church. Much Kabballic teachings were removed from the bible in the first few centuries after the death of Jesus

Origin of Jewish mysticism

According to adherents of Kabbalah, the origin of Kabbalah begins with secrets that God revealed to Adam. According to a rabbinic midrash God created the universe through the ten sefirot. When read by later generations of Kabbalists, the Torah's description of the creation in the Book of Genesis reveals mysteries about the godhead itself, the true nature of Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life, as well as the interaction of these supernal entities with the Serpent which leads to disaster when they eat the forbidden fruit, as recorded in Genesis 2[1].

The Bible provides ample additional material for mythic and mystical speculation. The prophet Ezekiel's visions in particular attracted much mystical speculation, as did Isaiah's Temple vision (Chapter 6). Jacob's vision of the ladder to heaven is another text providing an example of a mystical experience. Moses' experience with the Burning bush and his encounters with God on Mount Sinai, are all evidence of mystical events in the Tanakh, and form the origin of Jewish mystical beliefs.

The 72 names of God which are used in Jewish mysticism are derived from the Hebrew verses Moses spoke to part the Red Sea, allowing the Hebrews to escape their approaching enemies with the assistance of an angel. This is the greatest miracle of the Exodus of the Hebrews which led to receiving of the Ten Commandments and acceptance of the Torah at Mount Sinai creating the first Jewish nation approximately three hundred years before King Saul.

Some scholars have even proposed an Indian origin for this mystic system. They credit it to the Sage Kapila who founded the Indian system of Samkhya-Yoga.

Apocalyptic literature belonging to the second and first pre-Christian centuries contained elements that carry over to later Kabbalah. According to Josephus such writings were in the possession of the Essenes, and were jealously guarded by them against disclosure, for which they claimed a hoary antiquity (see Philo, "De Vita Contemplativa," iii., and Hippolytus, "Refutation of all Heresies," ix. 27).

That books containing secret lore were kept hidden away by (or for) the "enlightened" is stated in IV Esdras xiv. 45-46, where Pseudo-Ezra is told to publish the twenty-four books of the canon openly that the worthy and the unworthy may alike read, but to keep the seventy other books hidden in order to "deliver them only to such as be wise" (compare Dan. xii. 10); for in them are the spring of understanding, the fountain of wisdom, and the stream of knowledge.

Instructive for the study of the development of Jewish mysticism is the Book of Jubilees written around the time of King John Hyrcanus. It refers to mysterious writings of Jared, Cain, and Noah, and presents Abraham as the renewer, and Levi as the permanent guardian, of these ancient writings. It offers a cosmogony based upon the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and connected with Jewish chronology and Messianology, while at the same time insisting upon the heptad (7) as the holy number rather than upon the decadic (10) system adopted by the later haggadists and the Sefer Yetzirah. The Pythagorean idea of the creative powers of numbers and letters was shared with Sefer Yetzirah and was known in the time of the Mishnah (before 200 CE).

Early elements of Jewish mysticism can be found in the non-Biblical texts of the Dead Sea Scrolls, such as the Song of the Sabbath Sacrifice. Some parts of the Talmud and the midrash also focus on the esoteric and mystical, particularly Chagigah 12b-14b.. In the medieval era Jewish mysticism developed under the influence of the word-number esoteric text Sefer Yetzirah. Jewish sources attribute the book to the biblical patriarch Abraham, though the text itself offers no claim as to authorship. This book, and especially its embryonic concept of the "sefirot," became the object of systematic study of several mystical brotherhoods which eventually came to be called baale ha-kabbalah (בעלי הקבלה "possessors or masters of the Kabbalah").

Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism) teaches that God is neither matter nor spirit. Rather God is the creator of both, but is himself neither. But if God is so different from his creation, how can there be any interaction between the Creator and the created? This question prompted Kabbalists to envision two aspects of God, (a) God himself, who in the end is unknowable, and (b) the revealed aspect of God that created the universe, preserves the universe, and interacts with mankind. Kabbalists speak of the first aspect of God as Ein Sof (אין סוף); this is translated as "the infinite", "endless", or "that which has no limits". In this view, nothing can be said about this aspect of God. This aspect of God is impersonal. The second aspect of divine emanations, however, is at least partially accessible to human thought. Kabbalists believe that these two aspects are not contradictory but, through the mechanism of progressive emanation, complement one another. See Divine simplicity; Tzimtzum. The structure of these emanations have been characterized in various ways: Four "worlds" (Azilut, Yitzirah, Beriyah, and Asiyah), Sefirot, or Partzufim ("faces"). Later systems harmonize these models.

Some Kabbalistic scholars, such as Moses ben Jacob Cordovero, believe that all things are linked to God through these emanations, making us all part of one great chain of being. Others, such as Schneur Zalman of Liadi (founder of Lubavitch (Chabad) Hasidism), hold that God is all that really exists; all else is completely undifferentiated from God's perspective. If improperly explained, such views can be interpreted as panentheism or pantheism. In truth, according to this philosophy, God's existence is higher than anything that this world can express, yet He includes all things of this world down to the finest detail in such a perfect unity that His creation of the world effected no change in Him whatsoever. This paradox is dealt with at length in the Chabad Chassidic texts.

Hebrew Germatria-

Gematria:As early as the 1st Century BCE Jews believed Torah (first five books of the Bible) contains encoded message and hidden meanings. Gematria is one method for discovering hidden meanings in Torah. Each letter in Hebrew also represents a number - Hebrew, unlike many other languages, never developed a separate numerical alphabet. By converting letters to numbers, Kabbalists were able to find hidden meaning in each word. This method of interpretation was used extensively by various schools. An example would be the teachings of Rabbi Isaac Luria[1].

There is no one fixed way to "do" gematria. Some say there are up to 70 different methods. One simple procedure is as follows: each syllable and/or letter forming a word has a characteristic numeric value. The sum of these numeric tags is the word's "key", and that word may be replaced in the text by any other word having the same key. Through the application of many such procedures, alternate or hidden meanings of scripture may be derived. Similar procedures are used by Islamic mystics, as described by Idries Shah in his book, "The Sufis".

Revealed gematria

The most common form of gematria is used occasionally in the Talmud and Midrash and elaborately by many post-Talmudic commentators. It involves reading words and sentences as numbers, assigning numerical instead of phonetic value to each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. When read as numbers, they can be compared and contrasted with other words.

Gematria is often used by the Maharal of Prague and hasidic Torah commentators (such as the "Sefath Emmeth" from Gur).

One fascinating application of gematria is its use by exegetes to suggest that authors of certain biblical texts were keenly aware of specific mathematical principles and properties. For example, gematria has been employed to contend that the author of Kings, who according to traditionalists is Solomon, was aware of the approximate value of Pi. Ostensibly, a plain reading of 1 Kings 7:23 indicates that its author believed that 3, rather than 3.14159..., is the value of Pi. This tentative conclusion arises from the fact that the verse describes the molten sea that was made in the Temple as being 10 cubits from brim to brim (diameter) and as being encircled completely by a line of 30 cubits (circumference). Since Pi is the ratio of a circle's circumference to the circle's diameter, it would seem that the author of Kings thought Pi had a value of 3, which makes no sense since even a rough measurement would show the difference (1.4 cubits is almost 2.7 feet). (Though the passage makes more sense when considered the Hebrews had no decimal notation[1]).

However, gematria may be used to counter the argument that this verse is an example of biblical error. In Jewish tradition, words appearing in portions of the Books of the Prophets are occasionally read (Kri) differently than they are written (Ktiv). Some biblical scholars, such as Rabbi Judah Loew, the 16th century Maharal of Prague, trace the provenance of the Kri/Ktiv dichotomy all the way back to the authors of the Books of the Prophets. In its written form (Ktiv), the verse uses the word KaVaH (Kuf, Vav, Hey) for the molten sea's circumference. Yet, the word is read (Kri) as KaV (Kuf, Vav). The numerical value of KaVaH is 111 (Kuf = 100, Vav = 6, Hey = 5), while that of KAV is 106 (Kuf = 100, Vav = 6). The ratio of these two numbers (111/106 = 1.047169) closely approximates the ratio between Pi and 3 (1.047197), giving an assumed value of 3.141507 for Pi, which is approximately 99.997% of the known value. The Vilna Gaon, a Rabbinic luminary of the 18th Century known for a remarkable mathematical prowess, is often credited with this discovery.

This may be contrasted with the Greek 'gematria' taken from the Pythagorean motto "God is a Geometer", or in Greek ""Aei o Theos o Megas gewmetrei" which, in the length of it's words just happens to encode the first six digits of Pi.


Mystical gematria

Gematria is a system of recognizing a correspondence between the ten sefirot, or fires of God, and the twenty two letters in the Hebrew alphabet. This system is elaborated in many mystical Jewish writings such as the Zohar.

One example of gematria are the twenty-two solid figures that are composed of regular polygons. There are five Platonic solids, four Kepler-Poinsot solids, and thirteen Archimedean solids. Since there are twenty-two letters in the Hebrew alphabet, a correspondence can be inferred between these two disparate categories. The art of gematria is knowing which solid is associated with which letter.

Another example is that of Hebrew numerals. Although there are twenty-two letters, there are twenty-seven numerals necessary to express each number up to 999 (one through nine, ten through ninety, one hundred through nine hundred). The mystical Hebrew numeric system notes that the missing final five letters of the numeral system match exactly with the five 'sofit (word-final) alternate forms of the Hebrew letters.

Another use is that words which have the same numerical value, share the same qualities, and reveal still other aspects of the Divine.

Yet another form, albeit reversed from the conventional, involves finding words that use or are similar to the letters which representing the current calendar year, and associating those words with predictions for the year.

The 72 names of God has astronomical implications and meanings-
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This rare cut shows the name of God in seventy-two languages inscribed upon the petals of a symbolic sunflower. Above the circle are the seventy-two powers of God according to the Hebrew Kabbalah. Below are two trees, that on the left bearing the symbols of the planets and that on the right the signs of the zodiac and the names of the tribes of Israel. The esoteric doctrines of the Kabbalah are in alignment with the secret teachings of all the schools of philosophy, but the method by which its secrets are revealed to the wise and concealed from the ignorant is most unusual.

Kabballah confirms other ancient spiritual teachings from other lands, which state the universe is 10 directional and emanates from 10 directions-

Sephirot, Sephiroth, or Sefiroth (סְפִירוֹת), singular: Sephirah, also Sefirah (סְפִירָה "enumeration" in Hebrew).

Sephiroth (or "enumerations"), in the Kabbalah of Judaism, are the ten attributes that God (who is referred to as אור אין סוף Aur Ain Soph, "Limitless Light, Light Without End") created through which he can project himself to the universe and man. These emanations manifest not only in the physical part of the universe, but also in the metaphysical one. Kabbalah distinguishes between four different "worlds" or "planes":

1. Atziluth (אֲצִילוּת), or "World of Emanations", on this level the light of the Ain Sof radiates and is still united with its source.
2. Beri'ah (בְּרִיאָה) or "World of Creation", on this level the first concept of creation ex nihilo however without any shape or form. This is also where the Highest Ranking Angels are to be found.
3. Yetzirah (יְצִירָה) or "World of Formation" on this level the created being assumes shape and form.
4. Asiyah' (עֲשִׂיָּה) or "World of Actions", on this level the creation is complete, however it is still in a spiritual level. At a later stage there is the 'physical Asiyah' comprising our physical world with all its creatures.

Each of these worlds are progressively grosser and further removed from any revealed Godliness, however the ten Sephiroth manifest in all of them.

Moses receiving the Tables of the Law

The Tannaim, or initiates of the Jewish Mystery School, alone possessed a complete understanding of the significance of the Ten Commandments. These laws are esoterically related to the ten degrees of contemplation constituting the Path of Ecstasy, which winds upward through the four worlds and ends in the effulgence of AINSOPH. MPH