Why this Blog?
This is a blog that was written out of necessity. It had to be written. In the English language the Bible is the top selling book of all time but it is also the most misunderstood, misused and corrupted book of all time. Many hundreds of translations have been made of the Biblical text but the process of translation is a difficult task which all too often is done in the context of the subjective imagination of the one doing the translation work. In spite of the so-called “literal” translations that have been disseminated throughout the world there is no such thing as a literal translation of the Bible. The Bible was primarily written in Hebrew and later in Aramaic and the Hebrew language is a rich language of complex linguistics that are much more meaningful than modern languages can capture. For example, a single Hebrew letter has a world of meaning, symbolism and possibility latent within its design. A whole book could be written on the translational variations of the first verse of Genesis (B’reishit) 1:1. Therefore it must be understood that the pseudo-literal translation process is not a literal process at all rather an adherence to a particular dogma which certain translators adhere to and this dogma is most certainly biased in nature.
The main emphasis of this blog is to reveal the inner nature of the Torah (five books of Moses), which is called p’nimiyut haTorah. The Torah is the foundation of the entire collection of Hebrew Scriptures and the other writing and prophetic literature which comprises the rest of the Hebrew Bible is supplemental in nature, meaning it is secondary literature. The Torah represents Biblical primacy and upon this foundation everything else emerges. The Torah itself is a compilation of treatises on nearly every facet of man’s life. It covers the level of mundane living but also a psychologist will find that a whole and complete representation of psychology exists within its narrative. The Torah is the ultimate philosophy as it demonstrates to us how to commune with an Unseen Power that resides within each and every one of us. The Torah reveals that each of us is a Torah unto ourselves and gives guidance on how to decipher our own inner selves so that we may truly evolve as spiritual beings. It is a story of every man in his journey through life, his mental and spiritual growth. All of humanity’s obstacles and problems are presented in an understandable way.
The cipher of the inner meaning of the Bible is called “Kabbalah,” which means “to receive.” The reception is the knowledge of the workings of the spiritual worlds and how to unify with the whole of the creative process and the initial impulse which gave rise to the entire process. The Kabbalists (mekubalim) are those who have attained this reception and it is through these ascended masters that many of the hints or allusions to the Bible’s inner meanings have been left for us in the form of commentaries and esoteric exegesis. These commentaries are not the Kabbalah in and of themselves rather they are like bread crumbs being left as a trail to the authentic wisdom that is to be found by the true aspirant of the sacred mystery.
In our modern technological age there are many vices to distract us from probing the sacred mysteries and to hinder our attention from the reality of who we are, where we have come from and why we are here. This has impeded man’s spiritual progress and as a result has led to the highest depression and suicide rate in human history. Modern medicine offers a myriad of pharmaceutical interventions but without significant results. Counselors and therapists of all types abound to accept the money of hurting individuals but have the inability to actually help a hurting soul. The therapists of our generation cannot truly help when they themselves are also hurting. Very few have found the authentic answers because very few are actually looking.
Religion has also failed to provide the answers that our generation so desperately needs. According to a recent poll, religious attendance across the wide spectrum of practices is dropping off. For generations people have filled pews and given their hard earned money to another person or institution which promised them peace and comfort only to find a lack of inspiration, meaningless messages and empty rituals all repeated in vain ad infimum. In Judaism we have lost our spiritual consciousness because we have been deprived of our true heritage. The Kabbalah was largely expunged from Judaism after the expulsion of Jews from the ancient land of Judea 2000 years ago and with the loss of the Jewish Temple in 70 C.E. Judaism reinvented itself and has continually reinvented itself in a religious context over the last two millennia. Before the expulsion of Jews from Judea and the advent of the most recent galut (exile/diaspora) it is said that Jews knew the Kabbalah from the greatest to the least of them. However, with the new consciousness of survivalism and an emerging victim mentality within Judaism the Kabbalah was deemed to be threatening for mass consumption and it was suppressed so that all that remained was an empty shell of religious obligation. The Kabbalah became the (almost) lost cornerstone of Judaism but it was not lost among the elect of Judaism’s greatest Sages.
Many of the great Rabbonim such as Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Ishmael who were the gold standard of Judaism’s legal interpretation also drank deeply from the spiritual well directly experiencing visions of the Divine Chariot as described by the prophet Ezekiel. Later, the Divine Chariot vision drove the Kabbalists to plummet the depths of the Torah to discover the Names of God reverberating like an integrated tapestry. The Sages knew of this holy garment of Names and gave instructions on how to ride these Names back to their Source. They meticulously described how the Source, otherwise known as Light, manifested the whole of existence and how it is that God resides within all things. These great ascended masters detailed how to divine the Divine Will, they explained the nature of causation and detailed the process of the transmigration of souls (gilgulim) from one incarnation to the next. It was these great Kabbalists who mapped out in meticulous detail the Upper Worlds and then explained that we are each a reflection of such realities and by going within we could directly interface with this reality. This was a Judaism that was dramatically different than the often cold and calloused Judaism of today. This was a spiritual Judaism which was alive and vibrant being infused by a living tradition and inspired by Sages and Ascended Masters called Mekubalim (Kabbalists).
How do we reinvigorate and renew the spiritual legacy of Judaism today in an era of hyper-rationalism? We have to journey to the Heart of Torah by looking at both the old and the new in order to reinvigorate Judaism by relying on Kabbalah and Hassidism. However, these old pathways to knowledge can only work in our present era if they are infused with our modern day language of scientific awareness. Our purpose in this search is to find solace in our noise filled and distracting world, to find an inner place of silence wherein we can experience an encounter with the mystery of God, which is Divine silence, the Source of language and creation. We will find God within ourselves for the greatest truth is that God is not outside of us and the externalized religious trapping of rote do not appease a deity supposedly watching down upon us; our journey is not an effort to obtain a destination to some distant Heaven but an inner journey to the depths of our own heart and Soul. God’s most fundamental Name: YHVH, is a Name crafted out of Divine silence which is God’s essence: “This Name is nothing but a breath…” The silent potential for speech which “animates all of speech…” (Radical Judaism pg 90).
The Being of Divine silence engages humanity through the eternal dance of silence infusing language. The Torah of Sinai in its essence is simpler than we can imagine because the whole of the Torah is contained in the Hebrew letter- Aleph of the word ‘Anochi’ (I AM), which is the first letter of the Commandments. Aleph is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet and is silent as it makes no noise and this indicates that the beginning of Torah originates in silence. Aleph is also representative of the numeral 1 and as such denotes Singularity and Oneness. In his book Radical Judaism, Arthur Green writes: “God is the underlying One behind and within all of existence. Torah is the underlying One behind and within all language.”
Where do we find this place of Oneness? We must understand that both the natural world and the Torah are structured in layers- each layer concealing another. When you remove one layer you go deeper and find a more profound aspect of hidden reality. In modern science we see this from the theory of classical Newtonian Physics to our modern understanding of Quantum Mechanics. Neither level(s) negates a previous reality but the deeper reality is more real than the surface reality. In the Torah there are four primary levels called by the acronym PaRDeS meaning ‘Orchard.’ The four levels are as follows:
1.) Peshat- this is the superficial reading of the Torah’s narrative and the mundane inclination to decipher it on a literal level. Peshat study of the Torah is an allusion to the experience of most of humanity which has a perception only for the mundane and cannot perceive the greater reality. The Kabbalists assert that most human beings only perceive 1% of reality while the other 99% (Zeir Anpin) is obscured from sight. Of course sight is one of the five senses and the greater reality cannot be perceived via the limited functionality of an organ for external light perception. It is too crude a device for the awareness necessary to receive insight into the 99%.
2.) Remez- The next layer of Torah is called Remez, meaning ‘hint.’ Remez is the study of Torah which looks for hints of a deeper meaning. The methodology of Gematria (numerical correspondences) is a hermeneutical principle which is classified as Remez. This layer is also indicative of the first impulse of awakening that occurs in the human heart. It is the questioning attitude of ‘Who am I and why am I here?’ When the human heart begins to question the superficial aspect of the mundane existence then a door begins to open to true insight.
3.) D’rash- The third layer is the homiletic layer, in other words, it finds meaning in everything. In Torah exegesis it is the Midrashim (legends) which exist on this level. The Midrashim extrapolate experiences from the mundane and turns them into experiences of significance. On a personal level after one begins to ask the important questions of significance and meaning they subsequently begin to explore for hints towards the answers to these question. Within this quest discoveries are made in the form of living allegories. We experience our lives as a euphemism for deeper experience.
4.) Sod- The highest level of Torah exegesis is Sod, which means Secret. This is the level of Kabbalah (to receive) and indicates a process of personal development wherein on receives the secret of the 99% reality and obtains a clearer and more objective insight that is based upon their own internal state of awareness. It is herein that one cleanses the doors of their perception and everything appears as it actually is – Infinite.
In our quest for self-awareness and spiritual growth we must become intimately familiar with the Torah’s text. Only through intimate devotion will the Torah reveal her secrets. These secrets are revealed in her letters and in her words which contain a revelation ready to be revealed from her heart as an expression of Divine love. The journey to the depth of the Torah is really an inner source revealing deeper parts of ourselves- deeper states of mind. The more we cultivate that place of inner silence, the more we will make connections to the Kabbalah.
I would like to invite you to explore the heart of the Torah with me. We will explore a place wherein the rules are very different from everyday life. It is a place that the greatest of Jewish Sages knew very well but with the passage of time much of this information has been lost to the collective mindset of humanity- a collective mindset which sees the Torah as a written history or cultural narrative and that’s all that it sees. However, I want you to suspend all of your assumptions about what everyone calls reality so that together we can rediscover that place of pure potentiality where God has a secret Life. This is the place where God’s Name reverberates and is revealed within the Torah. It is the place that fulfills the words of Isaiah: “A new law shall go forth from Me” (Is. 51:04).
This place of magic also connects us to the cosmic body that created Adam and Eve (Adam Kadmon). In a sense this is a journey whose destination fulfills the words of the prophet Jeremiah: “Behold, the days are coming, declares YHVH, I will establish a new covenant with the House of Israel… I will place my Torah in their innermost being and I will inscribe it upon their hearts; I will be their Sovereign, and they shall be my people” (Jeremiah 31:31-34). In this place the Torah shows us not only the living presence of God, but reveals a cosmic body wherein God can write the Torah upon our hearts and inner essence.
What prevents us from going to this place? Only a lifetime of conditioning from out teachers and society who inevitably see the world with the glasses of the old paradigm.
In order to experience the new world, to see with new glasses, you must first discard assumptions about the Bible. These assumptions form the foundation of the materialistic perception and enslave the heart, mind and soul. These false perceptions are:
1.) That the stories of the Torah are exactly as they appear to be on the surface with no hidden or deeper meaning present.
2.) The meaning of the text is literal and not symbolic.
3.) That the Bible was written as a history book.
4.) Names, number and speech are rationally based, not symbolically based; God is not expressed through His Names.
5.) The English translations reflect an accurate understanding of the Hebrew original.
At the end of his life, Isaac Newton turned from studying the physical world to probe the Torah in Hebrew with the intent of discovering its authentic message. Newton, who was the greatest scientist of his age, had the insight to understand that the Torah held profoundly deep and forgotten messages. In this quest for understanding the Torah’s inner essence we will examine the clues that the Sages and Kabbalists have left for us. The beginning of this journey is in first understanding the Bible as an allegory for the spiritual anatomy of the Soul.
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