School of the Soul

I was recently asked about my position concerning the Karaite calendar and their attempt to adhere to an “original” Hebrew calendar by determining the New Year via locating ripened barley in HaEretz. Following is my response…

"And Elohim said, 'Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years....'" (Genesis 1:14)

The Scriptural calendar has a solar-lunar structure. The year consists of twelve lunar months. The Feast Days, on the other hand, follow the solar year, since the Pilgrimage Feasts (Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot) must take place in certain seasons, and the seasons are determined by the earth annual revolution around the sun. The seasons are changes in weather that last for a certain period of time the Earth has four seasons moving in a cycle in the order of spring, summer, fall, and winter. 

Since the lunar years is roughly 354.3 days in length, while the solar year is roughly 365.5 (roughly eleven days longer), the festival would eventually fall in the wrong seasons if their occurrence followed the cycle of lunar months. Passover must take place in the month of Aviv, and the month of Aviv must be in the Spring so that Shavuot can occur at the time of the early harvest. Setting into motion that Sukkot will appropriately follow in the Autumn harvest. To prevent the Commonwealth of Israel from violating Torah, the Hebrew lunar calendar is regularly adjusted to keep it in conformity with the solar year. This is done through the periodic additional, thirteenth month, known as Adar Sheni.

Since the discrepancy between the solar and lunar years amounts to 207 days every 19 years, the "leap month" of Adar Sheni is added to the third, sixth, eight, eleventh, fourteenth, seventeenth and nineteenth year of every nineteen year period, that is, seven times in a 19-year lunar cycle.
Pretty simple and straight forward but with the Karaites, there is controversy as the Rambam wrote…

"...Rejecting the fixed calendar as a heretic innovation, the Karaites held that by law of Scripture the beginning of the months must be determined by the appearance of the new crescent and no other means, and that this had been the practice of ancient Israel at all times. Rabbanite refutation of this extreme assertion found its most outspoken exponent in Saadia Gaon, who went to the opposite extreme in 'demonstrating' that the fixed calendar, computation of molad and tekufah (seasons), has the force of a Mosaic-Sinaitic law that had been followed at all ages of the past, while observation of the new crescent was merely a passing episode in the history of the Jews, introduced at the time of the Sadducees...(The Code of Maimonides, book II, treatise 8)"

“And YHVH Elohim planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.”

As we have come to learn, the Torah is nothing more than a metaphysical handbook, the individual biography of every being born on the planet. It’s a guide that details the many mental and spiritual states we find ourselves occupying during every waking moment of our lives.

I don’t know what your understanding of Eden is, but chances are that you’ve come to know it as God’s magical garden where he placed Adam and Eve, both of whom then went on to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil – a big no-no in the eyes of HaShem.

Scientifically (and metaphysically) speaking, we can look at the Creator as simply a nonlocal, multidimensional ‘event’ that developed conscious awareness and ‘asked’ itself why it was. In order to explore this question, the nonlocal multidimensional event individualized itself and generated our local, ‘physical’ three-dimensional reality (governed by space and time).

This being the case, where exactly does ‘Eden’ fit in? Furthermore, who on earth are Adam and Eve?

In order to answer these questions, we must remember again to look at the Torah as a metaphysical guide concerning the various states of consciousness.

Firstly, ‘Eden’ is not a garden. It’s not actually a place at all. Eden represents a ‘pleasant, harmonious state of consciousness’ leading to growth (that’s where the garden bit comes in). Further, in scriptural symbolism, east always represents the within, so what we have is a pleasant, harmonious state of consciousness (Eden) within us (located in the east).

There are 5 dimensions to the human soul (i.e. Yechidah, Chayah, Neshamah, Ruach and Nefesh). Our material existence is called Nefesh and is the biological physiology which we self-identify with on our linear space-time experience. Therein is embedded the senses of “self” of the ego which is called Nefesh Bahamit (Animal Soul). It is the meat-body of the Nefesh that the Higher Soul called Neshamah utilizes for its own distinctive purpose of self-actualization by undergoing experiential existence in the physical world. However, the Neshamah (Higher Soul) is not “directly” connected to the lower self- the Nefesh. The connection between the two (higher and lower selves) is through an interface called the Ruach (Spirit). The Ruach (Spirit) is the personification of the Neshamah which becomes produced by the association with the lower body (Nefesh). It is the Ruach that becomes the individuation of our own distinctive personality and that which transcends the physicality of the Nefesh and represents the particular of the Neshamah’s (Higher Soul’s) development in each particular incarnation.  How does the Ruach develop and come to attach the Higher Self of transcendence to the lower self of experiential immanence? The Ruach is the conscious Spirit (containing the sechel of the Neshamah and the middot of the experiential) which exists in scientific terms as a compound waveform structure that is made of pieces of electromagnetic wave energy, which are photons of Light. The Ruach is the emergent Consciousness phenomenon that arises when electromagnetic wave energies are built into that particular kind of compound waveform structure. That structure of electromagnetic energy is consciousness.

The energetic structure that is consciousness is generated by patterns of neuron firings in our brain. That conscious “thing” (Ruach), that is made of electromagnetic wave energy is the individual human Spirit. The Ruach which is made of electromagnetic energy is contrasted to our Nefesh (Physical body) which is comprised of atomic matter. The electromagnetic wave energy (Spirit) is embodied within the atomic matter (Body) creating a human being which is a conscious biological intelligence.

Our Ruach (Spirit) and our Nefesh (Body) are made of two different kinds of “stuff”: energy and matter. They are causally related to and causally interact with each other, but our physical body (Nefesh) and our electromagnetic essence (Ruach) are nonetheless two separate “things,” not one blended “thing.”

There is no “additional” thing within us called a “Soul.” The concept of the soul is a pre-scientific attempt to understand the relationship between a human consciousness and the human body. The soul is usually conceived as some form of blend of body and spirit, whereas the Kabbalists and research from modern Neuro-physics give credence to the concept that our conscious being is derived from immaterial electromagnetic wave energy and our body/brain is made of physical atomic matter and energy.

Our body is an exquisitely sensitive sensory receptor and transmission system that provides finely nuanced electrical information to our consciousness, information about the body itself and its interactions with physical and social reality. This kind of "felt" sensory body information corresponds to emotional aspect (middot) of our Spirit (Ruach).

Sensory perception is how the Ruach (and subsequently the higher Neshamah) experiences the sense of self-being in the physical world. Felt-body information is our conscious connection to the physical reality that we are in as embodied Spirits.

Let me try and break this down another way: The Universe is composed of one single state of energy called electromagnetic background energy. This energy is Light that emanated from the Singularity at the beginning of existence. As the Singularity expanded the Light filled the void and subsequently after the gestation of matter and the physical existence that electromagnetic energy was the un-perceived Light which exists from one edge of the universe to the other. In other words the Universe is completely filled with this Light. This Light utilized the mechanism of the biological matter of our bodies through the pathways and firings of our own neural pathways to create consciousness in what would be otherwise dead matter. The enlivening of the physical bodies creates a new form of consciousness that identifies as a “self-awareness” and this sense of self is the “I” that comprises each of us and our personalities.

Samech - Yod - Tet

Samek is the “tent peg,” “prop” or “pole,” implying support, and 'Yod' is the “hand of God,” the first Holy Letter of the Great Name of YHVH, implying the power of the ten Holy Sefirot, and specifically, the power of the Supernal Sefirot, Supernal Light; and 'Tet' is the “serpent,” which alludes to the presence and power of God in us, a power that can be used to heal or to harm, for good or for evil.

There are two stories of Moshe Rabbeinu (Moses our Teacher) that reflect this Holy Name of God. One is in chapter seventeen of Exodus when Amalek and his armies attack the children of Israel – Moses goes up on a hill and cleaving the name YHVH and the Holy Shekinah, he uplifts his staff, and as long as his staff remains uplifted, the men of Israel are victorious in battle. As the battle wages on, Moses grows weary, so a stone is placed beneath him so that he can sit and Aaron and Hur help him hold his arm up, and with this support the Israelite army is victorious over the army of Amalek.

This incident, of course, transpires right after the liberation of the children of Israel from their bondage in Egypt and represents the influx of klippotic forces that rush to assault the sojourner in the mystical journey after any breakthrough to higher or expanded states of consciousness – quite naturally, in this world of darkness as we increase in light and life-power, like a light turned on during a summer’s night all manner of creatures are attracted, the influences of shedim the klippot. This Holy Name, however, holds the power to bind and banish them.

In fundamentalist traditions of faith it is taken for granted that Moses was the author of the Torah. The Rambam even declared that Moses was the sole author of the Torah who wrote it down as directly dictated to him letter for letter by God. This bold assertion by the Rambam doesn't hold up to scrutiny though and previous to the Rambam the Talmud declared that the authorship of Moses doesn't apply to the last eight verses of Deuteronomy which describe in detail the death of Moses (b. Baba Batra 15a). Later, Rabbis would also exclude other verses from being penned by Moses such as Ibn Ezra (1089-1164) who wrote in regard to Genesis 12:6:

“and the Canaanites were then in the land,” “It would seem that the Canaanites took the land of Canaan from a different group, but if this is not correct, then there is a secret here, and the wise will remain silent.”… “If you understand the secret of the twelve—as well as ‘and Moses wrote’ (Deut. 31:22), ‘and the Canaanites were then in the land’ (Gen. 12:6), ‘on the mountain God will appear’ (Gen. 22:14), ‘here is his iron bed’ (Deut. 3:11) – you will recognize the truth.”

The Tzafenat Pa’aneach—a commentary on Ibn Ezra by R. Joseph ben Eliezer Bonfils (14^th cent.), explains the Ibn Ezra’s secret:

“…the meaning is this: How could [the Torah] use the word “then” in this context, which implies that [the Canaanites were there] then but that they are not there now. But didn’t Moses write the Torah and in his time the Canaanites ruled the land? It makes no sense for Moses to write “then.” Reason dictates that the word “then” could only have been written at a time when the Canaanites were not occupying the land, and we know that the Canaanites were not removed from the land until after Moses’ death during the conquest of Joshua. According to this, Moses did not write this word here, rather Joshua or one of the later prophets wrote it…”

So what is going on here? The commentary is stating that the word "then" in the Torah verse (Gen. 12:6) does not seem like a grammatical style being used by a present witness (Moses) experiencing a present reality (Caananites in the Land), rather the verse it apparently a later author writing about a past experience which would undoubtedly make Moses not the author of this verse.

Quite a while back I had a discussion wherein a man named Yoel HaLevi wanted to discuss the veracity of the Wisdom of Kabbalah. I forgot about this exchange until recently when I opened up a file containing the dialogue and figured it would make a good posting on this blog. The arguments and counter-point will provide some good material to think and contemplate upon. Yoel’s assertions are in bold font and my responses are in regular font…

“First, Kabalists are not sure if Ein Sof is God, or even if there are any actual discussions about God at all.”

In reference to “God,” we have to clarify one thing in particular- God is simply a subjective term wherein every individual posits their own definitions and frame an individualized persona or Divine effigy that is mentally constructed in their own image. This is the source of religious frustration in dialogue. How can two people have a productive dialogue when they each have a fundamentally differing perception on the identity of God. In the Hebrew there is not an equivalent to the term “God” and to impose the subjective term into the Biblical text is erroneous and leads to a complete misunderstanding of the entire Hebrew narrative. The Hebrew Bible uses very specific terms to relate very specific concepts within the context of the narrative wherein they appear. All of the terms that are generically translated as “God” reveal qualities and characteristics of how the Divine Transcendence relates to and reveals certain qualities within the context of finite existence. The Kabbalist’s see these occurrences of Divine “Names” not as Deity proper rather as a glimpse of Divine quality within the limited finite sense. For example, does the term “Elohim” refer to a transcendent “God” in a proper sense? The Kabbalist’s (as outlined in the Zohar) say “no” because the grammatical structure of the first verse of Genesis can be interpreted or translated to read Elohim as the product of Creation not its progenitor.

The Kabbalist’s understand that any finite representation of “God” is distinctly finite and since God “proper” is Transcendent then no finite depictions are adequate to ascribe qualities and characteristic as the nature of Transcendence supersedes qualities of human recognition. The human mind itself is not capable of objective thought process and can only see reality in the context of subjective perceptions that have been accumulated throughout one’s life which frame an individual context of interpreting their reality around them. The Bible is a work which itself attempts to convey objective ideals but does so in a subjective context as it could be no other way. This is why the writers of the Biblical narrative explain the process of Divine revelation in terms that are anthropomorphic. In other words, it is written concerning the Divine that it has human attributes such as a hand, arms, eyes, expresses human emotions such as hate, love, jealousy, etc. None of these anthropomorphisms are literal rather they are used as analogies and allusions to depict archetypes and inner qualities of human experience.