The Forgotten Message of Torah
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
There are many people who devote their lives to studying the Bible. Some study it as history, some try to prove its authenticity from an archaeological viewpoint; other can tell you how many times a particular word appears in the entire Bible. Some people believe they have found passages that predict modern world events, the appearance of automobiles, airplanes and even space travel. There are many who believe the end of the world is clearly foretold and modern wars predicted; they turn the Bible into the image of modern-day newspaper prophecy. These people typically find their satisfaction and fulfillment in mesmerizing themselves in their own words and studies. However, none of these things are actually representative of the authentic message of the ancient prophets, seers and sages of Israel.
Many modern-day people have shied away from Biblical study, considering it a series of genealogies, bloodthirsty battles, genocide, religious oppression and self-righteous “thou shalt not’s.” The Bible is in fact none of these things. There is nothing in the Bible that is dull, bewildering, contradictory, difficult and antiquated. The Bible is actually a storehouse of inspiration designed to fit every human need and experience, a treasure trove of usable ideas, an infinite source of wisdom; most of all a book of life- our lives. The Kabbalists have emphasized that the Bible is not a book that should be read as history rather it is mythologized history written in a manner than mirrors the condition of the human soul in its earthly incarnation, the struggles we all deal with and the process of spiritual evolution and expanding awareness. All of this is written in the Torah in an allegorical and metaphysical manner, hidden clues to its inner meaning, which once understood transforms the Biblical text into a fascinating and exciting adventure in self-discovery.
The Bible is the Book of the Emancipation of Man. The emancipation of man means his deliverance from sorrow and sickness, from poverty and struggle, from uncertainty, ignorance and limitation. Finally it is the liberation from death itself. This may appear to be what the euphuistic colloquialism of the day would call “a tall order,” but nevertheless it is possible to read the Bible with a mind unwarped by antecedent conceptions derived from fundamentalist interpretation without seeing that this is exactly what it promises and that it professes to contain a secret whereby this happy condition of perfect liberty may be attained.
The Scriptures are concerned with the journey of the soul back to its original awareness and perfection; this state of purity is called Gan Eden and the expanded awareness of the soul is called mochin d’gadlut. The Torah’s narrative is wholly about the struggle of man who cheated by his senses into thinking that satisfaction comes from without, struggles to exert his will against God, the infinite Goodness and Perfection within him.
Story after story the Torah describes man’s voluntary journey into bondage, the thing that happens to man when he chooses to become established in a consciousness apart from God. It is the story illustrated well in the analogy of the Children of Israel, leaving their own lands, going down into Egypt (restricted consciousness) which becomes the enslavement of their minds and their subsequent great desire to get back to the Promised Land. This story of descent, dissatisfaction and subsequent ascent is repeated over again many times throughout the Torah’s narrative, much akin to a theme in a symphony, in many different settings and circumstances so that each one wandering in the wilderness of unenlightened thought can find himself and his particular problem.
Through it all the Divine Source emanates Love towards us in order to reconcile us to our own higher nature. The Creator speaks through the prophets and sages to those who have ears to hear, offering the path of rectification, the Divine order of perfection, which is man’s heritage. We must not however view this process of man being lost. Mankind has never been lost; it is only that his vision of the 99% of objective reality has been obscured and resultantly man has lost his spiritual vision and has chosen to see himself as separated from his Creator. It has seemed easier to him to trust in the evidence of his limited senses rather than the Truth of his Being.
The Primordial Archetype
“The Torah of YHVH is perfect, it restores the soul.
The testimony of YHVH is trustworthy, it makes simple people become wise.
The instructions of YHVH are proper, they make one's heart happy;
the commandment of YHVH is clear, it enlightens the eyes.
The reverence of YHVH is pure, and endures forever.
The judgments of YHVH are true, consistently righteous.
They are more desirable than gold, even more than the purest gold!
Sweeter than honey that drips from the honeycombs” (Psalm 19).
The Sages communicate to us through the Midrashim that the whole of existence was predicated upon the Creator looking into the Torah as an architect peers at his blueprints and through the plan of the Torah the Divine built our world (Midrash B’reishit Rabbah 1:1; 8). What does this mean? Obviously this teaching is an analogy for something other than the Scroll of parchment that is paraded around synagogues during the Shacharit services every Shabbat. We are taught that our earthly Torah is simply a material clothing for the true Torah or an approximation of something that is more primordial.
Mankind was created according to a Divine pattern, he was to be a special creation unlike any other; upright, endowed with Mind, given to understand and know the goodness and the perfection of Life and all created things; with eyes to perceive the good, the true and the beautiful; with ears to hear the gorgeous symphony of the planets as they spin in their orbits, the song of the birds and the sighing of the wind and the still small voice of his Maker; with speech to both command and to praise; with emotion and rapturous feelings of love and compassion; endowed with admiration for the marvelous beauty of the manifest Universe and all it contains. The power of right action and unlimited accomplishments are his. All of these magnificent gifts were combined and many others were installed in a beautiful body of intricate beauty and design. This human body was the ultimate Temple for the dwelling place of God wherein the Divine Life could be manifest and experienced. Man was the ultimate image and likeness of the One who designed him.
The masterpiece finished it remained to hide the Divine spark of Life. This spark of Light that emanates directly from the Source would be required to be hidden from mundane perception if humanity’s existence were it to have any significant realization. For mankind to reach its potential it would have to perceive itself as something existing “on its own.”
The Divine Light that emanates into this lower realm of existence permeates the whole of reality. Its Source is from the Singularity that preceded creation and subsequently manifested existence as we know it. The Light is the Torah before Torah- the primordial Torah which in Hebrew is called Kedumah Torah. This Primordial Torah is placed with each one of us and the physical Torah which we study in our homes and synagogues is the cipher that is meant to unlock the primordial Light of Kedumah Torah that is hidden within us.
There is an old legend that seems to cross cultural boundaries which expresses the concept of this Inner Torah in a beautiful metaphor. The metaphor asks us to ponder: Should God hide the spark of life eternal in the outermost star of the universe, or in the uttermost depths of the ocean? God decided that the one place that man was least likely to look , until he had grown in grace to the stage wherein he could be trusted, was within the heart of himself. For when he would be wise enough to look within, he would be ready to receive the Imminence of God within himself.
This is the most basic message of the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden (Gan Eden) wherein they attained a consciousness of the lower mundane reality of physical existence and its laws of effect and causation (Tree of the Knowledge Good and Evil) but were barred from the Tree of Life (Life of spiritual consciousness) as a result.
The Consciousness of God is Spirit (Light/Energy) which is individualized in and through man. The Midrash expresses this in an answer to the meaning of creation which it states is for “God to behold God.” In other words, let us view God contextually as a state of Consciousness or what I like to refer to as a non-local multidimensional event. Consciousness has only one imperative- to be conscious of something. Since God has nothing to be aware of then It can only be aware of Itself. Thus creation is an act of God becoming aware of Itself. The Universe is the act of God’s own self-awareness.
In Judaism we summarize our entire understanding of the Oneness of God with the phrase “Ain od milvado,” meaning “there is nothing besides Him.” God is all there is and this is also why Jews the world over cover their eyes with their right hand during the recitation of the Shema (Deut. 6:4) as the covering of the eyes is to facilitate the truth that nothing exists besides the Oneness of the Divine.
If God is all there is, the only Cause, Intelligence and of necessity the only Substance, the God at your point of awareness must be personal to you. Each person, country, every battle is a state of consciousness which you encounter in Mind.
The Kedumah Torah is the Divine DNA that is embedded and is the organizer of your DNA. The physical Torah of Sinai is the key to unlock the true Torah within and to unleash your incredible potential as the direct image of God. Think of it this way- when God looked into his Torah he saw you. You are the embodiment of everything that is in the Torah and the written letters within the physical Torah reflects this reality. Nothing in the study of Torah is in vain or superfluous for within every seemingly mundane detail you will find yourself.
Connecting to this authentic Torah will enable you to truly live the life you were meant to live. A life worth living that is in harmony with a Divine order and purpose.
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