What does Kabbalah teach about Angels?



Angels play a prominent role in biblical theology. Therefore, there is angelic doctrine in Kabbalistic teachings as well. According to Kabbalah writings, angels were created before the earth was made, at the point when God said, "Let there be light." Angels were used in the creation of man and are envious of man's free will. There are good and bad angels in a vast network in the spiritual realm. Fallen angels are seen more as negative messengers rather than evil beings. Angels are the intermediaries between the upper worlds and earth and oversee everything that occurs on earth.
Some of the main angels mentioned in the Zohar are Michael, Gabriel, Uriel, and Raphael.1 "Liliel is the Angel of the Night...Lilith is considered to be the arch she-devil." Sandalphon is the angel of prayer as is Michael.2
There are angels are of "Grace, healing, justice, love, mercy, moon, mountains, Paradise, peace, praise, stars, trees, truth, and water. But there are also angels of confusion, destruction, fear, fire, hail, insomnia, reptiles, storms, terror, and thunder." Accusing type angels do their work before midnight.3
Relative to your position on earth, three hosts of angels go out to three parts of the universe. The chief angel over the host is called a hayyah, who is said to be the support for the divine Throne. These angels can't praises to God.4
Consider what Mr. Cooper says in his book God is a verb.

"The Midrash [a compilation of Jewish commentaries of the Old Testament Scriptures that was gathered between 400 and 1200 A.D.] says that angels debated whether or not human beings should be part of creation. The angel of love felt that it would be a good idea to have humans in this creation because of our potential for expressing love; the angel of truth was opposed to human beings because we tend to tell me lies. During this debate, God exhibited examples of humans for Angels to see, but included only well-known characters from biblical lore... next, the angel of Earth rebelled and would not give the Arctic angel Gabriel in the dust for God to create humankind. The angel of Earth protested that the physical earth would be cursed and devastated because of human thoughtlessness; it insisted that God take personal responsibility rather than send an Arctic angel as an intermediary...
"God revealed in the future to Adam and Eve in a book given to them in the Garden of Eden by the hand of the angel Raziel (secrets of God) . This book contained sacred knowledge: 72 branches of wisdom that revealed the formation of 670 inscriptions of higher mysteries. In the middle of the book was a secret writing explaining 1500 keys to the universe, which were not revealed even to the holy angels....
"Adam and Eve obtained this book...
"When Adam and Eve transgressed the commandments of the Master regarding the Tree of Knowledge, the book flew away from them. Adam was so distressed, he entered the river Gihon (one of the rivers of the garden) up to his neck and stayed there so that his body became wrinkled and his face haggard...
"God thereupon made a sign to the Archangel Raphael to return the book, which Adam studied for the rest of his life. He left it to his son Seth, and it went through the generations to Abraham. It is still hidden today, somewhere in the world, for those who know how to read it."1

As you can see, the explanation of angelology in Kabbalistic writings is rather fanciful. These teachings are not based on the Bible. They are based out of human tradition, guesswork, and an effort to unearth the mystical interpretations of Scripture. The problem is that it contradicts biblical teaching.

What does the Bible really say about angels?

Angels are very active in the Bible and are used by God as messengers, warriors, and servants. The word "angel" comes from the Greek word "angelos" which means messenger. Angels are spiritual beings without bodies of flesh and bones, though they apparently have the ability to appear in human form (Gen. 19:1-22). Angels had many functions. They praised God (Psalm 103:20), served as messengers to the world (Luke 1:11-20, 26-38; Luke 2:9-14), watched over God’s people (Psalm 91:11-12), and were sometimes instruments of God’s judgment (Matt. 13:49-50).
The Bible tells us that God created the angels and that at some time in the distant past there was a rebellion in heaven and many of the angels fell. Apparently, it was the elect angels that did not fall (1 Tim. 5:21). The Bible says that angels were created by Christ (Col. 1:16), that they carry out the will of God (Psalm 103:20; Matt. 6:10), they worship God and Christ (Phil. 2:9-11; Heb. 1:6), are wise (2 Sam. 14:20), mighty (Psalm 103:20), holy (Matt. 25:31), and innumerable, (Heb. 12:22). However, angels are not to be worshipped (Col. 2:18; Rev. 19:10; 22:9) since they are creatures.

Are there different kinds of angels?

Apparently, there are different kinds of angels with different characteristics and roles: cherubim, seraphim, and archangels. It may also be that there are "powers" and "principalities" that further describe ranks in the angelic realm, but it is debated. Nevertheless, I'll focus on the three main groups.

"Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew" (Isaiah 6:2).
They praise God (Isaiah 6:3).
The word "seraphim" (singular is seraph) probably a translation of ‘fiery ones’ and probably stems from the fiery imagery often associated with the Presence of God (cf. Ezek. 1:27).5
"So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life" (Gen. 3:24). See also Exodus 25:18-22; Heb. 9:5.
Cherubim are typically represented with wings, feet, and hands, but are described in different forms as having two faces (Ezek. 41:18) and even four faces (Ezek. 10:21).
Cherubim were considered to be angels that guarded sacred things. In Gen. 3:24 they guarded the tree of life. They were over the Ark of the Covenant on the Mercy Seat (1 Sam. 4:4). See also Psalm 80:1; 99:1
Figures of Cherubs were embroidered on the temple veil (Exodus 26:31; 2 Chron. 3:7) and lavished Solomon's temple (1 Kings 6:26ff).
"For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first" (1 Thess. 4:16).
The word "archangel" is not found in the Old Testament. References to Michael archangel appear only in 1 Thess. 4:16 and Jude 9. However, Gabriel, who is considered an archangel appears in both the OT and NT. In the OT he is found in Dan. 8:15-26 and 9:21-27. In the NT he is mentioned in Luke 1:11-20, 26-38. He seems to be a messenger angel.
On the other hand, Michael the archangel seems to be a warrior angel (Rev. 12:7) who does battle (Dan. 10:13, 21; 12:1 ).
An interesting note is that in Rom. 8:38, Eph. 1:21, and Col. 1:16, the word ‘principalities’ is used. In Greek the word has the prefix of "arche" suggesting archangel. Some think this means there is a hierarchy of angels as is suggested in 1 Pet. 3:22: "who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him," (NASB).


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References

Cooper, David A., God is a Verb. New York, New York: Riverhead Brooks, 1997, p. 135.
Ibid, pp. 135-138
ibid, pp. 141-142
ibid, p. 143
Achtemeier, Paul J., Th.D., Harper’s Bible Dictionary, (San Francisco: Harper and Row, Publishers, Inc.) 1985.

http://www.carm.org/kabbalah/angels.htm

A Dialogue with a Kabbalist



I jumped into a room on a chat program for a minute to take a break from studying Kabbalah. I typed in the room that I have been researching it. To my surprise, a Kabbalist was in the room. I do not know how representative this dialogue is regarding what all Kabbalists actually believe, but he did affirm several the things that I have discovered in my research. So it does seem that he knew what he was talking about. Nevertheless, you'll find his dialogue very very interesting. I was actually surprised by some of the things he said. Finally, the dialogue is a little choppy at first, but then it gets amazing after we move from a public dialogue to a private one.

Matt: Just taking a brief break from studying Kabbalah
Watcher: Cool. I am a Kabbalist.
Matt: Watcher really?
Watcher: What books are you studying?
Matt: Berg, Yhuda., The 72 Names of God. Technology for the Soul. Los Angeles, CA: The Kabbalah Center, 2003; Cooper, David A., God is a Verb. New York, New York: Riverhead Brooks, 1997. Hopking, C.J.M., The Practical Kabbalah Guidebook. New York, New York: Sterling Publishing Co. 2001. Leet, Leonora., The Secret Doctrine of the Kabbalah. Rochester Vermont: Inner Traditions, 1999, and several more.
Watcher: First you must study theoretical Kabbalah before you attempt any practical Kabbalah.
Matt: And how do I do that? The books I am reading are saying the same thing.
Watcher: First, learn Hebrew. Study the Hebrew alphabet.
Matt: I have had Hebrew in seminary.
Watcher: And then study the Torah.
Matt: Kabbalah is nothing more than mysticism.
Watcher: Kabbalah does not contradict the Torah.
Matt: Yes it does
Watcher: It supports the Torah
Matt: Contradicts it. From what I have read... it sure does.
Watcher: Then the Kabbalah you are studying is not Jewish Kabbalah
Matt: Well, what I'm studying contradicts the Torah. Where is the "real" Kabbalah, out of the Zohar?
Watcher: Check out www.koshertorah.com. There is a lot of information on theoretical Kabbalah there.
Dude of Earl: Theoretical?
Matt: So Watcher, what is metatron?
Watcher: A compilation of the divine name using deduction.
Matt: What do you mean by "compilation"?
Matt: Are you Lurianic? [that is a type of Kabbalah]
Watcher: No
Matt: Then which?
Watcher: Hermetic as most of my approach is from the Golden Dawn literature although I have been studying from more Jewish sources and am beginning to question the Kabbalah of the Golden Dawn
Matt: ok, Watcher, can you help me define some terms from your perspective? God? Impersonal or personal?
Watcher: Which aspect of God the highest aspect of God is not perceivable and thus is impersonal but a lesser manifestation of God is indeed personal.
Matt: Is God self-aware?
Watcher: Kether [Crown, he is using the Hebrew words instead of the English ones] is not self aware
Matt: Is the highest manifestation of God self-aware? Kether? What is that?
Watcher: Kether is the pinnacle. The point from which all became manifest.
Matt: The pinnacle of what?
Watcher: The pinnacle of God
Matt: That term is meaningless
Watcher: You must examine the tree.
Matt: I have the tree in front of me. Kater, crown, binah chokmah. [I inserted a copy of the Tree of Life to the right to illustrate what we are talking about.]
Watcher: Kether can not actually be defined through language binah [Understanding] and chokmah [Wisdom]. That is where God becomes self-aware.
Matt: You mean God himself (ITSELF) becomes self-aware as he ascends the planes of knowledge? [Kabbalists don't refer to God as a He]
Watcher: As the Shachinah pours down from kether into Binah and Chokmah the conciousness and will of God become manifest
Matt: Tell me more about this kether. I do not understand what keter is. Tell me specifically what it is.
Watcher: Neither do I as I have not ascended to kether myself. Kether is the inscrutable monad the root of all things. The ultimate unit of concioiusness.
Matt: If Kether cannot be defined, then it has no meaning. If it cannot be defined, there is no point in discussing it.
Watcher: Language can not describe experiencing kether.
Matt: Do you affirm that you are part of the divine, part of God's very nature and that you preexisted with him before he became a person here on earth?
Watcher: Yes.
Matt: You believe in self divinity, correct?
Watcher: Yes.
Matt: Do you believe in reincarnation?
Watcher: Yes
Matt: So, you believe that the soul preexisted, is an emanation from God, that you are divine in nature, and that we reincarnate. That is very unbiblical.
Watcher: God said to Jeremiah before you where born I knew you.
Matt: He was referring to salvific acknowledge. God never says he knows an unbeliever.
Watcher: That is your interpretation
Matt: He only knows believers. The Messiah taught us this.
Watcher: So God does not know all?
Matt: When Jesus spoke, he told us that those who are damned are the ones to whom he says, "I never knew you."
Matt: Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice and I know them...."
Watcher: So what the Messiah taught contradicts what the Torah and the Prophets taught?
Matt: When God says he knows you, it means you are saved, delivered from the punishment of sin. If he says he does not know you, that means you're in a state of damnation. The way the word is used in this context is not dealing with God's omniscience.
Watcher: Jeremiah was before Jesus so how is that possible?
Matt: Yes, but I'm telling you what it means. Jesus is the creator of the universe, Col. 1:15-17; John 1:1-3. He was before Jeremiah. But, this is Christian theology we are getting into. For the moment, I am interested in the principles of Kabbalah.
Watcher: The concept of Christ was before Jeremiah yes.
Matt: Do you affirm that Solomon had the sacred ring?
Watcher: The seal of Solomon. Yes. It is an amalgamation of two Egyptian symbols
Matt: Ok, and you affirm that this gave Solomon power over demonic forces.
Watcher: No God gave Solomon power over demonic forces. The symbol represents the hermetic axiom. As above so below.
Matt: Can you please tell me what the hermetic axiom is?
Watcher: Whatsoever is done in heaven is done on earth.
[Since this first part was in a public room, someone typed in something about blood sacrifices]
Watcher: Kabballah does not teach blood sacrifices.
Matt: Watcher if the Kabbalah does not involve any blood sacrifice, and if it is based on the Torah, then how is that possible since the book of Leviticus repeatedly teaches blood sacrifice?
Watcher: Blood sacrifice is part of Judaism. Yet it has nothing to do with Kabbalah. It is part of the Law of God.
Matt: But Watcher, you said that Kabbalah was based on the Torah and that it does not contradict the Torah. If it is true that Kabbalah does not teach blood sacrifice and the Torah clearly teaches blood sacrifice...
Watcher: Yes the Torah does. But that does not mean that blood sacrifice is part of practical Kabbalah. Practical Kabbalah involves rectifying oneself. Repentance if you will. The seal of Solomon represents heaven on earth as the downwards facing triangle symbolizes the Spirit realm. The upwards facing triangle represents the material world.
Matt: I'm curious about the ring that Solomon had. It gave him powers over demonic forces, correct?
Watcher: No God gave Solomon power over demonic forces
Matt: Ok... thanks.
Watcher: Solomon's understanding of this concept. Whatsoever is done in heaven is done on earth
Matt: This demonic control that he had. Is it true that Solomon used some of these demonic forces to aid him in constructing the first Temple?.
Watcher: Solomon used various spirits, elementals, angels and demons, for many purposes.
Matt: So then is it fair to say that Solomon used some of these dark forces to aid him in constructing the first Temple?
Watcher: Yes, that is the legend.
Matt: If Solomon used some of these dark forces to aid him in constructing the first Temple, isn't that a problem?
Watcher: No
Matt: Isn't the temple of God supposed to be holy? How then could we have demonic forces helping in its construction?
Watcher: God gave man dominion over the earth. Even demons obey God.
Matt: For the moment I'm not talking about man's dominion. I'm curious about this issue of Solomon using demonic forces to build the holy temple of God? You see, I have a serious problem with evil forces being used to construct the holy temple of God.
Watcher: Then you will have even more problems with the fact that God used evil forces to create the universe.
Matt: I guess I would.
Watcher: But nevertheless God created evil forces and yes they serve a purpose.
Matt: But at least you are admitting that Solomon used demonic forces to build the holy temple of God. I was surprised by that when I read it. But thank you for confirming it. Now, are you saying that God created evil forces in a state of being evil? Or was it that they were created good and then fell in the rebellion against God and became evil?
Watcher: The story of the fall is a metaphorical one. It represents aspects of creation falling into chaos
Matt: Okay, but do you believe that God created demonic forces in the state of being evil?
Watcher: God created everything in perfection.
Matt: OK. But please forgive me for asking the same question again. Do you believe that God created demonic forces in the state of being evil?
Watcher: I answered you and you did not listen.
Matt: Watcher, please be patient with me since I look for specific answers. If you say that things were created in perfection, that could be taken different ways. It could mean that perfectly evil creatures were created or that perfectly good creatures were created. What I want to know is do you affirm, as a Kabbalist, that God created morally evil beings?
Watcher: God created all things as they where supposed to be. Yes God created evil for a purpose.
Matt: So then am I correct in understanding that you are stating that God created demonic forces directly as demonic and evil forces?
Watcher: God created everything in perfection yet aspects of creation did not remain perfect.
Matt: May I ask you how the God of holiness creates moral evil? Isn't that against his holy nature?
Watcher: Read the scripture. It does say that God creates both good and evil in the Psalms.
Matt: I do read the Scriptures. But I need to know what it is you believe about the Scriptures.
Watcher: How did God create evil? How did God create anything? God has a plan for all things
Matt: I do not believe that God created moral evil since I believe that is contrary to his nature, the nature of his perfect holiness. Hab. 1:13 says that God is too pure to even look upon evil. God can create "evil" in the context of calamity, pestilence, earthquake, etc. [See Isaiah 45:7 for this]
Watcher: I don't know. I do not have a concordance with me at the moment. Look at it this way. God created lucifer right?
Matt: God created an angel who was good. The angel rebelled and became evil. God did not create evil.
Watcher: But did not God know what Lucifer would do before he created him?
Matt: Of course he did. But that does not mean that God created him ontologically evil.
Watcher: So then he did create evil. If God did not know then God can not be all knowing
Watcher: Regardless, Matt God is in control.
Matt: Of course God knew. 1 John 3:20 says that God knows all things.
Watcher: God is in Control
Matt: And of course God is in control. But it is against God's holiness to create moral evil
Watcher: So thus God created Lucifer knowing what he would do and thus is responsible for evil
Matt: God created an angel who was good, knowing that the angel would fall and rebel. In that sense, God is the indirect cause, not the direct cause.
Matt: Watcher would you care to continue this in private?
Watcher: Sure.

[There were others in this chat who were inserting comments occasionally and it began to get side tracked, so I offered to go to a private room where we continued]

Matt: Okay...?
Watcher: Yes. God is responsible for evil because he created Lucifer knowing what would happen
Matt: By the way, because our previous chat was in a public room, I have no problem copying the text and put it on my web site. It is very interesting and informative. But do you mind if I possibly use our private dialogue on my web site as well?
Watcher: I don't mind in the slightest. I used to reference your site when I was a Christian. So thus evil must exist for a reason or God would not have created him in the first place.
Matt: Thank you. From what I have been reading about Kabbalah, it seems to me to be a nonfalsifiable belief system. It takes the Torah and reinterprets it in a mystical fashion. It is very very reminiscent of New Age theology.
Watcher: The Torah was always meant to be interpreted in a mystical fashion.
Matt: I do not believe it was meant to be interpreted in a mystical fashion at all. Jesus referred to it literally.
Watcher: When it was convenient. That is the problem with Christians. They interpret literally when it is convenient and use scripture metaphorically when it is convenient.
Matt: Well, Paul also referred to it literally. He referred to Adam as being the one through whom sin entered the world.
Watcher: It is all to support their presuppositions.
Matt: Well, how do you know that you are not the one who is being mystical or literal to suit your presuppositions? You see, I have been doing a great deal of study for many years on various religious systems. I just got through studying Wicca and like Kabbalah, it is nonfalsifiable. In other words, it cannot be proven to be false.
Matt: You see, Jesus, as an example, actually walk around on the earth, ate, slept, etc., was crucified, buried, and rose from the dead. This actually happened and it is written about by the eyewitnesses. Christianity is falsifiable in that all we need to do is to produce the body of Jesus and we can prove that Christianity is false. It is falsifiable because it is historical. It actually occurred. There are things that can be verified and checked out.
Matt: But, in Kabbalah, you can't do that? Its interpretations are so subjective and mystical that there is no way to verify the "inner divinity" "the plains of consciousness" etc. It is all, and please excuse my term here, mystical mumbo-jumbo.
Watcher: Because Kabbalah is a theurgical system, a metaphysic. [theurgic means divine intervention]
Matt: Exactly... it is metaphysical, subjective, not verifiable, etc.
Watcher: Not a religion
Matt: Oh yes it is a religion. It makes statements about God, salvation, Jesus, the word of God, creation, the fall, angels, etc. There are variations within Kabbalah but there are common denominators. It is definitely a religious movement.
Watcher: Although principles of Kabbalah are being seen in modern physics.
Matt: Well, I don't know what that means, but I do know that after having read hundreds of pages of Kabbalah material, it is nonfalsifiable. It is the apparent formulation of several individuals over hundreds of years who seem to have made up a theological system that rests in other dimensions of reality. How do you verify other dimensions of reality in which levels of consciousness and divine expression co-mingle?
Watcher: Kabbalah is a system for categorizing the mind.
Matt: You see? I could make stuff up and it would fit right in the pages of Kabbalah.
Matt: I could talk about the ethereal presence of the highest plane of self-realization in the God consciousness and that when you are in tune with that divine consciousness through meditation on the Torah, you will achieve the self-realization and awareness of your true divinity. I just made that up....But that is the kind of thing I'm reading in Kabbalah pages.
Watcher: Yes and it is truth.
Matt: Huh???? You mean, what I just made up is truth?
Watcher: Based on the teachings of the ancients
Matt: Actually, I was drawing more on New Age terminology and ideas that I was on Kabbalah. They are, however, quite similar and the New Age movement is also just as nonfalsifiable. You see, nonfalsifiability means that a system of thought really does not rest in reality. It means that it rests in the mind of its creator. What is interesting about Jesus, about Christianity, is the intrusion of God into our material world. With Jesus, something actually happened, something that could be seen, touched, felt, etc.
Watcher: Reality is what you make it
Matt: Now, if reality is what I want to make it, then my reality is that whatever you say that contradicts what I say, is false. Is my reality true or is it false? Please tell me.
Watcher: Spirituality is subjective.
Matt: If spirituality is subjective, then aren't you making an absolute statement about it? If so, that is self refuting. In other words, it cannot be true because it refutes itself.
Watcher: How is spirituality not subjective? One person sees Jesus. No other person feels the presence of the Spirit and so forth.
Matt: I'm only responding to what you said. You said it is subjective. But saying that it is subjective is making an absolute statement. If something is absolute it cannot be subjective. I'm only showing you that you are not logical.
Watcher: It is all a subjective experience that effects the individual directly.
Matt: If it is all subjective experience, then how do you know anything is real?
Watcher: You are not allowing me to finish my point so of course it wouldn't seem illogical
Matt: If it is all subjective experience, then how do you know Kabbalah is real?
Watcher: Because it works for me. It works within the framework of my consciousness.
Matt: That's it? It works for you? That is your response?
Watcher: Yes
Matt: So, if alcoholism "works" for someone, is it good?
Watcher: Sure. But they will not do anything productive with their life
Matt: Is it possible that you could be deceived from Satan?
Watcher: If so I do not care so long as I do something productive with my life and change the world for the better
Matt: Wait a minute. If you are being deceived by Satan, you don't care? You would not want to know if you are being deceived?
Watcher: That is for God to decide.
Matt: So it's okay to be deceived as long as that deception "works" for you, right?
Watcher: Yes.
Matt: Okay, then a question for you.
Watcher: In all honesty it is all in the mind of the human being, God, the devil, whatever.
Matt: If what works for the child rapist is to abuse the child, rape the child, and then murder the child, because it fulfills his desires and helps him cope with difficulties in life, is that good?
Watcher: For him it is. But he would also have to face the consequences for his actions
Matt: I did not ask you if it was good for him. I asked you if it was good.
Matt: Can you please tell me if it is good or not?
Watcher: To him it is good. I see no wrong in it.
Matt: I did not ask if it is good to him. I asked if it is good. Can you please answer that question?
Watcher: But I have no feeling for human beings whatsoever
Matt: You see no wrong in it? So then if someone were to murder you after torturing you for days, would that be OK for that person to do?
Watcher: Well I should not say I have no feeling, no conscience.
Watcher: To that person it would be ok. They would better hope I never got loose because I would do far worse to them.
Matt: Amazing. It seems that Kabbalah has deceived you.
Watcher: Kabbalah has not deceived me.
Matt: Then for you, there is no real right or wrong. It is all subjective. What is right and what is wrong is totally up to the individual in the circumstances. For you, goodness is not rest upon the nature of God and his perfection. It rests in whatever you prefer. In this, you are self-centered and self-serving.
Watcher: God is what you make him. Yes, I am a psychopath. I am self-centered because that is my nature
Matt: No, God is not altered by what I desire. God exists independently of what I am. My desire has no effect on his nature.
Watcher: God is in your mind. His nature is perceived by you as you have defined him. It is a form of auto-hypnosis.
Matt: No. God exists independently of myself. He entered this world in the form of Christ, the person of Jesus, walked on the earth, died, was buried, and rose from the dead. God intervened in this physical world to demonstrate his reality and his absoluteness.
Watcher: Well then the day I see Christ with my own eyes I will believe. But because I do not believe I will not see. You see my point. If I convinced myself that he was real enough I may just see him. But that does not mean it is real. It just means that my mind made it real to me. Such is the nature of human beings
Matt: Do you see that there is no way for you to escape your mental cage? No matter what you think or say, it is subjectively vague enough that nothing absolute can break you free. That is not how God works. God tells us plainly what the truth is because truth is based upon who he is. He is absolute. He does not change.
Watcher: Show me God then. Show me God.
Matt: It is not for me to show God to you. God reveals himself. But since you're not looking to God, but you are looking to mystical subjectivism, you will never be able to see him.
Watcher: And what if God revealed himself in a different manner to me than he has to you
Matt: At best, all you will have is your self deceiving subjectivity brought about by Satan.
Watcher: Am I wrong to believe how God has revealed himself to me because it does not agree with your beliefs?
Matt: You need to turn to Jesus. You need to talk to him and believe what he said in the Gospels. You need to believe what Jesus said about himself, clearly and plainly.
Watcher: You mean what the Catholic church says he said in the gospels.
Matt: You need to trust him for what he actually said, not what anyone else would impose upon his words in a confusing morass of subjective imposition thereby changing what Jesus says.
Watcher: There is very little evidence to support the New Testament.
Matt: That is another topic and you should know, since you said that you have studied on my site, that I know about the reliability and sufficiency of the New Testament documents. Your accusation is unfounded.
Watcher: Because I will not believe a word written in any book.
Matt: If you don't believe a word written in the book then how do you believe the words that I'm typing to you here?
Watcher: Through which I can experiment using hypnosis on the minds of the weak.
Matt: How do you believe the words written in the Zohar?
Watcher: I don't. I use them all. They are all tools for me to formulate a unifying world religion.
Matt: Okay, well, I thank you for the dialog. It has been most enlightening. I see that we are not going to get anywhere.
Watcher: I apologize
Matt: I thank you for the dialog.

At this point I gave up on the dialog because it was getting lengthy and I was not getting through to him. I hope that you can see the utter nonsense that this person was teaching. He's making logic errors and not understanding the word of God. It is truly sad to see such a profound deception as this. Nevertheless, I hope the dialog was informative.

http://www.carm.org/kabbalah/dialogue.htm

Interesting Quotes from Kabbalah Sources



Following is a list of quotes from various Kabbalah based books. They are listed so you can get a "feel" for its mystical perspective and gain insight into some of the attitudes and ideas that people learn from studying Kabbalah.


"... the Zohar suggests that souls are "patterned" like bodies. It says: 'as the body is formed in this world from the combination of four elements, the spirit is formed in the garden [of Eden] from the combination of the four winds. The spirit is enveloped there in the impress of the body's shape. If it were not for the four winds, which are the heirs of the garden, the spirit would not have been clothed (given shape) at all." (Cooper, David A., God is a Verb. New York, New York: Riverhead Brooks, 1997, p. 113, brackets are in the original)

"...we are connected via our souls to the source of creation, and we can transform the flow of creation." (Cooper, David A., God is a Verb. New York, New York: Riverhead Brooks, 1997, p. 121.)

"Cabalists teaches at the moon is the mystical vessel in which souls are gathered before they are released to the world. The moon in Kabbalah represents receptivity... the mystical implication is that souls are influenced by the phase of the moon when they become associated with bodies, each having different levels of expansiveness or contracted this... we would say that this describes why some of us are more extroverted while others are more introverted..."(Cooper, David A., God is a Verb. New York, New York: Riverhead Brooks, 1997, p. 113, 128.

"The cabalists teach that everything we do stirs up a corresponding energy in other realms of reality. Actions, words, or thoughts set up reverberations in the universe." (Cooper, David A., God is a Verb. New York, New York: Riverhead Brooks, 1997, p. 132.)

"In physical reality, every move we make is dependent upon electromagnetic energy. In the metaphysical realm, rather than call this energy electromagnetic, we could call it angelic- demonic. Every move they make is supported by an angel or demon. Moreover, everything we do creates new angels and demons... the metaphysical magnets associated with the God realms are called angels, and those with the satanic realms are called demons." (Cooper, David A., God is a Verb. New York, New York: Riverhead Brooks, 1997, p. 134.)

"From noon until midnight, the sun appears to be declining, which means that the power of loving kindness is waning. When the sun reaches its lowest ebb, the time in which the energy of darkness is strongest, accusing angels have their greatest power. The Kabbalist says that this point is the darkest of the night, the moment when restriction and judgment are at their full power. If we were abandoned in the mystical midnight of creation, we would disappear." (Cooper, David A., God is a Verb. New York, New York: Riverhead Brooks, 1997, p. 142.)

"Angelic and demonic energies are not independent and self-sufficient, but are parts of the system of the universal ebb and flow." (Cooper, David A., God is a Verb. New York, New York: Riverhead Brooks, 1997, p. 143.)

"When we call upon angels to be with us, we And two on infinite resource of goodwill. It is as if we plugged into the magnetic core of the earth to keep ourselves centered. Archangels represent the God-center of the universe they draw nourishment from Its infinite supply." (Cooper, David A., God is a Verb. New York, New York: Riverhead Brooks, 1997, p. 144.)

"the lower, earthly human being and the upper, mystical human being, in which the Godhead is manifested as shape, belong together and are unthinkable without one another." (secret doctrine, p. 66)

"This manual [of Kabbalah] will prepare one to hear the words of G-d, see authentic visions, smell the Supernal beauty, touch his/her Grace, and taste the delights of Eden." http://home.utah.edu/~rfs4/jkm.htm

"As Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berdicheve said, 'At every instant, all universes received existence and sustenance from God. It is human beings, however, who motivate this sustenance and transmit it to all worlds. When a person nullifies the sense of self completely and thereby attaches Thought to Nothingness, then a new sustenance flows to all universes." (Cooper, David A., God is a Verb. New York, New York: Riverhead Brooks, 1997, p. 224.)

"our day-to-day actions, words, and thoughts continuously affect our sense of harmony with the universe." (God is a verb, p 248)

"...there are five levels of the soul. The higher levels, neshama, chayah, and yehida, function in a way that they cannot be directly affected by what a person does to his or her consciousness. however, they are indirectly affected by the states of the nefesh and ruach. after death, the higher levels of the soul will return to their home "regions," but they must await the redemption of the nefesh before finally resting in their natural state. If the nefesh does not get redeemed, the ruach cannot be "crown" in the lower Garden of Eden. (God is a verb, p. 262)

"The teachings of reincarnation are of value when we have nowhere else to turn in the tragedy of the death." (God is a verb, p. 266)

http://www.carm.org/kabbalah/quotes_interesting.htm

Kabbalah Terms

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/gloss.html





Book of Adam, the - The supposed extra-biblical account of Adam's life after the Garden of Eden. It consists of fables.

Ein Sof - the Unknowable God

Gamatria - the mathematical value of words. In both Hebrew and Greek letters also serve as numbers. Therefore, every word has a gematria, a mathematical value.

Hemetic axiom - whatever is done in heaven is done on earth.

Judaism - The religion of the Jews.

Kether - The Pinnical, the crown, in the Tree of Life.

Metatron - the celestial being who dwells next to the throne of God's glory and is sometimes referred to as "the son of man."

Midrash - a compilation of Jewish commentaries of the Old Testament Scriptures that was gathered between 400 and 1200 A.D.

Mishnah - a collection of oral interpretations of the first five books of Moses.

Mysticism - the belief in other realities beyond our perception that can be accessed by subjective experience. Also, the practice of intellectual and spiritual apprehension of those other realities through various experiences such as meditation, altered states of consciousness, etc.

Pentateuch - The first five books of in the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

Pilpul - Dialects and debate

Rabbi - A male who is trained in Jewish law.

Sefher Yetzirah - The Book of Creation, the Book of Formation, that appeared between the 3rd and 6th centuries A.D. It is a very important book in Kabbalistic teaching.

Sephirot - creative force as distinguished in the Tree of Life.

Synagogue - A place of religious meeting for Jews.

Talmud - a collection of commentaries used to explain the Mishnah (the oral law).

Tanahk - the collected writings of the Old Testament: Nebiim (Prophets) and Ketubim (Writings).

Tetragrammaton - The four letters that comprise the name of God as revealed in the Hebrew Old Testament. The English equivalent would be YHVH.

Torah - Primarily this refers to the first five books of the Bible, the written law: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Secondarily, is sometimes used to include the rest of the Old Testament books. The Torah came directly from God to Moses.

Tree of Life - a pictorial representation of the 10 primary aspects of God's nature through which the descending creative power is manifested in the physical world.

Vipassana - in Buddhism, the practice of intense silence for extended periods that leads to an altered state of consciousness.

Yeshiva - an institution of Jewish higher learning.

Zohar - the book of splendor

http://www.carm.org/kabbalah/terms.htm

The text of the Sepher Yetzirah

The Book of Formation
translated by W.W. Wescott, tr. (1887)
CHAPTER 1
1. In two and thirty most occult and wonderful paths of wisdom did JAH the Lord of Hosts engrave his name: God of the armies of Israel, ever-living God, merciful and gracious, sublime, dwelling on high, who inhabiteth eternity. He created this universe by the three Sepharim, Number, Writing, and Speech.

2. Ten are the numbers, as are the Sephiroth, and twenty-two the letters, these are the Foundation of all things. Of these letters, three are mothers, seven are double, and twelve are simple.

3. The ten numbers formed from nothing are the Decad: these are seen in the fingers of the hands, five on one, five on the other, and over them is the Covenant by voice spiritual, and the rite of Circumcision, corporeal (as of Abraham).

4. Ten are the numbers of the ineffable Sephiroth, ten and not nine, ten and not eleven. Learn this wisdom, and be wise in the understanding of it, investigate these numbers, and draw knowledge from them, fix the design in its purity, and pass from it to its Creator seated on his throne.

5. These Ten Numbers, beyond the Infinite one, have the boundless realms, boundless origin and end, an abyss of good and one of evil, boundless height and depth, East and West, North and South, and the one only God and king, faithful forever seated on his throne, shall rule over all, forever and ever.

6. These ten Sephiroth which are ineffable, whose appearance is like scintillating flames, have no end but are infinite. The word of God is in them as they burst forth, and as they return; they obey the divine command, rushing along as a whirlwind, returning to prostrate themselves at his throne.

7. These ten Sephiroth which are, moreover, ineffable, have their end even as their beginning, conjoined, even as is a flame to a burning coal: for our God is superlative in his unity, and does not permit any second one. And who canst thou place before the only one?

8. And as to this Decad of the Sephiroth, restrain thy lips from comment, and thy mind from thought of them, and if thy heart fail thee return to thy place; therefore is it written, "The living creatures ran and returned," and on this wise was the covenant made with us.

9. These are the ten emanations of number. One is the Spirit of the Living God, blessed and more than blessed be the name of the Living God of Ages. The Holy Spirit is his Voice, his Spirit, and his Word.

10. Second, from the Spirit he made Air and formed for speech twenty-two letters, three of which are mothers, A, M, SH, seven are double, B, G, D, K, P, R, T, and twelve are single, E, V, Z, CH, H, I, L, N, S, O, Tz, Q, but the spirit is first among these. Third, Primitive Water. He also formed and designed from his Spirit, and from the void and formless made earth, even as a rampart, or standing wall, and varied its surface even as the crossing of beams. Fourth, from the Water, He designed Fire, and from it formed for himself a throne of honor, with Auphanim, Seraphim, Holy Animals, and ministering Angels, and with these he formed his dwelling, as is written in the text "Who maketh his angels spirits and his ministers a flaming fire." (Psalm civ. 4.)

11. He selected three letters from the simple ones, and sealed them as forming his great Name, I H V and he sealed the universe in six directions.

Five.- He looked above, and sealed the height, with I H V.

Six.- He looked below, and sealed the deep, with I V H.

Seven.- He looked forward, and sealed the East, with H I V.

Eight.-He looked backward, and sealed the West, with V H I.

Nine.- He looked to the right, and sealed the South, with V I H.

Ten.-He looked to the left, and sealed the North, with H V 1.

12. These are the ten ineffable existences, the spirit of the living God, Air, Water, Fire, Height and Depth, East and West, North and South.

CHAPTER II
1. The foundations are the twenty-two letters, three mothers, seven double, and twelve single letters. Three mothers, namely A, M, SH, these are Air, Water, and Fire: Mute as Water, Hissing as Fire, and Air of a spiritual type, is as the tongue of a balance standing erect between them pointing out the equilibrium which exists.

2. He hath formed, weighed, transmuted, composed, and created with these twenty-two letters every living being, and every soul yet uncreated.

3. Twenty-two letters are formed by the voice, impressed on the air, and audibly uttered in five situations, in the throat, guttural sounds; in the palate, palatals; by the tongue, linguals; through the teeth, dentals; and by the lips, labial sounds.

4. These twenty-two letters, the foundations, He arranged as on a sphere, with two hundred and thirty-one modes of entrance. If the sphere be rotated forward, good is implied, if in a retrograde manner evil is intended.

5. For He indeed showed the mode of combination of the letters, each with each, Aleph with all, and all with Aleph. Thus in combining all together in pairs are produced these two hundred and thirty-one gates of knowledge. And from Nothingness did He make something, and all forms of speech and every created thing, and from the empty void He made the solid earth, and from the non-existent He brought forth Life.

He hewed, as it were, immense column or colossal pillars, out of the intangible air, and from the empty space. And this is the impress of the whole, twenty-one letters, all from one the Aleph.

CHAPTER III
1. The three mother letters A, M, SH are the foundations of the whole; and resemble a Balance, the good in one scale, the evil in the other, and the oscillating tongue of the Balance between them.

2. These three mothers enclose a mighty mystery, most occult and most marvelous, sealed as with six rings, and from them proceed primeval Fire, Water, and Air; these are subsequently differentiated into male and female. At first existed these three mothers, and there arose three masculine powers, and hence all things have originated.

3. The three mothers are A, M, SH; and in the beginning as to the Macrocosm the Heavens were created from Fire;nthe Earth from primeval Water; and the Air was formed from the Spirit, which stands alone in the midst, and is the Mediator between them.

4. In the Year or as regards Time, these three mothers represent Heat, Cold, and a Temperate climate, the heat from the fire, the cold from the water, and the temperate state from the spiritual air which again is an equalizer between them.

These three mothers again represent in the Microcosm or Human form, male and female; the Head, the Belly, and the Chest; the bead from the fire, the belly from water, and the chest from the air lieth between them.

5. These three mothers did he create, form, and design, and combine with the three mothers in the world, and in the year, and in Man, both male and female.

He caused Aleph to reign in the air, and crown it, and combined one with the other, and with these he sealed the Air in the world, the temperate climate of the year, and the chest (the lungs for breathing air) in man; the male with A, M, SH, the female with SH, M, A. He caused Mem to predominate in Water, and crowned it, and combined it with others, and formed Earth on the world, cold in the year, and the fruit of the womb in mankind, being carried in the belly.

He caused Shin to reign in Fire and crowned it, and he combined one with the other, and sealed them, as heaven in the universe, as heat in the year, and as the head of Man and Woman.

CHAPTER IV
1. There were formed seven double letters, Beth, Gimel, Daleth, Kaph, Pe, Resh, Tau, each has two voices, either aspirated or softened. These are the foundations of Life, Peace, Riches, Beauty or Reputation, Wisdom, Fruitfulness, and Power. These are double, because their opposites take part in life, opposed to Life is Death; to Peace, War; to Riches, Poverty; to Beauty or Reputation, Deformity or Disrepute; to Wisdom, Ignorance; to Fruitfulness, Sterility; to Power, Slavery.

2. These seven double letters point out the dimensions, East, West, height, depth, North, South, with the holy temple in the middle, sustaining all things.

3. These seven double letters He formed, designed, created, and combined into the Stars of the Universe, the days of the week, the orifices of perception in man; and from them he made seven heavens, and seven planets, all from nothingness, and, moreover, he has preferred and blessed the sacred Heptad.

4. From two letters, or forms He composed two dwellings; from three, six; from four, twenty-four; from five, one hundred and twenty; from six, seven hundred and twenty; from seven, five thousand and forty; and from thence their numbers increase in a manner beyond counting; and are incomprehensible. These seven are Planets of the Universe, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars; the seven days are the days of creation; and these an the seven gateways of a man, two eyes, two ears, two nostrils and a mouth, through which he perceives by his senses.

SUPPLEMENT TO CHAPTER IV
(Found in some editions)
He caused and produced Beth, predominant in wisdom, crowned, combined, and formed the Moon in the Universe, the first day of the week, and the right eye, of man.

Gimel, predominant in health, crowned, combined and formed Mars in the Universe, the second day of the week, and the right ear in man.

Daleth, predominant in fertility, crowned, combined, and formed the Sun in the Universe, the third day of the week, and the right nostril in man.

Kaph, predominant in life, crowned, combined, and formed Venus in the Universe, the fourth day of the week, and the left eye of man.

Pe, predominant in power, crowned, combined, and formed Mercury in the Universe, the fifth day of the week, and the left ear in man.

Resh, predominant in peace, crowned, combined, and formed Saturn in the Universe, the sixth day of the week, and the left nostril in man.

Tau, predominant in beauty, crowned, combined and formed Jupiter in the Universe, the seventh day in the week, and the mouth of man.

By these seven letters were also made seven worlds, seven heavens, seven lands, seven seas, seven rivers, seven deserts, seven days (as before), seven weeks from Passover to Pentecost, and every seventh year a jubilee.

CHAPTER V
1. The simple letters are twelve, namely: He, Vau, Zain, Heth, Teth, Yod, Lamed, Nun, Samech, Oin, Tzaddi, and Quoph; they represent the fundamental properties, eight, hearing, smell, speech, desire for food, the sexual appetite, movement, anger, mirth, thought, sleep, and work. These symbolize also twelve directions in space: northeast, southeast, the east above, the east below, the northwest, southwest, the west above, the west below, the upper south, the lower south, the upper north, the lower north. These diverge to all eternity, and an as the arms of the universe.

2. These twelve letters, he designed, formed, combined, weighed, and changed, and created with them the twelve divisions of the heavens (namely, the zodiacal constellations), the twelve months of the year, and the twelve important organs of the frame of man, namely the right and left hands, the right and left feet, two kidneys, the liver, the gall, the spleen, the intestines, the gullet, and the stomach.

3. Three mothers, seven double and twelve simple, these are the twenty-two letters with which I H V H Tetragrammaton, that is our Lord of Hosts, exalted, and existed in the ages, whose name is Holy, created three fathers, fire and spirit and water, progressing beyond them, seven heavens with their armies of angels; and twelve limits of the universe.

SUPPLEMENT TO CHAPTER V
(Found in some Versions)
1. God produced He, predominant in Speech, crowned, combined, and formed Aries in the world, Nisan in the year, and the right foot of man.

2. God produced Vau, predominant in Mind, crowned, combined, and formed Taurus in the world, Yiar in the year, and the right kidney of man.

3. God produced Zain, predominant in movement, crowned, combined, and formed Gemini in the world, Sivan in the year, and the left foot of man.

4. He produced Heth, predominant in Sight, crowned, combined, and formed Cancer in the world, Tammuz in the year, and the right hand of man.

5. He produced Teth, predominant in Hearing, crowned, combined, and formed Leo in the world, Ab in the year, and the left kidney in man.

6. He produced Yod, predominant in Labor, crowned, combined, and formed Virgo in the world, Elul in the year, and the left hand of man.

7. He produced Lamed, predominant in sexual desire, crowned, combined, and formed Libra in the world, Tisri in the year, and the gall in man.

8. He produced Nun, predominant in smell, crowned, combined, and formed Scorpio in the world, Marchesvan in the year, and the intestines in man.

9. He produced Samech, predominant in sleep, crowned, combined, and formed Sagittarius in the world, Kislev in the year, and the stomach of man.

10. He produced Oin, predominant in Anger, crowned, combined, and formed Capricornus in the world, Tebet in the year, and the liver in man.

11. He produced Tzaddi, predominant in Taste, crowned, combined, and formed Aquarius in the world, Sebat in the year, and the gullet in man.

12. He produced Quoph, predominant in Mirth, crowned, combined, and formed Pisces in the world, Adar in the year, and the spleen in man.

CHATER VI
1. In proof of these things, and witnessing faithfully are the Universe, the Year of time, and Man himself, the Microcosm. He fixed these as testimonies of the Triad, the Heptad, and the Dodecad; the twelve constellations rulers of the world, the Dragon (THELE) Tali which environs the universe, and the microcosm, man.

The triad, fire, water, and air; the fire above, the water below, and the air in the midst. The proof of which is that air is a participator with both.

2. Tali, the Dragon, is above the Universe, as a king on his throne; the sphere in the year as a king in his State, the Heart of man as a king in warfare.

And our God made the states of opposition, good and evil, good from the good, and evil from the evil. Happiness is reserved for the just, and misery for the wicked ones.

3. And out of the triad one stands apart; and in the heptad there are two triads, and one standing apart. The dodecad symbolizes war, the triad of amity, the triad of enmity, three which are life-giving, three which are death-dealing, and God, the faithful king, rules over all from the throne of his sanctity.

One above three, three above seven, and seven above twelve, and all are linked together, and one with another.

4. After that our father Abraham had seen, and pondered over, investigated, and understood these things, he designed, engraved, and composed them, and received them into his power (hands). Then the Lord of all appeared unto him, made a covenant with him, and kissed his head, and naming him after his own name, called him his friend; and as it is written, completed a covenant with him and with his seed forever, who then believed on God, the Tetragrammaton, and it was imputed to him for righteousness.

God ordained a covenant between the toes of his feet, that of circumcision; and a covenant between the fingers of his hands, that of the Tongue. He bound the essences of the twenty-two letters on his tongue, and God disclosed to him the secrets of them. God has carried these through waters, He has borne them aloft through fire, and He has stamped them in the storms of the air; He has distributed them among the seven stars, and has assigned them to twelve celestial constellations. Amen.

THE THIRTY-TWO PATHS OF WISDOM
APPENDIX TO THE SEPHER YETZIRAH
The First Path is called the Admirable or the Concealed Intelligence (The Highest Crown) - for it is the Light giving the power of comprehension of that First Principle which has no beginning, and it is the Primal Glory, for no created being can attain to its essence.

The Second Path is that of the Illuminating Intelligence it is the Crown of Creation, the Splendor of the Unity, equaling it, and it is exalted above every bead, and named by the Kabbalists the Second Glory.

The Third Path is the Sanctifying Intelligence, and is the basis of foundation of Primordial Wisdom, which is called the Former of faith, and its roots, Amen; and it is the parent of Faith, from which virtues doth Faith emanate.

The Fourth Path is named Measuring, Cohesive, or Receptacular; and is so called because it contains all the holy powers, and from it emanate all the spiritual virtues with the most exalted essences: they emanate one from the other by the power of the primordial emanation (The Highest Crown), blessed be it.

The Fifth Path is called the Radical Intelligence, because it is itself the essence equal to the Unity, uniting itself to the BINAH or Intelligence which emanates from the primordial depths of Wisdom or CHOCHMAH.

The Sixth Path is called the Intelligence of the Mediating Influence, because in it are multiplied the influxes of the emanations; for it causes that affluence to flow into all the reservoirs of the Blessings, with which these themselves are united.

The Seventh Path is the Occult Intelligence, because it is the Refulgent Splendor of all the Intellectual virtues which are perceived by the eyes of intellect, and by the contemplation of faith.

The Eighth Path is called Absolute or Perfect, because it is the means of the primordial, which has no root by which it can cleave, nor rest, except in the hidden places Of GEDULAH. Magnificence, which emanate from its own proper essence.

The Ninth Path is the Pure intelligence so called because it purifies the Numerations, it proves and corrects the designing of their representation, and disposes their unity with which they are combined without diminution or division.

The Tenth Path is the Resplendent Intelligence, because it is exalted above every bead, and sits on the throne of BINAH (the Intelligence spoken of in the Third Path). It illuminates the splendor of all lights, and causes a supply of influence to emanate from the Prince of countenances.

The Eleventh Path is the Scintillating Intelligence because it is the essence of that curtain which is placed close to the order of the disposition, and this is a special dignity given to it that it may be able to stand before the Face of the Cause of Causes.

The Twelfth Path is the Intelligence of Transparency, because it is that species of Magnificence., called CHAZCHAZIT, which is named the place whence issues the vision of those seeing in apparitions. (That is, the prophecies by seers in a vision.)

The Thirteenth Path is named the Uniting Intelligence and is so called because it is itself the essence of Glory. It is the Consummation of the Truth of individual spiritual things.

The Fourteenth Path is the Illuminating Intelligence, and is so called because it is itself that CHASHMAL which is the founder of the concealed and fundamental ideas of holiness and of their stages of preparation.

The Fifteenth Path is the Constituting Intelligence, so called because it constitutes the substance of creation in pure darkness, and men have spoken of these contemplations; it is that darkness spoken of in scripture, Job xxxviii. 9, "and thick darkness a swaddling band for it."

The Sixteenth Path is the Triumphal or Eternal Intelligence, so called because it is the pleasure of the Glory, beyond which is no other Glory like to it, and it is called also the Paradise prepared for the Righteous.

The Seventeenth Path is the Disposing Intelligence, which provides Faith to the Righteous, and they are clothed with the Holy Spirit by it, and it is called the Foundation of Excellence in the state of higher thing.

The Eighteenth Path is called the House of Influence (by the greatness of whose abundance the influx of good things upon created beings is increased) and from the midst of the investigation the arcana and hidden senses are drawn forth, which dwell in its shade and which cling to it, from the cause of all causes.

The Nineteenth Path is the Intelligence of all the activities of the spiritual beings, and is so called because of the affluence diffused by it from the most high blessing and most exalted sublime glory.

The Twentieth Path is the Intelligence of Will, and is so called because it is the means of preparation of all and each created being, and by this intelligence the existence of the Primordial Wisdom becomes known.

The Twenty-first Path is the Intelligence of Conciliation, and is so called because it receives the divine influence which flows into it from its benediction upon all and each existence.

The Twenty-second Path is the Faithful Intelligence, and is so called because by it spiritual virtues are increased, and all dwellers on earth are nearly under its shadow.

The Twenty-third Path is the Stable Intelligence, and it is so called because it has the virtue of consistency among all numerations.

The Twenty-fourth Path is the Imaginative Intelligence, and it is so called because it gives a likeness to all the similitudes, which are created in like manner similar to its harmonious elegancies.

The Twenty-fifth Path is the Intelligence of Probation, or is Tentative, and is so called because it is the primary temptation, by which the Creator (blessed be He) trieth all righteous persons.

The Twenty-sixth Path is called the Renovating Intelligence, because the Holy God (blessed be He) renews by it, all the changing things which are renewed by the creation of the world.

The Twenty-seventh Path is the Exciting Intelligence, and it is so called bemuse by it is created the Intellect of all created beings under the highest heaven, and the excitement or motion of them.

The Twenty-eighth Path is the Natural Intelligence, and is so called because through it is consummated and perfected the nature of every existent being under the orb of the Sun, in perfection.

The Twenty-ninth Path is the Corporeal Intelligence, so called because it forms every body which is, formed beneath the whole set of worlds and the increment of them.

The Thirtieth Path is the Collecting Intelligence, and is so called because Astrologers deduce from it the judgment of the Stars, and of the celestial signs, and the perfections of their science, according to the rules of their revolutions.

The Thirty-first Path is the Perpetual Intelligence; and why is it so called? Because it regulates the motions of the Sun and Moon in their proper order, each in an orbit convenient for it.

The Thirty-second Path is the Administrative Intelligence, and it is so called because it directs and associates, in all their operations, the seven planets, even all of them in their own due courses.

http://www.carm.org/kabbalah/sepher_text.htm

Kabbalah’s Pagan Origins


Following the division of Israel and the Assyrian captivity of the northern tribes, the southern kingdom of Judah adopted the pagan traditions of the heathen nation of ancient Babylon. These traditions, with their associated rituals which included human sacrifice, provoked God to judge the southern kingdom, which judgment the prophet Jeremiah forewarned the Jews for a period of forty years, to no avail. The Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem in three stages, from 605 to 586 B.C., in which year the Temple of Solomon was demolished and the remaining Jews were carried into captivity. During the Babylonian captivity, the prophet Ezekiel continued to reprove Judah for its apostasy from the God of Israel and their love affair with Babylon. Note, in the following passage, the Jews’ admiration for the images of rich, brightly attired Babylonian princes, which evoke visual images of the elegant processions of the princes of the Roman Catholic Church attired in their rich and colorful vestments:


“…[Jerusalem] increased her whoredoms: for when she saw men pourtrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans pourtrayed with vermilion, Girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes to look to, after the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their nativity: And as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she doted upon them, and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea. And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them, and her mind was alienated from them. So she discovered her whoredoms, and discovered her nakedness: then my mind was alienated from her…” (Ezek.23:14-18)


Moreover, as Matthew Henry noted in his commentary on this passage, the kingdom of Judah patterned its own worship after the pomp and pageantry of the Babylonians with whom they had become enamored:


“Thus she increased her whoredoms; she fell in love, fell in league, with the Chaldeans. Hezekiah himself was faulty this way when he was proud of the court which the king of Babylon made to him and complimented his ambassadors with the sight of all his treasures, Isa. 39:2. And the humour increased (v. 14); she doted upon the pictures of the Babylonian captains (v. 15, 16), joined in alliance with that kingdom, invited them to come and settle in Jerusalem, that they might refine the genius of the Jewish nation and make it more polite; nay, they sent for patterns of their images, altars, and temples, and made use of them in their worship. Thus was she polluted with her whoredoms (v. 17), and thereby she discovered her own whoredom (v. 18), her own strong inclination to idolatry.”


According to two authoritative sources, H.P. Blavatsky and the Jewish Encyclopedia, the Jews also acquired from the Chaldeans their doctrines of Eastern mysticism. These were later developed into a written compendium of esoteric literature known as the Jewish Qabbalah or Kabalah, and in the Middle Ages as the Latin Cabala.


“Kabalah (Heb.) The hidden wisdom of the Hebrew Rabbis of the middle ages derived from the older secret doctrines concerning divine things and cosmogony, which were combined into a theology after the time of the captivity of the Jews in Babylon. All the works that fall under the esoteric category are termed Kabalistic.” (Blavatsky, Theosophical Glossary, p. 168)


“The Pythagorean idea of the creative powers of numbers and letters, upon which the ‘Sefer Yetzirah’ is founded, and which was known in tannaitic times…is here proved to be an old cabalistic conception. In fact, the belief in the magic power of the letters of the Tetragrammaton and other names of the Deity…seems to have originated in Chaldea (see Lenormant, ‘Chaldean Magic,’ pp. 29, 43). Whatever, then, the theurgic Cabala was …, the very fact that Abraham, and not a Talmudical hero like Akiba, is introduced in the ‘Sefer Yetzirah,’ at the close, as possessor of the Wisdom of the Alphabet, indicates an old tradition, if not the antiquity of the book itself…

“The whole dualistic system of good and of evil powers, which goes back to Zoroastrianism and ultimately to old Chaldea, can be traced through Gnosticism; having influenced the cosmology of the ancient Cabala before it reached the medieval one…

“The gradual condensation of a primal substance into visible matter, a fundamental doctrine of the Cabala, … is the ancient Semitic conception of the ‘primal ocean,’ known to the Babylonians as ‘Apsu’ (compare Jastrow, ‘Religion of Babylonia’), and called by the Gnostics βύθος = (Anz, ‘Die Frage nach dem Ursprung des Gnostizismus,’ p. 98).”


The Chaldean religious tradition that was embraced by apostate Jews during their captivity in Babylon was delivered to subsequent generations by word of mouth. According to Blavatsky, these disseminators of the Chaldean tradition in the few centuries before Christ were known as Tanaim:


“Kabalist. From Q B L H, Kabala, an unwritten or oral tradition. The kabalist is a student of ‘secret science’, one who interprets the hidden meaning of the Scriptures with the help of the symbolical Kabala… The Tanaim were the first kabalists among the Jews; they appeared at Jerusalem about the beginning of the third century before the Christian era… This secret doctrine is identical with the Persian wisdom, or ‘magic’.” (Ibid. p.167)


The dictionary defines the Medieval Latin cabala as derived from the Hebrew word “qabblâ” which means “received doctrine, tradition, from qibbl, to receive.” According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, Cabalists claimed to have received these oral traditions, not from ancient Chaldeans, but from the Patriarchs and Prophets “by the power of the Holy Spirit.”


“Cabala comprised originally the entire traditional lore, in contradistinction to the written law (Torah), and therefore included the prophetic and hagiographic books of the Bible, which were supposed to have been ‘received’ by the power of the Holy Spirit rather than as writings from God’s hand… Each ‘received’ doctrine was claimed as tradition from the Fathers…to be traced back to the Prophets or to Moses on Sinai… The chief characteristic of the Cabala is that, unlike the Scriptures, it was entrusted only to the few elect ones;…’”


Because of its heretical nature, the Cabala was not generally promulgated among the Jews but remained the “secret doctrine” of “elect” Jews. That is to say, certain Jews who were deemed worthy could comprehend hidden teachings in the written Torah and, through mystical techniques, make direct contact with “God.” Among these practices are rapid recitation of the “Holy Name of God” (YHVH, or Tetragrammaton), meditation on the 11 Sephiroth of the Tree of Life which are believed to be emanations of God, learning to use the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet as force-carrying energy patterns which serve as the building blocks of the cosmos, and, finally, transcending the space/time limitations of the physical world to realize one’s “inner divinity.” This “secret doctrine” has been preserved throughout the ages to the present time by a spiritual brotherhood who progress individually to various stages of enlightenment and proficiency in the hidden wisdom—from “elect” to “adepts” to “wise men” to “adepts in grace”:


“Cabala… The specific term for the esoteric or mystic doctrine concerning God and the universe, asserted to have come down as a revelation to elect saints from a remote past, and preserved only by a privileged few. At first consisting only of empirical lore, it assumed, under the influence of Neoplatonic and Neopythagorean philosophy, a speculative character. In the geonic period it is connected with a Mishnah-like text-book, the ‘Sefer Yetzirah,’ and forms the object of the systematic study of the elect, called ‘mekubbalim’ or ‘ba’ale ha-Kabbalah’ (possessors of, or adepts in, the Cabala). These receive afterward the name of ‘maskilim’ (the wise), after Dan. xii. 10; and because the Cabala is called (‘Hokmah nistarah’ = the hidden wisdom), the initials of which receive the meaning ‘adepts in grace’ (Eccl. ix. 11, Hebr.).” (Ibid.)


SOURCE of excerpt



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“Kabbalism is a system of Jewish mysticism and magic and is the foundational element in modern witchcraft. Virtually all of the great witches and sorcerers of this century were Kabbalists.” -William J. Schnoebelen, The Dark Side of Freemasonry

http://onetruegod.wordpress.com/2008/07/28/kabbalahs-pagan-origins/

KABBALAH



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The Kabbalah's origins were pagan” or what might be called heathen” from a Judeo-Christian perspective. That is, the Kabbalah arose from sources that were neither Jewish nor Christian. Babylonian religion, astrology, myth and magic, Persian Zoroastrianism, dualism, Gnosticism, Neoplatonism, and religious and philosophical speculations from all over the Hellenistic world of 2000 years ago, were progenitors of what became the Kabbalah.

It was direct disobedience to God for the Jewish people to meddle in and pick up these religious influences. God had commanded His Chosen People to have nothing to do with such things. Just as samples, consider the following three passages from the Hebrew Scriptures:

“Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name. Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you; (For the LORD thy God is a jealous God among you) lest the anger of the LORD thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth,” Deu 6:13 -15.

“When the LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land; Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods. What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it,” Deuteronomy 12:29-32.

Jer. 10:2 says Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel: Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen.”

But learn those ways, they did. And that is how the Kabbalah came to be. It is like the story of the Trojan Horse,” and how the Greeks enticed the Trojans into taking the wooden horse into the besieged city. After the Trojans dragged the great statue into the city, the Greeks which were hiding inside the horse crept out during the night, and so the great city of Troy fell. That is where the old adage derives, Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.” Well, 2000 years ago, another Trojan Horse” saga was unfolding. Greek (Hellenistic) culture was saturated with not only the religious errors and myths and fantasies of their own making, but also those from Babylon, Egypt, Rome and Persia. And tragically, some of Gods Chosen People, the Jews, instead of being satisied with pure Judaism derived from Abraham, Moses, the written Torah and the Prophets (in other words The Hebrew Scriptures), became enfatuated with Hellenistic (heathen) elements, and enticed by them, and allowed those elements to creep into and blend with Jewish spiritual speculations. The new kind of mysticism” that resulted is what grew to be the Kabbalah.

Professor Gershom Scholem rightly deduced that the formation of the Kabbalah "proper" or the Kabbalah as we know it today, took place in the thirteenth century. When you read my references to 2000 years, and even older influences, I am not lending credence to the theories that drape such great antiquity on the Kabbalah. No, I concur with Gershom Scholem. I am refering to those pagan influences in antiquity that were picked up and assimilated and eventually led to the rise of the Kabbalah in the thirteenth century,

It is wrong to call it Jewish” mysticism, for it represents actually an invasion of The Jewish Faith, an assault, an attack upon true Judaism. Not only were Kabbalahs ancestors” and parents” non-Jews, but likewise, the “offspring” that Kabbalism itself produced, the children and grandchildren and great grandchildren of Kabbalah, have brought ruination and confusion and countless evils down upon world Jewry. The nature and kind of a tree may be discerned by the fruit it produces. If it produces an apple, it is an apple tree. If it brings forth pears it is a pear tree. True to its heathen parentage, the Kabballah has shown its heathen nature. It has produced countless heretics, has produced liars, deceivers, false Messiahs, and entire false religions, and has made countless Jews apostasize from Judaism. Not only so, from the ranks of the Kabbalists have arisen some of the worst enemies of Judaism and of the Jewish people, that have ever lived, such sons of wickedness as Sabbatai Zevi and Jacob Frank (who inflamed blood libel against the Jews which brought slaughter upon them) , not to mention the fact that Kabbalistic theosophists such as Madame Helena Blavatsky and the theosophical circles of of Germany eventually spawned the Nazi Party, which produced the Holocaust. No, what the Kabbalah produced should not be called Jewish” mysticism. It has shown itself to be destructive of that which is truly Jewish. For centuries there have been well-meaning Jews who have tried to Judaize” it. They took those originally pagan-Gnostic, Neoplatonist, Hellenist errors, and tried to make them clean,” make them more Jewish” by blending them with more and more Jewish” concepts. But the Golem” or Frankensteins monster” never truly became Jewish.” Rather, what happened may be likened to the counterfeiting of money. False or counterfeit money is achieved by making it look like real actual money. But the truth is, when all that crafty and cunning artistry is done, and it looks just like the real thing, we condemn it for what it is, false, fake, phoney. It is not money” at all. The fact that criminals have made it look and feel just like money, does not change the fact that it is a mere deception. And that is what Kabbalah is. All the attempts through the centuries to make it look and sound and feel Jewish” have done nothing but make this pagan” religion a successful enough counterfeit that it can be passed off on the Jews as something Jewish. People have used the wrong rule of measure, thinking if it quacks like a duck... It must be a duck.” They ought rather contemplate counterfeit money, than ducks in this matter.

In the first centuries of the Common Era there were good rabbis who spoke out against the infiltration of those pagan-Gnostic, Neoplatonist, Hellenist errors and their insinuation into Jewish thought. And over the centuries there were good rabbis who denounced the Kabbalah. Others who were not brave enough to condemn it, moved to at least restrict it, admitting that it was dangerous, in that it could lead weak souls into heresy (which it consistently and frequently did). Rabbinical courts moved to make it unlawful for anyone under the age of forty to study Kabbalah. The reason being that if one has first lived forty years and been raised and trained in, and has studied Judaism, then perhaps his Judaism would be strong enough to dominate what he finds in the Kabbalah, rather than have the Kabbalah shape his Judaism. Other rabbis perhaps were less brave, and seeing the Kabbalah becoming entrenched in “Jewish” life and it being considered “Jewish” by many, and seeing it becoming popular, opted to keep silent, and not step on anybodys toes. Others, and this is tragic, gave full place to it as part of Jewish life. It is a sad day indeed when they that are entrusted as watchmen on the wall, who should guard the gates of the city and warn the people when danger approaches, instead become more like those who flung open the gates of Troy and drew the deadly wooden beast inside, and naively looked upon it as a trophy! What is needed today is more brave men and women who will raise their voices against Kabbalism and call for all of world Jewry and Judaism itself, to be purged of its influences.

Consider these observations from the Jewish Encyclopedia:

The Jewish Encyclopedia (1901). Its full title, if you include its lengthy subtitle, reads, "The Jewish Encyclopedia, A descriptive record of the history, religion, literature, and customs of the Jewish People from the earliest times to the present day. Prepared by more than four hundred scholars and specialists." Published by Funk and Wagnalls Co., New York and London, 1901.

Of the 400 scholars, their most renowned scholar and editor, Louis Ginzberg, PhD. of their "Department of Rabbinical Literature," himself, headed up the project of their article on "Cabala."

It begins on page 456 of the 1901 Jewish Encyclopedia, and goes to page 479.

In the very first paragraph, it cites "the influence of Neoplatonic and Neopythagorean philosophy" that went into Kabbalah. In the same paragraph, what other books have called "practical Kabbalah" this source more aptly calls "theurgic" Kabbalah, which denotes the practice of magic. On page 457 it tells that Rabbi Ben Sira wrote against it centuries ago. The Encyclopedia says "Ben Sira warns against it, in his saying, "Thou shalt have no business with secret things." On the same page, it states many of the sources who believed the Essenes wrote the Kabbalah. On the same page it states the Kabbalah got its belief in the PRE-EXISTENCE of human souls from Plato, in Timaeus, and its belief in the magic power of numbers and letters from the Pythagoreans. And on page 458 it specifies particularly those in Chaldea (Babylon). Its says it "seems to have originated in Chaldea (see Lenormant, 'Chaldean Magic')." It cites a legend among the Jews that the Kabbalah "induced babylonian rabbis of the fourth century to 'create a calf by magic.'" The reference simply shows that Kabbalah was held to be the practice of magic, and was a problem arising in Babylon. Having already cited the Pythagorean and Platonic and Babylonian influences in the forming of it, the Encyclopedia goes on, on the same page, to cite the Gnostic origin of the Kabbalah as well. And the Gnostic stream, it again traces back to pagan sources in Babylon, and, to the Zoroastrians of Persia. It says, it "goes back to Zoroastrianism and ultimately to old Chaldea (Babylon), can be traced through Gnosticism; having influenced the Cabala before it reached the medieval" stage. It refers to "the fact also that the 'Kelippot' (the scalings of impurity in the Kabbalah), which are so prominent in the medieval Cabala, are found in the old Babylonian incantations." Page 459 cites such elements of the Kabbalah as the SHIUR KOMAH and the anthropomorphic description of the Deity ... the letters laid across the body in Atbash .. forming the limbs ... the garments of light, the male female nature, the double face, the eye, hair, arm, head and crown, of the King of Glory” as all coming from Gnosticism. On the same page, it says, As to speculative Cabala, it was not (as with practical Kabbalah) Persia with her tenth-century Sufism, but Alexandria (Egypt) of the first century or earlier, with her strange COMINGLING OF EGYPTIAN, CHALDEAN (BABYLONIAN) Judean and GREEK culture, that FURNISHED THE SOIL and the SEEDS FOR THAT MYSTIC PHILOSOPHY... There sprang up that MAGIC literature which showed the name of the Jewish God and of the Patriarchs PLACED ALONGSIDE OF PAGAN DEITIES AND DEMONS, AND THE HERMES BOOKS (see Hermeticism) .... but ABOVE ALL, IT WAS NEOPLATONISM ... It gave rise to those GNOSTIC songs which flooded Syria and Palestine. ... THE WHOLE PRINCIPLE OF EMANATION, with its idea of evil inherent in matter as the dross is found THERE (Neoplatonism & Gnosticism), and THE ENTIRE THEURGIC CABALA is in ALL its detail developed THERE. Even the spirit-rapping and table-turning done in the seventeenth century by German cabalists by means of shemot” (magic incantations) have THERE their prototypes.” On the same page it refers to the Kabbalahs PANTHEISTIC” tendencies. It also states that some Jews of of that era were so infatuated with GREEK PHILOSOPHY, that they assumed that it must be true, and that therefore there must be some backup for GREEK PHILOSOPHY hidden in secret layers of the Scriptures. In other words, being convinced of the truth of GREEK PHILOSOPHY, they sought to make the Scriptures support it. It says, These interpretations had their ORIGIN in the CONVICTION that the TRUTHS OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY were already contained in Scripture, ALTHOUGH, it was given to ONLY THE SELECT FEW to lift the VEIL and to DISCERN them beneath the LETTER of the Bible.” In other words, THE SELECT FEW” (or Kabbalists) would use their interpretations to make the Scriptures seem to preach GREEK PHILOSOPHY, for THAT is what they were CONVICTED was Truth. The Jewish Encyclopedia goes on to also address the Kabbalahs clash with Scripture over whether God created matter. This is because Kaballah adopted the Neoplatonist and Gnostic teaching that God did NOT. On page 460 it says this view of Kabbalism is IN CONTRAST TO THE EXPLICIT STATEMENT OF SCRIPTURE THAT GOD CREATED NOT ONLY THE WORLD, BUT ALSO THE MATTER OUT OF WHICH IT WAS MADE.” It adds that the opposing view of Kabbalism on the subject was also due to the influence of the Platonic-Stoic cosmogeny.” It says that people fell for this teaching IN SPITE OF THE PROTEST OF GAMALIEL II.” On the same page it states that the doctrine of the pre-existence of matter was the ancient Babylonian doctrine of Apsu.” The belief in Apsu, the primal ocean, existing before all things, was taken over by the Gnostics. Some Jews converted to that belief from the first to the third centuries. It states that some of the Jews LATER attempted to justify that adherence to the pagan religious myth, and make it more Jewish” by modifying it to say that the elements of Apsu,” the Babylonian primal ocean” were the first elements created. But the Jewish Encyclopedia declares, t was an attempt to JUDAIZE the UN-JEWISH conception of PRIMAL SUBSTANCES.” The Encyclopedia further states on the same page, that the belief of the Gnostic religion, that, not God, but a secondary god, known as the DEMIURGE”, created the material universe, worked its way into the Talmudic writings, and later was borrowed from the Talmud for use in the Kabbalah. The following, in quotes, is verbatim, unchanged, from the Jewish Encyclopedia: So, also, the the figure of METATRON passed into the Cabala from the Talmud, where it played the role of the demiurgos (see GNOSTICISM), being expressly mentioned as God (Sanh. 38b)”. The direction to see GNOSTICISM” for what is meant by demiurgos” is not my direction, but the Encyclopedias. Says the Encyclopedia on page 463, the Kabbalists “posit mediate BEINGS in place of IMMEDIATE CREATION out of nothing; and these mediate beings were not created.” On page 463 it says they contrived an angel” as the real ruler of the world” (named Metatron) and to this angel EVERYTHING must be referred that Scripture recounts of God” !!! And without apology, the Jewish Encyclopedia refers to it as this Jewish form of the GNOSTIC DEMIURGE.” On page 461 the Jewish Encyclopedia also says that Kabbalah seeks to make the material world in a sense divine” as the New Agers do. In other words, the belief that yonder tree is God” or is part” of God. The Greeks borrowed that notion from the Hindus of India. Speaking of the Kabbalah on page 478 it refers to “the STRONGLY PANTHEISTIC coloring of its metaphysics.” The Kabbalists used many approaches to try to “bridge the gulf between God and the world.” The Encyclopedia says The attempts of the mystics to bridge the gulf between God and the world are especially evident in the doctrine of the preexistence of the soul ... a doctrine taught by the HELLENISTIC (Greek) sages.” They also used the Gnostic belief that the soul could ascend BACK UP to it’ original divine state, which the Encyclopedia calls the central doctrine of Gnosticism”, page 461. It all came from the pagans. The Encyclopedia says, The practice of magic and incantation, the angelology and demonology, WERE BORROWED FROM BABYLONIA, PERSIA AND EGYPT; but these FOREIGN ELEMENTS were Judaized in the process, and took the FORM of the mystical adoration of the name of God and of speculations regarding the mysterious POWER of the Hebrew alphabet, to become finally the foundations of the philosophy of the Sefer Yetzirah.” The Jewish Encyclopedia also says ANOTHER PAGAN CONCEPTION which, in refined form, passed passed into the CABALA through the Talmud, was the so-called mystery of sex.’” Babylonian and Egyptian and other pagan religions held that sky was male, earth was female, etc. All of the old pagan fertility cults espoused these doctrines. Cetain Talmudists and the Kabbalists took over those beliefs and came up with the notion that the waters above the fermament” in Genesis were male, and the waters below the fermament” were female, and that they had union, and that their union fructfied the earth” says the Encyclopedia. They also infused it into Kabbalism wth such notions as Israel is the MATE of the Sabbath”, and that the Shekinah” (which in the Scriptures is the glory of God, but which Kabbalists almost make another entity) dwells between a man and woman during sex, thus again, in a sense, accenting the male-female fertility concept of deity. The old pagan male-female fertility religions passed their doctrines on to Gnosticism. They were modified to suit the religion of Gnosticism, and they moved on from there. On page 461 the Jewish Encyclopedia describes that pathway, saying, Thus the GNOSTIC theory of syzygies, or PAIRS, was ADOPTED by the Talmud and later was developed into a system by the Cabala.” The Encyclopedia discusses the developement of the Kabbalistic doctrine of EMANATIONS, and refers to an early stage in the second century: It says, The heterogeneous elements of THIS Talmudic mysticism are AS YET unfused; the PLATONIC-ALEXANDRIAN, ORIENTAL-THEOSOPHIC, and Judaeo-allegorical ingredients being STILL EASILY RECOGNIZABLE and NOT YET elaborated into the system of the Cabala. Jewish monotheism was STILL TRANSCENDENTALISM.” In other words, in the second century, you could still identify and recognize the old traditional (Scriptural) Jewish monotheism (which was transcendentalist) as separate and distinguishable from the PLATONIC-ALEXANDRIAN, ORIENTAL-THEOSOPHIC” concepts (such as all things are God, you and I and yonder tree are God”). The Jewish and the pagan had not yet been blended in the Kaballah. The Encyclopedia says this blending was rendered possible by the INTRODUCTION of the PANTHEISTC DOCTRINE of EMANATION, which taught that in reality nothing existed outside of God.” This is precisely how the Hindu concludes that “you are God, I am God, and that tree is God.” The opposite is “transcendentalism” as the Encyclopedia stated. It does not mean the “transcendentalism” found in modern philosophies and heresies. The older and correct meaning of “transcendentalism” refers to the fact that God is above the universe, and is distinct from it. The tree is not God. God is not the tree. God “transcends” the universe. He is above” it, superior to it, and is other than” the universe. When you cut down a tree, you are not cutting the body of God.” If you could destroy the whole world, you have not destroyed part of God. His being is still whole and entire and undamaged. That is how God is revealed in the Scriptures. The rise of the Kaballah blurred the lines between pagan pantheism and the biblical revelation of God as transcendent Creator. When this heresy first arose, there was vehement opposition to it from the Jewish Rabbis. Gamaliel II has already been cited. There were many. It was a “movement” of those who were faithful to the old biblical Judaism. But the movement was eventually supressed and eclipsed by the Kabbalists, and those who were afraid to speak against it. On page 461 the Jewish Encyclopedia says “Although Talmudic-Midrashic literature has left few traces of THIS MOVEMENT, OF THE RABBIS OPPOSING SUCH EXTRAVAGANCES, yet the writings of the (Christian) Church fathers bear evidence of many Judaizing Gnostics.” For a time, the Rabbis managed to stand against this invasion of Gnostcism, but it eventually overwhelmed them, and they caved in. On page 464 the Encyclopedia refers to the “awakening of Jewish GNOSTICISM, that had been suppressed for centuries by the increasing preponderance of Rabbinism.” But the Rabbis did eventually “cave in” and it says “they made allowance for a revival of GNOSTICISM.” It further states on the same page, that “doctrines of ARAB PHILOSOPHY especially INFLUENCED Jewish mysticism.” Of particular groups of adherents to those ARAB (and Greco-Arabic) doctrines it says “The ‘Faithful Brothers of Basra,’ as well as the NEOPLATONIC ARISTOTELIANS of the ninth century, have left their marks on the Cabala. The brotherhood taught, similarly to GNOSTICISM ... (the doctrine of) emanations.” Of the poponents of those pagan beliefs, who had a hand in shaping the Kabbalah, it says, “Solomon ibn Gabirol’s DOCTRINES influenced the developement of the Cabala more than any other philosophic system. ... Gabirol assumes five intermediary BEINGS between God and matter.” There is no compatibility between the heresies of the Kabbalah and the truth of God as He has revealed Himself, and what the Holy Scriptures teach about Him. The Holy Scriptures teach that God has DEFINITE ATTRIBUTES. It says that God LOVES humanity. He feels love. It says He has THOUGHTS. He thinks. It says He is ANGRY with the wicked. He feels righteous holy anger. It says He feels GRIEF. He is grieved. It says He has COMPASSION and MERCY. It says He has SIGHT. He SEES. He HEARS. It says He feels FRIENDSHIP toward His righteous servants. The Scriptures are quite clear in teaching these, and many more, ATTRIBUTES of God. PAGANISM DENIES THIS. As an example, HINDUISM teaches that the “concept” they call “God” HAS NO ATTRIBUTES. They imagine that “God” must be too “high” to have attributes like those cited in the Scriptures. They imagine that “God” must be too “high” to do such a thing as create a world with animals and mud and humans in it, that have sex and reproduce. These speculations are what led to the presumption that “lesser gods” or “lower gods” or “intermediary beings” must have created the universe, but that the “highest” and “original” or “first God” could not have. Men entranced with these pagan, Gnostic and Neoplatonist notions, so foreign to the Scriptures, carried them over into Jewish mysticism, and they shaped the formation of the Kabbalah. The Jewish Encyclopedia says on page 465, “Possbly even Maimonides, the greatest representative of RATIONALISM among the Jews of the middle ages, contributed to the DOCTRINE of the ‘En Sof’ by his TEACHING that NO ATTRIBUTES could be ASCRIBED TO GOD.” On page 472 it says, “The DOCTRINE of the En-Sof is the starting point of ALL cabalistic speculation, God is the infinite, unlimited being, TO WHOM ONE NEITHER CAN NOR MAY ASCRIBE ANY ATTRIBUTES WHATEVER; WHO CAN THEREFORE BE DESIGNATED MERELY AS EN-SOF (the infnite). ... One cannot predicate of God either WILL or INTENTION or THOUGHT or DEED.” This of course is sheer heresy, as the Holy Scriptures show plainly that God has all of those attributes; will, intentions, thoughts, and deeds. As stated above, this is why the Kabbalists used the Gnostic Demiurge teaching, and invented the angel Metatron, and taught that “to this angel EVERYTHING must be referred that Scripture recounts of God.” It is not only heresy, but BLASPHEMY, to rob God of His glory as the Creator of the universe. He says in Isaiah 42:8, “I am the Lord (literally Yaweh, or Jehovah); that is My Name: and My glory will I not give to another.” Isaiah 40:28 calls Him “the Lord (literally Yaweh, or Jehovah) the CREATOR of the ends of the earth. The Lord the Creator. Yaweh the Creator. To teach that the original “first” divine being is a non-creating “something” that must “BE DESIGNATED MERELY AS EN-SOF,” NOT The Lord, NOT Yaweh, NOT Jehovah, NOT Creator God, and to instead give all credit for creation to an angel named Metatron, and, to each that all the attributes and works of God and the glory thereof must be given to Metatron, is sheer blasphemy. The Kabbalah also teaches the pagan belief in REINCARNATION. As already stated, it teaches the Gnostic doctrine of the PRE-EXISTENCE of souls. On page 476 the Jewish Encyclopedia says “Closely connected with THIS view is THE DOCTRINE of the TRANSMIGRATION OF THE SOUL, ON WHICH THE CABALA LAYS MUCH STRESS. In order that the soul may RETURN to its source, it must previously have REACHED FULL DEVELOPEMENT of all its perfections IN TERRESTRIAL LIFE. If it has NOT fulfilled this CONDITION in the course of ONE life, IT MUST BEGIN ALL OVER AGAIN IN ANOTHER BODY, continuing (to reincarnate) until it has completed its TASK.” The Lurianic (see below) Kabbalah takes the pagan doctrines of reincarnation to even more outrageous and hideous extemes than the pagans did, and teaches “the impregnation of souls.” In this scheme, it is taught that more than one soul can be reincarnated into one body! You might have two souls. Two different people who lived long ago, who need a “fresh start,” may be in you! Such unscriptural nonsense hardly needs comment.

The concept of good and evil in the Kabbalah is also borrowed from paganism, from Hinduism, Persian dualism, Gnosticism and Neoplatonism. it embraces the pagan notion that evil is somewhat the “flip-side” of good, or, the other side of the coin, similar to the cosmic religion portrayed in the Star Wars films, in which some people were using the “dark side” of the “Force” and others were using the “good side” of it. The pagan religions also taught that evil is an illusion. The Hindus call the illusion principle “Maya.” On page 477 the Jewish Encyclopedia says of Kabbalah, “Evil is the reverse of the divine, the left side, while the good is the right side, a GNOSTIC idea. As the divine has TRUE being, evil is that which has NO being, the UNREAL or SEEMING thing, the thing as it APPEARS. ... Evil in man is manifested in that he takes SEMBLANCE for substance.” While Hinduism, Gnosticism and Theosophy will applaud such religion, it has no basis in the Holy Scriptures.

continued...

On page 466 the Jewish Encyclopedia says, speaking of the developement of the Kabbalah in Provence, France “... the speculative philosophy of Provence, like German mysticism, ORIGINATED IN BABYLON: NEOPLATONISM, reaching THERE its highest developement in the eight and ninth centuries, could not but influence Jewish thought. Gabirol, as well as the author of ‘Torat ha-Nefesh,’ bears evidence of this INFLUENCE in Jewish philosophy; while the Cabala took up the mystic elements of NEOPLATONISM.” Speaking of the developement of elements of the “Bahir” and “Sefer ha-Temunah” in the Kabbalah, it says, it “corresponds EXACTLY with the syzygy theory of the GNOSTICS” and “the disjointed mystico-GNOSTIC conceptions of the ‘Bahir’ were gradually and untiringly woven into a connected, comprehensive system.” As cited above from page 458 of the Jewish Encyclopedia, pagan magic, “old Babylonian incantations” and such, “FURNISHED THE SOIL and the SEEDS FOR” the rise of the Kabbalah. But that spirit was not only in the ancient beginnings, but the “tree” that grew from that “soil” and from those “seeds” also brought forth “fruit” in its more “modern” stages, true to its parentage: Page 469 0f the Jewish Encyclopedia speaks of the the developement of the Kabbalah under Isaac Luria (1533-72) at the beginning of the Hasidic stage. “the theoretical DOCTRINES of Luria’s Cabala were later taken up by the Hasidim and organized into a system. Luria’s influence was first evidenced in certain mystical and fanciful religious exercises, by means of which he held, one could become MASTER OF THE TERRESTRIAL WORLD. The WRITING OF AMULETS, CONJURATION OF DEVILS, MYSTIC JUGGLERY OF NUMBERS AND LETTERS, INCREASED as this school spread.” The Lurianic school of the Kabbalah gave rise to the claim that their new “spirituality” would lead to the appearing of The Messiah. But it was a wicked “messiah” that arose in the person of Shabbetai Zevi. The huge and sweeping success of this infamous devil, the Kabbalist who claimed to be The Messiah, was the direct result of the twisted “spirituality” of the Lurianic Kabbalah. Even after the chaos that engulfed world Jewry in the Shabbetai Zevi deception, the Jewish Encyclopedia seems to MARVEL that still, Kabbalists did not give up their addiction: “Shabbethaism, however, did not in the least compromise the Cabala in the eyes of the Oriental Jews, the majority of whom even today esteem it holy and believe in it” (page 470). Researchers need to realize and understand how the devilish Shabbatean movement and the subsequent wicked and deceptive Kabbalistic Frankist movement (see Jacob Frank) arose from the Kabbalah, and continue to be forces of evil in the world today.

Something MORE should be said about the FRUIT of the Kabbalah. We have seen some of what the Kabbalah came FROM, and some of what it CONTAINS. But attention should also be given to what it DOES. What FRUIT does this tree PRODUCE? What does it lead to? We have already noted the rise of the Kabbalist, Shabbatai Zevi, and the deception he subjected all of world Jewry to. And we have cited the devilish Jacob Frank, and the Frankists. But on page 478, the Jewish Encyclopedia itself titles a chapter, the “NOXIOUS INFLUENCES” of the Kabbalah, under which title it makes special mention of “several most PERNICIOUS ones.” While to some, myself included, the worst and most pernicious of the noxious influences of the Kabbalah is its twisting of religion, the damage it does to biblical doctrine, the encyclopedists rather cite MAGIC; that Kabbalism has led countless Jews, and non-Jews alike, into the belief in and practice of magic. Of course, we noted above, that such things are inherent in the very fabric of the Kabbalah, but here we treat of luring its devotees into the actual pactice of magic. It says “The cabalists developed a Jewish MAGIC. They TAUGHT that the elements are the abode of beings ... namely, elemental beings of FIRE, AIR, WATER, AND EARTH.” It speaks of “DEMONS being endowed with various supernatural powers and with INSIGHT into the HIDDEN realms ... and even occasionally into the FUTURE ... Magic may be PRACTICED WITH THE HELP OF THESE BEINGS.” It says Kabbalah teaches that “all men are endowed with insight and MAGICAL POWERS WHICH THEY MAY DEVELOPE. ... From these principles many cabalists developed their theories on CASTING OF LOTS, NECROMANCY ... . BIBLIOMANCY, and the MYSTICISM OF NUMBERS (NUMEROLOGY) AND LETTERS were developed into complete systems.” It cites the ultra superstitious belief of cabalists that “EVERYTHING BEHELD BY OUR SENSES HAS A MYSTICAL MEANING.” One may hear in this superstition, faint echoes of the Kabbalist and murderer Charles Manson, who believed even Beatles music coming over the radio was instructing him to do things. I goes on; “Hence the cabalistic DOCTRINE of the heavenly alphabet, whose signs are the constellations and stars. THUS ASTROLOGY WAS LEGITIMIZED, AND BIBLIOMANCY FOUND ITS JUSTIFICATION.” It cites the Kabbalah’s teaching that the HEBREW LETTERS ARE NOT MERELY SIGNS for things, but IMPLEMENTS of of divine POWERS, BY MEANS OF WHICH NATURE MAY BE SUBJUGATED.” To their credit, the encyclopedists finish the topic, saying “ALL THESE VIEWS WERE MOST PERNICIOUS IN THEIR INFLUENCE ON THE INTELLECT AND SOUL OF THE JEW.” And I would add, upon Judaism.

How did this nightmare come about? What caused the rise of the Kabbalah? Is there one factor that can be seen as chief? Yes. And it is not only the premise of my entire treatise, but the Jewish Encyclopedists have put their finger on the same thing: I have maintained that Jews should clearly IDENTIFY those elements in “compromised” Judaism that are pagan, or “foreign” and cast them out, weed them out, and thus preserve genuine biblical Judaism. The encyclopedia identifies the fact that the OPPOSITE was done. Speaking of the process of developement that led to the Kabbalah, it says, “In a word, its works represent THAT MOVEMENT in Judaism which ATTEMPTED to Judaize all the FOREIGN elements in it” rather than expel them.

The Jewish Encyclopedia, page 469, tells us of courageous Rabbis who stood up and tried to resist the spreading Kabbalah plague, but who met fierce opposition from the Kabbalists, including Kabbalist Rabbis who had been swept up in the movement. Pro-Kabbalah Rabbis even oversaw the erasing of the written works of these heros. “In Italy however, there appeared also the first ANTAGONISTS of the Cabala, at a time when it seemed to be carrying everything before it. Nothing is known of RABBI MORDECAI CORCOS’ WORK AGAINST THE CABALA, a work that was never printed, OWING TO THE OPPOSITION of the Italian rabbis. RABBI JOSEPH DEL MEDIGO’S wavering attitude toward the Cabala injured rather than helped it. RABBI JUDAH DE MODENA ATTACKED IT RUTHLESSLY in his work, ‘Sha’agat Aryeh’ (The Lion’s Roar); ... A century later still, SAMUEL DAVID LUZZATTO ATTACKED THE CABALA with the weapons of modern criticism.” And of course Rabbi Ben Sira who opposed it has already been mentioned.

(END OF JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA NOTES)

Let me here state very simply what I personally hold to be the only valid basis of the “true Jewish Faith.” I have already made clear that Kabbalah has no part in it. What is the legitimate basis of the true Jewish religion? The Canon of Scripture. The written Torah, that is, The Pentateuch, The Five Books of Moses, the eight books of The Prophets, and the eleven books known as The Writings, which were long ago declared “Canon.” Thirty Nine Canonical Books (some men combine certain pairs of these books together as single books in their count, so the total number is less, but exactly the same books or written material is still included). 2000 years ago the Jews called this body of Holy Writ “The Scriptures.” Twenty centuries ago, the Jewish historian Josephus called them “our Scriptures” and called them “books that are believed to be Divine.” And he glories that among all devout Jews “not a soul has ventured to add or to remove or to alter a syllable, and it is the instinct of every Jew, from the day of his birth, to consider these Scriptures as The Teaching of God, and to abide by them, and, if need be, to lay down his life in their behalf.”

I also do not subscribe to the theory that "Judaism" is "people" or "culture" based. Some theorists have put forward that claim, that is, that Judaism is more about the physical descendants of Abraham and their cultural life and developement, than about a body of religious doctrine. I could not disagree more. While it is true that the descendants of Abraham and their culture are included in and important to Judaism, it is important to keep priorities straight. If one could make a "list" showing what is at the "top" in true Judaism and what has a lower or subordinate "level" the matter becomes clear: Contrary to what these theorists suggest, Almighty God is at the top of the list. And obedience to His Word is "up there." The Torah makes it clear in the story of Noah's flood, that obedience to God is the thing. At one time it repented God that He had even made humankind, and the flood came and destroyed them. Only those he deemed "righteous" were spared. Abraham being willing to offer up Isaac on the altar shows that obedience to God is of greater import than the comfort and blessedness of Abraham's offspring. The fact that God will let His Temple get burned to the ground and let the people be carried away into slavery when the nation is rebellious, shows that the people and the culture are not the chief thing. God is, and obedience to Him. The fact that Abraham had other "seed," Ishmael, who was even the "firstborn" son, but the promise rested with Isaac, shows that Judaism is not "race" based, was not based simply on being descended from Abraham, but on obedience to God, abiding in the religion, and being faithful to it. If it was about physical offspring, then Ishmael deserves a role and a status that is denied him today. The fact that God chose Jacob but rejected Esau, Isaac's firstborn son, based on which one would desire the promises and the calling of God and which one would despise them, shows it is not about "race" or "descent" or being firstborn. It is about following after the truth of God. The fact that an Israelite could be "cut off" or "excommunicated" from the people of Israel, and henceforth be counted as a non Jew, shows it is not about being a physical Jew, but one who is obedient to God. The fact that people of other races and countries and cultures, "strangers," could be converts to and "join" Judaism, shows that it is not about race or the people or descent or culture, but about God and obedience to Him and faith in Him. Those who promote the erroneous claim that Judaism is about race or an elite people or its culture, pave the way for racists of other schools of thought, even antisemites, to claim that their racism is moral, even citing as an excuse, that “even the Jews” believe that God sanctions that kind of elitism. But it is not true. I could go on and on. Torah and The Prophets and The Writings make it clear. Judaism is not based on race or culture. It is based on God and His Word and oebedience to Him and faith in Him. What made Israel and the Jews “special” or in a sense “elite” was their being bound to and devoted to The Faith, and their being messengers of it and vessles carrying it. And whenever they forsook that Faith and obedience, they lost that special status. And the way to being restored to their calling and their special status, was always and only a return to that Faith and obedience, the religion of Judaism. True Judaism. Those who would lower Judaism to being human-based instead of God-based, are wrong. Judaism is not secular and human. It is spiritual. It is "religious." Judaism is about the spiritual beliefs, doctrines, and ordained practices that came forth from God as Divine revelation. Many today who are not truly Observant Jews, and who want to get away with disobeying Torah and The Prophets and The Writings, that is, disobeyng Judaism, yet lay claim to being "as Jewish as the next guy," push and promote this secularizing and humanizing claim that Judaism is about the culture. But that attacks the sovereignty and authority of God. True Judaism had Divine origin. It came down from heaven. It did not spring up as a "culture club," nor should it be reduced to one. If anyone tries to give you that line, that Judaism is not a religion or a "Faith" but is a culture and a people, tell them they need to get their spiritual priorities straight.

I suggest that he is not truly a “Jew” whose faith in and worship of God is not rooted and grounded in those Scriptures. And whoever begins to elevate either Talmud or Kabbalah or the opinions of rabbis to anything even near the authority of The Scriptures is endangering The Jewish Faith and introducing religious confusion. He is no friend of truth. He that spends an hour in the Talmud for every hour in The Divine Scriptures is allowing something merely “human” to have equal place with God. He that spends ten hours in the Talmud for every hour in The Holy Scriptures, is giving religious man ten times the place of honor he is giving to God. God’s Word must be supreme, and all other religious studies and concepts must be kept subordinate and realized to be lesser lights. And of these religious studies that I say are “lesser lights,” the very “best” are those which are dedicated to honoring and upholding and magnifying that which is written in The Canon of Scripture, not merely picking it apart or explaining it away or raising possibilities and speculations about its meanings. But rather, pointing at The Scripture and declaring, “Thus saith the Lord!” That, I declare to you, is the fountain from which true Judaism springs.

He who would be “a good Jew” and would do a service to Judaism should be bold to declare the Talmud to be a lesser to The Canon of Scripture, and be bold to declare any expounditures of the rabbis (whether oral or written) to be lesser to The Canon of Scripture, and be bold to work toward exalting The Holy Scriptures to their rightful place far above all other things “religious” in the hearts of his fellow Jews.

But as for Kabbalah, let it be altogether purged out of Jewish life and culture and religion, forever!

http://www.freemasonrywatch.org/robert_gillette_1.html

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THE WRITTTEN WORD OF GOD:

The TANAKH. The Written Torah, The Written Law of God, The Written Scriptures, The Writtten Word of God. The Ten Commandments, The Five Books of Moses, encompassed in The TANAKH. The TANAKH is an acronym (TNK) meaning “T” for The Torah, The Five Books of Moses, “N” for The Neviim, The Prophets, and “K” for Ketuvim, The Sacred Writings. The TANAKH embraces all of The Books of Moses, The Books of The Prophets, and The Sacred Writings, in other words, all of the Ancient Holy Scriptures, as having come from Heaven. As it is said, "Torah min HaShamayim," The Torah comes from Heaven. And so with all of The TANAKH. The writers of all twenty four Books were inspired by "Ruach HaKodesh," the Holy Spirit. In other words, God Himself dictated The Scriptures. He wrote them. He sovereignly transmitted them. They were sent from Heaven and imparted to man. Absolutely no myths of mere mortals can be assigned such a rank. No legends or stories or traditions of men, regardless of how lofty or good, can be ranked with The Holy Scriptures. At Mt Sinai, more than 3,300 years ago that “transmission” began. The last of The Prophets to prophesy the Word of God comprising the Hebrew Canon, was the the prophet Malachi, approximately 450 B.C. Thus the period forming The TANAKH spanned a little under a thousand years, and closed, 2400 years ago. Not long after the completion of The Second Temple, the revered and godly Men of the Great Assembly in Jerusalem, the Anshei K'nesset HaGedolah, recognized and determined and established those twenty four Books to be the completed Canon of Scripture. 300 B.C. can safely be assumed for the final setting of The Canon.

THE CHART BELOW, SHOWS THE WRITTEN SCRIPTURES AT THE TOP, INDICATING IT IS RANKED AS THE HIGHEST AUTHORITY. WORKING YOUR WAY DOWN THROUGH THE LEVELS IS NOT ONLY A DESCENT AWAY FROM PURE DIVINE TRUTH, BUT ALSO THE MARCH OF TIME, FROM MOSES IN ANTQUITY, CLEAR TO THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY.


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“ORAL LAW”?
For any trackable or identifiable body of beliefs to be a candidate for a presumed “Oral Law” we have to come forward in time to 200 A.D! That is not only five centuries after the close of The Canon, but fully 1,300 years after Moses lived! That’s right. The Mishnah was not compiled until Rabbi Akiva and Yehudah HaNasi, in 200 A.D., 1,300 years after Moses! 1,300 years is an awful long time to claim that things were passed down “orally” and not written or recorded in any manner whatsoever. No records, no paper trail, nothing to point at as proof. Nothing but a giant gap of 1,300 years.

I would here simply ask the reader of this article; Can you, with the existence of absolutely no written family diaries, no written family letters, no written material of any kind, cite the precise beliefs of your own great grandfather about gardening or science, or politics or music? Remember, if there was a family diary or journal or book, that’s cheating. To make this work, it must be knowledge that was passed down from your great grandfather to you, “orally” only! Your great grandfather probably lived in the 1860s, only say 135 years ago. Do you know his precise thoughts about the American Civl War, slave ownership, politics, music, and the rigging on sailing ships? I dare say you do not, unless something was written down on paper by somebody. But an “oral” transmission from your great grandfather to you, over 135 years is nothing! Let’s make it your great great grandfather in 1825 instead, 176 years ago. Better yet, make it his father, 216 years ago, in 1785. Tell me some opinion or belief or teaching in your family from 1785 that came down to you strictly and only “orally” or “verbally” without any written diary or paper record of any kind. Do you have such a thing? Are you the recipient of a “verbal” teaching from 1785? Remember, family diaries and letters are disqualified. We are testing the science of “oral” transmission. I dare suppose that no, you do not have any, not one, piece of information on your ancestor’s opinions and stand on issues, much less his in-depth verbal expounditure on things from 1785. Not handed down purely verbally, or “orally” without a written record, you don’t. And the matter is made clearer by the fact you probably don’t have anyone in your whole circle of friends and acquaintances who does, either.

Now consider this dimension: If, on the outside chance you or a friend of yours did have such a thing (an actual teaching or expounditure of opinions passed down in your family without paper for 216 years), would you trust it? Would anyone? Would a court of law? Suppose the 216 year old tradition in your family (without paper records or diaries) was that you are royalty, that one of your ancestors, was the abandoned child of a great king in Europe, and that the throne ought rightfully have passed down to you. Not one word was ever put to paper in the whole 216 years. Now all your family have died except you. You are the last one with “the knowledge.” Do you think you can go get that country to put you on their throne and toss out the other guy? No. Nor will your children be able to, if you pass on this “oral” tradition to them. No court of law anywhere, would give you the time of day, if you don’t have one scrap of paper you can produce. So you have a family “story” that says George Washington, America’s first president, was in love with your ancestor 216 years ago, and they had an affair on the side. Let’s say the story is lengthy and detailed. But here again is the catch: There never was a diary. There was not one love letter. Not even a mention of it in some other side letter. Nothing. And the same for the next generation. No paper. No mention. And the next generation. Blank. Complete non mention. And so with the next generation, and on down to you. And now you want to tell the world that Washington loved your great grandma. Sorry kid, that is the stuff of fairy dust, and leprecaun’s gold. No court of law will give you the time of day if you can’t produce sme scrap of paper from 1785 or from along the way. The world is full of fables and legends and heresay. But you’ll never get installed on a European throne as the long lost heir, just on your say so, that the secret was passed down to you.

But in all this, we’ve only treated of a span of 216 years at the maximum. We can all see that such claims would never be treated seriously, much less entered int the record of history! Not without a scrap of paper. Never. But those who hold to the idea of “The Oral Law” in Judaism want you to accept as authoritative, not merely a 216 year span of supposedly purely verbal transmission, but a span of 1,300 years! 1,300 years with no documentation! No records! no paper! Good heavens! Smell the coffee for goodness’ sake! Your own family hasn’t kept a verbally transmitted family teaching or expounditure intact for 130 years, let alone one thousand, three hundred years! We are here expected to swallow a tale that is ten times wilder, ten times less reliable, ten times less “do-able” than our little 130 or 216 year scenario we have found rediculous! And, we are not simply talking about a single claim about an event, like “Washington loved grandma,” or “we are the lost royal heirs to the throne of Transylvania.” No, not just a claimed fact. This mega legend is far more vast. It claims that an entire lengthy, exhaustive, intricate, detailed religion was handed down with no records! No paper. An entire encyclopedic body of teachings! Not for 100 years or 200, but 1,300 years!

The claim regarding the Mishnah’s beginning in fact begins with an ironic contradiction. The explanation for why the “Oral Law” was not written down, is that from Moses on, it was commanded that it not be written. It was not intended to be written, but transmitted verbally, only. Then, amazingly, while claiming to be faithful to that “Oral Law,” the Mishnah began 1,300 years after Moses, by violating it, and writing the unwritable, putting down on paper that which was supposed to be only “oral.” Those make for odd “credentials” indeed. 1,300 years after Moses, in 200 A.D., Yehudah HaNasi violates the “Oral” imperative and makes the so-called “Oral” tradition a “written” one. Hmmm... so the Mishnah, today’s so-called “Oral Law” was born in an act of ending the so-called “Oral Law!” How ironic, that the man who ended the tradition is held up as the saint of the tradition! What’s wrong with this picture?

The next claim, accepted by the credulous today, is that the reason for that decision to end the “oral” nature of the so-called “Oral Law,” wiping out how Moses did it, how Joshua did it, and wiping out how 40 generations over 1,300 years did it, was supposedly due to “difficulties” the Jewish people were facing; wars, and the diasopra, etc.. How very odd indeed! We are asked to believe first, that from the time of Moses onward, this “Oral Law” survived the death of Moses, the invasion and settling of Canaan, the death of Joshua, countless wars with Philistines, Girgashites and Hittites, survived the reign of Solomon even after his foreign wives turnd his heart away from God and he permitted idolatry, survived the numerous apostacies of Israel, survived the resurgence of Baal and Moloch worship, survived the split of the Kingdom under Rehoboam and the dividing of Israel in two, survived invasions of Egyptians and Syrians, survived the invasion of Assyria and the hauling away of all Israel of the north into slavery, survived the invasion of Babylon and the destruction of the Temple and the carrying away of all of Judah into Babylon, survived the conquest and horrific desecrations by Antiochus Epiphanes, and, survived the numerous wars with and conquest by the Romans, and yet another Temple destroyed. Pray tell, what was it about Yehudah HaNasi’s day, 200 A.D., that supposedly threatened the “Oral Law” with extinction, this “Oral Law” that had supposedly survived so marvelously through fire and sword and captivities in foreign lands for 1,300 years before Yehudah HaNasi came along? Something here just does not wash. The very birth of the written Mishnah is fraught with contradictions. It was always to be “Oral” but now gets written. It had supposedly been invincible and survived 1,300 years of every sort of upheaval and change, but now needed Yehudah HaNasi to save it so it wouldn’t be lost. Another story that is told for why the invincible “Oral Law” needed to be made non-oral is that fanatical Zoroastrians were on the rise in Persia around 500 AD and the rabbis feared the extinction of the “Oral Law.” Accepting this emergency with its later date casts even more question upon why such steps were taken 300 years earlier.

I do not challenge for a moment that a man can pass his beliefs on to his son, or a teacher to his student. They can, and they do. My main challenge to the so-called “Oral” tradition that some call the “Oral Law” or “Oral Torah” centers on the matter of reliability. Many people today have an unreasoned, almost superstitious mindset toward the so-called “Oral” tradition. They embrace it the way myths are embraced. But much of the myth falls apart under reasoning examination. It is impossible for a strictly verbal, “oral” tradition on a religion as detailed and exhaustive as Judaism to be passed down for 1,300 years, unchanged and reliable. Only writing can accomplish that. Even God Himself resorted to the written word for that reason. If “oral” transmission was as reliable and blessed as the gullible imagine, then Moses would not have needed to stress as he did, that the Torah be written. The Torah, indeed the entire TANAKH bears witness to the claim of God and His prophets that it is the Written Scripture that will keep God’s people in the path of truth.

There is no question that in all generations verbal commentary has been made on The Torah and the whole TANAKH. But there is one, and only one pillar of reliability. The Written Torah, and the Written TANAKH. There is one, and only one, way in which any “oral” tradition had any quality of reliability in it at all. The presence and the study of, and constant referral to, the Written Scriptures. That, and only that, makes it possible for any “oral” tradition to remain “on track.” Oral traditions can stray. The Divine Written Torah cannot. Any and all oral traditions, the work of mere mortals, must be scrutinized and judged in the light of the Written Scriptures. Absolutely never the reverse. Never must the Word of Almighty God be lowered and put on a par with the religious speculations of mere mortal men, and most certainly never made subject to them! To do so deposes God from His throne in men’s hearts and installs mere relgious men as the new God.

It is an ugly picture indeed, to envison a “scholar’s” study, in which The Written TANAKH lays closed and gathering dust, while the Talmud lies open on his desk under a bright study lamp, being feverishly explored. When a man loves the word of men more than the Word of God, this man is no shepherd of God’s flock. Virtually all oral, verbal tradition, and all commentary on The Written TANAKH, has only as much “good” in it as moves men to greater love of The Written TANAKH, greater faith in The Written TANAKH, and more direct obedience to The Written TANAKH. That is the only worthy aim of any contemplation of so-called “oral” traditions. And any wandering theoretical speculative mulling of commentaries that does not have that aim, or end in that result is worthless musing, and is not of God. The only reason there were any “oral” traditions and commentaries in 200 A.D. for Yehudah HaNasi to gather and compile as Mishnah, is because The Written TANAKH existed and was being used. That was the only legitimate source for them to “make religion” from. There were indeed “oral traditions” based on The Written TANAKH and subject to it. And so it must ever be. And Yehudah HaNasi collected them and codified them. That was the birth of the Mishnah. Fine. But that is not the same as the rediculous myth of an “Oral Torah” passed down in unbroken succession for 1,300 years from Moses to Yehudah HaNasi. That is pure fancy. What Yehudah HaNasi did is easy to understand. He simply scraped together all the existing respectable teachings of his day and codified them into the Mishnah. There’s nothing wrong with that. But it should not be turned into a fantastic fable of unbroken transmission from the time of Moses at Mount Sinai. No. What existed in the days of Akiva and Yehudah HaNasi was taken, brought together, and codified, giving us the Mishnah. What Akiva and Yehudah HaNasi did was good and noble and beneficial. Accept that, and appreciate that, but don’t aggrandize it with legend and fable and superstition and exaggerations. Don’t attribute it to Moses, nor to an imagined 1,300 year transmission. No. God, by Moses, gave us The Torah, pure and simple. Attribute that to Moses as you should. But not the “oral” traditions. Them, make exactly what they are: The attempts of mere mortal men in the days leading up to the time of Akiva and Yehudah HaNasi to understand and make commentary on The Written Torah and/or The whole Written TANAKH. There is absolutely no reliable basis for making Moses a contributor to any part or element of the Talmud except for what men in later times were able to take from The Five Written Books of Moses and comment on. That is the contribution of Moses. It is a purely Written contribution.

The Written TANAKH bears powerful witness to what I say: Read the events recorded in II Kings 22:3-23:3 and in II Chronicles 34:8-33. It took place in 624 B.C. For a length of time, The Book of the Law had been missing, and the people f Judah and Jerusalem were ignorant of what the laws of God entailed. Then a copy of The Book of the Law (possibly Deuteronmy specifically, according to some scholars). By reading the contents of this Book of the Law, King Josiah and all of Judah learned that they had not been doing all that God’s Law calls for. A full scale revival broke out and led to the restoration of those demands of The Law. Here we read that before finding The Book, Judah had priests and scribes. Also, besides the prophetess Huldah spoken of in these passages, the prophet Jeremiah and the prophet Zephaniah were active in Judah at this time. Where is the fabled unbroken transmission of “The Oral Torah” at this time? The Scriptures here plainly tell us that when this Book of the Law was missing, Judah fell ignorant of the ways of God. No “Oral Torah” had stepped in and shored them up against decay. Only by directly learning what is Written in the Torah was Judah able to re-instate Observance. This blows a huge hole in the myth of the unbroken “Oral Torah” descending from Moses himself. We are shown a period of at least 75 years where absence of The Book meant absence of the knowledge of God’s requirements. If the mythological sort of “Oral Torah” existed, surely someone in the company of good King Josiah and the prophets Jeremiah, Zechariah and Huldah, and the priests and the scribes would have been apprised of it. But, no. It didn’t exist. There was a major gap. And it was mended only by the dscovery of The Book.

And for there to be even one tiny break, just one generation missing from the supposed transmission of the “Oral Torah,” it is plainly impossible that a faithful transmission of such could have come down from Moses to Akiva, and to Yehudah HaNasi in 200 B.C.. As I have asserted, the only chance of forming a reliable oral tradition or commentary, in any generation, depends entirely on having and studying The Written Scriptures.

Rabbi David E. Lipman, is rabbi of Temple Sinai in Cranston, Rhode Island.

The following comments are from Rabbi Lipman on the Web, from 5/6/01

Speaking of the Saducees, Pharisees, and Essenes in Judea “as early as 151 BCE” Lipman writes, “The Sadducees ... came primarily from ... priestly families ... involved in the sacrificial cult of the Second Temple. ... The Sadducees recognized the authority of the written Torah ... The Pharisees represented a NEW stream of Jewish thought. They maintained that, in ADDITION to the written Torah, God had handed down an ORAL Tradition ... They challenged the priests and maintained that the priests didn't know the correct laws because they DIDN'T STUDY THE ORAL TRADITION. ... THE PRIESTS IGNORED THE ORAL TORAH. ... The Essenes viewed both the Sadducees and the Pharisees as corruptors of Jewish law.”

I would just like to draw attention to the Pharisee claim of an “oral law” being “a new stream” of thought, circa 151 BCE, and that the priests of Israel “DIDN'T STUDY THE ORAL TRADITION” of the Pharisees, “THE PRIESTS IGNORED THE ORAL TORAH” of the Pharisees.

The Jewish historian Josephus says the same thing as Lipman. Josephus wrote in AD 77 “What I would now explain is this: the Pharisees have delivered to the people a great many rituals by succession from their fathers which are not written in the laws of Moses; and for that reason the Sadducees reject them, and say that we are to accept those rituals to be obligatory which are in THE WRITTEN WORD, but are NOT TO OBSERVE what are derived from the tradition of our forefathers.” Josephus, Antiquities 13:10

The people of Israel, indeed even the PRIESTS of GOD'S Temple, were objecting 2,100 years ago to the "NEW" idea being pushed by the Pharisees, that the ORAL traditions of the Pharisee's and their own teachers, be elevated in rank and be made as binding as the WRITTEN WORD OF GOD. The idea was denounced as preposterous. Josephus well spoke the mind of the priests, that the people of Israel were to hold only those things "obligatory which are in THE WRITTEN WORD, but are NOT TO OBSERVE" these later commentaries by the Pharisees and the teachers they were sitting under and following. And Rabbi Lipman well notes that the priests of Israel “DIDN'T STUDY THE ORAL TRADITION” of the Pharisees, “THE PRIESTS IGNORED THE" so-called "ORAL TORAH” of the Pharisees.

That is not some new outcry of modern times, but a voice that has been crying out to Jews for twenty or twenty-three centuries!

But this Website is not actually calling for that. This is not a forum calling for the rejection of the Talmud, the so-called "Oral" Torah. We point out these issues not for their own sake, but only to lend weight to our own suggestion, which is far more moderate. Our plea here is not for REJECTION of the Talmud, but simply for the appropriate SUBORDINATION of it. It does not belong on an equal level with THE WRITTEN WORD OF GOD, THE HEBREW BIBLE. One should not judge SCRIPTURE by the Talmud. The Word of GOD is not to be judged by the word of MAN. The Talmud is to be always judged by the SCRIPTURE.

That is the main point of this particular page. The Scriptures are superior to the Talmud, or any so-called "oral" tradition.

And to re-assert the primary message of the entire Website: no element of the KABBALAH should ever have been allowed to creep in and be considered LIKE those OTHER so-called "oral" traditions that became Talmud. Kabbalah should have no place in Jewish religious life or culture whatsoever.

Utterly purge out Kabbalah and Kabbalism, and as for the Talmud, keep it where it belongs, second in rank to the written Word of God, the Scriptures.

http://www.freemasonrywatch.org/robert_gillette_2.html

The biggest irony, IMO, from an Israelite point-of-view, is that kabbalistic philosophy, which has strong elements of Platonism and Neoplatonism, has more in common with the HELLENISTIC/GREEK passion for wisdom than orthodox Christianity with all its own Romish/pagan elements. Which is why I believe the current conflict between Christianity and Messianism is a giant red herring because BOTH movements have much to purge from their traditions