Years ago when I was dating, I met a Jewish man who said he was studying the Kabbalah, as you know Madonna is into Kabbalah lately, yet it makes me wonder exactly how much she is in to it, how much she has studied and is she sincere or is this another one of her passing crazes?
What also got me wondering was that Steve, the man I dated said that only men studied the kabbalah and they had to be at least 35 to understand it. Before that, they were not thought to have enough wisdom and experience to fully comprehend the ancient wisdom.
Kabbalah is truly an ancient esoteric thought originating in Babylon over four thousand years ago. Much of it has been hidden throughout the ages and only now becoming easily assessable, hence the reason Madonna is able to study it. I dated Steve over 20 years ago. It was not open to the public back then. Kabbalah often referred to as Jewish mysticism had been called many things, such as magic, miracles, or curses and spells largely because it has been misunderstood.
Kabbalah is simply a philosophy of a way of understanding the nature of the creator, and highly influenced by Jewish medieval thought. Now I am no expert in Kabbalah but Matt and I have taken a few lectures at the synagogue where the Rabbi gave us a crash course. I find that it can really get to be confusing the more you study it.
The Kabbalah is a sequence of roots, (think of a tree) with the higher good to the top and the baser instincts of man to the bottom. The Kabbalah teaches us for every action there is a consequence and the rules for these consequences are fixed. Kabbalah looks at nature as a series of forces and all these forces or roots are ways to understand God the creator and our relationship with this mighty force. The Kabbalah teaches that the prophets, the wise men are the chosen to receive this wisdom and to understand God. Hence the reason my friend Steve said he could only study it at 35.
I notice that this ancient mysticism is not much different from Christian mysticism, in the sense that the great Christian philosophers of the medieval times such as Thomas Aquinas also held the believe that no man could understand the true God, and learned men such as himself would make a life quest of trying to do just that.
The tree of roots flows from above (descending from God) by Partzufim, and Sefirot and from the bottom upwards, (man’s attempt to become good and godly). In other words, the roots come down from God and go back up again from man.
Sefirot is the 10 emanations of God and how he created the universe- these are the roots or branches of the tree.
To perfect Kabbalah it takes years of study while living a good life in service to God. During the question period at the Kabbalah lectures, a few congregationalists, mentioned they were studying Kabbalah and found a profound change in their life since then. They were generally more at peace and more happy with their lives.
A person becomes more proficient in the ways of the Kabbalah through what is called, "attainments or degrees of prophecy and Holy Spirit." As the seeker ascends the levels of baser needs they eventually reach a point where the Godly blessing, spirituality, and knowledge is descended downwards to them, hence, the reason the congregationalists spoke of how their lives were so much better, and so much richer after studying the Kabbalah.
NOTE: The word "attainment" (Heb: Hasaga) implies the ultimate degree of understanding. It derives from the phrase "that thy hand shall reach" (Heb: Ki Tasig Yadcha). That means that before something becomes utterly lucid, as though gripped in one’s hand, Kabbalists do not consider it attained, but understood, comprehended and so on."
The Kabbalah teaches how the human does not know the essence of God, the human knows his action and judges accordingly, but that is not the essence, it is not even close. I find Christian teaching to parallel this concept and I have been taught that man cannot truly understand God.
I know that this segment of my article might appear contradictory to what I have previously written but it is not, it is an affirmation that man must study, must, reach each level of understanding and advance much like school. Study is a progress of thought. First you went to elementary school and at that level, there was no way that you could comprehend the subject matter in high school and beyond. However, as the years of study progressed you gained more and more wisdom and you passed each level until you reached your goal. The same holds true for Kabbalah, the more you study and pass each level of understanding the closer you will get to wisdom and the understanding of the nature of God the creator.
The Kabbalah teaches there are four worlds, Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya, The Atzilut is the highest world of the spiritual realm and assiya is the lowest world, or the world we humans live in, which is called the natural world. The worlds are interchanged as they descend but the purest world is atzilut and our world, the world of humans is the least pure of all. There are four worlds in each world. This is a bit confusing but all elements are in each world so what we find in the highest world will be copied in the lowest one. So there would be good in the highest world there will be good in the baser world as well. There will be knowledge in the higher worlds there will be knowledge in the lower world (the degree of knowledge is qualitative from what I understand). The lower world, our world is said to be a branch or root of the higher worlds. There is nothing in the lower world, our world, that is not found up above and yes that includes our baser instincts, what is considered bad..
I now go back to the statement made by my friend Steve who said only men of 35 and older could study the Kabbalah, before then humans lack the wisdom necessary to understand. His words are consistent with this quote from Maimonides, also known as the Rambam, "One does not study the Kabbalah on one’s own, unless he is wise and understands with his own mind." Basically Maimonides is saying one might hear the words and read the teaching, without understanding them.
The Kabbalist and his student will have a common language that the non- spiritual of the corporeal world, our world cannot understand.
It is not possible to understand the wisdom of the upper levels from the lower roots, one must be on the journey of spiritualism and be on the upper levels to study and see the connection of the roots at the base of this structure. The student still continues to move upward in understanding as new wisdom from both within his own being and from his teacher is attained. Is this enough? NO there is the element of the creator, which will instill wisdom to the truly deserving as well.
The books of the Kabbalah include: The Zohar, the Tikkunim, and the books of the Ari.
Types of meaning found in the Kabbalah:
Peshat (lit. "simple")-the direct meaning
· Remez (lit. "hint[s]")-the allegoric meaning (through allusion)
· Derash (from Heb. darash: "inquire" or "seek")
.midrashic (Rabbinic) or comparative meaning
· Sod (lit. "secret" or "mystery")-the inner meaning-a foundation of the kabbalah.
The names of the ten Sephirot are:
· Keter (will)
· Chochmah (wisdom)
· Binah (understanding)
· Chesed (sometimes referred to as Gedolah or Gedulah) (loving kindness)
· Din (sometimes referred to as Gevurah or Geburah) (judgement)
· Tiferet (harmony)
· Netzach (victory)
· Hod (glory)
· Yesod (foundation)
.Malchut (sovereignty)
These concepts are a system of ethics, found in all four worlds
The human soul has several components,
The Nefesh is the animal, body, the basic instinct of the human soul
The Ruach, is the spiritual soul that is responsible for morals and the knowledge of good and evil.
The Neshamah, is the higher soul that contains intellect only available to man and not the lower animal forms, it is also the soul that is aware of the existence of God and the after world.
Sources
http://www.kabbalah.info/eng/content/view/frame/31382?/eng/content/view/full/31382&main
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabbalah
