Kabbalah #1

Our sages tell us that Torah can be interpreted in four different general ways: peshat, remez, drush and sod.

1) Peshat is the simple interpretation of the Torah.

2) Remez is the different hints and allusions which are contained within the Torah. [One of the methodologies the Torah employs to make these hints is gematryia, the numerical value of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet.]

3) Drush (or Midrash) expounds upon the deeper meaning of the verse.

4) Sod (secret) is the esoteric, mystical part of Torah.

1]Theoretical Kabbalah (the main focus of the Zohar and Luria) seeks to understand and describe the divine realm.

[1)the knowledge of the existence of the Hishtalshelut 2) explaining biblical stories and verses in a esoteric way 3) Imbuing a deeper meaning in our lives 4) alternative history]

2]Meditative Kabbalah strives to achieve a mystical union with G-d.

3]Practical Kabbalah endeavours to alter both the Divine realms and the World.

Abraham ben Samuel Abulafia (Hebrew: אברהם בן שמואל אבולעפיה) was the founder of the school of "Prophetic Kabbalah". He was born in Zaragoza, Spain in 1240 and is assumed to have died sometime after 1291.

In his numerous works Abulafia focuses on complex devices for uniting G-d, through the recitation of divine names, together with breathing techniques and cathartic practices.

Abulafia strove for spiritual experience, which he viewed as a prophetic state similar to or even identical with that of the ancient Jewish prophets.

Abulafia’s method includes a number of steps.

• The first step, preparation: the initiate purifies himself through fasting, the wearing of tefillin, and donning pure white garments.
• The second step: the mystic writes out specific letter groups and their permutations.
• The third step, physiological maneuvers: the mystic chants the letters in conjunction with specific respiratory patterns, as well as head positioning......

According to the Kabbalah, the way palm reading works is that when a soul is garbed in a body, it becomes imprinted in the body, particularly in the face and hands, and its nature can thereby be revealed.

Zohar

68) “This is the book of the generations of Adam.” It speaks of forms, concerning forms of people, to recognize the form is in the secrets of Adam in those generations of Adam: in the hair, in the forehead, in the eyes, in the face, in the lips, in the lines of the palms, and in the ears. By those seven are people recognized.

zohar volume 2

171) It is written, “And you shall behold out of the whole people brave men who fear G-d, men of truth, who hate greed.” It does not say, “select.” rather it says “See” meaning according to one’s sight, in the form of the person, in those six Behinot [discernments] that we learn, and it is all in this verse.

“And you will see” is 1, in the hair.

“Out of the whole people” is 2, in the forehead.

“Brave men” is 3, in the face.

“Who fear G-d” is 4, in the eyes.

“Men of truth” is 5, in the lips.

“Who hate greed” is 6, in the hands, in their lines.

172) Those are the signs by which those that the spirit of Hochma [wisdom] is over them...

The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, of righteous memory, writes that in order for palmistry (or chiromancy) to be accurate and authentic, one needs to have knowledge of the mystical origins of people’s souls, as well as to be proficient in the art of palmistry.

However, nowadays, one can learn this craft only from a true master of the Kabbalah, and not on one’s own (by reading books, etc.). About those who attempt to learn this craft without an authentic tradition, the verse in Proverbs can be applied to them: “For many are the dead that she has felled, and numerous are all her victims.”

The Rebbe adds that he would be “very surprised” if there is anyone alive who could claim to be an expert in these matters (especially since someone who is truly proficient would reveal these secrets only to a student who is worthy and G‑d-fearing). Therefore, a person should stay away from palmistry and similar things.

The Rebbe would often write that instead of seeking remedies in hand-readers or the like, one should strengthen one’s faith in G‑d, who “heals all flesh and performs wonders.”

1] Rabbi Jacob Emden (d. 1776) elaborated on the story in a book published in 1748:

"As an aside, I'll mention here what I heard from my father's holy mouth regarding the Golem created by his ancestor, the Gaon R. Eliyahu Ba'al Shem of blessed memory. When the Gaon saw that the Golem was growing larger and larger, he feared that the Golem would destroy the universe. He then removed the Holy Name that was embedded on his forehead, thus causing him to disintegrate and return to dust. Nonetheless, while he was engaged in extracting the Holy Name from him, the Golem injured him, scarring him on the face."

2] The most famous golem narrative involves Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the late 16th century rabbi of Prague, also known as the Maharal, who reportedly "created a golem out of clay from the banks of the Vltava River and brought it to life through rituals and Hebrew incantations to defend the Prague ghetto from anti-Semitic attacks" and pogroms.

3]There is a tradition relating to the Vilna Gaon or "the saintly genius from Vilnius" (1720–1797). Rabbi Chaim Volozhin (Lithuania 1749–1821) reported in an introduction to Sifra de Tzeniuta that he once presented to his teacher, the Vilna Gaon, ten different versions of a certain passage in the Sefer Yetzira and asked the Gaon to determine the correct text. The Gaon immediately identified one version as the accurate rendition of the passage. The amazed student then commented to his teacher that, with such clarity, he should easily be able to create a live human. The Gaon affirmed Rabbi Chaim's assertion, and said that he once began to create a person when he was a child, under the age of 13, but during the process he received a sign from Heaven ordering him to desist because of his tender age.

Practical Kabbalah was prohibited by the Arizal until the Temple in Jerusalem is rebuilt and the required state of ritual purity is attainable.

Tanya

However, the knowledge of the existence of the Hishtalshelut is also a lofty and exalted mitzvah.

Indeed, it outweighs them all, all of the mitzvot and the study of the laws of the Torah. Thus it is written, “Know this day [...that the L‑rd is G‑d],”

and “Know the G‑d of your father...”; i.e., there is an obligation to attain a knowledge or apprehension of G- D, Moreover, this leads to a “whole heart,” for the latter verse concludes, “and serve Him with a whole heart”; i.e., a knowledge of G‑d leads one to serve Him with one’s entire being.

The Baal Shem Tov expounded this concept in his inter­pretation of the verse, “Hungry and thirsty, their soul longs within.” The Baal Shem Tov asks, “Why are they hungry and thirsty? — Because ‘their soul longs within.’ Their souls seek a bond with the G‑dly energy contained in the food and drink.”

Tanya

Thus R. Isaac Luria, of blessed memory, wrote that it is only in these latter generations that “it is permitted and obligatory to reveal this wisdom” — i.e., the Kabbalah, which illuminates the esoteric dimension of the Torah — but not in the earlier generations.

Why is learning the inner aspects of the Torah so important nowadays? The answer is twofold:

a) The rabbis write of the tremendous descent of later generations. We are like a person in a deep slumber or coma, unaware of and unattuned to the holiness of G‑d and His Torah. Additionally, the world at large has descended into a much deeper spiritual darkness. Under such conditions, the only antidote is to unleash the power of the inner light of Torah.

b) As expounded upon by the Zohar, the Arizal, the Baal Shem Tov, and the Vilna Gaon, among many others, learning the inner teachings of the Torah is a crucial preparation for the coming of the Moshiach and the final redemption.

On Rosh Hashanah of the year 5507 (1746), I made a [Kabbalistic] oath and elevated my soul. . . . I saw wondrous things in a vision, the likes of which I had never witnessed since the day my mind first began to awaken. . . . I went up from level to level until I entered the Palace of the Messiah. . . . I asked the Messiah, “When will you come, Master?” And he replied, “By this you shall know: it will be a time when your teachings become publicized and revealed to the world, and your wellsprings have overflowed to the outside . . .”

Tanya igeres hakodesh letter 26

This means that at the time of the exile of the Shechinah — which grants life-force to the chitzonim that belong in the realm of kelipat nogah...at this time the main spiritual task of man, and the main purpose of being engaged in Torah and the commandments, is to disencumber and elevate the sparks, as is known from the teachings of R. Isaac Luria, of blessed memory..For this reason, study chiefly involves deliberation and argumentation on the laws of issur and hetter, impurity and purity,in order to disencumber the permitted and the pure from the forbidden and the impure by means of deliberation and argumentation on the law — with wisdom, understanding and knowledge, with all the three intellective faculties of the soul that clarify the law.

Thus the Gemara teaches that the Holy One, blessed be He, says of whoever engages in the study of the Torah..., “I account it as if he had redeemed Me and My children from among the nations of the world.”

But when the Shechinah will emerge from kelipat nogah [or: from the kelipot]

after the extraction of the sparks will be completed, and the evil of the kelipot will be separated from the good of holiness, “and all the workers of evil will be dispersed,” and the Tree of [Knowledge of] Good and Evil (which is of kelipat nogah and which prevails during the time of exile) will no longer be dominant, because the good will have departed from it, then people will engage in the study of Torah and in the observance of the commandments not in order to extract the sparks, as in the present, but in order to bring about the consummation of yichudim (“unions” or “marriages” of Sefirot) more sublime than those which are effected through our present Torah study — in order to call forth more sublime lights, transcending Atzilut. Everything [will be accomplished] by means of the pnimiyut of the Torah, the esoteric dimension of the Torah, by the performance of the commandments with lofty mystical devotions directed to [drawing down] sublime “lights” [from the Divine Luminary].