Guest Author - Linda J. Paul
In lesson one of the Kaballah, we touched upon the basic premise of the Light and the Vessel. But, before we get more involved in the workings of the Kaballah, it might be a good idea to take a brief look at Judaism itself. Judaism is among the oldest monotheistic belief systems. The main focus is that God is the one supreme creator of the universe. The Torah and the Talmud are the texts that are primarily used in order to maintain the obedience demanded by God. Moses was the prophet who brought the laws of God to the Jewish people. Of these 613 laws, 248 are positive commandments, and 365 are prohibitive commandments. The Torah is also known in Hebrew as the Pentateuch, or the first five books of the Old Testament. Orthodox Jews believe that these were the books that were given to Moses on Mount Sinai during the Exodus from Egypt.
The Kabbalah is the mystical side of Jewish philosophy. The word Kabbalah in Hebrew means “to receive.” Inherent in the Kabbalah is the wisdom of ages long past. In fact, the origins of the Kabbalah are so ancient that they cannot be traced back to any one race civilization. Even though Jewish scholars have adopted the Kabbalah as their own, the truth is that the wisdom of the Kabbalah is available to anyone. The Kabbalah has and still does aid it’s students in the understanding of the spiritual Source, in whatever form that Source may be comprehended.
The Kabbalah explains how the world came into existence as a series of emanations or thought like projections from the Divine Will. According to the Kabbalah, all races and religions descended from one original Source of all things. The story goes that God taught the Kabbalah to the Angels, the angels passed the wisdom on to Noah, who passed the wisdom on to Abraham, who revealed them to the Egyptians, and Moses (he really got around) learned the wisdom from the Egyptians and included it in the first four books of the Torah.
In Kabbalistic teaching, Divinity is both immanent (within oneself), and transcendent (outside of oneself). God is all things, both good and evil. Everything flowed outwards from the Infinite Prime Source of Divine Universal Consciousness. Thus, everything was not created, but rather manifested through Divine Consciousness. The letters and the numbers inherent in the Kabbalah are the keys to unlocking this super consciousness.
According to the Kabbalah, the entire cosmos is divided into four Worlds. The first World is Atziluth, the divine world of archetypes, from which arise all forms of manifestation. The second World is Beriah, the world of angels and creation where ideas form patterns. The third World is Yetzirah, the world of the planets and formation, in which the patterns of the second world are brought into expression. The fourth, and last World is Assiah, the material world of action which can be perceived by the five senses.
The central and most important Mystery of the Kabbalah is the Holy Union or “Sacred Marriage” between the masculine and feminine aspects of the Divine. This is called the unification of God. The divine feminine or Goddess aspect is called the Shekinah. She was the guardian of the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden. She is often portrayed as a Snake Goddess. After the fall of grace, she became separated from Yahweh, her husband. They were only reunited on Friday nights, the eve before the Sabbath, and then forced apart once again. They will not be permanently reunited until all the original light of creation (the pieces of the Vessel), has been returned once again to the Divine Source. Every act of love and compassion is a step closer to bringing the Divine Lovers back together once again.
Love and Light…
