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Essays on the weekly Torah portion, the holidays and Jewish thought.
Kabbalah Safe Kabbalah – Drush Drush derives from the word that means to investigate or probe. Very often when a text says something it means more than what meets the eye. It is not that we are drawing an analogy from the text to another area of knowledge, or that we are taking initials, numerical values of… Kabbalah Safe Kabbalah – Four Dimensions: So What? Conclusion We may now have developed a greater appreciation for Torah and Sod in particular. No longer is Torah viewed as a one-dimensional law book, but as a multi-dimensional Divine book of light that contains everything in it from practical directives as to how we should live our lives… Kabbalah Safe Kabbalah – Fundamental Principle of Judaism We can now appreciate why the belief in Moshiach is considered to be one of the fundamental beliefs of Judaism. To believe in a world that will not lead to the Messianic Era, is to believe that G-d’s plan will never come to fruition. That, of course, is a denial of G-d’ power. Kabbalah Safe Kabbalah – Getting the Body Out of the Soul There is however a “hitch.” While the soul can be removed from the body very easily – through the process of death – the body (read: material influences) does not remove itself from the soul so easily. To paraphrase a famous quotation, “You can take the soul out of the body, but… Kabbalah Safe Kabbalah – Heaven and Paradise: Where Is It? Heaven or Paradise, first of all, is not to be understood as a “place” in the spatial connotation of the word. It is not a place somewhere in outer space, or deep down beneath the surface of the earth that is filled with the greatest material pleasures and delights. Kabbalah Safe Kabbalah – G-d’s Justice Validated Some commentators, such as the Abarbanel, explain that both the belief in the Messianic Age and the belief in the Resurrection of the Dead are basic beliefs because without them there remains an unanswered question about G-d’s sense of justice and fairness. What follows is… Kabbalah Safe Kabbalah – Is There a Heaven and a Hell? the Way Jews Know Jewish Theology Most Jews, if questioned as to what are the theological differences between Judaism and Christianity, will invariably answer: Heaven and Hell. They believe in it and we don’t. Nothing can be farther from the truth. These concepts of Heaven and hell were taken directly from… Kabbalah Safe Kabbalah – It Sounds Greek to Me The Talmud relates that King Ptolemy of Egypt summoned seventy-two sages of Israel and asked them to translate the Torah into Greek. He then placed them in separate cubicles, so that they could not confer with one another about the translation. Kabbalah Safe Kabbalah – Journeys of the Soul Ii Why? The question that everyone asks at one point in life or another. Why did G-d put us here? In the context of the soul, the question assumes greater poignancy. Why would G-d force the soul to leave its “secure” station in the world of souls to enter into a world of impurity… Kabbalah Safe Kabbalah – Journeys of the Soul One of the salient features of Kabbalah is its unified view of everything. When one looks at the world from the outside, one sees a multiplicity of objects, phenomena and ideas. When one views the world from within, however, one sees a unified and cohesive picture of everything.… Kabbalah Safe Kabbalah – Kabbalah: An Integral Part of Torah But, alas, even when we study Torah we might not feel the Divine character that it possesses. Our minds may be so clouded that even when we study Torah we look at it as a mere history book or as an ancient law book or as a beautiful piece of literature. Kabbalah Safe Kabbalah – Knowing Your Mission At this point, one is entitled to ask a very simple but crucial question. If the soul that we possess was here before because it did something wrong that it has to correct or that it did not realize its full potential, how do we know what it is that we have to do? Kabbalah Safe Kabbalah – Mitzvot: An Artform Jewish Mysticism, introduces us to a deeper understanding of the centrality of the Messianic Age and its preeminence over the Afterlife. In addition it also explains the Resurrection of the Dead and its qualitative edge over the preceding Messianic Age. Kabbalah Safe Kabbalah – Moshiach: Purpose of Creation When G-d created the universe He created two realities. If we would want to use modern day terminology we can say that G-d created reality and a virtual reality. In kabbalistic terminology, “G-d filled all the space. G-d then withdrew and created a vacuum.” G-d is reality, the… Kabbalah Safe Kabbalah – Multiple Incarnations and Resurrection There is one outstanding issue with regard to reincarnation and Resurrection. As we will discuss in a subsequent chapter (Chapter 19), one of Judaism’s fundamental beliefs is that in the Messianic age the dead will be brought back to life. This belief known as Techiyat Hameitim… Kabbalah Safe Kabbalah – Nature of the Soul We have already discussed the nature of the soul briefly in the very beginning of the book. Let us probe further into the dynamics of the soul The soul is a part of G-d. The most commonly used Hebrew word for soul is “neshama” which is associated with the word neshinah which… Kabbalah Safe Kabbalah – Obstructions The first analogy is to a dam. When the waters accumulate due to obstructions that exist and block the flow of water, eventually the obstruction will give. When this occurs, not only does the water flow with infinitely more force than before, it also will take all the… Kabbalah Safe Kabbalah – P’shat These four levels can be translated and explained as follows: P’shat refers to the simple level of interpretation. The word P’shat is related to the word pashut, which means simple. The word pashut also allows for an interpretation that means, “spread out” or popularized. Kabbalah Safe Kabbalah – Realizing One’s Full Potential What reincarnation accomplishes is very simple. Whatever the soul messed up during its first stay in this physical world, it can make up when it returns in another body. Kabbalah Safe Kabbalah – Realizing the Soul’s Potential There is also a second reason for reincarnation. It is very likely that a person can live a long, productive and righteous life, but still missed the main reason for which s/he was sent into this world. One can do everything right and nothing wrong and yet – insofar as the…