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From: cms@dragon.com (Spawn of a Jewish Carpenter (Cindy Smith)) Newsgroups: alt.messianic Subject: Re: Christian Kabbalah Message-ID: <1992Dec19.173417.994@dragon.com> Date: 19 Dec 92 17:34:16 EST Organization: Computer Projects Unlimited Lines: 1233

I wrote the following essay for a Jewish Mysticism class at Emory University in Atlanta. My professor, Dr. David Blumenthal, encouraged me to research and write about the Christian application of the Kabbalah. Unfortunatly, I didn't have a chance to write about the Spanich mystics Saint Theresa of Avila and Saint John of the Cross, both of whom were very interested in the Zohar. I hope you enjoy the essay.

Cindy Smith Jewish Mysticism

Brightness falls from the air; Queens have died, young and fair; Lord have mercy upon us.

--- Thomas Nashe

The Christian Cabala

Introduction

The errors made by the early Christian Cabalists almost drove me to despair. I'm not sure how to write this essay. Should I expositate on Pico's understanding of the Cabala, for example, or should I point out his numerous errors? Should I then give, based on my own knowledge of Cabala, a better interpretation? I will begin this essay with Giovanni Pico della Mirandola.

Pico regarded himself as the first Christian ever to expositate on the Kabbalah. This is not true, but this is what he believed. Pico studied Hebrew for the sole purpose of studying Kabbalah. However, he relied of necessity on translations which often contained erroneous material, and the actual Kabbalistic texts, including portions of the Zohar, which did come into his possession were few and limited in scope. Nevertheless, he wrote the Heptaplus, which I look at in this essay, nine hundred theses called the Conclusiones, of which we'll examine a few, and his "Oration on the Dignity of Man."

In Pico's "Exposition of the First Expression, Namely, 'In the Beginning,'" he says:

I should like to explain the first expression of the work, which by the Hebrews is read 'Bereshit' and by us 'In the beginning,' to see if I also, using the rules of the ancients, could draw out into the light thence something worthy to know. And beyond my hope, beyond my conjecture, I found what not even I, finding it, could believe, nor what others could easily believe -- the whole arrangement of the creation of the world and of all things revealed and explained in that one expression.

I do say a marvelous, unheard of, and unbelievable thing. But if you will pay attention, you will believe it at once, and the very thing will prove me right. That expression by the Hebrews is written in this manner: , that is, Berescith. From this if we unite the third letter to the first, it becomes , that is, AB. If to the first one doubled, we add the second one, it becomes , that is, BEBAR. If we read all of them except the first, it becomes , that is, RESIT. If we unite the fourth and the first and the last, it becomes , that is, SCIABAT. If we put the first three in the order in which they are, it becomes , that is BAR. If with the first omitted, we put down the three following ones, it becomes , that is, ROSC. If leaving out the first and the second ones, we put the two following ones, we have , that is, ES. If we leave off the first three ones, we put together the fourth and the last one, we have , that is, SETH. Again if we unite the second to the first one, we have , that is, RAB; if we put after the third, the fourth and the the fifth ones, we have , that is, HISC; if we unite the first two with the last two, we have , that is, REBITH. If we unite the last to the first, we obtain the twelfth and the last word, , that is, THOB, turning the THAU into the letter THETH, which is a very common proceeding in Hebrew.

Let us see what these words mean in Latin, then what may be revealed about the mystery of the whole nature to those not in ignorance of philosphy. AB means the father; BEBAR means in the son and through the son (in fact, the prefix BETH means both); RESIT indicates the beginning; SABATH the rest and the end; BAR, created; ROSC, head; ES fire; SETH, foundation; RAB, of the great; HISC, of the man; BERIT, with an agreement; THOB, with goodness.

If, following this order, we rebuild the expression, it will be like this: "The Father, in the Son and through the Son, the beginning and end, or rest, created the head, the fire, and the foundation of the great man with a good agreement." This entire discourse results from the taking apart and the putting together of that first expression. It cannot be clear to all how deep and full of all meaning this teaching is. But, if not all, at least some of the ideas are signified to us by these words that are clear to all. By all Christians it is known what is meant by the saying "the Father created in the Son and through the Son," and likewise what is meant by "The Son is the beginning and the end of all things." In fact, He is the Alpha and Omega (as John writes), and He called Himself the Beginning, and we have shown that He is the End of all things in which they may be brought back to their beginning.

The rest is a little more osbscure: namely, what do the head, the fire, and the foundation of the great man mean, and what is the "agreement," and why is it called "good"? In fact, not everyone can see present here every law of the four worlds of which I spoke, the whole plan, their relationship, and, likewise, their happiness, about which I explained at the end. First then, we must remember that the world was called by Moses, "great man." In fact, if man is a small world, necessarily the world is a great man. Hence with the opportunity seized, he pictures, very appropriately, the three worlds, the intellectual, the heavenly, and the corruptible ones, through the three parts of man, not only showing with this figure that in man are contained all the worlds, but also explaining briefly which part of man corresponds to each world.

Let us consider then the three parts of man: the higher is the head; then that which from the neck stretches to the navel; the third, that which extends from the navel to the feet. And these parts in the figure of man are also well defined and separated with a certain variety. But it is astonishing how beautifully and how perfectly they correspond by a very precise plan, by anlogy, to the three parts of the world.

The brain, source of knowledge, is in the head; the heart, source of movement, life, and heat, is in the chest; the genital organs, the beginning of reproduction, are located in the lowest part. By the same token, in the world the highest part, which is the angelic or intellectual world, is the source of knowledge because such is nature is made for the understanding; the middle part, that is the sky, is the beginning of life, of movement, heat, and is controlled by the sun as the heart in the chest. It is known to all that below the moon is the beginning of creation and corruption. See how appropriately all these parts of the world and of man correspond reciprocally. Indeed, he designated the first one with its appropriate name, the head; he called the second one fire, because by this name the heavens are valued by man, and because in us this part is the principle of heat. He called the third one foundation because by it (as is known by all) is founded and sustained the whole body of man. He added finally that God created them with a good agreement because between them, through the law of divine wisdom, an agreement of peace and friendship was decreed on the kinship and on the mutual agreement of their natures. This agreement is good because it is thus arranged and set in order toward God, Who is goodness itself, so that, just as the whole world is one in the totality of its parts, so also like this, at the end, it is one with its Maker.

Let us also imitate the holy agreement of the world, so that we may be one together in mutual love, and that simultaneously through the true love of God, we may all happily ascend as one with Him.

END QUOTE

Pico appears to be referring to the Adam Kadmon, dividing the parts of the body into three, that is, the upper three sefirot, the middle three, and the lower three, with the bottom, Malkhut, comprising all of the above. He begins with the head, Keter, describing it as the source of Hokhmah. This is followed by the heart (Tiferet) and the genital organs (Yesod). The other sefirot are attached to these three. He then says that Keter is the source of Hokhma because such nature is made for Bina. Tiferet is the beginning of life, and Yesod founded and sustained the whole body of man (the sefirotic system). Finally, from Binah an agreement of peace and friendship was decreed on the kinship and on the mutual agreement of their natures. This agreement is good because it is thus arranged in order toward En-Sof, Who is goodness itself, so that just as the entire sefirotic system is one in the totality of its parts, so also like this, at then end, it is one with En-Sof.

Pico is trying to combine the Zoharic divine emanation theory with Adam Kadmon. He begins with a bizarre rendition of the word Bereshith as proof of the Trinity. Since Keter is the Father, Hokhma the Son, and Bina the Holy Spirit, we may reread his statement thus: Keter, in Hokhma and through Hokhma, the En-Sof and En-Sof, or Shabbat (Malkhut), created (probably means emanated here) Keter, Tiferet, and Yesod, the bases or trunks of the whole sefirotic tree, in mutual cooperation. Did the sefirot exist inside En-Sof before their emanation from En-Sof, or did the sefirot come into existence only after their emanation from En-Sof?

Pico quotes John the Divine, noting that the Son is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. This means that Christ is the manifestation of En-Sof in visible form. In the days of the Messiah, according to the Zohar, all the sefirot will roll back up into En-Sof. Since we live in the days of the Messiah, we can conclude that this event has indeed taken place, and that En-Sof has given birth once again to the sefirot, making the whole creation new.

What Pico himself specifically means by his text, we'd have to ask Pico to explain. However, based upon my own knowledge of the Zohar, this appears to be what he's trying to say. At any rate, this is my interpretation of his interpretation.

In order to determine precisely who Pico believes Jesus to be, we must turn to his seventh Kabbalistic thesis "secundum opinionem propriate." Pico says:

Conclusio xiv: Per litteram id est scin quae mediat in nomine Iesu significatur nobis cabalistice quod tum perfecte quieut tanquam in sua perfectione mundus cum Iod coniunctus est cum Vau, quod factum est in Christ qui fuit uerus dei filius et homo.

Conclusio xv: Per nomen Iod he uau he, quod est nomen ineffabile, quod dicunt Cabalistae futurum esse nomen Messiae, euidenter cognoscitur futurum eum Deum Dei filium per spiritum sanctum hominem factum, et post eum ad perfectionem humani generis super homines parclytum descensurum.

The name of the Messiah is Yahweh (YHVH), while the name of Jesus is Yesu (YSW). The importance of the letter shin becomes even more important with Pico's disciple, Johannes Reuchlin, who created from the Tetragrammaton (YHVH) the Pentagrammaton (YHSVH). Reuchlin was familiar with the Jewish belief that the letter shin was missing from a proper understanding of the Torah; the coming of shin, Reuchlin argued, made the unpronounceable name Yahweh pronounceable and salvation came to eretz Yisrael. Reuchlin wrote, "When the Tetragrammaton shall become audible, that is effable...it will be called by the consonant which is called shin, so that it might become YHSVH, which will be above you, your head and your master." He also noticed that the letter shin is shaped like a lamp, giving off divine light and fire. As John the Baptist says, "He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with Fire." This also coincides with the common New Testament image that Jesus is the Light of the World who gives his light, like one candle to another, to his disciples, who then become a light to their fellow Jews as well as the Gentiles. The Sefer Yetzirah says that shin represents fire. En-Sof is fire and the source of light. Jesus is the source of light. The shin, therefore, symbolizes the Incarnation.

A scribe asked Jesus what was the greatest of all the Commandments. Jesus replied, "Shema Yisrael, Adonai Elohenu, Adonai Echad" (Mark 12:29). The first word, shema, is spelled shin, mem, ayin. The shin and mem, according to the Sefer Yetzirah, are among the three "mother letters." Shin is fire, mem is water. The Shema, from ancient times, therefore presages baptism by fire and water. Shin is chaos, mem is harmony; this is being baptized by En-Sof and Malkhut -- En-Sof the source of emanation, Malkhut the mouth of the rivers of light. In baptism, therefore, we are touched and drenched by fire and water -- the living Presence of God. The ayin, according to the Zohar, has a numerical value of seventy. Thus did Jesus send out seventy apostles to preach the Kingdom of God (Luke 10:1). In the fire are the colors white, yellow, red, black, and sky-blue. These are colors of sefirot; sky-blue is the color of Malkhut. Is it any wonder that the color most often associated with the Virgin Mary is blue? When the womb of Malkhut touched the womb of Mary, Mary became blue. She burned with the fires of the sefirot. Hokhma and Bina engaged in sexual intercourse and gave birth to Tiferet inside Malkhut-Mary, who then gave birth to the Messiah En-Sof.

Conclusion lxvii:

Per dictum Cabalistarum, quod coeli sunt ex igne et aqua, simul et ueritatem theologicam de ipsis Sephirot nobis manifestat, et philosophicam ueritatem, quot elementa in coelo sint tantum secundum actiuam uirtutem.

Shamayim (Heaven) consists of fire and water. Fire (Gevurah) and water (Chesed) are united in Heaven (Tiferet). A father brought his son to Jesus (Matthew 9:17). The father explained that a mute spirit frequently threw his son into gevurah and chesed, back and forth, to kill him (9:22). Jesus commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the boy. In doing so, gevurah and chesed flowed naturally into tiferet. The forces of sitra achra were attempting to upset the balance of the sefirotic system. Jesus, the Balance, Tiferet Himself, set things aright. Jesus then explained to his talmidim that mute spirits of this kind can only be driven out through prayer with proper kavvanah.

The Liber de Radicibus seu Terminis Cabalae, fol. 261r says:

shamayim sine he idest celi indicat Tiphereth cum he vero quandoque indicat Intelligentiam, quandoque ipsam Tiphereth et significat hassamaim ly celi.

Tiferet is YHWH. Pico says in secundum secretam doctrinam sapientam Hebraeorum Cabalistarum:

Quamuis nomen ineffabile sit proprietas clementiae, negandum tamen non est quin contineat proprietatem iudicii.

Judgment and Mercy, therefore, dwell within Jesus who is Heaven. In Mark 12:26, Jesus quotes the bush passage in the Torah, "I am the God of Chesed, the God of Gevurah, and the God of Tiferet." God is not God of sitra achra, but God of the sefirot. In Matthew 10:8, "Tiferet's Malkhut is here." This means that Heaven has arrived on earth and the Kingdom is with him (i.e., Tiferet has arrived on Earth and Shekhinah is with him). In Matthew 12:25, Jesus notes that the sefirot cannot be divided or Malkhut will not continue to be. But, Jesus notes, if he drives out the forces of sitra achra by Bina (the World to Come, the River that waters Eden), then "Malkhut has come to dwell among you." Intimating that Malkhut has no light of her own, but is only illumined by the other sefirot, Jesus said in reply to the Pharisees in Luke 17:20-21: "The coming of Malkhut cannot be observed, and no one will announce, 'Look, here she is,' or 'There she is.' For behold, Malkhut is in your midst." Malkhut and all the sefirot are mirrors of light that cannot be seen without the divine light of all the sefirot.

In his twenty-first Conclusion, Pico asserts:

Qui coniunxerit dictum Cabalistarum, dicentium quod illa numeratio quae dicitur iustus et redemptor dicitur etiam Ze, cum dicto Thalmutistarum, dicentium quod Isaac ibat sicut ze portans Crucem suam, uidebit quod illud quod fuit in Isaac praefiguratum fuit adimpletum in Christo, qui fuit verus Deus uenditus argento.

Christian Cabalists interpreted the ze as referring to the ninth sefirah (Iustus or Fundamentum). They simultaneously interpreted the ze mystically as prefiguring Christ. In Gicatilla's Portae Iustitiae, he attempts to guide people to God through the sefirot. Jacob, he argued, knew which gate to enter, and with this essential knowledge revealed that man must enter the Gate Ze in order to begin his ascent to God. Symbolically, this means that for man to ascend to God, he must enter through Christ to Christ. According to Flavius Mithridates, Pico's translator, in his Sermo de Passione Domini, Ze was both the ninth sefirah and Jesus of Nazareth.

Pico got into the most trouble when he said that "nulla est scientia quae nos magis certificet de divinitate Christi quam magia et cabala." The reason this statement was condemned is clearly because magic and cabala are placed above the Gospels and the Tradition of the Church in importance and claims to be a source of divine inspiration in its own right. Divine inspiration belongs to the Tradition of the Church alone, and not to any tradition outside the Church. It's basically the same reason Anne Hutchinson was condemned by a Protestant council in the early Americas. It is claiming an authority that is seen as an attempt to wrest authority from the established authority, the Church. Pico, I think, meant by his statement, like Hutchinson centuries after him, that his personal experience with the divine light guided him toward knowledge of God that confirmed his previous experiences with Christ.

It is important to note at this point that Pico made a discovery in the course of his studies that I have only recently made in the course of my studies as well -- that is, that there are two types of Kabbalah whose sources were available to him and these were the science of names and the science of sefirot. In the first quoted passage above, Pico is dealing with name science, whereas later he deals with sefirotic science. Most of the primary texts Pico had in his possession dealt with sefirotic science, although name science, used magically and theurgically, was far older than the Zohar. Abraham Abulafia was keenly interested in the distinction between the two sciences. It is not clear, however, that Pico was at first aware of the distinction. In Pico's second thesis, he combines merkavah and the art of combining letters. In his thirty-seventh thesis, he says:

Qui intellexerit in dextrali coordinatione subordinationem pietatis ad sapientiam, perfecte intelliget per uiam Cabalae quomodo Abraam in die suo per rectam lineam uidit diem Christi et gauisus est.

For Pico, pietas is Chesed and is below Hokhma. His tree in Latin:

Corona Intelligentia Sapientia [Potentia] Iudicium Pietas [Magnitudo] Gloria Decor Eternitas Fundamentum Regnum

Pico associated, rightly, the fourth sefirah with Abraham (Chesed) and is Abraham's Day. The Day of the Mashiach (yomo shel mashiah) comes from an interpretation of John 8:56, "Abraham your father rejoiced to see my Day; he saw it and was glad." For Pico, the organization of the sefirotic system is triadic. Hence, Piety is below Wisdom as one goes down the right side of the tree. Thus, Abraham looked up the tree in a direct line and saw the Day of Christ, which is Hokhma. Hokhma emanated from Keter; Chesed came from Hokhma and Bina. This is the meaning of the succeeding text in which Jesus says to the Jews, "Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM (YHVH)" (John 8:58). The tetragrammaton is associated with Tiferet, yet Chesed (Abraham) looks up and sees that Hokhma came before. In this way, Pico confirms that Hokhma is Tiferet. This is a little like Carroll's conclusion that "the boojum was a beejum, you see."

In "De Arte Cabalistica," Johanne Reuchlin associates Adam Kadmon with Tiferet: "[the Kabbalists] thought that the Beauty of the physical world should be placed in the middle of the tree by which the ten sephiroth are numbered, being that great Adam who is like the tree of life in the midst of an ideal paradise, or as they say, like the straight line, the median" (Reuchlin, 47). Reuchlin says man is given the qualities of Netzah and Hod to remind him that he is both part of the emanations and of this worldly kingdom. In translation, this means that, though the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, the Kingdom (Malkhut) of Tiferet was still in the Upper World. "But through the fear of God, and the hallowing of him, by the fear [pahad/gevura/din] and loving-kindness [Chesed] spread out over him, man can apprehend God in His simplicity through these three methods: Crown [Keter], Wisdom [Hokhma], and Understanding [Bina]. That is to say, we can know God in His simplicity through knowing the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Christ is the Form World Adam become flesh. All other human beings before Christ were imperfect reflections of Adam Kadmon. Christ, on the other hand, is an exact and perfect reflection, indeed, Christ is Adam Kadmon, come down from the Upper World.

It is important to note that Simon the Jew is speaking in this conversational treatise by Reuchlin. It is obvious that Simon the Jew is the mouthpiece for Reuchlin himself, spouting forth Christian interpretations of Kabbalah, while Simon scratches his head and confesses that none of it makes sense to him yet -- but it makes perfect sense to the knowledgeable Christian reader!

Simon the Jew says that sense, judgement, and intellect correspond to the three fathers of Kabbalah in Merkavah: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Chesed, Gevurah, Tiferet). "The two intervals between the three regions, sense and judgment, are doubled accordingly as they are higher or lower, and each can be reduced to two end points. There remain to be found the ten rungs of the ladder on which we climb to know all truth, be it of the senses or of knowledge, or of faith; from bottom to top we climb" (Reuchlin, 51). Clearly, he is saying we must climb the sefirot to reach En-Sof. He also appears to referring to Christ as Jacob's Ladder, as in John 1:51, where Jesus says, "Amen, amen, I say to you, you will see the sky opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man." Reuchlin then goes on to explain the nature of the ten sephirot, their relationships, and how the mind of man is the Crown and is alone divine. He then has Simon make a veiled reference to Christ: "Just as God wears a Crown in the kingdom of the world, so is the mind of man chief among the ten sephiroth..." Jesus, who is God, wears the Crown of Thorns (Keter) in this world, and the mind of Christ is chief among the sephirot.

Reuchlin then goes on to describe the Fall of Man and the promised salvation to come by describing a "future" man who would be righteous enough to eat of the Tree of Life and restore man's relationship with God. Obviously, Reuchlin's mouthpiece Simon is making veiled references to Jesus, whom he describes as "that heavenly Adam coeternal with God" (73).

So the angel Raziel was sent to Adam as he lay grief-stricken, to console him, and the angel said:

Don't lie shuddering, burdened with grief, thinking of your responsibility for bringing the race of man to perdition. The primal sin will be purged in this way: from your seed will be born a just man, a man of peace, a hero whose name will in pity contain these four letters -- YHWH -- and through his upright trustfulness and peaceable sacrifice will put out his hand, and take from the Tree of Life, and the fruit of that Tree will be salvation to all who hope for it.

The name Yeshua, which does mean "Yah[weh] is our Salvation" or "Saving Justice," is interpreted as having a power that will enable him to eat from Shekhinah, the Tree of Life, in whom is contained all the sefirot, and the fruit (sefirot) of that Tree will be salvation for all people. Reuchlin here seems to assume that Jews have an understanding of original sin that is actually not a Jewish belief. At any rate, when Christians consume the Body and Blood of Jesus, they are consuming the Fruit (sefirot) of the Tree of Life (Malkhut). Adam is then thankful for the sefirah Tiferet (Mercy). This notion of salvation, Simon says on the same page, "encapsulates all the principles of Kabbalah, all the traditions concerning the divine, knowledge of heaven, visions of the prophets, and meditations of the blessed."

The next several sections of Reuchlin's first book is comprised of a series of Old Testament references to almost-saviors. Eve thinks she will give birth to the Savior, but bears Cain instead, and then Abel. Abel is depicted as an almost-savior who greatly desires to be killed by Wood (Cain's club). But this gift wasn't enough to redeem mankind. Even so, says Simon, one day a willing victim will come who will redeem mankind. This is an obvious reference to the Crucifixion of Christ on the hard Wood of the Cross. Reuchlin describes Abel as completely righteous, but fails to explain adequately why the sacrifice of Abel wasn't enough to redeem mankind.

At any rate, page 77 contains a paragraph crucial to Reuchlin's understanding of who the Messiah will be and why:

It was thought, indeed strongly hoped, that [Enos's] name would accord with the kabbalah of the angel, the four-letter name, YHWH, or be at the least, "in mercy" or, more Kabbalistically, that he would have the letter S [i.e., Shin] between the four letters. In the sacred account is written, though the translation here is not too well phrased: "They began to invoke the name of the Lord." The translation is accurate, but some more thoughtful Kabbalists have made a more correct interpretation than is rendered by the literal translation. According to Gematria, "He wanted to be called by the letter S." In the art of Kabbalah this is equivalent to "in mercy." Now according to Notaricon, the letter M stands for "in the middle of" (understood, the four letters YHWH). Thus the phrase is altered to read: "He wanted to be called by the letter S in the middle of the four letter YHWH." Enos would take from the Tree of Life in accordance with the angel's message, and redeem the world, as a Godlike man bearing the name YH-in mercy-WH. Note this well. It is a sacred mystery.

As noted earlier, S and M are two of the "mother letters" representing Fire and Water, chaos and harmony, En-Sof and Malkhut. In this case, Tiferet is the Center of the Tree around which cluster all the Fruit (sefirot). Thus, Tiferet is fire and Malkhut is water, and when Tiferet is in the Middle in union with Malkhut, Tiferet (Jesus) baptizes with fire and water, and gives the Fruit (sefirot) to human beings to consume for their own salvation, His Body being the Fruit (all the sefirot) and his Blood being Malkhut (the Life). Thus did Jesus say, "I am the Way (Tiferet), the Truth (from Hokhma and Bina), and the Life (Malkhut). There is no way to God except through Me (all the sefirot)." Again, Jesus is Jacob's Ladder upon which angels and human beings must ascend to reach En-Sof and descend back to this world. When Shin, or Tiferet, is Balanced in the midst of the Tree, settled in the midst of the Tetragrammaton, then will Yeshua bring salvation to Eretz Yisrael.

Reuchlin goes on to describe how Noah put his faith in wood when he built a wooden ark to save the human race. "A Kabbalistic touch: he put his trust in wood (as Job says, 'There is hope in wood'), and by doing so he was made certain that through wood life was promised to man" (77). Clearly, Simon means that life comes through the wood of the Cross. Also, just as an Ark of Wood saved Noah and his family, so a new Ark of the Covenant (the Virgin Mary) would bring salvation by giving birth to a man who would save the human race by the wood of his Cross.

Reuchlin moves on to Shem and then to Abraham and Isaac. Abraham offered up Isaac on an altar stacked with saving wood. "According to the prophecy, after all, the original fault could only have wood for its remedy" (79). Disappointingly, however, Isaac was not to be the Saviour who would redeem mankind by wood. Clearly, another kind of wood was intimated. Jacob also was not the Saviour, but Jacob was the first to see heaven opened along with the famous Ladder. He also saw the name YHWH and hencefort "set up the stone he had anointed as a shrine, known as Bethel, and by his labor added in an S, which by the Notaricon method signifies shemen, or 'anointing oil'" (81). An angel then prophesied that, although Jacob was not the saviour, the saviour would come from the tribe of Judah. This is clearly a reference to the New Testament passage which holds that Jesus is "the Lion of the Tribe of Judah." The S, the light of the world, we've already discussed. Jacob, representing Tiferet, thus presaged the kind of Saviour the human race was to expect. Moses knew that he himself could not be the Messiah because Moses was of the tribe of Levi, not Judah. Reuchlin then quotes David who said, "Send your light and your truth...." He then quotes Rashi: "Your light is the Kingdom of the Messiah, as in the writing 'I have prepared a lamp for my Messiah.'" This means, in my interpretation, that a lamp containing all the colors of the sefirot has been prepared to enlighten the earthly Body of En-Sof. Just as a person is comprised of ten sefirot, so God on earth was comprised of Ten Sefirot of En-Sof. Thus, God's light is the Shekhina (who has no light herself but who reflects all the lights of all the sefirot) of the Messiah who is the visible manifestation of En-Sof.

Reuchlin cites another book called "On Faith and Atonement," which Simon quotes (109):

There is a way showing the strength of grace that has been bestowed, which is a created strength. The way follows a route of seven exchanges, which are thirteen orders of forgiveness by which the world is to be guided until there be an end to sin and the Messiah come who is the strength of God. And in the strength of grace (which is the strength of angels), and is the strength on which grace has been bestowed (which is the strength of the prophet), there will rest upon him the spirit of the Name of God, the spirit of wisdom, the spirit of understanding, the spirit of counsel and of strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

In translation, this says that Yesod of Chesed is the Foundation on which Chesed has been bestowed. In other words, Chesed will be bestowed on man for the forgiveness of his sins through Yesod. This means that from the Strength (Yesod) of God in the Crucifixion of Christ will Grace flow. This is the strength of the Prophet, who is Jesus. Furthermore, upon him, the Messiah, will rest YHVH (Tiferet), Hokhma, Bina, Chesed, Gevurah (pahad).

Simon then cites the Kabbalistic book "Hacadma": "And this is the secret of the king Messiah who will come swiftly, in our days. All his work will begin with the VH and the YH, which is the mystery of the seventh day and this name is his whole name, and everything is accomplished by his hand." Translated, this means that the secret of the Messiah Tiferet will come swiftly, in our days (sefirot). Again, shin will come down between the letters of the Tetragrammaton, which is the mystery of Malkhut (Shabbat). This is the meaning of the Scripture, "The Son of Man is Lord of Shabbat" (Matthew 12:8). The Son of Man is the visible manifestation of En-Sof, the exact image of Adam Kadmon. So that we must understand and perceive him, the visible manifestation of En-Sof appears as Tiferet of Malkhut. As Malkhut contains all the sefirot, so Son of Man Tiferet is King over all the sefirot.

In this way, Reuchlin mixes name-science Kabbalah with sefirotic-system Kabbalah. He points that that "in mercy" comes in the middle of YHVH "together with 'merit' and 'service' and with rigor and harshness." He then cites King David's prophecy that the Messiah "will judge your people in justice, and your poor in judgment." The Gate of Light, chapter 3, says: "Judgment is part rigor and part clemency." And Hosea says: "I shall betroth thee unto me, in justice and judgment, in loving kindess and in mercies." Thus, the Messiah, who is Tiferet, will be betrothed to Malkhut in Chesed and Gevurah. Micah confirms this, saying that the Tetragrammaton will come forth through its property of Mercy.

On page 117, Simon the Jew describes the three worlds, material, formal, and formless -- that is, the lowest world (sense world), the highest (mind and understanding), and the third world, the very highest, which is indescribable and divine. "By such means, we believe," Simon says, "it is not beyond possibility that Kabbalists can in spirit be snatched up to where the Messiah flows into all lesser things, near to the third world." Here, Reuchlin appears to be making a veiled reference to the Apostle Paul, whom he must regard as a Kabbalists, who says in 2 Corinthians 12:2-4: "I know someone in Christ who, fourteen years ago (whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows), was caught up to the third heaven. And I know that this person (whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows) was caught up into Paradise and heard ineffable things, which no one may utter." Zoharically, this may be interpreted to mean that Paul was caught up in union with Tiferet and Malkhut whilst they were engaged in sexual intercourse. On the other hand, it may mean that Paul flowed through Keter and was allowed a glimpse of En-Sof himself. The Christian experience seems mixed on this point. Christ is the visible manifestation of En-Sof, yet no thought can grasp En-Sof, who is "unknowable and unutterable" (121), yet who has been made knowable and utterable through Christ. Simon describes En-Sof as "hidden away in the furthest recesses of his divinity, into the unreachable abyss of the fountain of light, so thus nothing is understood to come from him -- as if at ease the absolute Deity held all kinds of things in his compass, himself remaining naked and unclothed, without the cloak of attributes." As we shall see later in this essay, this is exactly how En-Sof appeared -- naked, unclothed, and without his attributes -- to an unforgiving world.

Paradoxically, Reuchlin has Philolaus say in Book II, page 151, "However, no created thing can be drawn into the third world, for there is nothing inherently capable of such sublimity except God. This third world is the very highest of all; it contains the other worlds, and belongs to the Deity alone. It is one with the divine essence, and is thus, it seems to me, rightly named 'the seat of all power.'" Zoharically, one might interpret this to mean that the soul is not created, but begotten, of God (that is, Tiferet and Malkhut), and hence the soul, being a spark of the divine, is capable of ascending to the third world as no created thing can. Mary is often called "the Seat of all Power" or the "Seat of Wisdom" because Christ rests on her lap. When Tiferet dwelt within her, she became the Mother of Mercy, and an earthly third heaven.

On page 155, the Pythagorean Philolaus describes how two is the first number, and one the source of all numbers. One is God. One inherently contains two. Both are God since within God there is only God. Inexplicably, he then states that "these three things are the source and beginning, and do not depart from the one essence of God, they are obviously the one God, for his essence cannot be split up." I'm not sure I follow his logic, but he seems to be saying that One and Two make Three. Thus, One by itself, which inherently contains Two, is also simultaneously Three. An obvious reference to the Trinity. But let's go on. "Two things are counted as derived from the one -- compare how in physical matters a unity becomes duality (do excuse this comparison), or even a tri-ality, while the substance remains the same. It is like a tree trunk and its branches, or, just as good, a man's arm and his fingers. So, from the one, which produces two, three appear. If the essence, strictly separate from these, is added to them, there will be a conceptual 'quaternity' which is an infinitiude, and one, and two, and the substance, completion, and end of all Number. One, two, three, and four, added together, make ten, and nothing more than ten." In this way, Reuchlin suggests through his new mouthpiece, Philolaus, that inherent in the One is the Trinity and from the trinity flow the ten sefirot, the sefirot being within the One (Trinity), emanating from the One, and the One and the Ten being consubstantial (a good Catholic word). On page 193, he notes that Zaratus, the teacher of Pythagoras, used to call One "Father" and Two "Mother." This can mean either Hokhma and Bina, the supernal father and supernal mother, or Keter and Bina, according to the Christian Kabbalah. "One and two, together with the divine essence, make that quaternitude, the Tetractys, the Idea of all things, which is to be brought to its highest perfection in the decad. This, said Pythagoras, was the source of everlastingness, nothing other than cognition of things in the divine mind operating in accordance with reason." The Trinity and the Ten are One. It is the source of Netsah, nothing more than Hokhma in union with Bina. From the Tetractys flows ten, whose mean is five. Six and four on the left (adding up to ten), then seven and three (adding up to ten). Then eight and two, and nine and one. This is a description of the sefirotic tree whose source is the One whose essence is the Trinity.

En-Sof, the source of light, is the Form Fire (197). This image of Christ as the source of light is replete in the New Testament. 1 John 1:5, "God is light and in him there is no darkness at all." This means God is comprised of the rivers of light called the sefirot and in the Garden of God the sefirot are the light where there is no darkness. John 1:1ff: "In the beginning," a word which, as we saw at the beginning of this essay, refers to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is made more explicit here; "In the beginning was Hokhma, and Hokhma was with Keter, and Hokhma was Keter. Hokhma was in the beginning (which may refer to En-Sof here) with Keter. All things came to be through Hokhma, and without Hokhma nothing came to be. What came to be through Hokhma (who is Keter, remember) was life, and this life was the light (sefirot) of the human race; the light (sefirot) shine in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." This is the meaning of the Scripture passage, "The Father and I are One" (John 10:30). And again, "If I do not perform my Father's works, do not believe me; but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may realize [and understand] that the Father is in me and I am in the Father." Thus, Keter is in Hokhma and Hokhma is in Keter, and they are One. All the sefirot are mirrors of light; they reflect one another. Each sefirah comprises nine others. Each sefirah shares in the Mystery of the Ten, the internal reflections maintaining their unity of content and identity of nature within the variations.

On page 185, Philolaus makes an obscure reference to the unsuitability of saltwater fish for sacrifice. "Whoever heard of a fish sacrifice?" he asks. While I'm not entirely sure what he means by this comment, it is clear that Reuchlin himself is making a reference to the Eucharist. In the early Christian church, the fish was an essential part of the eucharistic meal (whereas today only the bread and wine are essential). The reason for this is that (and this is very pre-Zoharic) ICHTHUS are the initials of the Greek letters for Jesus Christ Son of God Saviour. The word ICHTHUS itself, in Greek, means fish and was an early secret symbol of the Christian faith. The source of the symbol was probably the Resurrected Jesus's eating of fish on the beach with the Apostles. Jesus spent half his ministry preaching from fishing boats.

One page 205, Philolaus explains that One is the origin of the mental world, and Two the origin of the corporeal world. The corporeal world consists of point, line, area, and volume -- these four things. After this is a six-sided cube with eight corners -- the architect of the sensible world. Seven, Reuchlin has Philolaus explain obscurely, is a virgin and does not give birth. I have puzzled long and hard over this one. He does not seem to be referring to the Virgin Mary, who certainly did give birth. Seven is the number of the sefirah Netsah. Here, he could be making an obscure reference to the Crucifixion, since Netsah can also mean Victory. Hence, the Virgin Christ was Victorious on the Cross, bring Eternal Life (another meaning of Netsah). But why does Seven not give birth? Netsah is one of the twin sources of semen. But, if Seven is a virgin, then no semen comes from Netsah alone. On the other hand, in Reuchlin's possibly mixed-up system, Seven could refer to Yesod, whose virginity as Christ would make just as much sense. Since Yesod is the male sexual organ itself, it cannot give birth, but only give seed. I confess I'm at a loss over this one. At any rate, he quotes Pythagoras's belief in "infinity, one, and two," God being the source of infinity, form the source of one-ness, and matter the source of other-ness. Then, God unites form and matter, so that other-ness continually seeks itself, its essence, in one-ness, and finding it in infinity, that is, in God.

Page 251 speaks of En-Sof as the naked deity. As we will see at the end of this essay, the naked deity was exposed to the world in Christ. God clothed himself in light until the very end when the rivers of light fled from En-Sof. Page 255: "And at the highest gate is the one creator of all, unknown to man, save the Messiah, for he is the light of God and the light of the nations; he knows God and through him is God known." Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life" (John 8:12). And, upon restoring sight to the man born blind, "We have to do the works of the one who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world." He said this to indicate that the mirrors of light would flee from his body on the last day. But though his lights went out, still the lights burned among those who believed in him, as he said, "While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of the light" (John 12:36). Jesus passed the lights of his body to his disciples and all who believed in him, who in turn passed the flames to others, who passed them to others, etc. The lights dimmed and went out when the Source died -- "darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon because of an eclipse of the sun" (Luke 23:44). Thus did the Light pass from the world. But on the third day, the light returned, as it is written, "behold, two men in dazzling garments appeared to them."

On page 271 I was delighted to see Marranus support your comment to me, once, Dr. Blumenthal: "Our teachers assert this too: that angels appear to men in different ways." And women, too, presumably. He quotes Chrysostom, however, who says concerning Joseph: "The angel appears in a dream. Why not openly, as to the shepherds and Zachariah and the Virgin? Because that man was a strong believer and had no need of a vision." I think I would strongly dispute the assumption that visions are for the weak and dreams for the strong. In the first place, I find it difficult to believe that the Virgin's faith was less strong than Joseph's, who did the right thing only because of his dream (whereas previously he contemplated sin). Mary, on the other hand, obeyed God before, during, and after the Vision of the Anunciation. On the other hand, Jesus did say, "An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah" (Matthew 16:4). Those of us who receive visions must accept them as the will of God and pray for understanding with kavvanah. Simon the Jew goes on, "Some men have been quite happy and content just to have seen angels in human form. Others have seen them in the form of fire, or wind and air, at streams and waters, in birds, gems, minerals and precious stones, in prophetic frenzy, through a spirit living inside them, in the shape of letters, or the sound of a voice, and so on. Holy Scripture contains many kinds of vision." Simon adds that the name of God (El) is inside every angel; the angels command obedience because "My Name is in them."

He continues with some really incredible name-science. On page 285, he gives the names of the sefirot. On page 287, he derives the ten names of God from the ten sefirot, and through them to the One Name of the Tetragrammaton. En-Sof is the Alpha and the Omega, which is what Christ calls himself in the Revelation to John. The Crown he identifies as the Father of all Mercies, "whose mystery is that he seals up Essence through Truth." He goes on: "If we multiply Ehieh (meaning 'essence') by Ehieh we will get 441, which is the same as Emeth, the word for 'true' or 'truth,' and the same as Adonai Shalom, which means 'Lord of Peace.' There is more too that comes down to this same source, such as the great Aleph, the Fear of the Lord, the inaccessible light and the days of eternity. As it is written in the book on the ten Sephirot by that great Kabbalist Tedacus Levi, 'His goings forth have been from of old, from the days of eternity.'" Truth is Tiferet, who is the Lord of Peace, or the husband of Malkhut. Simon goes on to confirm that the earlier mentioned doctrine of the Trinity is supported in Kabbalistic belief: "I think I'm right in replying that infinity itself exists in the three summits of the Kabbalists' tree of ten Sephirot (which you usually call the three divine Persons). Infinity is the most absolute Essence, drawn back in the depths of shades, and, lying or, as they say, reliant upon nothing, is hence called "Nothing" or "Not being," and "Not end" (En-Sof) because we are so damned by our feeble understanding of divine matters that we judge things that are not apparent in the same way as we judge things that do not exist." This is the meaning of the text, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God" (Luke 1:35). This means that Bina will come upon the Virgin Mary, cover her with her Shadow, and give birth to Tiferet into the womb of Shekhinah who waits, touching the womb of the Virgin Mary. For Bina is the green line that encircles the universe (Tiferet is green). She is Teshuvah and will bring her people to repentance. She is Form, Hokhma is matter, Tohu va-vohu. They unite to bring forth the Incarnation of En-Sof. Simon says that to Bina is attributed: "Lord, spirit, soul, prayer, the mystery of faith, mother of sons, the King sitting on the throne of mercy, the great Jubilee, the great Sabbath, spiritual foundation, miraculous light, the lightest day, the fifty gates, the Day of Atonement, the inner voice, the river issuing forth from paradise, the second letter of the Tetragrammaton, repentance, the deep waters, my sister, the daughter of my father, and other things."

Tiferet, her Son, is:

"Eloha, enlightening speculation, the wood of life, pleasure, the Line of the Mean, the written Law, the High Priest, the rising of the sun and the color purple. Tedacus Levi writes that it is from this place that the seventy nations are spread out over the earth and that its sign is the Truth of the Lord, and that it is called Peace and has its shape pictured in the moon. Its mystery is the third letter of the Tetragrammaton and this mystery is 'Our father who is in heaven,' the man above or the heavenly Adam, judgment, opinion, Michael, the old man Israel, the God of Jacob."

So, Tiferet is the wood of life who will bring salvation to humankind. He is pleasure because he brings eternal happiness to those who believe in his name. He is the Balance that keeps all the sefirot level. The sign of the seventy nations is Tiferet consort of Malkhut. In Mercy is found true peace. Tiferet comes and he is En-Sof, for all the sefirot are mirrors of light reflecting one another. He is the God of Jacob.

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To the tenth Sephira come the Lord, the kingdom, life, the second cherub, unilluminating speculation, later things, the end, the church of Israel, the bride in the Song of Songs, the Queen of Heaven, the virgin Israel, the mystery of Law as transmitted by word of mouth, the eagle, the fourth letter of the Tetragrammaton, the kingdom of the house of David, the Temple of the king, the doors of God, the Ark of the Covenant and the two tablets in it, the Lord of all the earth.

It's clear here that Shekhinah has united with the Virgin Mary in a mystical union to produce the King of Glory in her/their womb together. Mary, of course, is a strong early symbol of the Church. Mary is the Queen of Heaven and she brought forth into the world the kingdom of the house of David. She is the Temple of Tiferet, her birthgate the doors of God. She is the Ark of the Covenant, for Tiferet/En-Sof is the Covenant between himself and humanity. The two tablets represent Christ who manifests himself in two forms: "I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people" (Jeremiah 31:33). And the second form: "You are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by all, shown to be a letter of Christ administered by us, written not in ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets that are hearts of flesh." Thus, we have two tablets: the law written on our hearts and our very being which is a spark of the divine written on our hearts of flesh. There is a giant sign on the doorway leading into our hearts: This Way To God.

On page 295, Simon quotes Psalm 21: "Oh Lord, in your strength the king will rejoice, is understood by Kabbalists as referring to the Messiah: "O Lord, Tetragrammaton, in your strength the king Messiah...' (understand 'comes' or 'operates'). The Messiah is the strength of God and works in the strength of the Tetragrammaton. I understand this from the word YShMH, meaning 'will rejoice,' whose letter transposed make MShYH, meaning 'Messiah.'" Reuchlin seems to be suggesting here that the Messiah is Yesod. Or, perhaps, Tiferet operates by Yesod (his strength).

1 Kings 19:11:

A strong and heavy wind was rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the YHVH -- but YHVH was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake -- but YHVH was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake there was fire -- but YHVH was not in the fire. After the fire there was a tiny whispering sound.

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but after the fire was a still, small voice, and in that voice the glory of YHVH, which is called Kavod, spoke to him. So will you, after the rough, thorny desert, after the mountain and the rocks and the wind and the earthquake, after the fire and after the voice in the very entrance of the caverns and the caves, so you will hear, once you have shed the mass of your secular occupations, the glory of God saying to you: "What is this place to you? Go on your way." As the narrative goes in 3 Kings 19.

Here, Reuchlin associates Tiferet with Shekhinah. The Hod of Tiferet, which is called Shekhina, spoke to him. After all of nature screams at you, Malkhut of Tiferet says to you that heaven is not a place, but a relationship with God.

On page 343, Reuchlin says that Keter, Hokhma, and Bina are the single crown of Tiferet. God, clothed with ten garments of light (page 345), created the heavens from the light of his last garment, "not the physical ones but the invisible, intellectual spiritual entities, about which the Psalmist says: 'The heavens tell of the glory of God.'" The word is not Shamayim but HaShamayim, not the physical heavens but the spiritual heavens.

On page 353, Marranus finally gets around to making some obvious, unveiled remarks about Christian belief. They speak of the power of the Cross. "With the sign of the Cross," he says, "and the name of Jesus they still the seas, abate the winds and repel thunderbolts." He then explains how YHSVH is equivalent to IESU, the true Messiah. Simon then reveals how "the better Kabbalist sages tried to liken this figure of the Cross to the tree of the bronze serpent set up in the desert, though they did so silently and secretly." The Torah reference is Number 21:8, whereas the New Torah reference is John 3:14, "And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life."

Johanne Reuchlin's book, DE ARTE CABALISTICA, was fascinating and I greatly enjoyed employing my knowledge of the Zohar to its precepts and applications. I have not yet begun to learn Kabbalah.

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Tanna Anne said, What is the meaning of the passage, "in Adam all die" (1 Cor. 15:22)? Adam sinned when he ate of the Tree of Knowledge (Hokhma), for "the wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23). Yet how do we explain Heb. 4:15, which tells us that the Holy One, blessed be He, was tested in every way that we are, yet without sin? Come and see. "So, too, it is written: 'The first man, Adam, became a living being,' the last Adam a life-giving spirit" (1 Cor. 15:45). The first Adam, because of his sin, lost his supernal image, and the ages waited for the life-giving Adam to become manifest. And the Holy One, blessed be He, came in the form of En-Sof (Phil. 2:6). Yet Tiferet did not regard equality with En-Sof a thing to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself (of the sefirot), taking the form of a slave, coming in human appearance (Adam Kadmon); and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to Malkhut, Who sent Him to the Cross. Because of this, En-Sof exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Yeshua (YHSVH) every knee should bend, in the upper world, the lower world, and in sitra achra, and every tongue confess that ha-Mashiach Yeshua is Tiferet, for the sake of Malkhut in Keter.

This is how it happened. Come and see.

Tiferet is the Center of the Tree; all the sefirot are in him. See, it is written, Yeshua said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life" (John 8:12) and also, "But for you who fear my name, there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays" (Malachi 3:20). All colors shine forth from the Sun (En-Sof); all colors shine forth from Yeshua. Yeshua said, "I am Tiferet, Hokhma, and Malkhut. No one comes to Keter except through me" (John 14:6). Once a Companion has come to Keter, he perceives En-Sof, the imperceptible. Philip wished to see the inexpressible; "Show us Keter," he said (John 14:8ff). Yeshua said to him, "Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen Keter....I am in Keter and Keter is in me....Keter is working through me...." For this reason, Yeshua gave us a new commandment, that we should pass chesed from one to another. When a Companion touches a Companion, chesed passes between them, and En-Sof is made manifest.

Yeshua said, "Amen, amen, I say to you, one of my Companions will betray me" (John 13:21ff). Yeshua then communed with Judas, summoning the powers of sitra achra. So it is written, "After Judas took the morsel, Satan entered into him" (John 13:27ff). Then Tiferet commanded Samael, as the husks began to surround Tiferet to protect him from those who would prevent his glorification, "Go, do what you must do, and quickly." Samael and Lilith then began to take delight in one another, but Samael lusted after Malkhut. As Samael and Lilith writhed, Judas burned with lust for the blood of Mercy, and the Assembly of Israel rewarded him by crowning him with thirty husks from sitra achra (Matthew 26:15). This is the meaning of Ye shall know a tree by its fruit and the bad tree producing bad fruit will be thrown into the fires of sitra achra. And, if the eye is dark, the whole body is filled with darkness, and how great is that darkness! It would have been better that Yehuda had never been born.

A prostitute anointed netzah and hod with her tears. Mary of Magdala anointed keter with nard. Thus they prepared him.

Tiferet said, "I am manna. This is my soma. This is the Whole Being of En-Sof. Eat." He gave the Companions the Cup: "This is my blood of Yesod (the Covenant), which will be shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in remembrance of me. Amen, I say to you, I shall not drink again from Shekhinah until the Day when I drink her new in the Upper World within En-Sof." How will this happen? Come and see.

"Keter," Tiferet prayed, "take this Cup away from me. Yet not my will, but yours, be done." And an angel came and comforted him. The Sanhedrin questioned him, "Are you ha-Mashiach, the Son of Hokhmah?" YHSVH answered, "You will see the Son of Hokhmah between Chesed and Gevurah, and coming with all the sefirot" (Mark 14:62). Then they took away the light of his eyes (v65), spit on him, ordered him to prophesy, and struck him. Thus began the Passion of En-Sof.

Pilate (Samael) asked Yeshua, "Are you Tiferet [consort] of Malkhut?" (Mark 15:2). Tiferet, separated from Malkhut, said sadly, "You say so." Pilate said, "I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me. What have you done?" Tiferet responded, "My Consort does not belong to the lower world. If Malkhut belonged to this world, my soldiers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Judeans. But as it is, my holy wife is not with me," he concluded sadly, knowing that he would unite with her soon. So Pilate said to him, "Then you are Tiferet?" Tiferet answered, "You say I am Tiferet. For this I was born and for this I came into the lower world, to testify to Hokhma and Bina, my supernal father and supernal mother. Everyone who belongs to hokhma-bina listens to my voice." Puzzled, Pilate/Samael, who could only see up the sefirotic tree as far as Malkhut, responded, "Who is Hokhma/Bina?"

A discussion arose among the sefirot. Who will be first to return to En-Sof? Malkhut declared she could not leave until the Uncreation was complete, for in her rested all the sefirot. Yesod said, "I am the Sign of the Holy Covenant. I cannot leave." Netsah said, "I am the eternity of God. How can I leave?" Hod said, "I am the Splendour of God. How can I leave?" Tiferet bowed his head. "I am the Center; all touch me. I cannot leave until all have gone." Chesed and Gevurah together declared, "We must flow together upward and downward (that is, up towards the Upper World, and down upon the Lower World). We cannot leave before accomplishing this." Bina said, "I make sense of the Beginning." Hokhma said, "I am the application of the Understanding." Together, they said, "We cannot leave before the Inexpressible." Then Keter arose in their midst. "I am the Crown of Adam. I am the inexpressibility of the Endless. Last to speak, I am first. I will return from whence I came." Of them all, Keter was the strongest.

That is how it happened.

En-Sof was scourged. They bound his two hands to a pillar on either side and stripped him of his garments (Makkoth 3:12). They made him bend low (Makkoth 3:13), as it is written, "the judge shall cause him to lie down." Thus was the nakedness of the Lord of Glory exposed to His creatures. They gave him one-third of the stripes in front and two-thirds behind (Makkoth 3:13). And the Roman soldiers, according to the will of En-Sof, whipped En-Sof with all their might (Makkoth 3:13). Hokhma and Bina suffered [they whipped his shoulders]. Chesed and Gevurah suffered [they whipped his lower back and arms]. Tiferet suffered [they whipped his chest]. Yesod suffered twofold [for shame of exposure as they whipped his buttocks]. Netsah and Hod suffered [they whipped his legs].

The soldiers wove a crown of thorns and adorned Him with Keter. Then Keter suffered [they beat him about the head]. As blood flowed from Hokhma and Bina, as blood flowed from Chesed and Gevurah, as blood flowed from Tiferet, [as blood flowed from Yesod eight days after the birth of En-Sof], as blood flowed from Netsah and Hod, so blood flowed from Keter down his face. Then they wrapped the Supernal Mother and the Supernal Father in purple. "Hail, Tiferet," they jeered, "Consort of Malkhut!" Then was the Lord presented to the Assembly of Israel, who cried, "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" For Samael had raped Shekhinah and Judgment flowed, who also suffered. Pilate shouted at the Assembly of Israel, "Behold En-Sof!" Shekhinah replied, "Crucify Him!" Shocked, Pilate asked, "Shall I crucify your Consort?" Shekhinah replied, "We have no King but Caesar (that is, Samael)." Thus did the Assembly of Israel deny the Kingship of God. At the denial of the Endless, the Inexpressible bled tears, and returned to En-Sof.

Still in shock at the loss of Keter, Yeshua groaned as the wooden beam was laid upon Hokhma and Bina. As the Holy One, Blessed be He, was driven with whips on the Via Dolorosa, he saw his holy Mother. Stunned beyond comprehension, Wisdom and Knowledge fled the already depleted Garden, and the Holy One, blessed be He, was driven to his knees. Weakened by the loss of Hokhma and Bina, and unable to rise, the soldiers of sitra achra moved the heavy wooden beam onto the shoulders of one Simon of Cyrene. When he saw the strange woman, he stumbled a second time. She touched him with clean linen, wiping Keter's blood from his face. At the sight of his disciples beating their breasts and wailing over him, he stumbled a third time, saying to them, "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me. Weep rather for yourselves and for your children, for indeed, the days are coming when people will say, 'Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed.' At that time people will say to the mountains, 'Fall upon us!' and to the hills, 'Cover us!' for if things such as these happen when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?"

When they reached the place called Calvary (the Skull), they laid him on the ground, and drove huge nails into Gevurah and Chesed. Gevurah and Chesed, thus united, fled into En-Sof. Then they lifted him up upon the Cross. When the soldiers of sitra achra crossed his feet, they drove the nail simultaneously into Netsah and Hod. When the Splendour of God was thus driven into Eternity, they fled, united, into En-Sof. Tiferet said, "Keter, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Yesod, the Foundation, suffered extreme exposure, greatly humiliated, yet he refused to leave Tiferet. The Assembly of Israel gazed upon Yesod, yet Yesod felt no desire for her, possessed as she was by sitra achra, only shame that all the powers of sitra achra should thus stare at him exposed. "Mercy!" Yesod cried. And, touched by Mercy, Yesod fled to En-Sof. Thus was Tiferet left alone on the Cross. They nailed an inscription above him: "This is Tiferet Consort of Malkhut."

Malkhut, seeing the inscription, sneered at him, "He saved others, let him save himself if he is the Chosen One, the Messiah of En-Sof." They offered him wine, but he would drink no wine until he had drunk of Malkhut. A penitent thief said, "Tiferet, remember when you are reunited with your Consort, Shekhinah." Tiferet replied, "Amen, I say to you, today you will with me among ALL the sefirot."

Looking down from the Cross, Tiferet realized he could not yet be released until he had released all. When he saw his holy Mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, "Behold your son." Then he said to the disciple, "Behold your Mother." His disciple obeyed him and he had nothing left. Then was Tiferet truly alone.

As Malkhut continued to jeer at him, Tiferet, in despair, whispered, "I thirst." They offered him wine, but he thirsted not for wine, but for Malkhut; yet Malkhut repulsed him. He refused the wine. He would have nothing but Malkhut. And there was only one way to obtain her. Tiferet was afraid. His despair intensified. He yearned for unity. At noon darkness came over the whole land and the Tree of Death reigned supreme. When Tiferet saw the darkness, he was terrified, trembling. I can't do it alone, he thought, though he knew he must. In the deep darkness of his despair, he called for help. "Eloi, Eloi!" he cried beseechingly to Those Who Had Fled, "lema sabachthani?" which is translated, "My God, my God! Why hast thou forsaken me?" Again, they tried to make him drink wine, but only Malkhut, Malkhut, who leered at him with the branches of the Tree of Death. A shadow fell over him. Crying aloud, Tiferet said, "Keter, into thy hands, I commend my spirit. It is finished." When he said this, Tiferet moved towards En-Sof, the Veil of the Sanctuary was torn in two, that is, the Sitra Achra separating Malkhut from Tiferet was torn apart, Malkhut was freed, the earth quaked, rocks were split, tombs were opened (the Tree of Death became again the Tree of Life), and the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised. In joy, Tiferet and Malkhut united, and blessings flowed to the Upper and Lower worlds. Stunned at this unexpected turn of events, one of the soldiers of sitra achra stabbed Tiferet, but blood and water (red and white, Chesed and Gevurah, flowing from Tiferet and Malkhut), flowed from the side of En-Sof, cleansing the world of its uncleanness, freeing humanity from its slavery to sin, and sending the husks into retreat. After sitra achra fled from the soldiers, they said, "Truly, this was the Son of God!"

The ten sefirot, united at last, gazed around them for En-Sof into whom they had fled, but saw Nothing. Joseph of Arimathea wrapped the Body in clean linens and laid the Body in a freshly hewn tomb. Then En-Sof rested in the world of the dead on Shabbat, according to the Commandment. The sefirot rested in the Upper World on Shabbat, according to the Commandment. The women rested on Shabbat, according to the Commandment. A legend from the nations told magi from the east of the king to be born in Israel. Just so, a legend from the nations explains the reaction of the sefirot to the Body: "The Gods gathered like flies around the Sacrifice" (Gilgamesh). This happened in the deep darkness just before the morning. As protons, electrons, and neutrons surround the nucleus, the sefirot surrounded the ended Endless. For the sefirot had fled to Upper regions of En-Sof; now they returned to the nucleus, the kernel of their being. Keter was first. Come and see. It is like a family that has lived in a house for many years, but move away for a time. All the furniture is removed from the house. Later, the same family moves back into the house. All the furniture is returned to the same place. Each family member returns to their favorite spot. Here is the question: Is it the same House? Keter was first. This is the meaning of the passage, "When Simon Peter arrived...he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place" (John 20:6-7). Thus Keter was first. For Keter was always the strongest. He smelled the sweetness of the Sacrifice and, like a fly attracted to honey, he ate the Sacrifice, and became One with En-Sof. When Inexpressibility returned to En-Sof, Wisdom and Intelligence followed. As Gedula/Gevura flowed upon the lower world and upper world, so Gedula/Gevura flowed into En-Sof. Timelessness reentered Endless in Splendour. Yesod, the glue holding all the sefirot together, reestablished the Foundation of Adam, pulling gently upon Tiferet and Malkhut. Yet Tiferet hesitated, and Malkhut with him. The sweet smell of the Sacrifice was overpowering, and Tiferet yearned to return, yet the memory of his experience with the Tree of Death gave him pause. "Come," said Shekhinah. "Let us together reestablish the Kingdom of God." "Yes," responded Tiferet. "Together, let us give humankind everlasting Life!" And together Tiferet Consort of Malkhut and Malkhut Consort of Tiferet brought everlasting Life to humankind through the forgiveness of sins by the Mercy of God.

That is how it happened.

When the women went to the tomb to Anoint the Sacrifice, the stone sealing the tomb was rolled back, and a white-robed angel said to them, "Do not be amazed! You seek En-Sof, the Crucified. He is not here; he is risen! Behold, the place where they laid him. But go and tell his disciples and Peter, "He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you.'" Then they went out and fled from the tomb, seized with trembling and bewilderment. They said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. -- Cindy Smith -- Spawn of a Jewish Carpenter cms@dragon.com || A Real Live Catholic in Georgia emory!dragon!cms || ><> /\ Woe to craven hearts and drooping hands, Delay not your .--/--\--. to the sinner who treads a double path! conversion |----\/-||-\/----| Woe to the faint of heart who trust not, to the Lord, |----/\-||-/\----| who therefore will have no shelter! put it not off `--\--/--' Woe to you who have lost hope! from day to day \/ what will you do at the visitation of the Lord? || -- Ecclesiasticus || -- Ecclesiasticus/Ben Sira 2:12-14 /Ben Sira 5:8 --