by Lev Leigh

Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, emissary ofthe late Lubavitcher Rebbe, has areputation of presenting Judaism as a

vibrant, spiritual experience and not merely asa set of laws and prohibitions. Carlebach tellsthe story of his visit to an Israeli army unitduring the Lebanese War:

“I met the I.D.F. chaplain and asked him‘How is everything?’ And he responded, ‘Fine.The meat is kosher . . .’

“So I said, ‘If I wanted good salami, Iwouldn’t come to Lebanon for it. How are thesoldiers doing?’ ‘Oh, they aren’t religious, theyaren’t interested.’

“So I said to him, ‘I’ll bet you ten dollarsthat if you offer to teach these soldierssomething deep, like the teaching of the greatkabbalist Rav Kook, that they’ll respond.’

“So I went out to the unit and walked upto the most coarse-looking soldier, and youcould see on his face that he ate on YomKippur not three times but five times justto show you, and I walked up to him andI said, ‘Would you like to study RavKook, something for your soul?’

“His eyes lit up. He didn’t even knowthat Jewish people talk about the soul.He thought all we talk about is koshermeat and a yarmulke and other religiousrituals. Unbelievable.” 1

The Chassidic movement from whichCarlebach hails has, for the past twocenturies, concerned itself with a Judaism ofthe soul. In contrast to the rigid externalforms of Orthodox Judaism, the Lubavitchsector of the Chassidic movement haspopularized a Judaism of experience, aJudaism that is experiential and strives to berelevant and real. This movement, with itsemphasis on soul-life, sits like a dwarf on theshoulders of another giant within Judaism—the Kabbalah.

fashion) the upper world. The physical world is a visiblemanifestation of that which is transpiring on the invisiblesefirotic plane. Kabbalah claims that sin has caused God towithdraw from the world and this explains why his presenceis not readily available to earth-dwellers.

THE ROLE OF HUMANITYKabbalah teaches that since people in the lower world

are created in God’s image, every human being has an innerreflection of the sefirotic structure,4 a soul or neshamahwhich is a direct link to the Divine above. (In laterKabbalastic teaching, Jewish souls are considered to stemfrom the world of Beriah, whereas Gentile souls stem fromYetzirah, see footnote 2.)

It is on the basis of this supernatural l ink thatKabbalah teaches that human beings can effect the upperworld. Every human action is said to have a powerfulinfluence on the cosmic order of things. The great taskgiven to human beings is to repair the damage caused bysin. This task is known today in Chassidic circles as TikkunOlam , the repair of the world, and the means toaccomplish this are in doing mitzvoth, the commandmentsgiven by God to the Jewish people.

Lurianic Kabbalah formulated and refined the notionthat the redemption of the world and the return of theMessiah would be achieved through the efforts of the Jewish

Carlebach, Kook and others have applied Kabbalistic

teachings to the modern Jewish situation so successfully that

today it is seen by many as a new wave of Jewish spirituality.

Celebrities such as Jeff Goldblum and Elizabeth Taylor and

non-Jewish counterparts like Madonna have embraced it.

(Rabbi Eitan Yardeni of the Kabbalah Learning Centre’s Los

Angeles branch received thanks from Madonna on the sleeve

of her latest album for his “spiritual guidance.”)What attracts people to Kabbalah? Why the renewed

interest in spirituality of the mystical variety? Let’s look atwhat Kabbalah has to offer.

KEY CONCEPTS OF THE KABBALAHThe Kabbalah seeks direct experience of and intimate

union with God. It teaches that knowledge of the mysteriesof the Divine realm are crucial to this union. Taking as itsdeparture point the Hekhalot literature (see page 6),kabbalistic thought was directed at achieving ascendantknowledge of the secrets of God and of his upper realm.

EIN SOF AND THE TEN SEFIROTSefer Yetzirah or “the Book of Creation,” describes ten

emanations believed to proceed from God. “The sefirot arenot merely external attributes of God, but are supposed todescribe his inner nature on one level, and reflect hisoutward manifestations on another.” The Bahir alsospeculates on the nature of God, developing the theory thatthere are various powers and dimensions within the being ofGod. Even the divine realm is explored and mapped out anda “secret tree” is posited as the structure of God’s creativepowers. God himself is conceived of as being ein sof or “theroot of all roots,” a concept that gives expression to histranscendent and unlimited nature. As ein sof, God is alsounknowable. He can only be known by his attributes asdefined by the ten sefirot. However, the sefirot are not to beseparated from the Infinite. “It is they and they are It,” saysthe Zohar (3:70a).2 Together, ein sof and the sefirot comprisewhat Kabbalists term “the upper world.”

Beneath the “upper world” is our world, the “lowerworld.” (Later Kabbalists in Safed would insist that there arethree worlds higher than ours, each with its own similarsefirotic structure.3) The lower world is a kind of paralleluniverse to the upper world, but whereas the upper world ischaracterized by perfection and harmony, the lower world isflawed and broken. Our world reflects (in classic neoplatonic

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people, with the Kabbalah as the key to those efforts. Tosupport the mystical scheme, the literal meaning of Scripturewas side-lined and place-names and people-names becomesymbolic references to the sefirot and their mystical functions.Systems of numerology were developed to probe the deepercodes within the Scriptures and to invest every letter withmystical significance. Whole communities in Safed, and laterthe communities of Chassidim in Russia and Europe wouldstrive to achieve mystical perfection in order to unleashredemption and the return of the Messiah from the heavens.

Practices known as devekut or “cleaving” to God throughmystical meditation and kavannah, or prayer with intenseconcentrated effort were used in an attempt to reach forcommunion with the distant Divine. These Kabbalisticmoves, as emphasized by the Chassidim, have becomeprominent in the practice of the modern Jewish religion oftoday. Modern Orthodox scholars like Rav AvrahamYitzchak Kook and Aryeh Kaplan have popularizedKabbalistic theology and philosophy as did the lateLubavitcher Rebbe. But the question that arises is—“IsKabbalah true?” Is it biblical? No.

Indeed, the whole biblical basis of the mitzvoth, i.e.holiness and the love of one’s fellowman, is redirected andredefined under Kabbalah. Whereas the Bible reminds usof our need to grapple with sin and to turn back to Godin vital repentance, the Kabbalah teaches that the wellbeing of God himself can be determined by humanbehavior. Kabbalah ’s mystical constructions endowhumanity with powers we do not have. It becomes acosmic machine fueled by a religion of human works thatcan manipulate the Deity. “The effect of Kabbalistictheology is to thoroughly revise the notion of God’sautonomy. The function of religious observance has beenredefined.” 5 Instead of performing mitzvoth for their ownsake, deeds are invested with a cosmic significance thatelevates humanity to the starring role on the stage ofworld-redemption. This goes against the biblical message,which clearly teaches that God himself initiates andprocures redemption.

KABBALAH VS. TORAH:REDEMPTION HOW?

“We want Moshiach now!” is the current cry of theLubavitch Chassidim. They seem to believe they have a rightto expect him now because, according to their perceptions,more Torah is being taught and more mitzvoth are beingdone now than at any other time.

Perhaps the question “We want Messiah, but how?”needs to be asked. Offers of kabbalistically seasoned “soul-food” go out to attract disillusioned Jewish people who can

find no real connection to God through traditional Judaism.But has God really hidden himself from humanity asKabbalah claims? Is the Kabbalah the right way to find him?What do the original Messianic messages of Scriptureindicate about the Messiah, who he will be, how and whenhe will come? What does the Torah say about the nature ofGod and how communion with him is possible? What doesthe Jewish Bible declare about the sinfulness of humanityand how to resolve its effects? Perhaps we would do well tolisten carefully to the words of the Torah itself:

“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but thethings revealed belong to us and to our children for ever,that we may follow all the words of this law.” (Deut. 29:29)

It is with such simplicity and plainness of speech thatMoses addressed the Jewish people before they entered theland of Canaan. In fact, the entire Pentateuch reveals apersonal God who communicates with Moses and others infree but reverent conversation. The Torah shows us a HolyGod, separate and high, but not unreachable. The Torahshows us a God who loves to be known and recognized andloved. It shows us that God does indeed distance himselffrom sin and yet he makes a way for sinners to be reconciledto himself, and for the effects of sin to be dealt with andremoved. The God of the Bible loves to be near his people.

There are many mysteries about God and his purposesthat the Torah does not reveal. Not every secret stone issupposed to be overturned. The intricacy of creation and thegeography of higher worlds are not presented for humanconcern. Neither does the God of Abraham deign for us toknow the mystery of his awesome and unique nature. YetGod has revealed all that is necessary for life and godliness,including serious warnings about the consequences ofhuman rebellion and unrepentant sin. In Deuteronomy31:17, God declared:

“On that day I will become angry with them and forsakethem; I will hide my face from them, and they will bedestroyed. Many disasters and difficulties will come uponthem, and on that day they will ask,‘Have not these disasterscome upon us because our God is not with us?’ ”

Adam and Eve sinned and they were ushered out of thepresence of God. The nation of Israel was warned that theytoo would be exiled from the presence of God if they livedin error and disobedience. Sadly, these things have come topass and our people have been struggling to understandwhy. Kabbalah grapples with this question all the time anduses metaphors and symbols to support its mystical answers.But what did God say to the very first person who held acomplete Torah in his hands?

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sins, grant forgiveness and offer us a forever future where wewill no longer “see through a glass darkly.”

“For now we see in a mirror, darkly; but then face to face:now I know in part; but then I shall fully know even as Iwas fully known.” (1 Corinthians 13:12)

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“Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth;meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful todo everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous andsuccessful.” (Joshua 1:8)

God exhorted Joshua to take his Word seriously and notto add or subtract from it. God did not tell Joshua to find asecret code in the Bible or to delve into the mysteries of itshidden meanings. Joshua was to put the commandmentsinto practice—to honor God and to respect his fellow man.He was also to learn the seriousness of sin as well as the needfor atonement and heartfelt repentance before the Lord.

Sadly, the kabbalistic philosophy of redemption lostsight of that exhortation which should still speak to ustoday. However, a look at the historical development ofKabbalah provides some insight on how its flawedphilosophy of redemption came about. As we have seen,Rabbinic Judaism was itself developed in the aftermath ofthe destruction of the second Temple in 70 A.D. The Templehoused the presence of God. Now he had left and hadscattered his people as he had warned. The Talmudists werenot mystical sages but earnest strugglers with the events oftheir day. They were men grappling with a problem: Howdo we continue being Jewish without the presence of ourGod and without the Temple? They retreated into tradition,rules and regulation. Later, when the Kabbalists of Europealso grappled with the loss of the presence of God, mysticalyearnings for his closeness developed and eventually werecodified and systematized. Gnostic beliefs were incorporatedin order to explain God’s absence.

In Safed, the plight of the Jewish people in exilerequired explanation and so the mystical doctrines of thewithdrawal of the Shechinah (the Divine Presence) wereoffered. In a desperate effort to contact the Lord God, later-day Hasidim focused on mystical experiences, devekut andkavannah, in order to try and commune with the Divineand to usher in the Messiah to redeem and renew the world.

Although God promised Moses that he would raise upfor the Jewish people a prophet of his stature and that hewould put his words in this prophet’s mouth, and that theprophet would tell the Jewish people everything that Godcommanded him (see Deuteronomy 18:18), the mysticscame to believe that they, not God, would be responsible forthe Messiah’s coming.

But one main source of revealed, not secret, knowledgethat the mystics missed was the clear teaching of theprophets that had been consistently sent to Israel before thedestruction of the Temple. Throughout the pre-exilic period,God revealed in no uncertain terms who the Messiah wouldbe and what he would do. He would be the one sent byGod’s initiative to redeem the world through his sacrificialdeath that would atone for the sin of humanity. “The Armof the Lord” would be revealed and he would be led like asheep to the slaughter:

“He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted, he opened nothis mouth; as a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a

sheep that before its shearers isdumb, so he opened not hismouth. (Isaiah 53:7)

The Messiah would comebefore the Temple wasdestroyed (Daniel 9:25). Hewould not be a distant,mystical being only reachablethrough arcane rites. Hewould be born in Bethlehem,the city of David, whereeveryone from shepherds toastrologers could see him(Micah 5:2).

The prophets declaredthat the Messiah would beGod himself, coming down inflesh to visit his people, nearenough to them to love themand speak with them andshow them his salvation.

“For unto us a child is born,unto us a son is given; and thegovernment shall be upon hisshoulder: and his name shallbe called Wonderful,Counselor, Mighty God,Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6)

The Messiah woulddemonstrate his love forhumanity in the mostdramatic of ways; he would bepierced for our sins:

“And I will pour out on thehouse of David, and upon theinhabitants of Jerusalem, thespirit of grace and ofsupplication; and they shalllook unto me whom they havepierced; and they shall mournfor him, as one mourneth forhis only son, and shall be inbitterness for him, as one is inbitterness for his first-born.”

(Zechariah 12:10)

The Messiah would cometo teach us how to pray, howto commune with theAlmighty as “our Father” andto relate to him as hishomeward-bound children.

The Messiah would lead hispeople like sheep, back intothe hands of their tender-hearted Shepherd, the lover of their souls. No secretknowledge would be necessary,no magical incantations, justfaith and trust, love andrepentance, the very corelessons of the Torah itself.

We all crave to have themysteries of the universeunraveled to uncover thehidden truths. But God wantsus to experience his nearnesswithout running through amaze to solve a mystery. Hesent the Messiah to make itvery clear how we could bewith God today and througheternity. Jesus told hisfollowers that he would begoing to prepare a place forthem (beyond their earthlyexistence) and that they wouldknow how to get there.Thomas, one of his disciplesthen asked him,

“Lord, we do not know whereyou are going, and how canwe know the way?” Jesus saidto him, “I am the way, thetruth, and the life. No onecomes to the Father exceptthrough me. If you had knownme, you would have knownmy Father also; and from nowon you know Him and haveseen Him.” Another disciple,Philip, then said to him: “Lord,show us the Father, and it issufficient for us.” Jesus said tohim, “He who has seen me hasseen the father.”

(John 14:5–9)

He who has seen the son,Y’shua, has seen the Father.The Messiah truly came, butthe mystics missed him.Instead of looking to well-meaning but misguided sagesfor answers, consider the factthat God has revealed all inY’shua who came to bear our

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ENDNOTES1. Practical Wisdom from Shlomo Carlebach; Tikkun,

Vol. 12 no. 5 p.53

2. Abulafia, a Spanish Kabbalist suggested that the doctrine of tensefirot was formulated in opposition to Christianity’s idea of theTrinity: “The Masters of the Kabbalah and Sefirot intended to unifythe Name and flee from the Trinity, but they have made it ten!”Cited by Daniel Chanan Matt; Zohar etc.; p20, see footnote 55there. Whereas the Trinity is a doctrine that is argued for onthe basis of Scripture, the “Decade” stems from kabbalisticconceptions.

3. Moses Cordovero (d. 1570) submitted this. The Upper world isAtzilut—the world of Emanation, then follows Beriah, the worldof creation, next is Yetzirah, the world of Formation and finally,the Lower world, our world, Asiyah, the world of making.

4. The sefirot are not only represented as a tree, but are also picturedin the form of a human being, with head, torse, arms and legs etc.Back to the Sources; p.325

5. Back to the Sources; ed. Barry W. Holtz, Simon and Shuster,New York, 1984, p.325

A History ofthe Kabbalah

“Kabbalah” means “received teachings” or simply“traditions” and is derived from the Hebrew “kabel” whichmeans “to receive.” It originally applied only to the Oral Law“received” after the destruction of the Second Temple, in theform of the Talmud. However, in the twelfth century the term“kabbalah” was also used to denote various mystical teachingsthat began to be “received” by the Jewish communities of thatday. This second set of “received” teachings is the Kabbalahproper. Though it was fully developed in the Middle Ages,the first seeds of a mystical trend began to emerge in thetalmudic literature, written well after the destruction of theSecond Temple—from 150 A.D. to 600 A.D.

The Hekhalot LiteratureThe earliest mystical texts of Judaism are contained in

the Hekhalot (heavenly places) literature which arecollections of fragmentary midrashim—rabbinic writings ofthe Talmudic period. They center on mysticalinterpretations of certain biblical passages.

For example, while commenting on the chariotdescribed in Ezekiel 1, Ishmael ben Elijah1 describes hisecstatic ascent into the heavenly places where he beholdsthe divine chariot, the heavenly places and the throne onwhich God is seated as well as his visions of the divinepalaces and his personal experience of the Divine presence.The Hekhalot literature sets the scene for further “heavenlyexploration.”

Sepher YetzirahAnother important mystical text, developed between

the third and six centuries A.D. is the Sepher Yetzirah or the“Book of Creation.” This canonical text for the laterkabbalistic movement sought to explain the workings andthe origin of the universe. It described the sefirot or“emanations,” the ten so-called “manifestations of God.”Knowledge of these mysteries was thought to confermagical powers on the initiated.

Neoplatonism and GnosticismSepher Yetzirah was influenced heavily by

neoplatonsim, a late Greek philosophical school thatcombined elements of Plato with Oriental belief systems.Plato believed that our physical world is not the primaryplace of existence. He posited a “higher” world where thetrue forms exist. Our world is, he thought, only a mirrorof the true world “above.” Sefer Yetzirah placed these ideasinto a Jewish framework. The work was back-dated and itsauthorship ascribed (in typical kabbalistic fashion) to anauthoritative Jewish figure, in this case Abraham.

Gnosticism, another mystical trend of the time also

influenced the Kabbalists. Gershon Sholem, one of thegreat modern scholars in the development of the Kabbalahdefines gnosticism as “the possession of knowledge thatcannot be obtained by ordinary intellectual means; thepossession of a secret doctrine concerning the order of thecelestial worlds and the means that provide access to it.” 2

Gnosticism puffed-up the place of the individual andemphasized that he or she must gain secret knowledge anddevelop personal power in order to discover the road toself-enlightenment. Although the Kabbalah never removedits adherents from the community-at-large, as othergnostic sects did, Kabbalists latched onto the personal-experiential appeal of gnosticism and grafted the idea intothe Jewish context.

And so it can be seen that “from the Talmudic periodforward, Jews cultivated profoundly rich and highly diverseforms of mysticism.” 3 With the rise of Islam and theconsequent persecutions of the Jews, the religious center ofthe Jewish people shifted from Babylon to locations inEurope, specifically to Italy, Germany, Spain and France.

It was in twelfth and thirteenth century France andSpain that the Kabbalah finally came into its definitiveexpression. In his article on kabbalistic texts, scholarLawrence Fine defines the term “Kabbalah” as “a specifichistorical movement which originated in the second halfof the twelfth century in that area of southern Franceknown as Provence, and in northern Spain in thethirteenth century.” 4

The BahirIt was the appearance of The Book Bahir at that time,

that signaled the first classical statement of kabbalisticbeliefs and ideology.

“The Book Bahir, whose few pages seem to contain somuch that is pertinent to the mystery of the origin of theKabbalah, has the form of a midrash, namely, a collection ofsayings or very brief homiletical expositions of biblicalverses.” 5 The title “Bahir” means “bright” and is takenfrom Job 37:21 which is the first biblical text cited. Theauthorship of The Bahir was attributed to Rabbi Nehunyaben ha-Kanah, a talmudic sage of the first century.6

The Bahir caused division within the Jewishcommunity of France, with some hailing it as a brillianttext from times of yore, whilst others, like Meir ben Simon,a contemporary of the early French Kabbalists, decrying thebook as heretical. 7 The adherents to the Kabbalisticmovement in France and Spain wrote, some two-hundredyears after the publication of The Book Bahir that towardsthe middle of the thirteenth century the prophet Elijahappeared in visions to some of the leading men of Provenceand that he had inspired them to write The Bahir. Thehistorical evidence strongly suggests that the book waswritten in France during this time.

The Bahir soon became another canonical text for

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further kabbalistic studies and was accepted by many asbeing a work of much earlier date. The “Kabbalah” orreceived mystical traditions, were being penned, back-dated and received simultaneously! In fact, the precisemove that had been made by the rabbis of the Talmud inorder to validate their work as hailing from Mt. Sinai, wasnow repeated by the Kabbalists of France in order toauthenticate their “new-found” teachings as given by thevenerated rabbis of the Talmud. These men, who weregrappling to reformulate Judaism after the destruction ofthe Temple, are construed by the Kabbalists as mysticalgenies who promulgated the mystical secrets of Judaism.Lawrence Fine remarks that The Bahir represent[s] the“emergence of a striking set of Gnostic motifs within theheart of rabbinic Judaism.” 8

The ZoharThe Zohar (Book of Splendor) appeared on the

kabbalistic scene around 1250 A.D. Lawrence Finedescribes how Moses de Leon “began circulatingmanuscripts which he had written, but which he claimedwere ancient midrashim ‘interpretations of biblical texts.’”Moses pretended merely to be copying from a manuscriptwhich, he argued, “had originated in the circle of thesecond-century Palestinian rabbi, Shimon bar Yohai, buthad only recently found its way into Spain. In alllikelihood, de Leon opted to write in this pseudepigraphicway out of the conviction that a work of antiquity wouldbe more readily considered to be authoritative truth.” 9

History has it that one Isaac ben Shmuel, who laterbecame a leading 14th century Kabbalist, arrived in Spainafter fleeing Mamluk’s attack on the land of Israel. In hisdiary (Sefer Ha Yamim) we read that he was amazed to hearabout the newly “discovered” manuscript of Rabbi Shimonbar Yohai.

“The book had supposedly been written in Israel, butIsaac was from Israel and had never heard of it!”10 Isaac’sdiary informs us that he went to see Moses de Leon at hishome, only to learn that he had died. His widow greetedIsaac at the door and in response to his request to see theoriginal parchment of Shimon bar Yohai, she informed himthat the document had never existed but that the Zoharhad been written solely out of her husband’s head.

However, the effort to back-date a kabbalistic textagain succeeded. Despite early warnings regarding theerrors of the Zohar the book soon became acknowledged asthe mystical revelations of the great sage Shimon bar Yohai.In the text, Shimon is pictured in various settingsdiscoursing with his pupils at every opportunity on thegreat matters of mystical inquiry. The language of the textis Aramaic, “contrived, replete with medieval usages, ingrammar, syntax, vocabulary and ideas.” 11 “Behind the veilof the Aramaic, the Hebrew of the medieval era can beclearly detected.” 12 The only Aramaic which Moses de

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Leon knew was that which he had learned from histalmudic studies. And so it was that one of the mostimportant books of the Kabbalah came into being.

The Safed PeriodThe expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 caused a

rupture in the Jewish world. The defeat of the Mamluksand the conquest of the land of Israel by the Ottomansafforded the Jewish refugees from Europe an unexpectedsafe-haven in the Holy Land itself.

No longer under hostile Islamic dominion, a newcenter of Jewish learning sprang up. Safed was a thrivingagricultural and commercial town situated in the Galileanhills about 20 miles north of the Sea of Galilee. Not onlythat, Safed was the burial place of a number of rabbis of theTalmudic period. In fact, a little outside the town lay theresting place of Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai, the supposedauthor of the Book of Splendour-the Zohar.

It was in Safed that the Zohar gained its kabbalisticpreeminence. From there Moses Cordovero would composehis lengthy commentaries on what had become the centralkabbalistic text. It was also from Safed that Rabbi IsaacLuria would develop his “redemptive” brand of kabbalisticphilosophy. The climate of political upheaval and themassive forced removals of the Jewish people had given riseto speculation that the world was in the midst of the “birth-pangs” of the Messiah. Luria was hard-pressed to explainthe terrible state of exile that characterized the Jewishpeople. He expanded the kabbalistic doctrine of the exile ofthe Shechinah (or Divine Presence) into a mystical theologyof redemption and promoted a rationale for theperformance of good deeds which was designed to hastenand even produce the coming of the Messiah.

Lurianic Kabbalah would ultimately give rise toSabbatianism, the messianic movement of the seventeenthcentury that proclaimed Shabbetai Zevi as King Messiahand in so doing, led Jewry into despondency for decades.Lurianic Kabbalah would also, through the popular mysticalChassidic movement, exert a strong influence on the futurethinking of Judaism. Modern Judaism and its raison d’être isheavily grounded in the Lurianic notion that the Jewishpeople exist in order to prepare the world for the arrival ofthe Messiah.

ENDNOTES1. A third generation talmudist, lived roughly between 120-200 A.D.2. Origins of the Kabbalah; Gershon Scholem, Jewish Publ. Society, 1987, p.223. Back to the Sources; ed. Barry W. Holtz, Simon and Shuster, New York,

1984, p.3074. Back to the Sources; p.308 5. Origins, p.49 6. Ibid, p.397. The Bahir suggested the possibility of the transmigration or reincarnation of

souls, a doctrine foreign to biblical Judaism itself, which teaches theresurrection of the dead.

8. Back to the Sources; p.308 9. Ibid., p.31010. Zohar, Book of Enlightenment; Daniel Chanan Matt; Paulist Press,

Toronto,1983, p.3 11. Back to the Sources; p.31312. The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia (7th Edition),

Ed. Dr. Geoffrey Wigoder, 1992, p.999

When it came to a knowledge of gematria, no one inVaysechvoos was as skilled as Mendel the Merchant. Hisfather, Yossel had taught him from early childhood howimportant it was to have an understanding of thenumerical value of the aleph-bet.

Reb Yossel explained to the boy, “Mendel, my son,do you know why, when a man takes a nazarite vowfor an unspecified duration, it should be counted asthirty days?”

“No father.” the boy replied.“Well, we know that from the word yihyeh vhvh (“he

shall be”) which is taken from Numbers 6:5, thenumerical value comes to 30.”

Mendel learned much from Reb Yossel. But he soonsurpassed his father for he had a highly developed sensefor numbers and complex equations. And this made hisfather proud. Sadly, his father did not live much longer.The truth of the matter is that Mendel was so skilled ingematria that he was able to compute the date of his ownfather’s departure from this world from a passage in theBook of Proverbs. He didn’t tell his father or his mother.He thought it best to keep that knowledge to himself.

That was many years ago. Today, Mendel is a manand his reputation for working on gematria with ease isknown even as far away as Ludz . . . .

How does he do it, you ask? He looks for a precisemeaning by how the letters in a particular Scripturepassage add up and some of the things he has discoveredare astounding. For example, when Mendel’s son wasgetting married, he took the traditional text out of Hoseaand added up the words regarding the impendingmarriage. Mendel discovered that the marriage about totake place between his son and the girl from aneighboring village would produce tohoo v’bohoo uvcu uv,(total emptiness) and he was ready to call off thecelebration. But, wanting to be certain, he kept addingup the letters from the Hosea verse until he got fuy tovand vph yafe (good and beautiful) amd thus he knew itwas going to be a good marriage because he reckoned itwith the gematria. He didn’t tell anyone of this discovery,he just took the knowledge for himself.

Mendel did tackle much larger and more difficultproblems that the townspeople did take note of. Forinstance, there was a rash of petty thefts in Vaysechvoos.Malka had her Shabbas candlesticks taken; Yonkel found

the lock on his workshop broken and his best cuttingtools missing. And this thievery was occurring weekly. SoMendel went to the key text, cbdv tk “Thou shalt notsteal.” and he added up the letters in the commandmentto find out who has been doing the stealing. Mendel gotthe initials of the person, but he didn’t want to tellanyone lest there might be a mistake. So he wrote downthe initials and gave them to the Sage of Vaysechvoos tohold. He told the Sage, “If in another week’s time, thethief is not caught, then the initials can be divulged.”And Mendel prayed that week with much fervor. Sureenough the thief was caught and his initials were the sameas the ones Mendel had secured through gematria. TheSage told a few what Mendel had done and his reputationas a mystical maven spread.

By now Mendel has gained considerable confidencein his abilities so he ventured into a even more complexstudy. Mendel took some of the messianic texts to findout when the Messiah will come. He knew that it wasforbidden to compute such a time according to therabbis 1, but he went ahead anyway. His f irstcomputations from passages in the Pentateuch producedthe message, tc rcf tuv “he already came.” “This won’tdo,” he reasoned, andMendel went to anotherone of the messianictexts—this time fromthe writings of theprophet Isaiah. He madesure the rabbis agreedthat the passage was amessianic text. Thistime his addition andsubtraction revealed thatthe name of the Messiahwas guah “Y’shua.” Hewas shocked.

What was Mendel todo now? The only thing agood Jew in Vaysechvoos could do. He decided that hedidn’t know what he discovered and that he was deficientin his knowledge of gematria. Not only wouldn’t he tellanyone, but he wouldn’t do gematria anymore. Ever.

1. Sanhedrin 97b; Derek Erez R. Chapter 11