Kabbalah

[Mathew James]

All of the concepts in the so called Tree of Life are from the Qumran Community. All one has to do is read the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi Scriptures to realize it. Nowadays, the teachings of the Tree of Life have gone astary from the original documents.

mj

Originally Posted by Yamah

I also made that decision. I came from a very new age perspective back to Judaism.

The book that started my journey back is called 'God is a Verb' by David A. Cooper. I basically found it to be a bridge between New Age and Judaism, helping me to understand that everything I connected to out in the world was also found within our tradition.

If you REALLY want to live an authentic life I highly recommend Mesilat Yesharim 'The Path of the Just' by Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto. It's basically a book on how to become a good person, written by probably the most renowned Kabbalist of the last thousand years. Even though no Kabalah is directly taught in that book it is known to be the Ramchal's deepest work.

Another great one is 'Letters from a Buddhist Jew' or something like that, by Rabbi Akiva Tatz and David Gottlieb. It's a collection of the correspondences between Rabbi Tatz, who is an orthodox Jew, and David Gottlieb, who is a BuJew. Very interesting conversations.

May you find success on your path and feel free to hit me up with any more questions.

Yamah thank you for the reading suggestions. It will be interesting to read the suggested books considering my current state of mind and recent experiences. At the moment, I select the philosophies that ring true and have been finding that there seems to be common threads across most religions and spiritual beliefs. Makes me wonder if we knew more at the beginning, and as the information has been passed on from generation to generation the information has become more and more distorted.

And yes I will be hitting you up again with questions or your thoughts!

Bought "The Path of the Just". Get ready thread the questions will be coming!

Moving my questions regarding "The Path of the Just" to Books thread.

I may have missed it, but I did not see any mention about the meaning of the word kabbalah. It comes from the root word kabel, meaning 'receive'. This is an indication that all that is considered 'kabbalah' was passed from teacher to student.. it is something received.
This is very important as it is a clue pointing toward a central concept in the wisdom of kabbalah. The relationship between that which bestows and that which receives (creator and vessel).
I do understand the train of thought where one person indicated that Judaism is the 'why' and Kabbalah is the 'how'. However I think because this is so generalized, it is a bit misleading because it seems that both why/how are in both...
There seem to be some differing opinions about the nature of the relationship between judaism and kabbalah; some are adamant that the two cannot be separated, and others strongly propose that they are very much separate. Personally I don't think it's possible for the two to be separated.. in essence. however, I believe the practices of judaism is a religious dogma that was derrived from the wisdom of kabbalah.... so I do subscribe to the thought that one does not have to be a practicing Jew to receive the wisdom of Kabbalah and vis a vis not all Jews must study kabbalah.
there is a fairly predominant belief that we are living in a time where there is a need for more and more to receive the wisdom and that as the number of those who receive this wisdom grows, there will be transformations in the world.. so there is a sense of mission involved with many of those who are teaching kabbalah.

Originally Posted by Squatchit

Begins with b ends in d with astar in the middle!

How very strange. It's a legitimate term. I had the same trouble with the scr-apping, presumably for the sequence following the s... I got round it by Italicising one of the middle letters - scrapping. What's the sense in obliterating that word?

It won't go well for UK members who live in a certain North Lincolnshire town.

Originally Posted by Mathew James

...... Nowadays, the teachings of the Tree of Life have gone astary from the original documents.

mj

Which doesn't make The Tree any less useful or precious as a system, surely? I've spend time with the Hermetic Kabbalah and am starting to look back into it's origins.

There's also the Sefer Yetzirah. Whether I'll get face-to-face help with that....I don't know. It's probably obscure and the subject of a lot of interpretations - so if anyone knows of an edition/translation that gets to the mysticism, I'd be incredibly grateful. Thanks in advance, if so.

This is an most interesting subforum. I discovered it only today.

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[Mathew James]

Originally Posted by Lorelyen

Which doesn't make The Tree any less useful or precious as a system, surely?

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yes, you are absolutly right. i only meant that a person needs to be very careful when learning about it. There are many teachings about it that are misleading and limited. It is and always has been useful for insight and examination into the unseen.

If your interested in the Zodiac and what its original message is, the book called "The Original Prophecy" imo, explains it the best.



mj

Thank you for your comment. I will look up this text. I found one written by you or your namesake - is that the one?

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[Mathew James]

Originally Posted by Lorelyen

Thank you for your comment. I will look up this text. I found one written by you or your namesake - is that the one?

♪♫

yes, it is the only one that reads from Virgo and then to Leo... then ends with Libra. The zodiac has the most structure/formation when read in this direction. There are several other books that read from Virgo and then to Libra... and then end with Leo, but they do not flow from one sign to the next and there is no structure/formation when read from this direction.

mj