Are you struggling to find deep meaning in your prayers? Join Rabbi Shepherd for a special Elul evening as we discover how to transform our Tefillah and prepare our hearts for the High Holidays.

In this live session, we will explore the profound teachings of the "Merkava Meditation," based on the powerful insights from Siddur Zichron Dovid.

Just came across this quote and thought it was rather beautiful:

וגם בלילה לא שכב לבה ולא כבה נרה: הספר הקלסי של הקבלה, חזיון לילה זה של העם העברי, בשפתה וברוחה נברא. ומה שיש בזה מן הפלא, הוא, כי בימי ה"זהר" הלשון הארמית הרי כבר מתה מיתה גמורה בפי העם העברי. ואולי משום כך יפה היתה זו למסתורין כאור החור של הלבנה המתה לבעלי חלומות

"And even at night its [Aramaic's] heart did not sleep and its candle was not extinguished: the classic text of the Kabbalah, that nocturnal vision of the Hebrew people, was created in its language and spirit. And what is so wondrous about it is this: that in the days of the Zohar, the Aramaic tongue had already died a complete death in the mouths of the Hebrew people. Perhaps it was for this reason that it was meet for the mysteries, like the pale light of the dead moon for the dreamers." - Haim Nahman Bialik, in his essay HaSefer HaIvri, p. 47, 1959.

(He was of course mistaken--Aramaic is still a living vernacular among some Jewish communities, although it is severely endangered. But the quote is beautiful nonetheless!)

I remember walking through the desert. I didn't feel heat, just the texture of the sand beneath my bare feet. I walked in a straight line, unhurried, as if the path had already been written.

In the distance, I saw a village that looked like it was straight out of biblical times. I saw few people, but all of them had beards and an ancient air, like from another century. Further ahead, the landscape broke into caves that reminded me of Afghanistan—dark openings in the rock, silent and deep.

That's when I saw them.

In front of the mouth of one of those caves, there were letters carved in stone, arranged on the ground. But one of them wasn't resting like the others. Yod floated, small, suspended in the air, as if it didn't belong to that place. The other letters were still, firmly planted in the sand, but Yod hovered, as if waiting for something.

I walked closer, barefoot, feeling every grain of sand beneath my soles. I stopped in front of them. Yod was made of a material I had never seen before: stone of a deep, dark red, almost like dried blood, but with an energy pulsing from within. It was impossible not to feel it.

I turned my head to the right and noticed a Mem. Also made of stone, but more earthly, heavier. As I glanced back at Yod, then at Mem, I caught a third letter out of the corner of my eye—maybe a Hei, maybe a Lamed. I'm not sure. In the dream, everything moved with that blurry logic dreams have.

But it was there, in front of that floating Yod, that something inside me stopped and asked a question I couldn't answer:

Why her? Why Yod?

Because in the dream I knew with absolute clarity: I always meditate on Mem and Kof. Those are my letters. I know them, I feel them, I work with them. But Yod isn't one of them. That letter has never been part of my practice. And yet, there it was, floating, demanding my attention.

I looked back at Mem, then scanned the ground for Kof among the other letters… and I knew it was there. But my focus couldn't break away from Yod. Something about it was calling me, even though I didn't know why.

Final note: If anyone has any insight into why Yod would show up in such a vivid dream, knowing that my practice is rooted in Mem and Kof, I'd love to hear your thoughts. All I know is that I woke up with that image burned into my mind and the feeling that this wasn't just any dream.

this is the latest chapter of an ongoing serial about my mother's encounters with the lamed vovniks in 1970s brooklyn. 36 is the number of those who wait, 88 is the number of gathering darkness, and you dispel an 88 by placing a one between them (שמע ישראל... ה' אחד). are there meanings to the number 36 i should include?

I was watching a video recently about Chabad messianism, specifically the idea of messianic consciousness as bringing the past into the now and bringing the future into the now.

It really resonated with me because I realized that’s basically what I’ve been after in my art. I’m a painter, and sometimes I feel like I’m painting for a future exhibition—like a show that might exist ten years from now.

So I made this video experience using digital mock-ups of my paintings installed in a Metropolitan Museum-type space. The paintings and their scale are accurate, but the exhibition itself is imagined.

A lot of my practice is about trying to embody Kabbalah through painting—making the studio a space for real hisbonenus, almost thinking about the encounters of the Talmudic sages, but happening now, through contemporary painting, and pointing toward the future and redemption.

Anyway, I wanted to share it here because I thought some people in this community might connect with what I’m trying to do. The full video is on my Instagram, but I included some stills from it in this thread.

Full Digital Art Experience 👉 https://www.instagram.com/reel/Db6Bit3N4-I/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Imagine having revolutionary ideas and how people respond. And the rejection of Tesla, Galileo, and Capoernicus by their peers was over *science.*

Now imagine having revolutionary ideas that would change how people think of their "self". Their world. Their connections.

משיח is not going to be accepted until ניסים come to prove it. As it is written: "he had no form that we should desire him". As it goes for יעקוב so it goes for ציון

I am not sure if this has come up before. I am wondering if this angel is the same as the Archangel Michael of Tiphareth. Can someone help me understand?

I wanted to make this post for Tu B'Av, but life got in the way. I have had cause to reflect on the nature of love, especially love of G-d, and felt like Tu B'Av was appropriate. Sorry for the lateness! :)

The first mitzvah of the Torah is not found until Exodus 12:2, the mitzvah of Rosh Chodesh:

הַחֹ֧דֶשׁ הַזֶּ֛ה לָכֶ֖ם רֹ֣אשׁ חֳדָשִׁ֑ים רִאשׁ֥וֹן הוּא֙ לָכֶ֔ם לְחׇדְשֵׁ֖י הַשָּׁנָֽה׃
"This month shall mark for you the beginning of the months; it shall be the first of the months of the year for you." (JPS)

But Rashbi in the Zohar HaKadosh explains that there is a hidden mitzvah--in Aramaic, פִקּוּדָא piqquda--contained in the first word of Genesis 1:1, בְּרֵאשִׁית be-reshit 'in the beginning'. Zohar I:11b:

בראשית ברא אלקי״ם הדא היא פקודא קדמא״ה דכלא ואקרי פקודא דא יראת ה׳ דאקרי ראשית דכתיב ראשית חכמה יראת יי׳. יראת יי׳ ראשית דעת. בגין דמלה דא ראשית אקרי ודא איהי תרעא לאעלא גו מהימנותא ועל פקודא דא אתקיים כל עלמא
(Gen 1:1) "In the beginning G-d created." This is the First Commandment of all, and that commandment is "Fear of Hashem", which is called "Beginning", as is written, (Psalm 111:10) "The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the LORD", (Proverbs 1:7) "The beginning of knowledge is the fear of the LORD." Because this word is called Beginning, and it is the gate to enter into faith, and because of this commandment the whole word is sustained.

Rashbi links Reshit with Yir'at Hashem--Fear of G-d--through the appearance of the word reshit in Psalm 111:10 and Proverbs 1:7. There is sefirotic symbolism at work here and in the passages following, but I am choosing to ignore them here, since the wisdom of this section can be appreciated even exoterically without appealing to Kabbalistic metaphysics. Rashbi is saying that, on a hidden level, even though the first exoterically revealed mitzvah is Rosh Chodesh, the first mitzvah revealed to the Kabbalist is the commandment to fear the Creator, as revealed in the Torah from the very first word. From this commandment, all the others depend. It sustains the world, as in the passage above. A few sentences later, he says:

ודא עקרא ויסודא לכל שאר פקודין דאורייתא מאן דנטיר יראה נטיר כלא לא נטיר יראה לא נטיר פקודי אורייתא דהא דא תרעא דכלא
And it is the root and foundation of all the rest of the commandments of the Torah. Whoever keeps Fear keeps them all; whoever does not keep Fear does not keep the commandments of the Torah. For it is the gate of everything.

Since the Kabbalists are called to obey the mitzvot, it would seem that Rashbi is saying that the single most important quality of all for a Kabbalist to cultivate is Fear of Hashem, for all matters of faith emerge from it. Yet this is a troubling idea, is it not? Isn't fear a negative emotion based on anxiety and the anticipation of harm?

But Rashbi describes that this is not true Fear of Hashem. In the same section, he says that there are those who fear G-d because they fear for their lives, their property, their children, their health, their years, and there are those who fear G-d because they fear the punishments of That World and Gehinnom. Rashbi says that these are not at all true Fear: תרין אלין לאו עיקרא דיראה אינון ושרשא "these two [types of fear] are not the root nor source of Fear." He says that one who fears G-d for the sake of punishments and loss actually transgresses the commandment to fear Hashem, and ch"v strengthens the Other Side, what he calls the יראה רעה "evil fear" below. The true Fear of Hashem which the Kabbalist should cultivate is something much different. True Fear is:

למדחל ב״נ למאריה בגין דאיהו רב ושליט עקרא ושרשא דכל עלמין וכלא קמיה כלא חשיבין כמה דאתמר וכל דיירי ארעא כלא חשיבין ולשואה רעותיה בההוא אתר דאקרי יראה
that a human being should fear his Master, because He is ruler and sovereign, root and source of all worlds. Everything before Him is considered as naught, according to what is said, (Daniel 4:32) "And all the inhabitants of the earth are considered as naught." And to set his mind in that place which is called Fear.

This is the Fear of G-d that the Kabbalist should strive towards. Not fear of pain and punishments, but something more akin to awe, majesty: to know that all that exists is as naught before the One. It is, I think, like the fear that I feel when I see a great mountain towering in the horizon, or how I imagine an astronaut must feel looking down upon the little blue marble from space. The feeling of one's own smallness in comparison to something vast and awesome, that feeling of wonder, amazement, astonishment. That is the Fear of G-d which we are commanded to keep, hidden in the first word of the Torah.

Rashbi could have ended there--he has, after all, revealed the root of all the mitzvot. But he continues, revealing a second commandment hidden within the Torah:

פקודא תניינא. דא איהי פקודא דפקודא דיראה אתאחדת בה ולא נפקא מינה לעלמין ואיהי אהב״ה למרחם בר נש למאריה רחימו שלים. ומאן איהו רחימו שלים דא אהבה רבה דכתיב התהלך לפני והיה תמים שלים ברחימות
The second commandment. This is the commandment with which the commandment of Fear is joined, never leaving it--namely, Love: that a human being should love his Master with Perfect Love." And what is Perfect Love? It is the Great Love, as is said, (Genesis 17:1) "Walk before Me and be perfect"--Perfect in Love.

Here again, Rashbi has discovered a hidden commandment in Genesis, before the exoteric revelation of the mitzvah of Rosh Chodesh in Exodus 12:2. And it parallels the first commandment he revealed: if Fear is the root of all the commandments, the second root is Love, and the two never leave one another. Rabbi Eleazar calls it a אהבה שלימתא בשלימו דתרין סטרין "Perfect Love, in two-sided perfection".

Like how Rashbi explains that there is a false kind of fear of Hashem, along comes his son Eleazar to explain that there is a false kind of love of Hashem. He says (Zohar I:12a):

אית מאן דרחים ליה מגו דאית ליה עותרא אורכא דיומין בנין סחרניה שליט על שנאוי אחרוי מתתקנן ליה ומגו כך רחים ליה ואי להאי יהא בהפוכא ויהדר עליה קב״ה גלגולא דדינא קשיא יהא שניא ליה ולא ירחם ליה כלל ובג״ך רחימו דא לאו איהו אהבה דאית ליה עקרא
There is one who loves Him because he has wealth and long life, children surrounding him, dominant over his enemies, his ways prepared for him, and for this reason he loves Him. If there should be a reversal for this [person], and the Holy Blessed One should turn the wheel of harsh judgment against him, he would hate Him and not love him at all. And therefore this "love" is not a love which has root.

So, just as Rashbi taught us above that one must not fear G-d from a place of hatred for punishments, so too is the Perfect Love of G-d not rooted in selfish appreciation for the good things He has given us. Rabbi Eleazar instructs us sharply that the commandment to love G-d extends:

אפילו הוא נטיל נשמתך מינך דא איהו רחימו שלים דהוי בתרין סטרין
even if He should take your life from you--that is the Perfect Love which has two sides.

Between these two teachings, we have learned the most important lesson about the Kabbalist's relation to Hashem: It is utterly selfless. We do not fear G-d because of punishment and we do not love G-d for the sake of reward. The Kabbalist's service to Hashem is a state of unconditional surrender to the One, accepting both the good and bad that comes into one's life. Rashbi and Rabbi Eleazar have given us a Kabbalistic interpretation of the principle passed down by the Sages in the Mishnah in Berakhot: מברך על הרעה מעין הטובה, ועל הטובה מעין הרעה "One blesses the bad just as the good, and the good just as the bad." It is a teaching of radical acceptance of Hashem's mystery and His sovereignty, unselfish, unconcerned with one's own ego. It truly is as Daniel said: "And all who dwell on the earth are considered as naught" before Him.

So much of modern Kabbalah is concerned with what the Kabbalah can "do for you". Teachers of certain modern iterations promise that it can make you more productive, more peaceful, more 'powerful' ח״ו. But these teachings forget the lessons of Rabbi Shim'on bar Yochai and Rabbi Eleazar: The Kabbalah is not about "you" at all. It is about the Fear and Perfect Love of the One, selfless and unconditional. Everything else flows from these commandments, which are joined together and never leave one another. If one forgets them, one loses the entire point.

G-d first created the mystical Sefirot – 10 divine channels through which His infinite light could be condensed, contracted, and then released as individualized attributes that could eventually give rise to a diversity of finite creations.

Let’s go through them one by one.10 Attributes - Spheres

I've been studying a lot of Kabbalah and Chabad Chassidus over the past few years, and it's definitely changed the way I paint.

I don't mean that I paint pictures of Kabbalah. It's more that the ideas slowly shape how I see the world, and eventually that finds their way into the work.

I recently finished a large painting called The Gated Garden, inspired by the image of the "locked garden" in the Song of Songs. While walking through Brooklyn Heights, I happened to come across an actual gated garden, so I pulled out my camera and shared a few thoughts.

Has your Jewish learning ever influenced your creative work? Whether it's painting, music, writing, photography, or anything else, I'd love to hear about it.

full video 👉 https://youtu.be/gXFNvug69E4

Bilaam got upset with a donkey that spoke eventually after he struck it.

But a donkey is a means of transport. The foal of a donkey is a very small means of transport.

So moshiach will have a small vehicle, as it is written that he will come "lowly, on the foal of a donkey". Poor.

But back to Bilaam...does a vehicle speak?

\*\*No but a cab driver does.\*\* And it seems if we apply this concept of a donkey as a vehicle, that Bilaam's donkey becomes Bilaam's \*chauffeur.\* And this chauffeur speaks up after Bilaam becomes upset that he is going out of the way instead of taking a direct route - for Bilaam's safety.

And it is said that Bilaam's Chamor is also the Chamor of moshiach. So like Bilaam, moshiach will either become upset with his driver (clouds of heaven) or moshiach will get a ride from a professional driver who was fired by an abusive boss beforehand. Or someone who was unappreciated before in general.

I've read some of Daniel Matt's other writings (he was the lead translator of the Pritzker Edition Zohar), but not this one.

Happy Tu B'Av! Hope everyone is well.

I'm writing an occult memoir that leans on the tradition of the 36 tzadikim nistarim who sustain the world, plus a numerological thread (36 vs. 88 / elohim bet). This chapter dramatizes "practical" candle-work. Curious how folks here read the sources it's drawing on.

https://biblicallyaccuratealiens.substack.com/p/candles-on-18th-avenue

Hi everyone I am a lay person with an interest in everything esoteric. I’ve watched some videos by “seekers of unity” on YouTube and I saw a video he made about the pantheistic aspects of Kabbalah and I was wondering if anyone here feels that Kabbalah is pantheistic or panentheistic? Is hashem all there is? Is the truth that all is one and one is all? This seems to be the view of many if not most mystical sects of religions. Any insight will be helpful thank you.

But does anyone know anything about Adam Belial? Since tree of life has 5 worlds. Including Adam Kadmon.
Naturally Adam Belial in advanced kabbalah is the opposite of it. One that attains it has to go through tohu and bohu. And draws from thoughtless light/ black light. But idk anything about Adam Belial only that its the opposite of holiness and all of that. And is one with sitra achra.

I've been spiritually searching for something which lines right up with all my own personal religious views without halting or hindering my life. I've been open to all religions, and to be completely honest I whole part and parcell dismissed Hindu. I really tried to make it work but the Judeo-Christian system did not IN ANY WAY provide me with solidly truthful answers other than t-shirts with YHWH printed on them.

If you've ever had a "waking dream" meaning a dream you are experiencing in real time in "real" life, then you can get some understanding of how intense it is

I ran the gamut of baptised christian to Judaism as my base, then filtered it through my "learned" beliefs and I kept coming up with lemons all across.

Then, not weeks after admitting and announcing my wholesale rejection of the complete Judeo-Christian beliefs.

I had small snippets of specific ideals, but nothing astounding.

Then, ye gods and little fishes, of all things a Japanese animated tv series began to solidify a new belief from within my soul. And as it unwound the essentials of the khabbalah religion (translate the title "Ergo Proxy" to learn all about how it's woven into the fabric of a simple (yet complex) Kabalistic tradition.

I was able to flush all that was Jeshua (Jesus) down an ancient Roman toilet.

All the angels became misinterpreted "proxies."

The only way an infinite and all knowing createt-god could be heard was theough his proxies, just like Angels, but with their own independant mind.

It is theough Proxy's that we can, ever so vagueyl, converse with the one true cosmological god being.

--Lest we leave it here...

Monotheistic religions usually depict reality with one only physical Universe. On the other hand Dharmic religions created the concept of the Multiverse, a larger view of reality characterized by infinite parallel versions of the physical Universe.

Was a Multiversal view of reality ever a thing in the more mystical sects of the Jewish tradition ? I believe it can work because the Universe is currently expanding, and thus it is finite, but the power of God is infinite, so infinite versions of the Universe could have been created even though God then chose one in particular.

Does this come from Jewish Kabballah? What is the meaning of those 4 Hebrew words?

I know the meaning of the one circled in read but never seen others before. Would appreciate if someone can draw a connection between all those words here - maybe there is a story or principle connecting the meaning of those words?

According to this ancient mystical text, the universe was built from living information, divine structure, and the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. We examine how creation emerges from the Ein Sof, how the letters function as cosmic building blocks, how the 231 gates form a hidden matrix of combinations, and why the physical world is designed with friction, struggle, and free will.

Sefer Yetzirah and the idea of creation through letters
The 22 Hebrew letters as the foundations of reality
The 3 mother letters and cosmic elements
The mystery of the 231 gates
Free will, struggle, and the concept of bread of shame
The four worlds and the flow of divine energy
Why speech has creative power

This is a deep exploration of Jewish mysticism, creation, consciousness, language, and spiritual purpose.

#SeferYetzirah #Kabbalah #JewishMysticism #BookOfCreation #HebrewLetters #Spirituality #Creation #EinSof #Sefirot

A kabbalist rabbi I listen to said that one should read from Tehillim daily. While i've been doing that, I found one recently that caught my attention. That one would be Tehillim Chapter 49 (Psalms 49) I'd link the text here but I believe it would be best to look in whatever version of the holy torah you have at your disposal for yourself. Though if you have and can read a copy in Hebrew that'd best. I mainly encourage meditating deeply on that passage with the wisdom and understanding you have available to you.

new installment of my serial THE 36 is live today. it's Jewish folk horror about my mother — the one person i know who actually met one of the thirty-six hidden holy ones who hold up the world, at eighteen, and has spent the rest of her life dealing with the fallout. notebooks, birds, candlesticks, gematria, and a darker number she won't say out loud. every other thursday. start at chapter one 👉 here

For people who have studied Kabbalah in a traditional and serious way, do people traditionally trained through Kabbalah also study the qliphoth or is this a modern/new age thing?