Cabbala-Blog

This whole world in Kabbalah is regarded as Egypt. It is the life where we're trapped like a hamster in its wheel. We normally don't have a house or a job to live well, but we're slaves of such external matters. When material things or external situations are controlling our minds and egos, it's regarded as idol worship. We constantly remain empty because we live the whole day to satisfy only ourselves. The departure from Egypt means that I come to a spiritual state where I recognize that only the light of God and I are existing. I begin to understand that the thought of creation governs everything. Slowly and gradually the divine force is overtaking this body. The whole spiritual process can be described as a conflict between the soul and the body. The soul is the expression of the desire to give, while the body is the expression of the desire to receive. In the Jewish oral tradition, it's said that only one-fifth of Israel would have actually left Egypt. Only because my soul belongs to the other world, it does not necessarily mean that I'll take the essential step out from my own slavery.Man comes to a state where he sees that his egoism and selfishness create for himself only harm. When he comes to this sensation, he has the choice to accept the heavenly kingdom over him, and he's ready to leave behind his egoism. He performs a restriction on all of his desires. In this state I leave a world behind me. Something from afar seems to pull me. I'm not yet sure what it actually is, but I'm prepared to make the first step. From a logical point of view, it would have been suicide to follow Moses into the desert, but the Israelites who left Egypt with him took trust in the divine light. Egypt connotes constant fear of the future and constant building of supply depots. Constant planning - a calculation of everything. When we go into the desert of spiritual correction, we enter the realm of the transrational. I wouldn't call it irrational because entering the spiritual world is anything but irrational. We think we're smart in this world, but we actually aren't. We're very dumb in our so-called rationality. And we come to a place where we, for the first time on our journey, begin to feel the light of higher worlds. And we gradually learn to surrender to the yoke of the heavenly kingdom as Jesus stated, "For my yoke is easy and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:30, NIV).

In the last articles we learned that the Torah is inscribed in our hearts (Romans 2:14-15). What the apostle Paul taught was the Torah of the inward man (Romans 7:22). This means that gentile Christians are not bound to observe the law in a physical way (except the few laws they received from the apostles; see Should a Christian Observe the Torah?). Instead we enter the domain of the inward man. All actions that take place in the inward world happen through a Massach that can be translated as "curtain" or "screen." This screen prevents the light from being used in a selfish way. While the only rule that governs our world is egoism, the upper world is governed by the force of altruism. This means that we only receive the lights with which we can share. Receiving for the ego alone is considered death in the spiritual world. Thus it is said that sinners are regarded as dead because the efforts and pain they have to endure while living in this world  far exceed the tiny pleasures they're able to experience in their lifetimes. The righteous on the opposite inherit doubly. Not only can they enjoy the fruits of their labor, but their labor itself becomes joyful. When someone in our world gains one million dollars, he wants two, and in this way sinners will always die with half of their desires unfulfilled. The Righteous will not only enjoy everything in this world, but he will also inherit the world to come.In the spiritual world, changes are defined as passing from one state to another. A Kabbalist can experience festivals like Rosh Hashanah or Purim on any day in this world. We speak of inner changes that someone is undergoing. Circumcision, for example, is the removal of the desires that cannot be used for the sake of God. In Kabbalah we only speak about pleasures and desires. The higher one is climbing the spiritual ladder, the bigger desires he will have. When all desires in the end can be used for the sake of God, it is regarded as the Gmar Tikkun, 'the final correction.' In the end the Kabbalist will become a partner of God; he will ask, and God will answer, I will fulfill.

Only a mind can ascend spiritual worlds, which is trained to discern lies from truths. In this article we will learn which key points are essential in a holy form of Christianity. This is not necessarily a matter of 'good vs. bad religion' but what scripture demands from us and how Satan finds doors to distract believers with a good heart from the actual core message of the gospel.Most important is that Satan is mostly not recognizable as what he really is when you scrutinize his outcomes on a surface level. Scripture tells us that he will  actually appear as an angel of light, whom people will worship and who will lead the masses away from the gospel of God. First we must ask ourselves, is my religion or spiritual community accepting the Eucharist, and is it actually there for every believer to take? When we don't take from the Eucharist, we're principally not Christians, and we're not part of the new covenant for the forgiveness of sins. Through the Eucharist we become part of the body of Christ. Wine symbolizes the blood of the Messiah, while bread symbolizes his body. And I know that for some religions they're the actual blood and body, while for others they're more representative, but this is a theological matter on its own.Second, baptism as well is a very important point. While some religions insist on being baptized by the trinitarian formula, more liberal communities do it very often in the name of Jesus alone, but what is important is that baptism expresses a spiritual new birth. Being born again of water and of Spirit is a prerequisite for entering the kingdom of God (John 3:5).We must also scrutinize if our church or community is making us have a bad conscience about different kinds of foods and drinks. This is an important key point for realizing if the institution is really following the biblical God or not because scripture again and again makes it clear that no foods or drinks can make us impure any longer. The Messiah declared all foods as clean (Mark 7:19). Also, the Apostle Paul went so far as to state that every religion that will make people have a bad conscience about certain foods in the end times will be under the influence of demonic spirits. While drunkenness in the Bible is often condemned, wine as well is regarded as a helpful medicine, as in 1 Timothy 5:23. It is a kabbalistic concept that wine will let the sinners fall while the righteous ones will nourish their souls with it. This concept is also hidden in the Hebrew word for vine (yayin) itself, but this as well would need its own article to explain.The next point is, am I part of the first resurrection in my religion or faith? Satan often twists the Bible to make us believe that there would be more classes of believers, where the first ones would resurrect at the beginning of the messianic age, while the latter ones at the end, while the book of Revelation makes it very clear that those with faith will resurrect first, while those without will be judged according to their deeds after the second resurrection (Revelation 20:4-6).All in all, we must also consider if eternal life is regarded more as a gift or as something that must be earned. Although merit and salvation by grace don't necessarily exclude each other, it's important that eternal life must be seen mostly as a gift. If we were to think that eternity could be earned by deeds alone, the Messiah would have died for nothing (Galatians 2:21).

We could have also chosen a picture of darkness for describing the Klipot, but I decided otherwise because I think even in darkness there are very important lessons to learn. Darkness in Kabbalah doesn't necessarily imply something negative. Rather, dry land is regarded as something negative in the Torah because dry land hasn't received water for becoming fertile soil. And so we often read that the rivers have dried up. This means that our vessel now doesn't receive lights from the upper world. Klipot (shells) have a twofold task. One is for punishing the wicked, and the second is that it serves as a kind of safeguard mechanism so that the light cannot fall into the hands of the unworthy. Like a shell can contain the flesh of a fruit, the Klipah serves its intended purpose. Every world in Kabbalah is a kind of Klipah for the world above it. Every world dims the light further until we arrive at the lowest world - our material universe - where the light is nearly utterly concealed. In our world, man normally does not feel the light force at all.Did you know that even your back pain or sleepless nights can come from those forces called Klipot? We have to do here with forces that are only perceivable at the very edge of material existence. Those forces can make themselves noticeable through humming or ringing ears, through a flickering of the air, or through sudden changes in temperature. Normally only a trained spiritual sense can take notice of them. A normal man only senses them regarding their outcome - meaning the chaos and pain they create in his life. A normal man tends to degrade everything as an effect of mere physical causes. The reason for everything lies in the upper world. On one hand, the Klipot can be the outcome of divine punishment, meaning that we ourselves have sinned and must bear the consequences, or those Klipot can  also be the result of spiritual attacks. Those who are true beacons of light in this world are normally the first ones who become the victims of the attacks of the forces of evil. Too often we can serve the side of darkness without being aware of it. That's why, as we have stated in the last article, we should always scrutinize our own fruits. A spirit of truth won't prophesy falsely. When someone is a true prophet of God, his predictions must come true. Otherwise he is not a prophet of God. False religion is the cause of a lying spirit. That's why the apostle Paul instructed us to test everything (1 Thessalonians 5:21). Only liars are fearing a mind that has the ability to discern between truth and falsehood. When we follow false religion, we begin to exist in a bubble, which consists of mere imagination or fantasy. You can convince yourself of seeing higher beings or angels, and then there are those who really are able to perceive. Those who actually do are normally preferring to stay silent, while those who  do not are busy with proclaiming their false prophecies to everyone.Someone who truly follows God does not seek the spotlight. When a Kabbalist attains the higher world, one of the first steps he normally undertakes is to detach himself from society so that he can, for now, attain a feeling of the vast world of the Creator. Only later, when he has developed a firm, discerning vessel,  will he return to society to share his light with those ready for it. When someone is attaining the light of God, he normally isn't in need of a teacher anymore, but despite many students preferring to be connected to their masters so that they can navigate them through the upper world. We will  soon learn more about the discernment between fantasy and scriptural fact - lie and truth.

Someone who wants to attain righteousness through circumcision has to obey the whole of the law, as the apostle Paul made clear in Galatians 5:3, and furthermore has fallen away from grace (Galatians 5:4). We began to discuss in the last article why the attempt to become Torah obedient might be very dangerous for a Christian believer. It happens all the time; first, such a believer will let himself be convinced that faith alone wouldn't be sufficient to draw closer to God, and then he will probably convert to Judaism. Because no one in Judaism will be excited if you tell them that you believe in Yeshua (so probably the original name of Jesus) as the Messiah, you will either leave him completely, or you will deny him in public, while believing in him secretly. But we know what Jesus said in Matthew 10:33 (KJV): "But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven." Someone who testifies to Jesus before others will earn Mochin from the higher worlds. Those Mochin are spiritual lights - we could say the mind or divine intellect of the upper system.We can imagine the upper system as a gigantic network of energy, where the messiah ruling in heaven sits on the throne of God. From there, all the lights will be channeled hierarchically downwards through several righteous souls and angels. Someone's merit in this world will determine his stature in the upper world. In the end only the fruit of one's spirit counts - it is action alone that matters. This means that someone who has faith will perform the works, which were prepared for us beforehand by God (Ephesians 2:10). Faith without works is dead (James 2:17). In Kabbalah, the lowest spiritual world is called the world of Assiyah, which is the world of action. Only through action do we have the choice between good and evil. Good and evil can only meet in our world, which is considered as the last end or, better to say, the reflection of the world of Assiyah. Through Christ, we're not elevating through the performance of the ritual law but through deeds that serve others, and mostly our spiritual brothers and sisters (Galatians 6:10). This is not works righteousness but can be considered as the love to a woman. We normally don't do good to earn the love of our wife, but we do good because we love her. Real love is unconditional, which means that we expect nothing in return. And so someone who  really has the spirit of God will overflow with good deeds - not out of effort, but because it has become our new nature. This new nature means to walk constantly on a straight way with God. We don't do good because we want to earn something, but because we stand in grace and want to draw closer to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29, 2 Corinthians 3:18).

Today we observe a fashion where more and more Christians want to convince other Christians that they would have to observe the entire law of the Old Testament. This is not necessarily a good development for good reasons. The dogma that Jesus would have ended the law of the old covenant on the cross is disputable. When we read in the New Testament, we see that the apostles were all Torah-observant Jews. How strictly someone like Paul was following the Torah remains a question, but we must see his role as apostle for the gentiles under a special light. He had to bring the message of the Jewish Messiah - as the followers of Jesus have seen him - to a completely new audience. Of course his followers were not merely gentiles, and so he had to avoid the establishment of two classes in his communities. For him the gentile had the absolute same value as a circumcised Jew. From now on every Christian believer was regarded as a priest in the holy celestial temple. From a more mystical perspective, we could say that this spiritual priesthood was the destination of the spiritual ascent.How later the church reasoned the invention of a physical priesthood is its own topic, but when we follow scripture itself, we can see the division of humanity only into two groups: the believer and the unbeliever. Some may also add the 144,000 of the book of Revelation, but it becomes clear that those elected from Israel are completely becoming one with the big crowd from the nations. As we learned in the last article, day and night became one, as well as man and woman. Although they're separate timings or individual beings, they become one unity in spirit. Jesus and his father, as mentioned, became one. Although they're two separate beings, they are one in spirit. As books like Acts or Galatians make clear, it is from now on not necessary anymore to take on Jewish identity to become one with God. Although the law remained the standard of how to set up the life of the Jewish follower of Jesus, it's not binding for the gentile, except for keeping the Mitzvot (precepts) that the apostles gave to the gentile believers in Acts 15. The apostle Paul made clear that the law is from now on circumcised in our hearts (Romans 2:15). The great danger for a Christian of becoming Torah observant is that the next step would be Jewish conversion, after which most of them will forsake Jesus completely. From now on we will bind ourselves with a system of reward and punishment according to the actions of the law that we obey or not obey. To die with Jesus on the cross means to leave this calculation. This does not mean that the believer couldn't become a victim of divine judgment, because the Bible tells us that those who draw closer to God are the first who get disciplined (1 Peter 4:17), but we should not submit ourselves under a system that promises us rewards according to the observance of special timings and seasons. With the cross, we go beyond the cause and effect chain of physical reality. This means that when we practice repentance for our misdeeds, we can prevent divine judgment from coming over us. This topic is theologically and spiritually very complex, and we will dig deeper in the next postings...

When Jesus was asked what would be the highest precept, he answered, "Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad" - "Hear oh Yisrael, that the Lord our God the Lord is One." This is an all encompassing unity, as the Bible states in the first verses in original Hebrew that there was "one day" instead of "the first day". This means that the first day of creation represented a unity of polarities like day and night. Later we read of man and woman, that they should become "one flesh" that there will be no separation between them, although they're seemingly two separate individuals. Jesus said that he and his father are one, which means that they're spiritually a complete unity. And so also his followers should become one, as he is one with his father. Meant is the unity in community.

Why can't we confront something as complex but at the same time as simple as life itself? Why are we bound to suffer? Why does it feel as if we would be constantly imprisoned in a dark cage of our own self-identification? Why can't we simply live life to the fullest? Why are we feeling so compromised when there should be instead a wide horizon before our eyes?External religion alone won't lead man anywhere. It is the hope for something that does not exist. All heavenly promises are a lie. We must come to the realization that we won't attain something in the afterlife that we haven't attained in this lifetime. In reality, as we have learned, there exists only the light and the vessel. When we depart from this world, we will only take that with us, what we have attained during our spiritual work in this world. When we have completely fulfilled our purpose, there will be no reason anymore to return to this world. If not, our soul will choose a new body in the next lifetime to complete its task. Man himself is the only being in this world that has the choice between good and evil. Everything that has to do with a limited self-identification, a pursuit for oneself alone, is regarded as 'evil.' Everything that helps us to come out of the limited perception of our body and that has to do with receiving for others is regarded as 'good.'Man is the bridge between the animal kingdom and the kingdom of the divine. Man's purpose in the end is to rise even above the angels. This makes many beings and forces jealous of man. The heavens are full of evil entities that seek to obstruct man so that he cannot fulfill his divine purpose. These forces are often called Klipot, or shells, whose purpose it is to diminish the divine light. Every world, so to say, is like a Klipah (shell) in relation to the world above it. This can be compared to a nut, which consists of multiple layers. Christian imaginations that there would be a war in heaven do not really exist in Kabbalah in a direct sense, but the truth is that there are existing forces that are opposite to each other, and man can choose with his deeds to which system he attaches himself - the pure or the impure system.The more we connect to the noble, the true, and the beautiful, the higher our destiny rises. There are a couple of destinies before us. Every moment in which we choose the good, we create, so to say, a better universe for ourselves and others. Every time we choose evil, we descend to a place of more pain and chaos. With constant spiritual work, we can choose the best world for us and for the people around us, as long as they go the path with us. In spirituality, constant planning and calculating won't work. In spirituality we have to adjust to the opportunities the universe is providing to us. We must achieve a feeling to  always make the right choice - to act according to our soul's purpose and not according to the fears of our ego. The difficult and hard path is mostly the right one.

The two letters called Hei in the name of God are looking exactly the same, and so it is with our world and the other world, just that the law of the other world is one of selfless giving, while the law in our world is the one of receiving for the self alone. Receiving for the self alone expresses itself in the law of gravity and the consistency of death and decay. The bush that burns but that is not consumed by its fire is a symbol for the spiritual force that contradicts the laws of physical expiration. How can something or someone exist in the world of time while it or he is not disintegrating?

Everything is determined by the size of the vessel — the bigger the vessel the more light is to be received. The size of the vessel is determined by desire. Someone who is on higher degrees of Cabbala has bigger desires. In contrast to many other spiritual methods desire is not perceived as something negative that we have to nullify. The vessel can only be expanded through the influence of the surrounding light. This surrounding light can be only awakened through the study of the authentic scriptures and the help of a community of like-minded people. In Cabbala, we don't see the Christian tradition as negative, but as a parallel covenant to the Jewish tradition. The apostle Paul made this clear in Romans 11, that Israel are not forsaken, but elected for the sake of the forefathers. When the gospel would have been preached to the entire world of the gentiles the veil would be lifted, and Israel would recognize the true Messiah. When the Jewish tradition would be correct, Christians who stick to the Noahide commandments wouldn't be condemned either. The laws that the apostles gave to the gentiles are not much different to that, what in Judaism would be called 'Noahide covenant'.As Christians of course we believe, that there's no difference between Jew and gentile anymore. Depending on the theology one is following there could be a difference between one's duties before God. When we take the New Testament per se, we see that most of the apostles have still followed the Jewish law after the crucifixion of Christ. That's why the Christian dogma, that Jesus would have ended the law on the cross is not entirely correct. In Acts 15 was a dispute about which laws to give to the gentiles with the consent in verse 29 “… to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality” (NIV). In Christianity the faith in the death of the Messiah replaces the observance of the 613 precepts of the Jewish law. It's a cabbalistic principle, that we can receive the light and consciousness from someone who has once walked upon earth and who has attained higher spiritual states. The energy that those sages have left behind won't get lost. Through the bloody death of Jesus Christ he has opened a gate for us, that can lead us directly into heaven. In Cabbala heaven is not a mere place or dimension after death. Heaven is a synonym for higher states of consciousness. What we attain in those states is eternal. Thus, once we're there, fear of death will vanish, because for the first time we will realize what our soul really is. Our soul comes out directly from the light of God, while the body's nature is the desire to receive, which is completely opposite to the light of God. Body and soul must become realigned once again, but the way to this can take an entire lifetime, if not multiple lifetimes. One starts in this life from where he has ended in the previous lifetime. Someone who has undergone corrections in his previous lives will see, that he advances very quickly in the first years of his study of Cabbala. And he will soon attain the same degrees, that he has achieved in the life before.

The purpose of Cabbala is not the one of becoming rich or healthy or to find true love. Those blessings may be all side effects or like flowers one is picking up across the way, but not its main purpose. The only objective of Cabbala is to get out of one's own skin — to perceive the world that exists outside our own egoism. When we look ourselves into the mirror we realize, that the only one we really love is ourselves. Of course, we want that our children are loved and successful too, but in the end only for presenting ourselves better before others. Everything in this world is defined according to one's advantage for oneself alone. We love our partner because he does us well.In the spiritual world everything is defined according to the law of love thy neighbor as thyself. In the spiritual world the law of bestowing to each other is in charge over everything. Gravity is the expression of receiving for oneself alone. It's mysterious opposing force — not found by science yet — is the spiritual law of giving. When someone would have transformed all his aspects to receive for the sake of sharing, he could literally fly. Gravity would have no power over him. Thus, Jesus could walk over water.As I've stated in the last blog entry, knowing everything better than others plays no role in Cabbala. It is not important to what religion you belong. God looks solely into one's own heart. You could fulfill all external rituals of your own tradition, but when your own heart is rebellious against the laws of God, they can become a matter of idol worship. Thus, Jesus emphasized the importance of the quality of the heart — “Cleanse the cup first on its inner, that the outer may become clean as well.”Once one is getting out of one's own skin, he's born in a different world. There he experiences his true immortality. He attains a perception of the world which lies and functions beyond the five senses. There time and space are defined differently. They don't follow a continuous procession of moments in a linear time/space continuum. In the spiritual world I can go, where I want to according to the qualifications or corrections I've undergone. Everything is defined by the greatness of the vessel. The greater the vessel the more light is to be received. The expansion and correction of the vessel we will discuss in the next entry.

Man is very, very old — at least as the universe itself. We seem to perceive an outer world before us, but everything we perceive actually exists within. All worlds — not only the higher but also this world — exists inside man. God has created it this way so that we can measure our own inner changes according to the image that we perceive in our brain. Our inner dimension — mind and soul — is inherently connected with the physical dimension that we think would exist outside. But all changes that are happening are, in reality, only happening in our own souls. It is like we would reflect our own psychological processes on the screen that we would call 'this world.'In Judaism, the Kabbalah is deeply connected with the observance of the Torah and Mitzvot (the law and its precepts). Today more and more Christians take interest in it, but we generally lack a real cabbalistic pathway that would be adjusted to their traditions and beliefs. Many Christians come to Torah or Kabbalah but begin to forsake then their own spiritual and mystical roots. This must not be. That's why I decided to restart my blog, especially for the needs and desires of Christians who are interested in the Hebraic roots of Jesus. In early Christianity, those roots were not so rejected as today. It's a pity that antisemitism and the rejection of everything that has to do with the Torah or the Jews is an everyday experience in today's Christianity. This is often mixed with abstruse conspiracy theories. Sometimes the unity of God is regularly battled by the modern missionaries of different sects. The Bible typically becomes downgraded to a mere slogan instead of becoming a book for deep theology. On the other side, we have many of those esoteric New Age cults that try to tear out Kabbalah or Cabbala from its religious context in which they exist. The literal understanding of scripture must always go hand in hand with its hidden, esoteric part. Have the gospels themselves not stated that Jesus spoke in parables to the masses, but to his disciples he taught the secrets of the kingdom of God? In the same way, Paul stated that his followers would be only ready for the milk, but they — the apostles — would have also received a hidden teaching that would exist since the beginning of the world.In a world where man today is only degraded to a mere number in a gigantic fabric of materialism, we more than ever must find those old mystical depths again. Every religion has its own mystical language. Someone who converts to a religion that he is not born into is like knowing it better than God, because God exactly knows where to place a soul. Through my studies of Kabbalah, I chose the more uncommon way to go back to my own Christian roots instead of choosing to convert to Judaism. I want to invite the reader on a journey to the inner dimension of our own being. There, all contradictions in the end will be solved. An attitude of knowing everything better than others is not the purpose of this blog. Because of this know-it-all attitude, the temple has been destroyed. A real mystic knows that he knows nothing, and exactly here starts the journey…