olam of exile becomes olam of geulah

The rectification of both solar and lunar calendars is taking place now as we approach springtime.A very prominent and well viewed total lunar eclipse marked the holiday pf Purim katan in this leap month of Adar one which kicks off the forty five days of happiness that precedes the festival of Pesach and redemption. Between now and the total solar eclipse on Tammuz29/August1, the yahzeit of Rashi, we will experience an avalanche of revealed miracles out of the continual state of concealed miracle that is the olam/world.In Zohar on the Torah parsha Pikudei for next week we have; “These are both accounts of the Tabernacle, the Tabernacle of the Testimony” Rabbi Aba opened the discussion with the verse:”And in that day it shall be, that the root of Yishai….(Isaiah11:10).”In that day “ refers to the time when the Holy One, Baruch HaShem will increase peace in the world, and then the root of the Tree of Life will prevail. From this root all other roots will prevail below, for they are all rooted and draw their strength from it”. For this weeks parsha of Vayaquel we have the people gathered together by Moshe Rabbeinu and the Zohar begins about how the great enemy amalek (from the root to cut off or uproot), “ So Amalek, the evil serpent of Israel, was lying in wait for them on the cross-roads, as is written:”how he set himself against him in the way’. He was lying in ambush on high in order to defile the sanctuary, and below in order to defile Israel…He has arrayed against thee that evil serpent from above that he may defile thee on all sides” and were it not that Moses from above, and Joshua from below, put forth all their strength, Israel would not have prevailed against him. It is for this reason that the Holy One cherished His enmity against him throughout all generations, inasmuch as he planned to uproot the sign of the covenant from its place” ZoharII-195a(sperling trans)Moshe above as the sun and tiphereth omak/depth with Joshua below as the moon and yesod omak/depth make the work possible. Miriam as the priestess of malchuth, the sea of all olamim/universes sees us across the little sea into the world of geulah. The calendars solar and lunar are healed this very spring and the seventeen years of the “exile" of Israel before he was “gathered” to his peoples(Gen49)is being completed. The eclipses are shaarim/gates that tell us the story. Happy Spring!

Michael and Samael/ the Eight Vestments of Tezaveh

This weeks Torah pasrsha of Tezaveh is studied diligently by all those throughout history who have sought the knowledge of the identities of the twelve precious stone in the Choshen, the breastplate of the Kohen Gadol, the high priest. Although the special stones as part of the ancient technology that interfaces "upper and lower “palaces is literal, the number of stones, twelve on the Choshen, may also lead astray the seeker. While people may search for the identity of all the stones there are actually a much fewer number that are really essential. The Book of Bereishet/Genesis tells us only two that are found in the rivers coming out of Gan Eden, the Shoham and the bedilcha/crystal. The sepher Yetzirah hints at three in it’s first chapter when the author tells us that the world was made with three Sepharim which hints at three kinds of sapphires, precious stones. We know it is talking of stones since the word chet-chet-koph/Chachak is mentioned. This means to engrave as in stone substance. As stated elsewhere the Zohar tells us that there are seven Hechalot/palaces in the upper worlds and the aggada/legends tell us that they are made of seven different kinds of gems. We now know that science separates the crystalline substances in the Earth’s crust into seven different lattice structures. Two obvious ones out of the seven come to mind when the two shoham stones each with six names on each are mentioned. The cubic and hexagonal crystal forms each with six sides but a different shape due to axis alignment. The word argaman/purple is mentioned several times in this parsha and then the 101 posukim/sentences hint at one of the angel seraphim that the letters in Argaman stand for. This is the popular guy Michael whose name has a gematria of 101.The Zohar tells us that he is the high priest in the heavenly temple and so this is a fitting remez/hint in this section that deals with the high priest's garments and functions here in the physical world. The coming up of the festival of Purim and this month of Adar remind us of another secret level behind this parsha, the eight vestments, the priesthood and the seraphim. Purim has us being aware of polarities and enigmas and so the one we find here would be the angel Michael’s great historical adversary, Samael. As the sar/prince of Rome he struggled with Jacob at night and out of this Israel and her story came about and so we are even here discussing this right now. The root of the “bad guys” name, sam,sameck-mem, means both blind and potion or poison. The potion implies healing as well as hurting. The bad guy as in the story of Purim is essential to the great miracle and the consequent healing. This holds true in the big story as well as in the little stories. Amalek, the great adversary as Torah tells us, is made of two roots amal and malak that implies laboring at cutting off or smiting, or disconnecting. The very name of the parsha Tezaveh means connecting to. Here is the great polarity again. The “evil” is as being cut off from the source and the “good” is being connected up. To be connected to the source we need to incorporate the polarities and yes even the “bad guy” angel Samael has had to be brought back in to the circle of seraphim and the priestly lineage. The Qumran scrolls even have a small work about Michael, angel of light quarreling with Belial/samael, angel of dark over who owns the body of Mose’s father, Amram. Here they are depicted as two great dragons coming face to face! Here is the essential polarity.Remember Jacob and Esau struggling as great dragons even in the womb of their mother Rebbeca. Compassionate infinite love engaged with eternal blind pure fire of desire.Everything in detail about setting up the priesthood and their vestments, all Eight, to bring the struggle into the drama in Earth. Haman/Amalek and Mordechai/Israel with the secret key being, as Esther, having the chayah soul of the world. Venus as Esther/aster, the planet that describes the pentagram of life in her Eight year cycle in sky. Achasverosh as sovereign of 127 provinces(years of Sarah’s life)has a name containing shoresh, the connected root of the great Tree. Happy Adar!

Heart of Solomon's Mystery Palace/Argaman

We are at the heart of the mystery of Solomon’s holy temple and the lineage of priestly initiation that involves the temple tradition. At the end of last weeks Torah portion of Mishpatim we have the elders of Israel seeing the Source of all that Is on the Sapphire crystal throne. Plain and pashat and simple, a crystal substance that is the foundation of the real Temple mysteries. In this weeks Torah parsha of terumah we have the details of the mishkan, the dwelling place for the Shekinah, the kingdom aspect of the Source in the physical world. Mentioned is the word Argaman, translated as purple. This word is a key to the deep secret. The Zohar on terumah tells us, “it is written, King Solomon made him a palanquin(apiryon) of the Trees of Lebanon. He made the pillars of silver, the bottom thereof of gold, the covering of it of purple/argaman, the midst thereof being paved with love by the daughters of Jerusalem”(SS III,9,10). This verse we interpret as follows, Apiryon symbolizes the Palace below which is formed in the likeness of the Palace above.”Zohar II127a(Sperling trans). The substance in pashat, the very literal physical interpretation here, is a crystalline substance that interfaces with the highest of the being realm, the hidden source of the flow of creative juice into our physical creation. Argaman as purple is a key word found throughout Torah, tanach and the oral Torah. The five letters as is well known stand for the initials of the celestial beings, Auriel, Raphael, Gabriel, Michael, Nuriel. This is very much connected with the Islamic tradition of Hadith that the being that sounds the final trumpet is Israphil., hinting at the exalted realm of the Seraphim. All of the terms of the miskhan in Torah are so often made into metaphors and varied symbolic interpretations, so often that most people do not believe this has any literal/pashat reality. Understand this as a literal specific part of an ancient sacred technology and then understand Torah, written and oral with a whole new Foundation. The sacred vessels/kedoshim of Solomon’s Temple were reworked into items that hid them from the general peoples as they were passed through various lineages of the priestly peoples. Read the story ,”The Buried Candelabrum” by the great Jewish author Stephan Zweig. Most stories relate that they were buried somewhere around the building site of the First beit haMikdash. The true tales and legends hint at their being reworked in order to truly “bury” them for protection and keep them available for the time of the geulah. Actually the seven generations from Abraham Avinu to Moshe Rabbeinu at Sinai represent the sevenfold descent of HaShem’s Shekinah into our world fully. Rashi tells us that the full manifestation of Shekinah was at the bringing of the first set of Sapphire stones. The Mishkan building was only needed to Tikkun/ rectify due to the incomplete ability of the holy peoples to receive the descent. What follows is Rashi’s and the Ramchal’s statements that the third holy beith Hamikdash will only need to be hooked up so to speak with the true gate that connects the upper to the lower Palace/Heckal. As people come to understand that the “future” temple/Palace is already here NOW, we will perceive the awesome flow of the upper waters into our world. The change has begun! We are moving into the time of the celebration of Purim, when the miracles of creation become visible as the contraries in the world meld into each other and speak to the achidus/unity of all that is. the secret of Esther, the morning star as sister royal of the Source as sovereign, rises in the twilight of dawn to herald a renewed Earth.