"The Turtle Talks Torah" Chapter Five: The Ten Depths and True Shape of the World

     

Ancient Hebrew worldview with the Earth as center and all the heavenly spheres/realms of beings emerging from the great ocean of soul

In this chapter we will discuss the basic cosmology or worldview found through the lens of the kabbalistic tradition. It is really fairly simple at its core and will greatly facilitate the smooth weaving of the tapestry we are working at communicating to the reader here in this writing of ten chapters. The commonly excepted view of modern western science about the world that we perceive is that it is made of a four-dimensional space-time continuum. There are three dimensions of space that stretch out to give us our physical reality. These are often referred to as length, width and height. These are each conceived as continuums or directions we can move in along a path, each with two endpoints that stretch infinitely in opposite directions. So we can move ahead of us or behind us (length), to the right of us or to the left (width), and up above us or down below us (height). These are the three continuums that define three-dimensional “space”. These dimensions can also be studied as geometric forms such as the line, the plane, and the cube. A thorough simple study of how these dimensions are related mathematically is important for a full understanding of the ten depths that are fundamental to the theoretical world view in kabbalah and how it differs from generally accepted scientific paradigms. A great little classic book about dimensionality and “higher space” is entitled Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott. I highly recommend this for a serious student of the wisdom traditions. The three continuums of space therefore have six infinite endpoints that stretch out in six directions around us. A full development of this scheme can be found in studying the most fundamental and very important book of kabbalah entitled, The Sepher Yetzira. The fourth continuum generally excepted in modern physics is that of time. It’s infinite endpoints are beginning or first (in the past) and the end or last (in the future). These two endpoints of linear time added to the six points of space give us the eight depths of the modern space-time conception of the world. Where the ancient world view of the author of the book the Sepher Yetzira differs from the modern is that there is postulated one more continuum, a fifth, called being, soul/nephesh, or life. The Sepher Yetzira tells us that the infinite end points of this dimension of being are Tov, good and Raa, evil. These are as much a commentary on what these “depths” or infinite endpoints are as much as anything. We really cannot describe what any of the 10 depths or endpoints of the five continuums are exactly. They are made “out of nothingness” /B’limah, literally “out of what?”according to the Sepher Yetzira.

 

This is the English translation of the Sepher Yetzira’s chapter 1:verse5 regarding these ten Omakim/depths, from Aryeh Kaplan's book on the “Sefer Yetzirah”

“Ten sefirot of Nothingness:

Their measure is ten

which have no end

A depth of beginning

            A depth of end

A depth of good

            A depth of evil

A depth of above

            A depth of below

A depth of east

            a depth of west

A depth of north

            A depth of south

The singular Master

            God faithful King

            dominates over them all

                        from his holy dwelling

                        until eternity of eternities.”

Basic ten Sephirot or Depths as the 6 faces, 3 axes and center of a 3-D cube

           The depths of the continuum of life, the fifth continuum, denote directions we can take and not not only a  stationary place or places. So we may move on our life path in either the direction of towards “good” or the divine, or we may move in the direction away from the “good” or divine. The basic amazing statement here in this world view is that being or life is it’s own dimensionality and it did not arise by chance out of a mix of inorganic matter over very long periods of time. Actually as we study this tradition we find that the reverse is true in a sense. Measurable matter and energy actually arises out of the primary “substance” of the being world, an ocean of soul. This being realm of soul is as primary and original as the space-time continuum and did not just develop with the outward appearance of life forms in the evolutionary timeline. There are therefore three realms that are postulated by the author of the Sepher Yetzirah: Nefesh/Soul; Shanah/Time(literally year) and Olam/space(literally world).This always reminds me of the saying of the Islamic holy man and poet, Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi. “The whole physical creation is as a speck of dust floating on the foam on a wave on the surface of the ocean of being.” The two depths or polarities of the fifth continuum of being, which are called the “depth of good and the depth of evil” carry great import for the picture we are painting in this writing. In all the material concerning the ancient Native American wisdom tradition we quite often have reference to the sacred twinness, which is at the root of all life and manifestation, and which is even found reflected in the divine. In the Plains Indian wisdom we particularly have the divine “greatperson” or “persons” called Wahkan Skan or Wahkan tanka. Wakan being the female mother of life and Skan or Tanka the male all father. These are twin mysteries that do in a sense point to the divine single mystery who is the origin and source of all twinness, including gender itself, and light and dark, day and night, good and evil. The singular Source I often call the Source of love or Hashem, literally in Hebrew, "the name"/God. The two male brother twins in many native American traditions are called flint boy and born of water, or Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca or in the Mayan Popul Vuh epoch they are called Hunahpu and Xbalanque, Heart of Heaven and Heart of Earth. In the Hopi tradition they are male twins who sit at the opposite ends of the Earth and keep her in balance and alive. These twins are within the lines of deep initiation representing the dance of how these polarities or depths of being do come into awareness of each other and together play a big part in any true place of initiation of the great mystery. The development of how the ten depths relate to each other and our world of qualities reflected in human life is also directly related to what in kabbalah is called the work of unifying the holy name in the world. The entire created manifested world is in play due to a dance of these polar forces of being which can be very conscious in a human being. As we develop this writing there is a thin thread running through that explains how certain personages play out a dance that brings the “good” direction and depth into a harmonic play with the “evil” direction and depth. The upcoming chapter on Israel and Rome develop this in regards to the initiation of the place of an Israel and the relationship to the twin brother Esau and his power or angel being who is the guardian of Rome. This  can coincide with the polar direction of “kingdom” or the depth of the being continuum which is in the direction away from the innocent first wisdom that transcends time and is oceanic in scope and all “good”. The direction towards this “evil” is developed through the great knowledge that comes with great age within time and can be associated with intense desire for its polarity. This is what the early works of Kabbalah say of the prince of Rome who is called Samael. This quote is from the Treatise on the Left Emanation, by Rabbi Jacob HaCohen in the 13th century,

”I will now set down the names of the princes of jealousy and enmity. Yet since their essence and their service is true and pure, their mouths are free from mendacity and neither lies nor falsehoods pass between them.

   The first prince and accuser, the commander of jealousy, is evil Samael, accompanied by his retinue. He is called "evil" not because of his nature but because he desires to unite and intimately mingle with an emanation not of his nature, as we shall explain.”(from the book The Early Kabbalah in the Classics of Western Spirituality  series.

We will develop the play between Rome (Samael) and Israel in the upcoming chapter but here is it’s very origin and root in the heart of the five-continuum worldview of Kabbalah and the polarity of the desire realm which the early kabbalists tie in closely to the angel/demons of the left emanation. This is really the dance of the twin Trees mentioned in the beginning of the book of Genesis; The Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and evil, both which are found in the center of the garden. They really are the same Tree except one is in a sense from the viewpoint of the outside and sensing the polarity of it all and the other Tree of Life is from the integrated center where all is resolved into a perfect symmetry of Peace and beauty. Some of the early Kabbalists saw the ten sephirot/spheres or depths divided into a left right polarity as in the form of a ladder or tree and proposed that the physical world hung in the balance of these polar divided powers or forces. This has been the basis of the "pop' Kabbalah now famous in the general world but it is kind of out of balance. It is only one perspective that needs to be simply integrated into rest of the living teaching where we come into a relationship with the divine center. Conscious beings, angels, demons and souls have their origin from different parts of this expanded play of the ten depths. The ten depths are also seen, as a development of the basic four lettered name of the divine and the work of the kabbalist is to reunite this name in a balanced and beautiful way in our physical world. This is a world of balance fully in the flow/sheaf of the divine influx. These ten depths are also depicted in a form of whirling out of a central source(see image) in the time of origin however this is always also happening and is actually a key to tikun olam or the realigning with the ongoing creative maelstrom so as to bring ourselves into the world of balance fully in the flow/sheaf of the divine influx.

The Ten Depths or Sephirot/Spheres whirling out of the pure realm(revealing the golden mean)

            A brief mention here is in order about how an understanding of this five continuum world view solves the great debate between advocates of the evolution of living organisms according to Darwinian theory and the advocates of creationism where all creatures are were made at once and roughly at the same time with no changes in form over long periods of time. These two views remind one of the old story from the Asian and Middle Eastern traditions about the five blind men and the elephant(see image). The folk tale tells of five blind men encountering an elephant. "It's a tree," says one, stroking a leg. "No, no, it's a rope," says another, feeling the tail. "No, this must be a wall," insists a third, spreading his arms against the bulk of the elephant's body. It is a tree says the one grasping the leg and the fifth says it is a fan while grasping an er. All five had a different perception of the elephant based on the part they examined, and all five conclusions were wrong. The elephant was larger and more complex than any of the men realized. Yet it was simple when all integrated as a whole.

Story of the blind men and the elephant

This relates exactly as to the argument between the two sides on the origins of life on earth. Each has only a narrow slice because their worldview is not inclusive enough to give us a more profound and full picture of how the cosmos has developed and is always in a continuous creative unfolding..  With the understanding of a fifth continuum of being or life as given to us from the ancient wisdom schools we can perceive how the physical world evolves out of a grander “ocean” of being which is it’s own dimensionality. Life forms or living organisms on Earth did not by chance simply appear out of inorganic chemicals over long period of time. Scientists have been trying to prove this by simulating conditions in a test tube with inorganic material. They have never “made” life and they never will. This is because life is it’s own vast dimension of being and it is the interpenetration of this fifth continuum which is life, with the physical world of space and time that allows forms of life to appear and evolve and grow over vast periods of time. The study of the relationships of the simple dimensions to each other as given in the book Flatland explain how the interpenetration of a higher dimensionality such as a three dimensional cone would look if it cut through or interfaced with a two-dimensional flat plane. A being living on the flat plane would first perceive a dot appear in his flat world, that world having only the dimensions of length and width. As the 3-D cone moved through the flat plane surface, the being in flatland would only then see the point becoming a circle that appeared to get larger and larger, similar to a growing thing, and then it would simply vanish as the cone completely left the flat surface world. The being in the flatland could not see anything beyond the two dimensions so he could not grasp the entire view of the 3-D cone, only a slice or cross section at a time.  When we understand these simple relationships between the geometrical bodies of one, two and three dimensions we can apply these same principles to the two higher or more complex dimensions or continuums called time and being. When each higher geometric figure interfaces or moves through a geometric body of a lower dimension we get certain patterns that appear in the body of the lower dimension that shows that a body of a higher dimension is moving through it. The example of this is the cone moving through a plane that shows in the plane as a point becoming a circle that grows steadily bigger and then disappears. To simplify this whole discussion and relate it back to the origins of life debate we can ask what is the pattern that the 5-D dimension of life or being creates within the physical world of three dimensions of space and the one of time? The one pattern ONLY found in living growing organisms is that of the golden mean or sometimes called the number progression known as the Fibonacci series after the Italian scientist who first recorded this mathematical phenomenon found only in life. So the golden mean proportion is the mathematical proof in our physical 4-D space/time world that life as the fifth continuum interfaces the 4 other continuums and appears in growth patterns to adhere precisely to this one mathematical proportion. This proportion is most easily seen in the progressive spiral of the nautilus seashell or the pinecone.

Fibonacci spiral and golden mean ratio found only in living organisms

Our own human bodies are built on this same proportion. It is our visual proof of the existence of the fifth continuum as the source “world’ of being that manifests in the physical world of time and space as living growing organisms. It is very simple and supremely beautiful! (5-d interpenetrates 3-D = golden mean)The Sepher Yetzira uses the fundamental principles of geometry to give us a view into the world made of five continuums. In the Sepher Yetzira,, The Book of Formation we have the golden mean proportion given to us discreetly in the fact that the ten sephirot are said to be as the fingers, ten and not nine, and ten and not eleven. From the Sepher Yetzira Chapter 1:3 and 1:4;Kaplan Trans.

“Ten Sefirot of Nothingness

            in the number of ten fingers

                        five opposite five

            with a singular covenant

                        precisely in the middle

            in the circumcision of the tongue

            and in the circumcision of the membrane.

Ten Sefirot of Nothingness

            ten and not nine

            ten and not eleven

Understand with Wisdom

Be wise with Understanding

            examine with them

            and probe from them

Make each thing stand on its essence

and make the Creator sit on his base.”

 They are also said to be placed together like our fingers five opposite to five. There are ancient pictures of the ten sephirot whirling out like a wheel of ten spokes(image above) from a center source point. This ten-faced polygon gives us the precise proportions of the golden mean as a five-side polygon or pentagram will as well. A nine sided or eleven sided polygon will not produce the golden mean proportion, only the ten sided polygon, which is a development of the five, like the five fingers of the hand. This is why the Yetzirah says “Ten and not nine, ten and not eleven”. This is a simple basic geometric principal of the golden mean which in ancient times was regarded as a supreme secret in the wisdom schools.

the golden mean ratio as depicted in a five or ten sided polygon as in a flower

The source of the blood covenant, or naming ceremony called “Bris milah”, the covenant of the flesh as a special form of prayer can also be seen here as related directly to the human body and the continuum of life and being and the fibonacci progression in days after birth.. We already discussed how on the ancient Mayan cave painting the nautilus sea shell (displaying the golden mean proportion) at the level of the generative organ in the picture of the priest initiate who is also shown piercing his own foreskin, signaled this ancient understanding of these same connections. We see the Fibonacci series in play here with the covenant of Abraham, the bris milah being performed as a ceremonial naming prayer in the presence of the whole community on the EIGHTH day of life,the "8" being the sixth number in the progression of the series: 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21....... With the addition of the beginning number as zero it then becomes the seventh number in the series although Fibonacci did not use the zero when he presented his discovery centuries ago. The magic of the serial progresion being found both in the geometrical spatial development as in animal and plant dimensions as well in the sequence of time and generation. As an ancient form of shamanic prayer ceremony this procedure brings the individual into a full presence, body and soul at a day where where the Fibonacci series of generative dance aligns with the OCTAVE of music.

Nat'l Geographic 1987 story/ ancient Mayan cave painting of priest with nautilus shell and piercing his foreskin

The importance of this golden mean ratio and fibonacci series is revealed in another way in the Sepher Yetzirah, the primer of kabbalah. The first chapter of the Sepher Yetzira also develops for the reader the form of a three dimensional cube as a worldview of three-dimensional physical space. The 3-D cube has eight points or corners called vertices. The 2-D plane has one half this or 4 corner points called vertices. The one-D line has two corner points or vertices. So we see that at each higher dimension form the number of vertices is doubled. We have the pattern so now we can count or postulate how many vertices a four-D cube, a tesseract, called a hyper cube should have. It would have twice the eight of a 3-D cube or sixteen. The 5-D hyper cube, which represents our vast dimension of being encompassing the entire creation, would have twice the number of vertices of a 4-D cube or thirty-two. Now we know why the ancient Sepher Yetzira, the primer of Kabbalah begins with,

“With thirty-two wonderful and hidden paths of wisdom

engraved Yah

            the Lord of Hosts

            the God of Israel

    the living God.........” (after kaplan translation) Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan discussed this amazing interpretation of the thirty two as the vertices of the 5-D hypercube.

 We also can see how these thirty-two “paths” that define a five continuum universe are hinted at in the Buddhist and Asian idea that enlightened humans are born with thirty marks or signs of their level of initiation. This means that they bring this inclusive consciousness of all five continuums into their present physical birth. This reference to the thirty-two marks of a Buddha or celestial bodhisattva can be found throughout the Buddhist writings.

Most turtle shells with the FIVE scutes/scales down the center=5-D fibonacci "talks" SOUL

            The universe is here stated to be built, geometrically from five continuums or dimensions. Each infinite end of each direction or continuum give us the ten depths that the Sepher Yetzira further elucidates with many details that describe the world and the human experience in this universe. A whole chapter is given over to the polarities and contraries that are fundamental to human experience such as pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow, life and death. The basic polarities of the continuum of soul as ‘good and evil” tell us that evil is not a particular thing or being like a devil outside of ourselves. This evil potential inside ourselves is called the yetzer Raa or evil impuese.. Evil/Raa is a direction that may choose to face which is away from the good direction. It is in this understanding that the Hebrew prophet proclaimed that the Source of love(God) created “evil”. HaShem(God) creates the map and it gives us the choice of what direction to journey in on our life path. ;Isaiah 45:7:” I am the Adonai; and there is none else;

} 7 I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil; I am the Adonai, that doeth all these things”.

            These ten infinite depths or spheres are called sephirot in Hebrew. They are traditionally and popularly placed in the form of a tree made of three distinct columns. This is called often the tree of life. This sacred tree of life called the Etz Chaiim in Hebrew is the same holy tree that the elder Native American Hyemehosts Storm wrote about in his essay that we quoted in chapter four.  The original root of the Tree of Life is in this writers understanding the divine being called the Shechinah in the Jewish teachings and we have a  chapter devoted to who she is as found in different traditions and religions. The Tree of Life is found in the wisdom traditions around the entire globe. The Tree is not only symbolic but is also the entire living creation and all it contains. There are other ways of understanding how the ten depths make up our world and reality and at the end of this chapter there is the tree in the form of a wheel where the Earth is actually in the center and embodies the tree in a healed and beautiful form. The tree however is a good symbol and we can find it in other wisdom teachings such as the European Iggradisll and the tree of life in the Native American traditions. The tree always provokes the idea that Life is the primary reality around which the entire creation is built from. This is a holistic and radically different worldview then that of modern science in the mainstream. Even many scientists are moving back to this understanding. Quantum physics gave us an understanding of how everything, every particle and wave of matter and energy are fundamentally connected. These five continuums of space/olam(3), time/shanah(1), and being/nephesh(1) develop out of the Source of love and the creator and sustainer of all.  We must first understand this creation and our place within the creation. In the Jewish tradition this is being able to say “Hineni” or “here I am” in full relationship with the Source of love and our origin. By giving the ten omakim or depths, qualities that we can understand as experiences within our emotional and intellectual experience we are helping define the very physical creation in a sacred way. This is part of the fundamental command to the Jewish people and students of the other faith traditions, to be vehicles for bringing holiness into the whole world around us. This walk within this holy tree is found in a traditional Navajo prayer, one version here from talking-feather.com online:

“Walking in Beauty: Closing Prayer from the Navajo Way Blessing Ceremony

In beauty I walk

With beauty before me I walk

With beauty behind me I walk

With beauty above me I walk

With beauty around me I walk

It has become beauty again

Hózhóogo naasháa doo
Shitsijí’ hózhóogo naasháa doo
Shikéédéé hózhóogo naasháa doo
Shideigi hózhóogo naasháa doo
T’áá altso shinaagóó hózhóogo naasháa doo
Hózhó náhásdlíí’
Hózhó náhásdlíí’
Hózhó náhásdlíí’
Hózhó náhásdlíí’

Today I will walk out, today everything negative will leave me

I will be as I was before, I will have a cool breeze over my body.

I will have a light body, I will be happy forever, nothing will hinder me.

I walk with beauty before me. I walk with beauty behind me.

I walk with beauty below me. I walk with beauty above me.

I walk with beauty around me. My words will be beautiful.

In beauty all day long may I walk.

Through the returning seasons, may I walk.

On the trail marked with pollen may I walk.

With dew about my feet, may I walk.

With beauty before me may I walk.

With beauty behind me may I walk.

With beauty below me may I walk.

With beauty above me may I walk.

With beauty all around me may I walk.

In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, lively, may I walk.

In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, living again, may I walk.

My words will be beautiful…” Beauty is the central balanced Sephirah in the Hebrew called Tipheret.

            I present in these pages a different way to study and use these 10 depths than has been given during the centuries by traditional Kabbalists. It is during the ceremonial days between the holiday of Passover and Shavuoth that the students of Kabbalah would use 7 of the “lower” sephirot to guide them in preparation for the celebration of the revelation at Sinai. Each of these depths carries qualities that we can use to help us follow the journey from “enslavement” as an isolated individual to “enlightenment” and revelation as a healed human bringing holiness into our self and into the world. I include here a ceremony that could be done at any time but particularly may be used during the seven weeks between Passover and Shavuoth and on the Eve of Shavuoth as a way to understand the continuums of our created world in a uniquely integrated and whole form.

                        THIS IS THE WHEEL OF THE TEN DEPTHS                                                             CALLED THE OMAKIM (depths) OR                                                                                           SEPHIROT (spheres) IN HEBREW

            This wheel dance of prayer and contemplation is closely fashioned to the ancient Gnostic round dances of the early Christians and Jews and celebrated their prayer and relationship to the divine mystery with movement and song. It is also inspired the beautiful dance and sacred movements found in the Islamic Sufi schools. Dancing this wheel involves a way of praying, meditating and counting the 49 days of the omer between Passover and Shavout. It is developed in the form of a wheel with the center representing the heart of the Earth globe and the blessed Sabbath Kingdom of Peace, both within the world and inside our selves. It can be used at anytime of the year, the 49 days between the feasts of Passover and Shavuot represent an archetypal count that brings us from slavery and constraint into revelation and freedom by opening our understanding and relationship to the divine mystery. For Christians this is the period in their ceremonial calendar between the Last Supper and the Pentecost when the disciples of Jesus were blessed with the fire of initiation and baptism.

            This is another way to contemplate the 10 sephirot that are a central teaching of the oral Torah called Kabbalah. This is specifically made to represent a world of the Tikkun Olam, a healed and balanced World where heaven and Earth have joined together. In this scheme the Shechinah who is the feminine part of the name of HaShem(the Creator) is the very neshama or soul of the planet earth, the original root of the Etz Chaiim/Tree of Life and called First Woman in some Native American teachings.  She lives in the Sabbath center where the first and tenth depths or sephirot are now situated together. These are called traditionally in English the crown and the Kingdom.

            The six words of the basic and most important proclamation of the unity of the entire creation and the divine mystery, the creator, are Shema Yisrael Adonai Elohaynu Adonai Echad. This is roughly translated as hear Oh Israel the Creator is our divinity; the creator is the unity and reality of all that is. The second and following verse is Baruch Shem cavod malchuto Leolam Vaed. This roughly means that blessed is the Name of the Divine glory in the Kingdom for all Eternity.

            As we pray the six words of the Shema in each depth of the circle (representing six days of the omer count) we complete the prayer with Baruch Shem Cavod Malchuto...., in the center of the wheel and in our own heart center. This the place of the depth called malchut, the kingdom of the world, mentioned in the prayer. Then we either cross the wheel to the opposite depth or move to the left to the next depth depending on the particular step we are on. We finish the wheel journey in the center with the Shema and the Baruch Shem cavod. (this is just if an individual is doing this)

            Before each Shema on each depth we may contemplate the quality of the sephirot and the Personage from the Jewish tradition that holds this quality and helps bring that wisdom into our own understanding.

            For each reciting of the Shema we slowly turn counterclockwise individually in place six times as we slowly sing the Shema with our hands raised. Each turn is one day like the turn of the earth on her axis. Then we take a step forward towards the center (if we are a group in a circle) and bringing our hands to our chest we say the Baruch Shem cavod.... for the seventh day of the first week. When working as a group we slowly circle around to take the opposite positions on the wheel (as if we crossed through the central hub). We repeat this process seven times - totally the 49-day counts. The final Shema of the fiftieth day we step towards the center(if in a group) and sing the shema using a visualization prayer where each of the six words is placed in the six directions - front/back; right/left; up/down around us and we say the Baruch Shem cavod... as we bring our hands to center in our chest. Then we finish with the Halleluyah for a healed Earth.

 

            Contemplations for each Depth and week:

 

Week One: Hod, the splendor of humility

Aaron the humble high priest whose path from the direction “behind” we walk as children of Israel. We do this particularly to fulfill the command to be a nation of priests who are to bring holiness to the whole world.

 

Week Two: Netzach, victory of destiny

Moses who climbs the mountain of life ahead of us and comes face to face with the creator, the great mystery whose name we are manifesting in this dance of life.

 

Week Three: Hesed, lovingkindness and mercy

Abraham, the father of the Jewish people who welcomed the stranger and had so much love that he lived the entire Torah in his heart before we stood at Sinai as a people. With our right hand we do mitzvoth to transform our world.

 

Week Four: Geburah, Glory of Strength and courage

Sarah, the mother of the Jewish people who gave birth at the age of ninety and fully accepted the covenant with the Creator. We accept what comes to us with our left hand and respond with courage.

 

Week Five: Tiphereth, Beauty of Balance

Israel who wrestles with the divine within and without. We hold the ideal of beauty above us as a guide to our life path.

 

Week Six: Yesod, the foundation of sexuality

Miriam, who brought us through the waters with joy and helped birth a people of holiness. Our foundation below us connects us to the depth of the Earth with our sexuality.

 

Week Seven: Chochma, wisdom of beginnings

Solomon, who built the first temple and only wanted wisdom and understanding for himself, we begin anew each day as the creator renews the creation. 

 

Shavuot, in the center of Sinai

Rachel and Leah, an Earth healed by the joy of the Sabbath

Most species of turtles have 37 scutes/scales on their top shells/carapace and 12 scutes on the bottom shell/plastron = 49 in total. The whole animal with life and soul is the FIFTY! Like the count of the omer/sephirot integrating creation into what Kabbalists call the Shaar HaNun, the complete fifty gates of wisdom.

         This ceremony brings us directly into the traditions about the appearance of the third Beth HaMikdash, or holy temple and how it is that it already actually interfaces with the Earth world in a new way. The legends tell us that in the fourth heaven which we remember from chapter two is a journey of 3750 years (of prayer) the heavenly holy temple exists eternally and that this one will come down to the Earth in a twinkling of an eye. There are seven heavens in the kabbalistic tradition and as also stated earlier these are said in the legends to be made of seven kinds of crystals. Each heaven is a seed in a sense within the higher continuums of time and being that develops into one of the seven “lower” depths or sephirot. The bringing of the eternal Holy temple from the fourth heaven into our physical world is another way of speaking about the healing of the world called the tikun olam. There is some debate about how the Third temple appears. Many traditional Jews believe it needs to be built by people, as in the Torah there is the commandment to build a holy house or beit haMikdash. However many rabbinic sages have said that that commandment was already fulfilled by the building of the first two temples in Jerusalem and that the third temple would not be a man made building as the Zohar states. Part of the aim of this writing is to explain how it is that the third temple is already here, that it actually includes the entire earth and that it was brought in line with the physical world from the realignment of the upper dimensions with the lower dimensions that took place when the sacred fire of the comet came by the earth in 1990 and fulfilled it’s work of reuniting the soul substance of the being of the Earth here in the physical world and through the human world. A summary on the web about Rabbi Moshe Luzzato’s book called Mishkney Elyon reveals the basis for the heavenly temple in relation to it’s manifestation on earth and the entire manifestation of the physical world built on the ten depths called the sephirot. Here is part of this introduction,

“Consider an example of how numbers create space: A room that is forty feet in length, twenty feet wide and twenty feet high is "created" by walls of appropriate length and height. In the language of Mishkney Elyon, the floor-space of such a room is created through the "joining" (Chibur) of forty and twenty. Chibur is the Hebrew word for the mathematical relationship expressed by x, the multiplication sign. We would say that the room is 40 by 20, and 20 high, or 40 x 20 x 20. The mathematics of Mishkney Elyon are no more complicated than that.

As Ramchal(Luzzato) proceeds with his "tour" of the various areas of the Temple, he shows how each individual Hall, Chamber, Wall, Gate and Courtyard "appears" as a result of the "joining together" of some or all of the letters of various Divine Names. These names correspond to the Sefirot and Partzufim, which are the Middot, "qualities" or "measures". Chibur, "joining" and "multiplication" of the "measures", brings into being three-dimensional "spaces" where the axes of "length", "breadth" and "height" are the three "lines" or "columns" of Chesed, Kindness, Din, Judgment and Rachamim, Mercy and Balance (see Sefer Yetzirah 1:13).

The Temple that Ramchal explains to us in Mishkney Elyon is that seen by Ezekiel in his prophetic vision. The Angel appeared to the Prophet with his "measuring rod" and "linen cord", taking him on what today would be called a "virtual" three-dimensional tour of the entire Temple, showing him every detail and giving him exact measurements. These "measurements" are the Middot, the Sefirot and Partzufim, and their interactions and "joining" create "space". The Temple that Ezekiel saw exists in metaspace, or in the language of religion and Kabbalah, space as it is "above", "in Heaven".

Yet the Sefirot and Partzufim hold sway on all levels of creation, spiritual and physical. Numerical relationships between the various names are capable of being expressed in the form of the finite, physical three-dimensional "Halls", "Chambers", "Gates" and "Courtyards" of the Temple in this world. The Heavenly Temple is thus a hologram that exists on a level beyond space as we know it – "in Heaven" – and as such it is the very blueprint of creation. Yet this same hologram is destined to actually manifest in physical space in the form of the Third Temple on Earth. This will be the tangible embodiment of the holographic pattern.’

And here is a particularly incredible part of the book about the foundation stone, the Eben Shetiyah that we discussed in chapter eight,

“The Foundation Stone

When the Creator willed the creation of this world, He included everything in ten great lights [the ten Sefirot] from which all the different creatures emerged like branches extending from the trunk of the tree. There is nothing in the whole of existence that does not have its place in the supreme Chariot/Merkavah.

The last of these ten lights [Malchut] is called Shechinah [the Indwelling Presence]. It is here that all existing beings are rooted. Understand this well. For besides the roots that all existing beings have in the other higher lights, they also all have a root in the Shechinah, which is therefore called "the mother of children". Everything comes forth from her hands, and for this reason all things are rooted in her.

Understand that there is a special place known to her where all these roots come together. [This is the Heavenly Temple.] In that place is the root of all things, both those that depend on her and those that depend on the other higher lights. In that place are the roots of the earth and all it contains, the heavens, the heavens of the heavens and all their hosts without exception.

In the middle of the place where all these roots come together, there is a single "stone". [This is in the Holy of Holies of the Heavenly Temple.] This stone is most precious. It possesses every kind of beauty and charm. It is called the Foundation Stone (Even Shetiyah). There is a corresponding stone in this world - the lower world - in the place of the Holy of Holies, as will be explained later.

Stretching out in all directions from this stone are channels and pathways leading to all things. At their start these channels are great highways governing and regulating all the different orders and species of created beings, all of which have a deep inner knowledge of their root paths. From here they all receive their share of the constant sustenance given to them by the King.

Branching off from these highways are countless smaller pathways containing the individual roots of every single being in creation from the biggest to the smallest. Each one has its own unique pathway.

All these channels and pathways start in the place I mentioned at the outset. From the point where they all join together in the stone in the middle of this place, the Creator watches over them and scans them all with a single glance. This is the secret of the verse: "He forms their hearts together, He understands all their works" (Psalms 33:15). For this stone stands at the heart of the universe, and there all things are gathered in and joined together and scanned in a single glance by the King.”

This idea of the foundation stone brings us directly to the theme of this writing where a sacred stone technology is actually the holy Eben Shetiyah that unites the heavenly temple with the physical world and bring the upper worlds in a new alignment with the physical that enacts the full healing or Tikun olam. The sage Rashi was also a proponent that the third temple would be revealed and sent from heaven in an instant, completely built. It is said that when the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed the gates of the temple sunk into the ground and that in our times these will rise up and be fastened to the heavenly temple by the Moshiach who would then be given the credit of having built the whole temple in the physical. Each of us humans on the path of initiation are as candidates to be the moshiach that builds this third holy temple and makes sacred in our own journey this holy Earth. From the Sepher haZohar we have this said about this same third holy temple (soncino trans),

“”The lord buildeth Jerusalem”(psalms 147:2)He and no other. It is for this building that we are waiting, not a human structure which cannot endure. The Holy One, blessed be He, will send down to us the first house and the second house together, the first in concealment and the second openly. The second will be revealed to show all the world the handiwork of the holy One, blessed be He, in perfect joy and gladness. The first, which will be concealed, will ascend high over that which is revealed, and all the world will see the clouds of glory surrounding the one which is revealed and enveloping the first one which ascends to the height of the glorious heavens. It is for that building that we are waiting. Even the future city of Jerusalem will not be the work of human hands, all the more so the temple, God’s habitation.”

From cover Idel's book "Kabbalah, New Perspectives" with a balanced wheel of the ten Depths