5/29/04 Mikhael
transcription in Wellington, Colorado
Been climbing the ladder for 20 years, and still don’t understand half of what I study.
7th Heaven – a good book. “When we experience the holiness of Shabbat, we attain the highest levels of Da’at.” Holiness + Wisdom = Da’at, a kind of knowing. The highest level of Da’at that we can achieve in our conscience is the realization that God is altogether incomprehensible. We really know nothing at all.
The kingdom of God is an upside-down kingdom. The Baptists used to send an outline of what was to be studied each week. The more I know, the more I know that I don’t know. This is the opposite of the way it is with any worldly field such as marketing, psychology, science, etc. In 1993, took a course in international marketing & got really good at it. Expanded own business internationally.
About the time you think you know something, that’s where Amalek comes along. My son says, “tell me, what’s the gematria for Amalek?” “What has the same gematria as Amalek?” He said DOUBT. That’s why I like Michael Rood, because he gives evidence. When we have doubt as to what he wants each of us as Tzadakim to do, we’re lost. “Don’t ever forget what Amalek has done through all your generations – he comes up behind you and picks off your women and children, and thus kills you.”
Today in the world there are 15 major bloody conflicts going on. 2 million Sudanese Christians have been slaughtered in the last 2 years. 14 of them involve Hamas – chaos, fear, Islam. The one that isn’t is Ireland & England.
A couple of weeks ago I wanted to talk about the anatomy of the soul. The book is difficult to comprehend. It includes quotes from La Khute la Moran, a very difficult book which is about $1200. When we came back to the US we brought back nothing but 600 pounds of books. If there was a Santa Claus, I’d want Midrash Rabbah. Also the Zohar.
A Tzaddik is anyone no matter who they are or what level, is a truly righteous person. RamBam & the other sages, we think of them as Tzaddiks. Sometimes we put ourselves as “They’re righteous and I’m not.” No matter where a person is at in their level of knowledge & understanding, if they’re living according to what they understand, they’re one. Just live out where you’re at to the fullest with righteousness & understanding.
I see sometimes when I talk about the Zohar, Kabbalah, Sephirot, sometimes I see people getting freaked or bored because they don’t understand it. “Oh no, numerology, astrology, etc.” If I were the Devil, I would want everything outside the normal Christian understanding to be put in that category automatically. It’s Amalek, and that’s what we have to fight through all the generations.
The spiritual wilderness is never really knowing God. Jeremiah 13:9(?) we inherit our father’s lies.
I jumped from what’s going on in the world and related it to the parallel of what’s going on in our lives. We’re going beyond that, where Paul went in 2 Cor. 12 – “I saw unspeakable things.” I’d like to explain it, but I can’t. You have to experience it yourself.
Pardes is levels of understanding of Scriptures. You begin to see the basic elements of creation.
Where we’re going with the soul, relating it to our anatomy, 613 commandments, 248 limbs & parts, 365 sinews, muscles, ligaments. That seems like not to be a coincidence to me.
The Zohar says that the soul is so much higher than the flesh, that only the lowest level of the soul fits into the flesh like a foot fits into a shoe. That’s the Nefesh. 5 different levels, each level ascending to where the highest level, Yechidah (Echad, unity with God.) The darkness that we live in and the illusions that we see become illuminated, so we can see beyond where we are. Our souls can’t perceive because we live in Nefesh for the most part.
Neshamah, is a person who is communing on a level with an understanding that there is a God who relates to me. The next 3 levels are ones we can’t attain easily. Ruach, Chayyah, Yechida. As we have the lights come on & the illusions come clear we might take the next step into Ruach.
The moon needed to be clothed in Midot – the light of the moon?
Gili:
The story was about how at birth a servant and a prince were
switched. The king was actually hidden, prepared for kingship. He
went out & took a job driving cattle. His boss was very mean. 2
cattle ran off into the forest. It gets to be night & he is very
afraid. The animals are moving around. He told the story about how
the moon, how the animals were moving and calling to God to allow the
moon to shine. God said he would clothe the moon. They were roaring
&
upset. When he was told this story, he wasn’t afraid of the
animals, because he realized there was something deeper.
Mikhael: That wasn’t the story, but it’s a good one anyway.
Genesis: a little about creation.
When God created man in his image, that image was a Sephirot. Rabbi Nachman said it. When Adam was created, it was without flesh, as light. After he sinned he became clothed. The Middot clothes us – keeps the essential nature of who we are hidden, mostly from each other. If we could flip on the video player of someone right now, we would probably be freaked out. Even play a video of our thoughts, things that pass through our mind. Everything that is hidden will be revealed. Your sins will be shouted from the rooftops. When you throw yourself into God, and say “nothing matters any more”, watch all the Sandedrin on the rooftops running around with big signs about everything you’ve ever done --- I have nothing to fear. I don’t know about anything like that in my life, and I’m free. I like that feeling.
Adam was given a covering of skin which concealed his essence. Netzirah… Midrash Rabbah -12:20 Adam had a body of light so the angels even considered worshipping him. 34:30 Moses came down from the mountain with the tablets of testimony, the people were afraid of looking in his face. He had elevated the Nefesh of his soul from that 40 days with God. The skin that he was clothed in began to be illuminated with the aura of God. Even after Adam sinned, he glowed. His actions caused an occlusion of God’s light. (Our souls were in the heart of God, created at the beginning of the world.)
All of our lives the Nefesh yearns to get back to God. Eventually the soul begins to diminish its desire. Some elderly, their souls have diminished, and it’s difficult to bring them in. When you’re young, you really want to be brought back.
Adam’s body of light Koth Not Ohr where Ohr is spelled Aleph, Bat Resh, the light revealed the soul, congealed into a body of skin and hide. It hid the soul.
When you really glow, people can see who you are. You don’t care, its like you’re living in another world. You’re above all the mundane things like how you can impress people or make money or the illusions. You’re not living only in the Nefesh, satisfying only the Besar.
I had an experience like that, when I was so broken, in a particular moment. We can’t survive brokenness a lot. Sometimes he takes us to a place to where there’s no hope, and then reveals Himself. “Go back there now and do right.”
Gen.2:8-9 In the Garden of Eden: (quote) the trees…
Every tree grew was pleasant to the sight & good for food. Even the tree they weren’t supposed to eat. The Tree of Life was in the midst of the Garden. A river went out, and then parted into 4:
Pishon Havilah
Gihon Cush
Hedekel in front of Assyria
Euphrates
Note the names.
These are concepts that have been part of my life, but so abstract that it’s difficult to relate.
Adam was commanded not to eat of the Tree of Life either according to the Kabbalah. If he had eaten of that first, and then the Tree of Knowledge, he would have been able to integrate. The greater level always includes the lower levels.
The mistake religion has made in studying the Torah has been trying to take you to another level. What we do, the literal still remains. We’re supposed to do that, even while doing the higher levels.
Reference Acts Chapter 10, Colossians Chapter 2. These are the areas Gentile Christians always come up with. With Acts 10, read further & get the context. The whole thing is about Gentiles & the Torah. V. 17 – says you will die twice, both spiritually and physically. According to Kabbalah, the prohibition applied to the Tree of Life, but only until the Shabbat.
Everything in creation God fashioned them to represent potentially opposing or complementary energies, depending on our use of them.
Life = soul
Knowledge = body
Adam’s mission was to transform the Tree of Knowledge into the Tree of Life.
Adam was lured into thinking that he could transgress and be all right.
We find ourselves outside of the garden, looking back at the Tree of Life and wanting to change things. Ever thought you wanted to do something differently from your past? These are mostly sin things.
Chapter 3: v. 24 Hashem drove out the man… the flaming sword turned every way. Adam wanted to go back, but he was blocked by the swords swinging in every direction. So he was in this world outside of the garden. The only way to walk in Pardes again was to learn how to elevate his soul, to ascend back to a Godly state as much as possible. This is our lives. Each of us has cherubim standing at the gate with swords flashing in every direction. If we get to Chayyah, we can walk right through the swords. We can see the illusions are lies. The swords are everyone’s situation.
I have nothing to be afraid of. Bring on the future. How can I say that? Because God, Hashem orders my steps and everything that relates to me he orders, no matter where he takes me.
Even places that are an abomination, he allowed us to go there. Nothing can happen to us.
I know that God loves me, he care for me, he has gone out of his way to chasten me.
This is where people turn from God, because they think they don’t deserve it.
Jonathan Sachs wrote we came from the desert to the Promised Land. The way to Jerusalem is always through the desert. A lot of us have spent a lot of time in the wilderness, but we’re still headed in that direction. We can do it, but we can’t do it when our soul is housed in the flesh. The only way we can do it is through the Spirit.
Next week we’re going to talk about the blood, connecting through it.
We have to come out of the Nefesh or the swords will cut us to pieces. Same word is translated in Hebrew for the souls of animals. The definition of a soul is life. Same word for animals and humans. But we have to come out of that place.
Chambers of Exchanges – correspond to the swords – each presents itself as the correct choice. These chambers are represented by our lives. What tastes bitter can become sweet and wonderful.
The obscurity of right & wrong found in the exchanges can correspond to the exchange of the prince for the servant. This is the source for the ongoing battle between the body and the soul.
Animals don’t have Neshama.
We can leave this by saying that you gotta consider or decide I’ve had enough. I’ve had enough of groveling. Your fears and your doubts are Amalek.