From: heb_roots_chr@mail.geocities.com Sent: Tuesday, October 14, 1997 1:07 AM To: Hebraic Heritage Newsgroup Subject: Should Christians study Kabbalah?
From: Barry Meadows To: heb_roots_chr@geocities.com Subject: Re: Should Christians study Kabbalah?
Dear sirs,
In your anwser to my question"is there any value for a Christian to study the Sefirot" it sounds as if you are replying as if "Sefirot" ment Old Testement Or Tanach. Maybe I do not understand your reply. I study the OT often and am very blessed by its study,my question however was about the Sefirot of the "Kabbalah" and the study of it's meaning mystical though it may be.
I find that most all of Kabbalh scholars do not believe Jesus was infact the Messiah.I dont know of a single one who even intertained the thought. How could it be then that this study is benificial to a believer(Jew or otherwise)?
I know that the Torah/Tanach is the revealed Word--Inspired By G-d. I wonder however if He had anything to do with the Kabbalh. If you have any suggested reading on this question it would be helpful.
I'm keeping my mind open on this subject.
Thank you---Barry Meadows
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From: Eben Abram To: heb_roots_chr@geocities.com Subject: Re: Should Christians study Kabbalah?
Shalom Alecheim
Might it be that the words Michael Silver wrote be well considered and well thought out. There are injunctional warnings and criteria normally associated to a Level of Understanding when approaching Kabbalistic Writings. Without some framework and or interelative relationship to a balanced source, the studious becomes a study, if you catch my meaning.
A rabbi once told me Kabbalah was too dark and focuses isolinear without incorporating Bulk of Jewish Writing, being Chabad, He meant the approach with Tanya of a more balance adaption than an extreme.
With so many noted capable authors like Eddie here and Those accrued on Mail servers contact questions and some resource of adapted references can be evaluated for their lasting import to your studies but to the casual read, the general study, the general medium, or even the appreciable noviatte to Jewish Philosophy, Writings, etc. . No, it's not recommended without some balance or person to co-operatively answer and resolve many .........challenging...areas in the Zohar, much less Teachings based there on.
Alecheim Shalom
Eben Abram
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From: Barbara Turner To: heb_roots_chr@geocities.com Subject: Re: Should Christians study Kabbalah?
Years ago I got into the study of the Kabbalah. It was interesting. However, you must be very disciplined and not have the tendency to get into other things where you shouldn't go. The New Agers are much into the study of the Kabbalah,but not for the right reasons. There are many books on the Kabbalah. Take care you get the ones written by Jewish scholars. I abandoned my study because I found myself off in directions I didn't want to go. That was many years ago and I have never wanted to study it since.
Barbara
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From: Stephen Yulish Subject: RE:Rabbi isaac Luria To: heb_roots_chr@geocities.com
Mike,
you know not of what you write. According to Heinrich Graetz's "History of the Jews" vol. IV, published in 1894 by the Jewish Publication Society and which I received as a bar Mitzvah present in 1960 (the 1956 edition), it says of the great Ari, Isaac Luria; "Isaac Lurya Levi (born in Jerusalem in 1534, and died in 1572)was descended from a German family. Left an orphan at an early age by the death of his father, young Isaac came to Egypt to the house of a rich uncle...The dry study of the Talmud, which filled the mind with voluminous learning, unfruitful hairsplitting, and mere formulas, yet failed to satisfy the wants of the heart, seems to have driven him to fantastic mysticism. he preferred the awful loneliness of the Nile country to the noise of the school;abstraction in worlds of mysticism and devout praying to working out intellectual problems. he was greatly attracted to the Zohar...The more he became familiar with the Kabbalah the more he sought solitude..Firmly convinced of its authenticity as the work of Simon bar Yochai, and also of the divine character of all the fantasies and follies therein revealed, Lurya persisted in seeing in it high allusions and profound wisdom. In his heated imagination, he even saw Elijah, the teacher of mysteries, face to face. But what did the prophet Elijah, or the Zohar, or rather his own heated imagination, reveal to him?...by the first sin of the first man-for the Kabbalah finds original sin necessary for its fanciful creations-the higher and the lower, the superior and the inferior souls, good and evil became confused and mingled together...Therfore a complete separation of good from evil must take place, and this can only happen through Israel, if it or each of its members will lose or cast away the admixture of evil. For this purpose men's souls (especially those of the Israelites) have to wander through the bodies of men and animals, even through transmigration of souls(reincarnation) through rivers, wood, and stones. The doctrine of the transmigration of souls forms the center and basis of Lurya's Kabbalah, but he has a peculiar development of the idea...Besides the transmigration of our souls, sinful and subject to demonic forces as they are, there is another mode of expiation, the IMPREGNATION OF THE SOUL. If a purified soul has neglected various religious duties here on earth, or has had no opportunity of fulfilling them, it must return to the earthly life,ATTACH ITSELF TO THE SOUL OF A LIVING HUMAN BEING and unite and coalesce with it in order to retrieve this neglect. Or again the departed spirits of men freed from sin appears again on earth to support the weak and wavering souls which cannot attain to good by their own efforts, strengthen them and lead them to the final goal.These pure spirits combine with weaker souls still struggling and form a union with them...According to this theory the banishment and dispersion of Israel have for their purpose the salvation of the world or of men's souls. The purified spirits of pious Israelites unite with the souls of men of other nationalities in order to free them from the demoniacal impurities that possess them... He believed that he held the key to the kingdom of the Messiah and the regeneration of the world. He also believed that he possessed the soul of the Messiah and that he had a Messianic mission. he saw spirits everywhere...He saw how at death the souls were set free from the body, how they hovered in the air, or rose from their graves. HE HELD INTIMATE INTERCOURSE WITH THE SAINTS OF THE BIBLE, THE TALMUD AND WITH THE RABBIS (LONG DEAD!)IN PARTICULAR SIMON BAR YOCHAI. IN SHORT LURYA WAS A GHOST SEER AND A RAISER OF THE DEAD...AFTER MOVING TO SFAT AROUND 1569,HE VISITED THE GRAVES OF DEAD KABBALISTS PARTICULARLY THE GRAVE OF Simon BAR YOCHAI THE FEIGNED AUTHOR OF THE ZOHAR. THIS WAS LURYAS FAVORITE SPOT BECAUSE HE FANCIED THAT HE COULD DRAW DOWN UPON HIMSELF THE SPIRIT OF THIS CHIEF OF THE MYSTICS.NOW AND THEN HE SENT HIS DISCIPLE(CHAIM VITAL TO CONJURE UP SPIRITS USING LETTER FORMULAS...MYSTICAL CONVERSATIONS AND NOTES, THE INTERVIEWING AND SUMMONING OF SPIRITS FORMED THE OCCUPATION OF LURYA AND HIS FOLLOWERS." PAGES 618-624 Did the famed ARI, the Lion, rabbi Isaac Luria channel sprits. yes! Does Kabbalah and its primary book, the Zohar,speak of this. Yes. Don't believe this old historian and former KABBALIST, look at the eminent German historian Graetz. Do the research!
Stephen Yulish PH.D.
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>From Eddie: **************
Here is my answer to "Should Christians study Kabbalah?".
In my experiences, I have found it very challenging to find large numbers of Christians who understand the Hebraic/Jewish roots of Christianity. For those who are studying the Hebraic/Jewish Roots of Christianity, I have found it challenging to find people to have a BALANCED view of their Hebraic Roots while still embracing the truths that have been taught within Christianity over the years.
I have also found it challenging for Christians to have a deep and comprehensive understanding of both the OT and the NT and how each relates to each other. Therefore, my recommendation is to study THE inspired Word of God (OT and NT) perpetually to gain a deeper and greater understanding of God and His Kingdom. If we all do this, this should keep us all occupied for the rest of our lives.
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