NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/alt/messiani/3696

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From: [e-mail] (Spawn of a Jewish Carpenter (Cindy Smith))
Newsgroups: alt.messianic
Subject: Re:  Christian Kabbalah
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Date: 19 Dec 92 17:34:16 EST
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 I wrote the following essay for a Jewish Mysticism class at Emory
University in Atlanta.  My professor, Dr. David Blumenthal, encouraged
me to research and write about the Christian application of the
Kabbalah.  Unfortunatly, I didn't have a chance to write about the
Spanich mystics Saint Theresa of Avila and Saint John of the Cross,
both of whom were very interested in the Zohar.  I hope you enjoy the
essay.


Cindy Smith
Jewish Mysticism



                 Brightness falls from the air;
                 Queens have died, young and fair;
                 Lord have mercy upon us.

                               --- Thomas Nashe

                    The Christian Cabala


Introduction

 The errors made by the early Christian Cabalists almost drove me
to despair.  I'm not sure how to write this essay.  Should I
expositate on Pico's understanding of the Cabala, for example, or
should I point out his numerous errors?  Should I then give,
based on my own knowledge of Cabala, a better interpretation?  I
will begin this essay with Giovanni Pico della Mirandola.

 Pico regarded himself as the first Christian ever to expositate
on the Kabbalah.  This is not true, but this is what he believed.
Pico studied Hebrew for the sole purpose of studying Kabbalah.
However, he relied of necessity on translations which often
contained erroneous material, and the actual Kabbalistic texts,
including portions of the Zohar, which did come into his
possession were few and limited in scope.  Nevertheless, he wrote
the Heptaplus, which I look at in this essay, nine hundred theses
called the Conclusiones, of which we'll examine a few, and his
"Oration on the Dignity of Man."

 In Pico's "Exposition of the First Expression, Namely, 'In the
Beginning,'" he says:

     I should like to explain the first expression of the work,
which by the Hebrews is read 'Bereshit' and by us 'In the
beginning,' to see if I also, using the rules of the ancients,
could draw out into the light thence something worthy to know.
And beyond my hope, beyond my conjecture, I found what not even
I, finding it, could believe, nor what others could easily
believe -- the whole arrangement of the creation of the world and
of all things revealed and explained in that one expression.

     I do say a marvelous, unheard of, and unbelievable thing.
But if you will pay attention, you will believe it at once, and
the very thing will prove me right.  That expression by the
Hebrews is written in this manner:      , that is, Berescith.
From this if we unite the third letter to the first, it becomes
  , that is, AB.  If to the first one doubled, we add the second
one, it becomes    , that is, BEBAR.  If we read all of them
except the first, it becomes      , that is, RESIT.  If we unite
the fourth and the first and the last, it becomes    , that is,
SCIABAT.  If we put the first three in the order in which they
are, it becomes    , that is BAR.  If with the first omitted, we
put down the three following ones, it becomes     , that is,
ROSC.  If leaving out the first and the second ones, we put the
two following ones, we have   , that is, ES.  If we leave off the
first three ones, we put together the fourth and the last one, we
have   , that is, SETH.  Again if we unite the second to the
first one, we have   , that is, RAB; if we put after the third,
the fourth and the the fifth ones, we have    , that is, HISC; if
we unite the first two with the last two, we have     , that is,
REBITH.  If we unite the last to the first, we obtain the twelfth
and the last word,  , that is, THOB, turning the THAU into the
letter THETH, which is a very common proceeding in Hebrew.

     Let us see what these words mean in Latin, then what may be
revealed about the mystery of the whole nature to those not in
ignorance of philosphy.  AB means the father; BEBAR means in the
son and through the son (in fact, the prefix BETH means both);
RESIT indicates the beginning; SABATH the rest and the end; BAR,
created; ROSC, head; ES fire; SETH, foundation; RAB, of the
great; HISC, of the man; BERIT, with an agreement; THOB, with
goodness.

     If, following this order, we rebuild the expression, it will
be like this:  "The Father, in the Son and through the Son, the
beginning and end, or rest, created the head, the fire, and the
foundation of the great man with a good agreement."  This entire
discourse results from the taking apart and the putting together
of that first expression.  It cannot be clear to all how deep and
full of all meaning this teaching is.  But, if not all, at least
some of the ideas are signified to us by these words that are
clear to all.  By all Christians it is known what is meant by the
saying "the Father created in the Son and through the Son," and
likewise what is meant by "The Son is the beginning and the end
of all things."  In fact, He is the Alpha and Omega (as John
writes), and He called Himself the Beginning, and we have shown
that He is the End of all things in which they may be brought
back to their beginning.

     The rest is a little more osbscure:  namely, what do the
head, the fire, and the foundation of the great man mean, and
what is the "agreement," and why is it called "good"?  In fact,
not everyone can see present here every law of the four worlds of
which I spoke, the whole plan, their relationship, and, likewise,
their happiness, about which I explained at the end.  First then,
we must remember that the world was called by Moses, "great man."
In fact, if man is a small world, necessarily the world is a
great man.  Hence with the opportunity seized, he pictures, very
appropriately, the three worlds, the intellectual, the heavenly,
and the corruptible ones, through the three parts of man, not
only showing with this figure that in man are contained all the
worlds, but also explaining briefly which part of man corresponds
to each world.

     Let us consider then the three parts of man:  the higher is
the head; then that which from the neck stretches to the navel;
the third, that which extends from the navel to the feet.  And
these parts in the figure of man are also well defined and
separated with a certain variety.  But it is astonishing how
beautifully and how perfectly they correspond by a very precise
plan, by anlogy, to the three parts of the world.

     The brain, source of knowledge, is in the head; the heart,
source of movement, life, and heat, is in the chest; the genital
organs, the beginning of reproduction, are located in the lowest
part.  By the same token, in the world the highest part, which is
the angelic or intellectual world, is the source of knowledge
because such is nature is made for the understanding; the middle
part, that is the sky, is the beginning of life, of movement,
heat, and is controlled by the sun as the heart in the chest.  It
is known to all that below the moon is the beginning of creation
and corruption.  See how appropriately all these parts of the
world and of man correspond reciprocally.  Indeed, he designated
the first one with its appropriate name, the head; he called the
second one fire, because by this name the heavens are valued by
man, and because in us this part is the principle of heat.  He
called the third one foundation because by it (as is known by
all) is founded and sustained the whole body of man.  He added
finally that God created them with a good agreement because
between them, through the law of divine wisdom, an agreement of
peace and friendship was decreed on the kinship and on the mutual
agreement of their natures.  This agreement is good because it is
thus arranged and set in order toward God, Who is goodness
itself, so that, just as the whole world is one in the totality
of its parts, so also like this, at the end, it is one with its
Maker.

     Let us also imitate the holy agreement of the world, so that
we may be one together in mutual love, and that simultaneously
through the true love of God, we may all happily ascend as one
with Him.

END QUOTE

 Pico appears to be referring to the Adam Kadmon, dividing the
parts of the body into three, that is, the upper three sefirot,
the middle three, and the lower three, with the bottom, Malkhut,
comprising all of the above.  He begins with the head, Keter,
describing it as the source of Hokhmah.  This is followed by the
heart (Tiferet) and the genital organs (Yesod).  The other
sefirot are attached to these three.  He then says that Keter is
the source of Hokhma because such nature is made for Bina.
Tiferet is the beginning of life, and Yesod founded and sustained
the whole body of man (the sefirotic system).  Finally, from
Binah an agreement of peace and friendship was decreed on the
kinship and on the mutual agreement of their natures.  This
agreement is good because it is thus arranged in order toward
En-Sof, Who is goodness itself, so that just as the entire
sefirotic system is one in the totality of its parts, so also
like this, at then end, it is one with En-Sof.

 Pico is trying to combine the Zoharic divine emanation theory
with Adam Kadmon.  He begins with a bizarre rendition of the word
Bereshith as proof of the Trinity.  Since Keter is the Father,
Hokhma the Son, and Bina the Holy Spirit, we may reread his
statement thus:  Keter, in Hokhma and through Hokhma, the En-Sof
and En-Sof, or Shabbat (Malkhut), created (probably means emanated
here) Keter, Tiferet, and Yesod, the bases or trunks of the whole
sefirotic tree, in mutual cooperation.  Did the sefirot exist inside
En-Sof before their emanation from En-Sof, or did the sefirot come
into existence only after their emanation from En-Sof?

 Pico quotes John the Divine, noting that the Son is the Alpha and the
Omega, the beginning and the end.  This means that Christ is the
manifestation of En-Sof in visible form.  In the days of the
Messiah, according to the Zohar, all the sefirot will roll back
up into En-Sof.  Since we live in the days of the Messiah, we can
conclude that this event has indeed taken place, and that En-Sof
has given birth once again to the sefirot, making the whole
creation new.

 What Pico himself specifically means by his text, we'd have to
ask Pico to explain.  However, based upon my own knowledge of the
Zohar, this appears to be what he's trying to say.  At any rate,
this is my interpretation of his interpretation.

 In order to determine precisely who Pico believes Jesus to be,
we must turn to his seventh Kabbalistic thesis "secundum
opinionem propriate."  Pico says:

     Conclusio xiv:  Per litteram   id est scin quae mediat in
nomine Iesu significatur nobis cabalistice quod tum perfecte
quieut tanquam in sua perfectione mundus cum Iod coniunctus est
cum Vau, quod factum est in Christ qui fuit uerus dei filius et
homo.

     Conclusio xv:  Per nomen Iod he uau he, quod est nomen
ineffabile, quod dicunt Cabalistae futurum esse nomen Messiae,
euidenter cognoscitur futurum eum Deum Dei filium per spiritum
sanctum hominem factum, et post eum ad perfectionem humani
generis super homines parclytum descensurum.

 The name of the Messiah is Yahweh (YHVH), while the name of
Jesus is Yesu (YSW).  The importance of the letter shin becomes
even more important with Pico's disciple, Johannes Reuchlin, who
created from the Tetragrammaton (YHVH) the Pentagrammaton
(YHSVH).  Reuchlin was familiar with the Jewish belief that the
letter shin was missing from a proper understanding of the Torah;
the coming of shin, Reuchlin argued, made the unpronounceable
name Yahweh pronounceable and salvation came to eretz Yisrael.
Reuchlin wrote, "When the Tetragrammaton shall become audible,
that is effable...it will be called by the consonant which is
called shin, so that it might become YHSVH, which will be above
you, your head and your master."  He also noticed that the letter
shin is shaped like a lamp, giving off divine light and fire.  As
John the Baptist says, "He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit
and with Fire."  This also coincides with the common New
Testament image that Jesus is the Light of the World who gives
his light, like one candle to another, to his disciples, who then
become a light to their fellow Jews as well as the Gentiles.  The
Sefer Yetzirah says that shin represents fire.  En-Sof is fire and the
source of light.  Jesus is the source of light.  The shin, therefore,
symbolizes the Incarnation.

 A scribe asked Jesus what was the greatest of all the Commandments.
Jesus replied, "Shema Yisrael, Adonai Elohenu, Adonai Echad"
(Mark 12:29).  The first word, shema, is spelled shin, mem, ayin.  The
shin and mem, according to the Sefer Yetzirah, are among the three
"mother letters."  Shin is fire, mem is water.  The Shema, from
ancient times, therefore presages baptism by fire and water.  Shin is
chaos, mem is harmony; this is being baptized by En-Sof and Malkhut --
En-Sof the source of emanation, Malkhut the mouth of the rivers of
light.  In baptism, therefore, we are touched and drenched by fire and
water -- the living Presence of God.  The ayin, according to the
Zohar, has a numerical value of seventy.  Thus did Jesus send out
seventy apostles to preach the Kingdom of God (Luke 10:1).  In the
fire are the colors white, yellow, red, black, and sky-blue.  These
are colors of sefirot; sky-blue is the color of Malkhut.  Is it any
wonder that the color most often associated with the Virgin Mary is
blue?  When the womb of Malkhut touched the womb of Mary, Mary became
blue.  She burned with the fires of the sefirot.  Hokhma and Bina
engaged in sexual intercourse and gave birth to Tiferet inside
Malkhut-Mary, who then gave birth to the Messiah En-Sof.

    Conclusion lxvii:

        Per dictum Cabalistarum, quod coeli sunt ex igne
    et aqua, simul et ueritatem theologicam de ipsis Sephirot
    nobis manifestat, et philosophicam ueritatem, quot elementa
    in coelo sint tantum secundum actiuam uirtutem.

 Shamayim (Heaven) consists of fire and water.  Fire (Gevurah) and
water (Chesed) are united in Heaven (Tiferet).  A father brought his
son to Jesus (Matthew 9:17).  The father explained that a mute spirit
frequently threw his son into gevurah and chesed, back and forth, to
kill him (9:22).  Jesus commanded the unclean spirit to come out of
the boy.  In doing so, gevurah and chesed flowed naturally into
tiferet.  The forces of sitra achra were attempting to upset the
balance of the sefirotic system.  Jesus, the Balance, Tiferet Himself,
set things aright.  Jesus then explained to his talmidim that mute
spirits of this kind can only be driven out through prayer with proper
kavvanah.

 The Liber de Radicibus seu Terminis Cabalae, fol. 261r says:

    shamayim sine he idest celi indicat Tiphereth cum he vero
    quandoque indicat Intelligentiam, quandoque ipsam Tiphereth
    et significat hassamaim ly celi.

Tiferet is YHWH.  Pico says in secundum secretam doctrinam sapientam
Hebraeorum Cabalistarum:

    Quamuis nomen ineffabile sit proprietas clementiae, negandum
    tamen non est quin contineat proprietatem iudicii.

Judgment and Mercy, therefore, dwell within Jesus who is Heaven.  In
Mark 12:26, Jesus quotes the bush passage in the Torah, "I am the God
of Chesed, the God of Gevurah, and the God of Tiferet."  God is not
God of sitra achra, but God of the sefirot.  In Matthew 10:8,
"Tiferet's Malkhut is here."  This means that Heaven has arrived on
earth and the Kingdom is with him (i.e., Tiferet has arrived on Earth
and Shekhinah is with him).  In Matthew 12:25, Jesus notes that
the sefirot cannot be divided or Malkhut will not continue to be.
But, Jesus notes, if he drives out the forces of sitra achra by Bina
(the World to Come, the River that waters Eden), then "Malkhut has
come to dwell among you."  Intimating that Malkhut has no light of her
own, but is only illumined by the other sefirot, Jesus said in reply
to the Pharisees in Luke 17:20-21:  "The coming of Malkhut cannot be
observed, and no one will announce, 'Look, here she is,' or 'There she
is.'  For behold, Malkhut is in your midst."  Malkhut and all the
sefirot are mirrors of light that cannot be seen without the divine
light of all the sefirot.

 In his twenty-first Conclusion, Pico asserts:

    Qui coniunxerit dictum Cabalistarum, dicentium quod illa
    numeratio quae dicitur iustus et redemptor dicitur etiam Ze,
    cum dicto Thalmutistarum, dicentium quod Isaac ibat sicut ze
    portans Crucem suam, uidebit quod illud quod fuit in Isaac
    praefiguratum fuit adimpletum in Christo, qui fuit verus Deus
    uenditus argento.

Christian Cabalists interpreted the ze as referring to the ninth
sefirah (Iustus or Fundamentum).  They simultaneously interpreted the
ze mystically as prefiguring Christ.  In Gicatilla's Portae Iustitiae,
he attempts to guide people to God through the sefirot.  Jacob, he
argued, knew which gate to enter, and with this essential knowledge
revealed that man must enter the Gate Ze in order to begin his ascent
to God.  Symbolically, this means that for man to ascend to God, he
must enter through Christ to Christ.  According to Flavius
Mithridates, Pico's translator, in his Sermo de Passione Domini, Ze
was both the ninth sefirah and Jesus of Nazareth.

 Pico got into the most trouble when he said that "nulla est scientia
quae nos magis certificet de divinitate Christi quam magia et cabala."
The reason this statement was condemned is clearly because magic and
cabala are placed above the Gospels and the Tradition of the Church in
importance and claims to be a source of divine inspiration in its own
right.  Divine inspiration belongs to the Tradition of the Church
alone, and not to any tradition outside the Church.  It's basically
the same reason Anne Hutchinson was condemned by a Protestant council
in the early Americas.  It is claiming an authority that is seen as an
attempt to wrest authority from the established authority, the Church.
Pico, I think, meant by his statement, like Hutchinson centuries after
him, that his personal experience with the divine light guided him
toward knowledge of God that confirmed his previous experiences with
Christ.

 It is important to note at this point that Pico made a discovery in
the course of his studies that I have only recently made in the course
of my studies as well -- that is, that there are two types of Kabbalah
whose sources were available to him and these were the science of names
and the science of sefirot.  In the first quoted passage above, Pico
is dealing with name science, whereas later he deals with sefirotic
science.  Most of the primary texts Pico had in his possession dealt
with sefirotic science, although name science, used magically and
theurgically, was far older than the Zohar.  Abraham Abulafia was
keenly interested in the distinction between the two sciences.  It is
not clear, however, that Pico was at first aware of the distinction.
In Pico's second thesis, he combines merkavah and the art of combining
letters.  In his thirty-seventh thesis, he says:

    Qui intellexerit in dextrali coordinatione subordinationem
    pietatis ad sapientiam, perfecte intelliget per uiam Cabalae
    quomodo Abraam in die suo per rectam lineam uidit diem Christi
    et gauisus est.

For Pico, pietas is Chesed and is below Hokhma.  His tree in Latin:

                            Corona
                  Intelligentia       Sapientia
          [Potentia] Iudicium       Pietas [Magnitudo]
                            Gloria
                      Decor         Eternitas
                          Fundamentum
                            Regnum

 Pico associated, rightly, the fourth sefirah with Abraham (Chesed)
and is Abraham's Day.  The Day of the Mashiach  (yomo shel mashiah)
comes from an interpretation of John 8:56, "Abraham your father
rejoiced to see my Day; he saw it and was glad."  For Pico, the
organization of the sefirotic system is triadic.  Hence, Piety is
below Wisdom as one goes down the right side of the tree.  Thus,
Abraham looked up the tree in a direct line and saw the Day of Christ,
which is Hokhma.  Hokhma emanated from Keter; Chesed came from Hokhma
and Bina.  This is the meaning of the succeeding text in which Jesus
says to the Jews, "Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to
be, I AM (YHVH)" (John 8:58).  The tetragrammaton is associated with
Tiferet, yet Chesed (Abraham) looks up and sees that Hokhma came
before.  In this way, Pico confirms that Hokhma is Tiferet.  This is a
little like Carroll's conclusion that "the boojum was a beejum, you
see."


    In "De Arte Cabalistica," Johanne Reuchlin associates Adam
Kadmon with Tiferet:  "[the Kabbalists] thought that the Beauty of the
physical world should be placed in the middle of the tree by which the
ten sephiroth are numbered, being that great Adam who is like the tree
of life in the midst of an ideal paradise, or as they say, like the
straight line, the median" (Reuchlin, 47).  Reuchlin says man is given
the qualities of Netzah and Hod to remind him that he is both part of
the emanations and of this worldly kingdom.  In translation, this
means that, though the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, the
Kingdom (Malkhut) of Tiferet was still in the Upper World.  "But
through the fear of God, and the hallowing of him, by the fear
[pahad/gevura/din] and loving-kindness [Chesed] spread out over him,
man can apprehend God in His simplicity through these three methods:
Crown [Keter], Wisdom [Hokhma], and Understanding [Bina].  That is to
say, we can know God in His simplicity through knowing the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit.  Christ is the Form World Adam become flesh.
All other human beings before Christ were imperfect reflections of
Adam Kadmon.  Christ, on the other hand, is an exact and perfect
reflection, indeed, Christ is Adam Kadmon, come down from the
Upper World.

    It is important to note that Simon the Jew is speaking in this
conversational treatise by Reuchlin.  It is obvious that Simon the Jew
is the mouthpiece for Reuchlin himself, spouting forth Christian
interpretations of Kabbalah, while Simon scratches his head and
confesses that none of it makes sense to him yet -- but it makes
perfect sense to the knowledgeable Christian reader!

    Simon the Jew says that sense, judgement, and intellect
correspond to the three fathers of Kabbalah in Merkavah:  Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob (Chesed, Gevurah, Tiferet).  "The two intervals
between the three regions, sense and judgment, are doubled accordingly
as they are higher or lower, and each can be reduced to two end
points.  There remain to be found the ten rungs of the ladder on which
we climb to know all truth, be it of the senses or of knowledge, or of
faith; from bottom to top we climb" (Reuchlin, 51).  Clearly, he is
saying we must climb the sefirot to reach En-Sof.  He also appears to
referring to Christ as Jacob's Ladder, as in John 1:51, where Jesus
says, "Amen, amen, I say to you, you will see the sky opened and the
angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."  Reuchlin
then goes on to explain the nature of the ten sephirot, their
relationships, and how the mind of man is the Crown and is alone
divine.  He then has Simon make a veiled reference to Christ:  "Just
as God wears a Crown in the kingdom of the world, so is the mind of
man chief among the ten sephiroth..."  Jesus, who is God, wears the
Crown of Thorns (Keter) in this world, and the mind of Christ is chief
among the sephirot.

    Reuchlin then goes on to describe the Fall of Man and the
promised salvation to come by describing a "future" man who would be
righteous enough to eat of the Tree of Life and restore man's
relationship with God.  Obviously, Reuchlin's mouthpiece Simon is
making veiled references to Jesus, whom he describes as "that heavenly
Adam coeternal with God" (73).

    So the angel Raziel was sent to Adam as he lay grief-stricken,
    to console him, and the angel said:

    Don't lie shuddering, burdened with grief, thinking of your
    responsibility for bringing the race of man to perdition.  The
    primal sin will be purged in this way:  from your seed will be
    born a just man, a man of peace, a hero whose name will in
    pity contain these four letters -- YHWH -- and through his
    upright trustfulness and peaceable sacrifice will put out his
    hand, and take from the Tree of Life, and the fruit of that
    Tree will be salvation to all who hope for it.

 The name Yeshua, which does mean "Yah[weh] is our Salvation" or
"Saving Justice," is interpreted as having a power that will enable
him to eat from Shekhinah, the Tree of Life, in whom is contained all
the sefirot, and the fruit (sefirot) of that Tree will be salvation
for all people.  Reuchlin here seems to assume that Jews have an
understanding of original sin that is actually not a Jewish belief.
At any rate, when Christians consume the Body and Blood of Jesus, they
are consuming the Fruit (sefirot) of the Tree of Life (Malkhut).  Adam
is then thankful for the sefirah Tiferet (Mercy).  This notion of
salvation, Simon says on the same page, "encapsulates all the
principles of Kabbalah, all the traditions concerning the divine,
knowledge of heaven, visions of the prophets, and meditations of the
blessed."

 The next several sections of Reuchlin's first book is comprised of a
series of Old Testament references to almost-saviors.  Eve thinks she
will give birth to the Savior, but bears Cain instead, and then Abel.
Abel is depicted as an almost-savior who greatly desires to be killed
by Wood (Cain's club).  But this gift wasn't enough to redeem mankind.
Even so, says Simon, one day a willing victim will come who will
redeem mankind.  This is an obvious reference to the Crucifixion of
Christ on the hard Wood of the Cross.  Reuchlin describes Abel as
completely righteous, but fails to explain adequately why the
sacrifice of Abel wasn't enough to redeem mankind.

 At any rate, page 77 contains a paragraph crucial to Reuchlin's
understanding of who the Messiah will be and why:

    It was thought, indeed strongly hoped, that [Enos's] name
    would accord with the kabbalah of the angel, the four-letter
    name, YHWH, or be at the least, "in mercy" or, more
    Kabbalistically, that he would have the letter S [i.e., Shin]
    between the four letters.  In the sacred account is written,
    though the translation here is not too well phrased:  "They
    began to invoke the name of the Lord."  The translation is
    accurate, but some more thoughtful Kabbalists have made a more
    correct interpretation than is rendered by the literal
    translation.  According to Gematria, "He wanted to be called
    by the letter S."  In the art of Kabbalah this is equivalent
    to "in mercy."  Now according to Notaricon, the letter M
    stands for "in the middle of" (understood, the four letters
    YHWH).  Thus the phrase is altered to read:  "He wanted to be
    called by the letter S in the middle of the four letter YHWH."
    Enos would take from the Tree of Life in accordance with the
    angel's message, and redeem the world, as a Godlike man
    bearing the name YH-in mercy-WH.  Note this well.  It is a
    sacred mystery.

 As noted earlier, S and M are two of the "mother letters"
representing Fire and Water, chaos and harmony, En-Sof and Malkhut.
In this case, Tiferet is the Center of the Tree around which cluster
all the Fruit (sefirot).  Thus, Tiferet is fire and Malkhut is water,
and when Tiferet is in the Middle in union with Malkhut, Tiferet
(Jesus) baptizes with fire and water, and gives the Fruit (sefirot) to
human beings to consume for their own salvation, His Body being the
Fruit (all the sefirot) and his Blood being Malkhut (the Life).  Thus
did Jesus say, "I am the Way (Tiferet), the Truth (from Hokhma and
Bina), and the Life (Malkhut).  There is no way to God except through
Me (all the sefirot)."  Again, Jesus is Jacob's Ladder upon which
angels and human beings must ascend to reach En-Sof and descend back
to this world.  When Shin, or Tiferet, is Balanced in the midst of the
Tree, settled in the midst of the Tetragrammaton, then will Yeshua
bring salvation to Eretz Yisrael.

 Reuchlin goes on to describe how Noah put his faith in wood when he
built a wooden ark to save the human race.  "A Kabbalistic touch:  he
put his trust in wood (as Job says, 'There is hope in wood'), and by
doing so he was made certain that through wood life was promised to
man" (77).  Clearly, Simon means that life comes through the wood of
the Cross.  Also, just as an Ark of Wood saved Noah and his family, so
a new Ark of the Covenant (the Virgin Mary) would bring salvation by
giving birth to a man who would save the human race by the wood of his
Cross.

 Reuchlin moves on to Shem and then to Abraham and Isaac.  Abraham
offered up Isaac on an altar stacked with saving wood.  "According to
the prophecy, after all, the original fault could only have wood for
its remedy" (79).  Disappointingly, however, Isaac was not to be the
Saviour who would redeem mankind by wood.  Clearly, another kind of
wood was intimated.  Jacob also was not the Saviour, but Jacob was the
first to see heaven opened along with the famous Ladder.  He also saw
the name YHWH and hencefort "set up the stone he had anointed as a
shrine, known as Bethel, and by his labor added in an S, which by the
Notaricon method signifies shemen, or 'anointing oil'" (81).  An
angel then prophesied that, although Jacob was not the saviour, the
saviour would come from the tribe of Judah.  This is clearly a
reference to the New Testament passage which holds that Jesus is "the
Lion of the Tribe of Judah."  The S, the light of the world, we've
already discussed.  Jacob, representing Tiferet, thus presaged the
kind of Saviour the human race was to expect.  Moses knew that he
himself could not be the Messiah because Moses was of the tribe of
Levi, not Judah.  Reuchlin then quotes David who said, "Send your
light and your truth...."  He then quotes Rashi:  "Your light is the
Kingdom of the Messiah, as in the writing 'I have prepared a lamp for
my Messiah.'"  This means, in my interpretation, that a lamp
containing all the colors of the sefirot has been prepared to
enlighten the earthly Body of En-Sof.  Just as a person is comprised
of ten sefirot, so God on earth was comprised of Ten Sefirot of
En-Sof.  Thus, God's light is the Shekhina (who has no light herself
but who reflects all the lights of all the sefirot) of the Messiah who
is the visible manifestation of En-Sof.

 Reuchlin cites another book called "On Faith and Atonement," which
Simon quotes (109):

    There is a way showing the strength of grace that has been
    bestowed, which is a created strength.  The way follows a
    route of seven exchanges, which are thirteen orders of
    forgiveness by which the world is to be guided until there be
    an end to sin and the Messiah come who is the strength of
    God.  And in the strength of grace (which is the strength of
    angels), and is the strength on which grace has been bestowed
    (which is the strength of the prophet), there will rest upon
    him the spirit of the Name of God, the spirit of wisdom, the
    spirit of understanding, the spirit of counsel and of
    strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

In translation, this says that Yesod of Chesed is the Foundation on
which Chesed has been bestowed.  In other words, Chesed will be
bestowed on man for the forgiveness of his sins through Yesod.  This
means that from the Strength (Yesod) of God in the Crucifixion of
Christ will Grace flow.  This is the strength of the Prophet, who is
Jesus.  Furthermore, upon him, the Messiah, will rest YHVH (Tiferet),
Hokhma, Bina, Chesed, Gevurah (pahad).

 Simon then cites the Kabbalistic book "Hacadma":  "And this is the
secret of the king Messiah who will come swiftly, in our days.  All
his work will begin with the VH and the YH, which is the mystery of
the seventh day and this name is his whole name, and everything is
accomplished by his hand."  Translated, this means that the secret of
the Messiah Tiferet will come swiftly, in our days (sefirot).  Again,
shin will come down between the letters of the Tetragrammaton, which
is the mystery of Malkhut (Shabbat).  This is the meaning of the
Scripture, "The Son of Man is Lord of Shabbat" (Matthew 12:8).  The
Son of Man is the visible manifestation of En-Sof, the exact image of
Adam Kadmon.  So that we must understand and perceive him, the visible
manifestation of En-Sof appears as Tiferet of Malkhut.  As Malkhut
contains all the sefirot, so Son of Man Tiferet is King over all the
sefirot.

 In this way, Reuchlin mixes name-science Kabbalah with
sefirotic-system Kabbalah.  He points that that "in mercy" comes in
the middle of YHVH "together with 'merit' and 'service' and with rigor
and harshness."  He then cites King David's prophecy that the Messiah
"will judge your people in justice, and your poor in judgment."  The
Gate of Light, chapter 3, says:  "Judgment is part rigor and part
clemency."  And Hosea says:  "I shall betroth thee unto me, in justice
and judgment, in loving kindess and in mercies."  Thus, the Messiah,
who is Tiferet, will be betrothed to Malkhut in Chesed and Gevurah.
Micah confirms this, saying that the Tetragrammaton will come forth
through its property of Mercy.

 On page 117, Simon the Jew describes the three worlds, material,
formal, and formless -- that is, the lowest world (sense world), the
highest (mind and understanding), and the third world, the very
highest, which is indescribable and divine.  "By such means, we
believe," Simon says, "it is not beyond possibility that Kabbalists
can in spirit be snatched up to where the Messiah flows into all
lesser things, near to the third world."  Here, Reuchlin appears to be
making a veiled reference to the Apostle Paul, whom he must regard as
a Kabbalists, who says in 2 Corinthians 12:2-4:  "I know someone in
Christ who, fourteen years ago (whether in the body or out of the body
I do not know, God knows), was caught up to the third heaven.  And I
know that this person (whether in the body or out of the body I do not
know, God knows) was caught up into Paradise and heard ineffable
things, which no one may utter."  Zoharically, this may be interpreted
to mean that Paul was caught up in union with Tiferet and Malkhut
whilst they were engaged in sexual intercourse.  On the other hand, it
may mean that Paul flowed through Keter and was allowed a glimpse of
En-Sof himself.  The Christian experience seems mixed on this point.
Christ is the visible manifestation of En-Sof, yet no thought can
grasp En-Sof, who is "unknowable and unutterable" (121), yet who has
been made knowable and utterable through Christ.  Simon describes
En-Sof as "hidden away in the furthest recesses of his divinity, into
the unreachable abyss of the fountain of light, so thus nothing is
understood to come from him -- as if at ease the absolute Deity held
all kinds of things in his compass, himself remaining naked and
unclothed, without the cloak of attributes."  As we shall see later in
this essay, this is exactly how En-Sof appeared -- naked, unclothed,
and without his attributes -- to an unforgiving world.

 Paradoxically, Reuchlin has Philolaus say in Book II, page 151,
"However, no created thing can be drawn into the third world, for
there is nothing inherently capable of such sublimity except God.
This third world is the very highest of all; it contains the other
worlds, and belongs to the Deity alone.  It is one with the divine
essence, and is thus, it seems to me, rightly named 'the seat of all
power.'"  Zoharically, one might interpret this to mean that the soul
is not created, but begotten, of God (that is, Tiferet and Malkhut),
and hence the soul, being a spark of the divine, is capable of
ascending to the third world as no created thing can.  Mary is often
called "the Seat of all Power" or the "Seat of Wisdom" because Christ
rests on her lap.  When Tiferet dwelt within her, she became the
Mother of Mercy, and an earthly third heaven.

 On page 155, the Pythagorean Philolaus describes how two is the first
number, and one the source of all numbers.  One is God.  One
inherently contains two.  Both are God since within God there is only
God.  Inexplicably, he then states that "these three things are the
source and beginning, and do not depart from the one essence of God,
they are obviously the one God, for his essence cannot be split up."
I'm not sure I follow his logic, but he seems to be saying that One
and Two make Three.  Thus, One by itself, which inherently contains
Two, is also simultaneously Three.  An obvious reference to the
Trinity.  But let's go on.  "Two things are counted as derived from
the one -- compare how in physical matters a unity becomes duality (do
excuse this comparison), or even a tri-ality, while the substance
remains the same.  It is like a tree trunk and its branches, or, just
as good, a man's arm and his fingers.  So, from the one, which
produces two, three appear.  If the essence, strictly separate from
these, is added to them, there will be a conceptual 'quaternity' which
is an infinitiude, and one, and two, and the substance, completion,
and end of all Number.  One, two, three, and four, added together,
make ten, and nothing more than ten."  In this way, Reuchlin suggests
through his new mouthpiece, Philolaus, that inherent in the One is
the Trinity and from the trinity flow the ten sefirot, the sefirot
being within the One (Trinity), emanating from the One, and the One
and the Ten being consubstantial (a good Catholic word).  On page 193,
he notes that Zaratus, the teacher of Pythagoras, used to call One
"Father" and Two "Mother."  This can mean either Hokhma and Bina, the
supernal father and supernal mother, or Keter and Bina, according to
the Christian Kabbalah.  "One and two, together with the divine
essence, make that quaternitude, the Tetractys, the Idea of all
things, which is to be brought to its highest perfection in the decad.
This, said Pythagoras, was the source of everlastingness, nothing
other than cognition of things in the divine mind operating in
accordance with reason."  The Trinity and the Ten are One.  It is the
source of Netsah, nothing more than Hokhma in union with Bina.  From
the Tetractys flows ten, whose mean is five.  Six and four on the left
(adding up to ten), then seven and three (adding up to ten).  Then
eight and two, and nine and one.  This is a description of the
sefirotic tree whose source is the One whose essence is the Trinity.

 En-Sof, the source of light, is the Form Fire (197).  This image of
Christ as the source of light is replete in the New Testament.
1 John 1:5, "God is light and in him there is no darkness at all."
This means God is comprised of the rivers of light called the sefirot
and in the Garden of God the sefirot are the light where there is no
darkness.  John 1:1ff:  "In the beginning," a word which, as we saw at
the beginning of this essay, refers to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
is made more explicit here; "In the beginning was Hokhma, and Hokhma
was with Keter, and Hokhma was Keter.  Hokhma was in the beginning
(which may refer to En-Sof here) with Keter.  All things came to be
through Hokhma, and without Hokhma nothing came to be.  What came to
be through Hokhma (who is Keter, remember) was life, and this life was
the light (sefirot) of the human race; the light (sefirot) shine in
the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."  This is the
meaning of the Scripture passage, "The Father and I are One"
(John 10:30).  And again, "If I do not perform my Father's works, do
not believe me; but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me,
believe the works, so that you may realize [and understand] that the
Father is in me and I am in the Father."  Thus, Keter is in Hokhma and
Hokhma is in Keter, and they are One.  All the sefirot are mirrors of
light; they reflect one another.  Each sefirah comprises nine others.
Each sefirah shares in the Mystery of the Ten, the internal
reflections maintaining their unity of content and identity of nature
within the variations.

 On page 185, Philolaus makes an obscure reference to the
unsuitability of saltwater fish for sacrifice.  "Whoever heard of a
fish sacrifice?" he asks.  While I'm not entirely sure what he means
by this comment, it is clear that Reuchlin himself is making a
reference to the Eucharist.  In the early Christian church, the fish
was an essential part of the eucharistic meal (whereas today only the
bread and wine are essential).  The reason for this is that (and this
is very pre-Zoharic) ICHTHUS are the initials of the Greek letters for
Jesus Christ Son of God Saviour.  The word ICHTHUS itself, in Greek,
means fish and was an early secret symbol of the Christian faith.  The
source of the symbol was probably the Resurrected Jesus's eating of
fish on the beach with the Apostles.  Jesus spent half his ministry
preaching from fishing boats.

 One page 205, Philolaus explains that One is the origin of the mental
world, and Two the origin of the corporeal world.  The corporeal world
consists of point, line, area, and volume -- these four things.  After
this is a six-sided cube with eight corners -- the architect of the
sensible world.  Seven, Reuchlin has Philolaus explain obscurely, is a
virgin and does not give birth.  I have puzzled long and hard over
this one.  He does not seem to be referring to the Virgin Mary, who
certainly did give birth.  Seven is the number of the sefirah Netsah.
Here, he could be making an obscure reference to the Crucifixion,
since Netsah can also mean Victory.  Hence, the Virgin Christ was
Victorious on the Cross, bring Eternal Life (another meaning of
Netsah).  But why does Seven not give birth?  Netsah is one of the
twin sources of semen.  But, if Seven is a virgin, then no semen comes
from Netsah alone.  On the other hand, in Reuchlin's possibly mixed-up
system, Seven could refer to Yesod, whose virginity as Christ would
make just as much sense.  Since Yesod is the male sexual organ itself,
it cannot give birth, but only give seed.  I confess I'm at a loss
over this one.  At any rate, he quotes Pythagoras's belief in
"infinity, one, and two," God being the source of infinity, form the
source of one-ness, and matter the source of other-ness.  Then, God
unites form and matter, so that other-ness continually seeks itself,
its essence, in one-ness, and finding it in infinity, that is, in God.

 Page 251 speaks of En-Sof as the naked deity.  As we will see at the
end of this essay, the naked deity was exposed to the world in Christ.
God clothed himself in light until the very end when the rivers of
light fled from En-Sof.  Page 255:  "And at the highest gate is the
one creator of all, unknown to man, save the Messiah, for he is the
light of God and the light of the nations; he knows God and through
him is God known."  Jesus said, "I am the light of the world.  Whoever
follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life"
(John 8:12).  And, upon restoring sight to the man born blind, "We
have to do the works of the one who sent me while it is day.  Night is
coming when no one can work.  While I am in the world, I am the light
of the world."  He said this to indicate that the mirrors of light
would flee from his body on the last day.  But though his lights went
out, still the lights burned among those who believed in him, as he
said, "While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may
become children of the light" (John 12:36).  Jesus passed the lights
of his body to his disciples and all who believed in him, who in turn
passed the flames to others, who passed them to others, etc.  The
lights dimmed and went out when the Source died -- "darkness came over
the whole land until three in the afternoon because of an eclipse of
the sun" (Luke 23:44).  Thus did the Light pass from the world.  But
on the third day, the light returned, as it is written, "behold, two
men in dazzling garments appeared to them."

 On page 271 I was delighted to see Marranus support your comment to
me, once, Dr. Blumenthal:  "Our teachers assert this too:  that angels
appear to men in different ways."  And women, too, presumably.  He
quotes Chrysostom, however, who says concerning Joseph:  "The angel
appears in a dream.  Why not openly, as to the shepherds and Zachariah
and the Virgin?  Because that man was a strong believer and had no
need of a vision."  I think I would strongly dispute the assumption
that visions are for the weak and dreams for the strong.  In the first
place, I find it difficult to believe that the Virgin's faith was less
strong than Joseph's, who did the right thing only because of his
dream (whereas previously he contemplated sin).  Mary, on the other
hand, obeyed God before, during, and after the Vision of the
Anunciation.  On the other hand, Jesus did say, "An evil and
unfaithful generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it
except the sign of Jonah" (Matthew 16:4).  Those of us who receive
visions must accept them as the will of God and pray for understanding
with kavvanah.  Simon the Jew goes on, "Some men have been quite happy
and content just to have seen angels in human form.  Others have seen
them in the form of fire, or wind and air, at streams and waters, in
birds, gems, minerals and precious stones, in prophetic frenzy,
through a spirit living inside them, in the shape of letters, or the
sound of a voice, and so on.  Holy Scripture contains many kinds of
vision."  Simon adds that the name of God (El) is inside every angel;
the angels command obedience because "My Name is in them."

 He continues with some really incredible name-science.  On page 285,
he gives the names of the sefirot.  On page 287, he derives the ten
names of God from the ten sefirot, and through them to the One Name of
the Tetragrammaton.  En-Sof is the Alpha and the Omega, which is what
Christ calls himself in the Revelation to John.  The Crown he
identifies as the Father of all Mercies, "whose mystery is that he
seals up Essence through Truth."  He goes on:  "If we multiply Ehieh
(meaning 'essence') by Ehieh we will get 441, which is the same as
Emeth, the word for 'true' or 'truth,' and the same as Adonai Shalom,
which means 'Lord of Peace.'  There is more too that comes down to
this same source, such as the great Aleph, the Fear of the Lord, the
inaccessible light and the days of eternity.  As it is written in the
book on the ten Sephirot by that great Kabbalist Tedacus Levi, 'His
goings forth have been from of old, from the days of eternity.'"
Truth is Tiferet, who is the Lord of Peace, or the husband of Malkhut.
Simon goes on to confirm that the earlier mentioned doctrine of the
Trinity is supported in Kabbalistic belief:  "I think I'm right in
replying that infinity itself exists in the three summits of the
Kabbalists' tree of ten Sephirot (which you usually call the three
divine Persons).  Infinity is the most absolute Essence, drawn back in
the depths of shades, and, lying or, as they say, reliant upon nothing,
is hence called "Nothing" or "Not being," and "Not end" (En-Sof)
because we are so damned by our feeble understanding of divine matters
that we judge things that are not apparent in the same way as we judge
things that do not exist."  This is the meaning of the text, "The Holy
Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will
overshadow you.  Therefore the child to be born will be called holy,
the Son of God" (Luke 1:35).  This means that Bina will come upon the
Virgin Mary, cover her with her Shadow, and give birth to Tiferet into
the womb of Shekhinah who waits, touching the womb of the Virgin Mary.
For Bina is the green line that encircles the universe (Tiferet is
green).  She is Teshuvah and will bring her people to repentance.  She
is Form, Hokhma is matter, Tohu va-vohu.  They unite to bring forth
the Incarnation of En-Sof.  Simon says that to Bina is attributed:
"Lord, spirit, soul, prayer, the mystery of faith, mother of sons, the
King sitting on the throne of mercy, the great Jubilee, the great
Sabbath, spiritual foundation, miraculous light, the lightest day, the
fifty gates, the Day of Atonement, the inner voice, the river issuing
forth from paradise, the second letter of the Tetragrammaton,
repentance, the deep waters, my sister, the daughter of my father, and
other things."

 Tiferet, her Son, is:

     "Eloha, enlightening speculation, the wood of life, pleasure,
    the Line of the Mean, the written Law, the High Priest, the
    rising of the sun and the color purple.  Tedacus Levi writes
    that it is from this place that the seventy nations are spread
    out over the earth and that its sign is the Truth of the Lord,
    and that it is called Peace and has its shape pictured in the
    moon.  Its mystery is the third letter of the Tetragrammaton
    and this mystery is 'Our father who is in heaven,' the man
    above or the heavenly Adam, judgment, opinion, Michael, the
    old man Israel, the God of Jacob."

So, Tiferet is the wood of life who will bring salvation to humankind.
He is pleasure because he brings eternal happiness to those who
believe in his name.  He is the Balance that keeps all the sefirot
level.  The sign of the seventy nations is Tiferet consort of Malkhut.
In Mercy is found true peace.  Tiferet comes and he is En-Sof, for all
the sefirot are mirrors of light reflecting one another.  He is the
God of Jacob.

Page 291:

    To the tenth Sephira come the Lord, the kingdom, life, the
    second cherub, unilluminating speculation, later things, the
    end, the church of Israel, the bride in the Song of Songs, the
    Queen of Heaven, the virgin Israel, the mystery of Law as
    transmitted by word of mouth, the eagle, the fourth letter of
    the Tetragrammaton, the kingdom of the house of David, the
    Temple of the king, the doors of God, the Ark of the Covenant
    and the two tablets in it, the Lord of all the earth.

It's clear here that Shekhinah has united with the Virgin Mary in a
mystical union to produce the King of Glory in her/their womb
together.  Mary, of course, is a strong early symbol of the Church.
Mary is the Queen of Heaven and she brought forth into the world the
kingdom of the house of David.  She is the Temple of Tiferet, her
birthgate the doors of God.  She is the Ark of the Covenant, for
Tiferet/En-Sof is the Covenant between himself and humanity.  The two
tablets represent Christ who manifests himself in two forms:  "I will
place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be
their God, and they shall be my people" (Jeremiah 31:33).  And the
second form:  "You are our letter, written on our hearts, known and
read by all, shown to be a letter of Christ administered by us,
written not in ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets
of stone but on tablets that are hearts of flesh."  Thus, we have two
tablets:  the law written on our hearts and our very being which is a
spark of the divine written on our hearts of flesh.  There is a giant
sign on the doorway leading into our hearts:  This Way To God.

 On page 295, Simon quotes Psalm 21:  "Oh Lord, in your strength the
king will rejoice, is understood by Kabbalists as referring to the
Messiah:  "O Lord, Tetragrammaton, in your strength the king
Messiah...' (understand 'comes' or 'operates').  The Messiah is the
strength of God and works in the strength of the Tetragrammaton.  I
understand this from the word YShMH, meaning 'will rejoice,' whose
letter transposed make MShYH, meaning 'Messiah.'"  Reuchlin seems to
be suggesting here that the Messiah is Yesod.  Or, perhaps, Tiferet
operates by Yesod (his strength).

 1 Kings 19:11:

    A strong and heavy wind was rending the mountains and
    crushing rocks before the YHVH -- but YHVH was not in the
    wind.  After the wind there was an earthquake -- but YHVH
    was not in the earthquake.  After the earthquake there was
    fire -- but YHVH was not in the fire.  After the fire there
    was a tiny whispering sound.

Page 337:

    but after the fire was a still, small voice, and in that voice
    the glory of YHVH, which is called Kavod, spoke to him.  So
    will you, after the rough, thorny desert, after the mountain
    and the rocks and the wind and the earthquake, after the fire
    and after the voice in the very entrance of the caverns and
    the caves, so you will hear, once you have shed the mass of
    your secular occupations, the glory of God saying to you:
    "What is this place to you?  Go on your way."  As the
    narrative goes in 3 Kings 19.

Here, Reuchlin associates Tiferet with Shekhinah.  The Hod of Tiferet,
which is called Shekhina, spoke to him.  After all of nature screams
at you, Malkhut of Tiferet says to you that heaven is not a place, but
a relationship with God.

 On page 343, Reuchlin says that Keter, Hokhma, and Bina are the
single crown of Tiferet.  God, clothed with ten garments of light
(page 345), created the heavens from the light of his last garment,
"not the physical ones but the invisible, intellectual spiritual
entities, about which the Psalmist says:  'The heavens tell of the
glory of God.'"  The word is not Shamayim but HaShamayim, not the
physical heavens but the spiritual heavens.

 On page 353, Marranus finally gets around to making some obvious,
unveiled remarks about Christian belief.  They speak of the power of
the Cross.  "With the sign of the Cross," he says, "and the name of
Jesus they still the seas, abate the winds and repel thunderbolts."
He then explains how YHSVH is equivalent to IESU, the true Messiah.
Simon then reveals how "the better Kabbalist sages tried to liken this
figure of the Cross to the tree of the bronze serpent set up in the
desert, though they did so silently and secretly."  The Torah
reference is Number 21:8, whereas the New Torah reference is
John 3:14, "And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so
must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him
may have eternal life."

 Johanne Reuchlin's book, DE ARTE CABALISTICA, was fascinating and I
greatly enjoyed employing my knowledge of the Zohar to its precepts
and applications.  I have not yet begun to learn Kabbalah.

=========================================================================

    Tanna Anne said, What is the meaning of the passage, "in Adam
all die" (1 Cor. 15:22)?  Adam sinned when he ate of the Tree of
Knowledge (Hokhma), for "the wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23).  Yet
how do we explain Heb. 4:15, which tells us that the Holy One, blessed
be He, was tested in every way that we are, yet without sin?  Come and
see.  "So, too, it is written:  'The first man, Adam, became a living
being,' the last Adam a life-giving spirit" (1 Cor. 15:45).  The first
Adam, because of his sin, lost his supernal image, and the ages waited
for the life-giving Adam to become manifest.  And the Holy One,
blessed be He, came in the form of En-Sof (Phil. 2:6).  Yet Tiferet
did not regard equality with En-Sof a thing to be grasped.  Rather, he
emptied himself (of the sefirot), taking the form of a slave, coming
in human appearance (Adam Kadmon); and found human in appearance, he
humbled himself, becoming obedient to Malkhut, Who sent Him to the
Cross.  Because of this, En-Sof exalted him and bestowed on him the
name that is above every name, that at the name of Yeshua (YHSVH)
every knee should bend, in the upper world, the lower world, and in
sitra achra, and every tongue confess that ha-Mashiach Yeshua is
Tiferet, for the sake of Malkhut in Keter.

    This is how it happened.  Come and see.

    Tiferet is the Center of the Tree; all the sefirot are in him.
See, it is written, Yeshua said, "I am the light of the world.
Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light
of life" (John 8:12) and also, "But for you who fear my name, there
will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays" (Malachi 3:20).
All colors shine forth from the Sun (En-Sof); all colors shine forth
from Yeshua.  Yeshua said, "I am Tiferet, Hokhma, and Malkhut.  No one
comes to Keter except through me" (John 14:6).  Once a Companion has
come to Keter, he perceives En-Sof, the imperceptible.  Philip wished
to see the inexpressible; "Show us Keter," he said (John 14:8ff).
Yeshua said to him, "Have I been with you for so long a time and you
still do not know me, Philip?  Whoever has seen me has seen Keter....I
am in Keter and Keter is in me....Keter is working through me...."
For this reason, Yeshua gave us a new commandment, that we should pass
chesed from one to another.  When a Companion touches a Companion,
chesed passes between them, and En-Sof is made manifest.

    Yeshua said, "Amen, amen, I say to you, one of my Companions
will betray me" (John 13:21ff).  Yeshua then communed with Judas,
summoning the powers of sitra achra.  So it is written, "After Judas
took the morsel, Satan entered into him" (John 13:27ff).  Then Tiferet
commanded Samael, as the husks began to surround Tiferet to protect
him from those who would prevent his glorification, "Go, do what you
must do, and quickly."  Samael and Lilith then began to take delight
in one another, but Samael lusted after Malkhut.  As Samael and Lilith
writhed, Judas burned with lust for the blood of Mercy, and the
Assembly of Israel rewarded him by crowning him with thirty husks from
sitra achra (Matthew 26:15).  This is the meaning of Ye shall know a
tree by its fruit and the bad tree producing bad fruit will be thrown
into the fires of sitra achra.  And, if the eye is dark, the whole
body is filled with darkness, and how great is that darkness!  It
would have been better that Yehuda had never been born.

    A prostitute anointed netzah and hod with her tears.  Mary of
Magdala anointed keter with nard.  Thus they prepared him.

    Tiferet said, "I am manna.  This is my soma.  This is the
Whole Being of En-Sof.  Eat."  He gave the Companions the Cup:  "This
is my blood of Yesod (the Covenant), which will be shed for you and
for many for the forgiveness of sins.  Do this in remembrance of me.
Amen, I say to you, I shall not drink again from Shekhinah until the
Day when I drink her new in the Upper World within En-Sof."  How will
this happen?  Come and see.

    "Keter," Tiferet prayed, "take this Cup away from me.  Yet not
my will, but yours, be done."  And an angel came and comforted him.
The Sanhedrin questioned him, "Are you ha-Mashiach, the Son of
Hokhmah?"  YHSVH answered, "You will see the Son of Hokhmah between
Chesed and Gevurah, and coming with all the sefirot" (Mark 14:62).
Then they took away the light of his eyes (v65), spit on him, ordered
him to prophesy, and struck him.  Thus began the Passion of En-Sof.

    Pilate (Samael) asked Yeshua, "Are you Tiferet [consort] of
Malkhut?" (Mark 15:2).  Tiferet, separated from Malkhut, said sadly,
"You say so."  Pilate said, "I am not a Jew, am I?  Your own nation
and the chief priests handed you over to me.  What have you done?"
Tiferet responded, "My Consort does not belong to the lower world.  If
Malkhut belonged to this world, my soldiers would be fighting to keep
me from being handed over to the Judeans.  But as it is, my holy wife
is not with me," he concluded sadly, knowing that he would unite with
her soon.  So Pilate said to him, "Then you are Tiferet?"  Tiferet
answered, "You say I am Tiferet.  For this I was born and for this I
came into the lower world, to testify to Hokhma and Bina, my supernal
father and supernal mother.  Everyone who belongs to hokhma-bina
listens to my voice."  Puzzled, Pilate/Samael, who could only see up
the sefirotic tree as far as Malkhut, responded, "Who is Hokhma/Bina?"

    A discussion arose among the sefirot.  Who will be first to
return to En-Sof?  Malkhut declared she could not leave until the
Uncreation was complete, for in her rested all the sefirot.  Yesod
said, "I am the Sign of the Holy Covenant.  I cannot leave."  Netsah
said, "I am the eternity of God.  How can I leave?"  Hod said, "I am
the Splendour of God.  How can I leave?"  Tiferet bowed his head.  "I
am the Center; all touch me.  I cannot leave until all have gone."
Chesed and Gevurah together declared, "We must flow together upward
and downward (that is, up towards the Upper World, and down upon the
Lower World).  We cannot leave before accomplishing this."  Bina said,
"I make sense of the Beginning."  Hokhma said, "I am the application
of the Understanding."  Together, they said, "We cannot leave before
the Inexpressible."  Then Keter arose in their midst.  "I am the Crown
of Adam.  I am the inexpressibility of the Endless.  Last to speak, I
am first.  I will return from whence I came."  Of them all, Keter was
the strongest.

    That is how it happened.

    En-Sof was scourged.  They bound his two hands to a pillar on
either side and stripped him of his garments (Makkoth 3:12).  They
made him bend low (Makkoth 3:13), as it is written, "the judge shall
cause him to lie down."  Thus was the nakedness of the Lord of Glory
exposed to His creatures.  They gave him one-third of the stripes in
front and two-thirds behind (Makkoth 3:13).  And the Roman soldiers,
according to the will of En-Sof, whipped En-Sof with all their might
(Makkoth 3:13).  Hokhma and Bina suffered [they whipped his
shoulders].  Chesed and Gevurah suffered [they whipped his lower back
and arms].  Tiferet suffered [they whipped his chest].  Yesod suffered
twofold [for shame of exposure as they whipped his buttocks].  Netsah
and Hod suffered [they whipped his legs].

    The soldiers wove a crown of thorns and adorned Him with
Keter.  Then Keter suffered [they beat him about the head].  As blood
flowed from Hokhma and Bina, as blood flowed from Chesed and Gevurah,
as blood flowed from Tiferet, [as blood flowed from Yesod eight days
after the birth of En-Sof], as blood flowed from Netsah and Hod, so
blood flowed from Keter down his face.  Then they wrapped the Supernal
Mother and the Supernal Father in purple.  "Hail, Tiferet," they
jeered, "Consort of Malkhut!"  Then was the Lord presented
to the Assembly of Israel, who cried, "Crucify Him!  Crucify Him!"
For Samael had raped Shekhinah and Judgment flowed, who also suffered.
Pilate shouted at the Assembly of Israel, "Behold En-Sof!"  Shekhinah
replied, "Crucify Him!"  Shocked, Pilate asked, "Shall I crucify your
Consort?"  Shekhinah replied, "We have no King but Caesar (that is,
Samael)."  Thus did the Assembly of Israel deny the Kingship of God.
At the denial of the Endless, the Inexpressible bled tears, and
returned to En-Sof.

    Still in shock at the loss of Keter, Yeshua groaned as the
wooden beam was laid upon Hokhma and Bina.  As the Holy One, Blessed
be He, was driven with whips on the Via Dolorosa, he saw his holy
Mother.  Stunned beyond comprehension, Wisdom and Knowledge fled the
already depleted Garden, and the Holy One, blessed be He, was driven
to his knees.  Weakened by the loss of Hokhma and Bina, and unable to
rise, the soldiers of sitra achra moved the heavy wooden beam onto the
shoulders of one Simon of Cyrene.  When he saw the strange woman, he
stumbled a second time.  She touched him with clean linen, wiping
Keter's blood from his face.  At the sight of his disciples beating
their breasts and wailing over him, he stumbled a third time, saying
to them, "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me.  Weep rather for
yourselves and for your children, for indeed, the days are coming
when people will say, 'Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never
bore and the breasts that never nursed.'  At that time people will say
to the mountains, 'Fall upon us!' and to the hills, 'Cover us!' for if
things such as these happen when the wood is green, what will happen
when it is dry?"

    When they reached the place called Calvary (the Skull), they
laid him on the ground, and drove huge nails into Gevurah and Chesed.
Gevurah and Chesed, thus united, fled into En-Sof.  Then they lifted
him up upon the Cross.  When the soldiers of sitra achra crossed his
feet, they drove the nail simultaneously into Netsah and Hod.  When
the Splendour of God was thus driven into Eternity, they fled, united,
into En-Sof.  Tiferet said, "Keter, forgive them, for they know not
what they do."  Yesod, the Foundation, suffered extreme exposure,
greatly humiliated, yet he refused to leave Tiferet.  The Assembly of
Israel gazed upon Yesod, yet Yesod felt no desire for her, possessed
as she was by sitra achra, only shame that all the powers of sitra
achra should thus stare at him exposed.  "Mercy!" Yesod cried.  And,
touched by Mercy, Yesod fled to En-Sof.  Thus was Tiferet left alone
on the Cross.  They nailed an inscription above him:  "This is
Tiferet Consort of Malkhut."

    Malkhut, seeing the inscription, sneered at him, "He saved
others, let him save himself if he is the Chosen One, the Messiah of
En-Sof."  They offered him wine, but he would drink no wine until he
had drunk of Malkhut.  A penitent thief said, "Tiferet, remember when
you are reunited with your Consort, Shekhinah."  Tiferet replied,
"Amen, I say to you, today you will with me among ALL the sefirot."

    Looking down from the Cross, Tiferet realized he could not yet
be released until he had released all.  When he saw his holy Mother
and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, "Behold
your son."  Then he said to the disciple, "Behold your Mother."  His
disciple obeyed him and he had nothing left.  Then was Tiferet truly
alone.

    As Malkhut continued to jeer at him, Tiferet, in despair,
whispered, "I thirst."  They offered him wine, but he thirsted not for
wine, but for Malkhut; yet Malkhut repulsed him.  He refused the wine.
He would have nothing but Malkhut.  And there was only one way to
obtain her.  Tiferet was afraid.  His despair intensified.  He yearned
for unity.  At noon darkness came over the whole land and the Tree of
Death reigned supreme.  When Tiferet saw the darkness, he was
terrified, trembling.  I can't do it alone, he thought, though he knew
he must.  In the deep darkness of his despair, he called for help.
"Eloi, Eloi!" he cried beseechingly to Those Who Had Fled, "lema
sabachthani?" which is translated, "My God, my God!  Why hast thou
forsaken me?"  Again, they tried to make him drink wine, but only
Malkhut, Malkhut, who leered at him with the branches of the Tree of
Death.  A shadow fell over him.  Crying aloud, Tiferet said, "Keter,
into thy hands, I commend my spirit.  It is finished."  When he said
this, Tiferet moved towards En-Sof, the Veil of the Sanctuary was torn
in two, that is, the Sitra Achra separating Malkhut from Tiferet was
torn apart, Malkhut was freed, the earth quaked, rocks were split,
tombs were opened (the Tree of Death became again the Tree of Life),
and the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised.  In
joy, Tiferet and Malkhut united, and blessings flowed to the Upper and
Lower worlds.  Stunned at this unexpected turn of events, one of the
soldiers of sitra achra stabbed Tiferet, but blood and water (red and
white, Chesed and Gevurah, flowing from Tiferet and Malkhut), flowed
from the side of En-Sof, cleansing the world of its uncleanness,
freeing humanity from its slavery to sin, and sending the husks into
retreat.  After sitra achra fled from the soldiers, they said, "Truly,
this was the Son of God!"

    The ten sefirot, united at last, gazed around them for En-Sof
into whom they had fled, but saw Nothing.  Joseph of Arimathea wrapped
the Body in clean linens and laid the Body in a freshly hewn tomb.
Then En-Sof rested in the world of the dead on Shabbat, according to
the Commandment.  The sefirot rested in the Upper World on Shabbat,
according to the Commandment.  The women rested on Shabbat, according
to the Commandment.  A legend from the nations told magi from the east
of the king to be born in Israel.  Just so, a legend from the nations
explains the reaction of the sefirot to the Body:  "The Gods gathered
like flies around the Sacrifice" (Gilgamesh).  This happened in the
deep darkness just before the morning.  As protons, electrons, and
neutrons surround the nucleus, the sefirot surrounded the ended
Endless.  For the sefirot had fled to Upper regions of En-Sof; now
they returned to the nucleus, the kernel of their being.  Keter was
first.  Come and see.  It is like a family that has lived in a house
for many years, but move away for a time.  All the furniture is
removed from the house.  Later, the same family moves back into the
house.  All the furniture is returned to the same place.  Each family
member returns to their favorite spot.  Here is the question:  Is it
the same House?  Keter was first.  This is the meaning of the passage,
"When Simon Peter arrived...he went into the tomb and saw the burial
cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the
burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place" (John 20:6-7).  Thus
Keter was first.  For Keter was always the strongest.  He smelled the
sweetness of the Sacrifice and, like a fly attracted to honey, he ate
the Sacrifice, and became One with En-Sof.  When Inexpressibility
returned to En-Sof, Wisdom and Intelligence followed.  As
Gedula/Gevura flowed upon the lower world and upper world, so
Gedula/Gevura flowed into En-Sof.  Timelessness reentered Endless in
Splendour.  Yesod, the glue holding all the sefirot together,
reestablished the Foundation of Adam, pulling gently upon Tiferet and
Malkhut.  Yet Tiferet hesitated, and Malkhut with him.  The sweet
smell of the Sacrifice was overpowering, and Tiferet yearned to
return, yet the memory of his experience with the Tree of Death gave
him pause.  "Come," said Shekhinah.  "Let us together reestablish the
Kingdom of God."  "Yes," responded Tiferet.  "Together, let us give
humankind everlasting Life!"  And together Tiferet Consort of Malkhut
and Malkhut Consort of Tiferet brought everlasting Life to humankind
through the forgiveness of sins by the Mercy of God.

    That is how it happened.

    When the women went to the tomb to Anoint the Sacrifice, the
stone sealing the tomb was rolled back, and a white-robed angel said
to them, "Do not be amazed!  You seek En-Sof, the Crucified.  He is
not here; he is risen!  Behold, the place where they laid him.  But go
and tell his disciples and Peter, "He is going before you to Galilee;
there you will see him, as he told you.'"  Then they went out and fled
from the tomb, seized with trembling and bewilderment.  They said
nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
--
Cindy Smith              --  Spawn of a Jewish Carpenter
[e-mail]           ||  A Real Live Catholic in Georgia
emory!dragon!cms         ||
><>                      /\  Woe to craven hearts and drooping hands,
Delay not your       .--/--\--.  to the sinner who treads a double path!
conversion       |----\/-||-\/----| Woe to the faint of heart who trust not,
to the Lord,     |----/\-||-/\----|   who therefore will have no shelter!
put it not off       `--\--/--'     Woe to you who have lost hope!
from day to day          \/   what will you do at the visitation of the Lord?
                         ||
     -- Ecclesiasticus   ||           -- Ecclesiasticus/Ben Sira 2:12-14
        /Ben Sira 5:8    --