Kabbalah

Many people complain of boredom, expecting others to entertain and relieve them of their feeling of boredom.

We expect something from outside to comfort our inner world; we look to others to give us something; we want them to entertain or amuse us; we want to liked, to be popular. We all want to be recognised as somebody in the world and we want others to show that they like us.

But . . . . . other people also want love from us.

Two hungry people wanting nourishment from each other.

One needs to develop something inside that frees one from the need , makes one less dependent on outside stimuli, but

not to the extent of the separating oneself with an iron shield.

One needs to understand the nature of the need for this stimulation from the outside world. See www.kabbalahmeditation.org/gurdjief (1st diagram)

Paradoxically, we expect to relieve our feeling of boredom by constant use of our mobile phones and iPods. Still bored, we turn to all the exciting stimuli with which we are bombarded daily; television and radio; shops full of enticing goodies and television adverts offering an abundance of diversions. As rich and delightful as it all is, we are left feeling totally unfulfilled.

As electronic communication exceeds itself, so ordinary human communication diminishes. We do seem to need real interaction with other people, both giving and receiving.

Learn how to give unconditional love to others

rather than expecting to receive it.

So often your Heart as Isaiah advises. “This people’s heart has been hardened, so they neither see, nor hear, nor turn to me to heal them”

http://www.kabbalahmeditation.org/isiaah

It is worth remembering that

to give is to receive.

We learn in the Torah that after Adam was created in the Garden of Eden “God looked to see how Adam would name all the creatures”

Our sages tell us that Adam could see both

the essential nature of the creature and

express it in words or letters.

In our classes and e-mails we have already looked at the meaning of Adam, Neshama - repeated below, Abracadabra and Neila of Yom Kippur

Because the sound of a name is connected with its essential nature, observant Jews who are very ill, sometimes ask their Rabbi to change their name, in the hope that they may thereby change their essential nature and fortune.

NESHAMA
“And then God blew into Adam’s nostrils and Adam became alive.”
The word Neshama means both ‘breath’ and ‘soul’ and gives meaning to the English words ‘inspire’ and ‘expire’. From Genesis we learn that God fashioned ADAM from the earth ADAMA and then blew breath, Neshima, into Adam’s nostrils. But, Neshama also means soul so God also blew a soul into Adam. Thus many systems of meditation use breathing techniques to touch the soul.

INFANT’S FIRST WORDS
Almost universally the infant’s first words are Mama .
Surprisingly the only sound which can be made in the larynx is AAAAAH. We make this sound with an open throat and an open mouth. Sepher Yetsira, written by Abraham, explains that all the other five groups of sounds are the result of the shape of the mouth and tongue, a system in use to the present day.
The infant sounds AAAAh and then closes his lips sounding MMMMM. If you try this yourself you will see you make the sound aMaMaMaMaMa. Or due to various reasons you may close your lips more explosively saying aBaBaBa.
OMAYN
if you listen carefully to yourself, saying amamama you may notice that before your lips close with the MMMM sound it is preceded by an ‘O’ sound giving the famous Hindu ‘Om’ sound, but we quickly transfer it to the OMAYN sound.

The more common Meditation methods
include either breathing, Neshima, as above, or repeating a mantra, so come and join us for Meditation this TUESDAY 27th Oct at 7.30pm

20 October 09
Abera Kedabera
Abera kedabera and it is the New Year again, and we start reading the Torah from the beginning again. The yearly cycle repeats yet again.

But what does Abera Kedabera mean?

The second word of the opening passage of the Torah is the word Bera which means ‘to create’. The future tense of the word Bera is Abera.
Kedabera means “as he speaks” from the word Daber.

Abera Kedabera, thus means that ‘he will create as he speaks’.

It is surprising to note that many religions seem to say that God created the world by speaking. You may recognise, “in the beginning was the Word and the Word was God”

Begin the New year as you wish to continue

SUCCOTH

Succoth is a festival of happiness and celebration, ‘Zman Simchosaynu’, which is generated in the heart, the place of true happiness, and associated with the shaking of the lulav in a succah.

We shake the Lulav pointing to the six different directions of space beyond the Succah, EIN SOF, whilst the movements of the lulav in present time, represent AYIN.

Each movement of the lulav begins at the heart and then returns to the heart

The Torah is considered as the heart of the universe. The heart is called LEV and it is intriguing that the first and last letters of the Torah spell LEV, heart. Lamed Beis (Bereishit and Yisrael).

The Gematria of heart, Lamed Beis, is 32. The Sepher Yetsira tells us, in its opening line, that God creates the universe with 32 paths of wisdom. The embryonic human being is also created from 32 segments, which later become the 32 vertebrae, out of which the embryo develops.

Examining the diagram of the Sephirot shows that the heart is represented by Tiferet which has connections with all the other Sephirot, suggesting that the heart is the centre

Why are we joyous? Because we are alive, because we have had a good judgement on Yom Kippur and because we have had a good harvest. So we strut around like a King with orb and sceptre. The round Esrog or orb resembling the heart and the straight Lulav resembling the sceptre and spinal cord

For your amusement - the central words HEART AND TORAH shows us another aspect of the month of Sukkot. Take away the first and last symmetrical letters of these words, the ‘H’ and ‘T’ and ‘T’ and ‘H’ and you are left with EAR and ORA. Ear refers to the zodiac sign of this month, which is Libra, representing the Scales of Justice. How is that, you may ask? The Hebrew word for ear is ‘oznaim’ which also means scales - Libra. ‘Ora’ is like the Aura which surrounds you, just like a Succah …Like Ein Sof

In other festivals only parts of our bodies are involved e.g. on Rosh Hashanah we hear the Shofar, on Pesach we eat matzo, at Chanukah, we look at the lights etc. On Succoth our whole being is enclosed in the succah, but, not limited by the Succah as the shaking of the lulav points the way beyond the succah to the infinite space of the creator.

Enjoy the festivities and share a little of your joy with others to multiply it.

The Rosh Hashanah service provides a good opportunity to put meditation into practice; as we all know the service is fairly long and, for some quite complicated, an occasion where mind is likely to drift all over the place and we end up exhausted.

There are many different ways of bringing meditation practice into this kind of surrounding. Meditation practice at home has to be brought out and practised in the world. For those who have been meditating with me regularly, you know that opening your awareness to the whole room, ‘the soft gaze ‘, in contrast to focusing on some detail , is a good practice. Listening to the sound of the whole room is another way of turning your attention outward; from what goes on in your own little head, to what goes on in the bigger world.

There is a lot of standing in the service and combining good posture practice, as detailed below, with the Three Mothers of Sepher Yetsira, represented by the three Hebrew letters, Aleph, Mem and Shin, goes a long way to helping you stand up straight and comfortable. See link http://www.kabbalahmeditation.org/3 mothers.pps

The 1st mother, the Aleph , is aimed at the neck, pulling the chin back a couple of millimetres, Alexander style, with head pulled up by an imaginary silken thread, up and slightly forwards, Tai chi style. This stretches the back of the neck.

2nd Mother, the Mem, represents the position of the shoulders. The shoulders need to be pulled down away from the neck, pulling the shoulder blades gently together, but with the main contraction just below the shoulder blades. This answers the question of how far forwards or back the shoulders should be.

The 3rd Mother, the Shin, relates to the core muscles as taught by Pilates. With slightly bent knees, pull the front of the tummy in towards the spinal cord, on breathing out. This stretches the small of the back.

These three mothers also straighten out the spinal cord, the aim of the osteopaths, chiropractics, and cranio- sacral therapists.

Finally you might try singing the prayers, those which do not have any tune. You have to make up your own tunes of course. This begins to exercise both left and right brain simultaneously.

Because all these exercises have to be done deliberately, consciously and not automatically, they are all meditative, all raise the level of your consciousness and all are part of “turning to God to be healed” as explained by Isaiah in previous messages.

Very Happy New Year to you all

If any of the readers are interested in learning more about the subjects on this website , they can join a meditation course run in North London. Write to me at this blog address.

This week and next the Parsha of Vayesheiv is full of the most interesting sex, violence, intrigue and murder stories : including the 3rd Shalshelet that I have been referring to.
You can see more details if you follow this link
VAYEISHEV

This parsha like the previous one Vayishlach is is full of most interesting stories, which will be touched on briefly here in the hope that the reader will read the full story in the Bible.

Joseph

The first story is about Joseph and his dreams which antagonise his brothers Vayeishev 37:18 and results in him being sold into slavery in Egypt. His father is led to believe that he is being killed by an animal Vayeishev37:31. He becomes Potiphar’s chief and loyal assistant, but Potiphar’s wife has different ideas about him, culminating in her attempt to seduce him Vayeishev 39:7. Although he is successful in resisting her, the sages include a shalshelet Vayeishev 39:8, over the word “vayomayn”, about his resistance (which we spoke about recently). Spurned, she accuses him of rape and he lands up in jail where he interprets other prisoners’ dreams which brings him to the attention of the Pharaoh who is having trouble with his dreams about the fat seven devouring the thin seven. Mikeitz 41:1( next wek’s Parsha). Pharaoh approves of his interpretation and appoints him Viceroy whereby he saves the whole Middle East from famine.

In the middle of the story of Joseph we read about the strange union between Yehuda and Tamara.Vayeishev 38:1

Yehuda had two sons who both died after they married Tamara. The second son’s name was Onan, who displeased God because he spilled his seed rather than give Tamar the chance to have a child, giving rise to the word Onanism. Tamara very skilfully manages to seduce the father of the two deceased boys, Yehuda, and even more skilfully, on the point of death, proves that Yehuda is the father of the child she is pregnant with. An amazing story especially considering that this child is destined to be the ancestor of the Messiah

Vreiliche Chanuka

JACOB

We might like to remind ourselves of some of the very Interesting stories about Jacob, which take place in the last 7 Parshiot of the 12 weeks of Genesis. Parsha Toldos deals with the birth of Jacob and Esau. Esau who was born first came out with Jacob holding his foot by the heel. Jacob, Ya-acov, comes from the word Ekev meaning heel. In English to be called a heel is a derogatory title. Perhaps because Jacob had tricked Esau over the birthright.

Why don’t we eat the hind quarters of an animal.?

Vayishlach 32:23
He (Jacob) Crossed the River (Similar to crossing the river Styx. Or crossing the Red Sea or crossing an Interval)
He had just escaped from Laban with his wives and children that he heard that Esau was waiting for him with 400 armed men and he was petrified. He couldn’t sleep that night and crossed the river to collect some minor possessions. He had to face his fear of meeting Esau. He spent the whole night fighting his fear of Esau by fighting with Esau’s angel. The angel damaged Jacob’s Sciatic nerve so that he limped. Because of this we don’t eat the hind quarters.

In the battle with the angel, there was also the battle of names. The result was that the angel changed Jacob’s name to Israel. You will notice that whenever the Torah at talks about Jacobs connection with the Jewish people his name is Israel, but when it is about himself is name is Jacob.

Jacob’s dream of the ladder

The angels going up and down is a clear reference to a circle and man’s relationship with the divine. Makom is a nice symmetrical word meaning place and usually implies a place of the divine. The divine comes down to meet man and Man goes up to meet the Divine. A pattern we have seen many times before. Jacob has a powerful meeting with this place, He bangs into it, or explodes into it, Pogah is ther word used Vayetzei 28:11 He hit this place.

The deceit of the marriage

Everybody knows that Jacob was tricked into marrying Leah and then had to work another 7 years to marry Rebecca. Went Jacob confronted Laban about his deceit, Laban silenced him with his cutting answer Vayetzei 29:26 saying “we don’t marry the younger before the older” implying that Jacob the younger tricked his father into giving him the blessings.

Dinah

Vayislach 34 :1
Dinah decided to take a look at the land. She came across Schem who was the son of the prince of the land are not the only did he fall in love with her but he also forced her to lie with him. When Dina’s brothers heard of the outrage they were very angry and tricked the whole of the tribe’s men to circumcise themselves. On the third day he when they were most uncomfortable after the circumcision, Dina’s brothers, Shimon and Levy went in and massacred all the inhabitants of the village. …….

Meditation

We spend a lot of time considering trivialities which drain our energy. Just think of the way we can relive an unpleasant incident of the past which will raise both our temperatures and our heartbeats and leave us drained.

Meditation is the process, or method, or discipline by which we learn two things. Firstly we learn the extent to which our minds are occupied with trivialities and secondly we learn a different way of using the mind which gives us more energy and more clarity of thought.
The
Besides the medical benefits of meditation which are very well documented, we also discover something about our unique potential in the process.

Although we you can learn about meditation from books, and indeed my website describes the process www.kabbalahmeditation.org/meditation it is easier to practice of meditation with a guide and with other people.

“THE LEGITIMATE FUNCTION OF MIND IS TO TELL YOU WHAT IS NOT”?