Judaism discovered

Judaism and Kabbalah: An Inseparable Unity

Six is a number of occult significance in Kabbalistic Judaism, part of its arcane "gematria." You will recall in the Talmud passage about Nebuchadnezzar's giant phallus, the comment attributed to his genital condition, that of being uncircumcised (he'orel). The Talmud immediately followed this statement with the observation that "the numerical value of 'orel is three hundred." The Talmudic "sages" were reminding the reader in this passage of the gematria, of circumcision. But why in the context of Nebuchadnezzer's genital organ? Gematria is the Kabbalistic method for nullifying the Bible by fantastic glosses or by reducing the Biblical texts to a supposedly superior system of comprehension via secret codes (Kabbalah) necessary to understanding the alleged true, "hidden meaning" of Scripture. "The object of midrash was not so much to find the meaning of Scripture as it was to literally engage its text. Midrash became a conversation the Rabbis invented in order to enable God to speak to them from between the lines of Scripture, in the textual fissures and discontinuities that exegesis discovers. The multiplication of interpretations in midrash was one way, as it were, to prolong the 'conversation." ⁹⁰⁴

This is an open admission that the rabbinic texts of the Midrash ( a title derived from the Hebrew root word d-r-sh, "to demand") are man-made "inventions" fashioned so as to facilitate the rabbis' own fantasies— not about what God says in the Bible— but what they imagine He says "between the lines." And according to Peretz Segal of Tel Aviv University, this product of the imagination of the rabbis became the basis of the laws of Judaism from its formation — as the formal creed of the Pharisees of first and second century Palestine: "Midrash,..is the principal source of (rabbinic) laws that were enacted in the tannaitic period...Midrash is...founded on (the) principal presumption...(that) the biblical text is to be interpreted (by the Sages and Rabbis) in order to resolve legal problems and create new legal material...Midrash is thus an activity that encourages...imaginative study of the scriptures...(M)idrash was the principal manner of developing Jewish Law. As opposed to the scribes, who were charged with the preservation of

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the tradition, the Sages viewed the scriptures as a material which was given to them for the purpose of deriving laws by interpretation" ⁹⁰⁵

In Midrashic and Kabbalistic gnosis, Nebuchadnezzar's phallus is analogous to "the rod of Moses," which the Midrash Yalkut Shim oni and the Zohar teach was in the possession of Adam when he was expelled from the Garden of Eden, after which it was passed on to successive patriarchs: Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and through Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, to Moses himself. The aggadic understanding of Psalm 110:2, which has the Lord stretching forth the mighty sceptre, relates to the notion of scripture as analogous to a stretched penis achieving an erection. Scripture, like the penis, must be stretched for the complete truth about it to be seen. According to Orthodox Judaism, on the plane of the incarnate world, the Bible seldom means what it literally says. "Hyayim Vital in his introduction to Sh'ar ha-Haqdamot ⁹⁰⁶ (states): 'When (the Torah) is in the world of emanation it is called kabbalah, for there it is removed from all the garments which are called the literal sense (peshat), from the expression 'I had taken off (pashtti) my robe' (Song of Songs [Solomon] 5:3), for (the literal sense) is the aspect of the external garment which is upon the skin of a person..." So, for example, only the fool takes the rod of Moses to be a literal rod. In Judaism the literal biblical denotative meaning of the written Scripture is denigrated as the lowest form of comprehension, and is in fact regarded as bereft of comprehension, unless it is viewed in the light of the worlds of the oral tradition and law: Yesirah, Beri'ah and Asilut (as inhabited by the Mishnah, Talmud and Kabbalah).

Orthodox Judaism teaches that the rod of Moses is still extant, awaiting the Messiah who will wield it. This continuing existence of the rod becomes understandable when one is cognizant that according to the rabbinic gematrioty the Messiah will rule by means of his penis, as did Nebuchadnezzar when he "wagged" his enormous phallus before the kings of the earth. This degraded fantasy is arrived at by means of "removing the garment" (peshat) of Nebuchadnezzar to reveal the remez (the first stage of

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true understanding of the text). The analogy of the alternately hidden (flaccid) and revealed (erect) penis is continued in the rabbinic explanation of how the inner meaning of the outermost Torah is made manifest: "A game of hide-and seek is played between the Torah and those who try to comprehend it. The hidden mysteries are clothed in the garments of the revealed Torah, and they appear only very briefly to its students, returning immediately to the secrecy of their 'sheaths." ⁹⁰⁷

This process is the mindset not of Biblical Israelites but of the perverted pagans of Babylonian antiquity: that the power of the ruler is rooted in the male sexual organ; the rabbinic magna arcanus being that from Adam to Moses to Solomon, the patriarchs of Israel ruled through sex magic. Solomon, the archetype of the magus in the warped annals of the Freemasons and the western secret societies in general, is for them the Kabbalistic paradigm of the sexualized high priest and sorcerer, whose life and career were steeped in sexuality. It is not for nothing that the Talmud calls Solomon a magician. (BT Gittin 68a-68b). It is from these recondite doctrines of Judaism that the Freemasons and other occult workers of iniquity derive their beliefs.⁹⁰⁸

The "Garments" — Peshat, Remez, Derash The Torah is ascribed female gender as part of a highly charged sexual relationship with the male Judaic "scholar" who is seeking to probe and unveil "her^w:

"This is the way of the Torah. At first, when she begins to reveal herself to a man, she gives him a sign (remez). If he understands, good. If he does not understand, she sends to him and calls him a fool. The Torah says to the messenger that she sends to him, 'Tell that fool to come here, that I might speak with him.¹ ... He comes to her, and she begins to speak with him through the curtain that she has spread before him, in the way that best suits him, so that he can understand little by little, and this is derash. Then

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she talks with him through a very fine veil, and discusses enigmatic things, and this is haggadah. And then when he has become accustomed to her, she reveals herself to him face to face, and speaks to him about all her hidden mysteries and all the hidden paths that have lain concealed in her heart from ancient times. Then he becomes a complete man, a true master of Torah, the lord of the house, for she has revealed all her mysteries to him, and she has neither hidden nor withheld anything from him." (The Mishpatim, Zohar II: 98b-99b).

"The Torah reveals the secret and then immediately clothes it in another garb and it is hidden there and not revealed. The wise who are full of eyes, although the matter is sealed in a garment, see it through the garment. And when the matter is revealed, before it enters the garment, it is seen by those with sharp eyes, and even though it is immediately concealed it is not lost from their sight...He then takes the hidden subject from its sheath and after it has been revealed it returns at once to its sheath and dons its garment there." (The Mishpatim, ibid.).

"This...is, however, extremely important for the light that it sheds on the relationship between the different layers of the hidden and revealed meanings of Scripture...it is precisely the exalted status of the mystical meaning of Torah that requires it to be clothed in outer garments....The garments of peshat, derash, and remez are valuable tools, and absolutely necessary....The preexistent Torah, the written Torah, and the oral Torah are represented by the sefirot Hokhmah, Tiferet and Malkhut." ^9t)9

The Rabbinic Curse

Orthodox rabbis place curses, cast spells and imagine they have powers greater than God, derived from their study of the Sefer Yezriah, a book of Kabbalistic magic as well as the books of the Talmud. For example the rabbinic curse of shammetha, though technically an excommunication encompassing all three degrees of separation (neziphah, niddah, cherem) is actually a functional curse involving sorcery and the evil eye. In footnote d (I) to Moet Katan 17a, the Soncino calls its a curse. The etymology (from sham-mitha) is "death is there" rendering it clearly a malediction. Cherem itself, widely taken to mean simply excommunication under Judaism, actually has

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as its root in HeReM, "curse." It is more than separation from the body of believers as in Catholic Church excommunication or the ostracism associated with the meidung (shunning) practice of the Old Order Amish. As we have examined at length in the preceding pages, Niddah too possesses the threat of curse for the violation of, for example the degrees of separation associated with the female blood fetish. A pronouncement of a cherem on a Judaic has physical as well as spiritual implications: "when the cherem enters, it penetrates the two hundred and forty eight joints." ^9L0 The magical dimension of shammetha, can be seen in the Talmudic case of a dog that was pestering a rabbi by gnawing on his shoes. "Rabbi Joseph said, 'Cast a shammetha on the dog's tail and it will do its work.' So they pronounced a shammetha on the culprit and the dog's tail caught fire and got burnt." ^9U

"There was a domineering fellow who bullied a certain colleague. The latter came before Rabbi Joseph for advice. Said Rabbi Joseph to him: 'Go and put the shammetha on him.' The colleague replied, 'I am afraid of him.' Said Rabbi Joseph to him, then write out the shammetha as a writ against him.' The colleague replied, I am all the more afraid to do that.' So Rabbi Joseph said to him, 'Take the writ, put it into a jar, take it to a graveyard and hoot into it a thousand horn-blasts (shipur) for forty days.' He went and did so. The jar burst and the domineering bully died." ⁹¹² There are elaborate evil-eye protections in Judaism, including a vast traffic in magical amulets intended to protect against it. This is necessary due to the Talmudic statement, "Whenever the rabbis set their eye against anyone, the result is either death or poverty." ⁹¹³

The Sefer Yezirah teaches the methods of fortune-telling, numerology and astrology by means of contact with demons. In a footnote to the Soncino edition Talmud, the rabbinic editor states, concerning the origins of the Sefer Yezirah, "The work was ascribed to Abraham, which fact indicates an old tradition, and the possible antiquity of the book itself. It has affinities with Babylonian, Egyptian, and Hellenic mysticism and its origin has been placed in the second century B.C.E., when such a combination of influences might be

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expected." ⁹¹⁴ According to the Sefer Yezira's modern publisher, the book: "...aid(s) the development of telekinetic and telepathic powers. These powers were meant to help initiates perform feats that outwardly appeared magical. The magical kabbalah...uses various signs, incantations...by which initiates could influence or alter natural events." ⁹¹⁵

The book's translator states: "...the signs of the Zodiac are associated with the twelve Hebrew lunar months...The assignment here approximates Western astrology, but is more accurate from a Kabbalistic viewpoint...Also associated with each of these twelve signs is a permutation of the names YHVH and Adony. By meditating on these combinations, as well as the derivative of the 42 Letter Name,⁹¹⁶ one can gain knowledge of things that will happen in designated times...

"One of the most important factors in astrology is the time and date of a person's birth. The Talmud thus states that there is a 'Mazal of the hour.' The time, day and date upon which a person is born has an important influence on his destiny (BT Shabbat 156a). Elsewhere the Talmud teaches that there is an angel called Laylah that oversees birth. It is this angel that proclaims if the individual will be strong or weak, wise or foolish, rich or poor (BT Niddah 16b). "...Another important opinion is that of the practical Kabbalists. They write that Teli is actually a place under the firmament of Vilon, and that it is inhabited by humanoid beings, which deport themselves in holiness and purity like angels. The divine mysteries are revealed to these beings, and they have the authority to reveal these things to mortal humans. Methods are also given whereby these beings can be contacted." ⁹¹⁷

The Kabbalah is a collection of books of black magic and rank superstition. It is the other wing of the oral tradition of the elders, claiming, like the Talmud, to be part of a secret teaching given to Moses at Sinai. "Kabbalists claimed that their tradition had originally been given to Moses at Sinai...Many oral traditions were reworked in the Zohar...The influence of Kabbalah on exoteric Judaism was widespread, presenting Jews with a

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powerful set of mystical symbols...influencing halakah and giving magical practices respectability as elements of practical Kabbalah." ⁹¹⁸ Barry W. Holtz, director of research at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America writes: "...in our century, scholarly researchers have made clear the centrality of Kabbalah to the whole of Jewish religious consciousness." ⁹¹⁹

Professor Lawrence Fine of Indiana University describes the Zohar (the canonical text of Kabbalism) as: "...a work of extraordinary quality which was to exert profound influence upon virtually all subsequent Jewish mystical creativity...the Zohar was studied with reverence, awe and intensity by Jews in the most diverse communities throughout the world." ⁹²⁰ The earliest Kabbalistic book was the Sefer ha-Bihar, "a remarkable book insofar as it represented the emergence of a striking set of Gnostic motifs within the heart of rabbinic Judaism." ⁹²¹ "The Gnostic character of this cosmogony cannot be denied...Gnostic theology was able to dominate the mainstream of Jewish religious thought..." ⁹²² The first Gnostic is generally reputed to be Simon Magus: "Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was the power of God that is called great" (Acts 8: 9-10). Because Simon offered to pay the apostles that he might acquire the Holy Spirit, his name became the eponymous basis for the sin of Simony, "...the terms in which Simon is said to have spoken of himself are testified by the pagan writer Celsus to have been current with the pseudo-Messiahs still swarming in Phoenicia and Palestine at his time...It is of interest, though in a context far removed from ours, that in Latin surroundings Simon used the cognomen Faustus ('the favored one'): this in connection with his permanent cognomen 'the Magician..." ⁹²³ The Gnostic components of the religion of Judaism pertain to self-worship. This doctrine does not come from the Bible, which is filled with prophetic jeremiads against the Israelites for their faithlessness. According to Rabbi

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Samson R. Hirsch's key depiction of the Judaic man, unlike the rest of mankind, the "Jew" alone is imbued with the metaphysical qualities necessary for fulfilling divine destiny; "Jews" alone possess an innate disposition toward obeying God. ⁹²⁴ The Kabbalah teaches that the presence of the Shekhinah in the world is exclusively due to the existence of the Judaic people. The oral traditions of the elders decree that the lifelong study of rabbinic tradition is not only a way to get closer to God, it is a way to become God. According to the Talmud, God himself is a student of the rabbis' tradition — "he studies the Talmud three times a day." ⁹²⁵ The traditions of Judaism were acquired from Babylon, but their original transmission point was Egypt:

"...there was abroad in the Hellenistic world gnostic thought and speculation entirely free of Christian connections...The Hermetic writings... (of) the Poimandres treatise...of the 'Thrice-greatest Hermes' originated in Hellenistic Egypt, where Hermes was identified with Toth...Poimandres is an outstanding document of gnostic cosmogony...according to which Man precedes creation and himself has a cosmogonic role. Rabbinical speculations about Adam based on the duplication of the report of his creation...referred to a celestial and terrestrial Adam respectively...Certain Zoroastrian teachings, either through the medium of Jewish speculations or directly, may also have contributed to the conception of this supremely important figure of gnostic theology. The departure from the biblical model..is conspicuous... The system of Poimandres is centered around the divine figure of Primal Man...the new bisexual creation..." ⁹²⁶ The chief trait shared by Gnosticism and Kabbalism is a provenance of conceit and pride and a sub-rosa tradition of a superman with a hidden sexual aspect, that of a hermaphrodite. This goes deeply into the "magical" work which both Jewish and Hermetic-Gnostic (and later Neoplatonic, alchemical, Rosicrucian and masonic) adepts performed behind a smokescreen of diversionary rhetoric. Unfortunately, many naive students of Gnosticism have limited their research to the exoteric, philosophical Gnosticism intended for "profane" outsiders — the dualism and hatred of matter attributed to the Gnostic offshoots, Manicheanism and

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Albigensianism. ⁹²⁷ In medieval Spain, at Castile, the most prominent Gnostics were rabbis and Kabbalists such as Jacob Kohen, Moses ben Shemtov de Leon and Moses of Burgos. The prominent feature of their thinking was the development of an elaborate theory of a demonic emanation of ten Sefirot. The Gnostic-Hermetic tradition finds resonance in the pages of the Kabbalistic text, Sefer ha-Bahir which had a profound influence on Christians in the south of France, resulting in their susceptibility to Cathar/ Albigensian demonology and "perfecti" Phariseeism. ⁹²⁸

Kabbalism is imbued with a homicidal element by virtue of its legendary origin with Rabbi Simon ben Yohai who "...according to traditional belief, (is) the author of the Zohar, the prime text of Jewish mysticism..just before his death in Galilee, he revealed to his students some of the greatest secrets of the Kabbalah." ⁹²⁹ The Kabbalah and its votaries exhibit at least the same degree of fanatical hostility toward non-Judaics as does the Talmud. As we have noted, the Kabbalist of the 1500s, Rabbi Isaac Luria, whose teachings were transmitted through Vital's Etz Hayyim. This text discusses the "olam ha-tohu ('realm of confusion'—the subhuman non-Judaic world) and olam ha-tikkun ('realm of restoration'—the...paradisaical Zionist world empire to come)..." ⁹³⁰ Kabbalah scholar Isaiah Tishby quotes Rabbi Vital, the chief codifier of Rabbi Luria, who wrote in his book, Gates of Holiness: "The Emanating Power, blessed be his name, wanted there to be some people on this low earth that would embody the four divine emanations. These people are the Jews, chosen to join together the four divine worlds here below." Tishbi went on to further quote Vital's work in underscoring the Kabbalistic teaching of Isaac Luria that non-Jews are Satanic: "Souls of non-Jews come entirely from the female part of the Satanic sphere. For this reason souls of

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non-Jews are called evil..." ⁹³¹ The Messianic age of restoration and redemption (tikkun olam) forecast by the religion of Judaism and spoon-fed to their partisans among the goyim, posits a world restored to universal harmony and justice. That's the cover story, anyway. The truth is somewhat more macabre, as Tishby relates: "...the presence of Israel among the nations mends the world, but not the nations of the world...it does not bring the nations closer to holiness, but rather extracts the holiness from them and thereby destroys their ability to exist...(T)he purpose of the full redemption is to destroy the vitality of all the peoples." ⁹³²

To be rid of a curse or enchantment the rabbis advise that the afflicted one immerse himself in the Dead Sea, or immerse the magical paraphernalia in the waters of the Dead Sea. Cf. for example Babylonian Talmud tractates Temura 4b and Berakhot 53b. This occult principle was expressed by the revered Hasidic Rabbi Nachman with reference to the Dead Sea: "Veein takana lehaben melekh ki im sheyashlikhu hamekhashef sheasa hakishuf lemayin" ("There was no salvation for the prince unless the sorcerer who put the spell on him throws him into the water") [Sipurei Maasiyot]. Of course it is said that Orthodox Talmudic Judaism takes a generally dim view of the Kabbalah. This disinformation is strictly for those gentiles just off the boat. One of the most politically influential Judaic groups in the West, is the Kabbalist Chabad-Lubavitch group of Hasidic ("Haredi") Judaism headed by their late "Messiah," the Kabbalist master Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Their influence over the modern American presidency alone, is incalculable.

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President Ronald Reagan in the White House, during one of his many meetings with the

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President George W. Bush in the White House with a delegation of Chabad-Lubavitch rabbis, to honor the late Grand Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson with a White House "Education Day" Noachide proclamation, April 15, 2008.

When Chabad-Lubavitch's Grand Rabbi Schneerson was posthumously awarded the US government's Congressional Gold Medal, Elie Wiesel stated, "Perhaps this is the moment to remind all of us that the Lubavitcher Rebbe zichrono livrocha (may his memory be blessed), did not need medals, nor did he need honors. The Lubavitcher Rebbe was the one who gave honors....It was an honor to be in his presence. It was an honor to listen to him. It was an honor to be seen by him."

This powerful group, Chabad-Lubavitch, as part of the Hasidic orientation of Orthodox Judaism, is Kabbalistic to its heart.

Michael Fishbane, Nathan Cummings Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Chicago, terms "Hasidism the popular and late heir of Kabbalah" ⁹³³. It was the Hasidim, under the direction of Israel ben Eliezer,

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the "Ba'al Shem Tov," following the lead of the revered Kabbalistic magus Rabbi Yitzhak Luria, who inserted Kabbalistic texts into the prayer book, including the formulaic Kabbalistic prayer, the le-shem yihud, for the invocation of the alchemical marriage of the goddess Shekhinah (Sefirah Malkhut), with her male consort, the Judaic god (Sefirah Tiferet): "For the sake of the unification (le-shem yihud) of the Holy One, Blessed Be He, and His Shekhinah, through the Hidden and Concealed One (En Sof), in the name of all Israel." This invocation is intended to be recited before any good deed, (mitzvah) is carried out by a Hasidic Judaic. ⁹³⁴ Rabbi Elijah de Vidas held that it should be recited before "every deed" was performed.

The Kabbalah is so much a part of Orthodox Judaism it permeates its rituals, laws and ceremonies to the minutest degree. Take for example the ceremonial month of Nissan, the month that includes Pesach (Passover). The other dimensions of Nissan are include chodesh Nissan that include the recital of an annual four-part bracha (blessing). One of these, Bircas llanos is recited on blossoming trees. The Gemara at BT Brachos 43a states that the "Jew" who sees blossoming trees during Nissan recites, "Boruch Atta Hashem, Elokeinu Melech ha'olam, shelo chisar ba'olamo davar, u'vara vo briyos tovos v'ilanos tovim, 'hanos bahem bnei adam" (Blessed is the name, for nothing is lacking in the world and He created in it benevolent creatures and good trees, to give the generations of Adam pleasure). While theoretically this bracha is part of the category of sayings to be recited in the presence of

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geologic and meteorological phenomenon such as mountains, oceans, earthquakes, lightning etc. (the so-called birchos ha're'iyah), in halacha it holds a distinct position, as evidenced by pride of place in Rabbi Joseph Karo's Shulchan Aruch, where it has a chapter devoted to it. Karo's special emphasis is based on its Kabbalistic significance. "Not only did the author of the Shulchan Aruch not guard himself against the influence of the Kabbalah, he listened to it willingly as far as a great halachic scholar like him could reconcile his views with it."⁹³⁵ Hence, even in the minutiae of the regulations governing types of blessings which the Orthodox are obliged to recite, the nature of the obligation is understood by Kabbalistic gnosis. Thus, according to Kabbalistic guidelines, the proper formula for reciting this bracha "lechatchilah" during Nissan, orders that the Judaic leave the city and "go to a place where there are many trees."⁹³⁶ By many trees is meant a minimum of two trees.⁹³⁷ The subsequent details for the observance pile up faster than ants on syrup.

Against Nature The core of Judaism, like the core of Gnosticism and Egyptian Hermeticism, is magic, the manipulation of the universe, contra God's creation; i.e. against nature. Gershom Scholem (1897-1982) was Professor of Kabbalah at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He wrote that there is: "...in practical Kabbalah...a good deal of'black' magic -- that is, magic...of various dark, demonic powers...Such black magic embraced a wide realm of demonology and various forms of sorcery that were designed to disrupt the natural order of things and to create illicit connections between things that were meant to be kept separate...In the Tikkunei Zohar the manipulation of such forces is considered justifiable under certain circumstances..." ⁹³⁸ This diabolical element is rarely acknowledged. Judith Weill, an adherent of Judaism and a professor of Judaic mysticism in England and an adviser to London's Jewish Museum states: " he Bible quite clearly prohibits magic, so how come we have such a complex system? The answer is that magic is

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deeply rooted in Jewish tradition-but we don't call it magic." ⁹³⁹ One of the most common and popular manifestations of Kabbalistic practice is the placing of curses and the use of good luck charms and other magical amulets — all by rabbis — practices which are an abomination to the God of Israel. In the Israeli state several rabbis specialize in the trade in magic amulets and charms, both in concocting them as well as disseminating them. Among these are the Moroccan-born "wonder" rabbi, "Baba Baruch" Abu-Hatzeria and the Iraqi-born Rabbi Yitzhak Kedouri, for whom the Israeli post office issued a stamp in his honor in 2008. During the 1996 Israeli elections, Rabbi Kedouri ordered his followers to vote for the Sephardic Shas party and he distributed "kabbalistic amulets" to those Israelis who promised to vote for Shas. These "good luck charms...swayed thousands of voters." ⁹⁴⁰

The Jewish Chronicle, states that these occult practices are taught in Jerusalem at Yeshivat Hamekubalim, a rabbinic seminary noted for "specializing in the occult." The sacred Kabbalistic handbook which gives instruction to the rabbis on the making of amulets, charms and talismans is the Sefer Raziel: "...written around 1230 A.D. by Eleazer of Worms and drawing on Egyptian and Babylonian practices...Before use, amulets and incantations have to be tested and approved. The rabbi or kabbalist who gives his blessing can be blamed or lose his reputation if his charm does not work; conversely he gains kudos—and a good income — if his amulets or spells are effective." ⁹⁴¹ Here is the pagan Egyptian connection. The rabbis hold Egypt in awe as a magical powerhouse. Pharaonic Egypt is the model, root and source for Talmudic and Kabbalistic priestcraft. "Of all the nations of the earth, the Egyptians were the most addicted to idolatry and superstitious observances. In no country whatever, did the influence of the priests and magicians extend so universally and so unboundedly as in Egypt...The wealth of all the land was at the command of the priests, for the bodies of the highest nobles, nay of their kings themselves, could not receive those rites of interment which were declared to be essential to future blessedness, but by the consent of the priests." ⁹⁴²

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Pulsa Lynura

Pulsa D'nura is mentioned in the Babylonian Talmud in Baba Metzia 47a and in the Zohar. "If done by a competent, God-fearing rabbinic court like the Edah Haredit, the people who are cursed do not live out the year," said a Jerusalem-based rabbi who preferred to remain anonymous. Allegedly, the most spectacularly successful Kabbalistic spell of modern times was the Pulsa D'nura ("whip of fire") curse which was placed on Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was returning land stolen from the Palestinians when he was assassinated. The "spell" was cast by ten Kabbalistic rabbis in front of Rabin's Jerusalem residence. ⁹⁴³ "They intoned all sorts of ancient Jewish oaths, curses, and other voodoo-like incantations designed to bring about Rabin's death..-Shortly afterward, by a strange coincidence, an international conference on 'Magic and Magia in Judaism' took place in Jerusalem." ⁹⁴⁴ Rabin had been labeled a rodef, a most pernicious category of Talmudic traitor, by Israeli rabbis who also called him a Nazi and distributed retouched photos of Rabin in a Nazi SS uniform. "An American rabbi named Avraham Hecht announced on Israeli television that Rabin deserved to die, invoking the authority of Maimonides." ⁹⁴⁵ Rabbi Hecht, chief rabbi of the Congregation Sha'are Zion in Flatbush, New York and until recently the president of the Rabbinical Alliance of America, a national organization of 540 Orthodox rabbis, also lionized, as we have noted, Baruch Goldstein. Rabbi Hecht's assassination decree against Yitzhak Rabin was issued on June 19, 1995 in the basement of a Manhattan synagogue, during a meeting of the International Rabbinical Coalition (IRC), a 3,000-member international organization founded in 1993 to encourage the mass expulsion of the Palestinian people from their land. Hecht, a member of the IRC's eight-person American rabbinic steering committee, declared that returning any part of Israeli territory seized from the Palestinians is a violation of rabbinic law. Hence, assassinating Rabin— "and all who assist him" —is not only permissible, but necessary. In his own defense, Rabbi Hecht stated, "All I said was that according to Jewish law, any one person—you can apply it to

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whoever you want—any one person who willfully, consciously, intentionally hands over human bodies or human property or the human wealth of the Jewish people to an alien people is guilty of the sin for which the penalty is death." And, according to Maimonides —you can quote me— it says very clearly, if a man kills him, he has done a good deed." ⁹⁴⁶

In the November 16, 1995 issue of the Jerusalem Report, in an article written before Rabin's death, Peter Hirschberg reported on the ritual directed against Rabin, which was also invoked earlier, during the 1991 Gulf War, against Saddam Hussein. Although he does not name him in this article, Rabbi Yossi Dayan was allegedly the rabbi who conducted the ceremony against Rabin. "And on him, Yitzhak son of Rosa, known as Rabin," the Aramaic text stated, "we have permission...to demand from the angels of destruction that they take a sword to this wicked man...to kill him...for handing over the Land of Israel to our enemies, the sons of Ishmael.'

"For Jewish mystics of both North African and East European descent, curses taken from the tradition of 'practical Kabbalah' are heavy weaponry— not to be used every day, but certainly available in wars, religious struggles and even political battles. Not only the ultra-Orthodox but many traditional-leaning Israelis regard them with the utmost seriousness.... Invoking the pulsa denura is a perilous undertaking, for if the ceremony is not performed in a strictly prescribed fashion, it can strike the conjurers themselves. Before Rabin, the last person so cursed was Saddam Hussein. One day during the 1991 Gulf War, as Scuds rained down on Israel, a minyan of fasting Kabbalists gathered at the tomb of the prophet Samuel just outside Jerusalem. There they entered a dark cave, where one of the holy men placed a copper tray on a rock and lit the 24 black candles he'd placed on it. As the mystics circled the candles, they chanted the curse seven times, calling on the angels not merely to visit death upon 'Saddam the son of Sabha,' but to ensure that his wife was given to another man. That done, small lead balls and pieces of earthenware were thrown on the candles and the shofar was sounded. 'The black candles,' explains Yediot Aharonot journalist Amos Nevo, who documented the ceremony, 'symbolize the person being cursed. When they're put out, it's as if the person's soul is being extinguished.' Lead, he

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says, is for the ammunition in the war against the cursed one, earthenware symbolizes death, and the shofar opens the skies so the curse will be heard....' Pulsa denura is commonly considered the most severe of kabbalistic curses. According to descriptions found in books and the media, ten righteous kabbalists gather at midnight in a synagogue, by the light of black candles...If the curse has been uttered by worthy and righteous men and against an appropriate target, the target is supposed to die within the year. If it has been uttered by unworthy persons or against a target who has not sinned, the curse is supposed to have a boomerang effect."⁹⁴⁷

As a fringe group with worldwide adherents, Voodoo Judaism happens to hold many views that align with the far-right and the very pious. But Voodoo Judaism, whether Kahanist or quasi-kabbalist or revisionist Hasidic in nature, goes well beyond. Consider Avigdor Eskin, who told reporters that on the night of October 6, 1995, he pronounced the following curse on "Yitzhak, the son of Rosa Rabin," for signing the Oslo peace agreements and speaking ill of the Talmudic settlers: "Put to death the cursed Yitzhak. May he be damned, damned, damned! Angels of destruction will hit him. He is damned wherever he goes. His soul will instantly leave his body," Eskin intoned, "and he will not survive a month." Eskin's publicity-grabbing curses accompanied more discreet rulings by Orthodox rabbis, who cited the concepts of "din rodef in implying that Rabin deserved to be put to death. On November 4, 1995, Rabin was gunned down by Amir, who has since become perhaps the central role model, idol, and, for many, sex symbol, of Voodoo Judaism. The rabbis of Voodoo Judaism received further reinforcement when Ariel Sharon was stricken with a massive cerebral hemorrhage six months after radical opponents of the then-prime minister's disengagement from Gaza gathered in a graveyard in Rosh Pina to ask the Angel of Death to kill him.⁹⁴⁸

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Star of Bohemia, Not David The Israeli national talisman is the hexagram which is called the Magen or "Star of David" and is supposed to be the ancient symbol of Israel. However, such an occult symbol is nowhere mentioned in the Bible. It was "bequeathed" to rabbinic leaders in the 14th century by the Hermeticist, King Charles IV of Bohemia and formally adopted as "the Star of David" in 1898 at the Second Zionist Congress in Switzerland. ⁹⁴⁹ Because of its ubiquity as a universal symbol, the hexagram is occasionally found in some ancient Israelite funerary iconography. But to extrapolate from these relatively rare and minor instances, the supposition that this was Israel's national symbol is specious. It appears with equal or greater frequency in the iconography of many nations. The original source of the symbol is androgynous, representing Adam Kadmon, the personification of the union of the male and female forces in one body. Kabbalistic doctrine brought the hexagram into rabbinic tradition (a fact given official recognition by the Bohemian king). Prof. Gershom Scholem wrote of how, within Judaism: "...amulets and protective charms can be found side by side with the invocation of demons, incantations...and even sexual magic and necromancy...As early as the geonic period the title ba'al shem or 'master of the name' signified a master of practical Kabbalah who was an expert at issuing amulets for various purposes, invoking angels or devils..." ⁹⁵⁰This demonic pantheon includes devils known in the Kabbalah as shedim Yehuda'im. Professor Scholem informs us that these devils are in submission to the Talmud. ⁹⁵¹ Scholem says these devils "submit to the Torah." To a Judaic scholar Torah signifies Talmud as well as Tanakh. Let us recall the doublespeak elucidated by Prof. Goldenberg: "Talmud was Torah. In a paradox...the Talmud was oral Torah in written form." ⁹⁵² Scholem writes: "...there are also good-natured devils who are prepared to help and do favors to men. This is supposed to be particularly true of those demons ruled by Ashmedai (Asmodeus) who accept

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the Torah and are considered 'Jewish demons.' Their existence is mentioned by the Hasidei Ashkenaz as well as in the Zohar."⁹⁵³

Elie Wiesel: God "...had to recognize the validity of Satan's arguments..."

Elie Wiesel, the celebrated "sage of the Holocaust" who is widely feted in the Western media as a kind of lay saint, has written an entire book praising these Kabbalists such as the Baal Shem Tov, who was a type of occult sorcerer steeped in superstition. Everything about him was a feint, a cloak or a cipher, beginning with his hometown of Miezdybocz which is represented in gematria as Dishpol. This demonic dimension, unbelievably enough, is not denied by the "Holocaust" saint Wiesel, who writes: "...the great Rebbe Israel Baal Shem Tov, Master of the Good Name, known for his powers in heaven as well as on earth..." In his account of the rabbi's exploits, Wiesel notes that God "...had to recognize the validity of Satan's arguments..." and that the rabbi's birth was a gift to his parents who "...had shown themselves hospitable and indulgent toward the Prophet Elijah, according to one version, and toward Satan, according to another." ⁹⁵⁴

Magical amulets crafted by rabbis for followers of the Baal Shem Tov are written in the cryptographic script that inspired Queen Elizabeth's court magus Dr. John Dee's "angel script" (malokhim ktav). The name in the center of the amulets is not that of God, but of the Baal Shem Tov. It is his grace, rather than God's, that offers protection from drowning and fires (ki taavor bamayim itkha ani uvanaharot lo yishtefukha ki telekh bamo esh lo tekhave ulehava lo tevaer bekha) to those who wear the amulet.

Like the Talmud, the Kabbalah supersedes, nullifies and ultimately replaces the Bible. Prof. Fine: "...the reader must become accustomed to regarding biblical language in a kabbalistically symbolic way. The Kabbalists taught that the Torah...is a vast body of symbols...The simple meaning of biblical language recedes into the background as symbolic discourse assumes control. The true meaning of Scripture becomes manifest only when it is read with the proper (sefirotic) code. Thus the Torah must not be read on the simple or obvious level of meaning; it must be read with the knowledge of a

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kabbalist who possesses the hermeneutical keys with which to unlock its inner truths."⁹⁵⁵

Rabbi Hayyim Vital (1543-1620), head of the Jerusalem yeskiva in 1585, was a "sage" who was immersed in the Talmud and the Kabbalah and is revered today in Orthodox Judaism as an illustrious teacher and "the chief formulator of the Kabbalah of Luria" (Encyclopedia Judaica). His transmission of the teachings of Rabbi Yitzhak Luria (Vital was Luria's leading disciple in Safed ⁹⁵⁶ ), is cited by the Chabad-Lubavitchers as a foundation of Orthodox Hasidic Judaism: "Rabbi Hayyim Vital's books are the main source of the Lurianic School of Kabbala, that is, the teachings of Rabbi Isaac Luria. The Etz Hayyim is one of the classical books of this School of Kabbalah, and to this day it is an unending source of knowledge and wisdom of the secrets of the Torah, of a better understanding of the Soul, of the purpose of life on this earth, of Divine Providence, etc. The book also contains many explanations and commmentaries on the Zohar. The teachings of Rabbi Isaac Luria, for which we must thank Rabbi Hayyim Vital, were the basis of the teachings of the great Baal-Shem-Tov, founder of Hassidism, which has brought a great spiritual revival in Jewish life to this very day."

"The Lurianic Kabbalah was the last religious movement in Judaism the influence of which became preponderant among all sections of Jewish people and in every country of the Diaspora, without exception." ⁹⁵⁷

Vital establishes his own pious credentials as follows: "As Rabbi Hayyim tells us, a palm-reader foretold to him when he was 12 years-old, that at the age of 24 he would find himself at the crossroads: if he chose the wrong path, he would become wickedest man on earth, but if he chose the right one, and continued along the path of the Torah and the Kabbalah, he would become the greatest man of his generation. Other diviners, who had the power of foreseeing future events, also told him that he was an unusual person and warned him to take great care of himself."

Hence, the soothsayers ("palm-readers" and "diviners") foretold Rabbi Vital's exalted destiny as the "greatest man of his generation" as long as he

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chose the right road (that is, the Kabbalah of Luria). In his 1572 Etz Hayyim ("Tree of Life")⁹⁵⁸ Rabbi Vital transcribed from notes of Rabbi Luria's talks, Luria's exegetical system in terms of decoding the Mishnah, in the course of which the indispensable nature of the Kabbalah to Judaism is emphasized:

"The words of the Mishnah are like uninterpreted dreams. As for their inner secrets and mysteries which are called the soul of the Torah, these are the true interpretations of ... the dream, which is deciphered upon being awakened...This is, as our sages have intimated (BT Sanhedrin fol. 24a...): 'He has set me in the dark places ...' This refers to the Babylonian Talmud — it remains concealed without the Book of Splendor (the Zohar) —which explicates the secrets of (this) Torah and Its arcana. Regarding this, it is stated (Prov. 6:23): 'And the Torah is light.' For just as HYTA {chitah-wheat) is numerically equivalent to 22 (signifying the 22 letters that comprise the Torah), and its kernel is hidden within many shell-layers and garments: bran, coarse flour, stalk, and chaff; and all of these are called 'the harvest' ...so too the Mishnah is called 'the harvest' when likened to the Secrets of the Torah. This is indicated in the Zohar (RM Ki Tetze 3:275b): '...woe unto them who eat only of the 'stalks' of the Torah...and do not know of the Secrets of the Torah — knowing It only in terms of the lesser or lenient and the significant or stringent aspects of the Torah — the lesser as the Torah's 'stalk' and the more significant, as Its 'wheat.' (This is as in 'HT' (both-numerically equivalent of 'good' as well as {im hakolel chet — 'sin') and H (5 = 5 attributes of Grace and 5 of Judgement) — the Tree of knowledge of good and evil.' If I were to fully expound on this (Kabbalistic) discourse, it would undoubtedly take — without exaggeration — over a hundred notebooks.

"....Indeed, it is explicitly explained, even in the words of the tannaim, that man does not completely fulfill his duties by dealing with the Torah, the Mishna, the Aggada and the Talmud alone, but he is required to toil, with all his abilities, in the secrets of Torah and in the works of the merkava?^ For the Holy One, Blessed is He, does not take pleasure in all that He created in

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His world, except when his sons below labor in the secrets of the Torah, to become familiar with His greatness, His beauty and His merit. For because the plain meaning of Torah, its stories, judgments and commandments are according to their simple understandings, there is not within them any familiarity and knowledge by which they can know their Creator, may He be blessed. For what is this Torah that your God commanded to you, things that seem like riddles and allegories? To take the horn of a bull and to sound it on Rosh ha-Shana, and you say that by this, the spiritual satan, the prosecutor on high is involved. And things like these are involved in almost all of the commandments of the Torah, and according to the details of their judgments, the intellect cannot stand them.

"...And this is the secret of what is written above: that he who reads the Mishnah and the Gemara, called a 'servant,' uses his Master in order to receive an award. This is not the case with the Wisdom of the Truth (i.e., Kabbalah), for he (i.e., the kabbalist) seemingly makes reparations, and gives strength and power above. And this is called one who labors in Torah for its own sake, without a doubt. What is more, the human was created in order to learn the wisdom of the Kabbalah...Also in the Zohar parashat VaYera, p. 118a, it is written: 'When the days of the Messiah draw near, even the multitudes of the world (simpletons, i.e. the am ha'aretz ) will discover the hidden secrets of wisdom, etc.' Indeed, it is explained that until now, the words of wisdom of the Zohar were concealed, and in the last generation, this wisdom will be revealed and publicized. And (all) will understand and be enlightened by the secrets of the Torah, which those before us did not grasp.

"...Also in this, our generation, the God of the first and the last generations has not ceased to redeem Israel; He is jealous for His land, and pardons His people, and He sends us 'a watcher and a holy one who came down from heaven' (Daniel 4:10), the great, divine, pious Rabbi, my teacher and my Rabbi, our honorable teacher the Rav, Rabbi Isaac Ashkenazi, may his memory be for the world-to-come. He is full of Torah like a pomegranate, of the Bible, and of Mishnah, of Talmud, dialects, midrashim, hagadot, the works of creation and the works of the merkavah. He is an expert in the discussion of trees, the discussion of birds, the discussion of angels. He understands the wisdom of the face, which was mentioned by the Rashbi in parashat Ve'Ata Tchazeh. He knows all the deeds that men have done, and that they will do in the future. He knows the thoughts of men before they go

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from potentiality into actuality. He knows the future, and all of the things that exist in the whole world, and will always be decreed in the heavens. He knows about the wisdom of metempsychosis (reincarnation), who is new and who is old. He knows of the two sides of that man, on which place within the upper man he depends, and [on which place he depends] in the first man below. He knows amazing things about the flame of the candle, and the blaze of fire. He who looks and gazes into his eyes will see the souls of the early and the later righteous people. He toils with them in the Wisdom of Truth. He knows a man's entire deeds by his smell, according to the way of the boy in parashat Balak. And all of the wisdoms mentioned were placed in his bosom. (And he can put them to use) any time that he wants, without having to separate himself and to study them. My eye saw and it did not turn away..."

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