Judaism discovered

Hasidic Paganism Lauded by Elie Wiesel, Martin Buber and U.S. Presidents

Thanks in part to propaganda by Martin Buber and Elie Wiesel and laurels bestowed by US Presidents and Congress (including Public Law), the superstition-steeped Hasidim long ago won the competition with the Mithnagdim, as anyone knows who has read Buber's classic Tales of the Hasidim ("Nowhere in the last centuries has the soul-force of Judaism so manifested itself as in Hasidism"), or Nobel laureate Wiesel's panegyric, Celebration Hassidique, reprinted in English translation since 1972 as Souls on Fire: Portraits and Legends of Hasidic Masters. One reviewer gleaned the following gem from Wiesel's writing on this subject: "For Jews who felt abandoned and forsaken by God, these Hasidic masters incarnated an irresistible call to help and salvation."

Israel Shahak describes the accolades conferred by Buber on the Chabad Lubavitch (also spelled "Habad") Hasidim, and Hasidism in general:

"(The fact that) Habad can be publicly supported by so many top political figures owes much to the thoroughly disingenuous and misleading treatment by almost all scholars who have written about the Hasidic movement and its Habad branch.... They suppress the glaring evidence of the old Hasidic texts as well as the latter-day political implications that follow from them, which stare in the face of even a casual reader of the Israeli Hebrew press, in whose pages the Lubavitcher rabbi and other Hasidic leaders constantly publish the most rabid, bloodthirsty statements and exhortations against all Arabs. A chief deceiver in this case, and a good example of the power of the deception, was Martin Buber. His numerous works eulogizing the whole Hasidic movement (including Habad) never so much as hint at the real doctrines of Hasidism concerning non-Jews. The crime of deception is all the greater in view of the fact that Buber's eulogies of Hasidism were first published in German during the period of the rise of German nationalism and the accession of Nazism to power.²⁴⁰ But while

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ostensibly opposing Nazism, Buber glorified a movement holding and actually teaching doctrines about non-Jews not unlike the Nazi doctrines about Jews.... Buber's works were translated into Hebrew, were made a powerful element of the Hebrew education in Israel, have greatly increased the power of the blood-thirsty Hasidic leaders, and have thus been an important factor in the rise of Israeli chauvinism and hate of all non-Jews. If we think about the many (Arab) human beings who died of their wounds because Israeli army nurses, incited by Hasidic propaganda, refused to tend them, then a heavy onus for their blood lies on the head of Martin Buber. I must mention here that in his adulation of Hasidism, Buber far surpassed other Jewish scholars, particularly those writing in Hebrew (or, formerly, in Yiddish) or even in European languages but purely for a Jewish audience.... Buber's sentimental and deceitful romantization has won the day, especially in the USA and Israel..."²⁴¹

In order to cover up the horrific nature of that "salvation," Shneur Zalman of Lyady, founder of the Chabad Lubavitch branch of Hasidism, solemnly pronounced in his Tanya, an antidote to the accusation of elevating evil as a means of ascent to the good: "He (the Hasid) should not be so foolhardy as to elevate the quality of a strange thought, for those matters are reserved only to the Zaddikim." Isaiah Tishby reported (but only in a book written in modern 'Hebrew'), that, as one wag noted in the understatement of the year, "the matter is more complicated than appears on the surface." It turns out that the counsel given in Tanya was intended for the generality of the Yiddin, while a deeper, esoteric side was kept hidden until Zalman's demise, and lo and behold, in the posthumous record of his pedagogy, we find that he had indeed taught the doctrine of the embrace of evil.²⁴²

Lest this be explained away as merely spiritual allegories and nights of mystical fancy and rapture, we should recall that these rites are intended for the achievement of concrete material ends, and objectives on the physical plane, in the here and now, and for "Israel" alone: "R. Naftali Zevi of Ropshitz affirms that it is impossible to draw down the holy influx if the Zaddik does not previously cleave to the whole community of Israel out of concern for their

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material needs...Envisioning the needs of Israel as the primary aim of the descent of the influx..." ²⁴³

Sex Magic Part II

Kabbalah translator Daniel Matt of the Center for Judaic Studies at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, explains the Zohar's teaching regarding Judaism's pagan sex magic in Zohar l:49b-50a; 2:89a-b; 3:81a-b, and 168a. Matt quotes Rabbi Moses ben Jacob Cordovero, teacher of Isaac (a.k.a. Yitzhak) Luria: "Their desire, both his and hers, was to unite Shekhinah (the female deity). He focused on Tiferet, and his wife on Malkhut" ('spheres' of emanation from the Kabbalistic Adam Kadmon). "His union was to join Shekhinah; she focused correspondingly on being Shekhinah and uniting with Her Husband, Tiferet" Matt observes that this "corresponds to the Tantric ritual of maithuna, in which the human couple focuses on identification with their divine models..."

What does Matt signify by associating "Tantric" and maithuna with the rabbinic concepts of Shekhinah and Tiferet? The word Tantric refers to an attribute of Tantra. Tantric yogis on the Indian subcontinent have practiced the arcane techniques of sex magic for centuries. Among the Bauls of Bengal and the Hinduized Ismai'ilis of western India, the gruesome sex magic of the left-hand path — Tantra — continues to this day. These defiling rituals, survivals of the degrading psychopathic sexualis of the ancient Babylonians, Canaanites and Egyptians, have been considerably bowdlerized in contemporary New Age literature and advertised in resplendent terms as "sacred sex that transcends mere coupling so as to ascend to heights of tenderness and bliss."

While exploiting the prevailing ignorance of the authentic and unspeakable Tantric rituals, Judaic scholar Daniel Matt concedes an important fact concerning the connection between Tantric and Kabbalistic magic, specifically in his reference to the Tantric act of maithuna. By doing so, Matt is confirming the pathological, pagan roots of Kabbalistic praxis. In Tantra, maithuna is one of the so-called 'Five M-Words' (the others are matsya, mamsa, madya and mudra). Maithuna literally denotes "fornication" and when Matt confesses that Judaism's Kabbalah rite "corresponds to the

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Tantric ritual of maithuna," he is indicating that it is premised on the ancient Tantric practice of the ritual consumption of polluting substances, such as sexual and menstrual fluids and discharge during coitus, which is at the heart of the maithuna rite. The sexual sin of nations such as the Canaanites, which drew the wrath of Yahweh upon them, was the ceremonial perversion of human sexuality subject to the requirements of ritual magic. The formulas for these rites were transmitted through the ages by oral tradition, until committed to writing in the Kabbalah of Judaism and the Tantra of medieval south Asia.

The guru aspect of Oriental antiquity is present in Orthodox Judaism, analogous to the "darshan with the guru" concept in Hinduism. According to this belief, whether one believes in God or not, whether one is an evil-doer or not, merely to assist in the performing of the magical rite is enough to confer blessings, benefits and graces by a kind of supernatural possession: Kabbalistic "language and ritual were conceived, at least in many of the texts inspected by this writer, as capturing spiritual forces by their very nature. Thus, they are at least partially efficacious, even when performed by an ignorant person." ²⁴⁴ Orthodox Judaism, in spite of the outwardly pious attire of its adherents, in particular the Hasidim beloved by Wiesel, Buber and the past several presidents of the United States and its Congress, is certainly an X-rated pagan religion: "Descriptions of the act of intercourse itself, and also of the emotions and movements connected with it, are both common and frank in the Zohar." ²⁴⁵

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The Roots of Judaism

The magical union of the male and female gods of ancient Egypt Goddess Nefertari and the Hidden One/Amun

From the Temple of Deir elBahri, eighteenth dynasty Illustration by Howard Carter

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This writer is sometimes asked to give a starting date or time-frame for the genesis and rise of the spurious "Oral Law" tradition, or for Talmudic and Kabbalistic doctrine in its earliest form. Since we are here entertaining ideas from the mists of antiquity we will leave date-setting to Bishop Ussher. ²⁴⁶ However, using the Old Testament as our guide we note the constant references to the waywardness of Israel and the unclean practices in which it was wont to engage, as proclaimed by the prophet Isaiah, who stated that the Israelites had unclean lips (Isaiah 6:5). According to the rabbis, Isaiah was justifiably killed for stating this truth! (BT Yebamoth 49b. Here the rabbis are witnesses against themselves: cf. Matt. 23:31). It is assumed by atheists and some Leftists that the Old Testament is a series of books in unrelenting praise of the Jews. These assumptions are held by people who mostly have encountered the scriptures second hand rather than from direct study, which reveals Yahweh's repeated imprecations and threats of wrath hurled upon these wayward people who were forever chasing after strange gods.

"I have spoken to you time and again and you have not heeded me! I have sent you my servants the prophets again and again saying: 'Turn away from your wickedness, reform your way of life and do not follow other gods to serve them...But you neither heeded nor listened to Me." (Jeremiah 36:14-15).

It was in the course of the pursuit of strange gods that characteristics of the foreign religions were imported into portions of Judah/Israel, seemingly forming the foundation for what would became "Talmud" and "Kabbalah," the abominable underground gnosis that haunted Israel, presumably infecting the once righteous but terminally degenerate King Solomon:

and virtuous, but facts are stubborn things, and we are faced in the passages quoted with the honest revelation of Scripture itself, that Solomon was led away from his rightful undivided allegiance to the God of his forefathers, and¹ " went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidoruans and other abominations." A mention is made also of the groves which had been constructed by the idolators for the purposes of this unhallowed worship, and which Josiah the new and righteous king cut down and destroyed.

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In the preceding text, Hargrave Jennings, in his privately published work, Phallism (p. 96), sketches the outlines of the magica sexualis pagan god and goddess worship that was to dog Israel from Solomon onward, with features strikingly consonant with what we know of Kabbalistic dogma. Yahweh always sent a righteous Israelite, a prophet or a servant of God like the boy-King Josiah, to right these wrongs and cleanse Israel of its abominations, but in the end, as scripture relates in both testaments, the degeneracy grew to such a degree that its votaries went so far as to cause the murder of Israel's Messiah on Calvary. Degeneracy so profound likely had roots in the Nephilim-like occult sex worship which the Kabbalah had synthesized into a science and the Babylonian Talmud into a law code.

It is difficult not to believe that the Hebrew grove worship was anything else than the Phallic worship we have been describing. Grove is the English translation of the Hebrew word Asherah. As to what this Asherah was, there has been much disputing, but upon some things scholars have been pretty unanimous. Dr. Smith's dictionary says, " Asherah, the name of a Phoenician goddess, or rather of the idol itself." Our translators following the rendering of the LXX. (aldos) and of the Vulg (lucus) translated the word by 'grove' Almost all modern interpreters however since Selden, agree that an idol or image of some kind must be intended, as seems sufficiently proved from such passages as II. Kings, 21, v. 7 ; and 23, v. 6, in the latter of which we find that Josiah,' brought out the Asherah' (or as our version reads, ' the grove ') 'from the house of the Lord.' " There can moreover be no doubt that Asherah is very closely connected with Ashtoreth and her worship, indeed the two are so placed in connection with each other, and each¹ of them with Baal {e.g. Judg. 2, v. 7, Comp. 2, v. 3, Judg. 6, v. 25, I. Kings 18, v. 19), that

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many critics have regarded them as identical. There are other

passages however in which these terms seem to be distinguished

from each other. Movers first pointed out and established the

difference between the two names, though he probably goes too

far in considering them as names of destinct deities. The view

maintained by Berthau, appears to be the more correct one, that

Ashtoreth is the proper name of the goddess, whilst Asherah is

the name of the image or symbol of the goddess. This symbol

seems in all cases to have been of wood (see e.g. Judg. 6, v. 25-30,

and II. Kings, 23, v. 14), and the most probable etymology of the

term indicates that is was formed of the straight stem' of a tree,

whether living or set up for the purpose, and thus points us to

the phallic rites with which no doubt the worship of Astarte was

connected."

If we turn to other learned sources of information we find very similar conclusions arrived at as those just mentioned, and there are passages in Kitto's Cyclopaedia from which we make selections, entirely in countenance with what has been) stated.

" As for the power of nature which was worshipped under the name of Ashtoreth, Creuser and Munter assert that it was the principle of conception and parturition—that subordinate power which fecundated by a superior influence, but which is the agent of all births throughout the universe. As such, Munter maintains, in his Religion der Babylonier, in opposition to the remarks of Gesenius, that the original form under which¹ Ashtoreth was worshipped was the moon; and that the transition from that to the planet Venus, was unquestionably an innovation of a later date. It is evident that the moon alone can be properly called the queen of heaven; as also that the dependent relation of the moon to the sun makes it a more appropriate symbol of that sex, whose functions as female and mother throughout the whole extent of animated nature, were embodied in Ashtoreth. As for

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This then was what Solomon did, he went after Astaroth, the impure Venus of the Sidonians; after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites; after Chemosh, the abomination of the Moabites; and after the murderous Moloch, the abomination of the children of Ammon. " He seems," says Adam Clarke, " to have gone as far in iniquity as it was possible." And all these were worshipped upon what the Old Testament in II. Kings, 23, v. 5, calls " the high places before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mount of Corruption."

all their horribleness* " Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites, of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, ye shall not go into them, neither shall they come in unto you : for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Salomon clave unto these in love. And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart." * And so he took up with the filthy and

* Kings, XL, I—3.

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abominable deities of the heathen, Chemosh, Milcom, Sun and Fire, the warship of the regenerative energies of nature — the worship of the impure god of love, and the Mount of Olives and the front of Jerusalem were polluted with his Phallic emblems, pillars and altars.

In like manner as Ashtoreth was the moon was the abominable Baal the sun. " In a certain sense any argument which goes to shew that Ashtoreth was the moon is also, on account of the close conjunction between her and Baal, as valid¹ a reason for Baal being the sun; for the two gods are such exact correlates, that the discovery of the true meaning of the one would lead by the force of analogy, to that of the other." *

Now we are informed- in the Book of Numbers (ch. 25, &c), and in many other places, also by ancient Jewish writers, that the Hebrews rendered divine honours to the god Baal Peor. St. Jerome who was aware of this both from scripture and from tradition, mentions this and calls him the Priapus of the Greeks and Romans. He says he was principally worshipped¹ by women¹ " colentibus maxime feeminis Baal Phegor, ob obscceni magnitu-dinem_y quern nos Priapum possumus appellate.

Maimonides affirms that the adoration paid to this idol consisted in discovering the mom veneris before it

It is a very ancient tradition indeed among the Jews of all ages that this idol was a particularly obscene deity, whose figure, and the manner of worshipping it, was filthy and abominable.

The prophet Hosea in chap. 9, v. 10, says, " I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the first ripe in the fig tree at her first time; but they went to Baal Peor, and separated themselves unto that shame." From this the Jews have always held that the god was served by an obscene act which required his worshippers to be uncovered before him, as

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The Talmudists are also of opinion that the figure was grossly obscene, imago virilis membri cut quotidi inequibat.

It is not to be forgotten also that from this god one of the mountains of the Moabites, viz., Pehor, derives its name, it is concluded therefore, that he was there worshipped, and so was a rural god. Such was Priapus, as may be seen in Catullus and Tibullus quoted in the proper place.

" It is evident further," says Lewis, " that fornification was in a manner consecrated to this filthy deity; the Israelites joining themselves to Baalpeor, and at the same time committting whoredom with the daughters of Moab, which may be said likewise of Priapus, who was made membrosior cequo only to signify his lasciviousness; and therefore in those infamous epigrams called Priapaia or Lusus in Priapum_t he is called deus salax."

Kitto follows in much the same strain with " It is the common opinion that this god was worshipped by obscene rites, and from the time of Jerome downwards it has been usual to compare him to Priapus. Most Jewish authorities (except the Targum of Jonathan on Num. xxv.) represent his worship to have consisted of rites which are filthy in the extreme, but not lascivious. If it could be shewn that this God' was worshipped by libidinous rites it would be one more confirmation of the relation between Baal and the sun, as then Baal Peor would be a masculine phasis of the same worship as that of which Mylitta is, both in name and rites, the female representative."

The more the subject is studied the blacker becomes the tale of the Jewish idolatry and the more evident the fact of its being of a phallic character. It is as wonderful as it is painful, to read

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in the Book of the Kings, the amount of testimony to this efifect, and we are struck at once with the candour and outspoken honesty of the Sacred Historians. If we turn to I. Kings XIV., 24, XV. 12, 13, XXII. 46; and II. Kings, XXIII, 7, we find conspicuous samples of the tiling we are describing. It is said that Maachah " made an idol in a grove," and Dr. Clarke commenting upon the passage says, " It is pretty evident" (after quoting Rabbi Solomon Jarchi's testimony that she made it ad instar membri virilis, and other authorities from the Chaldee, Arabic, Hebrew, and Greek) " that the image was a mere Priapus, or something of the same nature, and that Maachah had an assembly in the grove where this image was set up, and doubtless worshipped it with the most impure rites."

It is a somewhat singular thing that the Septuagint, in many places, interprets the word Baal with a feminine article, and so makes it representative of a goddess as well as a god. Lewis says it is difficult to discover in the Hebrew text, any reason for this notion of the Judaized Greeks, for (if I mistake not) Baal in the Hebrew is always masculine; but doubtless they had learnt by the Phoenician tradition, that there was a goddess as well as a god of that name. Arnobius observes, that Baal was of an uncertain sex, and his votaries, when they called upon him, invoked him thus: " Hear us, whether thou art a god or a goddess;" and the reason why the heathens made their gods hermaphrodites of both sexes, was to express the generative and prolific virtue of the deity.

The facts we have just been narrating, added to others mentioned in the course of this book, shew us that Phallic worship of the most debasing character prevailed amongst the Jews in the olden time, affecting even their monarch and highest nobles, and leading to practices filthy, abominable, and' destructive.

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Goddess Worship in Judaism

The religion of Orthodox Judaism, particularly in its Hasidic ("Haredi") branch (the branch with which U.S. presidents, politicians, pundits and pedants are most enamored), represents the formal, doctrinal institutionalization of this once underground pagan-idolatrous current. The nucleus of Orthodox Judaism at its deepest, most esoteric level is the sexual propitiation of the myrionymous²⁴⁷goddess, Isis-Hecate-Demeter-Ishtar-Shekhinah-Lilith. The consummation of the spiritual and sexual union of the female goddess Shekhinah with her male consort (Sefirah Tiferet), the "Holy One," into one androgynous being (the mysterium coniunctionis of alchemy), is one of the charter objectives of Kabbalistic Orthodox Judaism, and this mirrors uncannily the theology of the sorcerers of ancient Egypt and Babylon, whose ritual working was dedicated to the magical union of the goddess and the god.

Though for public relations purposes the official focus in Judaism is on the supposedly "benevolent" white witch Shekhinah (or "spiritual presence"), as opposed to the malevolent witch Lilith, in all pagan psychodrama these goddess images are all representative of the same female energy manifested according to the psychological profile of the percipient, as either Shekhinah the good, or Lilith the wicked. But beneath the masquerade these two images are merely personifications of the same goddess who is invoked in a series of magical rabbinic amulets. We find this practice repeatedly in ancient paganism, for example, in ancient Greece, where Demeter was worshipped both as the Mother Goddess and as Hecate, her evil witch counterpart.

The great secret imparted during the initiation into goddess worship is the dropping of the "mask of duality," to reveal Demeter/Hecate to be the same phenomenon. The two faced or even triple-faced (tripartite) "crossroads"²⁴⁸ deity is symbolic of the inherent trickery of the pagan psychodrama itself, and this legerdemain extends to the kabbalistic queen of the sorcerous process, Lilith, in her guise as Shekhinah. Unbeknown to the gentile world, rabbinic lore — for example in the medieval Aleph-Bet ben Sira

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— teaches that Lillith holds the exalted position of first created woman on earth. Consequently, according to the rabbinic gnosis, Lilith preceded Eve and engaged in sex magic with Adam, by use of the sacred name of YHVH. According to the Zohar, Lilith also reincarnated as King Solomon's Queen of Sheba. Ultra-Orthodox rabbis manufacture amulets dedicated to Lilith and bearing her name, allegedly as a means for driving her away. This cover story about driving her away renders the magic amulet-making process palatable to the gentiles, though no Bible-believing Christian would consider an amulet to be benevolent no matter what its alleged orientation. However, the hidden aspect here is that the rabbinic amulets are intended to adorn Lilith and perpetuate her spirit; she who is, according to Orthodox Judaism, the first woman and the subsequent consort of the royal son of King David who built the Temple at Jerusalem. The amulets are her ornaments; a many-ornamented female being an ancient sign of a harlot.

The Lilith-amulet making process in Orthodox Judaism is a rite of magica sexualis on a grand scale. In Orthodox Judaism Lilith presides over certain of the sexual functions. For example, every Judaic male's nocturnal emission is credited to her, a "visible sign" of Lilith having had nocturnal "sex" with the hapless Judaic man. She is ever-present and uppermost in the minds of those Judaics who dwell on human sexual function, in particular Judaic adolescent males, and Judaic males isolated or alienated from their wives. The Judaic male who has had, in the mind of the rabbis, sexual "intercourse" with Lilith, in other words who has experienced what is in gentile and Christian culture the natural and normal phenomenon of the nocturnal emission of semen, must on each occasion of the emission, undergo a rite of purification prior to resuming his study of the Talmud. ²⁴⁹ In the Orthodox Judaic mind, Lilith is real and since keri (nocturnal emission) cannot be avoided by those who do not masturbate—and the rabbinic proscriptions against shichvas zerah I'vatalah (of which masturbation is one

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form) are both genuine and draconian ²⁵⁰ — encounters with Lilith are inevitable and irresistible. Hence, in the rabbinic religious world, the spirit of goddess Lilith is regularly encountered by unmarried men or alienated married men, through natural biological processes, while the "protective" amulets employed "against her" actually perpetuate her memory, power, cultus and influence over the Judaic psyche: "The...magic efforts to protect men from the nocturnal enticements of Lilith, the succuba, is an incantation whose purpose is precisely the opposite..."²⁵¹

The Shekhinah is not God and she is not of God. She is not the Biblical woman who shall crush the head of the serpent. She is an idol, the manifestation of the thousand faces of the strange gods (elohim aherim²⁵²): Lilith, Astarte, the Canaanite goddess Qadesh, Demeter and Isis. Shekhinah/ Lilith is the sorceress who wields the sacred name of Yahweh, the Tetragrammaton YHVH, for magical purposes, after His sacred name was first banned by the Mishnah for use by the common people in the public worship of God, which, parenthetically, is a pivotal component of the "enlightened" magic of Renaissance Neoplatonists, and virtually all subsequent western secret societies derived from them.

In Judaism, the esoteric teaching is that the Judaic male in general and the rabbinic sage in particular, together with the goddess Shekhinah, are like unto God. "Before these are you to be in awe: Hashem, the sage²⁵³ and the Shekhinah" (Zohar: Hayyei Sarah 1:132b). The bogus claim that Lilith and Shekhinah are two distinct entities representing separate forces of black magic and white magic is strictly for the peti yaamin lekhol davar. ²⁵⁴

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Kiddush Levanah: Worship of the Moon

Worship of the Shekhinah in the form of the moon goddess is a formal rite in Orthodox Judiasm. Orthodox Judaism is steeped in moon worship and lunar associations. Judaics "...resemble the moon."²⁵⁵ The Kabbalah teaches that "both the moon and King David are associated with the Sefirah of Malchus."²⁵⁶ In BT Sanhedrin 4 it is stated that "sanctifying the moon is akin to greeting the Shekhinah."²⁵⁷ In other words, the rabbinic rite of moon sanctification is analogous to summoning the Divine Presence of the goddess herself. As with the invocation of any demonic entity, it is also crucially important to bid it to depart at the conclusion of the ritual and so great is the rabbinic superstition surrounding the entities present during Kiddush Levanah, that for fear of blowback, they are dismissed with good wishes and praise (birchas ha-shevach) with the words, "Melech Malchei hamelachim." ²⁵⁸

The magical summoning bracha, on the other hand, falls under the category of birchas hoda'ah.²⁵⁹ There are complex halachic and Kabbalistic disquisitions on the importance of the Judaic bathing in the moon glow, or rays from the moon, as the high point of this magical rite.²⁶⁰ This rabbinic obsession is evidenced as follows: Kiddush Levanah cannot be performed during the day, since the rays of the moon are not visible at that time. Nor can it be performed during the evening of a completely cloudy night, or during or immediately after the new moon phase: "According to the Kabbalah, the moon should not be sanctified until seven days have passed since its rebirth." ²⁶¹ The performance of the lunar Shekhinah ritual known as Kiddush Levanah is dependent on the visibility of moonlight because,

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according to the Kabbalah, it is by this means that the goddess is made manifest. Therefore the ritual cannot be enacted if the moon's radiance is obscured by clouds or if tall buildings or trees obscure its light.²⁶²

The Kiddush Levana ritual is so blatantly pagan, all kinds of far-fetched pretexts and intellectually dishonest "hedges" are put forth to explain away its superstitious intent. ²⁶³ In a text by Rabbi Avraham Rosenthal, "Greeting the Shechinah: Kiddush Levanah," we note the portion in which the naive son of the Maharshag repeats the section of the rite created as part of the hermeneutic of concealment — Chiddush HaLevanah — intended for the prying eyes of the goyim. "We do not sanctify the moon" declares the naive son. But let us read on: His father, the rabbinic master, corrects the youth: "although this is a very astute observation, it is difficult to say that the name, 'Kiddush Levanah' is a mistake, as it appears in the earliest of sources." He then imparts traditional instructions for propitiation of the moon goddess, though he too couches the rite in language intended to distract from what is actually transpiring ("the Jewish people are compared to the moon").

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Greeting and sanctifying the Shekhinah in Judaism: Kiddush Levanah

"Kiddush Levanah is a unique mitzvah. Chazal tell us (Gemara Sanhedrin 42): 'If a person recites the bracha on the month in its time, it is as if he greets the Shechinah...' We will later explain what it means to 'greet the Shechinah.' But first, let us discuss this mitzvah and some of the relevant halachos. Question # 1: Where is the Kiddush in Kiddush Levanah? Question #2: What is the Molad? Question #3: When is the best time to recite/Kiddush Levanah? Question #4: Can one recite Kiddush Levanah when it is cloudy? Question #5: Kiddush Levanah is referred to as 'Greeting the Shechinah.' What does that mean?

"Where's the Kiddush? This mitzvah is referred to by two different names. Bircas HaLevanah, the blessing of the moon, and; Kiddush

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HaLevanah., the sanctification of the moon. Although poskim (rabbinic authorities,) use the two names interchangeably, and both have sources in the Rishonim, the Sefardic communities commonly use the former name, while the Ashkenzaim call it by the latter. The Maharshag (Vol. 3, Siman 5) records a conversation that he had with his son regarding the correct name for this mitzvah. His son claimed that the name 'Kiddush HaLevanah' (sanctification of the moon) seems to be incorrect and resulted from a mistake that crept into the seforim, as we do not sanctify the moon during the bracha. Rather we praise Hashem who created the heavens and all that they contain. His son posited that the correct name for the mitzvah should be 'Chiddush HaLevanah/ the renewal of the moon, as this is the event that has taken place, and it is the theme of the bracha, as well as its conclusion, 'Mechadeish chadashim,' 'He who renews the months.'

"The Maharshag comments that although this is a very astute observation, it is difficult to say that the name, 'Kiddush HaLevanah' is a mistake, as it appears in the earliest of sources. Rather, he contends that the name came about as a carry-over from the procedure done by the Sanhedrin. Before the establishment of our fixed calendar, Rosh Chodesh was proclaimed every month based on the testimony of witnesses who saw the new moon. This event was called 'Kiddush HaChodesh,' the sanctification of the month. As this took place when the new moon was visible, the name Kiddush HaLevanah came into being. In actuality however, Kiddush HaChodesh and Kiddush HaLevanah have nothing to do with each other. Although our text of the bracha follows the version formulated in Gemara Sanhedrin (42a), another reason for the name Kiddush HaLevanah may be based on a different version of the bracha which, concluded 'Mekadeish chadashim,' 'He who sanctifies the moon.' It is possible that the name * Kiddush HaLevanah' is based on this version of the bracha. (See Midrash Rabbah Shemos 15:24, Shibalei Haleket 167).

"The Molad — the Moon is born. To properly understand when one may recite Kiddush Levanah, we must briefly discuss the 'Molad.' Everyone is familiar with Shabbos Mevarchim, when in many congregations during 'Rosh Chodesh Bentching' or 'Bircas HaChodesh' the gabay or chazzan announces the Molad. What is the Molad? We know that the moon circles the earth once every month. When the moon is behind the earth in relation to the sun, we see a full moon, and when the moon passes between the earth and the sun,

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we cannot see it at all since this is the stage of the new moon. The precise moment when the moon passes between the earth and the sun is the Molad, or the TDirth' of the new moon. The time of the Molad announced on Shabbos Mevarchim refers to this event. (This is actually an over-simplification, but it is sufficient for our discussion.) The Molad serves as the basis for calculating the earliest and latest times for Kiddush Levanah. One should be aware that most people think that the time of the Molad announced in shut is the actual time of the Molad. In reality, it cannot be taken at face value for two reasons. The first reason is because it is not based on our method of telling time. For example, on this coming Shabbos Mevarchim Adar 5766, the gabay will announce: The Molad will be on Monday night, two hours, twenty-eight minutes and seventeen chalakim (a chailek is 1/18 of a minute, or a bit more than three seconds). Many people think that this refers to 2:28 AM on Tuesday morning. This is incorrect, as the Molad could be about twenty minutes earlier, depending on several factors...

"The second reason is because even if the time announced was actually in sync with our clocks, it is based on Yerushalayim Time, i.e., the time in Yerushalayim (Jerusalem) at the time of the Molad. Therefore, when calculating the earliest and latest times for Kiddush Levanah it is essential to have a luach (calendar) that makes the conversion to local time. To the best of my knowledge, most luchos simply include the Yerushalayim time without any conversions. How does one find out the latest time for Kiddush Levanah? There are several options: 1) find a luach that makes the adjustment 2) find a Rav (rabbi) who knows how to make the calculations, or 3) one can make an approximate calculation by first, subtracting a half hour from the latest time for Kiddush Levanah in Yerushalayim, and then make the adjustment for your local time zone. For example, the Ezras Torah Luach for the month of Adar 5766, has the last time of Kiddush Levanah as Tuesday night (Motzai Purim) 8:50 p.m. This is actually the given time for Yerushalayim. One should subtract a half-hour from this time, which brings us to 8:20 p.m. and then make the adjustment from the time in Yerushalayim to your local time. Thus, for the east coast (of the USA), one would subtract seven hours, bringing the last time for Kiddush Levanah to 2:20 p.m., Tuesday afternoon. Since we cannot recite Kiddush Levanah during the day, the last opportunity for the mitzvah during Adar on the east coast will be until dawn Tuesday morning....Although several Rishonim (Rambam, Rashi,

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Yad Ramah) maintain that one may recite Kiddush Levanah as early as the first of the month, Rabbeinu Yonah and most Acharonim hold that one should wait until the third of the month when the moon is large enough for one to be able to benefit from its light. (Mishnah Berurah 426:20; please note that when discussing the earliest and latest times for Kiddush Levanah, when we refer to the days of the month, we are referring to the number of full days after the Molad. For example, three days is seventy-two hours after the Molad, and seven days is seven twenty-four hour periods after the Molad.) On the other hand, the Shulchan Aruch (426:4) writes that one should not recite Kiddush Levanah before seven days have passed. The Aruch HaShulchan (ibid. 13) questions why the Shulchan Aruch accepted the opinion of an individual over that of the majority. He explains that the Shulchan Aruch (i.e. Rabbi Yosef Karo) based his opinion on the Kabbalah, and that many follow this practice. He points out, however, that although one may do this in places that are not generally cloudy, 'in our country, and especially during the months of MarCheshvan and Kislev, it is difficult to keep this practice,' because of the frequency of overcast conditions.

"...When is the best time to recite Kiddush Levanah? In order to answer this question, we must discuss three halachic issues: 1) The advantageous time of Motzai Shabbos, 2) doing the mitzvah 'b'rov am,' with a group of people, and 3) 'zrizin makdimin? that one should always try to do a mitzvah at the earliest opportunity. Let us explain these three issues and see how they apply to our topic. 1) Motzai Shabbos. As we mentioned, Kiddush Levanah is described as 'greeting the Shechinah.' Therefore, the mitzvah should be done with simcha ²⁶⁵ and one should wear nice clothes, similar to one who is greeting a very important guest.

"For these two reasons, Motzai Shabbos is an opportune time for reciting Kiddush Levanah, as one is in a happy frame of mind after having kept Shabbos properly and is still wearing Shabbos clothes. 2) 'B'rov am.' This concept, which is learned from the pasuk (Mishlei 14:28), 'B'rov am hadras Melecti ...indicates that it is preferable to do a mitzvah with a group of people. Although most mitzvos, Kiddush Levanah included, can be done without a group and certainly without a minyan, when several people do a mitzvah together it lends more importance to the mitzvah. 3) Zrizin

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makdimin. This idea, like the previous, is also not unique to Kiddush L'evanah. We find in the Chumash that when Avraham Avinu went to the akeidah, the pasuk says, 'And Avraham arose early in the morning.' ²⁶⁶ This teaches that one should always try to do a mitzvah as soon as possible. When the earliest opportunity to recite Kiddush Levanah is on Motzai Shabbos, ²⁶⁷ one can perform the mitzvah with all three of the aforementioned advantages. However, when the earliest time for the mitzvah occurs during the week, there is a disagreement among the poskim as to which of these three issues takes precedence. Should one recite it immediately during the week and lose out on the advantage of Motzai Shabbos and perhaps even b'rov am, or should one lose out on zrizin makdimin^⁶⁸ and wait until Motzai Shabbos?

"The (gedolim) Bach (Rabbi Joel Sirkes) and the Vilna Gaon are of the opinion that the advantage of zrizin makdimin takes precedence over Motzai Shabbos, and one should recite Kiddush Levanah at the earliest opportunity. The prevalent custom follows the opinion of the Shulchan Aruch (426:2), which is that one should recite Kiddush Levanah on Motzai Shabbos even though he loses out on zrizin makdimin. The Rema ²⁶⁹ gives a condition to this, that one should 'only wait until Motzai Shabbos when it is the tenth of (the) month or earlier. However, if Motzai Shabbos is on the eleventh of the month or later, one should not wait, because if so, he will have four nights or less remaining to recite the bracha; and there is concern that he may miss

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the opportunity to do so. With regards to this disagreement, the Biur Halacha (ibid. s.v. ela) concludes that what the Rema wrote regarding Motzai Shabbos applies also to b'rov am. Therefore, if one knows he will have the opportunity until the tenth of the month to recite Kiddush Levanah b'rovam, he should wait to do so. He also quotes the Chayei Adam who defines b'rov am as three people. However, regarding the disagreement between the Shulchan Aruch and the other Acharonim as to whether Kiddush Levanah is recited after three or seven days, the Mishnah Berurah holds that if the third of the month is during the week, it is proper to wait until Motzai Shabbos. He goes on to say that one who wishes to rely on the opinion of the Vilna Gaon and recite Kiddush Levanah at the earliest opportunity may certainly do so, especially during the winter months. Aside from the advantage of zrizin makdimin, the Kaf HaChaim quotes another reason to recite Kiddush Levanah at the earliest opportunity; that from the day one recites Kiddush Levanah, he is assured that he will not die an unusual death during that month.

"One who intends to recite Kiddush Levanah on Motzai Shabbos and finds himself with a group reciting it during the week, should recite it with them. However, if he knows that he will also have a group on Motzai Shabbos, he is allowed' to wait. (Sha'ar HaTziyun 426:20)...The Gemara says that because the bracha is recited over the renewal of the moon, one may recite Kiddush Levanah only until the moon is full.²⁷⁰

"There is a disagreement between the Shulchan Aruch and the Rema regarding what this means. According to the Rema, the midpoint between one Molad and the next is the last opportunity for Kiddush Levanah. Chazal tell us that the amount of time between one Molad and the next is twenty-nine days, twelve hours, forty-four minutes, and three-tenths of a second. Therefore, according to the Rema, one can recite Kiddush Levanah until fourteen days, eighteen hours and twenty-two minutes after the Molad. The Shulchan Aruch gives an extra few hours, allowing a full fifteen days from the Molad. The Biur Halacha (s.v. v'lo) leans toward the opinion that if the midpoint between the moldos has passed, but it is still the fifteenth day from the Molad, one can recite Kiddush Levanah.'

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"...Since Kiddush Levanah is the equivalent of greeting the Shechinah, one should ideally recite it outdoors, just as one would go outside to greet an important person. However, this is not essential. If one is sick or otherwise prevented from going out, he may recite Kiddush Levanah indoors, and should look at the moon through a window or an open door. (MB 426:21).

"Before starting Kiddush Levanah, one should make sure that the area is free of anything that causes foul odors, such as garbage cans....Although the expression of the Shulchan Aruch, that one 'rests his eyes' on the moon and recites the bracha, indicates that one should look at the moon throughout Kiddush Levanah, the Mishnah Berurah quotes other opinions who disagree. According to some, one should not look at it during the entire Kiddush Levanah, but only during the actual bracha. However, the Shelah HaKadosh is even more stringent and says that one should not even look during the bracha. Rather, one should only look before starting. (Sh.A. 426:2, M.B. 13).²⁷¹ If one did not look at the moon before Kiddush Levanah, nor realized that the moon was renewed, rather he merely followed the crowd outside and recited the bracha, he has fulfilled his obligation. This is because it is as if someone told him that the moon was renewed, and he recited the bracha based on that information. (Sheivet HaLevi vol. IV, 125.4). There is a disagreement among the poskim as to which direction one should face during Kiddush Levanah. According to some opinions, one should face the direction he usually faces when davening (praying). (Ushei Yisroel 40:29). Others claim that since the original custom was to face the moon and it is only because of Kabbalah that a custom evolved not to look at the moon (Aruch HaShulchan 5), there is no basis for turning towards the direction that one davens to (Siach Tefillah, 5763 edition, pg. 328). Another requirement of Kiddush Levanah mentioned by the Shulchan Aruch is 'to straighten one's feet.' The poskim explain this to mean that ideally, one should stand with his feet

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together as in Shemoneh Esrei (the weekday Amidah prayer).²⁷² The reason for this is because one who recites Kiddush Levanah greets the Shechinah. Therefore, he should stand in fear like he does during Shemoneh Esrei.

"...Very often when reciting Kiddush Levanah, the moon is covered with various thicknesses of cloud cover. In these situations, when may one recite Kiddush Levanah and when can he not? 'The Mishnah Berurah concludes that if the cloud is thin and the moon is seen and one can benefit from its light, Kiddush Levanah is recited. However, if the cloud is thick, he should not recite the bracha. There is an opinion that if the moon is covered by a thin cloud, although he can benefit from the moon's light, it is preferable to wait for an opportunity when the moon is not covered at all (Da'as Torah 426:1 s.v. u'badin). If a cloud covers the moon while one is in the middle of the bracha, he may conclude the bracha. However, if before starting, one estimates that a cloud will cover the moon before the conclusion, he should not start." ²⁷³

The predilection for self-deception now comes to the fore as the Judaic moon-worshipper justifies to himself the ways in which his Shekhinah goddess/moon propitiation is not pagan idolatry. Dancing in front of the moon during Kiddush Levanah is permissible, but bowing one's knee to the moon is strictly forbidden! (Mishnah Berurah 426:14). This is interesting, since dancing is an integral part of the Judaic marriage rite and here the Judaics are told to dance as they greet the Shekhinah, as objectified by the moon ("dancing is an expression of the simcha [holyday joy] that one should have in

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greeting the Shechinah"²⁷⁴). In the midst of this burlesque of lunar magica sexualis, so long as the Judaic does not bend his knee toward the moon, no one can "mistakenly think we are giving it honor."

Lunar superstitions permeate Judaism to the highest levels, even to its supreme court. The Talmud records at BT Sanhedrin 37a that "the Sanhedrin is shaped like the moon, its members sitting in a semicircle." Drawing on the teaching of Rabbi Samuel Eliezer Halevi Edeles (1555-1631), the "sage" known as the "Maharsha," the modern Sanhedrin's presiding judge, Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, comments: "The Gemara understands from this verse that the members of the Sanhedrin sit in a semicircle, and not a full circle, for the Sanhedrin is not likened unto the sun, which is always a full circle, but rather to the moon whose edge resembles a semicircle for most of the month (Maharsha)" ²⁷⁵

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Lilith and her familiars (Sumer, circa 2000 B.C.)

"Sexual mysteries at the very heart of Zoharic teaching"

"Around the middle of the thirteenth century a new center of Kabbalistic activity became active in Castile, to the west of Catalonia...out of which the Zohar was to emerge...This circle had its roots more planted in the Bahir tradition...the...language of...Kabbalah...was richly developed in the writings of such figures as the brothers Rabbi Isaac and Rabbi Jacob Ha-Kohen and their disciples, (such as) Rabbi Moses of Burgos. Their writings show a special fascination with the 'left-side' of the divine emanation and the world of the demonic..Their writings had great influence in the further development of kabbalistic thought. They are the most immediate

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predecessors of the circle of kabbalists represented in the Zohar.. .Rabbi Moses de Leon, the central figure in both the writing and the circulation of the Zohar, saw himself as a disciple of these 'Gnostic' kabbalists....in the Castilian writings...the emphasis was placed on the lower part of the sefirotic world, especially on the relationships between 'right' and left' and 'male' and 'female'...as these writings developed, it was fascination with the sexual mysteries, reflected in the...uniting of the sixth/ninth sefirot with the female tenth that became the chief and in some places almost unique object of concern and way of explaining the religious life as a whole. This mysterium coniunctionis or zivvuga qaddisha lies at the very heart of Zoharic teaching."²⁷⁶

This acosmistic belief, coupled with an intense, vivid feeling of God's nearness, also resulted in a new approach to the old problem of the nature of evil. Like all Hasidic innovations ii was generated by caking selected traditional ideas to their logical—but nevertheless surprising—conclusions. The author of tiie Zohar had contented himself with observing- that "there is no [entity on the] 'other side' thai does not contain a fine, small ray from the holy side,"

Habad: The Hasidism ofR. Shneur Zalman ofLyady, p. 22.

In the theology of Hasidic Judaism, in this case specifically the Judaism of Rabbi Shneur Zalman, founder of Chabad-Lubavitch, the evil that contains a "fine...ray" of the holy is embraced through devekut (spirit possession)²⁷⁷ and kavanot (meditation). How different is this epistemology of Judaism from that of Christ, who proclaimed that He said "nothing in secret" (John 18:20). This was true of the early Church as well: "No evidence suggests that the apostolic fathers believed they had recourse to any type of secret oral traditions." ²⁷⁸ It is secrecy, priestcraft, occult tradition and the personality cult of the rabbis which alone determines, in Judaism, how the Bible will be

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manipulated and "robed/' contrary to its actual meaning. When this Judaic current seeks to infiltrate and subvert Christianity, it often does so by advertising the existence of occult knowledge: "the Gnostics...appealed to alleged secret apostolic traditions...According to the Gnostics, the revelation of redeeming knowledge was...contained in secret apostolic traditions that were available only to those inducted into the Gnostic mysteries." ²⁷⁹

In occult Judaism, the Talmud represents the bureaucratic right hand path and the Kabbalah the mystical left-hand path, corresponding to male/ female god-and-goddess archetypes in Hinduism: "...the later Saiva mythology.. .finds its artistic representation in Siva's androgynous form...typifying the union of the male and female energies; the male half in this form of the deity occupying the right-hand, and the female the left-hand side. In accordance with this...the Saktas divide themselves into two distinct groups...the Dakshina-margis or followers of the right-hand path...and the...Vama-margis, followers of the left path..-it is only in the numerous Tantras that these are fully and systematically developed. In these works, almost invariably composed in the form of a colloquy, Siva, as a rule, in answer to questions asked by his consort Parvati, unfolds the mysteries of this occult creed...mystic letters and syllables...diagrams and...amulets." ²⁸°