Kabbalah Consciousness www.tzfat-kabbalah.org/he *this document is for personal use only, for any other use, ask for promising in writing from the Tzfat Kabbalah Center: office@tzfat-kabbalah.org Articles: Introduction Page 2 Creating Reality Page 2 The Big Bang Page 2 The Largest and the Smallest Page 4 The Acceleration of Time Page 5 Language & Communication Page 6 Physical Energy and Spiritual Page 7 Energy
Introduction Kabbalah Consciousness in the Modern World The articles in this section will dmeonstrate how Kabbalistic teachings and ideas are linked to many issues in the modern world. From the Kabbalistic perspective, our being at the eve of the 7th Millenium from the creation of the world, gives our generation a unique opportunity to study the inner teachings of the Kabbalah and connect them with life in the modern world like never before. Creating Reality Quantum theory, which was developed in order to explain what happens inside the atom, led physicists to understand that the reality in which we live is not unequivocal, even in terms of the most basic structures of matter. As physics research shows, the consciousness of the human observing phenomena plays an important role in determining and defining the most fundamental level of reality: the character and behavior of the most elementary components of matter. These scientific ideas provide a fascinating perspective on human life in general, and the power of influence of human consciousness, in particular. They provide new insight into the words of the great kabbalist, Rabbi Akiva, in the Avot Tractate of the Talmud: "Everything is foreseen and free will is given" our lives are no longer viewed as a predetermined continuum along a set path. Every moment is a crossroads of possibilities. In developing our views, our thoughts and our perceptions of reality, we actually choose and determine its character. Quantum theory proves empirically what is taught in the Kabbalah that the human's free will has a crucial impact on reality. If this is true for the behavior of the most basic particles of matter, it is all the more so that positive thinking and views enable us to produce the desired, positive reality in concrete aspects such as health, livelihood, interpersonal relations and more. Kabbalah teachings about the power of positive thinking take on an especially fascinating dimension in the perspective of modern physics. The Big Bang On Wednesday, the 10th of Elul last year (September 10, 2008), the largest and most ambitious scientific experiment ever to be conducted by humans, also mentioned in our last month's newsletter, began at the CERN laboratory in Switzerland. The purpose of the project is to reconstruct what scientists believe happened in the first billionth of a second after the "the Big Bang" the scientific theory about the creation of the world. There are 40 Israeli scientists on the research team. In an interview with one of the major Israeli newspapers, one of them, Professor Eilam Gross of the Weizmann Institute of Science, described the "Big Bang" theory in terms amazingly consistent with the story of the Creation in the Torah and Kabbalah literature. The following is an excerpt from what he said:
The Big Bang is the physics theory according to which the universe originated at a single point. The Big Bang refers to an event that occurred at the very point that the universe was created. At that moment, the physical dimensions of time, space and size that we know today were also created. In time, the universe began to spread out. A millionth of a second after the great explosion, the light of the ancient fireball was entrapped in a special state called quark-gluon plasma. Since then the universe has been cooling and spreading at a great speed. Professor Giora Mikenberg of the Weizmann Institute, head of the Israeli team on the project, who has been working on it for 20 years, further explains the concept: Quark-gluon plasma is a rare mixture of particles known as quarks and gluons. During those first fractions of a second after the Big Bang, the material was a burning, compressed mix of particles, moving in all directions and colliding with one another. When the universe spread, the temperature began to drop, just as regular gas cools when it spreads quickly. The quarks and gluons slowed down until some of them could attach to one another for small periods of time. Due to the strong force of attraction among them, the quarks and gluons grouped in a fixed way and created protons, neutrons, and hadrons. We briefly review the reference to just some of these concepts in the Torah and the Kabbalah: "The origin of the universe at a single point" According to the Kabbalah of Ha'ari, the emergence of the worlds began at a single point that occurred after the first "contraction" of the "infinite light" that filled all space prior to the Creation. According to the Kabbalah, the beginning of the creation of the physical world was in the formation of the primal material, and immediately after its formation the dimension of time was created. The process continued with the formation of the different types of individual creatures, including the different materials of which they are composed and time allotted to each of them. "The ancient light trapped within plasma" As early as Rashi's commentary of Genesis, we find mention that the Creator hid the ancient light of the six days of the Creation. Since then, this light has been referred to in Kabbalah literature as "the hidden light" (or ganuz). The hidden light is revealed in the teachings of the Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism to those who learn it, and will be revealed to all humanity in the future. "The universe spread out and cooled" Kabbalah literature explains the interpretation of the name of the Creator,SH-D-I: she'amar le'olamo dai He who told the world enough(!). According to Jewish-Kabbalah tradition about the creation of the world, in the beginning, the heavens stretched out infinitely, until the Creator told them "enough"(!) and stopped the spreading of the heavens and the entire universe a process parallel to restriction, cooling and gelling.
The Largest and the Smallest The US space agency, NASA, is planning to launch one of the most sophisticated and precise devices ever to leave earth into space: its large-area gamma-ray space telescope. This telescope covers an energy range that has hardly ever been examined, and it will investigate matter and energy in extreme situations that we know only in theory. This is something of cosmic proportions "the largest, most powerful and furthest-reaching" a man-made device has ever been. At the same time, the world's largest particle accelerator has begun operating in Switzerland. It is the largest and most expensive instrument in the history of science. Its design, construction and operation are being made possible through international financial and scientific cooperation. The accelerator was developed to study and resolve essential questions about the basic constituents of matter subatomic particles "the closest and smallest possible." There are few instruments that scientists have anticipated with such excitement and enthusiasm. Few periods in the history of science have matched the eager tension of the past few months. Experts are predicting the advent of "a new physics" that will fill the gaps in the existing theories and models. The realization that the largest and smallest hold the same secrets reflects the view of modern science that the same laws and basic forces apply to the entire range of natural phenomena. The more sophisticated the instruments for measurement and calculation become, the smaller the number of basic forces that are considered. It is becoming increasingly clear that the large and small share the same fundamental nature, that they are subject to the same laws. The most advanced theories seek to link all phenomena, energies and particles to a single prime force, which in its different forms appears to us as the infinite variety presented in the creation of the universe. This is actually the truth of the all-embracing Divine oneness, a truth now being translated into the language of the human mind: the language of physics and math. The teachings of the Kabbalah reveal and explain the order of evolvement, categorization, development and combination that result in our seeing the single force of the Creator as an infinite collection of places, times, phenomena, particles and forces. It is beautiful to see the unification of human science with the original teachings of the Kabbalah. The new insights teach us that the small and the large, the close and the far, the strong and the weak all are expressions of the power of the one and only Creator. The main theme of classic Kabbalah the explanation of the symmetry and parallels between the divine and all the phenomena of the physical world, of how eternity and the finite world unite becomes clearer in the light of the recent developments in modern physics research
The Acceleration of Time The Power of the Good Deed Albert Einstein defined time as one of the dimensions of creation, but it is undoubtedly a very special dimension. According to the teachings of the Kabbalah, time was created on the first day of the creation, after the formation of primordial matter. The great marvel of time is its constant flow in a single direction: forward, the continual change of the past to the present and the present to the future. At the same time, it is now quite clear to physicists that in some way all 'times' are one from a certain perspective. The literature of Jewish philosophy and Jewish law also present an interesting exploration of the nature of time: is it a single inclusive reality or a composite of many units? Another question that is yet unresolved is that of speeding up or slowing down in the dimension of time. Can the movement along the axis of time be controlled? For now, physicists suggest a positive response to this question, but it is completely theoretical. There is no device today that can produce the tremendous levels of energy required to prove the theories empirically. Thus science offers no proof to date, but the Kabbalah and the inner essence of the Torah do. The nature and multidimensionality of time are explained in the books of the Kabbalah and Hassidic philosophy. Each one of the four spiritual worlds (Emanation, Creation, Formation, action) has its own relative dimension of time, different to the others. On the practical level regarding the actual acceleration of time it emerges that there is a special 'trick'. We will not delve into the realm of the special acts reserved for the great Kabbalists, such as a leap (a folding of space) or prophecy (transparent vision of the future) We refer here to a technique that exists in the realm of action that is open to regular, ordinary people. Each of us is capable of speeding up the time needed to learn an academic subject or to develop cognitive and emotional processes, matters that require their own special investment of quality time. This time can be reduced a thousand times (!) by means of a very simple act: doing another person good (materially or spiritually) to put it simply, an act of kindness. One of the greatest Kabbalists of recent generations, Rabbi Schneur-Zalman, wrote that by means of a material or spiritual act of kindness to others, a person's mind and heart are refined a thousand times. In other words, the time needed for a person to achieve any mental or emotional insight is reduced a thousand times due to the act of kindness. For example, academic or emotional coping that is meant to take one thousand hours will be shortened to one hour.
From a cosmic perspective, kindness to others as part of repairing the world (tikkun olam) is one of the central channels for realizing what the prophet Isaiah describes in the expression "I, the Lord, will hasten it in its time." The lofty revelations described in the literature of Jewish mysticism, which will be revealed to all humanity in the era of the 'seventh millennium', will be revealed more speedily thanks to good deeds. Language & Communication Kabbalistic Language and Communication People throughout the world speak to infants in a similar way. Research shows that all languages share certain traits that serve the production of this speech, known as ID speech. It contains emotional indicators, expressed in raising the voice and emphases, as well as vocal expressions that have no textual significance but clearly express positive or negative feelings. It has been shown that infants and toddlers throughout the world react similarly to these common traits and that they prefer ID in any language over the specific language of their immediate environment without these common traits. Moreover, infants concentrate more on people speaking to them in ID, even if they are unfamiliar, than on familiar people who do not express themselves in this way. Kabbbalistic teaching deals at length with the creation of the world by means of speech. Divine speech is manifest in a language known as the sacred language, which is the language of the Bible. The divine letters are the building blocks of the creation. Different combinations of the divine letters result in creation of different beings, precisely as different combinations of the letters of our speech create diverse words and meanings. It is interesting that today we also refer to genetic components as letters and words that shape the details and the essence of the living organism. The sacred language is a universal language, not only because it is the semantic basis for many other languages, but also because it lies at the base of the entire creation. Modern physics also teaches us that the building blocks of reality are sound waves, produced by the tiny invisible chords (The String theory). During the course of human history, the inner awareness related to the conscious use of the sacred language and the power that lies in the letters of the Hebrew alphabet has slowly been forgotten. The teaching of Kabbalah interprets the inner meaning of every Hebrew letter, and teaches us to wisely and consciously use the letters of thought (positive thinking), the letters of speech and the letters of deeds (writing). The prophets of the Bible prophesize, that the sacred language will resume its supreme status in the world, in our time. This language expresses and reveals the spirituality that is
discovered in the teaching of Kabbalah with optimal precision. Indeed, with the discovery and spread of the Kabbalah in all corners of the world, we are seeing how an increasing number of people in the world are learning Hebrew, the ancient sacred language as it was at the dawn of creation. Physical Energy and Spiritual Energy The topic of energy production has been a major issue on the world's agenda in the last century. The need for electric energy reaches new heights in view of world population growth, and the rise in the standard of living in developed countries. Its production from fossil fuels (petroleum and coal) pollutes the atmosphere, increases the Greenhouse effect, and endangers every living creature on our planet. Many countries are gradually moving towards "clean" production of electricity, generated by wind and solar energy. Dozens of companies worldwide are constructing solar systems for the production of electric energy from the sun rays, and they have earned impressive commercial success. In Kabbalistic literature we find a special message regarding the solar energy, saying, that in the near future an impressive cosmic ecological change will occur. Talmudic sources tell us that the sun will be 'taken out from its shield'. In other words, the partition, which is called the sun's corona, which protects us from solar radiation, will be removed. With the removal of this barrier the amount of solar radiation reaching the earth will increase sevenfold. Despite this apparently alarming forecast, the Kabbalah masters promise that no harm will come to biological life here on earth. On the contrary, we will utilize this currently unknown solar energy to finally provide cures for illnesses which were thought to be incurable, and we will merit the ultimate health and even eternal life. Kabbalah explains that there will be a parallel spiritual development to this physical one, in the form of an immense spiritual revelation that will reach the human consciousness. This revelation will enlighten the human comprehension that was thus far feeble, in everything related to the inner essence of existence, literally the spiritual power and the Divine energy which fills the entire universe. Kabbalah explains that the Hebrew word for "world" (Olam) is related to the word "hidden" (he'elem). The world by its nature hides the spiritual and divine powers that abound in it. It is the essence of these energies that Kabbalah auspiciously explains in such a way that the everyone can comprehend. With that, Kabbalah teaches us that these future revelations will cross the "normal" state of consciousness, so that these new revelations will be on the level of "seeing". We will not be satisfied with intellectual comprehension or awareness, as lofty as they may be, but rather the potency of the human consciousness will rise to the level of actual vision like in prophecy. We will be able to see with our physical eyes the spiritual, Divine energy that is flowing into the entire universe.