Kabbalah Exposed p2e4f

Kabbalah Exposed! Kabbalism is the basis of nearly every tradition covered under the general heading of "occultism" Comments from webservant of Jesus-is-Savior.com... The photo to the left is of Madonna, a big fan of Kabbalism. Kabbalah is straight from hell! The Freemason occult is based upon occult mysticism (a bunch of hodge-podge) from the Zohar. Kabbalah is a branch of Jewish mysticism, which is thought to have originated in the 13th century. Its teachings come from an ancient 23-volume book called the Zohar, which offers interpretations of the inner meaning of the Torah. Traditionally, its practices were reserved for a select number of Jewish scholars who already had an advanced understanding of Jewish law, but for the past 500 years it has been followed more widely. Kaballah WILL take you away from Jesus Christ. Jesus was NO follower of Kabbalism! John 14:2 clearly reveals that Jesus said what He meant, and meant what He said. Jesus wasn't into mysticism, "...if it were not so, I would have told you." The Word of God is straightforward. The FACT that occult groups worldwide cherish the Kabbalah should speak volumes to anyone who may consider it a holy book, it is NOT! Kabbalah promises many things to help out your life, by taking away grief, pain, misery, worries, and much more. On the contrary, the Word of God promises us persecution if we live godly in Christ (Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." -2nd Timothy 3:12). Isaiah 53:3, a prophecy about Jesus, declares "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief" John 15:20 reads "The servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you." Kabbalism should be suspect for drawing attention to ones own "spirituality" rather than drawing attention to and glorifying Jesus Christ (God Almighty). As Isaiah 64:6 declares, "all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags." Kabbalist mysticism is the basis for Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism, the Illuminati, Knights Templar, and many other occult organizations. Their holy book is the Zohar. "Spell oils and incense blends produced according to Kabbalah" is the ment on this witchcraft website. The Bible is quick and powerful enough (Hebrews 4:12), without the need to resort to extra-Biblical religiosity, occult practices, or Satanism. Jesus clearly said

that He was the ONLY Way to the Father (John 14:6). Kabbalah is wishywashy and fails to present a Biblical plan of salvation through Jesus Christ. Kabbalah is of the devil. I dare anyone to show me a clear Gospel presentation from the Kaballah. Again, the FACT that Satanic occult groups base their damnable religions upon the Kabbalah speaks volumes. The "mysticism" of the Kaballah is demonism. END Question: "What is Kabbalah?" Answer: Kabbalah has many different ways of being spelled in English. It can be as you have spelled it, or one of the following: Kaballah, Qabalah, or Cabalah. Kabbalah developed between the 6th and 13th centuries among Jews in Babylonia, Italy, Provence, and Spain. The word Kabbalah means "to receive" and refers to revelation from God received by Jews and ed to succeeding generations through oral tradition. The word was first used by mainstream Judaism but later came to refer to those who believed that only a select few were given the secret knowledge from God as to the "true" meaning of Scriptures. Kabbalah uses occultic practices and is considered to be a cult. Kabbalah resembles closely some of the beliefs held by the Greek Gnostics in that both groups held that only a select few were given deeper understanding or knowledge. Also, Kabbalah teaches that emanations from God did the work of creation rather than creation being directly from God. With each descending emanation, the emanation became further away from God. The final emanation took the personal form of angels. This would be like God created a lesser god, and that one then created a lesser god, and this kept happening until the end result were angels. This directly contradicts God's revelation of Himself in the Bible. In the Bible, God teaches that He is both separate from all of His creation and yet is directly accessible by those who come to Him through Jesus Christ. Kabbalah does hold to the inspiration of Scripture, but does not seek the plain meaning of Scripture. The Kabbalah approach is mystical and very subjective, using such things as numerology to find "hidden" meaning. Through this method, almost any teaching that one desires could be "found" in Scripture. This goes against the very heart of communication. God provided Scripture that He might communicate with mankind and teach humanity of Himself. It is obvious that Scripture is meant to be taken at face value and Not mystical interpretation. This can be demonstrated by fulfilled prophecy. God said something would happen, and it happened as He said it would. The greatest example of this is the fulfillment of the prophecies concerning the first coming

of Jesus Christ. The were hundreds of verses referring to His coming, and they were fulfilled literally (Isaiah 7:14; 9:6; Micah 5:2; Isaiah 53. This is why the Bible should be interpreted literally or normally. Kabbalah even has a pantheistic characteristic. Pantheism is the idea that God and His creation are one. This of course is not what God has told us in the Bible. God created all that exists from nothing (the Hebrew word "bara"). Kabbalah says that creation is one of God's emanations - this is the pantheistic quality that Kabbalah has. Of course I do not know why you have asked this question (what is Kabbalah?), but if you are seeking to know God and have a personal relationship with Him, look no further that Jesus Christ and the Bible. Jesus is God in the flesh, and He came to die for every person's sins. If an individual trusts in Christ -- that He is God (John 1:1-3) and paid for sin (Romans 8:3) -- then that person is forgiven and becomes a child of God (John 1:12). Recommended Resource: The Kingdom of the Cults, revised and updated edition. SOURCE

Modern Kabbalah In 1969, a former insurance salesman, Rabbi Philip Berg, established the Kabbalah Centre International and appointed himself its leader. The centre markets Kabbalah as a "universal system for self-improvement" and attracts more than 3.5 million followers. Berg claims that Kabbalah answers the ultimate questions of human existence: who we are, where we come from and why we're here. Its followers claim that it can purify the soul and banish disease, depression and discontent using the spiritual light of the Zohar. The Kabbalah Centre sells copies of its sacred texts and other "spiritual tools", such as Kabbalah Water. Among the best-selling items is the red string bracelet, said to protect the wearer from the evil eye. The Beckhams, Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Demi Moore and Madonna have all been seen sporting one." -SOURCE: The Great Kabbalah Con Exposed.

Question: "Where did the Kabbalah originate?" Name of group: Qabalah (modern "cultic" spelling, also known as Hermetic Qabalah), Kabbalah (traditional Jewish spelling), Cabala (Christian spelling). All of these spellings are merely transliterations of the word in Hebrew.

Therefore, one spelling is not necessarily right over another, but each group tends to spell it differently. Founder: Isaac the Blind (It is not known for sure that he was the original founder, but he is considered the Father of Kabbalah. Aspects of Kabbalah can be traced back to the first century A.D.) Date of Birth and Death: c. 1160-c. 1236 Birth Place: Provence Year of founding: Kabbalah can be traced as far back as the first century A.D. It was formed as a scholarly group sometime during Isaac the Blind's lifetime (c. 1160-1236), but the exact year is unknown. Why and how it was founded: The first Kabalistic ideas emerged in ancient times as an attempt by the Merkabah mystics to reach what they called the "higher throne" of G-d. Isaac the Blind was the first to name Jewish mysticism Kabbalah, and he formed a scholarly group based on the tradition.

Question: "Which groups use the Kabbalah?" "It is probably accurate to say that from the Renaissance on, virtually all occult philosophers and magicians of note had a working knowledge of some aspect of Kabbalah . . ." (Low, Colin. Hermetic Kabbalah. "Frequently Asked Questions"). Some groups that currently practice Qabalah are the Hermetics, the Gnostics, Knights Templar, the Neoplatists, the Pythagoreanists, the Rosicrucianists, Tantra, the English Order of the Golden Dawn, and the French magician Eliphas Levi. Some Qabalists practice ritual magic -- "names of power, the magic circle, ritual implements, consecration, evocation of spirits, etc." (Low, Colin. Hermetic Kabbalah. "Frequently Asked Questions." http://www.digital-brilliance.com/kab/) Also, celebrities Madonna, Britney, Demi, and Paris have have become new followers of Kabbalah. Madonna in 2003 spent $5,000,000 to build a Kabbalah reading temple in London. The latest trend is "red Kabbalah string (pictured to the left). Increasingly, Hollywood celebrities have been seen adorning these red strings promoting Kabbalah. No Christian should ever get involved with these works of darkness. Though Kabbalah may seem fun-loving and peaceful on the surface, it is infested with occult demonology and Satanic lies. Please don't be deceived! The fact that a woman as wicked as Madonna could promote such a book with no sense of guilt or repentance for her wickedness speaks volumes.

Kabbalah and Occultism Kabbalism is the basis of nearly every tradition covered under the general heading of "occultism"

Kabbalah: aka Qabala, Cabala, Kabala, Qabballa, etc. Imagine you're Madonna. You're too smart for Scientology, but not calm enough for Taoism. You've pretty much burned your bridges with Catholicism. And Methodism was never really an option. So where do you go for your religious fulfillment? If you're thinking Hinduism, well, actually she was over that back in the '90s after it failed to catch on as the Next Big Thing. Her current fixation, kabbalah, might have more potential. Technically, kabbalah is not a religion, and it never was. It originated around the 11th century as an outgrowth of earlier Jewish esoteric-occult traditions. Kabbalah is mainly based on two texts, the Sepher Yetzirah ("the book of creation") and the Zohar ("the book of enlightenment"). Sepher Yetzirah is a collection of secret traditions supposedly ed down from Abraham. It describes the structure of the universe and the method of its creation, including an extremely convoluted series of planes of existence, based on geometry and key numerical sequences derived from the Hebrew alphabet. While probably not dating back to the time of Abraham, whenever that actually was, it is the older of the two texts and probably runs at least as far back as the second century B.C.

The Zohar was first seen in public during the 13th century, offered up by Moses de Leon, a Spanish Jew who claimed it was the work of a secondcentury miracle-working rabbi. After de Leon's death, there were numerous charges that the work was a forgery. There is quite a bit of legitimate controversy around the book, but the scholarly consensus is that the Zohar legitimately conveys a tradition that predates the 13th century, including several elements found in Jewish and Christian Gnosticism. The Zohar is a commentary on the Pentateuch, the first five books of both the Jewish and Christian bibles. OK, maybe "commentary" isn't the right word. The Zohar claims that the words of the Torah are simply a smokescreen behind which the real meaning of the Jewish scriptures lurks, like an ancient stereogram: you can't see it unless you're looking past it. Together, the books outline a sweeping vision of the structure of reality, including guidelines on how to alter it in nontraditional ways, which more or less amount to magic. Based on the two key texts, medieval occultists and Jewish mystics created a massive body of writings about metaphysics, alchemy and magic. Because it covers material related to the Old Testament, kabbalah was adopted by both Jews and Christians. Kabbalism also led to the development of Hasidism among Eastern European Jews. The most readily identifiable concept in Kabbalism is the Tree of Life, a diagram that is essentially a map of reality. The Tree of Life consists of three columns known as "pillars", and 10 sephiroth, or spheres, each of which represents an aspect of the process God used to create the world. At the top of the diagram is Kether, "The Crown", which represents the divine intelligence of God, from which all of creation emanates. The three pillars emanate down from Kether all the way down to Malkuth at the bottom. (The word means "Kingdom"; the bottom sephira is also sometimes called Shekhinah.) Kether is the angle at which reality points toward the creator; Malkuth is the angle at which is points toward His creation -- the earthly world.

In traditional Kabbalism, there are 10 sephiroth, although some schools teach of a "hidden" 11th in the middle of the diagram. Each sephira has different characteristics and is represented by a different Hebrew letter, which also corresponds to a number. The 10 sephiroth are connected by 22 lines, known as "paths," each of which carries a specific meaning. Some occult traditions teach that the paths correspond to the major arcana in the Tarot. The chart comes to life as a result of emanations, a concept which covers the movement of will, force, divine spark, light, energy and reality from God to creation. Emanations are the manifestation of divine intelligence as a material or metaphysical thing, such as an angel or a soul. Because the shape of emanations is outlined by the Tree of Life (supplemented by information contained in numerous other kabalistic writings), the Tree and the Hebrew alphabet can be used to calculate the "true names" of things. If you know the true name of something, you can control it, which quickly led medieval kabbalists to become ritual magicians (as well as inspiring medieval ritual magicians to become kabbalists). With kabalistic secrets firmly in hand, the well-informed can construct magic words that presumably empower s to command the very forces of the universe. Angels and demons, in particular, are susceptible to this sort of control. Truly ambitious sorcerers also sought the true name of God, the most powerful magic word imaginable. The search for God's true name took on epic proportions during the middle ages. The name was referred to as the Tetragrammaton, because it was believed to have four letters. The Torah provides one version of this name, of course, which practicing Jews are forbidden to speak -- YHWH, pronounced as Yahweh (or JHVH, Jehovah) by those who are not especially worried about eternal damnation and a divine curse. YHWH is derived from the first letter of each Hebrew word God spoke to Moses from the burning bush story found in Exodus. The rough English translation of the statement is "I am who am", "I am who I am", or "I am that I am." Finding the name in the Bible, of course, was far too easy. Obviously, recipients of secret knowledge would have a better name, a more powerful name.

Unfortunately, no one could quite agree on what that name was, although a number of alternatives were proposed, such as AGLA or ADNI. None of these names hold up to the obvious test: After pronouncing them, neither divine wrath nor infinite power arrives within any reasonable time frame. Other esoteric concepts were covered in some depth by the kabbalists. Many kabbalists were also alchemists and scientists. As a result, some kabalistic texts about the nature of emanations and the behavior of light (as a divine power) have a remarkable power even to this day. For instance, one Latin kabalistic text from the Middle Ages discusses the properties of spirit and body in some detail. If you substitute "spirit" for "energy" and "matter" for "body", the text looks suspiciously like a sneak preview of Einstein's theory of relativity. To a greater or lesser extent, Kabbalism is the basis of nearly every tradition covered under the general heading of "occultism". Kabbalah is the basis for the rumored occult practices of the Freemasons, the Illuminati and the Knights Templar, the stylings of the O.T.O., the antichrist rituals of Jack Parsons, and the creation of mystical beings such as the Golem. Scientology is also roughly modeled on the Kabbalah, albeit filtered through a Battlestar Galactica sensibility. When it started, the study of Kabbalah was secretive, especially among medieval Christians who feared the wrath of the Inquisition. After Aleister Crowley exposed the secrets of the Golden Dawn in the early 20th century, the cat was out of the bag, and Kabbalah began to be talked about among the religious intellectuals of the day. Crowley himself wrote extensively about the Kabbalah for the general public, as well as for his fellow students of esoterica. The movie Pi (1998) was a cult hit featuring a gang of malevolent Hasidic Jews who are searching for a way to decipher the true name of God from the number codes in the Torah. The movie coincided with a revival of mainstream interest in Kabbalah. The latest iteration of Kabbalism has more in common with the New Age than with traditional occultism. Kabbalah centers (both Jewish and non-Jewish versions) have popped up around the United States.

Perhaps partly as a result of widespread coverage of Scientology's quirks, a fair number of celebrities have embraced Kabbalism as the spiritual flavor of the month. In addition to Madonna, celebrity kabbalists include Elizabeth Taylor, Demi Moore, Mick Jagger, Jeff Goldblum, Ivana Trump, and Roseanne Barr. Although the new Kabbalism downplays claims of exotic superpowers, the magical aspect of Kabbalism is still an important part of the modern movement. END "Kabbalism is a system of Jewish mysticism and magic and is the foundational element in modern witchcraft. Virtually all of the great witches and sorcerers of this century were Kabbalists." -William J. Schnoebelen, The Dark Side of Freemasonry

Kabbalah's Pagan Origins Kabbalah Refuted Kabbalah's Dark Secrets Truth About the Madonna Cult Inside Hollywood's Hottest Cult -Kabbalah The Crazy World of Kabbalah The Deadly Fruit of Kabbalah Mormonism and the Kabbalah

Cabala's Pagan Origins Following the division of Israel and the Assyrian captivity of the northern tribes, the southern kingdom of Judah adopted the pagan traditions of the heathen nation of ancient Babylon. These traditions, with their associated rituals which included human sacrifice, provoked God to judge the southern kingdom, which judgment the prophet Jeremiah forewarned the Jews for a period of forty years, to no avail. The Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem in three stages, from 605 to 586 B.C., in which year the Temple of Solomon was demolished and the remaining Jews were carried into captivity. During the Babylonian captivity, the prophet Ezekiel continued to reprove Judah for its apostasy from the God of Israel and their love affair with Babylon. Note, in the following age, the Jews‘ iration for the images of rich, brightly attired Babylonian princes, which evoke visual images of the elegant processions of the princes of the Roman Catholic Church attired in their rich and colorful vestments: ―...[Jerusalem] increased her whoredoms: for when she saw men pourtrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans pourtrayed with vermilion, Girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes to look to, after the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their nativity: And as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she doted upon them, and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea. And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them, and her mind was alienated from them. So she discovered her whoredoms, and discovered her nakedness: then my mind was alienated from her...‖ (Ezek.23:14-18) Moreover, as Matthew Henry noted in his commentary on this age, the kingdom of Judah patterned its own worship after the pomp and pageantry of the Babylonians with whom they had become enamored: ―Thus she increased her whoredoms; she fell in love, fell in league, with the Chaldeans. Hezekiah himself was faulty this way when he was proud of the court which the king of Babylon made to him and complimented his ambassadors with the sight of all his treasures, Isa. 39:2. And the humour increased (v. 14); she doted upon the

pictures of the Babylonian captains (v. 15, 16), ed in alliance with that kingdom, invited them to come and settle in Jerusalem, that they might refine the genius of the Jewish nation and make it more polite; nay, they sent for patterns of their images, altars, and temples, and made use of them in their worship. Thus was she polluted with her whoredoms (v. 17), and thereby she discovered her own whoredom (v. 18), her own strong inclination to idolatry.‖ According to two authoritative sources, H.P. Blavatsky and the Jewish Encyclopedia, the Jews also acquired from the Chaldeans their doctrines of Eastern mysticism. These were later developed into a written compendium of esoteric literature known as the Jewish Qabbalah or Kabalah, and in the Middle Ages as the Latin Cabala. ―Kabalah (Heb.) The hidden wisdom of the Hebrew Rabbis of the middle ages derived from the older secret doctrines concerning divine things and cosmogony, which were combined into a theology after the time of the captivity of the Jews in Babylon. All the works that fall under the esoteric category are termed Kabalistic.‖ (Blavatsky, Theosophical Glossary, p. 168) ―The Pythagorean idea of the creative powers of numbers and letters, upon which the ‗Sefer Yetzirah‘ is founded, and which was known in tannaitic times…is here proved to be an old cabalistic conception. In fact, the belief in the magic power of the letters of the Tetragrammaton and other names of the Deity…seems to have originated in Chaldea (see Lenormant, ‗Chaldean Magic,‘ pp. 29, 43). Whatever, then, the theurgic Cabala was …, the very fact that Abraham, and not a Talmudical hero like Akiba, is introduced in the ‗Sefer Yetzirah,‘ at the close, as possessor of the Wisdom of the Alphabet, indicates an old tradition, if not the antiquity of the book itself… ―The whole dualistic system of good and of evil powers, which goes back to Zoroastrianism and ultimately to old Chaldea, can be traced through Gnosticism; having influenced the cosmology of the ancient Cabala before it reached the medieval one… ―The gradual condensation of a primal substance into visible matter, a fundamental doctrine of the Cabala, … is the ancient Semitic conception of the ‗primal ocean,‘ known to the Babylonians as ‗Apsu‘ (compare Jastrow, ‗Religion of Babylonia‘), and called by the Gnostics βύθος = (Anz, ‗Die Frage nach dem Ursprung des Gnostizismus,‘ p. 98).‖

The Chaldean religious tradition that was embraced by apostate Jews during their captivity in Babylon was delivered to subsequent generations by word of mouth. According to Blavatsky, these disseminators of the Chaldean tradition in the few centuries before Christ were known as Tanaim: ―Kabalist. From Q B L H, Kabala, an unwritten or oral tradition. The kabalist is a student of ‗secret science‘, one who interprets the hidden meaning of the Scriptures with the help of the symbolical Kabala… The Tanaim were the first kabalists among the Jews; they appeared at Jerusalem about the beginning of the third century before the Christian era… This secret doctrine is identical with the Persian wisdom, or ‗magic‘.‖ (Ibid. p.167) The dictionary defines the Medieval Latin cabala as derived from the Hebrew word ―qabb lâ‖ which means ―received doctrine, tradition, from qibb l, to receive.‖ According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, Cabalists claimed to have received these oral traditions, not from ancient Chaldeans, but from the Patriarchs and Prophets ―by the power of the Holy Spirit.‖ ―Cabala comprised originally the entire traditional lore, in contradistinction to the written law (Torah), and therefore included the prophetic and hagiographic books of the Bible, which were supposed to have been ‘received’ by the power of the Holy Spirit rather than as writings from God’s hand... Each ‗received‘ doctrine was claimed as tradition from the Fathers...to be traced back to the Prophets or to Moses on Sinai... The chief characteristic of the Cabala is that, unlike the Scriptures, it was entrusted only to the few elect ones;…‘‖ Because of its heretical nature, the Cabala was not generally promulgated among the Jews but remained the ―secret doctrine‖ of ―elect‖ Jews. That is to say, certain Jews who were deemed worthy could comprehend hidden teachings in the written Torah and, through mystical techniques, make direct with ―God.‖ Among these practices are rapid recitation of the ―Holy Name of God‖ (YHVH, or Tetragrammaton), meditation on the 11 Sephiroth of the Tree of Life which are believed to be emanations of God, learning to use the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet as force-carrying energy patterns which serve as the building blocks of the cosmos, and, finally, transcending the space/time limitations of the physical world to realize one‘s ―inner divinity.‖ This ―secret doctrine‖ has been preserved throughout the ages to the present time by a spiritual brotherhood who progress individually to various stages of enlightenment and proficiency in the hidden wisdom—from ―elect‖ to ―adepts‖ to ―wise men‖ to ―adepts in grace‖:

―Cabala... The specific term for the esoteric or mystic doctrine concerning God and the universe, asserted to have come down as a revelation to elect saints from a remote past, and preserved only by a privileged few. At first consisting only of empirical lore, it assumed, under the influence of Neoplatonic and Neopythagorean philosophy, a speculative character. In the geonic period it is connected with a Mishnah-like text-book, the ‗Sefer Yetzirah,‘ and forms the object of the systematic study of the elect, called ‗mekubbalim‘ or ‗ba‘ale ha-Kabbalah‘ (possessors of, or adepts in, the Cabala). These receive afterward the name of ‗maskilim‘ (the wise), after Dan. xii. 10; and because the Cabala is called (‗Hokmah nistarah‘ = the hidden wisdom), the initials of which receive the meaning ‗adepts in grace‘ (Eccl. ix. 11, Hebr.).‖ (Ibid.) SOURCE of excerpt

"Kabbalism is a system of Jewish mysticism and magic and is the foundational element in modern witchcraft. Virtually all of the great witches and sorcerers of this century were Kabbalists." -William J. Schnoebelen, The Dark Side of Freemasonry

THE KABBALAH Refuted!

"There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord." -Deut. 18:10-12

We see over and over in the Old Testament that the Hebrew people fell from obeying the Law and embraced witchcraft and sorcery, Baal worship and all manner of idolatry. Throughout the Old Testament we encounter their obedience, disobedience, repentance and constant struggle to remain faithful to God and His Law. Their tenacity and desire to obey the Law cannot be disputed. The question will be addressed whether the Jew's disobedient practices were, and are still, taught in the oral traditions which evolved into the Talmud and Kabbalah and which are referenced by various Hebrew Roots leaders.

Jewish Mysticism The Kabbalah itself consists of a large body of speculation on the nature of divinity, the creation, the origin and fate of the soul and also the role of human beings. It generally is subdivided into four sections: meditative, devotional, mystical and magical. It is for this reason that Kabbalah is regarded as an esoteric offshoot of Judaism. The gnosis of the Kabbalah is well recognized by Jewish scholars. From an article cited in the Jewish Encyclopedia, we see the intimate relationship between Gnosticism and the Cabala: "...The Jewish Encyclopedia quotes the opinion that 'the central doctrine of Gnosticism -a movement closely connected with Jewish mysticism-was nothing else than the attempt to liberate the soul and unite it with God;' but as this was apparently to be effected 'through the employment of mysteries, incantations, names of angels,' etc… it will be seen how widely even this phase of Gnosticism differs from Christianity and identifies itself with the magical Cabala of the Jews. Indeed, the man generally recognized as the founder of Gnosticism, a Jew commonly known as Simon Magus, was not only a Cabalist mystic, but avowedly a magician… instituted a priesthood of the Mysteries and practiced occult arts and exorcisms…" 1. M. Matter states in Histoire du Gnosticisme, that Jewish scholars fully understand that the secret oral traditions of the Cabala were previous to any Christian Gnosticism. "The Cabala is anterior to the Gnosis, an opinion which Christian writers little understand, but which the erudites of Judaism profess with a legitimate assurance."2.

In Some Notes on Various Gnostic Sects and their Possible Influence in Freemasonry, D.F. Ranking remarks that the secret oral tradition of the Cabalists confirms them as being Gnostics. "This claim to the possession of a secret oral tradition, whether known under the name of [similar to yvwois only in Greek]…or of Cabala, confirms the conception of the Gnostics as Cabalists and shows how far they had departed from Christian teaching. For if only in this idea of 'one doctrine for the ignorant and another for the initiated,' that Gnostics had restored the very system which Christianity had come to destroy."3. Author Nesta Webster concurs with M. Matter and other historians that Gnosticism involved an attempt to Cabalize Christianity. "... M. Matter is therefore right in saying that Gnosticism was not a defection from Christianity, but a combination of systems into which a few Christian elements were introduced. The result of Gnosticism was thus not to Christianize the Cabala, but to cabalize Christianity by mingling its pure and simple teaching with theosophy and even magic." 4. Jacob Prasch of Moriel, however, does not recognize Jewish mysticism as Gnosticism: "People began reinterpreting the Bible, not using the Jewish method of midrash, but using Greek methods. Typology and allegory. Midrash uses typology and allegory-symbols-in order to illustrate and illumine doctrine…" "The symbolism illustrates the doctrine, which is itself stated plainly elsewhere in Scripture…In the Gnostic world of Greek thinking, the opposite happens. Gnostics claim to have received a subjective, mystical insight-called a gnosisinto the symbols. They then reinterpret the plain meaning of the text in light of the gnosis. For Gnostics, symbolism is the basis for their doctrine, contrary to the ancient Jewish methods…" 5. In The Sacred Books of the Jews, Harry Gersh certifies the early origins of Jewish mysticism: "Jewish mysticism began in Biblical days, long before the term Kabbalah was invented. By the first century it had become a proper subject for scholarly study. Philo Judaeus speculated on the Platonic idea of emanations as intermediaries between God and the physical world. The Roman philosopher Plotinus (205-270) traveled in the East and returned to combine Indian, Persian, Greek, and Jewish mystic theories into a systematic structure of these emanations." 6.

"…H. Loewe, in an article on the Kabbala in Hastings' Encyclopœdia of Religion and Ethics, says: 'This secret mysticism was no late growth. …we can be fairly certain that its roots stretch back very far and that the mediæval and Geonic Kabbala was the culmination and not the inception of Jewish esoteric mysticism. …'" 7. The Kabbalah derives from ancient wisdom, such as Jacob Prasch mentioned previously. "As the Kabbalah evolved, it came to share certain ideas with other ancient mystical systems, including those of the Gnostics and Pythagoreans. The Kabbalah did not restrict itself solely to instruction on the apprehension of God but included teachings on cosmology, angelology, and magic." 8 Despite God's many warnings, the Jews incorporated paganism into their traditions. "… In spite of the imprecations against sorcery contained in the law of Moses, the Jews, disregarding these warnings, caught the contagion and mingled the sacred tradition they had inherited with magical ideas partly borrowed from other races and partly of their own devising. At the same time the speculative side of the Jewish Cabala borrowed from the philosophy of the Persian Magi, of the Neo-Platonists, and of the Neo-Pythagorean. There is, then, some justification for the anti-cabalists contention that what we know today as the Cabala is not of purely Jewish origin." 9. Harry Gersh shows the migration of the Middle Eastern Kabbalists throughout Europe: "From Babylonia and Palestine, Jewish mysticism moved into the Jewish communities of Europe and blossomed there. Every community produced its own mystic literature, mystic belief, and mystic practices. There were distinctive Spanish, French, Italian, and German Kabbalahs. Some were mainly 'practical', dealing in magic; others were mainly 'speculative', emphasizing philosophical explanations; many combined practical and speculative Kabbalah in equal parts." 10.

History of Kabbalah Colin Low's Kabbalah FAQ indicates that the origins of Kabbalah date from remote antiquity. "…Kabbalah is a mystical and magical tradition which originated nearly two thousand years ago and has been practiced continuously during that time. It

has been practiced by Jew and non- Jew alike for about five hundred years. On the Jewish side it has been an integral and influential part of Judaism. On the Hermetic side it has created a rich mystical and magical tradition with its own validity, a tradition which has survived despite the prejudice generated through existing within a strongly Christian culture." 11. Michael Sidlofsky of Toronto, writing on "Kabbalah and Jewish Renewal" states that Kabbalah... "…is the most commonly-used term for the Jewish mystical tradition, especially the kind which originated in twelfth-century and spread through Europe, the Middle East and eventually world-wide, to this day. The two main varieties of pre-kabbalistic Jewish mysticism are called Maaseh Merkavah and Maaseh Bereshit (more on these below), and the particular variety emerging in eighteenth-century Eastern Europe and continuing among Ashkenazic Jews until today is called Hasidism." 12. Most scholars concur that these secret oral traditions were first committed to writing around the thirteenth century. Dr. Christian Ginsburg states in "The Kabbalah": "…The first date at which the Zohar is definitely known to have appeared is the end of the thirteenth century when it was committed to writing by a Spanish Jew, Moses de Leon…." 13. Renaissance scholar Pico della Mirandola - a Gnostic, Hermeticist and Cabalist was described by Vicomte Léon de Poncins‘ in Judaism and the Vatican as a hebraiser of Christians: "Pico de Mirandola, who died in Florence, Italy in 1494, was a hebraiser who devoted himself to studying the Cabbala under the direction of Jewish masters such as Jehuda Abravanel: "It was in the princely house of Pico de Mirandola that the Jewish scholars used to meet….The discovery of the Jewish Cabbala, which he imparted to various enlightened Christians contributed far more than the return to Greek sources to the extraordinary spiritual blossoming which is known as the Renaissance. About half a century later, the rehabilitation of the Talmud was to lead to the Reformation….Pico de Mirandola had understood that the indispensable purification of Christian dogma could only be effected after a profound study of the authentic Jewish Cabbala." 14. James Webb, author of The Occult Underground, wrote that Pico della Mirandola, a student of Marsillo Ficino, founder of the neo-Platonic Academy of Florence, "...conceived of Hermes and Plato as aids to persuading those to religion who would not accept Scripture alone."

"This reasoning appears eventually to have been endorsed by the Church in the case of Pico, who ed to his Hermetism a 'Christian Cabala,' and concocted a universal system in which Cabalistic ideas played a considerable part. Although condemned by a tribunal, Pico's synthesis was rehabilitated in 1493 by Alexander VI, whose recognition of the Cabalist as a loyal son of the Church seemed to give some authority to Pico's position. It should be ed in this context that Sixtus IV (Pope, 1471-84) had himself translated seventy Cabalistic books into Latin, and that the concept of the 'Christian Cabala' was not peculiar to Italian thought. Reuchlin, the foremost Orientalist of the time, and the author of the first Hebrew grammar, came nearest to success in the attempt to transform the Cabala into Christian philosophy - although his pupil Widmanstadt considered the Jewish tradition as 'a Trojan horse introduced into the Church'. But the Hermeticists and Cabalists of the Renaissance were always maintaining their orthodoxy." 15. Drach's "De l'Harmonie entre l'Eglise et la Synagogue II," confirms that Pico della Mirandola received instruction in the Kabbala. Pico de Mirandola imagined that it held the doctrines of Christianity and therefore encouraged Pope Sixtus IV to order Latin translations for divinity students. 16. A reference from the Jewish Encyclopœdia's articles on Cabala and Reuchlin, shows the history of the influx of Cabalism into Catholicism and Christianity. "At the same time the Cabala was introduced into by Reuchlin, who had learnt Hebrew from the Rabbi Jacob b. Jechiel Loans, court physician to Frederick III, and in 1494 published a Cabalistic treatise De Verbo Mirifico, showing that all wisdom and true philosophy are derived from the Hebrews. Considerable alarm appears, however, to have been created by the spread of Rabbinical literature, and in 1509 a Jew converted to Christianity, named Pfefferkorn, persuaded the Emperor Maximilian I to burn all Jewish books except the Old Testament. Reuchlin, consulted on this matter, advised only the destruction of the Toledot Yeshu and of the Sepher Nizzachon by the Rabbi Lipmann, because these works 'were full of blasphemies against Christ and against the Christian religion,' but urged the preservation of the rest. In this defence of Jewish literature he was ed by the Duke of Bavaria, who appointed him professor at Ingoldstadt, but was strongly condemned by the Dominicans of Cologne. In reply to their attacks Reuchlin launched his defence De Arte Cabalistica, glorifying the Cabala, of which the "central doctrine for him was the Messianology around which all its other doctrines grouped themselves.1." 17. "His whole philosophical system, as he himself itted, was in fact entirely Cabalistic, and his views were shared by his contemporary Cornelius Agrippa of Nettesheim. As a result of these teachings a craze for Cabalism spread amongst Christian prelates, statesmen, and warriors, and a number of Christian thinkers took up the doctrines of the Cabala and 'essayed to work them over in their

own way.' Athanasius Kircher and Knorr, Baron von Rosenroth, author of the Kabbala Denudata, in the course of the seventeenth century 'endeavoured to spread the Cabala among the Christians by translating Cabalistic works which they regarded as most ancient wisdom.' 'Most of them,' the Jewish Encyclopœdia goes on to observe derisively, 'held the absurd idea that the Cabala contained proofs of the truth of Christianity…. Much that appears Christian [in the Cabala ] is, in fact, nothing but the logical development of certain ancient esoteric doctrines.2'" 18. S.L. McGregor Mathers', Introduction to the Kabbalah Unveiled is actually Mathers' English translation of Baron von Rosenroth's Kabbala Denudata, mentioned above. This book was used to propagate the absurdity, as stated in the Jewish Encyclopœdia, of a Christian Cabala. Note the assertion that the Qabalah is the basis of Judaism. "…At the present time a powerful wave of occult thought is spreading through society; thinking men are beginning to awake to the fact that "there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in their philosophy;" and, last but not least, it is now felt that the Bible, which has been probably more misconstrued than any other book ever written, contains numberless obscure and mysterious ages which are utterly unintelligible without some key wherewith to unlock their meaning. THAT KEY IS GIVEN IN THE QABALAH. Therefore this work should be of interest to every biblical and theological student." "Let every Christian ask himself this question: "How can I think to understand the Old Testament if I be ignorant of the construction put upon it by that nation whose sacred book it formed; and if I know not the meaning of the Old Testament, how can I expect to understand the New?" "Were the real and sublime philosophy of the Bible better known, there would be fewer fanatics and sectarians. And who can calculate the vastness of the harm done to impressionable and excitable persons by the bigoted enthusiasts who ever and anon come forward as teachers of the people? How many suicides are the result of religious mania and depression! What farragos of sacrilegious nonsense have not been promulgated as the true meanings of the hooks of the Prophets and the Apocalypse! Given a translation of the sacred Hebrew Book, in many instances incorrect, as the foundation, an inflamed and an ill-balanced mind as the worker thereon, what sort of edifice can be expected as the result?" "I say fearlessly to the fanatics and bigots of the present day: You have cast down the Sublime and Infinite One from His throne, and in His stead have placed the demon of unbalanced force; you have substituted a deity of disorder and of jealousy for a God of order and of love; you have perverted the teachings of the crucified One. Therefore at this present time an English

translation of the Qabalah is almost a necessity, for the Zohar has never before been translated into the language of this country, nor, as far as I am aware, into any modern European vernacular." 19. Perusing further we see the presentation of a Trinity, alongside other "Christian" statements but it is clearly not Christian in content. The way to heaven is described through the use of Gematria. "Thus the Qabalah is called ChKMh NSThRH, Chokhmah Nesthorah, 'the secret wisdom;' and if we take the initials of these two words Ch and N, we form by the second kind of Notariqon the word ChN, Chen, 'grace.' Similarly, from the initials and finals of the words MI IOLH LNV HShMIMH, Mi Iaulah Leno HaShamayimah, 'Who shall go up for us to heaven?' (Deut. xxx. 12), are formed MILH, Milah 'circumcision,' and IHVH, the Tetragrammaton, implying that God hath ordained circumcision as the way to heaven." 20. Gematria is based on the relative numerical values of words. Words of similar numerical values are considered to be explanatory of each other. In other words, it is lettered numerology which explains that circumcision is the way to heaven. However, Galatians 5:2-6 states: "Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love."

Influence of Kabbalah Mysticism is met with varied reactions within the Jewish community. "…Like most subjects of Jewish belief, the area of mysticism is wide open to personal interpretation. Some traditional Jews take mysticism very seriously. Mysticism is an integral part of Chasidic Judaism, for example, and ages from kabbalistic sources are routinely included in traditional prayerbooks." 21. "Other traditional Jews take mysticism with a grain of salt. One prominent Orthodox Jew, when introducing a speaker on the subject of Jewish mysticism, said basically 'it's nonsense, but it's Jewish nonsense, and the study of anything Jewish, even nonsense, is worthwhile.'" 22.

Jewish historian Graetz claimed that the Cabala is at variance with Orthodox Judaism. Other anti-Cabalists such as Theodore Reinach declare that the Cabala is: "…a subtle poison which enters into the veins of Judaism and wholly infests it.; Salomon Reinach calls it 'one of the worst aberrations of the human mind.'" 23. Michael Sidlofsky in "Kabbalah-A Brief History" shows that the Kabbalah has fluctuated in its popularity among Jews. "The history of Jewish mysticism has taken some dramatic turns, from elite, secretive club to mass movement to object of scorn and back and forth. Right now the Kabbalah seems to be enjoying unprecedented popularity. Will it become, either in its Orthodox or Jewish Renewal forms, the Judaism of the future? It is premature to say so, but one thing seems clear: given the trend towards easier and faster mass communication and the increasing hunger for genuine spirituality, Jewish mysticism as a widespread phenomenon is here to stay this time." 24. Kabbalah is also making a huge influx into North America. Michael Sidlofsky maintains the interest in mysticism has risen dramatically. "…A more traditional American Orthodox rabbi, Aryeh Kaplan, spent the seventies and early eighties reconstructing the forgotten Jewish meditative tradition by researching long-neglected Kabbalistic texts, many only extant in manuscript. He boldly disregarded the centuries-old rabbinic ban on the dissemination of kabbalistic practices among those under forty and unschooled in Bible and Talmud--a result of the Shabbetai Tzvi tragedy--by teaching Jewish meditation classes and publishing practical manuals and source readers on the subject. Thanks largely to Kaplan's efforts, many Orthodox rabbis and lay people have taught and written about Kabbalah, recognizing its appeal to nonpracticing Jews searching for spiritual guidance." 25. Israeli journalist, Hannah Newman, wrote "Masters of the Blinding Light" to warn fellow Jews of the infiltration of New Age mysticism, via Kabbalah, into Judaism. The door-to-door sale of the Zohar throughout Israel may result in the replacement of the Torah with Kabbalah. "In a similar development on the mystical side of Judaism, New Age spokesmen applaud orthodox Jewish teachers for recently releasing Kabbalah from the restricted access imposed on it by past generations of Jewish sages, making its teachings available to all, and even encouraging free exploration without rabbinic supervision. In Israel the Zohar (a major Kabbalistic work) is even being sold door-to-door. [This is strictly forbidden under the 'old order' of Judaism, but New Agers are not concerned with proper understanding of the teaching, since Kabbalah is simply one path to their goal of getting as many

people as possible, as quickly as possible, into ' with the spirit realm']. These teachers are being hailed as 'co-conspirators' who are furthering the NA Plan. [not stated whether deliberately or unknowingly, but the results will be the same.] From the NA standpoint, however, the value of Jewish Kabbalah lies only in its teachings which overlap "the other ancient occult doctrines", specifically: reincarnation; traffic with angels, demons and departed human spirits; 'monism' (light and darkness, good and evil, are all sides of G-d); attributing 'secret messages' or 'hidden meanings' to words or statements which mean something else at face value; self-induced trances, resulting in visions or 'astral' (out-of-body) travels; and harnessing of superhuman powers by pronouncing sacred names. [It is noteworthy that none of these can be ed by a clear (pashat or darash) Torah age, while some are expressly forbidden; yet they are arguably the best-known elements of Kabbalah today. The fact that they are accepted by so many Torah Jews in spite of their dubious relevance to Torah, only s the claims of the NA missionaries.] The NA goal is to promote a Kabbalah in the Jewish community which goes through successive 'transformations' until it is finally severed from all links with the Torah, thus 'recovering' its 'purity'." 26. As Jesus said to the Pharisees: "Your traditions have made the Word of God of none effect" H. Loewe's article on "The Kabbalah" in Hastings' Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics declares its impact on modern Judaism: "[Kabbalism] has contributed to the formation of modern Judaism, for, without the influence of the Kabbala, Judaism today might have been one-sided, lacking in warmth and imagination. Indeed, so deeply has it penetrated into the body of the faith that many ideas and prayers are now immovably rooted in the general body of orthodox doctrine and practice. This element has not only become incorporated, but it has fixed its hold on the affections of the Jews and cannot be eradicated." 27.

What is Kabbalah? "The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law." Deut. 29:29 According to "The Kabbalah Unveiled" website, the Kabbalah is esoteric doctrine.

"The Qabalah may be defined as being the esoteric Jewish doctrine. It is called in Hebrew QBLH, Qabalah, which is derived from the root QBL, Qibel, meaning 'to receive'. This appellation refers to the custom of handing down the esoteric tradition by oral transmission, and is nearly allied to 'tradition'." 28. Another website, "Kabbalah: The Misunderstood Doctrine," discloses that the Talmud alludes to a secret wisdom for an elect group of students. "The Talmud contains vague hints of a mystical school of thought that was taught only to the most advanced students and was not committed to writing…" 29. It was Pico della Mirandola's thesis that the secret oral tradition of the Rabbinic sages were no less divinely inspired than the Law given to Moses. Mirandola states that because they were not written they were ed through a 'regular succession of revelations.' "In exactly the same way, when the true interpretation of the Law according to the command of God, divinely handed down to Moses, was revealed, it was called the Kabbalah, a word which is the same among the Hebrews as `reception' among ourselves; for this reason, of course, that one man from another, by a sort of hereditary right, received that doctrine not through written records but through a regular succession of revelations....In these books principally resides,… the spring of understanding, that is, the ineffable theology of the supersubstantial deity; the fountain of wisdom, that is, the exact metaphysic of the intellectual and angelic forms; and the stream of knowledge, that is, the most steadfast philosophy of natural things." 30. Gerry Rose, author of The Venetian Takeover of England and Its Creation of Freemasonry presents the fallacy that this Ancient Wisdom was ed down from Moses to the elite disciples and that only the initiated could understand Kabbalah. "According to tradition '...the Kabbalah was the fount of ancient wisdom that Moses ed down to elite disciples, an esoteric doctrine that only an elect can interpret.'" 31. "The Authenticity of Kabbalah" ascribes to the Kabbalah the secrets of life which are supposedly hidden in the Torah. "'The Kabbalah' uncovers many of the infinite layers of the secrets of life, of Creation, of the soul, of the heavenly spheres. It penetrates beyond the garments and the body of the Torah. It is the very core and soul of Torah, the ultimate revelation of Divinity - exposing the inner meaning, effects and purpose of Torah and mitzvot. The illumination emanating from the Kabbalah ignites the soul of man, setting it on fire in the awareness of a deeper and

higher reality. Its study and insights are themselves mystical experiences. The Kabbalah is all this - but always and exclusively within the context of Torah." 32. Moses warned Israel in Deuteronomy 4:2: "Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you."

Oral Traditions The term "Qabalah," in Hebrew signifies "reception", or "a doctrine orally received" in which the "speculative, philosophical and theosophical doctrines of Israel are to be found." These doctrines were originally contained in two books, the Sepher Yetzirah and the Zohar". 33. The first Book, the Sepher Yetzirah is believed to be contemplations of Abraham. This contradicts the view that the oral traditions were taught by God to angels and then transmitted to Adam. "…The Sepher Yetzirah, or Book of Creation, is [believed to be]… 'a monologue on the part of Abraham in which, by the contemplation of all that is around him, he ultimately arrives at the conclusion of the unity of God'…" 34. The second and main work of the Kabbalah is called the "Zohar." From Adolphe Franck and other sources, including Zohar treatises, we see slightly different renditions as to how the Zohar was conceived. "… The immense compilation known as the Sepher-Ha-Zohar, or Book of Light, is… of greater importance to the study of Cabalistic philosophy. According to the Zohar itself, the 'Mysteries of Wisdom' where imparted to Adam by God whilst he was still in the Garden of Eden, in the book delivered by the angel Razael. From Adam the book ed to Seth ...Enoch ...Noah... Abraham, and later to Moses, one of its principal exponents.4. Other Jewish writers declare… that Moses received it…first time on Mount Sinai…to the Seventy Elders… to David and Solomon… Ezra… Nehemiah and finally to the Rabbis of the early Christian era.5" 35. The Jewish authority on mysticism, Adolphe Franck, and author Drach, relate from Talmud treatises the strange manner in which the secret oral teachings of the Zohar were developed and put into writing.

"…the Zohar had remained a purely oral tradition… written down by the disciples of Simon ben Jochai. The Talmud relates that for twelve years the Rabbi Simon and his son Eliezer concealed themselves in a cavern, where sitting in the sand up to their necks, they meditated on the sacred law and were frequently visited by the prophet Elias.6. In this way, Jewish legend adds, the great book of the Zohar was composed and committed to writing by the Rabbi's son Eliezer and his secretary the Rabbi Abba.7" 36. According to the Introduction to The Kabbalah Unveiled by McGregor Mathers, who co-founded the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, in 1888 this secret oral tradition of the sages was believed to have been taught by God to angels, who then taught it to fallen humans. Abraham is viewed as a mystic who taught the Egyptians some of their occult doctrine. "The Qabalah was first taught by God himself to a select company of angels, who formed a theosophic school in Paradise. After the Fall the angels most graciously communicated this heavenly doctrine to the disobedient children of earth, to furnish the protoplasts with the means of returning to their pristine nobility and felicity." "From Adam it ed over to Noah, and then to Abraham, the friend of God, who emigrated with it to Egypt, where the patriarch allowed a portion of this mysterious doctrine to ooze out. It was in this way that the Egyptians obtained some knowledge of it, and the other Eastern nations could introduce it into their philosophical systems. Moses, who was learned in all the wisdom of Egypt, was first initiated into the Qabalah in the land of his birth, but became most proficient in it during his wanderings in the wilderness, when he not only devoted to it the leisure hours of the whole forty years, but received lessons in it from one of the angels. By the aid of this mysterious science the law-giver was enabled to solve the difficulties which arose during his management of the Israelites, in spite of the pilgrimages, wars, and frequent miseries of the nation. He covertly laid down the principles of this secret doctrine in the first four books of the Pentateuch, but withheld them from Deuteronomy. Moses also initiated the seventy elders into the secrets of this doctrine, and they again transmitted them from hand to hand." 37.

Speculative and Practical Kabbalah Until his death in 1982, Gershom Scholem was a renowned professor of Jewish mysticism at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and was considered the pioneer of the modern study of Jewish mysticism. His many writings explain these concepts in the Talmud, Zohar and the Kabbalah.

In "Zohar, the Book of Splendor: Basic Readings from the Kabbalah", Scholem describes the importance and authority of the Zohar to Judaism. "The book of Zohar, the most important literary work of the Kabbalah, lies before us in some measure inaccessible and silent, as befits a work of secret wisdom…To have determined the formation and development over a long period of time of the religious convictions of the widest circles in Judaism, and particularly of those most sensitive to religion, and, what is more, to have succeeded in establishing itself for three centuries, from about 1500 to 1800, as a source of doctrine and revelation equal in authority to the Bible and Talmud, and of the same canonical rank---this is a prerogative that can be claimed by no other work of Jewish literature." 38. Gershom Scholem explained the contents of the Zohar, and its various components, including "the Midrash ha-Neelam (The Secret Midrash) and Sitre Torah (Secrets of the Torah), which is a large number of Pentateuch portions…" 39. According to Scholem, the latter is a deeply mystical treatment of the Torah: "The Secret Midrash…avoids genuinely mystical and theosophical trains of thought…The Secrets of the Torah, on the other hand, which in the main was composed without the use of Midrash form or the addition of names, represents the transition from philosphical-eschatological allegory to genuinely mystical exegesis. The Idra Rabba (The Great Assembly) describes, … the mystical 'figure' of the Deity in the symbol of the Primal Man…" 40. Scholem expounds the belief that the Zohar, composed of contradictions and folk-tales, is the anonymous work of centuries, "like the Bible" -".. the Zohar has been regarded…as a work without unity…in which the most varied and often contradictory forces of the kabbalistic movement found expression…Moses de Leon was…regarded as the redactor of ancient writings and fragments…The theory that 'primitive' sources and documents have been preserved in the Zohar..in revised form is today widespread. Thus the Zohar…would really be, even in its external beginnings, a deposit of the creative folk-spirit and, like the Bible and Talmud, the anonymous work of centuries…" 41. We assert that the Bible, unlike the secret oral traditions and teachings, is neither an anonymous work nor is it comprised of contradictions, myths, or fairytales. "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; That the man of God may be throughly furnished unto all good works." 2 Tim. 3:16

"Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth forever." Psalm 119:160 "Every word of God is pure: He is a shield unto them that put their trust in Him. Add thou not unto His words, lest He reprove thee, and thou be found a liar." Prov. 30:5-6 Gershom Scholem states that the "Secret Midrash" writings of the Zohar were in all probability the earliest part of the work. His profile of the Jewish mystic who authored the Kabbalah begins with his education in the Talmud: "Behind the whole stands the living personality of a mystic who, starting with philosphical and talmudic education of his time, lets himself be ever more deeply drawn to the mystical and gnostic ideas of the Kabbalah, and finally gives up his philisophical interests altogether, developing instead a truly astonishing genius for mystical homiletics…such is the author of these most important parts of the Zohar--no redactor or collector but a homiletic genius. It was Kabbalah, as it had developed before his time, and having become his spiritual home, which he, with unexpected and impressive power, constructed from out of the text of Scripture and the ancient haggadic motifs of the Midrash…" 42.

Out of the Abundance of the Heart "Ancient haggadic motifs of the Midrash" constructed out of the text of Scripture also comprise an esoteric volume titled, Hebrew Myths: The Book of Genesis by Robert Graves and Robert Patai. Robert Graves also wrote The White Goddess and I, Claudius. The White Goddess is frequently studied by those involved in the occult and witchcraft. Robert Patai also wrote many books and was Director of Research of the Theodor Herzl Institute in New York and also Director of the Palestine Institute of Folklore and Ethnology. Hebrew Myths states that he was a Biblical scholar. In a private correspondence, this writer received the following description of the book's thesis that Genesis was a collection of haggadic myths: "…The premise of the book seems to be that the Bible is a book of myths, very much like the Greek myths. And the authors attempt to show how Hebrew myths and Greek myths are related. In the course of writing about the book of Genesis they quote extensively from writings such as the Talmud, The Gospel of Saint Thomas, Midrash, apocryphal books, pagan myths, the Kabbala and various kabbalistic works, The Book of the Dead, Cave of Treasures, Sepher, Enuma Elish, Sephir Hadar Zeqenim (midrashic explanations to the Bible),

Imre Noam, the Koran, Mishna, Massekhet Soferim, Megilla, Mekhilta, Midrash Alphabetot attributed to Rabbi Akiba (second century A.D.) but actually compiled much later, lots of sephers including "Sepher Raziel, a kabbalistic work on the secrets of Heaven, creation, angels, amulets, etc", Sode Raza "a Kabbalistic work by Eleazar ben Judah of Worms,, Targum this and that, the Zohar which the authors say is the 'Bible of the Kabbalists, written by the Spanish Kabbalist Moses de Leon, in Aramaic, during the thirteenth century. It is a commentary on the Bible, pseudepigraphically attributed to Rabbi Simeon ben Yohai, the famous Mishna-teacher. First printed at Mantua, 1558-60, in three volumes.' and other Zohars…." 43. The authors of Hebrew Myths: The Book of Genesis also suggest that there are missing sacred documents which contain a more accurate record of creation than Genesis: "The book's authors write that 'All pre-Biblical sacred documents in Hebrew have been either lost or purposely suppressed...Post-Biblical sacred documents are abundant. In the thousand years after the Bible was first canonised, the Jews of Europe, Asia and Africa wrote prolifically. Theirs were either attempts to clarify the Mosaic Law; or historical, moralistic, anecdotal and homiletic comments on Biblical ages.... although the canonical books were regarded as written by divine inspiration and the least taint of polytheism had therefore to be exorcised from them, the apocryphal books were treated more leniently. Many suppressed myths were also allowed to re-emerge in the unquestionably orthodox context of the post-Biblical midrashim.... Lilith, Eve's predecessor, has been wholly exorcised from Scripture, though she is ed by Isaiah as inhabiting desolate ruins [but not in the King James Version, only in some modern versions]. She seems, from midrashic s of her sexual promiscuity, to have been a fertility goddess..." "So, it seems that these two authors have used these Kabbalistic writings to make their case that the Bible is a book of myths and in quoting from these writings they reveal to the reader just how low-down and wicked the writers of the Kabbala and the Midrashim, etc. were. And so I wonder how anyone who has read this awful stuff would want to urge others to read it and give it respectablitiy." 44. In "An Explanation of Midrash", Jacob Prasch states: "A classical work of Midrash in Judaism is the Midrash Rabba on Genesis (Berashith). Another is Lamentations Rabba". Prasch also upholds the Talmud as authoritative for understanding the Bible, i.e. "The Talmud tells us there are multiple interpretations" and "It takes the wisdom of the ancients to really understand these things...not the wisdom of the 16th century, but the wisdom of the first century." 45.

In another article, Mr. Prasch states that the Midrash of the Jewish sages at the time of the second temple period is wisdom Christians can turn to with full confidence since these sages never deny the authenticity of the Biblical s. "We have, along this line, advocated that Christians familiarize themselves with the works of those who have understood this from Alfred Edersheim to Arnold Fruchtenbaum. We have also tried to re-acquaint the church with the lost art of Jewish hermeneutics in of New Testament uses of Midrash, and the illustrative Hebraic models of typology and allegory … What is perhaps most absurd is the fact that contrary to both New Testament Christianity and Orthodox Judaism… In the Judaic midrashim we similarly never see a denial of the historical authenticity of biblical s. "…any early examples of Judaic Midrash... It is these early examples of rabbinic midrashic writings that are closest in time frame to the authorship date of the New Testament. Having looked at New Testament narrative from a Midrashic perspective for years and read every major Christian scholar who addressed the subject …" 46. Are we to understand that Mr. Prasch is referring to the same Genesis Midrash and Talmud referenced by Graves and Patai's Hebrew Myths: The Book of Genesis? Our correspondent continues to be amazed that the teachers of the Hebrew Roots of Christianity would promote such works: "What I find interesting is that the excerpts from these sources are so wicked. The 'fleshing out of the Bible' that is done by these writings not only have many variations but have the persons written about in the Bible doing very evil things that we have never read about in the Bible. And God is written about as saying and doing all sorts of things that are out of character and never written about in the Bible. Very evil motives and actions are attributed to God in these writings. I am not surprised that the authors of this book who obviously do not believe the Bible is truthful would make their case using such writings, but I am perplexed that many of the Hebrew Roots people who claim to be Christians would also be using these wicked writings. 47. Peter Michas informs us further that Jesus quoted the Midrashim and the Talmud, apparently with approval: "… The New Testament is in the pattern of the Jewish traditional work of Torah, Mishnah, Haggadah, Halakah, Talmud and Midrash, but inspired by God Himself for the common people. These Hebraic works as well as the Inspired Scriptures were quoted from by Jesus and all the writers of the New Testament. But even now, to have full comprehension, we must read the scriptures in the proper Hebraic context…Most all of the Judaic writings have

been preserved for us and now translated into proper English directly from the Hebrew…" 48. Avi ben Moredechai also references the Oral law, separate and distinct from the written Bible, as having been taught by Paul and Jesus: "Rabbi (Haham) Sha‘ul was a scholarly teacher of Torah, both of the Oral and Written codes. Not only did he order his life by it, but he also taught it to others, born Jews and born Gentiles alike. Since Sha‘ul followed Messiah Y‘shua, who also taught the Oral and Written Torah, I submit (at this time in my life) that we should be following in the footsteps of Judaism‘s great teachers of G-d‘s Law… I also recognize that our Rabbi Y‘shua also had His Gemara (discussion and teaching) on the rabbinic Mishnah and the written code of Sinai. Thus, we are His talmidim or students of His Oral Traditions which is the proper definition of the term 'Gospel.' We are to follow His Mishnah and Gemara, i.e., His Talmud…ancient scholars and sages were far more knowledgeable on the Oral Traditions than we could ever hope to be." 49. From Hebrew Myths: The Book of Genesis, Genesis Rabba and folios from the Talmud and Midrash are cited excerpts regarding Adam's bestiality, the myth of Lilith and other unscriptural teachings. (cf. Part IV) Chapter 10 "(b) Some say that God created man a woman in His own image on the Sixth Day, giving them charge over the world, [as in the Bible] but that Eve did not yet exist. Now, God had set Adam to name every beast, bird and other living thing. When they ed before him in pairs, male and female, Adam-- being already like a twenty-year-old man-- felt jealous of their loves, and though he tried coupling with each female in turn, found no satisfaction in the act. He therefore cried: 'Every creature but I has a proper mate', and prayed God would remedy this injustice. from Gen. Rab. 17-4; B. Yebamot 63a" "(c) God then formed Lilith, the first woman, just as He had formed Adam, except that He used filth and sediment instead of pure dust. From Adam's union with this demoness, and with another like her named Naamah, Tubal Cain's sister, sprang Asmodeus and innumerable demons that still plague mankind. Many generations late, Lilith and Naamah came to Solomon's judgment seat, disguised as harlots of Jerusalem. from Yalqut Reubeni ad. Gen. II 21: IV. 8 "Then Lilith deserts Adam because she didn't want to lie beneath him during sex because she was his equal. Adam complained to God who sent angels after her. They found her beside the Red Sea where she had been bearing demons (more than 100 a day) The angels told her to return to Adam or they would drown her. She argues with them and tells them that God has ordered her to strangle babies . She also seduces dreaming men. Then God makes Adam

another mate but Adam is disgusted by the sight of her creation. God knew that he had failed once more, and took First Eve away. (God failed?) God tried a third time, and made her out of Adam's rib, braided her hair and adorned her with 24 pieces of jewellery before waking Adam up. Adam approved. Gen Rab 161" "Some say God created Eve from a tail ending in a sting which had been part of Adam's body . God cut this off, and the stump-- now a useless coccyx-- is still carried by men. Gen Rab 134 B. Erubin 18a " "Others say that God's original thought had been to create two human beings, male and female; but instead He designed a single one with a male face looking forward, and a female face looking back. B. Erubin 18a" "Still others hold that Adam was originally created as an androgyne of male and female bodies ed back to back. This made walking difficult and conversation awkward, so God divided the androgyne, and gave each half a new rear. These separate beings He placed in Eden, forbidding them to couple. Gen Rab 55 Lev Rab 14.1 and other sources" 50. Are teachers of the Hebrew Roots of Christianity really saying that these writings do not contradict the Word of God? Well does Matthew 7:15-20 warn: "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them."

Kabbalah Initiation All Scripture Quotes From the King James Bible Footnotes 1. Jewish Encyclopœdia, article on Cabala; as Cited in Nesta H. Webster, op.cit., p.29. 2. Matter, Histoire du Gnosticisme,I.44, (1844)a s Cited: Webster, Ibid. p.28. 3. D. F. Ranking; Some Notes on Various Gnostic Sects and their Possible Influence in Freemasonry,republished from Ars Quatuor Coronatorum (Vol. XXIV, p. 202, 1911) in pamphlet form, p.7.; as Cited Webster, Ibid. Pg. 32

4. Nesta H. Webster; op. cit. p. 29. 5. Jacob Prasch, Explaining the Midrash; www.cw.co.za/moriel/midrash.html 6. Harry Gersh "The Sacred Books of the Jews," http://marlowe.wimsey.com/rshand/streams/thera/canaan.html 7. Webster, op.cit., p.10 8. Ancient Wisdom and Secret Sects ; http://marlowe.wimsey.com/rshand/streams/thera/canaan.html 9. Webster; op.cit., p.11 10. Harry Gersh, The Sacred Books of the Jews 11. Kabbalah Faq, Colin Low, 1996; www.digital-brilliance.com/kab/faq.htm 12. Michael Sidlofsky, Kabbalah-A Brief History; www.shamash.org/kavannah/kabbalah.html 13. Dr. Christian Ginsburg, The Kabbalah,pp.172,173; as Cited in Webster, Ibid., p. 9. 14. Joshua Jehuda, L’antisemitisme, Miroir du Monde ["Anti-Semitism, Mirror of the World"p. 164] 15. James Webb, The Occult Underground, Open Court Press, 1976, p. 221. 16. Drach (De l'Harmonie entre l'Eglise et la Synagogue,II.p.30) says that Picco della Mirando paid a Jew 7000 ducats for the Cabalistic MSS. from which he drew his thesis.; Webster,op.cit.,p.85] 17. (1)-Jewish Encyclopœdia, articles on Cabala and Reuchlin;Webster,op.cit.p.86 18. (2)-Jewish Encyclopœdia.,article on Cabala; Webster,op.cit.p.86 19. Introduction To Kabbalah Unveiled By S.L. McGregor Mathers; www.webvs.com/hogd/kabalah_unveiled.html ] 20. Introduction To Kabbalah Unveiled By S.L. McGregor Mathers; www.webvs.com/hogd/kabalah_unveiled.html ] 21. Kabbalah: The Misunderstood Doctrine; http://baptist1.com/judaism/kabbalah.htm 22. Ibid. 23. Vulliaud,p. 20, quoting Theodore Reinach, Historie des Israelites,p.221 and Salomon Reinach, Orpheus, p. 299. As Cited in Webster, p.9] 24. Michael Sidlofsky, Kabbalah-A Brief History; www.shamash.org/kavannah/kabbalah.html 25. Michael Sidlofsky, Kabbalah-A Brief History; www.shamash.org/kavannah/kabbalah.html 26. Hannah Newman; "Masters of the Blinding Light," http://www.ovrlnd.com/Cults/exposeofthenewage.html 27. Hastings' Encyclopœdia of Religion and Ethics; article on the Kabbala by H. Loewe; Webster,op.cit.,p.374 28. The Kabbalah Unveiled; www.webvs.com/hogd/kabalah_unveiled.html 29. Kabbalah: The Misunderstood Doctrine; http://baptist1.com/judaism/kabbalah.htm 30. Pico della Mirandola ; http://marlowe.wimsey.com/rshand/streams/thera/canaan.html 31. Gerry Rose ,"The Venetian Takeover of England and Its Creation of Freemasonry" http://marlowe.wimsey.com/rshand/streams/thera/canaan.html 32. "The Authenticity of Kabbalah"; http://marlowe.wimsey.com/rshand/streams/thera/canaan.html 33. Nesta H. Webster; p.7, Secret Societies and Subversive Movements, Omni Publications, Eighth edition, 1964. 34. Ibid, p.7. 35. (4). Zohar, section Bereschith, folio 55 and section Lekh-Lekha, folio 76 (de Pauly's trans., Vol. I pp.431, 446; 5. Adolphe Franck, La Kabbale, p. 39; J.P. Stehelin, The Traditions of the Jews, I. 145 (1748); as Cited in Webster, Ibid., p. 8. 36. (6). Adolphe Franck, op.cit.,p.68, quoting Talmud treatise Sabbath folio 34; Dr. Christian Ginsburg, The Kabbalah, p. 85; Drach, De l' Harmonie entre l'Eglise et la Synagogue, I. 457; 7. Adolphe Franck, op.cit., p. 69; as Cited in Webster, Ibid., p. 8. 37. McGregor Mathers, Introduction to The Kabbalah Unveiled www.webvs.com/hogd/kabalah_unveiled.html 38. Gershom Scholem, Zohar, the Book of Splendor: Basic Readings from the Kabbalah, p. vii 39. Ibid., p. xi 40. Ibid., p. xii

41. Ibid., p. xiii 42. Ibid., p. xv-xvi 43. Hebrew Myths: The Book of Genesis by Robert Graves and Raphael Patai. 1964 Doubleday and Co., Inc. It is copyrighted 1963; private email correspondence, Feb2, 199 re:Hebrew Myths 44. Ibid. 45. Jacob Prasch, Explaining the Midrash; www.cw.co.za/moriel/midrash.html 46. Jacob Prasch; Satans Seduction of the Hebrew Root Movement 47. Private email correspondence, Feb 2, 199 re:Hebrew Myths 48. Peter Michas, http://www.ez/com/~peterm/HB.GK.RF.HTML 49. Avi ben Mordechai, Halacha, www.millenium7000.com/halacha.htm 50. Hebrew Myths: The Book of Genesis, Robert Graves and Raphael Patai.; Ch10,p. 65; Doubleday and Co., Inc. 1964 It is copyrighted 1963.

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Kabbalah's Dark Secrets Special report: The terrible price paid by innocent Kabbalah Center followers Ynet News, Israel/November 9, 2005 | By Yifat Glick Anat (not her real name) is currently staying at the closed ward of a psychiatric hospital in Israel. For more than a week she has been lying in bed, suffering from depression, and surviving by taking pills. After six months at the Kabbalah Center, she had a mental breakdown. "Anat is not feeling well these days," her mother says. "She apparently couldn't withstand their pressure anymore…we hope she recovers." Leah, a family friend, says Anat is weaker than ever these days. At first she thought Kabbalah studies were good for her, but her parents quickly realized she was drawing large sums of money from her to buy Kabbalah books. Those interviewed for this story wanted to use their real names, tell their stories, and share their difficult feelings with the readers. They are particularly interested in seeing the Kabbalah Center close its doors. However, some of them still have family at the center and are worried they would sever all ties if real names are used.

Those who were of the Center and left are ashamed. During the interviews for this story, they revealed details they never shared before, even with their parents or best friends. So how did it happen? How did the center for Jewish mysticism become such a global empire, with branches in the United States, Europe, and South America? How does this apparatus work, the one that makes people complete give themselves, both in body and soul – as well as financially – to the Kabbalah Center?

Savings are gone The global Kabbalah Center prides itself on being the largest organization in the world for spreading Kabbalah studies. The organization has 50 branches worldwide, including five in Israel. About 3.5 million people across the globe attended courses at the Center in recent years. A BBC investigative report earlier this year described the Center as a cult that has mastered the art of bilking its . Leah, a woman in her 50s, is closely familiar with the Kabbalah Center on 14 Ben Ami street in Tel Aviv. She herself attended several classes there and left years ago. Not a day goes by where she does not lament the moment her twin sons decided to courses and were captivated by the mystical world opened to them. Indeed, not a day goes by where she does not pray for the worst nightmare of her life to end. Leah says both her sons became "Kabbalah addicts". One of them requires close psychiatric care to this day as fears that he may harm himself persist. "Everything started six years ago, when my twins turned 21," Leah says. "One of them decided to study at the Kabbalah Center. He took one course and then another one, and another one. At first he was filled with energy." "Until this time he was largely isolated socially. He didn't have that many friends and was prone to depression…this was an outlet of hope for him, everyone loved him there," she says. "Gradually he began spending Saturdays and holidays with his friends there, and had to pay for every meal, dozens of shekels," Leah says. "He detached himself from the family and didn't want to tell us what was going on with him, and his bank was emptied out. He bought Kabbalah books for me, my husband, and his brothers for thousands of shekels. I saw with my own eyes the receipts with the irrational amounts and I couldn't believe it."

Leah's son eventually convinced his twin brother to the Center as well, she says. The two grew beards and would wash dishes at the center the whole day, she adds. "Their spiritual teachers convinced them to leave their jobs and invest the whole of themselves in this center," she says.

Eating leftovers off the floor Yaron (not his real name,) the brother who first became drawn to Kabbalahmania, received a tempting offer from his friends at the Center to them. The "followers" live in small, crowded communes in the center of the country. "Later, because he was good, and apparently he worked there for 24 hours without a break," said Leah, "they decided to send him to the major center in Los Angeles. He was there for a year. At this point he also stopped answering calls and cut off ties with the family. Suddenly, after months of no , I got a call from him. He said: 'Mom, I can't stay here anymore, I'm coming back.'" "When he got off the plane, I saw a burned out person, depressive, with an unkempt beard in these rag-like clothes. He only had Kabbalah books in his suitcase. I asked him, 'where are your cloths'? And he said that he donated them. I didn't recognize him, he was so weak. I informed him that he was not returning to the Center and I took him home with me." It was difficult for Yaron to adjust to conditions outside the commune. "He really went crazy. He would go out to the streets of Tel Aviv and sweep them, like a street sweeper. He would dress up in nice clothes and go out to the street to clean. Then there was a stage where he was filled with rage. He would have outbursts and he started to be violent at home. He hit us." The path to psychiatric treatment was short. "Only afterwards I realized that in Los Angeles he cleaned the Kabbalah Center all day there, for 23 hours a day without stopping, until something was disrupted in his brain." Leah says. He had to do everything his older 'friends' told him. He could not refuse. At a certain stage he began to eat other people's leftovers off the floor." "When he opened up to me, he told me one day that the councilors at the Center hit him frequently. Since then our lives have been wrecked. My second son is still in the Center, despite seeing what happened to his brother. I don't know how to get him out of there. It doesn't matter what I tell him, he is still trying to get as much money out as he can, and to waste his life."

Note: Story first appeared in Israel's leading newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth Source

THE DEADLY FRUIT OF KABBALAH "And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. -Genesis 4:5

Tragedy of a Jewish Mystic Last week, the Associated Press (8/31/99) reported the controversial fatal shooting by New York police of a mentally disturbed Jewish man. It seems that Gideon Busch had been "brandishing a hammer and threatening children while singing loudly. . . "At least five officers arrived and found Gideon Busch, 31, in the basement of his house, wearing a prayer shawl and leather pouches used to hold pieces of scripture, police said. The officers retreated onto the street and Busch followed them, carrying the hammer, said Detective Robert Samuel. Tear gas failed to subdue the man. One police sergeant stumbled to the ground and Busch struck him several times with the hammer, officers said. After Busch ignored several orders to drop the hammer, officers fired at least 12 shots, striking him in the torso at least seven times, police said." A few days later, a New York Times feature story described the mental deterioration of the once bright and affable Jewish medical student who became the tormented and psychotic Gideon Busch. MAN SHOT BY CITY OFFICERS WAS ON A TROUBLED QUEST By Susan Sachs The New York Times September 2, 1999 Ten years ago, at age 21 and with a promising medical career in front of him, Gideon Busch learned he had an incurable kidney disease. It was that knowledge, his family and friends said, that capsized all the plans he had for his life, driving him on a search for spiritual enlightenment in Orthodox Judaism and sometimes sending him skidding into immobilizing

depressions. Most of the time, he was a sweet-natured young man everyone called Gary, who loved music and the quiet grace of celebrating the Jewish Sabbath with friends. But Mr. Busch could also slide into a deeply troubled and disoriented world or his own frenetic prayers, fears and symbols. The two sides -- often incompatible and impenetrable -- followed him to his death. The police officers who shot and killed him in Brooklyn on Monday evening said Mr. Busch, tall and skinny at 6 feet 3 inches and 159 pounds, attacked them with a hammer outside his tiny basement apartment in Borough Park. On that hammer, Mr. Busch, 31, a deeply religious man who prayed so loudly the neighbors complained, had carved the four Hebrew letters signifying the name of God. "In his good times, he was an outgoing fellow and would talk and sing psalms around the Sabbath table," said Rabbi Yakov Saacks, the director of the Chai Center in Dix Hills, N.Y., where Mr. Busch grew up in suburban comfort on Long Island. "In his bad times, perhaps when he wasn't taking his medication, he didn't look up from his prayer book or his food. "There were two different Gary Busches," the rabbi added. "I loved them both." As they prepared for his funeral today in Dix Hills, Mr. Busch's family said he was a gentle, if distressed, young man who never hurt anyone. "He had a mental illness, no question about it," said his father, Norman Busch, a retired dentist living in the Long Island town of Bay Shore. "But he was not a violent person. He was never violent." But Mr. Busch was hospitalized involuntarily for psychiatric treatment three times at a hospital on Long Island, where doctors said he had made threats to his parents and evinced signs of paranoid schizophrenia. Two years ago, he entered a residential program for the mentally ill in Borough Park but soon checked himself out against the advice of doctors who said they did not believe he was capable of living on his own. Still, his family said they did not recognize the man portrayed in published reports since the shooting as behaving so erratically that his neighbors called the police and as lunging with a hammer that the police said was inscribed with Hebrew letters. "This is not what he was or who he is," his mother, Doris Busch Boskey, said, weeping. "They've created a person to explain away or excuse what happened and what they did." Mr. Busch was studying to be a doctor at Mount Sinai Medical School when he discovered, when all the students tested their own urine sample as part of a classroom exercise, that he suffered from an immune system problem. He was given a diagnosis of IgA nephropathy, a disease that can lead to kidney failure. Until then, his relatives said, Mr. Busch showed no signs of mental instability. But the diagnosis shook him deeply. Mr. Busch continued his studies, but in his third year of medical school, he told his family he wanted to drop out. He read books on philosophy. He

immersed himself in his favorite classical music and jazz. He talked of finding a spiritual path to well-being, of exploring the meaning of life. His own religion, Judaism, called him and he moved to Israel. Mr. Busch spent much of the next seven years there, trying out different trends and practices within the religion. He studied Hebrew and the Torah in a conventional Orthodox yeshiva in Jerusalem. Drawn to the more mystical Hasidic movement, he delved into the messianic Lubavitch sect. Eventually, his family said, he drifted to the city of Safad in northern Israel to study at a school dedicated to the mystical teachings of Rabbi Nachman, founder of the Breslover Hasidic sect who died in 1810. The school and its graduates, however, are not associated with the mainstream Breslover sect, which has shunned them as a fringe group that has gone too far in making a cult out of the rabbi's memory. The group is known in Israel for spray-painting Rabbi Nachman's name on walls and bouncing up and down as if in a trance, on street corners. Mr. Busch threw himself into the group, worrying his relatives back home. "When you get involved in the inner circle of a fringe group, they are very warm and welcoming," Rabbi Saacks said. "But they had a very narrow focus. They were only reading Rabbi Nachman's books, only discussing his teachings, only telling the message of their teacher -- which I'm not sure what it is -- and not focusing on much else." Mr. Busch recently told family and friends that he had realized the group was too extreme and assured them he was gravitating toward the more mainstream Hasidic sect. But he seemed drawn, still, into his own sometimes inscrutable world of extremes, where his absorbing ion for religion turned into a fervor that seemed to amplify episodes of mental instability. "He bounced in and out of it," Rabbi Saacks said. "Last January, he said he felt he was maybe too entrenched and saw that he had to pull back. I welcomed that. And on August 8, the last time I spoke to him, he was back with 'Rebbe Nachman said this and Rebbe Nachman said that' and this very insular approach to life." What his family saw were periods of quiet, sometimes desperate depression. His mother said Mr. Busch once kicked a hole in the wall of his room in her house and became very agitated. "He kept saying, I can't believe I did that. I love this house. I grew up in this house," Mrs. Boskey recalled. Shortly after that, he became so depressed he was hospitalized, she said. About three weeks ago, Netanya Ullman ran into Mr. Busch on the subway to Manhattan. They had met briefly when both were studying in Safad five years ago, she said, and when they met again, there was an instant rapport. The couple decided to get married, she said, and spoke constantly of Mr. Busch's interpretations of Rabbi Nachman's teachings. "Its all about talking to God out loud and going into nature and praying and very intense meditation," Ms. Ullman said. When he meditated, he would play music very loudly, she said. Recently, he took to dancing with the hammer, which he called his staff.

"He put God's name on it to make it something that would bring holiness into the world," Ms. Ullman said. "He'd go outside and dance with it and raise it up and move slowly. He was like bringing down light from his staff." "It was for holy purposes," she added. "He wanted to bring people closer and his way of doing that was this pushing toward the boundaries of what's acceptable." Mr. Busch's behavior drew comments from his neighbors in the Orthodox Jewish neighborhood where he moved last December in the apparent hope of immersing himself in the close-knit religious culture. He did not seem to connect with his neighbors, who said after the shooting that they regarded Mr. Busch as an oddball whose ecstatic dancing and music did not fit in. Even so, his parents said that Mr. Busch seemed content with his new life. He had taken a course in computer programming and was thinking of starting a business deg Web pages. But there were disturbing signs. Two weeks ago, he stopped by his brother Glenn's law office. "He seemed agitated, but O.K.," his brother said. Ms. Ullman said he stopped wearing his prescription eyeglasses. When the police came on Monday night, she said, he might not have seen them as anything more than blurry threatening figures. In the tiny basement apartment, the police said they found strange scribblings on signs on the wall. One spelled out the word "police," as "pointedly off-wing litigating intensely careful erranddeliverers." On Monday evening, someone called 911 to report that a man at Mr. Busch's address was menacing children in the neighborhood. When officers arrived to question him, they said, he waved the hammer at them. His family and friends, outraged by the shooting, said they believe Mr. Busch was frightened and panicked by the armed police officers. They said he was a spiritual man who wished for nothing but peace. "He was happy with the path he had taken," his father, Dr. Busch said. "But with mental disease, you do have periods of high emotion and periods of calm. He was a loving wonderful person, but he was never violent." The September 3 New York Times stated that Busch believed he was the messiah: "Mr. Busch told doctors at a psychiatric hospital that he increasingly feared his own impulses toward violence and repeatedly took cocaine and psychedelic drugs, his medical records show. [Doctors, nurses and social workers] said that when he was not taking his prescribed tranquilizers and antipsychotic drugs, Mr. Busch was delusional, believed himself to be the messiah, and was capable of doing harm to himself and others.

Drugs or Kabbalah? Were drugs the catalyst which drove this tragic figure from a high level of mental competence to insanity? It is common knowledge that psychedelic drugs such as LSD are mind-altering. However, the chemist who discovered LSD recognized early on its mystical qualities, as stated in Acid Dreams: The CIA, LSD and the Sixties Rebellion: "[High Priest of LSD, Timothy] Leary also ed Dr. Albert Hofmann, the Sandoz chemist who had discovered LSD nearly thirty years earlier. They met for the first time at a cafe in Lausanne. Hofmann told Leary about his informal 'wisdom school' centered around psychedelic sessions with leading European intellectuals, including Ernst Junger, the German novelist and mystic. Leary asked Hofmann about the dangers of LSD, and the elderly scientist insisted there was no evidence of brain damage caused by the drug. The only dangers, he maintained, were psychological and could be avoided by ive conditions. In the final analysis Dr. Hofmann affirmed the importance of LSD as an 'aid to meditation aimed at the mystical experience of a deeper, comprehensive reality.'" [Acid Dreams: The CIA, LSD and the Sixties Rebellion, Martin A. Lee and Bruce Shlain, Grove Press, 1985, p. 269]

Although the NY Times recounted Gideon Busch's involvement in the Lubavitch and Breslover communities, there was no mention that these Hasidic sects would have encouraged the study of Kabbalah or that occult initiation in the mysteries of Kabbalah often leads to paranormal experiences similar to those produced by LSD. The end result of a course of initiation is all too frequently demon possession -- a condition the manifestations of which were exhibited by Gideon Busch. The writings of Rabbi Nachman, founder of the Breslov sect, were diligently studied by Gideon Busch. According to Breslov on the Internet, Rabbi Nachman received his instruction in Jewish mysticism through the writings of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, author of the Sepher-Ha-Zohar, Book of Light, which is the premier book of Kabbalah: Breslov Chassidus was founded by Rabbi Nachman of Breslov. Rabbi Nachman was the great grandson of Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov, who led one of the greatest spiritual revivals-renewals ever to occur among the Jewish people, two hundred years ago. Rabbi Nachman followed in the tradition of Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov, Rabbi Isaac Luria and Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. Rabbi Luria, known as the Arizal, lived in the 16th century and was one of the greatest luminaries and expounders of Jewish mystical and spiritual thought. Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai was the author of the Zohar. In performing the rituals of the Hasidim, what curious purpose was served by Gideon Busch's hammer (which he called his staff) upon which he had engraved

the four letter name of God? Someone who was also educated by the Lubavitchers, such as Peter Michas of Messengers of Messiah, would be wellqualified to explain the significance of the staff engraved with the name of God. According to Michas' book, The Rod of an Almond Tree in God's Master Plan, a similar staff in the Old Testament was (1) a "divine rod" from the Tree of Life, (2) possessed of miraculous powers, (3) preserved by the Patriarchs and (4) will one day reappear to validate the true messiah. This rod had mystical powers because God had engraved upon it his own "Ineffable Name": ". . .God gave Adam a branch from the Tree of Life, which was engraved with the Ineffable Name of God (YHVH). Considering its source, it must have been of supreme symbolic significance. . .Perhaps at some future time, a discovery will be made to the history of this divine rod."(p. 119) "According to rabbinical commentary and stories ed from generation to generation, the rod transferred from Adam successively down the line to Enoch, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses and David. According to the Midrash Yelamdenu: the staff with which Jacob crossed the Jordan is identical with that which Judah gave to his daughter-in-law, Tamar. . . (p. 120) "According to one : On Joseph's death the Egyptian nobles stole some of his belongings, and, among them, Jethro appropriated the staff. Jethro planted the staff in his garden, when its marvelous virtue was revealed by the fact that nobody could withdraw it from the ground; even to touch it was fraught with danger to life. This was because the Ineffable Name of God was engraved upon it. When Moses entered Jethro's household he read the Name, and by means of it was able to draw up the rod, for which service Zipporah, Jethro's daughter, was given to him in marriage (emphasis added). (p. 121) "What makes this so remarkable is the reference to planting the rod engraved with the Ineffable Name of God (YHVH). Considering the prior reference to God's transplanting the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden, it seems of great consequence that a reference is made to planting a branch from this same tree in another garden." (p. 122) "According to the Midrash Yelamdenu, David carried the rod into battle against Goliath. . .Undoubtedly, David's victory was proof of God's miraculous intervention. The rod, engraved with the Ineffable Name, bore witness to the authority which this miracle of redemption had been performed. . ." (p. 128) Students of Scripture know that no such mystical branch from the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden is found in the Old Testament. Rather, based on mere legends, Peter Michas has grossly exaggerated the importance and chronological longevity of Aaron's rod, which Scripture only states (1) miraculously became a serpent before the court of Pharaoh to swallow up the

rods of the Egyptian magicians, (2) later budded as proof of Aaron's authority, (3) was preserved for a time in the Ark of the Covenant. Another Tree of Life is very mystical, however, and central to the initiatory process of Kabbalah. In this mystery religion, the initiate is taught that he will ascend toward divinity (Primordial Man or Adam Kon) through gates or ladders of wisdom called sephiroth on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. The sephiroth are comprised of the four letters of the Tetragrammaton (YHVH), which are supposedly vessels through which illumination is spread to the world. According to Professor of Jewish Mysticism and prominent expositor of Kabbalah, Daniel C. Matt, the Light of the sephiroth is believed to be Ein Sof or "God as Infinity". The sum of all ten sephiroth is called YHWH. "The Light of the sefirot emanates and radiates from above to below in a direct path. . .While there are many unerasable names -- the ten divine names of the sefirot -- there exists one name that comprises all ten sefirot. This is the fourletter name: YHVH. Y symbolizes Hokhmah; H, Binah; V includes six sefirot; the final H. Malkhut. Ein Sof is concealed within Keter, while its light spreads through these four letters, from yod to he, from he to vav, from vav to final he. (The Essential Kabbalah, pp. 48) Daniel Matt tells of an "ecstatic kabbalist" of the early Renaissance period named Abraham Abulafia who recommended meditation on the name of God along with free-form physical activity as a method of entering altered states of consciousness: "Abulafia. . .recommends focusing on the pure forms of the letters of the alphabet, or on the name of God. Here there is no concrete, particular meaning, no distraction, just the music of pure thought. As the highest form of this meditation, Abulafia recommends 'jumping' or 'skipping,' a type of free association between various combinations of letters, guided by fairly lax rules. Thereby consciousness expands." (The Essential Kabbalah, pp. 12) This helps to explain why Gideon Busch engraved the name of God on the hammer and danced wildly with the irrational notion that such a ritual would "bring down light" and holiness into the world. The Times article reported that the fiancée of Mr. Busch told reporters that he would pray so loudly the neighbors complained: "When he meditated, he would play music very loudly, she said. Recently, he took to dancing with the hammer, which he called his staff. He put God's name on it to make it something that would bring holiness into the world. . .He'd go outside and dance with it and raise it up and move slowly. He was like bringing down light from his staff."

Masonic Grand Master, Albert Mackey explained in The Lexicon of Freemasonry that uttering the Name of God endued one with the power of God. Note Mackey's reference to the lost name of God, which Master Masons receive upon their initiation into the 3rd degree, according to the Masonic Legend of Hiram Abiff: ". . .The Tetragrammaton might only be uttered once a year on the Day of Atonement by the High Priest in the Holy of Holies amid the sound of trumpets and cymbals which prevented the people from hearing it. It is said that in consequence of the people thus refraining from its utterance, the true pronunciation of the name was at last lost. The Jews further believed that the Tetragrammaton was possessed by unbounded powers. He who pronounces it shakes heaven and earth and inspires the very angels with astonishment and terror.' The Ineffable Name thus conferred miraculous gifts; it was engraved on the rod of Moses and enabled him to perform wonders, just as, according to the Toledot Yeshu, it conferred the same powers on Christ. . ." [(2) Mackey, Lexicon of Freemasonry, p. 156; as cited in Nesta Webster, Secret Societies & Subversive Movements, p.167]

Ritual recitation of the name of God by the High Priest of Israel is also mentioned in The Torah Anthology of famous kabbalist, Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, to whom Peter Michas frequently refers in his own book. According to Rabbi Kaplan, as quoted by Peter Michas, God increased the volume of the voices of Moses and the High Priest -- not when they preached the Word of God -- but when they "recited" YHWH on Yom Kippur: "When the High Priest recited the Tetragrammaton [the name of God] on Yom Kippur [Day of Atonement] it could be heard at a very great distance. This was a great miracle, like when the Torah was given, as it was written, 'Moses spoke and God answered in a voice' (Exodus 19:19). God made Moses' voice so strong that all 600,000 Israelites could hear it. Similarly, the same was true of the High Priest. God would make his voice so loud that all the people could hear it (emphasis added)." (The Rod of An Almond Tree, p. 199) Readers of Peter Michas' book are never told that Rabbi Kaplan or any of his other rabbinic sources are kabbalists. However, the Theosophical Glossary of H.P. Blavatsky states that ritual recitation of the Ineffable Name is a practice derived straight from the Zohar, the preeminent book of Kabbalah: "But the Rabbins do not care to the Zoharic ission that YHVH means 'not as I Am written, Am I read' (Zohar, fol. III., 230a). One has to know how to divide the Tetragrammaton ad infinitum before one arrives at the sound of the truly unpronounceable name of the Jewish mystery-god." (p. 155) Part IX of Vicky Dillen's expose of the Hebrew Roots Movement deals with Practical Kabbalah: Talismans & Masters of the Name. She writes, "The magical

abilities of Jewish adepts were a sign of their mastery of the Ineffable Name. The Divine or Ineffable Name is believed to be known only by those adepts who qualify for that secret initiation and knowledge and these are believed to become endowed with 'magical powers' by uttering or writing the Name. Their magical abilities became the impetus for various Hasidic movements which divided the Jews over whether a particular adept was the long awaited Messiah. These adepts were called Masters of the Name or Baal Shems. The term, 'Baal Shem' means that the person was regarded as expert in the 'practical kabbalah' or magic. 'Baal Shem' means literally one who is master of the name of God, who knows how to employ it." [Gershom Scholem, "On The Kabbalah And Its Symbolism," p.200, Schocken Books, 1965/1996]

Part VII: Of Sages and Scholars reveals that incantations of the name of God were intoned by Jewish sages as methods of entering the very presence of God, i.e., astral projection, as documented in the section "All Sages GO to Heaven": The earliest documents (100-1000 A.D.) associated with Kabbalah describe the attempts of "Merkabah" mystics to penetrate the seven halls (Hekaloth) of creation and reach the Merkabah (throne-chariot) of God. These mystics used the familiar methods of shamanism (fasting, repetitious chanting, prayer, posture) to induce trance states in which they literally fought their way past terrible seals and guards to reach an ecstatic state in which they 'saw God'. [Colin Low]

In some instances the sages believed themselves to have attained to the divine state, which s for the messianic delusion of Gideon Busch: . . .Hekhalot texts do tend to summon angels (never God, I believe) in a very preemptory way, and they ask for various types of esoteric wisdom and theurgic power. It seems clear also that the Merkavah mystics were deified (turned to angelic creatures of fire) before the throne of God, at least for the duration of the heavenly journey. Enoch received this deification permanently when he was transformed into the angel Metatron in 3 Enoch. But perhaps not too much should be made of this either, since deification rites are also known from the pagan magical papyri . . . [J.Davila, Ancient Magic, Part III, Jewish Magic ]

In the 17th century, famous kabbalist Sabbatai Tzevi founded the Sabbatean Movement which had many elements in common with the present-day Lubavitch Movement. Tzevi's profile even resembles that of the Lubavitch messiah, Rabbi Menachem Schneerson. Of interest, both were prophets of millenarianism and national restoration: "Sabbatai Zevi, 1626-76, Jewish Mystic and pseudo-Messiah, founder of the Sabbatean sect, b. Smyrna. After a period of study of Lurianic Cabala. . . , he became deeply influenced by its ideas of imminent national redemption. In

1648 he proclaimed himself the Messiah, named the year 1666 the millennium, and gathered a host of followers. In 1666 he attempted to land in Constantinople, was captured and to escape death embraced Islam. Nevertheless the influence of the Sabbatean movement survived many years." [Columbia Encyclopedia, p, 2389]

Moshe Idel noted in his volume on Messianic Mystics that Sabbatai Tzevi claimed to be the messiah after discovering the correct pronunciation of the Ineffable Name: "Considering the fact that Abulafia's Kabbalah focuses on techniques for meditating on holy names and that he also saw himself as the Messiah, his writings may constitute a crucial precedent for the first 'strange deed' of Sabbatai Tzevi -- the pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton. . .If we accept the evidence concerning the young Tzevi as pronouncing the divine name and proclaiming himself Messiah in public in 1648 or 1649 his later career should be understood as the culmination of a remarkable beginning. . . Tzevi's reading Abulafian quotations in Sefer ha-Peliyah prompted him to pronounce the divine name so he conceived of himself as the Messiah. . ." [Moshe Idel, Messianic Mystics, Yale University Press, 1998, pp. 187, 193]

Other sources document the immense influence of Sabbatai Tzevi whose messianic claim instigated a great movement of consecutive Masters of the Name who were empowered as miracle workers: "Since the sixteenth century the great mass of Jewry had settled in Poland, and a succession of miracle-workers known by the name of Zaddikim or Ba'al Shems had arisen. The latter word, which signifies 'Master of the Name,' originated with the German Polish Jews and was derived from the Cabalistic belief in the miraculous use of the sacred name of Jehovah, known as the Tetragrammaton." "According to Cabalistic traditions, certain Jews of peculiar sanctity or knowledge were able with impunity to make use of the Divine Name. A Ba'al Shem was therefore one who had acquired this power and employed it in writing amulets, invoking spirits, and prescribing cures for various diseases. Poland and particularly Podolia---which had not yet been ceded to Russia--became thus a centre of Cabalism where a series of extraordinary movements of a mystical kind followed each other. In 1666, when the Messianic era was still believed to be approaching, the whole Jewish world was convulsed by the sudden appearance of Shabbethai Zebi, the son of a poulterer in Smyrna named Mordecai, who proclaimed himself the promised Messiah and rallied to his a huge following not only amongst the Jews of Palestine, Egypt, and Eastern Europe, but even the hard-headed Jews of the Continental bourses. 1. Samuel Pepys in his Diary refers to the bets made amongst the Jews in London on the chances of "a certain person now in Smyrna, being acclaimed King of the World and the true Messiah." [(1)Harmsworth Encyclopaedia, article on Jews. (2) Diary of

Samuel Pepys, date of February 19, 1666.; As Cited Webster op.cit., p. 181 (3) Jewish Encyclopaedia, article on Shabbethai Zebi B. Mordecai]

Through the more objective lense of history, Sabbetai Tzevi is described by the Jewish Encyclopedia as a pretender. Such will be the verdict of history against the numerous messianic mystics who would rob the true Messiah, Jesus Christ, of His glory: ". . . Shabbethai, who was an expert Cabalist and had the temerity to utter the Ineffable Name Jehovah, was said to be possessed of marvelous powers, his skin exuded exquisite perfume, he indulged perpetually in sea-bathing and lived in a state of chronic ecstasy. The pretensions of Shabbethai, who took the title of 'King of the Kings of the Earth,' split Jewry in two; many Rabbi's launched imprecations against him and those who had believed in him were bitterly disillusioned when, challenged by the Sultan to prove his claim to be the Messiah by allowing poisoned arrows to be shot at him, he suddenly renounced the Jewish faith and proclaimed himself a Mohammedan. His conversion, however, appeared to be only partial, for 'at times he would assume the role of the pious Mohammedan and revile Judaism; at others he would enter into relations with Jews as one of their own faith.' By this means the he retained the allegiance both of Moslems and of the Jews. But the Rabbis, alarmed for the cause of Judaism, succeeded in obtaining his incarceration by the Sultan in a castle near Belgrade, where he died of colic in 1676." [(3)Jewish Encyclopedia, article on Shabbethai Zebi B. Mordecai.; (1) Henry Hart Milman, History of the Jews (Everyman's Library), Vol.II, p. 445; As cited, Webster, op.cit., p. 181-182]

We may reasonably infer that the Lord Jesus Christ had in mind the pagan ritual of chanting or reciting the so-called Ineffable Name when He preached the Sermon on the Mount: "But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking?" (Matt. 6:7) In stark contrast to the mindless rituals of messianic mystics, Jesus then gave to his disciples a simple model for prayer. What Christians have come to call the Lord's Prayer is a rational approach to God that deals forthrightly with critical issues of sin that hinder prayer. After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. Rather than recitation of the Lord's Prayer, Jesus intended His words to be a model for meaningful prayer. Rote prayers can easily become mantras, leading a person into a mesmerized state. New Age channeler and former Roman

Catholic, Elizabeth Clare Prophet, wrote one publication which promotes the rosary as a method of entering an altered state. Includes a practical explanation of Hindu devotion to Mother as the "Goddess KUNDALINI" --THE WHITE LIGHT that rises through the spiritual centers of your being, activating cosmic consciousness. You can accomplish this acceleration of light through the daily rosary. [Summit University Press, p. 6, as cited by Cathy Burns in Hidden Secrets of the Eastern Star, p. 351]

The New York Times of the misguided Lubavitch adherent is indeed tragic. Unfortunately, the Times failed to uncover the real cause of Gideon Busch's destruction so that others in the Jewish community would be forewarned. It is regrettable that a newspaper with such circulation and influence among Jewry does not feature a series of articles on the dangers of Kabbalism. However, there is published on the Internet an excellent treatise on mysticism by an Israeli journalist who responsibly seeks to inform the Jewish people that the once proscribed Kabbalah is now entering the mainstream of Judaism: MASTERS OF THE BLINDING LIGHT What Jewish People Should Know About the New Age by Hannah Newman "In a similar development on the mystical side of Judaism, New Age spokesmen applaud orthodox Jewish teachers for recently releasing Kabbalah from the restricted access imposed on it by past generations of Jewish sages, making its teachings available to all, and even encouraging free exploration without rabbinic supervision. In Israel the Zohar (a major Kabbalistic work) is even being sold door-to-door. This is strictly forbidden under the 'old order' of Judaism, but New Agers are not concerned with proper understanding of the teaching, since Kabbalah is simply one path to their goal of getting as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, into ' with the spirit realm']. These teachers are being hailed as 'co-conspirators' who are furthering the NA Plan. [not stated whether deliberately or unknowingly, but the results will be the same.] "From the NA standpoint, however, the value of Jewish Kabbalah lies only in its teachings which overlap 'the other ancient occult doctrines', specifically: reincarnation; traffic with angels, demons and departed human spirits; 'monism' (light and darkness, good and evil, are all sides of G-d); attributing 'secret messages' or 'hidden meanings' to words or statements which mean something else at face value; self-induced trances, resulting in visions or 'astral' (out-of-body) travels; and harnessing of superhuman powers by pronouncing sacred names. It is noteworthy that none of these can be ed by a clear (pashat or darash) Torah age, while some are expressly forbidden; yet they

are arguably the best-known elements of Kabbalah today. The fact that they are accepted by so many Torah Jews in spite of their dubious relevance to Torah, only s the claims of the NA missionaries. The NA goal is to promote a Kabbalah in the Jewish community which goes through successive 'transformations' until it is finally severed from all links with the Torah, thus 'recovering' its 'purity'."

Christian Kabbalah? The infiltration of Kabbalah into the Jewish community is a tragic development that is drawing many into the experiential and irrational world of Jewish mysticism rather than the Torah (first five books) of Scripture, which is God's prophetic revelation of Jesus Christ. Happily, throughout history there have been Jews to whom has been revealed the true Messiah and these have been spared the spiritual bondage of the superstitious oral traditions of Jewish mysticism. However, non-Jews and converted Jews may not take comfort in believing that Kabbalah is an exclusively Jewish phenomenon. This sourcebook of Freemasonry and other occult traditions is becoming accepted and even fashionable in social and religious circles worldwide. Christians in particular would be unwise to consider themselves invulnerable to the creeping deception of Kabbalism, for its sorcery has gained a large following among those who subscribe to false teachings of The Hebrew Roots Movement. The real tragedy is that these dangerous teachings -- which should easily be recognized as counterfeit by Christians -- are given the cloak of respectability and orthodoxy by the misnamed Discernment Ministries. In reality, the Hebrew Roots Movement promotes a form of Christianized Kabbalah, the true source of which is The Lubavitch Movement. Those who believe that the Hebrew Roots Movement is a last days return to the Jewish roots of the Christianity should read up on Church history. Daniel Matt, noted in his introduction to The Essential Kabbalah that, during the Renaissance, medieval kabbalists gained entrance into the Catholic Church by feigning faith in Jesus Christ. "Although Kabbalah emerged within Judaism, and has deeply affected Jewish thought and religious observance, its influence extends far beyond. Italian Renaissance humanist Pico della Mirandola immersed himself in Latin translations of Kabbalah, believing it to be the original divine revelation. Long lost and now finally restored, Kabbalah would enable Europeans to comprehend Pythagoras, Plato, and the secrets of the Catholic faith. Pico claimed that 'no science can better convince us of the divinity of Jesus Christ than magic and the Kabbalah.' His controversial, syncretistic 900 Theses drew heavily on

Kabbalah and laid the foundation for Christian kabbalistic literature. Pico's follower, Johannes Reuchlin, produced the first systematic work of Christian Kabbalah, De arte cabalistica." (The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism, p. 16)

Two centuries earlier, the kabbalists had not fared so well. The ecstatic kabbalist, Abraham Abulafia, "came to see himself as playing a messianic role, and he actually attempted to meet with Pope Nicholas III in the summer of 1280, apparently to discuss theological and political questions. The pope condemned him to death by burning, but before the sentence could be carried out, the pope himself died. After a month in prison, Abulafia was released." (The Essential Kabbalah, pp. 12)

However, by 1493, the works of Pico della Mirandola, the famous student of Marsillo Ficino, founder of the neo-Platonic Academy of Florence, had captivated Pope Sixtus IV who mainstreamed the Cabala as orthodox doctrine. "This reasoning appears eventually to have been endorsed by the Church in the case of Pico, who ed to his Hermetism a 'Christian Cabala,' and concocted a universal system in which Cabalistic ideas played a considerable part. Although condemned by a tribunal, Pico's synthesis was rehabilitated in 1493 by Alexander VI, whose recognition of the Cabalist as a loyal son of the Church seemed to give some authority to Pico's position. It should be ed in this context that Sixtus IV (Pope, 1471-84) had himself translated seventy Cabalistic books into Latin, and that the concept of the 'Christian Cabala' was not peculiar to Italian thought. Reuchlin, the foremost Orientalist of the time, and the author of the first Hebrew grammar, came nearest to success in the attempt to transform the Cabala into Christian philosophy - although his pupil Widmanstadt considered the Jewish tradition as 'a Trojan horse introduced into the Church'. But the Hermeticists and Cabalists of the Renaissance were always maintaining their orthodoxy." (James Webb, The Occult Underground, Open Court Press, 1976, p. 221)

It was one hundred years later, in 1586, that Pope Sixtus V arranged for an obelisk, the phallic symbol of Kabbalism and Freemasonry, to be moved from Vatican Hill to its present position before St. Peter's Basilica. This was the same obelisk which the Roman emperor, Caligula, had transported from Egypt to Rome in 37-41 A.D. [Ralph Woodrow, Babylon Mystery Religion, pp. 32-3] Renaissance Gnostic, Hermeticist and Cabalist, Pico della Mirandola ". . .conceived of Hermes and Plato as aids to persuading those to religion who would not accept Scripture alone." Are spiritual conditions any different within the Hebrew Roots organizations which reject the authenticity of the Greek New Testament and/or require rabbinic commentaries to understand the New Testament? Have the Freemasons and Kabbalists changed their seditious tactics

of infiltrating the Church so as to bring about another "renaissance of religion" - as predicted by Jay Gary in his Bimillennial report? "We must recover the simple idea that the spark of eternity has been placed within each human being. We must fan this flame, this tiny spark within each person -- and insure that no government, no group, or no authority is allowed to smother or snuff out this sacred flame&hellipAs early citizens of the 21st Century, we have a sacred duty to carry this torch across the length and breadth of the planet. Let's blow the Jubilee trumpet and herald this coming renaissance among government, education, arts, media, business, and religion." Speaking prophetically, the Lord Jesus Christ warned his disciples about ravenous wolves who would enter the Christian Church, not sparing the flock. Like the famous Trojan Horse of Greek mythology, these infiltrators would masquerade as Christians, but purvey doctrines that are calculated to corrupt and destroy true Christian faith. Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Matthew 7:15-20 The unfruitful works of darkness became evident in the tragic life of Gideon Busch. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians 5:19-21 Likewise, Galatians 5:22 describes the fruit of the Holy Spirit which are produced by the pure doctrine of the Word of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. Ephesians 5:9 also mentions goodness, along with two other fruit of the Spirit: For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth; Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.

Every spiritual leader will bear fruit either according to the works of the flesh or the fruit of the Spirit. Christians must therefore carefully evaluate the fruit of those who claim to teach the Word of God by the quality of character that is produced in their disciples. However, fruit takes time to grow and the Hebrew Roots Movement is a relatively new phenomenon. For this reason, Christians would be wise to examine the fruit of the Lubavitch Movement before entering the same broad road to destruction via the Hebrew Roots Movement. SOURCE The Lubavitch Movement The Hebrew Roots Movement "Kabbalism is a system of Jewish mysticism and magic and is the foundational element in modern witchcraft. Virtually all of the great witches and sorcerers of this century were Kabbalists." -William J. Schnoebelen, The Dark Side of Freemasonry

Joseph Smith and Kabbalah Freemasonry, Judaism, Mormonism and Kabbalah are demonic sex cults! by David J. Stewart

While doing research on the cult of Mormonism, I came across several articles on the internet authored by Lance S. Owens. At first it appeared that Mr. Owens was against the Mormon cult, with such article titles as Joseph Smith and Kabbalah: The Occult Connection. Then I read the following quote on his website...

This work was originally published in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol. 27, No. 3, Fall 1994, pp. 117-194. The paper received considerable notice, and in 1995 the Mormon History Association recognized Joseph Smith and Kabbalah: The Occult Connection with its annual award for the best article in Mormon studies. There is an ongoing demand for this paper but unfortunately Dialogue sold out its entire printing of the Fall, 1994 issue within a few weeks. Most academic libraries will have Dialogue in their collection of journals for those seeking a print copy. Lance S. Owens is NOT a Christian and his writings openly reveal that Mormonism is connected with the occult. Oddly enough, the Mormons readily it their occult roots. Joseph Smith was a heretic! Unbeknownst to many people, Joseph Smith (the founder of Mormonism in 1830) was a 33rd degree Freemason, as was Charles Taze Russell (the founder of the Jehovah Witnesses in 1874). Those who understand the Satanic roots of cults such as Freemasonry and Rosicrucianism know that Kabbalah is greatly revered in such groups.

Demonic Kabbalah Matthew 27:25, “Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.” Kabbalah is a Jewish system of black magic which originates in ancient pagan Babylon. Freemasonry is a Jewish sex cult. The primary Masonic symbol, the square and com (which is a representation of the Jewish Star of David) is seen throughout Masonic temples and lodges. Albert Pike, a 33rd degree mason of the Scottish-rite wrote MORALS AND DOGMA. This book was given to every MASTER MASON (33rd degree). In his book, Pike said that the 33 degrees of Freemasonry is based in the Jewish Kabbalah, the source of everything that happens in the Masonic lodge. I wonder how many Christians in the Southern Baptist Convention are aware that they are of a sex-cult? Kabbalah is based largely upon the Zohar, and is esoteric (which simply means that you can't understand it by reading it, someone has to explain it to you). I sincerely don't think the Zohar was intended to be understood. I think it's interpretation is solely at the whim of any occultist who wants to manipulate dumb people. I've tried to read it and it's just a bunch of mumbo-jumbo that you could literally interpret to mean anything. I am confident that it was simply meant to impress and not really have any legitimate meaning at all. The Roman Catholic Vatican, to thwart true Christians from exposing their heretical beliefs, changed all their online doctrines into Latin at the Vatican's official website. It looks impressive to the world, but no one knows what they believe. Who reads Latin these days? What a sad joke! Catholicism is a massive

religious fraud intended to deceive the masses of this world. Roman Catholicism has been extremely effective for the cause of Satan, boasting of over 1,000,000,000 worldwide. The Jehovah's Witnesses cult only has an estimated 6,000,000 . Walter Martin authored a book, KINGDOM OF THE CULTS In contrast, the Word of God has a definite meaning which cannot be twisted if you take the Bible at face value. Sadly, Kabbalism has many devout followers such as Madonna (who recently built a $5,000,000 Kabbalah reading room in London) and Britney Spears (who plans to write a Kabbalah book for children). The Zohar is straight from Hell, as are the false religions of Kabbalism and Mormonism that are largely derived from it.

"What is Kabbalah and who believes in it? Kabbalah is a branch of Jewish mysticism, which is thought to have originated in the 13th century. Its teachings come from an ancient 23-volume book called the Zohar, which offers interpretations of the inner meaning of the Torah. Traditionally, its practices were reserved for a select number of Jewish scholars who already had an advanced understanding of Jewish law, but for the past 500 years it has been followed more widely. In 1969, a former insurance salesman, Rabbi Philip Berg, established the Kabbalah Centre International and appointed himself its leader. The centre markets Kabbalah as a "universal system for self-improvement" and attracts more than 3.5 million followers. Berg claims that Kabbalah answers the ultimate questions of human existence: who we are, where we come from and why we're here. Its followers claim that it can purify the soul and banish disease, depression and discontent using the spiritual light of the Zohar. The Kabbalah Centre sells copies of its sacred texts and other "spiritual tools", such as Kabbalah Water. Among the best-selling items is the red string bracelet, said to protect the wearer from the evil eye. The Beckhams, Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Demi Moore and Madonna have all been seen sporting one." -SOURCE: The Great Kabbalah Con Exposed. Kabbalah means "tradition" or "transmitted teaching." It is a mix of Jewish mysticism, the occult, Gnosticism, Neoplatonism, and uses numerology to "interpret" the Bible. Even though it claims to have been handed down orally from Abraham, the system appears to have been given its earliest formulation in the 11th century in . It is sad in these last days to see people turning to every kind of lie imaginable, when they are seriously searching for the truth and answers to what this life is all about. Ever since the Tower of Babel, men have created false gods and religions out of their imagination, rejecting the One and only True God and His Truth. Kabbalah

is one of the hottest cults today because of celebrities like Madonna, Britney Spears, Demi Moore, and Paris Hilton who have popularized it. Revenues are obtained primarily through the sale of books, tapes, the famous "red string" bracelet that is supposed to protect the wearer from the "evil eye," and Kabbalah water. Like ALL cults, Kabbalists make it sound like something everyone should be involved in it. They also falsely claim that you can be a Christian and be involved in Kabbalah. Biblically, Kabbalah is a lie from the pits of hell, it has NOTHING to do whatsoever with the Christian faith! ALL cults base their final authority upon something other than God's Word. The Mormon cult uses the Book of Mormon. The Jehovah Witnesses cult uses the writings of the Watchtower Society. The Christian Science cult uses the writings of Mary Baker Eddy. The Seventh-Day Adventists cult uses the writings of Ellen G. White. The Scientology cult uses the writings of L. Ron Hubbard. And the Kabbalah cult uses the Zohar.

Mormonism is of the Devil Let's recognize Mormonism for what it is...A CULT! The lie of Mormonism is not a new problem. Paul himself had to deal with the issue of "cults," those who perverted the Gospel. Paul spoke of this often in his writings, "...but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ" -Galatians 1:7. Cults are nothing new. The bottom line in Mormonism is a denial of the deity of Jesus Christ. In Revelation 1:8, Jesus Christ proclaims that He is Almighty God! Nearly every cult denies the deity of Christ or somehow diminishes it. Many Mormons will lie to you and say that they believe in the Jesus of the Bible, but they are not telling you the truth. In Mormon theology, their jesus is NOT a deity! THE JESUS OF THE BIBLE IS ALMIGHTY GOD! Although Mormons use the Bible, it is NOT their final authority as it is for the Christian. Their authority lies in the writings of the lunatic Joseph Smith and their cult's Doctrine and Covenants statement. Only faith in Jesus Christ, the Jesus of the Bible will get you into Heaven. The Mormon cult spends tens of millions each year in public relations to portray themselves as "just another Christian church." DO NOT LET THEIR ADS FOOL YOU. They are no more a Christian church than your local mosque is! WARNING: Do NOT be taken in by the warm and fuzzy exterior of this cult, Mormons are NOT Christians. And when they say the name Jesus, it is NOT the Jesus of the Bible! Jesus said, "Ye must be born again!" -John 3:3.

The Word of God is Upfront and Honest Thankfully, the Word of God (the Bible) is open to all. There is no private interpretations of the Bible, "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation" -2nd Peter 1:20. God has written the Bible to all mankind. Anyone can understand the Word of God if they will come to Jesus Christ and receive God's gift of eternal life (John 1:12). Oh how Satan blinds the masses with deception. ANYTHING that is of the occult is Satanic. This includes all New Age teachings, yoga, astrology, Tarot reading, palm readings, psychics, Yin Yang, spiritualism, astral projection, hypnotism, good luck charms, etc. Mormonism is saturated with occult imagery and doctrines. Joseph Smith was an occult Freemason. Do not be deceived friend, Satan is the common denominator behind all false religions, all designed to blind the masses. Satan is the god of this world (2nd Corinthians 4:4) and he works through occult organizations and false religions. It is no surprise that the founder of the Mormon false religion was an occult member of Freemasonry. By the way, there is NO such thing as separation of church and state. To remove God from anything is an open invitation to Satan. Until we bring God back, Satan will continue to reign over America. Satan has infiltrated our schools, our churches, our government, and even our Bibles. The only defense is the Word of God, which I believe is the 1611 King James Bible. As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, Lance S. Owens is NOT a Christian and his writings clearly prove that Mormonism is connected with the occult. Any connection with the occult is of the Devil.

"Kabbalism is a system of Jewish mysticism and magic and is the foundational element in modern witchcraft. Virtually all of the great witches and sorcerers of this century were Kabbalists." -William J. Schnoebelen, The Dark Side of Freemasonry