Many millennium ago in the lands of just east of the Nile and west of the Euphrates there happened to be two very different generations, their differences recorded by the ancient Kabbalists describe one generation as being very religious and pious and the other much less pious and very much more friendly.

The generation of King Saul was very religious and pious, but for some reason even though they were so very correct and right, fortune never shined on them in battle and despite their undoubted spirituality and righteousness, nonetheless they were cosmic losers.

In contrast the generation of Achav was not particularly religious and not particularly pious, in fact they would quiet often find them serving local idols and getting involved in lots of exciting but forbidden activities nonetheless for some strange reason fortune smiled on this bunch and they were successful in every single battle and the story goes that they never lost one of their soldiers.

Now the difference between the outlook of these two generations was quite different and quite profound the first lot were very religious and pious, and quite anal about the religious observance of their fellow man, they where as a result of their religious devotion quite serious and unforgiving.

They would reprimand each other and argue about what was right and what was wrong, and although they were ultimately very pious, it seems that God wasn’t too please with them after all.

The generation of Achav was quite different, they didn’t care much for the accoutrement of religious life, yes they believed in God alright but they also wanted to have a good time, life was for the living, it was about family about good friends about having a great time, it was about caring for your mates, getting drunk together, having fun together, and yes at times that lead to being in the wrong place at the wrong time and doing thing that you might later regret but they were more easygoing, and forgiving.

If their friend did them wrong, they’d have it out but almost always get over it and forgive them, mainly because they loved each other like brothers and sisters. And guess what? Fortune smiled upon this merry bunch of fun loving disreputable bunch and they won every single one of their battles.

The moral of the story is quite clear – God doesn’t want piety at the expense of you being a fun-lovingly good person and friend, if you’ve found that religion has made you a pain in the ass then you’re going in the wrong direction.

Love life, love your friends and family, love the world and the world will love you straight back.

The Ethics of the Fathers teaches that ‘If you are learning and meditating on God and you stop to look at a beautiful tree or a beautiful field you forfeit your life.’ That to me has always seemed a little harsh coming from the bastions of morality. Thankfully however, the great Kabbalist Rabbi Yaakov Yosef of Polnoye explains this teaching slightly differently, he says:

‘If one is learning and meditating on God and one stops – that is, one makes a distinction and does not continue to learn – when one looks at a beautiful tree, or field then you forfeit your life. If you do not see the divine within the world you subsequently make a separation between the holy and mundain then the separation you have made, separates you from the source of all life.’ “

I’ve always been puzzled by young, intelligent, movers and shakers in the Jewish community upping and moving to Israel, it seems so dualistic, and short sighted.

The primary motive they cite is that they don’t feel comfortable in the Diaspora and that they feel really Jewish in the Land of Israel even if they don’t keep any of the religious laws etc… What’s up with that?

Surely if you were more comfortable with your own identity why would you need to move to a country with millions of other people just like you? If your cultural identity is so important, why don’t you do something about it here and now? Why do you think that nationalism or in deed a ‘Holy land’ – where you can be yourself is really going to solve your deep problems?

The question isn’t just about Jews and Israel, its about all of us, why do we think that over there, in some distant future things are going to be ok, if I only had this or that, that then

I’d be happy? If I lived in a big house, or a small house, drove this car, or had that job, money, if I only had a boyfriend of girlfriend, a cat or a baby then all my troubles would be over?

In the messianic era the kabbalists teach us that the Holiness of the Holy of Holies will spread to the whole of the temple mount, that the Holiness of the Temple will encompass the Whole of Jerusalem, the Holiness of Jerusalem will spread to the entire biblical land of Israel and the Holiness of the Holy Land will spread throughout the entire world.

The Whole world will become as Holy as the Holy land.

Some great Kabbalists go further – they claim that the holiness of the Holy of Holies will in fact be accessible to each and every individual that the land we are standing on might be ‘Israel’ but we are in deed the Holy of Holies.

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What i’m saying is that, happiness is not found outside of yourself. If you push off, happiness and bliss to some future time, you are destined always to be unhappy and misserable.

Also that the Messianic Era is here and now, it is a state of mind a state of enlightened being, one that is accessible now.

That running towards a better future, doesn’t always work, ‘progress’ is sometimes fueled by stupidity, greed and emptiness.

Real spiritual, and personal progress comes from a place of contentment, happiness and a desire to spread that around.

Can you see the difference?

We bought all the books, followed her advice meticulously. The promise was that by three months he would be sleeping from about 12-7am. Her schedules dictated every minute of the day of every week and every month. It was true our baby has always been very contented as a result, but as parents we have been miserable and exhausted!

By four months our baby wasn’t sleeping through the night, and my wife was doing everything she could according to the many books that this baby expert had written.

She joined her community website and asked for advice, spoke to other mothers in similar situations, changed, adjusted and did everything she could to make the schedule work, but to no avail, he continued to wake up at least twice in the night.

One Sunday morning about 30 mins before our baby was due his 11 am feed, my wife got a phone call. To her surprise and delight, it was this world famous baby expert that we had been following, calling to help us in our almost direr situation.

My wife was so happy, and the conversation dragged on, and on and I could see my wife getting a little anxious that it was already 11am and she was meant to be feeding our baby. Yet it was ‘The Author’ of ‘The Book’ on the other end of the line, what was she to do, tell her to call back later, because she needed to feed our baby?

My wife, stayed on the line, talked in detail about the problems we were having with the routine, and by this time is was almost 12pm, the baby expert admitted that her routine only really worked with average size babies, and that we would probably have to wait until he was completely weaned before we could expect to get any sleep.

The same problem can happen with Judaism.

Sometimes in our earnest desire to do the right thing, and to be good law abiding Jews we loose ourselves in the rigmarole of the minutia of religious observance.

Now this, isn’t always a bad thing, but if left unchecked and pushed to the back of our consciousness because of internal arguments that claim any deviation from the Shulchan Aruch (the Code of Jewish Law) is giving in to the Sitra Archra (the Other Side) and that any yearning or desire for a more balanced and happy life must be coming from your yetzer ha rah (evil inclination) we leave ourselves open to the inevitable state of ‘frum’ misery and stagnation.

Lost are any whim of real and honest spirituality, healthy relationship with our body and the ‘non-Jewish’ world around us, as we reluctantly give in to the convincing ‘frum’ argument, that if you are keeping Shulchan Aruch then you are doing exactly what God wants you to do at any given moment in the day or our life.

The Torah is God’s Divine Will and as such we lowly Jewish pond scum can only hope for a glimmer of salvation in the hereafter if we try our best to become ‘frum Jews’, to do exactly what God wants us to do.

We the Jewish people are destined to be slaves of the Torah, to leave the slavery in Egypt only to become slaves to God and His obligatory Torah. It seems that we can only find value in God’s eyes if we do our humanly best to fulfil those commandments that we can fulfil – namely to live a life according to the Code of Jewish Law – the Shulchan Aruch! And robotic, unfelt, miserable, mechanical, empty, spiritually void, guilt filled, normative Judaism ensues.

I want you to remember my wife’s predicament, does she stop the conversation with the author of the baby book to do what was written in the book or does she continue the conversation with the author?

The Code of Jewish Law is something like this baby experts meticulous routine, but if it is not working for you then you need to have a chat with the Author, you’ll soon learn that it is more important to have a conversion with the Author than to follow it’s routine to the letter of the law.

The problem is that our observance of Shulchan Aruch is based on a common but false assumption about the nature of the Jewish people and the divinity of the Torah.

1. The assumption is that a Jew is a lowly creature, created by God to serve Him through the Torah/ Shulchan Aruch.

2. That the Torah is the divine will of God Himself that the Jewish people should feel lucky to have been the privilege to inherit and be able to serve God.

The problem is with this assumption is that even according to the Torah isn’t so.

There are two verses which use the word ‘Anochi’ – I am, the first is mentioned in the giving of the Torah and the Ten Commandments, where God says ‘I AM the Lord your God’, and the commentaries explain that the word Anochi – is anachronous for ‘I wrote myself into the Torah’, that God wrote His very self into the Torah.

The other verse says ‘I AM the God of Israel’ and talks about the special relationship that God has with the Jewish people.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe explains:

‘…It is possible to say, that concerning the issue of the ‘I Am’ of the Jewish people, that it is higher than the aspect of the ‘I Am’ that is within the Torah. As it is also known that the source of the Torah and of the Jewish people as they reside in Atzmus, that the source of the Jewish people is higher than the source of the Torah. That the Torah (also as it is after the Giving of the Torah, the idea that, ‘I my soul I have written in it’) it is for the Jewish people.’

The Rebbe explains in the footnote here that ‘…one can even explain this that the Giving of the Torah took place so-to-speak so that the Jewish people would accept it, that also the  ‘I my soul… ’ that is found within the Torah is not from Atzmus itself, and that it is secondary to the Jewish people that their source is in the Essence of God (Atzmus) literally.’

Sefer Ha Maamorim Meluket 4, (Kuntras Hag Ha Shavuos 1990) p.268

So you see the Torah was created FOR the Jewish people and not the other way around!

The Jewish people, and therefore each and every Jew is intrinsically higher and above the Torah. The Torah was created to help the Jewish people discover their innate Oneness and divinity with the God, so when the Torah becomes the very thing that destroys that awareness, when it becomes more important than you, it has become a form of Idol Worship.

Shulchan Aruch is a certain Jewish lifestyle code through which we are meant to serve God but it usually destroys it’s observers, because we don’t serve God but the religious obsessive compulsive community us which has become a form of Idol Worship.

I often wonder, does Shulchan Aruch really help anyone fulfil their true potential, or has it just become a form of religious peer-pressure and one-upmanship?

Authentic Judaism is here to help you discover your true divine nature, it was created for you, to help you to nurture you and to help you to be happy and move beyond your limited view of reality, towards the realisation of your divine self, that is totally ONE with God.

The Alter Rebbe the Rav Ha Tanya – says that we must all become familiar with the entire Torah. Anyways – it is only when you’re aware of it all – of the lay of the land of the smell of the wind – the pattern of the seasons the inner rhyme and reasons that you’re able to say – we don’t need a football pitch after all – what we need is some serious landscaping – lets pull out the weeds – lets encourage the flowers to grow, lets make this place into the beautiful garden it was always indented to be.

We don’t need homogeny and the standardization of Judaism, we need to allow the inherent diversity to blossom. The problem is that since the war – and since Fiddler on the Roof – we all think that what we’ve got now – what we’ve inherited as ‘real Judaism’ is in fact ‘true’ – that if we follow and believe then we are doing that God wants – what every Jew has done for generations.

Unfortunately that is simply a myth – what we’ve got today as authentic Judaism is a shallow and polarized product of the horrors of the Holocaust. That is - Judaism in reaction. The Shulchan Auruch (the Code of Jewish Law) is there for people that don’t know anything – they just want to know what to Do – but the Rav explains that we must all learn the entire Torah so that we can make our own Pesuk Dinim, that is come to our own conclusion about what Judaism really is.

Being a sheep is lovely – but the Lubavitch Rebbe explains that each of us must become a leader – must self realise our own inner-Rebbe..

Repentance and atonement are not big features of Authentic Judaism. The hebrew word for repentance ‘Teshuva’ means ‘return’, i.e. return your consciousness and your deeds to the awareness of the Oneness of All reality.

That’s why the Kick Ass Kung Fu Kabbalists explain that the word Teshuva has the same hebrew letters as The Shabbath (HaShabbat). Which is particularly a focus of this years Yom Kippur which takes place on a Shabbat.

Yom Kippur is actually a Yom Tov, a happy and festive day, an oppertunity to reconnect your inner Oneness with the All, to discover a deep and tranquil sense of inner peace and happiness.

A level of Happiness that is not dependent on external stimuli, such as eating, drinking, shagging, covering yourself with oils, wearing nice shoes, having a hair cut, chatting with friends, watching TV, etc.. etc…

In the Jerusalem Temple the High Preist would enter the Holy of Holies and come face to face with the Divine Presence, so too each of us has an oppertunity to enter our own inner temple, and to discover that, the Holy of Holies is found within us, that you are Holy! - When you realise this - all your sins disapear, you are forgiven, because you have forgiven yourself!

Wishing you all a Deeply Happy Yom Kippur and a Very Merry Sichat Torah!

All the great Jewish thinkers have studied Kabbalah and its teachings have influenced every part of Judaism, yet it has for the most part remained the secret knowledge of the initiated, that is, until now.

The reason why it the Kabbalah has been passed from master to pupil from generation to generation and why there are so few genuine books on Kabbalah is quite simple but extremely profound, and it’s all about effective communication.

When you talk to someone face to face, there is an opportunity for real communication, to can see if the other person is really understanding what you are getting at, and you can adjust your language, tone and hand movements accordingly to help them understand. However, a book is not a dialogue, it is a monologue, it’s me talking at you and not with you, and there is no opportunity for hand movements and gestures, how are you supposed to ‘get’ what it is I’m talking about if you can’t see my hand movements and I can see your bemused face?

The real danger with a book is that, not only will the reader misunderstand and misinterpret what the author meant, but also worse still the book gains some ‘holy’ or ‘sacred’ status and everything in it becomes the open to a more literal interpretation. Or ever worse becomes the rhetoric and dogma of a new ‘religion’, which actually goes against the original intent of the author, which is to help them become more free and happy and discover their own inner teacher, and not enslave them to someone else’s ideas, words and mystical poetry.

There is however, good reason why its teachings have been so closely guarded, over the passed 6000 years. The Sages warn that if the Kabbalah falls into the wrong hands, it could cause madness, destruction and evil.

If the truth be known, even to this day the true secrets of Kabbalah have been shielded from the less initiated, the deeper and more dangerous Kabbalah, remains a mystery to most, and an unspoken subject of the secret Masters of Kabbalah.

Kabbalah in a sense like Rocket Science or Nuclear Physics it is very powerful – but only if put into practice. Likewise without the right type of safety precautions or ideological or ethical maturity it can be very dangerous, not just for the person involved but (believe it or not) for the entire cosmos.

With the ideas contained in this website you have the ability to open a door not only in your mind but they have the power to rip open an alternate gateway within the very fabric of reality itself.

However, this is only if you actually put the knowledge you learn here into practice, otherwise it might just end up being another bookmarked website or rss feed, but unless you take these ideas seriously - you’ll still be living the same relatively superficial and spiritually unrealised life you were before you read this infomation, which would be a big shame, since this might be your last incarnation!?

But it is also ‘dangerous’ on an other level – if you’re scared of being truly happy, of living a profoundly meaningful life, of living your dreams, of taking responsibility for your actions, if you are scared of the divine potential you innately possess – to be yourself and to radically and permanently positively effect the whole world – then this book is dangerous – dangerous because it works – dangerous because it puts the entire responsibility of your life and the future of the world squarely in your own hands - right now!

It is a mystical understanding of the nature of the world and the nature of Self, that helps you to successfully navigate your way through life and the world.

In truth Kabbalah is a whole bunch of ideas that a wide group of people over thousands of years have thought about and contributed to, some were a little wacky and others were pure dam genius!

And although some things may sound strange at first, the more you hear them, and begin to understand them, the easier they are to comprehend and the more they appear ‘pure genius’.

It is said that Kabbalah contains the existential secrets of the universe!

The first Kabbalistic ‘book’ is said to have been taught to Adam in the Garden of Eden by God, sworn to secrecy and quietly passed from Master to pupil from one generation to the next, where the ancient academies learnt these Kabbalistic teachings.

These teaching were eventually passed on to Abraham and then Moses, from Moses to the Men of the Great assembly and from teacher to student in the Talmudic era, up to and including Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, who, tradition has it, taught and wrote the ‘Zohar’, as you’ll learn, one of the most important of Kabbalistic works.

Then to Abraham Abulafia, the influential 13th century mystic (who believed that the study of Kabbalah could induce states of personal redemption) and later to Rabbi Yitzchak Luria expounded the Zohar’s deepest meanings.

Then it passed to Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov the founder of Hassidism and to many his disciples. It has remained the secret knowledge of the initiated, that is, until now.

Kabbalah is Judaism’s secret science, and it is the most important, relevant and interesting Jewish stuff you’ll have come across in ages.

The nature of these ideas means that, you might need to go away and think about them for a while, before they really sink into your head.

the first word of the Shema - is the word Shema - and it simply means LISTEN!!!

It itself is a profoundly important and potentially life altering message from the author of the Bible - Moses - God etc..

The primary theological step we are compelled by the Shema is to learn how to listen.

(Loosely paraphrasing the Previous Lubavitcher Rebbe:) ‘Listening means having room in oneself for another, for Other, internal; mental, emotional and spiritual space for the existence of another being and another opinion, even one that is completely different to your own.’

The ‘Ethics of our Fathers’ teaches us ‘who is wise those that learn from everyone’.

Then they go on to say that anyone you learn from you must treat them with the same respect that you would the Divine Presence!

The point is, each and every human being has something to say about theology, and Jews, by virtue of their ontologically divine nature (according to the Alter Rebbe - every Jew is a part of God [although God doesn’t have parts]) have something to say about Jewish theology no matter their religious affiliation, level of intellectual honesty or
otherwise.

Kabbalah is Judaism’s esoteric mystical tradition, I believe it has
existed in tandem with traditional Judaism from its very start. It is
the spiritual meaning behind Judaism’s more formal religious
observance.  The soul of Judaism’s body, it animates it and gives it
meaning and purpose. Kabbalah is Jewish theology, it discusses the
nature of God, the nature of the World and the nature and purpose of
Mankind.

• What are the basic beliefs behind the Jewish tradition Kabbalah?

It seems to be a little bit of a paradox but I believe that one of
the main and fundamental believes of Kabbalah is that God is both truly
Transcendent and yet perfectly Immanent. That means God is completely
beyond the Universe and the limits of human thought and yet completely
accessible and right here in the very place – time and space of the
Universe – including You!

God mediates this paradoxical relationship through language – the
ancient Hebrew Language & that of Mathematics (which the Hebrew
Language is a language of Mathematics too).  The bible – the Hebrew
Torah is the blueprint which God creates and manifests the entire
physical and spiritual universes.

Moreover, mankind are a reflection of God and thus there is a
reciprocal and refectory relationship between the two – this is most
clearly demonstrated by the Kabbalistic Tree of Life Diagram, which is
meant to express both Man and Gods spiritual anatomy.

Nonetheless, even though the Kabbalistic tradition (which is quite
eclectic in its theological approach and) has heavily borrowed from
neo-platonic ideas of God’s 10 emanations (Tree of Life Diagram) – God
is still completely and absolutely ONE!

• How do you feel the Kabbalah teachings are expressed through the media?

The main mistake is to equate the lovely little cult called the
‘Kabbalah Centre’ run by Rabbi Berg – with the entire tradition of
Kabbalah – which is as old as Judaism is not older. The Media have
grabbed hold of this small cult and now think that it represents the
entirety of the Kabbalistic tradition – which it doesn’t.

It’s like saying that the founding fathers of the United States must
have been like ‘Ronald McDonald’ because he represents America in the
world today and therefore that all Americans wear red and white striped
socks and eat hamburgers!

The Kabbalah Centre movement/cult is Kabbalah’s equivalent to
McDonalds, and although it represents Kabbalah it like McDonals
represents America, it cannot be said to truly express the entirety of
American Culture – and the Kabbalah Centre does not represent the
entirety of the Kabbalistic tradition.

• Do you think the Kabbalah teachings are positively or negatively promoted through the media? And why?

The media particularly in the United Kingdom (where I live) are very
cynical of anything – let alone a weird kinda Jewish celebrity Cult and
they have been extremely negative towards the Kabbalah Centre cult, and
therefore also unfortunately to the kabbalistic tradition itself. On
the other hand – as they say ‘any News is good news’ -  it has raised the
profile of Kabbalah itself and now everyone has heard of Kabbalah even
if they don’t know what it is.

• How do you think Kabbalah is perceived through the media by younger generations?

I don’t know – I hope that they can distinguish between a celebrity
cult and an ancient spiritual tradition based within Judaism.

• What do you think is the most affective form of media used to promote religions and religious teachings in today’s society?

Myspace? And MTV – no but seriously ‘propaganda’ - TV. Radio, Internet, word of Mouth, Books, tapes, Videos

people don’t want complicated theologies – or philosophical
religions – they want simple stuff that answers questions that tells
them what is right and what is wrong –

The most effective form of media used to promote religion is ignorance and dissemblance!

• Do you think that celebrities use the media to an extent to promote their particular religion?

Sure!