Recently Madonna was being interviewed about her career and plans for the future. Among other things she was asked if she felt God had any say in the way Fate catapulted her into fame and glory in the same way that the Titanic, now resting at the bottom of the Atlantic raised the well-known singer from Quebec, Céline Dion, to even greater heights of popularity. Madona waxed philosophical over the whole issue of human destiny and predestination. She spoke with great calm and profound wisdom, something one does not normally expect from entertainers of her ilk. When questioned on the cause of her new outlook on life, she revealed that she had of late been studying the Cabalah under the guidance of a well-known master of this ancient esoteric science. Whether or not she was telling the truth is neither here nor there; what really matters is that she made an unusual impression on the interviewer, on my incurably inquisitive mind and, indubitably, on her audience at large. If the Cabalah could have such an impact on Madona's mindset, I said to myself, and inspired her to find a new content and format for her songs, why not look into it and hopefully arm myself with this precious knowledge. After all, countless generations of Jews have benefitted from such a knowledge and there are even those who claim that the Cabalah holds the key to the deepest secrets of the universe. While it may take scholars a whole lifetime to understand this arcane science - and there is no guarantee that it will yield all its secrets even to the most devoted student - reading about it from scratch with a view of improving one's own life is for all intents and purposes an endeavour that in my own modest opinion is worthy of our consideration.

The Cabalah --the received esoteric doctrines of the Jewish people -- is, according to popular belief, the sum total of an oral tradition that God transmitted to Adam through his angels. Adam was given this lore after being expelled from the Garden of Eden so as to enable man to always possess a pattern or prototype by which he might regain an eternal life of bliss and repose that was unfortunately lost through Adam's original sin. Others would have it that God passed the arcane knowledge later embodied in the Cabalah on to Moses when He discoursed with him on Mount Sinai and engraved the Ten Commandments for future generations. In later years, Moses entrusted this sacred knowledge to seventy of his high priests who, in turn, made sure the tradition was kept alive by orally communicating it to seventy other priests down through the ages until it was compiled into what became known as the Cabalah.

Modern scholars have no way of establishing the historical truth or the date of composition of the Cabalah. But there is no doubt that the Cabalah is as old as the Jewish people itself. Whoever has read the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament will agree to the fact that one of the greatest contributions of the Bible to Western civilization is the mysticism that runs through it like a strong current, affirming the precedence of faith over science. In creating the Universe and everything that is to be found in it, God wants us to believe he says or does without any doubt whatsoever; in other words, we are to have absolute faith in his omniscience and omnipotence. The immortal words that open the first chapter of the Book of Genesis: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth ...." have occupied man's inquiring spirit for millennia and will probably do so for as long as human beings survive as a species. Then, in accordance with the mystical doctrines of early Greek philosophy, the word (logos) becomes the creative force and assumes the tasks of creation. God, we are told, breathed his spirit into man, thereby establishing an indissoluble relationship with the creator and what he has created. There is no need for complex philosophical notions to bring us to the intuitive realization that as a result of that original link with man, made possible through God's will, there is in fact a supernal God who exists and who has created all that we see around us. When Adam fell prey to temptation and sinned, he immediately reaped the bitter harvests of disobedience and was chased out of God's paradise. But God still recognized him as his son and wanted him and his seed to have a second chance. The paradise would not be lost for good. There was a way of finding it anew not only through repentance and redemption but also through the secret teachings that God transmitted to very special individuals for safekeeping and which now bear the name of the Cabalah. Whoever succeeded to penetrate and unravel its mysteries could theoretically reopen the door of lost paradise.

A close study of the Sefer Yetzirah and the Zohar, the two main books of the Cabalah, shows that these documents were in all likelihood put together over a long period of time. Some scholars suggest that they date back to the third century before Christ including the archives that were purportedly traced back to the medieval ages. The Sefer Yetzirah, which means Book of Formation, though a short work, distinguishes itself by an attempt to mix Jewish mysticism with speculative thought. It is written in the rhythmical but unrhymed style of the Oriental philosophers and emphasizes the unity of creation in spite of its multifarious aspects. This book attempts to seek out the link between objective things and subjective thought through an interpretation of symbols, devised by man, but infused with divine powers. Something like the Holy Grail, maybe, which launched many a Knight Templar on more than one perilous journey across hostile lands in uncertain times only to find an ignominious death, unsung and forgotten by future generations. But let's return to the Cabalah which antedates the Holy Grail by many centuries and which is not, like the latter, based on fiction and the fruits of imagination, but on solid fact, if we are to believe those in the know.

It was the patriarch Abraham, the founder of the Hebrew nation, who set forth the ideas contained in the Sefer Yetzirah. God led him to abandon the worship of idols in his father Terah's house back in Ur and turn instead to venerating him as the true creator. How did Abraham achieve this spiritual transformation? According to ancient tradition, his life was drastically changed when he supernaturally acquired a knowledge of the esoteric doctrines, direct from God. The book is concerned with the act of creation which takes place by means of the thirty-two acts of wisdom. Numerology is the Cabalah's forte and those interested in the abstruse art of divination will, I am sure, find it easier than most to come to a quicker understanding of the arcane language and symbology of the Cabalah. What does the number thirty-two represent? First of all, it is arrived at by combining the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet and adding the first ten numbers which are designated "sefiroth" or donations. The holy spirit or logos is represented by the first sefiroth. The second of the sefiroth contains the twenty-two letters of the alphabet which have a single essence in the form of air. The third is condensed air whose form is water from which arises a garden. The fourth is fire from which God fashions his divine throne and the seraphim and angels who comprise his holy dwelling place. The remaining sefiroth constitutes the points of the compass --east, west, north, south --together with height and depth. This is how God created the universe, through the emanation of one from the other and, alas! more materiality is added on as these emanations move further away from the primeval source. These are obviously symbols that are given to all men to understand inasmuch as they have eyes to see with, symbols which are moreover endowed with tremendous power, so we are told, if interpreted and used properly.

That the Cabalah should use the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet as one of the symbols infused with divine power should not be so surprising for we all know that there is a direct connection between the Logos and the creation of the universe itself. This number delineates the line of demarcation between the corporeal world and that of intellectuality. Since these letters are allied with air as the essence of the second emanation, they contain the same sounds through their articulation found in all other languages and present an aspect of the intellect that cannot be modified.

Many have drawn an analogy between the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet and Plato's ideas. These letters ascertain that there is a guiding intelligence in the world which manifests itself in nature. In other words, we become aware of the existence of the Supreme Being through these twenty-two letters for God chose to manifest himself in the physical cosmos through this sacred number. But that's not all, however. To these letters are asigned three categories: they are grouped into "three mothers" (Aleph, Mem, Shun), seven double signs (i.e. with dual pronunciations), and twelve simple signs. (Mathematical geniuses will, to be sure, have a fun time with the Cabalah.) The three mothers correspond to the three elements ...air, fire, water, the seven double signs to the planets, and the twelve simple ones to the signs of the Zodiac. As we can see here, the Cabalah has something for everybody, whether one interested in biblical studies, computation, astrology or astronomy. This division has a threefold application in the cosmology of the Sefer Yetzirah -- to time (in the form of 'year'), to space (in the form of macrocosm), and to human organism (in the form of microcosm),

According to the Cabalah, the universe is composed of mothers which are equvalent to the number three, representing the basic elements air, fire, and water. Fire is the basic element of the heavens. The basic substance of the earth is formed by water condensation. Fire and water are symbolically opposing forces while air serves as the go-between for these two elements. Air acts like an arbitre between the antagonistic forces of fire and water over which it dominates. As for the number three, it symbolizes the cycle of the seasons with fire relating to summer, rainfall or water in the East which connotes winter, and the combination of spring and autumn corresponding to the temperate season. The Cabalah likewise has some reflexological antecedents in that the above triad is discernible in the corporeal nature of man through the head, heart, and stomach, of course with the difference that reflexology bases its validity on treating diseased parts and organs of the living organism by massaging areas of the body that are for example located on the foot without resorting to the symbology of esoteric numbers. It is quite possible, however, that reflexologists will one day elaborate a system based on the relationship between numbers and effective cures for various ailments. This is not altogether preposterous if we recall that since time immemorial shamans have been known to miraculously cure fatal conditions, even have the power to exorcise devils by drawing certain patterns that could also represent sacred numbers on the victim's body.

Returning to the topic at hand, an analogy can readily be drawn between Plato's devisions of the human soul and the classifications found in the Sefer Yetzirah. Where did the Greeks acquire their knowledge if not from the ancient Egyptians, experts not only at mummification but also at building structures like the pyramids which to this day put a number of our own edifices to shame. It is most likely that the Egyptians taught the Jews a lot of what they claimed to have acquired from God for they were an ancient people with the highest form of civilization at least in those days. Be that as it may, the Sefer Yetzihah has a lot to say about these numeric symbols that are said to have divine powers. For instance, the different juxtapositions of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet are similar to the constructing of objects in the universe from their elements. Consequently, there arose in ancient Israel a form of mysticism based on the formation of letters whose principal function was to write God's name from the different groupings of its triad of letter articulations. The Sefer Yetzirah describes three types of letter mysticism: Gematria, Notarikon, and Temurah. The first of these depends on the numerical value attributed to the letters, whose purpose is to assemble those words whose letters add up to the same number. For instance, the Old Testament refers in the Book of Exodus to an angel "in whom resides the name of God." The Cabalah resorts to Gematria to determine that this angel is in fact Metatron who presides over God's incarnate world, over all the celestial orbs and planets and their protecting angels. God and pure spirits are said to be just above Metatron but because of their very nature they cannot exercise any control in the material world. Metatron and Shaddai, one of God's names, have the same numerical value. As for Notarikon, it can best be described as an acrostic by means of which new words are formed from the beginning and ending letters of other words. By way of example, those in possession of mystic knowledge were called "knowers of God;s grace" because in Hebrew the first and last letters of the word grace form the Notarikon for the phrase "hidden wisdom." Lastly, Temurah connotes the formation of a new word by transposition of its letters. Example: The letters of the word delight are transposed to derive the word pain, which in Hebrew is formed from the same letters. What we witness here is that opposing principles are derived from the same letters. This in itself is quite intriguing for it goes beyond mere coincidence. There are many such instances in the natural world that await the keen eye and examination of the avid investigator who likes to dig into the numerous mysteries of the known and unknown world.

The Bible reports that Abraham, after having resolved to abandon his former idols, arrives at the conclusion that there is only one true God and decides to worship him from then on. He learns from this divine source that this God is ineffable and inscrutable and that he transcends his three systems; he is beyond temporality and above the twenty-two numbers and the ten numbers or sefiroth. But in spite of the transcendent nature of God, he does not stand apart and aloof but he remains within the boundaries of his divine sanctions and that can at all times be discerned or apprehended in the physical world. In other words, God is both the matter and form of the universe and nothing can exist outside this matter and this form. This notion is the fundamental doctrine which is expressed in the zohar.

The Zohar or Book of Splendour, it is interesting to note, was first published in both Cremona and Mantua, Italy, in the year 1558 by a renowned Cabalist, Moses ben Shemtob who hailed from Leon in Spain. The doctrines contained in the Zohar are said to have originated from a secondary-century Palestinian rabbi by the name of Simeon ben Yochai, although this remains very controversial to this day. The main text of this book of the Cabalah is a commentary on specific parts of the Pentateuch. In one of its sections entitled the "Great Assembly", Reb Simeon reveals the physical attributes of God with all of his anthropomorphic organs which he goes on to describe one by one. Another section, the "Lesser Assembly," which continues with a detailed description of these anthropomorphic characteristics, also tells of Reb Simeon's death. Still another section of the book, the "Book of Secrecy" operates through letter-mysticism to unveil the most divine secrets of God's nature. Other sections include the "Faithful shepherd", which refers to Moses and the prohibitions found in the Torah; the "Hidden Commentary", which describes how Reb Simeon enters into a dialogue with Elijah the Prohet and other initiates; the "Secret of Secrets", which deals with palmistry and other forms of divination. The Zohar is a real treasure-chest of esoteric knowledge which may one day reveal the secrets of life itself.

The Zohar begins with the description of the nature of the universe. At the beginning of creation, God traced a formless nucleus in the "supernal effulgence" enclosing it in a circle. Beyond comprehension, there shines forth a mysterious point of light which brings forth space. The essence of the universe, then, is the energy that radiates from that primordial light which will draw unto it the pious people at some point in human history -- echoes of the millennium theory! What must be pointed out here for the sake of those about to launch themselves on a serious study of the Cabalah is that this primordial light has nothing to do with the light that God created on the fourth day of creation, that is, the discernible light. The primordial light, according to the Cabalah, is "neither white nor black nor red nor green nor of any colour at all."

All of us of the Christian faith as well as all those familiar with the Bible know that the Word or Logos plays an important role in the creation of the universe. The Book of Genesis puts the Logos on the same level of importance as Light itself for the former is proffered at the very moment the latter is brought into being. But as always, the ultimate creator can never be discerned and it does not behoove man to inquire about such matters. God, the ultimate creator, does not even have a name. He is referred to as "Who" because "everything is in His power, and because He is ever to be sought, though mysterious and unrevealable, since further we cannot enquire." The Zohar stresses that the creator of the world is not the primordial light but an intermediary force which can be identified as the word, or the angel Metatron, or more popularly as the Zaddik or Messiah.

Furthermore, the Cabalah says that the world in which we live has not always been. This is one truth at least that modern scientists, most of them inveterate atheists, can agree with. But how did the present world come about, one might ask? Well, according to the Zohar, it came into being through a prolonged process of separation and purification from the debris left over from other worlds. This world managed to survive against great odds because it was formed by the proper combination of letters making up the name of God: "And the Earth was void and without form. This describes the original state ... in which there was no substance, until the world was graven with forty-two letters, all of which are the ornamentation of the Holy Name."

At the basis of the ten sefiroth is to be found the En Sof (no end) or Ayin (nothing), grouped into three triads. The intellect-world is represented by the first grouping; the soul or emotional world is contained in the second; and the third grouping is called the nature world. The tenth of the sefiroth is referred to as the kingdom and contains all the attributes akin to the other sefiroth in a way that such qualities can be transmitted to man. The kingdom is God's realm, the mystical archetype of the community of Israel called the Shekinah. The ten sefiroth are as follows: Crown, Wisdom, Understanding, Mercy, Force, Beauty, Victory, Glory, Foundation, and Kingdom. These emanations flow vertically from their source as well as horizontally into right, left, and centre. Wisdom and Grace belong to the right; Understanding, Force, Glory go to the left ; in the centre are to be found the Crown, Beauty, Foundation and Kingdom.

Foundation is the ninth of the emanations and is often likened to the genitalia of God, representing both the male and the female principles. Foundation is also the resting place of the Messiah, while the tenth emanation is the place of the Shekinah which incorporates the concepts of Sabbath, peace, and the community of Israel: "the Shekinah stands in relationship of a wife to a husband, united in love and joy, hovering over Israel like a mother over her children.

Since life in the phenomenal world is a model of being in the spiritual world, it is hinted that there exists somewhere in the universe a point of contact between the two; in other words, what occurs in the lower world has repercussions in the upper world. This is similar to the Yin and Yang principles of the Chinese which have for generations informed a whole system of belief and greatly influenced millions of people, namely that whatever happens on earth reverberates through the universe to heaven. Even the Emperors of China received a Heavenly Mandate by which they were bound for life. Whenever an Emperor took to evil ways and acted against the well-being of his subjects, he immediately lost his mandate and usually came to a quick and violent end. Whether this was corroborated by actual events is a moot question. Suffice it to say that there seems to be a kind of divine law that governs and underpins all human affairs.

The notion of an ineffable connection between the happenings of the lower world and those in the upper world becomes the focus of the Jewish religion. Henceforth, the events of earthly existence have a direct bearing and influence on the upper spheres. Man happens to be the point of contact between these two dimensions and he plays a vital role in the enhancing of the celestial realm. In the language of the Zohar, "the 'lower waters,' which form the female element, must first approach the 'upper waters,' as the male element. The coming together of male and female is of utmost importance. When the King or beauty is separated from the Queen or Shekinah, pain and strife result; when sexual rapture occurs in their union, there follows peace and harmony which in turn permeate all the worlds in existence. Man, in turn, experiences this ecstasy and harmony in the sexual embrace of a transcendent love. Whoever has truly loved and known true love will vouch for the validity of these assertions. For love has the unexplainable ability of suspending time and of making the lovers lose notion of space itself. In such moments of absolute bliss, the soul is in a state of "cosmic silence". This is probably what is meant by the Tao, the Way of the ancient Chinese. Emptiness and yet fullness all around; motion in non-motion; life in lifelessness.

According to the Zohar, the macrocosm, that is, the second triad of emanations, is the source of moral precepts which are manifested in the microcosm, man. In the horizontal emanations, the evil principle resides on the left side, thus making the left the fulcrum of negation. This is probably why to this day everything evil, be it in political or religious matters, is referred to as belonging to the left. But according to the Cabalah, the left side is not necessarily evil in nature but acts as a counterbalance to the right; it is the antithesis of the right side which acts as the positive principle. The centre, of course, reconciles these two opposing forces. It too plays an essential role in all aspects of cosmic and human evolution. Without the centre, the left and the right would at all times be literally at each other's throats, something quite untenable in the cosmic order of things. The Zohar goes on to say that for the left to become evil, it must first insert itself in the place of the right side and then when it is out of place, or on "the other side," it immediately becomes aware that it should not be there, that its wrong unassigned position can only lead to harmony. This is something all of us should bear in mind in our daily lives for if we move away from our cosmically assigned roles or deliberately occupy the space divinely assigned to others, we do not only create havoc in our new locale but more importantly and disastrously for us we destroy our own balance and harmony. In other words, the divine law that oversees everything below and above will set out to restore us to our previous place or destroy us outright if we refuse to stay put. The Zohar exemplifies this by saying: "It (the left) is readily made aware of all that is unfavourable to the harmony of being. It is the nature of the right to harmonize the whole, and therefore the whole is written with the right, since it is source of harmony. When the left awoke there awoke discord, and through that discord the wrathful fire was reinforced and there emerged from it the Gehinnom (hell), which thus originated from the left and continues there. "

The polarity of right and left, positive and negative, the Chinese Yin and Yang, separates good and evil and is illustrated by a given area suffused completely with spirituality and another area, on the outer limits of existence, empty of holiness. Since each of the sefiroth serves as a palace for the emanation preceding it, life shines forth profusely. The Cabalah states: "The 'palace' which is the vestment for that unknowable point is also a radiance which cannot be comprehended, yet withal less subtle and translucent than the primal mystic point....From this point there is extension after extension, each one forming a vestment to the other ...." However, as the periphery is approached there are no longer palaces but shells or husks which house demons who wander about in the world seeking to do harm to others. There seems to be some evidence of this which has of late been the subject of a lot of discussion and controversy. Those adept at astral travelling report encounters with evil creatures in their extracorporeal and extraterrestrial peregrinations. Tibetan monks do battles with demonic forces on a daily basis and Lobsang Rampa himself, the author of the "Third Eye" and so many other interesting books on the paranormal regularly refers to these evil creatures. The New Testament as well treats the forces of evil as actual entities and Jesus is reported to have cast out devils that had taken possesion of hapless victims.

The culmination of God's creation is man whose pre-eminence over the other parts of creation is recognized in the Zohar by the universe's having taken on a state of permanence through man's being: "When at length the covenant existed in Abraham through the circumcision, then ... the world was firmly established..." God literally reproduced himself by creating man. The term man, therefore, has several meanings: In the beginning, it meant Adam Kadmon, primordial man; then, he is the first man, Adam, who is included with Adam Kadmon in all of humanity; and there is the son of woman, whose body is corporeal and returns to the elements when he dies. Finally, there is a stage to which man evolves in the person of the Messiah who is as perfect as the primordial man. Thus, the human form contains within itself all being, resides in both the upper and lower spheres, and has a cosmic as well as mundane existence. Man is an archetype of a divine existence and resides permanently in a spiritual rather than in a physical abode. This is why man exhibits a duality in his life between the heavenly and the earthly. In other words, man is always torn between having to choose between good and evil.

We can observe the same duality in man's physical abode. Man is forever conscious of the possibility of there being a so-called "Holy Land" in contradistinction to the mundane world in which he dwells. Tradition has it that Adam used to live in this celestial kingdom before coming down to the Garden of Eden. But the Cabalah stresses that this garden and Eden are not one and the same thing. How is that to be explained? By means of letter-mysticism, the garden becomes the source of body and soul while Eden itself is the point of origin for the celestial force that flows into man bringing him great fertility. This dichotomy is somewhat difficult to apprehend for the modern mind is accustomed to speaking of the Garden of Eden as if it were one single concept, one single place where Adam and Eve were tempted by Satan, the fallen angel, to eat of the fruit that would unveil to them the difference between good and evil, right and wrong.

In man's original state prior to this unhappy turn of events, his body had as its main component a radiant light through which shone God's image. Moreover, man was the object of great veneration from the other creatures because he was known to be full of divine wisdom. After having committed sinful transgression, however, Adam was deprived of this light and lost his celestial radiance and for the first time lower and lesser creatures could inspire fear in him. He became vulnerable like any other creature to pain and suffering and has to struggle for his daily sustenance. But God continued to shine forth in his soul and not in his body. At this point, it is interesting to point out what the Bible has to say about the soul, for since man was found to fall short of divine perfection and was condemned to a life of penury and strife, the only hope left to him is to concentrate on his soul where God still lingered to give him a second chance.

The Bible divides the soul into three parts: Nefesh, Ruach, and Neshamah. Nefesh connects man to the beasts of the field. It is the sentient part of man. Neshamah, on the other hand, connects man's soul to the celestial plane through his god-given intuitive powers. Ruach is the spirit that binds together the higher and lower soul. But man is only aware of the soul as one unit even though it has several overlapping functions that point to its tripartite composition. According to the Cabalah, "Soul (nefesh) and spirit (ruach) are not two separate grades, but one grade with two aspects. There is still a third aspect which should dominate these two and cleave to them as they to it, and which is called higher spirit (neshamah)."

What differentiates the higher spirit from the lower spirit is its ability to communicate through words that reflect the creative energy of the heavens. Thus, the logos has its counterpart in the nature of man. This expression of unity rather than duality acts like a mirror that reflects the activities of both the higher and lower spheres.

The soul enters the body at the moment of birth after having passed through various stages of descent from the upper to the lower sphere, from the upper Garden of Eden to the lower, and finally to earth itself. The Cabalah contains this interesting notion of the potential child in spiritual form suspended over the couple engaged in the act of sexual union. This child is still in its ethereal state and still in touch with the heavenly sphere just before crossing over to the earthly plane. This is why the child has been revered by one and all and throughout the ages for it represents purity and goodness but since it is also the product of an imperfect sexual act it has also been tainted by evil and this seed of evil remains in him for the entire duration of its preordained lifetime on earth. The seed of evil can grow into something extremely deleterious for humanity or remain harmless but it can never disappear. Upon his death, man reverses the journey and his soul travels through the stages to the upper sphere, depending upon the judgment decided for him. Whether he inherits heaven or not depends very much on his behaviour on earth, on whether or not he has done good and meritorious deeds which have earned him the protection of angelic beings or has attracted to him demonic spirits through his evil deeds or thoughts.

Again according to the Cabalah, the stars themselves have a role to play in shaping man's life into patterns that are devised by ethereal beings who live there. In addition, there is an esoteric link between the planets and the various organs of the human body. When Jesus said that the human body was the temple of the soul, he was most conceivably referring to the notion that whatever we did to the body through clean or unclean acts had a direct impact on the soul and since God resided in the human soul at all times we would be doing it grievous damage and condemn ourselves to perdition if we did not show our body the respect it deserved. Astrology too believes there is a direct connection between planetary movements and the course of human destinies and astrological charts show the various characteristics of organs like the heart, liver and spleen as responding very palpably to celestial influences. For instance, the Zohar says that Saturn is connected "with the spleen, Jupiter with the liver, and Mars with the gall." If at any time there is an overabundance of influence from these planets, the three cardinal sins can be the result: adultery, idolatry, and murder. Who has not heard of the possible influence of a full moon on man's behaviour? Or the effect certain meteorological patterns can have on the number of crimes being committed at any given moment in downtown L.A. or Detroit? Even the most sceptical among us will admit to having off-days, to feeling under the weather without any apparent cause, even on a clear sunny day. Is it because certain planets, invisible to the naked eye, are moving through the sky and influencing the mood of people either positively or negatively depending on the moment of our birth? Who knows for sure? But there seems to be some truth to what the Cabalah says.

Again, according to the Zohar, dreams are the forerunners of future happenings. At night when we are asleep, the neshamah, the higher part of the soul, leaves our body to repair to the celestial sphere where it directly meets with God. In the absence of the neshamah, the body is under the control of the nefesh. During the day, however, when we are awake, it is the ruach that has total sway over the body. Thus, it is during sleep that the individual parts of our soul are disconnected one from the other and this is why poets and artists in all cultures have represented sleep as mirroring death itself.

Isn't it risky for the human soul to be so disconnected during one's sleep, one might ask? Yes, indeed. For should the neshamah be prevented from ascending to its ultimate destination, the ruach finds the gates of the Garden of Eden barred to it and must roam about aimlessly while the nefesh too roams the earth, watching its body decay and eaten by maggots. It is said that the nefesh and the ruach experience intense remorse at watching the body being wracked with pain that is only terminated when the neshamah finally finds ultimate solace with God. So the moment at which death takes place is not necessarily the point in time at which the soul is released from pain. It is only when the neshamah finds its way to its final resting place in God that all the components of the soul find peace and tranquillity.

The doctrine of reincarnation is put forth in the Zohar. Marriage is only the fulfillment of a spiritual meeting that had already taken place in the celestial sphere. The female of the upper sphere blesses her husband while her earthly counterpart mates with him. The Cabalah stresses the importance of sexual contact in the Book of Splendour and also the begetting of children takes on a very special meaning. Those who consciously do not procreate are going against the natural law as set forth by God for inasmuch as God contributes to the spiritual creation of the universe, so also must man advance the physical constitution of the earth. A childless man will not be admitted to the upper reaches of heaven. But not to worry! The Cabalah reassures the lazy ones that all the souls in the universe existed in their full individuality from the very beginning of time and that we were once dressed in resplendent celestial dress when we enjoyed the rapture of the divine vision. Whether we have children or not, our fate in the other sphere will be decided by our conduct on earth. The Cabalah confirms that there is indeed such a thing as hell and sets out a system of rewards and punishments. Those who follow the path of goodness and wisdom will know ecstasy while those who have led a life of evil deeds will know nothing but torment.

But the Zohar does not concern itself with what is right or wrong. Each individual must discover for himself those ethical precepts which will guarantee him a state of spiritual bliss in the upper world. Man has it within his capabilities to achieve ultimate happiness if he so wishes. All that is required of him is that he should strive to know God and return to him. In so doing, he can reach a high level of spiritual consciousness while the soul still resides in his body. The Zohar, while deeply concerned with the other world, also emphasizes the here and now. The book goes so far as to say that the devoutly penitent person has an infinitely greater potential than the merely righteous man.

Still according to the Zohar, a poor man's prayer has more worth than a prayer coming from the lips of a pious person because the poor man is unburdenend by material concerns and is totally permeated by the act of praying that he is ready to receive an outpouring of love from the divine source. The righteous man, however, has already become connected with the divine stream and does not have the same potential for spiritual growth. But man achieves his greatest moment of glory when he embarks on a quest for the truth. Truth can be found in the study of the Torah. By studying the sacred texts man is purified and sanctified. It is said that "the holiness of the Torah surpasses all other sanctifications, and the holiness of the superior recondite wisdom is highest of all." There is only one way of viewing the world, that is the correct way of looking at the universe, which is to do so from its divine aspects. Truth once discerned banishes all chaos and confusion from the phenomenal world and reveals the underlying harmony in all spheres. Any man who is deeply and genuinely interested in this search for truth participates in the original act of creation and will sooner or later come to know the harmony that is born out of the concordance of all spheres.

The initiates, those who can discern the hidden mysteries of the universe are those who have sought truth and have found faith. The illuminati, or the saints, do not seek occult power to win mastery over the natural power of the universe nor do they seek this power for evil purposes. Knowledge is defined as the true understanding that unlocks the harmonious relationship within the terrestrial and superterrestrial worlds. Those who study the Torah receive countless blessings from the spiritual sphere. When man seeks to know the truth and leads a saintly life he is directly contributing to the divine plan for the universe. As he moves closer to God, the lower sphere in which he lives, characterized by contentions and strife, is compelled to assist him and become subject to him. This would exclaim why some men we encounter in life or hear of in the news seem to go through thick and thin relatively unscathed while the vast majority of people know nothing but harsh trials and tribulation. It is because they have put God above their own material pursuits and personal glorification.

The Zohar embraces the Torah's account of events but has its own symbolic interpretation of such events. Its symbology is reminiscent of Philo. For example, the Godhead is revealed through the three patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who bear qualities markedly distinguishing certain of the sefiroth. Abraham symbolizes enrapturing grace; Isaac, rigid justice; and Jacob, complete piety. Occasionally, Joseph or David is added to the triad. Not only do the lower patriarchs have symbolic representation as upper patriarchs, but various locales and different countries are also significant. Egypt, for instance, stands for "spiritual darkness."

That the universe will last in perpetuity is confirmed by the Torah's account of God's covenant with Abraham symbolized by the appearance of the rainbow to Noah, the circumcision of Abraham and his progeny and the Semitic revelations to Moses. The Zohar also considers Israel as part of the divine covenant,; it is both reality and a symbol. Israel is presented as a people in a bitter historical struggle for spiritual survival, alternately moving towards God and moving away from him by moral improvement and ethical transgressions. But Israel is also a symbol of the universal struggle for good against evil. Israel occupies centre stage for the world and represents the spiritual aspirations of the whole world. Jerusalem and its Sanctuary designate the spiritual fulcrum of the earth, and both are represented by their counterparts in the upper sphere. In the Song of Songs, Solomon expresses his transcendent love in very earthly terms for the Shulamite; but this love symbolizes first and foremost the love that God has for his people and for Israel.

The Sabbath is the most elevated expression of God's covenant with his people for it represents the completion of his works and not of work itself. The purpose of the Sabbath is to lift man above his animalistic nature and Israel above the rest of mankind. The other days of the week are under the aegis of justice and evil but Sabbath stands apart as a day of rest for the Lord and the his people. In ancient days, the power of Sabbath's love was so great that it could assuage the pain and torture inflicted by demonic forces and the souls of men in the act of atonement after death.

The Zohar is a great source of inspiration for the entire Jewish race and for all those who genuinely believe in the teachings of the Torah. It is a book that expresses the profound spiritual longings of the Jewish people. There was a time when it ranked as high as the Bible and the Talmud as a canonical text. Unfortunately later centuries witnessed its decline into obscurity and modern Jews who find it too abstruse and impractical. However, the Book of Splendour has been retrieved from absolute oblivion by modern Hasidism. This holy sect has found in the Cabalah in general and in the Zohar in particular the inspiration for its pious joy in the study of the Torah and has tried to reveal the esoteric meanings hidden within it to select groups of well-meaning devotees.

A study of the Cabalah would not be complete without mentioning the name of an individual by the name of Abraham ben Samuel Abulafia. Abulafia was born in Spain about 1240 and is associated with the ecstatic school of mysticism or the merging of self with the Godhead. Abulafia earned himself a great reputation for his incredible attempt in 1280 to convert the Pope in Rome to Judaism. After several atttempts at meeting the Pope he finally obtained permission to meet him but was fated never to do so for for Nicholas III died the night before the interview. Abulafia was imprisoned and his plan did not come to fruition.

Abulafia set forth a esoteric system which he called "jumping" or "skipping", which bears comparison with the free association technique used in psycho-analysis. The subject jumps from one concept to another within certain parameters with the aim of widening the bounds that confine him, thereby expanding his consciousness. This technique frees the innermost recesses of the mind from its shackes and brings the individual to the outer boundary of the celestial orb. Abulafia describes this method of meditation that takes precedence over all others:

Having gone through this process, the person willing to achieve ecstasy must concentrate upon that which comes to mind through the letters he himself has imagined. He must then attempt to arrive at a proper interpretation by means of his reason. By this time, his pen and table will be flung away from him because he no longer needs them, being in the depths of concentration. As intellectual energy flows into him, he feels weaker and weaker and his body begins to shake all over. He feels like he is going to die because his soul, having caught sight of the ehereal is overjoyed by it and leaves his body. He then has to be ready to choose death and be totally aware of it; only then will he know that he is ready to receive the divine influx. At this point the initiate will wish to serve God body and soul for he knows himself to be in the very presence of God. He must hide his face from the splendour of the creator and 'be afraid to look at God. Then return to the matters of the body, rise and eat and drink a little..."

Abulatia was convinced that ecstasy or the ecstatic vision was the ultimate reward of divine contemplation. This is reminiscent of the prophetic union advocated by Jewish philosophers like Maimonides. These techniques of meditation all aim at effecting a union between man's intellect and divine wisdom. This union is extremely difficult to achieve and many have gone to an early grave for they dabbled in something they were not adequately prepared for. Not everyone is ready to be in the presence of God. One has to be pure of heart and spirit and even then no one can sustain the overwhelming radiance that emanates from the Supreme Being. If the eyes cannot look directly at the sun for more than a few seconds, so much more impossible would we be able to even glance at the face of God and survive.

The Cabalah contains other works written by other eminent Cabalists. All of them have had a profound impact on the medieval mind. The rational twentieth-century mind tends to reject some of the doctrines contained in the Cabalah for it cannot accept them at face value without having dissected it inside out and brought it under the magnifying glass. But the Cabalah probably expresses more truths than modern science could ever lead to in spite of all that has been achieved so far. It should be studied more closely from the angle of its symbolic significance more than anything else. After all, an arcane knowledge purportedly passed on to Adam, Abraham, Moses and other initiates and which has held the Jewish people together through its many travails deserves at the very least to be taken more seriously by the inquisitive mind.

I don't know if Madonna is close to her own ecstatic vision of God. Do successful people have a special arrangement with the creator for finding the right combination, the right key and the right talent to stir the human soul to heights of unimaginable bliss. When an artist creates things of great beauty, we can only stand in awe of what we see. We say that he or she is endowed with a special gift. When we hear a piece of music, whether classical or modern, that makes us stop in our tracks or brings us to tears, we want to know who composed it and where the composer found the source of his inspiration. But all along we know that everything we hear or see is but a poor reflection of what is absolutely perfect, absolutely ecstatic, absolutely pleasurable, in a sphere far above our own, in a world that is forever radiant with the light that comes from a divine source. While we cling to this imperfect world with its words and woes, deep down in our soul we all yearn for that place of final rest where we may finally know true bliss, true peace and true glory. All the things of this world, we know, are but a dream, for they will one day disappear from our sight when we are called to meet our creator. But it will be only mortal eyes that will close and our spiritual eyes, the only ones that count, will one day behold a new dawn, brought on by the imperishable light of God. We are indeed created in the image of God in spite of our rebellious and cynical nature and though our frail bodies will all become decrepit and decay one day, we know from some secret source that forever gurgles deep within us that the sole purpose of our brief sojourn on this earth is to prepare for the most important, the most earth-shattering event of our lives: our union with God our father. If we believe in the Cabalah and in the other sacred texts that God has bequeathed to humanity and try to follow his advice and obey his rules, there is nothing in the whole wide world we need to fear and no material possessions or inordinate lusts can bring us down. Each day at a time, says the Lord, respecting all, doing our utmost to sow happiness around us and refrain from judging those who seem at times to do us harm. It is through love that man will conquer his worst enemies for through divine love there is no such thing as enmity, vindictiveness or constant hatred. In conclusion, it is relevant to quote from the Cabalah which says among so many other beautiful things: God in all his diversity is One.