Spiritual = Spi+Ritual
= Psy+Ritual
Every time I hear or read a Jew use the word 'spiritual' as
though it were the most Jewish thing in the world, as though it were the most
natural thing in the world and, most often, as though it were a demonstration
of the high level one is on, I cringe and I cry.
What is wrong with being spiritual? Well, what if I rewrite
the word spiritual thus: spi-ritual. Do you begin to
see it differently? Let's take it another step further. I'll write the word
spiritual thus: psy ritual.
That is what spirituality is. It is the ritual of head
spaces, head games and removing oneself from this physical level of reality and
taking up residence in one's own mind.
Though it often presents itself as gentle, sensitive,
evolved; spirituality leads eventually and inevitably to one place – the dark
side. Spirituality is another name for avodah zara – idol worship and all idol worship involved
spirituality.
None of our Prophets were spiritual. They were moral.
While it is most certainly true that at the beginning of
their careers they relayed experiences of רוח HaShem being
upon them, what they meant is that they became able to read into the depths of
Torah. It does not mean that they became spiritual. It most certainly does not
mean that HaShem is spiritual. I will say this and no
more. The gematria of רוח is 214.
The gematria of the word דקדוק, spelled correctly with a חירק חסר is likewise
214. The gematria of 214 is also the radical ירד . When HaShem
comes to you, you are sent *down* into physicality to make the world better,
not up into some rarified region wherein no tikkun is
necessary. When the Prophets say the word רוח they mean that they were sent to fix the
lower regions of physical reality and make a משכן, a dwelling for HaShem
there and they were shown the depths of Hebrew that they needed to know in
order to be able to do so. They were shown the internal secrets of the grammar
of Hebrew. Once shown that they took upon themselves a lifetime of *involvement
in the world* in creating and urging others to create a just world – on this
plane of reality.
To be sure, in order to achieve their objective special
powers and abilities were conferred upon them, but only to that purpose and
that purpose alone. They were given the powers and abilities that they needed
to do their jobs, no more, no less. They were not given special powers and
abilities simply to have them and certainly not to be "special" or
above others or this level of reality.
You have heard Rabbis teach about "spirituality".
You have been told, in various forms, that this world is "nothing but
illusion", "a veil" and other nonsense.
This is the introduction of avodah
zara into Judaism.
The ever-increasing number of rituals in Judaism (chumrot and minhagim) is not a
healthy trend. Have you ever thought about how many children die of starvation
while a ritual is being performed?
Look here: "Around the world, some 26,500 children die
every day.
That is equivalent to:
1 child dying
every 3 seconds
18 children dying
every minute
A 2004 Asian Tsunami occurring every week
An Iraq-scale death toll every 15–36 days
Almost 10 million children dying every year
Some 60 million children dying between 2000 and 2006"
Source: http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Poverty/death/
How many children died because of poverty while you were
taking part in unnecessary ritual (chumrot and minhagim)? Were you not specifically instructed *not* to
add or subtract from Torah? Those unnecessary psy
rituals have distracted you from your true work. They have deafened and blinded
you to the agony of children. And all the while they made you feel oh, so
spiritual.
And if a Rabbi comes and tells you do that which HaShem has told you not to do, to whom is your allegiance?
Why do you give more credence to a Rabbi than to HaShem?
Because he is flesh and blood and tangible, that's why.
So, you attribute to him real authority, authority to contradict and contravene
HaShem's word! The paradox of
"spirituality" is that it makes you dependent on flesh and blood and
unable to connect directly with HaShem because flesh
and blood seems more real to you than HaShem.
There is no level of reality that the Shkhinah
is not intended to take up residence in. If someone tells you that the level of
reality that is the lowest level of your Soul is unworthy or unfit to be a
vessel for HaShem, or "a mere illusion" and
that you have to remove your consciousness to a higher level – RUN. You are
being invited to create a vacuum that the Satan will be only too happy to fill.
There is no level of reality or place that it not meant to
be a dwelling place of God.
To abandon a level of reality, to give up on it, to remove
yourself from it as being unworthy of you is not only ego and arrogance, it
leaves a place for dark forces to settle into.
Every space, every place that is abandoned by a Jew as
being "too lowly" or "beyond hope" is a place that the
Satan will say: "Great! I'll take it." And that place, my dear
brothers and sisters is your heart and your mind.
In fact, the reason why the world is the dark place that it
is today is that Jews listened to Rabbis who led them astray and became
"spiritual", rather than carrying out our mission which
is: פתח חרצובות רשע – loosen the shackles of injustice.
I'll put you right on the spot. If you concern yourselves
more with "רוחניות" than with גשמיות, with
"spirituality" (psy rituality) more than
with the real world and increasing justice here, if you think that being
spiritual is a sign of being greater than busying yourself with the nuts and
bolts and the physical world, you are contributing to the horrors we see every
day. You have let the dark side take over the space that you were intended to
fix.
Beware of any Rabbi, any teacher, anyone who encourages you
to be "spiritual". Wittingly or not, they are sowing the seeds of
your destruction.
I have recopied this stunningly beautiful and searingly true passage before and I will likely write it
again because so much blood, time, money and ink have been spilt misleading the
Jewish People to think they are a "spiritual" people.
See this from the
58th Chapter of the Book of Yeshayahu:
"6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the fetters of wickedness, to undo the bands of the
yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
7 Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou
bring the poor that are cast out to
thy house? when thou seest
the naked, that thou cover him, and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
8 Then shall thy light break forth as the morning,
and thy healing shall spring forth speedily; and thy righteousness shall go
before thee, the glory of the LORD shall be thy reward.
9 Then shalt thou call, and the
LORD will answer; thou shalt cry, and He will say:
'Here I am.' If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting
forth of the finger, and speaking wickedness;
10 And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy
the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in darkness,
and thy gloom be as the noon-day;
11 And the LORD will guide thee continually, and satisfy thy
soul in drought, and make strong thy bones; and thou shalt
be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail
not.
12 And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste
places, thou shalt raise up
the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt
be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell
in.
It is not my way to
mollycoddle people and sweet talk them. If what Yeshayahu
HaNavi wrote above doesn't sound deep enough to you,
spiritual enough for you, esoteric enough for you, then you do not being to
know Torah, neither are you coming from a place of Kedushah.
If that passage does not bring you to tears for its power and beauty and Truth,
if it does not arouse in you an unquenchable desire to carry out the tikkun in this world that only you can do, you have been
pre-empted by something else. You are in a place that no Jew should want to be.
If you think that
"Lurianic Kabbalah"
is more profound than that, or if you are more drawn to the
"spirituality" of head trips like "ban" and "rishimu" and "emanations" and all of the
other hallucinations in "Lurianic Kabbalah", you need to do a reality test.
And have no
illusions about it, idol worship was *never* eradicated in
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan,