Rabbi Azriel of Gerona's Text

QUESTION: If the questioner continues: What is the nature of the sefirot?

ANSWER: The nature of sefirah is the synthesis of every thing and its opposite. For if they did not possess the power of [this] synthesis, there would be no energy in anything. For that which is light is not-darkness and that which is darkness is not-light.

Reb Yakov Leib's Commentary

One need not go far to see the striking correspondences between this description of the nature of the Sefirot and that of the Tao. One need only look at the great symbol of Taoism itself to see how they correspond:

It is almost as if Rabbi Azriel of Gerona had been looking at this icon of Taoism (which, of course, he had not) when he wrote, "For that which is light is not-darkness and that which is darkness is not-light." Jung, like R. Azriel, also points out that this shattering but necessary enantiodromia between good and evil in the personality of God is essential for creating His "energy" or, as Jung calls it, His "dynamism."

"Faced with this difficulty, [Job] does not doubt the unity of God. He clearly sees that God is at odds with himself -- so totally at odds that he, Job, is quite certain of finding in God a helper and an 'advocate' against God. As certain as he is of the evil in Yahweh, he is equally certain of the good.....Yahweh is not a human being: he is both a persecutor and a helper in one, and the one aspect is as real as the other. Yahweh is not split, but is an antimony -- a totality of inner opposites and this is the indispensable condition for his tremendous dynamism." (C. G. Jung, Answer to Job, par. 567)

Thus, contrary to our cherished beliefs to the contrary, God is both good and evil; loving and hostile; our advocate and our adversary. To think of him in any other way deprives him of his omnipotence -- that which R. Azriel calls His "energy" and Jung His "dynamism" -- and leaves us with a deity who is no better than His creation (which He often seems not to be) and, if so, throws us back upon ourselves for our salvation and His. In Jung's words:

"You trust the [Self] as if it were a loving father. But it is....inhuman and needs the human mind to function usefully for man's purposes....The [Self] is useless without the human mind. It always seeks its collective purposes and never your individual destiny. Your destiny is the result of the collaboration between the conscious and the unconscious [i.e., between you and the Self]." (C. G. Jung, Collected Letters, Vol. 1, p. 283)

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES:
| Sabbatai Zevi | Jacob Frank | Reb Yakov Leib HaKohain |
| A Critical Re-Assessment of Sabbatai Zevi |
| Reb Yakov Leib HaKohain's Professions of a Holy Sinner |

AUDIO LECTURES ON NEO-SABBATIAN KABBALAH BY REB YAKOV LEIB HAKOHAIN:
| The Zohar | Vedanta & Kabbalah | The Gnostic Gospel of Thomas |
| The Sponataneous Jesus Lectures | The Holy Qur'an |
| Special Topics |

ESSENTIAL PRINCIPLES OF "YALHAKIAN" NEO-SABBATIAN KABBALAH:
| Knowing the Unknowable |
| A Brief Note on Enlightenment |
| A Neo-Sabbatian Discourse on the Son of God |
| A Primer of "Yalhakian" Neo-Sabbatian Kabbalah |
| Participating in the Continuing Incarnation of God |
| Sabbatai Zevi's 'God of the Faith' | Evolution of the Ego |
| Two Torahs of Kabbalah: Torah D'Atziluth & Torah D'Beriah |
| On the Limits of Antinomianism | The Transformation of God |
| Commentary on the 13th Century "Treatise on the Left Emanation" |
| A Selection of Neo-Sabbatian Quotations Culled from Various Sources |

KABBALISTIC WRITINGS OF REB YAKOV LEIB HAKOHAIN:
| Commentaries on Rabbi Azriel of Gerona's 12th Century Text, "Explanation of the Ten Sefirot" |
| Kabbalistic Genetics of the Holy Seed & Reclaiming the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel |
| A Commentary on the Book of Job | Kabbalah and the Interpretation of Dreams |
| To Die for the People: A Kabbalistic Reinterpretation of the Crucifixion of Jesus |
| The Shemot Shel Katzar Tikkunim: Revealing the Concealed Names of God |
| The Christian Myth of Melchizedek vs. Hereditary Jewish Priesthood |
| The Apocrypha of Jacob Frank | The Tikkun of Raising Animals |
| Appointment in Smyrna: A Neo-Sabbatian Odyssey |
| Sabbatai Zevi and the Mystery of the Red Heifer |
| The Kabbalah of the Hindu Mantra "OM" |
| The Mystery of the Middle Column |
| The Hidden Structures of Water |
| Exegesis on the Rod of Aaron |
| Book of Silence |

POETRY OF REB YAKOV LEIB HAKOHAIN:
|YaLHaK's Garden of Neo-Sabbatian Verses|

ROADMAPS TO GOD:
| Ten Sefirot of Jewish Kabbalah | Sufi Lion of Bektashi Islam |
| Mandala of Tibetian Buddhism | Seven Chakras of Tantric Hinduism |
| Ox-Herding Pictures of Zen Buddhism | Rosarium Pictures of Christian Alchemy |

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