"Everything that has been till this day has been done so the Seed of the Jews be maintained and that the Name of Israel not be forgotten. But now there is no more need for following Torah Commandments or reciting prayers, but only to listen and do and go until we come to a certain Hidden Place. -- Avatar Yakov Leib (Jacob) Frank (18th Century spiritual heir of Sabbatai Zevi and leader of the Western Donmeh.)"

In Hebrew, Sepher HaSh'tikah literally means "The Book of Silence," and is the title I have given to this lecture which was inspired (as are all my teachings) by a dream. The Bible says of such dreams:

"God speaks first in one way, and then in another....He speaks by dreams and visions that come in the night...Then it is He uncovers human ears." (Job 33:14)

Of this passage, the Zohar brings down:

"Come and see: When a person climbs into bed, first he must enthrone and accept the Kingdom of Heaven, then say a verse of mercy, as the Chaverim have established. For when a person sleeps in his bed, his soul leaves him and soars up above, each one on its own path. She ascends in this way, as has been said. What is written? 'By dreams and visions that come in the night,' when people are lying in their beds asleep, the soul leaves them, as it is written: 'As they sleep upon their bed, He uncovers human ears.' Then the Blessed Holy One reveals to the soul, through that level presiding over dreams, things that are destined to come about in the world or things corresponding to the mind's reflections." (Zohar 1:183a-b)

Jung, too, wrote of the dream in much the same way:

"The dream is a little hidden door in the innermost and most secret recesses of the psyche, opening into that cosmic night which was psyche long before there was ego-consciousness, and which will remain psyche no matter how far our ego-consciousness may extend....In dreams we put on the likeness of that more universal, truer, more eternal man dwelling in the darkness of primordial night. There he is the Whole and the Whole is in him....bare of all egohood." (C. G. Jung, Civilization in Transition, CW 10, pars. 304 f.)

Thus, it is important to understand that, contrary to Freud and much of modern psychology, from the standpoint of Jung and Kabbalah, dreams are autonomous productions of the Divine Mind -- messages that arise from the Soul and not the human ego. They are not, from a Kabbalistic and Jungian perspective, "wish fulfillments," as Freud would call them but, on the contrary, they are independent of the dreamer's control.

It is with this in mind that I had the following dream in which I was instructed to undertake the present series of new lectures, Sepher HaSh'tikah, or "The Book of Silence," in which, I will tell you in advance, the over-riding message will be: Out of Silence comes Hearing; out of Hearing comes Understanding; out of Understanding comes Wisdom.

"I dreamed I was in a house of many rooms and many people. A short, stocky, powerfully-built man appeared to me and said, 'Read to them from the Book of Silence!" I answered, "Where is there such a book?" He said, "In the Tanach [i.e., 'Jewish Scripture']; the Book of Silence can be found in Tanach." Then he lead me on a search through the room we were in, from book to book, saying to me, "Here, see, it is in here; and in here. Find the places it is in and read it to them.' As I awoke, I head a voice telling me that I must write this "book" for others to read.

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 |

GENERAL INFORMATION:
| Donmeh West Home Page |
| Schedule of Live Online Classes | Links |
| Join Donmeh West |