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"The Serpent [who had feet that were later cut off by God] thrust
himself upon Adam and Eve when he saw them naked and engaging in sexual
intercourse, before the eyes of all, because he, the Serpent, sexually
desired her, the woman Eve."
"When Adam and Eve begat children, the first-born was the son of
Nachash [the Serpent Satan]. For two beings had intercourse with Eve,
and she conceived from both and bore two children. Each followed one of
the male parents, and their spirits parted, one to this side and one to
the other, similarly their characters. On the side of Cain are all the
haunts of the evil species.....From the side of Abel come a more merciful
class, yet not wholly beneficial -- good wine mixed with bad. The right
kind was not produced until Seth came, who is the first ancestor of the
Generations of the Righteous [Jews]."
"For Yahweh God had not sent rain upon the earth; nor was there any
man to till the ground." (Genesis 2:5) This means that the Torah
D'Hakanah, the "Torah of Preparation", that we teach and practice
for the sake of the Messiah -- who has failed in his past attempts to
come into the world because of our ignorance of his mysteries -- is the
Torah we are "bringing down" and by which we now prepare ourselves
-- by which we "till the ground" -- for when, God willing, He
sends His "rain" again upon the earth, as He did 330 years ago,
and we, the ground on which it falls, will be ready, as we were not the
time before, to receive it -- and then the Seed of Jesse, which He also
plants from time to time among us, can and will, at last, take root and
grow."
"This is the reason why the Serpent followed Eve: He said, 'Her soul
comes from the north, and I will therefore quickly seduce her.' And how
did he seduce her? He had [sexual] intercourse with her."
"I had a dream, like many others I have dreamed before, that Sabbatai
Zevi came to me in my sleep, dressed as a Turk, looking like his portrait.
In this dream, he stood to the left of my bed where I was asleep and woke
me. 'Wake up,' he said, 'I want you to work for me!' I sat up and replied,
'Yes, I want to.' He touched my shoulder and smiled and said, 'Then do
it!' When I awoke from this dream I saw him, in the dark, standing in
the open doorway of my bedroom, looking at me."
"The secret is: close your eyes and roll your eyeballs back . . .
. The secret is: the eye, closed and open. Closed, it sees the mirror
that shines. Opened, it sees the mirror that does not shine."
"Jacob (Yakov Leib) Frank was the 18th century spiritual heir of
Sabbatai Zevi, and leader of the European Donmeh of his time whose efforts
to 'repair the Face of God' (like those of Sabbatai before him) were not
wholly successful -- largely, in his case, because his followers failed
to understand that what he called 'the Maiden' (actually, Sefirah Binah
in the Ten Sefirot) was the next-to-last 'gateway' before the 'Throne' (Sefirah Keter)
on which God is made One and his name One through the reunification of the 'upper'
Maiden (Binah) with her 'fallen' aspect (Malkuth)."
"There is a Tree of Life hidden from the eyes of flesh and blood,
and on it is one lead branch, one copper, and there is on it as well one
branch of pure gold. The day is coming when the whole world will fill
with fragrance, and then this Tree of Life will be revealed to all the
world, and then all the creatures will see who is holding the pure gold
branch. I will show you the Holy One, blessed is He, for in me is Strength
and Governance. And the Holy One, blessed is He, has chosen me, and they
have revealed to me from Heaven what to do."
"Thus, while other Jews still follow the so-called 'Old Testament'
to the 'letter' of its Law, we Sabbatian Jews follow it only in spirit
-- being bound now not by the lower Torah of 'Remaking,' which came from
Moses as a correction for our sins of the body, but by the higher Torah
of Spiritual Emanations, which comes from God for the final perfection
of our souls."
"Everything that has ever 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 Commandments or for Prayers, but only
to listen and do and go on until we come to a certain hidden place."
"Can only a Jew raise up the Holy Sparks? No more than only a carpenter
can saw wood."
"Thus speaketh the Great King, Our Lord and Holy King, with greetings,
which I want you to announce to all my faithful people, that love me.
I shall so act that I may cause them that love me to inherit substance,
that is to say, I will fill their treasures with spiritual and material
bliss and they that love me will be filled with good, saith the Lord.
And all the people of my faith shall be blessed, men and women, brothers
and sisters, sons and daughters; I say that they will be blessed from
the mouth of the great God and the mouth of His chosen servant."
"In much the same way [as the so-called 'Jesus' before him, but without
the contamination of Christian messianism], Sabbatai Zevi attempted the
same kind of archetypal reconciliation [of the Face of God].....by actually
destroying in his own person the hostility between Muslims [Ishmael] and
Jews [Isaac] through his outward 'conversion' to Islam, whereby he, the
Jew, created in himself 'one single New Man' out of the two....thereby
reconciling the disparate parts of God that had fallen into disunity by
the act of Creation. In this, however, Sabbatai was not entirely successful
-- largely because his generation was unworthy to understand him -- and
so it remains for us of Donmeh West to complete what he began in the same
way as he began it -- which is, to make an archetypal entry into the Other
with the sole purpose of joining the two into one, within ourselves, and,
therefore, also within the supernal Image of God himself."
"Once the sun comes forth, there are....those who worship [by] this
light, calling this light, 'God of the shining pearl,' and their oath
is by 'Allah of the Shining Pearl' Now you might say: 'This worship
is in vain! But since ancient primordial days they have discovered wisdom
through it."
"All the faiths and conducts and all the books that have been written
until today -- everyone who reads in them is like someone who has turned
his head backwards and is looking at things already dead. All of it comes
out of the Gate of Death. But the wise man's eyes are ever in his head,
so he must look towards He-Who-Walks-In-Front."
"I, who am truly no zaddik [enlightened saint], no one assured in
God, rather a man endangered before God, a man wrestling ever anew for
God's light, ever anew engulfed in God's abysses, nonetheless....experienced
from within the true zaddik [when] questioned about revelations, [I replied]
in revelations. I experienced Him in the fundamental relations of His soul
to the world: in His responsibility."
"Under no circumstances and at no time should you ever expect me to be 'better'
than you. That way, you won't be disappointed when I'm not, and pleasantly
surprised when I am. But in either case, whatever you think is irrelevant to
me."
"Behold what I have done; I am going to the king girt with a green
and miserable belt, and I am much distressed about this."
"A religious Jew once saw me eating pork. 'What are you doing!' he cried.
I answered, 'Here, too, are Holy Sparks, yearning to return from whence they came.
If I don't lift them up, will you?'"
"I know nothing of [Torah] law and ordinance to teach you. All my
message is in parable . . . . An aspect of Godhead, a true aspect, grew
in me like a pearl that grows of itself . . . . I will show you the Holy
One, blessed is He, for in me is Strength and Governance and the Holy
One, blessed is He, has chosen me, and they have revealed to me from Heaven
what to do."
"But, though it is only those blessed ones who can plunge tranquilly
into the darkness in order to aid a soul which is abandoned to the whirlpool
of wandering, it is not denied to even the least of persons to raise the
lost sparks from their imprisonment and send them home."
"Woe to the human being who says that Torah presents mere stories
and ordinary words! . . . . All the words of Torah are sublime words,
sublime secrets! . . . . . The stories of Torah are merely the garment
of Torah. Whoever thinks that this garment is the real Torah and not something
else -- may his spirit deflate! He will have no portion in the world that
is coming."
"We must not ascend the Ten Sefirot empty handed."
"I had a dream: I stood at the Gates of a Palace, you know the one
I mean, and the Gatekeeper said to me, 'Wipe your feet before you
enter', and pointed to a Tallis [prayer shawl] lying on the ground.
'God forbid!' I cried and picked it up, and clutched it to my
heart, and ran with it through many streets, offering it to every Jew
and Gentile I met along the way.'"
"You are quite aware that this path [of the 'Left Emanation'] was
not trod upon except for 'two or three berries in the top of the uppermost
bough' (Isaiah 17:6) -- these are the ancient elders, the scholars of
Spain who delved in the Palace of Samael. It is a long and deep path and
it eludes all masters of wisdom who are not willing to descend into the
depths of the Wisdom of the Hidden Emanation, the 'depth of good and the
depth of evil' (Sefir Yetzirah 1:4). It is known only to those few solitary
individuals, 'the remnant who the Lord shall call' (Joel 3:5)."
"Sinning for the sake of sin is sinful; sinning for the sake of God
is holy."
"Thus you will find that man's brain is toward the back of the head
and the Spirit is in the brain. The brain represents the Throne of Glory
[Sefirah Keter] while the soul, fluttering like a dove upon the brain,
corresponds to the Divine Presence in the West."
"The difference between the 'natural' individuation process, which
runs its course unconsciously, and the one which is consciously realized
is tremendous. In the first case consciousness nowhere intervenes; the
end remains as dark as the beginning. In the second case, [however], so
much darkness comes to light that the personality is permeated with light,
and consciousness necessarily gains in scope and insight. The encounter
between conscious and unconscious has to ensure that the light that shines
in the darkness is not only comprehended by the darkness, but comprehends
it."
"Samael [Satan] was the great prince in heaven; the Chajjoth had
four wings and the Seraphim had six wings, and Samael had twelve wings.
What did Samael do? He took his band [of angels] and descended and saw
all the creatures which the Holy One, blessed be He, had created in His
world and he found among them none so skilled to do evil as the [two-legged]
serpent . . . . [whose] appearance was something like that of a camel
and he mounted and rode upon it."
"At times a man rests on his bed, and it appears to his family as
though he were asleep, but he spends this hour in solitude with his Creator,
blessed be He. That is a high rung, that he beholds the Creator at all
times with the eye of his insight, as if he sees another man. And consider
this: if you persevere in a pure thought, then the Creator also looks
at you, as a man looks at you."
"Zohar tells us (1:183a) that had Abram not descended into the Realm
of Sin he could not have known God -- that he was 'refined,' or 'cleansed' of
sin by the very act of entering into and committing it."
"I dreamed of very many of these chambers, and in the last I saw
the First (I mean Sabbatai Zevi) seated as well like a teacher with his
students, wearing the clothes of a Turk. And he turned to me and asked,
'Are you this Yakov the Wise? I have heard about you, that you're a hero
and have soul. I, too, went to the place you are going, but I don't have
the strength to go on. If you want to, be strong! and Yahweh will help
you. Many Fathers have taken on this burden and failed.' And there he
showed me through the window a depth like the Black Sea covered in a fearsome
dark. And to the side of the depth I saw a great mountain reaching up
into the heart of the sky, and I called out: Come what may! I'm going!
God help me!"
"The holy Throne of Glory is united in the secret of One, prepared
for the High Holy King to rest upon Her. When Sabbath enters She is alone,
separated from the Other Side, all judgments removed from Her. Basking
in the oneness of holy light, She is crowned over and over to face the
Holy King. All powers of wrath and masters of judgment flee from Her.
There is no power in all the worlds aside from Her. Her face shines with
a light from beyond; She is crowned below by the holy people [Israel],
all of them are crowned with new souls."
"And all who know this secret are certain to acquire the world to
come: We are obligated to praise, beautify, glorify, exalt, bless and
magnify the great King, mighty King, strong King, powerful King, brave
King.....King who causes to die, King who revives; King who wounds, King
who heals; King who impoverishes, King who enriches; King who casts down,
King who raises up."
"Christianity began as a Jewish missionary attempt to save the Gentiles
by bringing them into the Community of Israel, but soon devolved into
a pagan religion by which the Gentiles -- having gained access into Judaism
through Paul -- sought to regain spiritual supremacy over the Jews by
taking back from them the Birthright and Promises which they, the Gentiles,
believed (and continue to believe) rightfully belonged to their forefather
Esau and not to Jacob, the forefather of the Jews."
"If you had caught on to that Maiden, in whom rests all the power
of the world, then you'd have come into the power to do works. But since
you were not yet worthy of this -- to cling to Her -- I know not to whom
she will reveal Her secret, and I am sworn to wait to do and fulfill whatever
She orders done. And I bless you, for She has commanded me to receive
you, and I rejoice. I told you that I am only a messenger, and whatever
She says to me, I do. And know that if some times I rebuke you with reprimand,
it is all for your own good."
"We see in the scripture on Balaam's Donkey (Numbers 22:22) a 'dumb'
animal that nevertheless could and did see, hear, understand and obey
the angel of Yahweh, whereas its human owner, Balaam, himself could not.
So ask yourself this: Who here has a soul? The 'wise' man who cannot see,
hear, understand and obey the angel of the Lord, or the 'dumb' animal
who can......and did?"
"This Ruler of the Word is Eyn Sof (infinite) in both His Glory and
Word, as in the matter that is written: 'I have seen an end to every purpose,
but Your commandment is exceedingly immense' (Psalms 119:96), and it is
written: 'For God shall bring every act into judgment -- every hidden
thing whether good or bad' (Ecclesiastes 12:14). That which is hidden
is without end and limit; it is unfathomable and nothing exists outside it.'"
"The fact of God's 'unconsciousness' throws a peculiar light on the
doctrine of salvation. Man is not so much delivered from his sins....as
delivered from fear of the consequences of sin, that is, from the wrath
of God. Consequently, the work of salvation is intended to save man from
the fear of God. This is certainly [most] possible where the belief in
a loving father, who has sent his only-begotten son to rescue the human
race, has repressed the persistent traces of the old Yahweh and his dangerous
effects."
"You look upon me as a fool and reckon the whole Torah will be destroyed
by my hand. But if wise men were needed someone who had read and studied everything
would have been sent [instead of me] .....I know nothing of Torah law and ordinance
to teach you. All my message is in parable."
"I am an illiterate man, but Mother pushes heaps of knowledge to me from behind."
"Now [Israelite fathers and sons] both let their hair grow long:
the fathers let their hair grow until they should see their sons, and
the sons let their hair grow until they should see their fathers. The
Ishmaelites, too, let their hair grow long."
"There may be a connection between the title AMIRAH (i.e., 'Emir'),
used by his followers to denote Sabbatai Zevi, and the title Kapici Bashi
('Keeper of the Gates') bestowed upon him by the Sultan of Turkey following
his 'conversion' to Islam. Although Kapici Bashi was an honorary title
commonly given by the Sultan to special individuals, it undoubtedly had
very different connotations when given to a man such as Sabbatai Sevi, whom
the Sultan seems to have grudgingly viewed with religious awe, at
least according to some accounts. Moreover, Kapici Bashi (Keeper of the
Gate) was also the title of several Sufi Imams, and it is more than likely
that this would not have been missed by the Bektashi Sufis, whom the Sultan
considered a threat at the time, and with whom Sabbatai began associating
after receiving that same title from him. It should also be noted in this
regard that Sabbatai, according to his contemporary Rabbi Leib ben Ozer,
was particularly given to singing Psalm 118 -- 'Here is the Gate of Righteousness
that the righteous may enter' -- when in states of extreme mystical ecstasy,
punctuating it with the exclamation, in Hebrew, 'I shall rise! I shall
rise!'"
"Each Sefirah is a spiritual degree.....engraved out of the power
of the Will of Ayn Sof, the Hidden Lord. They were all created from a
single Sefirah [i.e., Keter].....which acts as a screen, separating the
emanation of all the holy degrees in which there are no alien Sefirot.
This [first Sefirah Keter].....was initially brought forth on the condition
that various diverse Sefirot, some good and some evil, some of [eternity]
and others of horrible and utter disgrace, would stem forth from it."
"Both faith and heresy are united in the Equal One."
"Those who believe in the Qur'an, and those who follow the Jewish
scriptures, and the Christians and the Sabians -- any who believe in Allah
[i.e., God] and the Last Day, and work righteousness, shall have their
reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve."
"In the work of creation there was an antagonism of the Left against
the Right, and the division between them allowed Gehinnom [Evil] to emerge
and fasten itself to the Left."
"If the Tzaddikim [i.e., Righteous Ones] so desired they could create
a universe. Raba created a man and sent him to Rabbi Zira, who conversed
with him but he could not answer; so R. Zira exclaimed, 'You are created
by magical arts; return to your dust!' Rabbi Channina and Rabbi Oshaya
used to sit every Friday and occupy themselves with the Sefer Yetzirah
and create a three-year old calf which they ate."
"It is proper for man to imitate his Creator, resembling Him in both
likeness and image according to the secret of the Supernal Form. Because
the chief Supernal image and likeness is in deeds, a human resemblance
merely in bodily appearance and not in deeds debases that Form."
"I owe a worship to the [good] God....and to the demon [God]! That
is my doctrine, I cannot help it. My salutation goes to the feet of the
good, the saintly, and to the feet of the wicked and the devilish! They
are all my teachers, all are my spiritual fathers, all are my Saviors.
I may curse one and yet benefit by his failings; I may bless another and
benefit by his good deeds. This is as true as I stand here."
"Upon Sabbatai Zevi's death, his soul (which was that of the Messiah,
residing temporarily in the finite husk of a mortal man) was 'translated'
back into Ze'ir Anpin from whence it had originally come, and where it
now resides in occultation -- waiting to return, through as many other
human vessels as are needed, until the generation into which it peeks
its Hoary Head is worthy to receive it, fully and at last."
"The thing that you lack is in the indwelling Glory. For man is a
part of God, and the want that is in the part is in the Whole, and the Whole
suffers the want of the part. Therefore, let your prayers be directed to the
want of the Whole.....Pray continually for God's Glory that it may be redeemed
from its exile.
"The Vedanta says, 'Do not think that good and evil are two, are
separate essences, for they are one and the same thing, appearing in different
degrees and in different guises and producing different feeling in the
same mind.' So the first thought of Vedanta is the finding of unity in
the external; the One Existence manifesting Itself, however It may appear
in manifestation."
"The indwelling Glory of God embraces all worlds, all creatures,
good and evil. And it is the true unity. How can it then bear in itself
the opposites of good and evil? But in truth there is no opposite, for
the evil is the throne of the good."
"Baruch atah Adonai, Elohainu Melech ha-olam; matir issurim: Blessed
art thou, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who makes the forbidden
things permissible."
"Ultimately, all the deeds of Jesus of Nazareth and that Ishmaelite
[Muhammad] who arose after him will only serve to prepare the way for
the Messiah's coming and the improvement of the entire world, motivating
the [Gentiles and Jews] to serve God together."
"This is the mystery of the Oneness of God: that at whatever place
I, a tiny bit, lay hold of it, I lay hold of the Whole. And since the
[Torah] teachings and all [Torah] commandments are radiations of His being,
so he who fulfills [even a single] command in love to its very ground,
and in this command lays hold of a tiny bit of the Oneness of God, holds
the whole in his hand as if he had fulfilled all [the Torah Commandments]."
"The holy Throne of Glory is united in the secret of One, prepared
for the High Holy King to rest upon Her. When Sabbath enters She is alone,
separated from the Other Side, all judgments removed from Her. Basking
in the oneness of holy light, She is crowned over and over to face the
Holy King. All powers of wrath and masters of judgment flee from Her.
There is no power in all the worlds aside from Her. Her face shines with
a light from beyond; She is crowned below by the holy people [Israel],
all of them are crowned with new souls."
"The fact remains that in the same way a candle is not the flame
but only its carrier, each of these advents -- including 'Jesus'
(if he even existed) and Sabbatai Zevi (who most certainly did) -- was
only a conduit for the Ruach HaKodesh ('Holy Spirit') passing
through him, and not the Holy Spirit itself. Just as a lightbulb is a
medium for the electricity passing through it, but not the electricity
itself, so too was each of these avatars merely a 'lightbulb'
which momentarily illuminated the world and then burned out -- and just
as a burned-out lightbulb is discarded and replaced by another, so too
was each of them. It makes no more sense, therefore, to worship a 'Jesus'
or 'Sabbatai Zevi' than it does to worship a burned-out lightbulb.
Revere them, perhaps; learn from their advent, most certainly; but worship
them, no. It is not any of these corruptible bodies or human personalities
that will 'return', but the Soul of the Messiah, seeking to
take birth, that will peek out, time and again, through other windows
like them until, at last, it finds a generation worthy to receive it. For
this reason, each of us is called upon to participate -- or at least
offer to participate - in the continuing incarnation of God, thereby maximizing
the probability of His final coming. But we, like those before us, at
most are only lightbulbs through whom that Divine Light passes. We may
illuminate the world for a time, but when the electricity is turned off
(just as theirs was) and our light goes out (just as theirs did) we remain
no more than what we were before -- a lightbulb -- altered, perhaps, by
the experience of having been inflamed, but only a lightbulb, nonetheless."
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES:
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