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random comment i figured id stick in here: it would be interesting if you had any thoughts on the sort of mysticism that appears in the writings of Wittgenstein
Hey Justin, you mention an obscure Jewish Holliday when "corrections" (best word I can think of) around 1:08:30. Can you elaborate or name that date in the calender. I'm. Quite engaged in the process of Tikun through my own life and would be very interested to learn more about this. Thanks always for the great work! 🙏 🌳 🌸 .
This series is amazing and this teacher is incredibly cool. How lucky to have such an amazing, clear, and insightful course for free on youtube. Thank you!
You do great work here Dr. Sledge. I'm using this series to enhance my knowledge of the history for a series I'm producing on magic, it's influence of human culture, and the substantive difference between what we think of as magic (Hollywood) vs what magicians and mystics actually did and for what reason.
This was AMAZING. Granted you have to look past the typical stuff like "period blood and masturbation are evil," but every religion and philosophy has stuff you disagree with -- the whole idea of Ein Sof and the emanations make a surprising amount of sense. I'm not into religion or paranormal anything, but that's an incredibly sensible metaphor. I have to look further into this. Thank you for these videos.
That's neoplatonic, which is a framework you can find in paganism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism and even Hinduism. If anything is ever going to unite the religions it's neoplatonic thought.
I know there can be no one for one comparison, but it is fascinating hearing about Ain Sof and thinking about Nirguna Brahman in Advaita Vendanta and Dao ion Daoism.
Wot I learnt so far: 1) Yahweh has a six pack. 2) Yahweh has a Tesla. 3) Dynamism. All in all this series is highly educational. Much appreciated presentation series!
Dr. Sledge, I just want you to know how much I appreciate your content. I'll soon be able to support you on pattern and be uniquely proud about being able to directly contribute to your ability to continue producing this. I was about to type that I could listen to your lectures and videos on these complex and exceedingly interesting topics for hours, but I already do that.
I remember back when I was a child, probably about twelve or thirteen, I mentioned to a religious elder that wisdom was referred to in the feminine and how they were there at the creation of this world and how none of it would have come into existence without them, and I thought this was so beautiful and just “made sense” seeing as The Elohim made us in their image, both male and female, and (I went on 🤨) that when Adam (original man, however you refer to him) was initially dual gendered, until, in the garden, it was discovered that “he” was very lonely, so the Elohim took a portion of his “rib”, and separated the genders into two parts, the masculine and the feminine, thus creating both male and female … and they stated, regarding my first point, that “yes, wasn’t that a lovely analogy”? And to my second part, “that is a heretical thought pattern and one I should be wary of”. As to my response to them? I thought it was “they” who were short sighted in this matter, and have believed so to this day.
So much of what you cover here is used in the remarkable postmodern fiction work called "Gravity's Rainbow" by the still-living Thomas Pynchon -- one of the first places I ran across these ideas, circa 1975 or so. Again, appreciating your work.
@MagdalenaK2024 legit tho, after learning about kabbalah the entire anime makes sense. the only mystery remaining is how the fuck did anno know about this in the 1990swhen he only speaks Japanese. the eva iceburg needs to be updated because the bottom of it is that shinji is jewish and the evas are golems.
I've watched a few out of order and done some additional reading and research and I am ABSOLUTELY LOVING this series. Something I have always had on my academic/philosophical bucket list. Why not start now 😁 thanks so much
Watching all of these history and religion channels has given me a lot of insight into New Mexican culture. The world view, traditions and rituals have so many influences. Everything just pooled there.
@@denisefrescas1488 Social etiquette, superstitions, religious practices, engineering of buildings and acequia systems. NM’s isolation has some things preserved that dissipated elsewhere. It’s just interesting to see how everything melded.
Funny that you mention "Jew-Bhus". There were a couple Jewish Buddhists in my Pali Canon study group pre-pandemic. The topic came up more than once that most religions seem to require exclusivity. Most would say they were religious Jews, but philosophical Buddhists. One person said that there is a lot of overlap in Jewish mysticism like Kabbalah and Buddhism, esoteric or exoteric. This piqued my interest because I thought I knew what Kabbalah was all about. It's just playing games with numbers right? I guess not! Which brings me to your channel.
Thank you for another fascinating, illuminating and somewhat disturbing video (not your presentation but the contents of the Zohar itself) of the Sefer Zohar. When I start trying to read the volumes I have, i will feel more confident thanks to your presentations!!
The way the Shekhinah is described gives me trans woman vibes. From "a man with feminine pronouns" to "she calls herself a she therefore she is a woman, period" and I love it. This might not be at all the way it was developed but I like that it can be read this way with a modern eye. Hashtag God Is A Trans Woman
Listening to you class is bringing balance to my world. Thanks for education Dr Sledge. Incidentally maybe it's just me but it seams to me like there is some degree of overlap with Taoism in this deep interest in balance..just an observation.
I've been highly enjoying following alogn with this, thank you for your time and effort : ) the brief mention of Kabbalah as ripe for Jewish Buddhist practice really intrigued me, the whole idea of nothing emanating into being really has really captured my attention throughout this whole course. Do you know of any texts which explicitly fuse Kabbalistic and Buddhist ideas in describing their mystical or philosophical worldview? I found a book called "Buddha Turns the Kabbalah Wheel: Jewish Buddhist Resonance from a Christian Gnostic Perspective" when doing a quick internet search.
I like that the tree of life square is really just the initials for each principle wrapped around each other. With Keter (Kuf) being the outermost and Malkuth (Mem) being the innermost.
I’m slowly going through all this before getting to your other videos as I think it will help. BUT !! I’m really excited to get to some of them !! And YES to a 1000 hours course on the Sefer Zohar. Or any subject you think is worth it.
This continues to be a wonderful introduction, I have pretty much binge watched this lol. Though I do find the internment commentary through entirely unrelated contemporary lenses a tiny bit distracting. Keep up the excellent work!!
Justin Sledge = 🤯 🙏🏽 thank you for the wisdom and knowledge! I have just gotten into Kabbalah and you have such a unique and in depth way of exposing the subject! Can I ask what is the difference between qabbalah and kabbalah? Thank you
Fascinating series Dr. Sledge, I'm currently binge watching it! I just wanted to note that the word Ayin meaning nothingness is spelled with an aleph, not with an 'ayin (אין, not עין), to my knowledge.
'Mystically bigoted" I'm sorry but that part made me laugh silly. I appreciate Rabbi Anava's views and handling of this and his mentality towards non-jews; not calling them goyim for one.
Thank you Dr Dangerous lol this has been so well presented. I can't thank you enough for the time and devotion you have been putting into every episode of this study. I continue to go back to part 1 of this series and review and take notes 8 just has me in awe. Was the gap theory introduced by Christianity? Or is it found or mentioned anywhere in Judisim? I'm curious especially how you explained Genesis 1:1 and using the analogy of a riff in jazz riff and more riff. Thank you again for a great academic approach.
This kabbalistc version of creation is also very reminiscent of the Daoist creation ideas (not necessarily the folk tradition of Pangu) but that held by Daoist adepts and mystics. In it, there is the absolutely still primordial Dao--which is beyond all understanding. (It is by this absolutely stillness quintessentially Yin, although this is before any actual manifestation of Yin and Yang. Yin is, as we know, "feminine.") At some point and for reasons unknown, it begins to move, the first expression of yang ("masculine".) Yang which is movement and ethereal energy spews out creation in this movement and in so doing is causing the manifestation of the primordial yin (the material world). This gives rise to the the movement and constantly interacting and changing of the Five elements, which in turn, "give rise to the 10,000 things." (ie., everything else)
"Wisdom can become personified, and even deified. . ." it is the idea of Sophia to the authors of Zohar. Edit: It is slightly later you bring her up, and true statement indeed there are similarity in pieces.
13:25 TH-cam auto captions renders "Sephardi Jews" as "Farty jews." I find this incredibly amusing. Justin your work has given me a window into a world that is both opaque and remote to my life and education. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thrice great Dr Sledge.
If I may, from a Christian or Catholic, the DAAT is the knowledge that Jesus has given us of how to get to heaven. He is the way to heaven, He suffered, died and rose again where He was the sacrifice that was accepted by God to pay for our sins. I may not be well versed in Hebrew or Greek but I know enough to understand how salvation works. In my working with the Kabbalah, I have gained much experience and knowledge, though I still have a lot to learn.
It´s really interesting how Schelling seems to have drawn (directly or indirectly) on this ... With a heavy Christian turn of course. I´m already looking forward to the lurianic interpretations, since these defenitely influenced him.
Zohar and masturbation - see the section on Parshat Vayechi and the blessing of Reuven. The Zohar talks about the first drops appearing between one's fingers. To me he seems to be talking about learning self-control, masturbating but stopping before the orgasm, a technique that is well-known in Eastern mysticism. It was only later that this was misunderstood as being against masturbation as such, probably under the influence of church teachings on the subject.
That well known Eastern technique you make reference to is a well known new age western bastardised practice that has nothing to do with authentic spirituality. Not for prudish reasons, but for technical reasons.
Great intro to the Zohar. One point, I don't see the overflowing of Gevurah as original to the Zohar. Check out the Bahir 162 יש להקב'ה מדה ששמה רעה והיא לצפונו של הקב'ה... Then in 163 it enlarges on the point ...וכל יצר הרע משם הוא בא
I think the pun in the name of God is really interesting. I also admire the professors or straight and not picking aside. I, personally, after watching this video, feel the logical deduction is that they pronounce the two vowels the same way and found the play on words between infinity and nothingness / everything and nothing as the lifeful as delightful as I do
Hearing about the Zohar's abhorrence of self pleasure I'm now wondering if that view has anything to do with the alchemical process for creating homunculi, though I suppose it's equally likely to also be influenced by Catholicism's stance on sexual activity.
I think the modern world of porn sheds more light on ancient views on sex. They had plenty of time to watch human nature en masse and to see the consequences of various lifestyles.
The all night study sessions of mystical texts- i remember in my college when the protestant minister had an all night session with the book, Lord of the Rings! It was held in the old school building which felt almost like a church. What a weird experience.... serioously.
I apologize for asking such a basic question so deep into the series, but I have to know something. Did the concept of mirroring as it is influence the saying, "As above, so below?"
This may just be because of your accent (which slaps. btw) but I keep hearing sephirot as spherot. As in, spheres. I wonder if you could translate (obviously with meaning lost) sephirot as the "spheres" of gd instead of the enumerations-you drop the association with numbers. Just an interesting thought that occurred to me. love this series!
I’ve been a long long time found a van Morrison and was always curious as to which religion he belong to because a lot of his music most of his music is very spiritual and he talks about John Donne and the holy Rosie cross give me my religion in the garden very specific people and theosophy in the golden age etc. so I came across some thing someone wrote because he was writing out new album about the lock down and He was angered by the lock down both he and Eric Clapton and the article stated that he belong to the Rosicrucian religion which I had never heard about. But this religion is hermeticism it goes back to alchemy and all the stuff that Van Morrison talks about in his songs. Do you have any videos on Rosicrucian religion and alchemy specifically? Also do you talk about visions in any of your videos? I’ve had a few profound visions of white light being blinded by this enormous white light.
could you consider Netzah and Hod to reflect Emotions and Dreams\Language respectively? it seems to consist with them both being driving forces which keep each other in balance - with Yessod being your subconsious, symbolic mind.
You talked about how the sefirot are associated with many things such as the patriarchs, matriarchs, parts of the body, colors, and so on and so forth. I've seen quite a few diagrams where they are showing the sefirot associated with zodiac symbols, alchemical symbols, elements, and planets. How when did that come into play?
Only the lower seven can be associated with anything. Some of it is latter Kabbalists, a lot of it is later non-Jewish occultists playing fast and loose with the system.
All this talk of the Shkhinah has me wondering about the Ruach. Wasn't that the original idea for the expression of God's imminence? I thought that's why Christianity adopted it: the Father being God's Transcendence, and the Breath being God's Imminence? But it seems like the Ruach plays no role in Kabbalah or modern Jewish mysticism. And "ruach" can be feminine, so it could easily serve as the feminine expression of God's imminence a la the Shkhinah.
In case it's not clear, this is just a genuine question about the history of the idea of the Ruach. I'd be interested to see a video on that: it's origins in early Judaism, it's adoption into Christianity, and it's further development/abandonment in later Judaism.
I can't help but wonder if some of the ideas about the force in Star wars were inspired by some of this - there being a good and evil side that both inherently exist, and someone is supposed to come along and bring balance to it all
Just approp of you take on the Shekhinah being in some sense a take on the "Mary Cult," you may know that Mary is also seen as an intermediary between God and "man." One prays to Mary and she "intercedes" with God. Also, it is Mary who is seen in visions most often in Catholicism. Thus, she is an "emanation" of God who can appear on Earth and with whom one can actually interact. God never appears in the New Testament and visions of Jesus are very rare and most often seen by those who are seeking such visions through various aesthetic practices. So I think the link between Mary and the Shekhinah is very close indeed.
50:50 Mary had several children! She made love a bunch of times. One might say the whole perpetual virginity thing is a way of saying; "she is still a virgin in that sense" what do I mean by that, well to quote modern day prophet figure Kanye West! "What if Mary was in the club When she met Joseph around hella thugs? Cover Nori in lambs' wool We surrounded by the fuckin' wolves" "What if Mary was in the club 'Fore she met Joseph with no love? Cover Saint in lambs' wool We surrounded by the fuckin' wolves" She is a virgin to us no matter what happened! :D Love your vids
Gevurah's imbalance creating evil reminds me a lot of Sophia creating outside of the totality of the Pleroma and causing evil. I was wondering, is there a reason in particular that these religions are so anti-wanking?
He explained it. It's because the seed is meant to be planted so as to create life. If you "spill it on the ground", you are intentionally avoiding creating life. Therefore: evil. Women having a period is the same. That is throwing away an egg without fertilizing it.
עין בע' זה לא אינסוף, או כלום. עין זה eye. אתה מדבר על "אין" בא', שנהגה ayin. המשמעות היא בערך void. ההבדל באותיות זה די משמעותי, מהסיבות שציינת בעצמך.
YASSSS finally a feminine aspect! why only 40 + year olds are allowed to know this? why not teach this to our kids and gift them with more time to study and evolve.
First of all, I just want to say I love your channel and your series and I’m learning so much from it. I am so impressed by the breadth of your knowledge and the depth of your academic rigor as well as your kind and generous approach peppered with some great humor. I do want to offer some nerdy and persnickety corrections regarding your comments in this video on the word Ain and Hebrew dialects. Maybe someone already pointed this out elsewhere in the comments, but both Ain (ʔɑˈ.jin) and Ein (ʔeːn) are spelled אין (and not עין), which is to say with an aleph, the glottal stop, and not an ע, the voiced pharyngeal fricative. So the literary play between אין סוף (ein sof) and אין (ain) is not exactly a pun, since they are exactly the same word which means “non-“ or “nothing”. Ain is simply the absolute grammatical form whereas Ein is the construct grammatical form (i.e. צורת נסמך). It is possible, I suppose, that there is a certain play on words between אין (nothing) and עין (eye/fountain/source) - but you would know much better than I. Still, it is very clear that אין and עין were NOT pronounced as homonyms in that place and time. The Sephardic Hebrew dialect maintains the distinction between א and ע even today. Certainly, it has eroded among speakers of the contemporary Israeli dialect (because of influences from the Ashkenazi dialect). But in Sephardic synagogue while reading from the Torah you best believe they will distinguish between the two sounds or else they will be summarily berated by the congregation… Additionally, medieval poetry from Spain makes it utterly clear that ע and א were not at all homonymous. But that doesn’t mean that they don’t make a good pun. They certainly do. And you are absolutely correct that in some Hebrew and Jewish-Aramaic dialects, probably including 1st century Galilean, the sounds had become homonymous - just not in Medieval Spain. (For context, I am an Israeli native speaker of modern Hebrew and have an undergraduate degree in the Hebrew Bible and have studied various dialects of Hebrew as well as other Semitic languages such as Arabic, Aramaic, and a bit of Ugaritic).
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would absolutely adore an ep. about The Babylonian twer story..:)
random comment i figured id stick in here: it would be interesting if you had any thoughts on the sort of mysticism that appears in the writings of Wittgenstein
Hey Justin, you mention an obscure Jewish Holliday when "corrections" (best word I can think of) around 1:08:30. Can you elaborate or name that date in the calender. I'm. Quite engaged in the process of Tikun through my own life and would be very interested to learn more about this. Thanks always for the great work! 🙏 🌳 🌸
.
I’m obsessed with this series, let alone the whole channel. God bless
Same!!
Preach brother!!
i must admit to binge watching your content
Dr. Sledge your channel is like a breath of fresh air every time I watch a video. My favorite quote thus far "Yahweh doesn't skip ab day". Thanks!
where is that from haha
@@zelenisok I believe pt 1 when he's showed an old depiction of Yahweh and he's got ripped abs. Cracked me up when he said that.
This series is amazing and this teacher is incredibly cool. How lucky to have such an amazing, clear, and insightful course for free on youtube. Thank you!
You do great work here Dr. Sledge. I'm using this series to enhance my knowledge of the history for a series I'm producing on magic, it's influence of human culture, and the substantive difference between what we think of as magic (Hollywood) vs what magicians and mystics actually did and for what reason.
This was AMAZING. Granted you have to look past the typical stuff like "period blood and masturbation are evil," but every religion and philosophy has stuff you disagree with -- the whole idea of Ein Sof and the emanations make a surprising amount of sense. I'm not into religion or paranormal anything, but that's an incredibly sensible metaphor. I have to look further into this. Thank you for these videos.
That's neoplatonic, which is a framework you can find in paganism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism and even Hinduism. If anything is ever going to unite the religions it's neoplatonic thought.
@@StephensCrazyHour I dunno how neo-platonic onanism is....
9 to 10 part? I vote 10. Thank you for all of these, I have learned an immense amount!
I know there can be no one for one comparison, but it is fascinating hearing about Ain Sof and thinking about Nirguna Brahman in Advaita Vendanta and Dao ion Daoism.
Wot I learnt so far:
1) Yahweh has a six pack.
2) Yahweh has a Tesla.
3) Dynamism.
All in all this series is highly educational. Much appreciated presentation series!
Dr. Sledge, I just want you to know how much I appreciate your content. I'll soon be able to support you on pattern and be uniquely proud about being able to directly contribute to your ability to continue producing this. I was about to type that I could listen to your lectures and videos on these complex and exceedingly interesting topics for hours, but I already do that.
I remember back when I was a child, probably about twelve or thirteen, I mentioned to a religious elder that wisdom was referred to in the feminine and how they were there at the creation of this world and how none of it would have come into existence without them, and I thought this was so beautiful and just “made sense” seeing as The Elohim made us in their image, both male and female, and (I went on 🤨) that when Adam (original man, however you refer to him) was initially dual gendered, until, in the garden, it was discovered that “he” was very lonely, so the Elohim took a portion of his “rib”, and separated the genders into two parts, the masculine and the feminine, thus creating both male and female … and they stated, regarding my first point, that “yes, wasn’t that a lovely analogy”? And to my second part, “that is a heretical thought pattern and one I should be wary of”. As to my response to them? I thought it was “they” who were short sighted in this matter, and have believed so to this day.
I just discovered this serie. Damn!!
So much of what you cover here is used in the remarkable postmodern fiction work called "Gravity's Rainbow" by the still-living Thomas Pynchon -- one of the first places I ran across these ideas, circa 1975 or so. Again, appreciating your work.
Amazing lectures, can't wait for the next installment.
i now understand the End of Evangelion
@MagdalenaK2024 legit tho, after learning about kabbalah the entire anime makes sense. the only mystery remaining is how the fuck did anno know about this in the 1990swhen he only speaks Japanese.
the eva iceburg needs to be updated because the bottom of it is that shinji is jewish and the evas are golems.
I've watched a few out of order and done some additional reading and research and I am ABSOLUTELY LOVING this series. Something I have always had on my academic/philosophical bucket list. Why not start now 😁 thanks so much
Watching all of these history and religion channels has given me a lot of insight into New Mexican culture. The world view, traditions and rituals have so many influences. Everything just pooled there.
I haven't watched yet but as a resident of New Mexico this comment makes me more interested
What specifically about New Mexican culture do you mean?
@@jojones4685 There’s many other channels like Al Muqaddimah, Let’s Talk Religion, and Useful Charts.
@@denisefrescas1488 Social etiquette, superstitions, religious practices, engineering of buildings and acequia systems. NM’s isolation has some things preserved that dissipated elsewhere. It’s just interesting to see how everything melded.
Funny that you mention "Jew-Bhus".
There were a couple Jewish Buddhists in my Pali Canon study group pre-pandemic.
The topic came up more than once that most religions seem to require exclusivity.
Most would say they were religious Jews, but philosophical Buddhists.
One person said that there is a lot of overlap in Jewish mysticism like Kabbalah and Buddhism, esoteric or exoteric.
This piqued my interest because I thought I knew what Kabbalah was all about.
It's just playing games with numbers right?
I guess not!
Which brings me to your channel.
An excellent lecture! I'm eager to know more about how it developped
Lot to chew on here. I like the idea of unchecked judgement equating to evil. Maybe the most clear ancient thought on the subject I have seen.
I really enjoy learning this knowledge . Thank you 🙏.
Thank you so much for sharing this knowledge with the public. I’m so grateful for this information that you’ve made possible I receive
Thank you for another fascinating, illuminating and somewhat disturbing video (not your presentation but the contents of the Zohar itself) of the Sefer Zohar. When I start trying to read the volumes I have, i will feel more confident thanks to your presentations!!
The way the Shekhinah is described gives me trans woman vibes. From "a man with feminine pronouns" to "she calls herself a she therefore she is a woman, period" and I love it. This might not be at all the way it was developed but I like that it can be read this way with a modern eye. Hashtag God Is A Trans Woman
Listening to you class is bringing balance to my world. Thanks for education Dr Sledge. Incidentally maybe it's just me but it seams to me like there is some degree of overlap with Taoism in this deep interest in balance..just an observation.
Totally- all the inversions/paradoxes for example
I've been highly enjoying following alogn with this, thank you for your time and effort : ) the brief mention of Kabbalah as ripe for Jewish Buddhist practice really intrigued me, the whole idea of nothing emanating into being really has really captured my attention throughout this whole course. Do you know of any texts which explicitly fuse Kabbalistic and Buddhist ideas in describing their mystical or philosophical worldview? I found a book called "Buddha Turns the Kabbalah Wheel: Jewish Buddhist Resonance from a Christian Gnostic Perspective" when doing a quick internet search.
I like that the tree of life square is really just the initials for each principle wrapped around each other. With Keter (Kuf) being the outermost and Malkuth (Mem) being the innermost.
I’m slowly going through all this before getting to your other videos as I think it will help. BUT !! I’m really excited to get to some of them !! And YES to a 1000 hours course on the Sefer Zohar. Or any subject you think is worth it.
Your explanation of the ספירות is amazing
This series is wonderful, thank you so much. 🤯
This continues to be a wonderful introduction, I have pretty much binge watched this lol. Though I do find the internment commentary through entirely unrelated contemporary lenses a tiny bit distracting. Keep up the excellent work!!
Justin Sledge = 🤯
🙏🏽 thank you for the wisdom and knowledge! I have just gotten into Kabbalah and you have such a unique and in depth way of exposing the subject! Can I ask what is the difference between qabbalah and kabbalah? Thank you
One is the traditional Jewish Kabbalah and the other is the more recent Hermetic Qabbalah tradition.
I would be interested in your take on the Aristotelian Jewish philosophy.
Fascinating series Dr. Sledge, I'm currently binge watching it! I just wanted to note that the word Ayin meaning nothingness is spelled with an aleph, not with an 'ayin (אין, not עין), to my knowledge.
i love this series so much!! tysm
'Mystically bigoted" I'm sorry but that part made me laugh silly. I appreciate Rabbi Anava's views and handling of this and his mentality towards non-jews; not calling them goyim for one.
this was fantastic! Next lecture series: 1000 videos on the Zohar please? :-)
Thank you Dr Dangerous lol this has been so well presented. I can't thank you enough for the time and devotion you have been putting into every episode of this study. I continue to go back to part 1 of this series and review and take notes 8 just has me in awe. Was the gap theory introduced by Christianity? Or is it found or mentioned anywhere in Judisim? I'm curious especially how you explained Genesis 1:1 and using the analogy of a riff in jazz riff and more riff. Thank you again for a great academic approach.
This kabbalistc version of creation is also very reminiscent of the Daoist creation ideas (not necessarily the folk tradition of Pangu) but that held by Daoist adepts and mystics. In it, there is the absolutely still primordial Dao--which is beyond all understanding. (It is by this absolutely stillness quintessentially Yin, although this is before any actual manifestation of Yin and Yang. Yin is, as we know, "feminine.") At some point and for reasons unknown, it begins to move, the first expression of yang ("masculine".) Yang which is movement and ethereal energy spews out creation in this movement and in so doing is causing the manifestation of the primordial yin (the material world). This gives rise to the the movement and constantly interacting and changing of the Five elements, which in turn, "give rise to the 10,000 things." (ie., everything else)
Dang imma have to watch this over several days just to make sure I've absorbed it
I love your attitude🤩
"Wisdom can become personified, and even deified. . ." it is the idea of Sophia to the authors of Zohar.
Edit: It is slightly later you bring her up, and true statement indeed there are similarity in pieces.
13:25 TH-cam auto captions renders "Sephardi Jews" as "Farty jews." I find this incredibly amusing.
Justin your work has given me a window into a world that is both opaque and remote to my life and education. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thrice great Dr Sledge.
If I may, from a Christian or Catholic, the DAAT is the knowledge that Jesus has given us of how to get to heaven. He is the way to heaven, He suffered, died and rose again where He was the sacrifice that was accepted by God to pay for our sins. I may not be well versed in Hebrew or Greek but I know enough to understand how salvation works. In my working with the Kabbalah, I have gained much experience and knowledge, though I still have a lot to learn.
It´s really interesting how Schelling seems to have drawn (directly or indirectly) on this ... With a heavy Christian turn of course. I´m already looking forward to the lurianic interpretations, since these defenitely influenced him.
Is there a central database for all images / schemes in classical Kabbalistic works?
Zohar and masturbation - see the section on Parshat Vayechi and the blessing of Reuven. The Zohar talks about the first drops appearing between one's fingers. To me he seems to be talking about learning self-control, masturbating but stopping before the orgasm, a technique that is well-known in Eastern mysticism. It was only later that this was misunderstood as being against masturbation as such, probably under the influence of church teachings on the subject.
That well known Eastern technique you make reference to is a well known new age western bastardised practice that has nothing to do with authentic spirituality. Not for prudish reasons, but for technical reasons.
Great intro to the Zohar. One point, I don't see the overflowing of Gevurah as original to the Zohar. Check out the Bahir 162 יש להקב'ה מדה ששמה רעה והיא לצפונו של הקב'ה...
Then in 163 it enlarges on the point ...וכל יצר הרע משם הוא בא
I think the pun in the name of God is really interesting. I also admire the professors or straight and not picking aside. I, personally, after watching this video, feel the logical deduction is that they pronounce the two vowels the same way and found the play on words between infinity and nothingness / everything and nothing as the lifeful as delightful as I do
Hearing about the Zohar's abhorrence of self pleasure I'm now wondering if that view has anything to do with the alchemical process for creating homunculi, though I suppose it's equally likely to also be influenced by Catholicism's stance on sexual activity.
I think the modern world of porn sheds more light on ancient views on sex. They had plenty of time to watch human nature en masse and to see the consequences of various lifestyles.
Wow, suddenly Tron legacy seems like an allegory of the Kabbalah dynamic
The all night study sessions of mystical texts- i remember in my college when the protestant minister had an all night session with the book, Lord of the Rings! It was held in the old school building which felt almost like a church. What a weird experience.... serioously.
Would love a video on queer interpretations of the Zohar and other Kabbalistic texts & traditions! :)
I apologize for asking such a basic question so deep into the series, but I have to know something. Did the concept of mirroring as it is influence the saying, "As above, so below?"
sounds like it
Minuto 15: "AHORA SÍ, A ENTENDER EVANGELION!!! YEE" :p Thanks doc!!!
Please, more episodes like this where Kabbalistic ideas can be adopted for us regular people on our level for practical lives. Thanks.
This may just be because of your accent (which slaps. btw) but I keep hearing sephirot as spherot. As in, spheres. I wonder if you could translate (obviously with meaning lost) sephirot as the "spheres" of gd instead of the enumerations-you drop the association with numbers. Just an interesting thought that occurred to me. love this series!
There's no linguistic connection between the two
I’ve been a long long time found a van Morrison and was always curious as to which religion he belong to because a lot of his music most of his music is very spiritual and he talks about John Donne and the holy Rosie cross give me my religion in the garden very specific people and theosophy in the golden age etc. so I came across some thing someone wrote because he was writing out new album about the lock down and He was angered by the lock down both he and Eric Clapton and the article stated that he belong to the Rosicrucian religion which I had never heard about. But this religion is hermeticism it goes back to alchemy and all the stuff that Van Morrison talks about in his songs. Do you have any videos on Rosicrucian religion and alchemy specifically? Also do you talk about visions in any of your videos? I’ve had a few profound visions of white light being blinded by this enormous white light.
could you consider Netzah and Hod to reflect Emotions and Dreams\Language respectively? it seems to consist with them both being driving forces which keep each other in balance - with Yessod being your subconsious, symbolic mind.
You talked about how the sefirot are associated with many things such as the patriarchs, matriarchs, parts of the body, colors, and so on and so forth. I've seen quite a few diagrams where they are showing the sefirot associated with zodiac symbols, alchemical symbols, elements, and planets. How when did that come into play?
Only the lower seven can be associated with anything. Some of it is latter Kabbalists, a lot of it is later non-Jewish occultists playing fast and loose with the system.
Thank you. ☀️
Awesome!
All this talk of the Shkhinah has me wondering about the Ruach. Wasn't that the original idea for the expression of God's imminence? I thought that's why Christianity adopted it: the Father being God's Transcendence, and the Breath being God's Imminence? But it seems like the Ruach plays no role in Kabbalah or modern Jewish mysticism. And "ruach" can be feminine, so it could easily serve as the feminine expression of God's imminence a la the Shkhinah.
In case it's not clear, this is just a genuine question about the history of the idea of the Ruach. I'd be interested to see a video on that: it's origins in early Judaism, it's adoption into Christianity, and it's further development/abandonment in later Judaism.
I can't help but wonder if some of the ideas about the force in Star wars were inspired by some of this - there being a good and evil side that both inherently exist, and someone is supposed to come along and bring balance to it all
Brilliant.
Just approp of you take on the Shekhinah being in some sense a take on the "Mary Cult," you may know that Mary is also seen as an intermediary between God and "man." One prays to Mary and she "intercedes" with God. Also, it is Mary who is seen in visions most often in Catholicism. Thus, she is an "emanation" of God who can appear on Earth and with whom one can actually interact. God never appears in the New Testament and visions of Jesus are very rare and most often seen by those who are seeking such visions through various aesthetic practices. So I think the link between Mary and the Shekhinah is very close indeed.
I just want to be sure I'm on the same page. The symbol, very beginning of the video, bottom left, that is a pyramid being portrayed in Hebrew?
2:59 ?
That's a square. Kinda like a labyrinth or maze.
Where do you get pyramid?
@@DarkMoonDroid I would say the layout and the inner markings the upper level. Just my perception of what I saw. So an aerial view.
Epic!
You are a good preacher
I have to say the educational value blended with the sarcasm os priceless
Is the Holy Spirit in Christianity tied to the divine feminine. Like Father, Mother, Son
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Mary had several children! She made love a bunch of times. One might say the whole perpetual virginity thing is a way of saying; "she is still a virgin in that sense" what do I mean by that, well to quote modern day prophet figure Kanye West!
"What if Mary was in the club
When she met Joseph around hella thugs?
Cover Nori in lambs' wool
We surrounded by the fuckin' wolves"
"What if Mary was in the club
'Fore she met Joseph with no love?
Cover Saint in lambs' wool
We surrounded by the fuckin' wolves"
She is a virgin to us no matter what happened! :D
Love your vids
15:00 - sefirot balance (tree of life)
"Oh yeah baby, practice that law."
-A Kabbalist, probably
I appreciate your humor! You're like the Tom Segura of philosophy, but wayyyyy smarter of course 😆
❤
🌞
Gevurah's imbalance creating evil reminds me a lot of Sophia creating outside of the totality of the Pleroma and causing evil. I was wondering, is there a reason in particular that these religions are so anti-wanking?
He explained it.
It's because the seed is meant to be planted so as to create life. If you "spill it on the ground", you are intentionally avoiding creating life. Therefore: evil. Women having a period is the same. That is throwing away an egg without fertilizing it.
Superlative
עין בע' זה לא אינסוף, או כלום. עין זה eye.
אתה מדבר על "אין" בא', שנהגה ayin. המשמעות היא בערך void.
ההבדל באותיות זה די משמעותי, מהסיבות שציינת בעצמך.
Is Shekhinah the same thing as Shakti in Hinduism, Kundalini? At least linguistically and meaningfully they seem similar.
Fucking brilliant
1000th view!
Are you really a Sabbatean?
@@stevenv6463 indeed
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Doesn't make the world a better place, huh?
Wow.
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YASSSS finally a feminine aspect! why only 40 + year olds are allowed to know this? why not teach this to our kids and gift them with more time to study and evolve.
Teach them too young and they’ll become like Spinoza, teach them older and they’ll cleave to their preconceptions more easily.
First of all, I just want to say I love your channel and your series and I’m learning so much from it. I am so impressed by the breadth of your knowledge and the depth of your academic rigor as well as your kind and generous approach peppered with some great humor.
I do want to offer some nerdy and persnickety corrections regarding your comments in this video on the word Ain and Hebrew dialects.
Maybe someone already pointed this out elsewhere in the comments, but both Ain (ʔɑˈ.jin) and Ein (ʔeːn) are spelled אין (and not עין), which is to say with an aleph, the glottal stop, and not an ע, the voiced pharyngeal fricative. So the literary play between אין סוף (ein sof) and אין (ain) is not exactly a pun, since they are exactly the same word which means “non-“ or “nothing”. Ain is simply the absolute grammatical form whereas Ein is the construct grammatical form (i.e. צורת נסמך).
It is possible, I suppose, that there is a certain play on words between אין (nothing) and עין (eye/fountain/source) - but you would know much better than I. Still, it is very clear that אין and עין were NOT pronounced as homonyms in that place and time. The Sephardic Hebrew dialect maintains the distinction between א and ע even today. Certainly, it has eroded among speakers of the contemporary Israeli dialect (because of influences from the Ashkenazi dialect). But in Sephardic synagogue while reading from the Torah you best believe they will distinguish between the two sounds or else they will be summarily berated by the congregation… Additionally, medieval poetry from Spain makes it utterly clear that ע and א were not at all homonymous. But that doesn’t mean that they don’t make a good pun. They certainly do. And you are absolutely correct that in some Hebrew and Jewish-Aramaic dialects, probably including 1st century Galilean, the sounds had become homonymous - just not in Medieval Spain.
(For context, I am an Israeli native speaker of modern Hebrew and have an undergraduate degree in the Hebrew Bible and have studied various dialects of Hebrew as well as other Semitic languages such as Arabic, Aramaic, and a bit of Ugaritic).
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