Spiritual = Spi+Ritual = Psy+Ritual
There is something that I have been meaning to write to this group.
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 Israel. Have no illusions about being immune It holds many Jews in a greater thrall today than it did thousands of years ago because they techniques of it have become all the more sophisticated.
D2
There is something that I have been meaning to write to this group.
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 Israel. Have no illusions about being immune It holds many Jews in a greater thrall today than it did thousands of years ago because they techniques of it have become all the more sophisticated.
D2
posted by Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat | 10:28 PM
