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Kabbalah 365: Daily Fruit from the Tree of Life PDF

230 Pages·2004·0.96 MB·English
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K a b b a l a h 3 6 5 Kabbalah 365 © 2004 by Gershon Winkler. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of reprints in the context of reviews. For information, write Andrews McMeel Publishing, an Andrews McMeel Universal company, 1130 Walnut Street, Kansas City, Missouri 64106. www.andrewsmcmeel.com APPR Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kabbalah 365 : daily fruit from the tree of life / Gershon Winkler ; foreword by Andrew Weil. p. cm. Includes index. E-ISBN: 978-1-44941319-4 1. Cabala—Translations into English. 2. Rabbis—Anecdotes—Translations into English. 3. Rabbinical literature—Translations into English. I. Winkler, Gershon, 1949-BM525.A2K32 2004 296.1’6—dc22 2004049085 ATTENTION: SCHOOLS AND BUSINESSES Andrews McMeel books are available at quantity discounts with bulk purchase for educational, business, or sales promotional use. For information, please write to: Special Sales Department, Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC, 1130 Walnut Street, Kansas City, Missouri 64106. [email protected] Cover design by Ziklag Design Cover illustrations © Archivo Iconografico, S.A./Corbis and © Stapleton Collection/Corbis To Robert A. Levin, whose wisdom I will always cherish, and whose vision and generosity have contributed immensely to the quality of my life and that of myriad others F OREWORD By Andrew Weil, M.D. In my work as a health professional I have found that healing is not so much about fixing as it is about restoring balance and perspective, and getting past old patterns. Kabbalah 365 is a unique book that I believe can help get us unstuck. Gershon Winkler has gleaned his information from many sources, mostly from ancient and early medieval Hebraic and Aramaic texts, to compile a unique collection of aphorisms and stories. Each daily reading is meant to remind us of the magic of being alive and the profound gifts that each moment can bring. As he does in his workshops and seminars, Rabbi Winkler renders user-friendly the more cryptic teachings of lesser-known Kabbalistic source texts and oral traditions in order to inspire and inform our lives. Readers of all backgrounds, religious or not, will discover in this book a body of wisdom that shows that nothing is etched in stone and everything is far more than it appears. Moreover, these teachings and parables free up our imagination, enabling us to discover, each in his or her own individual way our own Kabbalistic experience of the magic of this life. Kabbalah literally means “Receiving.” It exists to encourage us to remain always open to receive anew the wisdom that waits to be discovered in ourselves, in each other, and in the beings with whom we share this planet. I have long been drawn to the Kabbalah but have rarely found the time and stamina to wade through the few available English renditions of its dense and often cryptic texts. But here, at last, is a book that recasts these very same teachings—including a great many more that I never knew about—into a readable vernacular that remains true to the spirit and intention of the original sources. Did you know, for example, that when birds fly, their wings slice through the ether, allowing divine energies to enter our world? Did you know that if you see an eagle it is a sign of compassion? Did you know that the winds of the four directions gift us with healing, vision, mystery, and balance? Or that the very first thing the Creator made was a rock, and from that rock all of the universe emerged? Did you know that deep within the very obstacles that stand in the way of your journey toward enlightenment is precisely where enlightenment waits to be discovered? These and so many more useful teachings await you within these pages. P REFACE The teachings in this book were translated by the author into user- friendly renditions from sources that include but are not limited to the following Aramaic and Hebraic sources: Babylonian Talmud, Batei Midrashot, Etz Ha’Chayyim, Jerusalem Talmud, Kit’vei Ha’Ari, Likuttei Ha’MaHaRaN, M’irat Ey’nayim, Midrash Ha’Heychalot, Midrash HaNe’elam, Midrash Pesik’ta D’Rav Kahana, Midrash Pesik’ta Rabatti, Midrash P’liyah, Midrash Rabbah, Midrash Tanchuma, Midrash Tehilim, Nefesh Ha’Chayyim, Rei’Sheet Choch’mah, Sefer Ha’Bahir, Sefer Ha’Razim, Sefer HaRoke’ach, Sefer Hash’lah Ha’kadosh, Sefer Ha’Zohar, Sefer Ru’ach Ha’Kodesh, Sefer So’day Ra’zeya, Sefer Yetzirah, Shoshan Y’sod Olam, Sif’rei Ha’Maharal, Tanakh, and various oral traditions. I NTRODUCTION Kabbalah 365 is a unique collection of rare Jewish mystery wisdom gathered mostly from original Hebraic and Aramaic sources. Some are accessible in various English translations; however, most remain untranslated and often in manuscript form, hidden away in academic library archives. These selected readings for every day of the yearly cycle are intended as contemplative, inspirational, and at times entertaining. They are also replete with kernels of wisdom that are pragmatic and timeless, cryptic and evident. Many of these nuggets are presented here for the first time in the English language, and all are phrased in the contemporary vernacular. Even more of them are based largely on lesser-promulgated Kabbalistic texts that both teachers and students of the Kabbalah will find fresh and unparalleled in their studies to date. The Kabbalah has for millennia been an integral body of wisdom largely responsible for inspiring and fostering the dynamic quality of Judaism’s oral and written traditions. Through the most trying times in Jewish history, it was the vision of the mystic that stirred aliveness in the soul of the people, and that time and again prevented theological atrophy in a tradition that was repeatedly denigrated by dominant cultures and religions. The Kabbalah moved the devotees of Judaism to explore the Scriptures of their faith beyond their textual contents to discover the soul behind the words, and then the soul behind the soul, ad infinitum. To this day, the Kabbalah challenges linear thinking, and discourages literal meaning and experience as the sole determinants of truth. More than any other body of wisdom, the Kabbalah keeps an ancient tradition from weakening with age, offering instead ever- renewed strength. It is no wonder, then, that our current era—a product largely of rationalistic, scientific, and “enlightened” paradigms that had all but dismissed mysticism and shamanism—has witnessed a resurgence of interest in the Kabbalah emerging not solely from the Jewish community but also from people of other spiritual and cultural backgrounds. The current return of the human spirit’s intrigue with mysticism, whether the Kabbalah or other forms of mystery wisdom, is neither incidental nor coincidental but is rather reflective of the nature of the human spirit. The Kabbalah was born out of the more primitive desire of the human spirit to bask in more than the end-product of life’s knowledge and meaning, yearning as well for the gift of the process, the journey, and the ever-unfolding phases of being in this life rather than achieving. True achievement, the Kabbalists realized, is not to be found in the finale of the accomplishment as much as it is to be found in the moment- to-moment mystery that ultimately brings you there. This book is therefore unique in that it will guide you not toward any particular climax, or “point,” or objective, but toward the gift of the moment, of each day—of the single, yet undefined phase of your individual unfolding and of your personal understanding and appreciation of life. Every day of the solar year, you can be awakened by a tidbit of wisdom from the Kabbalah, awakened to the gift of self, the gift of other, the gift of knowing, and even the gift of not knowing. Every page of this book will remind you that there is more to life than life itself, and that there is richness to just being, a richness that knows no boundaries, that has not been fathomed or explored to its fullest, not even by the Kabbalah. Rather, each person contemplating or meditating upon the teachings and stories in this book will be challenged to delve deeper, to expand farther, and to open their heart to receive from what waits to give. After all, Kabbalah literally translates as: “Receiving.”

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Every day is a chance for a new beginning - an awakening. Start each day with the gift of time-tested wisdom from the Kabbalah. Kabbalah 365 is a unique collection of rare Jewish mystery and understanding. People from all walks of life are finding their paths illuminated within the Kabbalah. Each se
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