The Messianic Idea in Kabbalah     A human being is a Soul; it's an evolving life which has reached a state of equilibrium between Ruach-Nephesh consciousness and Ruach-Neshamah consciousness. On the Tree of Life this can be explained by the center column alignment of Malkuth-Yesod-Lower/Tiphereth (as the physical form) in conjunction with Higher/Tiphereth-Daath-Keter (as a form of mind). The correspondence here is the equal balance between spirit and matter.   Matter represents complete unconsciousness and spirit represents complete consciousness. As human beings we are evolving life forms or minds that have reached equilibrium between the lowest and the highest Sephirot.   What does it mean to reach equilibrium? It means that once we are aware of these two opposing conditions, we can choose for ourselves between these two states. The higher state of pure spirit represents our 'messianic consciousness' which is our spark of Ain-Soph, or the Neschamah within. In the Hebrew Bible, Isaiah speaks of a coming messiah whose name will be Immanuel. The definition of this name from Hebrew into English is, "The God with us". Kabbalistically, the name Immanuel is defined with one slight modification to mean, "The God with-IN us". These two letters make all the difference in the interpretation of how to live one's life. There are those who are waiting for a liberating person of flesh and blood to do all the work by 'saving' them personally, along with the rest of humanity. Then, there are others who believe the ‘messiah of Neshamah’ has always been with them, and it is they who must do the work of tikkun to repair their Souls, and thus 'save' themselves.   But, what we must grasp is the idea that we are now Life, that we were never anything but Life, and that man in any sense means a life which has reached a given degree of spiritual, intellectual and physical evolution. This can be illustrated by the ascending nature of the Sephirot. Specifically, the Sephira Tiphereth represents the 'messiah-within' (our own ‘Immanuel') who wants to spread the divine light of wisdom in each one of us, and thus 'save' a lifetime which otherwise may have gone to waste.   Manifestly, we have not reached this highest degree of Tiphereth-Daath-Keter consciousness. Even Moses, was not allowed by God to crossover the River Jordan to Tiphereth-Israel due to a small degree of Yesod-ego consciousness associated with a miracle of God which he took credit for. The point is, we should never lose sight of our messianic-consciousness of Tiphereth, no matter where our body may take us.   Remember, from the Zohar, "a spirit becomes a stone, the stone becomes a plant, the plant becomes an animal, the animal becomes a man, and the man becomes a god." This divine aspect of our pure spiritual Selves is called Atziluth-Keter-Yechidah consciousness and when IT descends through the world of Briah to Yetzirah, IT can only manifest ITSELF through the Sephira Tiphereth. There, IT will always be our inner messiah who is just waiting to be heard and experienced.   It is not the Kabalist who is waiting for ‘the coming’ or ‘the second-coming’ of any messiah, rather it is the messiah-within (Immanuel) who is waiting for each one of us to wake-up, evolve spiritually, and thus experience the divine illumination from within. And, as common sense tells us, we must all earn our own way – inch by inch - as we climb this steep ladder seen by Jacob and Enoch. Eventually, this ladder will lead us to the higher Kabbalistic Worlds of consciousness and our own Promised Land of spiritual deliverance.   ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------     Was Charles Dickens A Kabbalist?     “It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men and travel far and wide; and if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death.” - Jacob Marley   Scrooge – Malkuth; greed; selfishness; hard-hearted. (screw+gouge).    Jacob Marley – Yesod; walks in the world of shadows or Tzelem; the foundations of mankind’s conscience.    Bob Crachit – Netzach; the emotional ups and downs of ordinary people; their expectations and disappointments.   Fezzywig - Hod; a man of reason who understands how to treat his employees fairly and still earn a profit. He has the power to cause sadness or happiness among his employees and uses his power wisely.   Tiny Tim – Tiphereth; trust; piety; unconditional love and inner beauty even when physically incapacitated.   Scrooge’s Father - Gevurah; strict; cold; unloving; severe.   Belle – Chesed; the only source of love, devotion and compassion for Scrooge – all of which, he destroys.   Christmas Past – Neshamah; the experiences that make us who we are by our understanding (or lack of understanding) of divine wisdom. The higher mind principle that judges how far we’ve strayed from the path of illumination. Scrooge begins to understand where his life began to take a turn for the worse due to his ego, greed and lack of compassion for others.   Christmas Present – Chochmah; the many opportunities we have in every moment to tap into our divine wisdom and alter the course of our future by planting seeds of kindness, goodness and love. Scrooge begins to understand the importance of the present moment and the deep suffering that afflicts mankind. This is represented by illness of Tiny Tim, who will die unless his father can afford the operation he needs.   Christmas Future – Keter; as Scrooge faces his own mortality, his divine nature awakens and the eternal spark of his soul shines brightly. He has experienced the tikkun of the soul and now he can perform only mitzvot and live the rest of his life as a Tzaddik (a righteousness one). After seeing his own grave, he understands that the physical body and all his worldly possessions will eventually perish, and his most priceless ‘possession’ is truly the eternal, divine nature of his own soul.    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   The Scholars View On Good and Evil                compiled by Robert Waxman     From “The Mystical Shape of The Godhead” by Gershom Scholem   “Love, grace and charity are found in the term Chesed (Sephira #4). Its opposite number on the Sephirothal Tree is the quality of severity, judgment and therefore a restricting power; in the words of the Kabbalists, this is known as Gevurah (Sephira #5).   “The most important thinking on the position of evil focused on the function of Gevurah itself. Here the Spanish Kabbalists returned to earlier Kabbalistic texts, particularly The Sepher ha-Bahir, where at least one stratum explicitly identifies evil with Gevurah (Middath ha-Din). This idea goes so far as to personify God’s power of punishment, ‘The Quality of Severity spoke before God’. It is clear that Gevurah plays the role of a prosecuting angel or, to put it tersely, Satan, who tries to arouse God’s punitive power by accusations and virtually represents it himself. In any event, for the early Kabbalah, the solution to the problem of evil and its effects was primarily linked to the Sephira of Gevurah (Din).”     From “The Wisdom of The Zohar” commentary by Isaiah Tishby   “One of the solutions that The Zohar offers is that evil by earlier, imperfect emanations, which emanated from the first Sephira before the whole structure of emanation from Chochmah downward had been completed. They were called ‘worlds that were destroyed’ or ‘the kings that died’. These early judgments, which existed in the depth of divine thought before they were emanated, contained the root of evil in the form, as it were, of refuse. And the properly ordered system of emanation could not be established until the refuse had been removed from the divine realm. This removal was effected when the worlds were destroyed. The fragments of these destroyed worlds that were beyond repair were left mutilated and covered in darkness outside the divine system. It is from these fragments that sitra ahra (or the Other Side) was constructed.   “The source of evil according to most of the passages in The Zohar however, is the attribute of Judgment, that is, the Sephira Gevurah.”        From The Path of The Upright by Moshe Hayyim Luzzatto   “The evil that befalls the sluggard comes not at once, but gradually and unawares. He is drawn into one evil after another until he finds himself steeped in wrongdoing. He begins by not exerting himself sufficiently.   He is bound to misinterpret the words of The Torah, pervert the truth and transgress the ordinances. When King Solomon said, “Then I saw and considered well”, he was truly saying that he considered this matter and realized the great evil that was in it, which is like a poison that spreads gradually, and the effect of which is not evident until death.     ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------