Dear all, I entered to your discussion list from the back door. I am not a scientist or a philosopher, but a graduate student researching Kabbalah, popularly known as Jewish mysticism.
As others here, I knew about this site through "The Theory of Everything". I landed on the this book through Borges' short story "The Library of Babel". As some of you might know, this story is packed with kabbalistic references. My research focuses now on Abraham Abulafia, a Sephardi kabbalist of the 13th century. The reason why I am telling you all of this is that Abulafia had a particular technique to achieve the mystical union (otherwise called prophecy in Jewish sources) with the divine intellect. To make it short, Abulafia's technique consisted in the mental combination of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Abulafia envisioned this technique of letter combination as endless and only limited by human capacity. I claim that Abulafia's letter combination inspired Borges through the groundbreaking work of Gershom Scholem, the pioneer of modern Kabbalah scholarship. The Library of Babel is no other than the Library of Abulafia. Abulafia gave detailed descriptions of his techniques but the ultimate meaning of the letter combination remains elusive. In Abulafian Kabbalah the concept of the "Name of God" is paramount. I would argue that for him the Name of God was the total combination of the 22 letters. The Library of Babel would then spell the Name of God. If we translate this religious jargon from the 13th century to our language, Abulafia's letter combination is the verbal expression of all possible universes. What about this as a definition for a holy writ? But there has to be more to it. What do you think could be the meanings of unlimited letter combinations? What insights could quantum physics bring into kabbalistic interpretations? Let's tear down some discipline barriers! Yours truly, Rabbi Rabbit PD: And for those bluffed by the presence of a Kabbalah scholar here, I recommend you to take a look to the story of Wolfgang Pauli and Carl G. Jung as described in "Deciphering the Cosmic Number". -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en.
