Hi, Rabbi Rabbit, welcome to our 'list about our ignorance'. You wrote about "ALL 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet (Babel)" so I clicked (as is my habbit) Google for Hebrew alphabet and found 27 letters. Also: texts I bounce into from Israeli sources look different from those images reproduced in that Google listing. Which one do you prefer in your knowledge? (And please, be prepared for 'unusual' responses on this list<G>)
I have a VAST domain OPEN in my mind for Kabbalah - what I considered in my early years as a sophisticated format of superstition - not later on, when I red about "minds" who took it seriously. Nevertheless I never took the time to investigate it (just as I swept over 'numerology' as well.) Now I am ashamed for my 'giving in' to young-time ignorance and count on your remarks to make me change my opinion (what I do with pleasure any time when I learn something new). Kabbalah must be something serious if you make a living by sudying it. Respectfully though John Mikes On 6/13/10, Rabbi Rabbit <rabbi.rabb...@googlemail.com> wrote: > > 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 everything-l...@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<everything-list%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com> > . > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to everything-l...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en.
