I heard some familiar words spoken in a foreign language by two women and a man sitting at the table next to me, but what drew my attention was something that sounded like “Kabbalah.”
Something or Someone got to me!
I looked up and saw what turned out to be a husband and wife with a younger woman, perhaps a sister of one of them. Went back to reading, adjusted my cap and stretched my sandal-less stocking feet across the chair I use to rest while finishing breakfast at the Conshohocken IKEA. Getting deeper into the book, I continue reading something I can barely comprehend: the 125 degrees of Spirituality in the Kabbalistic Worlds. Caught a little something about Eve in the Garden of Eden. Seems when the Serpent talked with her, Eve claimed the Creator had not only forbidden Adam not to eat of the fruit, but not to even “touch” it. But there was nothing in the Bible saying: “No Touch.” Somebody created a new “prohibition” by adding “Thou Shalt Not Touch,” according to the book, “Kabblah for the Student.”
Kabbalah Credits Keep Cropping Up All Over the World
Coincidentally, a rabbi conducting a Bar Mitzvah in Long Island, NY, where I attended Saturday, told the congregation that Adam was at fault for adding that extra element to the Crimes Code. (my words, not the clergymans’) He found Adam to be at fault for breaking His Rule, forbidding the eating of the fruit. (Watch out, folks. God never said it was an “apple.” Check your Bible. The only reference to any fruit in the Book of Genesis was the type of leaf Adam used to clothe himself when noticing they were naked: a fig leaf.)
But, Kabbalah says it was Eve, and not Adam, that came up with this extra prohibition. She added “Please Don’t Touch” to the mix. And I deduced this. Me, a Recovering Catholic, an Initiate Buddhist, a former student of both Sufi and Hindu philosophy now enmeshed in Kabbalah, have uncovered a discrepancy to send to the good rabbi and see what his learned sages have to say about this.
What’s this all have to do with breakfast at IKEA?
The trio was speaking Russian, from the lands where the greatest Kabbalistic teacher of the 20th century originated, Baal Ha-Sulam. I introduced myself, and casually asked if they were speaking that language. They were. I mentioned I was studying Kabbalah in Philadelphia with a group of Russians from their homeland, Ukraine (participated in two Internet classes just the night before), and “Wallah!” The wife of the man from Kiev went into her pocketbook (one of those oversized ones that carry everything but the kitchen sink!) and pulled out a little red book entitled, you guessed it, “Kabbalah.”
[The first thing they tell you in studying the science of Kabbalah, is that there is nothing mystical about Kabbalah. But, I tell you mysticism is in the eye and the ear of the beholder/listener.]
The husband was not into it. Usually, its the woman leading the man “to the Light.” Wanted to sit and chat, comparing the several “Western” schools of Kabbalah thought, including the “Berg” approach (Michael_Berg_(Kabbalah_Centre), and the one I follow with Rav Michael Laitman, but they had to leave.
“I heard it could cost you some money to study Kabbalah under Berg,” I said to the wife.
“A little,” she said.
Mine’s free,” I said.
“So is the Bible,” the younger woman chimed in, and we all had to agree.
Kabbalah. Three days in a row. Here, there, everywhere. This is no Coincidence. This is Synchronicity. Dare I say, “Mystical?”
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Diagram illustrating concept of synchronicity by CG Jung
Contoveros 
Hi Micheal, how goes your journey? I was somewhat surprised that you too are now discovering Kabbalah, I’ve just started and like you am now “seeing” Kabbalah here there and EVERYWHERE! As always Karen
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Karen,
I’m going to Israel!!!
And. then, India.
See you on my return.
michael j
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hi, michael. i am visiting your website. you have obviously been very busy! i like your clear, honest voice. keep searching… the question _is_ the vessel. see you tomorrow.
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Karen,
I feel so lost. Like I’m adrift in water floating who knows where.
Don’t know how long this “Left Line” will have it’s grip on me. Hope to shake it by Wednesday night.
Hearing your voice here sure helps. Can’t wait to see if I can touch the ‘Right Line” and get back to that MiddlePath!
michael j
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How are you now? I am feeling very lost at the moment too.
xx
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Just finished editing 500 stories. Tweaked some old headlines, and updated graphics on all of ’em like the old time grapical arts printer making the word more pleasing to the eye. (After compiling about 400 of them, I will put print them on paper.)
Need time to do this. Hope to get back into the flow once it is done. Will have a lotta catching up to do, but will make time for it later.
Thank you Viv.
michael j
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Karen,
Something weird is afoot. I knew next to nothing about Kabbalah a year ago. But I got contacted by a Kabbalah group speaking a different language twice in response to articles I wrote.
Thought nothing of it, until now.
Crazy? I don’t know. I’ve had only one glass of red wine up until this point. May have to have a second now!
michael j
See comments following the two articles:
https://contoveros.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/blog-banned-porn-at-school-suspected/
And this one from Oct. 22, 2009<
https://contoveros.wordpress.com/2009/10/22/infinite-mercy-may-set-my-teacher-free/
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Three demonstrations certainly get my attention, too, Michael J. This will be an interesting ‘unfolding’. Look forward to the results. Whenever they happen.
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Amy,
I might stretch this to five in a row with a 1-hour class this evening and a face-to-face Meet-Up Wednesday on the same topic at the Bnei Baruch Learning Center of Philadelphia. (http://www.kabbalah.info/)
michael j
“To Boldly Go . . .”
P.S. I’ll keep you posted!
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You lost me at Ikea breakfast.
joking.
yes, when things happen three in a row, there is something going on.
When you commented over at my blog about me not disappearing just now, it was directly after I’d been discussing just that with my friend J on the phone. And then I found various blogs I like have also either been deleted or made private.
hmmm. something’s going on.
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I “get lost” at IKEA each time I read Kabbalah, but a few things kinda drop into place. Reincarnation, for instance. Something called “Surrounding Light,” “Love thy friend as thyself,” “ultruism versus egoism.” Pretty basic stuff that seems to disappear over time if we don’t nurture ’em.
Maybe your disappearing act is more than what meets the eyes, Viv. Could their be mysticism afoot? How about your connection to the Great Houdini, one of your ancestors?
michael j
(or is it?)
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Sadly my connection to Harry is mythical and one borne merely of admiration and not of genes.
There is indeed mysticism afoot; there is something large and probably dark and dangerous about in the current cosmos. I’ve been troubled lately by the sequences of coincidences, the feelings of despair and hopelessness going on. Not happy at all; something is afoot and I don’t like it and need to know more, but no one is telling me anything useful.
Will write about this soon.
x
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