Preface
3. Mystical Physiology
The Vision of Ezekiel
In one of the visions of Ezekiel,[1] the prophet finds himself in valley full of “dry bones.” He is commanded to prophesy over the bones that they should hear the word of God and live:
So said God to these bones,
“Behold, I shall bring spirit into you and you shall live.
And I shall place blood vessels on you
and raise flesh upon you, and cover you with skin.
And I shall breathe spirit into you and you shall live,
and you shall know that I am God.”
Ezekiel watches as, incredibly, the bones come together and become covered with blood vessels, flesh, and skin. “But there was no breath in them.” Ezekiel is again commanded to prophesy:
Thus says God:
“Come from four directions, come, O spirit,
and blow into these corpses, that they may live.”
Finally, the corpses come to life and Ezekiel finds standing before him “a very large army…the whole House of Israel,” whom God promises to bring back to its rightful home.
In Ezekiel’s vision, which alludes to the resurrection of the dead at the End of Days, we find a four-level depiction of the body—bones, blood vessels, flesh, and skin—and a fifth, spiritual level that gives life to the body, the spirit. The model most fitting for a comparative analysis of this structure, implied in the phrase “come from four directions, O spirit,” is God’s four-letter essential Name Havayah, which we discussed earlier.
The bones, blood vessels, flesh, and skin correspond to the four letters of the Divine Name, with the upper tip of the yud corresponding to the fifth, transcendent level of the spirit.[2]
The first letter of the Divine Name, yud, alludes to the seminal, essential point of consciousness, inasmuch as the form of the letter yud is the most compact of all the Hebrew letters, serving as their structural core. The letter yud of the Name Havayah corresponds to chochmah, the seminal essence of created reality, as it is written, “You made them all with chochmah.”[3] Thus, the yud may be seen as the seed of life. Similarly, the bones may be seen as the body’s self-regenerating seed, as blood cells are produced in the bone marrow. Indeed, the word for “bone marrow” in Hebrew is the same as that for “brain” (mo’ach), the seat of chochmah, as it is said, “chochmah is the brain.”[4]
The skeletal system, the most basic frame of the body, supports all the additional physiological systems—such as the muscular system, the circulatory system, the nervous system, etc.—that are layered upon it. This is alluded to by the fact that the word for “bone” (etzem) also means “self” or “essence,” that is, the core of one’s being.
The second letter of the Divine Name, hei, is visualized in Kabbalah as a three-dimensional letter—with the two attached sides projecting length and width, while the third dimension is suggested in the detached foot that we are taught to imagine as a line running through the page, thus manifesting the dimension of depth. Overall, the letter hei refers to expansion, in all three dimensions of the physical body, starting from the point of essence, which here is seen as the skeletal system. In spiritual terms, hei corresponds to binah, the understanding in the heart that spreads out to animate the entire body and to motivate its myriad functions. Thus, physically, the first hei of God’s Name reflects the circulatory system, which can be described as the basic inner communication of life-force within the body. The circulatory system provides all the limbs and organs of the body with a sense of togetherness and interdependence—“we are all part of the same organism”—and is thus the body’s internal “understanding” of self.
The third letter of the Divine Name, vav, refers to the basic emotive characteristics—the midot—of which there are six, the numerical equivalent of the letter vav. (The vav most particularly corresponds to tiferet, which, as we saw in chapter 1, signifies the torso, the “trunk” of the body.) One’s character attributes relative to one’s understanding are like the flesh that fills out the body, which in turn is filled with and enclothes the blood vessels. In terms of consciousness, the flesh signifies our normative self-awareness, the way we normally feel ourselves (in contrast to the skeleton and circulatory system, which signify our relationship to our inner core and motivations).
The fourth letter of the Divine Name, the final hei, refers to the skin, the most exterior layer and outer clothing of the body. Skin serves as the body’s sensor and protector and is responsible for the body’s surface appearance, thus fittingly serving as the “kingdom” (malchut) of the four general divisions of the body. Malchut is termed “the revealed world,” the way things appear.
Whenever this four-level system is used to contemplate existence, there is always a fifth, higher and all-inclusive level that animates the other four. This fifth level is seen as the source of existence, and in the case of the body is the spirit of life, which comes to breathe life into all the other levels. Similarly, the sefirah of keter, the all-inclusive source of all the other sefirot, is referred to as “the source of life.”[5]
י |
keter |
spirit of life |
source of existence |
י |
chochmah |
bones |
inner core of self |
ה |
binah |
blood vessels |
inner motivations |
ו |
midot |
flesh |
normative self-awareness |
ה |
malchut |
skin |
exterior protection |
The Physiological Systems of the Body
Open any basic text of human physiology and you will find the functions of the body divided into systems such as: the nervous system, the respiratory system, the circulatory system, the digestive system, the reproductive system, etc. And so it is from the viewpoint of Kabbalah.
As we have seen above, an analysis of the body using the basic model of the Name Havayah, based on the vision of Ezekiel, allows us a glimpse into the spiritual connections for the respiratory system (spirit or breath of life), the skeletal system (bones), the circulatory system (blood vessels), the muscular system (flesh), and the protective system of the skin.
From this basic analysis of the body, we can proceed to a more detailed analysis in which each of the ten properties of the soul relates explicitly to a physiological system in the body.[1]
left axis |
middle axis |
right axis |
keter “crown” |
||
binah “understanding” |
chochmah “wisdom” |
|
da’at “knowledge” |
||
gevurah “might” |
chesed “loving-kindness” |
|
tiferet “beauty” |
||
hod “thanksgiving” |
netzach “victory” |
|
yesod “foundation” |
||
ateret hayesod source of malchut |
||
malchut “kingdom” |
The first property, that of the keter, the super-conscious “crown,” corresponds to the respiratory system, the physical conduit through which the spirit of life enters the body.
When God created Adam, He “formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.”[2] Thus, we learn that the breath of life comes from God on high, the source of all life. In breathing, we internalize that which is exterior to us; we inhale from that which is above us.
The Hebrew word for “inhaling” (she’ifah) also means “aspiration.” Thus, breathing is an expression of the soul’s innate desire to ascend and go beyond its conscious self into the realm of its super-conscious link to God, as experienced in its super-rational faith, pleasure, and will.
Thus, a lack of pleasure and will in life (reflecting a lack of faith in the Divine purpose of life) may well result in dysfunction of the respiratory system. One should attempt to “breathe” into his being newly inspired aspiration to live.
Chochmah (“wisdom”) corresponds to the bone marrow. Major medical research now regards bone marrow as a system in its own right. As stated above, bone marrow is responsible for producing blood cells—the most basic biological unit in the body. Just as every aspect of the body depends on the bone marrow, so too, all of existence depends on chochmah, as King David teaches us: “[God,] You have made all [of Your creations] with wisdom.”[3]
A lack of insightfulness may indicate a weak bone-marrow system. The answer lies in the devoted study of the inner dimension of the Torah, namely Kabbalah and Hassidism, which awakens the soul’s innate faculty of chochmah. The production of blood cells from the bone marrow resembles, on the physical plane, a creative process of “something from nothing.” On the spiritual plane, experiencing oneself continuously being created ex nihilo may well serve to strengthen one’s bone-marrow system.
Binah (“understanding”) is associated with the blood itself, now also considered a physiological system in its own right, in addition to the circulatory system of the blood vessels. Binah, which is cognate to the root b-n-h (“to build”), receives its raw material from chochmah, the bone marrow, expanding its encoded information. In Kabbalah, binah is referred to as the “mother,” whose primary contributions to the formation of her child are the red aspects of his or her body, as we saw earlier in our discussion of the eye. In contrast, chochmah is referred to as the “father,” who generates the white aspects of the body, such as the bones.
Of the mother, it is said, “the mother of the children is joyful.”[4] A lack of joy in life may reflect a problem in the blood. In Hassidism, we are taught that a deep, inner sense of joy comes from meditating on God’s Divine providence over all His creations. Similar to the effect of the blood on the limbs of the body, Divine providence links together God’s creations to experience themselves as one organism. With the sense of God’s care for all comes joy. Providence channels Divine life-force to each of God’s creations, and as blood in a living organism, the life-force flows freely from one being to another, from the healthy limb to heal the diseased limb. The joy of witnessing Divine providence in one’s life may thus serve to cure ailments relating to the blood.
These two relatively abstract physiological systems—the bone marrow and the blood—assume the roles of “father” and “mother” in the body and function together in perfect union. In Kabbalah, the continual union of the “father” and “mother” principles is responsible for the ongoing creation of reality. In the words of the Zohar: “the father [here, the bone marrow] and the mother [here, the blood] are two partners that never separate.”[5] Their union, expressing the inner creative power of the living soul, is continuous, as illustrated by the fact that the bone marrow continuously creates new blood cells.
Before proceeding to describe the physiological system that corresponds to the third intellectual property of the soul, da’at (situated below keter on the middle axis of the Tree of Life), we will present the two systems that correspond to chesed and gevurah. These systems are situated below chochmah and binah, respectively, on the right and left axes of the Tree of Life. As they are directly related to their “parent” systems and function together with them, it is appropriate to discuss them at this point.
The sefirah directly under chochmah is chesed (“loving-kindness”). Chesed is personified by Abraham, as in the words of the prophet Micah, “give loving-kindness to Abraham.”[6] The numerical value of Abraham’s name (248) is equivalent to the number of bones in the body[7] and the number of positive, active commandments of the Torah, as stated above. Consequently, chesed, the attribute of Abraham, is identified with the skeletal system.
The inner, emotive experience of chesed is love. God calls Abraham “the one who loves Me.”[8] Love of God and man, who is created in the image of God, may well serve as a spiritual remedy for skeletal diseases. To love God is to perform, in love, all of the 248 active commandments of the Torah.[9] To love one’s fellow man is to help him in every way possible.
The phrase in the Torah “the God of Abraham,”[10] is understood in Kabbalah to refer to the overarching, Divine life-force of Abraham, the faculty of chochmah above the attribute of chesed. The bones of the body act as the vessels or containers for the bone marrow. Thus, the physiological analogy to the spiritual level referred to as “the God of Abraham” is the system of the bone marrow above the system of the skeleton.
Similarly, while binah refers to the blood, it is the property of gevurah (“might”), located directly beneath binah on the Tree of Life, that gives “shape” and direction to the blood, controlling its circulation throughout the body. It channels the blood and directs it into specific vessels (which it itself creates), the blood vessels of the circulatory system. According to Kabbalah, there are 365 major blood vessels in the human body, which correspond to the 365 prohibitive commandments of the Torah.
The 365 blood vessels correspond as well to the 365 days of the solar year. Each one of these blood vessels includes both an artery and its related vein. The distinction between arteries and veins is made as follows: the arteries (which pulsate) are likened to the days of the year (which are characterized by activity/pulsation) while the veins (which do not pulsate) are likened to the nights (which are characterized by rest). Each complete blood vessel thus includes a full circuit, a day and a night.
While we might first regard the blood and blood vessels as a single system, they are now understood to be two separate systems, as mentioned above. In Hassidic thought, the force of contraction (gevurah) that the blood vessels exert on the blood itself serves to strengthen the life-force inherent in the blood.[11]
Contraction is an act of “might,” the basic meaning of gevurah. Its inner experience is awe in the presence of God and fear of the consequences of disobeying Him. With awe comes the might to control and direct the life-force flowing, in the form of blood, through the body.[12] The archetypal soul in the Torah that personifies gevurah is Isaac, who, amongst the patriarchs, lived a full life of 180 years—180 “days” (summers) and 180 “nights” (winters)—in the Torah, a year is called a “day” (of “night,” winter, and “day,” summer)—completing a full cycle of 360 degrees. A healthy circulatory system is thus dependent upon “the fear/awe of Isaac,”[13] the source of might in the soul.
We will now return to the third intellectual property of the soul, da’at (“knowledge”), and its physiological system.
The faculty of da’at (“knowledge”) in the soul corresponds to the nervous system in the body. Da’at is understood in Kabbalah to be the seat of all of the soul’s sensitivity and feeling. The body’s sensors are its nerves.
In Kabbalah, we are taught that da’at possesses two seemingly antithetical but ultimately complementary sides. The first appearance of da’at in the Torah is in reference to “the Tree of Knowledge [da’at] of Good and Evil.” From this we understand that da’at is a sense of spiritual or moral polarity. The soul’s power to sense good and to be attracted to it is referred to as the “right side” of da’at, whereas the soul’s power to sense evil and to repel it is referred to as the “left side” of da’at. In a rectified soul, the attraction to good entails conscious self-awareness of loving good, whereas the soul’s fear of evil, responsible for repelling and fighting off the evil, operates at the unconscious level of the soul.
Abstracting and extending this understanding, the right side of da’at corresponds to all of one’s conscious sensations and voluntary reactions, while the left side of da’at corresponds to all one’s unconscious sensations and involuntary reactions.
In terms of the nervous system, the right side of da’at corresponds to the voluntary nervous system, referred to as the cerebrospinal nervous system. Here, conscious sensation and control of the body implies self-awareness, knowing oneself. In a rectified personality, knowing oneself is necessary in order to act constructively in the world and help others. For this reason, this side of da’at is identified with the right.
The left side of da’at corresponds to the involuntary nervous system, the autonomic nervous system, which itself divides into the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems. The parasympathetic system serves to slow the heart, dilate the blood vessels, increase the activity of the glands, constrict the pupils of the eyes, etc., whereas the sympathetic system does the opposite.
Serving as the unconscious side of da’at, the involuntary nervous system allows all of the body’s necessary functions to perform automatically. Naturally occurring processes such as digestion and respiration function without a person’s conscious involvement. Such functions are necessary in order for the body to sustain itself.
Since da’at entails the dual sensitivity of attraction to good and repulsion from evil, we must properly balance the tensions created by these two opposite forces. Therefore, it is here that we find the seat of free choice in the soul. To strengthen one’s nervous system is to strengthen one’s power of free choice, to be clear and unequivocal about choosing good and the same for repelling evil. In the words of the Torah, “See, I have given you this day life and good, death and evil…and you shall choose life.”[14]
By choosing good as defined by the Torah, God’s word to man, one unites with God, the ultimate, absolute good. The inner experience of da’at is union. It is the experience of union that creates the balance between the two opposing sides of da’at, the attraction to good and the repulsion from evil. To strengthen one’s power of free choice, and thereby one’s nervous system, one must strengthen his consciousness of union with God and the Divine souls of Israel, “an actual part of God.”[15]
Directly below da’at on the middle axis of the Tree of Life, the sefirah of tiferet (“beauty”) corresponds to the muscular system of the body. The heart, which belongs both to the muscular system as well as to the circulatory system, tends to the left side of the body, alluding to the combined forces of gevurah and tiferet. In general, a sound, well-developed muscular system makes for a beautiful body. Muscles are the seat of the body’s physical strength. Here also, we see the combined forces of the spiritual attributes of gevurah and tiferet.
The inner experience of tiferet is compassion. In Kabbalah, we are taught that in the Divine soul, characterized in particular by its property of da’at (its power to choose good), its attribute of compassion (tiferet, directly below da’at) is most potent. (This is in contrast to those souls that lack the faculty of da’at. Their feeling of mercy on others is mere pity, and they are unable to bring this feeling to its actualization.) Potent compassion begins with a sense of true empathy for the other, and possesses the strength of character necessary to succeed in extending one’s hand to the other to extricate him from his troubles. On the spiritual plane, potent compassion reflects a strong heart and a strong muscular system.[16]
Before describing the physiological systems that correspond to the two sefirot following tiferet—netzach (to the right) and hod (to the left)—we will continue along the middle axis of the Tree of Life.
Yesod (“foundation”), the continuation and extension of tiferet, is the power of self-actualization in the soul. Here, on the physical plane it manifests itself as the reproductive system, the innate capacity to re-produce or re-create one’s own self in the form of progeny.[17]
The inner experience of yesod is truth or verification, in the sense of realization or self-fulfillment. Clearly, there is no greater self-fulfillment than physical reproduction,[18] bringing into the world another soul, a reflection of oneself, created in the image of God.[19] Thus, to strengthen one’s reproductive system, one must make every effort to realize his life’s dreams in general. This is the power of the soul of Joseph, the archetypal soul of yesod in Kabbalah, who saw his dreams come true.
(In modern society, the mistake is often made that pursuing a career in order to fulfill oneself in life contradicts devoting oneself to marriage and raising a family. In truth, self-fulfillment in all avenues of life and devotion to raising a family are interdependent. Realizing oneself in the world begins with the conscious realization that the greatest possible self-fulfillment is reproduction and raising a family—fulfilling the blessing that God gave man on the day of his creation: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and conquer it…”[20]—and that this does not prevent one from simultaneously pursuing a career.)
Upon further reflection, it can be seen that an additional property of the soul and an additional physiological system issues from yesod to become the source of malchut, the sefirah immediately below it. The source of malchut in yesod is known as ateret hayesod, literally, “the crown of the yesod [i.e., of the brit].” This property of the soul corresponds to the sign of the covenant of circumcision—the brit milah.
The act of circumcision is a two-fold process performed on the skin of the male brit: removal of the foreskin and the peeling back of the mucous membrane to reveal the crown of the organ. This process refines the initially coarse physical skin, making it capable of reflecting spiritual light. This is alluded to in the phonetic affinity in Hebrew of the words for “skin” (or, with an ayin) and “light” (or, with a alef).[21] Hence, the brit milah, specifically the manifestation of the crown of the organ—ateret hayesod—is regarded as the origin of the physiological system of the skin.[22]
Additionally, the word chosen in Sefer Yetzirah for the brit is maor, cognate to the word for “skin” (or). Not by coincidence is the skin that must be removed in circumcision called, in English, the “foreskin.” In Hebrew, it is called the orlah, also from the sub-root or (“skin”).
As taught in Kabbalah and known especially in homeopathy, healthy skin relates to a healthy sexual life. For a Jew this means “guarding of the brit” and leading a healthy sexual life according to the parameters of the Torah.
Like the first sefirah of keter, the final sefirah of malchut (“kingdom”) also relates to internalizing a necessary component of life from the external world. Extracting the spiritual and physical “sparks” of nourishment from the lower realms of reality (the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms), and ingesting them, transforms them into vital human energy. Digestion operates as a clarification process whereby useful elements from the environment are assimilated into the body, while waste products are expelled.[23]
However, in contrast to keter—which represents the respiratory system and involves a dynamic of descent whereby vital energy (oxygen) is drawn down into the body from the air or heavens above—malchut, which represents digestion, involves the opposite dynamic, that is, the elevation into the body of “fallen sparks” of energy (nourishment), extracted from the products of the earth below. A feminine image in Kabbalah, malchut alludes to the digestive system, as in King Solomon’s description of the “woman of valor” who “gives food to her house [body].”[24]
The inner experience of rectified malchut is a feeling of existential lowliness, of being far from God and longing to return to Him (in contrast to the inner experience of chochmah, pure and simple selflessness). Lowliness also implies the power to lower oneself to those below one. This power is especially necessary for a king. (In Kabbalah, the king’s sitting on his throne is his lowering himself to judge and provide for his people.)
As above, one eats in order to elevate fallen sparks, to find, identify and redeem, sparks of Godliness in levels of creation below oneself. This requires a spiritual service of lowering oneself in order to uplift the fallen sparks. In expelling waste products from the body, one is to meditate on his own state of existential lowliness. Thus, on the spiritual plane, a healthy digestive system depends upon a sense of lowliness, the power to lower oneself to that which is below him, and the longing to return to God with one’s booty of fallen sparks.
We will now return to the two remaining sefirot, netzach and hod. (Normally, in the order of the sefirot, netzach and hod come before yesod and malchut. However, in relation to the body, the sefirot of netzach and hod, which correspond to the legs, extend below yesod and malchut, for which reason they are the last physiological systems to be described here.)
Netzach (“victory”) corresponds to the endocrine system, comprising glands and hormones, while hod (“thanksgiving”) represents the immune system. Of all the systems in the body, these are the two most recently understood in the medical world to function together. So too, netzach and hod, the two legs, function together. In the words of Kabbalah, netzach and hod are “two halves of the same body,” or, colloquially, “two sides of the same coin.”
Netzach, situated under chesed on the right axis of the Tree of Life, means both “victory” and also “eternity.” It is the ability to overcome obstacles that stand in the way of the body’s growth and development processes, those processes that ensure sound health and longevity. Working to generate new cells and structures within the body, the hormones of the endocrine system perpetuate the life of the body and aid it to overcome the obstacles of time. Netzach is also understood in Kabbalah as the “milk” that nurtures the growth and development motivated by chesed from which it branches out.
The inner experience of netzach is (self-)confidence, the confidence that God always stands at our side to give us the power to succeed in all of our self-initiated endeavors.[25] In order to grow and develop spiritually, a youth must be taught[26] to acquire a balanced, rectified sense of self-confidence.[27] This must be nurtured in his consciousness just as an infant nurses on his mother’s milk. An imbalance in one’s hormones may reflect an imbalance in one’s inner sense of confidence. In order for one’s hormones to properly regulate one’s metabolism, one must learn how to manifest and regulate, control and orchestrate, one’s energies. One of the meanings of netzach is “orchestration.”
Finally, we turn to hod, which corresponds to the immune system, the physiological system that fights disease. The immune system monitors that which properly belongs in the body and that which is a foreign invader. A healthy immune system annihilates destructive foreign intrusions into the body; an unhealthy immune system turns on the body itself. In Part II, when we discuss illness and healing, we will focus on the immune system and examine it in detail.
The inner experience of hod is sincerity. Sincerity implies honesty in all one’s social transactions. The word hod means “acknowledgement” and “thanksgiving.” To strengthen one’s immune system, one must cultivate in his soul a sense of thanks to all those benevolent to him, and acknowledge his indebtedness to others, both for their physical as well as spiritual gifts to him (as when one acknowledges the truth of another’s words, thanking him for enlightening him and correcting his previous mistaken assumption). With sincere acknowledgement of one’s indebtedness to others, transcending egocentric subjectivity, one reaches the objectivity necessary to recognize an ally or a foe, to link to the ally and fight off the foe, both on the spiritual and physical planes.
Part Two: Kabbalistic Understanding of Disease
שכינתא מרעא בגלותא
The Divine Presence is Ill in the Exile
Tikunei Zohar 142b
4. Origins of Disease
Evil, Disease, and Fear
According to Kabbalah, disease is a phenomenon of the unbalanced left side of the sefirot and the properties of the soul. As we saw above in our discussion of da’at, the right side of da’at is the (conscious) attraction to good, while the left side of da’at is the (unconscious) repulsion of evil. In Sefer Yetzirah, evil and disease are identified as the same: “there is no more evil than disease.”[1] The left side senses evil for, in a certain respect, it is the ultimate origin of evil, i.e., evil or disease is a degenerate manifestation of the left. This is so for the left, in Kabbalah, signifies contraction (tzimtzum) or concealment of Divine light and life-force, ultimately resulting in a frightening experience of the darkness of night; i.e., absence of the revelation of God’s presence and providence in the world. In the soul, the central experience of the left (the inner experience of gevurah, the middle point of the left axis, its center of gravity), is fear. Any fear, other than the fear of God, is a source of disease.
The human psyche is full of fears. Some are conscious; others are unconscious. Some have developed over one’s lifetime; others are innate, inherited from parents or experiences in the mother’s womb; yet others derive from previous lifetimes. With progressive stages in maturity come the insight and spiritual power to identify and overcome fears, even those most deeply rooted in one’s psyche.
A weakness in any one of the spiritual attributes that correlate to the physiological systems of the body is a contraction (tzimtzum) of that particular attribute. That is to say, that if a particular attribute is strong and complete, it is “right,” while if it is weak and incomplete, it is “left.” The result: fear, at that level of the soul.
For example, if one’s spiritual attribute of compassion (correlating to the muscular system of the body) is weak, one becomes afraid, whether consciously or unconsciously, to express compassion toward another, lest he cause damage to himself. This fear, in turn, may result in heart disease or some other disease relating to the muscular system. And so it is with regard to the other attributes of the soul and physiological systems of the body. Each individual fear reflects a syndrome, from weakness to fear to disease. Preventive medicine seeks to catch and treat the weakness before it develops into a psychological phobia and a physical illness.
The Three Primal Fears
The origins of disease can generally be traced to three primal fears, three focal points of fear or core traumas in the human psyche:
❖ fear of rape
❖ fear of murder, and
❖ fear of insanity.
Underlying all of these fears is the fear of death, but each one anticipates death by a different route.
For the collective consciousness of the Jewish people (“the community does not die,”[1] so its underlying fear is not death in the normal sense of the word), the focus of fear is the fear of exile—the communal state of disease, as will be explained at length in Chapter 5. The Talmud likens the three major exiles of the Jewish people—Egyptian, Babylonian, and Roman (known as the exile of Edom)—to a man being attacked by a wolf, a lion, and a snake, respectively:
A man was on a journey and a wolf attacked him, but he escaped unharmed. Continuing his journey, he told the story of the wolf until a lion attacked him and he escaped unharmed. Continuing his journey, he told the story of the lion until a snake attacked him and he escaped unharmed. He then forgot about the first two assaults and told only the story of the snake. So it is with Israel: their more recent troubles make them forget their earlier troubles.[2]
The fear of the wolf alludes, in particular, to the fear of rape or any other form of sexual molestation.
The fear of rape refers, in an extended way, to any compulsory invasion of oneself by something other than oneself. This fear exists on all levels, both physically and psychologically. While primarily a feminine manifestation of fear, the fear of the wolf and all of its implications can also manifest itself in the male—as a man can also fear rape to a certain degree. Labeling this fear as feminine only means that it is more pronounced in women. Finally, the association of the wolf with the rapist is not restricted to the Talmud; in modern media, too, the sexual predator is often symbolized as a wolf.
The fear of the lion is linked to the primal fear of murder, the fear of death. People who harbor this fear in their heart unconsciously fear the lion figure, lurking in the dark, about to consume them. While the fear of the wolf is the fear of being attacked and harmed, the fear of the lion is the fear of being consumed.
The fear of the snake, whose venom affects the mind—as did the words spoken by the primordial snake to Eve in the Garden of Eden—is the fear of insanity. As in the case of the primordial sin, temporary insanity can be identified as the cause of all wrongdoing. Losing one’s mind, or a loss of attention to one’s deeds, opens up the possibility of sin, for if people were truly to know what they were doing, they would be aware of the implications and consequences of their actions, and they would never transgress.[3] In the words of the sages, “no one commits a sin unless he has been overtaken by temporary insanity [literally, ‘a spirit of folly’].”[4]
This is alluded to in the Talmudic passage quoted above, in which the man on the journey forgets his previous traumas only when attacked by the snake. It is not stated that he forgets the story of the wolf when attacked by the lion, just that he does not tell it. Only the trauma of the snake so affects the mind to the extent that all previous impressions are blotted out.
These three syndromes, the fear of the wolf, lion, and snake, correspond to the three levels of the soul discussed above. The “wolf syndrome” corresponds to the behavioral properties of the soul (the three sefirot of netzach, hod, and yesod). The “lion syndrome” corresponds to the emotive properties of the soul (the three sefirot of chesed, gevurah, and tiferet). The “snake syndrome” corresponds to the intellectual properties of the soul (the three sefirot of chochmah, binah, and da’at).
Each triplet of sefirot comprises a sefirah of the right axis, a sefirah of the left axis, and a sefirah of the middle axis. “Right” implies attraction or love; “left” implies repulsion or fear; “center” implies a sense of self that may tend either to the right or to the left.[5] Each of the three syndromes of fear described above reflects an exaggerated tendency of the self toward the left, toward fear.
left axis fear |
middle axis sense of self |
right axis love |
|
keter skull |
|||
intellectual properties snake syndrome |
binah left hemisphere |
chochmah right hemisphere of brain |
|
da’at posterior of brain |
|||
emotive properties lion syndrome |
gevurah left arm |
chesed right arm |
|
tiferet torso |
|||
behavioral properties wolf syndrome |
hod left leg |
netzach right leg |
|
yesod brit |
|||
malchut mouth |
The wolf syndrome, the fear of rape, as well as the act of rape itself, relates to the sefirah of yesod (“foundation”), the brit in the body. The fear of rape preys, like a wolf, upon the sefirah of hod (“thanksgiving”), the immune system, which is the defense mechanism of the body against foreign invasion. This syndrome may thereby be understood as yesod inclined “left” toward hod.
The lion syndrome, the fear of murder, relates to the middle part of the body, the torso, tiferet (“beauty”), the location of the heart. In particular, however, the physical heart is situated on the left side of the body, in the realm of gevurah (“might”). As stated earlier, the heart belongs to two of the physiological systems, the circulatory (gevurah) and the muscular (tiferet), being the body’s major muscle. A further indication of the relation of the lion to gevurah is that in Hebrew the word for “lion” (aryeh) and gevurah possess the same numerical value (216). Thus, the fear of the lion consuming one’s heart may be understood as tiferet inclined “left” toward gevurah.[6]
Finally, the snake syndrome, the fear of insanity, attacks the intellectual properties of the mind. The snake (and the soul’s sensitivity to the snake which is the soul’s archenemy) corresponds to the sefirah of da’at (“knowledge”), as in the episode of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, where the snake tempts Eve. The snake is the personification of the evil da’at and Eve is the personification of binah (“understanding”). Thus, the fear of insanity is da’at inclined “left” toward binah.[7]
To summarize:
snake syndrome |
fear of insanity |
da’at tending toward binah |
lion syndrome |
fear of murder |
tiferet tending toward gevurah |
wolf syndrome |
fear of rape |
yesod tending toward hod |
Images of wolf, lion, and snake appear abundantly throughout the Bible. Though they generally represent negative forces (as described above), each symbol also possesses a positive side. The negative side represents the origin of the disease, while the positive side points to its cure. For example, the evil, primordial snake is the origin of insanity—any transgression of the Torah’s laws being a temporary state of insanity, as mentioned above—while the positive snake-figure, the Messiah, as will be explained, possesses the cure for all forms of insanity.
A symbol is most potent when it becomes personified, as we saw with the snake and Eve above. According to Kabbalah, a living figure or character in a previous age may become, at a later stage in history, a psychological or physical condition whose ramifications affect all of humanity.
Let us now examine each syndrome in detail, focusing on the negative, the disease, as well as the positive, the cure.
Fear of the Wolf
As told in the parable of the Talmud quoted above, the wolf’s attack on the traveler symbolizes the Egyptian exile of the Jewish people.
The sages teach that “in the merit of the righteous women of Israel our forefathers were redeemed from Egypt.”[1] The Torah testifies to the fact that though the Jewish males were in bondage to the Egyptians, the Egyptians were unable to enslave, that is to seduce, the Jewish women.[2]
Only in one case did Jewish immunity to foreign invasion in the realm of marital relations fail. Often, an exception proves the rule. The exception was the case of Shlomit, the daughter of Divri.[3] These two names allude to the reason that she became vulnerable to be defiled, unknowingly, by an Egyptian oppressor, the very Egyptian that Moses killed the following day.[4] The name Shlomit derives from shalom, “peace” or “greetings,” and the name Divri derives from dibur, “speech.” She exaggerated in her seemingly innocent greeting of shalom (“peace be with you”) to every Egyptian passer-by.[5] (This itself derived from her unconscious, exaggerated fear of rape. Often, unconscious fear of the other becomes conscious attraction and attempt to find favor in the eyes of the other. On the spiritual plane, this parallels a malfunctioning immune system.) Later, in the wilderness, her son, born of the Egyptian father, blasphemed the Name of God.[6] This transgression relates in Kabbalah to the sefirah of hod, which corresponds to the immune system and the wolf syndrome.
After they had escaped from Egyptian bondage and were making their way through the wilderness to the Land of Israel, with the Egyptian wolf still lurking in the back of their consciousness, the Jewish people succumbed to the seduction of the Moabite women. This caused a plague that claimed 24,000 lives.[7] Here, the evil inclination of sexual lust, which in turn led to the worship of Ba’al Peor, a particularly hideous form of idolatry,[8] reached its peak.
In the Torah, we are taught that Divine punishment reflects the nature of the transgression.[9] The punishment in this case was death by plague; the transgression was sexual lust for idolatrous women. The sages liken the punishment for this sin to a wolf entering and devouring a flock of sheep.[10] Thus, we may conclude that sexual lust, as well as the fear of sexual abuse, relates to the image of a wolf threatening sheep.
In addition to the wolf symbolizing the Egyptian exile,[11] the evil wolf (ze’ev) of the Bible is personified in the Book of Judges as a minister of Midian who waged war against Israel in the 12th century BCE.[12] During a key battle, the Israelites, led by Gideon, were outnumbered 450 to 1, but they were miraculously victorious. The officers of Midian, Orev and Ze’ev, literally “raven” and “wolf,” were captured and executed.[13]
The raven also symbolizes strong sexual impulses. The Hebrew word for “raven” (orev) is phonetically related to the word for “ambush” (arav). Thus, the raven, the first officer of Midian to be mentioned, represents the ambush of the rapist, while the wolf, the second officer of Midian, represents the rapist’s assault. The fear of rape includes the fear of both the raven and the wolf.
The initial letters of the two officers’ names, ayin and zayin, can be read az, meaning “bold,” or eiz, meaning “goat.” The evil goat symbolizes a demon in the Torah.[14] As explained above, the fear of rape may be generalized to refer to the fear of any compulsory invasion of oneself by something other than oneself. The demonic goat symbolizes invasion into the private domain.[15] Physiologically, such invasion may refer to any disease associated with one of the systems of the body that relate to the wolf syndrome, as described above.
These two officers, Ze’ev and Orev, served the two kings of Midian, Zevach and Tzalmuna. The name Zevach, which means “slaughter,” begins with the two primary letters of Ze’ev. Rape is a form of slaughter or murder, as will be further explained. Orev serves, in particular, Tzalmuna, whose name means “a moving shadow-image” as in “the shadows of evening” described by the prophet Jeremiah.[16] (We will presently see that the name Orev derives from the same root as the word erev, meaning “evening.”) Sexual lust as well as the fear of sexual abuse epitomize the psychological state of the unrectified power of imagination (personified by Tzalmuna and his minister Orev, the shadow-image of evening).[17]
All four appear together in Psalm 83, which, significantly, is the number of diseases in the world, according to the sages,[18] in the context of a fervent prayer to God to eradicate the nations that plot the destruction of Israel: “Make their nobles like Orev and Ze’ev, all their princes like Zevach and Tzalmuna.”[19]
On the other hand, the tribe of Benjamin personifies the good wolf of the Torah. When blessing his sons before his death, Jacob identified his youngest son Benjamin as a “preying wolf.”[20] Here, Jacob prophetically alluded to the episode recorded at the end of the Book of Judges,[21] which relates the travails of a man from a tribe of Levi who, together with his concubine, took lodging in the Benjaminite town of Gibeah.
While there, the concubine was taken by the men of the town, raped, abused and left to die. The Levite cut up the woman’s corpse into twelve pieces and sent them along with a report of the atrocity to each of the tribes. Incensed at the brutality of the men of Gibeah, the tribes took up arms against the tribe of Benjamin, swearing also not to give their daughters in marriage to Benjaminite men.
After much warfare, however, the tribes regretted that Israel was about to lose one of its integral units and agreed that the men of Benjamin should be allowed to “snatch” wives for themselves from “the daughters of Shiloh” as they dance in the vineyards; thus, they circumvented their own oath not to give their daughters freely.
So we see here that although at first the tribe of Benjamin sinned sexually, in the end, after most of the tribe had been wiped out, the remainder was allowed to snatch, like wolves, wives from amongst the dancing maidens. The very evil inclination of the wolf was here elevated and rectified, for both the young men and women participated voluntarily in the play, for the sake of Heaven; the fear of rape was overcome and sweetened at its source. The tribe of Benjamin, from whom would come the first king of Israel, Saul—who “snatched the kingdom” like a wolf[22]—was thus reestablished.
The sages teach[23] that the wolf of Benjamin symbolizes the altar in the Temple (the altar was in the territory of Benjamin), upon which the animal sacrifices were offered. The altar, where the sacrifices were slaughtered and consumed by fire, can be compared to a wolf that consumes its prey. The Hebrew word for “altar” (mizbeiach) shares its root with the word for “slaughter” (zevach), the name of the king of Midian served by Ze’ev, the wolf, as mentioned above. On the altar, both the wolf-image and the inclination to slaughter find their ultimate rectification.
When we examine the blessing of Jacob to Benjamin more closely, we find more fascinating allusions. The full blessing reads:
Benjamin is a preying wolf:
in the morning he shall eat booty,
and in the evening he shall divide the spoils.[24]
Rashi, quoting the sages,[25] interprets “in the morning he shall eat booty” as referring to the “morning and sunrise” of the Jewish kingdom, the kingdom of Saul. “And in the evening he shall divide the spoils,” he interprets as referring to the story of Mordechai and Esther—also from the tribe of Benjamin—who divided the spoils of the evil Haman in the “evening…even after the sun set” on the Jewish monarchy.
The blessing of Benjamin clearly links the image of the wolf with the turning points of the daily cycle, morning and evening. Above, we saw that the companion of the wolf (ze’ev) is the raven (orev). The word orev shares its root with the word for “evening” (erev). “Evening” first appears in the Torah’s story of creation, where evening and morning are juxtaposed: “and there was evening, and there was morning.…”
The raven is called orev for it is as black as the evening. In the Book of Habbakuk,[26] we find the idiom “evening wolves,” a clear allusion to the relationship of the wolf to the raven: “His horses are faster than leopards, and more sharp-toothed than evening wolves.…”
In the Book of Zephaniah,[27] we find the juxtaposition of the evening wolves to the morning: “...its judges [devour it] like evening wolves, that do not leave any bones till the morning.”
The words for raven (orev) and evening (erev) are related to the word for “plain” (arav). In the Book of Jeremiah,[28] we find the idiomatic juxtaposition of the wolf with “plains”: “Therefore the lion of the forest will strike them, and the wolf of the plains will despoil them.”
As a rapist, the wolf strikes at eve[29] or at dawn, when he can first identify his prey. The location of his assault is the plain or the field:
But if a man finds a betrothed girl in the field,
and the man forces her, and lies with her;
then the man only who lay with her shall die.
But to the girl you shall do nothing;
there is in the girl no sin deserving death,
for as when a man rises against his neighbor,
and slays him, so is this matter.
For he found her in the field,
and the betrothed girl cried out,
and there was no one to save her;
there was no one to rescue her.[30]
Here, the Torah likens rape to murder,[31] implying that the fear of rape, the fear of the wolf, entails the fear of the lion as well.[32]
In contrast, the prophet Isaiah[33] envisions the universal peace of the Messianic Era as a time when “the wolf will live with the lamb.” Indeed, this is the first in a series of images that continues: “...and the lion will eat straw like the cow. A suckling will play at the hole of the snake and a child will place his hand over the lair of the serpent.” Note that the order is wolf, lion, snake.
The Jewish people are likened by the sages to a lamb surrounded by seventy wolves,[34] that is, the seventy gentile nations of the earth, whose desire it is to rape and devour us, to seduce us to assimilate into their culture.[35] With the coming of the End of Days, true and lasting peace will be established between Israel and the nations, with Israel serving as the light to the nations. At a later stage in the Messianic Era, the natural order itself will metamorphose to a world where the physical wolf and lamb will lie down together and live in peace.[36]
If the Jewish people are likened to a lamb surrounded by wolves, then Benjamin—symbolized as the “preying wolf”—is the “wolf within the lamb.” In Kabbalah, he represents the fertile feminine womb of the collective soul of Israel (in the terminology of Kabbalah, the yesod of malchut), the rectified receptive power of the soul that guards itself from foreign invasion and fights off enemies, while sanctifying itself to receive and nurture the holy seed given it from above. Ultimately, impregnated with the seed of Divine light and life-force, this is the spiritual power of the Jewish people to become a light to the nations and achieve, forever, peace between wolf and lamb.[37]
The Land of Israel is described in the Torah as “a land that flows [zavat] with milk and honey.”[38] The word zavat, from zov meaning “flow,” is related to ze’ev, meaning “wolf.”[39] On the negative side, “flow” is a symptom of gonorrhea (zivah), a disease described explicitly in the Torah.[40] Although both males and females may be afflicted by this disease and experience its chief symptom, a purulent discharge or flow, a more common symptom for the female is experiencing a flow of blood like that of menstruation, but not at its proper time. In any event, this clearly relates the wolf-image and syndrome to sexual disease.
(Significantly, in homeopathy, all disease is seen to derive from the itch of the skin, here associated with the crown of the brit, as explained above, and with the sexual diseases of gonorrhea and syphilis. All disease begins with the wolf syndrome; all exiles originate in the Egyptian exile, as taught by the sages.[41])
On the positive side, the Torah speaks of the “flow” of seven liquids: water, wine, dew, milk, blood, olive oil, and honey.[42] In Kabbalah, these correspond to the seven attributes of the heart, from chesed to malchut, as follows:
gevurah “might” wine |
chesed “loving-kindness” water |
|
tiferet “beauty” dew |
||
hod “thanksgiving” blood |
netzach “victory” milk |
|
yesod “foundation” olive oil |
||
malchut “kingdom” honey |
Let us note that here, blood is associated with the sefirah of hod, whereas in our analysis of the physiological systems, blood was associated with the sefirah of binah. Binah is not related to the seven liquids; however, it represents the mental origin of the emotion of hod, as stated in Kabbalah: “binah extends until hod.”[43]
Good health is supported by the flow of the blood—in the circulating state referred to as “run and return”[44]—throughout all the limbs of the body.[45] The fact that here the blood corresponds to hod reinforces our identification of disease and cure in general with hod, the seat of the immune system.[46]
The Land of Israel is described throughout the Bible as “a land flowing with milk and honey.” The “flow” of milk and honey alludes to another liquid, blood, inasmuch as the essential life-flow in the body is its blood, as stated. The tribe that, more than all the others, is innately associated with the Land of Israel is Benjamin, for Benjamin was the only one of Jacob’s sons born in Israel. His positive “wolf”-image, the source of cure for all diseases affecting the physiological systems related to the wolf-syndrome, is symbolized by the “flow” (zav, cognate to ze’ev—“wolf,” as above) of milk and honey in the Land of Israel.
Milk alludes to the endocrine system, the physiological system responsible for growth (the power of mother’s milk) and associated with the sefirah of netzach on the right axis (as explained above), the complementary sefirah to hod on the left axis. Also as explained above, the rectification of each of the sefirot on the left axis is its inclusion and union with the respective sefirah on the right, thereby achieving balance and equilibrium. Our sages actually state that lactation transforms menstrual blood (hod) into mother’s milk (netzach).[47] The union of the endocrine system (netzach) and the immune system (hod) is related in the Zohar to the image of marital union: “[In marital union,] he is in netzach, she is in hod.”[48]
Honey corresponds to malchut, the digestive system. The very substance of honey is a product of the digestive system of bees. In the phrase “a land flowing with milk and honey,” “honey” refers to bees’ honey, whereas in the context of the seven fruits with which the Land of Israel is blessed,[49] “honey” refers to date-honey. The proper amount of honey in one’s diet, in accordance with one’s age and state of health,[50] aids the digestive process.
The numerical value of the word for “honey” (devash) equals that of the word for “woman” (ishah, 306), who, in Kabbalah, is the symbol of malchut and who ascends, in marital union, to hod. Thus, we have completed a cycle: the rectification of blood (hod) depends upon its union (or inter-inclusion) with milk (netzach); milk combines with honey (malchut), which then ascends to purify the blood (hod). This rectification process is an inherent property of the Holy Land, the Land of Israel, which flows (alluding to the flow of the blood) with milk and honey.
Amazingly, the combined numerical value of the names of these three liquids (“milk,” chalav, 40; “blood,” dam, 44; and “honey,” devash, 306) exactly equals that of the word for “[olive] oil” (shemen, 390), the liquid associated with the sefirah of yesod, the unifying link in this cycle.[51]
This rectification process is associated with the tribe of Benjamin. In Kabbalah, Benjamin is known as the “lower tzadik,” corresponding, in human physiology, to the woman’s womb, the physical location that experiences the fear of the wolf. The soul-root of Benjamin present within every Jew is able to overcome this fear and fight off the diseases associated with it.
Fear of the Lion
As related in the Talmudic parable quoted above, the attack of the lion on the traveler symbolizes the Babylonian exile of the Jewish people. And indeed, the personification of the evil lion in the Book of Jeremiah is Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylonia who destroyed the first Temple, laid waste to the Jewish people, and exiled them from the Land of Israel, as it is written, “The lion has ascended from his thicket to destroy nations.…”[1]
Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the Temple on the 9th day of Av, the Hebrew month aligned with the zodiac sign Leo, the lion. The holy Temple in Jerusalem is referred to as “the lion of God” (ariel)—“O Ariel, Ariel, the city where David resided...”[2]—as is the Temple altar itself.[3] Our sages teach us that fire from heaven descended upon the Temple’s altar in the form of a lion to consume the sacrifices.[4] Even God Himself is referred to in the Book of Amos as a lion—“The lion roars, who shall not fear? God has spoken, who shall not prophesy?”[5] All of these images of the lion are brought together in the cryptic saying of the sages:
The lion ascended in the sign of the lion to destroy the lion, in order that the Lion ascend in the sign of the lion to rebuild the lion.[6]
This saying refers to Nebuchadnezzar’s destruction of the Temple; it implies that it was, in fact, necessary for the man-made Temple to be destroyed by the evil lion in order that God, the Divine Lion, rebuild it to stand forever.
In addition to Nebuchadnezzar, the evil lion refers to the nation of Moab (in particular, to the mighty warriors of Moab): “Benaiah ben Jehoyada...smote the two lion-men of Moab...”[7]
Above, we saw that the evil wolf-image relates to the nation of Midian; here we see that the evil lion-image relates to the nation of Moab. In Kabbalah, these two related nations, who made peace between themselves in order to wage war on Israel,[8] pertain to the sefirah of chochmah; they are both perversions of true wisdom.[9]
In Hassidic thought, the inner soul-quality of chochmah is bitul, “self-nullification,” the opposite of which is an exaggerated sense of self that brings one to be continually in conflict with others. This is the characteristic of Midian, whose name means “conflict” and “quarrel.”[10]
The intellectual experience of wisdom is that of a new flash of insight, a new intuitive vision of reality. If one’s faculty of wisdom is rectified, one’s insights will be true. If not, one intuits erroneously. This tendency to err at the intuitive level of wisdom is depicted as the nation of Moab.
Midian and Moab, representing an exaggerated sense of self and intuitive error, are dependent upon one another—lack of bitul leads one to false intuition. The wolf gives rise to the lion. Physical wolf-syndrome diseases, when untreated at the level of behavioristic characteristics of the soul, give rise to physical lion-syndrome diseases, at the level of the emotive characteristics of the soul.
When blessing his sons before his death, Jacob blessed the tribe of Judah with kingship, noting: “Judah is a lion cub.”[11] He blessed the tribe of Dan with judgeship, noting, “Dan shall be a snake on the way, a serpent on the path.”[12] Jacob stated as well, in his blessing to Dan, that he would resemble the tribe of Judah: “Dan will judge his people like the one [i.e., the king] of the tribes of Israel.”
The two tribes are further linked in the blessings that Moses gave before his death, when Moses blessed the tribe of Dan to be “a lion cub.”[13] So we see that Dan connects the lion to the snake, to the kingdom of David (who came from the tribe of Judah), and also to the son of David, Mashiach ben David, known as “the holy snake,” as we will see presently. Indeed, the Zohar states that from the tribe of Dan will come the commander-in-chief of the army of the Messiah.
The one man in the Bible who personifies the union of Judah and Dan is Daniel. The name Daniel means “judge of God,” but Daniel came, in fact, from the tribe of Judah and from the royal lineage of King David. Daniel was thrown into the lion’s den and emerged unscathed for he symbolizes the holy lion, the power to overcome the evil lion. The sages say that of all Biblical figures, Daniel is the closest to personifying the Messiah.[14] Thus Daniel unites, in holiness, the lion with the snake.
The Code of Jewish Law begins with the injunction that one should be as “courageous as a lion.”[15] Like a lion, poised to pounce on its prey, one ought to pounce out of bed in the morning with renewed vitality and confidence to conquer all the enemies of the day ahead. With the courage of a lion in one’s service of God one overcomes the fear of the lion.
In the Book of Proverbs, it is stated that the fear of the lion, the fear of murder, is what keeps one at home, in bed:
The lazy man says,
“There is a lion outside!
I will be murdered in the street![16]
One must combat this evil psychological fear of the lion by means of the holy psychological lion—the power to get up, go out, and get things done.[17]
To cure those diseases affecting the body’s skeleton, circulatory system, and muscular system (i.e., those systems related to the lion-syndrome), one must become as agile and courageous as a lion. In Hassidism, we are taught that agility characterizes chesed,[18] corresponding to the healthy skeletal system of the body. Courage is, of course, the property of gevurah, corresponding to the circulatory system. The vital energies of both of these systems permeate the muscular system, the essence and heart—lion-heart—of the body itself.
Fear of the Snake
The archenemy of the Jewish people, and the quintessential representation of evil in the Torah, Amalek (a grandson of Esau), personifies the primordial snake of the Garden of Eden.
The Ba’al Shem Tov teaches that the numerical value of the Hebrew word Amalek (240) is identical to that of safek, meaning “doubt.” Spiritually, Amalek attacks the mind and the inner point of faith in God, innate in the Divinely-inspired intelligence of the Jewish soul. The venom of Amalek seeks to cause the soul to “lose its mind.”
Another figure who most personifies the snake (and who is a descendent of Amalek) is Titus, the Roman emperor who destroyed the second Temple. (His successor, Hadrian, exiled the Jewish people from the Land of Israel, beginning the present exile.) When Titus entered the Temple, he mocked God and the Divine service of the Jewish people, attempting to poison others with the venom of doubt. The sages relate that he himself was killed by a mosquito that entered his nose.[1]
This odd story takes on new meaning when we consider the teaching of the sages that God created everything in this world, even those creatures that appear to be of no use to humanity (such as the mosquito), for a good purpose—to heal human ailments. The very word for “a creature” in Hebrew (beriah) is cognate with “sound health” (beriut), thus implying that every creature possesses some healing power.
The Talmud[2] states that the mosquito (yitush) was created to heal the bite of the snake (nachash). The numerical value of yitush (716) is twice that of nachash (358), implying that on a spiritual plane, there is something about a mosquito bite that is twice as potent as that of a snake.[3]
Another explicit Biblical personification of the snake is Nachash, the king of Ammon, who besieged the Jewish settlement of Jabesh-Gilead. When the inhabitants offered to make a treaty with him and serve him, he demanded:
“On this [condition] I will seal a [covenant] with you:
When the right eye of each of you is put out.
It will be a sign of shame for all of Israel.”[4]
When the primordial snake seduced Eve to partake of the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, his venom went straight to her eyes:
And the snake said to the woman,
“You shall surely not die.
For God knows that on the day the you will eat of its fruit,
your eyes will be opened, and you will become as God,
knowing good and evil.”
And the woman saw that the tree was good to eat
and desirable to the eyes….[5]
The eye is the seat of the sense of sight, the sense that most reflects the inner perception of the mind. As is stated in the Biblical account of Adam, Eve, the snake, and the primordial sin, lacking sight, even in one eye, implies lacking the knowledge that one is naked (either in the physical sense or in the spiritual sense, “naked of mitzvot”[6]).[7] One whose eyes, or eyesight, have been blemished by the venom of the snake lacks the knowledge that he is unclothed, and so becomes subject to shame. This is especially true with regard to the people of Israel, whom God cares for and protects “as the pupil of His eye.”[8] The shame that comes with nakedness, as is most often reflected in dreams, is the beginning of mental disorder.
The people of Jabesh-Gilead sent out an urgent appeal for help that was heard by Saul, the newly appointed king of Israel, who rallied a supportive force that defeated Nachash and saved the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead. By virtue of his display of courage and leadership, his kingship became firmly established and accepted by all of Israel.
By Divine providence, the initial test of the new king of Israel, King Saul, was similar to the initial test of humanity in the Garden of Eden: to resist the temptation of the snake. Fired by the zealous spirit of God to defend Israel, King Saul withstood the test and so established his kingdom by conscripting all the tribes of Israel to fight Nachash, king of Ammon. The holy wolf killed the evil snake. [9]
(This supports the notion that will be explained later: in a certain sense, the wolf-figure, which corresponds to the immune system[10] of the body, includes all three figures—wolf, lion, and snake—and so is able to overcome the snake.)
Just as Amalek, the evil snake, represents the epitome of evil, so does the positive snake represent the epitome of good. As noted above, the Messiah himself is referred to in the Zohar as “the holy snake.” This association is alluded to by the numerical equivalence of the Hebrew words Mashiach (358) and nachash, “snake.” The Zohar further states that the Messiah, the holy snake, will kill the evil snake by overcoming the fear of insanity, thereby overcoming insanity itself, and filling human consciousness solely with the knowledge of God.[11] His reward will be to marry the Divine princess, the “congregation of Israel,” to unite with the point of origin of the souls of Israel, thus bringing redemption to the world.
In particular, that aspect of the personality of the Messiah that engages in battle against the evil snake, Amalek, is known as the Messiah, the son of Joseph.[12] Joseph, the great dreamer and dream interpreter, personifies the soul gifted with the ability to properly diagnose and heal the ailments and malfunctions of the mind, to reach deep into the subconscious realms of the soul and there to retie wrongly connected wiring.[13]
As explained above, the snake-image connects with that of the wolf insofar as both manifest sexual impulse. Joseph epitomizes the rectification of the sexual drive, because he refused the sexual advances of Potiphar’s wife.
The connection of the snake to Joseph is seen in the relationship between the Hebrew word for “snake” (nachash) and the word for “guess” (nacheish).
Guessing the future is a forbidden practice, according to the Torah, which brands it as a form of witchcraft. Guessing is a distortion of the mind, a psychological manifestation of the venom of the snake that goes directly to the mind.
Yet Joseph was able to interpret dreams and accurately forecast the future, as in his interpretation of Pharaoh’s dream of seven fat cows and seven lean cows, which foreshadowed seven years of plenty and seven years of famine.
Joseph was able to do this because, as the holy “guesser,” the holy snake, he possessed the Divine inspiration to always intuit the truth. Thus Joseph said of himself: “For a man as myself shall surely guess [correctly]!”[14]
Another example of a holy snake was Samson, who came from the tribe of Dan. As stated above, the tribe of Dan was blessed by Jacob to inherit judicious leadership and to be a snake. Samson was the descendant of Dan who fulfilled Jacob’s blessing—that “Dan shall be a snake on the way, a serpent on the path,”[15] and that “Dan shall judge his people like one of the tribes of Israel.”[16]
Samson, the judge of Israel, is the spiritual precursor of David, the king of Israel. On the spiritual plane, we see here an example of the holy snake (Samson) giving birth to the holy lion (David). This is supported as well by the fact that David’s own father, Jesse, is referred to as “the snake.”[17]
In the Book of Judges,[18] we read of Samson’s sexual impulsiveness as well as of his incredible strength. The sages teach that no one ever possessed such seminal prowess as Samson.[19] Samson (as later did David) killed a lion, whose carcass became a honeycomb. In his riddle to the Philistines, he drew on this image when he challenged them to figure out who is meant by the metaphors, “From the eater came forth the food; from the bold came forth the sweet.”[20] Here, the boldness and strength of the lion, the eater, are converted into sustenance—food—and sweetness by the holy snake.
All three images of wolf, lion, and snake converge in the person of Samson, who, according to Kabbalah, is an essential, although premature Messianic figure of the Bible.
Gold, Silver, and Copper
In one incident during the forty years of wandering in the desert, poisonous snakes attacked the Israelites, as a punishment for their complaints against God.
Moses prayed to God for forgiveness and was instructed to make a snake out of copper, so that people could look at it and be healed.
Moses made a snake out of copper
and placed it on the pole;
so it was that if a snake bit a man,
he would gaze at the copper snake and live.[1]
The snake placed upon a pole has thus become the universal symbol of healing, the caduceus.
The Hebrew root of the word for “snake” (nachash) is the same as that of the word for “copper” (nechoshet). The Hebrew word for “wolf” (ze’ev) is related to the word for “gold” (zahav). The three primary metals of the Torah, from which the Tabernacle and Temple were constructed, were “gold, silver, and copper.”[2] If gold alludes to the wolf and copper to the snake, this would seem to imply that the lion alludes to silver. Silver is a pure, white metal possessing a brilliant luster. It excels all other metals as a conductor of heat and electricity. It thus shines as (white) light. This relates to the lion, as the Hebrew word for “lion” (aryeh) is cognate to the word for “light” (or).[3]
Hassidic teachings explain the rabbinic maxim[4] that the three metals of gold, silver, and copper allude to three levels of health/sickness and to the manner in which the ailing person gives charity, thereby arousing Divine mercy to heal him. The name of each metal is read as an acronym:
❖ Gold: “This is the healthy giver.”
❖ Silver: “When there is the danger of fear.”
❖ Copper: “The giving of an acutely sick person who said, ‘give!’”[5]
We can draw the following correspondences between the three syndromes of fear described above and their rectifications:
Giving “gold” rectifies the triplet of the innate, behavioral properties of the soul (netzach-hod-yesod), healing those diseases that relate to the corresponding physiological systems of the body. Giving gold refers in particular to good and charitable deeds, which, in the words of our sages,[6] are man’s most essential “progeny” in life (netzach-hod-yesod are the soul’s “children”), his dearest possession on earth. One’s children, both on the physical and spiritual planes, are one’s gold. If one is always devoted to give gold, to do all in his power to help others, one’s health remains sound: “This is a healthy giver.” Giving gold is preventive medicine.
Giving “silver” rectifies the triplet of the emotive attributes of the soul (chesed-gevurah-tiferet), healing those diseases that relate to the corresponding physiological systems of the body. Good feelings are “silver”; in Kabbalah, feeling love for another, in particular, is “silver.”[7] When ill, but not seriously ill, one’s access to gold (his strength to act and give birth in the outside world) becomes limited, and he must now devote himself to giving silver. He must try to arouse in his heart, and express in his prayers, love for others. Our sages teach us that he who prays for others is himself, with regard to his own needs, answered first.[8] One gives silver “when there is danger of fear [of disease].”
Giving “copper” rectifies the triplet of the intellectual properties of the soul (chochmah-binah-da’at), healing those diseases that relate to the corresponding physiological systems of the body. Good, sound thoughts are “copper.” When acutely ill, lacking even the strength necessary to arouse the emotions of the heart (silver), one must try to concentrate all of his thoughts on God and His Divine providence. In thought, one gives all of himself to God, saying (to all around, i.e., making his sincere intention known to all present, arousing them as well to give themselves totally over to God): “Give [all]!” One focuses all of his attention on the copper snake that Moses made, commanded by God. One looks upward to heaven, perceiving the source of his illness in Divine providence, which, ultimately, is for his good. In pure thought, one elevates and gives all “back” to God. This, more than anything else, arouses God’s great, infinite mercy on him, and, miraculously, He heals him.
To summarize:
focus of fear |
metal: healing method |
properties of soul |
snake syndrome |
copper: good thoughts |
intellectual |
lion syndrome |
silver: good feelings |
emotive |
wolf syndrome |
gold: good deeds |
behavioral |
© כל הזכויות שמורות למכון גל עיני. הטקסט מיועד ללימוד ולשימוש אישי בלבד.