THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 6 Friday, December 12, 1980 Z'ev Ben Shimon Halevi's Kabalistic Bible Interpretations By ALLEN A. WARSEN "According to tradition, once there was only God. Nothing else existed. Kabala perceives the Godhead as Ayin or Abso- lute Nothing and Ayin Sof or Absolute All. Little else can be said because God is God and therefore totally alone, and beyond human comprehension. Because of FREEDOM CLEANERS 24681 Coolidge Hwy. 1 /2 block S. of 10 Mile 545-1300 CASH AND CARRY ONLY SAVE 20% "Hokhma" (Wisdom) and "Bina" (Understanding) re- present God's "revealing and reflective mind." "Hesed" (Mercy) and "Gevura" (Strength) reflect the "Divine Heart and Image of God." "Tiferet" (Beauty) is often referred to as the "Seat of Solomon." "Neza" (Firmness) and "Hod" (Splendor) express the "Will of the Divine." "Yesod" (Foundation) re- presents "the principle of Generation." "Malkut" (Dominion) re- fers to "the Body of God." According to the kabalists the Sefirot gave rise to these four worlds: this the oral tradition tells us, God wished to behold God and be known." Z'ev ben Shimon Halevi thus commences his treatise "Kabbalah and Exodus" (Shambhala, Boulder, Colo.) The kabalists, Halevi notes, believe that God to make his existence known created the world by means of Ten Emana- tions or Substances that they call Sefirot. The Ten Substances flowing di- rectly from God, accord- ing to "The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia," "are parts of one another, as sparks are parts of the same flame; nevertheless, the Substances are dis- tinguished one from an- other as are different colors of the same The Ten Sefirot are: "Keter" (Crown) sym- bolizingpivine unity. • • • • • • • 4 • • • • "Olam Azilut" (the World of Emanation); "Olam Haberia" (the World of Creation); "Olam Hayetzira" (the Freedom Cleaners Coupon Expires 12-31-80 World of Formation); 1111•1111111111M11111=11 11111111111 MMIMINI "Olam Haasia" (the • • • • • • • •• • • • Natural World of Making). • •• • The doctrine of the four worlds is based on certain • passages in Genesis, Eze- • kial's vision and the verse in • Isaiah (43:7): "I have called, • created, formed, and made • • him." Examples of Kabalistic interpretation of biblical Drapery cleaning when properly done is an art, we at CUSTOM follow: DRAPERY CLEANERS practice most diligently, in our never 0. episodes Significantly, the ending quest to improve our service to you by seeking better • author considers the pat- riarch Abraham as a systems and methods. kind, generous and pioils Don't take good drapery cleaning for granted. We at CUSTOM man who represents "the spearhead of human in- DRAPERY CLEANERS make good cleaning happen. dividuality." These qual- ities, he asserts, impelled God to make a covenant • DRAPERIES • BEDSPREADS • BLANKETS with Abraham and prom- (Cleaned or Laundered) ise him "not only a son but that he should be the WINDOW SHADES LAMPSHADES PILLOWS father of many nations, (Cleaned, retaped & re-corded) VENETIAN BLINDS that is spiritual tradi- tions." 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This cruel act, the heaven to earth at Beth El, author stresses, was tan- the place where the "physi- tamount to depriving "the cal, psychological and interior and independent heavenly" elements meet. sustenance of the soul and Similarly important was spirit." Nevertheless, the more Jacob's changing his name to Israel. By doing so, the the Israelites were op- author says, Jacob trans- pressed, the tougher they formed his status "from the became, and the more psychological to the children they brought spiritual, and so into direct into life. As a result, the Pharaoh contact with the Divine." Jacob's son Joseph decreed that the Israelites was the first of his drown their newly-bo brothers to go down to male children in the NOlk Egypt where he inter- River. But his atrocious de- preted Pharaoh's dreams cree was countered by the Shiphral for which he was wel- midwives comed to the royal (Brightness) and Puah palace. For this kindness, (Splendid), who protected Pharaoh, "the ruler of the the infants. confrontation, This natural world, was cho- sen by God to recognize Halevi declares, was "the and accept the benefits of first sign of 'opposition a higher world in his within the individual be- country." tween the natural and The Bible relates that supernatural aspects." Nonetheless, the Israel- Jacob's remains soon after his death were taken back ites had to wait many years to the Land of his Fathers, until Moses freed them and "that is to the world of the led them through the spirit." In contrast, Joseph's Wilderness. But at the point body was buried in Egypt of entering Canaan Moses and kept there "under the died and the leadership promise that his bones passed to his generals should be taken from there Joshua and Caleb, the only to Ca an when God would two survivors of those who send a eliverer to bring the had left Egypt 40 years Israelites up and out of previously. Under their command, the Israelites fi- Egypt." While the Israelites were nally entered the Promised waiting for a deliverer, they Land. "Thus," the author multiplied and the "land was filled with them" concludes, "it was that a (Exodus 1:7)-. "This is saying totally new generation that the creative spirit and brought up in the the formative soul, in con- Wilderness under the junction with the life prin- Torah crossed the second ciple, make the body of a watery division of the newly born babe grow at Jordan, which sym- great speed as the indi- bolized again a point of vidual herein symbolized no return." "Kaballah and Exodus" is relates to the physical world the fifth book _"on the wis- about him." This phenomenal growth dom of the Kabala" by Ze'ev of the Israelites frightened ben Shimon Halevi. Israeli Youth Change Views About Arabs, Themselves JERUSALEM — Young Israelis have come around to viewing Arabs more pos- itively and themselves as less Superman-like, a He- brew University of Jerusalem study shows. Four times during the last 15 years, Dr. Kalman Benyamini, who teaches psychology at the univer- sity and is engaged in educational-psychological research, has made a survey of the image Israeli youngsters hold of Arabs, and of their own national- ity. • Among the findings are that the image of the Arabs changed drastically twice — for the worse after the Six- Day War in 1967 and for the better following the Yom Kippur War in 1973. The 1973 war rehabili- tated the national pride of Arabs not only in their own eyes, but also in the eyes of the Israelis, Dr. Benyamini comments. He found that the totally different images held by the Israeli youngsters — a negative one regarding the Arab and an idealized one of the Israeli — were vastly_ sobered by the Yom Kippur War. Dr. Benyamini conducted his surveys in the years 1965, 1968, 1974 and 1979, the last three after signific- ant events in the Middle East: the Six-Day War, the Yom Kippur War and the signing of the peace trea - with Egypt. Touro Student Aces LSAT NEW YORK (JTA) — A Touro College senior, Tamar Blech, of Oceanside, N.Y., achieved a perfect score of 800 On the Law School Admissions Tests. and another student, Joseph Lampert of Forest Hills, N.Y. scored 778, ac- cording to Dean Robert Goldschmidt, the college pre-law adviser.