Kabbalistic Musings and Mormonism For Memorial Day

[_Philo Sofee]

Kabbalistic Musings

The Rabbi Michael L. Munk in his exquisite book on the Kabbalah, “The Wisdom in the Hebrew Alphabet,” described how “it is advisable for everyone to formulate his own individual associations of facts and numbers.”[1] He was describing some instruction from Rashi, a phenomenal commentator on the Torah. Joe Sampson an LDS author and Kabbalist, wrote “We are warned not to read the Kabbalah in the literal sense or we will most certainly misunderstand the real meanings involved.”[2] David Sheinkin a physician also turned Kabbalist student writes “the Bible unfolds [a word Joseph Smith used on his work with the Egyptian Alphabet and Grammar – aha a clue! To "unfold" is certainly a description of several Kabbalah techniques concerning scripture] sentence by sentence as a practical manual for achieving loftier consciousness.” He had previously mentioned that “the Bible’s narrative of Creation is not meant to tell history or cosmology…”[3] It’s no wonder Mormonism doesn’t delve into Kabbalistic materials then. But if Joe Sampson is right, the founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith may very well have. If he didn’t, there are some remarkably, positively uncanny Kabbalistic insights and ideas in Joseph Smith’s thought world. Consider:

In the Egyptian Alphabet and Grammar, Joseph defined Ah L ish in the fifth degree as “The First Being – supreme intelligence; supreme power; supreme glory – supreme Justice; supreme mercy without beginning of life or end of life comprehending all things, seeing all things – the invisible and eternal godhead.”[4] This, according to Jose Sampson, is the description of the Ain Sof the upper most sphere on the Kabbalah Tree of Life.[5] Now, if he is accurate, I have to agree with Sampson that this is quite odd as well as intriguing.

What is the Ain Sof [sometimes spelled Ein Sof]? “When God is called Ain Sof, literally ‘without Sof,’ it means that there is no place where He ceases to exist.”[6] The small point the Kabbalists call the Kether Crown is where “the boundless expanse of the limitless light condenses itself when a cycle of creation beings. It is the changeless One, which is the center of Eternity.”[7] It was the contraction of light, “a circular retraction of the Limitless Light and then the emanation of a linear ray of light directly from the Ein Sof into the circular space thus vacated.”[8] It is the source of the divine flow of all energy and concepts, “the Endless or that which is beyond all limits. Ein Sof refers to the endless and undefinable reservoir of divinity, the ultimate source out of which everything flows.”[9] This seems to me to be the certain intent of Joseph Smith describing “Ahlish” in the Egyptian Alphabet and Grammar does it not? Matt describes, further, what Kabbalah Rabbis teach, that “To say Kabbalah is here but not there would entirely falsify the notion. Nothing can ever exist outside of Ein Sof.”[10] Or as Joseph Smith said – “…without beginning of life or end of life comprehending all things, seeing all things – the invisible and eternal godhead.” Kevin Townley notes that “Al is the most simple form of the word for God.”[11] While Aryeh Kaplan describes how the Bahir, the most mysterious book of the Kabbalah, describes how the letters “Aleph Yud Shin spell out "ish," the Hebrew word for man. The allusion is to the Supernal Man.”[12] Or, if you will, Joseph Smith’s “Ahlish”!

The Kabbalistic, mathematical understanding was that which the Pythagoreans discovered with the square root of 2, namely, that the infinite was in all things finite.[13] The symbol for this was the infinite cube of space, that which sets a limit, yet is limitless, the limitless light, which renders God invisible, just as Joseph Smith discovered in the Egyptian Alphabet and Grammar. He clearly said “the invisible and eternal Godhead.” Another symbol for this is the Cube of Space, “The Cube is the limiting agent that defined a certain space and allowed the formless and void to become the formed, defined Earth. It is also the agent that fixes the life force of the Divine Mind within a particular center of expression. This allows a specific manifestation of the infinite potential of the One in a specific finite act.”[14] So, the mystery of Joseph Smith and his knowledge continues to “unfold” as we honestly have to just sit down and ask, how could he possibly have known about the Kabbalistic Ein Sof in 1835 when he had not yet studied Hebrew? Who would have influenced him? Yes, I agree with the Egyptologists, Joseph Smith certainly blew it with the Egyptian meanings. But the description of the perfect Kabbalistic word “Ahlish” is positively uncanny isn’t it? More amusements later…

Endnotes
1. Michael Munk, “The Wisdom in the Hebrew Alphabet,” Mesorah Publications, 13th Impression, 2003: 170.
2. Joe Sampson, “Written By the Finger of God,” Wellspring Publishing, 1993: 28-29.
3. David Sheinkin, “Path of the Kabbalah,” Paragon House, 1986: 63.
4. H. Michael Marquardt, “The Joseph Smith Egyptian Papers,” Printing Service, 1981: 10.
5. Sampson, p. 124.
6. Aryeh Kaplan, “Sefer Yetzirah: The Book of Creation,” Samuel Weiser, 1997: 53.
7. Paul Foster Case, “The True and Invisible Rosicrucian Order,” Weiser Books, 1st paperback, 1989: 54.
8. Leonora Leet, “The Secret Doctrine of the Kabbalah,” Inner Traditions, 1999: 277.
9. Daniel C. Matt, “The Zohar,” Pritzker Edition, Stanford University Press, Vol. 1, (2004): XLVI.
10. Matt, “Zohar,” Vol. 1: XLVI.
11. Kevin Townley, “The Cube of Space, Container of Creation,” Archive Press, 1993: 24.
12. Aryeh Kaplan, “The Bahir, Book of Illumination,” Samuel Weiser, 1st paperback, 1989: 102.
13. Leonora Leet, “The Universal Kabbalah,” Inner Traditions, 2004: 5.
14. Kevin Townley, “The Cube of Space,” p. 2.