True Monotheism
Introduction
Multi-Manifestations of the One God
Jewish Consciousness from the World of Atzilut
The Jewish Three that are One
The Consciousness of Atzilut Appreciates the Paradox of Proverbs
God's Spirit in the Verses from Isaiah
The Seven Manifestations of "I"
Mystical Insights
Seven Eyes and Seven "I"s
Positional Values Reveal More Sevens
I
n the Zohar (the classic text of Kabbalah) and other Jewish sources, we find that there are three (manifestations of Godliness) which are essentially One: God, Israel and the Torah. The Zohar states: "Israel, the Torah and the Holy One Blessed Be He are One." As explained above, before the contraction, from the perspective of God (and the origin of the Jewish soul), these three are manifestly revealed as absolutely One.
The Torah is the wisdom and spirit of God, of which is said: "He and His wisdom are One." Israel is the son of God (the son is the manifest essence of the Father). Whenever "the son" (of God) is referred to in the Bible, that son is "my first born son, Israel." This refers to the entire People of Israel (whose consciousness derives from the spiritual, Divine level of Atzilut, as explained above).
We are further taught in the Zohar that the Torah serves to link the level of the created consciousness of Israel to God. The Torah is thus an "intermediate" between the essential "two," the Father and the son (as explained in Kabbalah and Chassidut, the son is born from the "drop" of the wisdom of the Father). Thus, we see that thethree "reduce" to two–God and Israel. Similarly, the three "expand" to four (in correspondence to the four letters of God's essential Name, as mentioned above). Here, the level of Israel divides into the tzadik (the righteous Messianic figure present in every generation) and the Jewish People ("the congregation of Israel") in general. They are referred to, respectively, as the "son" and "daughter" of God.
No Jew would ever dream of regarding the People of Israel as an entity unto itself, and praying to it, God forbid. Such a thought does not even enter into Jewish consciousness. The same is true with regard to the Torah. The Torah is the holy spirit of God. But no Jew would ever dream of relating to the Torah as an independent entity. The Jewish soul, from Atzilut, never makes the mistake of attaching independent reality to one of God's manifestations.
The only One to whom we pray is to God Himself. This is one of the thirteen principles of faith as expounded by Maimonides. This is God as revealed before the initial contraction. The Jewish consciousness always has the essence of God, as revealed before the initial contraction, in the point of faith in his heart.
There is no way (other than conversion to Judaism, when the born-non-Jew is genuinely so aroused) that the consciousness of a non-Jew can reach the level of pre-contraction. The consciousness of the non-Jew derives from one of the three lower worlds of Beriah ("Creation"), Yetzirah ("Formation"), Asiyah ("Action"), which perceive plurality as plurality. From this perspective, the "Father," "son," and "spirit" appear as three separate entities. The claim, from the perspective of non-Jewish consciousness, that they are essentially one is immaterial. The non-Jewish consciousness is unable to truly unify the three and to understand that their essence is one. They perceive each of the three as possessing such a strong "personality" of its own that it can exist independently. This is idolatry.
The non-Jewish attempt to parody this ultimate secret of three which is One totally destroys the authenticity of the paradox of the concept. When the consciousness is not one of Atzilut, the "son" becomes distinct from the Father and the "holy spirit" also becomes distinct as a personality and the non-Jewish soul falls into idolatry. This is forbidden for the non-Jew as well as for the Jew. The prohibition against idolatry is the most important of the Seven Noahide Commandments.
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