Black Magic: The Dark Side of Kabbalah (opening)

good evening Simon Jacobsen here for another webcast it's always an honor to speak to all of you and in the spirit of this ongoing weekly exercise dialogue discussion however one wants to call it I will say that the interaction and synergy that is created through kindred spirits through Souls through people who communicate with each other who want to find ways to feed and nourish and nurture each other is just simply amazing I've been a witness to it personally and I've been transformed in the process through the years of my teaching this class I want to thank everyone for that experience and opportunity and I hope you learn as much for me as I've learned from you tonight's class which is connected to this weekly Torah portion I usually focus on one of the 52 chapters of the year 52 chapters in the Torah which correspond to the 52 weeks of the year meaning that each week has its corresponding chapter every chapter has several sections in effect every day of the year has its particular Torah story and with the focus of making it personally relevant to our lives so this week's chapter is in the Book of Numbers is one of the legendary chapter the chapter of Bullock Bullock referring to the king of Moab who is feels threatened by the Jewish people as they come marching through their 40-year trek through the wilderness and they are their way to the promised land and Balin being threatened calls upon the Prophet Balaam a Gentile prophet the non-jewish prophet but it was nevertheless a prophet who had power to come curse the Jews and the story elaborates how Balaam prepares to go but obviously being a prophet a true prophet as a matter of fact the meddra says that Balaam that says that no prophet ever arose among Israel like Moses the measure says like in Israel but not among the nations and Israel known was ever as great as Moses but among the nations there was someone and his name was Balaam so a true prophet means of course God's permission and God's blessing and God speaking through him so he makes his way it's all the difficulties the famous story of Balaam jackass who refuses to cooperate and finally Balaam tells Moloch listen I can only say that which God wants me to say so Balaam tells bellick how to prepare the appropriate offerings prepare different type of rituals and then valent opens his mouth to this may avail Bullock and his cohorts instead of curses come out blessings some of the greatest blessings I said by Balaam to the Jewish people about the Jewish people might oval our Lafayette Cove which we say every morning in the prayers how beautiful how good are the tents and camps of Israel Yaakov in Israel and so on and so forth so the blessing the curses turned into blessings now I've discussed esteem many different directions and their personal relevance but tonight's topic which I know will intrigue many of us is titled the black magic the dark side of Kabbalah of course referring to the magical powers or the profit tip for prophetic powers of a Balaam who is definitely from the dark side and what exactly is this is their true power to so called a cult to the negative is their thing called witchcraft is there a sorcery voodooism and black magic and what is the meaning of it as their significance to it or is it just plain mumbo-jumbo meaningless and so on now why is this a relevant topic because in the broad sense of the world at words like someone's came to me a few months ago to speak and just told me they feel that there's someone who's has a satanic hold on them they feel hypnotized they feel seduced but someone who has this type of power over them now of course I dismissed it because I said no one can have power over you over you if you don't allow them to have power over you nevertheless we do find in the Torah the concept of someone having some type of super super spiritual powers spiritual powers like in any given situation we have freewill can be used for good can be used for negative so there is the concept of spiritual power yet at the same time we have the ability to be a term you immunize ourselves and to protect ourselves from these negative things so I want to discuss this whole thing of positive energy negative energy people beginning off good vibes bad vibes we talk about iron Horace the evil eye there are good eyes in other words this whole concept of spirituality in the context of spirituality always pure can it be abused the people who have that type of inner sensitivity can they be abusive and hurt us with their insight and all of that and clearly this is the chapter to discuss it around because this is the theme where a bulk wanted to employ a billow a man of profit a man of God the prophet of God for negative reasons to curse and to hurt the Jewish people the story ends up that he actually blesses them but as we'll see the end of the story is not exactly happy one he ends up hurting them as well and that's all part of this discussion so what we're discussing here is the power of spirituality what does it mean in our lives and what is the soul so the Mystics teach and this should be common knowledge today to everyone that we live in a physical universe which is driven by inner inner energy in other words the material universe as we see it and as we know it is not a self-contained universe it's just a surface level that conceals that was just inside of it what's inside of it brimming with layers and layers of energy so today in modern physics even if you're not familiar with physics per se the fact is whether you have a cell phone or a fax machine or a television or Internet we know that there are invisible energies there are waves of all types of lengthens and sizes that are in a sense in essence part of the whole structure of this existence and when you know how to manipulate those energies we have radio excuse me we have radio we have television we have microwave we have infrared we have ultraviolet rays sound waves light waves a whole series of forces that come down to the inner molecules and within them the atomic structure of subatomic particles that really define existence and the same is true in the human body the body functions on a biological level we have organs things that are visible to the eye but we know these organs are made up of of nerves and the nerves are further made up of cells and the entire body has actually 75 trillion cells trillion cells one god forbid mutant mutation can wreak havoc so the chemicals the DNA the cellular structure of a human being is really what shapes us what we see and what we experience in outer level is just surface you can save the consequences the results no different than if some little earthquake takes place we need the water you may just see a small little ripple effect on top of the water on the surface beneath it maybe a volcanic eruption but above that may just be a small little ripple small little wave so the forces that shape existence are invisible to the naked eye but their results are not so on looking at the universe and we say what is reality looking at each other as human beings Who am I who are you so on a surface level I'm a body I have particular features color eyes color hair well if you call that here other personality features physiology but is that a full definition of who I am or who you are this is the outer level then there's within you can say there's the internal organs a heart a mind a liver spleen and all the hundreds and hundreds of different organs that each of us contains but is that who you are also not because within that line of personality the way you think the way you feel is that whole you are clearly not there's an unconscious dimension so how far do you go and how do you fully define the human being Who am I the answer is it's all the above and more we may never even be able to identify who you completely are you can say a human being is made up of many layers many levels many dimensions and the same thing is with the larger universe we say human being is a microcosm of the universe that's why it's so vital to understand these ideas because we're not talking about some abstract mystical concept in the cosmos format you and I we're talking about people like us for us to understand ourselves for us to deal with pain to deal with joy so there were the people we loved to face confrontations required to understand who you are what makes you tick what makes up my tick what makes us all tick so that is why understanding this so-called spiritual dynamic the dynamic energies that flow within that shaped reality around us and us is so important to know and that is why we study the teachings of the Kabbalah the teachings of Castilla's we took the inner workings of existence the inner forces that shape each of us so there's an inner spiritual energy behind it all if you to say molecules have within them atoms within them subatomic particles if you say within the organs of the body there are there are layers and layers and they're cells and DNA and so on beneath it all this spiritual energy soul energy spiritual energy so once asked the Rebbe the question last week we honor the 14 years since the rubber sole went to another dimension and the third of Thomas something actually should have addressed last week I'd like to just say a few words because it was my master my teacher much of what I've learned if not all comes from this person mentor a true man of God so someone's asked him was actually a group of students who came to see him in 1960 they came and asked in the question can you perform a miracle they say you're italic revit can you perform a miracle he smiled and said to them I'm not responsible for what others say about me but I will tell you this that the concept of a miracle is simply based on the principle that material energy that the physical universe is driven by spiritual energy so if someone can maneuver manipulate those energies in effect they will have changed the physical universe they can suspend in some way change the physical universe I'm adding this this now what he said the think of when you plant seeds into the ground tomato seeds potato seeds or some other fruit or or a food and if you look at it that way what was really happening was someone who was ignorant the pastor's they say how could you expect planting a few little kernels seeds into the ground is going to yield anything but we know there's some power in the ground some mysterious power in existence in creation and when you plant the seed and you take it from there you water it and you were Thresh and cultivate the land what ultimately happens is that this a plant can grow and in a plan that will yield fruit that we could have nourish us feed us and grow more plants the seeds will continue to perpetuate what is the mysterious dynamic that's taking place the mysterious dynamic there's more than meets the eye if you just look at the ground or if you planted the seed in a dish under under on your table it wouldn't make a difference something in the ground that has some certain power that we cannot see that the seed is a catalyst of it sparks and ignite something that creates what we call the vegetation process that will yield this particular fruit or food this is why you stopped in

Channel: Rabbi Simon Jacobson at Meaningful Life Center

Views: 135,208

Rating: 4.6989756 out of 5

Keywords: balak

Id: q_wP8doPDeg

Length: 13min 1sec (781 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 22 2011