Living Kabbalah Wisdom Part 3

From a Kabbalistic perspective, every Hebrew word and statement conveys at least 4 levels of meaning, corresponding with the 4 spiritual worlds explored by Kabbalah. These meanings are derived from the numerous associations with each letter.

For instance, every Hebrew letter is associated with not just a sound, but with a number and a word. So every Hebrew word represents the sum of its letter-numbers and the string of words conveyed by each letter, as does every statement.

Additionally, words that sound alike can be used as hints pointing to the numerical value of their homonyms, and words, letters and statements that are numerically equivalent may be used to suggest one another. Confused yet? By analyzing all of this intuitively, Kabbalists divine the inner meanings of the letter, name, word, or statement under consideration. This intricate, complex, endlessly fascinating process is called "Gematria".

Here is an extremely simplified example, the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet is Aleph ( א ) . It's numerical value is 1 and it corresponds with the Hebrew word for ox.

A Kabbalist might look at that letter's occurrence to you right now, consider its number and word correspondence, and glean from that intuitive insight into your present situation.

For instance, the fact that you have just viewed the aleph א (in Kabbalah, there are no accidents) may suggest that you are at the beginning (stage 1) of a long haul (ox work). That "long haul" involves a new stage of plodding into the levels of deeper meaning of your life. The advice you can take from this is to be patient and persevering in your plodding (be ox-like). To help you to receive the strength you need for this, you might gaze upon the aleph, imagining the power to begin and to continue to the end of what may be an eternal process flowing into you from its form, through your gaze.

If you do not understand what has just been said about the meaning of aleph, don't concern yourself in the least. The practical approach to Kabbalah that will be covered in these articles is a distillation and synthesis of a very broad study. How to live Kabbalah's wisdom should seem fairly simple and clear to you as we proceed to explore the 32 Paths of Wisdom for daily living.

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