The Eternal Jew’s Tale, #164, Abarbanel 4.1

In this episode, your eyes will be among the first in history to read excerpts from the lost book of mystical ascents written by Don Isaac Abarbanel.

The Eternal Jew’s Tale
Twentieth Era, Part 4, ~1483 C.E., Iberia

The Abarbanel Cycle, 4.1
The Ladder of Ascents, 1
Compiled by Isaac Abarbanel
With the help of the Eternal Jew and his wife Batkol

1.2 The First Palace, its Second Gate

1. And Jacob our father dreamed his dream* of angels climbing the rungs of faith into Divine Infinities, and then returning to enlighten us.
*-* Berraysheet/Gen. 28:12-15

2. And Elijah wildly whipped the steeds of his flaming chariot into the sky. “Higher, you Khiyot* and don’t hold back. We’re heading up to the Heavenly Throne.
* angelic beings; Hebrew root: animal; creature

3. And David, our greatest poet and king, wrote their songs of ascent to the Lor, those songs of steps and mystic degrees, from the depths of Meshekh* his vision rose beyond the mountain to the Heavenly Throne. It’s fifteen steps to the World of Peace.
*-* Ps. 120:5

4. But David’s eyes are better than most. Others saw just 4 steps:

a. The pilgrim goes up to the Holy Land;
b. The righteous ascend to Jerusalem;
c. The Prophet ascends to the House of God;
d. And God’s footstool is the Holy Ark.

5. And the later mystics of the Hekhalot* saw these 4 steps as a parable for the 4 courtyards in the Palace of God, which the soul perceives as 4 worlds: Asiyah, Yetsirah, Beriah, Atzilut, tho some say 5 and some say 3, and we incline to this latter set, as Nefesh, Ruakh, and Neshama.
* palaces; early school of Jewish mystics

6. Now turn your eye to the mountain and see Moshe standing on Sinai’s peak, his face turned up, his hands uplifted to the Lor in flaming helices, heaving clouds, spectral winds, the Ten Words descending from Nothingness, the Torah of Truth from an Infinite Void.

7. And when Ruakh has blown its Torahs thru us, til all our selfhood is blown away, and we don’t impede Ruakh anymore, it lifts us up and kaddishes* us into those flaming helices and beyond the light-fields of Neshama. That’s why the Lor called Aaron to Hor** and Moshe to Nebo***, to bring them near, and Edom and Moab, as a decayed corpse, was the arid earth they trod upon.
* from Hebrew ‘kadosh,’ holy; also, prayer for the dead
** B’midbar/Num. 20:25-29; 33:38-39; *** Devarim/Deut. 34:1-5

8. In the day of our nation’s awakenings *out of the depths we called the Lor*, and joy lifted us up to Sukkot. And out of the earth the waters are drawn with golden vessels, many a one, with song and cymbals and the shofar blast, and ten thousand people dancing along; enormous torches light the way making the night even as day; the laden vessels are carried up the five hundred steps to the offering site. Wine and water together mixed, human spirit and spirit of the Lor, Nefesh mixed into Neshama. *In joy draw water out of the well* and be uplifted in the Name of the Lor. This be the **Beit haSho’evah**.
* Ps. 130:1; *-* Isaiah 12:3; **-** House of the Water Drawing ceremony

9. Now come back down to this earthy world. The Sages ordered the Shacharit* prayers to awaken the heart, the mind, the soul stage by stage from benighted sleep to the crown of Torah in the upper worlds.
* morning

a. Blessings of sunrise to open the eyes;
b. Verses of song to lift the heart;
c. The Sh’ma* to open our ears to the Voice;
d. The eighteen steps to the Holy Ark;
e. And Words of Torah spoken thru us and revolving us out to the spheres of the Lor.
* means ‘listen;’ a central prayer sequence

These and many another sign and symbol turned our eyes on high to climb the rungs and seek the Lor. We, the envisioned ones.

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In the next episode, a meditational practice.