There are always two options for readings on Christmas - The Nativity Story from Luke , and the more esoteric poetry from John .  Each tells the story from a different perspective, and both work together to help us understand the significance of Christ's birth. The main message that both Jesus, and John the Baptist preached was that the Kingdom of God had come near.  The Hebrew word translated as Kingdom is Malchut, which is also the name of the tenth sefirot in Kabbalah.  The significance of Malchut is that it is the receptical of all the other aspects.  Will, Wisdom, Understanding, Justice, Mercy, Compassion, Endurance, Splendor, and Foundation are all poured into Malchut.  On it's very surface, Malchut is about sovereignty, kingship, or on a very basic level - dignity.  The Gospel story is good news because it raises up ordinary people to the level of dignity that a king would have. In the story from  Luke  angels appeared to shepherds...

Advent 4 In a previous post  I wrote about a Kabbalahistic look at Jesus being the Son of God and how his birth was a direct emanation from the Infinite.  This week we read the story of when the angel Gabriel revealed to the Virgin Mary that she was to bear this Son of God.  As you learn more about Kabbalah you'll see that there are illusions to it throughout the New Testament.  This passage is no exception. Gabriel is mentioned four times in the Bible.  Twice in the Book of Daniel, Chapters 8 and 9, and twice in the Gospel of Luke, both in Chapter 1.  Each time he is bringing a message from God, or helping someone interpret a vision.  In every case, the message from God is both good and bad news - it contains both love and judgement. Gabriel's name has the same root as the Sefirah Gevurah.  Gevurah is the sefirah of judgement or discipline.  In the Tree of Life it is portrayed as being opposite of Chesed or love.  When they work t...

I initially thought this would be part two of Advent 2, but looking at the Gospel for Advent 3 I find that they're very similar.  One tells the story from the point of view of Mark, the other from John. The story from John begins by talking about John the Baptist, being a witness to the light - he himself wasn't the light, but he witnessed to it (John 1:6).  If we back up a few verses, we read that the light is life (1:4) and that it shines in the darkness, but the darkness did not recognize it (1:5). In the Kabbalah, light was often used as a metaphor for God's very essence.  We also learn that God created the Heavens and the Earth through a process of concealment, or in Hebrew, Tzimzum.  According to Rabbi Isaac Luria, the infinite, all powerful God withdrew himself in order to create a space where finite creation can exist - otherwise creation would be overwhelmed by the intensity of God's existence.  The light would have been too intense, so to speak. ...