The Kabbalah of Yeshua

“...Moreover, through the Jews’ observance of the Torah and it’s mitzvos during the time of exile, they ascend to a higher [spiritual] level, [attaining] an even higher rung than during the time of the Beis Hamikdash… ...the transformation of darkness into light reveals [G-d’s] essence which transcends the categories of light and darkness (as above). The verse [“Zion shall be redeemed…”] is the final and concluding verse of the Haftorah Chazon Yeshayahu. [Yeshayahu (as reflected by his name) is associated with yeshuah, salvation. This also includes the true salvation, i.e. the Complete Redemption which will never be followed by exile. This is intimated by the continuation of the verse “who received visions… in the days of Yichezkiyahu” [for it is said] “G-d sought to make [Yi]chezkiyahu Mashiach.”] This verse speaks of the ascent that will take place during the Future Redemption, and more specifically - [that which is achieved] through the second [dimension of] the ascent [which involves the transformation of darkness itself into light], the primary aspect and ultimate purpose of exile.” -Anticipating The Redemption -Maamarim of the Lubavitcher Rebbe Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson Concerning the Era of Redemption Kuntress Shabbat Chazon 5748 (Sefer HaMaamarim Meluket II, p. 317ff)

If we open the first page of volume I of the Sefer HaZohar, we find this.

“Rabbi Hizkiyah opened, ‘like a rose among thorns, so is my beloved among the maidens’. Who is a rose? Assembly of Israel. For there is a rose, and then there is a rose!"

[This implies that the rose stands for two things: Am Israel, and Melech Moshiach. -ST]

"...Just as a rose among thorns is colored red and white, so Assembly of Israel includes judgement and compassion. Just as a rose has thirteen petals, so Assembly of Israel has thirteen qualities of compassion surrounding her on every side. similarly, from the moment Elohim is mentioned, it generates thirteen words...

[The second line of Shem Tov Matthew has 13 words:

אברהם הוליד את יצחק ויצחק הוליד את יעקוב ויעקוב הוליד את יהודה ואחיו ]

...to surround Assembly of Israel and protect her; then it is mentioned again. Why again? To produce five sturdy leaves...

[Five leaves = five letters: "Yeshua" : “יהושוע”. This was spelled out as an acronym, the first letter of each of the words "ירים העם ויוכיח שדברו ותורתו עומדים" -which translate into English basically this way: “The nation will be raised up and it will become known that His word and His Torah stand.”-From R. Kaduri]

...surrounding the rose. These five are called Yeshua; they are five gates. Concerning this mystery it is written; I raise the cup of salvation.

[Mt 26:28]

...This is the cup of blessing, which should rest on five fingers -and no more- like the rose, sitting on five sturdy leaves, paradigm of five fingers. This rose is the cup of blessing.

From the second Elohim to the third, five words appear. From here on: light -created, concealed, contained in the covenant, entering the rose, emitting seed into Her. This is the tree bearing fruit with it’s seed in it.

[Mt 1:18]

That seed endures in the actual sign of the covenant. Just as the image of the covenant is sown in fourty-two couplings of that seed, so the engraved, explicit name is sown in fourty-two letters of the act of creation.

[In all, then, there were fourteen generations from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Moshiach. 14+14+14=42]

So that's a strange series of coincidences in the text of the Holy Zohar and the Shem Tov Matthew. There are more of them too. The Zohar was published for the first time in the very same country in the very same time period that the Shem Tov Matthew turned up. What are the odds that opening the two documents side by side, they seem almost to be... encoded together.

But let me back up here. What is the Kabbalah of Yeshuah? To answer that, I have to answer what the Kabbalah is in the first place. Kabbalah comes from the root "kibel" which means "to receive". It is "that which has been received" and the name itself has a double meaning, implying both a received tradition that has been passed down from Rabbi to student over the years as well as a Received inspiration which has been granted from G-d, an "inner dimension" of meaning in the Torah itself. There is no accident that the name has two meanings, because the secret tradition that was passed on was primarily concerned with enabling the receiving of such inspiration.

Kabbalah goes back to the 1st century CE. It was a secret tradition known to exist by the Rabbanim of the Mishnaic era, but not all of the rabbis of the Mishna were privy to it. The secret tradition sprang out of existence from nowhere, and modern scholars have generally failed to pinpoint the origin of this secret tradition or why it should have had such authority from such an early period of time and why it should have been kept from most of the rabbanim who compiled the Talmud. All that is known by scholars is that it came out of nowhere in the 1st Century, was passed along by an underground chain of tradition within Judaism, and went "public" if you will, in the Middle Ages.

But why was this secret tradition so transformative and such a big deal even today? This is a decent overview of the history of Kabbalah from the perspective of an Orthodox Jewish kabbalist. The short answer is that Kabbalah slowly and steadily transformed Judaism from within for most of the last 2000 years, and it has become the single most influential part of Judaism today. Kabbalah taught the imminence of G-d and the impending process of Geulah (Redemption). Kabbalah provided the means for the simple, the poor, and the unimportant to relate to G-d directly. Kabbalah upended the traditional power dynamics and made itinerant preachers into heroes and respected Rabbanim into villains. Kabbalah was not about this world and yet, ironically, it provided the impetus for regular people to try to change this world and bring about Tikkun HaOlam (rectification/repair of the world). Kabbalah eventually became the strongest stream within the Jewish tradition. When you combine it's Chassidic branch with it's traditional Kabbalistic one, almost no part of modern Orthodox Judaism is untouched. For the history of the secret tradition, look for the books of Aryeh Kaplan.

So, back to the Zohar and a little known Hebrew Matthew text... It turns out that the earliest books we have from Kabbalah include references to a singular teacher whose name had to be kept hidden for some reason, and who was nevertheless treated with the utmost respect. The most important rabbi in the Sefer HaBahir is someone called R. Amorai. He is treated with tremendous respect by all the other rabbanim, and they spend a great deal of time trying to understand the meaning of his teachings. R. Amorai can be clearly said to be the founder of the school that preserved the Bahir as an oral (and eventually written) tradition. So who was he?

The name R. Amorai is found nowhere other than the Bahir. He is held in the very highest respect by all of the students in the Bahir. Great effort is made to explain his teachings. The name is mysterious, and means simply “speakers”. It is believed that it is pluralized out of respect. It is very clear that “Amorai” is a term used to mask the true name of someone who founded the school of the teachings of the Bahir.

So who could this tremendously important rabbi be who is the very core of the teaching preserved in the Sefer HaBahir? Why would such an important rabbi’s name be hidden behind a pseudonym? What if the name of this critical rabbi was cursed by the contemporary rabbanim of his generation? What if this uniquely important rabbi with revolutionary teachings which had to be preserved in a coded form using a code name for the great teacher of the tradition is hidden in this way because his name is Yeshua?

We find many, many parallels between Yeshua’s teaching and those of the Bahir.

R. Nehunia ben HaKana’s (the compiler of the Bahir) favorite saying was: “Whoever accepts the yoke of Torah is relieved of the yokes of government and livelihood.” In other words, the editor of the Bahir is saying “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

The Shliachim of Yeshua said that they were leaving a tradition behind: “Yes, I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you, knowing that shortly I must put off my tent, just as our Lord Yeshua HaMoshiach showed me. Moreover, I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease.” -2 Peter, 1:13-15. A religious Jew in 1st century Yerushalayim could hardly have been more explicit. He was leaving behind an oral tradition exactly like Hillel and Shammai had done and the codifiers of the Mishna would rely on.

The Jewish tradition says that a secret oral tradition existed and that not all of the codifiers of the Mishna were privy to it: "The Maaseh Merkava [“secrets of the Divine chariot” aka: “the secret tradition”] may be taught only to individual students [one at a time], and they must be wise, understanding with their own knowledge." Mishna; Tractate Chagigah.

The followers of Yeshua who broke away from Judaism and became known as Ebionites said that there were rabbanim who were part of a secret tradition: “When I had thus spoken, the whole multitude of the priests were in a rage, because I had foretold to them the overthrow of the temple.  Which when Gamaliel, a chief of the people, saw—who was secretly our brother in the faith, but by our advice remained among them—because they were greatly enraged and moved with intense fury against us, he stood up, and said ‘Be quiet for a little, O men of Israel, for ye do not perceive the trial which hangs over you." -Chapter LXV.—Tumult Stilled by Gamaliel.

The Hellenic goyim who destroyed the Beit Hamikdash and then proceeded to co-opt the tradition of Yeshua and claimed to be the new "chosen people" said that there was a secret tradition among the original Shliachim of Yeshua: "A difficult work is enjoined, since this translation has been commanded me by your Felicities, which St. Matthew himself, the Apostle and Evangelist, did not wish to be openly written. For if it had not been Secret, he would have added to the evangel that which he gave forth was his; but he made up this book sealed up in the Hebrew characters, which he put forth even in such a way that the book, written in Hebrew letters and by the hand of himself, might be possessed by the men most religious, who also, in the course of time, received it from those who preceded them. But this very book they never gave to any one to be transcribed, and its text they related some one way and some another." -Jerome to Chromatius and Heliodorus.

Yeshua said that he would leave behind a teaching (remember, he referred to the "leaven of the Parushim" as their teachings): “He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into three measures of flour, until all of it was leavened.”

"Yeshua said, “I have thrown fire upon the world, and look, I am watching till it blazes.”-Gospel of Thomas 10

"My fire will burn until the coming of Moshiach." -Rabbi Nachman of Breslov

We know that this was said of Melech Moshiach: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes.’ Why would it be marvelous for a stone to be adopted by a different building? It would only be miraculous if the stone that was rejected became the cornerstone of the same building. Cornerstone in Ivrit is "Even Bochan". The document in which the Shem Tov Hebrew Matthew was found was called "Even Bochan". Curious. Why would it be called that if it were nothing but anti-Christian polemics? Why would the Shem Tov Hebrew Matthew be preserved for hundreds of years painstakingly by rabbinical Jews? Why would it appear at the same time and same place that the Kabbalah was made public? Amazingly, Kabbalah has indeed become the cornerstone of Judaism today. The leavening (teaching) of Yeshua has indeed leavened all of the dough.

On Rosh Hashanah of 5507 (1746), the Baal Shem Tov had a vision wherein he ascended to heaven and entered the chamber of Moshiach. The Besht asked Moshiach, "When will the Master [Moshiach] come?" Moshiach responded, "... when your wellsprings [the teachings of the secret tradition] will burst forth to the farthest extremes."

The Besht was a student of Adam Baal Shem, who was a student of the long line of Mekubalim and Baalei Shem who include men like R. Isaac The Blind and Abraham Abulafia. At the very beginning of their tradition that was carefully passed down generation after generation, there is one mysterious teacher whose name had to be hidden, as a secret tradition was created in the 1st Century. This teacher taught R. Gamaliel who in turn taught the Baal HaZohar and the Baal HaBahir.

The Kabbalah has been more responsible for the survival of the Jewish people than anything else over the last 2000 years. It has enriched the Halachah with an inner meaning and introduced ideas like Kavanah, Devekut, and Tikkun. In every age where forces of assimilation have threatened to pull Jews away from Torah, it has preserved Halachah and kept Am Israel together. No wonder Rabbi Yitzhak Kaduri left a note that spelled out the name of Moshiach this way:

"ירים העם ויוכיח שדברו ותורתו עומדים" -"The nation will be raised up and it will become known that His word and His Torah stand."

Which spells out  יהושוע- Yeshua.

So what is the Kabbalah of Yeshua? It is the secret tradition of Melech HaMoshiach which will bring Geulah. It is life, it is Tikkun, it is Refuah and Bracha for those who follow it. It is the way that we will heal this world and bring about the return of Moshiach.

"In the Garden of Eden there is a hall that is called the "hall of the afflicted." Now it is into this hall that the Messiah goes and summons all the afflictions and pains and sufferings of Israel to come upon him. And so they all come upon him. And had he not eased the children of Israel of their sorrow, and taken their burden upon himself, there would be none who could endure the suffering of Israel in penalty of neglecting the Torah. Thus it is written: "Surely our diseases he did bear and our pains he carried." (Is. 53:5) As long as the children of Israel dwelt in the Holy Land, they averted all afflictions and sufferings from the world by the service of the sanctuary and by sacrifice. But now it is the Messiah who is averting them from the inhabitants of the world." -Zohar; Ex. fol. 212a