The Divine Soul

The following paragraph is from Dr. Asher Eder’s book The Star of David, which was published in 1987 in English in Jerusalem by Rubin Mass Ltd. The publication here is courtesy of Oren Mass

The term 'breath of life' is not an adequate translation of the Hebrew ,נשמת חיים nishmat hayim, which designates the spiritual, or Divine soul. It is by breathing this nishmat hayim into him that Man becomes a living soul ( ,(נפש חיה nephesh haiyah.
Animals, too, breathe and are spoken of as living souls, but their souls derive from the earth which brought them forth. True, some of their actions resemble human behaviors, but this is due to the fact that the laws of the One Creator govern the whole universe. It has nothing to do with a nishmat hayim.
Here we should note that the word breathing (the breath of life) does not really convey the meaning of the Hebrew ,ויפח va'yipah, which describes the process of expanding, or extending something. The idea is to extend Man's soul, created in the Divine Image, into the realm of God's likeness; or, to use modern terminology, to elevate his consciousness above the limitations and restrictions of this world into the sphere of the Divine, the עולם הבא , ‘olam ha'ba, the coming world which is already there but is to come into our soul and consciousness. In terms of the Kabbalistic "Tree of Life", we could say the word va'yipah describes the expansion from the Sephirah ,יסוד Fundament, into the Sephiroth above the line נצח-הוד , Victory-Majesty. This, of course, is not a puffing up of the ego but its elevation into the higher reality of the Divine Presence.
Thus, the Scripture, by its speaking of Adam becoming a living soul through the breathing of life into him, makes two important points:
a) A man is considered a living soul, or spiritually alive, not by the fact of his physical breathing but through his being enlivened by the Divine breath. Of such living souls, it is said: "A candle of the Lord is the soul of Man". However, through the "First Adam", we all received a share of the Divine breath, or the Divine spark as it is often called.
b) Neither earth nor Man can generate ,נשמת חיים nishmat hayim. It is a gift of the Lord.
4) The account of the forming of Adam, and the breathing of the breath of life into him are close together. This means to say:
a) that these two acts together make (true) Adam. The form without the breath of life would be spiritually dead (dust from the earth), and the breath of life without the form would not be Adam either; it might be an angel, orרוח , ruah, i.e. spirit, or wind;
b) neither of these acts, forming or breathing, or their concomitant material and spiritual aspects, have any preference over the other.
While some schools of thought tend to treat the material aspect of nature, and of Man in particular, as inferior, dark and evil, Judaism sees it as an equal part of Creation, included in the statement "And God saw everything he made, and behold, it was very good".
Seeing these two aspects as equal does not mean that a harmonious balance between the spiritual and material can be brought about by compromising either. Our basic bodily drives should neither be suppressed nor eliminated, but neither should they rule us; rather, they should be directed and used for furthering the Divine purpose.
For instance, let us look at our daily meals to demonstrate this point. The biblical injunctions concerning clean and unclean food as well as the correct quantities of wholesome food are summed up in Prov. 30:8, which teaches us a proper supplication for it: "...provide me with lawful bread". We should enjoy our daily meals within the framework of the dietary laws and in the right proportion, being grateful for them as a Divine gift. 'He giveth food to all flesh, for His grace endureth forever', says Ps.136:25. We should ingest them with the intent to keep us healthy and fit for our mundane and Divine tasks. In Judaism, and in Kabbalah in particular, we would describe such an approach as elevating the mundane into the Divine. These aspects, the material and the spiritual, or mundane and Divine, if depicted by equilateral triangles, form the harmonious six-pointed star, or in terms of the Kabbalistic Tree, the upper and lower rhomb
Being descendants of the First Adam, we share that same pattern; it is our heritage and birthright. However, we are free to choose whether to take advantage of it or neglect it. As we can long for physical food and joy, likewise we can long for spiritual food and joy. And indeed, this longing is innate in every human being, although it is often misguided or covered up by all kinds of substitutes. Sayings like "Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word which comes from the mouth of the Lord", and "No bread - no Torah, no Torah - no bread", deal with these two equal needs of Man. That these aspects be seen as equal is indeed a pre-condition for Man's health. Any imbalance would cause tensions and consequently diseases in body and soul.

The Decalogue

The following paragraph is from Dr. Asher Eder’s book The Star of David, which was published in 1987 in English in Jerusalem by Rubin Mass Ltd. The publication here is courtesy of Oren Mass

In the Decalogue, we find a basic instruction on how to progress.
Given by the Lord, the Decalogue, a central part of the Torah, reflects again the underlying unity of Grace and Law . While it is well known that one tablet deals with the commandments between Man and God, and the second with those between Man and Man, we should also note that the Torah tells us about these two tablets: "on the one side and on the other side were they written". The one side reflects the strict order of law "not to make graven images", "not to kill", "not to steal", etc., while the other side reflects the grace by which the one who has been taken out from the house of bondage is guided by the Lord's spirit so that he "shall not make graven images", "shall not kill", "shall not steal", "shall not covet", etc.
In dealing with both law and grace, the Decalogue provides a clear instruction as to the right path. Grace can never contradict law. Rather, grace is a state of constant awareness of, and guidance by, the Divine presence. This idea is borne out by the very term Matan Torah. This Hebrew phrase does not speak of a one-time giving of the Torah in the distant past. It rather conveys the idea of a permanent giving of the Torah - a gift to be received by each generation anew.
We may now also understand why the Torah stresses that "The Lord is our God". We should not worship the forces of nature, including astrological charts, by considering them as ultimate truths; nor may we worship the gods and goddesses of fertility, nor brute physical force, nor the body as such by presuming that "in a healthy body would - automatically - dwell a healthy spirit", nor should we worship the more modern god of science as the 'ultimo ratio' which can answer all the needs of man.
To be sure, all these things contain some grain of truth. They are there to assist us, provided we have the right attitude. Yet adhering only to them would make them our masters, and we would stay 'undeveloped'. The Divine soul, ,נשמת חיים would remain retarded or wither away, leaving behind human husks in a state comparable to that of animals with some IQ.
Unfortunately, human history has provided ample evidence of this condition. However, the goal of Creation is Man in God's image and likeness, and not the 'animalization' of humans.
Numerous possibilities of development unfold in this process of man-making, This is partly due to free will on the part of Man which can be exercised within the framework of the natural and the spiritual laws governing Creation. Life itself, as well as the message contained in all the chapters following the record of Creation, show these possibilities vividly.
Thus, both the life of Adam and the structure of the Holy Scripture - which is in fact the Book of Man and his world - can be seen as complying with the Divine pattern outlined in the chapters "Meaning of the Triangles", and "Polarities".
The interwovenness of chapters I and II of Genesis and their meanings, i.e., the oneness of the material and spiritual aspects of our human nature, finds perfect expression in our star, whose two triangles may well stand for these two aspects.

I Shall be that I Shall Be

The following paragraph is from Dr. Asher Eder’s book The Star of David, which was published in 1987 in English in Jerusalem by Rubin Mass Ltd. The publication here is courtesy of Oren Mass

The process of forming Adam, and breathing life into him, is related to the term "Lord God". The addition of the term Lord to the term God should by no means be understood as the introduction of a new God besides Elohim of the first chapter of Genesis. It rather points to a specific and decisive aspect of one Creator: the aspect of mercy.
In order to understand this Divine aspect of mercy, let us consider the Hebrew word for Lord, i.e. the tetragrammaton which stands for this aspect. It cannot be pronounced, nor can it be translated, for it comprises everything which can be expressed in words as well as that which is beyond words. Moreover, its structure can be seen as an invocation of the past, present, and future tense of the Hebrew root word for BE. We humans are not able to pronounce these three aspects of time (or, indeed, entertain these three concepts) simultaneously, so how much less can we dare to pronounce the tetragrammaton? Instead, it is often referred to as "the Name" or "the Name of Names".
We find one of the most revealing interpretations of the meaning of the tetragrammaton in Ex.3:14, where, in accordance with the Divine plan, emphasis is placed on the future. God reveals himself to Moses with the words: "I shall be that I shall be".
This rendering of the Divine name in a future tense does not, of course, reduce the Lord's Divinity to a mere aspect of time. Time as such is not a force, and is therefore no deity at all. As forces may need a certain time span in which to operate, similarly the Lord apparently wants to take us, as individuals as well as collectively, through a time-bound process of education and growth, which would apply to our physical and spiritual natures.
This becomes clear in the verses and chapters following the revelation at the burning bush. These verses describe the exodus from Egypt, the receiving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, and the 40 years in the desert as a learning process, a preparation for entry into the Promised Land, the essential venue for implementing the Divine instruction. All this goes on under the aspect of Divine grace. In this way, Israel's history serves as a model for all Humankind; the Lord of Israel symbolizes the unifying of Man's will with the will of God, the Creator of all..
This process can be illustrated by applying the revelation ,אהיה אשר אהיה I shall be that I shall be, to both the Kabbalistic Tree and the six-pointed Star. Since we, being created in God's image, are to grow unto His likeness, we may infer that we are to become what we are by Divine will; and, vice versa, that the Lord God wishes His Divine qualities to be expressed to the fullest in Men.
This two-way process is indicated also by the wordאשר , asher, (rendered in the above revelation by the word that) as its basic meaning is to step forward, to progress. When we put this revelation on the Kabbalistic Tree, we would have to apply the two words אהיה , I shall be, to the upper and lower rhombs respectively, and the word ,אשר that, to the central and connecting Sephirah Splendor. When applying it to the six-pointed Star, we would have each of the two triangles representing the two words ,אהיה and the center representing the word אשר and what it conveys.

Good and Evil

The following paragraph is from Dr. Asher Eder’s book The Star of David, which was published in 1987 in English in Jerusalem by Rubin Mass Ltd. The publication here is courtesy of Oren Mass

Good and evil are not polarities like spirit and matter or male and female. God's creation is altogether good. If there were to be an absolute evil, there would be two opposing creators and creations. The struggle between good and evil does not exist for plants and animals, which can only behave according to their innate patterns. This struggle comes with Man's unique status, expressed in his I-awareness, and his ability to gain knowledge and exercise free will. If this knowledge is partial, darkened or twisted, things will not be seen in their proper perspective. This leads to misjudgments, and these allow forces which may not be evil in themselves to draw men away from the straight path, with all the evil consequences thereof.
Men also have the ability to employ various means to darken or twist the minds of others in order to use them for their own nefarious purposes. Thus, man's natural desire for growth and completion can be directed either towards good or evil. The possibility of desiring things that are still missing (i.e. to long for completion) and to make choices in the pursuit thereof, has to do with Man's being created in God's image, destined to grow into God's likeness - or into his archetypal stature, in modern terms. In this process of growth and education, men and Mankind may make the wrong choices, go astray, commit evil deeds and suffer evil consequences, until the lessons are learned.
All this does not form good and evil into poles. Rather, the human concepts of "good" and "evil" exist in the gap between the potential embedded in original Creation and our shortcomings in effectuating it, between childhood and adulthood. Prophet Isaiah’s blunt saying that “God creates evil”, refers to the fact that we humans got free will, and thus can make wrong or evil choices). This faculty of developing and exercising free will, however, is not given to little children. It comes up in our youth, as said in Gen.8:21 where we read: “…the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth”. It is only from then on that humans, although being “made upright” by the Creator, “think out many inventions”). This possibility is given to us for the sake of our ongoing learning and growth. Moses, our great lawgiver, tells us in this respect: “Thou turnest man [אנוש, the fallible man] to dejection, and sayest: return [as] children of Man [=Adam}).The evil plays its Divinely ordained role in that process. It is included in the statement that "everything that He made [including Man]... is very good)
Whether we do good or not, we always draw from the one Divine energy source. Consequently, we are responsible for its use or misuse, and are constantly confronted by God's question to Adam: "Where are you?")

Kennicott Bible

Kennicott Bible

Source: digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/

Kennicott Bible

Source: digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/

 Kennicott Bible

Source: digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/

Kennicott Bible

Source: digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/

"One of many Kennicott "carpet pages

(after the books of the prophets)

Picture of Kennicott Bible Jewish Star is courtesy of Ceramic artist Paul Barchilon.

Today I saw a calendar with a design that exited me. It showed Joseph Ibn Hayyim’s micrographic Star of David with six circles inside. It is a carpet page in the Kennicott Bible from the 15th century . May be it exited me because I had a similar idea when I made my Photoshop design of six coins with Lilium candidum. Wanting to know more about this Kennicott Bible I surfed the WWW and found Ceramic artist Paul Barchilon who was inspired by the Kennicott Bible design.

Paul Barchilon sent me today the following inspiring explanation:

The division of the circle into six is the first and most obvious division

possible with a compass. It arises completely organically and can be made

accurately with nothing but two sticks and a piece of string (the first

compass, thousands of years ago). The six pointed star (Magen David) is

hence a natural expression of geometric art and appears in many cultures.

That said, Islamic Art has more fully developed this type of decoration than

any other culture in the world. The Kennicot Torah is a product of its

environment, Islamic Spain. Southern Spain (Andalusia) was a safe harbor

for Jews in the Medieval world. Star of David patterns are found all over

the Muslim world and the Kennicot Torah follows the style of Andalusian

decoration common at that time. The Star of David only became associated

with Jews and Zionism in the 19th century, so it is a modern interpretation.

It is also interesting to note the eight pointed star that is formed by the

intersection of two squares rotated at a 45 degree angle

(http://home.comcast.net/~pbwebsite/platters/amberose.html ). This star is

called the Solomon's Seal. Legend has it that it was on King Solomon's

ring. It was likely the Arabs who named these stars and attributed them to

the father and son monarchs in the Torah. Most people don't realize that

Muslims accept all the Jewish prophets as divinely inspired, and that the

Koran actually recounts much of the old and new testaments in Mahomet's (or

Allah's voice). Respect for Jewish traditions and recognition of Jews as

People of the Book was part of Islam early on. As a Sephardic Jew, my

family's history is one of being protected from the Christians by the

Moslems. The 800 year legacy of Islamic Spain is primarily one of peace and

cooperation between Muslims and Jews, a lesson we could do well to

reacquaint ourselves with in this day and age!

Best wishes,

Paul

P.S.

Joseph Asarfati Illuminated the Cervera Bible manuscript carpet pages circa 1299-1300 in Spain. One of his carpet pages depicts two Stars of David: the one surrounding the emblem of Castilia and the other surrounding the emblem of Leon.

Joseph Ben Hayim who illuminated the Kennicott Bible in 1476, also in Spain, was inspired by him and in one of HIS carpet pages appears also a Star of David.

Portugal government issued on 20 may Jewish heritage stamp series with this image.

Joseph ben Yehuda Merwas finished in 1307 writing and illustrating his bible. At the end of Deuteronomy he drew a Star of David in a circle so that each triangle is made from two lines. Joseph Ben Yehuda Merwas belonged to the school of Spanish Jewish illustrators, same as the Kennicott bible illustrator, who also drew Stars of David.

  Cervera Bible page 282

  Cervera Bible page 317

 Cervera Bible page 898

  Cervera Bible page 898

 Cervera Bible page 899

Spirit and Matter, God and Nature

The following paragraph is from Dr. Asher Eder’s book The Star of David, which was published in 1987 in English in Jerusalem by Rubin Mass Ltd. The publication here is courtesy of Oren Mass

As mentioned, the six-pointed star may also illustrate the relationship between force and form, spirit and matter, Creator and Creation, God and Man.
This is not to imply that the Creator is outside His creation, or otherwise separate from it, even though nature reveals only part of His being. Were He separate from Creation, we would have to demonstrate this by means of two triangles, one on top of the other.
But of course, Creation as such is not God. Just as electric light is not electricity but rather a manifestation of it, Creation is merely one manifestation of God, the Creator.
The Hebrew word teva, usually rendered as nature, actually means expression. God is understood as the Prime Force, the physical universe with its laws of cause and effect being only one expression of His nature or one form of His manifestation. This being so, He can "make clouds His chariots, and walk upon the wings of the wind" (Ps. 104:3,4) or split the Red Sea (Ps. 136:13) - acts which are miracles in our eyes.
Other aspects of His infinite Being include His mercy, His severity and His forgiveness.
Mercy governed the creation of Adam, with in it severity and forgiveness are the hallmarks of the shaping of his life. God's educational process is aimed not at the suppression of nature but rather at its careful guidance, that is, until natural man attains his true and Divine nature. This idea is supported by sayings like: אני יי אלהיך" “, I am the Lord thy God; or ,"יי אלהינו" , the Lord is our God.
By relating the word elohim, to ,טבע teva, we can interpret these phrases as: "I am the Lord thy (true) nature”; or "the Lord is our (true) nature". Both these aspects of our nature are poles of one reality, Adam.
Teva (expression, nature) allows us to learn a lot about the Creator and His laws, but it is not given to us to know Him fully. He remains always above and beyond the knowable and reachable. We know some of the properties of electricity, yet no one has a satisfactory definition of what it really is. How much more presumptuous would it be to think that Man could ever comprehend God!
We may know about God
a) through observation of His Creation and its ways, which is the foremost but by far not exclusive object of scientific research;
b) through His revelations to His prophets, which are, or should be, the subject of religion;
c) through our own observations and experiences in accordance with the two preceding points.
These are the two or three pillars upon which everything is established.
All this shows us that God is imminent in His Creation, but as its Creator and Sustainer He is also above it, transcendent. This is beautifully symbolized by our six-pointed star. Its two equal triangles, although in opposite positions, are balanced and harmonious. If we consider its middle field to be our world of perception, and God as being above the fray, the small triangle above the middle field may then symbolize that part of Him which is beyond our comprehension. Though we are bound to the perceptible world, symbolized by the middle field, we are permeated by His being.
Since there is no above or below God, the other five triangles around the middle field may likewise symbolize His omnipresence and omnipotence.
As we read in Psalm 139:
"Whither shall I go from they spirit?
or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there:
If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there..."
On the other hand, as we are embedded in His omnipresence, so are His laws in us:"...thy law is in my bowels...".
In fact we can exchange any one of the six outer triangles for the top or bottom triangle, and would always get the same figure of two interwoven triangles.
But since the human mind needs to speak in terms of above and below, we can see the lower point of our Star as symbolizing Man who, "out of the depths", stretches his hands toward God. All human minds are finite, so we can never fully comprehend God. But God "comes down" to meet us halfway, embracing us with two arms - law and grace - and drawing us unto His heart in harmony and peace:
This figure portrays in fact accurately the core of Jewish believe (אמונה, liter. faithfulness), as expressed so picturesquely already in Jacob’s dream. There, he saw a ladder from the ground underneath reaching up to the heavens, with the angels of the Lord ascending and descending on it; and the Lord standing above it, said: “I am the Lord, God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac…” Here, man’s yearning for the Divine met the revelation from on high.
However, we should not imagine the Lord God merely as an overpowering force from above (like a ba’al). The Hebrew equivalent for this term is אדני, Adonai. Its root word דן, dan, judge, describes the authority which establishes right (that is, the right of those who were treated unfairly). From it derives also the word אדן, eden, a base, or window-sill, that is, a kind of support (the word אדן, eden, should not be confused with עדן, ‘eden, of the Garden of Eden). Thus, the word Adonai can well be understood as Lord and Judge, as well as Helper and Supporter in whom we are, and prosper.

Din-i-Ilahi Syncretic Religion

Picture of hexagram on the tomb for Humayun is courtesy of "isoughtajam" from Flickr
I got a very nice explanation from him:

This beautiful building is a tomb for Humayun who was the
second ruler in the Mughal Dynasty (1526-1850's) whose
reign lasted through roughly the late 16th century. His
dynasty was mostly of Central Asian descent (and
Afghanistan too) but also of Persian royal descent, and
under his rule Central Asia and northern India went through
a renaissance of Persian influence in all aspects of
culture.

The tomb is in Old Delhi (15 km from New Delhi), the seat
of power for the Mughal Empire in Northern India. It is
built using local red sandstone with hints of yellow
sandstone, white marble (of Taj Mahal fame) and many other
stones both precious and not. It is said to be quite
exactly like the Taj Mahal in proportion and plan. Humayun
is the grandfather of Shahjahan who built the Taj Mahal for
his queen.

So on my trip earlier this year I toured the seats of
Mughal power through north India and saw some truly amazing
recurring themes. Many of these rulers, though established
in Islam, often had queens from various places and the
local queens were Hindu. So many palaces are decorated with
a variety of styles: Muslim iconography, Persian style,
Hindu style, Buddhist style and so on. I noticed a whole
hell of a lot of six pointed stars all over Muslim
buildings and I was told by guides that these were very
common in older Muslim iconography. There are a lot of
geometric aspects that are common including 8 pointed stars
as well. But the 6 pointed stars surprised me a bit so I
clicked the pic.

Interestingly enough, Humayun's son Akbar, being known for
his righteousness and intelligence, gathered a group of
inter-faith scholars during his reign and established a new
religion that represented the truth from all the religions
represented in his kingdom. It was called Din-i-Ilahi and I
encourage you to check it out on wikipedia.