THE JEWISH KABBALAH: ROOT OF MIDEAST VIOLENCE
Editor’s Note:
The Christian-persecuting, ultra-Orthodox Jews of Israel, who receive millions through Pastor John Hagee, are devotees of Kabbalah. 80% of “Haredi” males are devoted full-time to Talmudic and Kabbalistic studies. Such Jews, which include militant Rabbis and most settlers, possess an often homicidal hatred of Gentiles—especially Palestinians. They reject and will gladly sabotage ongoing peace talks in order to achieve what they believe is God’s will and the only solution to the “Arab problem”—driving all Arabs from Palestine by whatever means necessary.
In this reprint of my August 18, 2006 article, I provide vital background on what Kabbalah teaches and why it threatens peace, not only in the Middle East, but the world.
THE JEWISH KABBALAH:
ROOT OF MIDEAST VIOLENCE
By Rev. Ted Pike
In the aftermath of Israel’s blitz of Lebanon (summer, 2006), banners were lifted by pro-Hezbollah youth to the TV media. They labeled Lebanese wreckage as: “Made in America.”
It’s true: Israel’s F-16s, cluster bombs, and arms were supplied by America. But the intention to use them was created deep in the heart of Talmudic Judaism—in the semi-secret “Kabbalah.”
What is Kabbalah? Today, “Kabbalah” makes most think of popstars like Madonna or Britney Spears who dabble in the occult. Actually, Kabbalah has no real relevance to Gentiles. It is an occult theology and practice centering around the superiority of Jews and their predestined purpose to dominate society.
While conservatives focus on the dark side of Islam, they take it for granted that Judaism is a benign religion of peace and tolerance. But if we are brave enough to take a closer look, we find a very, very different reality. Deep in the heart of Judaism’s sacred texts lie a set of twisted and chilling beliefs.
In the Old Testament, God is a conscious moral being. He has perfect knowledge of right and wrong, and He judges us according to our free moral choices.
Yet when the Jews were carried to distant Babylon in 587 BC by Nebuchadnezzar, they found a very different god. They discovered the pantheistic god of the east—a world force who is “great” not because he loves or is good, but because of his pervasive power everywhere.
The ancient Pharisees liked this “god” because he didn’t disapprove of their perversion of Jehovah’s laws. The Pharisees of Babylon created an elaborate secret theology for the Jews called “Kabbalah.”
Eminent Christian-Jewish historian Alfred Eidersheim comments, “It is undeniable that already at the time of Jesus Christ, there existed an assemblage of doctrines and speculations that were carefully concealed from the multitude. They were not even revealed to ordinary scholars…This kind bore the name of Kabbala…” 1
In Kabbalist theology, “God,” called the “En Sof,” is beyond rational description. He consists of the most exalted, rarified light. As his wavelengths descend, they manifest themselves, according to Jewish Kabbalists, as a most wonderful phenomenon: the Jewish people. Jews, being semi-divine, are the rational, physical manifestations of God’s presence in the universe. They are as indispensable to the existence of the universe as a proton is to an atom.
Evil Gentiles
Unfortunately, the wavelengths of God continue to descend, becoming so degenerate that they produce demons and—most troubling to Israel— satanic creatures called “Kliphoth,” or Gentiles. The rabbinic treatise, “Sepher Or Israel, 117,” recommends: “Take the life of the Klipoth and kill them, and you will please God the same as one who offers incense to Him.” 2
The Zohar, meaning “brightness” or “light,” is the five-volume repository of Kabbalistic lore and mystic speculation. It explains, “… ‘living soul’ refers to Israel who have holy, living souls from above, and ‘cattle’ and ‘creeping thing’ and ‘beast of the earth’ to the other peoples who are not ‘living soul.’…” 3
According to the Zohar, the great tragedy of this world is that the Kliphoth or Gentiles perpetually unsettle the higher levels with their evil imbalance. As long as the Kliphoth continue to exist in their present state of discord, God and His universe will be disordered as well.
In this concept we find a rationale for the Kabbalists’ hatred of Gentiles. Christ said, “The time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.” (John 16:2) The Kabbalist (epitomized today by the Ultra-Orthodox ‘Haredim’ settlers in Israel) sees the extermination of the Gentile as a necessary process toward restoring order in the universe. He teaches that the Gentile (Palestinian) is a form of demon who should be treated with no more genuine benevolence than one would treat Satan himself.
Gentiles, whom the Zohar describes as “Amalekites,” have an intrinsic tendency to disorder the world, causing it to revert to its primordial state of chaos (tohu) and emptiness (bohu).
“All of these [Gentiles] tend to bring the world back to the state of tohu and bohu, and they caused the destruction of the temple. But as “tohu” and “bohu” gave place to the light, so, when God reveals Himself, they will be wiped off the earth. But, withal, redemption will not be complete until Amalek will be exterminated.” 4
“The People of the Earth are idolaters, and it has been written about them: Let them be wiped off the face of the earth.” 5
Long-Suffering Israel
Until the blessed day when the Gentiles are exterminated, the Zohar says, Israel must remain in a withered, blighted condition. This is because Gentiles, by the confusion they stir up in the lower levels, prevent the blessings of the Shekina in the upper levels from adequately descending upon Israel.
Someday, however, things will be as they were meant and “man” (meaning Israel) will be given the preeminence he was created to enjoy. Then, says the Kabbalah, “man should be unique and ruler over all.” 6
How will “man” conquer the world?
“Rabbi Jehuda said to him Rabbi Chezkia: “He is to be praised who is able to free himself from the enemies of Israel, and the just are much to be praised who get free from them and fight against them.” Rabbi Chezkia asked, “How must we fight against them?” Rabbi Jehuda said, “By wise counsel thou shalt war against them.” (Proverbs 24:6) “By what kind of war?” “The kind of war that every son of man must war against his enemies. Which Jacob used against Esau—by deceit and trickery wherever possible. They must be fought against without ceasing, until proper order be restored. Thus it is with satisfaction that I say we should free ourselves from them, and rule over them.”” 7
The intention of this passage is clear: world domination.
World Domination
When Jews control the planet, Kabbalists believe, God’s power will be manifest through the Messiah. “The Holy One, blessed be He, will display His force, and exterminate them [Gentiles] from the world.” 8
In that day, “happy will be the lot of Israel, whom the Holy One, blessed be He, has chosen from amongst the Goyim of whom the Scriptures say: “Their work is vanity, it is an illusion at which we must laugh; they will perish when God visits them in his wrath.” At the moment when the Holy One, blessed be He, will exterminate all the Goyim of the world, Israel alone will subsist even as it is written: “The Lord alone will appear great on that day.”” 9
Until then, the Kabbalah has a solemn mission: “It is certain that our captivity will last until the princes of the Gentiles who worship idols are destroyed.” 10
To hasten the end of Israel’s captivity, Kabbalah recommends extermination of Gentiles, not simply as a necessity, but as the highest religious duty. Zohar II explains the principles of redemption of the firstborn of an ass by offering a lamb: “The ass means non-Jew, who is to be redeemed by the offering of a lamb, which is the dispersed sheep of Israel. But if he refuses to be redeemed, then break his skull…They should be taken out of the book of the living…” 11
“In the palaces of the fourth heaven are those who lamented over Sion and Jerusalem and all those who destroyed idolatrous nations…and those who killed off people who worshipped idols are clothed in purple garments so that they may be recognized and honored.” 12
To the Kabbalist, even the quaint and commonplace liturgy of the synagogue has a deep, far-reaching significance: “The feast of tabernacles is the period when Israel triumphs over the other peoples of the world. That is why during this feast we seize the loulab and carry it as a trophy to show that we have conquered all the other people known as ‘populace’…” 13
Kabbalah Today
How relevant is the Kabbalah to modern Judaism?
Although many Jews today have become so secularized that they have forgotten most of their own beliefs, as well as the literature which is supposed to uphold them, observant Jews, including Conservative, Orthodox and especially ultra-Orthodox, still consider the Kabbalah inspired by God. They believe it stands with the Talmud as the greatest legal authority of Judaism. In fact, passages from the Zohar are read along with the Bible and Talmud as part of the worship service in synagogues every Saturday.
The Concise History of Judaism describes the Zohar as “inspired Jewish writings.” The preface to the Soncino edition of the Zohar says: “The Zohar appeals to many Jews in a way that makes them regard it as the most sacred of sacred books! For it mirrors Judaism as an intensely vital religion of the spirit. More overpoweringly than any other book or code, more even than the Bible, does it give to the Jew the conviction of an inner, unseen spiritual universe—an eternal moral order.” (p. 12)
The same source continues, “During the present century there has been a distinct revival of interest…in Kabbalah, and eminent Jewish scholars have attempted to show that these devotees of the mystic side of Jewish life and religion were not, as is popularly supposed, half-crazy visionaries living in a universe peopled by the figments of their own degenerate brains, but men of intellect, scholarship and sound sense who aimed at bringing back to Jewish organized communal life a breath of that mystic sentiment and emotion which are the aromatic life essence of religion, and which are indispensable to Judaism if it is to continue to play its predestined part of bringing mankind “under the wings of the Shekinah.”” (p. 25)
The Kabbalah is thought to be divinely inspired by many Jews because, like the Talmud, it proceeded from the very hub of Jewry—the most eminent rabbis. Many of the greatest Talmudists, from Ben Zakki and Maimonides through the numerous Baal-shems and Talmudists of the 16th through 18th centuries, even to perhaps the greatest rabbi in the world today, Rabbi Steinsaltz of Jerusalem—all have been initiates and practitioners of Kabbalah. They take the Kabbalah very seriously, indeed, as the Word of God.
What about the Kabbalah’s description of Gentiles as animals who must be slaughtered before “order” can be restored? [A New World Order? – ed.] That concept is not a minority opinion but fundamental to how Kabbalah structures God, Israel, and the universe. Thus, we can only assume it provides much of the motivation for the racist laws, war crimes, and homicidal agenda of the state of Israel today. After all, Orthodox, Kabbalah-venerating Judaism is the official position of the government, religious hierarchy, and military of Israel.
Know Your “Friends”
There is now an accelerating interest among conservatives and Christians in what the Koran teaches about “infidels.” Many are eager to discuss how the inner teachings of Islam’s most sacred literature might help explain international Arab terrorism.
Yet, incredibly, the evangelical right has no interest in similar investigations into the sacred, semi-secret teachings of Judaism. No one is curious about how such teachings might help explain not only Israel’s notorious mistreatment of her Arab neighbors but also Jewish power worldwide in government, finance, and media.
This must change. Israel is in the public domain. If Israel expects America to contribute $5 billion annually, sustaining her as the world’s fourth greatest military superpower, then Jews must no longer cry “Anti-semitism!” whenever their most sacred literature, the Talmud and Zohar, are investigated.
If America is to keep from being pawned into even greater military and public relations disasters in the Middle East, we must have an accurate understanding of the beliefs of those we are committed to defend.
Yes, the bombs that fell on Lebanon were made in America. But the hatred and racism behind them were made in Israel.
Endnotes:
1 Eidersheim, Alfred. La Societe Juive au Temps de Jesus, p. 363, 364, with select quotes translated by Nesta Webster, Secret Societies and Subversive Movements, p. 10.
2 Pranaitus, Rev. I. B. The Talmud Unmasked, p.82.
3 Zohar I, Bereshith 47a, Soncino translation. This is the authoritative five-volume English edition of the Zohar translated by Maurice and Sperling.
4 Zohar I, Bereshith 25b.
5 Zohar I, 25a, Pranaitus.
6 Zohar I, Bereshith 47a.
7 Zohar I, Bereshith 160a, Pranaitus, p. 74-75. The Soncino version of this passage, contained in Vol. 2, Vayeze 160a, says the same thing but in less pointed language. Scholars of the Hebrew and Aramaic language have translated this and other passages of the Zohar for me from the authoritative Mantuan edition of the Zohar, 16th century, which resides in the Judaic section of the Library of Congress. Their conclusion is that in the case of volatile passages the Pranaitus translations are consistently superior to the Soncino. In such passages which cannot be omitted, Soncino’s practice is to tone them down by paraphrasing or omitting them entirely.
8 Zohar III, Schemoth 7 and 9b, DePauly translation. Nesta Webster presents selected quotes in English from the French DePauly translation of the Zohar, in her Secret Societies and Subversive Movements. The original DePauly translation is available in the Judaic section of the Library of Congress.
9 Zohar, Sec. Vayschlah Folio 177b, DePauly translation.
10 Zohar I, 219b, Pranaitus p. 80.
11 Zohar II, 43a.
12 Zohar I, 38b and 39a.
13 Zohar, Toldoth Noah, 63b.
