I.e., Have you so joined houses that are apart that they may be counted as one on the Sabbath for carrying articles, etc. It is done by persons blessing a piece of dough which is common property.
Once a number of Jews took refuge in a cave, and hearing some persons pass, whom they supposed to be enemies, they fell on each other with their hobnailed sandals, and beat each other to death.
Works are divided into principal and secondary, or in Rabbinic language fathers and children. And if a man does one principal work and twenty secondary works, they regarded them as one sin, and consequently deserving one punishment.
Supposed by some to be the Sukhrah in the present Mosque of OMAR. From its position, however, it seems more probably to have been the foundation of the altar of burnt-offerings. This sacred rock is sixty feet across and five feet high. It is pierced quite through, to allow, as some think, the blood of the sacrifices to flow off into the “Noble Cave” and the canals beneath it.
It seems, according to the Talmud, that there was no “laying on of hands” on either the morning or evening sacrifice; or on any other public sacrifice, excepting the scapegoat and the bullock, when the congregation had sinned through ignorance.
Zuk is supposed by Lieutenant Conder of the Palestine Exploration Fund to be the modern el MÛntÂr, about six and a half miles east of Jerusalem in the direction of the Dead Sea, and on the way to the ruins of Mird (Mons Mardes). A well near the place is still called Bir es SÛk.
Maimonides says that those connected with the red heifer and scapegoat were rendered unclean because these animals were “sin-bearing” animals. All that Israelites now have to offer on the day of atonement is for males a white cock (because gever in Hebrew signifies a man and a cock), and for females a hen. And they pray, “Let this be my substitute—this my atonement. This cock goeth to death, but may I be gathered and enter into a long and happy life, and into peace.”
Urim and Thummin (lights and perfections), the Jews think, gave answer by the divine illumination of the suitable letters composing the names of the tribes which were graven on the breastplate of the High Priest.
I.e., God omnipresent. The Jews in a spirit of reverence use the words “Place” and the “Name” to denote God. In reading they
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Before executing a criminal, a quantity of frankincense in a cup of wine was given to him to stupefy him and render him insensible to pain. The compassionate ladies of Jerusalem generally provided this draught at their own cost. This custom was in obedience to Prov. xxxi. 6, “Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts.”
The words in the original, “Baal Aob,” are supposed by some to denote a ventriloquist from “Aob,” meaning a “bottle” or “stomach.”“Aob” seems, however, much more likely to be allied to the Coptic word for “a serpent” or “Python.” Acts xvi. 16.
The image of Molech was made of brass. It was hollow within and heated with fire outside. It stood in the valley of Hinnom without the walls of Jerusalem. Kimchi says the image of Molech contained seven chapels. These chapels are supposed by some to represent the seven planets. In the first chapel flowers were offered; in the second, turtle doves or young pigeons; in the third, lambs; in the fourth, rams; in the fifth, calves; in the sixth, oxen; “but whosoever offered his son, they opened to him the seventh chapel.” The face of Molech was like the face of a calf, and the image stretched forth its hands “as a man who opens his hands to receive something of his neighbor.”“They kindled the image with fire, and the priests took the babe and put it into the hands of Molech, and the babe gave up the ghost.” They called it Tophet; because they made a noise with drums (“tophim”), that the father might not hear the screams of his child and have pity upon him. And they called it Hinnom, because the child roared (“menahem”) in his anguish. Others say it was called Hinnom, because the priests used to say, “May it profit thee—may it be sweet to thee.”
Cutting off is generally supposed to have extended to the family as well as the guilty person. It seems to have included the future as well as the present life.
I.e., they are saved from crime by immediately depriving them of life. This summary mode of procedure was called “the rebel's beating.” It was a kind of lynch law inflicted by the people at once. John viii. 59.
As the former class of intending criminals could at once be killed, so this latter class must be guilty of the act, and they are then j
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In this chamber were kept the “seals” or “tokens” given to those persons who bought their offerings from the Levites. These “seals” were of four sorts, and were respectively inscribed with “calf” or “kid,” according to the offerings to be presented; and with the word “male” when the offering was to be a ram; and “sinner” when it was to be a sin-offering.
In each act of sprinkling, the priest, standing before a corner, sprinkled the blood on two sides of the altar. And thus, in two acts of sprinkling, he put the blood on its four sides.
The meaning is that he who spends as much time in a leprous house as is sufficient for eating a loaf of such a size, becomes defiled in his garments. See “Leprosy,” xiii. 10.
Lev. xxiii. 10, 17. The omer or wave-sheaf of barley was always cut on the evening of the 15th Nisan, even though it were a Sabbath. It must always have been gathered from a fresh harvest cultivated even in the Sabbatical year. The reapers asked these questions three times of those who were witnesses, “Has the sun gone down?”“With this sickle?”“Into this basket?”“On this Sabbath [first day of the Passover]?”“Shall I reap?” After the witnesses answered these questions the sheaf was reaped. It was finally ground into flour, and a handful of it mixed with frankincense was burned on the altar. The remainder belonged to the priests.
According to Jewish tradition a dead body covered in with earth conveyed legal uncleanness to everyone who walked over it; but if a vault was over the body, or if air intervened between the corpse and the surface of the ground, it was regarded as a non-conductor. There are reckoned six degrees of uncleanness—the father of fathers, the fathers, the first, second, third, and fourth children of defilement. There are altogether twenty-nine fathers of uncleanness, of which eleven arise from contact with a dead body.
The Pharisees asserted that a priest might be defiled, and that after washing he was legally clean for burning the red heifer. But the Sadducees maintained that he was not legally clean before sunset. Num. xix. 9, 10.
The cedar, hyssop, and scarlet wool were laid parallel to each other, and whatever portion of the scarlet wool remained too long was wrapped round the bundle.
If the vessels had been in the first row, someone might have touched them, or some vessel might have come in contact with them, so as to render them unclean.
The principle laid down in this mishna is that if one merely carried the rope for drawing the water, it was allowed to him to do so. But if he used the rope for any work advantageous to himself it was disallowed.
This refers to the Triads in the Sephiroth, when the Autz Chaiim is formed. (See Introduction.) It will be found that in this arrangement of the ten Sephiroth there are ten Triads, viz.:
(1) Kether, Chokmah, Binah.
(2) Chesed, Geburah, Tiphereth.
(3) Netzach, Hod, Yesod.
(4) Chokmah, Chesed, Netzach.
(5) Tiphereth, Yesod, Malkuth.
(6) Binah, Geburah, Hod.
(7) Chokmah, Tiphereth, Hod.
(8) Binah, Tiphereth, Netzach.
(9) Chesed, Tiphereth, Hod.
(10) Geburah, Tiphereth, Netzach.
Wherein Kether and Malkuth are each repeated once; Chokmah, Binah, Chesed, and Geburah, thrice; Tiphereth, six times; Netzach and Hod each four times; and Yesod twice.
That is, the greatest triad of the Sephiroth, the Crown, King, and Queen; which finds a parallel in the Osiris, Isis, and Horus; the Axieros, Axiochersos, and Axiochersa of Lemnos and Samothrace, etc.
The student will observe throughout the Qabalah that great stress is laid on the power of names, which arises from the fact that each qabalistical name is the synthesis of a power. Hence to “pronounce that name” is to use that power.
Speaking of the unity, the “Sepher Yetzirah” says: “One is She, the Spirit of the Elohim of life (blessed and more than blessed be His name who is the life of ages), Voice, and Spirit, and Word—this is She, the Spirit of holiness.”
This is analogous to the teaching of the “Sepher Yetzirah,” that the Three Mothers, A, M, Sh, radiate into three paternal forms of the same. A, M, and Sh symbolize the potencies of Air, Water, and Fire.
For “commencement” denotes end, and end denotes “commencement”; how, then, in the Absolute can there be either? Nevertheless, in the Absolute must we seek for the hypothetical starting-point of life.
Let the student carefully note that this is the second Sephira, the I of IHVH, the Father proceeding from Macroprosopus, Kether, as He proceedeth from Ain Soph.
Chokmah is the second and Binah is the third of the Sephiroth. This section is a sufficient condemnation of all those who wish to make out that woman is inferior to man.
The amount of occult symbolism in this section is enormous, and the key of it is the name of the letter I, which is IVD, Yod. This is a trinity of letters, and their numerical value is I = 10, V = 6, D = 4, total 20, equivalent to double I; but for reasons given in the “Book of Concealed Mystery” the second I is reproduced by a Hexad and a Tetrad—namely, V and D. I = 10, the decimal scale of Sephirotic notation, the key of processional creation; V = 6 = Tiphereth, and Microprosopus the Son united to D = 4, the Cross. Here is the mystery of the crucifixion of the Son on the tree of life; and again the Qabalah agrees with Christian symbolism.
“Be Ama,”“with the Mother;” here Ama, AMA, Mother = 42. Be Aima, in the Mother; here Aima, AIMA = 52 = BN, Ben, Son. This Gematria is most important, because, be it noted, Aima, AIMA, is the letter I, Yod, which we have just been told represents Chokmah, joined to AMA, Mother, which is Binah, BINH, which again is BN IH by Metathesis, Ben Yod He—i.e., son of IH, eternally conjoined in Briah.
Compare this with the Egyptian Horus, the son of Isis and Osiris. Also notice the interchange of symbols between Amen, Kneph, and Khom. The name of the great Egyptian God Amen is noticeable when we compare it with the qabalistic name AMN.
Compare with this the alchemical symbolism of Duenech, the King of Earth, after being overwhelmed by the waters, rising again, glorified and crowned with the triple crown of silver, iron, and gold—Chesed, Geburah, and Tiphereth, in the alchemic Sephiroth of the metals.
The meaning is, that Father and Mother are contained in the Son; for these are the second, third, and sixth Sephiroth—i.e., 2, 3, and 6; and both 2 and 3 are contained in 6, for 2 x 3 = 6.
It is to be noted that this word is MNA, Manna, and is a Metathesis of the letters of AMN, Amen, which has been shown in the “Book of Concealed Mystery” to be equal by Gematria to IHVH ADNI.
At first sight this seems a contradiction, but on careful examination the difficulty disappears. A triangle is a fit expression of the number 3. It has three angles, it has three sides; but there is the whole figure itself also, which is the synthesis of the sides and the angles. So there are the three angles and the whole figure itself which contains them, and thus completes the Trinity by the Quaternary: in the Tetragrammaton, IHV, and H final, which forms the synthesis.
Thus rigidly following out the rule of the symbolism before given, that Chokmah and Binah are contained in Kether. In this is the key of all religions.
Meaning, let him supplicate Macroprosopus, developed in the forms of Chokmah and Binah, which are summed up in Aima the Great Mother, to incline Microprosopus to be favorable. This is identical with the Catholic custom of invoking the intercession of the Virgin with her Son; for Mary = Mare = Sea;and the great Sea is Binah.
This section contains references to the Edomite kings and their symbology; namely, as denoting the primal worlds which were destroyed. (See “The Book of Concealed Mystery,” chap. i. § 3; “The Greater Holy Assembly,” chap. ii. and chap. xxvi.; and “The Lesser Holy Assembly,” chap. x.
I.e., tracing out the properties, etc., of the Sephiroth which form the King, Microprosopus, and, as appears from the latter part of this section, those only in their aspect of Judgment and Wrath.
This section is another all-sufficient proof of the teachings maintained throughout the Qabalah, namely, that Man and Woman are from the creation coequal and coexistent, perfectly equal one with the other. This fact the translators of the Bible have been at great pains to conceal by carefully suppressing every reference to the Feminine portion of the Deity, and by constantly translating feminine nouns by masculine. And this is the work of so-called religious men!
Chokmah, Wisdom, the second Sephirah, is Male in respect of Binah, but Female in respect of Kether. This is somewhat analogous to the Greek idea of the birth of AthenÉ, Wisdom, from the brain of Zeus.
