I was not sure where to put this, I hope this is the right place.

As some may have gathered, I live in Israel. What I have not mentioned is that I have only been here for the last six months. I am one of those awful imagrants who are taking away the land that rightfully belongs to the Palestinians - worse, I am Jewish by birth and now by adoption into the family of YHWH - ouch!

As an Olah Khadasha (gives away my gender if you know your Hebrew), I go to Ulpan (Hebrew) classes every morning. In my class at the moment I have come across an African American lady who married a Jewish gentleman and converted to Judaism. Having given my stock answer of believing in a Creator and being Jewish but not beleiving in Rabinical Authority, this lady informed me that I was 'open-minded' enough to tell about this wonderful book she carried around with her everywhere. Being the skeptic I am, I expected her to pull out a copy of "Who Moved My Cheese", but alas no. Her great saviour is a book called 'The 72 Names of God'.

Keeping in mind being as wise as serpents and gentle as doves, I gingerly turned the pages, I knew the book was not Muslim in character (although the obvious similarities were not lost on me) and read the introduction. I do not wish to come across as intolerant, but what a load of tripe.

I quote:

"What exactly are the 72 Names? According to Kabbalistic teachings, 72 unique combinations of Hebrew letters from Chapter 14 of the book of Exodus create a spiritual vibration that is a powerful antidote to the negative energy of the human ego. This revelation is a crucial step forward in the work of Kabbalistic masters over thousands of years."

Turning to the back of the book I look at all 72 names, (see link for all the names in Hebrew - I would be interested to know just how sedicious they are) and there is one glaring omission. 72 names and YHWH is nowhere to be found - imagine that!

The timing of this exchange is paramount, had this occured 4 months ago, I would not have known the importance of YHWH's name, and the importance attached to obscuring it.

This particular lady is a vegan, we had a conversation about the benefits of eating raw food (me being a big fan of carpaccio). I am all for not boiling my greens into extinction, but she was very excited about the teaching of Kabbalah that says it is better to eat LIVE food. Getting the life from your food. Thankfully at this piont the lesson started as I was on the verge of telling her she sounded like a bit of a sadist.

The next break we had, she again pulled out her book and told me about how these 72 names will give you everlasting life, and that Moishe (as in Moses from the Exodus Moishe) followed Kaballah and therefore did not die (was transliterated) - I too could do this if I read this book.

OK, so I know that we don't know where Moishe was burried, but in Deuteronomy 32:52, he is told that he will not enter the land of Israel and in Deut 34:5-7 his physical death (mowto) is described.

What amazes me is how willing people are to believe in what is obviously incorrect. If one is to believe in a line of thought that has its basis in a text, ie Judaism, Islam, Kaballah... ad infinitum, then surely one must make sure that any teachings hold to that text ie, the Tanakh/Qura'an. This negates the Talmud, Mishna, the Mormon Bible, the NIV ;-) and in the case of the Qura'an, negates the idea of a moderate Muslim!

All this ranting turns up one thing, at the risk of sounding arrogant and self-righteous, HOW CAN THEY BE SO BLIND?

Well, I know, many are called but few are chosen, Yehoshua is the narrow gate and not everyone is going to be saved - YHWH is in control, and my silly frustrations are just that, silly. What I can do is pistueo YHWH that he will help me be as wise as a serpent and gentle as a dove, lest his child is destroyed through lack of knowledge.

The gifts of the deceiver don't always come with tea-towels on their heads.

Jojocc, I would say that you should confront this lady and show her the holes in what she is reading. At the very least though, you don't need to be listening to what she is saying. I had an audiobook one time that gave this wonderful metaphor of how Yahuweh (they didn't use the name) wanted to be close to us and get to know us, and described why he couldn't force us to love him. It actually would probably fit here, but the crux was that it was something to get a person interested in kabbalah. I don't know alot about it, but kabbalah is mysticism, and at higher levels, involves conjuring. They promote a message of altruism and that through altruism you advance through different "worlds" until you become one with god. I assume that those 72 names are the "worlds" because I seem to remember that there were alot of them, probably 72.

I read some where years ago that before, during or after the Spanish Inquisition kabbalah was hidden within tarrot cards, and that's how tarrot cards originated. I don't mention this to get into a conversation on the evilness of tarrot cards. I only mention it to draw a parallel on the evil of both.

And jojocc, I enjoy your discourse, as I do others on the YY Forum. I agree with Icy, gently confront this woman. She's walking in the dark. Shed a little light.

Praise Yah!
CK

Just realised I forgot to put in the link, http://www.prs.org/gallery-kabblh.htm

Please note that at no stage am I advocating Kaballah, I think it is horrid, but we are told it is important to know what nastiness looks like.

heh heh Swalchy, that's not very christian of you now, is it ;-)