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The Kabbalistic Mirror of Genesis: Commentary on the First Three Chapters By David Chaim Smith

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Sales Rank: #346111 in Books
Published on: 2015-10-10
Released on: 2015-10-10
Original language: English
Number of items: 1
Dimensions: 9.00" h x .50" w x 6.00" l, .0 pounds
Binding: Paperback
224 pages

Review
The Luminous Space of David Chaim Smith: A Review of The Kabbalistic Mirror of Genesis When read literally, the Vedas seem like hymns, rituals, and magic spells devoted to many gods, goddesses, and spirits all seasoned in a warrior triumphalism. But the parabolic commentaries of the Upanishads and distillations of the epics and Puranas reveal a clearer vision of a dynamic nonduality which acknowledges the infinite variety of manifestation. This is Dharmic thought at its best. Kabbalistic tzaddikim, like Dharmic sages, are able to see nondual reality not merely through but active in the heart of phenomena.

Unfortunately, many books on Kabbalah today reflect the largely dualistic habits of human thought. To use one of David Chaim Smith's favorite words, they use language patterns which tend to reify rather than liberate our conceptual frameworks. Smith's art has always served to undermine this tendency in the receptive viewer, and in the several interviews I have heard with the man I have always been impressed with his uncompromising push toward the luminous space of transpersonal Holiness.

Unlike the endless literature of neo-nondualism, which often seeks to transcend sectarianism by merely abandoning the discipline of sect rather than digging deeply into it, Smith's writing in The Kabbalistic Mirror of Genesis does not shy away from the detailed analysis of kabbalistic teachings; and unlike much post-Golden Dawn "Hermetic" Kabbalah, Smith is not afraid of diving deeply into the Bible itself, as the gnostic container of kabbalistic wisdom.

As the full title suggests, The Kabbalistic Mirror of Genesis: Commentary on the First Three Chapters presents a multilayered exploration of the first three chapters of the Bible's first book. In true kabbalistic fashion, each verse is picked apart by word and phrase, and then by numerology (gematria). This is not, as a famous modern occultist asserts, a game for confusing the cognitive faculty into abeyance, but is instead a very real flowering of gnostic insight. More, it is a means of making plain the interweaving natural to these concepts. Far from tricking the mind, gematria sets it to the very deliberate task of dissolving its own limitations. The Bible thus revealed is not different from the mind reading it: capable of opening or closing according to the angle of approach.

David Chaim Smith's artwork is on display, here, small in number but representative in scope. All in grayscale, it resembles the famous alchemical woodcuts of the Renaissance though often more abstract in its composition. Though not integral to the text, the more complex pieces serve as powerful contemplative supplements, while the simpler diagrams directly illustrate the concepts being explored.

Though slightly familiar with Smith's approach when I was offered a digital review copy of this book, I did not know what to expect from his writing style. His writing is clear but extremely dense. While concise and comprehensible, The Kabbalistic Mirror is no leisurely beach read. Far from a criticism, this is just a heads-up for the reader: be prepared to rearrange your brain.

I recommend this book in particular for two audiences: occultists looking to understand kabbalistic roots, and the many people born into either Christianity or Judaism trying to find a deeper spirituality in the Bible. In any case, approach this book with fresh eyes; read it the way you might read a book on a totally unfamiliar mystical tradition. Find the memory of the first time you read Herman Hesse, Gustav Meyrink, or Tao Te Ching, and bring those eyes to The Kabbalistic Mirror of Genesis. The work required from even a cursory reading will be repaid manifold as David Chaim Smith reveals the inner significance of the biblical creation as a living myth rather than the dry bones of our cultural assumptions.

-Purnacandra Sivarupa, Peace Profound

“An amazing book--boy does it have chutzpah!” (Hymenaeus Beta, Frater Superior, Ordo Templi Orientis)

“A gifted artist who has a deep contemporary understanding of Jewish mystical wisdom, David Chaim Smith takes us into the domain where zero is one, where the all is nothing, and where the creative moment is constantly renewing itself. The Kabbalistic Mirror of Genesis is not a book simply to read but to contemplate and live with.” (Rodger Kamenetz, author of Burnt Books and The Jew in the Lotus)

“A unique mystical voice out of a Blakean tradition, The Kabbalistic Mirror of Genesis is a mind-expanding spiritual text that will both clarify and transform you. Smith has rethought biblical basics from the ground up (‘with-beginningness’) providing insights into the profound depths of mind, perception, reality, life, creativity, luminosity, and transcendence. . . . This is kabbalistic commentary from a living practitioner that will help us immeasurably to help heal the world.” (John Zorn, musician)

About the Author
David Chaim Smith is a writer and artist who has described himself as an esoteric cartographer whose work reflects sacred, geometric relationships. He has held exhibitions in New York at the Cavin-Morris Gallery and at the Andre Zarre Gallery, and his work has been lauded by the New York Times. He has studied Hermetic Qabbalah, Chassidic mysticism, and traditional Hebrew kabbalah for more than thirty years, focusing since 1999 on The Fountain of Wisdom, a 13th-century text that has deeply inspired his ecstatic, visionary art. In addition to being the author of several books, he has made a collaborative album, The Dream Membrane, with John Zorn and Bill Laswell. He lives in the suburbs of New York City.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
1
The Essential Nature of Creativity
The First Word of Genesis

With-beginningness Elohim created the heavens and the earth.
(Gen. 1:1)

The first word of the Bible in Hebrew is B’reshit. This word is usually translated with the phrase “In the beginning,” but the interpretive translation “with-beginningness” is preferred here. In Hebrew the letter bet (B’) is a prefix, which signifies “in” or “with.” The word Reshit refers to a continual state of becoming. This is the condition that all things are “in.” B’reshit is the dynamic nature of creativity that presents total possibility. It is always unfolding fresh, new, and unique. The continual beginning is the volatile and playful disposition that can do or be anything, which displays itself as everything.

When properly understood, B’reshit constitutes a direct assault on all conventional assumptions about the solidity of substance, the linear cohesiveness of time, and the integrity of thought. Conventional perception assumes that moments in time, appearances in space, and individual thoughts are separate, unrelated, random occurrences. The wisdom of B’reshit attacks this by asserting the changeless basis of continual change.

The primordial dynamism of B’reshit is evident in the relentlessness of perception. Considering the “texture” of cognition is helpful in appreciating this. Ordinary perception is an ever-changing ocean of transformation. Waves of thought arise and fall back onto themselves, following an unquestioned and unexamined continuum. When an attempt is made to grasp a thought or feeling, the perceived moment and its contents immediately slip away into the next moment. The next moment always presents itself in a manner subtly different from the last. As this occurs, the moment that was originally sought has vanished before it could even be glimpsed. Neither the content nor context of any moment of perception is the fortress of security that it is assumed to be. The artifice of perception erodes on contact with any attempt to investigate it. The only conclusion that can be made is that the unfolding of perceptual events is not a static parade of frozen moments to be grasped at one by one, it is a constant, uncatchable, and
elusive barrage.

Exoteric religion interprets the Bible’s first word as an indication of creation “ex nihilo.” In the proto-historical mythology a distinction is made between “before” and “after” creation. In the mystical sense, this separation is nullified by the equalizing nature of Divinity, which goes beyond all distinctions. It is asserted by the essential nature of B’reshit, which equalizes all divisions with the wisdom of pure creativity. The wisdom of B’reshit is a “Beginningness” that cannot be experienced or known in any conventional sense. Ordinary perception cannot comprehend its own nature. This would be like trying to see your own face without a mirror. B’reshit is not a concept about wisdom that confronts the mind like a visitor, it is the mirror of the mind itself and reflects whatever habits and tendencies the mind clings to. However, B’reshit is beyond all habits--it is the open reflectivity of the mirror that can reflect anything. It is equal before birth and after death; it is beyond change but is the basis of all change. It is the common basis of what is known as well as that which knows it. Realization of this simultaneity is gnosis (mystical realization).

The wisdom of B’reshit continually explodes into phenomenal play. It is always arising and dissolving, beyond grasp, never static, insubstantial yet vivid. Appreciating this irrepressible wisdom in all things is the door out of the superficial, petty concerns that obscure the Divine mystery. Conversely, not appreciating it perpetuates ordinary perceptual fixation, which literally shuts the door to gnosis. This is made clear in The Zohar:

B’Reshit is a key enclosing all, closing and opening.
(Haqdamat Sefer HaZohar)

The pure Divine creative essence is referred to by the Hebrew term Ain Sof, which can be translated as “the infinite.” The essential nature of creativity is not dependent on anything, but it is not an independent existent entity either. Ain Sof is composed of two words: Ain (without) and Sof (limitation).

No matter what phenomena arises, or does not arise, the purity and wholeness of Ain Sof is unaffected. Ain Sof cannot be diluted or subjugated, no matter how it appears to be distorted, misapprehended, or ignored. Nothing ever leaves and nothing can ever be brought in. These categories are attempts at a definition, which is impossible. All that can be said is that Ain Sof is creative and free. This is indicated in the following quote from the thirteenth-century kabbalist Moshe de Leon.

The highest crown is the pure avira (luminous space) that cannot be grasped. It is the sum of all existence, and all have wearied in their search for it. One should not ponder this “place.” It is secretly named Ain Sof, for it engenders everything that is. The belt of the wise is burst by this mystery. Arouse yourself to contemplate, to focus thought, for the Divine is the annihilation of all thoughts, uncontainable by any concept. Since no one can contain the Divine, it is called Ain (nothingness). (Sheqel HaKodesh)

Ain Sof is the essential unadulterated purity that arises as all things, and B’reshit is its nature. Here the esoteric dimension of language must be extremely precise. Ain Sof is pure essence, and B’reshit expresses the nature of that essentiality. Both aspects, the essence and its nature, are a complete unity. For example, sugar’s nature is to be sweet. We know sugar through the expression of its nature in a variety of forms. No matter how the nature becomes known, it is always sweet. In any form this sweet nature expresses the essence of sugar directly, and it can be known that sugar is present.

The essence and nature of creativity are represented by the first two sefirot, called keter (crown) and chochmah (wisdom). Keter is Ain Sof ’s sublime essential potentiality, and chochmah is its wisdom nature. Both are included in the word B’reshit.

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