Arthur Kurzweil

Article / Updated 10-18-2022

The Ten Commandments may be the most well-known part of the Torah. Interestingly, two versions of the Ten Commandments exist in the Torah: one in the book of Exodus and one in the book of Dueteronomy. The Ten Commandments according to Jewish tradition also differ from the Ten Commandments of various Christian denominations. The following Ten Commandments are from the book of Exodus in the Torah: I am the Lord your God. "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery." (Exodus 20:2) You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol. "You shall not recognize other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth." (Exodus 20:3–4) You shall not take the name of God in vain. "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain." (Exodus 20:7) Remember and observe the Sabbath and keep it holy. "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant, your animal or your stranger within your gates." (Exodus 20:8–10) Honor your father and mother. "Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you." (Exodus 20:12) You shall not murder. "You shall not murder." (Exodus 20:13) You shall not commit adultery. "You shall not commit adultery." (Exodus 20:13) You shall not steal. "You shall not steal." (Exodus 20:13) You shall not bear false witness. "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor." (Exodus 20:13) You shall not covet your neighbor's wife or house. "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor." (Exodus 20:14)

Cheat Sheet / Updated 03-14-2022

The Torah (the Five Books of Moses) is the essential book of Judaism and a manual for living. If you don't read Hebrew, study an English translation so you can understand and follow the basic principles to guide personal behavior and the Ten Commandments (taken from the Book of Exodus).

Cheat Sheet / Updated 03-02-2022

Understanding Kabbalah starts with studying the fundamental essences, or sefirot, and the core written works central to Kabbalah traditionalists. Discover some common blessings and prayers you can impart daily and the major holy days in Kaballah.

Article / Updated 04-27-2017

In Kabbalah, holy days are especially focused spiritual experiences with the continual awareness that God is the center of everything. The major Kabbalah holy days, which are the same holy days on the Jewish calendar, are observed beginning at sundown and ending at sundown. Every week: Shabbat. Shabbat is the weekly day of rest and the holiest day on the calendar of the Kabbalist. It's observed one day a week from Friday beginning just before sundown and through Saturday beyond sundown. (Check a sunset chart for your community to know when Shabbat begins on any given Friday). Every month: Rosh Chodesh. Literally, the "head of the month," Rosh Chodesh is the first day of any new month, and is marked by special prayers. In ancient times, Rosh Chodesh was a significant festival day when each new month would be established based on the arrival of the new moon. Fall holy days: Rosh Hashanah (the New Year): Rosh Hashanah begins an intense ten-day period of prayer and introspection known to Kabbalists as the Days of Awe. This holiday is observed in the early fall, and is celebrated on the first and second days of the Hebrew month of Tishre. Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement): Yom Kippur is a day of praying, fasting, and exalted celebration that's observed ten days after Rosh Hashanah. It marks the end of the Days of Awe. Succot (Booths): Succot, which is called the Season of Our Joy, is an eight-day holiday celebrating the gifts received from God. During this holiday, as its name implies, Kabbalists eat, study, receive guests and sometimes even sleep in temporary huts or booths, recalling the temporary housing used by the Children of Israel in the wilderness. It begins on the fifteenth day of the Hebrew month of Tishre, which is also the fifth day after Yom Kippur. Shemini Atzeret (the Eighth Day of Assembly): This special festive holy day marks the end of the High Holy Day period that begins in the days leading up to Rosh Hashanah. Shemini Atzeret immediately follows the last day of Succot. Simchat Torah (rejoicing in the Torah): A joyful holiday marking the end of the yearly cycle of reading the Torah publicly each Shabbat and the beginning of a new cycle. It's held on the eighth day after the first day of Succot. Winter holy days: Chanukah (the Festival of Lights): Chanukah celebrates the dedication of one's life to God and the recognition of God's miracles. It's an eight-day holiday that's marked by the lighting of candles and meditation on the light of the flames. Chanukah begins on the twenty-fifth day of the Hebrew month of Kislev. Purim (lottery): Purim celebrates the miraculous elements within every moment of every day and focuses on the awareness of God's hidden hand in all of history. It's marked by the public reading of the biblical Book of Esther on the fourteenth day of the Hebrew month of Adar, in the late winter. Spring holy days: Pesach (Passover): Pesach, known as the Festival of Freedom, is a commemoration and celebration of the Children of Israel's exodus from ancient Egypt, and it's a time for spiritual preparation for receiving the Torah. Pesach is an eight-day holiday beginning on the fifteenth day of the Hebrew month of Nissan. (In Israel, Pesach lasts only seven days.) The Counting of the Omer: Kabbalists count each of the 49 days between Pesach and Shavuot in recollection of the counting of a barley offering when the Holy Temple stood in Jerusalem. Kabbalists use the 49 days, which are seven weeks of seven days each, to meditate on the meaning of each of the ten sefirot. Lag B'Omer: Tradition records that a plague halted on the thirty-third day of the Counting of the Omer, transforming the day into a celebration. Also, the author of the Zohar, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, died on this day, so his greatness is recalled on Lag B'Omer each year. Shavuot (the Festival of Weeks): Shavuot commemorates God giving the Torah at Mount Sinai. Kabbalists observe this holiday by staying awake all night and studying holy texts. Shavuot falls 50 days from the first day of Pesach. Summer holy days: Tisha b'Av (the ninth of the month of Av): Tisha b'Av is a day of mourning and fasting in remembrance of the calamities of Jewish history, including the destruction on two occasions of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. Tisha b'Av is usually observed in August.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

It isn't surprising that the Torah places great value on the family unit; after all, the Jewish people as a whole are considered to be a family, as implied by the phrase "the Children of Israel." Even though a few million people stood at Mount Sinai to receive the Torah, the entire group knew itself to be one large family, with all descended from Jacob, the patriarch. In a sense, the entire Torah is really the rules and history of one large family, but within the Torah you find many specific commandments designed to regulate the individual family unit. Be fruitful and multiply The Torah contains 613 commandments, and the first one found in the first chapter of the first book is the commandment to have children: "And God blessed them, and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply and fill the land and conquer it, and you shall rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky, and all the animals that move upon the earth'" (Genesis 1:28). Honor your father and mother Honoring your father and your mother is known in Hebrew as kibbud av v'em (kih-bood ahv vah-eem). It's one of the Ten Commandments, but there are other verses in the Torah that also concern themselves with how to treat your parents. They are as follows: "Honor your father and your mother in order that your days shall be lengthened upon this land that the Lord your God has given you." (Exodus 20:12) "He who smites his father or his mother shall surely be put to death." (Exodus 21:15) "He who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death." (Exodus 21:17) "A man, his mother and his father shall he fear, and my Sabbaths shall he guard, I am the Lord your God." (Leviticus 19:3) Just married? Take a year off An unusual set of commandments in the Torah pertains to a newly married couple. The Torah teaches that a newly married husband shall be free for one year to rejoice with his wife: "When a man takes a new wife, he shall not enter military service, nor shall he be charged with any business; he shall be free for his house one year, and shall cheer his wife whom he has taken" (Deuteronomy 24:5). The wife's rights are just as important as the husband's The Torah protects the rights of wives in many ways. To mention just one example, Jewish law states that if a husband wants to change careers, his wife can forbid him to do so if it means that he will be away from home more often and therefore will not be able to make love as often as the wife would like. The Torah states, "If he takes a wife, her food, her clothing, and her conjugal rights, he shall not diminish" (Exodus 21:10). Steer clear of forbidden relationships According to the Torah, sexual relations are confined to being between a husband and wife. It's forbidden to have sex with another person outside of the marriage as well as to have sex with an animal. Here are the relevant verses: "And you shall not lie carnally with your neighbor's wife, to defile yourself with her" (Leviticus 18:20). Note that although the technical definition of adultery according to the Torah only pertains to the wife, tradition also forbids extramarital relations by the husband because, at one time, polygamy was a common practice. "And you shall not lie with any beast to defile yourself with it; neither shall any woman stand before a beast, to lie down with it; it is perversion." (Leviticus 18:23)

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

While some religious traditions forbid divorce, Judaism does not. In the Torah, divorce is viewed as a common and acceptable occurrence (Deuteronomy 24:1–4), and although the Talmud teaches that the "altar in heaven weeps" on the occasion of a divorce, there's no requirement that a husband and wife continue their marriage if they're miserable together. A Jewish marriage has two levels: One is spiritual, and the other is down-to-earth and quite practical. The practical aspect of marriage is reflected in the fact that Jewish marriages are finalized by a contract. The contract is mostly about the rights of the parties and the terms if a divorce occurs. Yes, when a Jewish couple gets married, they sign a document that has a lot to do with what happens in the case of a divorce. When a divorce occurs, the marriage contract is fulfilled and then destroyed, severing both the spiritual and the physical connections between the two people. Here are some rules of divorce according to the Torah: A man may not divorce his wife concerning whom he has published an evil report (about her unchastity) before marriage. "And they shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver, and give them to the father of the woman, because he has brought an evil name upon a virgin of Israel; and she shall be his wife; he may not divorce her all his days." (Deuteronomy 22:19) A divorce must be enacted by a formal written document. "When a man takes a wife, and marries her, then it comes to pass that she does not find favor in his eyes, because he has found something unseemly in her, then he writes her a bill of divorce, and gives it in her hand, and sends her out of his house." (Deuteronomy 24:1) The topic of divorce provides a good example of how the Torah can't simply be read literally. Deuteronomy 24:1 makes it seem as though only a husband can initiate a divorce. The fact is that the Oral Torah explains how both husband and wife have rights and responsibilities in a marriage, including the right to go to a Jewish court to request that the marriage be dissolved. A man who divorced his wife shall not remarry her if she married another man after the divorce. "Her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife. After that she is defiled, for that is an abomination before the Lord, and you shall not cause sin in the land which the Lord thy God gives you as an inheritance." (Deuteronomy 24:4)

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

In Jewish tradition, the way to find the path to God is to study the Torah. In addition to all its teachings about behavior and ritual, the Torah is also the main source for information about the nature of God. By studying the Torah and seeing the way in which it describes God, students begin to understand some of God's nature. God exists eternally According to the Torah's view of existence, God is the source of everything, and God is eternal — He is, He was, and He will be. The first of the Ten Commandments, "I am the Lord thy God," is the commandment to recognize God's existence. This simple statement is at the core of all Jewish belief and everything that the Torah represents. God isn't a "He" The Torah is written in Hebrew, and its references to God often use the masculine form. As in English, the use of male pronouns often has no relation to gender; for example, people talk about "mankind" when they really mean "humankind." In the Torah, God isn't a male, and any effort to conceive of God as a male is limiting and therefore is forbidden according to the tradition of the Torah. Using gender-specific pronouns in reference to God is merely a linguistic limitation. God is a single entity A prayer known as the Shema (sheh-mah) is recited twice a day in Jewish life, and its words come from the Torah. Its lead sentence, which is best known among Jews, is Shema Yisrael Adonai Elohaynu Adonai Ekhad (sheh-mah yis-rah-ehl ah-doe-nahy eh-low-hay-new ah-doe-nahy eh-khahd; Hear O Israel, the Lord our God the Lord is One). In other words, the daily ritual among Jews establishes and repeats the view of God as One. God is everywhere — yes, everywhere Jewish teachings describe God as omnipresent. With the idea that God is everywhere and both near and far, it's important to make a distinction between the Torah view of God and pantheism. The point of view of the Torah is that everything resides in God, whereas pantheism is marked by the notion that everything is God. One way that God is described in Jewish liturgy is Aviynu Malkaynu (ah-vee-new mahl-kay-new; our Father our king). This phrase implies that God is both near and far. Your father is close and familiar; you can sit on your father's lap and touch his cheek. A king, on the other hand, is someone whom you may never see in your lifetime. God stretches out His arm, but He has no arms Students of the Torah constantly confront a seeming contradiction within the text. The Torah makes it clear that no person can conceive of God, and yet at times it describes God in human terms. A famous image from the Torah is of the "outstretched arm of God." The Torah says, "I am God, and I shall take you out from under the burdens of Egypt. I shall rescue you from their service. I shall redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments" (Exodus 6:6). An outstretched arm is a very concrete image. Yet it's forbidden by Jewish law to conceive of God in any concrete way or to limit God with any image. So how do you reconcile this image? An important principle of Torah study is that "the Torah speaks in the language of man." This notion, repeated so often in commentaries on the Torah throughout the centuries, is a reminder that people use finite images to grasp the infinite, knowing full well the impossibility of the task. These human concrete images make suggestions, but Torah literature throughout the ages warns Torah students to beware of the ways in which concrete images can get in the way rather than clarify.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Even though the Torah is mainly about God, it's also important to remember that the Torah's author is God. Although the first line of the Torah says, "In the beginning of God's creation of heaven and earth . . .," it's God who is speaking. God chose Moses to receive and write down a divine message, which is why the Torah is also known as the Five Books of Moses, but the Torah emanates from God. God reaches into the human world with the Torah. Jewish tradition teaches that God didn't create the world out of nothing. God's creation is an emanation of divine light that God sculpted into all that exists. God is not just "in" everything. Rather, everything is God. This is, of course, a paradox. On the one hand, people live their lives feeling separate from God, but at the same time, Jewish tradition teaches that on the deepest level everything is God. In studying the Torah, you'll often encounter paradoxes. Many spiritual teachers teach that when you encounter a paradox, it usually means that you're going in the right direction. The endless struggle to grasp and understand what is meant by God is both the most important activity of life and, at the same time, an impossible task. The study of Torah is the way in which Jews participate in this paradoxical struggle. Some of the ideas that students of the Torah struggle with include: Humans are created in God's image. God has many names, but no name can possibly be adequate. God exists. God has no gender. God is unique; nothing is like God is any way. God is everywhere. God is, was, and will be; God transcends time. God is beyond human comprehension. The Torah is mainly God's communication to people about how to behave. Most of the Torah is directed toward the Jewish people, although it also contains instructions for all other peoples of the world. But for reasons that only God knows, the Jewish people are given extra burdens and responsibilities. God chose the Jewish people, but in no way does this status of being chosen by God imply superiority. People have responsibilities to God and to each other, and the Torah is filled with instructions about how to fulfill both. Regarding a person's relationship to God, the Torah stresses Connecting with God through God's commandments Having faith in God Maintaining trust in God Accepting direction from God Understanding that God directs everything that occurs Struggling to comprehend God Communicating with God through prayer

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Adam and Eve's first two children were Cain and Abel. The Torah says that "Abel became a shepherd and Cain became a tiller of the ground" (Genesis 4:2). When it came time for each of them to present an offering to God, Cain offered fruit from the ground, and Abel offered the firstborn of his flocks. Then the Torah offers a mysterious line: "God turned to Abel and to his offering, but to Cain and his offering He did not turn" (Genesis 4:4–5). God told Cain, who was disappointed in God's rebuff, that he needed to improve himself. Cain then confronted Abel and murdered him. When God asked Cain where his brother was, Cain spoke one of the most well-known lines in the Torah, "Am I my brother's keeper?" Cain and Abel are the first human beings to be born of human parents, and they're the first pair of siblings, the first brothers. They're also involved in the first murder. (That's a lot of firsts!) But there's great spiritual significance in the very first fully human episode in the Torah. The Torah teaches that the greatest human pleasure is nearness to God, and the proper perspective on life has God at the center. Viewed in this light, there's a vast difference between the symbolic offering of Cain with his rather lowly "fruit from the ground" and Abel's offering of "firstborn of his flocks." Torah commentators also explain that the occupation of shepherd symbolically represents a profession that allows for contemplation of God, whereas a tiller of land often becomes a worshipper of the earth and not God.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

A fundamental notion in Kabbalah is the belief that the world is created and sustained by ten channels (sefirot) of divine plenty. The sefirot are complex, each with many different meanings and gradation. Two of them, Keter and Da'at, are interchangeable depending on whether the sefirot are seen from God's viewpoint or from the human perspective. The lower seven sefirot directly act on the world (while those sefirot above them are abstract aspects of consciousness) and they each have a biblical personality associated with them. These associations work in two ways: One can understand more about the biblical figures through the sefirot connected with them, and one can learn more about the nature of each sefirah when seeing its corresponding biblical figure. Keter (crown): Keter is Divine Will and the source of all delight and pleasure. Keter contains all the powers that activate the soul. Chochmah (wisdom): Chochmah is intuitive grasp and intuitive knowledge. It's also that which distinguishes and creates. Binah (understanding): Binah is the analytical and synthetic power of the mind. It's the source of logical analysis. Da'at (knowledge): Da'at is the accumulation of that which is known. It's the abstract ascertaining of facts and the crystallization of awareness in terms of conclusions. Chesed (loving kindness): Chesed is the irrepressible impulse to expand. It's the source of love, the inclination toward things, and that which gives of itself. The biblical personality associated with Chesed is Abraham. Gevurah (strength): Gevurah is restraint and concentration. It's the inward withdrawal of forces and the energy source of hate, fear, terror, justice, restraint, and control. The biblical personality associated with Gevurah is Isaac. Tiferet (beauty): Tiferet is harmony, truth, compassion, and beauty. It's the balance of the powers of attraction and repulsion. The biblical personality associated with Tiferet is Jacob. Netzach (victory): Netzach is the source of conquest and the capacity for overcoming. It's the urge to get things done. The biblical personality associated with Netzach is Moses. Hod (splendor): Hod is persistence or holding on. It's the power to repudiate obstacles and to persevere; it's also the source of humility. The biblical personality associated with Hod is Aaron. Yesod (foundation): Yesod is the vehicle or the carrier from one thing or condition to another. It's the power of connection and the capacity or will to build bridges, to make connections, and to relate to others. The biblical personality associated with Yesod is Joseph. Malkhut (kingdom): Malkhut is sovereignty, rule, and the ultimate receptacle. It's the realization of potential and the Divine Presence. The biblical personality associated with Malkhut is David.