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What is Passover?

Passover is a religious ceremony instituted by the God of the Bible to memorialize the time when He delivered the descendants of Abraham out of slavery in Egypt. Read about it in Chapter 12 of Exodus, the second book of the Bible.  Yup Passover comes from the Bible, first mentioned in the book of Exodus. As God pronounced to the people of Israel enslaved in Egypt that he would free them, he said he would “Smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt.” However, he instructed the Israelites to put a sign of lamb’s blood on their door posts: “and when I see the blood, I will pass over you.”

Of all the Jewish holidays, Pesach is the one most commonly observed, even by otherwise non-observant Jews. Pesach is another word for passover.  The 2 key commandments associated with the holiday are: eating matzah, or unleavened bread; and the prohibition of eating any foods containing leavening during the holiday. In ancient times there was a third: the offering of a lamb in the evening on the 14th of the Hebrew month of Nisan and the eating that night of the Passover sacrifice. The commandments have since combined into a special Passover feast called the seder, celebrated on the first two evenings of the holiday. Other customs associated with Passover include eating bitter herbs and other foods at the seder celebration.

What is a Seder?

The Hebrew term seder means “order”. It is an in-house liturgy – a set sequence of actions performed and passages recited in a religious ceremony. It has become customary to refer to the overall ceremony as a Seder.  The word Seder is a Hebrew word that literally means “order.”  It is most commonly used to refer to the Passover Seder, a Jewish holiday ritual. Passover Seder takes place on the 15th or 15th and 16th days of Nisan on the Jewish calendar.

What is Haggadah?

Haggadah means “the telling” in Hebrew. A haggadah is a script that contains the words to be spoken and that describes the actions to be taken at a Passover Seder and the order.

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The first part of the book contains five well known stories:

• Daniel’s interpretation of King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream: The king demanded that his magicians, exorcists, sorcerers, etc. describe the dream to him, and to interpret its meaning. He might have withheld information about the dream from them in order to test their psychic abilities. Alternatively, he may not have been able to recall the details of the dream. (Many people are unable to recollect dreams after wakening.) Understandably, they failed. Daniel then described the dream, and explained that the metals that the king dreamed of (gold, silver, bronze and iron) each represented one earthly kingdom: his own and three to come in the future.

• The attempted execution of Daniel’s three friends in the fiery furnace: The king had made a gold image, some 90 feet tall and ordered the people to prostrate themselves and worship the image whenever certain music was played. Any who refused was to be thrown into a blazing furnace. Three Jewish friends of Daniel: Shadrach, Meschach and Aben-nego, refused to worship the statue and were thrown into a fiery furnace that had been heated “to seven times its normal heat.” Not only were they unharmed, but they were accompanied by a fourth figure who “looks like a god” and was later identified by Nebuchadnezzar as an angel.

• Nebuchadnezzar’s madness: He has a dream in which he is overcome by a mental illness and roamed like an animal through the parks surrounding the palace for 42 months. Daniel interprets the dream, which comes to pass a year later. The king was restored to his right mind after 42 months of living with wild beasts and feeding on grass like oxen. At the end of that time, he acknowledged the sovereignty of Jehovah and was made whole.

• The handwriting on the wall of King Belshazzar’s banquet hall: Nebuchadnezzar had stolen the gold and silver vessels from the temple at Jerusalem. When his son, Belshazzar, became king, he ordered that the vessels be brought out and used at a party by the nobility, himself and his concubines and courtesans. Suddenly, the fingers of a hand appeared, and wrote a message on the wall of the palace. The king’s magicians, sorcerers, etc. were unable to decode the words. Daniel translated the message as saying that God has brought his kingdom to a close. That night, Belshazzar was killed and “Darius the Mede” took over. The Babylonian empire ended and the Medes occupied the land.

• Daniel surviving in the den of lions: “Darius” appointed Daniel as one of three chief ministers of the new kingdom of the Medes. Some jealous ministers and satraps conspired to kill Daniel. They persuaded the king to write an edict stating that anyone who petitions any god or human being other than the king during the following 30 days would be thrown into the lions’ den. The conspirators caught Daniel praying to God, and presented him to the king for execution. The king tried to think of a way to avoid executing Daniel, but was unsuccessful. (He probably didn’t think too hard, because there was a simple solution to the problem. If the lions were over-feed, they would have lost interest in munching on Daniel). Daniel was thrown in to the pit, but survived. He credited an angel with shutting the lions’ mouths.

The remainder of the book deals mainly with Daniel’s visions:

• a dream of 4 beasts (lion with eagles’ wings, bear, leopard with four wings like a bird, and a terrible beast with 10 horns, which later became 8 horns). Again, these four animals each symbolized an earthly kingdom.

• The vision of a powerful ram and a male goat who fight each other. The goat conquers the ram.

• A prayer of confession to, and trust in, God.

• A momentous vision of Israel’s future, leading to the end of the age some 1,335 days later. Some of the dead will awake “to everlasting life and some to the reproach of eternal abhorrence. The wise leaders will shine like the bright vault of heaven, and those who have guarded the people in the true path will be like the stars for ever and ever.” This implies a resurrection of the dead, a judgement and transfer of the resurrected Jews to heaven or hell.

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First off, let’s get the spelling out of the way and baseline the word.

What does the word Kabbalah mean, and how should I spell it?

The word “Kabbalah” is derived from the root “to receive, to accept”.  There are a bunch of spellings of the word, the most common – Kabbalah and Qabalah. Cabala, Qaballah, Qabala, Kaballah are also seen. The reason for this is that some letters in the Hebrew alphabet have more than one representation in the English alphabet, and the same Hebrew letter can be written either as K or Q. So we are going with K

What is Kabbalah?

Kabbalah is an aspect of Jewish mysticism. It focuses on the nature of divinity, the creation, the origin and fate of the soul, and the role of human beings. It is includes meditative, devotional, mystical and magical practices which were taught only to a select few. Some aspects of Kabbalah have been studied and used by non-Jews for several hundred years – see What is Hermetic Kabbalah.

Do I need to learn Hebrew to study Kabbalah?

A Jewish Kabbalist would think it is impossible to study Kabbalah without knowing a little Hebrew. Ultimately, there are many practical exercises and ritual techniques which can be employed with only a minimal knowledge of Hebrew. So Hebrew would be good.

What is Hermetic Kabbalah?

Essentially it is  Non-Jewish practictioners. At one time it was called “Christian” Kabbalah.  None of these are completely precise, but as close as it gets.

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