Kabbalah and The Lord’s Prayer

Kabbalah is an ancient mystical practice, closely associated with, but distinct from, Hasidic

Judaism. On its own, Kabbalah offers a systematic philosophy that includes cosmology and

ethics as well as metaphysics. Intriguingly, tradition has distilled this complex structure down to

a single graphic (above).

According to Kabbalah, the Cosmos can be mapped onto 10 Sefirot arranged in the form of a

‘tree’, aka the Tree of Life. Atop this tree sits Keter (Crown), the first expression of Godhead

(Ayn Sof) itself. Keter forms a ‘divine triangle’ with Wisdom (Chokmah) and Understanding

(Binah). In the Christian tradition, Keter would be represented by the Father (theos), Chokmah

by the Son (logos), and Binah by the Spirit (pneuma).

At the other end of this tree sits Malkhut (Kingdom), the world you and I sometimes know too

well and often love too much. Labeling the material world ‘Kingdom’ is doubly apt. It may be

understood as a reference to the ‘kingdoms of this world’, ‘Satan’s Playground’, and the secular

world order. Harmonically, it can also be understood as the Kingdom of Heaven, prefigured by

Moses, Joshua, and the Judges. (I think they opened for Dylan at the Budokan.)

There are 6 Sefirot between Binah and Malkhut…which we will ignore. After all, they only

concern things like Love and Beauty – so we can afford to skip over them, right? For our

purposes, they can be thought of as forming the trunk of the tree.

Your job, my young Kabbalist, is to raise Malkhut to the level of Binah, using the 6 intermediate

Sefirot as your tool kit. Like a Freudian psychoanalyst, you will bring the unconscious humus

into the conscious light. Good luck, and may the Force be with you!

Surprisingly, this may be an easier assignment for Christians than Jews. Trinitarianism (Keter,

Chokmah, Binah) is central to Christian theology. Better yet, the structure of the quintessential

Christian prayer, the Lord’s Prayer, anticipates Kabbalah:

Our Father who art in heaven,

Hallowed be thy name…

Of course, we are talking Keter here, the transcendent (heaven), the ineffable (hallowed).

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,

On earth as it is in heaven…

This verse relates to Chokmah and Binah. To do the will of God is Wisdom and it is the explicit

role of Binah to ensure that events on earth (Malkhut) mirror events in heaven (Chokmah)…and

vice versa. (Understanding, Binah, is mirroring.)

Give us this day our daily bread,

And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us,

And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. Amen.

Now we are squarely in the realm of Malkhut. This is the world where we struggle to survive

(daily bread), where we make mistakes (trespasses) that adversely impact ourselves and others,

and where we are adversely impacted when others trespass against us.

This is where we begin the process of rectification, the reunion of Malkhut with Binah. The

things of this world are naturally disposed to rise through the 6 Sefirot (God’s transcendent

values, Whitehead’s ‘eternal objects’) to rejoin Binah. Our job, quite literally, is to get out of the

way.

But we don’t! We exist for one and only one reason: to build the city of Dioce (Ezra Pound) to Ecbatan, i.e. to know, love and serve God (the Baltimore Catechism), to facilitate the

repatriation of Malkhut. Instead, like 1980’s Soviet commandants in East Germany, we do

pretty much everything we can to thwart reunification. Not a good look!

In Malkhut, the ‘treasures of the orient’ (sic) are laid at our feet. When we use these treasures

‘correctly’ (i.e., according to their natures), we liberate the divine spark, Shekinah, that lies

trapped within each, allowing it to return to Binah. In the words of the Diamond Sutra (Sanskrit,

early CE): “However many beings there are in whatever realms of being…I shall liberate them

all.”

But we don’t! We don’t use our ‘treasures’ correctly. Rather than liberate them, we empower

them to enslave us. We become attached to them, dependent on them; we cannot let go!

Worse, we use them improperly: to deface beauty, to confuse truth, to impede justice. Worst

of all, we turn these treasures into Golden Calves, idols we worship as gods…or God!

The Lord’s Prayer addresses all this…and in just three lines. We must not ‘bind on earth’ what

we would not have ‘bound in heaven’. Rather, ‘on earth as it is in heaven’ (and conversely in

heaven as it is on earth).

We must forgive. When we forgive, we loosen (instead of bind), and when we loosen, we

liberate, and when we liberate, we diffuse what must be diffused and we conserve what may

be conserved. We must not worship the transient treasures of Malkhut; like Solomon, we must

focus on the eternal treasure, Chokmah, and let God do his thing: Deliver us from Evil! Amen!

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