Friday, September 7, 2018

Torah Min Ha Shamayim: The Heavenly Torah


Judaism teaches that we should follow the commandments, ordinances and instructions presented in the Torah of Moses. The Kabbalah teaches that there is a "Heavenly Torah" which  is involved with spiritual concepts that connect us with our true human nature that is connected to God. There are those who when they read the Hebrew Bible on a surface level assume that the Torah is all about violence, genealogies and tribal history. However, in Jewish tradition there are ways to interpret and understand these concepts and there is always a tension between mystical and rational understandings of Holy Scripture. The Heavenly Torah introduced to modern audiences by Abraham Joshua Heschel was written in the first set of the Ten Commandments which was smashed by Moses due to the sin of the Golden Calf. Humans missed out on the heavenly commandments which instead of dealing with human nature, death and war deal with spiritual concepts such as vegetarianism, eternal life, peaceful resolution of conflict and religious bliss.

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