Interesting Quotes from Kabbalah Sources

by Matt Slick

Following is a list of quotes from various Kabbalah based books. They are listed so you can get a "feel" for its mystical perspective and gain insight into some of the attitudes and ideas that people learn from studying Kabbalah:

1. "... the Zohar suggests that souls are "patterned" like bodies. It says: 'as the body is formed in this world from the combination of four elements, the spirit is formed in the garden [of Eden] from the combination of the four winds. The spirit is enveloped there in the impress of the body's shape. If it were not for the four winds, which are the heirs of the garden, the spirit would not have been clothed (given shape) at all."1
2. "...we are connected via our souls to the source of creation, and we can transform the flow of creation."2
3. "Cabalists teaches that the moon is the mystical vessel in which souls are gathered before they are released to the world. The moon in Kabbalah represents receptivity... the mystical implication is that souls are influenced by the phase of the moon when they become associated with bodies, each having different levels of expansiveness or contracted this... we would say that this describes why some of us are more extroverted while others are more introverted..."3.
4. "The cabalists teach that everything we do stirs up a corresponding energy in other realms of reality. Actions, words, or thoughts set up reverberations in the universe."4
5. "In physical reality, every move we make is dependent upon electromagnetic energy. In the metaphysical realm, rather than call this energy electromagnetic, we could call it angelic-demonic. Every move they make is supported by an angel or demon. Moreover, everything we do creates new angels and demons... the metaphysical magnets associated with the God realms are called angels, and those with the satanic realms are called demons."5
6. "From noon until midnight, the sun appears to be declining, which means that the power of loving kindness is waning. When the sun reaches its lowest ebb, the time in which the energy of darkness is strongest, accusing angels have their greatest power. The Kabbalist says that this point is the darkest of the night, the moment when restriction and judgment are at their full power. If we were abandoned in the mystical midnight of creation, we would disappear."6
7. "Angelic and demonic energies are not independent and self-sufficient, but are parts of the system of the universal ebb and flow."7
8. "When we call upon angels to be with us, they are an infinite resource of goodwill. It is as if we plugged into the magnetic core of the earth to keep ourselves centered. Archangels represent the God-center of the universe they draw nourishment from Its infinite supply."8
9. "the lower, earthly human being and the upper, mystical human being, in which the Godhead is manifested as shape, belong together and are unthinkable without one another."9
10. "This manual [of Kabbalah] will prepare one to hear the words of G-d, see authentic visions, smell the Supernal beauty, touch his/her Grace, and taste the delights of Eden."10
11. "As Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berdicheve said, 'At every instant, all universes received existence and sustenance from God. It is human beings, however, who motivate this sustenance and transmit it to all worlds. When a person nullifies the sense of self completely and thereby attaches Thought to Nothingness, then a new sustenance flows to all universes."11
12. "our day-to-day actions, words, and thoughts continuously affect our sense of harmony with the universe."12
13. "...there are five levels of the soul. The higher levels, neshama, chayah, and yehida, function in a way that they cannot be directly affected by what a person does to his or her consciousness. however, they are indirectly affected by the states of the nefesh and ruach. after death, the higher levels of the soul will return to their home "regions," but they must await the redemption of the nefesh before finally resting in their natural state. If the nefesh does not get redeemed, the ruach cannot be "crown" in the lower Garden of Eden.13
14. "The teachings of reincarnation are of value when we have nowhere else to turn in the tragedy of the death."14

• 1. Cooper, David A., God is a Verb, New York: Riverhead Brooks, 1997, p. 113, brackets are in the original.
• 2. Ibid., p. 121.
• 3. Ibid., p. 113, 128.
• 4. Ibid., p. 132.
• 5. Ibid., p. 134.
• 6. Ibid., p. 142.
• 7. Ibid., p. 143.
• 8. Ibid., p. 144.
• 9. Leet, Leonora, The Secret Doctrine of the Kabbalah, Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 1999, p. 66.
• 10. http://home.utah.edu/~rfs4/jkm.htm.
• 11. Cooper, p. 224.
• 12. Ibid., p. 248.
• 13. Ibid., p. 262.
• 14. Ibid., p. 266.