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Kabbalah and TelepathyKabbalah and Telepathy
The Power of Thought
Telepathy is usually defined as the ability to communicate by thought
transfer, without participation of the senses.
In Kabbalah and Hassidism the power of
thought is considered to be the highest of the three powers of the psyche:
thought, speech and action. It is therefore most important to guard the mind
from impure thoughts or evil thoughts about others. In the book of Tanya we are
taught that evil thoughts about someone are ultimately even more harmful than
speaking slander about him or actually taking harmful physical action against
him.
The
phrase used by our sages in the Talmud that describes the phenomenon of telepathy
is machshava moelet (“a thought
that causes an effect”) . Telepathy has a negative connotation when moelet is seen to be from the root meilah (“sacrilege”). On the other hand,
the positive connotation of this expression is that thought has an actual effect
upon reality.
In Hassidic lore, telepathy
is considered to be a gift of the righteous. By clarifying his thoughts, the tzaddik achieves the power to act from
afar through his thoughts, transcending the limits of space and time to
communicate with another Jewish soul, extricating him from his troubles in a
time of need.
As
we shall see, the word in the Bible that depicts the ability to communicate
through thought is chashmal.
Although in modern Hebrew chashmal is an everyday word used to describe the natural phenomenon of electricity, it
appears only once in the Bible, in the depiction of the Divine Chariot that
Ezekiel envisioned in his prophecy; the most profound chapter of the Bible.
Ezekiel describes the “eye of chashmal,”
a shade of light or color.
According
to one of the rules of Hebrew grammar, every word has either a two or a three
letter root. If a word has a root of four or more letters, then it must be a
compound word that can be broken down into two or more roots. Our sages thus
explain that the four-letter word chashmal is made of the two words, chash,
“silence” and mal, “speech.”
Maimonides explains that there is a type of angel that are called chashmalim and this is because “they are
sometimes silent [chashim] and sometimes they speak [memalelim].”
In addition we find in the Book of Proverbs that of the twenty-eight “quality
of times” that change in the world there is “a time to be silent and a time to
speak.” However, in Kabbalah we are taught that this duality of speech and
thought exists only in the three lower worlds (Beriah,
Yetzirah, Asiyah), that are under
the influences of time and are unable to simultaneously tolerate two opposites.
Contrarily, in the world of Atzilut there are no paradoxes. In this highest world where time does not exist, chashmal does not refer to those angels,
rather it refers to the true chashmal that Ezekiel saw in his prophecy, a light that shone from Supernal Man sitting
upon His throne wearing the clothing of chashmal (the numerical value of the word chashmal is equal to the numerical value of malbush,
“clothing”). Since in the world of Atzilut everything is unified in wondrous harmony and all paradoxes coexist at one and
the same moment, silence and speech also exist there as one. It is in the world of Atzilut that one can find the phenomenon of communication through silence.
Here in the world as we know it, time is divided into separate units to
allow for the duality of the paradox to express itself at varying moments. In
the lower worlds as we experience them, the character and the fashion of speech
is different from silence and they cannot be experienced simultaneously.
The Power of Silence
There
are a number of possible ways to explain silence as an act. The first is that
silence is an act of thought. The Hebrew word for thinking is chashov, which even begins with the word chash, “silence” and can also be seen as
an acronym for lachush be... that
means to sense something through silence. The sense of thought is an inner
phenomenon in which one considers something in silence.
A
second type of silence is the silence that comes from the realization that
there is an infinite gap between our thoughts and the thoughts of God as it
says, “My thoughts are not your thoughts.” This idea is expressed in the
midrash that teaches us that when Moses received the Torah, he waited while God
“tied the crowns” to the letters of the Torah. Moses asked God about these
crowns and God showed him how Rabbi Akiva was destined to explain these crowns
in the future. When Moses saw the extent of Rabbi Akiva’s Torah study he asked
God in amazement why Rabbi Akiva should not be the one to deliver the Torah.
God’s reply was, “Be silent! This is the thought that came up before me!” Moses
then asked to see the reward that Rabbi Akiva would receive for his Torah study
and God showed him how the Romans would torture Rabbi Akiva to death. Moses
asked in amazement, “This is the Torah and that is its reward?!” and once
again, God replied, “Be silent! This is the thought that came up before me!”
It
is impossible for a human being to rise up to or to sense God’s thoughts, he
must therefore be silent. Every true believer in God meets great mysteries
throughout his life that he cannot begin to understand, such as the holocaust.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe said that one should not even attempt to understand the
holocaust, rather we must remain silent, as did Aaron the High Priest when his
two completely righteous sons, Nadav and Avihu were taken from him (they died
while offering incense in the Tabernacle), as it says, “And Aaron was
speechless.” Under such circumstances there is nothing else to do but to remain
silent and to accept the facts through total belief that “My thoughts are not
your thoughts,” and that God is the absolute essence of goodness, even if our
own perception of reality seems to contradict this.
The
third explanation of silence is the Chassidic interpretation of the reply from
God to Moses, “Be silent! This is the thought that came up before me!” which,
in the Hebrew “Shtok! Cach ala (came up) bemachshava lefanai,”
can be rendered, “Shtok! Cach ale (get up) bemachshava lefanai,”
meaning that through silence one may be able to rise to a higher level of
perception and thus to reach an infinitely higher level of thought, coming
closer as it were to God’s own thoughts.
Another
expression of our sages related to silence is “siyag
lechochmah, shtika,” “A boundary for wisdom is silence.” In
Kabbalah, the word siyag is
interpreted as the light that encompasses wisdom. When one rises higher into
the encompassing light of silence that enshrouds wisdom, one draws down a
higher encompassing light into the inner soul, thus achieving levels of
understanding that previously existed only in the realm of simple faith. We all
believe that God is good, even when we cannot see His goodness manifested in
reality as we perceive it. However, through the power of faith found in the
heart of every Jew as he silently accepts reality, he is able to draw down
higher levels of faith and understanding.
Our
own speech is created by letters and words that are pronounced by the mouth,
however, when referring to God and to the Divine part of the soul of every Jew,
there is no concept of speech as we know it. God’s “speech” is actually a
command, as in “He said and it was, He commanded and they were created.” From a
human perspective, Divine “speech” would be what we call “thought” at an
infinite level.
In the
world of Atzilut, where there is
no difference between chash and mal, silence itself speaks and transmits.
It is certainly possible at this level to transmit and reply where words are
unable to do so. There are some things that cannot be explained by speech yet
silence has the power to convey. This is the power of telepathy.
We mentioned previously that chashmal is a shade of brilliant light. This light includes
378 shades (as in the numerical equivalent of the word chashmal); all of the shades of color that the eye is capable
of distinguishing. A combination or intermingling of many different shades of
color in the correct blending of all the hues is called tiferet. This is the visual phenomenon of chashmal; the inner phenomenon of chashmal is thought transmission. This is either through the
natural method of “they are sometimes silent and sometimes they speak,” or at a
higher level at which transmission is achieved through silence, and it is the
inner level of thought that “speaks.”
The Hidden Meaning of “Telepathy”
It is an accepted practice that the righteous
make use of foreign words while speaking Hebrew only when the word in the
foreign language can be interpreted in the Holy Tongue. We will therefore
explain a possible interpretation of the word “telepathy” in Hebrew
[1]
.
“Telepathy” is derived from the Greek terms tele (“distant”) and pathe (“occurrence” or “feeling”).
The word tele refers to any action performed from afar (as in
telescope, television, telegram etc.) In the broadest sense, this describes a
non-local phenomenon. In the scientific literature only a phenomenon that
cannot be defined by the speed of light is called a non-local phenomenon, for
example when there is a spontaneous, simultaneous reaction of one atom at one
end of the universe to another atom situated innumerable light-years away from
it. Electricity is thus a local phenomenon whereas true chashmal is a non-local, spontaneous phenomenon
that is not affected by the speed of light, something that happens at one point
and it is transmitted and immediately sensed elsewhere.
In Hebrew, the word tele can be seen to be derived from the word tal, “dew.” The Kabbalistic term related to this is tala di’bdolcha, “crystal dew.” The
root-source of dew is in the crystal that is the Divine inner light that
illuminates the mocha stima’a or chochmah stima’a of the upper crown of the
supra-conscious level of the soul. Apparently it is the “crystal dew” that acts
in the transmission of thought, and this is the place one desires to rise
through the silence of “cach ale bemachshava;” to the mocha stima’a to reach the tala di’bdolcha.
In Hebrew, the word telepatia (“telepathy”) is comprised of the letters that make
up the word tefila, “prayer,” with the
addition of the letter tet. In Hassidism the word tefila is seen to be derived from the root tafel which means to adhere, as when the broken pieces of
a receptacle are glued together. In this view, prayer is explained as a joining
or communication with God. However, the root tafel in the mishna has two renderings,
beginning either with the letter taf or with the letter tet. When rendered with the letter tet, the root means “bland” or “empty,” in which case
prayer is perceived as an act of self-nullification. The word telepatia includes all of the letters of tefila, “prayer,” with the additional tet, as mentioned, and can thus be seen to indicate a Divine form of communication through self-nullification
that is closely connected to prayer.
Eliezer Accurately Transmits
his Thoughts
We will now examine an example of the effect
of thought transmission, illustrated by the story of Abraham’s servant Eliezer
and his mission to find a wife for Abraham’s son, Isaac.
The central theme of the Torah portion, Chayei Sarah, revolves around
the match between Isaac and Rebecca. Abraham sent his faithful servant Eliezer
on this mission, through which, our sages teach us, Eliezer merited to escape
the curse of his forebearer, Canaan and enter the blessing that rules over
Abraham and his descendants. Upon arriving in Charan, where Abraham’s family
lived, Eliezer stopped by the well and prayed to the God of his master Abraham
that he should successfully complete his mission, requesting that if one of the
girls would offer him water to drink and also offer to water his camels, this
would prove that she was the true wife for Isaac. Immediately after completing
his prayer, Rebecca appeared and offered him water to drink and also offered to
water his camels. Eliezer was astounded to realize that his prayer had been
answered and went with Rebecca to her home to repeat the story to her father,
Bethuel, and her brother, Laban. The climax of the story is in the phrase used
by Laban and Bethuel to express their own wonder at the fantastic “coincidence”
of Eliezer’s prayer and Rebecca’s arrival on the scene. Their spontaneous reply
is “Me’Hashem
yatza hadavar,”
“This matter has emanated from God.” Amazingly, this expression has the numerical
value of chashmal.
Eliezer’s fervor in relating the order of
events to two men who are both renowned for their evil actions, triggered this
devout reply, that honored the truth that Eliezer transmitted. This is the
power of chashmal to accurately transmit
thoughts and feelings to those who listen.
In Psalms we find another expression that has
the numerical value of chashmal: “Hu tziva ve’nivra’u,” “He commanded and they
were created.” This phrase expresses the power of thought to command and to act
on reality in a natural way, without interference through speech or action.
The complete numerical value of both of these
phrases is the same, and the middle word of each phrase is equal to 101 in both
cases. Mathematically, when the sum of two sets of three numbers is equal and
the middle number of each set is also identical, the base of both sets must
also be equal. In this case, the base number in both cases is 75.
75 is the numerical value of the word bitachon, “trust,” which indicates that the power of thought to transmit into reality is
connected to the inner sense of trust in the soul. Similarly to the
root of tefila, “prayer,” which means
to join together, the root of bitachon can be seen to be
derived from tach, which also means, “to
plaster.”
The Power of Prayer
We thus see that the tzaddik has the power of to transmit thoughts through the power of prayer. However,
every power that God created in the realm of holiness, He also created with a
parallel phenomenon in the side of impurity. There are thus people with
“super-natural” powers such as telepathy, who derive their abilities from their
own self-centeredness and pride.
The tzaddik purifies his thought to make it a tool for his
service of God. Just as a purified mouth is a tool for emitting holy speech and
purified hands are tools for holy actions, so too in order for thought to
become a tool that acts upon reality, one must rectify it and refine it. Much
purity of thought is achieved through the power of silence in which a person
completely nullifies himself to God in sanctity. Remaining silent in the face
of God’s apparently incomprehensible actions, as did Aaron the High Priest when
his sons died, purifies thought.
The Arizal points out that the numerical
value of chashmal is equal to that of the
word malbush, “clothing,” as we
mentioned previously. Metaphorically speaking, chashmal is the “clothing” of God in the world of Atzilut. The psyche of man has three garments, these are
thought, speech and action, thought being the highest and the most important
[2]
of the three.
The Rectification of Cain
In order to truly and wholeheartedly pray to
God, one must purify one’s thoughts, therefore Hassidism teaches us that before
every prayer one must meditate like the early Hassidim who would meditate for a
whole hour to purify and clear their thoughts before prayer. Only once one’s
thoughts have been cleansed can one turn to God. Then, “as water reflects one’s
face to his face,” so to God will heed his prayers, as it says of Abel, “And
God heeded Abel and his offering.” In Hebrew Abel is called Hevel, which means “breath”. We can thus understand that
if one’s breath has been purified through true meditation towards God, which
entails a great purity of thought, our prayers will be heeded by God.
We shall now examine how the concept of
telepathy is connected to the rectification of the sin of Cain, Abel’s brother,
of whose offering it says, “And to the offering of Cain, God did not heed.” The
rectification of the power of thought to act upon reality is connected to the
roots of Biblical souls and their reincarnations in later generations.
God did not heed to Cain’s offering because
of the sin of unrefined thoughts weighed him down. Many generations later, it
was Elisha the Prophet who succeeded in rectifying Cain’s sin. This is
indicated in the name of the prophet, which means, “God will heed.” Elisha, the
outstanding pupil of the prophet Elijah, had the greatest telepathic power of
all biblical characters. Elisha achieved a great rectification called tikkun Kayin, “the rectification of Cain.” As the firstborn son
of Adam, Cain should have received by right a double portion of Adam’s legacy.
As the firstborn of the first man, Cain was worthy of receiving all the
“crowns;” the crown of royalty, the crown of priesthood, the crown of Torah and
the crown of “the good name” that is greater than all of them. However, as a
result of murdering his brother, Cain lost this right.
Before Elijah rose heavenward in a stormy
wind, he asked Elisha with what he wished him to bless him. Elisha replied that
he wished that twice the spirit of Elijah be upon him. This indicates that he
wished to receive the double portion that Cain should have received because of
his right as a firstborn. Elijah told him that if Elisha would see Elijah being
taken from him, this would be a sign that his request had been fulfilled.
Indeed, Elishah merited that his wish be granted. This can be seen by the
abundance of miracles that Elishah performed, more than any other prophet or
biblical character.
The climax of the miracles that Elijah
performed was the resurrection of a dead child. On the other hand, Elisha
resurrected the dead twice, once even after he himself had died. This
difference between the two prophets is not merely a quantitative difference,
but also a qualitative one. Our sages teach us that the dead child whom Elijah
revived was the righteous prophet Jonah and the first of the two dead people
whom Elishah revived was also a righteous prophet, Habakuk. However, the second
person whom Elisha revived was actually a wicked person and a false prophet.
The innovation of Elisha’s resurrecting the dead was therefore his ability to
resurrect even the wicked. It is Elisha in particular, through his success in
rectifying the sin of Cain, who has the power to revive, to arouse the wicked
to repent, who are called “dead” even as they live. A righteous person can be
in a “slumber,” as Jonah who slept in the depths of the ship, and Elijah is capable
of arousing him from his slumber. However, truly resurrecting the dead, the
wicked, is something unique to Elisha. From this unique power to resurrect the
dead, we can surmise the great purity of Elisha’s thoughts.
After Elisha, we are taught that this soul
appeared in Hizkiyahu, the king of Judah, whom God thought to make the Messiah,
however Hizkiyahu missed his chance because he did not sing God’s praises after
witnessing the great miracle of Sancheriv’s defeat.
Following Hizkiyahu this soul was reincarnated
in the soul of Matityahu ben Yochanan, the High Priest in the time of the
Hasmoneans; in Akavia ben Mahalalel; Raban Shimon ben Zakai and in Rabbi Akiva.
We can thus see that this soul was eventually rectified to the extent that it
merited all of the crowns that Cain forfeited by committing his sin. Hizkiyahu
merited the crown of royalty; Matityahu received the crown of priesthood and of
royalty; the rabbis who followed received the crown of Torah. We are further
taught that this soul will once more be reincarnated in the soul of the
Messiah, son of David, who is also from the root of Cain. He will then merit
the “crown of good name.”
According to the Kabbalah, the way to merit
the type of ruach
hakodesh,
“Divine inspiration,” that we call “telepathy,” is by connecting to the soul of
Elisha and by becoming acquainted with the whole of the secret of the
reincarnations of Cain.
The Friends of Job
In the Talmud we find a classic description
of the powers of telepathy in the story of Job.
Job had three friends who came to console him
for his terrible suffering. As it turned out, they did not succeed in consoling
him at all, instead they rebuked him, which appealed neither to Job nor to God.
A fourth young acquaintance sat and listened in respectful silence until the
elder three finished what they had to say. His name was Elihu ben Berachel of
the family of Ram and our sages explain that he was from the family of Abraham,
so he was certainly a Jew. The numerical value of his name equals mashiach, “messiah,” and we are taught that he himself is the
soul of the Messiah and that he speaks in good taste and with wisdom. According
to Ramban in his commentary on the Book of Job, Elihu reveals to Job the secret
of reincarnation and he thus succeeds in appeasing Job, at which point the
verse immediately says, “and God heeded Job.” The word vayisha, “and he heeded,” used in this verse, also implies a
connection with the rectification of Cain, to whose offering God did not heed.
Our sages teach us an amazing thing about
Job’s three friends, explaining that this was perhaps the only explicit example
of telepathic communication in the Bible. They teach us that the three friends
felt Job’s affliction from a distance of 300 parsaot (approximately 1,200 k.m.). They are considered true
friends, so much so that at the end of the passage discussing this matter, Rava
declares, “This is what people [mean when they] say, ‘Either friends like those
of Job, or death’.” Elsewhere in the Talmud we find the phrase, “Either a partner
or death,” meaning that death is preferable to living life alone. However, here
the phrase is much stronger, insinuating that death is preferable to a life
without friends with whom one has a telepathic connection!
Our sages teach that the second Temple ws
destroyed because of causeless hatred between the Jewish people, and that the
rectification of that sin will be achieved by unbounded love for all Israel. The Arizal takes it one step further; he taught that
what delays the coming of the Messiah is true comradeship, not
merely unbounded love. So the redemption requires true heartfelt and soulful
friendship; friends who are connected even by
their thoughts.
Telepathy in the Keter
Our sages describe the telepathic connection
between Job and his friends with two different parables. One opinion is that
each of the four friends had three crowns in his home and the face of one of
his three friends was engraved upon each crown. If he saw that the face of any
crown changed for the worse then he felt that his friend was going through some
crisis.
A second opinion is that each of the four had
three trees in his garden and if he saw that the leaves fell from the tree in
an unnatural way, then he felt that his friend was suffering.
The words used in the Talmud for “crown” and
“tree” are klila and ilana, respectively and both have the same numerical value
of 91 (also the numerical value of amen; mal’ach, “angel;” and the
combined numerical value of the two Names of God, Havayah and Elokim.)
According to the opinion that thought
transmission is identified with a crown, it is clear that the crown symbolizes
the superconscious, meaning that the thought rises to the highest of the sefirot, the keter, “crown,” at the point
of the tala dibdolcha, “the crystal dew.”
According to the opinion that identifies
tought transmission with a tree that either wilts or grows, this symbolizes
that which occurs at the root. Even though the phenomenon is observed in the
leaves and branches, it actually depends upon the power of growth in the roots
that grow underground. The tree represents the abundance that the keter, the superconscious, yields. In Kabbalah the ten sefirot embodying the conscious powers of the soul, are
called ilana de’chayei, “the Tree of Life,”
However the roots, and even more so, the power to grow underground, are
considered to be the highest keter through which one can
perceive that which occurs in the conscious powers: the trunk, the leaves, the
branches and the fruit.
We see, therefore, that according to both
opinions the power of telepathy is in the keter, the superconscious “crown” of the soul.
The Five Powers of the Soul
Another way of dividing the different powers
of the soul is found in the book of the Tanya. There it states that one must
constantly meditate upon the five powers of the soul, three of which we have
already enumerated: thought, speech and action. The two powers of the soul
above these three are called midot,
“emotions” and sechel, “intellect.” Midot are what could be called “pathos” or feelings, while sechel refers to pure, abstract
intellect that is completely isolated from feelings. The Alter Rebbe, author of
the Tanya, explains that whereas thought, speech and action are garments, the midot and sechel are the essential powers
of the soul. The sechel is the inner, abstract
light, which can be harnessed and utilized by the thought when it rises to
clothe the pure sechel. This is achieved by the
purification and clarification of thought.
Something that is full of flaws and dirt
becomes heavy and is drawn downwards. On the other hand, when one purifies
something, it becomes lighter in weight and is capable of rising higher. This
is also true of the garments of one’s soul, which become soiled and heavy when
succumbing to the baser, more animalistic instincts, self-conceit in
particular, as the verse states, “the animal spirit descends downwards on the
earth.” This tendency towards animalistic behavior is what weighs a person down
to earth and in particular, draws his thoughts earthwards. If a person is contaminated
spiritually and he does not attain purity in his thoughts and his other
garments, then he is unable to act with his thoughts as God wishes us to do.
God desires that we be similar to Him, as it
is written, “And I said, you are gods,” by creating through our own
thought-commandments, as it says of God, “He commanded and they were created.”
This is chashmal. However, if one is
heavy with sin, then one does not have the capability of rising in one’s
thoughts as in the expression mentioned earlier, “thus you shall rise in
thought before Me.”
If the three garmets
of the soul are not purified, the essence of the emotions and the intellect
cannot be truly sensed nor consciously experienced. In order for the emotions
and the intellect to be sensed, one must raise the garments in order that the
garments clothe the emotions and the intellect, this being the secret of the
chariot that Ezekiel saw; the chashmal clothing Supernal Man. The ascent of the worlds reveals the essential emotions,
first to the person himself, and later even to others. Without the garments,
the higher worlds and the higher levels of the human soul cannot be perceived.
When the purified thought rises to clothe the
pure intellect, it takes the essential inner light of the sechel and turns it outwards in order to act upon reality.
This however is the second stage of thought-purification. In order to achieve
this stage the thought must first rise to clothe the midot, the emotions, and this is achieved through
heartfelt prayer.
The five powers of the soul mentioned
parallel the four worlds, the lower three powers paralleling the lower three
worlds and the higher two paralleling two different aspects of the world of Atzilut.
A Meditation for Experiencing
Self-Nullification
Another key concept concerning these five
levels of the soul that the Alter Rebbe outlined in the Tanya is that in order
to achieve self-nullification, one’s garment of action must be nullified to the
garment of speech, which in turn must be nullified to the garment of thought.
In turn, the thought must be nullified to the midot, which are in turn nullified to the sechel. This means that one must sense that the amount of
light or vitality at each level is totally null and void in relation to the
light from the higher plane. The essential soul is even higher
than all of these five levels and in order to achieve true self-nullification,
one must reach an understanding that all of the levels are ultimately nullified
to the essential soul.
This meditation is completely opposite to an
ordinary understanding of the world. From a physical point of view, to someone
who views the world from a perspective of da’at tachton, “lower knowledge,” action is concrete while speech
and thought are abstract and therefore not considered so important. This idea
is even stated explicitly in the Talmud in the saying, “action is the main
principle.” This is obviosly true; however, once one begins to meditate upon
this idea, one realizes that the amount and the quality of light that are
revealed in action are completely null and void in comparison to the vitality
of speech. Similarly, one realizes that a positive thought contains far more
light and illuminates the soul far more than speech. This statement is an
amazing innovation, especially when one considers the emotions and the
intellect, which are totally imperceptible to someone who has not purified his
mind and has not achieved this understanding. This false perception of reality,
seeing that which is “above” to be “nothing” while that which is “below” is
“something,” is a superficial perception of reality. The meditation described
in Tanya brings us to the realization that each level is nullified in relation
to the level above it, and clarifies to us that that what is “above” is truly
“something,” while the external world is “nothing.” This realization is called da’at elyon, “upper knowledge” and without it one is unable to
purify one’s thoughts. Someone who perceives the world through da’at tachton is under the influence of, and weighed down by the
animal soul. In many places we find that Chassidism refers to da’at tachton as “the seed of beast,” while da’at elyon is called, “seed of man.” as in the words of the
prophet Jeremiah “And I have sowed the House of Israel with the seed of man and
the seed of beast.” Most souls are souls of da’at tachton, we thus feel that “something-ness” is below while all that
is “above” is imperceptible and seems to be “nothing.” If one has only da’at tachton and feels that speech is nullified to action and
that thought is nullified to speech and so on, then one is unable to purify his
“garments” and is unable to raise them higher. One is thus unable to reach the
“crown” and the “crystal dew” found there, which is the power of inner
communication that we call telepathy.
The Task of the Angels
As mentioned previously, chashmalim are a type of angel. As taught in Kabbalah, these
are the cherubim that stand at the entrance to the pardes, guarding the path to the tree of Life in the garden
of Eden, holding the “sword with the revolving blade.” Whenever a righteous
person wishes to enter the garden, these angels begin speaking to him very
fast. If he is able to reply to their words correctly, then the tzaddik is allowed to enter. However, if he becomes confused
by their speech and does not follow their words, he must remain outside.
There are many ranks of angels, each rank
higher than the previous one. The angels of the lower spheres pass our prayers
up to the angels in the higher spheres until the highest angels of all make
crowns, as it were, for God from our prayers. The level of speech of the lower
angels is at the level of our thoughts and the level of speech of each rank of
angels is at the level of thought of the angels below them. When we express ourselves in true prayer in which our
thoughts are at one with the words we emit, the lower angel garbs himself with
our thought and takes it for its own speech. The angel’s thought is
always connected to its speech, thus the angel above him is able to clothe his
own speech in the thought of the angel below, thus taking our prayers from the
lower angel. This process continues through all the ranks of angels until our
prayers reach God Himself.
Spiritual Powers of the
Non-Righteous
Although we have stated that telepathy is
actually a Divine power of the righteous, we sometimes find that “normal”
people profess to have similar spiritual powers. It should be clear that
ninety-nine percent of these so-called “healers”, spiritual diviners and the
like, are nothing more than charlatans. This is true whether they deceive the
public consciously or whether they themselves truly believe that they possess
such powers. The whole of the book of Tanya is intended to save people from
self-deception. However, there is still a very small percentage of people who
are truly capable of such divination even without having purified themselves in
holiness. The powers these people possess do not come from garbing the higher
powers of the soul with the garment of thought, rather they have holes in their
garments, a type of nakedness through which the light from the upper powers of
the soul is manifested. Before the primordial sin, Adam and Eve were both naked
and were not embarrassed of their nakedness, however the rectification of their
sin was that they must wear garments. Our sages teach us that the word levush, “clothing,” is a permutation of lo bosh, “unembarrassed,” meaning negation of the negative
embarrassment that resulted from the sin.
Garments are of utmost importance, so much so
that the word tikkun, “rectification,” is a
synonym for levush. Through their prayers,
the tzaddikim raise and purify their
garments, especially the garment of thought. The pure and refined garments then
rise to clothe the inner powers of the soul, which gives the tzaddik the power to perform spiritual actions that normal
people are unable to carry out. However, there are people whose natural
garments are not refined, rather they have “holes” in their garments. They are
born with a defect, just as a person may be born lacking a certain limb, God
forbid. This person may develop sharper senses in another limb to overcome his
disability. There are those who are born with the ability to solve dreams, for
instance, because of holes in the garments allowing the inner light to be revealed, giving them power to act. However
these are the unrectified lights of chaos and do not result from the person’s
having purified his garments, therefore there is always a certain extent of
self-conceit in such people.
The Three-Stage Process of
Raising the Garments of the Soul
The overall aim of purifying the garments of
the soul is to attain the purification of the garment of thought. All of our
prayers, if they are truly heartfelt, have the power to raise the garments of
the soul and the corresponding worlds to clothe the higher revelations of the
soul in purity.
The raising the
worlds of the soul is achieved when thought first rises to clothe the pure
emotions. When the thought rises to clothe the emotions, then speech ascends to
the previous location of the thought and one is able to speak through one’s
thoughts telepathically.
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