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Introduction
10 Torah Koans is a very different kind of introduction to Jewish mysticism. The reader will be challenged with 10 esoteric teachings drawn from the Kabbalah that are presented in a unique dialectical format of problematic biblical texts or rabbinical riddles and their unexpected resolutions. As opposed to a work that gradually introduces the Kabbalah, here the reader is immediately confronted with problems, contradictions and apparent absurdities found throughout Scripture and in the Jewish oral tradition. The “answers” are primarily coming from the depths of Lurianic Kabbalah (16th century) and the mystical teachings of the school of the Gaon of Vilna. (18th – 20th century). Throughout each chapter, however, the reader is introduced to basic terms and concepts of the Kabbalah to help grasp the problem at hand.
In addition you will visit some mind-boggling, yet little known secret teachings of the Kabbalah such as the split messiah, the program code for the many Names of God, the mystery of the Golden Calf, the Adamic form of Ten Sefirot, secrets of the angels, the enigma of “Divine Tears”, the cosmic law of parallelism, the fallen sparks of Adam and Eve, how to really give a “blessing” to God and even the Kabbalistic “other side” to the story of Christmas.
In order to grasp the kabbalistic teachings of the 10 Kabbalah Koans the reader will also be initiated into some of the maps, models and metaphors from both modern Western outer-technology and ancient Eastern inner-technology. From physics and geometry we will learn about the coherent superposition and the Möbius strip and from Hinduism and Buddhism, the concept of the avatar and the principles of yin-yang.
You will also be learning how to understand and apply ancient Talmudic methodology such as the classic rabbinical dispute - the machloket, the relationship between the pshat/literal and sod/mystical levels of the Torah, secrets of the aggadic portions of the Talmud as well as a introduction to some of the teachings of the Gaon of Vilna and his school of Kabbalah. Fundamentally, 10 Kabbalah Koans is also an unusual glimpse into a relatively unknown dimension of the Talmud and into the minds of her unique army of “lawyer-mystics.
The answers presented in this volume are not simple resolutions with which we can finish a chapter or close the book. This is because the questions are never simple queries to begin with. The approach used in 10 Kabbalah Koans is based on my years of training in an advanced school of Talmudic dialectics. Whenever an “answer” was presented in a rabbinical dispute, the fundamental assumption was that the questioner in the Talmud or in the commentaries also knew the answer that was given. If so, what was the presumption (known asthe hava amina) of the question to begin with? In other words, the resolution intentionally returns us to the original difficulty. Only now, we are forced to review it from a different – and more illuminating – perspective.
Throughout my years of additional study in all the major schools of Kabbalah I have taken this traditional Talmudic method of rabbinical dialectics and applied it to the esoteric parts of the Torah. What I discovered was that contrary to common knowledge this form of dialectical investigation is not only fundamental to the revealed teachings, but it is also an important modus operandi within the Kabbalah as well. In the Zohar and elsewhere, higher states of consciousness and ecstatic revelation are often not achieved though meditation and prayer alone, but rather also through the dialectical exploration and conscious learning of Torah. This was not uncommon with the rabbinical sage-mystics whom were often in the midst of transcendent states of higher consciousness, unified with the Divine Mind. Yet, they continued to use their minds and even spoke to each other surfing further expounding and surfing the waves and releasing the hidden energy of textual exegesis. When this mode of learning-meditation is applied to the Kabbalah a cosmic dance is revealed, and you, the former observer, become an inter-active participant in your own meditation and attainment of Torah knowledge.
In 10 Kabbalah Koans the rule of thumb is that it’s not so much what you are looking at but from where you are looking. The medium is the message and the language you use is the lesson to be learned. The medium we use to think and communicate with is our language and it is this linguistic medium that shapes and frames not only the answers we receive, but also more importantly the questions we ask and the manner in which we ask them. The Zen Koan
This method of talmudic/kabbalistic learning normally requires years and even decades of intense study and development. In order, however, to quickly induct the reader into this mode of esoteric learning I am introducing the concept of the koan. This Oriental word, similar to mantra, mandala, yin/yang and nirvana, has also made its way into our dictionaries and is used to express a subtle mental quandary or a seemingly paradoxical idea.[1] A brief look at the usage of the koan can offer a model of how the sages also use the power of the mind to go beyond itself into direct experiences of life’s mysteries.
The koan is a mental tool that has its origin in the Japanese school of Zen Buddhism. It is a meditative exercise that uses an abstract thought or riddle that is given to the student by the master to contemplate. The most famous koan known in contemporary Western culture is “What is the sound of one hand clapping?”
The koan refers to the particular question itself as well as the state of mind to be cultivated through concentrating upon the question. “The koan cannot be understood by logic; it cannot be transmitted in words; it cannot be explained in writing; it cannot be measured by reason. It is like a great fire that consumes all who come near it."[2]
A koan is more commonly understood as a tool for teaching true insight. The “teaching” is encapsulated in the form of a short story or in a one-line formula. It contains patterns, like blueprints, for various inner exercises in attention, mental posture, and higher perception. The disciple who often after countless hours and even years of constant and intense contemplation “gets it” can now hold entire universes of thought in the mind all at once, without running through doctrinal discourses or disrupting ordinary consciousness of everyday affairs.
[1] There need not be concern about borrowing from another religion or being influenced from a source external to Judaism because koan meditation is simply a technique and it posits no belief about God one way or the other. There are no “mantras”, no gods, and no dogmas. The Zen koan is simply a method used in an Eastern philosophical school of thought. It can be said that the koan is a martial arts of the mind. Moreover, the Kabbalah koan does not utilize any of the substance of the original koans, but only playing off of the concept.
[2] Zen Buddhism WWW Virtual Library The Kabbalah Koan
There is a traditional method of dialectical analysis in the Talmud that is introduced with a qashe – an apparent difficulty with a Biblical verse or with a statement of the sages. In 10 Kabbalah Koans it is referred to as the qashe question. The qashe question is a type of rhetorical difficulty whose search for a resolution (the tayrutz) intentionally reflects itself back to the original question. The return lap is not merely begging the issue. Rather, systematic magnification of the dialectic reveals elements the sages intentionally concealed within the qashe question.
A qashe question, like the koan, is not simply a problem to be solved or a question to be answered. It requires the penetrating mind of one who can begin to “understand on his own” as the kabbalists often counsel. The Kabbalah koan is a method of exploratory and contemplative learning that is especially suited to those who are not satisfied with the obvious and do not find solace in answers that satisfy the questions of others. Here questions are asked on the original question – even when we know the “answer”. This is not done out of ignorance or arrogance, but because we suspect there is more present than meets the eye – the inner eye of higher wisdom.
“No one can so well understand a thing and make it his own when he learns it from another as when he discovers it for himself”.[1] This rule is axiomatic in talmudic learning and it applies all the more so when one attempts to unfold the never-ending layers of the Kabbalah. 10 Kabbalah Koans is so formatted so that the reader can discover what lies beneath the surface for him or herself.
Although they may appear as such, 10 Kabbalah Koans does not ask simple questions. Rather, each chapter is cracking open the shells of nescience by forcing the issue with a qashe question. Therefore the conclusion will also not be a simple answer. Rather it will be a revolving resolution, looping the end in the beginning and leaving us in the spiritual tension of the middle. Here is a diagram showing the difference between a common “question” and a “qashe question”.
Question
 Answer A B
1) The common relationship between a question and its answer.
A B Qashe Question 2) The Rabbinical relationship between a qashe question and its resolution
and the underlying structure of the Kabbalah Koan.
The goal of the qashe question is to seek out the dynamic relationship between the “beginning” and the “end”. As each problem is presented an underlying torsion is revealed from wrestling with the parts. Torah requires torque. Torah torque is the key to understanding the methodology of hidushay Torah – novel discoveries and illuminations in Torah both in the exoteric pshat and the esoteric sod.
Kabbalah Koans are a living and ongoing method of study and contemplation. They can and should also be an interactive, group process open to critiquing and evolving commentary by readers, students, colleagues and teachers. There are virtually thousands of Kabbalah Koans throughout the spectrum of the written and oral Torahs. Some of these “Kabbalah Qashes” are obvious and are part of the known Talmudic, midrashic and Zoharidic traditions. Within the same books, however, there are other Torah gems that still lie buried to various degrees, and are waiting to be dug up, polished, honed and presented to the world.
To date I have identified and codified many scores of Kabbalah koans and I plan to have at least one for every weekly reading of the Bible, 52 in all. This way one can return to the qashe question each year, search for more information to go deeper and keep reworking it to attain another cosmic “Aha!” experience. For the current work I have chosen ten different kinds of Kabbalah Koans, which I have been continuing to explore and “polish” for many years now and even decades. In fact, some of the qashe question loops presented below can still use some tightening up and clarification. Your objections, enhancements, finessing – and especially your qashe questions -- are welcome.
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Revolving Resolution