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Cosmic Fallout and Fallen Angels
Joel David Bakst ©2000
“When mankind began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, the sons of god (bney elohim) saw that their daughters were beautiful, and they took for themselves wives from any that they chose. So the LORD said, “My Spirit will not always protect mankind—his days will be a hundred and twenty years. The nefilim were on the earth in those days (and also after this) when the sons of god came into the daughters of man and they gave birth to them. They were the mighty men of old, the men of renown”.
There are many passages throughout the Torah that are strange and problematic. None may be as controversial as the account of the nefilim and “sons of god” having relations with humans.[1] This section has been alternately branded as a remnant of primitive mythology, fanciful fiction or Biblical proof of extraterrestrial interbreeding with Homo sapiens. Traditional Kabbalah with access to the secret teachings of the rabbis, however, presents a very different and unexpected picture of this Biblical mystery. From the perspective of the Kabbalah just who are the bney elohim and the nefilim? Before we can answer this question we have to first step back a bit and recall the true nature of Biblical text.
"R. Shimon ben Lakish said, 'There are many verses in the Torah which to all appearances ought to be burnt like the books of the heretics [either because they appear incredulous, blasphemous or simply superfluous], but they are really the very essence of the Torah (Hain, hain gufay haTorah)”.[2] This is known in the inner teachings of the sages as Galut Hatorah – the exile of the Torah.
The principle of Torah in Exile is well known in the Kabbalah and I have written about it elsewhere.[3] Primarily due to the catastrophic events surrounding the Golden Calf and the breaking of the first set of the Ten Commandments (shvirat Luchot haRishonim) different aspects of the higher, primordial Torah -- the cosmic code of creation – collapsed, and was forced to go into hiding to protect itself from a pantheon of diabolical adversaries (the “Other Side”, the Primordial Serpent and its legions). In all cases these aspects of the Torah take refuge or become captive in the last of all places we would think to look, "clothed in garments and foreign kelipot (shells) that are not befitting her nor comely to her". It is Supernal Wisdom itself that goes into exile.
"[Now, consequent to the Fall of Adam] the External Forces have control over the emanations of the Light of Knowledge that descends below... this is the exile of the Torah. Therefore, the Torah has become clothed in this world in garments and foreign kelipot (shells) that are not befitting her nor comely to her as, for example, the section at the end of section VaYishlach, 'And these are the kings that reigned in the land of Edom...’. Likewise, is this so in the section of parashat D'varim (Deuteronomy), 'And the Ivvim who dwelt in Hatzerim...' [i.e., the entire passage appears to be superfluous] and similarly in many places as it is discussed in the Talmud[4]. In the same manner there are numerous aggadot of the Sages that are difficult to even listen to and one's sensibilities are astounded at them. Yet, within them are hidden the secrets of the Torah. This is all due to the emanations of the Light of Knowledge becoming clothed in the Shells and in the External Forces, God save us. The exile of the Shechina, the exile of the People of Israel and the exile of the Torah are all due to the original fall of Adam".[5]
Although the passage of the bnay elohim and the nefilim is outwardly more interesting than what appears as dry chronologies and redundant verses it certainly has also been mocked by Bible critics and abused by “new age” occultists. According to the Kabbalah, however, the Torah has once again “revealed one handbreadth and [simultaneously] concealed two”. This account has nothing to do neither with mythology nor with extraterrestrial life. The mechanics behind the nefilim occupies one of the most esoteric areas of Jewish mysticism and its secret has remained well hidden. What will be stated in this essay is nothing more than a drop in the ocean of an entire field of knowledge that is no less complex than, for example, quantum mechanics. We will only be pointed in the right direction. That direction, however, is to go back in time to the universe that preceded Genesis. Amazingly, the key to secret of the nefilim is found in the secret of the Kings of Edom!
The Death of the Primordial Kings has been explained in a separate essay.[6] The Edomite Kings are alluded to in the Talmud, midrash and the Zohar. Briefly, the section at the end of parshat VaYishlach, 'And these are the kings that reigned in the land of Edom…” is a codex and digest of a fundamental doctrine of the Kabbalah, namely the details of how our present reality has been formed out of worlds preexistent to the universe of Genesis. The Land Of Edom is also known as the World of Tohu – “Chaos”. As known in the Kabbalah all realties – macro and micro – are made out of sefirot, constellations of 10 aspects or emanations of Divinity. This is true even in the primordial dimensions. In the Tohu stage of the creation process each sefirotic vessel undergoes a breakage, death and apparent chaotic, cosmic upheaval before it can then be reconstructed and resurrected in the rectified world of Genesis. This “cosmic womb” process is known throughout Torah as the Breaking of the Vessels (Shevirat haKelim). Also, because each sefira is a Kingdom onto itself, each “king” is said to reign in an infinite flash (from our temporal perspective) and “dies”. The collapse of these vessels (which are the seven lower of the 10 sefirot) are the Death of the Primordial Kings.
This is the literal meaning of the Torah’s opening verses, “In the Beginning…And the ground [the remnants of the previous worlds] was tohu [chaos]…”. It is upon the “ground” of this primordial universe that Genesis is built. The new universe of Genesis was resurrected out of the previous reality. This second verse of the Torah is also a complex formula that contains the genetic-like code to a detailed calculus of preexistent worlds out of which our present reality is constructed. They are also known as the 974 Primordial Generations. Rashi, the most famous of the Medieval Bible commentaries, quoting an ancient midrash on these verses in the Torah, alludes to their aborted birth, “In the beginning it arose in the Divine thought to create the [prior] world with the attribute of din (constricting gevura), but He saw that it would be too unstable, and therefore generated the attribute of compassion (rachamim – the balance between the right-side of chesed and the left-side of din-gevura) and integrated it with the din”.[7] Because there was too much din a process of cosmological catharthis rebalanced that universe and the 974 Primordial Generations, a.k.a. the Edomite Kings, aborted in a cosmic implosion of unimaginable proportions in order to expel the excess dinim.
The secrets explaining the Kings in the Land of Edom is the precursor for the bney elohim and the bnot adam. Although numerous theories have been posited as to who or what are the “sons of god”, the “daughters of man” (bnot adam) has not been questioned. It is always assmed that they are female Homo sapiens. Yet, according to the secret the bnot adam are not fundamentally referring to earthly women at all! Rather, both bney elohim and bnot adam are code words that the Torah is using to quantify specific coordinates in the spiritual realm that are cosmically connected to the events of the Tohu.[8] But how can a cosmological event that occurred prior to our present creation be affecting reality after Genesis during the period of the nefilim. Rather, due to the catastrophic miscalculation of with the Tree of Knowledge, Adam caused the entirety of the newly reconstructed and resurrected reality to again experience a partial shevira, a rupture that echoed and even recapitulated in ratio the primordial Deaths of the Edomite Kings. Reality, post Genesis, now also required a purging and expulsion of these volatile and contaminated elements.[9] The technical terms used in Scripture for the positive and negative polarities of these radio active-like “heavy elements” are bney elohim and bnot adam.
In the Kabbalah the Fall of reality is also known as the nefilla (specifically nefillat haDa’at) the same word used for the nefilim and this is no coincidence. The passage of the nefilim has encrypted the formula that maps out the cosmological interaction that occurred in the overlapping stages in the aftermath of the Tohu and in the evolutionary stages of Genesis. Simply put, the nefilim are the radio active-like residue of the spiritual waste material that was left over from the Tohu and the klipot/shells from the Shevira. This is clearly evident in the word nefillim, which in the singular is nefil – an aborted fetus, a miscarriage.[10] In our case it is a spiritual miscarriage, a cosmic mutation that was aborted and fell from a higher dimension to a lower realm, namely our present realm of this world. The “fallen angles” are really cosmic fallout.
The Ari zal writes:[11]
There are occasions when spiritual miscarriages (nefilim, singular: nifil – lit. aborted, miscarriage) occur in the mystery of “the nefilim were in the land”. This is because the malchut, the supernal feminine, aborted them in the secret of the nefilim. And since they came from such an origin (rejected and ejected spiritual matter) therefore they destroyed their seed upon the earth [one of the major transgressions of the generation of the Flood). Understand this. The reason, however, that they were aborted to begin with is because they were in their essence dinim kashim, harsh judgements (constricting gevurot). It was revealed before the Divine Mind that they had no good elements that were redeemable and consequently the supernal female (malchut) aborted them. More specifically, bney elohim and bnot adam refer respectfully to the masculine and feminine aspects of the q’lipot, the “other side” or “back side” of kedusha. They are both manifestations of the volatile gevurot that when left unmitigated (without hasadim) are shed off and expelled from each respective spiritual level.[12]
II
This then is an outline of the “inside story” of the “Sons of god”. Yet, with all that said and done another problem lies lurking. The pshat/simple meaning of the bney elohim apparently has nothing to do with the sod/secret – and we know that that simply cannot be. The inner meaning of a verse can never be divorced from its outer garment. The literal meaning is as follows (ArtScroll):
Bney elohim: The sons of the rulers. These were the sons of the princes and judges, for elohim always implies rulership [as in Exodus 4:16: and you shall be his eloah (singular)master (Rashi). The daughters of man were the daughters of the general populace (R'Saadia Gaon); the multitude, the lower classes (Rambam, Moreh 1: 1 4), who did not have the power to resist their superiors (Radak). Thus, the Torah begins the narrative of the tragedy by speaking of the subjugation of the weak by the powerful. [Targum Onkelos also translates as “men of distinction or mighty men”].
Nefellim: They were giants - the same race that terrified Moses' spies (Numbers 13:33). They were given this title from the root nfl, to fall, because they fell and caused others to fall (Rashi), through their egregious sinfulness (Gur Aryeh). Alternatively, they were so called because the hearts of those who saw them fell in amazement at their size (Ibn Ezra).
Yet the Zohar and Talmud are explicit that the bney elohim are “angels” and not rulers. Even the names of these angelic entities are known. “The nefilim were upon the earth”. R. Jose says, following a tradition, that these were Uzza and Azael, whom, as already mentioned, God deprived of their supernal sanctity”.[13]
The Talmud[14] states that the Scapegoat (Sair l’Azazel) that is sacrificed by the Kohen Gadol on Yom Kippur also atones for the acts of Uzza and Azael. Rashi writes, “Uzza and Azael are destructive angels that descended to earth in the days of Naama the sister of Tubal Kayin [in the generation of Noah]. Regarding them it is stated, “The bney elohim [the angels] beheld the daughters of man, i.e., this Scapegoat atones for acts of sexual immorality”.
The contradiction is even more acutely pointed out by a noted non-kabbalistic source, the Torah Temima. The Torah Temima (Complete Torah) is a modern classic written by Rabbi Baruch Halevi Epstein (1860-1942). It is a running commentary on the Chumash that connects every verse with its corresponding oral tradition in the Talmud and midrash. His goal is to explain the logic of the Talmud as to why and how it expounds the syntax and nuances of each verse. In passing he points out a problem that he leaves unresolved.
He writes that it should not surprise us that angelic entities could become corporeal because in those times (antediluvian) reality was very different than it is today. And it is not a problem that the different sources in the Oral Tradition can disagree with each other [although according to the kabbalists this only appears to be the case]. But what has no explanation, according to Rabbi Epstein, is the following midrash:
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai said, “Bney elohim – these are bney hadayanim, judges (or rulers). And Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai would place a curse on anyone who would call them angels”.[15]
How can Rabbi Shimon of the Midrash argue – and so vehemently – with the Zohar when Rabbi Shimon is the author of the Zohar?! The question is left unanswered.
A possible resolution could be that the Rashbi (Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai) quoted in the midrash is purposefully concealing the deeper truth of the bney elohim with a decoy. The full depths of the bney elohim and the nefilim and their consequences are “matters that stand in the heights of the heavens” and are far beyond us. Until relatively recently even alluding to their deeper truth was not permitted to be discussed in public. The Rashbi was protecting the sacred crown jewels.
A deeper answer and certainly a more revelatory one, however, may be this. The pshat is that the bney elohim are judges. The sod is that they are angles and the nefilim are either another name for the same bney elohim or they are a hybrid species born of human and angelic parents. That sod, however, is only the pshat of the sod, an outer garment that it must wear to even begin to manifest itself in this world. This is often the case with that which appears as Jewish mysticism or even the text of the Zohar itself, as in our case here. True sod is the neshamah of the neshamah, the soul of the soul -- the soul of the sod.
As explained above fundamentally bney elohim are not angels and the bnot adam are not earthly women. They are forces and processes that are part of the divine “physiology” of creation dealing specifically with primordial realities and their interface with the current reality. These phenomena are details of the consequences of the eating of the Tree of Knowledge. Both the “sons” and the “daughters” here refer to a catharthis of the gevurot that are being expelled from respective higher worlds (e.g. the q’lipa of b’riah, yitzirah and asiya). These gevurot are also known as dinim or dinim kashim, “harsh judgements”. Din is the same root as dayan, a judge. When the Rashbi places a curse upon those who claim the bney elohim to be angels and not dayanim it is because they have anthropomorphized and debased the higher truth. The deeper pshat of bney elohim as “judges” is directly pointing us to the esoteric nature of the bney elohim, that they are the root of judgement, the “harsh judgements” of din. Amazingly the simple pshat is hiding the deepest sod as it wears the pshat like a form fitting glove and it turns out to be one and the same (“ein mikra yoztie miday pshuto”)! This is the way of true pshat/sod – two surfaces of one side. As the Gaon of Vilna taught his disciples, it is impossible to understand the pshat without first understanding the sod.
In conclusion, it is still possible to say that bnot adam did have an earthly manifestation but the reason the bney elohim were attracted to them specifically would be because they had incarnated the sparks of the spiritually-based feminine bnot adam. Likewise, the essence of the masculine bney elohim could have manifested as angelic entities that were then drawn after their own kind. Both modes of residue were aborted and “fell” out into lower realms. Having concretized into material forms they bred together producing the hybrid mutants known as the nefilim. In essence, the nefilim still retain the spiritual root of their parents and therefore some sources refer to the bney elohim and the nefilim as one and the same.
[1] The Jerusalem Bible (also known as the Koren edition) is a new and authoritative ”Jewish” translation of the Tanach. It has not a single footnote except upon the word bnay elohim that is translated as “men of distinction. The note reads “lit. the sons of God.”
[2] Talmud Tractate Hullin 60b
[3] My essay entitled Torah in Exile -- 'And He is afflicted because of our sins'.
[4] Hullin 60b
[5] Leshem Shevo VeAchlama, Sefer Day'ah, D'rush Etz haDa'at, end. Torah in Exile is an aspect of the consequences of the eating from the “Tree of Knowledge”. This is what is now known as the "fallen knowledge" (N'fielat HaDa'at) and this is what allows for the phenomenon of Torah in Exile. The GRA writes elsewhere, "This is the Torah that has been given over to the External Forces" and "it is a great mystery and exceedingly concealed”. Additionally, the GRA writes, "This passage ('And he is afflicted because of our sins') is referring to Moshe (Talmud Sota 14). The intention is that due to the sin of May Mareeva (the Bitter Waters, where Moshe hit the rock instead of speaking to it) it was decreed upon Moshe that his holy teachings would be desecrated by being clothed in forms such as these [strange aggadot of the Oral Torah] which has given a place for the scoffers in each generation to belittle them. This is what Moshe petitioned from HaShem: not to conceal the secrets of the Torah in these forms, but it was not granted to him. This is the matter of Moshe's death and his burial outside of the Land of Israel. In the future the secrets within them will be revealed and this is the ‘New Torah’ that will be revealed in the future".
[6] Parashat Vayishlach Secrets of the Kings of Edom
[7] Midrash Rabba 12-15, Zohar I, 180b,III, 302b.
[8] But see last paragraph.
[9] In all likelihood this, and not the original shevira, is the “Big Bang”, the left over sound that science has found radiating throughout the universe.
[10] The Midrash Rabba loc. cit. also makes the connection between nefellim and abortion.
[11] Shaar HaKavanot Drushey Chag haSukkot 104a.
[12] Elsewhere the Ari also states, “The aspect of the souls of the sparks from the root of Kayin are called bney elohim”. Shaar haKavanot, Kabbalat Shabbat page 66d.
[13] Zohar Genesis 58a. The rest of the text continues,” How, it may be asked, can they exist in this world ? R. Hiya answers, that they were of the class of spirits referred to in the words "And birds which fly on the earth" (Gen. 1, 20), and these, as we have said, appear to men in the form of. human beings. If it is asked, how can they transform themselves ? The answer is, as has been said, that they do in fact transform themselves into all kinds of shapes, because when they come down from heaven they become as concrete as air and take human shape. These are Uzza and Azael, who rebelled in heaven, and were cast down by God, and became corporeal on the earth and remained on it, not being able to divest themselves of their earthly form. Subsequently they went astray after women, and up to this day they exist and teach men the arts of magic. They begat children whom they called Anakim (giants), while the Nefilim themselves were called "sons of God", as has been elsewhere explained.”
[14] Yoma 66b
[15] Midrash Rabba loc. cit.
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