Words Become Flesh • Rabbi Ben & Kabbalah

Rabbi Ben & Kabbalah (frrom Chapter Three: Empty Womb &
Four: Inner Sharks Attack)

THAT NIGHT I HAD THE FIRST OF WHAT WAS TO BE many strange
dreams. I came to call them journeys through dreamland in honor
of the many-volume set entitled Journeys Through Bookland. My
grandfather bought the first two volumes when they were hot off
the press in 1922. Thirty years later when I was five years old, my
mother or father would read to me at bedtime. I would lie there
mesmerized. Etched in gold and framing the title Journeys Through
Bookland on the cover of each volume were the words: imagination,
wisdom, character, truth and beauty. . . .His round face and
ebony eyes reminded me of the face of the classic snowman with
chunks of shiny coal for eyes.

His countenance catapulted me back in time to my childhood
when my friends and I made snowmen. There was nothing like a
snow-day when you would awaken to learn there was no school.
That thrill has never left me. Something about Rabbi Ben lifted
me to a timeless place of carefree reprieve from the worries . . .
Ben looked directly into my eyes and in his deep baritone voice
boomed at me: “You are first and foremost a soul evolving upon
this planet! Remember this always!” He then emphasized, “The
true purpose of life is the correction of the soul. We call this the
Tikkune HaNefesh.” . . . The Kabbalah is all about transforming
ourselves from living as a being who is selfish into living as a being
who shares.”

“Sounds like what Jung found in the practice of alchemy,” I said.
“The troublesome and undeveloped areas of our personality are
transformed into the gold of a fully developed personality.” . . .
“Do you know what Zohar means in English?” he asked.
“No idea,” I answered.

“It means shining. Actually, the closest translation would be
splendor. For it is the radiant splendor of the Light of the Creator
that shines through the words on every page. Perhaps you now
know why I am smiling?”

“Yes, I think I do,” I said. “Evidently, you are aware of what happened
to me during my lunch break today.”. . .