Delving into the past can be useful in helping us to better understand our identity, especially in regards to the derivation of our attitudes, beliefs, emotions and thoughts. When our curiosity about our past, as well as our future, is balanced, we can use the information that comes our way as guidance and a stabilizing force for motivation and growth.
Yet, our desire to know the future (as well as our pre-occupation with the past) is often so extreme that it tends to distort our perception and behavior. The Torah (Bible) singles out specific stories of ancient times and elaborates on them to the extent that it is needed for our future, the future of Israel and that of the Jewish people.
Regarding the pursuit of the future and discussion of the past, there is an elaborate description of its origin (and the journey of the Jewish people) in the story told about Yosef (Joseph) and Yehuda (Judah.) There is much discussion about a future Messiah from Yosef and Yehudah. It was their father, Jacob, who continued the legacy of Abraham and Isaac (Genesis 37:1). “Yaakov (Jacob) settled in the land of his fathers.”
The place was Hebron (Chevron) as mentioned in Genesis (35:27 and 37:14). According to Yonason ben Uziel, Jacob’s sending of Yosef to visit his brothers came by advice of (the spirit of) Abraham. Jacob walked with Yosef from Chevron to the valley (Emek Chevron) in order to see him off on his journey. During this walk they had a discussion. Many years later it was by virtue of a description of the contents of that discussion that Yosef was able to assure his father via the message sent with his brothers, that he was still alive and flourishing as a ruler in Egypt. The Hebrew word that is used to tell us that Jacob settled is shev and not gor. The word “shev” has a connotation of being a peaceful action. Additionally, the verse uses the word “megooray” to say the place his father had lived.
Megooray has a variety of meanings. Residence, young animal (Ezekiel 19:2, Lamentations 4:3), assemblage (Ezekiel 21:7), granary (Haggai 2:19), fear (Psalms 31:14, Jeremiah 6:25), terror or a hole that has plaster smeared within to hold something. In Aramaic it also means fall (Genesis 49:17, Ezekiel 39:3). Rearranged, the letters of the word megoor becomes gemoor, which means finished or cut off as the Aramaic translation in Job 23:17. It is a word that does not hold the same peaceful feeling as the word “shev.”
A child derives peace and comfort from the knowledge that parents and family arrange to take care of his/her needs. Adults also want to have the feeling of security and safety. Despite these general definitions, there are people who want to live as far away from their parents as possible. This is often due to pain and discomfort that is a result of extreme disharmony between them.
Although Jacob wanted to dwell in comfort, he ended up becoming distraught over issues that were associated with his children. Jacob’s life became torturous. First, his most beloved wife died. A while later her son disappeared. While it is common to use the terms heaven and hell as referring to conditions after death, it can also describe the living conditions that some people suffer during their time here. When everything is comfortable and going smoothly, a person associates it akin to living in heaven. When things go very wrong, causing a person’s daily experiences and feelings to be shaky and unbalanced, the person may associate that feeling as being akin to “living in hell.”
On a less tangible plane, when the energy or consciousness of a person leaves the body, it is dead. Yet the energy that is associated with the body of the deceased is not dead. When it is stuck in the physical place it inhabited while alive in the body, it is not free to pursue its spiritual journey. It then experiences the torture that people refer to as hell. When that energy is released, the soul can progress to its proper place, which is called heaven.
The terms heaven and hell have been used for millennium to appeal to the fear factor that controls people and their behavior. Leaders have wrongly created a definable system of reward and punishment in order to set their own standards and dictates of behaviour. There is often a very thin line between wanting to guide people to behave properly in their connection with the Creator, and wanting to affect behavior that is either self-serving or just easier to calculate and create pat methods to handle.
Being a leader is not easy. Leaders and role models must learn that while they may set the tone for many, there are those who must do things that they are here to do in the mode that befits their gifts as well as their purpose. A mold does not, and cannot, fit every person in the same way. Although today we are not sure of delineations, we must at least bear in mind that there are some who do not fit the “all or nothing” mode because they are specifically in tune with their identity and needs. This is a concept that needs to be explored, since for years some of our most revered Kabbalists and teachers have known the wisdom of this but have kept a closed silence on the issue.
The word for hell in Hebrew is Gehenom. It is the name of a physical place, “Gay ben Henom” (Kings 2 23:10). Joshua 15:8, 18:16 mentions the name Gey ben Henom and then repeats it as Gehenom without the word ben. Nehemiah 11:30 mentions the place Gehenom. It was a place of fire and death. In Jeremiah 7:31, “They built the altars of Tofes that are in the valley (Gey) of the son of Henom, to burn their sons and daughters in fire … (7:32) … days are coming when it will be known as the valley of killing.” Chronicles 2, 33:6 states, “He passed his sons through the fire in the valley of the son of Henom… he was profuse in doing that which was evil in the eyes of God, to anger Him.” And in Zohar 1:254a, “In the land of Gey is the width and breadth of Gehenom.” “The land of Gey is called Gey ben Hinom.”
In Jewish traditional texts there are descriptions of seven worlds, one of which is called Gey. A description and analysis of these realms is beyond the scope of this page. The Hebrew “Gehenom” is composed of two words “Gey” and “Henom.” Gey is a valley. “He buried him (Moses) in the valley (gey) opposite Beth-Peor” (Deuteronomy 34:6). “And the valley (gey)” (Yehoshua 8:11) “For it is a day of turmoil and trampling and confusion… in the valley (gey) of vision” (Isaiah 22:5)”
Gey also means ego. Geyha (Hebrew letters gimmel yud hey) mean “brightness” or “shine”. Nom means “sleep” or “speech”. Henom means “they are”. In the Talmud Eruvim 19a, Hinom is used to refer to acts of vanity.
Gehenom is associated with physical death and negative action. Hell is a physical place of death and destruction. It was a physical place on earth. Apparently during the course of time, the understanding of it became transposed to mean a terrible place that one goes to after they die. At some point it became used to scare people about what could happen to them if they did not behave in a certain manner during their lifetime. The success of this fear tactic encouraged its use within most religious and social beliefs. It became key into frightening people about what would happen when we die. It was easy to replace the unknown with definition for people who fear the unknown above many things.
If you look at the words and imagination that people use for life after this world, they are not spiritual, but all based in their limited physical perception. For others, their vision of the spiritual is based on the physical energy they have created and that is how they experience the spiritual.
It is interesting to note that the gehenom (or hell) that is described to scare people about what could happen after they die is never mentioned in the Five books of Moses, the Prophets or the Scriptures. The word first was used to refer to negativity in the physical and lower world. Following that, people also used the term in relationship to the spiritual realm.
There has been similar misuse of the word Shomayim being translated as “Heaven.” The word shomayim is composed of two words, Shom (there is) and Mayim (water.) This would indicate that the word Shomayim refers to the sky from which rain falls. An alternate way to understand the words is to see the words aish (fire) and mayim (water) within the letters. “Ohr and Choshech (light and dark) were combined by the Holy One Blessed is He and Shomayim was brought forth” (Zohar 2,164b). The Shomayim made of aish and mayim was solidified through Ruach (spirit) (Zohar 1,77a).
Thus, Shomayim possesses complete balance. As a result, it came to be used for the word heaven. Yet the original understanding was not meant as the “heaven” that people envision as a place that rewards them for good behavior upon their death. Precise balance is a wonderful thing but that does not make the word transferrable to present the concept that man has invented to attach comfort to our understanding of what is beyond death. When people limit themselves trying to attach esoteric knowledge to the physical, they might connect with the terminology on a personal and physical level. Yet it does not help them if they do not understand the concept of the spiritual realms to which these terms truly apply. This brings greater limitations in their attempt to have a direct connection with the Source of Life, the Creator of all existence.
We have reached an age when it is critical to understand that it is incumbent upon mankind to explore and learn, use the gift of understanding that we given. It is time to remove the blockages that were planted over the centuries through words that serve to block our personal connection with the Creator. It is time to reverse the abuse of those who thought they alone were allowed to learn on behalf of others and then dispense whatever information they felt appropriate.
In today’s age of information and exchange there is simply no reason that people cannot do some personal research or find themselves a teacher who will help them take responsibility for their knowledge and its applications. Doing so will go a long way to erasing some of the negative energies that have influenced our “just” societies and caused horrific results. This can be an opening to restore balance to humanity.
Jacob represented a person who was aware of the potential for balance in each moment. Although he too was blocked for many years, he never gave up the endeavor to achieve that balance. We must all learn from his example not to give up. We must learn to mold ourselves to that flow and balance, and leave man-made perceptions behind, as we unwittingly crippled ourselves with vivid imaginations that are loosely associated to reality. Armed with truth, we move forward as one…