Gershon Winkler - Kabbalah 365: Daily Fruit from the Tree of Life

K a b b a l a h
3 6 5

Kabbalah 365 2004 by Gershon Winkler. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of reprints in the context of reviews. For information, write Andrews McMeel Publishing, an Andrews McMeel Universal company, 1130 Walnut Street, Kansas City, Missouri 64106.

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APPR

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Kabbalah 365 : daily fruit from the tree of life / Gershon Winkler ; foreword by Andrew Weil.

p. cm.

Includes index.

E-ISBN: 978-1-4494-1319-4

1. CabalaTranslations into English. 2. RabbisAnecdotesTranslations into English. 3. Rabbinical literatureTranslations into English. I. Winkler, Gershon, 1949

BM525.A2K32 2004

296.16dc22

2004049085

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Cover design by Ziklag Design

Cover illustrations Archivo Iconografico, S.A./Corbis and Stapleton Collection/Corbis

To Robert A. Levin, whose wisdom
I will always cherish, and
whose vision and generosity
have contributed immensely to
the quality of my life and
that of myriad others

By Andrew Weil, M.D.

In my work as a health professional I have found that healing is not so much about fixing as it is about restoring balance and perspective, and getting past old patterns. Kabbalah 365 is a unique book that I believe can help get us unstuck. Gershon Winkler has gleaned his information from many sources, mostly from ancient and early medieval Hebraic and Aramaic texts, to compile a unique collection of aphorisms and stories. Each daily reading is meant to remind us of the magic of being alive and the profound gifts that each moment can bring. As he does in his workshops and seminars, Rabbi Winkler renders user-friendly the more cryptic teachings of lesser-known Kabbalistic source texts and oral traditions in order to inspire and inform our lives.

Readers of all backgrounds, religious or not, will discover in this book a body of wisdom that shows that nothing is etched in stone and everything is far more than it appears. Moreover, these teachings and parables free up our imagination, enabling us to discover, each in his or her own individual way our own Kabbalistic experience of the magic of this life. Kabbalah literally means Receiving. It exists to encourage us to remain always open to receive anew the wisdom that waits to be discovered in ourselves, in each other, and in the beings with whom we share this planet.

I have long been drawn to the Kabbalah but have rarely found the time and stamina to wade through the few available English renditions of its dense and often cryptic texts. But here, at last, is a book that recasts these very same teachingsincluding a great many more that I never knew aboutinto a readable vernacular that remains true to the spirit and intention of the original sources. Did you know, for example, that when birds fly, their wings slice through the ether, allowing divine energies to enter our world? Did you know that if you see an eagle it is a sign of compassion? Did you know that the winds of the four directions gift us with healing, vision, mystery, and balance? Or that the very first thing the Creator made was a rock, and from that rock all of the universe emerged? Did you know that deep within the very obstacles that stand in the way of your journey toward enlightenment is precisely where enlightenment waits to be discovered? These and so many more useful teachings await you within these pages.

The teachings in this book were translated by the author into user-friendly renditions from sources that include but are not limited to the following Aramaic and Hebraic sources: Babylonian Talmud, Batei Midrashot, Etz HaChayyim, Jerusalem Talmud, Kitvei HaAri, Likuttei HaMaHaRaN, Mirat Eynayim, Midrash HaHeychalot, Midrash HaNeelam, Midrash Pesikta DRav Kahana, Midrash Pesikta Rabatti, Midrash Pliyah, Midrash Rabbah, Midrash Tanchuma, Midrash Tehilim, Nefesh HaChayyim, ReiSheet Chochmah, Sefer HaBahir, Sefer HaRazim, Sefer HaRokeach, Sefer Hashlah Hakadosh, Sefer HaZohar, Sefer Ruach HaKodesh, Sefer Soday Razeya, Sefer Yetzirah, Shoshan Ysod Olam, Sifrei HaMaharal, Tanakh, and various oral traditions.

Kabbalah 365 is a unique collection of rare Jewish mystery wisdom gathered mostly from original Hebraic and Aramaic sources. Some are accessible in various English translations; however, most remain untranslated and often in manuscript form, hidden away in academic library archives. These selected readings for every day of the yearly cycle are intended as contemplative, inspirational, and at times entertaining. They are also replete with kernels of wisdom that are pragmatic and timeless, cryptic and evident. Many of these nuggets are presented here for the first time in the English language, and all are phrased in the contemporary vernacular. Even more of them are based largely on lesser-promulgated Kabbalistic texts that both teachers and students of the Kabbalah will find fresh and unparalleled in their studies to date.

The Kabbalah has for millennia been an integral body of wisdom largely responsible for inspiring and fostering the dynamic quality of Judaisms oral and written traditions. Through the most trying times in Jewish history, it was the vision of the mystic that stirred aliveness in the soul of the people, and that time and again prevented theological atrophy in a tradition that was repeatedly denigrated by dominant cultures and religions. The Kabbalah moved the devotees of Judaism to explore the Scriptures of their faith beyond their textual contents to discover the soul behind the words, and then the soul behind the soul, ad infinitum. To this day, the Kabbalah challenges linear thinking, and discourages literal meaning and experience as the sole determinants of truth. More than any other body of wisdom, the Kabbalah keeps an ancient tradition from weakening with age, offering instead ever-renewed strength.

It is no wonder, then, that our current eraa product largely of rationalistic, scientific, and enlightened paradigms that had all but dismissed mysticism and shamanismhas witnessed a resurgence of interest in the Kabbalah emerging not solely from the Jewish community but also from people of other spiritual and cultural backgrounds. The current return of the human spirits intrigue with mysticism, whether the Kabbalah or other forms of mystery wisdom, is neither incidental nor coincidental but is rather reflective of the nature of the human spirit. The Kabbalah was born out of the more primitive desire of the human spirit to bask in more than the end-product of lifes knowledge and meaning, yearning as well for the gift of the process, the journey, and the ever-unfolding phases of being in this life rather than achieving. True achievement, the Kabbalists realized, is not to be found in the finale of the accomplishment as much as it is to be found in the moment-to-moment mystery that ultimately brings you there.