Imaging the Kingdom of Heaven

"When you enter into my Kingdom." --Bible, Matthew Chapter 18

Many write, speak and think of the "kingdom of heaven" as a concrete afterlife place; they believe that the Christ's teaching was geared to the how and why of getting there. In doing so, many miss the perhaps most obvious and subtle of points. Jesus, the Christ was a Jew and the Jews of the time did not espouse a concept of heaven as a place. Their spirituality called for good works performed on earth, and earth as the kingdom of heaven. Indeed it is the place where the Bible describes the Garden of Eden.

Must we work on earth so as to ascend to a place called heaven? No, suggests author Thomas Moore, in his book, Writing in the Sand: Jesus and the Soul of the Gospels. Moore writes of the kingdom of heaven as the center of the gospels intention, and of Jesus' teaching. He writes, "it is woven into all the stories and teachings."
Your response to those teachings, or lack of it directly corresponds to your understanding about living the kingdom. In reading the bible stories one learns that Jesus' view was that the kingdom "is at hand," that we are surrounded by it. This is to say that the Kingdom of Heaven is on earth, in keeping with the beliefs of Judaism.

In Judeo-Christian belief, what we learn about the kingdom through our life experiences, is what we then share and live in both a mystical and everyday way through our actions, and behaviors as well as our prayer. The Kingdom in this view is in you. "When you enter into my kingdom" is a strong message to all who consider the Christ message. It does not suggest if or maybe; it suggests when and it suggests life. We all learn lessons of love and pain; there is bitterness and joy in all lives. We seek our meaning in life, and we share our fruits with others.

If one does otherwise and expresses a tendency to zealotry, "not just about religion but about everything in life, he is easily thrown into deep confusion and depression... there was hope for them when they could laugh at the contradictions in their lives," writes Moore. He explains that when we doggedly hang onto our usual ideas and images of our self and our lives, passionate to find ways of making sense of it all, some do forget that life is complex, subtle; our spirituality needs to reflect that. Otherwise we may find our self in a very brittle position, neurotic and pained.

Many do not appreciate the extreme, radical nature of the Christ's call. It's a call to be more than to believe, and that's hard to do, especially in the modern world. The potential believers do not image it, they do not see who Jesus stood for or why he stood at all. These are radical questions that millenia has grappled with. The mystery of Jesus is the equal mystery of the kingdom. In Jesus' world, the kingdom is on earth, it is living, breathing, real, the now. It calls for all, demands all, gives all and forgives. In Jesus' kingdom Moore writes, there is " a place of bliss and idealistic values. The Gospels suggest it is more important to enter that kingdom than to [simply] live a good life."

Kabbalah, Lurianic Mysticism

"The test of love is in how one relates not to saints and scholars but to rascals." -- A Passion for Truth by Abraham Joshua Heschel

The great Jewish American theologian, A. J. Heschel writes in his book, A Passion for Truth at length about the origins and meaning of the mystical tradition within Judaism. Many today have discovered the ancient mystical traditions of Judaism; not having ever supposed that such a thing existed, they find this teaching enthralling. It is familiar to the Western mind; its practice extends into Christian mysticism, as Judaism is its parent. However, some have discovered the Kabbalah, divorced from its Judeo-Christian heritage and taken it as if a religion apart from the Biblical Judaism.

It is a spiritual practice well contained within the sphere of Judaism. It is not to be used as a talisman or a secret way for those who eschew its parent faith, the Judaism of ancient Israel. Reading the book of this great mind, Heschel, this becomes apparent. He writes, "indeed, it is difficult to comprehend his teaching without an adequate appreciation of Lurianic mysticism." A basic teaching of all denominations of Judaism and Christianity for that matter, is that 'Adonai echad!' The Lord is One! It is the faith of monotheism, a One, paternal Lord of all.

The greatness of the Rabbi, Isaac Ben Sholom Luria was his emphasis on not merely knowing the Way, but living the Way. "Under the impact of the Hasidic movement, Kabbalah, which had for centuries been studied in conventicles [a secret or unlawful religious meeting] and been understood by the initiated, now reached and affected the minds and lives of a vast multitude." The famous Rabbi of the Shetl, the Ba'al Shem Tov, according to historical tradition lived the life of this kind of Kabbalist. Heschel writes of him, "he often carried out acts of yihudim, spiritual concentration, 'mystical unification' within the sphere of the Divine, or meditations on the combination of spiritual names." He recommended and encouraged spiritual practices which previously had been carried out only by those initiates, advocating that the practice was for all, that every person could realize the divinity.

And there were those Rabbis who opposed this tradition in modernized form. "In contrast to classical Hassidism, the teachings of the dissenters, the rebbes of Pshyskhe and Kotzk, contain no vestige of Lurianic theology. Though there are no explicit declarations, there are many indications of a clear intent to remove Kabbalistic speculation from Hasidic concern." Rabbi Bunam's opposition to Kabbalah, for example, is exemplified in this comment to his disciples: "Ask a Kabbalist for the secret contained in the verse of the Shema [Hear O Israel, the Lord is our G-d, the Lord is One!] in which two capital letters occur making up the word, 'witness.' According to the Law, the Shema may be recited in any language. But the letters would be different then, wouldn't they, and there would be no secret!"

Thus the "Holy Jew displayed an ironical attitude" to the mysteries espoused by Kabbalah. Practices of all waking life were its subject: Sleeping, waking, bathing, eating and all of family life, in addition to work life, and life outside of the home, with regard to neighbors for example, were held within Kabbalistic concern. While some of the Rabbis of the early modern period were greatly immersed into these practices, and their followers as well, others were clearly impatient with this new form of mystical teaching. "However... [they] accepted the principle that the chief task of a tzaddik was to carry out yihudim in everything he undertook... though carried out by a mortal man in this world, it would affect the worlds on high."