Observations placeholder
Moses Cordovero – Shi’ur Komah
Identifier
014898
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
There is a Biblical statement which appears to forbid the wearing of clothes made of wool mixed with linen. In Hebrew this mixture is termed slta'atnez. It was never intended to be a physical prohibition and is totally meaningless unless you understand the symbolism of wool and linen. Again, it is not some physical prohibition in the Bible but a spiritual one.
This is true of all the ordinances and this text explains why.
Satan is Saturn. Because Saturn is so close to the abyss [see Map of the Egg] it is often associated with the serpent - the ouroboros - the area where energy is recycled.
If you look at the astrological meaning of Saturn it stands for the Intellect, Reasoning and Memory. In effect Moses is saying that the whole text is allegorical, that what it meant was that when man becamse physical, the last thing that would help him was to take on solely the attributes of Saturn as he 'fell'. And the reason is that the Intellect blocks spiritual experience.
Ba ba black sheep have you any wool?
A description of the experience
Moses Cordovero – Shi’ur Komah – Warsaw 1883 63b [translated by Gershom Scholem]
The Torah says (Deut. 22:11): 'Thou shalt not wear sha'atnez,'- this could not have been written before Adam himself had clad himself in this coarse, material stuff which in mystical language is known as 'skin of the serpent.'
Thus the Torah could not have contained such a prohibition, for what bearing could this sha'atnez have had on the soul of man, which was originally clothed in a purely spiritual garment?
And indeed the original combination of letters in the Torah before the fall was not sha'atnez tsemer u-fishtim (sha'atnez of wool and linen), but the same consonants in another combination, namely satan-'az metsar u-tofsim, a warning to Adam not to exchange his original garment of Light for the garment of serpent's skin, symbolizing the demonic power named satan-'az, 'insolent Satan.'
Further, the words embodied a warning to the effect that these powers would assuredly bring fear and affliction, metsar, upon man and attempt to gain possession of him, u-tofsim, and thereby bring him down to Hell.
But what brought about this change in the combination of letters, so that we now read sha'atnez tsemer u-fishtim? It came about because when Adam put on the skin of the serpent his nature became material, so necessitating a Torah that gave material commandments. This called for a new reading of the letters to convey the meaning of a commandment. And so it is with all other commandments based on the corporeal and material nature of man.