Observations placeholder
Sha’are Gan Eden [The Gates of Paradise] - Jacob Koppel Lifschitz
Identifier
014902
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Gershom Scholem – On the Kabbalah and its symbolism
This book was written early in the eighteenth century by the Volhynian Kabbalist Jacob Koppel Lifschitz. The author of this posthumously published work formulated and recommended nearly all the theses of Sabbatianism, but managed to avoid giving offence by prefacing his book with a violent, but patently insincere, denunciation of the sectarians and their secret doctrines, which in reality he himself espoused.
A description of the experience
Sha’are Gan Eden [The Gates of Paradise] - Jacob Koppel Lifschitz Cracow 1880 12c
In the shemittah in which we live, the commandments of the Torah are a divine necessity. . . . This Torah is called torah de beri'ah and not torah de-'atsiluth. For in this shemittah all Creation, beri'ah, stems from a sphere, from which they [its works] develop and combine in a manner appropriate to the law of this shemittah. Consequently, we speak of a Torah of Creation, torah de-beri'ah. But in the preceding shemittah, which was one of grace and in which there was consequently neither evil desire nor reward nor punishment, a different cosmic law [hanhagah] necessarily prevailed.
The words of the Torah were so interwoven as to meet the requirements of this specific cosmic law, and the actions that brought the preceding shemittah into being came from a higher sphere, namely that of wisdom. And so, accordingly, its Torah is called torah de ‘atsiluth, for the meaning of 'atsiluth’ is the secret of divine wisdom . . .
At the end of the sixth millennium the light which precedes the cosmic sabbath will spread its rays, swallowing death and driving the unclean spirit from the world. Then many commandments will be abrogated, for example, those relating to clean and unclean.
Then a new cosmic law will prevail, in keeping with the end of this shemittah, as it is written in the Book Temunah. That is the meaning of the ancient words: 'A new Torah will go forth.' This does not mean that the Torah will be replaced by another, for that would be contrary to one of the thirteen fundamental dogmas of Judaism [formulated by Maimonides]. Instead, the letters of the Torah will combine in a different way, according to the requirements of this period, but not a single letter will be added or taken away.
Thanks to this new combination, the words will take on a new meaning. Then men's knowledge will increase, and all, great and small, will know God by virtue of the light that will flare up from the mystery of the divine thought on the eve of the cosmic sabbath. It is not necessary to speak at length of this, for all these matters are fully explained in the Book Temunah, where they may be found