Kabbalah Wheel
Created by Liora Leah
9-4-2008
Mixed media: colored pencil on paper, cardboard, plastic
In the Kabbalah class, we learned that the Hebraic God of the mountain has been anthropomorphized by humans, that this image is NOT God. Instead, Kabbalist's refer to God as Ein Sof, a word for God that does not describe God. Ein Sof means "limitless, endless, The Infinite".
Kabbalists describe 10 attributes, or qualities, of God (Sefirot). A primary attribute of God is DIVINE LOVE (Keter). Whatever God gives us, is what God wants us to have, is what we are SUPPOSED to have; we are to praise God even if what God gives us is what we don't want, because what is given to us is given to us in LOVE.
No matter what happens to us, we are not to fill our hearts with anger towards God or others; our task is to continue to show Loving Kindness (Chesed) and compassion towards ourselves and others. Love is the source, loving kindness is the manifestation of Love. We are to surrender to God, to be of service, to do acts of Loving Kindness (T'Shuvah) to everybody and everything. This is the basis of the teachings of Jesus: God is Love, Love thy neighbor as thyself. This is the hard way to God, and it is our choice by free will if we are to do it or not.
When something happens to us that we don't like, that we perceive as tragic or even catastrophic, if we can feel and truly know with a deep knowing (gnosis) that "I know this was supposed to happen", then we have risen above our own ego and in that very moment we have attained an intimate knowledge and awareness of God (Da'at).
Kabbalah Wheel: I created this Wheel to remind myself of the insights I gained from the Kabbalah class. At the center of the Wheel is a small aperture. Attached to the back of the opening is a plastic magnifiying lens. When you look through the aperture, the plastic lens distorts the image so that everything looks out of focus, fuzzy. This serves as a reminder to me that what I perceive in my life to be "bad, unfair, awful, why me?, etc.", is not necessarily REALITY, but that I am perceiving situations through the distorting "plastic lens" of my own mind and ego. If I can perceive situations from an elevated awareness or consciousness, praise God for the situation and truly believe when I say "thank you God, this was meant to be", and know with a deep knowing that what is happening in my life was given to me by God in LOVE, then my perception is clearer, sharper, and I am closer to God.