Thirty Two Paths of Wisdom

[J.K.]

Hello Gang..  

Might anyone be able to give me a brief explanation of the 32 Paths of Wisdom?  Is each person supposed to be walking one of these paths spiritually?  Or do they just represent 32 different paths on the tree of life?  And if so, what distinguishes one path from the other?  Why would there be more than one path?

Then finally, if someone is familiar with this subject and can elaborate - what might I be able to learn about the path of "Double Gimel?"

I was given "Double Three" in a prophetic dream.  It turns out that Gimel is the letter of the Hebrew alphabet associated with 3, and Double Gimel (as I understand) represents one of these paths.

Hope that makes sense..     lol

[David Clapper]

Hi J.K.

From what perspective are you approaching the 32 paths of wisdom, Christian/Hermetic Qabbala or Jewish Kabbalah?

Regards,

David

[J.K.]

Hey David...

In that I know so little about the 32 Paths I'm not really sure I can answer.  Studying Kabbalah (the tree of life) is something rather new to me.  As such,  I'm still learning the basics.

Conceptually, however, it seems logical to me to focus on Jewish Kabbalah since they were the ones who came up with it.  My thought is that if the Christians came in afterward and somehow changed the original work to make it fit in with their philosophy that would be a degradation of the original work based on personal bias.   ( i.e. trying to force one's point to fit in an already established set of religious beliefs.)

However, again, I'm so new to studying it I still have a lot to sort out.
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[David Clapper]

Hi J.K.

My background is in the Jewish Kabbalah, so I can inform you from that perspective. I don't like getting into the debate of who was first and who appropriated what from whom; the debate tends to get pretty acrimonious. Suffice it to say that there is always room for personal insight, but from the Jewish perspective one remains within the constraints of received Jewish tradition and Jewish religious law. As the Talmudic saying goes, "eat the meat before you drink the wine".

The 32 paths of wisdom derive from the first chapter of the "Sefer Yetsirah" (Book of Formation), which begins with the statement (I'm paraphrasing here) that God created the universe with "32 mystical paths of wisdom". Later on in the book, it is made clear that these 32 paths refer to the 10 sefirot and the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. However, the 32 paths are also defined in "Pardes Rimonim" (Orchard of Pomegranates), a classic work in Kabbalah written by Rabbi Moshe Cordovero, as 32 states of consciousness. By contemplating the various names of God (22 letters), one achieves the various levels of consciousness. The underlying structures (for want of a better word) one is aware of while in these states of consciousness are formed by the sefirot (those attributes of God we can become conscious of). The sefirot are often portrayed as a tree, referred to as the "tree of life". In a certain sense one could say that you climb the tree by means of the letters.

The letter gimel relates to "kindness and nourishment". In particular the outflowing of God's kindness and nourishment. The polarities of man and woman (the letter bet, or 2) are resolved in the child (the gimel, 3), who is raised through kindness (the natural feeling associated with caring for children) and nourishment (the natural act associated associated with the same activity. Maharal (a rabbi in the Middle Ages) explains that the Oneness of aleph denotes ultimate perfection that exists only with God and the duality of bet implies diversity and heterogeneity, multiplicity and incompatibility. The gimel signifies the capacity to neutralise the dissimilarity of two contrasting forces and unite them into a lasting and more wholesome unit.

Hope this helps,

David

[J.K.]

Thank you!

I've read two books on Kabbalah now and I think I found more information in your answer than I did in any one chapter of either of them.  I also see there is a good bit of information online about  "Pardes Rimonim."

I'll be looking into that next.

Deep Bows..  

[David Clapper]

Deep Bows back!