Interview with Author Richard Seidman
What is “Kabbalah”? “
Kabbalah” literally means “that which is received.” It is a broad term for the Jewish mystical tradition. There are many components of Kabbalah, including meditation, numerology, and study of the “sefirot,” the ten divine emanations or energies through which the world came into being. Teachings about the Hebrew letters are one aspect of Kabbalah.
What’s so important about the Hebrew letters? Why, in Jewish tradition, are they considered to have so much significance?
The Hebrew word for letter, “ot”, also means “sign” or “wonder” or “miracle.” For thousands of years, Jewish sages have taught that the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, the Aleph Beit, embody wonderful and miraculous powers. According to the earliest known book on Jewish mysticism, The Sefer Yetzirah (The Book of Creation), written more than fifteen centuries ago, God formed the entire universe through speaking aloud the twenty-two letters. Out of the nothingness of silence, with the vibration of God’s cosmic utterances, all things spring to life. “God said, ‘Let there be light.’ And there was light.” The letters of the Aleph Beit, as the manifestations of God’s speech, are therefore the energetic and vibrational building blocks of creation. They are analogous to physical elements. Just as, for example, an atom of oxygen gas unites with two atoms of hydrogen gas to form a molecule of water, so does one letter combine with another to create new entities.
Rabbi Marcia Prager writes, “this perception of Hebrew words and letters as the constituent spiritual elements of existence undergirds most Jewish mystical teaching.” The letters are archetypes. Each one expresses a specific primordial power or creative energy. For example, Beit, is the sign of “house.” Mem, is the letter of water and the womb.
David Abram puts it this way: “Each letter of the Aleph Beit is assumed by the Kabbalists to have its own personality, its own profound magic, its own way of organizing the whole of existence around itself.”
Why do you call the book an “oracle”? Is it fortunetelling?
One definition of “oracle” is “an authoritative or wise expression or answer.” It comes from the Latin word meaning “to speak.” It is appropriate that these letters “speak” to us as they are the written representatives of human speech, and in Jewish thought, they are also the agents by which God’s speech calls all things into being. Listening to the oracle of these letters, therefore, can be an entry way into hearing the word of Creation.
There are two basic definitions of the word “divination.” The first is: “the art or practice that seeks to foresee or foretell future events or discover hidden knowledge, usually by means of augury or by the aid of supernatural powers.” The second meaning of divination is “unusual insight or intuitive perception.” This latter definition is the one intended with respect to The Oracle of Kabbalah.
The cards, in other words, don’t foretell future events and don’t rely on supernatural powers. They will, however, provide a perspective on your present situation and show considerations to keep in mind as you weigh possible courses of action. Allow the letters to activate your insight and intuitive perception, and they will serve as a kind of divining rod, leading you to currents of thought and life lying below the surface of things.