The Temple and the Kabbalah Posted by Jeff

Thursday night I studied some correspondences between the Kabbalah and the floorplan of the Israelite Temple. The idea was proposed to me that there are actually two Trees, one descending down and the other rising up as usual, and I have surmised that there are perhaps four trees, as the pattern can be repeated. I have determined the following:

The Garden of Eden is the underground match to the Holy of Holies, and both are Paradise. Father Adam was placed there by way of what I will term a "Portal" (go ahead and think of the Star Trek teleporters), He transgressed the law and was cast Eastward out of Eden.

The prayer or incense altar is in the Holy Place, and the entrance back to Paradise is guarded by a vail upon which are represented Cherubim and a Flaming Sword.

When Our Father first was ushered out of the Garden, He and Eve obtained coats of skins in connection with partaking of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (the tree on your left, if you are looking at the vail from inside the Garden or Holy of Holies), and when we (and He) enter into it again, we must partake of fruit from the Tree of Life (the tree on your left if you are OUTSIDE the vail, looking in).

The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil represents coming to earth, entering into mortality. It is the act of God reaching towards man. The Tree of Life represents obtaining eternal life, departing from this mortality. It is man reaching towards God.

Our first parents ate of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and because of it, we were able to be born, and we have a mortal body. It is important to realize that we haven't eaten of this tree ourselves. Some day, after we have eaten from the Tree of Life, and the earth and ourselves have returned to paradisiacal glory, and after we have passed through the Portal represented by the Ark of the Covenant, so that we may dwell in the renewed Garden, where the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is, then maybe we too will be able to partake of its fruit, transgress and fall as Our Father before us has done, and bring about a new beginning, a new cycle of existence.