A Rose Among Thorns: A heartrending saga of family, friendship and love

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His Presence above is manifest in bina and is therefore called the " Upper Shechina" or the "Upper Rose". His Presence below is manifest in malchut or the "Lower Rose". When a person expresses himself in action, all the sefirot of his soul (whether openly or in a hidden manner) come together. This is an example of the sefirot coming to malchut and expressing through her. There are two ways that this can happen: sometimes you find yourself doing something with great enthusiasm driven by a crystal clear image in your heart and brain of all the exciting ideas behind your action - this is " malchut ascending to bina"; at other times you may do the same thing without vigor, unable to muster that dynamic vision, your mind and heart clouded by distractions, your feelings lying dormant - this corresponds to malchut in its constricted state below.

The word " Shechina" derives from the Hebrew word " shachain", which means "dwell". This helps to explain the English term "Presence", as the Shechina is the state of G‑d's Presence manifest in the world, i.e. His Imminence. The kabbalistic teaching is that there are two general areas where this occurs; the upper realm and the lower realm. The Rabbis teach that G‑d created the world because He wanted to dwell in the lower realm. He created the spiritual realm as a pathway to reach the lower realm. So much so that He wanted His Presence to be manifest in the lower realm in the same manner as in the upper realm. In this way His omniscience becomes apparent everywhere, thus revealing His absolute unity. The name Y-ah is used in reference to spiritual energies above nature. This divine energy will be given to the student as he delves into the supernal secrets.It is of great significance that the start of this section of the Zohar, which is a commentary on the Torah, should begin by quoting not from the Torah, but from the Song of Songs of King Solomon. The space in between the Cherubim in the Holy of Holies in the Temple is the place of the closest, most intimate relationship between G‑d and His People; this level of relationship is expressed in the Song of Songs, a love-song pouring out the intimacies of the heart. By opening up its revelation of the Supernal mysteries with this quote, the Zohar hints to us that this relationship is its driving theme. With this we can understand why the Zoharic system of giving over its knowledge revolves around the masculine-feminine relationship. This same relationship pervades the Song of Songs in its every verse. The inner level of the Torah which expresses itself in the form of song…

In A Rose Among Thorns , Rosie Goodwin weaves a captivating historical saga of a troubled family and the power of love and friendship. Perfect for fans of Dilly Court and Cathy Sharp. Despite losing her mother at a young age, Sassy has grown up surrounded by although poor, she is happy. So Sassy is devastated when her father marries wealthy widow Elizabeth Bonner. Social climber Elizabeth despairs of a step-daughter who is more at ease with servants than those above stairs, and is jealous of Sassy's growing beauty which threatens to outshine her own daughter.

In a sense, then, we see a great aspect of our relationship with G‑d. We said before that "G‑d created the world because He wanted to dwell in the lower realm". It's all very well to love G‑d when you are flying on a spiritual high, but what happens when you touch down and have to maintain the relationship through the daily grind of existence? The true test of such a relationship is whether it can withstand the pressures of the bad times. When two people have a deep and loving relationship it expresses itself in absolute fidelity in the bad times as well as in good. And when it maintains itself through the difficulties, it gives further strength to those bonds of love.

Also the fact that the Zohar starts by quoting from the Song of Songs hints to us that its special goal is to reveal the inner level of the Torah which expresses itself in the form of song. It is written…": Normally the Zohar excludes this phrase and just says, "Rabbi So-and-So opened", followed by the verse. The message here is that we must write these words on the heart. Rabbi Chezkiah's opening teaching is of fundamental importance in helping us cope with our present situation. By taking this lesson to heart we show that this teaching is not merely an intellectual one, but also an emotional one. We must really feel the pain of exile, and use it to fire our efforts towards redemption. By opening ourselves up in the same way as Rabbi Chezkiah, we can discover the inner truth which is engraved upon the heart. Malchut is the lowest sefira, which is the vessel that receives from all those above, and brings them to expression. The reason that it is a manifestation of kingship is that the unified workings of the sefirot together show G‑d's hallmark in the underlying creative power and providence, and hence to His sovereignty and rulership. In terms of the soul we can explain malchut as self-realization, i.e. the vessel through which the aspects of the self establish themselves. Was moved to higher ground The Bishops | Photo: Screen grabbed from Youtube Did this piece make your day? Malchut is alluded to by the term Knesset Yisrael (which also connects with the Shechina, as mentioned above), and therefore the student can absorb the idea of malchut through the filter of the Collective soul roots of Israel. In terms of this discourse, this is meant to bring out to us that the revelation of the divine Kingship depends upon Knesset Yisrael. All this is symbolized by the rose.

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Rabbi Chezkiah…": The commentary Damesek Eliezer explains that the Zohar chooses to start with a lesson by Rabbi Chezkiah because his name hints to us a message: "Chezkiah" can be read as " chazak Y-ah" which in Hebrew means "strength of the divine name ' Y-ah'". The message is that when a person embarks on the voyage of traversing the vast ocean of Kabbala he is assured divine assistance.