Why was this book written? This book definitely requires a few words of introduction for it is rather an unusual book. It deals with problems of life, of the world, of the Bible, in a way unknown in publications up to the present. One will look in vain for writings, in any language, containing this matter communicated in this way. This book will, therefore, be a sensation to the interested and understanding reader. The author is well aware of the fact, but on careful consideration has thought fit to communicate to a limited extent this knowledge which has so far not been published and even for the most part forgotten. The knowledge set forth in this book dates back to prehistoric times; it is definitely no discovery of the authors. It practically got lost, however, in these latter centuries, partly even in the latter millenium, in those circles, too, where acquaintance with it might have been of illimitable significance. With the loss of this knowledge many certainties in regard to the purpose of life got adrift or altogether lost. Yet the material, fundamental to this knowledge, has remained intact throughout the ages. Not in the form of scrolls hidden in caves or ancient potsherds and parchments retrieved in archeological expeditions. The manner in which it remained intact is much more surprising and imposing: it has been with us all the time, and during the latter centuries even printed many times in numerous books. The only thing is that it has for a long, long time not been recognized as such; the quintessence was overlooked; people simply did not see it; primarily because they had lost the key. It has rarely been more manifest that the gods thinking they could lead the world had eyes but could not see. Once the key is retrieved, as will appear after perusal of this book, one will realize that regaining this knowledge from the profuse material at hand is a simple and, at the same time, uncommonly fascinating matter easily accomplished in ones lifetime. One will see that regaining it does not depend on endless complicated research, in which subtlety, abnormal penetration or a photographic memory play a decisive part, and that neither screwing up to a special spiritual condition nor application of mystical practices are required. It is nothing except a simple human affair which merely requires normal common sense, besides goodwill and an attitude to life directed towards the real. By now one will wonder what this mysterious, yet often printed, material is and how it is that the key for understanding such important things got lost. The material is found in the enormous complex known as ancient Jewish lore. An exact, serious, intellectually justified approach of this tradition proves to lead to astonishing results, to unknown possibilities. Without any exaggeration a new universe may be said to loom up. This ancient tradition, as any tradition at any time, is based on knowledge of the meaning of life. When the study of this ancient wisdom approaches the domain where the one thing that matters is to penetrate to the ultimate cause regarding the reality of this world, of life and death, it changes its character of typical, general formulations, resulting from mechanical, material and exterior relationships, to that where the single personality, the manner of life, thought and desires of the man facing this tradition, become decisive for the powers of understanding and his mental scope. The approach of the essential in the world is closely related to the essential in man and because of it has a very personal character. Every man gives expression to the world in a different manner. Therefore it was an ancient custom merely to transmit this profounder and wider approach from teacher to pupil, taking into account the natural disposition and character of the pupil correctly to understand the greatness and depth of the meaning of life. It required wisdom and restraint on the part of the teacher to impart this to the pupil ? with regard to the latters personality ? which under the circumstances formed the maximum. For the reverse of the knowledge of ultimate causes and forces implies a potential, unchecked, immense power over matter. The chances of abuse of this power for the sake of narrow-minded selfish purposes often caused the teacher to limit the extent of the pupils initiation. Modern man who has barely tasted the consequences of penetrating into a few secrets of matter as expressed in conceptions such as nuclear energy, modern psychology and biology, will not look upon this disposition in regard to initiating pupils as strange or narrow-minded or wrong any more. In consequence of the serious loss in depth in the views and the ways of life of humanity through the externalization which has been in progress for centuries, the knowledge of the essence of things could no longer be transmitted or at least only partially. People lost sight of the correct, systematic all-embracing approach to reality. They forgot that it is mans personality which determines the depth of his knowledge; and that which through deficiency of the personality could not be comprehended any more, was called the secret. In this way there ensued an erroneous estimation, a misconception of the meaning of the secret. It brought in its wake trifling with mysteriousness, with unwarranted secrecy, indulgence in strange, misunderstood expressions. The ever-expanding domain of ignorance about the real became a hotbed for queer and alarming reactions, indicating that man realized intuitively that he might come to knowledge, it is true, but that he no longer knew how. It was the domain where ignorance of things one was certainly able to grasp, made a mockery of the secret; where profound human sentiments were debauched. Because of all this the rendering of what would have been regarded in ancient times as knowledge of the meaning of the world has become vague, confused, desultory, not to mention the numerous entirely wrong approaches, based on misjudgement of the significance of this wisdom. All in all there arose an unsatisfactory picture, rightly to be rejected by those who seriously wanted to find out the purpose of existence and live in accordance therewith. Neither did the teachers in general know how to approach the reality of things by means of the material they had read and studied. Large numbers of them do not even realize any more that there is a knowledge of the reality of things; they believe that the Bible and biblical lore are merely information dating back to olden times concerning the history and customs of an ethnic group, mixed up with myths and legends and sagas, illuminated with conceptions on justice, morals, hygiene or ethics, whether acceptable or otherwise. Considering the ever growing loss of knowledge about the why and wherefore of this life, and mankind losing control of itself and feeling dissatisfied and miserable, I judged that such times justified my pointing to this reservoir of knowledge esteemed impossible and of wisdom of an altogether different order. This knowledge offers firm standards, it does not deal with vaguenesses or speculations. It gives certainties throughout life, it gives insight into the purpose of existence and it is logical, systematic, all-embracing. Consequently it satisfies the warranted desire for intellectual acceptability. It will undoubtedly appeal to straightforward modern people in quest of truth. At the same time it brings solid human standards instead of the chilly world-picture of a mechanical infinity in space-time, and the relativity of human morals, so dispiriting to man as a live personality. Besides it will prove to be a continuation of the lost ancient path of religious man, the way about which modern man, in spite of all the progressist-complexes dominating his mind, intuitively knows it existed at some time and of which he cherishes an inexpressed hope that he shall find it back one day. It is the way which man lost through the obtruding superficiality, vagueness and hypocrisy; the way which he tries in vain to find back through various theories in the domain of philosophy, metaphysics, theology, ethics and history; all the while getting more and more discouraged and sceptical because of his hopeless and vain search. It is also the way he vainly hopes to regain through experimenting with and forcing of all kinds of schemes social or political, efforts which therefore can only eventuate in deadly pessimism, cynicism and opportunism. The only thing actually gained was that the goal, the retrieving of the essence of things, had to make way for a ruthless, harsh, scientific world-picture with statistic standards based on the law of big figures, instead of the expected all-embracing, all-pervading human standards. The need of anaesthetics and diversion, and recreation - which indeed whatever form it presents itself in, amounts to excluding reality, creation of a fictitious world - all these things are the exterior signs of this despair of ever finding back the path of religious man. So many people, too, clinging to every kind of strange spiritual school of thought, veiling what is truly human as long as it makes the impression or even merely pretends to be complete or having descended from other spheres, from regions, seemingly inspiring one with belief and faith, from worlds beyond the sensory perceptible, all these things are indications of human need and human search, but above all, indications of human loneliness and deep human sorrow. These times of tragic pessimism demand restoration of certainties round which there is sense in building up a new life and a new world. For that reason I thought it was not only justified, but even urgent to lift a tip of the veil and point at the existence of this unknown world which has contained the certainties of life ever since the beginning of human life. More than this I cannot accomplish in a book which is the first and only one ever published in this field, and which, considering the entirely new and foreign subject-matter, cannot but have the character of a cautious, general introduction. It does not nearly contain a hundredth part of what I could write with the help of the elaborate material in my possession. But even this brief and cursory glance into the new world, opening up to us, is so fascinating, opens up such new vistas, that one will never stop wondering how all this can really be and how it could be so close to us without our ever having the slightest suspicion of it. One will also wonder how it was that one had eyes yet could not see. The Public Secret Is handing on information about material touching the essence of things not at variance with the above mentioned custom, maintained throughout the ages, of handing these problems merely from teacher to pupil and such only if and in so far as the pupil in his disposition and practice of life inspires the confidence that this knowledge will not develop in him in the wrong direction? That I myself should ask this question, shows that I have given this problem my careful consideration. On the one hand a world which spiritually, as seen from the human standpoint, lives on the edge of the abyss, which, since it does not know any longer the why and wherefore of things, loses itself in its search for all kinds of subtle anaesthetics and intoxicants for the purpose of driving away despair, a world which lives in hard-heartedness, opportunism, cynicism, egoism, and because of it threatens to end in catastrophe. On the other hand the knowledge and the experience that the deepest essence of things must remain hidden, as the soul in the body, the seed in the fruit, the nucleus in the atom; that this deepest truth can only be transmitted in silence to the one who shows he can take it in, whose attitude of life is in harmony with it. None but such a man will understand that the essential is approached in a way different from exteriorizing the soul, extricating the seed, or releasing the atoms nucleus. He will know that pushing the essential into the sphere of the universal mechanistic, the statically measurable, is suicidal and that it may destroy others as well. It is only through the essential remaining hidden from sensory perception, through its being protected by the perceptible material sheath with which, in its contrast, it forms a unity, that existence in this world is at all possible. Here we see facing each other, on the one hand this world, precipitating itself intoxicatedly into the abyss; pathologically set on making sensorily perceptible the essence of things, the nucleus, existence, that which has life-informing sense as long as it is maintained in its state of sensorynonperceptibility, and on the other hand the presence of a knowledge of the same qualities as this essence, which similarly requires a protective sheath, so as not to be destroyed and not to act destructively. The tension between these two extremes is heightened by the knowledge that only restoration of the knowledge of the essential can cause the certainties to be found back, which will again make of life a humane joy and give the world a humane foundation. It is only the gift of this profoundest and holiest essence to the world which might avert calamity. The solution to this dilemma of opposing contrasts lies in the principle that one of the most important missions of mankind is making known the wonders of the world, the unsuspected depths of the structure of life. This principle for instance expressed in the Bible as: Declare His Glory among the heathen, His Wonders among all people (Ps. 96:3) or in the : Give thanks to the Lord; make known His deeds among the people .... ; talk ye of all His wondrous works (Ps. 105:1-2). Talking about these wonders is a serious matter; therefore, like all teaching - and teaching in fact is nothing but telling about wonders - it should be straightforward aspiration after truth. Most emphatically it is not something to be handed to the credulous with half-heartedness and vagueness. The wonder should not evoke emotions in hazy minds, but to the contrary in the alert man. Such a man in his joyous surprise will surely find his way to the reality of things and the purpose of existence. It will then also prove to be his personal way and it will depend on himself what he will meet on that way and what will abide with him. He will then be able to say that he has seen the wonder and yet lives. This book speaks about this wonder. It grants a view, unknown as yet, of the wonder of the world, as it unfolds itself in that creation known as the Bible. With creation in this connection I mean something which like the universe or life cannot definitely have been made by man but which as a surprising, inescapable datum ever faces man, whose existence is found therein. In this book the Bible is not presented as a historic tale, nor as a source of morals, justice, theology, ethics, hygiene or any other thing people have ever taken the Bible for, but as a pure wonder, a wonder just as demonstrable as the universe of life. The essential being of things, the knowledge of the essential, which is to be materialized, is not touched upon, as these things are subject to the personality of the man who approaches them; they cannot even be touched upon in a book like this without creating a dangerous confusion. For this reason there remains a wide gap, sedulously defined no mans land, between the farthest reaching communication in this book and the domain of the deepest reality of things. But with the same sedulousness it has been seen so that the reader, through his disposition, can repeatedly cast a glance at this domain, can set foot on elevations which reveal to him its existence and its nature. From this viewpoint he will be enabled to gaze into another world. For I wanted emphatically to fulfil the primary intention of this book to create the possibility of finding the way back to lost certainties. In times of serious danger during devastating epidemics the Thora, which is otherwise to remain in the house of instruction, according to ancient Jewish usage, is carried through the streets of the town threatened with destruction so that the pestilence may come to an end. Apart from these motives, decisive in themselves, there is the fact that especially in the latter centuries so much has been written about the Bible and tradition in utter ignorance of their meaning and purpose, that an entirely false and misleading general opinion has arisen concerning them. Ancient sources of condensed wisdom, only to be understood by adepts, are printed in bulk, often in translation, analysed by inexpert people and of course wrongly commented upon, hence foolishly interpreted. And all this ever remains uncontradicted, thus creating the impression as if these interpretations were acceptable, just as if silence gives consent. Watching silently how mankind from misconception pulls down the most important thing, that which can give sense to life, is an attitude showing an alarming indifference towards the essential, which allows such considerations to prevail as social status, national pride, scientific and technical progress, etc. It very often means that people do not know any better, that they content themselves with a partial world, with a sham world. It is also for this very reason in order not to leave this situation uncontradicted, that this book was written. Knowledge of the real is not a secret one person can take possession of begrudging anothers participating of it, excluding the other from it. The secret of this knowledge exists so that anybody may seek it, it is there to grant man the joy of finding it. It absolutely wants to be found, because in finding arises that unity of essence and phenomenon, the unity of the opposites. Whoever has experienced the wonder of the world as it stands revealed in the Bible, finds himself on the threshold of the domain of this secret. Knowledge of the essence of things forms a closed system which contains the proof of its reality within itself, as it is also the case with the universe. Just as one can only agree full of admiration that the universe is an imposing creation, in perusing this book one will be able to state that the Bible is an even more imposing creation. More imposing because it does not only show the wonder of an unsuspected mechanical relationship, as it also exists in the universe and in life, but because together with this mechanical coherence it also reveals its purpose. The mechanical relationship proves to contain the structure of the events, it likewise contains the standards by which to form judgements, and actions get colour and sense as determining forces in the course of the world. With it man regains the certainties concerning the purpose of existence without which his life is cheerless and unacceptable, without which, in fact, he cannot live. This system, as will be seen at the perusal of the book, cannot be tampered with any more than the existence of the planets orbits or the phenomenon of gravity. It is built with just as wonderful relationships, embracing the smallest details and penetrating into the heart of things. This book indeed proves that the Bible is a creation, that even more than the universe and life it has all the characteristics thereof. That is why this book has nothing in common with the endless variety of discussions between theories or theologies which regard the Bible as a book produced in ancient times. A creation cannot be discussed; it can be seen or ignored. One cannot, however, enter into considerations whether the solar year on earth embraces 365t/a days or no. One cannot be for or against it either. The number of days of the solar year forms a certainty. Therefore ancient Judaism boasted neither theory nor theology of the Bible. It merely contained the life-practice which in peoples lives gave form to the structure which the Bible revealed about this life. The presentation of the system will undoubtedly spring one surprise after the other on the reader, it will touch him more deeply than the discovery of the structure of the universe, of the laws of nature. It is more sensational, since it was not suspected, yet secretly rather expected all the same. A few Remarks on the Sources and the Form Although this book is based on the knowledge of ancient Judaism, it has been arranged and written so as to enable anybody to read it without any difficulty, whatever conviction or denomination he may adhere to. It may be read as people generally do without any further considerations of their conviction, or denomination in much the same way as one reads a book, revealing the structure of the universe or of life. One may be stirred by the information, one will perceive a new wonder. Subject to ones personality one will then see the way leading to the real. It is the way which will lead towards God. From all directions, from a wide circle, there are paths leading to the centre. Everybody will go towards the essential from his place, also from the milieu in which he has grown up or with which he feels affinity. There in that goal all ways converge. The author of this book, as a Jew, only felt justified to speak from his point of view, his path, conscious however that the wonder, which urged him to follow it like so many others in ancient times, can cause anybody to strike the path he is destined to follow in this world. So that from all directions people can come, flocking towards the one goal, the place where God can be found. On all ways life is realized. This book merely points to the significance of going the way towards the essential. Everybody has only to fill in what is relevant to his way, that he may strike it with joy and conviction. Ancient Judaism was the knowledge of the Bible as creation. As the conception Bible only the Old Testament was known of course. Where the Bible is mentioned in this book, it is exclusively the Old Testament which is meant. Besides, this knowledge was especially based on that which was considered fundamental, i.e. the root story of the Bible. It was this very root story which was known as a creation. It is formed by the first five books, the so-called Pentateuch. As I follow the path of this ancient knowledge, all the information in this book is similarly based on the Pentateuch, although for convenience sake I shall go on using the word Bible which refers to the whole. In this book special passages in the Bible are repeatedly referred to without quoting them. The book would have become too bulky, if all texts referred to were printed verbatim. It is therefore a piece of practical advice to readers not well versed in the Bible to read passages as well and particularly to have the text ready at hand. Any translation anyhow has its fundamental defects. From this book it will be apparent that in fact translations exclude understanding of the essential and that therefore our approach takes place in an entirely different way. So in this case the translation is practically of no importance. It is merely an intelligible medium, which enables us to come into contact with the original text. And in that case it does not matter whether the translation is correct or no. The reader can use any translation. This book in fact is based on the original text of the Bible as it exists in Hebrew. The remarkable thing about the Hebrew text is that it has remained unaltered throughout the ages. It does not only refer to the purport and the words used, but above all it applies to every letter. Here we see the phenomenon unknown in any other book, that even the so-called defective spellings continue wrongly spelled, that redundant letters are not crossed out, that letters unmistakably missing are not inserted, that some letters are unwarrantably written in big capitals or very small size, in the middle of a text often even in the middle of a word, that unexpectedly letters are turned upside down, etc. This fact in itself shows that we are here faced with something very peculiar; that these letters evidently have an entirely different function, besides that of forming a word. Otherwise in the course of so many 15 centuries things would certainly have been altered, corrected. In translations such facets cannot possibly become evident. We shall therefore follow a way completely different from that of the translation to make the reader familiar with the purpose of this original text. The same thing applies to the way in which the pronunciation of the Hebrew words is rendered. I have on the whole chosen the rendering generally met with in translations. For here too it is irrelevant since our manner of approach has nothing to do with this pronunciation or that, this spelling or that, in English. The conception tradition has not been set out in greater detail in the text. It will be a matter of indifference to most readers whether the names of the sources used are mentioned or no. Those names are meaningless and are rather wearisome. As sources I have selected those which incontestably date back to antiquity. Moreover I have preferred such sources and such data as are fairly well known to those readers posted up or specialized in this direction, so that even without statement of the sources of information they will know the derivation. I have avoided the use of less well-known sources. Most of the sources used are even known in translations. The interested reader can trace back the principal sources in an index at the back of the book and also a limited bibliography containing the most important published general sources in this field. For the sake of continuity and readability of the text, the explanatory notes and the expatiatory notes have also been printed at the back under the heading notes and annotations. To wind up with, an extensive register of references will help the reader to compare the various passages dealing with a certain subject. Very often this comparison will deepen his insight in the various subjects. It was exceedingly difficult to find a suitable form in which to render the material. For indeed we are concerned with an entirely new field; there were hardly any points of contact with subjects already well known to the reader, no reference could be made to existent literature. Neither was there a terminology of this field intelligible to modern man. So I felt like one belonging to these modern times who had to explain our present-day scientific and social world to an Egyptian of Pharaonic ages. How was I to begin, how was I to describe the terms even our secondary schoolchildren are familiar with nowadays, lest the ancient Egyptian should misunderstand me? How was I to discuss the principles of atom-structure, of chemistry, modern mathematics, economic structure when I could not refer to anything in the Egyptian world picture? The comparison is not far-fetched; the distance is at least just as big. Especially the danger of being misunderstood loomed up as I was writing. For nothing is more disastrous than the premature conclusion of the reader who with it connects things with well-known conceptions of his own world. Once such a wrong connection is made, the reader will continue in the wrong direction. For that reason I have approached the matter under discussion most cautiously, at first sight perhaps too elaborately. For the same reason I could not help repeating myself on various points. Also I have tried to prevent the readers forming mistaken conceptions by inserting parenthetic clauses or explanatory interpolations, which may create the impression of superfluous, irritating reiterations. Considering this new explosive matter, the danger of misunderstanding seemed more serious to me than the risk of irritating people with my redundance and the repetitions, perhaps unnecessary to some and therefore rather trying. It goes without saying I could not take these measures everywhere. I do hope, however, that the reader, because of the very form of the elucidations, will avoid coming to rash conclusions and drawing rapid comparisons. For that reason I advise the reader urgently to stick to the sequence of the book. Passages or chapters skipped may make the rest unintelligible or, which is worse, cause misunderstanding. I was also faced with the alternative whether this first book as a general introduction should be of a purely scientific nature destined for a very limited circle of persons interested or that it should reach as many readers as possible through its popular scientific character. There were many objections attaching to either extreme. That is why I tried to strike the happy mean. The scientific reader trying to penetrate deeper will find an immense quantity of surprising material, and the person generally interested will find the book fairly easy to read and yet intuitively feel the deep significance of this regained image of the world. It will assuredly not leave him unperturbed. I have purposely avoided in this book to try and bring the reader in a desired frame of mind through pathetic language. In my use of language I have on the analogy of ancient commentators in this field purposely limited myself to the most sober, simple, generally intelligible, unequivocal choice of words. The facts must speak for themselves, words must only pave the way. This implies that I have also conscientiously avoided plausible, speculative vaguenesses, which can be explained in various ways. The facts communicated, the wonders shining forth from the creation, called the Bible, have to rouse the pathos and give one the feeling of having come across something most extraordinary. It seemed necessary also to give an account in this preface of the manner of expression used in this book lest there should be any misunderstanding. The subject is too important and I think that the contents of this book can best be expressed in the simplest possible form. The reader will then be able to allow those feelings to develop which pertain to his personality and his place in the world. Thus he will find his own way too. That is what I sincerely wish for him. Geneva, August 1963 Friedrich Weinreb Content: Preface and Apologia 7 Part One: The Universe of the Word 1 Counting to Four 19 2 The Secret of the Word 42 3 In the Beginning 55 4 The Miracle of the Name 73 5 Male and Female 87 6 The Bounds of this World 102 7 The Coming World is Beyond Our Boundaries 114 8 The Chronology of the Bible 149 Part Two: Expanding 9 The Story of the Two Trees 183 10 Cain’s Death 221 11 Sons of the Gods 236 12 The Word Carries Life Through Time 245 13 How Time is Measured 262 14 The Eye and the Ear of the Servant 269 15 Destruction in Multiplicity 278 Part Three: The Curve 16 Facing the Others 285 17 The Incredible 292 18 The Offering and Paradise 297 19 The Twins 303 20 Blindness and Vision 308 21 Life Expresses Itself as Subtlety Facing Subtlety 315 22 The Reversal 323 23 The Colours of Time 327 24 The Disappearance of Life 335 25 This World as Centre of the Universe 339 26 The Game 341 Part Four: The Return 27 The Threshold to the Eighth 369 28 The Pangs of Development 376 29 The Laws Governing the Return 387 30 How the World is Left 398 31 The Principle of the Half 402 32 Crossing the Border 413 33 The Conditioning: Creating Order 418 34 The Structure of Man 421 35 The Circle and the Fragments 434 36 The Method of Counting 448 37 The Secret of the Reversal of the Laws of Nature 454 38 The Fourth Dimension 463 39 Economic Problems 468 40 Looking Into the Future 477 41 At the End of the Journey, the Giants 484 42 A Realistic and Serious Conclusion 491 Epilogue 497 Appendix Notes and Records 504 Statement of the Sources of Sagas Employed 511 Bibliography of the Main Sources of Tradition 516 Index 519
Posted on: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 21:56:13 +0000
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