Yakov Leib HaKohain

Yakov Leib HaKohain (born Lawrence G. Corey, November 13, 1934) is a kabbalist, religious philosopher, poet and founder of Donmeh West, a "Virtual Community for the Study and Practice of Neo-Sabbatian Kabbalah".[1]

Early life and studies in Jungian psychology, philosophy, Vedanta and Kabbalah

Yakov Leib HaKohain ("YaLHaK") was born in 1934 into a Chicago family of Turkish Sephardi descent on his mother’s side and Romanian Kohanim descent on his father's. He studied Jungian Thought and Comparative Religion for six years (1980–1986) under his mentor, the late James Kirsch, a Jewish member of Jung's original inner circle and co-founder of the C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles,[2] where HaKohain also did three years of advanced, post-doctoral work under Kirsch's sponsorship from 1980 to 1983.[3]

At much the same time, HaKohain studied and was initiated into Vedanta in 1976 by another mentor figure, Swami Swahananda, head of the Ramakrishna Order of India in Southern California (where he has since then been a frequent guest speaker on the relations between Neo-Sabbatian Kabbalah and Hinduism).[4]

As part of the syncretic nature of the Neo-Sabbatian Kabbalah he developed and espouses, HaKohain also teaches on the relationships between his own spiritual system and other older spiritual systems such as Hinduism,[5] Gnosticism,[6] the Qur'an,[7] and New Testament Christianity.[8]

Founding of Donmeh West and Neo-Sabbatian Kabbalah

Yakov Leib HaKohain is probably best known as the founder and spiritual head of Donmeh West (its founding is even included by the Christian Millenarian website Thomas Pages, an exhaustive timeline of historical events leading to the anticipated Second Coming of Christ.[9] In his book The Sabbatean Prophets, Prof. Matt Goldish discusses Donmeh West as a rightful successor to the line of kabbalah descending directly from Sabbatai Zevi himself.[10] As founder of Donmeh West, Yakov Leib HaKohain is considered by media like the Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv as the leader of the modern Neo-Sabbatian revival.[11] Prof. Wendelin von Winckelstein's Die Odyssee des Aristoteles states "Eine nachfolgeorganisation existiert heute noch unter dem namen Donmeh West” (“Today a successor organization [to Sabbatai Zevi's Donmeh] still exists under the name of Donmeh West.")[12]

His "multiple conversions" and raising up the Holy Sparks

Following in the footsteps of Sabbatai Zevi (who converted from Judaism to Islam) and Jacob Frank (who converted from Judaism to Islam and Sabbateanism and then to Catholicism), as well as Sri Ramakrishna (who besides his Hindu roots had several approachments towards Islam and Christianity), and for the same reasons as they, HaKohain formally converted to Islam, Roman Catholicism and Hinduism. He did that in his own words not to become a practicing member of any of them, but to metaphorically "gather together" the "Holy Sparks" contained inside each of these religions into a single "Divine Flame" within his own person, for the purpose of contributing to the inner Kabbalistic reunification of God.[13]

Writings and publications

HaKohain's kabbalistic essays and poetry[14] have been published in literary magazines and scholarly journals such as Evergreen Review;[15] The Beloit Poetry Journal;[16][17][18] Zeek: A Journal of Jewish Thought & Culture;[19] Midstream: A Quarterly Jewish Review;[20] The Critic: A Journal of Contemporary Catholic Thought; Dor L'Dor: Journal of the World Jewish Bible Society of Jerusalem; The Priest: A Journal of Roman Catholic Theology; Newsletter of the Orthdox Jewish Teacher's Association of New York; and The Library Journal of the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco.[21][22]

He has been interviewed concerning his work in Neo-Sabbatian Kabbalah by the Israeli newspaper, Ma'ariv[23][24] and on the Gnostic radio program, Aeon Byte.[25] Ma'ariv also has translated his essay, "Professions of A Holy Sinner"[26] into Hebrew and published it as a feature article in their "Culture and Spirituality" section.[27] (For a summary of the highlights of Reb Yakov Leib HaKohain's main teachings, see Section 6 of this article, Collected Neo-Sabbatian Teachings.)

Contributions to Kabbalah and the interpretation of dreams

Some of HaKohain's writings on kabbalah and the interpretation of dreams have been anthologized in Modern Jew In Search of A Soul: A Jungian Collection,[28] as well as in Dreamwork: Around the World and Across Time along with other contributors such as the Dalai Lama, Joseph Campbell, Freud and Jung.[29] In Modern Jew, Spiegelman (a Zurich-Certified Jungian Analyst and past president of the C. G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles) says of him:

"[Yakov Leib HaKohain] has made an unusual attempt at combining aspects of Jungian Psychology and the Kabbalah, significantly more than has been assayed heretofore. There have been accounts of the impact of Jewish Mysticism and Kabbalah on psychology -- e.g., Freud and Jung -- but [HaKohain] is the first to our knowledge who explicitly combines archetypal information and Jungian concepts in a back-and-forth relation between dreams, personal history, and Kabbalistic imagery."[30]

Quotes from his teachings

Let me give you an example. According to Nanthan of Gaza, "the messiah's soul is engulfed by the qelippah ... [and just] as the shell appears before the core of the fruit, even so the messianic qellipah (that is, Jesus) appeared first in this world ... [Therefore] he that is the messiah will restore to holiness his qelippah which is Jesus Christ."[42]
In other words, just as Sabbatai Zevi entered into the "Maw of Satan" by converting to Islam in order to retrieve the Holy Sparks held prisoners there, so Jesus had entered into the realm of the Sitrah Achra to do the same.[43] But since, at least according to R. Nathan of Gaza, the soul of Jesus remains trapped in the Side of Darkness, the Yechidah Mashiach ("Soul of the Messiah"), of which Jesus is the qellipah, is also trapped there with him.[44]
Now with those Sabbatian teachings in mind, our Neo-Sabbatian practice for restoring the soul of Jesus to holiness.-- not to reinstate him as the messiah or as a god-man, but only to release the yechidah mashiach of which he is the qelippah -- is to fling open the Gates of Imagination and call to him by reciting the words of the Kaddish. That is, we recite the Kaddish to him, not for him."
Let me elaborate. The first five of the ten commandments are "religious" while the second five are "civil." That is, the first five deal with one's relationships to God while the second five deal with one's relationships to others. Given our Neo-Sabbatian view of virtual rather than literal antinomianism, we outwardly violate the religious commandments while inwardly observing them; and we outwardly observe the civil commandments while inwardly violating them. Furthermore, this violation of the civil commandants isn't a ritual in which we go looking for sins to redeem; rather, it is only when the alien thought, as the Ba'al Shem Tov has called it, comes to us of its own accord that we embrace it in order to transform it—and then, only through the Gate of Imagination.

See also

References

  1. Donmeh West official website
  2. See About the Institute - It All Began in the Forties, Gilda Frantz, C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles
  3. Lawrence G. Corey (a.k.a., Yakov Leib HaKohain), was admitted into the post-doctoral Analyst-In-Training Program of the C.G. Institute of Los Angeles in 1980, based on the recommendation and sponsorship of Kirsch (who remained Corey/HaKohain's personal training analyst). For the student records confirming his six years of personal analytical work with Kirsch, and his three years of post-doctoral studies at the C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles
  4. The last program HaKohain/Corey gave for the Vedanta Society of Southern California was a weekend retreat on "Vedanta & the Continuing Incarnation of God" (November 2005), having been before that several times invited by Swami Swahananda to speak on topics like "C.G. Jung & Vedanta", "Vedanta & Jewish Mysticism" and "In Honor of Swahananda on His 25th Anniversary as Head of the Vedanta Society of Southern California." (Confirmed through the Swami Atmavidyananda, Office Manager of the Vedanta Society of Southern California, 1946 Vedanta Place, Hollywood, CA 90068)
  5. The Online Lectures of Rebbe Yakov Leib HaKohain on Vedanta and Kabbalah, Donmeh West
  6. The Online Lectures of Rebbe Yakov Leib HaKohain on the Gnostic Gospels, Donmeh West
  7. The Online Lectures of Rebbe Yakov Leib HaKohain on the Holy Quran, Donmeh West
  8. The Jesus Lectures, Donmeh West
  9. See 1971 to 1984, The Thomas Pages
  10. Goldish, Matt. The Sabbatean Prophets. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2004. ISBN 978-0-674-01291-2
  11. Ma'ariv interview with HaKohain (in Hebrew). «MA'ARIV INTERVIEWER: How do people usually react when they hear about your revival of Sabbateanism? Is the old resentment towards Sevi still active?
    REB YAKOV LEIB HAKOHAIN: I've seen a dramatic rise in the number of Jews and non-Jews who are drawn to this spiritual revival. For example, [over 100 thousand] people from every corner of the world come to our website at www.donmeh-west.com to read and listen to our Neo-Sabbatian teachings.
  12. Prof. Wendelin von Winckelstein, Die Odyssee des Aristoteles, Wendelin von Winckelstein, Google Books, p. 87
  13. On the Holy Sparks and their Redemption by the Baal Shem Tov (Israel ben Eliezer) (With Interpretive Comments by Yakov Leib Hakohain), kheper.net
  14. YaLHaK's Garden of Neo-Sabbatian Verse blog
  15. The FictionMags Index - Stories, Listed by Author, Galactic Central
  16. Beloit Poetry Journal website
  17. Winter 1966-1967 Vol. 17 No. 2, Beloit Poetry Journal
  18. Spring 1969 Vol. 19 No. 3, Beloit Poetry Journal
  19. Arts & CulturePOEM: Secret Places of the Stairs, rchess, September 4, 2008
  20. Midstream Magazine website
  21. http://caliber.ucpress.net/doi/abs/10.1525/jung.1.1990.9.1.27
  22. Yakov Leib HaKohain profile, kheper.net
  23. קבל חטא חטא, Ma'ariv
  24. MA'ARIV NEWSPAPER INTERVIEW W/ REB YAKOV LEIB HAKOHAIN ON THE REVIVAL OF NEO-SABBATIAN KABBALAH, Donmeh West
  25. Interviews with Reb Yakov Leib HaKohain on Aeon Byte Gnostic Radio, Donmeh West
  26. Reb Yakov Leib's Confession of a Holy Sinner, Donmeh West.com
  27. יופיו של החטא, Ma'ariv
  28. "Modern Jew In Search of A Soul," ed. by J. Marvin Spiegelman, Ph.D., Falcon Press, 1986, pp. 47-84
  29. Dreamwork: Around the World and Across Time, ed. by Leland E. Shields, M.S., M.A., Blue Dolphin Books, 2008, pp. 209-210
  30. "Modern Jew In Search of A Soul," ed. by J. Marvin Spiegelman, Ph.D., Falcon Press, 1986, p. 84
  31. "Was I not a fool in your eyes, Torah-less and illiterate? You look upon me as a fool ... [because] I know nothing of Law and Ordinance to teach you." Jacob Frank, Sayings of Yakov Frank, trans. Harris Lenowitz, Tree Books, 1978, p.7)
  32. C.G. Jung, An[s]wer to Job, Princeton University Press, 1958, par. 746
  33. C.G. Jung, Answer to Job, Princeton University Press, 1973, par. 757
  34. Ba'al Shem Tov, "Instructions In Intercourse with God," trans. by Martin Buber in Hasidism and Modern Man, Horizon Press, 1958, p. 204-205
  35. Zohar Zohar 1:103a-b
  36. Prof. Avraham Elqayam, The Mystery of Faith In the Writings of Nathan of Gaza, Hebrew University, December 1993
  37. The Words of the Lord Jacob Frank, ed., trans. & annotated by Prof. Harris Lenowitz,University of Utah
  38. Robert Toben, Space-Time and Beyond, Plume Books
  39. Zohar 1:103a-b
  40. For more on this Talmudic dictum of "fulfilling a Torah Commandment by violating it, see Gerschom Scholem, The Messianic Idea In Judaism, Schocken Books, 1971, p.99
  41. Zohar 1:183a-b
  42. Quoted in Gershom Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah,Princeton University Press, 1973, p. 285
  43. "The new doctrine of the necessary apostasy of the Messiah [Sabbatai Zevi] was accepted by all the 'believers.' In fact, it proved to be symbolically richer than was first assumed." Gerschom Scholem, The Messianic Idea In Judaism, Schocken Books, 1971, p. 99
  44. "The case of Jesus is of course the most complex and was undoubtedly the most dangerous for Nathan to attempt. Scholem gives a full account of the way Lurianic topoi were employed by Nathan in explaining how Jesus, whom the Talmud damned to eternal hell, could and would be redeemed through Shabbatai. A remarkable parallel to the Sabbateans’ bid for the redemption of Jesus occurred in the 18th century Hasidic movement. By that time, Shabbatai had joined Jesus in the ranks of the most evil and unsalvageable Jewish souls. In an early manuscript of the Shivhe ha-Besht, the hagiographical account of the life of the Ba’al Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidism, a detail is recorded that was erased in the later published version. The Ba’al Shem Tov attempted to mystically 'repair' the soul of Shabbatai Zvi because Shabbatai 'had a spark of the messiah in him, but the Evil One ensnared him, mercy on us.' In this way the next charismatic leader in Judaism after Shabbatai attempted to do for Shabbatai what Shabbatai attempted to do for Jesus." ~ Prof. Matt Goldish, The Sabbatean Prophets, Harvard University Press, pp. 85 & 89
  45. Talmud Tr. Shabbat
  46. For more on this mystical explanation of Sabbatai's conversion to Islam, see Gerschom Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah,Princeton University Press, 1973, pp. 679-686
  47. Prof. Harris Lenowitz discusses Franks conversion to Roman Catholicism, and compares it to Sabbatai's conversion to Islam, in The Jewish Messiahs: From the Galilee To Crown Heights, Oxford University Press, 1998, pp, 167-198
  48. These quotes are taken primarily from an interview with Reb Yakov Leib HaKohain by the Israeli newspaper, Ma'ariv, published in 2007

External links

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