Of Kabbalah and Kings

The Power to Change the Universe

Rabbi Isaac Luria 1534-1572

The most influential teacher of Kabbalah was undoubtedly Rabbi Isaac Luria [1534-1572]. According to Luria, things went terribly awry at the moment of creation. The world we live in, he said, is made of the fragments of the universe that God had intended to create, but which literally burst while He was assembling it. Some of these shards still carry traces of the divine light. So long as they are polluted by matter, those sparks are the source of evil….

In Luria’s teachings, the Jewish ethical obligation to purify oneself and “repair the world” (known as tikkun olam) was taken literally. Every good deed [mitzvah] that a Jew committed, every mandated prayer and ritual obligation that he or she performed, each of the 613 Torah commandments fulfilled, freed one of those stray sparks from the gross, corrupting matter it was trapped in and returned it to God, purging a little bit of evil from the world…. Prayer and observance were not just passive gestures of piety and obedience; they were part of the divine work of creation — they had the power to change the universe. — The Beliefnet Guide to Kabbalah, by Arthur Goldwag, p. 11

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MITZVAH (plural MITZVOT) — literally “commandment,” that is, the law commanded by God. Throughout the ages the term has also come to mean “good deed,” since by definition everything God commands is for the good of the people. — http://templebethtorah.org/bneimitzvah/glossary/, accessed September 27, 2008

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Have you mitzvah’ed today?

Random Card of Kindness #1, front

Sister Alma Rose don’t know if Creation happened exactly like Rabbi Luria figured it. She don’t much care. She wasn’t there at the time, at least not in her current form. She’s here now, though, and pretty dang pleased about it, all in all.

But she loves the idea of the mitzvah: purifying oneself and repairing the world. Small and large acts of kindness — making phone calls to ailing friends, sending Random Cards of Kindness * to people in the military and folks at random (Sister Alma Rose picks them from the phone book), sitting in her grass-green rocker on the spacious grass-green-painted porch of the big house at Hilltop Farm and listening to people pour out their troubles, praying for the sick and the bereaved — these have “the power to change the universe.”

You don’t have to be a Kabbalist to perform a mitzvah every day. Make a big pot of Sister Alma Rose’s special Mitzvah Soup and give it to someone you love. **

Mitzvah Soup

I call this “Mitzvah Soup” because it is full of healing, so taking a quart of it to a sick friend is a satisfying mitzvah. I also call it “Kitchen Sink Soup” because you can throw in Everything but the Kitchen Sink. It’s a good recipe for when you’re cleaning out your refrigerator and freezer.

Random Card of Kindness #1, inside

Ingredients (quantities are approximate)

• 1 to 2 cups dried beans. You can use any combination of navy, kidney, and pinto beans, black-eyed peas, and black beans. Go light on the black beans; they have a strong flavor and can make the soup look like mud. If you use split peas or lentils, add them later; they cook more quickly than the beans and get mushy.
• 1/2 cup wild rice (white and brown rice get mushy too)
• 4 or more skinless, boneless chicken or turkey breasts. The very best are Schwan’s frozen mesquite chicken breasts. I thaw and lightly brown them in the microwave, then cut to bite-size.
• 3 to 4 cups frozen, fresh, or canned mixed vegetables. If canned, use the liquid too. I usually use whatever I have around. One medium-size potato, scrubbed, unpeeled, and cubed thickens the soup. Zucchini, celery, green beans, corn, peas, and other mild-tasting vegetables are good. Snow peas add a nice texture. Use broccoli sparingly if at all. Too many carrots can overpower the flavor as well. I’ve used spinach chopped very small (otherwise it looks like seaweed), a tomato… anything that doesn’t have a strong taste (I find beets, cabbage, eggplant, and yams much too strong).
• Dried chicken broth, enough for 3 quarts of soup. I use “Better than Bouillon,” which is kind of a paste and has to be refrigerated after it’s opened.
• 1 small chopped white or yellow onion, raw or, better, sautéed in olive oil.
• 1/2 cup Worcestershire
• Garlic. I use a couple of small cloves or about two teaspoons of the kind that comes in a jar.
• Seasonings: You shouldn’t need to add salt. A handful of Trader Joe’s 21-Seasoning Salute is perfect; otherwise, I use lots of black pepper, a dash of cayenne, sweet basil, and a couple of bay leaves. Also: parsley, chili powder, cumin, a dash of cinnamon, a dash of cloves, a pinch of dried rosemary, 1/2 teaspoon ginger, and a tablespoon of brown sugar or honey.
• Nice to add if you have them: chopped mushrooms, leeks, green and red pepper, barley, chopped fresh herbs such as thyme, sage, and lemon balm, a splash of liquid mesquite flavoring

Preparation

Cover the beans with water, bring to a boil, let boil for 2 minutes, then soak (covered) for 2 hours or overnight. I add a teaspoon of baking soda when I set the beans aside to soak to make the beans less gas-inducing.

Mixed legumes: peas, lentils, beans, and chickpeas

Drain and rinse the beans well and rinse out the kettle. Put the beans back in the kettle with about 3 quarts of water. Add the chicken broth, the chicken in bite-size pieces, the rice, the onions and garlic, and the seasonings. Simmer (covered) for an hour.

Add the vegetables, chopped, and simmer for another hour or until the vegetables are tender and the soup has thickened a bit. If the flavor isn’t as full as you like it, try adding more Worcestershire sauce or chicken broth.

The quantities, as I said, are approximate. It’s hard to make a mistake. Just keep tasting it and add this or that till you’re satisfied. My biggest flops have come from an excess of carrots, broccoli, or black beans.

Mitzvah Soup

Prayer Soup

Cooking for someone you love is a sacred thing. Think of it as a prayer ritual. Start with gratitude — for your family, or the friend you’re helping to heal; for the bounty and your ability to put it to good purpose; for good smells and tastes and for variety.

Pray for your friend’s health as you add ingredients:

♦ Garlic, leeks, and onions are high in flavonoids —phytochemicals for healthy cholesterol levels. ♦ Highly colored vegetables are rich in other phytochemicals with benefits including cancer prevention. ♦ Parsley and peppers are high in vitamin C. ♦ Rosemary is said to aid memory. ♦ Dried beans, peas, and lentils are little jewels of nutrition. With little or no fat and no cholesterol, they are rich in complex carbohydrates, fiber, iron, and folate. Research suggests they reduce “bad” cholesterol, help prevent certain cancers, and normalize blood sugar. ♦ Tomatoes get their red color from lycopene, which is cancer-protective. ♦ Chicken and beans supply protein, which, along with complex carbohydrates, provide sustained energy. ♦ Turkey contains a substance that can ease depression.

There’s so much more! I haven’t even started on mushrooms. Plus this soup tastes great! Thank you, God. Amen. Let’s eat! —from Unfamiliar Territory, by Mary Campbell, 2006 ***

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* Shameless self-promotion

** Sister Alma Rose does not mean to trivialize Kabbalah, the centuries of scholarship it represents, or the intricacies of its practice. She is well aware that taking an eggplant casserole, no matter how lovingly prepared, to a new neighbor is not, in the strictest sense, a mitzvah. She is fairly sure that there is nothing in the Torah about eggplant. She hopes she will be forgiven for taking a page, as it were, from the Zohar and embracing the concept that acts of kindness and self-purification do, indeed, change the universe.

*** More shameless self-promotion

Sunset over Padre Island, 1974 (National Park Service)

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Sister Alma Rose — Our church has replaced all our hymnals with new gender-neutral ones. “King of glory” has become “clothed in glory,” and nowhere will you find the word Lord, not even in “Holy, holy, holy; Lord God Almighty.” Now it’s “God the Almighty.” Even in the responsive readings, the words Him and He have been replaced with God, as in Psalm 11: “God provides food for those who fear God; God is ever mindful of God’s covenant. God has shown God’s people the power of God’s works,…” and so on, and so on, and so-frigging-ON. Plus, they excised all the thees and thous, and then the hymns don’t rhyme and they think up stupid new words. How do you feel about this? —Politically Incorrect on Padre Island

Dear P.I. — Sister Alma Rose feels that you should praise God for Padre Island and not worry about too much else.

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