#russian-empire — Public Fediverse posts

What’s Putin’s Secret Post-Election Strategy To Test NATO?

The 2026 Russian legislative election to select all 450 seats of the State Duma (the lower house of…
#NATO #OTAN #Europe #Europa #EU #News #droneattack #mobilisation #nato #Russia #Russiancasualties #RussianEmpire #StateDuma #TsarPeter #Ukraine #UnitedRussiaparty #VladimirPutin
https://www.europesays.com/nato/16414/

@static
I don’t buy into arguments which rely solely on historical grievances because it begs the question; ‘How far back do you wish to go?’ Every nation on earth was born of successful aggression over an *Other*.

I would also argue that #China has been pretty much left to its own devices since 1949. No treatment of China by the then developed nations was any worse than any other developing nation.

Moreover, Chinese territorial expansion has been allowed a free hand since the PRC came to power.And more recent history demonstrates China to be an #ImperialPower (esp. in Africa). If #Putin is faililng to revive the #RussianEmpire, #Xi is yet to trip up.

No, China has historically been a warmongering power, and the #PRC suffers all the anxieties that #totalitarian regimes suffer from which makes the #ChineseCommunistParty aggressive and thin-skinned unlike the #proletariat it rules over.

Russia is trying to force Ukrainian children to become Russian, with reeducation, forcible transfers and camps | Nation https://www.byteseu.com/2257216/ #child #Conflicts #CrimesAgainstHumanity #deportation #DonetskPeople #InternationalLaw #MilitaryOccupation #Politics+Society #PopulationTransfer #Russia #RussiaUkraineWar #RussiaUkraine #RussianEmpire #RussianInvasionOfUkraine #RussoUkrainianWar #Ukraine #VladimirPutin

Russia is trying to force Ukrainian children to become Russian, with reeducation, forcible transfers and camps | National https://www.byteseu.com/2256986/ #child #Conflicts #CrimesAgainstHumanity #deportation #DonetskPeople #InternationalLaw #MilitaryOccupation #Politics+Society #PopulationTransfer #Russia #RussiaUkraineWar #RussiaUkraine #RussianEmpire #RussianInvasionOfUkraine #RussoUkrainianWar #Ukraine #VladimirPutin

Russia is trying to force Ukrainian children to become Russian, with reeducation, forcible transfers and camps | Nation

(TEMPE, AZ) “Crimes against humanity.” That’s what an in…
#Conflict #Conflicts #War #child #crimesagainsthumanity #deportation #donetskpeople #internationallaw #militaryoccupation #politics+society #populationtransfer #Russia #russiaukraine #RussiaUkraineWar #Russianempire #RussianinvasionofUkraine #Russo-UkrainianWar #Ukraine #VladimirPutin
https://www.europesays.com/3179144/

https://www.europesays.com/3179144/ Russia is trying to force Ukrainian children to become Russian, with reeducation, forcible transfers and camps | Nation #child #Conflicts #CrimesAgainstHumanity #deportation #DonetskPeople #InternationalLaw #MilitaryOccupation #Politics+Society #PopulationTransfer #Russia #RussiaUkraine #RussiaUkraineWar #RussianEmpire #RussianInvasionOfUkraine #RussoUkrainianWar #Ukraine #VladimirPutin

Russia is trying to force Ukrainian children to become Russian, with reeducation, forcible transfers and camps | Nation

(TEMPE, AZ) “Crimes against humanity.” That’s what an in…
#Conflict #Conflicts #War #child #crimesagainsthumanity #deportation #donetskpeople #internationallaw #militaryoccupation #politics+society #populationtransfer #Russia #russiaukraine #RussiaUkraineWar #Russianempire #RussianinvasionofUkraine #Russo-UkrainianWar #Ukraine #VladimirPutin
https://www.europesays.com/3178163/

Russia is trying to force Ukrainian children to become Russian, with reeducation, forcible transfers and camps | Nation https://www.byteseu.com/2255183/ #child #Conflicts #CrimesAgainstHumanity #deportation #DonetskPeople #InternationalLaw #MilitaryOccupation #Politics+Society #PopulationTransfer #Russia #RussiaUkraineWar #RussiaUkraine #RussianEmpire #RussianInvasionOfUkraine #RussoUkrainianWar #Ukraine #VladimirPutin

Ashkenazi Jews

Author’s Note: This post has mentions of Nazis, the Holocaust, & Nazi Germany. We completely understand if you wish to skip over this post. We’ll catch you in the next one!

Also known as Ashkenazic Jews, Ashkenazis, or Ashkenazim.

This is a form of distinct ethnic subdivision of the Jewish Diaspora. Emerging from the Jewish communities that consolidated during the 10th century in the Rhineland (Western Germany) & northern France. They migrated there from centers such as the Italian peninsula & the Southern Levant. This includes present-day Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, & Jordan.

After numerous massacres of Jews during the Crusades (11th-13th centuries), they began a gradual eastward migration due to mounting restrictions within the Holy Roman Empire & the favorable policies of Casimir the Great & others.

This diaspora ramped up after the persecution during the Black Death of the 14th century. The bulk of the Ashkenazi Jews had migrated to the Kingdom of Poland (which includes modern-day Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, & parts of Russia). This area became the main center of Ashkenazi Jewry until the Holocaust.

Ashkenazim adapted their traditions, rites, & customs to Europe. They traditionally followed the German rite synagogue ritual & until the Holocaust primarily spoke Yiddish, an offshoot of Middle High German written in a variety of the Hebrew script, with significant Hebrew, Aramaic, & Slavic influences.

The Yiddish language progressively declined in prestige, in favor of national languages & Hebrew, being stigmatized by assimilationists & later also Zionists. Though it was spoken by over 11 million people worldwide before the Holocaust. The Yiddishist movement, which sought to preserve & revive the language, faded through the 20th century. Including Duolingo adding Yiddish as a language.

As a proportion of the world Jewish population, Ashkenazim were estimated to be 3% in the 11th century, rising to 92% in 1930, near the population’s peak. The Ashkenazi population was significantly diminished by the Holocaust carried out by Nazi Germany during WWII, which killed around 6 million Jews. Before WWII, the estimated worldwide Jewish population was 15.3-16.7 million, with 92% being Ashkenazi. As of 2023, the population of Ashkenazim was estimated to be around 10-13 million out of 15.8 million total Jews.

The name Ashkenazi comes from the biblical figure of Ashkenaz. He’s the 1st son of Gomer, grandson of Japhet, great-grandson of Noah, & a Japhetic patriarch in the Table of Nations. The name for Gomer has often been linked to the Cimmerians.

The Biblical Ashkenazis are usually derived from Assyrian Askuza, a people who expelled the Cimmerians from the Armenian area of the Upper Euphrates. The name Askuza is identified with the Scythians.

In Jeremiah 51:27, Ashkenaz figures as 1 of 3 kingdoms in the far north, the others being Minni (or Mannaea), an ancient kingdom that flourished in northwestern Iran, & Arrat (corresponding to Urartu), called on by God to resist Babylon.

Ashkenaz is linked to Scandza/Scanzia (usually identified with Scandinavia), viewed as the cradle of Germanic tribes, in the 6th-century gloss to the Historia Ecclesiastica of Eusebius. In the 10th century, in the History of Armenia of Yovhannes Drasxanakertci, Ashkenaz was associated with Armenia.

As it was occasionally in Jewish usage, where its denotation extended at times to Adiabene, Khazaria, Chimea, & areas to the east. They’re also identified with the Slavim or Slavs. In keeping with the custom of designating areas of Jewish settlement with biblical names, Spain was called Sefarad (Obadiah 20), France was called Tsarefat (I Kings 17:9), & Bohemia was called the Land of Canaan.

Given the close links between the Jewish communities of France & Germany following the Carolingian unification, the term Ashkenazi came to refer to the Jews of both medieval Germany & France.

In later times, the word Ashkenaz is used to designate southern & western Germany, the ritual of which sections differs somewhat from that of eastern Germany & Poland. Thus, the prayer book of Isaiah Horowitz (a prominent rabbi & mystic), & many others, give the piyyutim (a Jewish liturgical poem), according to the Minhag of Ashkenaz & Poland. A Minhag is an accepted tradition or group of traditions in Judaism.

In a religious sense, an Ashkenazi Jew is any Jew whose family tradition & synagogue ritual follow Ashkenazi practices (German rite). Until the Ashkenazi community 1st began to develop in the Early Middle Ages, the centers of Jewish religious authority were in the Islamic world, at Baghdad & Islamic Spain. German Ashkenaz was so geographically distant that it developed a minhag of its own.

The counterpart of Ashkenazi is Sephardic. Since most non-Ashkenazi Orthodox Jews follow Sephardic rabbinical authorities, whether or not they’re ethnically Sephardic. By tradition, a Sephardic or Mizrahi (a.k.a. Oriental Jews; Jews who lived in the Muslim world) who married into an Orthodox or Haredi (a.k.a. ultra-Orthodox) Ashkenazi Jewish family raises her kids to be Ashkenazi Jews.

On the other hand, an Ashkenazi woman who married a Sephardi or Mizrahi is expected to take on Sephardic practices & the kids will “inherit” a Sephardic identity. Though in practice, many families do compromise. A “convert” usually follows the practice of the rabbinical court (beth din) that converted them.

Culturally, an Ashkenazi Jew can be identified by the concept of Yiddishkeit, which means “Jewishness” in the Yiddish language. Before the Haskalah (a.k.a. the Jewish Enlightenment) & the emancipation of Jews in Europe, this meant the study of the Torah & the Talmud for men, & communal life governed by the observance of Jewish Law for men & women.

From the Rhineland to Riga (the largest city in Latvia) to Romania, most Jews prayed in liturgical Ashkenazi Hebrew, & spoke Yiddish in their secular (worldly) lives. But with modernization, Yiddishkeit now includes not just Orthodoxy & Hasidism, but a broader range of movements, ideologies, practices, & traditions in which Ashkenazi have participated & somehow kept a sense of Jewishness. Although pockets of Jews still speak Yiddish, Yiddishkeit can be identified in manners of speech, styles of humor, & in patterns of association.

As Ashkenazi Jews moved away from Europe, mostly in the form of aliyah to Israel. Or immigration to North America, South Africa, Europe (particularly France), & Latin America, the geographic isolation has given way to mixing with other cultures, & with non-Ashkenazi Jews who, similarly, are no longer isolated in distinct geographic locales.

Hebrew has replaced Yiddish as the primary Jewish language for many Ashkenazi Jews. Although many Hasidic & Hareidi groups still use Yiddish in daily life. Aliyah is the immigration of Jews from the diaspora to, historically, the geographic Land of Israel or the Palestine region, where the State of Israel was established.

France’s blended Jewish community is typical of the cultural recombination that’s going on among Jews throughout the world. Although France expelled its original Jewish population in the Middle Ages, by the time of the French Revolution, there were 2 distinct Jewish populations.

One consisted of Sephardic Jews, originally refugees from the Inquisition (which no one expects! Sorry, we’re Monty Python fans here.) & concentrated in the southwest. While the other community was Ashkenazi, concentrated in formerly German Alsace, & mainly speaking a German dialect similar to Yiddish.

The 3rd community of Provencal Jews living in Comtat Venaissin was technically outside France, & was later absorbed into the Sephardim. Comtat Venaissin (called Comtat, for short) was a part of the Papal States from 1274 to 1791.

But after emancipation, a sense of a unified French Jewry emerged, especially when France was wracked by the Dreyfus Affair in the 1890s. (We’ll be doing a post about the Dreyfus Affair.) In the 1920s & 30s, Ashkenazi Jews from Europe arrived in large numbers as refugees from antisemitism, the Russian Revolution, & the economic turmoil of the Great Depression.

By the 1930s, Paris had a vibrant Yiddish culture, & many Jews were involved in diverse political movements. After the Vichy years & the Holocaust, the French Jewish population was augmented once again, 1st by Ashkenazi refugees from Central Europe, & later by Sephardi immigrants & refugees from North Africa, many of them francophone. Francophone refers to people/organizations who use French (language) regularly.

Ashkenazi Jews didn’t transmit their traditions or achievements by text. Instead, these traditions were passed down orally from one generation to the next. The desire to maintain pre-Holocaust traditions relating to Ashkenazi culture has often been met with criticism by Jews in Eastern Europe.

In an ethnic sense, an Ashkenazi Jew is a descendant of the Jews who settled in the Central European region of “Ashkenaz.” For roughly 1,000 years, the Ashkenazim were a reproductively isolated population in Europe.

Despite living in many countries, with little inflow or outflow of countries from migration, conversion, or intermarriage with other groups, including other Jews. Since the mid-20th century, many Ashkenazi Jews have intermarried, both with members of other Jewish communities & non-Jews.

Religious persecution of the Jews in Western & Central Europe led to a significant migration of the Ashkenazi Jews into Eastern Europe. This resulted in a major cultural divide between Western/Central & Eastern Ashkenazi communities. In particular, this was reflected in the division of Yiddish into Western & Eastern Yiddish dialects. As well as in other cultural distinctions: traditions, food, dress, etc.

Initially, the Jews of Eastern Europe enjoyed relative freedom in terms of movement, being invited by the kings of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Over time, the situation was reversed. By the 19th century, the Jews in the West had gradually been integrated into the general society.

While the Eastern Ashkenazi maintained their strict Jewish traditions & were mostly confined to ghettos, especially in the Pale of Settlement of the Russian Empire, which incorporated a considerable amount of land where the Eastern Ashkenazi lived: Poland & Lithuania.

Well-known differences in practices include:

• Observance of Passover (Pesach)
  • Ashkenazi Jews traditionally refrain from eating legumes, grain, millet, & rice. Quinoa has become accepted as a food grain in North American communities. Sephardi Jews typically don’t prohibit these foods.
• Notwithstanding stricter requirements for the ACTUAL slaughter, Sephardi Jews permit the rear portions of an animal after proper Halakhic removal of the sciatic nerve. While many Ashkenazi Jews don’t.
• Ashkenazi Jews often name newborns after deceased family members, not after living relatives. Sephardi Jews often name their kids after their grandparents, even if those grandparents are still living. An exception to this is among Dutch Jews, where Ashkenazi for centuries used naming conventions otherwise attributed exclusively to Sephardim, such as Chuts. Chuts is the name given to Jews who immigrated to London from the Netherlands in the 1850s-1860s.
• Ashkenazi tefillins are wound toward the body, not away from it. Ashkenazim put on the tefillin while standing up. Other Jews generally do so while sitting down. A tefillin(s) is/are sets of small black leather boxes with leather straps having scrolls of parchment written with verses of the Torah inside.
• The prayer shawl (tallit/tallis) is worn by all Ashkenazi men AFTER marriage. Except for Western European Ashkenazi men who wear it from the bar mitzvah. In Sephardi or Mizrahi Judaism, the prayer shawl is commonly worn from early childhood.

The term Ashkenazi also refers to the Nusach Ashkenaz, the liturgical tradition used by Ashkenazi Jews in their siddur (prayer book). A nusach is defined by a liturgical tradition’s choice of prayers, the text of prayers & melodies used in the singing of prayers. 2 other major forms of nusach among Ashkenazi Jews are Nusach Sefard (not to be confused with the Sephardic ritual), which is the general Polish Hasidic nusach, and Nusach Ari, used by those in Chabad.

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The odds and price of Russia’s disintegration

https://buymeacoffee.com/newscafe/the-end-world-longest-lasting-largest-empire-the-odds-price-russia
#russia #ukraine #ussr #sovietunion #russianempire

RE: https://mastodon.social/@uatribune/116933919696425068

#KiraRudik:

As someone who lives in #Kyiv under almost nightly … attacks, let me tell you something.
There has never been a diplomatic formula built on fear of #Putin that protected Ukrainian civilians. The only thing that has worked is reducing #Russia's ability to wage war.
…
The destruction and #decolonization of the #RussianEmpire would be one of the best things that could happen to #Europe - and the only lasting strategic outcome worthy of the immense price this war has already demanded.

Rare Color Photos Reveal Everyday Life in Tver Oblast, Russia, 1910

📰 Original title: 50 Rare and Beautiful Color Photos of Tver Oblast, Russia in 1910

🤖 IA: It's not clickbait ✅
👥 Users: It's not clickbait ✅

View full AI summary https://en.killbait.com/rare-color-photos-reveal-everyday-life-in-tver-oblast-russia-1910.html?utm_source=mastodon_world&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=killbait.mastodon_world

#history #russianempire #photography #historicalphotos

Rare Color Photos Reveal Everyday Life in Tver Oblast, Russia, 1910

📰 Original title: 50 Rare and Beautiful Color Photos of Tver Oblast, Russia in 1910

🤖 IA: It's not clickbait ✅
👥 Users: It's not clickbait ✅

View full AI summary https://en.killbait.com/rare-color-photos-reveal-everyday-life-in-tver-oblast-russia-1910.html?utm_source=mastodon_social&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=killbait.mastodon_social

#history #russianempire #photography #historicalphotos

Kyiv Monastery of the Caves, Ukraine (Vasili Vasilievich Vereshchagin, 1905 AD)

https://piefed.social/c/traditional_ar[email protected]/p/2182623/kyiv-monastery-of-the-caves-ukraine-vasili-vasilievich-vereshchagin-1905-ad

Kyiv Monastery of the Caves, Ukraine (Vasili Vasilievich Vereshchagin, 1905 AD)

https://piefed.social/c/historyart@piefed.social/p/2182621/kyiv-monastery-of-the-caves-ukraine-vasili-vasilievich-vereshchagin-1905-ad

Portrait of an Uzbek archer (Vasili Vasilievich Vereshchagin, 19th century AD)

https://piefed.social/c/traditional_art/p/2175746/portrait-of-an-uzbek-archer-vasili-vasilievich-vereshchagin-19th-century-ad

Portrait of an Uzbek archer (Vasili Vasilievich Vereshchagin, 19th century AD)

https://piefed.social/c/historyart/p/2175744/portrait-of-an-uzbek-archer-vasili-vasilievich-vereshchagin-19th-century-ad

Native Siberian religious objects, Russian Empire, 1899 AD

https://piefed.social/c/historyartifacts/p/2173022/native-siberian-religious-objects-russian-empire-1899-ad

Native Siberian religious objects, Russian Empire, 1899 AD

https://piefed.social/c/historyphotos/p/2173021/native-siberian-religious-objects-russian-empire-1899-ad

Icebreaker ship on Lake Baikal, Russian Empire, 1899?

Unloading boats in Helsinki, Finland (then-part-of the Russian Empire), 1898

https://piefed.social/c/historyphotos/p/2137111/unloading-boats-in-helsinki-finland-then-part-of-the-russian-empire-1898

Melee between Russian and Imperial German cavalry, WW1, 1914 AD

https://piefed.social/c/historyart/p/2136970/melee-between-russian-and-imperial-german-cavalry-ww1-1914-ad

Three horse sleigh, Russian Empire, ~1900

https://piefed.social/c/historyphotos/p/2131632/three-horse-sleigh-russian-empire-1900

Kabbalah, Part 2

Ultimately, it’s necessary to show compassion toward oneself as well as to share compassion with others. This “selfish” enjoyment of God’s blessings, but only to empower oneself to assist, is an important aspect of “Restriction” & is considered a kind of golden mean in kabbalah.

This corresponds to the sefira of Adornment (Tiferet) being part of the “Middle Column.” The golden mean (or Golden middle way) is the desirable middle between 2 extremes, 1 of excess & the other of deficiency.

The most esoteric Idrot sections of the classic Zohar make reference to hypostatic male & female Partzufim (Divine Personas) displacing the Sephirot, manifestations of God in particular anthropomorphic symbolic personalities based on Pardes & midrashic narratives.

Lurianic Kabbalah places these at the center of our existence. Rather than earlier Kabbalists, these are placed at the center of our existence. Rather than earlier Kabbalah’s Sephirot, which Luria saw as broken in Divine crisis.

Medieval Kabbalists believe that all things are linked to God through these emanations, making all levels in creation reflect its particular roots in supernal divinity. Kabbalists agreed with the divine transcendence described as the Ein Sof, the unknowable Godhead.

They reinterpreted the theistic philosophical concept of creation from nothing, replacing God’s creative act with panentheistic continual self-emanation by the mystical Ayin Nothingness/Nothing sustaining all spiritual & physical realms as successively more corporeal garments, veils, & condensations of divine immanence. This is when the divine encompasses or is manifested in the material world.

The innumerable levels of descent divide into 4 comprehensive spiritual worlds: Atziluth (“Closeness” Divine Wisdom), Beriah (“Creation” Divine Understanding), Yetzirah (“Formation” Divine Emotions), Assiah (“Action” Divine Activity), with a preceding 5th World, Adam Kadmon (“Primordial Man” Divine Will). Sometimes excluded due to its sublimity. Together, the whole spiritual heaven forms the Divine Persona/Anthropos.

In Kabbalah, Adam Kadmon (also called Adam Elyon or Adam Ila’ah, sometimes abbreviated as A’K) is the 1st of 4 Worlds that came into being after the contraction of God’s infinite light.

Hasidic thought extends the divine immanence of Kabbalah by holding that God is all that really exists, all else being completely undifferentiated from God’s perspective. This view can be defined as a cosmic monistic panentheism. Acosmism denies the reality of the universe, seeing it as ultimately illusory, & only the infinite unmanifest Absolute as real. Monism attributes oneness or singleness to a concept, such as existence.

According to this philosophy, God’s existence is higher than anything that this world can express. Yet He includes all things of this world within His divine reality in perfect unity. So that the creation affected no change in Him at all. This paradox, as seen from dual human & divine perspectives, is dealt with at length in Chabad texts. Chabad philosophy comprises the teachings of the leaders of Chabad-Lubavitch, a Hasidic movement led by the Schneersohn family & formerly based in Lyubavichi, Russian Empire.

Foundational texts of Medieval Kabbalism conceived evil as a demonic parallel to the holy, called the Sitra Achra (the “Other Side”), & the qlippoth (“husks/shells”) that cover & conceal the holy, are nurtured from it, & yet also protect it by limiting its revelation.

In a radical notion, the root of evil is found within the 10 holy Sephirot, through an imbalance of Gevurah, the power of “Strength/Judgment/Severity.” Gevurah is necessary for Creation to exist as it counterposes Chesed (“loving-kindness”), restricting the unlimited divine bounty within suitable vessels, so forming the Worlds.

However, if Man sins (actualizing impure judgment within his soul), the supernal Judgment is reciprocally empowered over the Kindness, introducing disharmony among the Sephirot in the divine realm & exile from God throughout Creation. The demonic realm, though illusory in its holy origin, becomes the real apparent realm of impurity in lower Creation.

In the Zohar, the sin of Adam & Eve (who embodied Adam Kadmon below) took place in the spiritual realms. Their sin was that they separated the Tree of Knowledge (10 sefirot within Malkuth, representing Divine transcendence).

This introduced the false perception of duality into lower creation, an external Tree of Death nurtured from holiness, & an Adam Belial of impurity.

In Lurianic Kabbalah, evil originates from a primordial shattering of the sephirot of God’s Persona before creation of the stable spiritual worlds, mystically represented by the 8 kings of Edom (the derivative of Gevurah) “who died” before any king reigned in Israel from Genesis 36.

In the divine view from above within Kabbalah, emphasized in Hasidic Panentheism, the appearance of duality & pluralism below dissolves into the absolute Monism of God, psychologizing evil. Though impure below, what appears as evil comes from a divine blessing too high to be contained openly. The mystical task of the righteous Divine Oness & absolute good is to “convert bitterness into sweetness, darkness into light.”

Kabbalistic doctrine gives man the central role in Creation, as his soul & body correspond to the supernal divine manifestations. In Christian Kabbalah, this scheme was universalized to describe Harmonia mundi, the harmony of Creation within man.

In Judaism, it gave a profound spiritualization of Jewish practice. The esoteric teachings of kabbalah gave the traditional mitzvot observances the central role in spiritual creation. Whether the practitioner was learned in this knowledge or not.

Accompanying normal Jewish observance & worship with elite mystical kavanot intentions gave them theiurgic power. But sincere observance by common folk, especially in the Hasidic popularization of kabbalists, could replace esoteric abilities. Many kabbalists were also leading legal figures in Judaism.

Medieval Kabbalah elaborates particular reasons for each Biblical mitzvah, & their role in harmonizing the supernal divine flow, uniting masculine & feminine forces on High. With this, the feminine Divine presence in this world is drawn from exile to the Holy One Above.

The 613 mitzvot (according to Jewish tradition, the Torah contains 613 commandments) are embodied in the organs & souls of man. Lurianic Kabbalah incorporates this in the rectification of exiled divinity. Jewish mysticism, in contrast to Divine transcendence, rationalizes human-centered reasons from Jewish observance, giving Divine-immanent providential cosmic significance to the daily events in the worldly life of man in general, & the spiritual role of Jewish observance in particular.

The Kabbalah states that the human soul has 3 elements: the nefesh, ru’ach, & neshamah. The nefesh is found in all humans, & enters the physical body at birth. It’s the source of one’s physical & psychological nature. The next 2 parts of the soul aren’t implanted at birth. But can be developed over time. Their development depends on the actions & beliefs of the individual. They’re said to only fully exist in people spiritually awakened.

A common way of explaining the 3 parts of the soul is as follows:

• Nefesh: The lower part, or “animal part,” of the soul. It’s linked to instincts & bodily cravings. This part of the soul is provided at birth.
• Ruach: The middle soul, the “spirit.” It contains the moral virtues & the ability to distinguish between good & evil.
• Neshamah: The higher soul, or “super-soul.” This separates man from all other life-forms. It’s related to the intellect & allows man to enjoy & benefit from the afterlife. It allows 1 to have some awareness of the existence & presence of God.
• Chayyah: The part of the soul that allows 1 to have an awareness of the divine life force itself.
• Yehidah: The highest plane of the soul, in which 1 can achieve as full a union with God as is possible.

Reincarnation, the transmigration of the soul after death, was introduced into Judaism from the Medieval period onwards, called Gilgul neshamot (“cycles of the soul”). The concept doesn’t appear often in the Hebrew Bible or classic rabbinic literature. It was rejected by different Medieval Jewish philosophers.

However, the Kabbalists explained several spiritual passages in reference to Gilgulim. The concept became central to the later Kabbalah of Isaac Luria, who systematized it as the personal parallel to the cosmic process of rectification. Through Lurianic Kabbalah & Hasidic Judaism, reincarnation entered popular Jewish culture as a literary motif.

Tzimtzum (Constriciton/Concentration) is the primordial cosmic act whereby God “contracted” His infinite light, leaving a “void” into which the light of existence was poured. This allowed the emergence of independent existence that wouldn’t become nullified by the pristine Infinite Light, reconciling the unity of the Ein Sof with the plurality of creation.

This changed the 1st creative act into 1 of withdrawal/exile, the antithesis of the ultimate Divine Will. In contrast, a new emanation after the Tzimtzum shone into the vacuum to begin creation. But led to an initial instability called Tohu (Chaos), leading to a new crisis of Shevirah (Shattering) of the sephirot vessels.

The shards of the broken vessels fell down into the lower realms, animated by remnants of their divine light, causing primordial exile within the Divine Persona before the creation of man. Exile & enclothement of higher divinity within lower realms throughout existence requires man to complete the Tikkun olam (Rectification) process. Rectification Above corresponds to the reorganization of the independent sephirot into relation Partzufim (Divine Personas), previously referred to obliquely in the Zohar.

From the catastrophe stems the possibility of self-aware Creation, & also the Kelipot (Impure Shells) of previous Medieval kabbalah. The metaphorical anthropomorphism of the partzufim accentuates the sexual unifications of the redemption process, while Gilgul reincarnation emerges from the scheme. Uniquely, Lurianism gave formerly private mysticism the urgency of Messianic social involvement.

According to interpretations of Luria, the catastrophe stemmed from the “unwillingness” of the residue imprint after the Tzimtzum to relate to the vitality that began creation. The process was arranged to shed & harmonize the Divine Infinity with the latent potential of evil.

The creation of Adam would’ve redeemed existence. But his sin caused a new shevirah of Divine vitality, requiring the Giving of the Torah to begin Messianic rectification. Historical & individual history becomes the narrative of reclaiming exiled Divine sparks.

Kabbalistic thought extended Biblical & Midrashic notions that God enacted Creation through the Hebrew language & through the Torah into a full linguistic mysticism. In this, every Hebrew letter, word, number, even accent on words of the Hebrew Bible, contains Jewish mystical meanings, describing the spiritual dimensions within exoteric ideas, & it teaches the hermeneutic methods of interpretation for ascertaining these meanings.

Names of God in Jerusalem have further prominence, though infinite meaning turns the whole Torah into a Divine name. As the Hebrew name of things is the channel of their life force, parallel to the sephirot, so concepts such as “holiness” & “mitzvot” embody ontological Divine immanence, as God can be known in manifestation as well as transcendence.

The infinite potential of meaning in the Torah, as in the Ein Sof, is reflected in the symbol of the 2 trees of the Garden of Eden. The Torah of the Tree of Knowledge is the external, finite Halachic Torah, enclothed within which the mystics perceive the unlimited infinity of the plurality of meanings of the Torah of the Tree of Life.

As early as the 1st century BCE, Jews believed that the Torah & other canonical texts contained encoded messages & hidden meanings. Gematria is 1 method for discovering its hidden meanings. In this system, each Hebrew letter also represents a number. By converting letters to numbers, Kabbalists were able to find a hidden meaning in each word. This method of interpretation was used extensively by various schools.

Like the rest of the rabbinic literature, the texts of kabbalah were once part of an ongoing oral tradition. Though over the centuries a lot of the oral tradition has been lost. Jewish forms of esotericism existed over 2,000 years ago. Ben Sira (born 170 BCE) was a Hellenistic Jewish scribe, sage, & allegorist from Seleucid-controlled Jerusalem of the Second Temple period) warns against it, saying: “You shall have no business with secret things.”

Nonetheless, mystical studies were undertaken & resulted in mystical literature, the 1st being the Apocalypse literature of the 2nd & 1st pre-Christian centuries & which contained elements that carried over to later kabbalah.

Throughout the centuries, many texts have been produced. Among them the ancient descriptions of Ser Yetzirah, the Heichalot mystical ascent literature, the Bahir, Sefer Raziel HaMalakh, & the Zohar, the main texts of Kabbalah exegesis.

Classical mystical Bible commentaries are included in fuller versions of the Mikrarot Gedolot (Main Commentators). Cordoveran systemization is presented in Pardes Rimonim, philosophical articulation in the world of the Maharal (a.k.a. Rabbi Loew was an important Talmudic scholar, Jewish mystic, mathematician, astronomer, & philosopher), & Lurianic rectification in Etz Chayim.

You can see Kabbalah in modern times also. The singer Madonna is a follower of Kabbalah, having been seen at their Hollywood location. Along with other various celebs.

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When you finally reach Moscow

https://piefed.social/c/historymemes/p/2114063/when-you-finally-reach-moscow

Man playing a hurdy-gurdy (musical instrument), Russian Empire, ~1880

https://piefed.social/c/historyphotos/p/2102763/man-playing-a-hurdy-gurdy-musical-instrument-russian-empire-1880

"Your Russian neighbor, he is, uh... friendly, yes...?"

https://piefed.social/c/historymemes/p/2098406/your-russian-neighbor-he-is-uh-friendly-yes

Russo-Japanese War hours

https://piefed.social/c/historymemes/p/2098403/russo-japanese-war-hours

Gendarmes, with one on a pedal-draisine, Russian Empire, ~1890

https://piefed.social/c/historyphotos/p/2073487/gendarmes-with-one-on-a-pedal-draisine-russian-empire-1890

Russian peddlers became a scapegoat in Finland’s resistance against the #RussianEmpire in the late 19th century.

🔓 Johanna Wassholm’s new History Matters is free for 7 days

https://www.historytoday.com/archive/history-matters/persecution-finlands-russian-peddlers

Imperial Russian porcelain plate, ~1760 AD

https://piefed.social/c/historyartifacts/p/2050296/imperial-russian-porcelain-plate-1760-ad

Miners washing gold-bearing sand, Russian Empire, ~1910

https://piefed.social/c/historyphotos/p/2047546/miners-washing-gold-bearing-sand-russian-empire-1910

What is a Tsar, without an army?

https://piefed.social/c/historymemes/p/2046921/what-is-a-tsar-without-an-army

Latvian riflemen, WW1, 1916

https://piefed.social/c/militaryporn/p/2044051/latvian-riflemen-ww1-1916

Latvian riflemen, WW1, 1916

https://piefed.social/c/historyphotos/p/2044050/latvian-riflemen-ww1-1916

Early color photo of a woman in Ukraine, ~1904

Sorry sweatie, but that was BAD colonialism, while Russia is GOOD colonialism!

An interview with Molly Crabapple. Her most recent book is "Here Where We Live is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund". She notably explains "hereness" and evokes the history of the Bund (or General Jewish Labour Bund, Yiddish: דער בונד), a socialist party founded in the Russian Empire (primarily Lithuania, Poland, and Russia).

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-it-could-happen-here-30717896/episode/the-jewish-bund-and-political-imagination-329396909/ via @joachim

#doykayt #socialism #podcast #nationalism #Zionism #refugees #ww2 #Europe #Poland #history #resettlement #settlers #Bund #JewishGenocide #book #bookStodon #Russia #RussianEmpire #Lithuania

Scene (and dog) of Samarkand, Uzbekistan, ~1890

https://piefed.social/c/militaryporn/p/2010863/scene-and-dog-of-samarkand-uzbekistan-1890

Ukraine has the worst luck

https://piefed.social/c/historymemes/p/2003259/ukraine-has-the-worst-luck