Adult Orthodox Jews wear a Tefillin with a small black cube on their forehead during weekday and Sunday morning prayers. The cube is actually a box, called a Ketzitzah, which contains scrolls of sacred verses from the Torah.
The Tefillin has Hebrew letters on it in various places which ultimately spell El Shaddai or just Shaddai, one of the names of the God in Judaism. El Shaddai is synonymous with Yahweh.
Throughout the ages, our political rulers and religious leaders have established secret organizations tasked with keeping the knowledge of the Tetragrammaton a secret from the common people.
This is the Tetragrammaton on the back of the United States one dollar bill.
It is positioned above an unfinished pyramid representing the distinction between the enlightened few, (who have been taught the knowledge of creation), and the ignorant masses.
They claim that there once was an age when all of humankind knew, or walked with, God and understood the nature and purpose of creation.
Then we became corrupted by greed and began to abuse the wisdom that we gained from our union with God. Our behavior culminated in a mighty cataclysm and the near-total destruction of all human civilization.
In Abrahamic traditions, Noah and his family survived the cataclysm and he was tasked with preserving the knowledge of creation through his offspring. This knowledge has been passed down within the Hebrew community for thousands of years.
It was passed from Noah to Shem, to Eber, (who is considered to be the father of all Hebrews), then down through the line of Judah to the Royal House of King David and his descendants.
Modern Judaism has established a vast community of Kabbalists dedicated to studying, preserving, and guarding the knowledge of creation. And even in Judaism, there once was a prohibition against anyone studying Kabbalah until they were at least 40 years old.
Students were also required to be in good standing with their religious community and sufficiently knowledgeable of the Torah and Talmud.
This is the title page of the first edition of the Zohar, the most popular Kabbalistic text, published in 1558 CE and now stored in the Library of Congress.
The two stone columns on the left and right are called the Pillars of Boaz and Jachin. The Pillar of Boaz on the left represents severity (or evil) and the Pillar of Jachin on the right represents mercy (or good).
This represents the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Our souls reside within the two pillars, constantly choosing between good or evil thoughts, words, and actions.
This is the Tree of Life with a light ray emanating from Ain Soph (the boundless, eternal nothingness of existence) all the way down to Malkuth (the realm in which the physical world manifests.)
And this the Tree of Life inside the Garden of Eden.
Kabbalists assert that once someone attains a sufficient understanding of the nature of creation, they no longer fear death. This is the primary reason this knowledge is kept a secret from the masses.
There is nothing more threatening to authoritarian political or religious leaders than a multitude of slaves, subjects, serfs, or citizens who do not fear death.
Students of Kabbalah also learn that we all are unique manifestations of the consciousness of God.
This is what Jesus meant in John 10:34 – “Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?” Jesus was a descendant of King David and he would have been taught the secrets of the Tetragrammaton and the knowledge of creation.
He would have been taught that the universe is similar to a dream. When our consciousness dreams, every object, plant, animal, person, or monster that we experience is a projection of our imagination.
All the people that we create in our dreams are simply different manifestations of our own consciousness. They are us. We are them. We are all one.
In conclusion, we aren’t our physical bodies. We are the eternal spirit of God experiencing the human condition. So do not fear death for it is merely the beginning of a new experience.
“Life is but a dream, within a dream.”
William Shakespeare