Rabbi Sutton lecture on long-awaited Messianic Age
Jewish Tribune – Dec. 9, 2008
RABBI TALKS OF LONG-AWAITED MESSIANIC AGE FROM KABBALAH’S PERSPECTIVE
By Shlomit Kriger
In the coming years, the world as humans know it will transform and enter the long-awaited era of peace and love called the Messianic Age.
This isn’t as much connected to any particular date as it is to human consciousness; for example, the ability to perceive God behind the scenes of people’s lives. It’s therefore up to them, particularly the Jewish people, to determine how the future will unfold, explained Rabbi Avraham Sutton in his recent lecture, The End of Days According to Kabbalah, at Thornhill, Ont.’s Sephardic Kehila Centre.
Kabbalah, the deeper teachings of the Torah, relates that the world people currently find themselves in is not as it seems. As God created the world, His light became more hidden at each successive stage.
He then lowered the souls down into this physical dimension that they need to work at transforming into a true Garden of Eden. Because God’s light is so hidden, people are faced with challenges aimed at helping them to grow, to become truly godly, and thereby become instrumental in revealing more of this light.
This process will eventually lead to the ultimate elevation of all reality and mankind and culminate with the final redemption.
“Hashem wants us to discover His presence behind everything,” said Rabbi Sutton, an Orthodox Torah teacher and author and editor of more than 20 books. “Human beings are capable of being conduits of Godliness.
“First, it is imperative that we begin to awaken from our soul amnesia and know that we have a mission.”
The Talmud states in a number of places that the Messiah won’t come until all the souls in heaven have incarnated.
“That’s why Judaism believes that bearing children is one of the holiest things we can do,” he said. “With each child born, more of God’s light fills the world.”
“Mashiach is not just one man. It’s more like the guiding force behind the entire cosmic drama we call history.”
Rabbi Sutton explained reincarnation. Whenever a person passes away, his soul ascends to heaven to be judged before the heavenly tribunal.
It is often decided that a single soul must be split into several smaller souls or soul-sparks. The rectified aspects of the soul then remain above, while the other parts are sent down for further growth and correction.
People living today, he added, have the ability to draw down those higher parts of their souls from previous lifetimes. On Shabbat, for example, a person gets an extra soul, which allows one to better handle the extra holiness available to the world at that time.
“The Zohar says that we’re always born with the lowest level of our souls, nefesh,” said Rabbi Sutton. “As we work on refining ourselves, we get more soul and are then able to do more, and so on.
“There’s a beautiful light that connects us to our source. We can bring more of the light down through studying the Torah and performing its mitzvoth (commandments).
“In this way we become ‘children of the next world’ even as we are alive in this world.”
According to Kabbalah, the fallen world that people presently experience as reality will begin to shift dramatically as humans approach the end of the sixth millennium (the current year is 5769). The Messiah will manifest, and all of the souls who ever lived will be resurrected in bodies of light/energy and enter the Great Shabbat.
“The whole world will be elevated to the level of holiness of Israel, while Israel will be elevated to the level of Jerusalem,” said Rabbi Sutton. “This refinement process will continue until the outer shell of physical reality will be completely refined and elevated to the level of the Holy Temple and the Holy of Holies.
“God will then reveal that He was with us throughout the entire period of concealment and that we were never really sent away. All of this is taking place within God.”
Rabbi Sutton went on to note that there are many things going on now behind the scenes, spiritually, to help each person move into the fullness of who he’s meant to become. He emphasized that the Jewish people are an important part of the history of the world, and as everything breaks down, Israel has to come to the forefront.
“The inner soul of Israel must awaken now,” he said. “We have to embody our Torah in the highest way, for it was given to us in order to eventually be transmitted to all mankind.
“In order to be worthy of this, there’s much inner work that we have to do. We need to come together and to study Torah wherever we are. Torah is the illumination from Hashem to reveal to us who we are.”