There is a line in the New Testament where Jesus tells his followers that it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich person to get into the Kingdom of Heaven. I grew up Catholic and this quote has been interpreted to tell people that having money somehow keeps you from getting into Heaven. And that not having $$$ gets you there quicker.
My view is that not having a dysfunctional ego can get us through the gates (or create heaven on earth), but that’s not the point of this post. Let’s focus on the camel.
I think that we missed the point, forgetting that Jesus was Jewish, and many of the examples he gave were rooted in his culture. Kabbalah is the mystical side of Judaism; I’ve been taking classes on and off since 2009, when I first moved to London. You’ll find previous posts here.
In Kabbalistic lore, the eye of the needle represents the dark night of the soul. It’s represented by the hebrew letter Kof; each of the Hebrew letters has a spiritual energy and meaning. That is half of the metaphor. The Camel is equipped to get through rough times. On a literal level, a real-life camel has enough water in its hump to survive travels in inhospitable desert environments. Metaphorically, water is empathy and emotional connection. On a Kabbalistic level, the letter G (the camel) represents spiritual strength and wealth of all kinds.
So based on this, I’d suggest that the camel is very well equipped to survive a dark night of the soul. Whereas money can pay for a lot of things (including therapy!), but money alone won’t get us through a dark night of the soul. We’d need a spiritual or emotional toolkit.
Without going into too much detail, Kabbalah provides us with a map for spiritual and psychological growth, a path to balancing that ego. The letter Kof crosses the veil that is known as the Void, where dark nights of the soul are said to occur in life. Emotional intelligence is needed there. Money might be irrelevant spiritually, but it’s always necessary physically.
Emotional Strength & Compassion
I’ve written about the Kabbalistic Tree of Life before and how meditations can take us up and down those levels of awareness.
My teachers tell us to be cautious with our pursuits. As legend tells us, of four talented Kabbalists, one died, another lost his mind, the third became an angry skeptic. Only the last Kabbalist thrived.
The one that survived did so because he leaned on the Element of Water. Have a look at this lecture from Spiritgrow:
I haven’t mentioned Kabbalah as much on my blog because it’s quite expansive - better suited for a book than for individual blog posts. But this aha moment helped me release limiting cultural programming.
Reiki hugs,
Regina
Ps … For those of you who have seen the Tree of Life, Gimmel is on the path between the 3rd and 5th Sefirot. Kof is on the path between the 3rd and 4th. This is based on the paths by Rabbi Isaac Luria.
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