MECCA AND KABBALAH

BY BILLY PHILLIPS NOVEMBER 4, 2012

The Torah portion known as Vayeira features a famous incident

in history where Abraham binds his son Isaac in an attempt to
slaughter him as an act of sacrifice. There is a subtle connection
to the world of Islam in this specific Torah Reading.
First, according to Kabbalah, the story is really about how we
must learn to bind and sacrifice our own ego in order to better
serve our fellow-man through the will of our soul. Abraham
represents the goodness of our soul. Isaac is a code for our ego,
the self-interest that we must bind and slaughter so that we can
love our neighbors unconditionally.
Lets now take a brief glimpse into the Islamic world where we
will find a curious similarity with the path of Kabbalah.
In the Muslim Holy City of Mecca we find one of the most
sacred shrines in Islam.
It is called the Kaba.
Thousands of Muslims circle it every day and a billion Muslims
turn to face it during their prayers five times a day.
The Kaba is a black cube.

The tefillin (phylacteries) worn each day by the Children of

Israel are also a black cube.

Kabbalah explains that we wrap the tefillin around our left arm
seven times, counter-clockwise, to bind and weaken our negative
desire and ego.
The Zohar explains this is the secret behind Abraham binding
his son Isaac. Each of us are required to sacrifice our ego for the
sake of sharing with others. The tefillin act like an antenna that
draws down a powerful spiritual force that negates and sacrifices
the influence of our selfish nature and ugly ego. 99% of Jews
have no clue that this is why we bind tefillin on our left arm. We
use the left arm as the left connotes our ego and the negative
(Isaac) and the right refers to the soul and the positive
(Abraham).

Each year, Muslims go on a pilgrimage (Hajj) to walk around

the Kaba in Mecca counter-clock wise, seven times. This is
exactly how we wrap and bind our tefillin counter-clockwise,
seven times.
The purpose of Hajj for Muslims is to connect to the same event
of Abraham binding Isaac (Muslims relate this to Abraham
binding his son Ishmael).
The connection is profound. Only Kabbalah explains the true
spiritual purpose.
Perhaps this is why the Kaba in Mecca is known as the House
of Allah.
Kaba and Allah, as we know, spells Kaballah.
This extraordinary secret about the similarity between Hajj,
Tefillin and the Kaba was right in front of our face the whole
time!
Another interesting point is that theAshkenazis started wrapping
tefillin clockwise instead of counter-clockwise and so the
connection between Kaaba and Tefillin was not so apparent.
Only the Sephardics (the people who always embraced the
Zohar and Kabbalah) continued the technique of wrapping the
straps counter-clockwise.

This Kabbalah connection is one of the spiritual reasons why

Sephardics were protected by the Muslims throughout history,
especially in Morocco during the Holocaust.
Anyone is considered a Sephardic the moment they embrace the
Zohar and path of Kabbalah.
In other words, this protection belongs to everyone.