Life at AscentYour Personal Torah Code as a Basis for Life Coachingby Yehuda Sugar Add to the buffet life coaching a la Kabbalah. For more than a decade, Rabbi Eliyahu Kaye has been providing insightful, mystically oriented readings for people based on the verses in the Torah where their birthday portions fall. Rabbi Kaye, who conducts the practice as part of his job as director of Ascent of Safed's multimedia center and to further the Jewish educational center's outreach activities, now offers multi-session video and telephone coaching worldwide to a growing clientele that want to take an even deeper look at themselves and their missions based on the Torah and the Torah of Kabbalah and Chassidus. Move over New Age gurus.
"G-d gives us powers we are meant to utilize in order to fulfill our mission in the world," said Kaye, who combines heavy doses of Torah scholarship with more than a dash of intuition in providing what amounts to a G-d driven inner map for his clients. "When we use our powers to the fullest extent and optimum capacity, we are achieving our self completion in this world." The Personal Kabbalistic Codes and coaching sessions can delve deeply into a person's emotional history as in classic psychotherapy, but in this case Rabbi Kaye explains, all is cast in the light of a person's Divinely ordained mission as viewed through the lens of the Torah. Similar to other coaching and therapeutic pursuits, the codes and subsequent coaching sessions can provide insights and recommendations regarding a person's spiritual, relationship, work and family lives. A proprietary blend of computer programs handily locates the code: The span of verses in the Torah where the letters of a person's Hebrew name are found in equal skips in their birthday Torah portion. Rabbi Kaye uses a transliterated version of a name when working with non-Jewish clients. He also incorporates meanings derived from a person's Hebrew name, the day of the week they were born on and the Hebrew month they were born in to deliver what many clients report is a stunningly on target analysis of weaknesses, strengths and hidden and revealed callings. The additional coaching sessions help people actualize what is found in the initial reading or code. One client, German attorney Marina Berman, came for a code reading and subsequent coaching sessions to get to the bottom of murmurings she was having about something missing in her life. "I wanted to know things very deeply and clearly," Ms. Berman said. "I already knew something about the talents and energies I was brought into the world with, but through the codes I was shown what felt to be the absolute truth." Rabbi Kaye found the letters of Berman's name, among other places, in verses about the veils that covered the Holy vessels when the traveling Temple or Tabernacle was in transit and closed to the public. Based on that element of the reading, he concluded that she was meant to devote more time to herself and her well-being instead of being available to the world - the public -- 24/6. "This, she found, incredibly accurate" in terms of a recognizable challenge, Kaye said. In another example, a writer and teacher from the United States was shown through his birthday portion and Hebrew name that his amiable nature and ability to take swift action were reflected in a letter of his name appearing in the Hebrew word for Jewish high priest, known for their kindness and alacrity. An ability to bring lofty concepts into practical use and understanding was reflected by the discovery of the last letter of his name, the Hebrew letter hey, appearing as the first of the two heys in a name for G-d appearing in his code, a letter positioning associated with the ability to take flashes of insight and to develop them and execute on them. A non-Jewish Norwegian customs official, who found Kaye on the internet, reportedly sat speechless during a codes reading via webcam, when Kaye described specific incidents in his past and accurately delineated detailed personality traits and personal challenges. "Do you know me?" Kaye said, relating the comments of the stunned client. "We must have known each other for you to know these things about me."
It says in the Zohar, Kaye points out, quoting the early and most prominent of Kabbalistic texts, "G-d looked into the Torah and created the world," which Kaye says means that the Torah contains a blueprint for everything in the world and everyone's lives, including their names. In naming a child, according to the famous 16th Century Safed Kabbalist, Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, a parent is graced with minor prophecy. The name then becomes a Divine channel for the entire existence and how life is to best unfold, the 50-something rabbi explains with a preponderance of light and energy streaming from his eyes. If anyone questions the validity or foundation of the methodology, Kaye also cites a specific rabbinic source -- beyond Rabbi Luria's basis for the Divine involvement in naming a child and concept of Divine Providence from the Baal Shem Tov --for the practice of seeking meaning in where the letters of a person's name appear in the Torah. The story from a text called Seder HaDoros written by 17th Century Rabbi Yechiel Michel Heilprin involved an encounter between Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, the Ramban, and one of his students named Avner. Avner, because he could not reconcile a statement made by his teacher that the history of the entire universe is alluded to in one of the smallest portions of the Torah, HaAzinu, left Judaism and became a wicked man. Avner was reawakened to the Jewish faith by the Ramban's ability upon being challenged by Avner to find the student's name in the same Torah portion -- HaAzinu. The Ramban, through Divine revelation, found the letters representing "Reb" Avner in the third letter of consecutive words in the portion (HaAzinu 32:26) that had clear applicability to Avner's life. As a result, Avner was moved to repent and return to Judaism. Like Avner, Kaye says: "Many people go off on tangents or wild goose chases in their lives and as a result waste G-dly energies invested within them. They can feel a terrible void and vacuum" due to their unused potential. The codes and coaching sessions can help undo all that if a person is
lacking satisfactory and proper direction, Kaye says, and help them to
"live their soul mission to the utmost." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ [Yehuda Sugar is a former wire service journalist from Chicago who currently freelances for Chabad.org, AscentOfSafed.com and other news outlets. He lives in Tsfat with his wife and four children.] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
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Chabad emissary who views his work as a way of guiding people with the
truest of compasses, the Torah and its inner dimension, Rabbi Kaye throws
phrases around like "soul tendencies," "soul powers"
and "soul rectification," in describing what clients learn about
through the so-called Personal Kabbalistic Codes and accompanying coaching
sessions. 
Kaye,
sitting in his Safed office within walking distance of where some of the
most famous Kabbalists taught and are now buried, underlined how the codes
are founded on the principle of the presence of the Divine hand in all
that happens in the world, as taught by the father of Chassidus, Rabbi
Israel Baal Shem Tov. This includes, Kaye explained, how people come
to be named and the timing of their birth, the day of the week, day of
the month, Hebrew month and where it lands in the annual cycle of Torah
portions.