It used to be in vogue to have a weekly relationship with a therapist. More recently, being coached is the in thing. There's life coaches, business coaches, executive coaches, fitness coaches, relationship coaches and well, you name it, you can be coached on just about anything. Add to the buffet life coaching a la Kabbalah.
Rabbi Eliyahu Kaye for more than half a Jubalee has been peering into the Five Books of Moses at where the letters of people’s names appear at equal intervals in their birthday portion and providing startlingly accurate mystical readings based on their alleged “blueprint in creation.”
More recently, Kaye, who conducts The Personal Kabbalistic Codes and Coaching Center of Safed, Israel, has added multi-appointment sessions in person and by webcam based on the codes that loses nothing – only adds – on the modern coaching industry.
Move over New Age gurus. Rabbi Kaye, also a dedicated Chabad emissary, in talking about what he helps Jewish and non- Jewish clients discover in the codes analysis and his newer accompanying life coaching sessions,threw phrases around like “soul tendencies,” “soul powers” and “soul rectification.”
“Hashem gives us powers we are meant to utilize in order to fulfill our mission in the world,” said Kaye, who adds more than a dash of intuition in interpreting the Good Book’s wisdom and 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 coaching sessions can delve deeply into a person’s emotional history as in classic therapy, but in this case all is cast in the light of his or her Divinely guided mission as rooted in the Five Books, Kaye explains. Similar to other coaching and therapeutic pursuits, the codes and subsequent coaching provide guidance in spiritual, relationship, work, health and family matters.
Bringing heavy doses of passion to his craft along with years of Torah scholarship, Kaye uses not only where he finds the letters of a person’s name in equal skips in their birthday Torah portion but also derives meaning from a person’s Hebrew name, the day of the week they were born and the Hebrew month to weave together what many clients report is a stunningly on target analysis of weaknesses, strengths and hidden callings. The additional coaching sessions help people actualize what is found in the code.
German attorney Marina Berman came for a code reading and coaching sessions to get to the bottom of murmurings she was having about something missing in her life and to explore an ability to help the morally compromised discover the “good spark” within.
“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 the absolute truth.”
Kaye, who uses a computer program to locate the letters in the Torah verses, found the letters of Berman’s name in the words for 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 helped her determine 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 journalist from the U.S. was shown through his birthday portion and Hebrew name name that his loving nature and ability for 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 underused capacity for public speaking was indicated by the discovery of the last letter of his name, Hey, appearing as the final Hey in one of the four-letter names of G-d, the letter corresponding to the Kabbalistic concept of speech.
Kaye also conducts analyses for non-Jews using a transliterated version of their name as he once did for a client who works as a Norwegian customs official. The man, who found Kaye by doing an online search, reportedly sat speechless during their webcam reading when Kaye apparently linked his codes to specific incidents in his history and accurate personality traits and challenges.
Kaye, sitting in his Safed office within walking distance of where some of the most famous Kabbalists taught and are now buried, can’t be emphatic enough about 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, he says, how people come to be named and the timing of their birth as it relates to the day of the week, day of the month, Hebrew month and annual cycle of Torah portions.
It says in the Zohar, Kaye points out, quoting the early and most prominent of Kabalistic texts, “Hashem 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 name appear in the Torah. The story from a Holy 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.”