ISAAC LURIA: Rabbi Of The Mystic Arts!
Our plane of existence is both the PROCESS and the OUTCOME of a process that hasn't stopped since God said "let there be light!"
written by Fred Van Lente drawn by Ryan Dunlavey colored by Adam Guzowski
Script for Action Philosophers: Isaac Luria
ACTION PHILOSOPHER #123: ISAAC LURIA!
Script by Fred Van Lente
ACTION PHILOSOPHERS created by Ryan Dunlavey & Fred Van Lente & © tm 2005 them. All Rights Reserved.
ONE
1: A BIG PICTURE OF ISAAC BEN-LURIA IN THE STYLE OF DR. STRANGE – An important thing to note about Luria is that he is young rabbi – he was only 38 when he died. He’s shooting mystic bolts into a book covered in Hebrew characters. I’m kind of thinking that you’d could combine this Dr. Strange stamp (with the character in a circle) with the famous cover to the original Dr. Strange #1. Or whatever.
COPY AT TOP OF PANEL: OY, VEY! Action Philosopher #123 is ISAAC LURIA, a/k/a Yitzhak ben Solomon Ashkenazi, a/k/a/ ARI, a/k/a…
TITLE (BIG): RABBI OF THE MYSTIC ARTS!
CREDITS: Emanated from TWO-MAN TREE OF LIFE Fred “GOY” Van Lente (writer) and Ryan “GOYER” Dunlavey (artist)!
2: TEENAGED LURIA READS THE ZOHAR BY THE BANK OF THE NILE, THE PYRAMIDS LOOMING IN THE DISTANCE – Isaac is a 15 year old, zit-ciovered, braces-wearing teenager.
CAPTION: Though born in JERUSALEM in 1534, Isaac spent his childhood in EGYPT, where he grew into a highly DEVOUT young man!
CAPTION: He spent SEVEN YEARS studying ancient tomes of Judaic wisdom on the banks of the NILE … including the famous ZOHAR!
3: IN SPAIN, MOSES DE LEON (an OLD RABBI)_SELLS A COPY OF THE ZOHAR to a credulous medieval Jew (guess which one in the painting is the Jew). Inside his hut, though, we see it’s piled high with “ZOHARS!”
CAPTION: “The Book of Radiance” first appeared in Spain in the 1200’s, published by one MOSES DE LEON.
DE LEON: A 1,000-year-old collection of meditations on the TORAH, discovered by ME! Very RARE! A steal at FIFTY PESETAS!
CAPTION: (After de Leon DIED, though, his WIFE confessed HE was the true author!)
TWO
1: A REALLY BAD HIGH SCHOOL PRODUCTION OF FIDDLER ON THE ROOF: Little kids dressed as shtetl Jews sing on stage while an old lady pounds out chords on an ancient, out-of-tune piano. (“6th Gr. Show: FIDDLER ON THE ROOF”) sign lies propped up/pinned to piano.
CAPTION: Like the placebo that actually CURES the patient, however, de Leon’s Zohar sparked the school of Jewish mystical thought known as the KABBALAH, which means…
KIDS [1 balloon, multiple pointers, with notes]: TRADITIOOOOON! TRADITION!
CAPTION: …or, more LITERALLY, “that which is RECEIVED.”
2: LURIA LOOKS INTO MIRROR, WHERE THERE IS ANOTHER MIRROR, AND THEN ANOTHER MIRROR, AND THEN ANOTHER MIRROR, ETC., a reflection stretching out into infinity in the center of the panel.
CAPTION: Kabbalists refer to the Jewish God as EIN SOF -
ISAAC: Uh, I THINK God’s down there… SOMEWHERE… >Gulp!<
CAPTION: -- an essentially UNKNOWABLE “INFINITE” from which all Creation EMANATES.
3: THE PROPHET ELIJAH SPEAKS TO ISAAC IN A VISION, HOLDING HIS NOSE BECAUSE LURIA STINKS LIKE POOPY.. Isaac is the worse for wear, having stripped to his shirt, is sweating and clearly dehydrated from being out in the desert.
CAPTION: After contemplating Ein Sof through the Zohar for seven years, Isaac had a vision of the PROPHET ELIJAH…
ELIJAH: The time for studying is OVER! You must know go OUT into the world, and SHARE what you’ve learned with GOD’S CHOSEN PEOPLE!
ELIJAH (sl): But first … take a SHOWER, willya? OY!
4: CUT TO SAFED, ISRAEL: LURIA SPEAKING TO THE CHICAGO CUBS
CAPTION: The Lurias decamped for ISRAEL, specifically SAFED, a small town in the mountains of GAILILEE and a hotbed of Kabbalist study.
CAPTION: Isaac’s students called him ARI – a Hebrew acronym for “Our Master Rabbi Isaac” that also means “LION” –
CAPTION: -- so of course they called THEMSELVES the “CUBS!”
5: LURIA GESTURES TOWARD A TREE – through the magic of comics, we superimpose over it the Kabbalist TREE OF LIFE.
LURIA: This TREE OF LIFE is the COSMIC FLOWCHART by which Ein Sof emanates REALITY—
LURIA: -- I call each stage of that process a SEFIROT, or “Enumeration!”
THREE
1: BIG-ASS VERSION OF COMPLICATED MACHINE TAKING UP HUGE FACTORY FLOOR – We articulate each indivudal part below.
CAPTION: According to the Zohar, God’s work on the first week of Genesis never ENDED! CREATION is in a constant state of BEING CREATED!
CAPTION: Our plane of existence is both the PROCESS and the OUTCOME of a process that hasn’t stopped since God first said “LET THERE BE LIGHT!”
CAPTION: And each of Luria’s SEFIROT is a different STOP along that ASSEMBLY LINE!
2: PIPE SPITS OUT a MOUND OF CLAY with the symbol for KETER on it...
CAPTION: KETER, “The Crown”, is the sefirot at which Creation first receives the spark of POSSIBILITY.
CAPTION: Keter is pure CREATIVITY -- at this point, ANYTHING can happen!
3: ...CLAY FALLS ONTO AN ASSEMBLY LINE MARKED WITH THE CHARACTER FOR CHOKHMAH...
CAPTION: Chokhmah is God’s WILLPOWER! It gives God’s thoughts the ability to actualize their potential.
4: ...MOUNDS OF CLAY GO INTO A BREADBOX-SHAPED OVEN WITH THE CHARACTER FOR BINAH ON IT AND COME OUT AS ROUGH GLOWING CLAY BRICKS...
CAPTION: From Chokhmah, they pass on to Binah, the Mother of Form, which grants God’s Thoughts the potentiality of physical manifestation.
5: …WHICH ARE SUCKED INTO A CLEAR TUBE (CHESED) AND DRAGGED SKYWARD TO A HIGHER PART OF THE FACTORY!
CAPTION: The Inspiration of God, Chesed channels God’s ideas TOWARD a specific Form.
FOUR
1: SHOOTING OUT OF THE CHESED TUBE, THE CLAY BRICK IS SUSPENDED IN MID-AIR AS SAWS ON PNEUMATIC ARMS COME OUT OF A RIG (GEVURAH) AND BLAST PIECES OF THE CORNERS OF THE BRICK!
CAPTION: Before anything New can be created, the Old must be done away with.
CAPTION: Gevurah is the great DESTROYER of the Sefirot…
2: CLAY THING FALLS ONTO A SCALE (TIPHERETH) – Its readout says “100%”. Robot arms come out and buff the clay thing, which is now PERFECTLY SMOOTH.
CAPTION: …while TiPHeretH is the great balancer … the rational part of the Divine Mind!
3: ROBOT ARM (NETZACH) PICKS UP CLAY BRICK AND CARRIES IT OVER FACTORY FLOOR…
CAPTION: By passing through Netzach, God’s ideas pick up the quality of Desire -- the Urge to Create -- that Motivates the Creation.
4: …AND DROPS INTO A MOLD (HOD) WHICH PRESSES TOGETHER, TURNING THE CLAY BRICKS INTO WIDGETS; THEN OPENS, DROPPING IT AGAIN…
CAPTION: If Netzach grants Urges, Hod articulates them!
CAPTION: Hod is the analytical part of God’s mind, giving Form to His ideas in the realm of language, logic and the abstract.
5: COMPLETED WIDGET DROPS INTO A BOX (WITH WINDOW) MARKED “REALITY” (Side copy reads “Now 100% MORE REAL”!)
CAPTION: YESOD specifies the Platonic Forms that God’s ideas may take; but they are specific-generic, as opposed to specific-individual.
6: BOX DROPS OUT OF OUTPUT TUBE INTO A BIN (MALKUTH) FILLED WITH WIDGETS. In background, we see Keebler-type elves wheeling a full bin away, toward a parked Mac truck.
CAPTION: Also known as “The Kingdom”, Malkuth is the “Output Tray” of the Tree of Life, the final manifestation of God’s thoughts into corporeal reality.
CAPTION: “The Word Made Flesh,” as the Bible says, and Malkuth encompasses the flesh of the entire physical universe!
FIVE
1: MOUNT SINAI: MOSES, HOLDING TEN COMMANDMENTS, looks up glumly as gigantic HEBREW ALPHABET BLOCKS tumble out of the Glowing Heavens above!
CAPTION: No doubt you’ve noticed that the SEFIROT are all named for HEBREW CHARACTERS.
MOSES (sl): Oy!
CAPTION: The Kabbalists believe that the HEBREW LANGUAGE – the language of the TORAH – is as DIVINELY INSPRIED as the Scriptures THEMSELVES!
2: CREATION OF THE GOLEM: RABBI LOEW INSCRIBES THE HEBREW WORD (in Hebrew) ‘emeth on his Clay Giant’s forehead.
CAPTION: Hebrew literally GIVES LIFE in the old folktale of THE GOLEM.
CAPTION: A kabbalist rabbi animates a CLAY STATUE by writing the Hebrew word for “TRUTH” on its forehead!
3: HUGE, GODZILLA-SIZED GOLEM TRASHES PRAGUE’S JEWISH QUARTER WHILE THE RABBI AND HIS NEIGHBORS FLEE FOR THEIR LIVES!
CAPTION: When the golem’s work is done, the rabbi turns his creation back into inanimate clay simply by erasing the first letter—
CAPTION: --thus spelling meth, or “DEATH!”
CATPION: (In the BROTHERS GRIMM version of the tale, though, the golem grows TOO TALL for the rabbi to reach its forehead ... leading to DISASTROUS RESULTS!)
4: SPACE JEWS MARVEL AT OUTPUT FROM MAINFRAME COMPUTER – THEY’RE LOOKING AT A COMPUTER PAPER THAT READS “YHWH”!
CAPTION: The Hebrew text of the TORAH is the ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE, the PROGRAMMING CODE for REALITY! Some Kabbalists hold that were the letters to be REARRANGED, all the Secrets of the Universe would be UNLOCKED...
CAPTION: ...the most IMPORTANT secret being the TRUE NAME OF GOD. It is considered BLASPHEMOUS to speak this name aloud, so it is represented in most Bibles only as four CONSONANTS ... the so-called “TETRAGRAMMATON”!
CAPTION: In Hebrew, “YHWH” looks like the third person singular imperfect of the verb "TO BE” … so the Jewish God is a LIVING God, always in the process of BECOMING!
SIX
1: ABSTRACT PANEL SHOWING AN ELECTRIC CONNECTION BETWEEN GOD AND MAN, HIS CREATION – Clearly one is sending signals back to the other simultaneously. (Both ways.)
CAPTION: This is because the Tree of Life is a TWO-WAY conduit to the INFINITE.
CAPTION: Just as what God does affects US, what WE do affects HIM, and, by extension, REALITY!
2: GOD PEERS INTO OVEN, SEEING PLANET EARTH IN A BAKING PAN only kind of partially-formed, still squishy, but definitely getting there...
CAPTION: By cleaving towards God, doing good works, and leading a pious life, a human being helps God, and therefore Creation, into a more fully REALIZED STATE.
GOD: >Sniff, sniff<… Almost READY…
3: GOD CLUTCHES HIS CHEST AS IF HAVING A HEART ATTACK BECAUSE YOUNG SHLOMO is taking money out of his mom’s purse!
CAPTION: Conversely, evil, SELFISH actions impede the flow of Creation, and are DETRIMENTAL to God.
GOD: >Errk!< I’m getting VERKLEMPT here! Stay outta your MOTHER’S PURSE, Shlomo!
SHLOMO (sl): Oy!
4: LURIA ADDRESSES THE CHICAGO CUBS IN THEIR DUGOUT
CAPTION: Luria himself was said to possess MANY mystical powers deriving from his ability to INFLUENCE THE FLOW OF REALITY.
LURIA: “The elements of time, space, and motion are merely an expression of the limitations imposed by the physical body on the soul.”
LURIA: “When the soul has sway over the body, these limiting factors cease to exist.”
5: LURIA AND THE CUBS ARE SUDDENLY TELEPORTED TO DOWNTOWN JERUSALEM!
LURIA: “Let us now proceed to Jerusalem, for our physical bodies have lost their influence over our souls!”
CUB: DAAAAAAAMN!
SEVEN
1: LURIA DIES, MUCH TO THE CONSTERNATION OF THE CHICAGO CUB HASTILY SCRIBBLING IN A TABLET
CAPTION: Luria died in 1572 at the age of 38 without having written anything DOWN.
SCRIBE: Wait! Don’t kick off just YET—Let me get down that last bit of WISDOM—
LURIA: Gak-!
SCRIBE: DAMMIT!
CAPTION: But the Cubs captured as many of his teachings as they could in the SIX VOLUMES of “THE TREE OF LIFE”, which soon spread throughout the JEWISH WORLD.
2: SUFISM AND GNOSTICISM STAND FORLORNLY OUT IN THE RAIN WHILE A PRIEST AND A MULLAH LAUGH IT UP inside a house (seen through the window). Gnosticism should be depicted a monk with a glowing light bulb for a head – the word “gnosticism” should be written on his robe. Sufism should be represented by their most famous practitioners, the WHIRLING DERVISH. (Put the word “SUFISM” on the robes, too.)
CAPTION: While the other monotheistic religions have had a tendency to NEGLECT or PERSECUTE their own mystical traditions...
CAPTION: ...mainstream Judiasm has always at least TOLERATED the Kabbalah.
3:SABBATAI ZEVI blows away his devoted followers by beating his chest and shouting out the Tetragrammaton! The force of it knocks hats off and knocks people off their feet!
CAPTION: Not that there haven’t been a few BUMPS in the ROAD.
LURIA: [TETRAGRAMMATON {3rd line, Hebrew}]
CAPTION: A Lurianic Kabbalist named SABBATAI ZEVI caused a major SCHISM between rabbinical Judiasm and the JEWISH MASSES in the 1600’s by proclaiming himself the MESSIAH.
4: ZEVI BENDS IN MUSLIM PRAYER WHILE HASIDS LOOK DISPARGINGLY ON
CAPTION: Even after Zevi converted to ISLAM (ouch), the REBELLIOUS SPIRIT he engendered remained, culminating in the foundation of the HASIDIC movement around 1740...
ZEVI: Praise be to ALLAH!
HASID: FEH! Who NEEDS ‘im?
CAPTION: ...using liturgy developed by LURIA to create a less SCHOLARSHIP-BOUND Judiasm that (they felt) connected better to the people’s SPIRITUAL NEEDS!
EIGHT
1: TWO ALCHEMISTS LOOK AT EACH OTHER GLUMLY AS THE STEAMING PILE OF LEAD IN THEIR LABORATORY IS STILL ... A PILE OF LEAD.
CAPTION: “The Tree of Life” had a HUGE influence on medieval CHRISTIAN thought as well ... particularly among the ALCHEMISTS who were trying to influence CREATION in more MATERIAL ways...
ALCHEMIST #1: Nope. Still LEAD.
ALCHEMIST #2: You know, we really SUCK at this.
2: ZOMBIE-EYED, BIKINI-WEARING BRITNEY SPEARS SHOOTS A BABY OUT OF HER COOCHIE-COO while floating in a swimming pool being blessed by a Kabbalist Rabbi.
CAPTION: And, of course, the recent fascination of many CELEBRITIES with the Kabbalah, spearheaded by MADONNA, has been well-publicized.
CAPTION: Tabloids reported pop star BRITNEY SPEARS planned to give birth to her first child in a pool filled with ONE THOUSAND one-liter bottles of specially blessed “KABBALAH WATER!” (At a price tag of $3,800!)
3: FANCY L.A. PARTY ATTENDED BY SOME OF THE CELEBS MENTIONED BELOW. Luria is attending too, and pushes his sunglasses down on his nose so he can look right at the reader.
CAPTION: Roseanne, Naomi Campbell, Elizabeth Taylor and Barbara Streisand have all made trips to the immensely trendy KABBALAH CENTRE in L.A.
CAPTION: Rabbi Luria was only with us for a SHORT TIME, so it’s hard to say what he’d MAKE of all this sudden attention. Our best guess is…
LURIA: Remember, Bubelah, just because FAMOUS PEOPLE like it…
LURIA: …doesn’t mean it ain’t TRUE!
CAPTION: MAZEL TOV!
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