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Disclaimer: I am not planning on doing what is in this question. It is a purely theoretical question.

Everyone has some sort of a general idea about him, who spoke and the Universe came into being.

If so,

Is imagining a form of G_d, in your mind,forbidden?

Is imagining a form of G_d, in your mind, and praying to that mental image forbidden?

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  • Might find relevant: judaism.stackexchange.com/q/93864/15256 Dec 20, 2022 at 19:44
  • Closely related (duplicate?): judaism.stackexchange.com/q/93818
    – Fred
    Dec 20, 2022 at 20:40
  • There are sources that say this is forbidden, although my purpose is not to bring them. I just want to state that if you try to picture a person, can you imagine them without a body? If you start stripping away everything physical about a person in your mind, you find they are still there - online age has taught us this. Even if you continue, and strip away every last spiritual thing about a person, you'll find there is still someone there, all of them is intact. We are commanded to know Hashem is real, living, and a someone, and it is to Him our mind turns when we pray, and at all times!
    – Rabbi Kaii
    Dec 21, 2022 at 0:52

2 Answers 2

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The answer is, NO it's not forbidden, there's a cabalistic method,

I read in the book of rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, (Meditation and Cabbala)

Quotes Rabbi Yitzschak the Blind a great Spanish Cabbalist saying the following,

Picture the four letter name in your mind, both hays of the four letter should have a crown (like that of the tora) from there, your heart needs to meditate on the "Ayn Sof" = The infinite one. Your mind and heart MUST at all times be connected, meaning on the same page. Following warning, please be very careful, utmost caution must be taken care of on your location, it must always be clean, and your hands clean/pure.

           ______________________________________

If you are strong enough to hold it, you can be like such the rest of the day.

There's a rabbi on YouTube, whose name is Rabbi Ariel Bartzadok from kosher torah school, he has nine videos, on how to use the name for many more than just picturing it, you can fight evil, reorganize your thoughts and so much more.

Please go to the following link, the videos with the name in the background are videos.

https://www.youtube.com/@koshertorahschoolofrabbiar9394

Here's a secrete, If your strong and sensitive, you can experience what it feels like to be in the presence of g-d, as your continues meditation will bring the vibration up, hence being in the presence of such, this will also be the reason why you must be clean at all times. It's not a joke and should be taken seriously or you can very well be profaning his name.

So what does it mean to have pure hands?

Please note (If you do have to do the following, you have go and rewash with the netilat yadayim cup, the ritual form of washing).

  1. No scratching the head or any part of the body that is usually covered,

  2. No nose picking,

  3. No touching of anything that is impure, like garbage, or anything that has a foul odor, cleaning (that requires you touch things that are not clean)

  4. Touching your shoes, soul of the shoes or even feet.

  5. If you passed gas you must remove yourself from the location to where you can't smell the foul odor.

  6. Needles to say, dead bodies, people that did not wash their hands in the mooring, or after using the washroom.

(Shulchan Aruch, orach chayim, hilchot teffilin, tefilot).

There are those that are extreme or for a better way to put it, have a different philosophy, that is, g-d is with me, in heaven and in hell, when I'm clean and when I'm not, because there's not a place where he's not, not only that, our bodies naturally produce foul odors within, that we can't do anything about, so he's with me when I'm clean and when I'm not. NEVERTHELES you must not and can not just jump into this different method as you lack experience, and credibility in heaven to be granted such leniency. Again to be tricked by those that will come and argue by saying that the statement still stand, there's not a place where he's not... As that is true though, that does not mean we can do as we wish, as there are boundaries that we cannot surpass unless we have created that authentic connection with heaven and g-d. Besides these individuals, have a very strong connection with the presence and not the image that we just spoke about, they can transform the impure energy through learning and doing great positive deeds.

If you're going to be mediocre or unwilling to, then please hold this to your prayers and personal moments that you would like to connect with him.

What is mediocre, don't treat the image with a lazy attitude, with a lesser mind, i.e. depressive, or just simply not giving the proper grander to that is required to give to his name (his presence) This is almost forcing you to always be happy, and or be a great person, this is done by expanding yourself to a great degree, as in whom you are as a person that g-d created, and dedicate to him and so on.

Why is this important, because your are inherently going to activate a very powerful energy, that you CANNOT disrespect, and by Disrespecting yourself you are by default disrespecting his name causing a major sin, that may be considered irreparable until after death.

Please note, you cannot waist your words talking nonsense, why, because this will be considered wasteful, now you are allowed to talk about work, relationships, and things along the line, though pointless chatter, gossip etc will get you in trouble.

As was pointed out by @Rabbi Kaii, the dress code should be according to Halacha, no not Black and white, just clean and modest, it could be a nice pair of jeans with a checkered shirt, or a polo, just nothing that goes in the ways of the goyim, or that draws to much attention, flamboyancy, you may dress classy, fancy if that's your regular code, though you may not start to dress to impress, or to show off, as this will be ga'ava and another form of degrading his name. So it's an intense, internal personal journey, that you should go through in my opinion, either way, you must be truthful with yourself and dress to beautify or enhance the name(presence that you will be in). Incase I need to state the obvious, the undergarments must be clean at all times, if your are going to sweat a lot, it would be best to withhold on the meditation (image) until when you are clean and if you would like to go through the day as such, you should hold it until you can find a way to resolve the excessive sweating throughout the day.

Hope this helps to answer your question, and not redirected you or left you unsatisfied.

Thank you,

Have a good day!

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  • Thanks for this answer, and citing a very interesting source. What about how one is dressed? Eg. judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/132247/…
    – Rabbi Kaii
    Jan 19 at 21:08
  • @ Rabbi Kaii, Thank you. Made the needed edits,
    – Gabriel
    Jan 19 at 21:32
  • Thank you, is there anything on this about having a generally clean mind? Might be worth mentioning as well that there cannot be any ervah in front of a person
    – Rabbi Kaii
    Jan 19 at 22:10
  • @Rabbi Kaii That should be obvious, now the question is as follows, what about thoughts that others have put in your mind, are you responsible for those.
    – Gabriel
    Jan 19 at 23:13
  • Are you? Like when Achashverosh intentionally tempted the Jews at his dinner to eat non-kosher food and sin, and he set them up purposefully, why was most the judgement not put on him for putting a stumbling block in front of others, rather than on the Jews at the party? They still sinned of course but where do we draw the line? Especially for people whose parents never exposed them to Torah so they might not have even known that certain foods weren't kosher at that party? Why were they judged for eating it when they sinned in ignorance, by accident, while Achashverosh did it purposefully? Jan 20 at 9:39
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It is forbidden. I am not sure there is a difference between "accepting" the teaching that God has no body or form (one of the Rambam's 13 principles of faith) and fleetingly "imagining" God looking like this or that. The Rambam thundered loud and clear against all anthropomorphisms and is credited with wiping the notion from Jewish writings. He calls it a heresy [Mishneh Torah, Repentance, 3:7].

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  • Do you have a source that talks about imagining an image versus believing that it's actually God, or are you extrapolating on your own?
    – magicker72
    Dec 20, 2022 at 19:59
  • The latter. That's why I said "I am not sure". Dec 20, 2022 at 20:00
  • You say it's forbidden without qualification.
    – magicker72
    Dec 20, 2022 at 20:10
  • You can't fully control your thoughts, but you can try hard to banish certain things from your mind. Dec 20, 2022 at 21:06
  • Surely God appearing to the prophets voluntarily in the form of a man is inherently an anthropomorphism?
    – SolaGratia
    Dec 23, 2022 at 20:59

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