Talk:Matthew 6:3

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I'm just surprised that there is no mention of the connotations within the Jewish kabbalah (of which Jesus was no doubt well aware) of the ideas of the right and the left hand. I can't cite a scholarly source commenting directly on this verse, so I won't edit the main page, but it seems highly improbable that this verse does not reference ideas from the kabbalah. In this case, the right hand is the hand of strength (gevurah), while the left hand is the hand of charity (chesed). This verse would then mean that the left hand, in its actions, should not be informed or modulated by the right hand. This is to say that one's impulse to charity should not be tied to one's impulse to reinforce/exercise one's strength/authority. In light of these ideas which Jesus was no doubt aware of, the meaning of this verse is quite clear. In the Jewish kabbalah, the ideal is that both the right and the left hand should operate independently, and by doing so one creates a pure synthesis of the pillar of mercy and the pillar of severity. If, before the two pillars mix in malkuth, they are intertwined, then this corrupts the idealized balance between the left and right pillars which allows the Shekinah to abide more fully in the world. This is in stark contrast to eastern metaphysical systems, which (see diagrams of the chakras and kundalini energy), believe that the actions of the left and right hand *both* arise from Muladhara (the root chakra) and are intertwined from the start. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Chaiimowen (talk • contribs) 01:38, 18 September 2016 (UTC)