Spiritual Technology
By Avraham Sutton
Spiritual Technology by Rabbi Avraham Sutton is a major breakthrough in English language Judaica. It unfolds a magnificent meta-historical view of earth existence based on the deepest teachings of the Torah in an easily understood way, suitable for everyone regardless of background.
The author begins by distinguishing between what he calls inner/sacred technology and external/profane technology. Taking the Garden-of-Eden episode as paradigmatic, he shows how the Tree of Life embodies the idea of inner/sacred technology, while the Tree of Knowing/Joining Good and Evil embodies the idea of external/profane technology. He shows how profane technology is an externalization of our internal soul powers. When we eat of the Tree of Life – by connecting to the inner, spiritual technology of the Torah – we establish a rectified relationship with the external technologies such that they now serve us and assist us in attaining higher and higher levels of closeness to God. When this ideal relationship is not realized, the profane technology that we were supposed to harness into the service of God is co-opted by the force of evil itself, as embodied in the nachash (the serpent, the snake, the sneak).
Rabbi Sutton returns throughout the book to the story of Adam and Eve and the nachash in the Garden of Eden, each time probing deeper, to gain a better understanding of the workings of our world and, most importantly, our own psychological and spiritual makeup. He emphasizes the idea that reality is multi-leveled, and how the Torah – through its stories and deep teachings – helps us see through all the outer levels and layers to align ourselves with God’s plan to bring creation to its ultimate perfection. He addresses this particular topic throughout the book, and explains it in his unique spiral fashion, going deeper and deeper from level to level. As noted, we are exposed, in the process, to a magnificent meta-historical view of earth existence.
This is particularly true regarding his presentation of “The Cosmic Clock.” Based on the verse, “For a thousand years in Your eyes are as a day gone by” (Psalm 90:4), the Talmud states that the Torah’s account of six days of creation followed by a Sabbath is a kind of spiritual blueprint for 6,000 years of history followed by a Great Sabbath. Based on the calculations of Ramban and the Gaon of Vilna, Rabbi Sutton shows that our era is the millennial equivalent of the first Friday of creation. We are living, in other words, in the “Friday” of history, just before the great millennial Sabbath. By showing us where we are on the Cosmic Clock, we gain priceless insight into the events of our time.
It has been said that reality is more exciting than the best science fiction. Spiritual Technology is a case in point. This exciting volume presents the deeper teachings of the Torah, the prophets, and the sages of Israel in a most articulate and cohesive way. Rabbi Sutton teaches what has been fundamental and universal from the beginning, but which has not been available as an understandable unity to those who are not similarly familiar with the sources. Indeed, although it contains hundreds of sources from every area of Torah, it is really only a taste of what this erudite author has in store for us.
Readers of Spiritual Technology will surely be hungry for Rabbi Sutton’s other books, heretofore self-published, which will soon be made available by Shamir Inc. publications. This entire body of work spans over thirty years, and promises to be a major contribution to the authentic awakening of spiritual consciousness in our generation, a fulfillment of our mission to embody the light that Hashem has given us in order to truly be a light to the nations.