One of the most controversial teachings among Kabbalists is the doctrine of the Cosmic Shemitot, the Sabbatical epochs of pre-Adamic times. According to many of the great Rabbis, Adam was not the first human to have walked the earth. These Rabbis teach that there were full pre-Adamic human civilizations that had arisen and were eventually destroyed.

Among the earlier generations of Kabbalists, prior to the Ari'zal, the doctrine of the Shemita was written about by all Kabbalists, including the Ari'zal's Kabbalistic teacher, Rabbi David Ibn Zimra. These Kabbalists taught that not only is the source for doctrine of the Shemita to be found in the Oral tradition, they went directly into the simple and plain words of the Torah text to show that the history of time is not fully told in the Bible.

In the very beginning it is written, "In the beginning G-d created the Heavens and the earth" (Gen. 1:1). Immediately, the following verse states, "And the earth was without form and empty" (Gen. 1:2). The Kabbalists have noticed that the prophet Isaiah has written (45:18) that "the earth was not created empty," revealing an apparent contradiction between Genesis and Isaiah. Yet, as it is known to every true scholar of Torah, there is no contradiction between what Genesis says and what Isaiah says. Something, however, is definitely missing. For when G-d created the earth it was not empty upon its creation as per Isaiah. How then did the earth become empty as related in Gen.1:2? This leads us to the inevitable conclusion that something is missing; not that part of the text is missing (G-d forbid), but rather something has been intentionally left out of the narrative. This is glaringly obvious to any student of the Bible. I have even spoken to one ex-Christian minister (now an Orthodox Jew) who, upon learning about this anomaly, had mentioned that he had heard of this before from reading Christian Biblical commentaries.

It seems that we have a mystery, the secret solution of which, of course, is known to the Rabbis and Kabbalists. Earlier in this work (a reference to UFOs & Aliens in Light of Torah) I mentioned the Midrash (Gen. R. 3:7) which posed the question of what was G-d occupied with, prior to His creation of our world. The Midrash relates that G-d was busy building and destroying other worlds. The Kabbalists have always had profound insight and understanding into the nature of these pre-Adamic worlds. Much of Kabbalistic literature discusses these worlds in detail.

It is written in the book of Leviticus that, "for six years you shall plow your fields, but the seventh year shall be holy to HaShem, in that year you shall do no work." It is also taught by our Sages in the holy Talmud (San. 98A), "six thousand years shall the world last, then for one thousand years shall it remain desolate." Our Sages have learned from the secret meaning of the verse in Leviticus that the days of our world, i.e., our civilization, will be measured in the same way, as is the Biblical Sabbatical year. Six years shall we labor, and in the seventh shall we rest. So, our civilization will grow for six thousand years, and then for a thousand years shall it "remain desolate" which means to be left alone to rest. After this time, it is said that G-d renews his creation.

The Bible proceeds to speak about the Jubilee year. We are instructed to count seven times seven years and then to proclaim a Jubilee, a year of complete release. The Kabbalists have revealed that just as our civilization will last for the Sabbatical period of six thousand years and one thousand years of desolation, so will there be seven cycles similar to this, corresponding to a cosmic cycle of Sabbaticals and Jubilee. Therefore, according to this calculation, human civilization will rise and fall seven times, each for a period of six thousand years, with a rest period of a thousand years between.

Now arises the question, which Sabbatical are we in today? Many Kabbalists look back to the verse in Genesis and notice the discrepancy. They answer the problem of the emptiness of the land (Gen. 1:2), when this was not the way it was created (Is. 45:18), by saying that we are not in the first Shemita. The earth was indeed created full. It only became empty as a result of the previous civilization. They are the ones who left the land "empty and desolate." According to many of the Kabbalists, therefore, we are in the second Shemita.

Although they say we are in the second Shemita, they do not exclude the possibility that we are in the third, forth or fifth, but rather conclude that we are definitely not in the first. They say we are in the second, meaning we are in at least the second.

Rabbi Yisrael Lifshitz, the author of the authoritative commentary to the Mishna, Tiferet Yisrael, addresses the topic of pre-Adamic life in the introduction to the eleventh chapter of Tractate Sanhedrin. Commenting upon the scientific discoveries of his day, and the Darwinian conflict of creationism and evolution, Lifshitz points out that the Torah does acknowledge the existence of dinosaurs. These were the creations of the prior Shemita, he says. Not only this, but Rabbi Lifshitz goes further to say that Adam was not really the first human being, but that there were countless people before him, which he calls pre-Adamites. This controversial view of Rabbi Lifshitz has placed his commentary and other written works on the taboo list in certain Jewish circles, which considered his revelations not in accordance with the spirit of Judaism. However, nothing could be further from the truth.

There are some Kabbalists such as Rabbi Yehuda Fatiyah who, in his Beit Lekhem Yehuda (2,66A), wrote questioning certain aspects of the doctrine of the Shemita. Yet, even Rabbi Fatiyah, in Minhat Yehuda (pg. 222), expounds on a section of the Zohar that speaks of the pre-Adamic parents of Adam. He even states that Adam's parents copulated on the spiritual plane and that his mother conceived and gave birth to Adam's body, which, as I referenced earlier, was completely non-physical. Where Adam's parents came from, Rabbi Fatiyah does not say. However, he makes it quite clear that they are individual beings and not simply an appellation for G-d.

The Talmud in Hagigah 13B speaks of 974 pre-Adamic generations. One of the early Kabbalistic classics, the Ma'arekhet Elokut, states specifically that these generations refer to the pre-Adamic Shemita cycles. There are a great number of both earlier and later generation Rabbis, Hasidic masters and Kabbalists who have spoken quite openly about the doctrine of the Shemita. Rabbi Shmuel Lifshitz in his Anafim Shatul Mayim commentary to Sefer HaIkarim has said, "[I] open my mouth like a talebearer to reveal hidden secrets."

However, Rabbi Haim Vital in his Sha'ar Ma'amrei Rashbi 44A says outright that the doctrine of the Shemitot is Kabbalistically incorrect. Many later Kabbalists follow Rabbi Haim's position on this. Nonetheless, many more do not. Indeed, not all Kabbalists who followed Rabbi Haim agreed with him on this issue. Rabbi Shlomo Kohen in his Sha'at Ratzon commentary to the Tikunei Zohar (Tikun 36) offers to explain the clear language of the Tikunim mentioning the Shemitot and how such a teaching can actually fit into the Kabbalah of Rabbi Haim Vital.

Though my readers who are not Orthodox Jews will not recognize the following names, they are still important for me to document for the sake of my Orthodox Jewish readers. This is only a partial list of those Rabbis and Kabbalists, from the earlier and later generations, which held that the doctrine of the Shemita is correct and true:

1. Sefer HaTemunah, 2. The Tikunei Zohar 3. Sefer HaKana, 4. The RaMBaN, 5. Rabbeynu Bahya, 6. Rabbi Yitzhak D'Min Acco, 7. Recanati on the Torah, 8. Tziyuni on the Torah, 9. Ma'arekhet Elokut, 10. Shatul Mayim on Sefer HaIkarim, 11. Sefer Livnat HaSapir of Rabbi David ben Yehuda HaHasid (Sefardi), 12. the author of Shoshan Sodot, 13. The Radbaz, Rabbi David Zimra (the Kabbalistic teacher of the Ari'zal), 14. The Gaon of Vina 15. the Tekhelet Mordechai, 16. Rabbi Lifshitz's Tiferet Yisrael, and 17. Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Eichenstein of Zidatchov in his Ateret Tzvi commentary on the Zohar HaRakia.