Diagram: Holiness and Purity
What are spiritual gifts? Are these unrelated and unrepeatable spiritual occurrences, or is there a system that we might be able to put into use in our development?
It is not uncommon for people to look at phenomena such as prophecy, healing, and other elevated consciousness experiences as random and unrelated occurrences.
For some, these are referred to as 'spiritual gifts', and are perceived as isolated dispensations from the Creator. While indeed the Creator can, and does, gift people with specific abilities at certain times - there is a coherency in the way we can better understand these.
Rather than viewing these as unrelated, these spiritual elevations are indicative of varying degrees of [spiritual] proximity to the Creator; almost like a linear progression of holiness and purity.
Tradition tells us that the mechanisms to enable spiritual proximity are the commandments and various practices that one will find detailed throughout Rabbinic literature.
Thus, these are not so random. For instance, a prophet is one who has purified himself to a great degree, utilizing the wisdom of the tradition as a guide. It is not an all or nothing proposition - in this example, a prophet on their way to a higher degree of revelation might experience a progression of spiritual elevations aong the way.
The same is true with Ruach haKodesh (Holy Spirit). This term encapsulates a wide range of experiences that, on the lower levels, begin with various insights or bursts of intuition or creativity. At the higher levels, one may have more pronounced clairvoyant experiences, the ability to facilitate healing in others, and much more.
Below you will find a visual representation of this idea. This idea is also captured in the Mishnah as such:
