Ohr Makif

Talmud Eser HaSefirot – insights

It has been awhile since I started to learn intensively Talmud Eser HaSefirot, and I wanted to share my personal experiences from the student perspective that might be beneficial for others.

1. Foundation - the first chapters are the key to understanding the wisdom of Kabbalah. You’ll find that Baal-HaSulam constantly repeats himself – going over and over the fundamentals. This is where he tries to get the physical perception and connection to terminology out of student’s head and focuses his mind on spiritual. As RABASH used to say “throw away the words” – don’t let physical associations confuse you, and this is what is being achieved in the first parts of Talmud Eser HaSefirot. Misunderstanding of this basic concepts will lead you far away from what he is actually trying to convey to you.
2. Terminology - the whole Kabbalistic dictionary consists of only 10 words: from Keter to Malchut. Therefore, you must have very clear understanding of axillary words that Baal-HaSulam uses to explain ARIZAL. Each time you read words like kli, sfira, olam, ohr, masach, etc you must have clear comprehension to what they allude to outside of your physical associations with these words.
3. Perspective - when you read a paragraph, always ask yourself from which perspective the author talks? Is is Malchut De-Elyon, is it a parzuf, olam, sefira? Baal-HaSulam shifts from macro to micro even within the same paragraph and therefore you always must keep track from what perspective he talks know
4. ARIZAL - I found it very useful to study ARIZAL first, then Ohr Pnimi of Sulam and then re-studying ARIZAL – you’ll see how differently you understand ARIZAL text once you go through Sulam’s commentaries. Don’t be lazy – it worth it!
5. Malchut - you always have to keep in mind that everything is written from the perspective of Malchut, as we can’t grasp the Ohr (Light). Until Malchut comes to the picture you can’t talk of preceding sefirot. When they’re being described, they’re always described from the perspective Malchut and how Malchut perceives them.
6. Time/Space/Change – there is no time, space and change in spiritual – these are only concepts of our world. Therefore, when you read about something that “changed”  it means that another object in new state is created, yet the previous state always remains and Light goes through it to get to the new state. Example: in our world when we look at the table we understand that a tree was cut, then processed, then shaped. Thus, the tree nor intermediate processes to get to the table don’t exist anymore. This is not the case in spiritual – the tree, all its intermediately states along with the final table exist and connected to each other. Understand this well.
7. Where are we in the spiritual map? It’s common misunderstanding to assume that we’re in the world of Asiya – this is not the case, as the world of Asiya (the lowest of the five worlds) is already Divine domain separated from our physical world. Below world of Asiya there are three layers of Klipot that separate us from it.
8. Light is constant. This is a tough concept to grasp as ARIZAL uses words like Masach and Levushim to describe how Light changes from one stage to another. This is only done to communicate to us the key concepts, however Light is exactly the same on all stages, after all Masachim, after all Levushim, even in our world! What changes is the KLI and how it receives the Divine Light around it.

And a small math if you got bored.

HaVaYa (yod, key, vav, key) – numerical value is 26.

1. 1 x Havaya = 26; 2+ 6 = 8
2. 2 x Havaya = 52; 5 + 2 = 7
3. 3 x Havaya = 78;  7 + 8 = 15; 1 + 5 = 6
4. 4 x Havaya = 104;  1 + 4 = 5
5. 5 x Havaya = 130;  1 + 3 = 4
6. 6 x Havaya = 156;  1 + 5 + 6 = 12 = 1 + 2 = 3
7. 7 x Havaya = 182;  1 + 8 + 2 = 11 = 1 + 1 = 2
8. 8 x Havaya = 208; 2 + 8 = 10 = 1

The bottom line: the more HaShem you allow in, the thinner (zach) your KLI becomes.

Heard from Rabbi Mansour.

Babylonian Tower

This is a short summary of what I heard from my Rabbi on this topic.

We all know the story of  – when all mankind decided to build a tower that reaches to Heavens. The Midrash tells us that they achieved a lot actually – it took over a year to climb to the top level and another year to come down.

The question arises – why did HaShem decide to change their language to stop their work? Wouldn’t they run into natural boundaries and eventually run out of the oxygen as the tower became taller?

The answer is an interesting one. Kabbalah teaches us that all that was created is desire – nothing exists around us (including ourselves) besides the desire to receive in its different forms, levels and fulfillment. Therefore when desire is high and concentrated, even the nature has to bend its rules and comply to it, as this is how the world has been created.

If that’s the case one might ask, why don’t I simply desire strongly to win lottery so much that the nature bends its course and I indeed win? The answer is simple – because of other desires that directly conflict with ours. Thus the reason we don’t have peace in the world is because there are countries/people that aren’t interested in peace, and our stock portfolios aren’t climbing high as there are people who bet on short selling of their assets and therefore don’t want stocks to raise. This constant conflict of desires is what keeps the balance in our world.

But it was different with Babylon – (almost) everyone had the same desire. And their desire was so strong, focused and united (one man with one heart) that if HaShem hadn’t stopped them they could have done major damage in spiritual worlds, as they would have eventually succeed reaching them!

This example illustrates that the key to our spiritual attainment lies in the quality and strength of our desire to achieve it. The stronger and more focused the desire is – the closer one comes to the goal, as even the nature won’t stop him from his path.

New commentaries on Sulam

Was browsing the web and found this book. Looks like someone did a nice job of putting additional commentaries around Talmud Eser HaSefirot.

I looked at the preview of a few pages – looks very promising.  Also, very nice charts that help understand key concept. Especially like how the concept of KAV is drawn – I tried to draw it myself and always found the image come too confusing – the author created very nice presentation of the KAV – how it spans across the worlds.

Recommend to check out.

Site:  http://www.kabalahlife.com/Wisdom_trails-_English.html

Drawings: http://www.kabalahlife.com/Illustrations.html

Kabbalistic commentary to our history

This booklet is based on one statement of the Vilna Gaon in which he wrote that the last ten Parshiyos of the Torah hint to what would happen throughout the last one thousand years of history. This way, the last book of Devarim (Deuteronomy) predicts the history of the sixth millennia and every century is hinted to by one parsha. We will try to evaluate this statement of the Gaon and understand the history accordingly. We certainly do not assume the knowledge of all of the hints. Everybody who studied the Talmud knows full well that we sometimes don’t know answers to even much simpler questions. Even the great sages often end their commentaries with the words “Tzarich Iyun” – this needs further examination. Still, after analyzing the recent history, we found a wonderful correspondence between the years and the Torah portions and hence we decided to publish this article.

The Vilna Gaon also explains that the spiritual root of the ten Torah portions of Devarim is in ten Sefiros of the world of Asya. This is the lowest of the spiritual worlds and it is a projection of the worlds above it, just as the fifth book of Torah is a projection of the books before. Thus, to better understand the history of the ten centuries, we need to have some understanding of Sefiros as well. In general, Sefiros can be viewed as parts of Divine will or as ways of Hanhaga – Hashem’s rule over the universe. There are ten such ways. Everything in the spiritual and physical realms is a result and projection of some combination of the ten Sefiros. Just as all physical materials with their great variety are composed of just a little more that one hundred elements, so too, is everything spiritual, a combination of these ten general spiritual roots. The names of the Sefiros are:

Keser – Crown, Chochma – Wisdom, Bina – Understanding, Chesed – Kindness, Gevurah – Strength, Tiferes – Harmony,   Netzach – Perseverance, Hod – Splendor, Yesod – Foundation,  Malchus – Royalty.

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Kabbalistic Shabbaton

A few people organize Shabbos where Rav Fievel Okowitta will give lessons. Maybe other disciples of RABASH and his grandchildren that now live in the NY area may be able to join as well.

Drop me a note if you’re interested to come.

Kabbalah is Very Simple – There Is Only Ohr and Kli

Learning from RABASH disciples that sat and learned with the Rebe for years, is experience beyond any possible description. On one hand you observe and learn the most complex spiritual structures, yet you must always be able to break it down to two components – Ohr and Kli, while one of the components is constant and the second is the only variable in the existence.

Many people assume that it is possible to simply open Talmud Eser HaSefirot or other Baal-HaSulam books, read the text and understand on their own. This is not the case – without oral tradition that was heard directly from the Rebbe, one will be lost in Sulam’s texts, point that has been proven to me again and again. Once Baal-HaSulam said after a lesson looking at his students’ notes: it will take 20 years only to understand what you have learned today. He was not far from the truth – it has been almost twenty years since his son, RABASH, left us and his students started tedious work of compiling Talmud Eser HaSefirot with commentaries that they heard during the lessons. Twenty years later, and seven out of sixteen parts have been completed. Each word spawns pages of explanations and drawings and one chapter from the book becomes a book on its own.

As our sages taught – Kabbalah can be only transferred from Rebbe to student – there is no other way, even in our era of technology and connectivity.

Kabbalah Dating

Many questions arise about partnership in dating (Kabbalah, Zivug, Soulmates) and with this topic we can state with confidence – Dating Is a Tuff Business!

When Hashem first created man, He created Adam and Chavah together as one, and then He separated them. The RASHBA (TESHUVOS HA’RASHBA 1:60) explains that Hashem first created man and woman together and then separated them, so that they would later be able to come together and be joined and feel like a single unit. Perhaps it is for this reason that before the man is born a Bas Kol (Divine Voice) announces who his Zivug (partner) will be — this shows that they both come from the same spiritual root, and that the woman that he eventually marries will be part of his own Neshamah (soul). It would be impossible to bond their souls together in such a way after they are created, and therefore Hashem bonds them together before they are created in order for them to be able to bond together strongly. (If one of them is a Tzadik and the other is a Rasha, then one can influence the other to improve since they are bonded together so strongly.)    –Talmud, Sota 2

According to the writings of the Arizal, the first time a soul descends to the world, “a Heavenly voice emerges and decrees: ‘The daughter of so-and-so for so-and-so.’” When the time for marriage arrives, the opportunity is immediately granted without strain or difficulty. Until that time, it is possible that she will be the wife of another man, as was the case with Uriah and Bathsheba. Sometimes, however, one does not merit and fails to marry his intended. In that instance, another who does not have a mate designated for him may supersede him through his appeals for mercy. Nevertheless, he is granted a spouse appropriate to his deeds.

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Authentic Kabbalah – All Questions Answered

This is full translation of the article that was written by students of Rabbi Baruch Shalom Ashlag based on multiple questions that rose as many organizations claim to teach the authentic path of Baal HaSulam and Kabbalah.

To the honorable Rabbi Gotlieb, greetings.

Is it true that the study of wisdom of Kabbalah isn’t connected to the observance of Torah and Mitzvoth?

Did Rabbi Ashlag ZT”L ever said or wrote that Torah and Mitzvoth aren’t connected to the study of wisdom of Kabbalah?

My question comes due to the fact that there are many groups that are dealing in Kabbalah leveraging the teachings of Rabbi Ashlag, and they firmly claim that this is the case (i.e. that Torah and Mitzvoth are not connected to the study of Kabbalah).

I am asking the honorable Rav to respond to this matter.

With Regards,

Anonymous.

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Authentic Kabbalah

I get multiple inquiries about the translation of the letter that was composed by Sulam students in response to groups like Litman and Berg. Due to my studies schedule I have extremely limited time and therefore can’t dedicate sufficient effort to the translation. I therefore post a first DRAFT, which is RAW translation of the first part of the letter only due to multiple requests at least to have something. Later on I’ll try to complete the translation and make it more readable.

Here is the letter:

To the honorable Rabbi Gotlieb,

Greetings

Is it true that the study of wisdom of Kabbalah isn’t connected to the observance of Torah and Mitzvot?

Did Rabbi Ashlag ZT”L ever say or write that torah and mitzvot aren’t connected to the study of wisdom of Kabbalah?

My question comes due to the fact that there are groups that are dealing in Kabbalah leveraging the teachings of Rabbi Ashlag and they firmly claim that this is the case (i.e. that torah and mitzvot are not connected to the study of Kabbalah).  I am asking the honorable Rav to respond to this matter.

With Regards

Anonymous

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Kabbalah from RABASH perspective

The following is the original letter, written by Rabbi Avraham Mordechai Gottlieb, who studied with Rabbi Baruch Shalom Ashlag (RABASH) sine he was 13 years old until Rebbe’s death. Rabbi Gottlieb now teaches Kabbalah full time in dedicated Beis Midrash (learning center), lectures around the world, and is author of the famous book “HaSulam” – comprehensive documentary book on Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag (Sulam / Baal-HaSulam), his son – Rabbi Baruch Shalom Ashlag, their students and followers.

QUESTION:

Dear Rabbi,

Does the study of Wisdom of Kabbalah isn’t connected to observence of Torah and Mitzvoth (Commandments)?

Did the Rabbi Ashlag (z”l) wrote or said that Torah and Mitzvoth aren’t connected to the study of the Wisdom of Kabbalah?

My question comes because there our groups out there that deal with Kabbalah according to Ashlag methodology and state that this is the case (i.e. one doesn’t have to observe Torah & Mitzvoth).

I’m asking for you serious attention to this matter,

Respectfully,

Anonymous.

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