Ohr Makif

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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Why do we need so many details in commandments

When someone who is not familiar with the Torah commandments looks at one who performs them, many questions arise.

The most common one is – why to go and be so anal about tiny nuances? If you seriously study Kabbalah, I’m sure that by now you know that 613 commandments are divided into 365 prohibitive and 248 positive commandments that correspond to certain parts of human body.

Each commandment has the power to draw Divine Light into this world as well as to affect spiritual worlds. For example, when someone puts Tefilin, he cand draw light from four worlds as explained in the writings of ARI:

* By putting Tefilin of hand – Light of Asiya
* By reciting beracha on Tefilin of Hand – Light of Yetzira
* By reciting beracha on Tefilin of Head – Light of Beria
* By putting Tefilin of head – Light of Atzilut

When a person performs a commandment in corporeal world it has immediate affect throughout the whole five spiritual worlds, however if a tiny detail is left out the effect might not be the one that we’re interested in achieving. A rabbi forwarded me this interesting correspondence that I believe answers in a very simple way, why people focus so much attention in performing the commandments.

Question of the Week:
Dear Rabbi,
Why does the Jewish religion seems to obsess over insignificant details?
How much matza do we have to eat, which spoon did I use for milk and which
for meat, what is the right way to tie my shoelaces?
It seems to me that this misses the bigger picture by focusing on minutiae.
Is this nitpicking what Jews call spirituality?
(I actually already sent you this question over a week ago and didn’t
receive a reply. Could it be that you have finally been asked a question
that you can’t answer?!)
Rob

========================================
Answer:
Dear Rob,
I never claimed to have all the answers. There are many questions that are
beyond me. But it happens to be that I did answer your question, and you did
get the answer.
I sent a reply immediately. The fact that you didn’t receive it is itself
the answer to your question. You see, I sent you a reply, but I wrote your
email address leaving out the “dot” before the “com”.
I figured that you should still receive the email, because after all, it is
only one little dot missing. I mean come on; it’s not as if I wrote the
wrong name or something drastic like that! Would anyone be so nitpicky as to
differentiate between “yahoocom” and “yahoo.com”? Isn’t it a bit ridiculous
that you didn’t get my email just because of a little dot? No, it’s not
ridiculous. Because the dot is not just a dot. It represents something. That
dot has meaning far beyond the pixels on the screen that form it. To me it
may seem insignificant, but that is simply due to my ignorance of the ways
of the web. All I know is that with the dot, the message gets to the right
destination; without it, the message is lost to oblivion.
Jewish practices have infinite depth. Each nuance and detail contains a
world of symbolism. And every dot counts. When they are performed with
precision, a spiritual vibration is emailed throughout the universe, all the
way to G-d’s inbox. If you want to understand the symbolism of the dot,
study I.T. If you want to understand the symbolism of Judaism, study it.

The Luminaries

As you might know, according to The Scripture (Torah/Bible) the Luminaries (Sun & Moon) were created on 4th day of the Creation, as it is written in Genesis 1:14-19  “And G-d made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night and the stars. And G-d placed them in the sky of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from darkness; and G-d saw that it was good. And it was evening and it was morning, a fourth day.”

The both Luminaries were created in what’s called Vernal Equinox – i.e. when the tilt of the Earth’s axis is inclined neither away from nor towards the Sun, the Sun being vertically above a point on the Equator AND season of Nissan falls in Saturn, on the evening of Tuesday going into Wednesday.

This specific position – in which the Luminaries were created – happens once every 28 years and falls on April 8th, which is next week!

According to Jewish tradition one should recite the following blessing while he/she can clearly see the sun (any time on April 8th):

“ברוך אתה ה’ אלוקינו מלך העולם עושה מעשה בראשית”

“Blessed are You, LORD, our God, King of the Universe who makes the works of Creation.“

Will take you less then 5 seconds, but the reward is well worth it.

Also interesting to point that the scripture says “And G-d placed them in the sky of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from darkness”. Numerical value of the word “rule” is 28.

TEN SEFIROT – PARDES RIMMONIM

I was always curious to what exactly this painting means until I found the right answer. Here it is:

This painting is based on a drawing by the holy Kabbalist Rav Moshe Cordovero, in his holy work Pardes Rimonim / Pomagranite Orchard. The Kabbalah discusses 10 states of consciousness through which we experience reality, called the Tree-of-Life or 10 Sefirot. This painting contains the 1st letters of each of the 10 sefirot of the Tree-of-Life, painted within each other. The 10 Sefirot and one way of translating their meaning is:

KETER INFINITE LOVE

CHOCHMA EXPERIENCE OF ONENESS

BINA STATE OF UNCONDITIONAL LOVE

CHESED LOVING KINDNESS

PACHAD HUMILITY

TIFERET HARMONY

NETZACH ETERNITY

HOD THANKFULLNESS

TZADEEK UNITY

MALCHUT CENTRAL POINT IN THE HEART

[ Today, the sefira of PACHAD is more commonly known as GEVURAH, and the sefira of TZADEEK is more commonly known as YESOD. ]
Although the sefirot themselves are spiritual concepts which do not have form or color, there are colors associated with the sefirot, since everything in our physical reality has spiritual roots in the Tree-of-Life. There are many different colors associated with each of the sefirot, with each color association describing another aspect of each sefira. There is a chapter in Pardes Rimonim that discusses the different color associations with the sefirot. The colors in this painting correspond to one of the various color associations with the sefirot.

Source: http://www.kabbalah-source.com/

Kabbalah Bookstore

I have received many inquiries about the best place to purchase books of Sulam that are properly printed – i.e. the original manuscript isn’t altered as it’s the case with some organizations.

I therefore would like to point anyone who is interested to obtain proper copies of Kabbalah books along with authentic and unaltered commentaries of Baal-HaSulam and his son Rabbi Baruch Shalom Ashlag to the Kabbalah Source bookstore. The books are printed by reliable group of Kabbalists that study in Israel under gudance of Rabbi Gotlib – student of Rabbi Barush Shalom Ashlag (aka RABASH) and the author of the comprehensive work on Ashlag called “HaSulam”.

The books are printed in Israel and shipped internationally (they have free shipping promotion right now).

When you purchase a book, you’re  assured to receive authentic material along with many commentaries of Sulam; in addition you’ll support the Kabbalistic group that continues the path of Baal HaSulam - as it was originally taught, without any modifications and modernization.

Books:   http://kabbalah-source.com/

Group: http://www.obshalom.org/

Additional site with lessons of Sulam

Currently in Russian only, but they work on English version as well. Have a few recorded lessons. Students connect via phone or in person in Israel

http://tikunasulam.info/index.php

The organization is headed by Rabbi Tzvi, who is student of Simcha Ashlag, grand son of Baal HaSulam.

Practical Kabbalah

Many people associate practical Kabbalah with miracles and some kind of special effects, while in reality practical Kabbalah is being used on daily basis! The 613 mitzvos (commandments) are all Kabalistic in nature, and while on the surface they might seem as unusual physical actions, each of one them if performed properly triggers major spiritual changes in the upper worlds.This is why all Kabbalists where so careful to observe the mitzvos to the tiniest detail. As with any complex thing, minor deviation from the guidelines and the outcome won’t be the precise one that a person tries to achieve.  I vividly remember the story that I read about ARIZAL – Once, on Friday night while sitting in beis-medrash, he unintentionally scratched his beard, and while doing this, realized that it was Shabbos. Since a person isn’t allowed to destroy anything on Shabbos, pulling his hand from the beard might cause him to pull a hair from his beard. What do you think he did? He kept his hand in his beard and didn’t move it till the end of Shabbos!

While this is still hard to understand, I would like to bring a highly simplified Kabalistic explanation of a mitzvah that is relatively easy to perform: The Mitzvah of Tzizis.

A lot can be said about this commandment and therefore I’ll have to focus on bare minimum.

Background: ARIZAL writes that when the first man (Adam HaRishon) was created, his body was surrounded by Light (Ohr – spelled as Aleph, Vav Reish and means “Light” in Hebrew). The Kabalistic term for the levush (garment) that surrounded his body is also referred to in many books as “Hashmal” – interestingly enough this word is used in modern Hebrew for “electricity”. The scripture also points out that the Serpent was envy of this Divine garment as the garment didn’t allow Klipot (forces of Tuma [impurity]) to attach themselves to the Adam HaRishon. Once the Serpent found a way to convince Adam to sin, Adam fell miserably from his spiritual level and Creator changed Adam’s garment from Ohr (Aleph, Vav, Reish – Light) to Ohr spelled as Ain, Vav, Reish – also means “skin” in Hebrew. In “Shaar Noga”, ARIZAL writes that the new garment was made from Klipat Noga.

Now days: ARIZAL writes that when a person is born into this world, he is enveloped in Ohr Makif (surrounding light) that protects the person’s body which contains in it Ohr Pnimi (inner light). With each sin, the power of Ohr Makif wears out, which allows Klipot (forces of impurity) to attach themselves to us and thus push us out from Kedusha (holiness) into Tuma (impurity).

Solution: We therefore were given the mitzva of Tzizit, which protects us from Klipot. Ben Yish Chai (famous Sephardic Kabbalist) writes based on manuscripts of ARIZAL that when a person puts a Tzitzis, he envelopes his body (spiritual body of course!) with additional layer of Ohr Makif, which provides protection from the forces of impurity. In his famous guide to Halacha, Ben Yish Chai writes that when a person recites a blessing on tzitzis he brings up MAN (mei nukvin) to Mohin, and once the Tzitzis is on him, his body is enveloped in Ohr Makif. Ben Yish Chai also points out that the gematria of Tzitzis (600) is also equal to the word “nesharim” – eagles, as it is written:

“Hashem said to Moses: Speak to the Children of Israel and say to them that they shall make for themselves tzitzit on kanfei bigdeihem – the corners of their garments” (Numbers 15:37-38). Rashi, the fundamental commentator on the Torah, explains that the Hebrew word “kanfei – corners” can also be translated as “wings”, corresponding to the description of the way that the Jewish people left Egypt “on kanfei nesharim – the wings of eagles” (Exodus 19:4). Rashi, commenting on that verse, elaborates that most birds carry their young beneath them in their feet so that they can protect them from the attack of birds swooping down from above. However, the eagle flies higher than all other birds, enabling it to carry its young on its back, since it does not have to fear an attack from above.

Ben Yish Chai writes that while we know that knots and strings of tzitis are the wings that essentially provide the Ohr Makif, the secret of the garments itself will be only known to us at the end of Correction (i.e. Gmar Tikun).

I tried to provide the most basic explanation of the mitzva to demonstrate how a “simple” physical action can have major spiritual impact. There are many Kabalistic books that describe the inner workings of each of the 613 commandments and with G-d help I’ll try to bring other examples. Yet it’s important to understand that these commandments even while performed without understanding of their inner meanings provide major spiritual benefit!

Angels and Sefirot

I guess I’m really into Angels these days, so let me continue the topic.

As you already might know before our world along with spiritual worlds were created, nothing but Divine Light filled the universe. There was no start and no end to it and everything that existed was the Light, emanating from the Creator Himself (see Talmud Eser HaSefirot 1st part – ARIZAL). Once HaShem decided to create creatures, He constrained Himself thus creating void which was empty of His Divine presence. Tiny ray of light descended into the void and created five worlds – Adam Kadmon, Atzilut, Beriya, Etzira and Asiya. From that moment on, the “communication” between the worlds and the Creator was performed via Sefirot – Divine emanations of HaShem.

Everything that was created has ten Sefirot in it, and Angels are in no difference. In the story below I would like to demonstrate how Angels execute Divine commands via Sefirot.

Parshas VaYerah, talks about three angles that came to visit Abraham, which was siting by his tent following brit-mila. Each of these angles had an assignment.

1. Angel 1 – came to heal Avraham and then proceeded to save Lot
2. Angel 2 – came to announce that Avraham will have a son and then returned as his mission was accomplished
3. Angel 3 – came to announce the destiny of Sdom and then proceeded to execute it

Our sages tell us that each Angle was representing a specific Sefira. Angel 1 – Chesed, Angel 2 – Tiferet, Angel 3 – Gvura.

It is interesting to note what food Avraham gave to the angles. According to Torah he gave them: milk, butter and meat. Rav Brook notes that this correlates precisely with the essance of each Sefira – milk (left) – Chesed, butter (middle) – Tiferet, meat (right) – Gvura. Which means that Avraham gave each Angle exactly the food (spiritual food of course!)  that he needed.

And More About Angels & Zohar

Following previous post, I would like to clarify the story with “fallen angels”, i.e. the angels that took “daughters of earth” (women) and had relationships with them.

Obvious question arises – how could angles have any relationships with women if they don’t have means for such (if any) physical contact.

To understand this situation we have to look in the book of Zohar. The book of Zohar tells us that before Creator created Adam and Eve, two angels came to Him. The angles stated their case arguing that humans shouldn’t be created as they won’t be able to appreciate the enormous “shefa” (pleasure/love) that Creator is planning to give them. Yet, after listening to angles Creator did create human beings.

BTW this story is also aluded to in Torah when it talks about the creation of man, the exact phrase is “And WE shall make a man” – we in plural. Midrash tells us that when Moshe was writing Torah from HaShem, he begged not to use plural form arguing that people might twist the real meaning of it and thus sin by thinking that there is more than one force in the universe. To his statement HaShem replied – “those who want to sin, will find ways to sin”. Therefore the Torah was left with the “we” in plural to denote that HaShem consulted His angles before making the man.

Back to our fallen angels. After the man was created and humanity started to populate, people instead of worshipping HaShem started to worship idols and fell to one of the lowest spiritual levels (as the result of this state, flood took place leaving only Noach and his family). Zohar therefore tells us that when humanity fell to such low level the same angles appeared before HaShem pointing out that it was a mistake to make human beings and argued for full distraction of human life. To their argument HaShem replied: “If you think that it is so easy being human and to stay on the right path while not straying after temptations why don’t you try yourself”. As consequnce, these two angels where given human bodies and were sent down to earth. And as we can already guess, being in human body they couldn’t withstand human temptations and thus sinned with women of earth.

Angels, Demons, etc

The concept of Evil is very puzzling to people who make their first steps towards the Creator and I therefore would like to explore on a very simplistic level the source of Evil and the reason behind it.First of all let’s start from the source. It is written “I create Light and I create Darkness”, which means that the Creator is the source of both Good and Evil! Baal-HaSulam uses the famous quote from our sages “Ein od Milvado” (there is none beside Him) to denote this concept in his article in the book Shamati. In addition, Tefilin (phylacteries) that we put on left arm and our head have a hint to it – if you look closely to the box of the head (typically between base & the box) you’ll see hairs coming from within it [the hair used as string to tight the inner part of tefilin - see picture below]. According to Kabbalah hair is a sign of impurity and therefore a natural question would arise – why is it being exposed on tefilin? The answer is: the hair (i.e. impurity/source of evil) deliberately comes out from tefilin to denote the point that source of Evil (as well as source of good) is only one – the Creator, and the Creator is like this black tefilin box – perfect and completely closed from us, i.e. beyond our understanding.

Now that we’ve passed the source let’s understand the reason behind it. Many people struggle with the idea that Evil can come from Creator. Of course, how can a death of innocent child or atrocities of Natzis be possibly initiated from such Divine essence of Creator when the most fundamental thing that Kabbalists teach us is that the Creator is pure love?! Many things can be written on the topic, however I would like to bring two points on pure logical level that should address this issue.

1. The creation and possibility of Evil was necessary to create the most important factor – FREEDOM OF WILL! If there is no Evil, then there is no freedom of choice, if there is no freedom of choice we would have never been able to create Keilim and thus receive the Divine Light, and as Kabbalists teach us the whole world was created with only ONE purpose – to bestow good to Creations (”Matarat HaBriya Haita Lehativ Le-Nivaraav”)
2. If there is freedom of will, then if a person decides to exercise it, Creator has to let him do it, otherwise we go back to point one.

Now to the point of Demons. Have you ever thought about who they really are and where they came from? I hope by now the second part of the question should be answered without hesitation – everything comes from Creator, but the question still remains as to HOW they came to us.

It is written in Bereshit that HaShem decided to flood the earth when the humanity fell to its lowest state. While this was clear, what really caught my eye was the sentence that stated that “Bnei-Alokim” (i.e. the sons of HaShem) started to have relationships with women from earth. While Rashi explains that the simple meaning of Bnei-Alokim would be the sons of noble families, this explanation wasn’t of satisfactory as it was apparent to me Torah wouldn’t use the term “bnei-alokim” to refer to human beings – Torah clearly was telling us about Angels having relationship with women!!

Time passed, but I couldn’t find answers until I found a reference to the book of Chanoch (Enoch in English). The story of Enoch is very interesting – in Bereshit, Torah tells us that HaShem Himself (!) took Enoch from earth when he was 365 years old. Commentators point out that his death was unexpected as typical lifespan of people on earth at that time was 900+ years. There are disagreements to the reason that HaShem decided to take Enoch in such “early age” but I don’t want to touch on them here.

Apparently Enoch left a manuscript in which he elaborates on this point of Bereshit. He describes that at that time Angels had relationships with women and that women bore their children, which were born giants, also referred to as Nepilim in Midrash.  It is interesting that the word Nepilim means “to fall” – i.e. people fell on their faces when they saw Napilim, and my suspicion is that this happened not only because of their might height, but also due to their nature. These Nepilim and their descendents are some of the demons that many scriptures refer to.

It is unfortunate that Judaism isn’t accepting the book of Enoch as reliable source and therefore its original text which was in Hebrew is lost and we only have translations from it. Yet, it is fascinating scripture that describes Nepilim as well as the story of Enoch – specifically his transformation from Human to Angel. The script as well as other sources maintains that Enoch ascended to Heavens and become The Angel of Face, i.e. the Angel that has the authority to give orders on behalf of the Creator Himself – the only angel of this kind. It is also interesting to know that his new name “Metatorn” has gematriya of “Shadai” – HaShem’s name that literally means “She Amar Dai” – “One who said Enough”, i.e. One who defined limits within endless Spiritual realm.

If you can read Russian, I highly recommend this article which has comprehensive coverage on Angels: http://toldot.ru/rus_angelologija.php