Otzros Chaim 1: Introduction | Rabbi Joey Rosenfeld

[00:00:00]And so on the one hand we have to keep that in mind that ultimately every Jew, every person, every nishama has full access to the deepest to the deepest elements of Torah. Just as we have the responsibility to learn nigglo, we also have the responsibility to learn ntora and that in the future for whatever this might mean a person will be asked about their capacity to have studied nigglo and they'll also be asked if they studied pineia satra if they were disha and not only that but there's a medish that the leash brings that the main question ultimately in the future is going to be did you spend time learning pineia satur Torah, did you really try and understand the sheer com of the shape through which Hashem reveals himself?

[00:00:50]And so is not something that's relegated only to those who know and those who have access. Maybe once upon time it was, but nowadays it's incumbent on each person to understand the basic dynamics, the basic structure that the Arizal was giving us. the full picture of the Arizal system and for that we have to look at his main student to become the Kubalim is certainly not what we're doing right the goal is not to to become people through this year necessarily who try and reach levels or try and you know claim to have knowledge of the concepts and ways beyond what I want to try and do is really give a general introduction general introduction >> how to make a We're not going to learn how to make a golem. That's say for session.

[00:01:42]>> But um but the goal is going to be to give us a general picture that will then help us understand a lot of the terms and conditions and ideas that we know already, right? somebody who learns or somebody who learns the mag or the Tanya or Aman someone who earns the G it's a someone who learns from we're we're exposed already to the ideas that are given over by the Arizal there's really nobody who has read some sort of makava or that hasn't been exposed to the concepts of the Arizal so there is still a lot of concern over people feeling that they have the ability to dive in and claim the mantle of mystic or cabalist because arrogance is always a terrible thing and it's the aiat is arrogance and ga and so when it comes to knowledge that some people don't have access to and to think that I now know what other people don't know the risk is that that they will create some element of ga the bashtov on his deathbed on his deathbed the bashtov said and he screamed out ali don't bring me god forbid to a place of ga we're talking about the balento who had reached every spiritual level who had refined himself to such a remarkable degree but at the same point the same concern was always the concern ga not to get stuck in our own minds not to think that we have and they don't or we know and they don't as long a person is entering in with the proper intentions then the words of the Arizal through his student of Vital are are not only going to be informative but they're going to be healing because as the explains the reason for the revelation of these teachings in the time that they were revealed was not because of deservedness. It wasn't because of some spiritual perfection that we had reached. It was actually the opposite. It was in accordance with the severity of the times and the darkening quality of the times and the intensity of concealment and hiddenness that made it necessary for these teachings to be revealed that their medicine that stand in contrast to the bull to the confusion of this world. It used to be enough with Shami that would be enough to clarify all of the denim and the kipos and the concealment in the world and then that wasn't enough. So we had to become exposed to tal bavi and the bavi is more intense. The bavi is where a person has to really engage in an immense amount of work to break through the kipos to break through all forms of concealment. But at a certain point you know our eyes grew tired and our hearts grew weary and even that wasn't enough. So, Hashem revealed to us the light of the Arizal, the light of the Arizal's Torah, Arisal's yard site, similar to what we're talking about, right? You have tish and in order to properly deal with the tish, you have to have a right before that, which is the art site of the Arizal, right? That without the Torah, we don't have the ability to go into exile properly. We don't have the ability to make sense out of exile. It's pineia satur that gives us the ability to make sense out of exile and to see the process of concealment as something other than despair inducing. And so there's a necessity of entering into the words of the sadikim especially vital. Now without going into too much of the textual history of it is a unique safer in the sense that it is seen as a real introductory safer that conveys the general shape of the sedraulus without many of the complicating particular points that are expressed in the other most important safer calledisha right which is also from the teachings of vital was the main student of the Arizal then compiled later on by Ra Paparishio Ganolenu is part of a much larger group of writings referred to as the Schma which you may have seen in red or white and different shelves and it's less organized. It brings every time like imagine if you have a map from up here all the way down here but every time you touch a certain point on the map there's all these details and all these extending so even though you're trying to hold your place on the map nevertheless there's a lot of kind of deviations away from the map that go into deeper concepts so it's harder for a person to really hold the innermost point was seen as being a safer that conveyed the innermost most kernel or the skeletal system of the system of the Arizal without a lot of the not secondary but additional pieces and concepts that may take a person away from getting kind of the clarified picture was a safer that was nignazim vital did not want to publish it in his lifetime he actually buried it and I believe it was buried with him and then through various historical kind of nissim they felt that they had permission from Shmayim to reveal these writings and to publish them. Now this is the the only thing that I want to point out means the storehouses of life right the storehouses of life vital his name is and also vital in in Italian means vital right the vitality vital is the is the the the fountain of vitality what's the connection between and with Vital ultimately it's that the Arisal had a very specific goal in mind when he came to reveal his teachings. The Arizal wanted to rectify the historic mistake of eating from the eight sadas to right Marishon parttook of the of the Sadas.

[00:07:51]The eight sadas is a descent away from clarified wisdom and certainty and a descent into doubt into two-sidedness.

[00:08:01]Right? The biggest issue in the world, no matter how we slice it, is coming to think that there's two rather than one.

[00:08:07]Right? That there's more than one thing in existence.

[00:08:11]Tells us that there's to there's ra there's this and that. And once there's this and that, we're already outside the realm of unity.

[00:08:20]is the revelation of unity. It's the giloy of the fact that all that exists is all that exists is the infinite light of and the essential infinite light of Hashem. But that's very difficult. It's very difficult to say that all that exists is light of because we touch and we smell and we see and we hear and we experience and we encounter all sorts of not only separation but multiplicity.

[00:08:50]Right? Separation and multiplicity are connected to each other but not the same thing. Separation means something is now separate. Multiplicity means that now there's multiples of something. So you can't have multiplicity without separation. But ultimately we see there's a lot of difference and darkness in the world. And so the real question is if Hashem's infinite unity is all that exists, then how could it be that we find ourselves in a world that appears so broken in a world that appears so fragmented, separate, measured, judgmental, dark, concealed, covered over, etc., etc. Wonderful also, but a mixed bag.

[00:09:30]Cabala of the Arizal comes to answer the question of how the many emerge from the one. How particularity and multiplicity and difference can come from within Hashem's unity but at the same point never be outside of Hashem's unity.

[00:09:48]It's how things come into being, how worlds and existence unfolds, how details emerge, how specifics take shape. But at every step of the way, there's the secret that you're still holding on to the infinite light wherever you are in the system. And this is his radical attempt to answer the question of how does infinite give birth to finite. More often than not, the answer is you get rid of the infinite and you find the finite or you only hold on to the infinite and you deny the finite. Right? Those are the two options. Either all that exists is infinitude and therefore anything finite or measured is not real or all that exists is finite and measured and the infinite is not real. Those were the two options. Both of those are referred to in different forms of heresy. Right?

[00:10:39]There's kofer the denial of the essence and kotates cutting the cords. Somebody who feels that all that exists is the infinite light of but denies this worldly existence. That's referred to as [clears throat] kare. They're denying the most important point which is that Hashem wants to reveal himself down here in this world. Somebody who only takes this world and cuts themselves off from the infinite light above. That's called spinos. That's where they're cutting the cords and they're only taking the low thing without attaching themselves to the upper realm. The job of the Arizal was to teach us how to hold both at the very same time. How to understand that the infinite light remains the infinite light and that no matter what changes appear to be taking place, there's no actual change that's taking place.

[00:11:27]Because infinitude in its truest sense is unchangeable and indivisible. But at the very same point there is the secret that Hashem desired to reveal himself through many expressions, many different names, many different worlds, many different parts, many different extensions of his light, many different rectifications.

[00:11:48]And so we have unity and multiplicity.

[00:11:51]And what the is coming to teach us is how when you're holding on to all of the port points and the parts, you have to also remember that the infinite light is still there. And when you're thinking about the infinite light, you have to keep in mind that it also takes into consideration all of the worlds that are going to follow. This was what the Arizal came to do. As we're going to see, [clears throat] as I understand it, the whole system is how does infinitude and finite relate to one another without either side losing its truth.

[00:12:23]Right? Without either side losing its truth to take both at the same time. And we'll get to the reason for that and why that's important and why according to the Arizal God desired such a way of revelation. Why couldn't he just have revealed himself above without going below? But we're going to see that ultimately this process is going to bring us in contact with the many shapes, sizes, and different vessels and worlds that Hashem chooses to reveal himself to us.

[00:12:56]Everyone with me?

[00:12:58]Okay.

[00:12:59]So, vital is coming to restore us to a place of is coming to restore us to a place of unity.

[00:13:12]Is unity life is the ability to see the world through its true lens which is death is period. Death is separation.

[00:13:25]Death is The biggest thing in this world that makes us feel like there's a split, right? There's life and there's death.

[00:13:32]There's light and there's darkness.

[00:13:34]Theim is coming to remind us that in truth everything is still contained with Hashem's infinite light. That's why it's why it's why it's because the Arizal wanted to give us life. Isal wanted to bring redemption.

[00:13:50]And redemption is fundamentally tied up with the revelation of the secrets of Torah. Because the more we come to realize the unity of Hashem, the more the concealment of this world loses its intensity. The more we're able to laugh at the world, the more we're able to call a bluff on the world's aggressiveness and thickness and severity. Right? That's what the as I understand it is. is a big joke book.

[00:14:18]This is how I understand it. And and it's not for not that who was the who was the was the according to numerous and the was born in he was forced to leave and where did he go? He went to Egypt and in Egypt he studied under of Betal Ashkanazi the shittita makubetsas.

[00:14:48]Legend has it that the Arizal took shape in writing the shita mubetas on kulin which I don't think exists. And then during his time there, the Arizal would go and be mited on the banks of the Nile River with the Zorakadesh and he would be Matah himself and learn with such intensity along with his nigla until Alio Anavi came and started revealing to him the deeper understandings of these words in the Zar and ultimately the Arizal was to behold what would eventually become the system of the Arizal. Now it's not for not that this took place.

[00:15:28]It's on the banks of the Nile River, right? That that seems to be the strangest place for the deepest light to come out. But this is the way it goes.

[00:15:36]First the person is exiled from your first you have to be kicked out of Ganedan. Then you go to outside of Ganedan. You go to the banks of the Nile River. And it's specifically there that you come to realize ah everything that appeared to be two is in truth one. And then the Arizal left and he came to which is the place of the light of goodness and hiddenness.

[00:16:02]And when Vital showed up, the Arizal says, "I've been waiting for you my entire life." And we were for I believe two and a half years or two and a quarter years. when the Arizal after telling the Tamim in numerous ways that Daven for me so that Mashiah Ben not die and after certain revelations and Vital pushed his Rebi to give him teachings and the Arizal felt that his time was over and we weren't Za to the final gillium of the Arizal had we been to a few extra years that Sadikim tell us that the Arizal would have been Za to teach all of his teachings in accordance to Niglo Satra Sh would be revealed to be what it truly is, which is a code of godliness, right? And but unfortunately, we weren't to it. But the the year that the Arizal that everybody was fervently expecting Msiah was I believe alfin was when they wanted right was when they wanted the to come. But the Arizal died in Gimmel. He died two years earlier. But the way that the sadik can read it is that don't be afraid of the snow because the house is kind of covered over covered over in warmth.

[00:17:33]>> Shinlama, right? Shin lo, right?

[00:17:36]Shinlama was when he was when he died, right? 400 years ago about. Don't be afraid of the fact that the died two years early because don't read it as kind of scarlet robes but rather as two meaning to say that the Arizal was going to return in two expressions and ultimately don't be afraid that the Arizal didn't finish his job of teaching pania in accordance to the lowest vessels because the and were going to come along later and kind of bring the Torah down to the place that it had to get to. But the goal was always redemption. The goal was always always redemption.

[00:18:20]And when you look at and and we're not going to be looking at it right now, but if you look at the introduction of Vital to I heard from Moshhat, you should live and be well that if you really understand this is Vital writing as a 30-year-old mourning the passing of his Rebi. And basically you can read it as a eulogy. You can also read it as a claim of our Rebi told us that if we do the thing that he was teaching us, if we're able to learn the things that he was teaching us, then we can bring guem.

[00:18:53]So then why is it not working and what's the problem? And ultimately explains that people are too still afraid of hiddenness and they're too associated with nigla in this world. And ultimately there'll come a time where everybody's learning these ideas. But this is the this is the avoid to to tap into the light of the Arizal the who came to teach us a joke. The joke is that Hashem hides himself.

[00:19:19]And the punch line is that Hashem even though he hides himself, he's still revealed, right? The joke is Hashem hiding himself. The punchline of the joke is Hashem revealing that he's always been here. So it's inappropriate to laugh at a joke until the punchline is told. And the punch line hasn't been told yet. The punch line is told with mashiach which is and in the midst of it right now what we have is at least the knowledge that we're in the middle of a joke right which comes back to the fact that ultimately what kabala teaches a person is how not to take life too seriously not to take the concealment of this world too seriously not to take all of the details and the particularities and the frightening things too seriously it's ore kabala is an ore it reveals the light of hashem within everything that appears to be the opposite which is measure and and systems andus learning these ideas number one we should become far more familiar with ultimately what all of the later generations are basing themselves on right if we want to learn properly if you want to understand the Torah of in a clear way from the to learn properly to learn properly to learn to learn the writings properly. The person has to have a and the basic understandings and the system of the person has to know what these terms mean because they're real things. They mean real concepts. When a person contemplates these concepts, they become not only psychological coping mechanisms that help in this world, but they become real experiences.

[00:20:59]When we study these words, we're awakening to one degree or another the reality of these ideas in the place that they exist. We don't know how they exist or in what way they exist. Obviously, we'll come to that in a second. But the reading down here is making an awakening above, a deep awakening above. So, that leads me to my second introduction, which is ultimately what we're not talking about.

[00:21:26]There's a a very dangerous thing that happens when you start talking about Hashem, when you start talking about the way in which Hashem reveals himself. Because the one thing that the Torah comes to teach ultimately is that God has no shape and God has no image and God has no limit and God has no boundary. And anytime you apply any of those categories or concepts to the infinite light of God, you're already falling into the territory of heresy.

[00:21:56]Because by measuring or limiting, you're implying that there's a certain shape to God, which means that there's a certain place that he is and a certain place that he is not. And if you've already kind of created this separation of where he is and where he is not. So then you've minimized the true infinite light of a kadesh to name something to give shape to something is to domesticate it right to weigh it to bag it to know exactly how much it is that's how I take ownership over something. There's an idolatrous impulse that rests within human condition which wants to make something graspable. But when it comes to God, God is in graspable. God is ungraspable. His essence is beyond human graspability. There was the notion that maybe human beings can attach themselves to a that be holy like me. And I'll say, Hashem responds to that claim. Don't think that don't make a mistake when it says be holy like me.

[00:22:57]You can be as holy as me. You can reach my level of infinitude. No.

[00:23:04]My holiness as Hashem will always and forever be beyond your holiness. Meaning to say as it's explained in Hashem's infinitude and all-incclusive perfection will always be beyond human grasp. Always and forever in the future in the future's future and the future that comes after that. There will never be any type of absolute unity or cleaving of us as creatures with the infinite light of the creator on a level that's equal.

[00:23:38]Every level of grasp will ultimately serve to reveal that Hashem is slightly higher than our ability to grasp it. So that what remains fundamentally true is that we don't have a grasp of the infinite essence of akadesh.

[00:23:53]What cababala comes to teach us is that even though we can't grasp the essence of a kadeshu so to speak nevertheless we can begin to utilize language to speak towards that place to gesture towards that place and in so doing in gesturing and speaking towards that place and then coming back and realizing what we're not saying we actually create vessels for ourselves to be able to experience that light. Everybody with me? As describes in Torah 24 that there's an infinite light that is beyond reach and beyond grasp. Beyond reach and beyond grasp. And in spite of the fact that there is an infinite light beyond reach and beyond grasp, the mind perpetually is in a state of an attempt to run after it and to catch it. And even though the mind knows that it is incapable of catching it, nevertheless, it continues to run upwards touching and not touching. And in so doing, in that running and retreating, the attempt to know and then returning back to the knowledge that I can't know, we create space. We create that are not we create engravings and kind of circles of awareness where even though I can never grasp you, at least I know how little I can actually grasp you. Because now that I'm trying to grasp you and I come to a place of realizing that I have to surrender, at least I come to know you in a deeper way.

[00:25:18]Everybody with me?

[00:25:20]>> Now the Torah Hakadosha does this, right?

[00:25:26]This is not this is not an issue with the obviously anthropomorphism, the natural human tendency to apply human shape or human terms and conditions to something infinite is again the oldest impulse in the book.

[00:25:41]It's the idolatrous impulse that the Torah comes to speak against. Right?

[00:25:46]Once there's an I reveal myself to you. That's the biggest secret of existence that the infinite light reveals itself down here.

[00:25:54]The one time that took place in a real formidable way that left a lasting impression forever was matan Torah. That was infinite light above coming down here below. But the moment Hashem reveals himself is the moment we have to be on guard of because the moment you start talking about God is the moment you fall into the territory of the possibility of idolatry. The idolatrous impulse again is the desire to domesticate the infinite to make the infinite something finite that can be grasped measured and held under our power. As the misho points out with regards to parro that parro stood at top his god the Nile river while Mosha Aenu stood beneath and received from Hashem and the me explains here in lies the entire psychology of faith versus idolatry. Faith is willing to suspend and surrender any attempt at actual grasp and to live in the natural imperfection of being a creature and to yearn from that place versus arrogance or anger which seeks out real measurement and the ability to domesticate my god. That was idolatry that I can bag it and tag it. I hold it.

[00:27:10]I know the measure of it. I know its weight. I know how much it weighs. I don't have to be afraid of it. That's like the totem theory of religion.

[00:27:17]Yiddish kite is always coming to remind us that there is no idol, there is no image. So when the Torah talks about the eyes of Hashem or the ears of Hashem or the or or the hand of we run into a major issue, but this is obviously we have numerous ways of dealing with this. One of the most profound statements is ultimately what himself says that the Torah speaks according to the human mind. How else do you want Hashem to reveal himself? What else is he supposed to do? Revelation means revelation. If you wanted to remain caught up in concealment, so then there'll be nothing. But revelation means it's going to be seen in human terms. But obviously obviously the thing that we have to keep in mind at every moment is that when we discuss terms and conditions and shapes and names and measure a we are never talking about the infinite essence of God that does not ever enter into the conversation. It's always everywhere revealed. Obviously it's in truth all that actually exists. The limitation we're talking about is graspability, knowledge, awareness, consciousness, grasp. Right? We're not saying the infinite essence of God is absent at any given moment. We're talking about the limitations of human grasp because ultimately the mind is the most important place in this world. And so number one, everything we say is always already a level below the thing that we can't talk about.

[00:28:41]fundamentally connected to the thing that we can talk about but nevertheless separate from it so that we don't run into the same problem. And number two is that anytime we speak about names or measures or parts of him oros, they're real but not real at the same time. meaning to say they're they're they're meant to appear as holding devices, as something other than the infinite light of Hashem that serves as like this concealment container with different names and different potencies.

[00:29:12]But all of that is only from an external perspective where things and matter and form and separation seems to congeal and separate itself from the flow of Hashem's light. But at its core, on the quantum level of it, what one comes to realize is that even the vessels, even the worlds, even that which appears to be separate from a kadesh at its deepest core is nothing but the thickening, the impossible thickening and appearing that akadesh wills into existence. So number one, the names and the vessels and the parts and theos and the limitations are never talking about that which is unlimited in its truest sense.

[00:29:50]And even when these terms and conditions do apply, they're not nearly as thick or separate from godliness as we consider them to be. Right? There's no mindbody dualism when it comes to the depth of pineia satura. We don't see the light and the vessel as something separate from itself. There's a point of convergence where at its very most delicate stage, existence is nothing but the externalization and the congealment of divine light. But then once it descends down into separation and gets covered over by husks and layers, we can no longer point to the table and say, "Oh, that's godliness because God wills this world into existence and wants it to be separate and apart from the infinite light of godliness. And this table is a table and it's not God in a revealed way. And this book is a book and I'm also a person and the land is the land, etc., etc." And so it's forbidden at this point to come and say all that exists is God. All that exists exists within God. It's never outside the realm of God, but it's not identifiable with God.

[00:30:51]The only way that we're able to transform this worldliness into a place that it can actually become a vessel for an experience with God is once we go through the prerequisites of burim clarifications working through the broken vessels down here or the bashto's secret formula of minimizing separating and then eventually sweetening. And we'll come to all of these distinctions again when we talk about the difference between the worlds and especially when it comes to the world of breeds here in that will be later on.

[00:31:29]When it comes to this limud as the leash writes in the hakama it's impossible to know what all the terms and conditions mean at the beginning right sometimes a person has to suspend judgment and allow themselves to not know so that they can actually pick up some ground. It's ridiculous why it's a big deal for me to be teaching only because we could be inos our entire lives once a person learns so you never really get past the orients the infinite life prior to the sum and then you know you don't go through the system and so what we're going to do is we're going to read what the vital wrote and I'm going to give some elements of explanation based on sir and we'll meet the mafim throughout the way right part of this is also going to be not just the textuality of of it, but the history because the system of living and the commentators and the schools of thought and the not there's no and but there is there's different that are all looking at things from a different perspective that through that if you utilize lumbus and utilize when it comes to these limudim especially like the leash did he was like the brisker of of the kit What you find is that it's it's the deepest most rewarding experience of Torah in the world.

[00:32:53]And so we'll start slow and we'll we'll start in a in a very careful way and and again ultimately my my interest is to try and and and give a shir but also to give a kabura, right? So I'm not interested necessarily in being the only person that's talking. I want there to be clarifications of the points. I'm going to hold and and retain quote unquote power to kind of redirect if things are going off course cuz the goal of this is ultimately going to be to understand what the is saying through his students of right. It's easy to take one word and get lost a thousand miles away and that's Torah also but for here we're going to try and keep it in the text and we'll see where we can get to and through the Oio of the we'll be able to be able to go from a into a armed with the knowledge that is in the process that's what is revealing to uses is in the process and so tonight I just want to read two lines and then make Any time for questions?

[00:33:58]What time is it?

[00:34:00]>> 55.

[00:34:01]>> What?

[00:34:02]>> 55.

[00:34:02]>> Okay, perfect. Yeah, it'll be'll be an hour or so or or longer. But tonight we'll go we'll I can answer any questions if there are any but we'll read just so that we can read the words of and we'll talk also I'm going to I'll print out I I don't know there's so many copies of this is the safer that throughout history when there was the development of kabali yeshivos right which is primarily the innovation of the sardi school of kabala like betel and nahar shalom and and all of these different yeshivos I don't know exactly the timing but at a certain point Orbach who was the the father of the father of Mazam and Orbach had a dream and he went out to meet his friend and his friend had the same dream and they realized that it was time to open up an Ashkanazi Kabali first one was Shayim which is uh learned there and learned there and all of the that we're familiar with Mat Zilber. They all learned there because official Eisenbachu was the rashiva. But at that point there was a certain barrier that had broken down that now Ashkanazim were becoming exposed to Sattorra which also to one degree or another meant the merging of Lumis and Sara and Orisa with a really technical system. Right? Prior to kind of the innovation of there were many people who would look at the those who were technically going through the entire system of the Arizal and say well you know the machine well but there's a a deficiency in the light in the it's not shining forth this is why mashia didn't come yet. So that's why it's so important to always whenever we're talking about the Arizal at this point we're also talking about the baltov before the baltov you could have spoken about the Arizal without the bashto you could have but once the bashto comes into existence we can no longer separate the two says that in a state of drowning the comes and tries to lift them up by their shoulders referencing to the head and he's not strong enough or that's not strong enough and so the balent comes in addition to the Arizal and lifts us up by our hearts and through the two of them we have the ability of kind of being brought out of exile and so >> what's >> yeah he's like is you know he's a he's a gives you this >> it's an extension of these all these other during the >> back then yeah the Ashkanazi mahalik well no the truth of the matter is that one there's a very real Zarim and a real developmental field of of Lithuanian Cabala Kabala of the Vil Nagon the when the Arizal Arizal was the the nahar hayan righted and the river that flowed out of that nahar was the light of the Arizal and it split into four heads and these were four sadikim who lived very close in time and they represent the four pathways of the light of the all coming into the world. One isami the rash, one was Kramer the one was the and one was each of them developed their own school. For me, my bias is ultimately right that and that is like the once we accept upon ourselves that is like the light that a person will receive from the cabala of the rash and the of the and the kabala of the is a light that is far brighter than anything you can get by only learning the but it's still with the memory that all of these different are all returning back to the which is and drawing the down into this world by way of bit and real. But the vilon wrote more more extensively and more intensely on cabala and the depth of cabala than than really nearly any of the students of the balmto.

[00:38:22]I mean there's comp comparable but the GR's Torah and the GR students is a world unto itself and it's it's the Torah the GR that brings that brings but ultimately it has to be seen as well in the in the light of the the were always learning the BMT there's there's old misra and ravich's make a big le that the yeshiv of kabala were always you know they were learning they just didn't have access to all of the writings they were also learning the girl right there were also thema quotes from the so in the realm of pim there's no it's a Torah and our job is to see it as such right where the goal is to come and see how all of the all of this I had a rem once that mean that your name should be made whole through what is shalom Moshe is and which represents these four sadikim who came down to to give us this light you had a question Everybody no question.

[00:39:23]>> Where's the ramach?

[00:39:25]>> Ah, very good.

[00:39:26]>> So the fits in the just the ramach site, right? It's important. The ramach is everything because the Arizal thank you.

[00:39:33]The Arizal didn't come out of thin air, right? This is also there's a myth that the Arizal came out of thin air and that some of the ideas like contraction of infinite light, shattering of the vessels that we don't find precedence to this. It's not true. It's not true. The safer brisman and various others farm trace the process through which panemia satur was given over up to and including Mosherenu and Hari. Right. Mosher Rabenu gives it over to to Ley and slowly but surely it goes underneath until we find until we find it showing itself first and foremost by Rabbi.

[00:40:13]Aka was the one who was dyish of Shirashirim whose eyes would you know he would sob and he would be the sod of the we find there right and you have remarkable literature of about the who would be you know very meditative very celestial meditation on wheels and of but ultimately all for the sake of entering into inner chambers to do one thing and one thing alone to behold the image of God so to speak to grasp the image of God. Ah there can be no image.

[00:40:51]Nevertheless, there was the desire to grasp the image that was imageless.

[00:40:55]Right?

[00:40:57]to behold the presence of but ultimately was the one who after the death of his we see that it expresses itself within the revealed trajectory of of Torah which is where comes from and then [clears throat] gives us the zora kadesh and the zor kadesh becomes the root source of all future cababalistic kind of understanding in between the giloy of rebishimai and the Arizal There were many many years and there were go and there were different shas in Kabala.

[00:41:31]There was the Eun school of Kabala.

[00:41:33]There was the Gona school of Kabala.

[00:41:36]There was the Ramban, right? The Ramban was someone who picked up the mantle and really continued with and teaching.

[00:41:45]Anytime you see in the isos and the well >> be here right >> by here is seen already meaning Rashi right here is seen as probably the original arguably the original cababalistic text that we have printed um before the zohor there's also safer which is referenced already in in kazal and contemplation of names uh there was also prophetic kabala that was very strong at that time a little bit later but um but it was with Rabi Shiman that we then see so there were many many different schools and many opinions but it was all kind of hidden and it wasn't revealed in any revealed or systematic type of way part of this is because these ideas were meant to be hidden when they were meant to be hidden but um but the Ramach came along a little bit before the Arizal and he also did not live very long but the Ramach came along and He compiled all of the different shitos from all of the extent manuscripts and all of the various madrashim and he kind of compiled in his pardisim kind of a a pharmacy of all of the ideas that's one of his farm he also kind of really we see that within the ramach himself is all of the germ cell of what the Arizal will say meaning you can really trace everything you see in the Arizal back into places in the ramach different places different marabasi and and different places but the ramach is fundamental but he represents kind of in between rashi and the Arizal was just this kind of placeholder of all of the collection of the wisdom that would ultimately be there for the Arizal to kind of bring it out in a new lens that make sense so the general tendency is not to learn the ramach along with the Arizal but the the real goal is to learn Raach you see the general ideas of the ramach and the ramach speaks far more clearly. It's not the ramach is very clear about the infinite light of and about nothingness.

[00:43:52]It's much less about gamatrias and names of god but um but the Arizal gives us a technology right the Arizal is giving a technology as to how to actually begin to experience these ideas and live with these ideas in a post-traumatic world right after gayishar as well as in a world that is slowly but surely kind of taking on a certain electric nature right is speaking in like a a way of being and the ramach is more giving giving the information but the two of them to two of them together is ultimately the right they're buried the ramach is buried right next to the Arizal and um and they say swarms say that the bash and the shama rests in between the two of them in that in that place thinks that and so and there's such wondrous sadikim and there's other of the generally all we have is we don't go anywhere near anything else other than there was also Another thammed of the Arizal Rais who's also kesh shakadashin and he's the one who took cababala to Italy and that ultimately unfolds into the ramat into the ram and just wonder of wonders and real real aisa real that's the goal we're going to try and really enter in so just to read a few lines and then we'll and then we'll be done for tonight the first sh in is referred to as shaim the the gate of circles the the first early stages of Hashem's revelation in this world and we're going to expose ourselves to what egulim are it's referred to as the of the original form through which reveals himself in this world.

[00:45:42]So all I want to focus on for today because next week we'll go into into the the words themselves right the writings of the Arizal are referred to as it's not just the haktama that's referred to as the all of the writings are referred to asamos or shaim gates and that's not by chance the goal of these words is to gesture towards the opening of faith and Then something happens beyond the words themselves.

[00:46:15]Right? But our job is to shed light and not to master. There is no mastery.

[00:46:19]Person can know the entire and backwards and forwards. But that's not mastery.

[00:46:24]Mastery is recognizing that however far I go, I'm still holding by the haktama.

[00:46:29]There's all just introductions after introductions after introductions helping me realize that it's endless.

[00:46:37]Right? Like the baltov says about that walk in front of me and behold and the next moment we find that is so says the once you reach the loftiest level of the loftiest level where you've completed what you need to complete the next stage is to realize that you're sitting at the gate and that you're at the opening not because you haven't gained anything but you know every ceiling is the floor of the higher level and so hakamos it's just hakamos and they should be for us to begin to become to taste of the orag and to be familiar with the Torah that is going to be right. We want to become familiar with the ideas so that we see the sadikim and we want to sit by the moim we want to sit by the basim and we want to really understand what they were saying right we don't want to just see the shab we want to understand why that is real and so we have to become familiar with the oas of the so that we can be from the of thee Okay.