Why Kabbalah Is a Secret

[00:00:00]Simon Jacobson here and we will be speaking about why Cabala is a secret.

[00:00:07]So recently the word Kabala has become very popular, fashionable.

[00:00:14]Program directors tell me that if you add Cabala to the title of a class or to the subject line in an email, you get many more visitors and many more attendees most likely.

[00:00:35]So what is it about the Cabala that intrigues people?

[00:00:40]Perhaps you can say it may be connected to its um aura of mystique, the secret nature of Kabala that it was always studied in in secret.

[00:00:54]But what exactly is Kabala? And I would even say what exactly is a secret for that matter?

[00:01:01]And we like the exotic. We like the exotica things that are not obvious.

[00:01:07]Some people feel it's like a refreshing u breath of air that they're doing something that's out of the ordinary.

[00:01:17]There's the regular regimen and boring tedious monotony of our lives and here you are secrets the deeper secrets.

[00:01:26]But I think what we really need to discuss is what exactly is a secret and what why are some things hidden and I think through that we can understand the deeper meaning and even the surprising secret of what kabala really is. So that's what I'll be addressing.

[00:01:44]And um essentially going on a journey into like there was a journey 30 le 30,000 leagues under the sea or 30,000 leagues under the earth. So we're going on a journey. This is not a physical journey. It's a spiritual journey to plum the deeper recesses of our psyches of the cosmos to understand ourselves in a different way by looking at that which is we'll call it the secret part of our lives. Now I know for some people the word secret conjures up all kinds of negative things the ugly stuff the stuff we're ashamed of the stuff we do in private when no one sees. But as we will discussing we will be discussing there is that element but the sh the true secrets and the true hidden mysteries of our psyches our souls and we'll call it traveling into the heart of our inner beings. in your psyche is actually quite fascinating. Just like when you travel and you you you see today we have cameras that go deep under the sea or deep into caves and sub subterranean caverns and you discover this fascinating life that's there. Even the forces that shape life above the ground.

[00:03:01]We can think of a volcano being almost like a door that opens up from the belly of earth and the hot lava and the tremendous heat that flies at the center of our earth core at the core and then you see it explode and and erupt and um you get that sense like the geysers in Yellowstone Park and uh you can also say psychologically when sometimes we have an eruption and we have a expression whether it could be anger or can be profound joy that also reveals and opens up something from our inner belly of our own being and uh as I've always talked about as in contrast to Freudian classic Freudian thought that at the heart the belly of the human being is a beast the id we go with an approach and I take this is based on a universal Torah psychological approach that the the belly of who you are is not a beast is actually an angel a beautiful comp elements that are waiting to be released. So we're going to talk about this and the whole idea of secrets and the hidden and through that come back and understand why is kabala secret. So I'll begin with a very simple analogy. We talk about secrets interesting paradox and that is that when someone asks you about the weather or to speak about sports or about the economy or about Trump or about any other lightning rod of our times, we usually have a lot to say.

[00:04:41]People talk talk. You see talk radio, people talking, gossiping, conversations about superficial things that really don't have necessarily much meaning and not definitely not life and death significance. And we can talk and talk.

[00:04:54]We have a lot of words.

[00:04:56]Just turn on [clears throat] a radio, turn on a TV, go into the internet and just see the the gab, the gab, right?

[00:05:03]The jab, what do they call it? The jabber.

[00:05:07]>> Jabber yas.

[00:05:09]>> The yentas. It's called the constant the flow of conversation.

[00:05:15]When someone comes by contrast and asks you, tell me about yourself.

[00:05:20]Tell me about the real you. What makes you tick the inner part of yourself, of your psyche. You'll find that people have very few words. Not only because they don't trust someone to share with them, but even with people we trust, we don't have many words. or lack of words when it comes to deeper experiences, which seems like an oddity. It seems like a ironic actually because when it comes to self, the thing you know most, the thing that's closest to you, the thing that matters most to you, the things you love, the things you don't love, the needs you have, the inner needs, it would seem that you have a lot to say because this is like what you really live with. The things that really matter, the things that give you bring you happiness, the things that cause you sadness, your psychological sense of self, your fears, your confidences, your insecurities, the whole works. We find very few words. But when it comes to these superficial things, we can talk and talk and talk and talk. How much can we talk about the weather? Endless. Some people actually find it great because it's a great distraction. We have nothing else to talk about. I could always say, you know what? Let's talk about the weather. It was going to snow.

[00:06:34]It didn't snow. It may snow. There's always tomorrow. Didn't snow. It's going to turn cold. Oh, so cold. Never seen so much cold. Then comes the heat. I mean, great. And then all the other superficial nonsense that we can go on and on and on about.

[00:06:55]I have nothing against sports. We all love sports, but look, I'm a sports radio. I sometimes listen just to see how millions of people what they're preoccupied with.

[00:07:06]And even out of the season, there's the trading season and then there's the postseason and there's the preseason and then there's the season and then there's analysis and this mistake and that mistake. All about what a game that makes really no difference in anything that really matters in life. So it's not just the game now. The game has a whole culture around the game and analysis before the game and after the game. And they they march all the experts of of ex-coaches, football coaches to analyze and halftime reports and postgame reports and pregame reports. The Super Bowl is coming. That's a whole culture of its own. A whole day, a whole week, for some people it's a whole month, etc., etc., etc. Let's talk about ourselves. Let's talk about our state of happiness. [snorts] We don't have much to say real things.

[00:07:55]Okay, some people say, "Well, that's why I go to a therapist. I pay a therapist to listen to me.

[00:08:01]Most people are not interested what's going on inside of me." But it's more than that. We really find less words when we have to express a deeper thing.

[00:08:09]Why is that? So, I've discussed this many, many times. It's a fascinating paradox, but it reveals an unbelievable truth that's always vital to hold on to.

[00:08:19]And here's the rule.

[00:08:21]The deeper the experience, the less tools and instruments do we have to express that experience. The more casual, the more shallow the experience, the more expression there is. To use the language of the cabalists, talk about the mystics, the cabalists, cabala.

[00:08:38]Where there's greater light, there's less containers. Where there's more containers, there's less light.

[00:08:45]Because the intensity of a deeper intimate feeling does simply cannot be contained by just conventional language.

[00:08:55]So we talk about things that don't have much so-called light and energy in it.

[00:08:59]You can go on and on and on. But we talk about something that had let's say a very deep impact on you. Let's speak both positive and negative. A tremendously positive joyous moment moment of awe a magical moment. And someone say explain describe it. You'll say it's beyond description. That's usually the words we use. We can't really describe it. It's indescribable.

[00:09:20]You had to be there. You have to see it for yourself. You have to experience it yourself. That doesn't mean we have any words. But we don't have many words because it's the the intensity of the experience far overwhelms so to speak and like it's like pouring uh a liquid that completely overwhelms the container in which you want to use because the intensity of the experience is so much more powerful. The same thing the negative trauma describe trauma describe your feelings even after time it comes very difficult we can burst out crying and we see when people experience trauma they have no words they can't even cry because there's no expression we'll soon talk about that some more so that's the interesting thing the deeper the experience the more real it is the more intimate it is the less containers you have to describe it so what do we do to describe a more intense experience We use the language of metaphor. Could be poetry, could be music, song, other forms of expression. You say, you know what? Instead of me describing to you, let me sing you a song or let me paint for you. I'll draw for you an image. Then try a visual that will capture that experience. And when that's inadequate, the metaphor language, well, then we resort to sometimes just one word. You'll say o can contain more than entire volumes of books when it comes from the guts of your kishkas from the inner.

[00:10:47]Or we say ouch or we say oh my god again positive and negative very short one-word expressions and then they're experienced that even one word expression is too much of a container and sometimes silence like I said shock when you're shock you can't even cry that's why in traumat in the catharsis necessary to heal you need the stage of shock then you need to help somebody cry and express their grief and then go on. God forbid anyone going through anything like this. Why? Because [snorts] the experience is so intense.

[00:11:23]There's no sound. Even sound alone, even the cry or the laugh is just simply too much.

[00:11:32]So basically it goes exact disproportion to each other. The more the more energy light, the less container. The more container, the less light. And look at the human body and you see it very clearly. Which part of the body has the most intense concentrated amount of energy and um and faculties?

[00:11:54]The head. The head has the brain. It has our s the olofactory, our smell. It has our sound, our ears. It has our sight.

[00:12:03]Has our mouth. Basically, the primary senses and the functions of the human being are all concentrated in this head.

[00:12:12]Now that doesn't mean other parts of the body don't have functions. And the head relatively is the smallest part of the body as you travel down the torso. So yes, we have the heart, we have the liver, we have the lungs, we have the diaphragm, we have the kidneys, we have other forces elements, we have our arms, but there compare that to the functions in the head. They're far less intense.

[00:12:35]They're necessary. They're far more functional. They're not as ethereal.

[00:12:40]The major part of a human being's function I don't know way basically the hard drive is right over here the central nervous system and it's the smallest part the torso is double maybe triple the size of the head and then the legs which have the least amount of organs or their legs yes there's the genitals there's other elements there the legs of course have muscles and tendons but as far as uh faculties goes what faculty do legs have not many and there have the body so the legs are half the torso you could say is let's say another a half of the more than a half you could say if I mean this is just average I'm just calculating if you say the legs are around 50% of the human being a little more maybe maybe 60% I would say then 30% is the or 25% would be the torso and the head would be the less the less last 15% 15% 25 and 60 something like that there you have it. The more the contain, the more the energy, the less the smaller the container.

[00:13:47]So there you have the anatomy of what a secret is. A secret really is not just we keep a secret because it's confidential or it's a trade secret or we're ashamed of it or we don't want anyone stealing it or whatever all the other reasons. A real secret, the secrets that we carry, that lay buried in our hearts, in our inner insides, are the things that are least expressable.

[00:14:09]But we live in a world of expression.

[00:14:12]Like Madison Avenue cynics will say, it's not what happened. It's not important what happened. It's important what people think happened. It's the spin. It's the, you know, after a president speaks or some of this, right away the spinners, the spin doctors start spinning the story. It's the impression people have. How much is invested in the package and how much is invested in the product itself. You tell me, you walk down the street, Fifth Avenue, anywhere, the window dressings, the packaging, the marketing, it's not all bad, but it's basically telling you that people are attracted to externals, very expressive. You could have a lot of noise and glitz, a lot of sizzle and no stake, right? And if you think about it, many of our even pleasures and lusts and desires, think about it at the moment of the desire, it's like nothing more powerful. And then afterwards, you say to yourself, so what did I gain? I had that moment of pleasure. Nothing lasts.

[00:15:14]No fruits doesn't bear fruit. There's no next generation.

[00:15:19]I'm talking about pure hanistic pleasure obviously intimacy and sexuality that's translated in a sacred way in a family building a family then it's focused and it's being used to something greater than just personal indulgence but anything that's personally indulgent anything that is there's moments they may they may be very appealing and very seductive but there's not a lot of energy that remains from it it's what it is and then you need the next high it's like sugar a good rush very pleasant But there's no substance. We live in a world where unfortunately much of what's going on is not substance. It's the package. It looks good.

[00:15:59]Others like it makes you look good in front of others. The whole garment industry style. Even the art industry.

[00:16:06]What really determine that a piece of art should sell for $100 million is because there's an elite clientele that want to feel superior. So they created this culture. Now I'm not saying these artists aren't great men but what it could have been sold for half a million but then nothing exclusive about it. So how [snorts] much is real and how much is let's call it amplified if not exaggerated.

[00:16:32]Just to point out how we live in a world where if you use the cabalistic terminology a world with very very intense and expanded containers but sometimes very little light inside. That would be a lot of sizzle, very little steak. Where's the beef?

[00:16:49]Very many people succeed because they present well they know how their gift of gab as I mentioned. They have the way of looking. Now that doesn't mean every good presenter doesn't have anything to say. Just like the guy that said I'm just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean no one wants doesn't mean no one wants to get me. Not just because somebody's a good present doesn't mean they're selling uh nonsense. But you could sell nonsense. You could have someone that's excellent con artist manipulator emot knows how to manipulate emotions and they're selling you packages and you come home you unpack it and you say piece of garbage but it'll look good.

[00:17:27]So the secrets that we carry within us what really defines our beings are fundamentally defy natural and conventional expression.

[00:17:38]Which is why we need other language which is why we need the metaphor or the song or other forms of expression to express that which regular language label containers are not good enough. So if you have a container a little cup that's good for a certain amount of liquid. If the liquid is very very intense much more than this cup that container is not going to be sufficient.

[00:17:59]You need different types of containers not just a larger container you may need more ethereal containers. Just like someone says to you, okay, I know how to measure my blood pressure. I know how to measure the the the temperature outside, but how do you measure someone's love?

[00:18:17]You right away say, "One second, it's a good question. Are there instruments to measure love?" The answer is you you can't use a physical container because love is more ethereal. Love is more of a spiritual thing. You can't use a physical measure measure yard stick to measure a spiritual or an emotional or intellectual. Just like someone will say to you write down this table let's just let's say 2 feet wide and uh and 4t long. Okay. Eight square ft. How many apples can I put on this table? So you'll say okay an apple is let's say 5 in. So you make a measurement. Let's say I could put 100 apples on this table.

[00:19:02]Then I ask you this question. How many ideas can you fit into the mind to the brain? Now the brain is much smaller than this table. The brain is a little larger than our palm. And we all know there more than 100 ideas in our brain.

[00:19:15]More than a thousand, more than a million. And no one really knows a number. So you start thinking, okay, one second. What does that mean? It means that the ideas are not containable in a regular container. Ideas don't occupy space quite like an apple does. It occupies space but in a different way.

[00:19:31]Like if you're familiar with the mathematics 101, the first thing you learn geometry literally the first class there's a point, there's a line and there's a plane. A point does not occupy space. That's why a point there are infinite points in any given line.

[00:19:50]A line is the shortest point, the shortest way to go from one point to another point. But in the line itself, they're infinite points. And of course, the obvious question everyone asks is, what happens if it's a line, one inch line, a 2in line, a 20in line, a million mile line? Do they all have the same amount of infinite points? Something to wrap your head around. Some say yes, because a point doesn't occupy space.

[00:20:13]The fact that we make a dot on paper, that's just to give us something to hold on to.

[00:20:19]So you see there that there's a whole different way of measuring things when you're dealing with intensity like intense emotions to say okay I'm going to put my love inside of a cup that doesn't make any sense just like someone says let me touch your ideas you can't touch ideas it's not even in that world so therefore you need different type of containers much more subtle containers like I said metaphor so in a world where we measure things by by pure size and by pure weight and by length and and width and so on and depth there. Those are tangible containers and they could only contain a certain amount of energy. But when you start getting into deeper levels of energy, ideas, emotions, spirituality, love and so on, then you cannot speak in those terms. You can't use those containers are not enough.

[00:21:12]That's why conventional language doesn't work. So you need to find a new language, a language that is that that hints to things. And that's the language of the secret world of Cabala, the language of the inside world, the inner world, the inside story of our lives and of existence.

[00:21:32]So you ask what does kabala mean? You'd think kabala would be translated as secrets. So the there is a word called sod. There are four d four ways of interpreting and understanding an idea in the Torah. One is called their acronym parades which means an orchard.

[00:21:50]So parades has four letters. P is thehat means literal interpretation. That's surface level like I would say this is a table. That's there's re which is allegorical interpretation. Like this table is a metaphor for something.

[00:22:05]It's a little you see a little more subtle type of you may use the word table like a table of contents. So there it doesn't just mean a table it means an order of things. Then there is the third the pes means the talmudic the halic.

[00:22:21]This is the legal and the analy the the analysis of an idea and it in its full in full glory. And the finally is the the samak parades is sod secret secret why it's a secret it's a mystical esoteric dimension let's say within this table and it's actually four steps you can say four dimensions one rolled in the other of the same idea. So you can take an idea and say okay on the surface level it means this on a lar allegorical remotic level it means this and on a on a secret esoteric mystical level it means as follows and I'll just use an example let's say let's take water it's raining outside so rain we know is water is H2O on a shot level it's raining you put on a raincoat you protect yourself take an umbrella or rain waters the fields and makes things grow. You know whatever rain is on a stensible surface level shot level.

[00:23:26]If you go on the rema level rain you find you know raindrops keep falling on my head a beautiful song. It's used in poems. It it it has all kinds of allegorical meaning. It's a you see it in many romantic scenes, suspenseful scenes. Rain adds a dimension. It has a sentiment to it. Rain. It could be positive. It can be a little negative.

[00:23:48]It could be not so negative. It could be a little like like like a little little like foggy type of hinting to a some drama.

[00:23:57]Then you have the deeper talmudic you know rain its implications and um and what what what the the legal matters if it rains and and its technical scientific dimension to it and so on. And then there's the mystical.

[00:24:13]The mystical goes into that rain represents higher spiritual states of of a flow of kindness. Water is a flow.

[00:24:23]So you see that you look at it, you can see on the surface of you can think the body level and there's the soul. So everything has a body and a soul.