Lessons in Jewish History - Part 3 - The Chain of Kabbalah

00:01 Speaker 1 Today we’re going to talk about history. The subject of today’s class is the history of Kabbalah: the history of the teachings of the Torah’s secrets, the development of Kabbalah and the inner dimension of Torah. How it began, how it continued and developed from generation to generation, until it reached the teachings of Chassidus—the inner dimension of Torah as it was revealed in our generations, the later generations, by the Baal Shem Tov and his students, particularly by the Alter Rebbe and our Rebbeim, the leaders of Chabad, down to the leader of our generation, the Rebbe. We’ll tell as much of that story as we can in one class. First, we need to know what it says in the weekly parsha, Parshas Mishpatim: “And to Moshe He said, ‘Ascend to Hashem.’” At the time of Matan Torah, as the parsha says, “They saw the G-d of Israel, and beneath His feet was something like a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the very heavens.” The weekly parsha tells us that at Matan Torah there was a revelation of Hakadosh Boruch Hu that people could see. The heavenly chariot also descended, and “the appearance of the glory of Hashem was like a consuming fire on the mountaintop.” We also know what Chazal say—Rashi brings some of it, as does the Gemara in Shabbos in its discussion of Matan Torah—that when Hakadosh Boruch Hu revealed Himself at Mount Sinai, it was not only He Who was revealed, but also the entire heavenly chariot, all the higher sefiros and all the higher angels. Everything was revealed. So at Matan Torah, everyone could see the matters that were later explained in Kabbalah and the inner dimension of Torah. The Rebbe spoke about this once at a Shavuos farbrengen in 5713. He was speaking about the need to learn Chassidus, to learn the inner dimension of Torah, and he said something very interesting. He said that today the teachings of the Torah’s secrets, the teachings of

02:40 Speaker 1 Kabbalah, are called the hidden dimension, while the teachings of halachah are called the revealed dimension. Right? That is the revealed dimension of Torah. Halachah, the 613 mitzvos and the Oral Torah are called the revealed dimension. Kabbalah is called the hidden dimension. But the Rebbe said that at Matan Torah it was the other way around. The revealed dimension was hidden, because it was not openly revealed. You didn’t see the Torah—the full 613 mitzvos were not openly given at Matan Torah, only the Ten Commandments. Yes, all the details of the mitzvos were present only in a hidden way. As Rashi says, all the halachos are contained within the Ten Commandments by allusion, but they were not revealed. By contrast, the hidden dimension of Torah was revealed, because people saw it. They actually saw the revelation of the heavenly chariot and the revelation of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So at Matan Torah, all the matters of the hidden dimension were revealed, while the matters of the revealed dimension were hidden. Later, it became the other way around. In any case, what do we know? We understand that the teachings of the Torah’s secrets and of Kabbalah were not, G-d forbid, something newly introduced at some later point. They were given together with the entire Torah that Moshe Rabbeinu received at Sinai. It is one Torah, and it includes everything. But what happened? When Matan Torah was over and the work of explaining the Torah began—Moshe Rabbeinu explained the Torah for forty years—the Torah’s secrets remained hidden. The time had not yet come to reveal them. So while the Jewish people were in the desert, the Torah they received was primarily the revealed dimension: the 613 mitzvos and their detailed halachos. That, broadly speaking, was what the Jewish people studied in the desert. But as for the secret, inner dimension, its time had not yet come in the days of Moshe Rabbeinu. And so

04:51 Speaker 1 many years passed. The hidden dimension of Torah remained hidden. Of course, there were always exceptional individuals in each generation. Moshe Rabbeinu himself certainly possessed the entire Torah, both the body of Torah and the soul of Torah—and the soul of its soul. He had every part of Torah. But in practice, the time had not yet come, because the Jewish people were not yet ready for it to be revealed and made public. It took many, many years for the teachings of the Torah’s secrets to be revealed in the world. Generally, we associate the revelation of the inner dimension of Torah with Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. As it says in several places, including the Zohar and the writings of the Arizal, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai had the soul of Moshe Rabbeinu. As is known, “Lag BaOmer” has the same gematria as “Moshe.” That is why we say “BaOmer” and not “LaOmer”: “Lag BaOmer” has the gematria of “Moshe.” Rashbi had the soul of Moshe, and he revealed the inner dimension. Through Moshe Rabbeinu, the revealed dimension was disclosed; through Rashbi, the hidden dimension was disclosed. So we generally take it as a given that until the time of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, the hidden dimension of Torah had not yet been revealed. That was more than a thousand years. As we discussed in the previous class, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai was one of the Tannaim after the Mishnah—I mean, in the period of the Mishnah, after the destruction of the Second Beis Hamikdash. That was about fourteen hundred or fifteen hundred years after Matan Torah. That was when Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai lived. Nevertheless, we find that there were Tannaim before Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai who already knew the secrets of the inner dimension of Torah.

06:47 Speaker 1 The Gemara in Chagigah tells us about Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai, who belonged to the first generation of Tannaim. We mentioned him in the previous class; he lived at the time of the destruction. Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai was already studying the Torah’s secrets. The Gemara recounts that he spoke about them, and fire descended from heaven all around, and so on. The Gemara tells this about Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai, and then also about his students, including Rabbi Eliezer ben Horkenus. It recounts that he spoke about the Torah’s secrets. Rabbi Akiva, too—all of them lived before Rashbi—taught various secrets of Torah to his students. So from the Gemara in Chagigah, it emerges that among the Tannaim—not all of them, but already in generations before Rashbi—there were some who began to reveal the inner dimension of Torah. Of course, they taught it only to a select few, just one or two people, as the Gemara in Chagigah says. There are all sorts of rules there about to whom the secrets may be transmitted, whether they may be taught to just one person or to two. The Gemara there absolutely forbids revealing the Torah’s secrets more widely and says very severe things about those who reveal them. It is a whole discussion in Chagigah. So why, then, do we say that Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai—wait, there is even more. Beyond what the Gemara says, there are also books on Kabbalah written by Tannaim before Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. Very few, but they exist. For example, there is a book called Sefer HaBahir. It is a Midrash cited in several places in Chassidus, attributed to Rabbi Nechunya ben Hakanah.

08:57 Speaker 1 Rabbi Nechunya ben HaKanah—HaKanah was a Tanna from the generation before Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. Along similar lines, there is also a book called Sefer HaKanah. Sefer HaKanah is also a work of Kabbalah. There is a dispute about who wrote it, but some say—and the Rebbe once mentioned Sefer HaKanah in a maamar, [unclear]—that it too was written by Rabbi Nechunya ben HaKanah. Similarly, there is a book called Pirkei Heichalos, which some say was written by Rabbi Yishmael the Kohen—Rabbi Yishmael, the Tanna Rabbi Yishmael, Rabbi Akiva’s colleague. Then there is Sefer HaTemunah, which is also cited in Chassidus; the Rebbe brings it up in his explanations. These are various small books in which secrets of the Torah, matters of Kabbalah, were already revealed. In short, though, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai is considered the Tanna who began to reveal the inner dimension of the Torah in the setting of a yeshivah. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai had a circle called the circle of Rashbi. He lived roughly seventy years after the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash—roughly, I’m saying. In terms of years, that would be around 3900, let’s say, somewhere in that range. In other words, roughly 1,800 years before our time, right? That was... 1,800, 1,850 years ago—that was Rashbi’s time. He already had a circle, a group, the circle of Rashbi. They were in the Galilee, living around Tzfas, Tiberias, and Meron, in those areas, in those mountains. There was a group there, out in the fields, studying—not openly, but they

11:00 Speaker 1 were already studying. Rashbi revealed secrets to them, and there was an entire organized way of doing things. Rabbi Abba, one of the students, would write down the Zohar, while Rabbi Shimon would teach the secrets. There was a whole system to it. We know the story of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai from the Gemara in Shabbos: he spent thirteen years in a cave, and there he received revelations from Eliyahu Hanavi and also from the Faithful Shepherd, Moshe Rabbeinu. The Zohar was built on that foundation. It’s very interesting what the Rebbe brings in one place, in a note to Tanya, chapter 8 of Igeres Hakodesh: several books say that the Zohar was actually much larger than what we have today. The Rebbe cites one of the books saying that Sefer HaZohar is only a very small portion of what remains in our hands. According to one of the sources the Rebbe cites there, Sefer HaZohar may have had thousands upon thousands of pages. The Zohar, it says, is only the letter zayin—as though there was a whole sequence, alef, beis, gimmel, daled, and the zayin was the Zohar, just one part of it. The Rebbe says not everyone accepts that this is correct. The Alter Rebbe’s words in Tanya imply otherwise, because the Alter Rebbe writes in Igeres Hakodesh that Rashbi could teach the entire Zohar in just two or three months, and that most of his time was spent studying the revealed dimension of the Torah. The implication from the Alter Rebbe is that the Zohar we have is indeed what Rashbi revealed, and no more. In any case, in practice, Rashbi is considered a soul that descended into the world to reveal the inner dimension of the Torah. So much so that Lag BaOmer, the day of his passing, is considered—as the Rebbe Rashab writes

13:01 Speaker 1 in connection with Lag BaOmer—the day of the giving of the inner dimension of the Torah. That is because on the day of his passing, Rashbi revealed the greatest secrets. The Idra Zuta, at the end of the Zohar, is where Rashbi reveals very, very great secrets about the order of creation that he had never revealed during his lifetime—the deepest of secrets. So Lag BaOmer is considered the day when the inner dimension of the Torah was revealed, and we regard Rashbi as marking the beginning of an era in which it was revealed in the world. Rashbi’s students were also very well-known Tannaim. It’s very interesting to note the names of the Tannaim in Rashbi’s circle. We know some of them from the Mishnah. For example, Rabbi Yehudah—the Rabbi Yehudah of the Mishnah is Rabbi Yehudah bar Ilai, who is mentioned frequently in the Zohar as a member of Rashbi’s circle. In the Zohar he is usually called Rabbi Yehudah bar Ilai, and sometimes simply Rabbi Yehudah. He is the same Rabbi Yehudah as in the Mishnah. And Rabbi Yosi is the Rabbi Yosi of the Mishnah. The Zohar also has other names that are not mentioned much in the Mishnah. For example, Rabbi Chizkiyah is mentioned in the Zohar as one of Rashbi’s circle; we don’t find him in the Mishnah. Rav Hamnuna, too—that’s not a name you find in the Gemara more than once or twice, but in the Zohar he’s mentioned regularly. Rabbi Yeisa is another name like that. In any case, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai had a group of people who were very great in the revealed dimension of the Torah, and they also had their own yeshivah for its inner dimension. But what we see is something very interesting: someone who studies Gemara and Mishnah might not even know they were part of that circle. They seem like two different people. When you look in the Mishnah, you find Rabbi Shimon, but you don’t see the Rabbi Shimon of the Zohar. So much so that, as long as the Zohar had not

15:01 Speaker 1 been revealed—and it remained hidden for hundreds of years—many people did not know Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai as someone whose extraordinary stature lay in the inner dimension of the Torah. It can work the other way around, too: someone who studies Zohar and knows the Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai of the Zohar, a person who reveals secrets and speaks about lofty matters, might find it hard to believe that he is the same Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai who discusses halachic matters and majority opinions here in the Mishnah. It’s as though they are two completely different people. One of the very interesting things to see is how great a separation there was: those who studied the revealed dimension of the Torah did not know about its inner dimension, because it was considered so dangerous, and there was so much fear that they did not want it known. The general public was not allowed to know about it. It was something very, very frightening. The simple reason is that if the inner dimension of the Torah is not understood properly, and if one does not know how to explain it properly, it can lead to all kinds of issues—problems, doubts, and errors in matters of faith, even, G-d forbid, taking things to mean the opposite of what was intended. That was why it was not revealed openly. What’s interesting is that after Rashbi and his circle, we once again find a long period in which we do not find the inner dimension of the Torah. We hardly find it at all, because suddenly it becomes hidden again. In Babylonia, too, there were apparently individuals here and there in each generation. The Gemara tells of various Amoraim who studied Sefer Yetzirah and made a golem. They did—yes, they did. The Gemara tells this about Amoraim we know from the Gemara, about Rava and other Amoraim

16:54 Speaker 1 of the Gemara, who studied Sefer Yetzirah, a book of Kabbalah. Not only did they study it; they also did things with it—they created things. In short, that concept did exist, but not in the form it had with Rashbi and his circle, as a group. The whole subject of Kabbalah became hidden again. Rashbi’s book, and those Midrashim we mentioned earlier, were not available. Don’t think they were in circulation, because suddenly they disappeared, they were hidden and could not be found. As for all those writings of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, we do not know their exact history today—who kept them, where they were. It’s all very mysterious. Where did they disappear to? How were they revealed? But in practice, for hundreds of years after Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, people did not know at all that there was such a thing as Sefer HaZohar. Various books of Kabbalah were not known. They simply weren’t. When did the teachings of Kabbalah begin to glimmer again, to emerge and be revealed? It is generally said that this happened toward the end of the era of the Geonim. If we put that in years, around 4770—about a thousand, eleven hundred years ago—that was the end of the era of the Geonim. Suddenly we begin to find very, very small glimmers of Kabbalah. For example, Rav Hai Gaon, one of the last Geonim of that era, lived before the Rambam, before the Rif, before Rashi—roughly a hundred years before them, toward the end of the era of the Geonim. There was a Jew called Rav Hai Gaon, one of the greatest Geonim at the end of that era, and he revealed a number of matters of Kabbalah. For example, there is a responsum of Rav Hai Gaon that is cited

18:58 Speaker 1 Also in the maamarim. His students asked Rav Hai Gaon, “We have heard of ten; we have not heard of thirteen”—that is how it is written there. We have heard that there are ten, but we do not know what thirteen means. In other words, they wanted to understand why there are thirteen attributes of mercy. What is this number thirteen? They knew there were ten sefiros, but they did not understand the number thirteen. It says there that Rav Hai Gaon answered them that there are ten sefiros and three “heads of heads.” Now, later on, in Chassidus and in the maamarim, there are extensive explanations of this. What are these “heads of heads”? What is thirteen? What does this number mean? There are explanations. But Rav Hai Gaon says it in just a few words, one line. He says a word about it there. And there are a few more such glimpses—very, very fundamental things, a word here and a word there—through which he reveals something of the inner teachings of Kabbalah that became known through the Geonim. That was toward the end of the era of the Geonim. When do we find more details? We find more details after the era of the Geonim. For example, among the Rishonim we already begin to see Kabbalah developing further. Then, during the era of the Rishonim, there was a period when a new revelation of Kabbalah began. It began mainly in France at first, and from France it moved to Spain. I am talking about the time of the Rambam, around nine hundred years ago. The light of Kabbalah began to glimmer again. One of the very well-known great figures was the Raavad, who wrote glosses on the Rambam. It is known that he was a great Kabbalist. In his glosses on the Rambam, he even writes, “Ruach hakodesh appeared in our study hall.”

21:21 Speaker 1 He writes that in one of the places in the Rambam. It is known that the Raavad also wrote a commentary on Sefer Yetzirah. That was another point at which Kabbalah began to become known.

21:32 Speaker 2 Where was the Raavad?

21:33 Speaker 1 Huh?

21:33 Speaker 2 Where was he?

21:35 Speaker 1 The Raavad? He lived in—I think he lived somewhere in France. I do not know exactly. I would have to look it up. In any case, Rabbi Yehudah HaChassid. Who was Rabbi Yehudah HaChassid? The author of Sefer Chassidim. Rabbi Yehudah HaChassid was a sage from Ashkenaz. He too lived around that time, a little later. There was a group in Ashkenaz, in Germany, of great tzaddikim, and they too began to engage in the study of Kabbalah. Rabbi Yehudah HaChassid was at their head. Along with him was another group of people, including the Rokeach, if you have heard that name. He is cited in the Shulchan Aruch in several places. The Rokeach, Rabbi Elazar—“Rokeach” has the same numerical value as “Elazar.” He wrote books of teachings and Kabbalah, and commentaries on matters of halachah. He was a great Kabbalist and is mentioned several times in Chassidus. So in that period, Kabbalah began to come to life again. Of course, there was also opposition to Kabbalah. One of those who, so to speak, gave Kabbalah his stamp of approval was Rashi. Rashi too was a great Kabbalist. That is not widely known, but Rashi was a Kabbalist. In fact, in his commentary on the Gemara in Tractate Sukkah, Rashi discusses the explicit Divine Name and explains the Name of seventy-two letters. That is one of the few places where teachings of Kabbalah are visible in Rashi. There are a few other places from which we know that Rashi was a Kabbalist, but with Rashi it is really only hinted at. When we get to the Ramban, we see it openly. The Ramban actually makes Kabbalah known. His commentary on the Chumash

23:50 Speaker 1 is full of Kabbalah. On almost every subject in the Chumash, the Ramban says, “According to Kabbalah,” or “According to the mystical meaning,” and then explains the matter according to Kabbalah. What is interesting is the Rambam. As far as the Rambam is concerned, we know that outwardly he was not associated with Kabbalah. So much so that people generally say the Rambam did not know Kabbalah at all. His approach was philosophical inquiry; on the contrary, he was not a Kabbalist and did not know Kabbalah. Nevertheless, it is brought in the sefarim—the Rebbe cites what is brought in the book Shalsheles HaKabbalah—that at the end of his life the Rambam studied Kabbalah. He even said that if he had studied Kabbalah earlier, there were many things he would have changed. There is such a view, that he discovered Kabbalah at the end of his life. Among chassidim there is a tradition from the Baal Shem Tov, in the name of the Maharal of Prague, I think, that the Rambam was indeed a great Kabbalist, but because it was dangerous in that generation to reveal Kabbalah, he did not speak about it at all. The Rebbe addressed this several times and showed that there are sections of the Rambam where one can see that he even had access to parts of the Zohar. The Rebbe once spoke about how, in the entire first section of the Rambam, Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah, there are whole passages that appear to be based on the actual wording of the Zohar. The Rebbe explained and showed that the Rambam’s first five halachos are almost a word-for-word rendering of the Zohar’s language into Hebrew, which suggests that the Rambam had parts of the Zohar. Another example the Rebbe once gave concerns the forty hairs: the Rambam writes that the peyos must have at least forty hairs. There is no source for this in the revealed teachings of Torah. Its source is also in Kabbalah, and similarly

25:52 Speaker 1 there are several places in the Rambam where one can see that he did know certain things from the Zohar and from Kabbalah. But in practice, it is interesting: broadly speaking, what we see in the Rambam is not Kabbalah but philosophical inquiry. That was the beginning of a whole story in that generation. In the period we are talking about now, roughly nine hundred to a thousand years ago, on the one hand, several great Torah sages began to reveal hints, little drops of Kabbalah. At the same time, in that very generation, philosophical inquiry became very prominent. Philosophy became more widely known and, so to speak, took center stage. Great Torah sages of that generation, such as the Rambam himself, wrote the Moreh Nevuchim. Before him there was Rav Saadia Gaon, who lived some years before the Rambam and also wrote works in a philosophical style. Rabbi Yehudah HaLevi wrote the Kuzari. In this way, among Jews living in Spain and France, the study of philosophy became more widespread. In essence, this was the opposite of Kabbalah. Kabbalah was more sacred, more G-dly—sefiros and lofty concepts—whereas philosophy was more intellectual. It followed a method of inquiry and used various proofs, including proofs for the existence of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. It was an entirely different approach, and it was more widely known. Because of that, Kabbalah was pushed somewhat to the side. There was even a lengthy period when people were afraid to study Kabbalah, and there was opposition to it. There was a back-and-forth. Thanks to the Ramban, and later to the Rashba, who were the leaders of the Jewish people in that generation—when Jews lived primarily in Spain—the Ramban was in Spain, and the Rashba was

28:06 Speaker 1 In Spain, and they were kabbalists. So they did uphold the teachings of Kabbalah. That is, they made sure the teachings of Kabbalah would be preserved. And more than that, they gradually began to give less importance to philosophy, to the approach of philosophical inquiry. The Rashba was very strong on this, and as is well known, his responsa discuss at length the need to be careful about studying philosophy, because it had already gone too far. People had begun getting into all sorts of subjects that bordered on mixing with the wisdom of the nations, and so on. So the conclusion at the time was that one had to be careful about studying philosophical inquiry. There is the Rashba’s well-known responsum, often quoted in full, about “the One for Whom even impossibilities are possible.” The Rashba wrote it in opposition to philosophical inquiry, because books of philosophy argued that some things are impossible—even things that Hakadosh Boruch Hu cannot do, G-d forbid. The Rashba wrote that, G-d forbid, one must not say such a thing. For Hakadosh Boruch Hu, even impossibilities are possible. In any case, there was a period of debate for and against it, and it took many years for the philosophical side to gradually decline, while the teachings of Kabbalah gradually began to rise and gain more prominence. The time when... But this took several hundred years, because at the time we are talking about, some nine hundred years ago, there were only very small groups in various places. As we said, there was the sage from Ashkenaz, Rabbi Yehudah HaChassid, and the author of the Rokeach and others like them—Jews who lived in the same area. And on the other hand, there was Spain. There were a few people there, whose names we mentioned, and a few in France, but it had not really spread into the regular course of study. And when did that happen in an organized way? There is Avodas Hakodesh, often quoted in Chassidus, by Rabbi Meir ibn Gabbai, who had already written an organized work on Kabbalah. There were also some of the great kabbalists in Italy: Rabbi Menachem Recanati—his approach to the sefiros is mentioned in Chassidus—and Rabbi Peretz HaKohen, author of Maareches HaElokus. This is the dispute about the sefiros that comes up often in Chassidus, the dispute between Recanati and the Maareches. They were among the kabbalists of that period, seven or eight hundred years ago, after the time of the Ramban, at the beginning of the millennium we are in now.

30:30 Speaker 1 When did Kabbalah become something organized and strong, something that began to be more widely known? As is well known, that began after the expulsion from Spain. After the expulsion from Spain, when the Jewish people had to flee, many Jews also came to Eretz Yisroel. Among them was the Ramak. The Ramak was the son of parents who had been expelled from Spain. Similarly, the Arizal was a grandson. They were all sons or grandsons of Jews who had had to flee Spain, who made their way through various places to other countries, until they reached Eretz Yisroel. The Ramak lived in Tzfas around the year 5300—that is, about 480 years before the time we are in now. The Ramak’s name was Moshe Cordovero. We do not know exactly where he was born or where he came from, but the name Moshe Cordovero suggests that his family did come from Córdoba in Spain; that was where his roots were. Presumably his father or grandfather came from there, while he himself had already arrived in Eretz Yisroel. So the Ramak was the first to establish a yeshiva for Kabbalah. He began to understand that this was needed. Look, all this is by way of introduction: after the destruction, after the calamity of the expulsion from Spain, there was a sense that the time of ikvesa deMeshicha, the footsteps of Moshiach, was approaching. And as the Zohar says, before the coming of Moshiach the teachings of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai would become known again. The Zohar had come to light about seven hundred years ago. That is, the book of the Zohar was revealed at the beginning of

32:53 Speaker 1 this millennium we are in now. A little after the Ramban, in the periods we spoke about earlier, about seven hundred years ago, there was a Jew named Moshe de León—Rabbi Moshe de León, I think. He found the Zohar and made it public. At the time it appeared, there was a very great dispute. Some great Torah scholars said it was authentic; others said it was not. The argument went back and forth. It took many years before, through the true great Torah scholars, the Zohar came to be held sacred as we hold it today. It took many years for the Zohar to be accepted. The Ramak was the one who took Kabbalah and put it into an organized system. There was a yeshiva of kabbalists. Many Jews, including great Torah scholars, came to Tzfas, and they founded the yeshiva for Kabbalah there. The Ramak had a brother-in-law, Rabbi Shlomo Alkabetz, who composed Lecha Dodi. Lecha Dodi is a sacred text that all Jews recite today. But Reb Shlomo Alkabetz was one of those kabbalists who lived in Tzfas. He was the Ramak’s brother-in-law: the Ramak married his sister, and the Ramak studied under Rabbi Shlomo Alkabetz. The Ramak learned the foundations of Kabbalah from him, and afterward, of course, he reached insights that he himself discovered and understood. The Ramak had a remarkable gift for explanation and writing, and he produced the book Pardes Rimonim, known in Chassidus as the Pardes—the Ramak’s Pardes. The Pardes is like an encyclopedia, an organized reference work. It lays out the entire subject of Kabbalah in an orderly way. It is not... It lets you know who, what, where everything belongs, what each thing is. The Ramak set out the whole of Kabbalah in an organized treatise. The Ramak had a

35:02 Speaker 1 student who was the Arizal. As is well known, the Arizal had already been active before that. The Arizal had been in Egypt. He was born in Jerusalem and later went to Egypt, where he studied under the author of Shitah Mekubetzes, Rabbi Betzalel Ashkenazi. There he studied the revealed dimension of Torah, and at a certain stage he began to discover—he was in Egypt, yes. So there he began to discover Kabbalah. According to what is written—Rabbi Chaim Vital relates this—he experienced a revelation of Eliyahu Hanavi. Eliyahu told him that if he truly wanted to study Kabbalah, he had to travel to Eretz Yisroel, and so he went up to Tzfas. When he arrived in Tzfas, he studied for two years under the Ramak. The Arizal studied under the Ramak, and when the Ramak passed away, there was the well-known incident: when the Arizal saw the fire descending from heaven, when he saw the pillar of fire, everyone knew that he should succeed the Ramak. The Arizal then continued the Ramak’s yeshiva, and he developed Kabbalah in his own way. That is how there came to be the Kabbalah of the Ramak and the Kabbalah of the Arizal. The Ramak’s Kabbalah is one approach within Kabbalah, while the Arizal’s Kabbalah is a much deeper approach, more inward, more complex; he saw more... Ultimately, the Arizal’s Kabbalah was accepted throughout the Jewish world, up to the time of the Baal Shem Tov. And all the more so for us, of course, because as is well known, the Arizal’s Kabbalah is the halachah, an absolutely true ruling. When you want to know the halachah in matters of Kabbalah, it follows the Arizal. What is the story? The story is that the Arizal—both the Ramak and the Arizal lived very short lives. They say the Ramak lived perhaps forty-five years; that was his entire life. The Arizal lived thirty-eight years. They were people who lived short lives.

36:56 Speaker 1 And they passed away while still young, but in the short time they had, they managed to accomplish something extraordinary. By the standards of human nature, you ask: How can someone so young do such a thing? And then we come to the Arizal. The Arizal’s entire period of revelation lasted only two years. He became known after the Ramak passed away. That was when he began revealing and teaching his Torah, in the year 5330. The Ramak passed away in 5330, 450 years ago, and the Arizal passed away in 5332. This year marks exactly 450 years since the Arizal’s passing, in 5332. So the entire revelation of the Arizal’s teachings took place over just two years. In those two years, he revealed everything contained in the books we have from him. As is well known, the Arizal did not write any of those books himself. There is just one small work that some say he did write: a commentary on Sifra D’Tzniusa. Some say the Arizal himself wrote it. But apart from that, everything we have from the Arizal is oral teaching—what he said during those two years. There was Rabbi Chaim Vital. Rabbi Chaim Vital was the Arizal’s student, and he wrote down the Arizal’s teachings. Right? He wrote down the Arizal’s teachings in the Shemoneh She’arim, the Eight Gates, which are what we have in Chassidus. Right? Shaar Hakavanos, Shaar—Shaar—all the gates: Shaar Hagilgulim, Shaar Ruach Hakodesh, Shaar Hapesukim, all the gates he wrote, and also Etz Chaim, which brings these teachings together. There is Pri Etz Chaim and there is Etz Chaim—the books of Kabbalah that Rabbi Chaim Vital, the student, wrote. Other students of the Arizal wrote things down too. For example, there is

38:50 Speaker 1 the book Emek HaMelech, which is cited in Chassidus. It is known as the Kabbalah of Rabbi Yisroel Sarug, who was also a student of the Arizal. What happened was that, initially, Rabbi Chaim Vital’s writings were not available. At one point, Rabbi Chaim Vital had to flee. There was persecution, and he had to leave Tzfas, so he fled to Damascus. He was also what is called today a Shami—all the Sephardim here, right, who come from those regions. He went to Syria, to Damascus and Aleppo, and taught Kabbalah there. So many Sephardic Kabbalists studied under Rabbi Chaim Vital. In fact, the Alter Rebbe writes in one of his letters that if you want to know the Arizal’s Kabbalah precisely as transmitted by Rabbi Chaim Vital, you need to ask the Sephardic Kabbalists, who received it from him through a direct chain of teachers. They received teachings that were never widely published. That is what the Alter Rebbe writes in one place. In any case, Rabbi Chaim Vital had to flee to Damascus, and he asked that, after his passing, all his writings be placed in his grave. So he was buried with everything he had written. Only some time later, there was a dream. His son, incidentally—it was through a dream that he received permission to take out those writings. They were then brought out and printed. Throughout those years, Rabbi Chaim Vital’s writings of the Arizal’s teachings were almost impossible to find. What was available were the Arizal’s teachings as written down by Rabbi Yisroel Sarug. At first, Emek HaMelech was better known. Later, people gradually stopped studying Emek HaMelech, to the point that some Kabbalists said it was forbidden to study it. They held that Rabbi Chaim Vital alone could transmit the Arizal’s Kabbalah with complete accuracy.

40:39 Speaker 1 But the Baal Shem Tov brought Emek HaMelech back. The Baal Shem Tov said that Emek HaMelech is accurate, and that it contains things its author learned from the Arizal before Rabbi Chaim Vital arrived. That is why Emek HaMelech contains many things Rabbi Chaim Vital did not know about. For example, there is the whole subject of the reshimu, which we regularly study. The subject of the reshimu is not found in Rabbi Chaim Vital’s writings; it appears in the Kabbalah of Emek HaMelech. He heard it from the Arizal. And it is a fundamental idea: without the reshimu, you cannot understand the entire process of tzimtzum. What did you say?

41:16 Speaker 3 Are there points on which they disagree?

41:18 Speaker 1 Huh?

41:19 Speaker 3 Are there things they disagree about?

41:20 Speaker 1 I don’t know if there are things they disagree about, but there are things one discusses and the other does not. I don’t know to what extent they disagree. I don’t think so—I don’t know, I haven’t heard of any. So that is the story of the Ramak and the Arizal. The Ramak’s Kabbalah spread through the world thanks to the Rema of Fano. In Italy there was a Jew called the Rema of Fano. When the Ramak passed away, his wife, poor woman, was left a young widow and needed a livelihood. The Rema of Fano was apparently a wealthy Jew, and he bought from her all the writings her husband had left behind. Everything was in manuscript. He supported her: she received money for the writings and lived on it, and through them he studied Kabbalah. The Rema of Fano is regarded today as one of the great authors in Kabbalah. He wrote books, including a summary of Pardes called Pelach HaRimon, which is cited—the Rebbe cited it in a maamar. It was in the Basi LeGani maamar we studied. Pelach HaRimon is a book by the Rema of Fano, cited in Chassidus. He also wrote other books, such as Kanfei Yonah and Asarah Maamaros. So he studied the Ramak’s Kabbalah and spread it in Italy, where he lived. That is how the Ramak’s Kabbalah began to spread on one side, and the Arizal’s Kabbalah on the other. There was the holy Shelah, who lived in Prague, and there was the Maharal of Prague. The Maharal of Prague was before the Arizal. He lived at the same time as the Arizal, but was older than him: he was born before the Arizal and passed away after him. But, plainly, the Maharal of Prague did not study the Arizal’s Kabbalah. He also disagrees with him, as he came before him and— But then we have the Maharal’s students, including the Tosafos Yom Tov, right? The Tosafos Yom Tov on the Mishnah. He was one of the Maharal’s students, so with him too,

43:23 Speaker 1 it had already begun. The Ramak’s Kabbalah and the Arizal’s Kabbalah had begun to spread in Europe. And the Tosafos Yom Tov’s student was the Baal Shem—not the Baal Shem Tov—Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem, the first Baal Shem. Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem founded a yeshiva for Kabbalah in Europe. So Kabbalah began to be taught in a yeshiva in Europe as well. At first it was the Ramak’s Kabbalah, and gradually the Arizal’s Kabbalah entered too. There is a whole story about this, as the Frierdiker Rebbe relates in Sefer Hazichronos. So Kabbalah began spreading in Europe through, as we said, these people: Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem, Rabbi Yoel Baal Shem, Rabbi Adam Baal Shem, until we reach the Baal Shem Tov. The Baal Shem Tov received teachings from Achiya HaShiloni. As is well known, the Frierdiker Rebbe himself relates at length how the Baal Shem Tov received teachings from Achiya HaShiloni, but that was a heavenly transmission. Apart from that, he received teachings from Rabbi Adam Baal Shem, who received them from Rabbi Yoel Baal Shem, who received them from Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem. Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem was a student of the Tosafos Yom Tov, who was a student of the Maharal of Prague. That is how Kabbalah developed and how it reached them. At the same time, they were studying it. In those years, the Ramak’s Kabbalah began to become known, followed by the Arizal’s Kabbalah. And the holy Shelah brought the Arizal’s Kabbalah to his region. He lived in Prague, then in Germany, in Frankfurt, until he moved to Eretz Yisroel toward the end of his life. So that is basically the story of how Kabbalah developed throughout the world: the Sephardic side, as we described how it reached them, and on the Ashkenazic side, through the Arizal and the Ramak, how it reached Europe, until the Baal Shem Tov came and the Baal Shem Tov took

45:19 Speaker 1 the teachings of Kabbalah and made them into a clear path, a path in the service of Hashem. That is the path of Chassidus we have today, the teachings of Chassidus. The Baal Shem Tov, of course, spoke only about serving Hashem; he did not explain Kabbalah all that much. Then came the Maggid, who spoke a little more about Kabbalah and began explaining it through Chassidus. In other words, he explained more of how the Baal Shem Tov’s teachings are connected to the teachings of Kabbalah. And then came the Alter Rebbe and Chabad Chassidus. As the Alter Rebbe writes in Tanya, in Igeres Hakodesh, section 8, “My whole task is to explain the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov according to the Kabbalah of the Arizal.” That is what he writes in Tanya. In other words, the Alter Rebbe took the foundations of the Arizal’s Kabbalah and used them to explain the whole subject of the oneness of Hashem, Divine providence, the soul, and all kinds of matters that the Baal Shem Tov had made into foundations of serving Hashem. The Alter Rebbe explained how it is all founded on the teachings of Kabbalah, the teachings of the Arizal. Of course, we cannot end the class on this subject without mentioning that the Rebbe Rashab, n"e, says in Toras Shalom that people say Chassidus is an explanation of Kabbalah, but that is a mistake. The truth is that Kabbalah is an explanation of Chassidus. That sounds like quite a bombshell of a vort. Suddenly someone comes along and says Kabbalah is an explanation of Chassidus? How can you say that? Kabbalah came first; Chassidus came to explain Kabbalah. Nevertheless, the Rebbe Rashab, n"e, is not afraid to say that Kabbalah is an explanation of Chassidus. What does that mean? There is an explanation from the Rebbe in the kuntres Inyanah Shel Toras Hachassidus. Look, the Rebbe explains what it means that Chassidus is not an explanation of Kabbalah; on the contrary, Kabbalah is an explanation of Chassidus. It has to do with the whole nature of Kabbalah. Kabbalah is the secret dimension; it is

47:10 Speaker 1 connected to the fourth level, corresponding to the World of Atzilus. Chassidus, by contrast, is the dimension of yechidah, the fifth level. So if it is the fifth level, it cannot be an explanation. On the contrary, it is the essence, and everything else is an explanation of it. Chassidus is, in essence, the Torah of Moshiach, which explains these matters. Kabbalah explains how they are in gufa d’Malka. In short, there is a footnote there from the Rebbe explaining the matter. To cover the subject fully, we also have to add something when we come to Chabad Chassidus. Of course, it is not Kabbalah, because Chabad Chassidus is Chabad—chochmah, binah, daas—which explains and presents matters of Kabbalah. But someone in Chabad Chassidus who was openly a Kabbalist was the Rebbe’s father, Reb Levik. With him, the study of Kabbalah was plainly evident, and he brought Kabbalah itself—Kabbalah in the literal sense—back to the fore. He wrote a great deal, of which only a tiny fraction remains with us in four volumes of his writings, Toras Levi Yitzchak and Likkutei Levi Yitzchak. But as the Rebbe related, and as those who were in the home related, Reb Levik had thousands of pages that he was constantly writing. Every day he would sit for hours and write and write and write. He wrote a great deal on the teachings of Kabbalah, and only a tiny fraction remains with us. Of course, Reb Levik and Kabbalah is something else entirely. It is remarkable how he takes such profound matters of Kabbalah and uses them to explain entire topics in Shas, halachah, and Gemara. In Reb Levik’s style, there is a very, very interesting and profound connection between nigleh, Chassidus, and Kabbalah. In any case, may the Ribono Shel Olam help us merit to taste anew the inner dimension of Torah, the Torah of Moshiach, who should be revealed speedily in our days.