False Messiah Shabtai Tzvi & Kabbalah Study's Tragic Neglect, Ramchal's Persecution & Vindication

of the Ram Khal Mosha Lutata, one of the great uh Jewish thinkers, Jewish philosophers, Jewish cabalists and ultimately Jewish leaders. Although there was controversy directed to him in his lifetime from some contemporaries, there was some confusion. There was a many issues as a result of Sha Titvi and people that held on to that unfortunate wrong and damaging uh approach that he introduced. Very mistaken. He was a false messiah. He was u he had followers that that they didn't want to let go of their faith and belief in him even after he [clears throat] converted to I believe Islam. And and it is very hard point a very difficult point in the Jewish story was this whole idea of the damage caused by the false messiah. And there were suspicions of rabbis being secretly uh devoted to him and still following him and not showing it, trying to hide it. And so because of this, there was a lot of issues with a lot of kosher rabbis. One of the most famous is the Raosh. Uh we see now obviously that it was all it was a mistake, a tremendous mistake. He was holy and and kadosh which is which means holy actually in Hebrew. He was he was one of the greatest of our of our later rabbis in all [clears throat] in all areas of of Jewish thought again philosophy, cabala, halaka, everything. Um but because of this concern that one of the rabbis of his time had that maybe he was hiding the fact that he was still following and believing in shapiti. So he got criticized and censored a lot. his his his cabalistic books and or manuscripts of at the time were censored. He was forced by the people of his of his community the leaders the the bedin who perhaps again I'm giving you a general breakdown I don't know this in depth either if you want a full full discussion you have two options look find the research re find the books find the books to discuss it or or ask Robert Brideawitz you know that's your two options but basically this is the the gist of it and because of this unfortunate backdrop of the after effects of dealing with you know recovering and and you know and and moving forward we past this difficult ult difficult dark story in the Jewish history of Shaft. He was he was suspected of this and there was controversy around him. He even censored his his books at the time and and his ability to teach and learn Kabala but later on after his after his life so his cabalistic books have spread today. They're available in all the bookstores and uh an important thing was the villagon who obviously came later he was later and he he kind of gives the Ram Khal his stamp of approval which again being per perhaps arguably one of the if not the greatest uh rabbi that the the Ashkanaz world has seen in the past 500 years the Vagon. So his stamp of approval is an is is you can't get a better stamp of approval than that. I think better than the gr saying that he's he he was he's he's not only kosher but he was of of of of of such a stature and a level of holiness and and and Torah knowledge that the grass says he would to have traveled he would have walked from where he lived to where the where the Ram live to learn Torah by him from him and so that's an amazing amazing praise and an amazing uh uh uh you know vindication for any of this unfortunate suspicion that surrounded him and this is again one of the greatest sages in the past 500 years. Uh the kidic approach to the Ram Khal honestly in my opinion is no different. The they they held of the Ramal he was a cabalist and he was a genius. Now there are some writings of the Ram Khal where he discusses with his own personal revelations that he experienced uh which is the highest level of divine communication that one can possibly receive in this day and age. You'd have to be a perfect sadic to receive this divine communication. It's called kesh the divine spirit. It's accepted that we have rabbis even until today that they do reach this level. For example, the most clear indication of a rabbi that reached this level of uh divine communication in its strongest possibilities today without Nva, without prophecy is the Arisal, for example, Isaac Laura. He lived in the 1500s and the clear stories and and eyewitness testimonies to his greatness prove beyond any doubt whatsoever that things were revealed to him, things that were happening in heaven, things about the secrets of a person's soul. He knew almost everything. I mean, and from our perspective, he just knew everything. Anything he wanted to know, he could know because he was a unique soul that came into the world and just had this unbelievable. His teachings are are are novel and create a new level of of understanding of cabalistic knowledge that that predates him. Meaning he came in and and and revolutionized the learning of Kabala. And today learning Kabala really means following his views and his his his innovations into how we study Kabala which happened in the 1500s Khal in the 1600s uh in his writings it it indicates that he reached levels similar to the aal the levels similar and in that time and especially after Sha it was a bit radical to hear that to see that from a living person and there people were afraid and at the same time with this other rabbi suspecting him of perhaps being being even connected with Shaft. So they felt that this was maybe too much. It was too much and they censored him. Um but there so but that's that's part of it is that he did he did say that he reached very high levels and he wrote a continuation so to speak of the Zohar like a zorenana a continuation of the zohor really Yes. Yes. really means that you're putting yourself on an extremely high level equating what you write and say to the tanim on some level and again this was part of what was what was maybe created some issues today I guess his his approach in that particular part of what he taught of him representing a a a revelation that would be similar to the Arizal and the idea of a continuation of the of to of the zohar. So even though he says he says it and I don't think we have to say that he we don't believe it or we do believe it but it isn't [clears throat] accepted. That's the best way to put it is it is it didn't become part of mainstream Jewish thought and it didn't become accepted in the in the fold of Judaism. I mean it's not it's not a standard idea that everyone accepts. For example, and this is something very important to distinguish and differentiate is this. There are rabbis today for example like Rav Jakov Hil one of the great cababalists and Gdola Israel today that are alive. Um I had the privilege of learning in one of his classes, not one of his cabalistic classes, but one of his classes which was very deep, different mysticism and all that, but not not his kabala classes are reserved for for very big famous or very accomplished uh Jerusalem rabbis, which you know because really the main reason I was a baluva and he doesn't accept baluvas in his cabala classes. That was really the reason why it didn't never happened. Uh but but anyway, his opinion, for example, and other rabbis like him uh is that someone who would reject the Arizal today, meaning post now that we know everything and everything's been recorded, it would be very similar to a heretic. I wouldn't want to call him an absolute heretic, but he puts himself close to and in the category of of of a heretic or, you know, idea of of of rejecting the the accepted Jewish reality, the Torah, Shabbal, and the accepted opinion of hundreds and hundreds and and add thousands of rabbis that accepted the Arizal as truly a revelation of newim straits from Elwanovi. in a sense a continuation of the Zo and an an authenticated and validated extension and continuation of Zohar which you can't get any deeper than that and so since it was accepted by for example rabbis like the Vil Nagon like rabbis like the Benishai like rabbis you know you name it the masters everyone has accepted the Arizal as authentic and so once that has happened someone to reject the Arizal would really be putting himself as close as you and to becoming a heretic to being classified as a heretic someone who who rejects the truth of Torah. Um now the Ram Khal introduces similar ideas about himself in his writings and again he was holy, he was righteous, he was humble, he was everything and we don't have to say that we that there he was god forbid wrong or anything like that. He could be correct, he could be true everything. Why? It should all be true. All of these great men, these people that were above lying and above being haughty and taking pride for themselves, we assume they all spoke only truth. But it could be a limited level of truth. It could be a certain revelation that Hashem wanted for him. And we see through divine providence, it did not become part of the standard Jewish story. And since it didn't, so everyone's not obligated to believe that. Meaning if you don't believe the ramal is like the Arizal, so you're not doing anything wrong. you're not guilty of any crime in Judaism. I mean, maybe in the most subtle subtle sense, you might be. Uh maybe just in the fact that he's a he's a dependable and reliable modern-day sage and so we should believe him. But you don't have to live with it. You don't have to take it and say, "Okay, now I have to change my life because of it." for the Arizal we honestly do have to change our lives for because if we don't then that because he reached such a level of acceptance and authentication that if you don't accept it it's a bigger problem. So in conclusion, there is no argument between the Kidic masters and the Ramal. There is just like there isn't one from the Eshkanaz masters and certainly the Gra who who supported him and said he would travel you know on foot to learn from him and but there was a level of possible controversy and doubt in his time which has been clarified now to not be the case. And as far as his unique uh writings that that indicate a revelation similar to the Arizal and a continuation of of this idea of cabala and secrets of Torah like a continuation of the zohor that we could I don't see an issue in accepting certainly we can accept it as true from him but bottom line is it didn't become part of the the the main focus of clalius as to become part of their their belief system in meaning when you explain to a a newcomer to Judaism which I was at one point we all at some point. So you'll explain to him there's obviously the Torah, there's Moshe. Now that comes in two forms. There's the written Torah and the oral Torah. We have to accept both. And then the sages throughout the generations continue to develop this oral Torah and also Jewish ideology and Cabala. It developed and you have very important books like the Zohar which which document it all and make it concrete. And you have the Arizal. And then from the Arizal on here's the big question. And really what this is ultimately connected to is if we're going to say that there are any arguments between these great rabbis that come after the Ariza like the Balmtov or the Gra or the Ram Khal or any type of school of thought that has a different approach. all of the differentic masters post the bashmto is this what what is all of kalisrael obligated to accept without without any any any indic any limit or any questions is up until the talmud and again many include the zohar since it's technically before the talmud so so since it was revealed later there becomes a question even with the zor itself but but since we accept the authorities that say that it is actually from and his. So the zor becomes like the talmud and we have to accept up until the zor we have to accept. The Arizal is unique in that he was accepted by everyone and there is no one that says anything other than kosh kadosh kadosh on him and so therefore rejecting him for what we claim him to be and present him to be in the writings his writings and his students writings would also be considered a major problem major problem but the balmto or the ramal or even whatever status that the grow reached all of this is debatable in a sense that it's not accept accepted by all of Kalisra. And so here we have our traditions, we have our ways and it would be foolish to say that aidic person has to then stop what he's doing and go and learn the neon and without it he's not a kosher Jew or he's not a complete Jew and and vice versa. One would never say that the a spharti Jew for example that has his tradition and his masur and his rabbis has to stop what he's doing to go learn to go learn the ramal otherwise he's he's a he's not he's not something missing from him and vice versa. That's that's the we wouldn't we wouldn't say that. But what we would say is that someone who's lacking in the written Torah, the this book actual Torah or the oral tradition from the Talmud and the development obviously from the rabbis and the Zohar and even the someone that's missing that is missing something. He's missing something that his soul requires. very very important thing to to understand that according to the accepted tradition and and the final ruling in halaka as much as this has a bearing in halaka someone who's missing a part of the Torah an official authentic part of the Torah his soul ultimately will need to fill that and that includes simple meaning of the Torah re all of the allegorical ideas of the Torah drew which is expounding and homalytic And so secrets and so someone that's missing any one of these four categories of Torah ultimately is missing something. And practically this this this comes out in the Zohar, the Arizal, the Talmud, and and the Torah. And so without that, someone is definitely missing an essential aspect of Torah. Beyond that, when we come to the later rabbis and all of their different directions, so anyone that's able to learn more is great. And and there are rabbis for example today there's an unbelievable rabbi his his potential and his ability to understand Torah is beyond human his name is Mayor Morgan Stern when you read his writings or you listen to what type of discourse he gives he he knows everything he's like nothing he doesn't know but he's unique meaning he's a unique soul with a unique brain that is able to learn everything he on the he knows everything from the gr from the balanto from the ramkal from Ashlag from from what else can we add from the from the from the rash from the student of the rash he knows everything and he accepts an he he he knows everything and knowing everything he represents a full complete Torah almost to the degree that you can't have more than what he has but obviously everybody could do that so to say that we're all oblig get to do that and if we don't there's something wrong with us is a problem. Not everyone is built with that type of capabilities but he unique in that sense has learned everything. We have to learn what our teachers teach us and the basis that our teachers have to learn ultimately in a perfect world is what I mentioned. But today there is also still a lack in this world because of the galut because of the because of the pressures of trying to make money because of the darkness and the the powers of the sahara. We have a lot of unfortunate things that are working against us. And therefore even today there is a part of our Torah that we need that we're not getting. And let's take a positive message at least from this entire discussion and the original question of whether the gr whether the there was a mlo between the bashmto and the ramal which there wasn't there isn't but the message we're going to take out of it is this that sadly today there is a part of our Torah that is almost on a level of forgotten and overlooked. It's partially because it's very hard to get into. It's not easy and without teachers it's it's it's almost impossible. And that is the the secrets of Torah, the cabala of Torah. And again, I mean, I mean up until and including the Arizal. Not everybody's on the level that they are obligated to learn it and not everybody's able to actually qualify to learn it. But it is a part of our soul and it is a part of our truth. And without it, we are missing something. And that is sad. And if we're not saddened by it and we're not troubled that we don't have that what we what we should have, that's a lack in us. That's the lack in us and ultimately we'll even extend more and for us to to understand our limitations to say well listen I'm not able to learn now I'm too busy and too involved with what I'm learning I don't have time to add the learning of to my learning schedule so I'm going to have to go this lifetime without we shouldn't be so happy about that why not the more Torah the the more light the the bigger picture that you can see the different perspectives you can appreciate again because of our limit limited ability to do that. So we're exempt from the obligation to but in a perfect world of course we would we would learn everything like this Rav Morgan if we could that's what we would do and I'll conclude with this wonderful beautiful idea the Lubavich rebi who again also had some controversy surrounding him in his lifetime he he he gives a a very interesting interpretation of a garra piece of talmud that says that in the world to come where in in the ganed or or the real world to come that we're going to be in when when Mashiach comes all of the are going to be together. All of the every generation is going to be there. We're all going to have we're all going to be there. Again, for English means the resurrection of the dead. We're all going to be there from the smallest Jewish scholar, which is everyone. We're all Jewish scholars on whatever level we've achieved scholarship to the greatest one. We're all going to be there. And we're going to have different people on our level. We're all going to not share people that have that have a correlation to our level. all of the the on this level will all be together and all of the greatest they'll all be together and they'll all be able to appreciate and see what each one accomplished and the the the sages say that each is going to be jealous sort of he's going to his which means his standing his place his his area in the world to come they call it a kupa which means his his place his like dwelling in that area of this world to come meaning his level of knowledge and awareness of truth and God, we're all going to look to someone else, the guy next to us and be and and it's good. We're going to burn from what we see him have. Now, this is not a negative idea. This is really this the idea of being jealous, so to speak, for physical things. That's the worst me attribute we can have in us. The first the worst characterist trait we can have is to be jealous of people having a nicer car than ourselves because it's ridiculous. But here in the world of truth, what we're going to be jealous of is this. And it's a it's a holy kosher jealousness. It's a It's not a jealous where I I I'm jealous of you at all. We're not going to be jealous of anybody. We're going to see a perspective. We're going to realize that he has perspective of truth and of God that I don't have. And I'm going to want that. I'm going to look this way and I'm going to say, "Wow, you have a perspective that I don't have. Wow. I want to add that. I want to I want to have that in my I want to incorporate that into my understanding as well." Because we want we're going to want to be as complete as possible. And so we're going to look to what we didn't accomplish and what we don't have in our own Torah knowledge and we're going to see it in others and we're going to envy that so to speak and then we're going to also want that. We're going to ultimately want it all. And so that's coming full circle is that should be our attitude right now. It should pain us that we cannot learn everything but but but but we can't but we have to be try first of all and it should be paining us when I hear someone respond oh that's I don't know what kind of attitude is that this is a holy person you think he's playing tennis on Sundays that that rabbi that wrote this book the bashtov was playing uh you know the only the only night you can catch a kid rebby playing chess is on because they don't learn Torah they're not allowed So they use their brain for something else. But otherwise these these rabbis are not playing chess. They're not playing tennis or ping- pong and they're not doing the things we do. So so you don't want to learn the teachings of a particular rabbi. Fine. You can't learn everything. And so you're not obligated. But to have an attitude like no, no, we don't learn that. We don't learn. What do you mean you don't learn that? It's Torah. It's it's part of Hashem's wisdom. That's the mistake. That's the tragedy when we decide that it's not for me or it's not for us. And that's a fallacy. That's wrong. And I'll share with you a personal conversation I had with a with a tremendous scholar. He wasn't the famous rabbi, but he was he was a tremendous scholar. We spoke he he understood Talmud and he had probably finished Talmud at least once and he knows it well and knows it deep. And we shared ideas back and forth. I can't say that I compare to his level of of of scholarship of Talmud. I I don't even come close. But we shared ideas. I and I worked to understand the ideas he was sharing. Some of them were from the rugver gaon, one of the greatest scholars in the past 500 years. And then I said, you know, very nice. I very enjoyed. We went back and forth in a conversation. Not that I was on his level, but then I said, you know, I want to share with you something that I learned, something that I, you know, something piece, something that I worked on and I wrote up and and I said it to him. In the end, his response was, that's Kabala. You know, I'm not into that. I'm not into cabala. So I so unfortunately I was like I was like this is not a reaction that atomic like you should have for for a piece of God's Torah. So I felt look I got to be honest if and I hold back now. It's not fair. It's not fair to him. It's not fair to me. It's not fair to the truth of Hashem. So respectfully I said to him here's what I want to mention. This is what thought I have right now. And I'm going to share it with you for toilet that I hope some good will come out of it. And please don't be offended if uh you feel I'm I'm wrong to point this out. I said, I want to share with you one one observation I had just now. You came and we spoke and you shared with me all these kushim and these wonderful ways that you were able to put together ideas from the Talmud. I didn't say at any point that this is not really my style. It's this one's too deep for me, too complicated, too comp. I didn't criticize anything. I was open and and and tried to learn it because it's Hashem's Torah. So my question to you is this a sage a modern day a scholar of your level you know so so much why would your reaction to my sharing with you a an idea from cabala it wasn't only cababala it was based on talmud and cabala and everything why would you just kind of with two hands push it away and say I'm not into that it's a part of god's a part of god's wisdom that's where I think unfortunately you're making a mistake say that I'm not experience experiencing it say that it's not my area of expertise but to say with two hands like that that it's it's it's not for me how that's not true that's a lie it is for you it's for your soul it's for every soul and that was the end of except what I had to say and that's it that's the that I want to conclude this whole uh you know discourse with