People of the Book - Ohr Ha'Chaim (Rav Chaim ibn Attar)

good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the boca raton synagogues next edition of people of the book this is a wonderful program that we began several years ago in which we try to analyze and share with you a comprehensive view of the biography and the methodology and the contributions of some of our greatest personalities who've contributed to the spread of torah literature be it on humish be it on rabbinic literature and be it on so much more so we are once again bringing to you the next unit in the next installment of this great series called the people of the book and i have the privilege of learning with you tonight the life and the contribution of the aurah we'll examine we'll talk about his life and then we'll go through some of his works some of his contributions some of the difference uh that he made in terms of the uh the authorship and the torah text that he shared so let's let's begin and these powerpoint i'm happy to share with anybody afterwards if you're just listening and not watching i'm happy to share it with you at some further point let's uh make this bigger so you see less of me and more of this he lived from 1696 to 1743 he lived in seoul morocco to an illustrious family who descended from spanish exiles a moroccan jew a very proud moroccan jew and until today moroccan jews claim with great pride claimed ibn atar claimed the makadosh one of their own the word atar was not his last name it's not what he filled out on the sats when he took the moroccan sats atar means a perfume merchant and this gives us some insight into what was the profession what was the job what was responsible for the income of his family he studied primarily he was taught by his grandfather after whom he is named again the spartak tradition even naming those who are alive in the introduction to a safer hashem he writes i studied torah with my teacher and grandfather of holy and blessed memory he was a great rav well known pious and humble from my drank living waters from my birth i grew up on his knees and took all his wondrous sayings he was so pious that i would say he almost never slept even half a night so the orachaim uh gives a credit to his grandfather as his central teacher or early as teacher and talks about having not only learned torah text torah knowledge not only transmitted torah information from his grandfather but the piety of his grandfather who never slept even half a night now he married into a wealthy family which enabled him to study for a few years until his father-in-law had passed away and when his father-in-law passed away he was no longer in a position to be able to continue to learn it was a great investment of his father-in-law who ultimately became a merchant himself but was a great time those early years of being supported and learning positioned him for success and we continue to drink from his fountain to learn his torah teachings until today he settled in the city of meknes to work with his brother-in-law after his father-in-law had died and an economic crisis and plagues and famine forced him to relocate several times here you have a map of morocco and you can see the city in which he lived if we were together in a room and i had a pointer i would call your attention to it however a changing economy and plagues were not the first generation to live through a pandemic forced him to relocate several times at that point the ibn atar had this awakening this love this calling is long for zion political unrest inspired him that the jew doesn't belong in gallus the jew doesn't have a future in the diaspora and so he was motivated and inspired his time to go to israel he became excited to join rechaimab who had started a new community in the city of tavaria near the kineret he wanted to build a yeshiva for jews from the diaspora a place that would be an in-gathering of the exiles they would call from come from all over and they would come to eretz israel the land of israel in an effort to bring mashiach this of course is the nivua this is what the prophets anticipated the jews would come there be a kibbutz golios it's what we darven for every day in our prayers that we would gather from all the exiles the diaspora around the world and therefore he felt if he could draw if he could draw jews from around the world and unite and integrate them together then it might bring mashiach in his introduction to homeless which of course we'll see more later in his most famous for his commentary on parasha and torah and he writes hashem enlighten my mind's eye to rise up and go to the land of the divine presence the city dearly loved by the master of the universe i strengthened myself and armed myself and endured great dangers traveling through deserts to arrive here duracam describes and he's moving remember we're talking in 18th century he's moving to israel at a time there's no nephesh but nephesh and there is no misra there is no uh office that's going to help you transition easily there's no soft landing there's no modi or beijemesh or any of these ranana type communities when the aura is ready to pick up and go because of the unrest of the diaspora he risks his life he has to arm himself and he endures great dangers on his way and it had such an impact on him that he mentions it in his introduction to his commentary on klimish now on his way to eretz israel it wasn't a direct route there was no direct flight from morocco to israel at the time and he stops in livorno italy from morocco on this journey this is the year and in that city derek was a brilliant scholar he was tremendous tremendous oratory skills and so he garnered a big following those who were eager to hear his sermons draw his inspiration to follow his teachings and we'll see soon that he was not only an expert and he was not only great in the world of torah the revealed torah but he was an accomplished capitalist and his ability to integrate those two made him an enormous draw and so he stopped over and here on the map you see the star livorno italy on the west coast of italy uh here he attracted a lot of attention he traveled across italy it wasn't a direct route from morocco to israel uh to venice and ferrara madinah rigid encouraging italian jury to make aliyah he saw himself on this effort you know the the navi tells us that um the navy tells us the story of um of el cana who would travel with khana panina aliyah the regal and he would always take a different route because he would encourage the people that he saw on the way come with me come with me is not the first who says that on my way on this journey of aliyah to try to recruit and solicit others to join with him in that time in italy he was able to raise large sums of money so as he was positioned to publish as he was writing and making his contribution to torah scholarship he was able to raise money in order to be able to publish his books in the year 1741 two years after arriving in italy he was successful in taking 30 disciples again we think of enormous numbers for aliyah but this was an enormous number at the time to convince 30 families 30 disciples to get up uh from morocco and italy and set sail to israel in order to found yeshiva and to forge the future and their destiny there when he arrives in eretz israel in israel he comes to the city the port city of akko 1742 he arrives four days before rosh hashanah you talk about heir to certain nicknames be sure you talk about how he had to arm himself and you talk about the fact that it was a a difficult journey to be able to go there he arrived four days before hashanah hardly a convenient time to arrive i doubt his lift came at the same time i doubt he was able to have such a soft landing so he arrives they spend yom kippur in the cave carmel hearing about the epidemic in yerushalayim again we're not the first generation and every set almost every century there has been a pandemic or an epidemic which makes it even more shocking that we were so arrogant to think that we were now immune and it wouldn't happen to us but here's what's going on in yerushalayim so decides that even though his dream is to establish yeshiva in you shalom that's why he came from morocco via italy that it's not yet time and it's port city of akko he'll establish a temporary settlement a temporary yeshiva there and then bring that yeshiva and his disciples to you when it's safe when the time is right two of his students died from this plague and ibrahim attributed to akko being outside the boundaries of israel of course there is controversy exactly how you define the boundaries of israel with significant nafka mean as practical differences the observance of one day of two days the obligation of the mitzvahz of whether you have to tithe the produce that grows in the land he moves the yeshiva to pakistan until he was ready to move to yerushalayim leaving akko to get into israel proper because he took it as a sign of those two students who passed away and even though he can't yet go to jerusalem nevertheless he sees it as a sign you shall i mean he establishes the kinesis israel yeshiva kinesic israel probably he was from morocco after all and the second second secret of yeshiva for kabbalah so there is the revealed yeshiva this is the yeshiva that's listed as part of the joint program of why you there's the yeshiva that you can find on the internet and there's a secret of yeshiva for kabbalah for kabbalah because he is a mystic and mysticism is not advertised or promoted widely or publicly it attracts a private participation and following in addition to the intense study the shiva students spent their nights in prayer davening for the ghoul of the redemption engaged in aesthetic practices doesn't just establish yeshiva that is a traditional yeshiva focused on traditional curriculum but he also has a yeshiva or at least this parallel uh much more hidden yeshiva for kabbalah is encouraging tikkun khatsos and darwining and nil the night for the gula and all kinds of more esoteric mystical and aesthetic practices in a letter he describes the joy in coming to you shalom again this was his dream he moves from morocco travels all of italy makes its way to akko through and finally to yerushalayim and he writes in this letter quote i saw a great light at the time of khon nidre and when i opened the hechal it was truly like opening the gates of ganeden there was such a radiance in the show that everyone was overflowing in supplications and abundantly crying in the desire to see the construction of the basan mikdash believe me he writes i have never seen such a thing in my entire life he writes nothing there's anything wrong with it but like a seminary girl who's finally able to come to the hotel for the first time he had gone through and he had endured such challenging uh circumstances such danger to be able to get to eretz israel into yerushalayim and when he's there he describes conledra knight in front of the ark the aram it was like opening the gates to gan eden the radiance the light that permeated that filled the whole shul everyone was overflowing and they're dabbling it was so sincere that he had never seen such a thing in his life now one of his closest disciples is 1806 worthy of his own class in our people of the book series that's not the name that he filled in on his uh and his tests on the top line did not say his license driver's license his name was he was only 18 years old at the time when he distinguished himself as one of the principal students of the orachyam he was a cohen that's how he gained the last name azula as allah wasn't the last name just like atar wasn't the aurahaim's last name azir is an acronym the passage says he shows a coin is forbidden a coin is not allowed to marry a promiscuous woman or uh isha's certain women are categories that are prohibited to the kohen so isha's the acronym the first letter of each of those words in that passage so he was the azula rehand of yosef was his name azulai was this acronym indicating that he was a cohen he was known as excuse me and it is safe for shame hagidolan the great writes quote myself the youngster i had the merit to be part of this yeshiva my eyes saw the greatness of his torah describing his rebbi the qadosh his extreme gentleness as an extraordinary holiness the rav had impressive strength and study for our generation he was like a source of living waters one perceives his wisdom in his books yet this represents only a fraction of his insight the greatness of his heart and his exceptionally sharp mind all day long there hovered over him a spirit of holiness and detachment from the world as well as an exceptional spiritual strength so the he does first-person testimony about the virtue and the righteousness the scholarship and the greatness of his confirms everything i had told you which is that he was a goddamn intolerant in total knowledge but also a makubal he was an expert in the mystical esoteric sections of torah and he practiced with great piety and holiness which was evident and is described from his student dies on the 15th of tammuz in the year 1743 think about the contribution of the aura think about as we'll see in a moment every edition of the micros godolos carries the commentary of the makadosh a name that is so familiar to each and every one of us familiar with every base medicine yet he left this world at only 47 years old 47 how much more he could have contributed how much more he had to offer and to ed but he died at only 47 years old in the year 17 at 43. he died approximately one year after arriving fulfilling this dream of coming to and building a yeshiva in yushalayim he died minh and shabbas the parties penchas of course the password in shabbos is very auspicious it's uh describes somebody who's very righteous and at that moment it is said far away thousands of miles away that bashar told his students in his own instinct his own intuition he knew that quote the western candle has been extinguished perceived that this great light has been extinguished has been put out in the world because the ibn atar had passed away at only 47 years old on the 15th of tamas shabbas pashas pinchas in the year 1743 that is his tsun that is his grave and his tombstone he's buried on harassing on the mount of olives in yerushalayim and every year on the 15th of tammuz every year there is a mass move to the harassaism an enormous amount of people who meet there to davin at the kev of the makados throughout the year but particularly on his uh eureka site the 15th of thomas now the building that has the ushiva today has a show on the second floor it's called the orokheim synagogue you can visit it today that's a picture of the arachim synagogue it remains active today although it's interesting the aurahaim of course coming from morocco with spartak and yet the shul today functions as an ashkenazi in 1534 long before the ever arrived the ariza was born on the lower floor of the same building it is said okay let's get to the works let's get to the writings and the literary torah contribution of the makkah 1732 while still living in morocco his book hashem which we read it from his introduction of the book is a commentary on the gemara it's printed in the city of amsterdam and there is a cover page in the top right of his hashem in 1742 10 years later his or heim which is his magnum opus his major contribution the throughout shaytora throughout the five books of torah is first published in venice in 1742 and there is its cover page in 1742 the same year he publishes a safer called pre toar which is a commentary on sh not on not on the daily living of of life but rather yorudaya a complex area of halacha and on the your day section of he writes a commentary called pre toar published in amsterdam in 1742 and in 1750 eight years later uh rishon natsion is his safer annach published in constantinople in 1750. those are his major works and of course we're all familiar with his commentary in 1742 and as we said in the edition it's published with rashi and unclass it's considered to be so significant such a major contribution that a person would have a humish if they were going to be marbedra if they were going to learn the cedra the parsha of the week they would read that parsha with rashi uncles and it became standard in microscopes today you can't buy them across godolos that doesn't have the commentary printed on the page consistent with each passage of the it displaced earlier we shown him many or most of the commentaries in the microscope rashi and the ramban and the svarno and the eben ezra some have the his kuni these are richonne and medieval commentaries but the urchin was deemed so significant such a major contribution so critical to the understanding of humish and parsha that others were knocked out and essentially the publishers got the pascan there was no muetas gedoliatoro that sat down and determined who should be in the macroscodolus who should comprise the standard macros godolas and yet the publishers based on their own based on their own assessment and also on needing meeting the needs of the market the publishers determined that was so significant that as we said in fact it displaced other earlier in some ways more authoritative we've shown him to have the arkham there became extremely popular the commentary of the makadosh among hasidim in particular many of whom study the parasha each week with him if you go into achievement you will see not even as part of the macros godolos you'll see standalone hamashian that are just rashi or and in many hasidis records are encouraged and it is the tradition the minogue to learn the parsha every week not just the parasha with rashi and uncles but with the commentary of the makkadesh today and here you have a picture of it the translated into english some of his teachings are very esoteric and complicated so even having it in the english doesn't necessarily make it easy or entirely accessible but yet it is important to know that it's been published in the in the english as well okay now relationship of we said that when left this world the bashamtv perceived it and even though it was afternoon he said a great light has been extinguished the light the western light has been put out where does this come up this relationship the archaic and why hasidim have so embraced the commentary of the aura and made it such a significant part of their tradition to learn it each and every week in the aftermath of the shopkinsville episode which is beyond the scope we're not going to review right now 3 16 26 1676 a false prophet who attracted the attention of even some of illustrious who perhaps or at least minimally were accused of subscribing everybody got involved in this controversy not only rayakov and ipshits as we all know but the yeshua got involved not the beholder got involved they were all asked to weigh in to take sides it was a controversy that rocked and devastated the the false messiah movement always arose after a particularly devastating time for the jewish people and this case was no different so after the controversy the jewish community is devastated and there's a big split a big split between the scholars and the ignorant because the ignorant were particularly vulnerable to subscribing to uh to a false messiah the ignorant were not steeped in total learning not steeped necessarily in pious practice and they were most vulnerable most desperate if you were ignorant and you were indigent and poor then you were simultaneously most desperate for good tidings most desperate for somebody to tell you that they were bringing and ushering in the eschatological area bringing in the future time the time of the redemption and so in the aftermath of shamtaitsvi there was this big split between those who were the tamita those who were well-versed and those who came from strong so to say backgrounds versus those who were more ignorant and less privileged in those ways review 1698 to 1760 he was also not born and known as the baal shem tov his mother didn't call him his name was ben and his father was eliezer he was known as the vashem dove or its acronym he lived in the ukraine he became known as a healer and a miracle worker he was amazingly sincere and he sought to elevate the spirituality of the masses and he taught the true service of hashem is not only about learning and scholarship which it's central it's something that basham denied the centrality of talmud of course it's central it's all about torah as its core even within that even especially also within this torah essential and its core however there's another part that goes with it which is avodah and passionate faith and trust and love and prayer and practice are just as important as torah so there became these two movements and the movement of the gra and the movement of the village was that torah learning is primary total learning is the measure total learning is what defines total learning is everything whereas with the bashamt have introduced what has introduced and both it's not that they it's not that the gura and rakhine villagener denied the avodah component it's which is primary which is more central whereas the vashem came and he said of course torah is critical and of course torah is most important and of course tamil torah is going to get kulam but there's also amuna and b tahon and abbas hashem and tefillah and finding hashem everywhere in our lives he's settled in the town of nezhbits talking about the basham dove and from there he spreads hasidis in a systematic fashion everywhere now why am i bringing this up what is why is it important to understand the bashamt of the best in connection with your because the writes in shame on gidolam we have heard that in poland they hold in high esteem it has been printed two more times and this was inspired by the pious and holy rabbi our master of israel basham tov having spoken of the great soul of the aphra said master of the bashamtho put a great endorsement on rafael on the aurahaim he saw the arakai makadosh as such a critically important torah text that would open and elucidate hamish and torah not only in the night fashion but in nister fashion and when the bashamta when the best when he saw basham tov gave this ringing endorsement to the urachaem and said that this is the salve on the wounds of claustro who are recovering from this devastation of shabtai tv and who are desperate and longing for a message of redemption and hope then uh when the basham puts his endorsement it creates a very strong bond and connection between hasidim and the learning of israel of virginia 1796 1850 in the year 1849 endorsed a special printing of the and he's quoted by his son moshe of church of assaying just as in earlier times the holy zoa at the capacity to purify the soul today's study of the holy aura the torah has the capacity to purify the soul so imagine that is the level of comparison that the razinger is saying that what the zoar did for the generation in which the zoar has introduced the torah has done for our generation that is how far he went with that ringing endorsement that's what established this connection and now you can understand a little bit more why in every hasida has such a central role and there's such an emphasis on learning hakadosh not only zorohaim embraced by hasidim was from morocco was not even though he was a earlier contemporary bashem but is also embraced as well by sfardim safran of kamar now 1806 to 1874 writes it is the sim twas he writes one who accepts the single commandment faith is worthy of having the holy spirit a light upon him and for that reason hashem said against him wicked accusers who scorned him as they did the holy rabbi are our rabbi richard who was scorned by some accursed one who said you were a deceiver and a hypocrite and to this day the stupid and foolish among his countrymen scoring but our teacher the best said of our holy rabbi that his soul is the spirit of david from the world of emanation this is still the hasidic endorsement sometimes you see someone's great if they're beloved by everybody they stand for nothing also had those who were cynical and skeptical of him he had those who challenged and criticized him and yet he had the backing of the basham tov and of the chain of the uh power structure of the hasidic movement in seventy richard the son of the crime of sans went to the grave of the cover of the arakayama as your sight and he was shocked to see that there were no spiderm who were present the spartan were slower to embrace even than the khasid now let's get to the overview of the orifice so we talked about his biography we talked about the origami and his early life and what was his early life we spoke about was born in morocco and he was able to marry and learn because he had a wealthy father-in-law until he couldn't anymore he had to go to business himself he decided to move to israel to start a yeshiva he traveled throughout italy finally made it to akko and then made it into israel ultimately to shalom where sadly tragically only a year later he left this world after only been there for for a year but he made such a contribution we reviewed the different writings has published that he published different periods of his life in his in his way too few 47 years but mainly the parsha and is his main contribution so let's take a look at what exactly it is about he writes in his introduction and if we were in person i would share with you source sheets that have the actual texts if anyone emails me i'm happy to share with them afterwards in this introduction he writes hashem's torah lay written before me it awakened me and gave me expression it illuminated my soul in the sweetness of lights and my soul felt as if she had seen its secrets she will even become saved of its savory delights though many remain yet untasted in the light of the countenance of the living king now the mish this is what makes it even more meaningful and even more significant that the publishers determined to publish to print the origami commentary in the mcroscodolos because unlike some of the rishonim unlike some of the earlier mafashima who are succinct who are very short who capture their idea in a very uh short fashion the arachim is verbose and he's long and he elaborates and he develops and he offers multiple interpretations on many generated by stylistic and grammatical questions or textual contradictions the style of is to ask a series of questions and then offer an answer or answers that will put all the questions to bed and to rest he believes that apostles shot the plain meaning in the kabbalistic mystical interpretations are equally true and relevant so even though we have a tradition from our ghazal that in medici we have a tradition that you cannot ignore or dismiss the simple meaning of a pasuk that when you have an additional layer of interpretation it complements and it supplements the simple interpretation but you cannot dismiss or marginalize the simple interpretation aim yosemite you have to deal with the simple interpretation that is firmly our tradition nevertheless that when it comes to shot when it comes to the literal translation and when it comes to the kabbalistic and mystical interpretation they are an equal ground they're equally true and equally relevant and equally binding unlike most early commentaries who offers multiple interpretations multiple truths so i'll read to you you don't have it in front of you but i'll read to you and you'll have to take my word for granted he writes the following embraces paragumo after adam realizes in ghanaian that he's tasted of the tree of knowledge and now he realizes there's a cool breeze he all of a sudden notices that he's naked so hashem turn somebody says who told you who told you you're naked says what changed from an hour ago where you stood before me and you didn't know that you were naked to now when you recognize and protest so it must be someone told you something told you there was something outside that made you realize this that you didn't know before well um it's not some external outside source that told him he knew it intuitively because adam had done the wrong thing and now his struggle became internal not external now all of a sudden when the atahara becomes internalized he realizes now he becomes aware and mindful that he's naked however the torah is speaking in a very pleasant way hashem had compassion on adam so he says that who told you as if it came from somewhere and that's the line i'm drawing your attention to that writes at the end of this comment on parisians perigimo chapter three pastor kidalof you should know that all the explanations we offer that are consistent with the meaning of the text are correct you could have multiple interpretations but as long as they are loyal to the text they are all equally true that is one of the principles of the orgaim you can have multiple interpretations that are all equally true now later commentaries are generally less daring and novel than the medieval ones most show great deference to them so the ramban rashi the ibnez or the swarno the cliaka for example will record all of them and a cliaker will revlinches will quote or offer his own novel interpretations but he's much less daring or bold to disagree with the medieval with the earlier we've shown him the is a bold exception he's not afraid to disagree and he's not afraid to reject the interpretations of great authorities and respected commentators and here i'll bring you a second example that we'll learn inside in appreciating the style of the methodology of the and this comes from in chapter 26 verse memphis 40. and the process says to confess the sins and writes the archaim rishonim lahiru a nanu the earlier ones did not sufficiently open our eyes when it comes to this meaning even though he has great respect of course for the reshowing the medieval his medieval predecessors but he has no problem saying rishonim that the medieval rishonim they did not sufficiently enlighten our eyes when it comes to these texts because all of their interpretations are far-fetched all their interpretations are very far from the simple meaning and then he explains why he's dissatisfied and why what they offer is not enough and why he refuses to accept it but it's very bold it's very bold and most don't most acharon and most later commentaries do not take on the earlier ones he knows that ghazal often gave homiletical interpretations that contradict the simple meaning in some instances he accepts the interpretation and others he insists to possibly be understood according to its shot its simple meaning as long as the interpretation doesn't affect halacha commentators have freedom and here i'll draw your attention again i'll read it for you to a third uh uh interpretation it comes from gracious perek memvav chapter 46 who descended down to egypt and who is counted among the 70 and who qualifies and don't be disturbed and don't worry that our explanation is the opposite of what the rabbi said why i've already told you that regarding explanations that have no impact on practice on the practice of jewish law permission is granted to the scholar to offer a novel interpretation again very bold it means that when it comes to we are bound by the authorities and the system that is above us but when it comes to interpreting the text of torah that has no halachic implication we have certain liberty or freedoms which are much broader or bigger than we have when it comes to the development and the application of halacha so this too is another important principle to understand the so so far what we saw is that the orchard believes that number one uh he writes longer than the succinct uh earlier commentaries he believes that the shot and the kabbalistic meaning are equally true he offers multiple interpretations and says there's not one correct or authoritative one he is willing to be bold and disagree even with the insurance will come before him and he says there is a freedom of interpretation of freedom of exegesis that exists as long as there is no halal implication as a result he invokes the four ways of interpreting we know these four ways they're known as pardes shot rem as drash and sod corresponding with asea and atsilas this appears in his comment on shmos perak alamed bays shemos chapter 32 and he writes odi he says it appears to me a another reason the indian paradise that you're learning of torah you have to read with four pairs of glasses with four filters you have to understand that the simple meaning and you have to understand the remez and the drash and the soda dash [Music] so we're not going to get into mostly because i don't feel qualified exactly what the differences are between these but know that is not afraid to say that there are differences uh between them and that he is embracing all of them not afraid to argue with rashi the rhyme is not afraid to take on rashi to take on the ibanez or to take on the ramban for example in borasha's peregzian passing he takes on rashi the passage says did everything was command it says rashi peres do beyonce rashford says what does it mean when the verse says that noah did everything was commanded it means he entered into the ark the tava comes along it says russia you're wrong if the passage is just telling us that noah followed everything that was commanded i.e he went into the tava i already know that because the whole story unfolds with noah in the tava so why would i need these extra words to tell me he listened to god by entering where into the tava so so the is not afraid to take on rashi he's not afraid to disagree with rashi which again is something which is very very bold uh hold on good he's also not afraid to take on the here's another example of rasheed dvaram parikh based pasok he disagrees with rashi again i don't see such compelling i don't find rashi persuasive he writes it's very very bold to write in the 18th century about rashi from 800 years earlier 700 years earlier that i don't find rashi compelling bold he takes on the ibenezer embraces parallelogress gracious 38. he would have been right if the passage didn't say such and such but deposit does say such and such so he's not afraid to take on rashi he's not afraid to take on the ramban he's not afraid to icon to even israel in truth he doesn't mention them often and explains why in his introduction offers his original interpretations unlike the kliyakar who will quote everyone under the sun and either leave it at that or then offer his interpretation though doesn't quote them often and he explains why he wanted to avoid plagiarism so he only looked at their commentary carefully after writing his which is also a fascinating methodology and he writes i'm not going to take the time to read it now but he says had i studied all of their commentary interpretation then maybe later theirs would have influenced mine and i would be taking credit for something which really didn't originate with me so by first writing his own interpretation and only then looking at theirs could he ensure that he wasn't in fact copying from them very very bold perspective but that is his methodology and that is his approach and kabbalah by the 18th century kabbalah study was popular a permeated jewish scholarship and biblical commentary again remember we talked about the bashem and his embracement of mysticism one of rakhine's goals is to explain the mystical interpretation can't find one page you're not going to find one page of our channel without his saying something episode something up hi kabbalah he draws mostly from the zohar which he cites as the teaching of he only references the arizona directly a few times mostly it's the zohar and he keeps it simple the spheros the complexity of the hierarchy the metaphysical world he only uh mentions once in all of his commentary otherwise it's kabbalah for dummies he tries to dumb it down he tries to make it accessible even for those not entirely well versed throughout the arachim once he's a concept of divine imminence in which the spiritual and physical are not entirely distinct but the physical is infused with spiritual they're not in competition and they're not in complimenting they're infused with the other a complimentary theme is the mandate to redeem the sparks of holiness tapped into the physical world and here i give you the references if you want to look it up in your hand inside the love between hashem and the jewish people kabbalistically a love a romance and intertwinement of the two so we saw the benatar the makadosh we saw about his life and we saw his journey from morocco through italy through israel and ultimately to yerushalayim we saw that he is a great talmud shiva and a community leader a scholar and a capitalist but he makes an enormous literary contribution to torah opens up and elucidates torah in a way which has been endorsed by the highest places so much so that it is printed uh in our mcgraw schools in perpetuity he led a life in motion he accomplished an incredible amount considering that he was on the run so i wanted to consider one thing in conclusion was 47 years old when he left this world he died at 47. and in those 47 years he was running and running and he was persecuted he was fleeing and he was arming himself and he was protecting himself and look at what he did and we even in this pandemic but in ordinary times with comfort and convenience with safety and security for the most part and please god with longevity long beyond 47 years the responsibility and the obligation on us to make a contribution in our lives he was bold creative loyal principled and he was at mystical these are my suggestions much of what i took came from here i encourage you if you want to see more of it an article in conversations that are high in creativity tradition and mysticism and torah an article in modern judaism a heretic who has no faith in the great ones of the age the clash of the honor of the archaim and an article in mahanayim called in the commentary of ben atar thank you so much for joining us for tonight the opening session of the latest season of people of the book every tuesday night 7 30 we've got fantastic teachers and fantastic people we're teaching about so please continue to join us for people of the book on tuesday nights at 7 30. if you enjoyed please subscribe on our youtube page tomorrow morning 8 15 missoulas acharam on youtube 8 45 living with the moon and tomorrow night 9 o'clock we go behind the bhima with rabbi kotlarsky the head one of the leaders of khabad today to learn more about khabar and the virtual kinase that will take place it's nine o'clock tomorrow night until then stay happy stay healthy and stay holy