Should I learn kabbalah? Rashbi and Lag Ba'Omer - Rabbi Alon Anava

[Music] in two days from now we're going to be celebrating L which is a very special day and celebrating and commemorating the life and the passing of a special a very special individual Shimon barai which he left us an unbelievable present and that's the teachings of cabala he opened up a whole new world starting from the book of the zoh into the world of cabala I mean a lot of people they separate the two concept between cabala and Z which the real cabala is the Z and I mean cabala there's many different branches of cabala there's the cabala of the Rak the cabala of thei there's cabal that's way before that but in general the topic the iism is called cabala and R Shimon was the one who so to say opened it up for us and he left us this unbelievable presentence and it arouses a big question now in our generation it becomes very popular people want to learn cabala people want to learn Zohar we're getting a little bit closer to the time of mashia so people find a lot of interest in it a few hundred years ago whoever dared to talk talk about that would be outcast less than 300 years ago when the bmov came everybody went against him after that his process with the mag from then the next generation of the balat from bre theic movement started they ran into opposition everybody was like how dare you even talk about things like that and up until today there are people that say no who who allowed you to learn Z who allowed you to to learn cabala I mean this is not something that uh that has to do with us why are you even doing that and up until today there are people that says no I there's not there's no origin there's no source and the and the zor is nonsense you can't even listen to that up until today and not only that even when people do believe in the zor and cabala then a lot of people say why why bother I have a free moment why should I learn about about worldsim who cares let me give me something practical give me a course how to bake how to do business or whatever CPR give me something practical why you now this is what you learn you learn about all sorts of things that has nothing to do with me why most people not you you're here inat you want to learn about this most people you're going to come and tell them let's learn about something mystical to tell you has nothing to do with me who cares to give me something practical teach me something that I can do money with teach me something how I can build relationships why are you teaching me about something that has nothing to do with me that's the majority of people for us might look foreign here in spat because everybody wants to learn about the mysticism but we're a fraction of the entire world most people they don't they're not interested in that so the question comes first of all why should we learn cabala what's so special about it there is a a group of people that they're they're pulled towards the mysticism they like it but is should I learn cabala should I learn mysticism should I go and invest my time what what's the benefit of that and that's one thing that I want to talk about today why is the present that rabish Shimon gave us is so great it's so great that nobody got a holiday but him really when you're thinking of it all the holidays that we celebrate are holidays from the Torah P sukot the only two additions that we got was Pim and and kanuka this was an addition from the Sedin the the sages added such a holiday from such a great miracle which in itself we address that in Ina there are so many other miracles in the past why don't we celebrate them why don't we have a holiday for when the man came down from sham why don't why don't we celebrate when I don't know Yoshua conquered Israel that was a huge Miracle you know the sun got stuck in the sky for a couple hours why don't we make a miracle out of that so there's another great question which we're not going to address today we talked about it in kanuk puim why specifically kanuk puim was decided to be a holiday but other than that we don't celebrate any holidays how come we celebrating l l is s to say an invented holiday everybody celebrates there's not one person in the world that doesn't know what and this is another big question why Rim I mean I know he's great but you know how many other great people are there that changed the face of judism and nobody knows anything about them you know there's a certain Sage his name was raban yanan Ben zakai you know what's raban raban is the rabbi of all rabbis we call Moshe Renu we call shim Rim we Callan the rabbi of all the rabbis without raban Yan B Zak we would not have the oral Tor one can argue and say he's greater than shim does anybody know what's the the death day ofak nobody knows nobody knows even where he's buried I mean we know where he's buried you ask any average person where RAB shim is buried WR you ask somebody about RAB AKA does anybody know Raba is the rebi of rabish Shimon Bai does everybody know when his yard site is very few people know when R outs is died on I didn't know was buried in yeah so there are such huge sages even you know in close to us okay we know where he's buried you know mean few people know his the outside it's yeah not more than that you know is there a holiday on Z does anybody celebrate that is there anything going on some people do I mean listen we know I mean people know where're big sages are buried in their day of The Hil a few days yesterday was the H Bal how many people know that who is a very good friend of R shimai the point is that why does rabish shimai is so famous and so great you know that meron is the second most busiest tourist location in the world after the cotel wow after the what after the cotel the whing wall the whing wall the is the number one tourist attraction in Israel and meron is the number two tourist attraction in Israel only the entire year around not EXC me yeah and it's and it's growing but you would think maybe I don't know maybe I don't know what Maron is the second most busiest tourist location in Israel all year round so it BRS people what's the population ofon Maron is a very small village there's nobody 3,000 that I don't know not even 5000 no cuz around meron there's a few Villages H in the actual Village of meron I don't even think there's 3,000 people there it's a very small village but around it there's all these little yesim there's the or and there's the another yesu there but it's a very small place uh it's I don't even think the 3,000 people there do you know where the 24,000 students are buried no nobody knows where they are I mean some of them we do but we don't know where where the 24 students are now besides they said that because they died in a plague maybe they buried all of them together all died one opinion says they all died in 3 days can you imagine half a city dying in three days you have to so there must be somewhere around here could be we don't know could be we just don't know no no it doesn't necessarily be around here because theiva was in yav there was it's far away from here Thea wasn't herea where all the students were there was in yav yav was a very big city of Torah was close to B and that's where it was but again 24,000 people you're talking about a city there's a good chance it was scattered maybe there was I don't think they were all in the same place but regardless let's continue with our topic is that why is Rish getting such highlight I mean we just mentioned there are great sages other than him I mean I'm not saying he's not great but there are other great people why he gets all the honor he gets all the attraction he gets all the cavod all the respect there's a holiday on his name you know there's one a a sage I'm not 100% I think it was maybe the I don't remember exactly we don't take my word on that he was very against L he didn't like L and he lived abroad and he one of the reasons that he refused to come and live in Israel was because I don't I think it was the I'm not too sure was last couple hundred years and maybe not I don't want to say but there was one of the the greaton that didn't like like B it's like no no it's not a it's not a good thing why why is he having a holiday this is not something normal this is nothing to do with us it's not our holiday it's not a holiday but the reality is that everybody knows what's like B I think the most secular person in the world when I grew up when I grew up I didn't celebrate any H holidays I celebrated like B because you know you make bonfires and you and you stay up all night and you shoot bow and arrows I mean I remember when I was four years old we would shoot B that was the the funnest holiday we would shoot Bor and arrows you you're making a face of why Bor and arrow because when rabish Shimon was alive the entire time that he was alive there wasn't rainbow in the heaven in the sky the entire time he was alive now we know that when Noah came out of the Ark then Hashem gave him a promise and he says I will never destroy the world again and every time that I'm going to be upset I'm going to put a beautiful rainbow in the in the sky so every time you see a rainbow everybody Marvels the beautiful colors one should say uhoh Hashem is pretty upset right now that we're seeing a rainbow so because it means hasem wants to destroy the world but Hashem had a a deal with Noah and says I'm not going to destroy the world I'm just going to put a beautiful rainbow in the sky it's like when people work on their anger management they're like you know they breathe in breathe out soem breathes in breathes out he paints a beautiful rainbow and says relax they're only human I know they they're annoying but I'm not going to destroy them so while Rish Shimon Bai was alive the entire life time of his life they never saw a rainbow because his Merit was so powerful that in the of R Shimon the entire world sustained so since that we didn't see any bow the the rainbow throughout his life and we we one of the ways of commemorating everybody's shooting the bows and arrows so there are many many other reasons for that but but I used to H celebrate like as a secular Israeli I mean it was a big holiday we loveed we would prepare for two months in advance collecting all the wood that's you know there was the activity from PS right excuse me it wasn't flaming arrow our activity as little kids before was to prepare wood for the bonfires we would walk around in groups and collect wood and steal wood from construction sites and hide it and then the other group of boys would steal our wood and started a whole war and this was a whole activity the other day I saw a a bunch of kids they looked like maybe 8 n years old walking with a car full of wood and I was like oh I remember the the missions we called it missions going and getting wood and so L is a very special holid day that everybody celebrates you know in Israel the kids don't go to school even on like they made it a little a literally a holiday the kids don't go to school the next day on like B so sorry now there's a big there's a question what's the concept of going up to meon it's a pretty New Concept by the way that the first time that we saw a source to it was about 500 years ago by Raba is one of the greatest commentaries on the mishna he explains the mishna and in the year 1429 he wrote a certain letter talking about going up toon that's one of the first sources we have about the concept about going toon on because a lot of people asking why should I go there what's so special the mystical explanation is and I don't want to get into it too much because we want to focus on our concept the mystical explanation why one should make an effort to go on toon on any passing day of a sadik to the Grave is because the nefes of the sadik dwells around the grave all year round if you go now to um to RAB you go to wherever you want to go to you go to all the here or to in Brooklin the nees of the sadik is next to the Grave it doesn't move from there that's why it's called it doesn't call a grave is a mark because the neish of the sadik is there it doesn't leave on and other specious times like festivals the r and the of thead is in the grave which means that when you come close to the Grave you have some type of a spiritual connection with a higher level of the Nish but on the day of the passing What's called the hilula the all five levels of the N are there the the the the and the all five levels of the of the sad is in the so when you go toim to you have the the ability to connect to all five levels of the N of thead this only happens on one day that you have that connection so that's more of a mystical reason where are other four levels during the rest of the year in their place in gedan in heaven they don't come down I mean thead can go up and down as much as he wants but the highest part of the N is called the that comes down to the world only on the day of the passing so on the day of the passing on any sadik you go to that sadik's the grave then you have the opportunity to connect with the of that sad just by being there how close you have to be to the you don't have to stand on you don't have to hug the grave it's enough to be around it like I always say and don't take me as a source but I'm pretty much sure that the effect the Ripple affect riches you don't have to kill yourself and go to to I mean again don't take my this is a this is just my opinion I'm saying that the power of Rish Shimon I'm pretty much sure that the Ring of effect of his n reaches something very who was the greatest the world and yeah God didn't want or allowed us to go to grave because make idol worship out of it yeah so we are not allow time that people go to I feel something I'm I'm going to tell you the answer all the time conect connect with the so I don't know I'm going to tell you the the answer to that why do we go toon specifically to because there is some people like I told you I think it's a don't take my word he was very against it he didn't like the whole thing one of the first ones that gave us the the the what's the word not the permission but was talking about going to Maron was RAB rabad from B the next one that gave a stamp about the importance of going toon he used to make it his business to go there theal was very into going into meon but the L gave a very interesting explanation why LBA and Maron is so special because really what do we do on the OM we count the OM and what do we say every day today two days to now some people have the custom of saying some say say when they count and the Faris and other different types of groups they say doesn't matter but if you take the words lag is is 33 and when you take the words brings you to a very interesting gatria of 345 another special word that brings you to this gatria of 345 is Moshe and mosu rash is mosheim is m is the so and shim says on himself in different occasions that he is Mosen he is Mosen since we don't know the place of burial of mos so we we know that Rim is Mos now why to go to the Grave we're not going to get into that I want I want to don't want to move off from our topic we can talk about it another time or later but one of the reasons why rash gets such attention such cavod such a holiday and all that is because shim is mosu and mosu went up to sh and he got the Tor we know the story and again I see we having too many of these uh distractions and we not sticking to the topic which although it's all important there is a question what is the Zab and why is it so special and what's what's so important to learn it the story explains that when mosu went up to sh then the Angels they had a prosecution against against us why are we getting the Torah that was the prosecution in sh the high Angels they came to the kadh with a lawsuit and they said why are the human beings getting the Torah we should get the Torah so MOS Renu was sepa the to the Heavenly court and God told mosu you just got the Torah you represent the humans you answer MOS was of course very afraid he's like what do you mean you answer I'm just going to stand next to these angels I'm going to be burnt so hasem told MOS raenu don't worry put your hand on my chair you'll be safe you give them an answer so MOS raenu was a very smart man and he told the Angels okay you have a prosecution a lawsuit against why we getting the Torah let's look in the Torah let's see what it says now the the abbreviation or the headlines of the Torah are the Ten Commandments let's start going one by one so one one of the first Commandments is I amem your God and you should not have any God other but me so he says to the angels you have a problem with idol worship you see God in front of your eyes there's not even a concept of idol worship for humans there is the concept of idol worship cuz we don't see God and anyways the story is long but he started going one after the other so he came to the fourth Commandment should keep observ Shabbat he says to the angels You observe Shabbat it's for us to observe Shabbat let's go to commandment number five honor your father and mother you told the Angels you have a father and mother you don't have parents we have parents we have to observe this commandment let's go to commandment number six you should not kill can you kill can you kill an angel there's no death you don't have death you don't have murder it has to do with us there's the angel of death but he kills he doesn't get killed and anyways he went he went doesn't say don't get killed anyways he went one one commandment after the other and he proved to the angels that the the Torah is for us you should not steal you should not commit adultery he says this is nothing to do with you it has to do with us so the Angels were also not so stupid and they're like wait a minute that's not what we read in the Torah show us what you're reading so Mo was afraid for them to really see what it says so he took all the letters and he went like that and then they came into the Torah and they're like wait a minute you're right is this what it says we saw something completely different when we first looked into it so original the original Torah is not what we're reading what we're reading now all the stories and what we're reading from the five books of Moses which I mentioned already before that there are sources that are telling to us that we're missing two books what we're reading now that's the scribble of Moshe Reno he took the letters and he rewrote everything and when the Angels looked inside they didn't recognize and they read the actual Torah the rereading but the real Torah before it was scribbled that's the Z scrambled that's before it was scrambled that is the Z now when we have the custom in the in the synagogue to lift up the Torah it's called some people do it before we read the Torah some people do it after we read the Torah in the ashkenaz type of books when you roll it open then you roll it and you open it there party books you pick up the entire thing but every sh does it the the simple explanation is because everybody has to see the Torah so it's a big synagogue people are in the back they don't see the Tor so that way everybody looks in the Tor but if you notice you turn around the Tor the the explanation is that you have to look in the Torah and cabala teaches us that when they lift up the Torah you should look for the letters of your name in the Torah so when they lift up the Tor your name is RA look for it's not going to be in the same word but look for the actual words that's why you see people go in and look at it I know how easy it is for you from upstairs or from on the side to see but that's what we need to do but really what the mystical reason why we turn around the Torah because the front of the Torah is what mosu scribbl the back of the Torah what we don't see that's the original way how the letters were compiled and that is the Z the Z is the original way how the Torah was given to us and mosu is the one who knew how to move it move it around so when rabish shimai came he went up to Sham and brought it down again without the letters scribbled that's where we got the Zab that that's the original way that's the mystical part the S the secrets behind the Torah the the the mystical part what is called there are four levels in the Torah which is called pares pares is an orchard and the acronym is there the four levels how to interpret the Torah so the sord the secret that is the Z that's where it originates from that's why the zor is so special and that why we know that mosenu himself went up to sh to the Heavens to bring the first Tor then he had to go up again as rabish Shimon and bring the Torah again as it was originally written which is the soim is a very special individual I want to actually continue with what our topic later on we'll do the questions and we have another class that we can maybe talk about more of the mystical parts of why why are we going to to the grave but my question was completely different question isim brought us a present and it's called cabala should I learn it should I go into it does it really matter do I really need to know about the SP do I really need to know about the spiritual worlds do I really need to know the structure of everything why why do I do that so we understand that Rim was a very special IND but that explains why there's a holiday where it explains all sorts of different things we'll talk about it more later but mainly I want to know about the teachings of cabala now there is a p there is a Pas in a verse in that it says this is in Chapter 58 of and it says you went up to the heavens and you captured uh uh you captured I don't know how you would say Chevy you captured something you took something which means that you went up to the heavens and you grabbed a treasure this is referring to the three individuals that brought down to the world the mysticism and it's in the word Chevy these three individuals are called the the three the three illuminators that brought down mysticism into the world chevi the shin is for Shimon Shimon Shimon the son of yohai and the second one is RAB Beno which is the and the third one is RAB Isel Ben shov bmov so this is the chevi the shin the BET and theud these are the three individuals that went up to the heavens Mar is above it's not even to the heavens is above Mar is above and you brought down something into the world so first came shim brought down the Z next came the who brought down the teachings of cabala and the third one was is the the they brought the Tora the teachings of so three three individuals went up to to the Heavens to bring down the mysticism of the Torah so it all boils down again to the great question should I learn cabala now cabala is very general term in cabala Z is part of the cabala I mean you can call it zor you can call it cabala is also type of cabala is literally the translation of cabala really really and I've been saying that so for so many times people say they learn Z we don't learn Z because you don't understand one word out of it even when we do learn here you know what we do we translate the words and we try to understand something that's not really learning Z I can guarantee to you that there are very few people in our generation that know what what the zor is it's so deep So Sophisticated so high that even what we learn is literally on the surface we can't even touch nothing because I mentioned that in the last class and we doing and we're talking about today is besides saying a fancy word nobody knows what it means to do a for the can can you explain what it is no I can give you some fancy explanation out of a book nobody really knows I can tell you what an apple is oh an apple is a fruit that was grown on a tree some of them are yellow some of them are green I I can relate with it can you explain to me what's what's it's a name it's a it's a okay big deal a what's a nobody really knows so not that I'm trying to take the air out of our cells but really the zor and the cabala we really not learning that because the real cabala we're not going to be able to even relate with so you know in the in the ISA where I learned the head of the Yeshiva who was my Rabbi for many many years he is an individual close to his 80s is something unbelievable literally a genius you would just tell him a verse in the talmud he will tell you in which tractate which page which line from the bottom it is and all the interpretations what they say about it that's what a genius he was the theab used to refer to certain individual with a title the important Rabbi the great Rabbi that's how he would refer to certain individuals not only the but this is the story that the used to call two rabbis Haron the genius Rabbi and that is my Rabbi in Thea that was one of them Rabbi Goldberg he used to refer to him excuse me Goldberg RAB Goldberg yob Goldberg the used to call him har and one time the told about him that he's AAL and he says we don't have in our generation he's very special man very humble unbelievable and when we would ask him questions in and in he would say I don't know I don't know cabala I don't know anything and if somebody that can give you some answers is him and he always said I don't know anything maybe I know to read the books but I don't know anything that's really I mean we love saying that we learn zor and cabala but really we're not in the level like the to understand it but we still need to learn it and then came the and the is the translation of the Z in the cabal it comes to dissect it into pieces to explain to us that's why you see that theic discourses it's one verse you have a 20 Page cidic discourse on one verse that dissect it so the question is again should we learn cabala and again cabala is a title that I will include in it the Z cabala teaching there are different types of cabala so the story says that less than 500 years ago this specific place here inat was the center of the Torah of the world now it was a very harsh time it was right after the Spanish Inquisition it was a very big earthquake spiritual earthquake to to Jews they had to run away from their place butat somehow became the place that collected everybody now we are we can't we don't even imagine how lucky we are where we are but less than 500 years ago just try to imagine in this little Hill who lived here the Great Sage of that generation was Maran YF the BET who wrote thean now even though he wrote thean and he represents the oral Torah he was a very bigal he had an attached Angel to him he had a Magid a Magid is an angel that comes to teach him everything they taught him everything imagine you have an angel that walks around with you and starts teaching you everything we all do we just don't see them next to him was another giant who we know as the acronym as the Rak who was a great great cabalist he's a little bit different than the cabala of the Aral and needless to say there are many other Giants here who was the student of the I mean the AL the I mean we had here dozens of these Giants and then comes this young individual R was known as theal he was very young he was 34 years old and all these individuals are in their 80s and their 90s these Giants and he comes and then the Rak was the leader in the cabala of the time and before he passed away they asked him who's going to be your processor who's going to take over so he says I can't tell you who's going to take over but in my funeral when you bury me the one that sees the pillar of fire he's going to be the one that will take over then he passed away and he's buried right here next to the arizal he that's the grave in front of theal and they were wondering who's who's going to see the fire and again you have to understand who came to the funeral individuals like rabim vital who wrote most of the books of cabala is written by by not just wrote notes so these are the type of individuals that came to the Lev to the to the funeral and who sees the pillar of fire Nal Nal says hey I see it I see Thea I see The Chariot this little boy 34 years old and that's how they knew he's going to take over so the raak explains that the one who would see The Chariot of fire he's going to be the one who's going to continue his way in cabala now going back again to the question should I or can I learn cabala then the answer is 100% a yes it's not a a choice it's an obligation we have to learn cabala and the reason is because there is a commandment in the in the T that says no your God don't believe it no you have to know God and in order to know what's this great thing I have to learn about him I have to learn cabala kabala teaches me how to connect to hem it teaches me about Hashem and if I don't know about hem how will I connect with him so I have to learn cabala it is a is it is a must to learn because if I want to serve hem I need to know him I need to know what he wants I need to know how he operates I need to understand to relate to his mid to his attributes I can't just serve AEM black and white serving hasem black and white because it says don't do this and like a robot that's not serving hasem I need to understand it from the from the depth of it and you know I heard a funny joke that there was a a teacher that told all the kids she was teaching them about Hashem and she said can everybody draw a picture of how they think Hashem looks so one person one kid Drew like a big tree another person Drew like a big man and one girl drew a scale a scale that you stand on so the teacher like why did you draw a scale that's how you think Hashem looks so she says yes that's how Hashem looks so she was like why are you drawing a scale so she was like because every time my mom steps on the scale she says oh my my God so we we don't know how God looks even not that he has a form or a shape but you want to serve the master you need to know about him you need to get some type of an idea what is God and the only way to know that is to know him not to believe in him to believe is very good you have to believe believing what's called is one of the components of our but that's not our service to God we have to know Hashem you have to know Hashem there's a story with balatan the old re that he wanted to get closer to Hashem so he went to learn by the mid from and when he came back they asked him no now are you smarter so he says I'm not smart I didn't learn much but now I know there's a God I tell him now now you know there's a god well you didn't know before there's a God besides what are you talking about every human being knows there's a God so the person wanted to prove that every human being knows there's a God so he calls the cleaning lady and he tells her do you know there's a God she says of course I know there's a God so he says to him yeah she knows she believes there's a God but I actually know there is a God so there a very big difference between believing that there's a God and actually knowing and there's a very big difference that I believe that there's something I believe in it but but actually knowing it's a whole different story and we are re required to know that there is a God and not only that we have to know him him in order to serve him there's a fam a very famous uh story in the in the gar in traed that it's talking about two individuals that were walking together one of them was I mentioned before his name raban Yan Ben Zaki who was literally one of the pillars of the oral Torah and one of his students elazar benak and they were walking together and these type of individuals are not talking about the the football game from last night they're talking about deep Concepts in Torah and this is the only place in the that it's talking about what's called spiritual deep concept of cabala that is called the action of creation and at some point tells his re Zak can you teach me a little bit of some mysticism something give me something with juice so Zaki says no we don't talk about that we don't talk talk about these things so at the time razar told him listen I I want to tell you something I learned I I heard something I want to tell you about it now the way it worked in that day that the rebi who wasan he was riding on the donkey and his student which was RAB elazar was carrying was leading the donkey so he tells him RAB I really want to tell you something that I learned it's about about the Act of Creation so ran wanted to give him some respect the story says that he got off his donkey he changed his he took off His Garment he put on a very special garment and he sat down he says okay now say that and he says I talk to you all day long about things in the Torah you never change your garment you never get off your donkey you never sit down he says yes but now you're talking to me about this is not a regular Torah you're not talking to me about or a story or midash you're talking to me about the creation of the universe he had to put on a special garment he had to sit down he had to be off his donkey and thear there is talking about that when you already come to talk about something so special a you don't talk about it in a regular way and you and you take it in a completely different way so we learn from that and from many other stories that the that how important and and special the the mystical part is but we have to learn it now really what cabala is about if you want to summarize it in two words or mainly not in two words but in two topics the first thing that cabala is about is about what's called the connections of the letters cabala is all about letters when you come to start learning cabala first you have to learn about the letters the Hebrew letters and and the numerical value of the letters and what are the letters cuz really hasem created the world with these letters and what does it mean that he created the the world with letters the easiest way to explain it is hasem is a programmer take now a beautiful website and you look at the screen and you see a beautiful design you see colors you see pictures you see all these beautiful motions of video pictures you click a button the whole website is alive but what would you see if hypothetically you would remove the screen you would see the code that creates the website this is called the programming the code now if you're a programmer you understand the code if you're not a programmer it just looks like gibberish like a bunch of letters that don't make sense even now if you are a programmer you would read the lines that don't make sense this number equals that and also of symbols but the programmer will be able to read and says oh this line will create the button down here and this line will make this picture and this line will create this function the same idea that's how God creates The World God creates the world with 10 speeches when godem is a programmer he takes all these letters and puts them together like a code and Tada beautiful worlds so the basic teachings the the foundation of the teachings of the cabala is called the combination of all the letters hasm creates everything with these letters these are the tools that uses in order to create the world he takes 22 sophisticated tools that each tool is way more sophisticated than we think it's not just a simple letter and he puts them together in combinations he puts one combination together and he creates a certain power these are the 72 names of hem it's combinations of letters this is theot so this is the main two main of the two things that cabala teaches us is the next thing that cabala teaches us is a concept that is called is the 10 that's what it's all about and this is it what will take you 500 years to learn these are the titles just remember this is what the teachings of cabala comes to teach us now really what it comes to teach us is to make us familiar with hem now comes a very big question and everybody asks that do we really are an interest in hashem's eye Hashem really cares what we do such a huge system in the universe thousands and thousands and thousands of infinite amount of Worlds billions and trillions of angels and creatures and we has really care about about me does AEM care when I say a blessing that's a question that many people have does AEM care that I do a Mitzvah I did the Mitzvah I didn't do a Mitzvah what does it matter to him does it affect him if it's affecting him it's taking him down it's taking it him down from his level that he's going to be affected by my action if I put feeling on or I don't put feeling on would it affect AEM if he doesn't then why why do I need to do it if he does then it's making him less greater than what he is because it's affecting I'm able to affect the master of the universe so there's a big question here is with our actions are we creating a a change in hasem what called and this will Branch out into so many different other questions which leads to another huge question if Hashem is so good why did he create bad why we just spoke before why did Hasam create flies and Croc coaches and and all these H disgusting things mosquitoes so if Hashem is so good why is there death why is there diseases why is there hardship so all these questions they they lead to more questions and more questions which you know there's a where did it all originate from there's a story in thear about a certain individual and we call him a a is the other one his name is Elisha abuya who was unbelievable a giant in the Torah and he went totally against the Torah and he became completely a Cofer he went against the Torah and he never made Chua we know that he will he never made Chua and it was a big wonder how how he turned around he was such huge in the Torah that when he would speak everybody would be silenced to hear him and one of his students is rabi May R May stayed in touch with him he he he still learned from him there's a story in the that one Shabbat they were walking together was riding on a horse RAB May was walking with him and they were talking because RAB May would ask him questions and at some point they reach a certain line and a told RAB may turn around you reach to the the of Shabbat to the area of Shabbat you have to turn around you can't walk anymore so told him also turn around you also turn around come back you're such a genius such a pillar in the Torah why aren't you coming back stop with the nonsense you made the point and he says I can't I can't I a Heavenly Voice already decreed in the heavens that I will never be able to do Chua and the story says that he went up to Sham that's how great he was and he saw a certain Angel his Angel this Angel is called Metatron his acronym is meet meet you might have seen it in a couple times this Angel is the Scribe that writes everything Hashem speaks you know how in the courthouses there's somebody who's typing Court recorder Court recorder and they they don't have letters it's there's just five or six not six notes right correct me if I'm wrong and they the whole Court this Angel that's the court recorder everything that happens in Sham this Angel writes down is that very powerful Angel by the way okay he's in charge of all the Angels a very high level Angel you would find many times the acronym me Metatron and went up to sh and saw him and he understood from that that there are two domains there AEM and there him cuz he's writing everything he understood that there's another uh I don't know if to say to say domain R I don't know if the right word is to say domain but he there's another Power another Shem Shalom there's not only one there's two and it's made him nuts and he came down he says there's two Gods there's not only one God you know there is certain beliefs in many different other religions that there are two Gods the god of good and the god of bad the god of evil the god of good the God of Light the god of darkness and they constantly fight each other so that was the problem with the this with the sage that he understood that there two Gods Shalom and it made him flip out so is he bad no so why he see two Gods who's bad the or the angel the angel the angel is not bad but he just writes everything when went up to sh when went up to sh he didn't see God he saw the angel and he understood from that that there are two Gods he didn't understand that the god that the angel is not God he just that's what he saw he saw an angel typing and writing so to say he understood from that that that's a second God why he understood that that I don't know but that's when he came down and he he he became crazy and he said there there's two Gods the Torah is is wrong so he went against the Torah now the point is to make a long story short we we had so many sidetracks and so many we went off the topic the point is we want to know if we should learn cabala we said yes we mentioned that the two Basics the foundations of the cab the combinations of the letters and the second one is the now we're counting the we're mentioning the all the time constantly we're learning about the but we don't really know what it means nobody knows what it means don't don't be hard on yourself because nobody knows what it means we know fancy words we know a little bit about it but we don't understand with with our understanding what the means the easiest way to explain what it means is the is the relationship between us and Hashem that's it this is the way how we can relate to Hashem if it's the sphere of is wisdom understanding his desires if it's the attribute of is to understand how kind AEM is if it's the attribute of G is to understand that Hashem has rules and he knows when to put a limitation the is the way for us to relate with the kadh that's it to really start dissecting it that's not so much in our level but the point is that we have to develop a an understanding in Hashem it's not enough to believe believing is good we have to work on oura but we can base our relationship of hem with hem with God based Ona we cannot has to be understanding and I heard an unbelievable story not too long ago about a certain individual who was a very very rich individual very wealthy business all over the world and he heard about the laich REI and he contacted the laich REI was probably 30 40 years ago and he said listen I heard that you are a great Rabbi I heard heard that you actually much more than a rabbi that you mes and I heard that you help people you solve things that you see things in a different way I I heard all sorts of things about you and I want to offer you a partnership I'm willing to make you a 50% partner in all my business but I want you to give me your advice and whatever you tell me to do I will do and in return I'm making you 50% partner in my business and 50% you can give to your shoes to your emissaries to whatever you do you're talking here about millions of dollars this is not a partn a small partnership now when everybody saw this letter when everybody saw this letter they thought that the is going to totally ignore him to everybody's surprise the rabbi said yes I want to be a partner but I have one condition the condition is that anything that I say you don't ask questions and you do this person says I'm agreeing let's sign the contract and he takes the deal and he says I agree so the deal was 50% of the profit goes to the rebi and the deal is that this individual must do no questions asked whatever the rebi says okay he's all excited I'm now partners with the sadik the first order that the RBI gives him he tells him go to this market and buy this specific fabric he says what buy this fabric I thought the Rab's going to tell me where the diamonds are hidden in the ocean where there's gold to take out of walls okay deal is a deal I'm not asking questions he goes and buys his fabric R sends him letter and says no no no buy all the fabric in the market don't just buy a little bit and he's like wait we're talking here about a lot of money deal is a deal not asking question he goes and buys all that fabric that can be found in the world for millions of dollars that fabric okay now what now we wait a few weeks past something changed in the textile and the World up the fabric became a little bit less desired and it started losing its uh value it went down like 20% now this you're talking about millions of dollars this is not $1,000 he calls the partner I don't know if you're aware of what's tell the Reby I don't know if you're aware what's going on but the value went down 20% the rby tells him oh I'm aware it's okay should we sell sell it maybe at least we'll cut just you know the loss is not going to be that great says I didn't tell you to sell it I didn't tell you to do anything keep it okay a few weeks pass it goes down more to 30% loss market value few weeks pass 40% 50% he's getting oh what's going on starts letters all day long should we sell I mean we're losing all the investment May says I told did I tell you to do something I told you I it is a deal and the market completely the value of it goes down to a point that it was completely worthless nobody wanted that fabric anymore he started freaking out he already saw how he's losing all his fortune all the money he worked for he's already seeing Generations forward my kids you know I had to I have to marry them off I have properties what he's freaking out and he's sending letters con should we sell so what should we do everybody tells him why are you bothering me all day long I told you a deal is a deal whatever I tell you to do you do and I didn't tell you to do anything a few more weeks pass suddenly a little change in the market it went up 10% in the value let's sell let's sell R says why you keep bothering me few weeks P it went up a few more percent at some point it was bumped up a little bit to the it's value market and he's sending letters let's sell it we'll cut the Lost everyby says remember our deal yes whatever I say you do don't do anything a few months past one of the greatest designers in the world came up with some new design whether it was Zan Lon or Christian Dior or whatever it was and he needed that fabric overnight it jumped like 400% its value and the only one in the world that had the fabric was the partner overnight they quadruple their amount of the investment and little need to say man made a ton of money the next day comes a big fat check takes the check thank you so much puts it aside so the person got very excited I have the best partner in the world comes the next deal he gets a letter from the rabbi and says I'm breaking off the partnership breaking off the partnership why didn't we do good last time says yeah we did good but I don't want you as a partner you're a very weak partner he's like why he says because you came to me believing in my Powers right you said you're a big sadik you have KES you believed in me but you draw me nuts for months so you didn't really believe you in the beginning believed a little bit but you didn't know that my word that's what it's worth and you were worried from months and you drove me crazy and letters and phone calls you maybe had a little bit of belief that he didn't say on himself he said you had a little bit belief in me but you didn't know how powerful my decisions will be because you drove me crazy if you would know you would be sitting and drinking margaritas all day long and waiting for the day that the market value will jump therefore I don't want you to partner you are a very weak partner so the point is that it's not enough to believe we have to believe we have to believe in the Kosh we have to work on our belief but the belief comes with our soul it's a component of our neish it's a piece in the neish we have a problem that we do all sorts of Acts that pushes away this component so we have to pull it out people have a problem with imuna people have a problem with believing so they they come a test in their life and they fall that's because we have a problem with amuna the way to get the amuna the belief out you do all sorts of Acts but it's a piece of the Nish but that comes with the soul the knowing the that the that has to be acquired that you have to learn that's why we have to learn about the Kosh who he is where he came from what does he want the only thing that will teach me who is AEM so I will know it's only the teachings of the mysticism of the Torah which is the and the so I have to know also the the point is that I have to understand everything very few people I mean most people they you tell them do this they do that do that action they just do it you know you ask a a a religious individual why why do you dip your your bread three times in salt on Shabbat I saw my father do it all my life so I'm doing it too why why why do you do this why do you do that we need to know it's not the point is to be like a parrot or like a animal that mimics that's not what hem wants me to do hm wants me to know why am I doing it why am I doing this act why am I going to the mik because somebody told me go to the mik you need to know you need to know what happens why because a will give you the intention will give you the knowledge oh I understand what I'm doing I understand why I have to do a certain thing so the point is that we have to learn it we have to know we have a a a commandment it doesn't say doesn't say believe in you have to believe also no doubt here but you have to also know give us an unbelievable unbelievable present is the option of learning now what do I need to take from that I need to take the teachings of the cabala and and make it my reality and to give you an example because we twist the reality we change the reality to how it's comfortable for me to see and that's not what Hashem wants Shem says I want the Torah to be your reality and and and I I observed a very interesting story that I fly a lot and there was once an individual that he bought a certain bag of cookies in the dutyfree and he put it next to his bag later on on the plane sits a guy next to him pulls out this bag of cookies or chocolates or whatever it is and he starts eating from it and he's like look at this I can't believe he took my bag and he's eating my cookies and in his mind he's like I can't believe this this is he doesn't know what to do and then the guy turns around to him with the bag he says Rome and he's like no that he took my cookies he's offering me and he didn't know how to react and the guy's said here take some he was about to lose it he was literally about to freak out how dare he TS my bag of cookies and then he eats it in front of me and he offers it to me he couldn't fathom it the whole flight he was sitting like this fuming he couldn't believe until he gets off the plane he walks away he puts his hand into his bag to take out something and he pulls out the bag of cookies same exact bag that's when he realized oh he he was also in the same store bought the same cookies and he got the same bag and the whole time I thought he took my bag I judged him to be kpan to be how how dare here and then look how nice he was he offered me his cookies and I completely Twisted the reality from seeing something the wrong way and that's what happens to us on a daily base that we twist the reality on something that we see and it's not the reality so we see something that might look not so good and we twist the reality and says hem is mean what kind of a God is that that did I see this tragedy what kind of a god makes his children suffer I just see something and I twist it completely I don't know that that's not the reality so the teachings of cabala is not only to come and teach me you know spiritual things and for me to feel that I'm so holy it comes to teach me a I have to know Hashem I have to know how he operates I have to know what he wants I have to understand why he tells me to do all these rituals I have to it's not a a uh Choice it's a must I have to more than that this is the only teachings that will allow me to see things how they are and not to start making up all these ideas more than that you know take a person it can be a very goding person that learns a lot of if he doesn't know the mystical part in it you see a person that just starts learning a little bit about mysticism suddenly they start seeing the mystical part of everything they start seeing Divine Providence and everything that they do suddenly they have the tools to start seeing how the world is not a simple world how everything is connected to everything how things roll over and and and and are are connected one thing to another how I met this person this person knows this person suddenly you start connecting all the dots the teachings of the mysticism whether it's Z it puts all the dots together suddenly you see wait a minute I can see godliness in the world I can see how hasem operates in this world I see AEM in the world you know any thousands of letters and emails I get from people that say I I I I suddenly see how God runs the world I see how there's a higher power call it however you want the teachings of cabala will allow you to reach to that level that will allow you to serve hem how he wants you to serve him not like a robotm says I don't want Rob robots I want you to serve me because you understand I want you to understand what you are doing because when you understand you feel part of it you will do it with all your heart and that's one of the many reasons why we give such honor such respect such celebration celebration to R Shimon because he was the the the one who opened the door that brought us down this knowledge yes we had books of cabala before the the first book of cabala the book of formation this book was basically written by he knew all this information and he compiled it now he didn't write it in a book he gave it over to his son toet who gave it later on to Noah to ever and they start giving it over to AB till it came to abrah and Abraham wrote it down but seph is the first cabala book this is cabal this is actually knowing how to put the together and to create things there were MIM that knew how to do it don't go so far away look at the from maral from Prague knew how to put letters together and he created a human being created a Golem there are many other people who knew how to create that you know that the sons ofak you know when ysep came and said the about them that they're eating ever remember the story he was like what what they're not eating AOS the kosher animal they didn't know he didn't know that they're doing Kabal they knew how to do things he was too young he was only 17 but we know throughout the history there were certain individual that knew how to do what's called my to put letters together and to create things soal came way before shim but he brought it down he made it accessible he made it in a way that we can learn it and he opened up an entire world for us even when you learn it's all based on teachings on the you learn it's all based on the teachings of the you want to learn about the T you don't go to books of T is explained in the Z anything that you want to learn you the zor is the reference we're learning now here the gates of reincarnation every Tuesday if you notice every couple lines he sends a store place in the zor where he brings the source soim gave us this unbelievable present therefore we rejoice and we celebrate and he gets so much respect and so much honor because he was the badish this holy candle this Holy Light that came down and and opened this what we want to take from that is a is to celebrate on this day he said I don't want anybody to mourn my death I want everybody to celebrate I want to have big parties do big bonfires you know he he's called the BS kadisha this holy candle so he says I want you to light bonfires for me because you know somebody dies you light a candle for shim we burn we burn things that's how holy how great he was we don't light a candle we light a bonfire so in the Merit of Rim we should all be be getting closer and learning about the closer to the being aware of the teachings being learn it and know what hasem wants from us needless to say that very soon mhia is going to come he's going to come and expose a whole new Torah to us exactly like shim did now even though you might not understand nothing right now with what you learn but very soon mashiah is going to come and he's going to start explaining it all then we're going to be like ah I remember learning it and not understanding it now is going to explain it so you learned something in cabalo and you don't understand anything don't pretend I don't also don't understand everything but at least I'm preparing myself this is like the ERS before you go into the meal you have to taste a little bit of the UR you know it is a there a Mitzvah to taste from the food of Shabbat on Friday just a little bit just taste a little bit so before Shabbat we taste a little bit of the food before mashia comes we have to taste a little bit to just put it in our mouth a little bit to have a little bit understanding to know how to get a little bit closer to Hashem you know I want to make my wife happy I need to know what's her favorite color because if not I'm going to buy her the wrong shirts that's a horrible color I want to make her happy I need to know what flowers she likes she might like roses I don't know maybe lies whatever it is I need to know how can I make her happy I have kids I have birthdays it's not a you can't go to the kid and says what do you want you want a surprise some of my kids says I want a bike easy some kid says I want a surprise L our daughter has a birthday sha has a birthday on L I told her what do you want for your birthday she told me a surprise and I'm like great now I don't know what to buy you because it has to be a surprise so I want to buy her a surprise I need to know what she likes she likes lollipops she likes balloons I'm giving you some hints if you want to bring her something pretty things pretty things so I want to make her happy I need to know what she likes same here I want to make Hashem happy I need to know what makes Hashem goes what what makes him happy what makes him excited what what how to relate to my master and that can only be found in the mysticism of the Torah therefore we must learn cabala each one in their level and and and in any type of way and now it's very accessible and more than that we need to know we we need to know what to do and that's why we celebrate this holiday so much and we should all celebrate and rejoice it's a just by rejoicing the day you get connected to shim we should have a beautiful we should have an unbelievable connection to the tadik we should have an unbelievable connection to the to the Tor and hasem through the sadik through his Torah and this will allow us you know R shimai says about the in this book you're going to they're going to leave the Exile with mercy so he gives us a a promise that by learning the book of the zor and learning mysticism this is what's going to take us out of Exile but not only that it's going to take us out of Exile it's going to take us out of Exile with and with kindness and mercy and we should see the coming of the Redemption very soon with our own eyes amen we should see the Chariot the pillar of Lights with our own eyes very soon [Music]