Story behind the Holy Zohar & kabbala - Lag BaOmer #Mysticism

Lag B'Omer everybody is discussing Rebbe Shimon bar Yochai and all his greatness, but I think there's an akuda that we have to go straight to the source. Let's talk about the Zohar, the holy the whole history of the Zohar from the beginning to the end. Where did it come from this incredible safer that we're not so familiar with? And to be able to understand a little bit of the background of Kabbalah as we know it. Now, of course, we know everyone knows the first mishna in Pirkei Avot that Moshe kibel Torah mi Sinai. It says Moshe kibel loshon Kabbalah because when we it's when he received the Torah, don't think it's only the Torah that we see in the Gemara and the psukim and the psukim in the Torah and the Mishnayos. No, no. He also received the whole entire Kabbalistic tradition. All the ideas that we know that are locked into the ideas that we call sod were also received by Moshe Rabbeinu from Har Sinai and was given generation after generation to Yeshua, to the Nevi'im, to the Anshei Knesses Gedolah. That was also given one generation to the next. That's why it's called Kabbalah, meaning it was given and received, given and received. The loshon Moshe kibel Torah mi Sinai, kabbal is the same loshon as Kabbalah in order to tell us that in order to be a true recipient of learning Kabbalah, you have to make yourself a open vessel, a kabel. You have to open up yourself as a vessel and the more you make yourself a vessel, Hashem will spill in and you'll be able to receive more of the Kabbalistic ideas. It's not like when you study something and you learn it in a positive way and just, you know, you work hard and you get it. It's kind of like re-making yourself a kli, a receptacle that's able to receive it and the Rebbe kind of speaks around it. That's why it's called sod, secret, meaning he never says something directly. He speaks around the idea and oh, I got it. Now I understand what you mean. Like you try to explain a certain concept or a certain idea and you get around like playing Pictionary, right? You go ahead and explain it and they go, oh, I got it. I figured it out. That's a little bit of what the idea is that you make yourself a receptacle to receive it and it's able to be transferred onto you also. So, inasmuch as we had Torah shebaal peh that was transferred from generation to generation Moshe to Yeshua to to the Nevi'im and to Anshei Knesses Gedolah and it was transferred one to the next. However, Kabbalah was also transferred but to individuals. It was not done in the masses. It was done by individuals, which makes it very, very dangerous that it can get lost. Because when you're dealing with individuals, inasmuch as we're all trying to give over Torah and everybody wants to have as many talmidim as they can. No, no. When it comes to as the Gemara and the Mishnayos in Chagigah say in daf Yud Daled, Maaseh Merkavah, when it comes to Maaseh Bereishit and Maaseh Merkavah, that's only given to an individual. You have one talmid. I'm sorry. Don't get on Torah anytime. It's not going to work. Don't try looking for how many people are watching you. You do it on a one-to-one basis or one-to-two basis depending if it's Maaseh Merkavah or Maaseh Bereishit. And that is how it is transferred. It was given from Moshe to Yeshua on to onwards but only given to very special individuals. Even during the time of the Nevi'im if we was transferred and went down to the time of the Nevi'im, it was only the Nevi'im who were lessoned at it till the end of the first Temple of the first Beis Hamikdash, only individuals such as prophets had it. What we know is Nevi'im and Bnei Nevi'im. Bnei Nevi'im was the university where you learn to be a navi. That's right, you turn your tassel when you graduate and you become, yay, I'm a navi now. In other words, you learn the kelim, the ways to make yourself a vessel to receive nevu'ah. Part of that those lessons, part of that graduation period is also learning the secrets of Kabbalah. But it was given to the fast and few, only to individuals. Like I said, it wasn't spread out and of course it wasn't written on any pieces of paper. All of the Kabbalistic literature is Kabbalah given from word of mouth one to the next and therefore, like I said, had to be extremely careful that it would not get lost and it was passed over to small amounts of people but ones that are reliable on one that will be able to continue the tradition. Okay, that is the way that we understand the Kabbalistic ideas that were handed one to the next. They're quite obscure, hard to understand and therefore it was only given over to special people who can really, as I say, pick it up or really or really immersed in in doing it. Doesn't have to be smart. Has to be one who, like Moshe Rabbeinu, was anav mikol adam, a tremendously humble person. One who's a perfect recipient of it, who wants to receive it properly. Anyways, like I said, this continued until the end of the second the first Beis Hamikdash and it spilled over into the second Beis Hamikdash, less people, basically only to the Anshei Knesses Gedolah, who we know as Chazal, the rabbis that we are familiar with. They lived as 120 seats in the time of the second Beis Hamikdash. Lehavdil, million of one of the horrible there's some horrors that happened in this country, unfortunately, and one of them is that the parliament in this country in Israel is known as the Knesset after the Anshei Knesses Gedolah. Chas veshalom to make any comparison mamash. It's like I've never seen more extremes in my life. And that's why they have 120 seats. Yes, 120 seats of Arabs, of leftists, of anti anti-learning, all these people and they're sitting on the Knesset, meaning keviyachol Anshei Knesses Gedolah. Anyways, the the Anshei Knesses Gedolah were had a number of Nevi'im, obviously the biggest talmidei chachamim of the time and they're the ones who had the mesorah and kept it very solidified to themselves. During this time period or a little bit before this, from the Nevi'im, the only exposure we really have a little bit of this Kabbalistic ideas that was written on paper was by Yechezkel. He was from the last of the Nevi'im, right from the end right before the end of the first churban Beis Hamikdash, the first destruction of the Temple. And he wrote down the Maaseh Merkavah in the end of his sefer Yechezkel, you have a number of understandings there of Maaseh Merkavah, abstract, obscure, cryptic psukim, very difficult to understand, but over there he talks about many dreams and understandings. It's the only prophecy that was written of its kind. Many prophets saw these things. However, they never reported it because we're just not there. And since the end of prophecy was coming and the end of the Temple, end of the Beis Hamikdash, so Yechezkel wrote it down on to his sefer. It was written into a sefer for those who can hold on to the information. Okay, so those couple prakim over there are there to teach us the beauty of the idea of of of the Kabbalistic literature. Okay, that's what happens. It's known as the neshama of the Torah. That's what it was, this handing over of the Kabbalah. It's, you know, the Torah is like the guf, is like the body, and the neshama is the Kabbalah which gives all the spirit behind behind what goes on. There's pardes, pshat, which is usually what we learn as pshat. There's remez, which are remezim, you know, like gematrias and things like that. Drush, which are drashot, which are familiar with from the Gemara. And sod, of course, is last. When a person's holding on those levels to receive, those individuals were able to learn the spiritual spiritual part of the Torah. That's why Sefardim are called Sefarad because they put the samech of sod before pshat, remez, drush. Sefarad is samech, peh, reish, daled. Instead of saying pardes, peh, pshat, remez, drush, sod, they say sod and then we'll learn a little bit pshat, remez, drush because they like to learn sod first. Fine. This continuation went on during the second Beis Hamikdash of the handing over of the mesorah, the Kabbalistic literature to individuals fast and few, as I said. Now, here's where the trouble starts. By the end of the second Beis Hamikdash, it became very problematic because we know that the Romans were basically on top of us. They were busy trying to get us out and we were thrown out and we were scattered out of Eretz Yisrael. Now, if it was just that, it could be we would have been okay. We would have been able to hold tight. Jews know how to stick together even in exile, even in the galut, and maybe we would have been okay. But there was a problem. In the year 135, approximately 50 years after the Beis Hamikdash, really 65 years after the Beis Hamikdash, there was the revolt of Bar Kochba, which happened in the time of Rabbi Akiva. As is known, Rabbi Akiva kind of was pro and he made a a revolt, which ended up turning against him. In the beginning it succeeded, kind of like the Warsaw Ghetto, but in the end it was lost. They were annihilated. They completely were destroyed by the Romans. But the problem was it infuriated the Romans so much that they said, that's it, no more. That's all I can stands, I can't stands no more. And they decided they were going to wipe out all the Jews that they know and especially number one on the list, talmidei chachamim. Especially talmidei chachamim, the ones who are the top dolay ador. They were out to get them. Anyone who's teaching Torah berabim, we want to get them because Bar Kochba had such a status of being a talmid chacham and Rabbi Akiva behind him and that's why they were out to get the talmidei chachamim. One of them, of course, was Rabbi Akiva. Over here was the period of time of the Asara Mugei Malchus, of the 10 martyrs that we are familiar with. We read it in the Kinos on Tisha B'Av. We know it's in Gemara Brachos and Sanhedrin and Sanhedrin Yud Daled and Avodah Zarah Yud Ches. Well, come on him. During this Hadrianic persecution, during this time period, there was mass murders going on. They were killing many, many Jews. And like I said, they had to scatter and run. The Talmidei Chachamim, the Gedolei HaDor, as we know, Rabbi Akiva himself was burnt to a stake. And over here is the time period when Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai ran for the hills. He went to the mountain, to the caves. And over there is where he hid for 13 years from the Romans who definitely were going to kill him, just like they did to his Rebbe, Rabbi Akiva. Wow. Now, what's the problem and why am I telling you this historical event? Because these people, especially the 10 people that were being killed, it wasn't on the same day. It took over a period of years. But all these big Talmidei Chachamim, these were the bearers of Kabbalistic literature. These were the ones who were holding the torch to transfer on all the Kabbalistic literature. And therefore, it wasn't like in nowadays where you could just pick up a Igros Moshe, you know, and just pick up a Tshuvas the Noda b'Yehudah, and you can know everything about him. So, even if he passes away, you don't know. Or the Arizal, he died at 38 years old, but we have a lot written because at least his Talmid wrote it and he printed it. And that that time there was still a printing press. Back then, you lose a Gadol, you lose all the Torah that lies behind it. You realize the danger that lies. It was it's it's a it's a catastrophe chas v'shalom to lose one of the Gedolim. And for all the Gedolim to go, and like I said, they were being killed one after the other. So, this was already endangering the idea of the transformation of Torah. That's why eventually Rabbeinu Hakadosh will write the Mishnayos. And that's why eventually the Zohar came to press. But not before I mention a couple of the other Sefarim that came before the Zohar. They weren't as popular, but there was a Sefer called Sefer Yetzirah, which was, according to many opinions, written by Rabbi Akiva. And believe it or not, other opinions say this brought in Shulchan Aruch Gedolim by the Chida. Other opinions say it was written by Avraham Avinu. Avraham Avinu, remember him? He's the first father. That's a big par in years, though, about when this book was around. Simply speaking, Rabbi Akiva brought out the book. He put it on paper. He took it out because much of the book is really about Avraham Avinu stuff. About the fact that even though we see pluralism in the world, we see many things in the world, it's really Yichud Hashem. It speaks about the letters of the alphabet, Tzirufei Sheimos, all the different connections of the names of Hashem, different powers that are unbelievably written in that Sefer and the what lies behind the beautiful Aleph Beis that we have. And Rabbi Akiva was the one who did it. There's Rabbi Akiva Otios in many Sefarim that were written by Rabbi Akiva. He was the number one Gadol HaDor, not only in Pshat, but also in Sod. He's the one that gave over to Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai a lot of the Sod that he knows. And he received it from Rabbi Nechunya ben Hakana. Rabbi Akiva received it from Rabbi Nechunya ben Hakana. Received the Kabbalistic tradition and he was the number one on the board and understanding. So, now you understand, yes, it's sad when we see Rabbi Akiva dying, but you realize what was happening when he was being killed. How much Torah was being destroyed simultaneously to his to his to his destruction, to his demise. You follow? Rabbi Nechunya ben Hakana, he has Sefer Bahir. He wrote Sefer Bahir, which has many meditations, incantations, and all the whole hocus pocus stuff that I can't tell you. If I would, I'd probably start floating in this chair and I'd fall off this to the view of the camera and I wouldn't want that to happen. I want to stay inside the camera. So, I'm not going to tell you what the incantations are. But that Sefer Bahir and Sefer Yetzirah were around approximately same time. We're talking about the Tana'im. The Tana'im who wrote Mishnayos, Rabbi Akiva, Rabbi Nechunya ben Hakana. This is Rabbi Shmuel Rabbi Shmuel Katan Gadol, who was right at the end of the destruction of the second Beis Hamikdash. This is the time period of these Sefarim, which are known, but not so popular. The real Sefer, if I could say that made it to the press, and again, the reason why these Sefarim were starting to be written is because it is going to be lost if it's not put it on paper, or at least written in some type of note form for the Talmidim to pass it on. Because that's it. Our Rebbeim The Rebbeim were being destroyed. They were being They were dying. It was a real bad situation. And of course, the famous of famous is the Sefer HaZohar, the moment we have been waiting for. The Sefer HaZohar, of course, was written by, according to most opinions, by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. During that 13-year period that he was in the cave, he was learning with his special son, Rabbi Elazar. We know the Gemara in Shabbos and other places that brings about Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in the cave. And during that time period of 13 years, he was learning all Torah to Sod, Chidushei Atzumim. He had Giluy Eliyahu. He had Ruach Hakodesh. This is brought in this in many different Sefarim. By the Arizal itself, it's written. By the Shulchan Aruch Gedolim, it's brought down in the Sefer Avodas Hakodesh. By many of the Kabbalistic Sefarim, he had Giluy Eliyahu Hanavi. He was doing quite well over there. Yes, we look at him and go, "Wow, poor guy." But he was on a different level. He was not clothed. He was in the ground buried with no clothes cuz he was similar to Adam Harishon Kodem HaCheit. He received the level of Adam before the sin who was not clothed. That's how high he was. He didn't Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai is the symbol, he's the epitome of the epitome of the idea of not working and learning all day. The idea of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and Talmidim don't have to work. That idea, that's Adam Harishon before the Cheit, meaning the klalah the curse of Adam Harishon didn't exist by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. He was above that. And therefore, when he was in the cave, when he was in the cave, he learned all the Torah to Sod on this incredibly lofty, high level. He did not write any books over there. It was only learnt b'al peh. Eventually, um he handed over to his Talmidim. There are some shitos that when he was in the cave, he had Talmidim also, you should know. Not just his son, Rabbi Elazar, but there are shitos that his Talmidim were there also. Anyways, so he learned all this Torah to Sod. And when it came time to pass, he gave over, especially on Lag B'Omer, all of the Torah that he had. That's why it's such a special day. It's a time of Simcha, even though it's a time that he passed away, but it's a tremendous day because all this Torah of Sod was given over to his Talmidim. Again, he had notes. He had notes. It was written in a certain Sefer. Um it was just written in a certain Sefer, but it's called the Seder HaChalomos. It's called the Seder HaChalomos, which was said by some some people. But uh not much more than was known known than that. His Talmidim, after he passed away, over the next 70-year period, took all the writings. Plus, they obviously knew his Torah. They learned it. Maybe they learned it during the 13 years in the cave. And they canonized it into a book known as the Zohar. The Zohar is a mainly written by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, but it does have other statements written by other Talmidei Chachamim of the time period that wrote down notes also. Very similar to Mishnayos, that was brought down. But it's mainly the writings of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. And there's a Sefer Tikkunei Zohar and the Tikkunim, which discuss all the different ideas that were put all into one book. Meaning, all these ideas that was handed over for a few thousand years was put into the Sefer HaZohar. Now, it remained cryptic on purpose in order that people should not just it shouldn't get into the wrong hands. Of course, it's meant to be Torah Sheb'al Peh. It's meant to be Torah that was given by mouth. So, even when you put it on paper, you keep it very short and to the point. Rebbe also, when he wrote Mishnayos, wrote them short and to the point. For this reason that it wasn't meant to be written. It's meant to be spoken. So, it kept it was kept short. And the Gemara expanded on it. The Zohar is the same thing. It was written in shorthand. That's one of the reasons it was written in Aramaic, so it shouldn't be so clear and black and white, to be left a little bit abstract and unclear. And it's written in shorthand that only special people can really kind of figure it out. One of those special people was the Arizal. The Arizal opened it up. Wow, opened it up. You know, like you ever see a Mishna? You read a Mishna and it's like very abstract and you have no idea what you're reading and you get to like the basics. And then you read the Gemara after all the explanations, you're like, "This Is this like this Gemara explains this Mishna? Okay, I guess so." The Gemara says so. That's kind of like the Arizal. He introduced the idea. He took the Sefiros, which was discussed in Zohar, and he introduced the idea of Partzufim, which is not discussed in Zohar. It's only in the Idros, but it's not in the Zohar itself. And he opened up unbelievable things, which like you see the Arizal and you see the Zohar and you go, "Okay, whatever you say." Like you don't see It's all in there, but you just can't see it. So, that is very similar idea that we have Mishnayos and Gemara. And that's what happened with the Zohar and the great writings of the Arizal. Anyways, that's the context that it was written in. It was written again by his Talmidim. And especially, they wrote it down because after the Ptira of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, the the whole Kabbalistic literature started becoming uh disappeared. It started going away and it was hard and it was mitmateit. The It was called the Zohar because when Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai was around, there was a Zohar. There was a bright light that was going like Zohar Rakia. And it was bright everywhere. And that Zohar went everywhere. But when he died, when he passed away, that power wasn't around anymore. Zohar maskil So, when he passed away, it started dissipating. It started going away. And as a result of that, the Zohar disappeared. We didn't know where the book was, and it disappeared for a full 1,200 years, or really a little bit 1,100 years. It was gone for a long period of time until it was rediscovered by a person named Rav D'Leon. Rav D'Leon, a talmudist of the Ramban. He is a talmudist of the Ramban who lived in about the early 12 1240 to 1305. That was his time period. What's incredible is this Rav D'Leon, this Rav Moshe D'Leon, who found it was born exactly in the beginning of the turn of the millennium. We are the year the millennium of 5,000, and we say taf shin 700 taf shin pay 786, right? 786 We almost say 786 taf shin pay vav, but it's in the last millennium. We live We're living in the last millennium, which we call, you know, till the year 6,000 when 5,000 and whatever year it is. He started the millennium. 1240 was the beginning of a new millennium of 5,000, and he's the one who discovered the book because the last millennium is known as the millennium of the Mashiach, the equitant Mashiach. Because the idea of the Kabbalah Kabbalistic literature becoming more widened, more widespread, more known as is presently in our day, it's much more widespread as was known in the older days. Like I said before, it was only given to individuals, and over year, it was given to not the public, but to many many more people, talmidei chachamim, that know it is because the idea of the haskala of knowing, knowledge. Until then, says the Ramak, it was given to the angels. The time period that the Zohar was hidden, it was up by the angels who are in the highest level, and they're the ones who had it. And now it was given to us in order to become angelic, in order to be able to get to that level where we deserve Mashiach. You understand? When we see spirituality, when we experience spirituality by learning Kabbalistic literature, you will have the next step to being spiritual, Mashiach being here. You understand? That's the way to get there, and that's why Rav Chaim Vital encourages the idea of learning Kabbalah, but only for those who are in the level. Chas v'shalom for people who are not holding on, who know a tremendous amount of Torah, or in such a level to be able to do it, talmidei chachamim, that are able to do it is that we don't recommend it. But for those that are able, that's why it came about, and it came about bechuk during this time period. By Rav Moshe D'Leon, some people say by the Ramban, he was his rebbe. In They say Some people say the Ramban found founded it, but he delivered it to his student. Anyways, as we know from here, we hear we see the Ramban over and over again giving references to Zohar, to Kabbalistic ideas because he had the book. He was the one who knew the Zohar. Many things in the Zohar in the piyush of the Ramban on the Torah because he knew, and he was one of the transfers of that. And many other rishonim of the time, the Rashba and the the Ran, they knew Kabbalistic literature also. So again, the idea of Kabbalah came disappeared for a thousand-year period and came about during our period of the equitant Mashiach. Now, we have to know there were people that were trying to say it was not Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. Yes, there were a number of It was rabbanim that stopped people. It was Renaissance rabbanim during the time of the Renaissance in the 1400s that said ah, it's not true. There was a legend that went around. There was no clear evidence of this that the widow of Rav Moshe D'Leon, meaning after Rav Moshe D'Leon passed away, his wife said that I know my She said my husband said I wrote the book. I'm the one who really wrote the book. It's a legend. There's no sources, and again, they were into denying the facts. They hold that there were mistakes in the Zohar, and it's not true. Very nice. I don't put my head in the bein rabbanim, but we know that all the big rabbanim, all the accepted rabbanim that we're familiar with, said 100% they gave what we call the chotemet, the stamp. That's it. They give stampel, and they said that this sefer was written by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. Yes, it was It was away for a thousand years. It was lost for a strong period of time. It was We definitely historically know there was a sefer Zohar, and this is it. Number one on the list, of course, is the Ari zal, who goes ahead and qualifies old sefer and writes on the whole sefer. The Ramak, Rav Moshe Cordovero, one of the biggest mekubalim, also write right before the Ari zal. And big A big on the list is the Vilna Gaon. Now, the Vilna Gaon was very critical of sefarim. The Yerushalmi that they found on Kodshim They found a Yerushalmi on Kodshim. He said it's a phony. It's a fake. The guy wrote it himself, which is crazy to write your whole Yerushalmi that a guy can do it, and he passel the book. He was a man who passel books. He was not into accepting books, and he said the Zohar is Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. He has a piyush on the Sifrei d'Tzniuta. The The The Vilna Gaon has a piyush on Sifrei d'Tzniuta. He says it's an accepted sefer, and therefore chas v'shalom to have any type of questions about it. The Baal Shem Tov, the Chasam Sofer, all Chassidic literature, they all hold the Zohar. And as we all understand, it is accepted 100% that the Zohar is the man. That's Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. That's the day we're celebrating Lag BaOmer, the giving over the Torah. And the message that we learn from all of this is that we live in a world that goes beyond the eye. Not only is what we see is what we believe, but yes, there are worlds up there which exist even if we don't necessarily see them. There's a world of sparks, nitzotzot, a world of klipot. There's worlds of tova, and there's worlds of partzufim and sefirot and all the other abstract ideas which we might not be so familiar with, but they exist in a world that surrounds itself with only seeing is believing in what I can find I hold existed. If I don't, I don't. The Zohar is here to be megaleh to us that we live in a very hidden world. We are on one of four worlds. There are other worlds, atzilut, briyah, yetzirah, to realize that every action that I do, every mitzvah that I do, should not be localized to one mitzvah. When I give tzedakah, I'm actually building worlds. It's much more of an investment than putting it into anywhere else. It's something that makes something look real. You understand? When I say leshem yichud tikkun olam, everyone says leshem yichud Kudsha Berichu. Because we realize that we're making things real. We're trying to connect to it in a solidified way. When a person davens in a Kabbalistic tones with the kavanot, he sees God in front of him. He's experiencing Kudsha Berichu. He's there and understanding that what he's doing is saying words that are authentic. He's having a dialogue. Do you understand what I'm saying? That's the advantage of knowing the Kabbalistic ideas. Again, I'm not here to advertise. I'm trying to tell you what the experience of Kabbalistic and aliyah should be able to do that once a one once in my life. But the idea of the Kabbalistic ideas are here to teach us that there's beyond what we meet the eye in a world that denies it. Especially in the scientific world, we're only willing to believe things cuz I can now see atoms on a super microscope. I can see atoms. So now I know they exist. But therefore, anything beyond it, I don't hold that exists. I can see that there are universes far away, so I believe they exist. But if I don't, they don't exist. So therefore, a person can go into the universe and say I don't see God and say it's not there. And that's the point that I'm trying to bring out. The whole idea of Lag BaOmer is to give us an existential experience in a very positive way to make us realize the greatness of the religion that we are connected to. The fact that when every action that we do, every 613 mitzvot, every little action we do, should become a physical action which is really spiritual. We should be real. It should be authentic. It should be something that I connect to in a very intimate way. And that's what Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai was bringing down to us with the Zohar and eventually, of course, the Ari zal who expanded it for us. This is the theme of Lag BaOmer. I hope I wasn't too long about it, but I feel that to get this historical background a little bit of where the Kabbalah comes from, suddenly we much more can connect to this incredible chag that we call Lag BaOmer.