B"H

Inner Dimension Weekly Torah Message
for the weekly Torah portion of "Terumah"

65#16

Introduction to the Study of Kabbalah (part 2)

The Evolution of Kabbalah

In general there are 5 stages in the revelation of the wisdom of Kabbalah, each stage appearing (one might say, even encoded) within a particular text. Kabbalah analyzes everything in our world, especially those things that explicitly relate to the Torah, according to pre-figured basic models that derive from an in-depth study of the Torah. Naturally, these five stages are significant and should be analyzed based on the five ascending levels of the soul.

1. Vital – nefesh

2. Spirit – ruach

3. Breath (intellectual dimension) – neshamah

4. The living one (super rational connection of the soul to G-d) - chayah

5. The single one (is one with G-d, yechidah leyachdach): this level gives the power for total self-sacrifice (kidush Hashem), because it is always one with G-d, whether embodied on earth or not. - yechidah

One: The Book of Formation

The text revealing the first stage that corresponds to the vital level of the soul is The Book of Formation (Sefer Yetzirah). According to Jewish tradition, the wisdom in this text is attributed to the first Jew, Abraham. In length, it is a relatively short text, and most of its content appears in enigmatic phrases, and it appears clear from its language that it indeed has very ancient roots. Explicitly, this means that the wisdom contained in The Book of Formation antedates the giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai . Nonetheless, traditionally, the final edition of the book as we have it before us, was compiled in the generation before the destruction of the Second Temple (1 st century CE) by the greatest sage of the Tannaic (Mishnah) period, Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Akiva was also the master and teacher of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, the author of the Zohar, literally The Book of Brilliance.

Two: The Zohar

Unlike The Book of Formation, the Zohar, the text revealing the second stage of Kabbalah, is a very large one. Its content is primarily structured as an interpretation of the Bible in general and the Five Books of Moses, in particular. The Zohar, though it speaks in a usually less enigmatic language than the Book of Formation, is structurally varied. Some of the content appears as story-telling, some of it as an in-depth analysis of “higher worlds,” the reality of sefirot, the way in which the sefirot develop into “figures” (partzufim)¹ —spiritual personas² of the higher worlds, and so on. There are some parts of the Zohar (like the Idra Rabbah and Idra Zuta), which remained almost completely incomprehensible until the Arizal (16 th century CE) shed light shed on them (more on the Arizal in the fourth stage). In the complete corpus of the many writings that make up the Torah, the Zohar is considered a midrash—a homiletic or hermeneutic discourse on the Torah.³ Sometimes the Zohar is even referred to as Midrash Rashbi, Rashbi being the acronym of its author’s name: Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai.

Though originally composed by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in the 2 nd century CE, the Zohar was not openly published for another 1200 years. During the interim, it was passed from mentor to disciple. “A thing in its [proper] time is good,”⁴ and such was the public revelation of the Zohar. Immediately upon its revelation, the Zohar spread throughout the Jewish world of learning, and many of the Kabbalistic scholars began to try to unlock its secrets, by properly interpreting its myriad of allusions and metaphors. This went on for almost 200 years, until this process reached its zenith with the work of Rabbi Moshe Cordovero (1522-1570), known by his acronym, the Ramak.

Three: The Pomegranate Orchard

The Ramak’s work represents the third stage of the evolution of Kabbalah. His interpretation of the Zohar was based on a rational mindset (not very different from the mindset used in explaining other Midrashic literature; see note 3) and a wide and circumspect knowledge of the entire Torah in all its strata exoteric (revealed) and esoteric (hidden) alike. The Ramak’s commentary on the Zohar, titled Or Yakar, is tremendous in its scope, spanning dozens of large volumes. But, his magnum opus was the volume titled The Pomegranate Orchard (Pardes Rimonim), based on what is perhaps one of the most enigmatic verses in the entire Bible: “Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates with pleasant fruits, henna and nard.”

This verse is from the Song of Songs, a poetic and metaphoric description of the love between a bride and her groom. Even though all the sages of the Talmudic period knew about and were involved in the study of Kabbalah, the Talmud does not openly delve into its mysteries. However, there is one chapter dedicated to this topic: the second chapter of the tractate of Chagigah. There, the sages who were initiated into the study of Kabbalah are described as having entered the Pardes, the “orchard.” The Hebrew word pardes is also understood in Kabbalah to be an acronym for the four parts of the Torah: literal, allusive, homiletic/hermeneutic, and secret.⁵ That the “orchard” contains all four parts of the Torah implies that it is impossible to truly be initiated into its secrets without studying the three other strata.⁶

Four: The Tree of Life

By the work of the Ramak and others on the Zohar many of its mysteries were revealed. Nonetheless, the deepest teachings and concepts could not be fathomed by the human mind alone if it were not inspired from above by the Almighty. The Holy Ari, the acronym for Rabbi Isaac ben Shlomo Luria, was the new soul x sent from above and chosen to reveal these. The Ari arrived in the Ramak’s hometown, the holy city of Safed , on the same day that the Ramak passed away and was being buried. x

Beyond having the intellectual skills and knowledge of his predecessors, the Ari merited to receive a completely new revelation of wisdom from Heaven. Though this new wisdom could be taught independently, the Ari chose to “enclothe” it as an interpretation of the Zohar, that is, to teach it in context of the language and style of the Zohar. The Ari’s teachings were then compiled into the text titled The Tree of Life (EitzChayim). So all-inclusive and penetrating were the Ari’s teachings, that a student of Kabbalah who has not yet learnt the fifth level of Kabbalah, will tell you that the classic work for the study of Kabbalah in our generations is The Tree of Life.

(next week: the fifth stage of the evolution of Kabbalah...)

Notes :

1. as above (previous part *link*), where we spoke of the father (Abba) and mother (Ima) principles/figures.

2. Of course, all of these figures/personas are created entities emanated by G-d during creation; they are not a part of G-d Himself.

3. other Midrashic texts include the Halachic (legal) midrashim like the Mechilta (on the book of Exodus), Torat Cohanim or Sifra (on the book of Leviticus), Sifri (on the books of Numbers and Deuteronomy). Among the homiletic midrashim (some containing content similar to the Zohar) are Tanchumah, Rabbah, PirkeiDerabbiEliezer, ShocherTov and others.

4. Proverbs 15:23. See also Job 3:11: “G-d has made everything in its proper time….”

5. Pardes in Hebrew is spelled: pei reish dalet samech. Pei stands for p’shat (literal); reish stands for remez (allusive); dalet stands for drush (homiletic/hermeneutic); and samech stands for sod.

6. It is just as important to note that if the “secret” part of the Torah is missing from one’s study, then the acronym becomes the Hebrew word pered, which means “separate.” Without the inner soul of the Torah, even the most dedicated student may remain separate from G-d, the giver and the source of the Torah.

7. In Kabbalah, a new soul is one that was not contained within Adam and therefore did not partake of the primordial sin of eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Because every human being is actually a mosaic of souls, and most if not all of these were contained within Adam, the Ari, like all human beings cursed with death, eventually did pass away. For a more in-depth explanation, see “Tzadik Yesod Olam” in Rabbi Ginsburgh’s Hebrew volume Leiv Lada’at, p. 136.

8. The Ari later reported that he had seen the pillar of fire that rose above the Ramak’s body during the funeral. In each generation, there is one individual who merits seeing the pillar of fire rising above the body of the demised leader of the previous generation. In seeing it, that individual is appointed by Heaven to become the leader of his generation. The Jewish leader of every generation is called the Moshe Rabbeinu (Our Teacher, Moshe) of the generation (Moshe shebador).

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