Shaarei Binah

https://youtu.be/kw0fdTvrnYk

Significance of the Month of Cheshvan Power of the Hebrew month of Cheshvan (Scorpio) and how we can prepare for the month. Biblical, Historical, Jewish Asrological and Kabbalistic perspective

Rabbi Isaac Luria, the Ari, teaches us a name to constantly meditate on during times of a plague.

https://youtu.be/HsE3sxgYN3w

Ketoret with Kavanot - Ancient formula to banish plagues The ketoret (insence) is one of the most powerful tools to remove all forces of evil. The 11 spices used in the mixture were directly able to nullify the 11 ...

Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai said: "I am able to exempt the whole world from judgment from the day that I was born until now, and were Eliezer, my son, to be with me [we could exempt it] from the day of the creation of the world to the present time, and were Jotham the son of Uzziah with us, [we could exempt it] from the creation of the world to the end." - Talmud Sukkah 45b

Reconstructing the Temple of our Hearts

We have to first understand that the Torah is based on unity and the existence of the Jewish people is dependant entirely on this.

"עיקר קיום התורה הוא על ידי האחדות, ועל כן בשעת קבלת התורה בוודאי נעשו מיד
ערבים זה לזה"
("ליקוטי הלכות")

“The main aspect the Torah is based on is "Achdut" unity and so when they received the Torah they certainly immediately felt responsible for each other. (Rabbi Nachman of Breslov - Likutei Halachot)

"בעוד משה רבנו היה עמם במחיצתם, היה הוא מאחד ומחבר אותם, ובעוד כנסת ישראל למטה, כאיש אחד בלב אחד, הם עצמם כחומה בצורה בפני כוחות חיצוניים, ואין יכולים להתגנב לתוך כללות ישראל, אלא רק כשנמצא סדק בחומת ישראל"
("שם משמואל")

“While Moses was with them, he united and connected them while the assembly of Israel below were as one man in one heart. They were as a strong wall against the external forces, which could not pe*****te into the whole of Israel, but only when there is a crack in the wall of Israel (“Shem MiShmuel“).

Troubles befall us only when there is a break in our unity. The Temple first existed spiritually in our unified heart. The only way to bring back the Temple is through recognising this and how we broke it through disunity:

כל הצרות – תכליתן לסובב לאדם סיבות נפשיות, שיצטער על חורבן בית המקדש הרוחני שבלב, והיא היא דרך הגאולה"
("מכתב מאליהו)

“All the troubles and their purpose is to provide a person with mental reasons so that he will feel sorry about the destruction of the spiritual Temple in his heart, which is the path to redemption” (Michtav Me’Eliyahu).

על ידי בית המקדש היינו לעם אחד, וכאשר היה חילוק בינינו, נחרב המקום של אחדות ישראל, ולפיכך על ידי שנאת חינם נחרבו העיר והמקדש"
(המהר"ל מפראג)

“It is by the Temple that we became one nation and when we were divided, the place of the unity of Israel was destroyed, and so it was because of unfounded hatred that the city and the Temple were destroyed.” (The Maharal from Prague).

Ultimately it is our connection to the Powerful Light hidden within the Torah that can remove our evil inclination for disunity and egoism and ignite the flame of unity as our sages have said in Masechet Kiddushin: ‘I have created the evil inclination, I have created the Torah its antidote’. And from that:

אור גדול יֵצא מהחושך, הקללה עצמה תתהפך לברכה, וחורבן בית המקדש יהפוך בניינו"
(השל"ה הקדוש)

“a great Light will come out of the darkness, the curse itself will turn into a blessing and the destruction of the Temple will turn into its construction” (The Holy Shela"h).

ואם נחרבנו על ידי שנאת חינם, נשוב להיבנות על ידי אהבת חינם"
(אורות הקודש)

if we were destroyed by unfounded hate, we will be rebuilt by unfounded love (“Orot HaKodesh" Rav Kook).

Introduction to the Wisdom of Kabbalah Part 2 – What is the Wisdom of Kabbalah all about?

One of the greatest Kabbalists in human history and of the last few centuries was the Italian Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto or the RAMCHAL (1707 – 16 May 1746) author of the famous Mesillat Yesharim (Path of the Just) a great work of mussar studied in all yeshivot. The Ramchal wrote many books on kabbalah and unfortunately many of them never saw the light of day since he was a controversial figure in his time and objections to his writings often resulted in them being burned or burried. In his Sefer HaKlalim, an introductory book to Kabbalah he writes: “The Wisdom of Truth (another name for Kabbalah) is no more than the wisdom which explains the order of the acts of G-d, through which He acted and acts on His creations.”

The “order of the acts of G-d” being refered to here are the order of the spiritual roots of physical matter which unfold and evolve through the fixed and absolute laws of cause and effect. It is important to understand that none of the “acts” or evolutions and unfoldings of the spiritual roots into the matter of our world are random but absolutely and precisely fixed in orderly fashion.

It is also taught by the Ari in Etz Chaim that it was the will of the Creator in the initial causal thought of creation to make His G-dliness, the perfection of His deeds and Names, known to the creatures He created. And so we must bear in mind that the “acts of G-d” are all connected to and aimed at this one exalted goal of “the revelation of His G-dliness to His creations in this world.” In other words, that while living here in this world, through engaging in the study of Kabbalah, one will achieve not just an understanding of the higher reality but an elevation of consciousness whereby one can perceive exactly how the spiritual processes occur in the higher realms beyond ordinary human perception.

Since this revelation applies to all creatures in general, it is therefore the destiny of all mankind to achieve this exalted state of consciousness as it is written “For the land will be filled with the knowledge of G-d as water covers the ocean floor”. (Isaiah 11:9). “A person will not teach his fellow and a person will not teach his brother, saying ‘know G-d’ for everyone will know Me great and small” (Jeremiah 31:33) And “Your teacher will not withdraw anymore, and your eyes will see your teacher” (Isaiah 30:20).

However, certain individuals in particular in every generation merit to achieve such levels prior to the general perfection of all mankind. These are the prophets, the men of G-d as our sages said “there is no generation in which there are people like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” (Beresheet Rabbah, 74). This proves that in each generation there is such a revelation of the Creator’s G-dliness and we must trust what our sages who are qualified to say have said about this.

Introduction to the Wisdom of Kabbalah Part 2 – What is the Wisdom of Kabbalah all about? One of the greatest Kabbalists in human history and of the last few centuries was the italian Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto or the RAMCHAL (1707 – 16 May 1746) author of the famous Mesillat Yesharim (…

Introduction to the Wisdom of Kabbalah Part 1 – Seperating the wheat from the chaff

From the invention of the printing press to the world wide web, there has been no shortage of literature attempting to explain to the masses knowledge about the occult and in particular the Kabbalah. It is therefore very important and necessary for one to know whether the books, articles or courses published concerning this wisdom convey an interpretation that is accurate and authentic or not.

The aim of this post is not to give over another interpretation or opinion of what another person may feel this ancient wisdom is about, but rather to make very clear, once and for all, exactly what the sages and masters of this wisdom themselves have written on this subject.

In bygone days, among the Torah scholars of Israel there were no false books regarding the hidden knowledge of Judaism. There were almost no authors among the Jews who would not take responsibility for their words, simply because irresponsible people generally lost the public’s trust and thus their attention. Therefore, if an irresponsible person as such dared to write a book, it would not be worth the copyist’s effort to copy because the copyist would not be paid for his work since no one would buy it.

Moreover, the scholars of Kabbalah certainly had no desire to write books about the wisdom, since the knowledge was not needed by the masses during those times, in fact their desire was to hide this knowledge since “The Glory of G-d is in hidden things” (Proverbs 25:2). It was out of respect for G-d that the inner secrets of the Torah and the spiritual work was hidden from those who were not ready to or not worthy of seeing it. And definately not to degrade it and display it on shop windows for greedy eyes.

However, since printing became wide-spread throughout the world and the above problems of copyists not being paid for inacurate books no longer became an issue, irresponsible authors were under no restriction to publish their books as they pleased, either for money, honour or fame. And this has allowed books on Kabbalah to be published by people who themselves did not receive the required transmission from a qualified sage or engaged in proper study. Sometimes this is to the point that some authors ignored what is written in the ancient books and came up with their own personal opinions and thoughts and they did not realise the damage they did when they were passing on false information to the world.

Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi Ashlag, one of the most influential and renowned Masters and authors of Kabbalah from the previous generation, explains that “the wisdom of Kabbalah is hidden and chained behind a thousand doors to this day to the point that no one can really understand the true meaning of one word or the connection between one word to the other. All the genuine and authentic texts on Kabbalah contain only minimal clues which are barely enough for a knowledgable student to understand the true meaning of one word even from the transmission of a wise Kabbalistic sage.” How more so must it be impossibe for one who expects to gain even the slightest glimpse of the meaning of one word from a quick glance at this wisdom in their spare time! And so this is how people have drawn erroneous conclusions about this most profound wisdom in our times and it is necessary that these mistakes are now corrected.

Introduction to the Wisdom of Kabbalah Part 1 – Seperating the wheat from the chaff From the invention of the printing press to the world wide web, there has been no shortage of literature attempting to explain to the masses knowledge about the occult and in particular the Kabbala…