July 30, 2014 at 7:30 pm · Filed under Articles, Books
The Mystery of Reincarnation Explained
In each generation, the same souls that existed in previous generations reappear. They are clothed in new bodies, evolve, and become more sensitive and receptive to sublime and complex spiritual knowledge. Thus, people who lived thousands of years ago had the same souls as our own but are more developed today, bringing technological and spiritual progress to our world.
Any progress in humankind is the result of souls rising to a higher degree, after having gained experience in previous lives. Each soul that comes to our world begins its life with the experiences it has accumulated in the previous life. Hence, the soul goes through a process of accumulating knowledge, spiritual attainments, and worldly sensations, leaving it with memories we call Reshimot (records or reminiscences).
Of all the souls that have come down to our world from previous generations, only a few have wished to evolve into the spiritual realms. However, in our time, many have done so. We are much more advanced than our ancestors. It is easier for us to absorb new information and live it, because we are born prepared to absorb this information. Hence, each new piece of data is completely natural for us.
How the Concealment of Kabbalah and Reincarnation are Related
Kabbalah books tend to be revealed and concealed intermittently. They can be hidden for several generations, reappear, and then be lost again. It happens this way so that humanity can go through certain “corrections” (Tikkunim). Generally speaking, these books exist throughout the history of humankind to correct humanity and assure its development. All these books will be known to everyone in the future. The Zohar and the books of the prophets state that in our final days, all humanity will use these books as manuals for attaining the upper worlds, and people will have happy, eternal, and complete lives.
Souls of great Kabbalists go through special cycles. They do not appear in our world in every generation but, like the books, only in special ones. The soul of the first man incarnated later on in Abraham the Patriarch, Moses, Rabbi Shimon Bar- Yochai, the Holy Ari, and, in our days, Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag.
Such a soul comes only during special times, when it is meant to influence and correct the entire human race.
The Story of the Reincarnation of a Very Special Soul: The Ari
In the 16th century, the time of the Middle Ages and barbarism, a child was born in Jerusalem. Later in his life he received the name the Holy Ari. He absorbed the entire Kabbalistic knowledge since the first man and processed it and phrased it in such a way that all the generations following him could receive their spiritual nourishment from his books.
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April 28, 2014 at 7:30 pm · Filed under Articles, Books
How Kabbalah Was Kept Secret Up Until the Renaissance
In tune with the shifts that took place at the onset of the Renaissance, Kabbalists began to remove the veil from the wisdom of Kabbalah, or at least to speak in favor of removing it. Since the writing of The Book of Zohar, Kabbalists have set up various obstacles before those who wished to study. It began with Rashbi’s concealment of The Zohar and continued with declaring all sorts of prerequisites that one had to meet before receiving permission to study. The Mishnah, for instance, gives the apparently paradoxical instruction to avoid teaching Kabbalah to students who are not already wise and understand with their own mind, but the text does not specify how is one to come by wisdom if one is not permitted to study.
In the Babylonian Talmud, there is a well known allegory about four men who went into a PARDES (an acronym for all forms of spiritual study—Peshat (literal), Remez (Implied), Derush (interpretations), and the highest level being Sod, Kabbalah). Of the four, one died, one lost his sanity, one became heretical, and only one, Rabbi Akiva, who was a giant among Kabbalists—entered in peace and departed in peace. There are other deeper and more accurate explanations to this allegory, but the story was nonetheless used to intimidate and deter people from studying Kabbalah.
Another prerequisite that Kabbalists set up was to “fill one’s belly with” (be proficient in) Mishnah and Gemarah before one approaches the study of Kabbalah. To justify that condition, they cited the Babylonian Talmud, which warns that one must spend a third of one’s life studying the Bible, another third studying Mishnah, and the remaining third studying The Talmud.
This, of course, leaves no time to study Kabbalah, so when the time came for Kabbalists to permit the study, they had to “make room” in the day for the study of Kabbalah. Thus, Kabbalists such as Tzvi Hirsh of Zidichov, “detoured” the prohibition by declaring that every day, one must “fill one’s belly with” Mishnah and Gemarah, and then study Kabbalah.
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September 15, 2013 at 12:02 am · Filed under Articles, Books
“And the Lord God planted a garden eastward, in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed.”
One-on-One with the Creator in the Garden of Eden
What is a “garden?” It is man’s qualities, which, utilized correctly, will provide him with the opportunity to reach the spiritual world. This “garden” was “planted” for the sole purpose of leading us to life’s goal. The garden is “planted” within us by the Creator, which means that we cannot attribute any of our qualities to ourselves.
Try to imagine that the people around you, the entire universe, are all your qualities projected into your consciousness. It only appears to us that something exists on the outside. In fact, as we correct ourselves, we begin to perceive that all of these are our own qualities, which exist within us. People, animals, plants, planets, the entire world, and the entire universe—everything exists within us.
The moment we attain this, we are left one-on-one with the Creator, and we understand that nothing exists but we and the Creator.
In Between the Trees of the Garden
“And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
So what is the meaning of, “the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”?
The “tree of life” is the higher part of your soul, the quality of bestowal that draws you. It is that innermost quality that’s close to the Creator, which is why it is written to be “in the midst of the garden,” at the center of all your qualities.
The “tree of knowledge of good and evil” is the lower part of your soul, the quality of reception, your egoistic component.
Here is where the issue of good and evil comes into play. It depends on how you utilize your ego, and this is called the “intention.”
Nourished by the River of Bestowal
“And a river went out of Eden to water the garden.”
What is this river that flows out of Eden to water the garden?
The “river” is the Upper Light, nourishing your quality of bestowal from within, imparting confidence that you can exist without desiring anything for yourself.
How can you claim that you don’t want anything for yourself? You can if you have the opportunity to possess everything.
It is the sensation of security and serenity that is provided by the river (Upper Light) that waters everything.
Avoiding Death by Not Eating from the Tree
“And the Lord God commanded the man, saying: ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it; for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die.’”
You currently exist in an exalted state, for you have finally attained the “human” in you.
All your desires at this stage are in euphoria from attaining the spiritual world. You feel good in this Light, and you wish to continue living and breathing only in this way.
At this moment, it is as if you forget that inside you lurks the ego, that you’re surrounded by egoistic, worldly desires for money, fame, power and knowledge.
Presently, you exist in this “garden” with your qualities of bestowal. Therefore, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat.”
However, if you use your egoistic qualities, “…but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat,” the Light will instantly vanish and you will find yourself disconnected from the Creator, the universal Law of Life, from bestowal.
Connecting to the Creator is life; disconnecting from Him is death.
Erecting a Screen to Protect from Temptation
When a “human” is born inside you, you mustn’t rouse the full extent of your ego.
Because you still cannot correct it, you mustn’t use it.
That is, the “human in you” must not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, as that would harm him.
It is as if you say to yourself, “No, I will not receive! I won’t be able to resist and instead will take for myself, and all will fall into my egoism. But I want to learn to bestow, like You. So what can I do? I have only one option: I won’t receive anything. I don’t want to take for myself. I want nothing! And so I’m erecting a screen on everything.”
“What Is the Tree of Life, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Garden of Eden in the Bible?” is based on the book, The Secrets of the Eternal Book: The Meaning of the Stories of the Pentateuch by Semion Vinokur.
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