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Rabbi Shimon Bar
Yohay author of the Zohar
This Saturday night is the Hilulah of Rabbi
Shimon Bar Yohay author of the Zohar. A very special light will come down
on this special night. A good Tikun for us is to read on that night some
parts of the Zohar.
The Kabbalah is the mystical and esoteric explanation of the Torah. All
the profound secrets explained in the Kabbalah, are alluded to in the
letters , words and different stories narrated in the Torah. These stories
as well as the shape of the letters, the vowels , and the cantillation
notes are a Levush – outer garment on the real message and meaning of the
Torah. The different systems of Sephirot and configurations of lights and
energies are represented by the people and events in the Hebrew texts of
the Torah. Therefore, the translations only cover the most basic meaning
and can not reach into the real purpose and signification of the Torah as
explained in the Zohar:
“Rabbi Shimon said: Woe to this man who says that the Torah came to simply
relate stories in an ordinary language, because if this is so, even in
these times we could make a Torah from ordinary tales, and even nicer than
from those [tales]. If the Torah came to explain worldly subjects, even
the governors of the [present] world have more interesting stories. If so,
let’s follow what it [tale] says and make a Torah of it in the same way.
But really, all that the Torah says is of very high nature, and of
supernal secrets.
Therefore, the story in the Torah is the garment of the Torah. The one
that thinks that this garment is itself the Torah and that there is
nothing else, let his soul swell and have no part in the world to come.
For this reason, King David said: (Tehilim, 119. 118) “Open my eyes so I
may glaze the wondrous things in your Torah”. Meaning what is under this
garment of the Torah.
Come and see, there is a garment that is visible to all, the ignorant
people that see a man well dressed and which looks distinguished by his
clothing, do not look any further and judge him according to his nice
garment. They think that the clothing represents the body of man and his
body, his soul.
Likewise is the Torah, it has a body which are the commandments called
“the body of the Torah”. This body is dressed with garments which are the
stories of the present world, the ignorant only looks at this garment
which is the story in the Torah, not any further, and not at what is under
this garment. The ones that know more do not look at the garment but
rather at the body under this garment. The wise, the servants of the Lord,
the ones that stood at Mount Sinai, only look at the soul of the Torah,
which is the essential of all, the real Torah [Kabbalah]. In the future we
will look only at the soul of the soul of the Torah.
Woe to those sinners that say that the Torah is no more than a story; they
are looking at the garment and no more. Praised are the righteous that
look in the Torah like it should. Wine is only contained in a jug;
similarly the Torah is only contained in this garment, consequently, it is
necessary to look solely at what is under this clothing. Therefore, all
these matters and stories are only garments.”
(Zohar, Bamidbar, Behalotekha 58- 64)
The Torah contains four levels of comprehension, of which the highest is
the Sod (secret). At this level, the Torah explains to us the goal of
creation, the real purpose of all the commandments and their influence on
the Sephirot.
Through the knowledge of Zohar and Kabbalah , we can arrive at a level of
true understanding of the will of the Creator, His guidance, the creation,
and in a way, “decode” the profound secrets of our holy Torah.
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