Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai (Rashbi) received, through his mentor, Rabbi Akiva, 3,000 years of accumulated spiritual knowledge—all acquired by Kabbalists before him. After he wrote it down, he hid it, as humanity was not yet ready for it. Today, according to prominent Kabbalists such as Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag and The Vilna Gaon (GRA), we are indeed […]
Rabbi Akiva lived in the first and second centuries CE; he was the most prominent sage of his time. He was a leading pedagogue, the foremost Kabbalist of his time, and participated in the writing of the essential spiritual texts of his time—the Mishnah and the Halacha. At the same time, he was the spiritual […]
Through the ages, many Kabbalists have written profound and beautiful books. But we would like to focus on four very special Kabbalists and their books. These men wrote their books specifically to help beginners become acquainted with Kabbalah. The exception is Rabbi Akiva, who did not leave a book as his contribution. Instead, he gifted […]
We were as those who dream – Psalms, 126:1 The most complicated, yet fascinating topic connected to The Book of Zohar, and indeed to life, is “the perception of reality.” It is known that around us are numerous waves that we do not perceive. However, there is also a field of higher information […]
All that The Zohar speaks of, even its legends, are the 10 Sefirot — Keter, Hochma, Bina, Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzah, Hod, Yesod, and Malchut—and their interactions. To a Kabbalist, the entries and their various combinations are sufficient to reveal all the spiritual worlds. Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai (Rashbi), author of The Zohar, had a big […]
The Bible (or Torah) is sublime and spiritual, but, frankly, it can be a bit long on history with its lists of relations. You read about people marrying, divorcing, cheating on each other, and killing one another. A fair question might be: what’s so spiritual about that? In the framework of Kabbalah, however, the Bible […]
The Language of the Branches is the expression of higher forces that operate on our world. It is expressed in objects and in everything that happens. Where does it come from? It’s like a computer monitor: if you looked behind the monitor, you would not see the picture—you would see the electronics that built it. […]
As we’ve explained in Chapters 7 and 8, the worlds are created by a series of causes and effects. Therefore, “roots” refer to the spiritual forces, which create our world and the people in it. They exist in the spiritual worlds beyond this material one, but they influence and operate on our world. The roots […]
Thus, there is not an element of reality, or an occurrence of reality in a lower world, that you will not find its likeness in the world Above it, as identical as two drops in a pond. And they are called “Root and Branch.” That means that the item in the lower world is deemed […]
The picture of this world has to last throughout the entire process of our spiritual advancement until the World of Infinity. Our correction is possible only under the condition that we perceive the reality of this lower degree, our world. We must continually attain roots that are above the picture of our world which we now […]