The topic today is going to be about Kabbalah. I was asked by many people, did that mean you're going to make us all into kabbalists, mekubalim today? Or someone asked me, \"Are we going to understand what you are talking about?\" Because everyone knows that Kabbalah, which means Jewish mysticism, is something beyond the understanding of most people. I will try to explain the things, the topic, as to the best of my ability, but let me tell you that what I will try to do today is not so much to get into individual topics that are discussed in Kabbalah, but more to discuss what Kabbalah really is. What is this topic, this philosophy, called Kabbalah? Or as it is usually called Kabbalah, as they call it, but we call it Kabbalah, to explain what exactly that really is. Because many people have a misconception of what it really is. Because the only way you could really understand what Kabbalah is, is by learning, or reading, or listening the way it is written authentically in the books, in the ספרים. Because many people hear about Kabbalah from different sources, which, I must tell you the truth, are not really the real, real source, because in order to be able to explain what Kabbalah is and to teach Kabbalah, you have to be a person that studied from the sources, from the original sources of the masters of Kabbalah, and base more than that, they have to actually live a life that fits to the teaching of Kabbalah. You have many times, unfortunately, I must say, people who themselves don't live according to what Kabbalah teaches. Some people don't even live according to the standards of the Torah. They don't even observe the mitzvot, and they claim that they are experts on Kabbalah, and they come and give all kinds of explanations, which, as you understand yourself, as much as they might think they know, but as long as you're not in it, you do not really know what it's all about. You have to be someone from the inside to be able to explain what Kabbalah is. You can't be somebody from the outside looking in and trying to explain what it really is, because they don't really know. You have to understand it from the real, real sources and you have to live it. Not that I will say that I do live it, but nevertheless what I'm going to say will be taken from the authentic sources, the way they are written in the ספרים, the holy books written by the masters of Kabbalah. What I will really, like I said before, today try to go to try to explain what Kabbalah is, not really get into some matters of Kabbalah. Maybe towards the end, we will touch upon a few of the subjects discussed in Kabbalah, but basically to explain what really Kabbalah is all about in the real form, the real way, not at this as it is as it is sometimes brought out by some people who don't really know 100% what it is. To start off with a word, what does Kabbalah mean? People are used to translating the word Kabbalah as Jewish mysticism, which is not true. The literal translation of Kabbalah is \"received.\" That's all it is. In Hebrew, the word mekabel means a receiver, Kabbalah means received. This is a philosophy, a subject, that was received. Nobody is able to give his own ideas and thoughts when it comes to Kabbalah. These are only things that we received. Received from who? These are ideas that were received one generation from another, which means it was handed down by tradition from one to another, dating back all the way to Moshe Rabbeinu, to Moses, who received it from Hashem. We all know that the Torah was given by God to Moshe Rabbeinu. The Ten Commandments were said in front of all the Jews, but the rest of the Torah was given by God to Moshe Rabbeinu, to Moses. And when Hashem gave Moses the Torah, He gave him four parts to the Torah. When He told him the whole Torah, He gave him the whole Torah, there were four parts to it. And the four parts are פשט, רמז, דרוש, and סוד. The four words, the abbreviation of these four words make up the word פרדס: פ, ר, ד, ס, which means \"the garden.\" But it actually is פשט, רמז, דרוש, and sod. Pshat means the simple explanation, remez are the hints, drush is the way we learn out one halachah from another, and sod are the secrets. And Kabbalah are the secrets of the Torah, the way they were handed down by God to Moshe Rabbeinu. And nobody is able to change or to add anything to these secrets. It is only what was handed down and received later generations from what was given by God. Also Kabbalah includes those ideas that were received by the masters of Kabbalah from Eliyahu Hanavi. We know that the prophet Eliyahu, the prophet Elijah, would reveal himself to many of the great scholars, and especially to the masters of Kabbalah, and would reveal to them different ideas that they allowed him to reveal to these scholars, to these rabbis from שמים. And only these things were able to be studied. What we do when we study Kabbalah is we try to understand as much as possible these ideas, but we can't add new ideas or new thoughts or new new different subjects within Kabbalah itself on our own. It has to be what was received, and I'll explain soon why. So originally Kabbalah are is a subject, a philosophy, ideas, thoughts that were given by God to Moshe Rabbeinu. The difference between this part of the Torah, as we said, there are four parts to the Torah: pshat, remez, drush, sod, Kabbalah is the sod, the secrets. The difference between this part of the Torah, the secrets, and the rest was that the rest was given over to all the Jews, and they all studied it. And in old generations the Jews studied openly, in groups, privately, but they studied, all the Jews studied all parts of the Torah. But this part of the Torah, the secrets of the Torah, Kabbalah, was only studied by select few. Only special people, in the beginning when the Torah was given, only special people studied that section of the Torah. And they handed it, transmitted it to other people, the next generation, but also only to special people, to יחידי סגולה we call them, only special people. And that's how it went from generation to generation. While the other parts of the Torah were studied by the masses, Kabbalah was only studied by select people. Now select doesn't mean five or ten, a big group, but compared to the rest of the Torah it was only studied by smaller groups. And this went on from generation to generation going all the way basically to the time of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai was the author of the Zohar. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai was the greatest or the greatest scholar in his time. And Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai was the first one basically that actually had a yeshivah with students where they studied the subject of Kabbalah, and it was studied in the open. And he was the author of the Sefer HaZohar, which is the basic book on Kabbalah. And from his time on, Kabbalah was studied much more open than before, but still it wasn't studied by the masses, it was studied by just select people, more than before, but still it was limited to certain people. And this went on till, I would say maybe 1,000 years later, when it came to the time of the Rishonim, which is about, let's say, 800, 900 years ago, when the study of Kabbalah became more publicized. Even at the time of the Rambam, Maimonides, already at that time Kabbalah was studied more in the open. Actually the Rambam himself, Maimonides himself, in contrary to what other people think that he did not study Kabbalah and he did not study the Zohar, we know we have in our tradition dating back to the Baal Shem Tov, that the Baal Shem Tov said that he knows that the Rambam did study Kabbalah and the Rambam studied the Zohar. There are certain halachot, laws, in the sefer of the Rambam which are based on what it says in the Zohar. The Moreh Nevuchim, the sefer, the book of the Rambam called The Guide to the Perplexed, has many thoughts, ideas which come from the Zohar. Even though openly he did not write Kabbalah, but it's all hidden within that sefer of Moreh Nevuchim. The Ramban, for instance, in the same more or less in the same time as the Rambam, studied Kabbalah openly. He had a yeshivah where he taught Kabbalah. In his sefer, in his commentary on the Chumash, he writes many thoughts of Kabbalah. Other ראשונים, the Rashba, the Ritva, they studied Kabbalah. And this went on till the time of the Ari zal. Now the Ari zal, Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, he was the master of Kabbalah. The Ari zal was the one that openly opened a yeshivah, and he spread the study of Kabbalah. Now the same Kabbalah that was transmitted all the generations, he brought it out to the masses. most student, writes in the name of the HaAri zal that from his time on, מצוה לגלות זאת החכמה. Now it's a mitzvah to reveal this subject, this chachmah to the world. Not like it was till then where it was in the category of a sod, of a secret, and therefore it was studied only by select few. He says now the time has come that this study should be spread out throughout the world. And like I said, till then it was studied too, but only by select few. Which, by the way, explains there are some people who claim that you find some books written, like by Chinese philosophers 2000 years ago or more, which have certain ideas which later on we find in the Kabbalah books, and they claim that, well, some thoughts, some ideas in Kabbalah were taken, God forbid, from non-Jewish sources, from these Chinese sources. The truth is it's just the opposite. They took it from Kabbalah, and I'll explain how it happened. We know that in the time of Shlomo HaMelech, the king King Solomon, scholars from all over the world came to Eretz Yisrael, to the land of Israel, to study wisdom under Shlomo HaMelech, from Shlomo, from other chachamim, scholars in his time. There were some scholars, non-Jewish scholars, who happened to penetrate when they visited the land of Israel, they happened to penetrate even into those select groups that studied Kabbalah, which was not studied by the masses, and they came back to their place and brought back some ideas from Kabbalah. And that's why they put it into their books, and later on when it was revealed, it looks as if, God forbid, we took it from them, but their sources they came, they took it from us. But anyway, like I said, this went on till the HaAri z'l. And the HaAri z'l openly opened a yeshiva with students, and he studied and he said from now on everyone should study Kabbalah. And he had a student called Rav Yoel Baal Shem. And he continued, after the HaAri z'l passed away, he continued, and he spread Kabbalah, studied Kabbalah even more. And he had a student, Rav Eliyahu Baal Shem, he was known as a Baal Shem. And this Rav Eliyahu Baal Shem had a student called Rav Adam Baal Shem. And all of these spread Kabbalah more and more, till finally one of the students of Rav Adam Baal Shem was the famous Rav Yisrael Baal Shem Tov. And he formed the movement of Chassidut, Hasidic movement, which is actually just a continuation of the Kabbalah movement, just in a form of Chassidut. And when we know that there were opponents against the Baal Shem Tov when he started his his Hasidic movement, it wasn't something new in his time. This started dating back hundreds of years before. The Kabbalah movement had opponents from the beginning, but since the whole Kabbalah movement was in a much lower closed profile, so the argument, those who were opposed Kabbalah were also not in such a such a strong way. But when the Baal Shem Tov openly came out that we have to start continuing this studying of Kabbalah and the behavior according to Kabbalah, that's when the opposition became much stronger. But that's when Kabbalah took its form of Chassidut, Chassidut. The study of Chassidut, Hasidic philosophy, is basically a continuation of the kabbalistic philosophy, but in a form that people should be able to understand. And from there on, it came to all the Chassidishe rebbes, all the Chassidish Hasidic rebbes, especially the Mezritcher Maggid and then the Alter Rebbe the Baal HaTanya, and they took the Kabbalah philosophy and wrote it out in a way that it should be understood by most people.

Now the question is: why would a certain section of the Torah be considered a secret? We say that this is the part of the Torah which is סוד, which is a secret. Why would it be a secret? And if it was supposed to be a secret, and that's why it was not studied by most people, why all of a sudden, in the time of the HaAri z'l, was it possible for this secret to become revealed? Now I'd like to explain what is this meaning of Kabbalah, and then we'll understand why it's called a secret. The reason this part of the Torah is called a secret, not because it's a secret from somebody. A secret usually means that it's a secret that somebody shouldn't know. There are certain things which are essentially secretive, which means certain things that a human being is not able to grasp, and that's why they call call it a סוד, a secret. It's not because it's supposed to be hidden from somebody. There are certain things which are hidden essentially from from human beings, because it deals with a different realm. Spiritual matters are a secret to physical human beings. As much as a physical human being is able to understand, and as deep of a mind he has, but still you take it with your physical mind. And when it comes to spiritual matters, we are not able to grasp spiritual matters with our physical minds. Kabbalah is the part of the Torah what deals, which deals with the spiritual aspect of the Torah. That means every word of the Torah, every mitzvah has a spiritual explanation. When we deal with a piece of Gemara, a piece of Talmud to use as an example, where we learn about two people arguing over a garment, which is part of the Torah, שנים אוחזין בטלית, two people arguing over a garment, and the Torah says that the law is so and so. This is the physical part of the Torah, the part of the Torah which deals with two human beings. But this physical part of the Torah has a spiritual explanation. And that spiritual explanation, being that it deals with spiritual matters, it is a secret to humanity, because we cannot grasp spiritual matters. And this is really what Kabbalah is. Kabbalah is the spiritual explanation of all physical aspects of the Torah. And it goes even further: Kabbalah is not only the spiritual explanation, the secret of the Torah, but it's also the secrets of the creation. In the universe, in the creation, there are certain secrets. Now, there are physical secrets and spiritual secrets. There are physical secrets. For instance, the power of electricity, which was a secret, it wasn't created by anybody, it was there from creation on, but for thousands of years, it was a secret, but a secret hidden within the creation. So too, there are spiritual secrets which are hidden in the creation. And when we talk about secrets of the creation, we don't only mean certain specific details of the creation. There are certain secrets which are the complete makeup of the creation, the essence of creation, just like we find physical secrets of the creation. For instance, for a hundred, for thousands of years, no one knew that the whole universe is made up of atoms. And this is the makeup of creation, but it was a secret to human beings, not because it it was a secret, they didn't know about it. So too, there is the spiritual secrets and essence of the creation. Being that it's spiritual, we cannot grasp it. Those are secrets, but not because we're trying to hide it from somebody. It's secrets essentially, because since we are physical human beings, and whatever we grasp, we could only grasp in a physical way, so the abstract spiritual explanation and ideas, whether it's the explanations of all the words of the Torah and the spiritual explanations of every mitzvah, or it's the spiritual explanations and depths and secrets of the creation of the world, they're all beyond us. And therefore, these are called secrets, because it can't be given to us because we can't grasp these secrets. And I'll explain it more detail. One of the great masters of Kabbalah, who was the Shelah, the reason he's called the Shelah, his name was Rabbi Yeshaya Horowitz, the reason he was called Shelah, Shelah, ש ל ה is an abbreviation of his ספר, of his book called Shnei Luchot HaBrit. And he writes that some people think that התורה מדברת בתחתונים ורומזת לעליונים, which means that the Torah talks about matters of this low physical world, but it hints to the spiritual world, it hints to spiritual matters. He says it's wrong. It's the reverse: התורה מדברת בעליונים ורומזת בתחתונים. The Torah actually talks about spiritual matters and hints to physical matters. The matters that we have in the Torah, the way we take it, are only the hints of the Torah. The essence of the Torah are the spiritual explanations of every word of the Torah. The essence of the mitzvot, of the commandments, are the spiritual parts, the spiritual accomplishment. Every time we put on tefillin, there is a spiritual happening that takes place in the higher worlds. And that's the essence of the mitzvah. Every word of Torah has a spiritual explanation, and that's the essence of the Torah. And this is self-understood, you don't even have to be a big מקובל to understand this. And I will explain this very simple. We all know that תורה קדמה לעולם, the Torah came before the world. And when we say it came before the world, we don't only mean before in time. As a matter of fact, before the world, there was no time. But when we say the Torah came before the world, it means it is a level beyond the world. Now the Torah came before the world, let's understand, how does the Torah talk about physical matters? How can the Torah talk about two people picking up a garment? How can the Torah talk about שור שנגח את הפרה, if an ox gored a cow and all the different laws the Torah talks about? How can the Torah talk about a piece of leather, that you should take a piece of leather and wrap it around your hand, when when the Torah started, there was no world, it's before the world, there was no leather, there were no oxen, there was no garment. So when we study in the Torah about this certain all these physical things, and if we know and believe, and we all know this is true, that the Torah came before the world, then how is it possible for the Torah to talk about physical matters? We know that the Torah is חכמתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא, it's the wisdom of God. God is definitely the Creator, so He's before the world. The wisdom of God is definitely before the world. So how could the wisdom of God be concerning these physical matters? What, do we think that God in His mind thought about the ox that gored the cow? Even in in in God's mind, the chachmah of God is beyond the world. The Rambam says, even more, Maimonides says concerning the Torah, that the Torah is not only the wisdom of God, the Rambam says that the תורה, הוא וחכמתו אחד, the Torah and God are one. He and His wisdom are one, not like other types of subjects that we always have a person and an idea that he has in his mind. But the Torah and Hashem and God are one. God is definitely not physical, and beyond the physical world. So how is it possible that the Torah, which is the wisdom of God and one with God, and came before the creation of the world, how could that deal with physical matters? And therefore we must say that the essence of the Torah is not physical. The essence of the essence of the wisdom of the Torah is spiritual. It deals with spiritual matters in higher levels. The Torah the way we have it, that we study about the שור שנגח, about the cow and about the ox, and all other physical things, that is the levush, the garment in which the wisdom of God was put into. Hashem's true wisdom, spiritual wisdom, was put into a garment, a clo- in clothes, in the way we have it, so we should be able to grasp it. If it would be talking about the spiritual concepts, we'd never be able to relate to it. So Hashem put it into a form that it should be put into שור שנגח, an ox, the things like that, and that's how we take it. But does that mean, God forbid, that the Torah that we learn is not truly the wisdom of God? That's what it seems, God forbid, what I'm saying. The real wisdom of God is the spiritual matters, this is just a garment. So let me explain that also. And this will be a little a lengthy explanation. We know that there is a pasuk that says that the Torah is משל הקדמוני. That's how it refers to it. משל הקדמוני means the mashal, the parable of God. Kadmoni means the One that's first, which is God. משל הקדמוני means the parable, the mashal of God. Let's understand, what is the concept of a mashal, of a parable? In order to understand an idea, you always give a mashal, a parable. So I'm going to use the parable of a parable to understand this idea. What is the idea of a mashal, of a parable, when you give a mashal? When you give a mashal, it means you're trying to explain an idea, and the person you're trying to explain it to can't understand, it's too deep for him. So you give him a mashal. By giving him a mashal, you're lowering it. You give him a parable, you tell him a story, which makes it easier for him to understand. You take it down from its abstract form, you bring it out into a way that it's lowered closer to him. Now sometimes you give one mashal and he still won't understand, so you have to give a mashal to the mashal. So you're lowering it two levels, and sometimes that's still not enough, you have to lower it three levels. Similar to what it says, it says concerning the wisdom of Shlomo HaMelech, King Solomon was so smart, so it says וידבר שלמה שלשת אלפים משל. Shlomo HaMelech spoke 3,000 meshalim. He gave 3,000 parables. Now, a simple peshat, it means that in his lifetime Shlomo HaMelech was able to give 3,000 parables. Now, what's so special about being able to give He gave 3,000 meshalim? We make that's the wisdom of Shlomo, that he was able he had this חוש, he had this sense of knowing how to give a parable? The Gemara says that Rabbi, that Meir gave 300 meshalim, 300 parables in his life. It says משמת רבי מאיר בטלו מושלי משלים. When Rabbi Meir passed away, there are no more people who are able to give parables. What does that mean? There's many people who have the sense of able to give a parable. We know that, not long ago we had the Dubno Maggid was a famous rabbi who was known for his meshalim. So what's the peshat no more people to give a mashal? That's not the meaning. When it says Shlomo HaMelech gave 3,000 meshalim, it means that his ideas were so deep that when he wanted to explain his thoughts to an ordinary person, he had to lower it 3,000 levels. He had to give a mashal to a mashal to a mashal, 3,000 levels. Rabbi Meir, he wasn't as great as Shlomo HaMelech, but he was very deep. The Gemara says לא ירדו חכמים לסוף דעתו, the חכמים, the scholars didn't, weren't able to understand the depth of his wisdom. So when he wanted to explain something to an ordinary person, he had to give 300 levels. And when he passed away, there were no more people that their thoughts are so deep that the only way you could explain is by giving meshalim going down. So it comes out, comes out here that Shlomo HaMelech, his deep thoughts his thoughts were so deep that for an ordinary person to understand it had to go down 3,000 levels. Now let's understand this: if a person would look at the lowest level, level number 3,000, and compare it to the first level, or to the thought, the idea of Shlomo HaMelech, believe me, there was no comparison, no one could recognize that they look alike. But nevertheless, that lowest level contained within it that highest level, because otherwise it wouldn't be a parable, it would be a new thought. If it changed, then it's a new thought. The idea is that it's the same thought put into those levels, and when you look at the bottom level, it looks as if it's a complete different thing altogether, but in truth, it contains that highest level. And a person who understands it all would look from the side, what would he see? He would see within that lowest level, he would see the depth of the first thought of Shlomo HaMelech, if he understood it. So even though it looks like something else, but really that's the same thing. And that's concerning the Torah. The Torah, the way it is in the wisdom of God, is spiritual, and it deals with spiritual matters. And it went down level after level after level till finally it was transformed like a mashal into this lowest level, the Torah the way we have it. And the Torah the way we have it is not something different than the way it's in the wisdom of Hashem, of God. It's the same thing, but it's just brought down in such a way that we should be able to relate to it. And this is really what Kabbalah is. The secrets of the Torah are to bring out the spiritual explanation of all these physical ideas that we learn in the Torah. That when we learn in the Torah, for instance, I keep on using this example, of שור שנגח את הפרה, if an ox gored a cow. So these words, an ox gored a cow, in the simple terms, the way it's in the lowest level, deals with an ox. But in this idea, we have the depth of Hashem's spiritual understanding. And Kabbalah comes to tell us what is the spiritual explanation of שור שנגח את הפרה, and what is the spiritual explanation of a פסוק in Chumash in its spiritual sense. Now it's the self-understood that when we study Kabbalah, and we do have a spiritual explanation of a certain פסוק or a certain piece of the Talmud, it doesn't mean that that is actually the wisdom of Hashem, because there are so many levels that it went through till it came down here, that this might be just two levels up, three levels up. This is The Kabbalah that we have now is only a drop in the bucket of what's really there. But what it is is at least the beginning of understanding the spiritual explanation of what really is there in the physical part of the Torah. And since we know, when you study Kabbalah, we know the spiritual explanation of the Torah, automatically we also come to understand the spiritual parts that are there in the creation. Because the creation came as a result of the Torah. The Midrash says that Hashem, which, whatever it should mean, because God looked into the Torah and used the Torah as a blueprint to create the world. So if we understand the spiritual explanations within the Torah, automatically we will understand spiritual thought ideas, spiritual secrets that we have in the world, in the creation. And this is what Kabbalah is. This is what סודות התורה are, the secrets of the Torah, meaning things which are essentially secret this because we're talking about spiritual matters which are beyond the physical framework of the world, the physical framework of the Torah, but they are the secrets of what we have in the Torah. And then we have the secrets of the creation. And being that these are things that are spiritual, the way we could talk about it or relate to it is by using physical terms, which might lead us to a mistake. See, we can't relate to anything unless we use physical terms, because we are physical human beings. So we have to, even when we talk about spiritual matters, we have to talk about it in physical terms. Now, what's possible to happen when we use physical terms concerning spiritual matters? We are what we call מגשם, we will, now who could give the translation to מגשם? Not מגשר, מגשם. Maybe, I don't know that word either. We make it coarse, we bring it down as if the spiritual matters, we make מגושם, we make it very גשמיותדיק, very coarse. We make it tangible as if these matters that we are dealing with are really physical matters. And that's why it's very dangerous to study these matters, because it'll make us think that these spiritual matters are physical. And that's why when Hashem, God, gave the Torah and He gave Moshe Rabbeinu all these ideas of Kabbalah, He told him, \"Only teach it to those people that will be able to accept it in the proper way,\" because otherwise what will happen is they're going to study these matters using physical terms because there is no other way we human beings could refer to it and relate to it, and people who are not ready for it, who are not don't have the sensitivity in their mind, in their heart, will take it as if these things are simple, are physical. We'll talk about and just throw in some words of Kabbalah, the עשר ספירות, the ten ספירות that we have in the spiritual worlds of אצילות. You talk about the ten ספירות, people will think, \"Well, that's body, hands, legs, and arms.\" It makes it sound like it's all physical, and that's very dangerous. What we'll be doing is we'll be taking godly matters, spiritual matters, and making physicality out of it. We will be turning God and all spiritual matters related to God, we will turn it into a human being. Because many of the terms that we use in Kabbalah to relate to Hashem are terms borrowed from a human being. So it's as if these Hashem is like a human being, God forbid. And that's why it's very dangerous. And that's why Hashem said, \"Don't teach it,\" because these are secrets not because He wanted to keep it a secret from certain people, these are secret things, things which are beyond our understanding. So only select few were able to study it, till it came to the time of the Arizal. Now what changed in the time of the Arizal? The whole problem is that we, who are physical human beings, and we take everything physically, we cannot relate to these matters but in a physical way. The Arizal said that from his time already started the preparation to Mashiach. And being that when Mashiach will come, things will change. When Mashiach will come, we human beings are going to see spiritual matters in a spiritual way. It says in the pasuk when Mashiach will come, ונגלה כבוד השם, the glory of Hashem will be revealed, וראו כל בשר יחדו כי פי השם דבר, all flesh will see the words of Hashem, see that Hashem spoke. When we will look at the world, we will see the spirituality. So when Mashiach will come, there will be no problem to study Kabbalah. As a matter of fact, that will be the main study when Mashiach will come. Rashi in Shir Hashirim says on the פסוק ישקני מנשיקות פיהו, רש״י says that that means that the secrets of the Torah will be revealed when Mashiach will come. And it's understood why, because then we will will be able to take it, because we will be more spiritual. That's why it says in a Midrash words that if you don't really understand it, they sound very, very surprising. It says תורה, תורה של עולם הזה, the Torah that we learn now, is כהבל לגבי תורתו של משיח, is like narishkeit, like stupidity compared to the Torah of Mashiach. But what does that mean? The Torah that we learn now, God forbid, that's Torah of Hashem. But being that the Torah we will learn when Mashiach will come will be the spiritual parts of the Torah, which is the real thing, now what we have now is only like a mashal, but the mashal is real too. But imagine if a person is able to study the nimshal, what's inside that mashal. So when he looks at the mashal, the mashal includes it, but compare the mashal to the nimshal, there's no comparison. And therefore, when Mashiach will come, we will learn the depth because we will be able to understand it, we will not be misled. So the Arizal said from his time on, we are starting to prepare for Mashiach. So he said now is the time to start studying these matters that we will study when Mashiach will come, but we have to be ready for it. We know that when it comes to prepared to something, you want to be ready to accept it. When a person wants to prepare himself to a musical concert and he wants to appreciate the music, he will study music. If a person wants to get ready to an art exhibition, he will study art. If we want to get ready to Mashiach, we have to study the matters, the ideas that will be taught when Mashiach will come. So he said now already is a mitzvah. In other words, had Hashem said, \"I give you certain ideas, but they're a secret,\" no one could come and change it. The Arizal can't come and say it's no more a secret. He didn't make it into a secret because he wanted it to be a secret. It's part of the Torah, it's not a secret, but these are matters which we cannot take unless you're ready for it. And most people couldn't take it, so Hashem said don't. But when we're starting to prepare to a time where we could take it, so the Arizal said now if you start, you already have that koach, that power because we're already preparing for Mashiach, and this goes back 400 years. So he said now is the time to start studying it. So he said, מצוה לגלויי הא חכמתא, it's a mitzvah now to start to reveal this chachmah. And as time passed, came the Baal Shem Tov later and said now already it's even closer, and now we have to study even more. But what he did, and later on what Chassidus with the Alter Rebbe came and did even more, took the ideas of Kabbalah and brought it down in a way that we should not make a mistake and be מגשם it, bring it down in the physical way thinking that these matters are physical. So even now to study Kabbalah in a raw way, let's call it, to study Kabbalah in a way which is not explained in a way that we should not make that mistake is wrong. Because then what will happen is we will take these matters, unless you're a very special person—and there are always special people—but what happens, you will take these matters, and speaking in physical terms, you will actually think, and you speak to some of these people who don't study Kabbalah through the proper channels, they will tell you you have God's hand, and God's foot, and God's head, and you have this, and the Sefirot come from his foot, and then you have shining from his forehead. These are all בבא מעשיות as we call it. It's not true. Hashem has no head and has no forehead. These are expressions that we use in Kabbalah because there are no other way we could talk, because we are physical human beings. So if you study it in a raw way, we just get off the track. But if you study it in a way where it's explained in its abstract form that we should be able to relate to it and understand as much as we talk about it in physical terms, it has that spiritual meaning, and we are able to relate to that spiritual meaning, then it's okay. And that's what the Baal Shem Tov did, and later Chasidut and the Alter Rebbe, and going on, trying to bring down these ideas more in a physical way.

I think I would mention a few, a thought which is the basis of Kabbalah. Now Kabbalah, as I said, is to explain the secrets of the Torah, the secrets of creation. But there are certain basic ideas in the study of Kabbalah, and with these basic ideas, Kabbalah explains different Pesukim, explains all things as they apply to higher worlds. One of the basic ideas in Kabbalah is the concept of סדר השתלשלות. סדר השתלשלות means that there is an order of evolvement that comes from Hashem and goes through different levels, and what we call different worlds—and the reason we call it worlds, because we have no better word, because we're dealing with physical people—and it goes down to, finally, it comes down till this physical universe, which is עולם הזה, this world. And the reason Kabbalah discusses a סדר השתלשלות, which is basically a map of how things evolved spiritually from Hashem, from God himself, till it came down, so to speak, to this world, the reason Kabbalah comes to that—and again as I said before, it's not Kabbalah by itself, people came to it, but this was all handed down by Hashem, because by the way, when we talk about spiritual matters, nobody could say fact. Who came back from there to tell us the fact that this is the map, and this is the order, and this came from there, and this came from there? Nobody could say it. So it all has to be given by God, or Eliyahu Hanavi came down from higher worlds and gave it over—so Kabbalah says that there is this סדר השתלשלות. And the reason there has to be a סדר השתלשלות is because there is one question that Kabbalah deals with and is trying to answer. And all of Kabbalah, I would say, is based on this one question, all of the hundreds of books of Kabbalah. And the question is, how is it possible that from one God, who is one, the true unity, should turn into many different things? Now when we talk about a physical thing, you could have one table turn to 10 pieces, you Cut it up into 10 pieces because to begin with, it's a big piece which has 10 pieces to it. But when we talk about Hashem, God who is אחד ומיוחד, the real one, and being that it's the real unity, which means not made up of parts, how could from Hashem become, he created, and as the Rambam expresses it, that there is this first being, וממנו נמצאו כל הנמצאים, and all beings came from that one being, how's it possible that many beings should come from one? And that's where Kabbalah answers that there is this concept of אור אין סוף, which is the infinite light of Hashem, which means we have the עצם עצמות אין סוף, which is the essence of Hashem himself, and that essence that is not, God forbid, made up of parts is essence and unity. But then you have the light of Hashem, the infinite light of Hashem, and the whole סדר השתלשלות came from the light of Hashem, and that evolved and evolved till it turned into this world. And that itself took different forms throughout סדר השתלשלות. The light of Hashem doesn't mean that there is something other than Hashem. See, when we talk about this, I feel very funny talking about this, because right away, what does everyone imagine in their minds? The light of Hashem, oh Hashem looks like the sun, and then there is a shine that comes out of him. There's no other way, there's no other words that we could use, but we just have to refer to in these words. So you have Hashem himself, and then you have Hashem's גילוי. Hashem, the way he reveals himself, which already is not his essence. Revelation is something other than him, but it's not nothing different than him. Just to use an elementary example, talking about mashalim, an elementary mashal, if a person stands in front of a mirror, so in the mirror there is a reflection of the person. And in the mirror you see every detail of the person, everything of the person. There's only one thing missing: the person himself. But it's his revelation. So his revelation is his revelation, it's his, on the other hand it's not him. And this whole השתלשלות is in the אור אין סוף. And when we say Hashem has names, the name of Hashem means the אור אין סוף of Hashem, because a name is like a revelation of a person. A name is part of the person himself. Nevertheless, it's only a revelation of the person. The person himself could live without a name, you don't have to have a name. It's only in order for you to connect to somebody else, in order for people to relate to you, you have to have a name. In order for you to reveal yourself, to give yourself over to others, you have to have a name. So a name and or and light are the same concept. So you have the עצם and you have the or, and within the אור אין סוף, that's where you have the whole סדר השתלשלות. And the way it goes is that you have עצמות אין סוף which is Hashem himself, and then you have the אור אין סוף which is the light of Hashem means the way Hashem reveals himself. And then we have what the Arizal refers to as the tzimtzum, which is the contraction. Being that there was supposed Hashem wants to make a world, and as long as there is this light of Hashem shining, there cannot be a world, so Hashem contracted and took away the light, and then Hashem, I'm just quoting what it says in Kabbalah and it's these are deep inyanim, and Hashem brought a קו, which is a line, a ray of light, from around the tzimtzum. Using physical terms, like you have the light and then Hashem contracted, moved to the side, left an empty space, and then brought a ray of light from the outside of the circle into the space, and that ray of light went down from level to level, lower and lower, which means less light and less light and less light, till finally it turned into the level called אצילות. And in the level called אצילות, you have עשר ספירות, you have the 10 sefiros. And after the 10 sefiros, that's where you have the first level called בריאה and then יצירה and עשיה. I'm not going to explain this now, but by using these terms and understanding this, this will explain how it's possible that from Hashem turned into the different things, even though he's one. Because the way Hashem is, be'etzem, in his essence, everything is there. Everything is there in a form that is not in a specific form that you could pinpoint that this is a separate entity. If you have something that contains many details, many parts, then it's not one to begin with. You could have one thing which contains many parts, but it still doesn't take away from being one. The example, again it's example, of a flintstone which contains fire, but in a way that there is no fire there, even though it's the source of fire. The proof is you could soak it and soak it for a hundred years and you take it out, it'll still bring out fire. The fact that it brings out fire shows that there is a source of fire inside the stone. But it's there in a way that it doesn't add anything to the stone itself. There is a thing that something that is the source of something, even though the way it's within Him, it's only because He contains everything, but not because they're all separate parts which chas veshalom will make Him into more than one. And Hashem Himself the expression is that Hashem is פשוט בתכלית הפשיטות, He has the true simplicity, He is נושא הכל, He carries everything, and He's פושט מהכל, He is undressed from everything. He has everything but doesn't have anything, which means He has everything, but not in a form to say that things are there as a specific entity, then it would be something in addition God forbid to Him, which is not true. So it's all there within Him, but in a way that it's not separate, that it's not like a separate entity. Another example, which is a better example, is the person's nefesh. We all have a nefesh, a soul, and this soul is the life force that we have, and all abilities and attributes that we have come from that nefesh. We're able to see, we're able to hear, we're able to understand, we're able to feel. All of it comes from the nefesh. Doesn't come from the body. Sight doesn't come from the eyes. A person who dies has eyes, can't see. The ability to see, that ability comes from the person's life. Since he's alive he has that nefesh, which is the force of life, so all these different attributes come from that source of life, from that force of life. But we don't say a person has 15 parts to his life. It's all one nekudah, one life, which contains it all, because it has to contain it, otherwise it couldn't come from it. You can't have something come from something else if it wasn't there. But it's there in a way that it's not מוסיף, it doesn't add anything on it. And the same is here. Hashem is the source of everything, and the way it's within Hashem, it's in a way that He is the essence and because He's the essence He has everything. And then when it comes out from Him in a form of Or Ein Sof, as it goes on, different details come out in a specific form. And the general order of the way the things go is after you have the Or Ein Sof, you have the tzimtzum, as I said before, Hashem was metzamtzem, contracted, pushed the or aside, and He brought the kav, that light, that ray of light. And from that ray of light started different levels. And just to go through the map of seder hishtalshelut, and again sounds so weird when we talk about it in such a way, the next level right after you come from the tzimtzum when the kav comes, we have a level called א\"ק, which is אדם קדמון. אדם קדמון means the person that's first, but that doesn't mean a human being, it's a spiritual level. After אדם קדמון, I'm just going to go through it without explaining, you have a level called עקודים, and then you have a level called נקודים, and then you have atzilut. In atzilut already you have what we call עשר ספירות. You have 10 sefirot which are similar to the 10 attributes a human being has. Because the way it works is, the reason we have those 10 attributes, which is love and fear etc., etc., is because we are a השתלשלות from that, from עולם the world of atzilut. And there you have these עשר ספירות, and these עשר ספירות are still in a level of atzilut which is still not in any form or shape considered a separate entity of God. Afterwards starts the first level called beriah. בריאה means the first potential level of being an existence by itself. The Ramban in the chumash says on the words בראשית ברא אלקים, the word ברא, which means created, he says doesn't mean created the actual object. It's the first level of creation which is the potential. And in potential you have many levels itself, so the Ramban finds no no word in Hebrew to to describe that level of potential, so he finds a Greek word and he says it's כח ההיולי. כח means potential, but היולי is a word which means is potential, but not in any form or shape. Then afterwards you have the level called יצירה, which already that potential takes shape. Then you have עשיה, the next level, which is already into a being, but still a still a spiritual being. Then we come down to the level of עשיה, this world, and that is already a physical world, עשיה הגשמית. And this is the סדר השתלשלות קבלה talks about. And when it says that בעשרה מאמרות נברא העולם, the world was created with 10 statements of Hashem, Hashem has a mouth? Hashem speaks? It's only an expression. Statements, words, are ways of revealing. When a person wants to reveal his thoughts, he uses words. There are different revelations and ways of revealing in order to create different things. And these revelations are all connected to different names of Hashem. That's why it says עד שלא נברא העולם, till the world was created, היה הוא ושמו בלבד, there was only Hashem and his name. Which means that Hashem and his revelation, and within that revelation that's where everything started, and from that it came down through all these levels till finally it came down to this world. Certain things came from שם הויה, which means that form of revelation. Certain things came from another name of Hashem, different form of revelation. And this is where the other idea comes from. Everyone knows that when we talk about Kabbalah, people think of, you know, Kabbalah means all kinds of voodoo, God forbid, you know, these strange things and miracles that you'll do, and you know, play some tricks, and you do all kinds of things. Everyone was wondering, we're talking about Kabbalah, what happened to those things?

Well, to tell you the truth, in Kabbalah we have two parts. There's what we call קבלה עיונית and קבלה מעשית. קבלה עיונית means the the philosophy of Kabbalah. And that is what I said before, the secrets of the Torah, the secrets of the universe, which is all based on this whole סדר השתלשלות. And then you have קבלה מעשית means the act of Kabbalah, the active Kabbalah. And what does that mean? If a person knows all the different names of Hashem, which are different forms of revelation, which each name created could create a different thing, then a person would have the power of using these names and creating different things. And it did happen throughout history. For instance, the famous Maharal of Prague created a גולם, created a human being through these different names of Hashem, through Sefer Yetzirah. Sefer Yetzirah is a sefer which means the book of creation. It's a sefer of Kabbalah which dates back at this moment I don't remember whether it dates back to Avraham Avinu, to Abraham, or to אדם הראשון. I think to אדם הראשון, oh no, I think Avraham Avinu, Avraham Avinu. And by understanding the truth of Hashem, understanding these spiritual matters, understanding the secrets of creation and the secrets of the Torah, and seeing the different forms of names which are different revelations, which are the way it came down from Hashem to the creation of the world, a person is able then to use it to change. Actually, we find a story in Gemara, we'll finish in a few moments, we find a story in Gemara that Rav Chanina ben Dosa once needed Friday candles for Shabbos, and his daughter wanted to light the candles and she thought she had a bucket of oil, and she went to light the candles, and she realized it was vinegar. So she didn't know what to do. So she asked her father, \"What do I do?\" So Rav Chanina ben Dosa said to her, \"Fill up the cup with vinegar, put in a wick, and it'll burn. מי שאמר לשמן וידליק יאמר לחומץ וידליק. The same one that said oil should burn, could say that vinegar should burn.\" And it burned! And the Baal Shem Tov said, what is the meaning of what Rav Chanina ben Dosa said? Rav Chanina ben Dosa was able to take the names of Hashem that referred to oil and referred to vinegar and exchange them around and do things that will bring the power of burning into the vinegar. The Baal Shem Tov himself, there's a story that he When did he explain this? When there was once he needed candles in the house. And the Baal Shem Tov, everyone knew, liked light, so they used to light a lot of candles. And at one point, he didn't have enough candles. It was in the middle of winter. He says to his talmidim, \"Go outside, take some icicles and bring them in and light the icicles.\" And they lit, and they burned! And that's when he explained that if you're able to change it around, you're able to do it. Now, the truth is, the Baal Shem Tov did not perform his miracles based on Kabbalah, on קבלה מעשית. It is known that it should not be used. Even those that know should not use it. Hardly, hardly ever did any of the chachamim or the mekubalim use Kabbalah and שמות or names of Hashem to do these miracles. It is unless certain, like the Maharal miPrague I guess. No one did it. The Baal Shem Tov said the miracles that he performed were all based on his emunah peshutah, his pure, sincere trust in Hashem. And he said anybody, any Jew who really trusts Hashem, could do it. They tell a story that we know that the Baal Shem Tov used to write kame'ot, amulets, to give people for different things. So there was a big tzadik in the time of the Baal Shem Tov, his name was Rav Michel Derabitcher, heard about it. And he was a big tzadik, and he felt he said, \"You shouldn't use Kabbalah for these matters.\" And because he didn't like it, and he was such a great tzadik, for a whole year, the amulets of the Baal Shem Tov didn't work. Till finally, he once happened to come upon one of these amulets, and these kame'ot, and he opened it up, and he expected to find names of Hashem written up and down and malachim and angels. All it said there was: ישראל בן שרה. It was his name, ישראל the son of שרה, because he didn't perform any miracles with this Kabbalah. Now therefore, this is not for us even to discuss. There is such a thing, and the idea is based on what I said, that when you have Kabbalah discusses all the different forms of Hashem revealing himself to the world and creating the world. And if you're able to delve into it and really understand it, you're able to change it. But this is not what we have to care about Kabbalah. What to us it means is: it is a chochmah, and a subject, a philosophy, which is part of the Torah. It is part of the Torah, but it's the secret of the Torah, because it deals with secretive matters. But from the Ari z'l's time on, these secret secretive matters Ari z'l said, and Ari z'l was authority, not only in Kabbalah, he was authority in everything, and he's accepted by every single Jew. He said, from now on, מצוה לגלות, we have to reveal this, but in a form that people should not make a mistake, and be מגשם it, bring bring it down in a coarse way and make a mistake. So, therefore, he said, you should study it in a way you should understand. So finally the Baal Shem Tov came, and he brought it out in a way that when we studying now, the Chassidic philosophy, that is Kabbalah. Chassidus is an explanation on Kabbalah. They once asked the Rabbi Rashab, the fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe: What is the difference between Kabbalah and Chassidus? And he answered in a very interesting way. He said, Kabbalah, it seems, made God made God into a human being, and Chassidus makes a human being into God. Which means Kabbalah, if you study it raw, it looks like it made God a human being. It talk about these physical matters and there is the light shining here and that comes there. I saw a picture in a book, a picture of א״ק, the first level after the קו, and I saw what he looked like! And you saw he has a forehead, and it has some letters there, and he has hands and feet. When I saw it, I thought, this guy what's he doing here, a picture of א״ק? So Kabbalah made it sound, the way people take it, as if it's all physical, which is God forbid! And anybody learns it that way, stop learning right away! I could say it with a 100% authority! If anybody goes studies Kabbalah without, it's you have to stop it right away. What happens is Chassidus took Kabbalah, it's it's a continuation of Kabbalah in a way that even the human being's understanding should be Godly, and we should be able to understand it in a proper way. And now it's very important to study it, because it's close to Mashiach. As close as it was in the time of the Ari z'l, and as close as it was in the time of the Baal Shem Tov, now we're much closer! And I'll make you a simple cheshbon, because in the we know that a 1,000 years is like a day, and just like Friday afternoon already starts shining of Shabbos, the light of Shabbos, the rays of Shabbos are shining, if we take a 1,000 years for a day, so which year is ערב שבת אחר חצות? Which year is Friday afternoon? The year 5,750. The year 5,000 finishes six days, five days. We entered the year 5,000 entered the 6,000, which is Friday. 500 years is the night, that's half. Then we're left with 500 years for the day of Friday. Half of that is 250, so 5,750 is חצות. That's when the light of Shabbos start shining. And it says in Shulchan Aruch that ערב שבת, Friday, you have to taste from the food of Shabbos. Many of the women know that. Sometimes they eat up the whole cholent on Friday! You got to make a new cholent or a kugel, because Friday it's a mitzvah to taste from the food of Shabbos. When is the mitzvah? Friday afternoon! So since, as I said before, the food of Shabbos, the food of Mashiach, will be this spiritual explanation of the Torah, now we have to taste it. So now it's even more important than before. And when we study it in the proper way, then we will be properly prepared that very, very soon when Mashiach will come, we'll be able to greet him and say, we're ready for your revelation, and he will teach it to us. And we hope this all will be bimheirah beyameinu. Yes.

Rabbi Shapiro, on behalf of all of us, I'd like to give you a a tremendous yishar koach for a brilliant a brilliant lecture, a brilliant shiur on the very difficult subject of Kabbalah. My question is as follows: You mentioned you mentioned many times during your during your during during your lecture on the HaAri z'l, who was the master of Kabbalah, whatever. It's brought down and mentioned in the Sefer HaTanya by the Alter Rebbe and the Baal HaTanya, which is the source source book of Chabad Chassidus, that the HaAri z'l lived to the ripe old age of 38 years. And during those 38 years, he saw more in one night than Moshe Rabbeinu saw. Now, how is that possible? Moshe Rabbeinu was called called איש האלקים, משה רבינו who was who was mekabel the Torah, next week we're going to celebrate Shavuos, זמן מתן תורתנו, which is attributed to Moshe Rabbeinu, fact that the Torah is also called תורת משה. So, and it says לא קם בישראל כמשה עוד, there is never going to be another another Jew like Moshe Rabbeinu. Another navi. So how come how could how could the Arizal, who lived to 38 years, see more in one night than that than Moshe Rabbeinu? Doesn't say he saw more the Arizal saw more in one night than Moshe Rabbeinu. It says that the Arizal saw very, very high spiritual levels. The best proof is he spoke about it and revealed it to us, while in Kabbalah itself it explains that the level of the nevuah, the prophecy of Moshe, is a lower level than that. So the Alter Rebbe in Tanya explains what it means. It means that in in איכות, in depth, Moshe Rabbeinu saw to the level that Kabbalah explains the nevuah of Moshe. The nevuah of Moshe reaches, it says, the level of נצח and הוד of אצילות, let's say, that's what it says. When the Arizal spoke about higher levels, that is only in a superficial form. But in איכות, in depth, he didn't go that high deep in depth, higher than Moshe Rabbeinu. So we're not talking about the same thing. When Moshe Rabbeinu also saw in the מקיף'דיקע way, superficial way, those high levels. When we say Moshe Rabbeinu's level was lower, that's the פנימיות. And the Arizal's level higher was a מקיף. And that's why it's no contradiction. But what you mention about the Arizal seeing in one night, I guess it's confused with something else. The Arizal was, as we said before, the biggest mekubal, and many of the things that he spoke about in Kabbalah were not things only that were revealed to him by word of mouth, even of Eliyahu HaNavi, but actually by seeing. There's a story that the Rabbi' Chaim Vital, who's the main talmid of the Arizal, writes: he once came in Shabbos afternoon to the Arizal's house, and the Arizal was laying, went took a nap on Shabbos afternoon. And this happened to be שבת פרשת בלק, the Shabbos that talks about the prophecy of Bilam and the way he wanted to curse the Yidden, and later we he he blessed them, etc., etc. Rabbi' Chaim Vital walked in, he saw the Arizal laying, and during his sleep he was saying something. So he tried to listen and he heard words he didn't understand. When the Arizal woke up, he said to him, \"What was going on? What were you saying?\" So he said to him, \"I saw a vision of spiritual, kabbalistic, secretive explanations concerning this week's parashah of of of Bilam and Balak.\" And he slept for about an hour. So he says, \"Can you tell this to me? Can you repeat it to me, too?\" So he told him, \"What I saw in this one hour, it would take me 70, 80—not hours—years to tell you.\" Because when you see something, then it's very clear in a short while. I can look at that wall in one second, and I see everything. If I want to tell you what's there, I could take me an hour. Well, first you have a sefer, this sefer and that sefer, I could we go through the whole list, and tell you every detail of this wall, could take me an hour, and I saw it in one second. So when you see something, it's much more. And he saw all these spiritual matters in his dream, which means it was a vision that was given to him. The sefarim that we have from the Arizal, tell you the truth, the sefarim we have of the Arizal is a drop in the bucket of not what the Arizal knew, of what the Arizal taught. All the The Arizal himself didn't write anything. The Arizal himself instead of all used to teach his students baal peh, orally. His main student was Rabbi' Chaim Vital. All of it was written by Rabbi' Chaim Vital. Rabbi' Chaim Vital was a student of the Arizal altogether for a year and a half, with intervals. And all the Torah of the Arizal was written by R'' Chaim Vital, only what he had from a year and a half. And the same goes on with the later צדיקים, also great מקובלים. We know the Alter Rebbe, the Baal HaTanya, one of the biggest מקובלים, and he took his Torah from the Mezeritcher Maggid, who took his Torah from the Baal Shem Tov. The Alter Rebbe altogether spent by the Mezeritcher Maggid a year and a half, the same way as R'' Chaim Vital by the Arizal. And once, when the Alter Rebbe was already old, and he was talking once, giving maamarim in Chassidus and Torah and Torah and Torah for years and years and years, thousands of maamarim that he said, so once he said to somebody, \"All this that I'm talking about are all only from the שלש סעודות תורה of the Mezeritcher Maggid. Un s'iz noch do pek un pek, and there is still plenty and plenty. From the second meal, I didn't even start.\" That's how deep these all these inyanim were. So in their minds was so much, and what they gave to us is very little. Now we have to study. We can't add anything on our own, but we could try to understand as much as possible what they write based on the explanations that they give in a way that we should be able to understand it. But even what they understood was also only a drop in the bucket of of the Torah that's going to be when Mashiach will come, which will be the true Kabbalah. So now, what they had was, let's say there are a million levels from the חכמה the way the wisdom in the in the mind of Hashem and down here. So what they understood is the spiritual explanation maybe two levels up, five levels up, twenty levels up, but there is more and more and more, actually unlimited amount of spiritual levels going deeper and deeper and deeper. And this is what's going to be revealed when Mashiach will come. And it says Mashiach will teach it all in a form of ראיה, we will all see it. He'll show it us. But still there will be learning and learning and learning and learning. But now this is the beginning of what's going to be then. Yes. It it appears to me that goyim are shayach to learn inyanim in Kabbalah. Certainly, yes. Is is there any problem with them learning, למשל, Chassidus nowadays? I know they're not supposed to learn Torah, but is this an aspect of of learning about Godliness that they are allowed? Right. The question is are goyim allowed to learn this? Well, depends which parts, but basically, it says in the in הלכה, in Shulchan Aruch, that a goy is allowed to learn Torah that deals with the mitzvot that they have to keep. Goyim have to keep seven mitzvot. Others are not allowed to learn other Torah, only those part of Torah that deals with their mitzvot. The first of the seven mitzvot of the goyim is to believe in one God. So any explanation that will add to the understanding of one God, they are allowed to learn. And therefore, many parts of Kabbalah, the way it's not the way it's in Kabbalah itself because they'll certainly take it the wrong way, if Jews could take it, certainly they could, but the way it's explained in Chassidus, the kabbalistic ideas in Chassidus, so many of it, which deals directly with trying to explain the unity of Hashem, that they're allowed to learn. As a matter of fact, I remember the first time they translated into English Shaar HaYichud VehaEmunah, which is the second section of Tanya, the Rebbe by farbrengen said that the reason they translate into English so that people who don't speak Hebrew should be able to learn, and then he said, and even for goyim, that they should also be able to have an understanding in the unity of Hashem. Now since you brought that up, I wanted to mention another point, which not to compare it at all, but just this brought me into it, that when we talk about learning Chassidus, which is learning Kabbalah in the proper form, does it apply to women, too? Now, what kind of question is that? I mean, I shouldn't be bombarded, women, what are they, second-class citizens? But the truth is that women are not obligated to learn Torah. They have different obligations, but there are certain mitzvot that they don't have have to keep that men do. Among the mitzvot is learning Torah. It just says that the Torah that deals with the mitzvot that they have to keep, they have to learn, which is 95% of the whole Torah, but nevertheless, those are the parts they have to learn, they have to learn. Definitely the mitzvah of believing in one God and the having אהבת השם, love to Hashem, and fear of Hashem, which are the the details and the subject of Kabbalah and Chassidus, they are obligated to do that. There are six mitzvot that the Chinuch says are constant and for everybody: loving Hashem, fear of Hashem, loving another Jew, all these these mitzvot, not to hate another Yid. So all that is for men and women equally, and therefore they have to study these matters, which will help them understand the greatness of Hashem, which will automatically lead them to have a stronger love to Hashem, because the Rambam says the way to love is by understanding. So if we think about the greatness of Hashem and understand the truth of his unity, which is explained in Kabbalah and Chassidus, then that brings them to love. The Rambam says these words: כיצד היא הדרך לאהבתו ויראתו, what is the way to love him and fear him? So he says, בשעה שיתבונן, when you think about it and you understand it. And therefore there women also have an obligation to study these matters in order to get closer to Hashem, and especially now before Mashiach, when Mashiach will come the women will be even a higher level than the men. It says נקבה תסובב גבר, it says the women will surround the men, meaning it'll be higher, so certainly they have to prepare themselves for Mashiach, and they have to study it. Yes. Rabbi, last week's parashah of בחוקותי, the famous tochachah, the admonition, by by God to the to the Bnei Yisrael, to the Jewish people. So I saw I saw in a sichah in the dissertation of the of the Lubavitcher Rebbe that these these kelalot, these curses, so to speak, are really berachot. Right. But they're at a very, very deep level. Could you add some explanation to to that because it's I'm I'm curious. How how would how do kelalot that are explicitly mentioned in the Torah the Torah explicitly mentioned, become berachot, or are or are really berachot on on a deeper level? How much time do you have? How much time do you have? I got all night. All night! There's a story in the Gemara Everyone hear the question? It has nothing to do with Kabbalah, but it's similar, I mean it's within the inyan. Last week's parashah, we learned about many curses that Hashem gives the Jews if they won't keep the mitzvot. And it says in Chassidut and in Kabbalah that these are all really blessings. How could curses be blessings? It tells a story in Gemara that once there was a great tzaddik, Rav Yehudah ben Gerim, who came to visit Rav Shimon bar Yochai. Shimon bar Yochai, the same Rav Shimon bar Yochai, the author of the Zohar. And they spent some time there, and then he left. As soon as he left, it's a Gemara, I think in Moed Katan, so Rav Shimon bar Yochai asked his son, Rav Elazar, did you take advantage and get a blessing from this great tzaddik? He said, \"No.\" He says, \"Why didn't you?\" \"Well, he just left, I still catch up to him.\" So he ran and caught him middle of the way. And a while later, Rav Elazar comes back white as a ghost. What happened? \"I asked him for a blessing, and did he curse me! He gave me such curses!\" And he was very scared, he cursed me. So Rav Shimon bar Yochai asked him, \"What did he tell you?\" And he told him everything he said, and he explained to him how every curse really was a berachah, and he just disguised it. Sometimes there are such high, great blessings that are so great that in order for them to come down to this world, they have to be disguised. And they're disguised in a disguise of a curse, and we don't understand it. Similar, there could be sometimes certain words in one language is a blessing, and one language is a curse. Now let's say somebody who speaks the language where this word is a blessing and he'll tell it to, and you speak the other language, you'll think he cursed you because in your language it sounds like a curse, but in his language it was a blessing. So in truth, these are blessings, but they're disguised in a form of a curse. And the reason, it says, is because they're such great blessings that they cannot come down to this world unless they're disguised. Why can't they come down to this world? Different reasons: sometimes because Hashem wants to hide it from the Satan, he shouldn't get involved. If he'll see such great blessings, who knows what he'll do? So he disguises it. Or many other reasons it says why it should be disguised. But it could be disguised, and in essence, these are berachot. Just to use one example, which was from last week's parashah, the pasuk says the curse is you're going to be so poor, \"ואפו עשר נשים לחמכם בתנור אחד\", that 10 women are going to bake their bread in one oven. That's a pretty good curse, no? You have ten women baking together. That's the curse, and it says and the bread will fall apart. So the Alter Rebbe said what it means is like this: every person has, as we said before, the 10 attributes. These 10 attributes have to be baked in the oven of אחד. Echad is השם אלקינו השם אחד. So, \"ואפו עשר נשים\", it's a berachah that the 10 women, which means every one of the middot is referred to as a woman, and he proves why, will be baked in the oven of Echad. That's the berachah he gives there. There's a letter from Reb Aizik Homiler, Reb Aizik Homiler was one of the biggest chassidim of the Alter Rebbe, and there's a letter that he writes to a friend of his who was not a chassid, and he tries to explain to him what chassidut is. And this is what he writes: \"I came back from visiting the Alter Rebbe, and I heard the Alter Rebbe say the maamar concerning this פסוק, 'ואפו עשר נשים לחמכם בתנור אחד'. I was so excited that when I came home, I felt like running in the streets and screaming, 'אין עוד מלבדו', that there is nothing but Hashem.\" He says, \"But for a reason, I didn't do it. I guess the reason was, I don't know how people would take it.\" But he writes, that's how excited he was. Once, the Alter Rebbe used to read the Torah, he was the baal korei. And his son, the Mitteler Rebbe, was also a great tzaddik, and he was his successor later on. So once, the Alter Rebbe for a Shabbos, שבת פרשת כי תבוא, which is the second time we have in the Chumash a תוכחה, was out of town. So a different person read the Torah. So the Mitteler Rebbe heard the reading of the Torah from that person, and he heard the curses. He took it so to heart, he was still before bar mitzvah, still a kid, he took it so to heart, he got sick. He got so sick, this was the Shabbos before Rosh Hashanah, it's פרשת כי תבוא, two שבתים, that when Yom Kippur came, there was a שאלה if he's allowed to fast, that's how sick he was. And the reason, he said, he became, what caught him caused him this heartache, because he heard these curses. So someone asked him, \"It's the first year you heard קריאת התורה?\" So he says, \"When my father reads, I don't hear curses.\" He heard them all as berachot. Because he, when the Alter Rebbe read, he lechatchilah read with the depth. You know before, every word in Torah has depth in it, spiritual depth? So he, lechatchilah, he saw the spiritual depth that's there. Which is similar to another story with the Mitteler Rebbe also, that once Purim, the Alter Rebbe used to read the megillah. Once, Purim he wasn't there, so someone else read. When he finished reading the megillah, that other person, the Mitteler Rebbe turns around to somebody and he says, \"It's a very nice story.\" Says, \"What, the first time you hear the story?\" He says, \"Yeah, well...\" When my father read, it was a different story. It was a spiritual story. Every word in the megillah meant spiritual things. Along these lines, once somebody came actually to R'' Aizik Homiler. First he said he, it was after Purim, \"I'm coming from your Rebbe, and I came to test him, to see what kind of person he is.\" And he says, \"I was there Purim, and I heard him read, I heard him say a maamar.\" And he says, \"I was very impressed.\" He says, \"What were you impressed?\" So he says like this: \"He started a maamar with the pasuk, it says, ותפל לפני רגליו ותבך. She fell to his feet and cried. It says she fell to, Esther fell to Achashverosh's feet and cried.\" So he says like this: \"I'm standing there, and the Alter Rebbe started a maamar with this pasuk, she fell to his feet and and she cried, so we have to understand,\" the Alter Rebbe said, \"how is there feet above, by, in shamayim by Hashem? How could there be feet?\" So he says, \"I saw here that the Alter Rebbe didn't even give an introduction that everything that we have in the simple term has a spiritual meaning, so the spiritual meaning refers to Hashem, and how will we explain it when we will apply it to Hashem? He didn't even say that. He said, 'I saw that he, to begin with, when he looked at the pasuk, he was there, to him it meant to begin with a spiritual thing, and therefore he had a question: How is there רגלים למעלה? How are there feet? Because he saw to begin with the deeper peshat. It doesn't mean chas v'shalom he didn't see the simple peshat, I mean we know אין מקרא יוצא מידי פשוטו, no pasuk is taken out of its simple, simple meaning, but the simple meaning is the lowest level of the meaning, like I explained before, and in it we have all the secrets, which these great mekubalim would actually see.\"