The Yanuka Rav Shlomo Yehuda-בלי תעניות וסיגופים - שיח מרתק עם הגאון הינוקא על רבנו האריז＂ל הקדוש

2:47 Maran the Beis Yosef was related by marriage to our Rabbi the Ari — after all, in that same period. Our Rabbi the Ari arrived exactly at the time when the Torah was in danger of being forgotten, because on the one hand there were many giants of the world, but on the other hand, it was before the Haskalah movement. And our Rabbi the Ari revealed great, awesome and mighty secrets by the power of his hisbodedus and his thought.

3:13 He would be at the Nile River, when his uncle rented for him there. - And Mordechai Ashkenazi — already in his childhood. - Yes. Many of his attainments and levels came in his hisbodedus on the Nile. When he would seclude himself, and seclude himself a great deal, and speak to Hashem, blessed be He, and serve Hashem, blessed be He, in cleanliness, and lift his eyes to Heaven and seclude himself, like all the other tzaddikim. The service of Hashem of the tzaddikim — we always imagine it as complicated, and think that this is the way of Hashem: "Let the work be heavy."

3:45 But the service of Hashem of all the holy tzaddikim is wholeheartedness and simplicity. And the disciples of our Rabbi the Arizal wrote: "In the evening, weeping lodges, and in the morning, joyous song." [unclear] our Rabbi the Ari, in the evening — when evening came, he would pray with tears. And in the morning one always sees him praying with joy. He would interpret the verses toward the service of Hashem, with the intention of the heart. True, these are kavanos, these are mighty things, but in practice, once, among the sages of Kabbalah, they would not enter the gates of Kabbalah if the Kabbalah had not been revealed to them.

4:19 Therefore all the holy tzaddikim, like our Rabbi the Ari and our holy Rabbi the Rashash — and you see that in their siddurim they added novel insights and kavanos; after all, there is a difference between the siddur of the Rashash and our Rabbi the Ari — the method of the kavanos of the mekubalim; and there is also the method of Chabad, the method of the Ramchal, several methods — the Toras Chacham — in Kabbalah there are several methods and paths to the view of our holy Rabbi the Ari.

4:48 The Baal Shem Tov, too — the siddur of Rabbi Shabsai of Rashkov, that is a siddur that is different. - That too with kavanos. - This too is with kavanos. That is to say, there are the kavanos of the Ramchal, the kavanos of the Baal Shem Tov, but everything goes and revolves around the point of what our Rabbi the Arizal revealed. - That is to say, there is no mekubal Rav today — including the Gaon of Vilna, including all the mekubalim — he made a revolution in the world. - Right. Our Rabbi the Arizal revealed a thing that was hidden. By the power of his hisbodedus and his constant deveikus to Hashem, he merited that closed and hidden things were revealed to him. Now, how exactly is this?

5:24 - Yes, are there gifts from Heaven? - That is what you are asking, too — not only gifts, also — you are saying: suddenly, from where does a person suddenly arrive, when he sees havayos and combinations of Ekyeh — like, a person sometimes opens the siddur of our Rabbi the Ari, and sometimes it seems to him like a riddle; he does not manage to understand what... what is done there, with all the Names and the yichudim and the vowel-points and the... - Yes, it is very confusing. - So I will explain to you what is meant.

5:51 The Holy One, blessed be He, made in His wisdom — He decreed upon us — that every thing a person sanctifies leaves the bounds of nature. Every thing that has kedushah in it. Now, for example: you want — you sanctify yourself, you go to the mikveh; you purify yourself — it is impossible, of a person who sanctifies himself, and separates from the world, and sets himself apart from the world, to say that he is like the whole world.

6:19 Because a person who would think so is a heretic and an apikores. Because kedushah causes separation. And the moment a person sets himself apart, he merits things that the world cannot see. And here the level of ruach hakodesh comes in. And our Rabbi the Ari would set himself apart from all created beings. He would seclude himself a great deal and think all the time about the Holy One, blessed be He, until he merited the revelation of Eliyahu HaNavi, remembered for good, who was revealed to him.

6:46 And he would see the Kabbalah not in the way that we today learn it, intellectually. It would simply come to him. It would simply be revealed; he would feel it. Yes — it was like closing the eyes, and with closed eyes he would see everything. He did not need to pray from a siddur. Yes. So it was once, in their time: the true mekubalim would not pray with the siddur. They — like, one who prays is as if coming to enter the King's hall, and one who is truly in the King's hall does not open the siddur, because the kavanos are supposed to come to him.

7:18 So this level of kedushah brought him to this place. Now, the more you rise in levels of kedushah — rising in levels — then also one merits to attain, too — there are kavanos, there are also yichudim; that is already worlds. Already unifying worlds, rising in levels and rising to places far higher — these are the upper worlds. That is what he attained. That is why he had ruach hakodesh. In the introduction to Etz Chaim, what our Rabbi Chaim Vital writes about him is simply astounding.

7:46 He was expert in the speech of birds, in the speech of palm trees; where the soul is from, what it did. - What it will do? - What it will do, what one will think, what one is going to think, what one is going to do. Everything that a person will do. And all of it only because of the deveikus to the Holy One, blessed be He. Simple. Very simple. It sounds as if it is a complicated thing, but it was very simple. It is one of the simple levels among the holy tzaddikim, the lofty ones.

8:12 Simple. - Honored Rav, the simplicity of our Rabbi the Ari changed the Kabbalah by 180 degrees. Before this we had the Ramak and Rabbi Avraham Abulafia, and in essence, what did our Rabbi the Ari do? Did he add to the Zohar? Prophecy? Ruach hakodesh? What exactly happened there? - Our Rabbi the Ari — he did not exactly add to the Zohar.

8:37 What you say is correct. Our Rabbi the Ari simply revealed what was closed, sealed and hidden. Every sage and tzaddik who came to the world — look, a beautiful thing: You find that Avraham Avinu came to the world? The whole world was desolate of the revelation of the G-dliness of the Holy One, blessed be He. And then Avraham Avinu arrives and begins to reveal that there is One Who spoke and the world came to be. After that comes Yitzchak Avinu. He shows all created beings that one must give one's life for Hashem.

9:05 It is not enough to say that there is Hashem; one must also give one's life for it — to say: here, there is Hashem already. Yitzchak Avinu gives his life, in his body. Yaakov Avinu reveals to the whole world how one must raise the children, the tribes. Yosef HaTzaddik reveals to the world how one overcomes forbidden relations. Each one comes and reveals something. Our Rabbi the Ari — he came to reveal to the whole world that the foundation, and the closeness to Hashem, depends on a person's hisbodedus with his Maker.

9:36 The absolute detachment of our Rabbi the Arizal from this world brought him, in fact, to reveal all the closed, sealed and hidden things that no one could reveal: what our Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai hid in the Zohar. And here I want to explain something to you, for you to think about. Let us think: every sage who composed some work, or some tzaddik who was in the world, who composed something — do you think that everything he wrote is what he is, or not?

10:06 - That is to say, he is far more than what he is, and he writes a little, gives a little... That is what the kelipah let him bring out; it did not hinder him. - It did not hinder him. That is to say, he stored up far more within himself, he kept it; he said: why should I give this to everyone? He revealed a little, a drop, a handbreadth, in compression, endless handbreadths. That is to say, he revealed a little. When you look at Rabbi Shimon, and you learn the Zohar, or when you learn Gemara — there are far more tractates; Tractate Avodah Zarah — all of Shas and all the tractates, all the Torah and all the books that were lost to us in the course of the exile — you see that there was far more Torah, which is hidden.

10:48 That is to say, the meaning of the Torah and of the great tzaddikim was to come and reveal the hidden part and what is not revealed. That is to say, if you learned Rabbi Shimon in the Zohar, then you understood what Rabbi Shimon wrote. But our Rabbi the Arizal comes and says: I understand what is between the lines, which you cannot understand.

11:13 When a tzaddik comes and reads through the Torah of a tzaddik who was before him, he knows what he left him as an inheritance. It is like an inheritance. He knows how to read between the lines what he wanted. He knows the way, he knows the map. He knows, he understands, when he reads what is written; he understands what he was speaking of, he understands what was there. And this is what our Rabbi the Arizal revealed. That is to say, our Rabbi the Arizal revealed what was stored away and hidden in the chamber of Rabbi Shimon, and we could not reveal it; he could reveal it. - Honored Rav, our Rabbi the Ari merited all this because he had ibburim of souls, of tzaddikim.

11:51 How can we merit this? - Look, "A Tanna who assists" — right? "A Tanna who assists": there is an ibbur of a Tanna, who can come to assist you. When I want to bring a proof for something, that will support my reasoning — I can also come and say something else, by way of the inner dimension and the Kabbalah of our Rabbi the Ari: that you fulfill some mitzvah or other, that you fulfill, for example, the mitzvah of honoring father and mother, and you now fulfill the mitzvah of tefillin with longing, with desire and with fervor — you can receive at that moment a very, very great illumination, that will shine on your forehead — which our Rabbi the Arizal would see; the forehead is like a display, like a screen, on which one sees everything the person has gone through. One does not see whether a person immersed or did not immerse; even if he immersed, and he had become impure, he would see on him

12:40 that he has the imprint of the impurity, even though he immersed. It is, like, a wonder, because usually after immersion... - It is erased. - Erased. Our Rabbi the Arizal knew the imprint even after he immersed — that he had become impure and immersed. He would see the imprint. He was so pure that he would see the imprint too; he would see the thoughts, and he knew everything. But his contemplation and his thought was to come and bring a person to his own levels.

13:09 If you notice, he teaches you, he reveals in the Torah; he wants you to merit an ibbur, he wants you to merit. In the introduction of Sha'ar HaGilgulim, in Introduction 21, our Rabbi the Arizal — he says there that sometimes a very great soul — you find, in the gilgulim of souls, you also find much consolation in the soul. Because many people today do not understand the course of this world, life.

13:33 What will really be in this world? What... why did they come here? And why the tikkun? And why the trial? Why did he go through it this way? And why is his life hard? And why is it... One hears a great many troubles of the Jewish people, about the children who pass away, and people who suffer. There is a great deal of sorrow and pain in this world. A great deal of pain. And our Rabbi the Ari, in Introduction 21, in the Gilgulim — in Introductions 21, 22, 23 one can see it there at length — he also speaks about the souls: that sometimes you see the soul of a great person coming from a lesser person, sometimes, like Terach and Avraham Avinu. Sometimes you also see the opposite.

14:09 You can suddenly see a righteous person, a very great one, but he will father a person who will not be upright. That is to say, you see that there is no connection between the souls. You see that there is no connection. Today we are in a generation where souls simply come to this world. Souls where there is no connection between this soul and that soul. As you notice — you see that the connection between the souls — you notice that suddenly there is a very great connection, between the soul: a person grows very distant from Hashem, blessed be He, and suddenly he finds himself very close to Hashem, blessed be He.

14:41 It is like a projector that draws him and attaches him. So this is a kind of "a Tanna who assists." There is some ibbur of some Tanna, or some lofty holy one, or some tzaddik. Or some great-great-grandfather from a previous gilgul. Or even — not only a grandfather; perhaps you fulfilled some mitzvah, or perhaps, you know what, it may even be that you did a kindness, and an elevation for the soul of some departed person. And the merit of that departed person — that you went to a place and said a blessing over the food with kavanah — and there was some tikkun of some soul that needed rectifying — it was reincarnated in the person and assists him. And sometimes also the opposite: if a person does not say the blessing with kavanah over eating and drinking, it may be that there was one spark there that was waiting for a tikkun;

15:18 it can harm him, Heaven forbid. An evil ibbur enters him. - Yes. So according to what the Rav says, the Torah of our Rabbi the Ari, with all of Sha'ar Ruach HaKodesh, and the yichudim and the gilgulim, 325 fasts, 82 fasts — and in essence this is not judgment; it is mercy? - It is mercy! But one must know how to receive it with understanding and with a settled mind, so that a person will not be "lest they break through to go up" — so that it should not be, as it were, Heaven forbid: to go up, but to go down.

15:49 Because not everyone can get used to fasts. It is very, very hard. And today the generation is very weak, and it is very hard for people to fast. And on the contrary, today, I say: if you fast, you want to carry out the tikkunim of our Rabbi the Ari, and this rectifies only one sin — where would one do the measure for several sins? In the end you subdue the G-dly soul and not the animal soul. Because in the end, when a person sits in a fast, what happens to him?

16:15 He sits in a fast, so he has no strength to learn, he has no strength to pray, and he sits idle. So it is better that he eat and that he drink with kavanah, that he say a blessing over the food and drink — but that he keep a fast of speech. let him be sparing with words, with such talk; with this he will fulfill everything. You know, "The Merciful One wants the heart." In the simple heart there are all the kavanos. Beyond this, our Rabbi the Arizal was a very great intellect, and revealed — but all the kavanos and all the Torah of Kabbalah, all the explanations — it is to tell you that in these heavens that you see, and in every detail of creation that you see, it is made up of endless particles. You know, it is like the theory that Einstein stated, you know,

16:58 that everything is particles that are revolving at every moment. Everything is G-dliness. There is no reality of darkness. He saw G-dliness in every thing. You must understand that the upper worlds are here, and in every thing, and it is all kindnesses. In every thing it is drawn down; it has a root above. And he simply came, looked at the world, and showed us how everything — everything is complete G-dliness. - That is to say, the Rav is saying, a person can draw down to here — Gan Eden, to here.

17:27 - Exactly. Gan Eden and Gehinnom are in this world, and you must reveal G-dliness. It was here. When you say — you say to me: who is our Rabbi the Ari? I will tell you: it is someone who walked about here in the world, and when he looked at the trees and at the sky, he saw what no one can see. We see trees and sky, but he saw all that was and all that will be. He understood the will of the Creator. That is our Rabbi the Ari. That is the contemplation: to understand, and to be in a place where no one else is, in that place — and more than that: "Come, too, follow me, and I will tell you how you too can be in this place."

18:03 That is to say, to be a lofty holy one and to be only in Heaven is no great feat. There was the Dibras Shlomo, Rabbi Shlomo of Lutzk, a disciple of the Baal Shem Tov. The holy Baal Shem Tov said: our Rabbi the Ari wanted a person to go up to Heaven with his Torah, whereas the Baal Shem Tov wanted to bring Heaven down to the person. That is why you see that the Torah of Chassidus, which also incorporates the Kabbalah, comes further down. It makes things simpler. It clothes it — like the Maor VaShemesh: it is a book of Kabbalah, but it is Chassidus.

18:34 These are things that can bring a person benefit. And may the merit of our holy Rabbi the Ari protect us. Amen. I will tell you just one more thing, for you to know: it is very moving, and many do not know it. - But... we spoke about the Rav being a descendant of our Rabbi the Ari. - Yes, that is nothing. I will tell you something more moving than that. The most moving thing that I have read about the story of our Rabbi the Ari: when our Rabbi the Ari passed away, the disciples did not believe that he had departed.

19:06 And one of the greatest of those who held back the burial of our Rabbi the Ari was Rabbi Chaim Vital. Rabbi Chaim Vital wept tears, and he wanted to draw the body out — he actually took hold of them, and pulled them, and did not let them put him into the pit. And he simply stood there and wept. He had the greatest devotion to his teacher and Rav. And always, when you ask and you say — you always look at our Rabbi the Ari and at all the holy ones — and I will tell you: the true greatness of these tzaddikim is that they merited such holy disciples.

19:43 When a great person merits having such disciples, then that is the greatest gift. Because you know — you think that if our Rabbi the Ari was our Rabbi the Ari, and he had a disciple who was not Rabbi Chaim Vital — then there would be no "our Rabbi the Ari" today. There would be no "our Rabbi the Ari." That is to say, today you mention our Rabbi the Ari, but do not forget the disciple of our Rabbi the Ari as well: Rabbi Chaim Vital. - Rabbi Chaim Vital, whose soul was... - And Rabbi Yaakov Tzemach, all the great ones and all the tzaddikim who toiled and labored over their Torah. All the holy ones and all the tzaddikim. - Rabbi, all the tzaddikim and the disciples of our Rabbi the Ari — what is considered today the nusach of the Ari? Chabad say that it is theirs. The siddur of the Rashash?

20:22 - Right. Look, I recommend to everyone to go in the path and in the root and in the connection that is his. There are those who are drawn to the books of Maran Rabbi Yaakov Abuchatzeira, and there are those more to our Rabbi the Rashash, and there are those — the Ramchal. Their way is our Rabbi, Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto. And there is Rabbi Aharon of Strashelye, who set in order the unfolding of the worlds, of Chabad.

20:48 So they tend more to connect with that. And there is the Toras Chacham, Rabbi Chaim de la Rosa, and our Rabbi the Rashash — who has a wondrous story of how he passed away. - Yes. So you see, I say to each one that he should go in the way and in the connection, how he feels the figure and the light, how to receive from the Torah of our Rabbi the Ari. But the main, important thing is that he not forget the tools, and the simplicity and the wholeheartedness of fulfilling the mitzvos, and joy, care with the blessings over enjoyment, the fulfillment, prayer with kavanah — the simple things that made our Rabbi the Ari, what made him — and also the joy that he had in fulfilling the mitzvos.

21:31 - What would he say today? To the trials of today, to the sadness that there is today? - That we should not break. That we should be strong. That is the most important thing. That is what I can tell you. That is how I think. Since we are in such a generation, and still lift our eyes to Heaven, with so many trials, we need to be the strongest, because there is none like the Jewish people in such a dark generation; people do not even know their own worth. We are in a generation of "and she came down astonishingly."

22:02 We see: "And you will be driven mad by the sight of your eyes that you will see" — it was fulfilled in this generation. People saw harsh sights here, and very harsh things. With all the sights and all the hardship and all the anguish of the soul, people lift their eyes to Heaven and pray to Hashem and want closeness to Hashem. Only that we be strong. That is what... I say — every time they say — you know, there is a widespread view, that they say: if you could see into Heaven, then — a person says — you would see more how angry they are with you.

22:31 If you could see Heaven — they are strict with you. All the time, the view of Heaven is only that they are angry with us. But that is not true, because Heaven is the opposite. We would see how much Heaven loves us, and how much Heaven wants to light the way for us. Think: a father cannot speak with his son, and he has an opportunity to speak with his son. Will he rebuke him at the moment that he speaks with him?

22:55 To embrace him. This is what David said: "I have strayed like a lost sheep; seek Your servant." The Holy One, blessed be He, would tell us how much He loves us. He will never leave us. - Honored Rav, may the merit of our Rabbi the Ari, in the merit of the Rav, protect us and all the Jewish people and all the people who are watching the broadcast. May the Rav bless all the people who are watching the broadcast. - All of you — may He bless all of you. All the blessings and all the good bounty.

23:20 - Thank you very much.