Rabbi David Aaron discusses Jewish mysticism and the presence of the Divine.
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The opening of this shiur, in 18Forty’s own words — taken from the captions, so names and Hebrew terms may be approximate.
Rabbi David Aaron, author of ten books, incredible teacher, international speaker. Thank you so much for joining us here today. Thank you. So what is Jewish mysticism? Quite frankly, I’m uncomfortable with the term mysticism because I think it gives off this vibe that it’s kind of weird and strange and wacky and not rational. So I’ll forgive the term, but I think it really sends us in the wrong direction. Kabbala is wisdom, it’s a system, it has a rationale to it. I think it is just like somebody that would see an equation based on quantum physics. They wouldn’t have any idea what it is and would be surprised that it actually is based on a very deep system and understanding. So to go to Kabbala, Kabbala is the, I would call it the grammar of life. In other words, if I open up a page and I know the meaning of every word on the page, but I don’t know the unwritten grammatical rules, then I don’t know what ties it all together. Kabbala is a system that ties all of life together and demonstrates how we are literally part of a oneness. So how did you get into this study? What brought you into it? I was eighteen years old and I was at the Western Wall and a very religious looking man who had a long black beard and long side curls and a black coat came up to me and said in broken English, I teach Kabbala, you want to learn Kabbala? Now what did I know? I was eighteen and all I knew from Hebrew school was that Kabbala is forbidden, so I said yes. I was very excited about that opportunity to do something
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- 5:15all-knowing, then what would it mean for Him to change His mind? The truth is that…
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- 15:40What is the greatest challenge facing the world today? The greatest challenge facing the world today…
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- 23:36practice that sense of unity, oneness, connection, identity. I’m not you, you’re not me, we’re different…
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