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Saturday, May 8, 2010

Mystical Concepts in Chasidism by Jacob Imaniel Schochet

One upon a time in a small European town a rather well learned Jew heard a Rabbi give a Torah lesson. The Torah lesson made no sense to this Jew and he went and told the Rabbi so. The Rabbi said that while he could not understand the lesson on an intellectual level his soul definitely could. Israel Baal Shem Tov was destined to reveal Kabbalah to the entire Jewish world. One time during a very deep meditation Israel Baal Shem Tov ascended to the palace of Mosciach. The Baal Shem Tov asked the Moschich when he was going to reveal himself. The Moschiach said that he would come only when the teachings of the Baal Shem tov were heard by the entire world . Kaabbala could be taught to only a select few until
the end of days when it would be incumbent upon every Jew to learn Kabballah. It is important take note of the fact that although Hashem is described as having feet, hands that he can speak and . These anthropomorphic descriptions really do not apply to him. He is only described that way so that we can understand him. It is up to the Mystic to strip away those descriptions.
The beginning of our universe was started with something called TzimTzum. This is when the En Sof pulled back it's prescience and aloud for space so a world and UNiverse could be created and grow. This space space was called "Chagal" With this constriction of the En Sof's presence only a line of primordial light was allowed to enter. The ten Sephirot were bridges between the lightand the physical creation. The First Sephira is Keter or crown and this sephira is beyond our comprehension. The Next come Chockma and this means wisdom. This is the seed of potentiality. Next come Bina which is understanding. This brings the potentiality out of obscurity. Next is Daat or knowledge this brings the Potentiality into physical creation. There are two kinds of daat. The first Daat or Higher Daat called Daat Elyon is connected to Keter and it mediates between the two. The lower daat bring the completed thought down to the emotive s and the lower world. Next comes Chesed and Chesed want to shower unlimited kindness upon the world. Of course too much kindness would eradicate everything. Gevurah is severity and that act as a control limiting the amount of kindness that comes into the world. Tipheret mediates between the two. On the lowest level there is Netzach, Hod and Yesod. These are agents for Chesed, Gevurah and Tipheret. The lowest is Malchut or Kingship this corresponds to the Sheckina and is a state of being. It is also connected to the mouth shich utters creation. These ten sephirot are connected to one another and work in concert with each other. They have bit of the other sephirot in each individual Sephira. THey correspond to differnt body parts as well. Orot is the emanation of lights coming down the kelim are the collectors of these lights. The line if light forms concentric circles around each of the sefirot. The sefirot are in unity and work together. In the beginning though the sephirot were seperate with each one doing it's own thing. This was called Tohu and in the Tohu the Kelim or vessels absorbed to much light and shattered the shards fell down into the five world getting absorbed into those world as possible. Several of these shards fell below the worlds AND INto the other side. This other side was called Sitra Achra. This allowed for the creation of evil. In any case a new set of Sphirot had to be created and this time they would work together in unity. This was called Tikkun. THe concept of evil is not all that bad it gave the human being a choice and a mission. True service cannot happen in the absence of freedom of choice. THe mission was to gather the sparks of holiness and seperate them from the husks.
Tohu, Tikkun
Sitra achra
Klippot and yeter Harah

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