The holiday of Succot is the holiday of joy. True joy transcends the individual and communal and even national boundaries. Kabbalah teaches that our interconnection is the essential message of the holiday of Succot.

B"H

The Month Of Elul- The King Is In The Field

Happy new month of Elul! The “king is in the field” . Get out of the desert realm! There are 3 realms: Royal palace/city, field, desert. Our job is to awaken to come out of the field and into the palace 

In his Song of Songs, King Solomon writes a most eloquent and deep passage representing a multitude of relationships. The verse “I am my Beloved’s and my Beloved is mine” (Song of Songs 6:3) is an immediate allusion to the month of Elul, for in its original Hebrew, “Ani ledodi v’dodi li,” the letters beginning each word serve as an acronym for this month.

Elul is the month preceding Tishrei, the beginning of the Jewish year, starting with the holiday of Rosh Hashanah and culminating with the festival of Hoshana Rabbah. It is during the month of Elul that we try and focus on our past year, reflecting on our deeds,...

1. “The Nature of Good Is To Do Good”

This opinion is found in the Midrash and the famous Kabbalist The Ramchal equos this in his book “Da’at Tevunot”.

Rabbi Saadyah Gaon writes in Sefer Emunot ve-De’ot (one of the earliest systematic works of Jewish philosophy was The Book of Doctrines and Opinions):

“The creation of the world was an expression of goodness and kindness on G‑d’s part . . . and afterwards He gave them a cause through which they will reach the most complete happiness and the most complete goodness . . . that which He commanded them to implement and warned them to desist from”.

One of the main things that we can say about God in this manner is that He is good. Not only do we say that God is good, but also that He defines good. Every act of God contains the most pure and infinite Good that can exist. His goodness and love are the two most basic of God's qualities as far as we can understand, and they work together...

In this webinar class we will explore delve into the fascinating topic of prophesy. What is prophesy and is there such a reality nowadays. 

Every Thursday night for the past 12 years, Live Kabbalah has a live class where an interesting topic is explored in depth. Click here to join

Prophesy In Our Days

דברים י״ח:ט״ו-י״ח

נָבִיא מִקִּרְבְּךָ מֵאַחֶיךָ כָּמֹנִי יָקִים לְךָ יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֵלָיו תִּשְׁמָעוּן. כְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר שָׁאַלְתָּ מֵעִם יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ בְּחֹרֵב בְּיוֹם הַקָּהָל לֵאמֹר לֹא אֹסֵף לִשְׁמֹעַ אֶת קוֹל יְהוָה אֱלֹהָי וְאֶת הָאֵשׁ הַגְּדֹלָה הַזֹּאת לֹא אֶרְאֶה עוֹד וְלֹא אָמוּת. וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֵלָי הֵיטִיבוּ אֲשֶׁר דִּבֵּרוּ. נָבִיא אָקִים לָהֶם מִקֶּרֶב אֲחֵיהֶם כָּמוֹךָ וְנָתַתִּי דְבָרַי בְּפִיו וְדִבֶּר אֲלֵיהֶם אֵת כָּל אֲשֶׁר אֲצַוֶּנּוּ.

Deuteronomy 18:15-18

The Lord your God will establish a prophet, like myself; him you shall listen to. This is just what you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb, on the day of the Assembly, saying, 'I don't want to...

Ma’ayan 1// Nahar 20

Man’s soul is made of 3 parts:

1. Malchut- Nefesh
2. Tiferet- Ruach
3. Binah/ Chochma (until Keter)- Neshamah

A personal gradually merits these levels, ascending to the next level.

However Nefesh always stays. As it says “Israel is the soul of creation” and therefor always has the revelation of Nefesh “even within within their sins i will not forsake them”.

Ma’ayan 1// Nahar 21

Man is not in his place in the order of creation. The soul should have been from under the Throne of Glory, however it is placed in a lowly body.

This descent is the cause for the lack of revelation, just as S”M (evil angel) was a holy angel who descended down. Talmud says “better for a person not to be born”.

This novelty of the highest part of creation, placed in the lowest is the what the Tabernacle expressed. The Temple had the highest of G-d’s revelation descend down into this world.

Similar to the soul’s descent, the...

I24 News feature on Safed and the Ari, Rabbi Isaac Luria on the Spanish channel.

The number 3 represents the connection between 2 realms. In Aristotelian Philosophy 1 is a dot 2 is a line and 3 is a surface. In Kabbalah the number 3 is the connection between heaven and earth and is associated with balance.

The Temple (Beit Hamikdash) is G-d’s headquarters of his dwelling within this world. The destruction of the Temple is called “the exile of the Shechina (Divine presence). There were 2 Temples thus far, and we are anticipating the Third Temple as the eternal Temple which will never be destroyed again. What is the inner difference between all 3 Temples.

The First Temple was built by King Solomon, the son of King David. Solomon means Shlomo which has the letters Shalom- peace bc there was peace in his days. The incredible structure was Divinely inspired. The First Temple lasted for 410 years and was destroyed by the Babylonians. 

The Second Temple was built 70 years after the destruction of the First Temple by Ezra and Nechemia and was...

1. The 72 Letter Names

The permutations of the 72 Letters are found in both Talmudic as well as Kabbalistic texts.

Commentators say (Ba’al Haturim) that the name that was inside of the Choshen- חושן, the breastplate of the High Priest (called Orim V’tumim) was the 72 Letter Name combination.

The High Priest also had 72 bells studded on the bottom of his cloak called the Me’il- מעיל. We will soon see the connection of 72 with the priesthood and the side of Chesed - Divine kindness.

In the Machzor (the prayer book) of the High Holidays we find the words u’bechen- ובכן repeating it self. The Kabbalists teach that the numerology of this word is 72.

Like keys, there are many word combinations throughout the Siddur that have the specific names of the 72 Letters.

As discussed in our 2nd class on the Divine names that these 72 combinations are different than the name Av- עב which which has the hidden value of Yud and stems from the above the world of Atzilut.

...

 מ״ה- The 45 Letter Divine Name

The 45 letter name of G-d is connected to the 72 letter name. The difference is in the intensity of the revelation. The Zohar says that the 72 letter name comes from the forehead of A”K Adam Kadmon- Primordial Man which is the dimension which includes everything that existed before creation and everything that will exist until the end of time.

The name Mah is “covered” by the forehead and therefore it’s revelation is limited and dimmed in comparison to the name Av. Also, the name Av is called an old name because it is interwoven with the Ain Sof- the Infinite Divine entity. While the name Mah is called a “new name” because it the name is for the sake of post existence and ultimately achieving the Tikun (fixing) within the finite world as we will see when we get into the combination of the names Mah and Ban.

The name Mah is composed of 45 letters and it’s primary hidden value is Aleph. יוד  קא ...