(recent lecture)

Chag Sameach

As most of us know, we are about to begin our connection to the Light of Shavuot. This connection, this Light, is very unique to any other connection that we make throughout the year. As the Kabbalists explain, it is the one time of the year we actually connect to gamar tikkun, the end of the correction.

There is a powerful section in the Zohar, called The Night of the Bride, in the introduction. I think this is the only place in the Zohar where Rav Ashlag, the greatest Kabbalist of our century, our generation, who wrote the translation of the entire Zohar, this is the one place where he actually gives two different corresponding explanations and understandings to one section of the Zohar. He does it here. We know we read from the Zohar to gain the wisdom and understanding, and to awaken this Light.

As we read this now, our meditation should be to understand it and to gain an understanding of our connection, but maybe more importantly, to use this section to awaken this Light to be revealed for all of us.

This afternoon I was reading this section. It’s long and beautiful, and we won’t get through all of it. As we read this section we can appreciate the tremendous gift that is available to us tonight.

Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, the great Kabbalist, was sitting and studying on the Night of the Bride, the night when the bride comes together with the groom, the night when the male and female completely unite. We learned all those friends, all those people who come together on this night, who want to take part in this tremendous Light, who want to connect to this Light, the wedding, which is tomorrow morning, those who want to partake of the Light need to be with the bride the night before, this night, and to prepare her in her connections and preparations to read and study the Torah, as we will do. The Torah, the Five Books of Moses themselves, the Nevi’im and Tuvim, the Prophets and part of the Writings, because these sections form the twenty-four books.

As you will see, at the end of each book there will be a two letter combination. Those letters are considered the jewelry, the adornment for the bride. They are the preparation for the great union. The union occurs tomorrow morning, but the work is done tonight.

The Zohar makes it very clear: those of us who want to be part of the Light revealed in the morning — the Zohar speaks of the marriage, the coming together of Zeir Anpin and Malchut, this work we are about to do, the reading of the twenty-four books, and the mediation on the twenty-four combinations at the end of each reading — that is how we prepare the bride for the union. That is how we prepare ourselves to receive the tremendous Light to be revealed in the morning.

Rav Ashlag writes, and this is very exciting and very powerful. This section in the Zohar has two different explanations, but they are both in the same vein. They join together.

The time that we are in now, when there is still pain and suffering in the world, is called night, nighttime, because it’s the time when the Light of the Creator is not completely revealed. All of negativity can still attach itself. But there is still the ability to bring together the male and the female in order to bring about, as Rav Ashlag writes, the gamar tikkun, the final correction. At that time of the final correction, there will be the complete union between the male and female aspect. As the Zohar explains it, that moment of the coming together will be the moment of the removal of pain and suffering from our world.

This explanation is dealing with the global night and morning, the global removal of the pain and suffering. The bride in this case is the preparation of humanity for the end of the correction when pain and suffering are removed from this world. That’s the first explanation.

The second explanation is that the night of Shavuot, the night we are in now, is the preparation of the bride and groom coming together. Because tonight is the preparation for the bride, for the Malchut, to be prepared for the union with her husband, with Zeir Anpin, which occurs in the morning.

There are two different explanations, two different ways to understand this section of the Zohar. One of them is the big picture, the world that is still filled with pain and suffering, and the union, the coming together that ultimately brings the gamar tikkun, the end of the correction. That is the morning the Zohar is speaking about.

On the other hand, Rav Ashlag says, this is referring to this night that occurs every year. As Rav Ashlag says, they are both really one explanation. Really they are all one. Because on the day of Shavuot, when the Light of the Torah was revealed, was then, thousands of years ago, and is, every year, a revelation of an aspect of gamar tikkun, the final correction. Because on the day of the revelation at Sinai, there was the revelation of the end of the correction; bila hamavet lanetzach, the removal of pain and suffering. As it says in the Bible, death will be swallowed up. It occurred then. Thousands of years ago.

We have to understand, this day of Shavuot is the one time of the year that the energy, the Light to remove pain and suffering from the world, is completely revealed again. As Rav Ashlag says, if you understand it to be the global removal, or only this day, it’s the same. It’s for every one of us to remove pain and suffering from our lives and from the rest of the world.

Every holiday has different connections. Usually on Yom Kippur, Pesach, Rosh Hashanah, it’s about how to make this year better. This connection, this holiday Shavuot, is about, How do I make eternity better? That is the opportunity we have today. As we do this work tonight, this is the purpose behind what we are going to do.

It’s important we don’t lose our consciousness. We only have two-and-a-half or three hours to do it. As you are listening to the words, meditating on the combinations, it can become a loss of consciousness. We can ignite in our consciousness now the understanding of this connection. Every one of us will connect in a different way, depending on our excitement, on our understanding. To that degree we will connect, we will reveal it.

It’s a lengthy section in the Zohar and we don’t have time for all of it. I will read a few more sections.

It’s important to remind ourselves, when we speak about Rabbi Shimon’s Shavuot, hopefully every one of us can connect to the connection he made then and makes every year. They were singing the Torah, they were connecting with the Torah. Rabbi Shimon and all the other students were full of joy. Rabbi Shimon says: my children, worthy is your share. Because tomorrow, in this morning, when there will be this amazing union of the supernal male and female, you will be partake of that Light, of that energy. Because all those that partake of this preparation that we are going to do now, and this is the consciousness we need to have, as we read the Torah and meditate on the codes, we are making the connections, the adornments, to enable the supernal bride and groom to come together.

The stronger our preparations, the more Light we will reveal for ourselves and for the world. Rabbi Shimon says, not only do we need to make the connection, we have to be full of joy as we make these preparations. And those of us who merit to make these connections with joy and consciousness will be blessed with seventy blessings.

Then Rabbi Shimon goes on to another explanation. When the bride will go into the marriage tomorrow morning, into the union, she will bring with her all those friends, all of us, who have been with her all night and are preparing her for the union.

Again, like I said, it’s really amazing. As a complete aside, I highly recommend that everyone who has the opportunity to do so, read this section of the Zohar, tonight or tomorrow.

We’ll skip to the end.

Toward the end of the night of Rabbi Shimon’s Shavuot, Rabbi Shimon says, let us sit now and prepare the bride on this night. Because whoever takes part with her in the preparation this night will be protected supernally and in our world for that year. And he will fulfill his year in peace. For those who merit to make this connection, it says the Creator sends his angels around this person to protect them. Those who make this connection can achieve the level of being able to taste and feel the Light of the Creator.

I would also like to read from the writings of the Ari talking about this section. You should know, whoever does not sleep on this night, even for one moment, and listens to the reading of the Torah, he is guaranteed — again the Ari is repeating the Zohar — that you will be protected that year. And the Ari says, not only that, not only can we gain protection by making this connection, by not sleeping even for a moment tonight, but how our life is going to be is dependent on this connection. A person who does not sleep at all will not die in that year. He says he doesn’t want to go into the details of that.

If we appreciate what the Zohar is revealing to us is happening tonight, every one of us has the opportunity to partake in this union that does not occur at any other time of the year. If not completely, we have the ability though the joy and through our connection, if we don’t completely bring the correction, we can at least take one more step in that direction. This connection is all about the year. Whether it is for ourselves and for our year, or, more importantly, to what degree we can, this needs to be our consciousness: that tonight, in making the connections the Kabbalists set up for us, we are preparing ourselves and the world for when the great night is over, for when the pain and suffering is over.

Rav Ashlag writes that on Shavuot on Sinai this Light was revealed, but how much we receive is dependent on each one of us. How much of this end-of-the-night energy is dependent on our excitement, on our connection, on our consciousness.

Every one of us is responsible. Every one of us will probably have a completely different level of connection, a completely different experience. But the opportunity for the connection to the Light is there for every single one of us.

Chag Sameach.