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There is a very interesting section from the Talmud (Succah 45b) quoting Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai.

Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai says that I, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, can remove any judgment. I can do the work, I have the merit, my Light is enough to do the work to remove the judgment for all the people that lived in the world. For the millions of people who had been in the world from the moment of Rabbi Shimon’s birth until at least his death.

And then he says, and with my son Rabbi Elazar I can remove judgment from all the people from the time of Creation until now.

And then he says with Yotam ben Uziyahu, with one of the great, righteous kings, if the three of us were together, me, Rabbi Elazar and Yotam ben Uziyahu, we can remove the judgment from the time of Creation until the end of times, until the Gamar Hatikun.

There are a lot of things that need to be understood here.

First of all, so why didn’t they do it? Rabbi Shimon makes the statement that he can absolve the whole world of judgment. So do it. If you can do it, do it. What are you waiting for?

And then he says and if Rabbi Elazar was with me we can do even more; we can do from the time of Creation until now. Rabbi Elazar was with you. Why didn’t you do it?

Then he says and if Yotam ben Uziyahu would be with us we can absolve the whole world from Creation until the Gamar Hatikun.

It doesn’t make any sense. Rabbi Shimon is the greater soul. Doesn’t it make sense that Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai himself can do, let’s say a thousand of years. With Rabbi Elazar’s help he can do another five hundred. And with Yotam ben Uziyahu maybe another five hundred. But it’s the opposite. Rabbi Shimon by himself can only do maybe eighty years. With the help of Rabbi Elazar they can do thousands of years. With the help of Yotam ben Uziyahu they can do everything.

We need to understand the idea of unity, to understand that the magnitude, the growth of Light that shines once you have unity is way beyond the merit of even the soul of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai.

This is the second point. I asked why if Rabbi Shimon can do it with Rabbi Elazar and with Yotam why didn’t they do it? The point is they did it. They did it, but they’re waiting for us to reveal it.

I think what Rabbi Shimon was telling us, first of all, he’s telling us it’s there. Rabbi Shimon, together with Rabbi Elazar, together with Yotam did the work.

There’s a lot here, but two concepts we should, at least, walk away with.

One. We have to make sure that the work that we’re doing is attached to the work of Rabbi Shimon, Rabbi Elazar and Yotam. They did the work. All we need to do is attach ourselves to them and then it can shine as it was meant to.

And the second to understand the power of unity.

We have some conception of the greatness of the soul of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. But what he was telling us is that even I, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, can do a lot more with unity than I could do with my merit.

Rabbi Shimon is saying, I with all the work, with the revelation of the Zohar, I can only take care of maybe eighty years. With unity with one other person, with my son Rabbi Elazar, we can do a few thousand years. With one other person, with unity amongst three people, we can do the work for all of humanity for all time.

If we understand what that means, there’s nothing that one can do of the spiritual work that can come close to what he can do with true unity. None of us will ever achieve the heights of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. So if we’re hoping to help the world through our spiritual work, that’s not going to happen.

But what can happen is through unity. If we understand how necessary unity is we can put everything else to the side. Everything else pales in the comparison to the power of unity.

The second thing is to make sure that we are attaching whatever little work that we’re doing to the work to Rabbi Shimon, Rabbi Elazar, Yotam, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Because only by attaching ourselves constantly to their work does our work make any difference. If we’re doing our work in our own little universe it’s not worth it. It’s a very important work of consciousness to constantly be attaching ourselves back to the work they did. Then we can end the work that they began.

This week’s portion deals a lot with the kohenim. It says the kohen, the priest, is not allowed to become impure. The commentators explain.

The kohenim are doing their work in the Mishkan. They have a very important job. They do their work right by the Light of the Creator. It says it’s not right, it doesn’t seem fitting for someone that close to the Creator to see a dead body.

It’s talking about all of us who make a decision to be a priest. It’s talking about all of us who make a decision that I dedicate my life to the work of the Creator. If you want to be kohenim, if you want to be a person dedicating their lives to the Light of the Creator, you have to live in a consciousness of immortality.

It’s not right for a person to be a priest and be involved with death. The idea, if you really want to be connect to this work there has to be an element of you connected to immortality.

For those who had the merit to be around the Rav, you know the Rav has this. The Rav lives in immortality. And Rav Ashlag always speaks about this.

The lesson we should take is, and this is a concept that may be a little bit beyond us. It’s not fitting, the commentary says, that a kohen should see a dead body. It’s not fitting that someone so close to the Light of the Creator should see death.

If a person takes himself to be a priest, there is an element of him that should never see death. There’s an element of us that should be living in immortality. If we are people dedicating ourselves to the Light of the Creator it’s not fitting for us to live in the world of death.

Don’t connect to the world of death, meaning don’t connect to the world of Desire to Receive for the Self-Alone. Rav Ashlag makes very clear what death is? Death is a person connected to Desire to Receive for the Self-Alone.

If you really want to be a kohenim, if you really want to be a person who has dedicated their lives to the work of the Creator, you have to be separate from the Desire to Receive for the Self-Alone. The Desire to Receive for the Self-Alone is the impurity of death.

Rav Chaim Vital wrote a book called Sha’arei Kedusha the Gates of Holiness. He writes that every person, every one of us, can and is meant to merit ruach hakodesh, Divine Inspiration. Literally always constantly being connected to the Light of the Creator.
How do you do it? By becoming holy, by becoming pure.
One of the unique qualities of this Shabbat, this reading, is that it was said in the gathering of all the people. This is one of the only times when the Creator called everybody together. He gathered everybody together to tell every single one of us. Every single one of us can merit ruach hakodesh. Every single one of us can merit Divine Inspiration; a complete and total connection to the Light of the Creator, a complete and total bond. But it has to come with a strengthening of our purity.
Sometimes we allow ourselves not to be pure. We say you know, so what if I’ll be pure? Where will that get me to? As the Or Chaim, the great kabbalist Rabbi Chaim ben Attar explains, it’s a continual life-long process.
Knowing that we have that capacity, that we have that ability, that’s number one. The RaMCHaL, Rabbi Chaim Moshe Luzzatto the great Italian kabbalist, in Mesilat Yesharim writes the pathways. He quotes the saying of Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair. Have clarity on the fact. Know and never forget that no matter where we are now every single one of us can and is meant to get to that level of ruach hakodesh, to the level of Divine Inspiration.
And number two, knowing how to achieve it. As Rav Ashlag learned from his teacher. Think: If it’s not tomorrow, if it’s not next year, it’s in my future. I’m going to achieve the Divine Inspiration, ruach hakodesh.
What does that mean about how I can allow myself to act? Or how I direct my life?
What happens is we often, not we, the negative side tells us: You know what, how high can you go? How high can you go? Because we don’t believe that we have the capacity for ruach hakodesh, for Divine Inspiration, we allow ourselves to act in ways that won’t bring us there.

We are now in Malawi and we are all overwhelmed. The level of poverty and need is simply unfathomable. There is so much that can be done and needs to be done.

I will try to post a few pictures while I am here, although the internet connection is not very good.

I am humbled and so thankful that we can, and are, doing some good for the orphan children of Malawi.

I was also moved by my brother Yehuda’s weekly email for this week, in which he shared his support and love.

Thank you all for you prayers, thoughts, and support.

We can and must do what we can to help these children.

Love,

Michael

We are leaving today to malawi.

I am very excited to see our work on the ground to help the orphaned children there.

I will try to keep the blog updated from there, depending on finding a working internet connection there.

Tonight and tomorrow are called by the kabbalists the day of Shavuot. It is a great opportunity to connect to great Light.

This is the link to my video on shavuot:
Getting Shavuot Web Video

Also we will be live streaming from the event tonight at the Los Angeles Kabbalah Centre. This is the link:
Shavuot 2006 Live Streaming Connection

This is a very powerful and exciting day.

Blessings and Light,

Michael

I was reading an article in Newsweek about the Gospel of Judas and was struck by this sentence: “This Gospel tells us that Judas was Jesus’ only true disciple, to whom he imparted secret mystic knowledge…” To me, at least, it seems clear that the mystic knowledge is the ancient wisdom of Kabbalah. Rav Shimon bar Yochai, the author of the Zohar, the canon of Kabbalah, lived around the same time and led a school of great mystics. My father the Rav always said that there is a lot in the story of Jesus that has not yet been revealed or understood…