July 30, 2014 at 7:30 pm · Filed under Articles, Books
The Mystery of Reincarnation Explained
In each generation, the same souls that existed in previous generations reappear. They are clothed in new bodies, evolve, and become more sensitive and receptive to sublime and complex spiritual knowledge. Thus, people who lived thousands of years ago had the same souls as our own but are more developed today, bringing technological and spiritual progress to our world.
Any progress in humankind is the result of souls rising to a higher degree, after having gained experience in previous lives. Each soul that comes to our world begins its life with the experiences it has accumulated in the previous life. Hence, the soul goes through a process of accumulating knowledge, spiritual attainments, and worldly sensations, leaving it with memories we call Reshimot (records or reminiscences).
Of all the souls that have come down to our world from previous generations, only a few have wished to evolve into the spiritual realms. However, in our time, many have done so. We are much more advanced than our ancestors. It is easier for us to absorb new information and live it, because we are born prepared to absorb this information. Hence, each new piece of data is completely natural for us.
How the Concealment of Kabbalah and Reincarnation are Related
Kabbalah books tend to be revealed and concealed intermittently. They can be hidden for several generations, reappear, and then be lost again. It happens this way so that humanity can go through certain “corrections” (Tikkunim). Generally speaking, these books exist throughout the history of humankind to correct humanity and assure its development. All these books will be known to everyone in the future. The Zohar and the books of the prophets state that in our final days, all humanity will use these books as manuals for attaining the upper worlds, and people will have happy, eternal, and complete lives.
Souls of great Kabbalists go through special cycles. They do not appear in our world in every generation but, like the books, only in special ones. The soul of the first man incarnated later on in Abraham the Patriarch, Moses, Rabbi Shimon Bar- Yochai, the Holy Ari, and, in our days, Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag.
Such a soul comes only during special times, when it is meant to influence and correct the entire human race.
The Story of the Reincarnation of a Very Special Soul: The Ari
In the 16th century, the time of the Middle Ages and barbarism, a child was born in Jerusalem. Later in his life he received the name the Holy Ari. He absorbed the entire Kabbalistic knowledge since the first man and processed it and phrased it in such a way that all the generations following him could receive their spiritual nourishment from his books.
Read the rest of this entry »
July 29, 2014 at 7:30 pm · Filed under Articles, Books
Why The Book of Zohar Is So Important for Your Spirituality
Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai (Rashbi) was the author of The Book of Zohar, which was written in the second century CE. It is the most important work of Kabbalah and considered to be its primary and most fundamental textbook. Rashbi lived between the Talmudic period and that of The Zohar and is regarded as a great researcher of both human nature and the upper world. He is also among the most important sages of the Talmud (his name is mentioned there some four thousand times). He was proficient in the languages of both the Talmud and Kabbalah, and he used both of them to describe the upper system of management, how the events of the present and the future are made to happen there—all the innovations and transformations—and how they come down from there to our world and manifest themselves in the clothing of this world.
The Zohar explains which actions influence the rest of the world from here below. Rashbi was the first Kabbalist to describe the reactions that we get from above for our thoughts. He described how they operate in the upper world and thus affect the unfolding of future events that are to descend to us. The Zohar is crucial to us because it encircles all the possible circumstances throughout human history.
The Unique Circumstances Behind the Writing of The Zohar
Before Rashbi began to write The Zohar, he established around him a group of disciples, where the soul of each disciple corresponded to a certain spiritual degree in the upper world. There were nine students, and he was the tenth. Together they formed one collective soul, corresponding to the complete structure in the spiritual world called the Eser (ten) Sefirot.
Thus, although Rashbi is the author of the book, each and every one of the students represents one of the attributes of the spiritual world he describes. He built a sort of prism, through which the simple upper light descends to our world and divides into ten parts, which are then divided into ten inner Sefirot. Their story is in fact a description of how those ten spiritual properties or forces come upon our world and lead it and how each person can use these forces for his or her own benefit and for others.
Why The Zohar Is Often Misunderstood
Rashbi said he could not have written the book by himself. He was supposed to write the book for the last generations and, in the meantime, conceal it so that it would only be revealed in the 16th century. To write this book in such a way that the intermediary generations would pass it by, he used his disciple Rabbi Abba. Rabbi Abba began writing the book while hearing and studying it from his teacher, but he wrote it in such a way that those who read it perceive only the outermost layer of the book.
Read the rest of this entry »
June 6, 2008 at 7:22 am · Filed under Articles, Zohar
Zohar means Radiance, and The Book of Zohar is the fundamental book in the wisdom of Kabbalah. It is the key enabling one to reveal the spiritual part of the universe, hidden to our five senses, and the Upper Force that governs everything and brings everything into being.
It was written by Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, or Rashbi, a great Kabbalist who lived in the 2nd century CE. Rashbi attained all the wisdom that was to be recorded in The Book of Zohar while hiding from the hostile Roman authorities in a cave in Northern Israel. Together with his son Rabbi Elazar, Rashbi spent 13 years living in this cave, eating fruits of a carob tree and drinking water from a nearby source. In that time, the father and son had attained all the degrees of the spiritual world, and were able to feel the Upper Force or the Creator with utter clarity. Read the rest of this entry »
