Explore
Gaia Soulmates
down  About This Group
KABBALAH
WELCOME TO KABBALAH here at GAIA.COM

Want to replace darkness with light?


 

KABBALAH is an experimental pod designed to explore, in unison, the vast unequalled spiritual power of the Kabbalah and its many avenues. 


 

KABBALAH is intended for
...(more)
down  About This Room
The Zohar in all its splendor!  Discuss the revelation of its spiritual principles and how they can (and will) transform our everyday lives. When put into action, we really do have the power to change ourselves and the world!  Is...(more)
down  Room Activity
No Recent Activity
down  Group Grapevine
More...
 Advertising keeps Gaia free! Interested in sponsoring us?
Resultset_previousprevious thread | next threadResultset_next
threaded | unthreaded | newest first


  Samme : Prince of Rainbows<3

The Zohar and Kabbalah

Samme said Apr 15, 2007, 8:07 PM:
 

Read first the beginning of this article here
http://princesamwise.zaadz.com/blog/2007/4/the_zohar_and_kabbalah 


     None of the thoughts expressed in this ancient text is original.  They are all derived from the Kabbalah, the spiritual essence of Judaism.  The wisdom of Kabbalah is said to be as old as the world, its origins concomitant with Creation.  Light out of Light; truth out of Truth; understanding out of That which is beyond all understanding.  The fact that this wisdom has survived is surely an indication that it does indeed hold what it claims to hold: the very key to life's meaning itself - and thus the great secret of true fulfillment.

     Although the Zohar was revealed by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai during the time of the destruction of the second Temple, the wisdom of Kabbalah that he then shared was known and used by many people before him.  It was used by Adam, by the patriarchs, and by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Moses also understood and practised the Kabbalah, as have many other great historical figures.  It is the source of all spiritual knowledge, and - no matter by which name it may have been known - there has never been a time when it did not exist to provide humanity with the means to understand the nature of reality and to fulfill life's purpose.

     Background
     The two principal written sources for Kabbalists are the Sefer Yezirah (Book of Creation) and the Zohar, which is a mystical commentary on the twenty-four books of the Bible.  These consist the Pentateuch - the first five books of the Old Testament, known in the Hebrew Bible as the Torah - the Prophets, and Writings.  The Zohar offers a series of commentaries, in the form of discourses between Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, a second-century scholar, and his fellow interpreters of the scriptures.  Although scholars have debated the authorship of the Zohar, a study of its practical and spiritual approach confirms that it should be attributed to Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, who, as both the Talmud and the Zohar teach, hid with his son in a cave in Peki'in for thirteen years to escape Roman persecution.  While there, they engaged in extended mystical explorations of the Torah and the nature of the Creator.

     For many years, the Zohar was printed in three volumes, Volume one contained the book of Bereshit; Volume two contained the book of Shemot; and Volume three contained the books of Vayikra, Bemidbar, and Devarim.  References to its various sections and verses were made using the page numbers in this three-volume edition, whose numbering system is now called 'the Old Print.'
 
     By translating and commenting on the Zohar, Rabbi Yehuda Halevi Ashlag unveiled to a general audience for the first time many of the mysteries contained in the Torah.  He explained the first twenty volumes of the Zohar, and his commentary was published as Ha (i.e. 'The') Sulam ('Ladder').  The remaining four volumes were translated and explained by his student, Rabbi Yehuda Tzvi Brandwein, in a work known as Ma'alot Hasulam ('The Rungs of the Ladder').  When the commentary of the Sulam was completed, the Zohar was printed in 24 volumes with different page numbers.  In this new edition, the page numbers of the Old Print were printed in brackets at the bottom of each page.

     To bring the mysteries of the Zohar to the average person is a particularly daunting task, one that requires all the skill, erudition and wisdom of a Kabbalist familiar with both the spiritual and physical languages of the work.  Such a man was Rabbi Yehuda Halevi Ashlag, who drew on his judgment, perception, spiritual power, and divine inspiration to translate the Sulam into modern Hebrew.

     Rabbi Michael Berg, Editor-in-chief