Happy Birthday Kabbalah . . .
Across the globe today, there seems to be an infatuation with kabbalah - Jewish Mysticism. And it all began on Lag B’omer (the 15th day of the Jewish month Iyar), the festival we will celebrate this coming Tuesday.
In the 2nd century, there lived one of the greatest men in Jewish history - Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. Aside from his piety and scholarly achievements, his mystical teachings have forever changed the face of the Jewish world. He was the first to reveal the innermost secrets of the Torah, a tradition undisclosed to the masses until this point in time. These teaching are recorded in ‘The Zohar’ – “The Kabbalistic Book of Light”.
Lag B’omer is the day of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai’s passing. On this day he turned to his students and proclaimed, "Until now, I have held certain secrets close to my heart. But now, before I die, I wish to reveal all." On this day, the Kabbalah was revealed in its entirety.
In Jewish literature, the Kabbalah is referred to as ‘the orchard’. Why an orchard? What lesson were our sages conveying by linking an orchard to the kabbalah? The answer to this question, I feel, is especially relevant to today’s “Kabbalah Craze”.
Just as an orchard is only alive, vibrant, and colorful while firmly rooted in the ground, when it receives nourishment from its source, so the Kabbalah can only be learned based on and within the context of the Torah upon which it is based. When the two are separated, when Kabbalah takes on an independent life of the Torah and its mitzvoth, the Kabbalah becomes lifeless and remains just another fad - here today gone tomorrow.
In this vane, as we enter the Lag B’omer season, as the Kabbalah celebrates its birthday, let us explore the depths of the Torah. Let us commit ourselves to studying and delving into the rich traditions and heritage we have inherited from our ancestors. Within this context the most profound Kabbalistic and esoteric secrets of the Torah will serve as a guiding light, navigating us through our tumultuous lives.
Let’s do a mitzvah today!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Raleigh Resnick