Timeless Torah

Lag B’Omer, the thirty-third day of the Omer count from Pesach to Shavuos, is the day most associated with the teachings of Kabbalah. It is the anniversary of the passing of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, author of the most basic Kabbalistic work, the Zohar. Literally, the Aramaic word Zohar is translated as luminance or radiance, but it is most often referred to as The Book of Splendor.

Rabbi Shimon, who brought us this so-called Bible of Jewish Mysticism, taught his disciples more than just the secrets of the Torah. He also instructed them on how to celebrate life, and sometimes even death, according to these inner disciplines. Concerning the date of his passing, he directed his students that at that time they should not mourn his death. In fact, the very opposite is true. The Rashbi (acronym for Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai) even went so far as to refer to his last day on earth as his Yom Hillula, his wedding day. The reason: the day of a righteous person’s passing is the culmination of his life, the point at which a perfectly fulfilled mission attains its ultimate realization.

Kabbalah is the mystic soul of Torah, the element of Torah that most intimately relates to its divine essence. So while all of Torah, including the Talmudic passage dealing with the law of, “One who trades a cow for a donkey,” is the wisdom and will of G-d; the mind that contemplates these concepts apprehends the Divine wisdom as it is clothed in mundane garments. Indeed, most of the Talmud is absorbed with matters that are worldly and commonplace, and not with issues that at first glance have anything to do with holiness.

On the other hand, in the esoteric works of Torah, like the Zohar, the form, as well as the essence, is divine. As anyone familiar with the Book of Splendor or other Kabbalistic writings can tell you, the mystics discuss not financial disputes and livestock trades, but spiritual worlds, supernal attributes and divine energies.

True, the student of Talmud knows that ultimately the physicality of his subject matter is but a shell that hides the G-dly essence implicit within it. Nonetheless, during the actual involvement by the budding scholar in the intricate flow of Talmudic argument and complex rebuttal, one spends his time, energy and intelligence focused on cows, donkeys and other non-inspiring topics. In contrast, the Kabbalist’s mind ingests the G-dly wisdom in a more translucent capsule. His studies investigate spirituality, his thoughts are centered on holiness in a medium brimming with sacredness and aglow with Divine truths.

This distinction between the legal parts of Torah versus the theological can be demonstrated in a most sublime and subtle way. When the Talmud cites a proof to decide a dispute or to resolve a question of law, it often introduces it with the phrase, “Ta shema - Come and hear” or “understand” (the Hebrew word shema means both hear and understand). In contrast, the opening phrase commonly utilized in the Zohar is, “Ta chazi - Come and see.” The reason for the change in phraseology is because the difference between sight on the one hand, and hearing and comprehension on the other, is akin to the difference between the exoteric and esoteric parts of Torah.

While sight and hearing may both be tools of perception, absorbing stimuli and conveying them to the mind to interpret, there is a major difference in the manner in which they impress their findings upon us. Sight is the most convincing of faculties: once we have seen something with our own eyes, it is virtually impossible for other sensory evidence or rational proofs to refute what we now know. On the other hand, hearing and comprehension can also convince us of certain truths, but not as unequivocally as do our eyes. What we hear and understand we may consider as facts that have been proven to us; but what we see is reality.

One who contemplates the external body of Torah gains knowledge of the divine reality. But this remains hearsay, second-hand information conveyed via issues that often cloud the understanding of G-d we are trying to attain. However, when one studies the internal soul of Torah one comes to see G-dliness and to perceive it as a reality in the most immediate and unequivocal manner.