Kabbalah and the Hidden Architecture of You - Lesson 1 - Echoes of Your Soul in Everyday Life | Rabbi Ari Sollish

Alright ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our brand new course called cabal and the hidden architecture of you. I am so glad that you're all here with me tonight. We have our in-person crew. We have our online crew. Thank you all for being here. You are all in for a treat. So they tell a story about a guy named Mausha. And Mausha decides he loves the Hebrew language, but he never learned how to speak Hebrew. He doesn't speak Hebrew. He doesn't understand Hebrew. I mean he can read Hebrew, but you know he doesn't. Conversational Hebrew is not his jam. Raspberry. Who remembers Spaceballs? Alright, if you know, you know. So he's in the he rolls in a class. And the class is conversational Hebrew. And he's struggling. You know, he's maybe doesn't pick up language so easily. He's struggling with the language. And at some point, the teacher tells him, listen Mausha, listen. I have some good news for you and this is what you can look forward to. When, you know, at some point you're going to start dreaming in Hebrew. And I have conversations in your dreams in Hebrew. Alright, it's excited about the concept. One day he comes in and he tells his teacher, oh my gosh, you'll never believe it. I dreamt that was in Israel. And people were talking to me in Hebrew and it was amazing. So the teacher says, so what were they saying to you? He's like, you think I have any idea what they're saying? What they said to me? I have no clue. Dreams. So here is my introduction to this course. I think that this course could not have come at a better time for you and I than right now because, you know, as life continues to accelerate, as technology continues to accelerate, as science and medicine continue to accelerate, our world is that much more connected and that much more high pace or maybe even hyperpaced than ever before. And I think it's refreshing to slow down a little bit and gain some old-fashioned spiritual guidance in Kabbalistic wisdom. Just a few, just last week, Thursday we heard from the head of AI and medicine and Emory about the cutting edge advances in medicine just today. I got a message that Claude is coming out with its own agent and if you know what I'm talking about, then you know what I'm talking about, right? Everyone's got these AI agents that they're developing. The world is so fast paced. It's good to slow down a little bit and study some Kabbalah, some ancient wisdom, timeless wisdom. That's one thing about Torah and Kabbalah is that it's timeless. It's not stuck in a certain era. And I think also, you know, the more we learn and the more we discover, the more we realize that there's so much more to learn and more to discover. And I think they actually, it actually works hand in hand because, good to see you guys. Good evening. Come on over for a book. So, you know, if you don't know, good to see you. If you don't know, then you might say, I know everything. You know, there's something called the, I think it's called the Dunning Cruder effect where they pulled students coming out from university exams and they said, how what did you do? How did you do in the test? And the ones that were the most confident did the worst. You know why? Because they got both of the questions wrong. The ones in the test and the one of how you did on the test, right? It's the overconfidence and it's the less you know, the more you think you know. And the more you know, the more you realize how little you know. That is kind of the inverse, good to see you guys. That is the inverse energy. The inverse energy is the more you know, the more you realize how much more there is to learn. And so, guys, you guys are like so far. Maybe I don't want to tell you guys to move furniture. Maybe move the tables a little bit if you don't mind. Yeah, just to make it a little bit more a little bit more hamish. So the goal of this course, and we have six sessions to cover so much, the goal of this course is to slow down a little bit and to discover some of the things that we might have never seen before in front of our eyes. So this is the this is the objective of the course. Yeah, let's see it. All right. Okay. So in this course, we're going to be we're going to uncover the brilliant designs all around us. I mean, look, the course isn't it's a big title. Kabala and the hidden architecture of you, the goal of the course is to explore the architecture of reality, the architecture of the cosmos, the architecture of the human being, and to see how the two really map onto each other, you know, the universe is called the Olam Gadol. What is Olam Gadol? The big world. The big world, right? And what is the human being called? Olam Katan. What is Olam Katan? The little world, the small world. In English, we might say the macrocosm and the microcosm, right? Macrocosm, microcosm. What exists in the universe at large exists within us. I remember hearing a beautiful, parable, beautiful story. There was a father who was on a phone call and a business colleague. He was too distracted. His son wanted his attention and he pushed off his son once and twice and three times until he decided he was going to give his son a little bit of busy work and to keep busy with some activity. So he took a magazine and there was a map of the world and he ripped out the page and he tore it up into small pieces, kind of making an impromptu puzzle. And he gave his son the pieces of the map of the globe and a roll of scotch tape. And he said, "Here's a project." Two minutes later, the kid comes back. The map is complete and he thinks, "First of all, my son's a genius. Second of all, I have to get off the phone." Third of all, how did he do this? And he asks his son, "How'd you do this?" And the son says, "Easy." He takes the page, flips it over. He had ripped it out of a magazine on the other side of the map was a human face. And you know what the moral of the story is? You want to heal the world? It all starts inside because we are a perfect parallel. What exists outside exists inside and in this six week magnificent series, we're going to be exploring that in depth. And so here's the outline of the six sessions. By the way, just a schedule you note, the six sessions will span seven weeks because we're off the week of Thanksgiving. Eric Thanksgiving, we don't want to mess with anyone's turkey so we're going to be respectful of that. So the Wednesday of Thanksgiving, we're off. Seven weeks, six sessions, and here's the outline. Lesson one, which is today, how your soul spills out in every activity of your life. You think your soul maybe is tucked away inside, not so fast, it spills out everywhere. It's manifest. It's present in the most surprising places. That's lesson one. Lesson two, how your body and your soul are influenced by the divine severe, by the divine energies, by the cosmology, spiritual cosmology of the universe. In lesson three, we'll explore the mystical backstory that makes you uniquely you. In lesson four, we'll learn how divine forces guide your individual path and destiny in life. In lesson five, we flip the script and instead of things influencing us, we'll talk about how we can influence the universe. Lesson five talks about how we can impact the universe at large and less than six. How you and I can plug in to the essence of all and elicit, bring, bring out some and from the essence abundant blessings for us and our loved ones. That is lesson number six. We have a ton to cover, a lot to cover in the series, a ton of information and just inspiration to cover tonight. So let's begin. I want to begin by sharing with you two of the most common questions that I get around and about Kabbalah. The most common question I receive and I've been teaching Kabbalah for decades for over 20 years since I was two. Anyway, so two of the most popular questions that I receive. Number one, what's Kabbalah? Number two, what does Kabbalah mean? So I want to start with the second question first. So what's the meaning of Kabbalah? So let's call in all my hebrace, what does Kabbalah mean? Le Kabbal to receive. So Kabbalah means received. So at its core Kabbalah means received wisdom and the implication of this is stunning. The implication is that what is Kabbalah? Kabbalah is wisdom, spiritual, deep, spiritual, mystical wisdom that's been received by one generation from the prior generation after generation, meaning going back, generation after generation, going all the way back to Sinai. Mount Sinai, that would be and beyond. In fact, the first work, the first book of Kabbalah ever written is a book called Safer Yitzira, the book of formation. If you want to know how to make a golem, you know what a golem is, yeah, that's the book that you want to consult. Safer Yitzira, and who is the author of Safer Yitzira? We're not sure but it might be Abraham. It's gone back a few years. Some say it could very well be Adam Harishon, Adam, the first guy, the first man, the first human being. who wrote, say, for Yitzira. Say for Yitzira is the first capitalist to work. The understanding of Kabbalah is that Kabbalah is received wisdom that goes all the way back, all the way back to the beginning. Wisdom that emanates from the creator, given over and trusted to human beings, to then share from one teacher to a student and then the chain continues. But what is the nature of Kabbalistic wisdom? What is the nature of Kabbalah? So that's the meaning of the word Kabbalah. What is Kabbalah? There's no better place to look for a definition of what is the study of Kabbalah than in the books of Kabbalah. And so what we're going to do right out of the gate is jump into text number one. And I'm going to read this text. Text number one is from the Ramak, Rabbi Mosha Kordevere. So a few things that you need to know. Number one, one of the golden ages of Kabbalah. There are many golden ages of Kabbalah in our history. One golden age, there was a golden age of Kabbalah in Spain. There's another golden age of Kabbalah in Sfat. Safid Israel, raise of hand. Who has been Tutsfat? Okay, wow. All right, now second question is-- Hello, hello. Book. Oh, copy, yeah. Second question. What is the most popular color in Sfat? Blue, what kind of blue? Sky blue, do you know why? Sfat was a city. The city was built, not a rock and roll. The city was built on Kabbalah. The 1500s was the golden age of Kabbalah in Sfat. It's hard to describe. The Arizal, the Ramak, Rabbi Shmulhalavi al-Kabats. I mean, the Shmulhalavi wrote his name into the Lakhadodi, with the Friday Night Service. Lakhadodi, right? If you look at the first letters of all the stanzas, it says Shlomo Halavi. He wrote his name into the Acrostic. The Ramak, Rabbi Moshe, it's a acronym. Rabbi Moshe Cordevero, the first letters of that Rabbi Moshe Cordevero, Ramak, was one of the major Kabbalists. He explains in text one with a beautiful parable, what Kabbalah is and what it does. Take a look at text number one, I'll read this one. You will find he writes that Kabbalistic experts agree with philosophers on many theological concepts. Nevertheless, their path is not our path, nor is our path theirs. I will illustrate the difference with the parable. So listen to the parable that he writes. Again, this is dating back to the 1500s from the work of Kabbalah, and the work that this is from is the Alima Rabati. Ruvane arrived carrying something on his shoulder. Shimon, Leyvi, and Yehudah were there, and they began discussing what the item might be. Shimon said, although the burden is small, Ruvane, who is very strong, can barely carry it. Even when exerting all his strength, the item must be heavy. Because he investigated, Shimon concluded that Ruvane was carrying a heavy load. Small and quantity, but great in weight. He hypothesized that it might be iron, tin, lead, silver, or gold. That's Shimon. Leyvi said, if it were iron or lead, Ruvane would not have placed it inside a beautiful purse. For they would ruin the purse. I think it would make it discolored, right? Okay. Rather, the item must be silver, some other precious metal. Because Leyvi investigated more. He came closer to the truth. Yehudah analyzed further, if it were silver or gold, Ruvane would not have brought 1000 mighty warriors to guard it. For the cost of the guards would be twice the value of the load. Rather, it must be a large, precious gemstone whose great value justifies many guards. Yehudah came even closer to the truth because he inquired more. However, none of them knows the nature of the item as Ruvane does. Ruvane knows that it is a gemstone with a specific color and shape worth a particular amount and brilliant to a particular degree. This parable represents the differing approaches to theology between the philosophers and the cabalists. The philosophers approach theology through questioning and investigation and the more they question the closer they get to the truth. But we are the people of God, heirs to a tradition received directly a Mount Sinai. We know things that God chose to reveal to Moses and to Israel at that moment is gathering. And what he embedded in his Torah. That direct transmission carries us far beyond where questioning alone could ever reach. Isn't that powerful? But I want someone, and you can just jump in with this. I want someone to share in their own words. The two approaches that the Ramak, Rabbi Moshe Kurtavero, is contrasting. The approach that he's calling the approach of the philosopher versus the approach of the cabalists. Someone break this down for me in simple terms in your own words. What is he saying? With the parable. What's the difference? The two types of exposition. Yes. - Try a rational thought versus the one who isn't. - Good. Rational versus divine. What else? - The inductive reasoning versus a theory. - Good. You said deductive? Or inductive? - The deductive. - The deductive versus a priori. - I don't think you're right. Okay. - What does that mean? - A priori. - Gazonte. What it means is prior knowledge of the, right? From the beginning. Meaning like this. You know, there's a famous parable similar of the dark room in the elephant. You know, the lights are out, and you have a bunch of people trying to figure out what this is in the room. And one says, oh, I feel a snake. And one says, oh, I feel a tree trunk. And the lights go on as I go. It's an elephant. You and I can try to deduce what's inside the bag from Heinz Bismargan, which is Yiddish for from today to tomorrow. And we might get close. And depending on how many questions you ask and how well you probe, you might get closer. You might be further away. You might discover that it's well. It's, you know, the first guy says, oh, it's heavier than it looks. It's gotta be metal. The guy's like, yeah, but it's gonna, then the next guy is like, wow, but it would ruin the beautiful purse. So can't be tin or lead. It's gotta be something precious. It's gotta be guys, like, yeah, but look at all the guards. It's gotta be a gemstone. And you get, you might get very close. But do you know the seas, i.e., the color, the carrot, what else is there? I feel like there's more clarity. And what else? That's it, three seas. It's gotta be the cost, right? It's gotta be the cost. The cut, the clarity, the carrot. Look, you don't know if it's a sapphire, if it's a diamond, if it's this or that or there, how big it is exactly, but you know who does know? The guy who put it there, right? Rubin, once I come out, Rubin, the guy who puts it in the bag in the first place, the guy who's carrying it, he knows. So I wanna use very simple language. There's two ways to know something. One is you can try to figure it out from the outside in and you might get close, you might not get close. You might get close. It's probably not gonna get to the core from the outside in. And there's another approach, which is from the inside out. My friends, here's what Kabbalah is, according to Kabbalah. It's understanding things from the inside out. It's understanding the soul of something from the soul's perspective. It's not figuring something out from the outside. Science does a great job of analyzing things from the outside. We take a thing, we put on their microscope and we try to figure it out. And every time we explore, we peel away another layer and another layer and another layer and we're doing a really great job. And that's a great system that needs to continue. And at the same time, there's another system. And that is wisdom that is emanating from the inside out. Wisdom that says, let me tell you what's inside, what you might not be able to see. To bring a parallel, just a meta self-reflected parable. Some of you know this, but I think most of you don't. The better a year ago, I got contacted by the, that sounds weird, not by UFOs. I got contacted by the Jewish Learning Institute. This is a JLI course. JLI is an organization in Brooklyn. They create curriculum and other amazing resources, educational resources, Jewish educational resources, and these classes are taught around the world. Five, six, seven hundred rabbis and structures are teaching this course around this time, you know, within a day or two or a week or two, this time, right, current. I got a call about a year ago to be one of the lead editors of this course, which means I work with the author very closely in shaping every lesson. And so I was thinking about this in this context and thinking, imagine the instructor who gets this book, the textbook, you know, sent to them in the mail and they're opening it up and they're trying to figure out what was the intention of the author? What did the author mean in this class? Why is this lesson before that lesson? I have the privilege of knowing all this from the inside out. That might be again a parallel, a bit of a meta parallel, the difference between trying to do something from the outside and versus knowing something because you know it from the inside out. How do I know it? 'Cause I know it. So this is a little bit about what Kabbalah is. Today our focus is on the soul, what better place to start and speaking about the inside then and the soul. And we start with the human soul, our soul, your soul. And the premise, and I mentioned this earlier, I'm going to reset this. The premise of today's lesson is, okay, you might have walked into this class thinking the following. I'm a human being, I have human experiences, I'm a physical being, I have physical experiences somewhere deep inside, I have a soul. And maybe I know that, or maybe I believe that, or maybe I thought that, or I was thought that, or maybe I heard that, but yeah, there's this thing called the soul that's inside. Maybe it's like a battery pack inside, maybe it's the spiritual battery pack inside, it's something there's a soul inside. Today, that is not what we're going to address, the soul inside. Today we're going to address, and I mentioned this earlier, how the soul shows up in everyday activities, how the soul shows up in ways that you don't even realize is being powered by the soul. So today we're going to look at six very human, very physical experiences and discover how with a little cabalista guidance, we can see the influence of the soul in guiding and shaping these very real human physical experiences. So you enjoy music, you like being in a relationship, you believe in basherit, destiny, you sleep at night, you have dreams, you have a pet, if you answered yes to any of these questions, and I hope you did tell me some of them, right? Then get ready for your world to be absolutely rocked tonight. Warning, you'll never look at your life the same way again. So let's begin, we start with the topic of music. We start with the topic of music. So my question is, why do you enjoy music? What makes music enjoyable to you? There's no wrong answer, I have an answer, but we'll get there soon, but what do you think? Why is music enjoyable to you? Let's go. Create emotions. Crea, it stirs emotions, good, what else? Why is music calming, calming, good, what else? Distracting. Distracting, good. Relate ability. Relate, explain. It makes you able to understand someone else's feelings. Love that. Love that. I thought you might have meant something else. Okay, good, because there's another good, that's good. What else? I'm going to bring you back to where you're in first, where do you think, and like you? Love that. Different parts of your life. Beautiful. Yes, yes. I'm at the age where when I'm in Kroger, I'm like, oh, 90s. I think you can transport you away from the present moment. Good, good, it can take you to a different place, alternative reality, good. I love that. What else? Yes. Say it again? A lyric can make you think, good, what else? Give me more. Bring people together. Yes. That's the way that's what I thought maybe you were going to say, also, brings people together, brings people together. So not only connects you to the theme of the music, but it connects people together. Little kumbaya around the bonfire, little kumsits action, right? We get together. What else? What else can music do? Yes. Connect you to your body when you want to dance. Love that. Love. And who doesn't want to dance? We do a little cabaladance at some point, cabalad rape. Yeah. Beautiful. Beautiful. Related ability, you can relate to what someone else is going through, maybe not through words, but through the music. You ever hear a chastity melody? You ever hear the lyrics of that? They go, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay. Because sometimes wordless melodies are also beautiful because they evoke emotions that even transcend what can be communicated in words. But I want to share what cabalad has to say about the power of music and why we all love music so much. And here's how I want to frame it. If you ask the psychologist, right, why music? And they might say because it gets you in touch with who you are and it stirs your emotions. The biologists might say, well, the rhythm, the beat of the music mirrors your heartbeat. The sociologists might say music brings people together and solidifies communities and families and groups and shared music and cultures and all that stuff. And all of those are correct. And all of those are, it's either metal or it's gems and it's looking at the back from the outside and discovering what music might be. But here's what Kabbalah says about what music actually is. To get to the Kabbalah, I need to tell you a story. The story goes back a few thousand years. And there was a prophet living in ancient Israel. The prophet's name was Alicia. You guys have heard of the prophet Alicia. Some of you maybe. Have you heard of the prophet Elijah? Elijah, I think Elijah a little bit more famous. Aliyah and Aviyah. You know, at the sater on Passover, we have a cup of Elijah at a Brit meal. We have the chair of Elijah. I always say whenever there's wine, there's Elijah just saying. So Elijah, Elijah was an unbelievable spiritual force. In fact, he was so pure that he ascended to heaven in a chair of fire. His protégé and successor as the prophet for the Jewish people at the time in that era was Alicia. And one day, two people approach the door of Alicia. And who are they? The two kings of Israel. Now you might be wondering why did Israel have ancient Israel of two kings? The answer is because the nation split into two kingdoms. Kingdom of the north and kingdom of the south. It's kind of like the Jew who gets stranded on the desert island. And he's rescued ten years later, years later. And he shows them around what he's done to the island. And he shows them the synagogue. And he shows them another synagogue. And they say, I don't get it. You have two synagogues for one island, for one guy. He says, yeah, this is the synagogue I go to. And this is the synagogue I never step foot into. Yeah, as Jews do. So there's two kingdoms, the kingdom of the north, the kingdom of the south, the kingdom of Israel, the kingdom of Judah, both kings show up because both are afraid of a common enemy from the outside. And both are coming to the prophet of God, to Alicia, to here, divine communication, divine guidance. How will this war? How will these battles unfold? They want to hear from the divine oracle himself. They want to hear from Alicia the prophet, Alicia Hanuffy. And what do you think Alicia does? Does he stroke his beard? Does he close his eyes? Does he meditate? Does he levitate? What does he do to conjure up prophecy? Here's what he does. I'm paraphrasing. He says, strike up the band. He calls a musician to play music to then stir his prophecy. Take a look at text number two. Text two A, actually. Sorry, text two. Text two is a capitalist of texts from the 1300s. Rabbi Yosef and Jalino in the Livnath has sat here. Explains the story of Alicia because the question is, if Alicia was trying to conjure prophecy, was trying to channel God's prophetic vision and insight. Why the music? Why the band? What's the deal? Text number two explains. Mark, do you mind getting a start? Do you want to read? For us? Okay. So this is page eight. Page eight. Text number two if you're open to it. Underneath the Hebrew, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Where it says one, the musician, yeah. When the musicians play the hands of God came upon Alicia, this is because of Saul, he's huge from above, from the mind of life, where he is accustomed to the melodies of the ministry paintings and other heavenly beings. When the soul was embodied and here's a melody, he finds comfort in the life, enjoying it like it once did when it was attached to its source. Experience in this pleasure and sweetness makes it fit for the spirit of God who rests upon it, just as it did in its source. Thank you. Isn't that incredible? What is this text saying? Why do we love music? Why? According to this text that we just read, someone tell me. Where does the soul come from? The soul comes from heaven. And what's going on in heaven? Elevator music. I'm kidding. Music. There is music in heaven. What's the music? The ministering angels are singing and playing melodies. The heavenly beings and that heavenly beings is referring to the Masalot, the stars, the constellations, the planets. They also generate not to our ears, but in heaven, they generate music and the soul, the soul's home, the soul's original home. in heaven is in a space that's filled with music and melody and so when the soul comes below and it hears music you know what it does to the soul we thought someone mentioned before that when you hear music it takes you back to that place right you know what happens when the soul hears music on planet earth right here you know what it does it takes the soul back back where back to where it was at home back back to heaven back to paradise back to God aid them and in that space it feels perfectly attuned and in touch with the divine and so Alicia in trying to channel the divine communication wants to put his soul in a space that is comfortable and at ease with the divine communication so what does he do he plays some music it's an unbelievable insight you and I might think we like music because we like music according to Kabbalah from the inside out you know why you like music because your soul remembers the music in heaven by the way the Kabbalahs continue we don't have it here in the textbook but Kabbalah continues to say that why is it that when we put a baby to sleep we sing them we sing a lullaby why do we put kids to sleep young children to sleep with with melody you know why because they're right they're they're fresh from heaven and and if you want to soothe you want to soothe the soul there's no better way to soothe soothe I can't pronounce it soothe the soul then the place of music to sing some music to sing a lullaby to sing a melody etc make sense yeah from the inside out this is the power of music so what is the practical takeaway well one practical takeaway might be let's be conscious of the music that we are exposing our soul to that the music should be inspiring uplifting should be joyous should be evocative and and dare I say kosha should be kosher music number two the second takeaway is and this is one that has also a beautiful practical significance you might have noticed that when people pray they sometimes pray with a tune not only do they sing certain parts of the of the prayers of the Davini like Ashre or Shma but even when reciting the prayers you sing with a tune in fact by the way in synagogue whenever someone's reading or saying something it's always with a tune you read the Torah you read the Torah scroll with a tune the half Torah with a tune right David does a beautiful job always in reading the the the the after it's always with a tune right you you sing it you don't just say it you sing it why sing it because that's the soul's original language the soul's original language is music and nothing nothing evokes the soul nothing makes the soul feel more comfortable nothing makes the soul feel at ease and and uplifted like music make sense yes questions comments we move on to our next topic okay each class by the way has about four five or six different topics they all come together under the same umbrella but different different elements different aspects so we move from music to love relationships and marriage so here's the question why are human beings motivated driven why do we yearn to be in a relationship why do we yearn for human connection why not just be alone so what would the sociologist say why do we yearn for relationships if you're sociologist what would you say companionship the community together good beautiful companionship keeping society together wonderful what would the biologist say why why are we you know procreation perpetuation of the species good what would the accountancy huh efficiency joy tax returns a little tax benefit absolutely absolutely so it depends on who you're asking you might have different motivations and the truth is people can be motivated by many different reasons but today tonight we're going to look at what Kabbalah says about relationship what Kabbalah says about love and marriage and soulmates and so here is what the Zohar one of the primary works of Kabbalah written about 1800 years ago here's what the Zohar has to say about love and marriage and soulmates and it is absolutely stunning text 3a Dr. Domen please read page 10 when God brings souls and be they are all opposites now given so there's one they are then interested to the hands of the angel we'll got points over human conception but the time the souls descend into the angel's hands they are already separated the angel brings each of them down into human bodies sometimes the female's born first but usually the male's born first because the time of their therapy arrives God that the only one who knows the match of souls reunites them as if they were at first as they were at first and propose them a couple when they bond the marriage they become one body one soul hence there's nothing new under the sun thank you for reading that how beautiful is this passage from Zohar and how fascinating is this interpretation of one of the most famous verses of cohala ecclesiastes ain't called Hadash Taqash Hashemish there's nothing new under the sun and you and I think nothing new under the sun we heard that before it's the same stuff that happens and you know how Kabbalah interprets that the Zohar just interpreted it you know what it means there's nothing new under the sun it means when you feel like wow look who I met there's nothing new under the sun that person that you're excited about that person that you marry that person that you're in a relationship with you were already connected with them way before ain't called Hadash Taqash Hashemish there's nothing new under the sun y'all are soulmates this is one of the Kabbalistic sources that talks about soulmates and I want to break down this reading because there's so much wisdom in these few lines of text 3a number one number one you might have heard this that according to Jewish or maybe even according to Kabbalah a soul begins as one and then is separated and then so here's what you need to know according to what we just read it's not that souls begin as one they are two distinct souls but in heaven in their at their original conception and until it's time for birth to happen right or conception to happen the souls these two souls are actually paired together they're paired together so they're still two souls but they're paired together and then at the time of conception each one is separated out one and then the other and then the goal is if all goes well we find our soulmate and we reunite in other words love and marriage is not a union of two individuals but rather a reunion of two that originally were joined together as one twin souls they were still two wasn't one with a buzz on and you know cutting it down the middle two souls but twin souls that were connected above separated below and then come together once again as one in the biblical story and the biblical description of the creation of Adam Adam the first human being the Torah says something fascinating and it's not here but I'll quote it from memory the Torah says with regards to the creation of Adam Zakhar Unakeva Barat Otam he created them male and female and it talks about the one person the one creature Adam it says Zakhar Unakeva Barat Otam he created male and female he created them it switches from the singular to the plural in the one sentence and you know what that means that means according to our tradition that Adam the first human being initially was created two people Adam and Eve smushed together in fact the Quarantine tradition they were back-to-back so imagine if I stand here and someone else was standing back-to-back fit one facing one way one facing the other way back-to-back fused together until it came time that God said let's separate Adam and Eve and create two distinct beings and the purpose is that they should then in turn come once again together as one so two beings start off joined then are separated old two come back together again. And yes, when they were first connected, they were back to back. When they come back together again, of course, it's face to face, a deeper connection. So, we're going higher than before. But the point of this is that in the creation of the first human being, not only were the souls twinned, separated, and reunited, the bodies were twinned, separated, and reunited. But that was only for the first human being. And it's kind of like the template. As we saw in body, so too is in spirit and the messages for every one of us. That our soul begins paired up. And then we become separated. And then with God's help, we become reunited. But here's the interesting thing. And here's the important thing to remember. This class, this lesson, the thread that's running through this lesson is how your soul shows up in the most incredible and surprising ways and places. How your soul manifests itself when you didn't expect it to show up. And I asked a few moments ago, so why is it that we're so driven? Why is it that we don't like to be alone? Why is it that we want to be in a relationship? Why is it that we want to find love? Why is it that we dream of finding the right one? Why is it that we that we yearn for it? We think of marriage and we think of connection. We think of love and we think of intimacy. Why is it that we're so excited about this whole operation? Why is it that more songs, speak of music, have been written about love and marriage, more books, more poems than any other topic? It's not even close. More artwork has been created, more output about love and connection and romance and the magic of this. Why? Because that's what our soul knows. Our soul knows that togetherness. And when we are alone and not with our twin soul, you know what we feel? Existential loneliness. We feel a sense of emptiness. We feel a sense of lacking. We feel a sense of almost displacement. This also explains the joy of a wedding. Why is a wedding such a happy occasion? What are we dancing about? Is because of the food? Because of the band? I don't know if you heard recently. There was the first wedding on Pluto. You heard about this? Planet Pluto? Yeah, yeah. Apparently the band was great, but there was no atmosphere. I try. You weren't expecting a Pluto joke, I bet. Just drop like that. All right, look. Why the joy of the cast and why the joy of the wedding? Why is it like what are we so excited about the music? So excited about the food. So excited about what is it? You know what it is? Here's a cabalistic perspective on why it's such a happy occasion. Here's why. If you recognize that that your soul was together with another and then separated for decades, you know what it means to come back together again? You ever see God forbid if somebody gets separated from their family? Kidnapped? Hostages taken? Remember the hostages returning home? Wasn't that long ago? Remember the scenes? Describe the emotion. What were those scenes like? The Israeli hostages coming back home. Hugs, kisses, tears, screams, joy, pain, the whole, the whole gamut. Imagine decades of being separated. The soul being separated for decades and finally having a chance to come together. Is there any surprise that a wedding is a time of unbridled joy and tears and intense emotion? Because again, it's a reunion of two that were separated from each other for too long and that is the power of marriage, it's the power of a wedding. And so love and romance and connection and relationships from a cabalistic perspective is driven completely by the soul. We think, well, the body, the body wants it, the body needs it, also maybe. But at the core is the soul, it's an expression of soul, the soul wants to be reunited with its twin, with its partner. But of course this raises lots of questions. Anytime you talk about soulmates, lots of questions come up. Like, is it possible to miss my soulmate? When I say miss, I mean like miss out. Can I marry someone else's soulmate? Is it possible? Can I have multiple soulmates? What if a person is in a second marriage? Which one is the soulmate? Right? How does that work? etc. There are many questions like that. So the Zohar continues. Page 11. We have one more element of the, one more quote from the same passage that we just read a few moments ago. Here we have part B of that reading. I'm Alex. Do you mind reading one more? If you ask, how do we learn that one's match depending on the integrity of the product? This has sort of been true. So the two of them are who's actions are proper, who would be united with a true counterfeit, just as it were. Thank you. Thank you for reading that two powerful quotes from the Zohar. The second one that we just read shares the following. You know, if you look back at text 3a, it seemed to imply that when the owl and I'll just read directly from 3a, when the time of their pairing arrives, God reunites them. And it seems like, okay, so that's automatic. Do I have to put my name on an email? Like, do I sign up for that service? Like, how does God reunites the two together? Like, I got on a waiting list. Like, how does that happen? Is automatic? Zohar says, oh, by the way, not so simple. God wants us to reunite. God might help us reunite, but ultimately, it's up to our actions. It's up to our deeds. And that's what the Zohar says that those who have married, whose actions are proper will be reunited with their true counterfeit. You know what that means? You might meet your soulmate. You still have free choice. Free choice is not taken away. Right? You and your soulmate might meet. And at the end of the day, it's still about how you treat each other. It's still about how things unfold on the ground. And so is it possible to meet your soulmate and to say, I'm tired, not interested. It's possible. It's possible. Is it possible to be with your soulmate and somehow, you know, things don't work out from either side? It's possible. Is it possible to marry someone who's not your soulmate because you thought maybe it would work? And then you find someone else who is your soulmate. Absolutely. Is it possible any other type of combination? The answer is yes, because although the souls were paired above by God, once the souls come below, at that point, the ball is in our court and the choices are in our hands. And therefore, like everything else in life, God can guide us, God can direct us, God can hope for us, God can wish for us, but God doesn't do it for us. That's not how it works. Free choice is never taken away from the human endeavor, from the human experience. And thus, it's up to us. It's up to us to work on it and to make work. But I will say this. What Kabbalah says is somebody says, well, how? Somebody might ask, well, how do I know if I marry my soulmate? Like, is this my soulmate? Right? Kabbalah would say work under the assumption that the answer is yes. Do we know? Do we have like a soulmate? We don't have, I don't know what that would be, a metal soulmate detector. They have an event they had, although Amazon is selling a few, I saw 3995. There's no soulmate detector. But you and I are encouraged to operate under the assumption. If you're with them, if you're married, let's assume soulmates. By the way, this has tremendous implications. I'll share with you one analogy. I don't know if it's going to land, but it's an analogy that I was thinking about. Imagine there's a show at the Fox Theatre, in Midtown, and you're like, well, I'm going to go with my friends to see the show. Now, what kind of show are we watching? Let's, let's, let's crowd generate this. What are we, what are we going to see? Is it comedy? Is it a production? Hamilton. Hamilton. Let me tell you a story about Hamilton. This is a joke and a parable in a story. All right? Here we go. So this couple, they go to Hamilton. They show up, opening night, they have center center center center, right there. It's like they work this, but spend a ton of money on those tickets. This is on Broadway. This is like straight up. Good. As the show is, everyone kind of gets settled. So the wife notices that the row right in front of them, there's just a woman sitting there by herself with an MTC. "Can't it help?" and she can't hold herself back. She has to ask the question. So she says, "Excuse me." Got a question. I hate to be nosy, but I noticed you're sitting by yourself. What's going on? She says, "Well, it's actually very sad because my husband and I bought tickets months ago." He just, he passed away recently, and so I'm here by myself. She says, "Oh, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry." Then a few minutes later, she's like, "Wait, something doesn't make sense." So she says, "One more question, one more question." Suddenly, we have friends that you could have invited to take the other seat. We're family members. Why is it empty? So the woman says, "Well, everyone's at the funeral." Anyway, so we're going to see Hamilton, and all right, so we're going to see Hamilton and we dial up an Uber, as one does. Uber. Great. Uber pulls up, but you got a big group. How big is the group? Five people. Now, you didn't go for the Uber XL. You went for the regular Uber. First of all, on a regular Uber, whenever you're like, "Can we get it to the front seat?" I like it, but you're like, "You're crazy?" It's COVID. I'm kidding. I don't say COVID, but you're like, "What is this COVID?" You're like, "What's wrong with the front seat?" They don't want you to sit in the front seat, but you're like, "We're going to go with the front seat." You're like, "Can we squish four in the back?" And the guy's like, "This is where I draw the line." So what are you going to do? One of your friends can't control it. You call the Uber, can't hold everybody. So what do you do to that person? What do you say? I'll wait and see what you call another Uber. Yeah. No you don't. You say, "Good luck. We'll see you there." You call your own Uber, make your own plan. Marta runs whenever it runs. Good luck with that. Right? We do what we need to do when we get into the car, and then they have to make their own way. That's kind of how it works. Let me ask you a question. What if? Just suspend a little disbelief here. What if somehow your leg couldn't fit into the Uber? What do you say to your leg? Like, "Oh, we'll just take you off and we'll see you there." You know why? What's the difference between the other guy and your leg? I know it's obvious, but let's do it anyway. That's technical. You know why? Because it's you. Them. Loss 'em gain. You can go on your own. But me. It's my leg. I'm not going somewhere else other than my leg. It's not happening. So here's the question. How do you look at your significant other? Are they like, "Well, you know, like a plus." What's one? Are they part of me? See, part of the implication, part of the beautiful implication of this notion, this capitalistic idea of soulmates, of twin souls above, is that your soulmate is not just your basher, it's your destiny, it's part of you. They are part of you. You are part of them. Yeah, I often tell people, I don't know how often it is. I've mentioned this in the past that like, if there's a scenario and you find yourself with your significant other, you catch yourself trying to win something, you got to ask yourself the question. What does it mean to win? I win and they lose. How is that a win? If my twin soul, right, if my other half, if my part, the part of my being loses, because I won, how was that a victory? What is that? What does that icky shuffle? If you know that, that is unbelievable, Cincinnati Bengals, icky, anybody remember that? Anyway, if that is your touchdown dance in the end zone, that you were able, remember that you were able to, you were able to best the other, because you proved that you were right and they were right, and that's the, the, the joy, the valve. You win because they lose, they lose you lose, that's how that works. They win, you win, they lose, you lose, it's all the same, it's all the same appendage as it were. Anyway, these are some implications of the capitalistic insight into soulmates, into love, into marriage, into the drive to connect, the drive to unite, the drive to, in fact, reunite. And so we've had two topics. Before we move on to sleep, we have two topics. We've had two topics. Let me summarize. Again, the thread, I'm going to keep on mentioning this, just so there's no ambiguity as to what we're doing here tonight. We're not only talking about a popery of interesting topics and how souls show up, but the goal of tonight is to recognize that in your mundane everyday activities, what's driving it, what's pushing it forward is not your body, it's your soul. According to Kabbalah, your soul is leading, is leading the charge. When it comes to music, who's leading the charge, who's buying the concert tickets, who's spending a thousand dollars on Taylor Swift? And yes, I am a swifty, I'm not. But right, who's leading the charge for that, who's leading the charge? You guessed, the soul. The soul loves music. The soul is incubated in a space of music, who leads the charge for love and marriage and intimacy, who leads that charge, you know who it is. Once again, it's the soul we think, it's the body, it's the soul. It's the soul showing up, the soul shows up in the most remarkable places. Let's talk about sleep. You know, we're told to sleep a third of the day, eight hours a day healthy sleep. I'm not going to ask you to raise your hands as to who sleeps eight hours a day, although that would be interesting. Eight hours a day, but that means that if you do sleep eight hours a day, which is a third of the day, that means by the time you hit 90, and we also live to 120, so like a yarn to many years, the long life, by the time you hit 90, that means you'll have slept 30 years. That's a lot of years of sleep. That's a lot of sleep. 30 years. It's spraying zes into the air, what 30 years, 30 years of sleep, wow, that's crazy. That's Michigan as the kids like to say. So what's the deal with sleep? What is the. Now, again, it depends on who you ask. You'll get different answers as to why we sleep or we need to sleep. If you ask a biologist, they'll say, well, cellular repair, and that's not about your cell phone, hormonal regulation. If you ask the philosopher, they may say, well, this is a great way to get a fresh start and a fresh perspective every morning, and all of that might be true, but ask a catalyst why we sleep and why we need to sleep. You might get a very different answer, but an answer that's from the inside out. See, you and I typically think that sleep is for the body, but you know what Kabbalah says? You could probably guess it. You could even lead you into this collective answer, "Sleep," according to Kabbalah is for the, "Oh, you guys are so good." In fact, I changed my name for this course, "To Ari Soul-ish." (Laughter) "Ish-ish." No, but "Ish" could be man and Hebrew, whatever, all right. So, look. It's not felt like that I know, don't take me, don't take me so seriously right now. But sleep, now take me seriously. Sleep, according to Kabbalah, is not so much about, although it also benefits the body, but primarily driving is the soul now. The question is, I understand why the body, the temporal, limited, finite, flawed, whatever body needs sleep, but why would the soul, which is a piece of God, a piece of perfection, why would that need sleep? And the answer is very simple, you know what the soul is doing all day? It's dealing with you and I, it's dealing with all the, just to use more yiddish, because I'm in the mood. It's dealing with all the mishagas, all the craziness, dealing with all the stuff that we run around and chase and, you know, blah, blah, blah. And the soul, everywhere we go, there's the soul, turn around, boom, the soul is there. We can't go anywhere without the soul, that's kind of an implicit and inherent truth. So everywhere we go, the soul is, the soul can get exhausted, not physically exhausted, but spiritually exhausted. The soul can become depleted, because the soul all day, every time we're like, oh, what are we going to eat? The soul is like, food again, and we're like, oh, but there's a, there's a fun thing to do. The soul is like, oh, again, all right, when can it, so when does the soul have a chance to, like, just not be involved in the bodies running around and just connect with its source? You know when? When the body's sleeping, and the body's not doing anything anyway. The body is quiet. The soul's like, this is great. I got to go. But in truth, it's being driven by the soul. The soul needs time to recharge, to plug back in. The soul is expending its energy throughout the day and the body throughout the day and in our worldly activities, and at night, you know what the soul does, it plugs back into its source. Let's take a look at this. Text number four, as it Ellen, yes, Ellen, perfect. Text, I'm trying, I'm trying, text number four on page 13. The part of the soul that gives life to the body does so by way of descent. all but the soul is a portion. of godliness from above and once stood before him in love and awe. So its presence in the body is by definition a decline. When a person prays or performs the mitzvah, the soul stirs upward and rises, but it remains clothed in the body. A true return takes place at night when a person sleeps and entrusts the soul to its father in heaven. It is written, "In to your hand I entrust by spirit." The first letters of these three words are "Bet, Aleph, and Rush," which spell "Beer," "A Well." Just as a well flows upward from below, so the soul rises each night from below to be entrusted with god. This is De Shuba. Return and it's truest. Thank you for reading that. It was perfect. There's so much to unpack here. So let's go piece by piece step by step. Number one, the soul throughout our waking hours is hustling with the body. It is activating the body. It is, I don't know what the right word is, but it's in the modality of giving, it's giving, it's giving life, giving energy, giving vitality to the body. It's expanding. That's the word. It's expanding energy throughout the day. And then the soul needs time for itself. It's time to recharge and to plug into what it needs to plug into. You know, like all of us need that. We all need that. So the soul needs that also. And that happens at night. And he says, "This is the deeper meaning of the verse from Tillum from Psalms, Bi Yarcha, Afkir Ruhi." By the way, we say this in the part of the bedtime prayers after the Shma, we say these words, Bi Yarcha, Afkir Ruhi, in your hand, meaning God's hand, I entrust my spirit. And the first three letters of those, the first letters of those three words, Bi Yarcha, Afkir Ruhi, you could see figure 1.2 on page 14 spelled the Hebrew word "bear," which means "well." And there's a beautiful message there. What is a well? A well is when you draw water upward in the same thing as you when we sleep, the soul is drawn upward to its source. But I think there's something else which we'll talk about in a second about drawing inspiration from, but again, we'll get there in a second. One thing I do want to mention is that the last line of that text that we just read text for says, "This is Tushuva in his Tushuva sense." Now you and I hear the word Tushuva. And if you're familiar with the word, what's the first thing you think of Tushuva? When do we do Tushuva? You know I'm Kipper, but we typically associate with sin, repentance, you did something wrong, you got to do Tushuva. And he says that's not the true, that's not the purest form of Tushuva. That's like Tushuva when you met, but that's the purest form, that's not a pure form, literally it's not a pure form of Tushuva. The purest form of Tushuva is literal return when the soul reunites with its source. That straight up what Tushuva and its purest sense means and its true sense is the soul connecting, reconnecting, so up to its source at the time of sleep. So think about it maybe in a very simple example, let's say you have a phone, right? And throughout the day you're using the phone and the energy is being depleted and the battery is going down. And you know what they say, you've probably seen the meme, you've probably seen the meme, the Chanaka related meme that says if you want to know what it's like that one day's worth of oil lasted for eight days, Miracle Chanaka, it's kind of like your battery is on 3% and you lasted the whole day, like that's a miracle, right? Okay, when we edit this video, we'll have a laugh track, though it's fine, I said, okay, now we'll just move that, we'll move that there, it's fine, editing is easy, AI will take care of it or whatever, all right, you guys are great, I love you. So here's the thing, we were depleted and then what do you do? You plug in the phone, why cause the battery needs to connect to the source, to the electricity, and the soul is in a similar space, the soul needs to reconnect, the soul needs to draw to be nourished from its source after dealing with the body and expanding its energy and the body the whole day, the soul has to return to its source. What happens at night when the soul sleeps and it plugs in? What is it doing? What does it mean? What does it, so we have a beautiful text from the Arizo, this is text number six, take a look at this, text number six is from Rebekah and Vital. Rebekah and Vital was the primary student of the great Arizo. The Arizo was one of the cabalists in Svart in the 1500s and he did not write down his teachings, but his student Rebekah and Vital did, and this is what Rebekah and Vital writes in text six about his teacher, their Arizo, being able to read people and read their souls before they went to bed. Yeah, okay, text number six. No, no, no, we're skipping five, where it says up and heaven, yeah, the next one, text six. Up in heaven, the soul engages in Torah studying for the entire duration of the state until the person awakens. My teacher, Rabbi Yitzhak Yuria, Arizo, we look at a person's forehead after sunset and discern which area of the Torah the soul was destined to study that night, but Arizo has a whole mission up of another work of the centuries. He would then instruct that person to read the prophecy that material before going to sleep. Every night your soul, my soul, reconnects to its source and how does it connect to the source and what does that look like? It's starting Torah and their Arizo. The great Kabbalah's their Arizo could look at souls. I know you've seen those like infrared thermometers, you know, you don't need to stick it in the tongue or under it, right? It's like it reads the forehead. He was able to read from the forehead which where that soul, which part of Torah that soul was destined to study that night and said, hey, get a head start on that and get ready for sleep for that experience of your soul and sleep by studying those passage of Torah even before you go to sleep and you're waking hours and your final waking hours right before bedtime. The point is that we set two things so far. So why do we need sleep? Because of the body but also the soul, the soul need sleep. What does it do during sleep? It gets nourished from its source and what is what activity is involved in? It's involved in Torah study. Now, next point is about dreams because the question is, well, if the if this of your soul is studying Torah while you sleep, is there a way that that can trickle down into your consciousness on any level? And the answer is yes, perhaps. It's possible, as we'll see, it's possible that with dreams, sorry, that when we dream, we'll be able to, even in our dreams subconscious, or I don't know what it's called, maybe subconscious, have insight of what the soul was studying that night. Text number seven. This is such a beautiful text about the power of dreams. Laurie, want to do it? Okay, tab page 17, text seven. Good dreams that can even take Torah concepts to resolve by and large. I'm diligent in one's Torah study during the day. We'll be studying Torah with great diligence or exert ourselves intensely in prayer. Our souls ascend at night to the spiritual realms and draw lightness of life, sublime life force, and explain the results. They are then formed of new insights and revealed legal and intermissible dimensions of the Torah. Each according to the efforts and the course of effort. Thank you. Let me break down this text and explain what's going on. So according to Kabbalah, this is what happens. The soul at night studies Torah. The only question is, will that trickle down to our subconscious and then our consciousness? Will we somehow glean messages in our dreams, in our sleep? Consciously or subconsciously about the Torah that's studied and the answer is it depends on how your day went. If your day was plugged in, during the day, your body was aligned with your soul. You were studying Torah, you were locked into Mitzvah, good deeds, et cetera. If you were locked in, body and soul, if you were in alignment, then when your soul has its experience at night, reconnecting and studying Torah, guess what happens? You're in alignment, that might trickle back down. No guarantees, but it might very well trickle back down and you'll have a dream, you'll wake up and be like, wait a second, I think I dream something about Torah. It can trickle down. But what if, and that's my Talmudic tune, but what if, throughout the day, you were out of alignment? What if you were here and you were there and you were distracted and you didn't have time and you weren't focused on your spiritual pursuits and your soul was running and hustling throughout the day, then even as the soul has its experience, your dream is probably not going to be consistent with that experience. In fact, the Mitzvahs continue to say your dreams are serving in that context another purpose, which is clearing space from the distraction for the soul to have clarity. And now we go to the next step and let me explain what I just said and that will be the next step. You ever have a dream that makes no sense? Yeah? I mean, I would probably ask the other way. Have you ever had a dream that made sense? But most dreams are like nonsense. The question is, where does that come from? And you can ask doctor, biologist, whatever, and they can give you one answer, but here's what comes ballad says it's very simple the soul you know what why am I saying this let's read it in text 8 this is soul shedding soul shedding is a brand new winter Olympic sport 2020 something whatever the next year is soul shedding you should see the flips these guys doing the air with this I'm trying text number 8 John please when the soul ascends during sleep the thoughts we had throughout the day rise with it because their thoughts flow from the soul itself when the soul seeks to ascend to the lower or higher garden of Eden the residue of foreign thoughts holds it back like a bird caught in a snare souls are generally compared to birds as is well known like a trap that ensnared the bird's foot on holding thoughts that enclave the soul and struck his descent this is the function of dreams they benefit the divine soul for through them the soul releases those instructing thoughts and shake itself free of them just as bodies may help here when it's waiting thank you let me explain this so we read it in Kabul we read it in the mystical language and let me explain this maybe a little bit more pragmatically so imagine oh have you ever had the experience where you were downloading an app on your iPhone and it's like there's no space is it ever happened one person had a full iPhone you guys are all said you can it's amazing everyone has had this experience where you're trying to download something there's no room so what do you do so you're like let's say it's not an app let's say something critical you have to download something you need it and whatever now you're out of space or your email you ever get that pop up a Gmail it's kind of like a ransom note it's like oh if you wish to continue to access your email you're gonna pay us for 99 a month or say goodbye to all your correspondences for the last 20 years that's kind of how it is anyway so what do you do you desperately start the leading finals you're like oh I don't even know where to start right like let's rank it largest the smallest like what do we get rid of like which baby pictures do we not need anymore because they'll never know I'm kidding they have all the baby pictures backed up but right you start the leading files and the same thing is true at night throughout the day we got distracted and the soul becomes a little bit bogged down he used the example of a bird in a trap and I don't know I don't relate to that I'm like I'm seeing a bird trap but whatever it is but like it's it's it's it's it's a little stuck it's a little stuck the soul is a little could be a little stuck if we're involved in distraction throughout the day and so how do we unstuck the soul we got to delete some files and what does it look like when the bodies or the consciousness is files are being deleted so that the soul can sore above and reconnect which is what it needs to do you know what it looks like you ever drag a bunch of files to be deleted you hit the lead and to give you like animations and I don't think they do but let's assume they give you animations of things flying around folders being empty and being cleared and that's what dreaming is because when you went to Starbucks and the person walked in with a cute dog and then you looked outside and people were playing frisbee and then that night you dreamt about a cute dog drinking coffee on top of a flying frisbee as one does and it could happen oh in your dreams it could happen right you know what's happening you're deleting all those files so that the soul can be a little bit unclogged so that you're freeing up space and if you look look at that last paragraph that John just read this is the function of dreams they benefited divine soul for through them the soul releases the obstructing thoughts and shakes itself free of them just as the body is made healthier when it when it's waste is expelled you're getting rid of things that you don't need and when you get rid of those thoughts they sometimes end up coming you're filtering through in a little bit convoluted fashion yes correct guess who beat into the punch boom not that it's a race but we were there first but not that it's a race yeah also there's many layers to dreams yeah also there's many layers to dreams if you act out in your dream what doesn't happen in your life and then it resolves it deletes so then you feel relieved yeah it could work out like that it would be nice if it always worked out like that I remember I think I gave up at some point you're trying to like you know conjure up a dream you know like I'm gonna dream about this that or the other doesn't always work with it doesn't doesn't I was a really and you fall see blessing that doesn't work it did work wait it did work or did not right okay good so let's break down slowly what Cabalas taught us so far about sleeping and dreaming so we have like I think three steps so far we're about to get to step four so just to just so we're on the same page your clarity is important so step one sleep is important for the soul not just the body because that's when the soul can recharge the soul also needs to recharge and that's when the soul reconnects with its source and that's tremendously beneficial for the soul that's step one step two when the soul when we are asleep in the soul reconnects it's possible that if we've been aligned throughout the day then those then the Torah insights that the soul is studying and gleaning can actually filter into our dreams that will dream about these deep insights of Torah that's step two steps three is if we're not aligned in the day then not only are we not gonna dream about the Torah insights of the soul the soul itself might be a little stuck in its takeoff because it's being bobbed down by stuff which then activates another function of dreams which is to purge that's a good word to purge the thoughts and the chaos that inundated our minds throughout the day and our experiences and that comes out a little bit chaotic in our dreams that's all I might say well what about nightmares what about nightmares nightmares and I'll say well don't watch the scary movies and maybe that'll help but listen I I've been known to listen to a true crime podcaster to the story the unsolved mystery of the woman murdered in the woods in 1980 I'm like oh what am I doing to myself why am I listening to this so here's the thing here's the thing any true crime that anyone relate to this to this thank you thank you I can relate I'm like why am I doing this to myself but it's intriguing it's like did they catch the guy it's always the guy so so what are we saying let me let me oh so nightmares so nightmares come when not only will we distract it during the day but there's actually negative forces that are holding us back and the negative forces don't allow the restfulness to happen you see in options one and two either the either it's such a pure launch that it even comes back in our dreams the tolerance back in our dreams or the launch is being held back a little bit but we can purge it so that it launches in both those scenarios eventually the launch happens but it's possible that during the day that we get so so bogged down by negativity that literally literally the soul can't launch and can't take off and cannot find rest and that manifests itself as nightmares and so what is the resolution what is the solution to that so there's a few parts number one during the day try to be more connected to spiritual things and less involved in the stuff that's from the opposite side number one number two launch into sleep intentionally right it's not I'm gonna date myself hey come here often I'm kidding not that date myself but I mean date myself don't worry about Leno or Letterman I know they don't exist or Carson how about a little Torah study before bed a little Torah podcast before bed a little prayer before bed and that can launch us into a serene space of rest I want to end I want to conclude tonight's class with one final topic animals raise of hand if you have a pet raise of hand if you have a pet raise of hand if you've ever had a pet all right every hand should go up I grew up with a cat fluffy was his name oh mom you remember fluffy my mom's online on zoom from Pittsburgh so grew up with a cat there were multiple cats not at the same time necessarily but grew up with a pet I've been asked this question many times over the years do animals have souls do animals go to heaven what does Judaism say about it was Kabbalah say about it and consistently throughout the years I've answered I've given the same answer and the answer is and if you've asked this question then you'll know I've given this answer and that is I'm not sure but I've never encountered it I've never never really read up on it I've never seen this discussion well leave it up to the crack research team at at JLI because in preparing this course we came up with a source on this and it's incredible turns out the 4th Kabad rebel he was a mystic and a capitalist known as the rebel my rash of a shmool of LeBavish turns out that he writes he records in writing at the date that he He had with a philosopher about this very question do animals have souls? And by the way, let me clarify the question. Obviously, everything that exists and lives has a soul. That's not the question. The question is, is it like a soul of a human being which has the following two features? Number one, the soul existed before the physical thing existed, and the soul will continue to exist after the physical thing exists. Does that make sense? We believe, right? I don't think we stated this tonight, but I think this about Judaism and Kabbalah, that we believe in a soul that precedes or predates a person, and we thought that was soulmates, right, with twin souls, and will continue long after the body ceases to be animated by set soul. So we believe in the eternality of the soul. Well, the questions do animals have the same type of soul? Or is it just their life, when they're alive, and when they're gone, their soul also dissipates, and ends, which is it? And again, I've always said, I don't know, I've never seen it, but there's a source. So this mystic is in a debate with a philosopher. The philosopher says, animals don't have this type of soul. But the rabbi Maharaj says, not true. And he points to a bunch of sources, I'm going to read these quickly. Text number nine. Text number nine is the vision of a vesicle, your cheskal anavi. The vesicle, the prophet, has a vision of the divine chariot, and he describes the divine entourage. And he describes it in almost human or anthropomorphic, if you want to read fancy terms. He describes a throne, and on top of the throne is the visage of a person, but that's not a person. That's God. However, he describes it. And there's a chariot. At the base of the chariot, there are wheels, and here's what's supporting the chariot. Text nine. I'll read this. There are faces. This is supporting the chariot. We're similar to those of humans, and all four had the face of a lion on their right, and all four had the face of an ox on their left, and all four had the face of an eagle, a human, a lion, an ox, and an eagle. And the Kabbalah say, or this Kabbalah says, you know what it means? These are chambers of souls. When an animal is born, a soul is taken from one of these chambers, the face of the lion, the chamber of souls for all undemesticated animals, wild animals. The chamber of the ox, the souls of all domesticated animals. The chamber of the face of the eagle, the chamber for all the souls of birds, all animals and birds have, now you know, what about fish? Good filter. I don't know, I don't know about fish. So all animals have souls that come from a repository of souls. Furthermore, we read in the story of the Torah about Balaam's talking donkey. Remember that? Before there were Shrek's donkey. There was the Torah's talking donkey. And the donkey had intelligence, and it's not an angel. And then we have a Talmudic story, text, and I'll read this one as well. Rabbi Pinchaus Ben-Yahir was on his way to ran some captives. He stopped at an inn where his host put out barley for his donkey, but the donkey refused to eat. They sifted the barley, but it still wouldn't eat. They separated the champ by hand, but it refused once more. What a picky donkey you might think. Rabbi Pinchaus said, maybe the barley wasn't tithed just to explain. When ancient Israel, before you ate the produce, you had to give a tenth to the temple, to the Levite, in the temple. And until you did that mits of the tithe, you couldn't eat the other 90 percent. It was off limits until you did the mits of. So Rabbi Pinchaus said, ah, maybe the donkey is not eating because the tithe wasn't given. They tithed and the donkey ate. Rabbi Pinchaus said, this poor creature is going to do the will of its creator, and you're feeding it on tithe produce. What do you think you're doing? So here's the point, you know what the point is? The donkey knew the difference between tithe and untite produce, and the donkey cared enough because it was the donkey of a Jew of Rabbi Pinchaus Banyari cared enough. And that, according to the Rabbi Mairash, that's enough of a proof that animals have tremendously powerful souls, text 11. This is the final text of today's lesson. All animals possess souls, nevertheless, animals do not typically speak because the soul's power of speech is not shined within them in a revealed way. It exists only in a concealed non-permediating state yet. At a time of need, this latent soul potential can shine through. As we find with Balam's donkey, where God opened the mouth of the donkey, we also find the tomb, as we just read, that the donkey of Rabbi Pinchaus Banyari would not eat untite produce, meaning it had the wisdom to recognize that the father was untied, and that being an animal belonged to a Jew, it was forbidden to eat untite produce. This would be remarkable even in a human being of a morso and an animal, but as explained above, the animal's soul enables an occasion, an occasion, revelation of wisdom and speech. We also observe that animals can be trained to understand human speech, even though by their nature, they do not. Our explanation above accounts for this. And what is the explanation above? That is that animals possess all animals possess souls. And when we say it, so goes on bless you, when we say that animals possess souls, it doesn't just mean that they're alive. Everyone knows that they're alive. They're moving around. They're animated with life, what it means is that they have a soul that predates their existence, their birth, and a soul that lives on afterward. And thus, the soul contains tremendous power. And so now, from now on, whenever somebody asks me, do dogs go to heaven? You know what my answer is? Absolutely. Absolutely, especially as he continues to explain, which we don't have here, but in the text, he continues to explain, that when an animal fulfills its mission or bless you, or interacts and assists a human in their mission, and that could be as simple as offering companionship and love to a person that needs it at that moment, right? So when an animal does that, certainly, it gains tremendous merit and tremendous blessing for its soul, which lives on in the afterlife. So is it, what does it tell of the dog, has 11, because he has a hard time when all the Jews left in each other? Yeah. The dogs at the time of the 10th plague, the plague of the first born death, there are no leyecherenzkele of the Shona, the dogs in the bark, they wasn't scary, and the dogs are rewarded. The Torah says, you've got to take care of the dog, if you have any extra meat, like hell of Tashluchunoto, you should give it, the Torah specifies, give it to the dogs as a reward. Something special. Now, if you're a cat owner, I'm not going to get into the debate of dogs and cats, that's not, that's not tonight, and I don't want to bring out the big guns for this big philosophical debate. What I will say is that in this final point, we still do see a little bit of a contrast to our main point today, and that is the point of tonight's lesson, as you've heard now, probably for the fourth or fifth time, is that number one, we have a soul, but number two, and more importantly, for tonight, is that our soul leaks through what we might think of as the boundaries of its container, right? So the body contains the soul, not so much, the soul leaks in every experience. Your love of music is soulful. Your love of another is soulful, your sleep, and your dreams, it's all soulful. And the one thing, though, that we just encounter is that when it comes to animals, we don't always see that, because they can't speak, and they can, you know, barring some miraculous exception. They don't function in the same way as humans, but yet we still believe, and we still know that they have the soul inside. But the message for us, human beings, who walk on two legs, not four. The message for us is, and one of the lessons that the mystics tell us is that an animal that walks on all four can never look up, the UNI that walk upright, we have the ability we have the muscles, we can look up. And the message in looking up is the following. Number one, it's important to remember where we come from. And number two, it's important to remember the gift that we have inside. You have a soul inside that is so vibrant and so alive, it's literally buzzing and humming throughout the day, throughout your experiences, influencing you in ways that you can't imagine. And so here's my final parting words for tonight. You are way more spiritual than you think, than you might think. You might think me, spiritual, I'm a mundane person living a mundane life, not so fast. You like music? You're in a relationship or want to be in a relationship? You sleep, you sleep at night, you have dreams, you're a spiritual person. You just didn't know it until Kabbalah pointed it out from the inside out. Thank you for joining me tonight for Lesson One of Kabbalah and the Hidden Architecture of You. I hope you enjoyed it. Before you go, two things, two things, number one, if you know anybody that would appreciate this course, that would love the conversation, invite them, they can always try out a class and see if they like it, see if they want to join, either way bring friends, family, strangers, bring them and to enjoy this course. Number two, here's what we're going to cover next week. And let me read for my notes because I'm all in on Lesson One, I don't have to my brain space for Lesson Two until I read it for my own notes. Alright, Lesson Two, next week, the class is entitled Traces, oh this is good. of the spherote in body and soul. And this, I mentioned this in the introduction, how we mirror the microcosm, mirrors the macrocosm. Today's lesson took us deep inside our soul. Next week we climb higher, exploring how the body and soul, both components down here, reflect God's spherote. If you don't know what spherode are, it's a spherote, come back next week. We'll talk more about it. We'll discover which parts of the body correspond to which spherote uncover the secret embedded in God's name and how it maps onto the body and soul and see how all of this guides us toward living more whole lives. We'll explore this and more in our incredible second session of Kabbalah and the Hidden Architecture of you same time, same batch channel. See you then. Oh, and one second, if you were trying out the class, I hope you enjoyed it and want to stay on for it. If you haven't yet signed up for it and want to sign up for it, reach out, let me know, email me or do it online. If you didn't take a textbook and need a textbook, stop by now and grab a book. Otherwise, we'll see you soon. - Other questions. - Hey, yeah. - From a human point of view. - Yeah. - It's great to be born as a soulist. - Pleasure, but the soulist paid dreams. - Ah, I love that. Thank you. - The soulist paid together, reached the parts, you get home and then you spend your whole life. - You're going to find a solid mate and do that. - Yeah. - From the soul's perspective, being taken and put into the body of his wife. - It's very painful. It says that above when the angel of conception tells the soul gets the call from the bullpen, like you're in, the soul is distraught. And then the soul has reminded that it's serving a mission. It's serving a mission. Meaning it's not about you, the soul. It's not about the soul, if I left up to its own devices, the soul would love to stay in heaven. But it's not up to the soul. It's like, I'll give you an example. Imagine you're with someone you love. And they say, this is an example from back in the day maybe, it's a Sunday morning. You're hanging out together and they're like, can you go down to the corner store and get the newspaper? And you're like, no, I'm going to spend time with you. And they're like, well, I appreciate that. But me, the one that you went to spend time with is actually asking you to go to the corner store and get the paper. So it's almost like, if you really love me, right? Then please do what I'm asking you. I want to send you on a mission. I want to send you to, and so God tells the soul, I know you love me, I want to stay with me. But I'd like you to go down to earth and make a difference and make an impact. And so that's kind of the frame you have. It's so beautiful. Yeah, it's so beautiful. How appropriate the text that you got. Oh my gosh. What, I'm sitting again. The text that you read about the two souls being one. Oh my god, by the way, I was thinking of you. You can't make that up. You can't make it more than that. I got to tell you something. One second, let me take off the mics for a second. And then, what can we want to stay right here? Stay right here. Let me say, let me sign up. Guys, good to see you, good to see everyone. Thanks for joining. Hope you all enjoyed it. I'm going to, I'm going to sign up. All right, we'll see you guys. Lila Tove, thanks for being part of it. We'll see you guys soon. [INAUDIBLE] So I have to tell you this. When I did that, when I got the whole section,