Speaker 1All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to Kabbalah and the Hidden Architecture of View. So they tell, all right, so here's a question. Before they tell, here's a question. What happens after a person passes away? What does Kabbalah say? The answer is, the children start fighting. It's terrible. Guys, don't laugh at that one. I'm kidding. Next. So the rabbi is speaking to a congregant, and he says to the congregant, you know, as you get older in age, you should start thinking about the hereafter. And the man says, Rabbi, I'm always thinking about the hereafter. Every time I walk into a room, I think to myself, what am I hereafter? Aye. You know what? It hurts me more than it hurts you. Aye, also. All right. Let's go. So my friends, I'll just say this. Get ready to be blown away tonight. This class. Ari, I'm not blaming the jokes. Okay, good. She doesn't take credit for the jokes. All right. Duly noted, mom. Now, here's the deal.
Speaker 2You've got to get your trigger figured. I'm going to
Speaker 1mute my mother. Not happening. It's open mic. Now, here's. Here's the deal. Okay, this class is a masterpiece. Get ready to be literally blown away today. You're going to going to encounter some of the most fascinating and mind blowing Kabbalah out there, and it might just change your life. So let's get everybody up to speed about where we are here in lesson number three. So a very quick review, 60 seconds or less, hopefully. So in lesson one, we looked inside and the premise of lesson one is you are more soulful than you think. You might think that me, I'm a physical creature, a soul. I don't even know. You are way more soulful than you think. Your love of music, your need for sleep, your love for love. All of that is actually your soul driving the train. So you're way more soulful than you think. That was less than one lesson. Number two, we spoke about we looked above and we said that you and I are way more divine than we might think. So this is not about the soul spilling over into physical life. This is about both your soul and your body being created in the divine image. And we said last week that indeed, when the verse in Genesis says that God created the human being in his image and in his likeness, according to Kabbalah, what that means is what that means is that you and I are imprinted with a divine DNA. The divine source code of existence, which is the 10 sphere wrote, God employs tense. If he wrote to create the world and those same 10 powers are imprinted upon the human soul and we said last week, the human body as well. That was last week. Today we get way more specific and way more unique because based on last week, all you and I know is that all human beings are created in the divine image today. Today, we go way further and the premise of today's class is not only are you creating the divine image like everyone else, you have a unique image that is exclusively yours and that is shaped by incredible divine cosmic forces. Today we'll talk about how the sphere wrote specifically, um, shape and mold your personality. And we'll also talk about reincarnation and how. Previous lifetimes can also shape your life today in a very unique and specific way. So if you've ever felt a little deja vu, tonight's class is just what the doctor ordered. All right. Today's lesson takes part in three acts. Act number one, the Kabbalah of attraction. Act number two, echoes of the past and act number three, unfinished business. Buckle up. This is going to be an incredible ride. So let's begin. In order to get into our first big idea, I want to quickly reset once again, the main idea that we explored last week. And that is that in order for an infinite God to create a finite world, how do you go from infinity to finite reality? So God projects, God emanates, God manifest tense. If he wrote 10 finite. Tools, let's say with which God creates the fabric of reality, all of existence is composed of these 10 of these, all existence is, is woven of these 10 these 10 energies and the human being, as I mentioned a few moments ago in the review, the human being has an imprint of all 10 sphere road. However, what's really important is individually. Although we all have all 10, if he wrote individually, everyone has a different combination, maybe the best example. I don't know if it's the best example, but the example that comes to mind is my new reality cooking show. Have you heard about this? My new reality show? Yeah, we got picked up. Hey doctor. We got picked up by, um, uh, by Netflix. I'm kidding. Of course this is not true. This is just, this is such as an example, folks. All right, come on. Um, so imagine this, this reality show where everyone gets the same ingredients. Okay. Maybe it's, maybe it's like this. I'm still tweaking the concept. There is a recipe and you get the recipe and you get the ingredients, but the catch is you don't have the quant, you don't have the, um, quantities of the amounts, the specifications. So it's like the right, it's like the ingredients, but you don't get the proportions. Now here's the thing. Everyone's going to make it differently. And then the judges vote on who made it better. Same recipe, same ingredients who blended it better. And you're thinking, okay, and now what? Here we go. And you and I, everyone in this room has all 10 ingredients/Safirod. You have Chachma. You have Binah. Chachma is great. If you have something in your throat, you have Chachma, never been clear, right? You have Binah. You have Chesed. That's also good. Gevurah, Teferet, Netzachot. You said you got everything. I have it. However, and I think I mentioned this before. This last week, everyone's got a little bit of a different ratio. A quarter of a teaspoon of this one, a tablespoon of that one, two cups, a pinch. Which one? How much Chesed do you have? How much Gevurah do you have? We'll focus on these two. I'll ask you a question. Before I ask you the question, let's reset Chesed and Gevurah, because we'll focus on that extensively today, at least in the opening. What is Chesed? Kindness. Kindness. What else? Generosity. Generosity. Good. What else? Giving. Giving. Excellent. Generosity, giving, kindness, love, connection. I always say Chesed is like collapsing space. Chesed is, it's an energy that flows, emanates from within to without. It's giving. Great. Do you know someone like that? Very generous. Very generous. Very generous. Very generous. Very generous. Very generous. I'm going to ask you a question. Very generous. Very generous. Very generous. generous, very giving, very loving. When they see something or someone, the first reaction is, hey, how can I help? Chesed. Gevurah. Who remembers what we said about Gevurah last week? Or who knows about Gevurah? Who's got some Gevurah intel? Huh? No, no, but tell me, tell me. Courage. Okay, we had a different angle on Gevurah. Good. Boundaries. Excellent. What else? I like that. Strength. Excellent. What else? Strict. Discipline. Boundaries. Strength. These are all hallmarks of Gevurah. By the way, in case you're wondering, how could one thing have so many different? Because welcome to life. There's so many shades of, have you ever shopped, oh, hey, how about this one? Have you ever shopped for paint and thought you were going to paint your house gray, only to walk into Sherwin-Williams to find out that there's a thousand and one actual shades of, and you're like, what? There's smoky gray and lumen gray, and I'm just making up words, but so do they, right? Whoever made that up. Huh? Repose. There you have it. What's repose? Alright. Well, there you have it. I mean, look, look. Everything's a different shade, so you have one's energy. Gevurah, it's got different shades. It's a little restraint, a little judgment, boundaries, discipline, strength, all of the above. Now, let me ask you this question. Do you know someone who's very disciplined? Someone who loves systems, right? Loves putting things into a spreadsheet, organizing. Loves their own space and loves giving space to others? Well, then you just might be a Gevurah person. said forgetting the guy's name you might be a renek right so that's gavura so raise a fan do you know someone who you and it might be you do you know someone who's uh chesed persona yeah you know someone's gavura persona yeah right i think we all know all of the above how is that possible it's possible because although everyone has chesed and gavura some people have a little amped up chesed and a little amped down if that's the right term gavura and some have vice versa some have a little bit more gavura a little bit less chesed everyone's got everything but the question is the ratio last week i believe i said it's like a sound board mixer right different frequencies of sound and the question is on that slider on the board which one do you i mean listen you're mixing right everywhere now who mixes it god mixes no two souls are exactly alike the precise blend of the frequencies of the levels of your chesed gavurah is exceptionally unique and forms your care and so what we're going to do tonight at the beginning is explore this utilizing a very interesting and i'll just say this very perplexing tamarik passage take a look at text 2a we're going to start right here terry if you don't mind i'll ask you to read please text 2a on page number i think it's 73 in your books or 72. which one is it yeah is it 72 72 all right text 2a uh the caption is sorry mark 73.
Speaker 2i'm sorry 2a and
Speaker 1yes and it's an odd exchange where it says rev chista take it away please
Speaker 3okay said i am able to invalidate all bills of divorce in the world rava said to him
Speaker 1what is your reason let's pause here for a moment and this is one exchange one dialogue in the thousands of pages of tamarik discourse and debate this is but one small conversation but it carries a very deep kabbalistic interpretation which we'll get to soon so let's break this down we'll go slowly with this rev chista first of all who was rev chista he was one of the leading sages in the um early fourth century in bubble in babylonia which is modern day iraq so this is the early 300s so 1700 years ago or so uh lived rev chista rev chista was the teacher of rava so we have two characters here of chista the teacher rava the student rev chista seems to make just uh a statement he's just makes uh maybe provoked statement and he says you know what i could invalidate all the bills of divorce in the world now if you and i would hear that you and i might wonder what are you talking about like what does that even mean you're able to invalidate and the truth is rava his student actually has the same question he says what's your reasoning which we could understand two ways number one how could you you're saying you could invalidate i'm how based on what grounds but maybe the question is also what is your reasoning why would you want to do it and the truth is the talmud goes on for a few more lines trying to break down you know this under trying to understand this this dialogue it doesn't come to a conclusion of even understanding this conversation and it moves on and there are commentaries that you attempt to explain it but this is a kabbalah class and not a talmud class because you might be thinking is this the kabbalah class because why are we studying talmud and so what we're going to do tonight is study the talmud through the lens of kabbalah specifically through the lens of a very interesting kabbalist the father of the lubavitcher rebbe so the rebbe's father was a rabbi in ukraine and he was a kabbalist he was known for his expertise in kabbalah he was arrested by the soviets in 1939 he was exiled in kazakhstan and he died of he got i think malaria i don't know he got he it was it was terrible conditions and he passed away he was a kabbalist when he was exiled to kazakhstan he was exiled without any jewish books without any jewish materials meaning no tefillin no talit no sitter no humish nothing and you can imagine how much anguish that is for a rabbi or for anyone really to have nothing jewish with them his wife the rabbi's mother tracked him down they didn't tell they typically didn't announce and your husband is located in this exile far-flung place they didn't she knocked on every door that she could find in moscow found out the information and then she exiled herself to live to be with her husband she brought what he needed she brought books and and other things and then she went and prepared ink from grass in the fields around where he was exiled she literally took grass and ground it up and then mix it with water created i don't something like that and then his books survived his copies of zohar book of kabbalah survived and you can see it and it's in the khabad library in brooklyn you could see the page of the zohar and in the margins the handwriting of the rabbi's father in different color ink and it wasn't one of those pens with the six slider you know what i'm talking about when we were kids or when i was a kid right where you just toggle which color which by the way is the most epic pen in the history of pens along with my trapper keeper i'm ready to go back to the 80s um and transformers i we can keep on going and scooby-doo but but um it's because of the different colors of the plants and the grass that she that being said this is one of the insights what i'm about to share is one of the insights of the rabbi's father on this section of talmud and i know there's understanding based on kabbalah so here we go you ready for the insight take a look at figure two uh sorry 3.3 on 72. do you see that little box um again page 72. do you see the the box that says okay um what are the three letters that are in blue the blue boxes right in hebrew it's chesed now if you think of if you listen to the name of the first rabbi rav chista okay sounds like chesed in fact rav what does rav mean in hebrew in addition to rabbi and teacher what does rav mean a lot abundance of rav chista means guy who has a lot of chesed of chesed now here's the cool thing take out the letters chesed i know this is a hebrew exercise but take out those three letters that are blue and what's left rava okay stick with me for a second you know what that means rav chista's hallmark is chesed if you take away chesed what are you left with rava so what is rava if you take away chesed what's the opposite of chesed energy gavura so who what's rava's energy you see how we're doing this gavura you all with me on this i know i kind of we slipped and slided down that slip inside remember that that thing right that was great how many kids banged their heads on that one a little tunnel of spray sure they don't sell that anymore that was never safe my god like the blue slide when i was a kid or those metal slides metal slides shorts and metal slides in the summer which came up with that one back to this rav chista you never know what's gonna happen in this class i never know what's gonna happen in this class we're talking about a metal slide here let's get back right right it's not not not true rav chista if we want to cabalistically break down these two characters that are having this strange dialogue to make sense of the dialogue who is we're going to talk about it one more time who is rav chista a man with an abundance of chesed pull out the chesed what do you have rava rava's the opposite of chesed rava's gavura now we understand the dialogue don't we rav chista pipes up pipes up rav chista says unprovoked if we're up to me i couldn't validate all divorces you know what that means if we all just had a little bit more right wouldn't that be amazing you know who also believed in this john lennon wasn't that song imagine imagine all the people right is that is that that song am i getting the song right imagine if we could all get together wouldn't it be amazing and rav is like are you kidding me wake up teacher rav and that's a dialogue rav chista says i couldn't validate all divorces you know who also believed in this John Lennon wasn't that song imagine imagine all the people right is that is that that song am i getting the song right imagine if we could all get together wouldn't it be amazing and rav was like are you kidding me wake up teacher rav and that's a dialogue rav chista says i couldn't validate all divorces you know what that means if we all get together wouldn't it be amazing and rav is like are you kidding me wake up teacher rav and that's a dialogue imagine if we could all get together wouldn't it be amazing and rav is like are you kidding me wake up teacher rav and that's a dialogue rav chista says i couldn't validate with the power of love we can bring everyone together and rava says we can bring everyone together and rava says we can bring everyone together and rava says you don't have to love everybody take it you don't have to love everybody take it you don't have to love everybody take it easy easy easy chesed says let's love everybody and chesed says let's love everybody and chesed says let's love everybody and gavura says gavura says gavura says it's okay it's okay take what do you say it's okay it's okay take what do you say it's okay take what do you say take it easy easy there champ and say take it easy easy there champ and say take it easy easy there champ and say okay hold on slow it down let's not let's okay hold on slow it down let's not let's okay hold on slow it down let's not let's not get too crazy over here not get too crazy over here not get too crazy over here cool your jets and there's no cool your jets and there's no cool your jets and there's no resolution here you know why resolution here you know why resolution here you know why because everyone's speaking from their because everyone's speaking from their because everyone's speaking from their perspective a chesed person thinks that perspective a chesed person thinks that perspective a chesed person thinks that everybody should get along the gavur everybody should get along the gavur everybody should get along the gavur person says why should they person says why should they person says why should they split up into different groups by the split up into different groups by the split up into different groups by the way gavura is all about also i don't way gavura is all about also i don't way gavura is all about also i don't think we mentioned this uh in the think we mentioned this uh in the think we mentioned this uh in the synonyms of The guru is about separation, meaning I'll do this and you do that. Okay, this is a great example.
Speaker 3There's another Beatles song, All You Need Is Love.
Speaker 1Yes, yes. I have the Beatles' top number one hits album, double vinyl album. I'm a vinyl player at home. That's actually a true story. You never know, but that one is actually legit. So getting back to this, what was my idea? Yes, vacation. Who has, okay, tell me if you've had this experience. You go on vacation, you're with a bunch of friends, and there's one person that's really excited to help plan, and they're like, okay, so today, no, no, this is not today. Like, so when we go in six months from now, here's what we're going to do on Tuesday. And we're all going to go together, and then someone's like, yeah, but what if I don't want to do that? Why can't we all just do our own thing? And someone's like, no, because we're on vacation together. We have to be together. And the other person's like, so what if we're all together? We could still do separate things. We'll get together for dinner. Welcome to a conversation between chesed and gevurah. And what I want to tell you today is that if you're wondering, well, which one is right, which one is better? You know what the real answer is? There's no right, and there's no better. They're both sfirot of God, and they're both true, and they're both valid. And even the chesed person can appreciate boundaries, even the gevurah person can appreciate giving and love, and it's all, everyone can appreciate the other, but certain people, just the way you're wired, the way you and I are wired, that's the point of the opening of today's class. People are wired with dominant sfirah energy. And some people have a dominant chesed, some people have a dominant gevurah. And so when they have a conversation, I mean, they might, it might end up getting a little shouty. Unless they all realize, like, it's okay to have different perspectives. That would be a healthy approach. Let's see this inside. Lest you think that I just made this up, let's actually read this inside. Larry, if you don't mind, please read text 2B on 73. The hidden debate.
Speaker 2A divorce document which severs and separates is rooted in gevurah, for it is the nature of gevurah to divide and separate things. Rav Chista's name points to chesed. The Talmud itself says about him, your name is Chista, and your words are kind. In fact, the literal meaning of Rav Chista is great in chesed. With the abundance of his chesed, Rav Chista could dissolve all harsh expressions of gevurah. In the divorce document, he could sweeten them so that they no longer separate husband and wife. On the other hand, Rav Chista's name is constituted by removing the letters of chesed in Rav Chista's name. Rav Chista's name points to gevurah. He argues that divorce documents are valid. From his perspective, there's a legitimate place for separating, for the separating force of gevurah.
Speaker 1Thank you for reading that. Make sense? I think if we read that before, it would have sounded a little vague, but hopefully now it makes a lot of sense. Yeah. I understand,
Speaker 3like, you know, all we need is love and all that. You start off from that place.
Speaker 1But if people are already divorced, and they've already experienced. Sure, sure, sure. I don't. That's why I understand your question. Is he saying to invalidate actual divorce? I don't think that's what he was saying. It's more of, like, him thinking about, you know, life and ideals. Like, wouldn't it be great if there was no institution of divorce? And Rav is like, no, that would be terrible. That actually sounds like a terrible idea. And again, who's right? Ah, he's got a point, and he's got a point. I mean, wouldn't it be great if we all got along? It would. But, ah, do we have to? Can we just separate into, like, specific groups? Like, I like this, and you like that, and we can all just, you know, do our own things? That's also okay. There's a place for both. And that's why Kabbalah says that this dialogue that's very enigmatic, very vague and puzzling and enigmatic and bizarre, is really about. is really about. is really about the nature of the internal debate or the tension, but it doesn't have to be a tension, between chesed and g'fur. So let's put that aside for a second, and let's continue talking about specific, unique personalities. Because Kabbalah takes it a step further and says the following. He said last week, and I've already recapped it twice, and I guess this is the third time, everything in the universe, everything in creator reality is woven of the tense sefirot. The human being has the template. We have the original seal, as it were, or source code. And every person has a unique blend. That's what we've said up until now. Well, wouldn't you know it? If you look at the natural world, although everything is woven of the tense sefirot, but specific things in the natural world highlight one sefirot over the others. Now, I feel like that might have been a bit weird. Word salad-y. So let me try to say that a little bit better. If you look at the world, you can identify things that, oh, that's a chesed-oriented thing. That's a g'fur-oriented thing. So what do I mean? Let me give some examples. But I want you to answer this question. Think of something in nature, not a person, but something in nature that is a very strong chesed energy. And let me define it once again. Chesed is giving, unconditional giving, not looking at the recipient at all, just pure giving. Again, it's not a person, but a thing in nature. What thing in nature is just about giving? The sun. What else? A fruit tree. Excellent. Could be, but that would be a little bit of personality. I'm saying more like just nature. You could say maybe a dog. Whatever, but. Okay, good. I like the sun. I like that. So let's stick. That was actually in my head. So let's play with the sun for a second. The sun is interesting, and Kabbalah speaks about it in this context. The sun is very much of a chesed energy because, like chesed, the sun is really not about. The sun doesn't discriminate. Oh, to you, I'm not going to shine. It doesn't say that. It shines equally on a palace and on a garbage dump. Now, what about the clouds? The clouds are not the sun. The sun itself shines indiscriminately. It's all about giving. And the truth is, the sun doesn't get perturbed if the recipient's not paying attention or not. That's like when you were in school and there was a teacher that would teach even though no one was listening because, hey, I'm getting paid to teach. That's it. I don't care if anyone's learning, right? That's not necessarily a good example. But the sun is all about pure chesed. There's a cloud. There's not a cloud. It doesn't matter. Let's talk about gvura for a second. Again, let's define gvura. Let's reset gvura. Gvura is about. It's a little bit harsh. Creates division and separation. What in nature creates division and separation? Excellent. This table's on fire. River. Think about a river that cuts through. That cuts through. What? Land? Mountain? Any land? Valley. Right? The Grand Canyon. Wasn't the Grand Canyon formed with water? Rabbi Akiva. We'll talk about him a little bit later in the reincarnation section, which I love. We'll talk about him in the reincarnation section, which I love. See, I did it twice because it's reincarnation. I should probably walk out now for my own shame. But here we are. So, a river, Rabbi Akiva actually realized at a certain point that even though he hadn't studied Torah before, that Torah could impact him because he saw a water, a drop of water dropping. He saw a stone with a hole in it. He says, how do you have a hole in a stone? And then he saw the water dripping on it. Even water can bore a hole through a rock, given enough persistence. You've given enough persistence. Back to the story. A river is a great example of Gevurah. Is a river bad? No, but it cuts through. What's an example of Teferet? Teferet was the third energy. It's about harmony. Harmony. I said it twice. A harmonious state. Give me nature. Where do you see harmony in nature? Trees. Okay, what else? I'll tell you what I was thinking. A coral reef, maybe. Has a nice blended ecosystem. Or we could go with any of the ones that you mentioned also. That's fine. That's also cool. The point is that just as people personify typically a dominant and maybe a recessive sphere energy, like, wow, that person's a chesed person or that person's a Gevurah person or whatever, or Netzach, that person's really ambitious. The same thing is true in nature. Well, wouldn't you know what Kabbalah says? That if you're aligned with the dominant sphere of nature, guess what you kind of like that other thing that matches and so Kabbalah says your taste in food and in music and in what's the third thing there's food I'll get it food yo and color art okay the food you enjoy the music you enjoy and the art that you enjoy it's all shaped by your specific Kabbalah personality so let's go through this we'll do a quick raise of hand a quick a quick ballot or voting a quick hands a quick poll thing okay what do you prefer Hanukkah's coming up at some point do you prefer a sweet jelly donut or a savory latke go sweet jelly donut team sweet donut team savory latke Oh split pretty much all right wish you prefer music a little fast I'm useful I'm useful I'm useful hi or or he name a toe boom on a little bit more of a slower tune fast tune slower tune Wow split down the middle pretty much all right next it's gonna be the vaguest one so not Vegas but Vegas the most vague possible art it's gonna sound random but it's from Kabbalah do you like looking at a painting do you like the whites of the painting or the red of the painting you're probably like I never even noticed but white clean spaces red maybe I should have asked it differently when you're choosing your new car do you go for the white or the red or for the red all right I'm kidding that's not exactly Kabbalah says your preference I know we spoke about in lesson one about the fact that you love music is because your soul was bathing in music before it was that's that was less than one this is different this is the specific type of music the specific type of food the specific type of art and beauty that you enjoy is absolutely influenced strongly influenced by your unique soul personality that is shaped by this if you wrote let's see this inside we're gonna go back to text one in case anybody was a little far ribald with me for skipping text one don't worry we're getting back to text number one soul signatures yes yes by the way I totally don't buy believe in horoscopes I'm a Pisces and we're notoriously skeptical that was a joke in case anybody was wondering anyway you know it's interesting a few years several years ago I have a good friend a lot of people that I've met who have done this and he is into Enneagram personality mapping and so he and I did a joint presentation Kabbalah and the Enneagram matching up the Enneagram personality assessment or personality prototypes I think I don't know with the with the Sphero and how like a one a two or three matches up to different of the Sphero energies I he said he really read me he said I was a whichever one uses a lot of bombastic adjectives this is amazing this is great like a four or a seven or something like that I I don't know I don't know it well enough to recall anyway so there is a way to do it does Kabbalah itself do it and say here's a quick Facebook quiz you can take to unlock your personality just give us your personal information no not to my knowledge but if you study enough Kabbalah you can definitely create something like that I would love to do something like that and in fact when JLI I mentioned the JLI contacted me for their Kabbalah course for next year I would love to do something like that in regards to character and that type of assessment and also character building but we'll see how that turns out let's read Howard if you don't mind please read text number one where it says soul
Speaker 4signatures soul signatures some people enjoy sweet flavors whether from an apple honey or other sweet foods others are drawn to what's sharp or sour whether the bite of a radish the heat of a pepper or other pungent things that jolt them awake there are many variations within these preferences these affinities all depend on the specific way the soul is rooted in chesed and gebura a person rooted in chesed who enjoys being kind will find pleasure in sweet foods a person rooted in gebura who enjoys intensity will find pleasure in foods that are bitter sharp and strong the same plays out in music there are many genres of music but they broadly relate to modes the joyous melody that lifts the heart expresses chesed while the mournful melody that brings it low expresses gebura some varieties combine both which moves a person more depends on where on the particular balance of chesed and gebura within the person the same is true of how people relate to God some find their richest experience in love and joy others in awe and reverence the concept extends to color as well when in white and red are awfully blended some are naturally drawn to the white chesed while others are attracted to the red thank you
Speaker 1for reading that so I I think it's fascinating you put food on a buffet and by the way there's gonna be a great buffet Monday did I mention the meditation event there will be a great buffet so you put stuff out in the buffet and some people gravitate toward the sweet stuff and some people some people gravitate more to the savory stuff and by the way this is not to be very clear here this is not any in any way shape or form saying well one is ideal and one is but this is not a better or worse this is just a reality and so if you're drawn toward sweet things you might have that nature of more of a chesed you know a pull whereas if you're drawn more to the spicy stuff you might have more of a gevura pull and the truth is he says he hedges the chesed by saying everyone's got a little bit of both because we all know we all have chesed and gevura so even the chesed person wants a little bit of the opposite sometimes you know they say opposites attract so maybe you want a little bit of a of something different so you're also going to like spicy things but by and large what are you most naturally and intuitively attracted to the sweet or the savory and that's true with the music and that's true with the art as well and I just want to kind of share this inside it's not in the text but it says extensively many places literally the sweetness of an apple and that's the example that's used in Kabbalah and someone mentioned an apple tree the sweetness of an apple comes from chesed of atzilut chesed supernal chesed above God's chesed that is the source of the sweetness of an apple and you and I might come across that kabbalistic teaching and say are you crazy an apple comes from chesed but before you judge it too harshly give me a second to explain have you ever had an experience where someone did something kind for you and your response was oh that's so sweet now ask yourself the question how do you know someone held the door for you at Starbucks oh that's so sweet of you sweet was there any tasting involved like how do you know what is sweet you and I know that we we use in our own language in our own vernacular we use sweet to symbolize kindness chesed so when Kabbalah says that the sweetness of an apple physical tangible sweetness that you can taste comes from chesed above it's not a stretch we use it in our own vernacular as well we call chesed acts of chesed sweet also because intuitively we know that it shares the same family comes from the same family meaning the spiritual energy of chesed tumbles down down down down materializes and as it materializes it manifests as something sweet or white or joyous music that lifts the soul and chesed tumbles down and manifests itself as something spicy or sharp or sour and who doesn't enjoy a good sour pickle from the Lower East Side right Bubby's pickles I think they even sell right good pickle with a little uh um pastrami on rice can we talk about this for a second a little Lower East Side cat's Deli pastrami sandwich little mustard slathered on it cut diagonally with a nice big pickle a little coleslaw what are we doing doing here folks let's go let's get some all right online crew we'll see you later give us about 90 minutes we're gonna make some sandwiches here look chesed and gvura manifest in our material world and if you are attuned to chesed you're going to seek out those chesed experiences if you're attuned to gvura you're going to seek out the gvura experiences make sense by the way in one of the appendices appendix a it talks about another kabbalistic text it cites that says that no it actually could be that if you're chesed you'll like gvura music and if you're gvura you'll like chesed music but that just goes back to the fact that you may want to break from your norm right it's like i've got so much chesed give me something depressing for a minute not depressing but give me something like give me something sour you know give me something red just to get a little contrast so it's hard to reverse engineer it but the point of kabbalah is it absolutely influences you in many different ways yeah i'm sure you find a wide range of all what i can read correct how did i know your question um but it's like i'm reading your mind right here yeah so kabbalah kabbalah says and we're not going to read the text you can read it later um in appendix a that yes it talks about actually european european nations versus arabs it says the europeans like fast music the arabs like more soulful music and it's because the europeans are gvura so therefore they want the contrast of chesed music where the arabs are chesed and they want the contrast of gvura music listen appendix a will remain appendix a you can read it you can analyze it you can text me about it if you want we'll leave that to the side but the point is the dominant is typically the dominant and the opposite is you know save for maybe special accounts now with all this in mind let's close out this section of the class and put a little uh put a little bow on it and i want to summarize what we've said this class the thesis of this class is you as an individual are being shaped by cosmic forces what does that mean the specific blend of herbs and spices not kfc the specific blend of spheroid energies the ratio that you have absolutely impacts not impacts dictates almost shapes your personality your character your outlook on life and your tastes in food and music and art etc make sense let's close this out and let's move on to buckle up again this is like a double buckle situation buckle up again because we're about to get into reincarnation now you might think well what my kesha what's the connection we talked about soul and spirit and energies and character and now we're talking about reincarnation let me explain let me set this let me set the table here we're talking about how you became you individually and uniquely kabbalah says one of the major influences in your life is not just the sphere that you've been given and you know a strong measure of but the life that your soul lived previously what influences you to a large degree in the here and now is the type of life you lived previously in a previous in incarnation which means we need to talk about reincarnation now if you pulled jews on the street if you were walking around i don't know manhattan lower east side we just mentioned right and you found you hey you jewish cat what is reincarnation just man on the street or a person on the street microphone camera hey is reincarnation a jewish concept most i believe most i i think most jews would say i don't i don't think that's a jewish thing doesn't doesn't seem i i don't remember i i've been to synagogue i've been bar bat mitzvahed i've been to sunday school maybe even afternoon school you know hebrew whatever it is i don't remember reincarnation as a topic i have heard it from these eastern religion and philosophies i'm pretty sure it's not jewish okay but study kabbalah and you soon realize that it's very jewish it's extremely jewish it's so jewish it started fetching already i'm kidding i'm kidding reincarnation reincarnation is absolutely jewish it's the basis
Speaker 2it's one of
Speaker 1the huge fundamentals of kabbalah in fact there are literal books that are called save for how gil gulen the book of reincarnation written by some of the greatest kabbalists of all time so we need to talk about reincarnation the foundation there's a lot to talk about in reincarnation we're not going to cover everything in 40 minutes we'll talk about some next some of reincarnation next week but here's to get us started there are two axioms that we're going to begin with number one the soul is eternal and number two souls have missions that they don't always complete let me break these two axioms down one at a time axiom number one is that souls are eternal to explain a soul is a piece of god if god is eternal the soul is eternal bodies are temporal meaning they're not permanent they are finite what is death death is the uncoupling of soul eternal with body temporal and that renders the body still and lifeless because it no longer is being infused with the life of the soul a beautiful analogy that i once heard from one of my mentors rabbi simon jacobson is an imaginary dialogue between the refrigerator and the electricity so refrigerator says to the electricity we're here we go when we're unplugged and the electricity says the refrigerator i don't know where you go but i don't go anywhere think about an appliance think about a television a microwave a refrigerator whatever it is take the plug and pull it out it no longer functions the body is there it no longer works and what about the electricity it didn't go anywhere it's still there it's just not connected the soul is eternal and the body is there it no longer works and what about the electricity the soul is eternal life the soul is life it's a piece of god it is alive eternally that's just the the axiom axiomatic definition of a soul in judaism and kabbalah the body is what lives for a finite amount of time because it's only connected or plugged into the soul for that finite time birth is the coupling of body and soul death is the uncoupling of body and soul and the body returns to the earth and the soul returns to its source but it remains yeah
Speaker 4the sphero go with the soul so if you if your soul is 72 percent that's a good
Speaker 1question
Speaker 4so the soul personality does
Speaker 1it remain with the soul my understanding is yes my understanding is yes which is why in heaven they have different art on the walls just to satisfy everyone's taste
Speaker 4we'll talk we'll talk about that right
Speaker 1now that's axiom number one souls are eternal axiom number two every soul has a mission and not all souls finish or complete their mission in one go in one try now understand this both of these axioms axioms are the foundation for two different types of reincarnation listen to this even if you've heard me talk about reincarnation before we're doing a bit of a twist tonight the first type of reincarnation is when the soul comes back to do it again play it again sam it worked out the first time we need we need it to happen again god calls the bullpen god god calls the bullpen calls the soul from the bullpen say you made a great save in game six of the world series you shut down the the team right three um two scoreless innings we need it again tonight you're in you're in the game let's go you got a good track record make it happen one type of reincarnation is a soul that's accomplished that's succeeded that has done its thing and that needs to happen again in a different time a different era a different situation but the same concept has to happen again that soul is pop can't might be popped back in to accomplish that one more time second form of reincarnation is for the second axiom so the first axiom is souls live eternally therefore they can come back a few times and continue to do what they've always done again again over different time periods the second axiom we said was some souls sometimes don't finish their mission it's almost the opposite the inverse sometimes souls are very good at their mission and they're asked to do it again in a different time a different era sometimes souls do not complete their mission and therefore they're given a second chance play it again sports second chance for that catcher's mitt that your kid wants because they think it's cool with the whole with all the gear not talking for personal experience good that's a good question so I think it relates to what we were just talking about so there is so in the first modality in the first path of reincarnation the soul would remain the same and accomplish face the same challenges and do it again the second example the soul would face the same challenge but hopefully have a different a better outcome than before whereas it swung and missed last time now it's given a chance to reclaim what's the right word not reclaim but to um redeem itself but like
Speaker 3if my soul was in someone's body before it's the same so like it's not parts that come to a new body it's one soul comes to one
Speaker 1body the the mechanics are very complicated the mechanics we're not going to talk about tonight meaning you're asking a very good question can there be soul composites can there be maybe more than one soul to reincarnate these are very good questions and the truth is the list can go on and on and on with that type of question and we have to we'll have to say that for another opportunity that we focus on the mechanics of reincarnation so tonight's not about the mechanics so much as it is about the rationale but it's not even about so much the rationale it's we're literally going to spend the next uh amount of time that we have in the class to share four stories of reincarnation as taught in Kabbalah four real stories of reincarnation straight from the pages of Kabbalah oh well and we'll end with that question how do you know what your mission how do well how do I know do I get a soul reading like what's the 900 number for that we'll talk about that no no no no credit card required for that I'm gonna we're gonna get up there on Mac who we started with in the first class about the the the treasure in the sack and the ramak is going to get Rav Moshe cordovero is going to give us um wisdom on how to discern our souls mission and coming back again by the way in case you're wondering am I a reincarnated soul everyone's soul is
Speaker 4reincarnated yeah um so struggling with this concept of like so despondency because get it right it seems futile it seems like a like oh my gosh I'm on a hamster wheel for
Speaker 1all eternity again and again and again I'm going crazy good excellent question the short answer is that not always is a way to come down to do it again it's only under certain circumstances where God says okay we need this soul for what's about to happen we need this soul in the game because this soul is very skilled at x y or z so that's a special call second situation the second scenario is it only comes back until it finishes the job and when it finishes the job eternal rest is enjoyed so it's not constant second scenario is often the one that's most discussed in Kabbalah we'll save that for a second we'll do one and two and what we have two examples of each so let's begin and and this this will come oh do you have a question
Speaker 3excellent we'll see an example
Speaker 1of that tonight where um a group reincarnates together why because sometimes either because they're doing it again or because the dynamic needed to be fixed good yes so it's souls do travel sometimes not always in in groups excellent
Speaker 4like the black
Speaker 1socks 1929 1919 Chicago yeah corruption yeah scandal yeah traveling together yeah huh
Speaker 2incredibly talented they blew it off that's true
Speaker 1good and I'm sure
Speaker 2they'll come
Speaker 1back as a group oh they came back oh to win it all I hear you I hear you I got you I got you I was full Milwaukee what a great story I love those uniforms also should we talk about the should we just talk about uniforms for the rest of that I will talk about reincarnation let's go we're gonna begin I love this class I love you guys also I love having a chance to do this all right let's go we're gonna start um we're gonna do our deep dive into Kabbalah sorry into reincarnation with um the character of Michal so first of all who was Michal Michal was the daughter of King Saul and who was King Saul he was the first Jewish king and he got very jealous of a young star named David and I would have gotten away with it if not for those meddling kids they always said in Scooby-Doo and King Saul felt like he would have had a good life if not for this guy David who shows up you know unannounced and becomes the hero who kills Goliath and then everybody loves David he's on the front cover of Time magazine David David David Marsha Marsha Marsha everyone loves David is the new sitcom Raymond's out and then I'm I try to hit all the boxes you know we'll see what hits Gavurah Chesed you know whatever your thing is so um oh that's a great example oh my God do you like a comedy a rom-com or do you like a drama and a horror that's a great example how come Kabbalah didn't come up with that what movie are we watching tonight so which is better that was part one we're done with it Michal so David is this like charismatic redhead he comes in he's the everyone's talking about David and King Saul gets jealous and he's a little anxious and then to cap it all off David marries his daughter Michal the princess he wasn't happy he was not he was not thrilled about this he kept on trying to put David because David was also like a general and try to put him in dangerous battles hoping that um I'm so sorry but it didn't happen David's like this warrior it keeps his fame is growing his epic meter is just through the roof and so um Saul decides to just dispense with um subtlety and just arrest him and just get rid of him and so he sends officers to the house his daughter and his son-in-law Michal and David well Michal she had you know ears and eyes and ears in the palace and she knew she found out last minute what was going to happen she tells David quickly escaped through the window and bounce guess guess what she does turns out she has a mannequin a David-sized mannequin and she puts the mannequin in the bed and covers it with the sheet and I know what you're thinking I did this in high school when I was uh I went through the window went to the concert and I did the whole mannequin in the bed where do you think you got that idea from from King David from Michal now I know what you're also thinking how did she have a mannequin of David in the house according to one commentary I know this sounds bizarre I'm just saying it because it sounds so interesting Michal had a mannequin made of David because he used to spend a lot of money in the house because he used to spend a lot of time away and she really loved him so she had that's what it says anyway so I don't know what it looks like David it's a reminder you know what maybe it's a bobble head we have a bobble head you have one of these you know LifeSide Carver cutouts she had a mannequin it's it's a thing anywho so she put the guards come in where's David so she says I look he's so sick he's got the blanket pulled up he's not feeling well he's like he can't move out of bed so they go back to Saul the king and they say yeah he can't he's sick Saul says I don't care bring him back bring him here bring the bed if you need to like bring carry the bed they go back they go to the bed as this happened once or twice pulled back the sheets there's no David so now Michal's in Saul and she gets pulled into her father the king and he says you lied to me you just try to deceive me what's going on so she says it's not my fault David threatened me that he would kill me if I didn't do this and that wasn't true it was her idea but she said David because she played to Saul's opinion of David as being this bad guy she said David threatened that he would kill me if I did so he forgave her and David escaped and things carried on Kabbalah says that Michal being able to pull off this clever ruse deception ploy to save her husband happened before she was a reincarnation Wife of a man that you might have never heard of. The wife of own Ben Pellet. Own the son of Pellet. Now, who's own the son of Pellet? So let me tell you another story. This is from, that was from the book of Samuel. This is from the book of Numbers. By Midbar in the Torah, one of the five books of Moses. The Torah says, the Torah talks about the revolt of the tempted revolt of Korach. A cousin of Moses and Aaron. And he tried to overthrow their leadership and take it for himself. And the Torah lists the co-conspirators. It was Korach, Dasan, and Aviram. It was own Ben Pellet. He's one of the original crew. But when you look at the story of their demise. Remember the earth opened up and swallowed them alive. They had a horrible death. Own Ben Pellet is nowhere to be found. And not because he fell. He's nowhere to be found in the listing of those that were punished. And everyone's wondering, well, what happened to own? The Talmud fills in the story. Laura, if you don't mind, please read this one. Please read text number five.
Speaker 3Own Ben Pellet was saved by his wife. She said to him, what do you gain from this rebellion? If Moses prevails, you are a disciple. If Korach prevails, you are still a disciple. He said to her, what can I do? I helped plan the rebellion and I swore allegiance to it. She said to him, stay here and I will save you. She gave him wine to drink, got him drunk, and laid him down inside the tent. She then sat at the entrance and let her hair down. Whoever came and saw her, turned back.
Speaker 1So here's what happened. The Talmud says what happened. She says to her husband, what are you doing? Like, what's the gain for you? Like, you're aligning yourself with Korach. And if he wins, you're still nothing. So why don't you just recede to the back? He's like, I can. I'm part of the original crew. She's like, I'll take care of it. She gives him wine, a little l'chaim, maybe some bourbon, scotch, whatever, you know, his favorite flavor was. And he goes to sleep. She tucks him in. Puts on a little white noise machine, maybe. Sits outside and uncovers her hair, lets her hair down. Which then was a sign of immodesty or whatever it was. So when the crew came, all right, oh, and it's go time. We're about to revolt. They saw her and they're like, oh, okay, we'll come back. And they met their demise and On was saved. On was saved due to what? The ingenuity, due to the plan, the interesting plot, as it were, of his wife. Says Kabbalah, text number four. John, if you don't mind, please read text number four. We're going back to page 78. No, no, no. I'm going. I'm going back to text four. Yeah, back, turn, yeah.
Speaker 5The wife. No worries. The wife of On and Pellet was reincarnated as Michal, the daughter of Saul. She saved her husband, and likewise, Michal saved David, her husband.
Speaker 1They both saved their husbands. And so when God is thinking, okay, who is. What soul needs to marry David? David's going to have a very intense life dealing with the Saul who wants to kill him and everything. And there's going to need to be someone there who's going to help, maybe even resorting to, you know, some sort of subterfuge. Who's the right soul? And God says, I got a soul for this. A soul, someone who exhibited that type of ingenuity, that type of bravery, that type of heroism in the past. It's the wife of On. But we actually don't even, it's not even recorded. What her name is, we just know that she's the wife of On and Pellet. But her soul gets reincarnated into Michal. And Michal is the one that saves her husband in a strikingly similar way. Make sense? That's story number one.
Speaker 3Yeah. How do they, I mean, how do the sages who said that do that same thing?
Speaker 1How did Rabbi Menachem Azariah Afano, he was one of the greatest mystics of his time.
Speaker 3I mean, it's one thing to say like.
Speaker 1There's similarities. But how do we know that it's exactly the same soul? The simple answer would be, you got to be a Kabbalist. Or when you know, you know. But that's, this is what Kabbalah says. Maybe there's a tradition. Now, we're going to do one more story of this type. Of almost like repeating. And then we'll get into the fixing genre. So, let's talk about, oh, here we go. Rabbi Akiva. I mentioned it before with the water on the rock. Rabbi Akiva was one of the greatest scholars and sages and Torah teachers of his generation. And really of all time. In fact, he had an academy at the peak. 24,000 plus students. Now, Rabbi Akiva had very humble beginnings. He did not have a Jewish education. He did not, as a child or as a young person. He did not even know how to read Hebrew or study Torah whatsoever. He was a simple shepherd. And he worked for a very wealthy man named Kalba Savua. How do I know this? The Talmud tells the story of Rabbi Akiva's origins. He knew how to shepherd the flock. He wasn't a scholar. He wasn't somebody who knew Torah. He didn't even know, again, how to read Hebrew. And he was employed by a wealthy man named Kalba Savua. Well, it turns out Kalba Savua had a daughter. And the daughter's name was Rachel. And Rachel sees Akiva. He's not a rabbi. He sees Akiva. He's a shepherd. And she likes him. And she sees a potential. And she sees a potential in him. A profound potential. And she says to him one day, I want to marry you. But I want to marry you on one condition. That you study Torah. And you become a scholar. And Akiva says, deal. And then she tells her father. And her father says, no deal. Over my, etc. Not happening. This guy? The shepherd? You? My daughter? The princess? Whatever. Marrying this guy? He has no education. Not happening. He says, if you marry him, I will cut you off. He was very wealthy. I will cut you off completely. She marries him. He cuts them off. The Talmud talks about the poverty that they lived with. The poverty that they lived with. Until he became a rock star. Spiritual Torah rock star. That's what happened. Rabbi Akiva had a contend with a father-in-law and drama that was big. Well, who do you know from a biblical story that dealt with a father-in-law that was difficult? Which of the patriarchs had a very complicated relationship with their father-in-law? I don't know. Jacob. Jacob and Lavan. Remember Jacob and Laban? Try to trick him. Laban tries to trick him. Guess what? Yaakov and Akiva share essentially the same Hebrew letters. Just reorganize the letters. Kabbalah says, Rabbi Akiva's soul is the reincarnation of Yaakov, Avinu's soul, of Jacob's soul. And Jacob was able to navigate the complicated. First of all, they were both shepherds also. They both tended to their father-in-law's flock. They both dealt with a father-in-law that was unhappy with them. Yaakov, Jacob, was able to stand strong and withstand all the tests and whatever. That soul needed to come back in the form of Rabbi Akiva to deal with a similar challenge. Again, let's look at the source. Susan, if you don't mind, please read text number six from the Arizal. Page 81 now, where it says, Rabbi Akiva's life.
Speaker 3Rabbi Akiva's life mirrors that of the patriarch Jacob. The Hebrew letters that spell Akiva are the same letters that spell Jacob with an additional Allah. Just as Jacob tended the flock of his father-in-law, so did Rabbi Akiva.
Speaker 1Thank you. And just like Jacob not only tended the flocks of his father-in-law, but contended with a father-in-law that was not happy, so did Rabbi Akiva, and they both were able to withstand the challenge because they share the same soul essence. As we wrap up this half and we get ready for the second half, which talks about tikkun, souls that come back to be fixed, we have now two examples of souls that didn't come back to be fixed, but rather came back to share similar experiences. Whether it was the soul of the wife of Om Ben-Pete, who saved her husband's life when he was about to make a very bad move and about to face danger, coming back in the spirit of Michal, the wife of David, to save his life, or whether it was the soul of Yaakov, Avinu, Jacob, our forefather, our patriarch Jacob, who came back in the form and the spirit of Akiva, Rabbi Akiva, Yaakov, Akiva, to also withstand the various tests that he faced, we have this idea that sometimes, souls come back. to face similar challenges and to succeed again. And sometimes the soul is pulled back in, not always, but sometimes pulled back in because that energy is needed for a context, whether it's to save another person or to deal with a specific challenge. We know that this soul has exhibited this strength and we need the soul back in the game. I think as we, yeah.
Speaker 3The male soul, like a male and female.
Speaker 1Excellent question. So that's some of the mechanics questions, but not necessarily. And I think we can even enhance the question, do human souls always come back in human forms? And the answer is not always. So again, that's a more of a mechanics question that touches on maybe some deeper things, but we have to save that for another opportunity. But it's a great question. The question was, can a male soul come back in a female reincarnation and vice versa? The answer is yes. All options are on the table. I want to conclude that section with the following observation. Now, somebody might say, well, let me try this at home. Meaning, let me look at my life. Let me look at my challenges. Let me look at my strengths. And let me see if I can match with a biblical figure and be like, I learned in Kabbalah class tonight that I am basically the soul of Abraham. I'm sure I'm a reincarnation of Abraham or of Mir. I don't know. Whoever. Whatever it is. So here's the thing. We won't be able to necessarily do that on our own. So what's the takeaway? I think the takeaway is very powerful. Kabbalah teaches, and I mentioned this before, that all souls are reincarnated souls. And that means that for whatever reason, your soul needed to come back again. And I think there's comfort in knowing that on some level, you've done it before. Because if you've done it before, it's easier the second time. It's always hard the first time. You're not sure if you can do it. But imagine if you told yourself, I've done this before. Imagine when you face a challenging moment, you tell yourself, you know what? I believe that my soul was put in this situation because it already succeeded. So you know what? I can do it again. That narrative can be so helpful. And it's one of the outcomes of the Kabbalah of reincarnation. Make sense? I'm ready to move on to the next piece. All right, let's go. So the final piece, the final piece of our class is all about the second form of reincarnation, which is the tikkun, the repair. And this is a very different scenario than the first. This is where the soul in its earlier lifetime actually failed to succeed and is now given a second chance to succeed at the test, challenge, mission, et cetera. So a soul that's fallen short or a soul that has done something negative, has a chance to fix it. We call this tikkun. Tikkun means repair. So what are some examples? We'll have two again. Our first is a beautiful example and a little bit of history once again to kind of fill in this. There was one of the greatest, one of the great Jewish leaders of ancient times was a woman named Devorah, in Hebrew known as Deborah. Devorah or Deborah, Deborah was one of the shoftim, one of the judges. She was also a prophet. She was a prophetess. She was a prophet. She was a leader. She was one of the judges. To explain what I mean by judges, I don't mean that she necessarily served as a judge in a court, although there was also that. But there was a time period from when the Jewish people entered Israel until the monarchy began with Saul, as we talked about before. There was a gap of a few hundred years where there wasn't yet a monarchy started, a Jewish monarchy. And the leaders were called the shoftim. And they would, and there was, when you read the book of shoftim, there's a lot of drama. Good times, but a lot of bad times. And typically the cycle went like this. The people kind of strayed away from where they needed to be. The enemy attacked. The people prayed to God. God sent them a strong leader. They came together and, remained strong and succeeded. And then they got lax again and then the cycle repeated itself. One of the shoftim, for example, was Samson, Shemshon. Samson the mighty. So that's an example. Devorah was one of the judges. So in her tenure, there was a time when there was a necessary battle to wage against the Canaanites, led by the general Sisera. And Devorah, Deborah, the leader, appoints a man named Barak to be the one who leads the Jewish army into battle against Sisera. And by all accounts, the battle wouldn't look pretty because the Canaanite army was very strong and the general was very skilled. But Deborah said, we can do it with God's help. And Barak, I want you to be the one to gather the troops and lead them into battle. And Barak says, I will do it on one condition, that you come with us. Because when the people see you there, they'll have faith and they'll believe and they'll trust God and we'll be victorious. And she goes and they're victorious and it's a miracle. In the aftermath of the victory, Devorah composes a song known as Shirat Devorah, the Song of Devorah, the Song of Deborah. A song of thanksgiving to God Almighty for the miracles that occurred. It's written in the book of Shoftim, the book of Judges. The prose, the poem, the song is memorialized for all time. Kabbalah says, do you know who her soul was? Do you know where she came from? Listen to this. Her soul was a reincarnation of the soul of Tzipora. Who was Tzipora? Tzipora was the wife, Tzipora was the wife, of Moses. What's the connection? Listen to this. Tzipora was from a place called Midian. And Moshe, Moses, when he struck the Egyptian, he had to leave, he had to run away, as a youth, as a young man, he had to run away from Egypt and he settles in Midian and there he meets a girl by the well and her name is Tzipora and they fall in love and they get married and then one day, and he's a shepherd, and one day God meets Moses at the burning bush and says, "I need you to be the one." And Moses, "Are you sure?" "Yes, I'm sure." And Moses gets called, and Tzipora and their kids, they feel like joining. We'll all go down as a family to Egypt. We'll leave Midian and go down to Egypt for this mission. At the last minute, Moshe and Aaron, his brothers, say to Tzipora, "Go back with the kids. Go back, go back home." And stay. We don't know what's gonna happen in Egypt. It might get a little bit messy. Just take care of yourself and we'll meet up again in safer times. She goes back home to Midian, to her father's house. She missed the plagues. She missed the exodus. And more importantly for our conversation, she missed the splitting of the sea, that great miracle of salvation, and she missed singing the song at the sea. Says Kabbalah, she had missed out an opportunity to witness God's miracle, salvation, against an army that was stronger than the Jews. And she missed the opportunity to sing, literally seeing God's praises in the Az Yashir, in the prayer, in the song of thanksgiving by the splitting of the sea that the Jews, Moses and the Jews composed. Tzipora missed all that 'cause she was in Midian. And so God sent back that soul in the form of Tzipora, Deborah, to have the opportunity to witness the great miracle of salvation and to compose a song of thanksgiving, tikkun, a second chance at a song. Unbelievable. Let's read it in the original. Let's read it in the Kabbalah. Again, this is Rabbi Menachem Azar Ya'afano. We had him before. This is text number seven. And if you don't mind, did you read already? - I did. - You did read? - Yes. - Oh, so then I'll take it. Text number seven. Text number 784. The prophetess Deborah was the reincarnation of Tzipora, the wife of Moses at the time when the children of Israel sang the song at the sea. Tzipora was not with them, and this bothered her deeply. In the merit of her circumcising her son, as the verse states, Tzipora took a sharp stone and cut the foreskin of her son. She merited to be reincarnated as Deborah, and to sing this song through divine inspiration. She got a second chance at the opportunity to sing God's praises. It bothered her that she missed out. By the way, she ultimately reunited with her husband, but she missed out on that opportunity. She got it centuries later, as reincarnated in the soul of Deborah. Final story is the wildest. We saved the best for last. I said, buckle up twice. triple buckle this time. time this is about to get crazy and it's about to get a little bit complex here we go we're about to trace the reincarnated souls of Cain and Abel meaning okay start again Cain and Abel we're about to learn where they ended up those Souls first of all who was Cain and Abel Cain and Abel were the first two sons of Adam and Eve the first human beings the Torah says God created Adam and Eve they had two children Cain and Abel and you know what happened what happened Cain killed Abel they were reincarnated and they were reincarnated as Jethro and Moses see pro's father Jethro and Moses Yisro and Moshe Jethro and Moses now you're thinking Cain and Abel Jethro and Moses what's the connection stick with me why did Cain kill Abel and don't tell me because he was able that's that's like what the kids used to say yes the Midrash gives three well we know that they each brought an offering and God prefer the offering of Abel over Cain so he got jealous but come on what caused him to kill his brother so the Midrash fills it in with three possibilities and you'll see that it's the cause of strife and murder today love money and religion literally look I like true true crime podcasts whenever they're trying to solve a murder they're like love money they don't usually go to religion but religion also can cause you know this type of thing love money religion what's the fight over love let me give you one more piece of information who did Cain and Abel marry good I mean I don't know good but yes correct it was just it just was what are you gonna do according to the Midrash Cain and Abel were born with twin sisters that they married but here's the twist Abel was born with an extra twin with an extra sister and now the question became who gets to marry her Cain says I'm the older I should get the ex this the second girl and Abel says but she was born with me you understand the conflict text 8a I'm going to read this an extra twin was born with Abel we call that triplets just for those you know wanting to use the legal term Cain said I will marry her for I am the first born Abel said I will marry her for she was born with me from this conflict Cain arose Rosen killed his brother fighting over a girl a love triangle as the kids like to call it a b the Midrash gives another option the fight was over money they said let us divide up the world two people trying to divvy up the world you would think plenty of stuff to go around but yeah not really Cain took the land and Abel took the movable property Cain said the ground you were standing on is mine Abel said the clothing you are wearing is mine Abel said take it off Cain said fly from this Cain rose against Abel's brother and killed him second narrative is it was a fight over money resources wealth property okay third option 8c ideological differences religious differences Cain said to Abel there's no judgment no judge no world to come no reward for the righteous and no punishment for the wicker for the wicked garnish nothing Abel answered Cain there is judgment there is a judge there is a world to come there is reward for the righteous there is punishment for the wicked and because of that conflict according to this narrative Cain killed Abel over ideological philosophical theological religious differences three scenarios according to Kabbalah each one was fixed in the reincarnation of Cain and Abel and the sister that they were fighting over in the form of wait for it I said it already Jethro Moses and sipora let's go in the first go around Cain killed Abel to take the girl how do you fix that by giving her together well she the extra twin was reincarnated as sipora Jethro was reincarnated as Cain was reincarnated as Jethro what does Jethro do he gladly hands over his daughter in marriage to Moses who's the reincarnation of Abel and that is the tikkun in the first go around he took her in the second go around he gave her to the other take a look at text 9a this is the Ariza see pora is Abel's extra twin Moses is Abel Jethro is Cain to repair what he had done by killing him Jethro now received Moses with warmth and sustained him he also returned to him the twin that he had taken from him in the first incarnation this is hinted in the verse I am your father-in-law Jethro the first letters of these Hebrew words spell the word my brother as if to say I am Cain and you are my brother Abel you can't make this up well because he already did no but this is unbelievable right here Cain this is like that movie I'm forgetting what it was called like source a somebody whatever who knows what that one was what was it the usual suspects what Kaiser source whatever it was like he's him and he's what the same guy yeah Cain it's a good movie right yeah we're not commenting on all the stuff Cain is Jethro Abel is Moses the girl is tzipora he took her and killed him in the first time now he sustained him and gave her to him tikkun but I know it takes two to tango so it's not like when they were fighting over property Abel was totally innocent he also said take off your clothes their mind he also was part of the fight so how is that fixed 9b this is the fight over money Moses was a shepherd I already read this in the book he says they are resolved that Moses was the reincarnation of Abel son of Adam who was also a shepherd as the verse dates Abel became a shepherd of flocks that's why it said that this is why the verse says Moses was a shepherd in the past tense meaning in prior life because he was able now Abel was killed when he grazed his animals on Cain's land without permission therefore Moses led the flock toward the wilderness deliberately into uninhabited land to ensure his animals didn't graze on anyone's property this was his teshuva repentance yeah even Abel played a role he was the victim but he had grazed on his brother's land and raised the ire of his brother and so now in the next incarnation the reincarnation Moses takes the flocks and goes to uncharted or unclaimed land unincorporated Sandy Springs as they call it in order to not run a foul on anyone's property the third issue was the ideological difference where Cain says there's no judge and there's no justice and now you know how this ends because if Cain is Jethro what does Jethro come to the realization we need a court system and that's the one thing that he tells Moses who's the reincarnation of Abel not only are you okay believing in that but I even I'm giving you more advice about that and this is 9c there Rizal says Jethro also rectified another flaw Targum records Cain telling Abel there's no judgment no judge no will to come Jethro repaired that denial in the reincarnation by introducing the judicial system as recounted in Exodus chapter 18 he devised Moses to appoint judges on doing the original flaw and this ends this concludes the second example the most elaborate of them all and I wish we had more time to ruminate on this but the good news is you have the text and you can think about this and look at the chart on page 91 figure 3.6 here's and devourer was a judge cipora not devourer yes yeah but that's a different that was a different area okay we'll see if we can blend that the point of this is this sometimes Souls come back because they did so well the first time we need them again you saved your husband once and this guy needs to be saved you know what you're going to marry him the soul is going to come back down to save David's life Michal but sometimes the soul comes back down because the first time it got that wrong or it missed an opportunity so when cipora laments the fact that she missed the miracle to witness a miracle and she laments the missed opportunity to sing God's praises God says don't worry he'll come back as devourer and she'll have an opportunity for that and when Cain kills Abel because of the various reasons that we just read three different angles Kabbalah teaches that his soul is able to come back to repair it get along with the very person that he was most at conflict with and took his life but this time he will help sustain his life thus performing the act of teshuva coming full circle and repairing that which had been breached prior my friends this takes us to the end of today's lesson what we've learned today is first of all fascinating on every level but highly specific to our theme is very powerful our theme today was what makes you you And we answer that a few different ways. Number one, what makes you you? Your unique blend of spheroid energies. That one seems like another class ago. That was tonight. Your unique chesed strength or gavura strength or otherwise. That's what makes you you. And then we said something else that's remarkable. You know what else makes you you? Your previous incarnation. What you were skilled at and what you failed at is what makes you you. And it shapes your strengths, your weaknesses, your opportunities, and the people you encounter. You ever wonder why you have that person in your life always? And it may be different names, but it's the same type of person. Maybe you got it right and they need you again. Or maybe you didn't get it right the first time and now you're given another chance. Again and again to fix it. Right? Maybe there's a scenario, a challenge that you face. A challenge. An internal challenge. An external challenge. From within or from without. And you wonder, like, why is the universe so mean? Why does it keep on sending this challenge my way? Kabbalah would say, it's not mean. It's actually a blessing. It's giving you a chance either to succeed again. Or to fix what you didn't get right the first time. Now you might wonder, and this is how we end tonight. Well, how do I know what my mission in life is? The Ramach says, I'm going to end with this text. Text number 10, page 92. How can we know, says the Ramach, Rabbi Moshe Cordovero, how can we know what specific matter we have come to repair, whether it's a mitzvah to fulfill or a sin to avoid, so that we may be vigilant and repair it? I mean, if we only came down to repair that thing, it would be terrible if we just totally missed it. So how do we know? The answer, he says, is embedded naturally within a person. The soul's passionate yearning and attraction toward a particular mitzvah is a sign. Conversely, the evil inclination, having success with a specific sin, is also a sign. Because it tripped us up in a prior incarnation, the tunnel that the thief once dug remains accessible, and the evil inclination returns through the same opening. Therefore, one should be especially careful about that area, which means as follows. If you find yourself excited about a mitzvah, that's probably your mitzvah, just lean into it. You probably were really good at that the first time around, and you're needed to do it again this time around. Like, I love, you know, visiting the sick, or I love lighting Shabbat candles. Great. Lean into it, because it's probably something related to your mission. Conversely, if you find yourself profoundly challenged by something, that's also a sign. Maybe that's because that was the thing that you needed to do. Maybe that's because that was the thing that you needed to come repair. And it's hard. It's hard, because that was the thing that tripped you up last time. Now it's time to do it again. So do we know with certainty? No. But just follow the signs, because we're usually pointed in the right direction. Whether we're attracted to it or whether we find it difficult to do, the extreme energy is both of them are signs that there's work to do. And tikkunim, repairs to be made. May God grant us success in our missions. May we fulfill our soul's purpose. And may in that experience, our souls find their completion and find eternal blessing. And let us say, Amen. Thank you guys for joining tonight. You guys are amazing. Once again, once again, I cannot say enough about Rabbi Label Wolf. Monday night, 7:00 p.m. Sweet and savory foods, right? Sweet and dry wine. Join us for a wonderful evening, meditation, relaxation, mindfulness, stress relief, anxiety relief, all happening. World renowned mystic, Kabbalist, psychologist, Rabbi Dr. Label Wolf. Any questions, comments? I'm here. Hold on one second, mom. I can't I can't even hear you. Give me one second. We'll do online soon. One thing to mention next week's class, we continue a little bit with reincarnation, but we're also going to look at how the universe, how spiritual forces continue not only shape our personality, but continue to guide us throughout our lives.
Speaker 3That's next week. Sure. There's an app like to come up with your like where you're strong and making your tree of life. Interesting. Put in your name, your birth date, where you were born.
Speaker 1Good to see you, Lauren. I don't know. I haven't seen it. It could be based. Good to see you guys. It could be based on this. It could be its own thing. I would. I would vouch for the OK, so veracity. I don't know. I don't know. It could be might not be. I don't know. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Donna. Appreciate it. A lot to think about.
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