Nehora School Presents The Kabbalah Of Rabbi Ashlag

"In every generation, a man is obliged to see himself or herself, as if he is coming out of Egypt." Every single day we mention the redemption from Egypt in our prayers. The coming out of Egypt, is not a one- time historical event, but a present reality for each and every one of us. Each one of us has within us our own personal Egypt. The word Egypt in Hebrew is מצרים which means narrow or constricted places. Each one of us has our own limitations that we need help in overcoming. We need our own redemption. From the Torah of Rabbi Ashlag.

Prayer is our connection with our Source. Yet there are many sad and broken people in the world who yet do not call out to the Divine for help. Rabbi Ashlag teaches us that the very turning to God constitutes a Divine call to us. Zohar

Without the wick, the oil, and the vessel to place it in, the flame of the candle cannot light. Each of these three components have an inner equivalent in our service of God, with which we, too, can light our own inner flame. From the teachings of Rabbi Baruch Shalom Ashlag

If we don't know the intentions of the other person we can so easily misjudge their overt actions. Nowhere is this truer than in the Bible stories. Learning the literal story alone, may even lead us away from the truth revealed within it. By revealing intentions, the Kabbalah teaches us the consciousness of the Torah in a way that we can grow ourselves. Nowhere is this more poignant than in the story of Jacob and Esau.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. From that English translation we would infer that this verse is talking about the initial creation, which subsequently unfolded. But the Sages of the Zohar took a rather different view of this statement. They saw this verse as embodying the glorious fulfillment of the Creation, when humankind will come to a full consciousness of compassion and love.

Rosh HaShanah, the new year is a day of choice; a day when we are given the possibility of choosing again. This is an amazing thought. For so many of us, the days go by and we seem to have drifted into habits of thought , feeling and even actions, which on closer examination we may not in fact espouse. So what does this new choice consist of, and how do we choose? From the Kabbalah of Rabbi Baruch Shalom Ashlag

The soul's origin is God. To return, to do the work of teshuvah, is to return to our origin; no longer separated from God, no longer divided from our truest selves, but united in the Divine. This opportunity is a gift of the Creator to all of creation. From the teachings of Rabbi Kook and Rabbi Baruch Shalom Ashlag.

By means of a parable Rabbi Baruch Ashlag helps us identify different elements within our own personalities. Surprisingly, seeing our negative aspects turns out to be a forward step on the spiritual path.

In the external world, the Temple has been destroyed and is not yet rebuilt. We lack the real living reality of God within the heart of the nation. If we extrapolate that to our inner selves we can see, that what we are really missing is the experience of the presence of God within ourselves, and it is that lack that we mourn at this time.

In a letter that Rabbi Ashlag wrote to his brother, he teaches that the soul incarnates into this world, because only when it is clothed in the physical  can it experience feeling; whereas in the higher realms it has knowledge of God but not feeling. It is through our difficult feelings that we long for the revelation of  God's light in our lives, creating the desire, the vessel for his light.

"She shall give to your head a garland of grace, a crown of glory she shall grant you” The inner beauty of the Torah speaks to our soul, as the essence of the Torah , the essence of the soul and the essence of the Creator are One. A life of Torah is a beautification of the Creation . From the teachings of Rabbi Ashlag on the Zohar and on the Etz Chayim of the Ari z''l

The term "night", in the language of the Kabbalah refers to the time when the Creator's presence is hidden from us. We yearn for the day… . But is there something we are missing? The Zohar hints to us that there is a special value to the time of the night. From the teachings of Rabbi Ashlag in preparation for the festival of Shavuot.

Blessed be He who keeps His promise to Israel. This saying in the Haggadah gets greater force when we learn a remarkable article in the Zohar, in which we learn how faith played a crucial part in the redemption and that God, kept His promise to the froefathers, Abraham Isaac and Jacob to the letter. This is a promise we rely on even today.

We are living in turbulent times; the light of redemption is close but so are the forces of destruction growing. How do we deal with this?The inner meanings of the Megillat Esther as explained by Rabbi Ashlag teach us what choices are available to us, and how to make these choices conscious and positive.

Rabbi Ashlag teaches that all the events of the Torah are not simply historical events but a record of the revelation of God within us. Thus in our psyche we find all the elements of the story of the Exodus, including the inner Pharaoh. How does this inner pharaoh manifest, and what is going to help us get free?

We think that our thoughts are a response to our outer reality. However, Rabbi Ashlag in examining the causes of the exile of the Children of Israel in Egypt shows that precisely the opposite occurred there. The Children of Israel suffered initially a spiritual descent, which then enabled the Egyptians to gain a hold over them they would otherwise never have achieved. The same principles hold true for each of us, regarding our own inner exiles, and our inner redemptions today.

"O God, My God, You, I seek You. My soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You, in an arid and thirsty land without water" ( Psalm 63). David said these words when he was in sorrow and trouble. The Zohar looks at the circumstances in which David said this Psalm , and shows us the nature of God's light when it is hidden from us. It transpires that David is actually teaching us the consciousness of God's light when it is concealed from us and how we may yet connect with God even when we can't.

The Sages of the Zohar asked Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai , Why did Jacob withhold giving Esau some lentil stew until he had sold him the birthright? The unspoken question is "Is that the way a righteous man behaves?!" Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai 's answer, was decisive. Jacob was a righteous man of truth who is incapable of deceiving anyone. What was this truth of Yaakov and how does it affect us till this day?

The Binding of Isaac, the Akedah, is not understandable in normal human terms. By studying the teachings of the Zohar on this event, we are led to see how it was an act of great love and fulfillment equivalent in its essence to that of the creation of the first day in which both Abraham and Isaac took part fully.

"And God spoke to Avraham". These three words open a new birth for humanity; they herald a new consciousness in the world— on a deeper level they are the words, which both God and Man have been waiting for, the advent of Avraham, the embodiment of loving-kindness.