Kabbalah: An Integral Part of Torah

Mysticism: The Light of Torah

But, alas, even when we study Torah we might not feel the Divine character that it possesses. Our minds may be so clouded that even when we study Torah we look at it as a mere history book or as an ancient law book or as a beautiful piece of literature.

Even if we are fully aware of the Divine character of Torah, nevertheless, the subject matter of the exoteric part of Torah is not about G-d. We could be studying the laws of an ox goring another ox or of a thief and murderer.

To be sure, whenever we study any part of Torah we recite three blessings which speak of how G-d gives us the Torah.

The Talmud tells us that the reason Jerusalem was destroyed was because the people who studied Torah neglected reciting the blessing on the Torah.

The simple import of this statement is that Torah study for them became an intellectual exercise; they did not overtly acknowledge the Divinity of the Torah, although it might have been in the back of their minds.

From this we see that by reciting the blessings before the study of Torah we connect ourselves ot the Divine origin of all parts of Torah.

Moreover, it should be noted that in the blessings for the Torah it doesn’t say, “He gave us the Torah,” past tense, but rather “He gives us the Torah,” present tense.

The use of present tense is intended to impress upon us that G-d gives us the Torah anew every day. We cannot escape the fact that Torah study—any part of it—is of Divine origin and is a continuous revelation from G-d.

However, we are mere mortals and when we get into the subject matter that deals with crime, deceit and mundane matters, it is very easy for us to forget about the Divinity of Torah.

Kabbalah, or Jewish mysticism, is the part of Torah that brings us face to face with the Torah’s G-dly nature. Jewish mysticism is all about G-d, our Divine soul and our relationship with the Divine.

Thus, notwithstanding the fact that all of Torah is Divine light, we still need the mystical teachings of Torah to illuminate the light.

For this reason, Kabbalah and Chassidic thought have been compared to oil and light. If Torah is light, then the mystical tradition is that which illuminates the light.

Chanukah and the Inner Light of Torah

The Holiday of Chanukah is associated with light because of the miracle that occurred with the cruse of oil that lasted for eight nights instead of one. It also marks the victory of the Jews over the more powerful Syrian Greeks and brought religious freedom to the Land of Israel.

Upon deeper reflection, we find that the two aspects of Chanukah are interconnected.

What were the Syrian Greeks opposed to? They did not really mind that the Jews studied their Torah and observed their precepts. What irritated them was that the Jews saw in Torah and Mitzvot a truth qualitatively superior to what could be found in all of the science, philosophy, literature and poetry of Greece.

If the Jews would have simply studied Torah because it was the most exquisite literature, the Greeks would have been thrilled. If the Jews would have accepted the observance of the commandments because they guaranteed the stability of society, the Greeks would have understood and tolerated it. They might even have accepted it as their own.

The Syrian Greeks, however, detected that when the Jews studied Torah, they “looked down” upon all other intellectual pursuits as being inherently inferior to Torah. The Jews experienced the Divine in Torah and relegated Greek culture to the realm of nature and mediocrity.

This, the Syrian Greeks could not tolerate. To them true enlightenment was embedded in nature and human ingenuity. They glorified both the human physique and the human mind. Language and art, aesthetics and pagan culture were the stuff that illuminated life.

The Jews, however, defined light as the awareness of something higher than nature, an existence that transcended all — G-d. And G-d — in His unadulterated state — could be found, exclusively, within Torah. In comparison to Torah, everything else was darkness to the Jews.

With the defeat of the Syrian Greeks came the miracle of light, because the debate between Greece and Israel was about light. The miracle of light was designed by G-d to show the world that the conflict was not about who was smarter or more beautiful, but about the true definition of light — the true definition of Torah. Torah was not what the Greeks wanted it to be. Torah is not history, literature, poetry, law and philosophy, although it contains elements of all of those disciplines. Torah is unmasked G-dly light.

The Menorah in the Bais Hamikdash

Chanukah is connected to the lighting of the Menorah.

The question has been raised, why do we make such a fuss about the lighting of the Menorah that was resumed when the Maccabees entered the Temple after they defeated the Syrian Greeks. Didn’t they also resume the offering of sacrifices which was interrupted when the Temple was in the hands of the enemy?

The difference between the sacrifices and the Menorah parallel the difference between the revealed aspects of Torah and its esoteric side.

The sacrifices are referred to as G-d’s b54 read. What this means is just like bread is what keeps body and soul together. Similarly, the sacrifices were the medium though which G-d enters into and animates the world.

However, the lighting of the Menorah had an added function. Its purpose was to illuminate that connection between G-d and the world.

This parallels the contribution of the inner secrets of the Torah, which illuminates the Divine within the light of Torah itself.

Yud-Tes Kislev and Chanukah

It is not a coincidence that Yud Tes Kislev and Chanukah occur in the same month.

Yud-Tes-Kislev is the day the Alter Rebbe, the founder of the Chabad Chassidic movement was liberated from prison and the opening of the floodgates of mystical knowledge and Divine light.

Indeed, the Alter Rebbe’s very name Shneur means “two lights.” This name was given to him by the Ba’al Shem Tov stating that he would become a source of two lights. The Ba’al Shem Tov predicted that he will illuminate the world with the light of the revealed part of Torah. The first light was his authorship of an updated Shulchan Aruch-Code of Jewish law.

The second light was the light of the inner dimension of Torah, through his seminal work, the Tanya and dozens of other works on Chassidic philosophy.

More about the Alter Rebbe, his name and his contribution in chapter five.

From the book Safe Kabbalah, Part Two: The Fourth Dimension by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.