The Barriers Removed
Story of the Alshich
A story is told of the famed Rabbi Moshe Alshich, one of the greatest rabbis of his time, who lived in the city of Tzefat in northern Israel. Tzefat was a city renowned for its Talmudic scholarship and scholars, but, particularly, for its great level of teaching of kabbalah. Indeed, two of the greatest Kabbalists ever, lived, almost side by side, in this holy city. The first was Rabbi Moshe Cordevero, known as the Ramak, and the second, even greater kabbalist, was Rabbi Shlomo Ahskenazi Luria, known as the Ari.
Rabbi Moshe Alshich, who was known mostly for his Talmudic scholarship and his ability to expound the Drush level of Torah most brilliantly, sought to gain entry into the Ari’s class of Kabbalah. When the Ari finally allowed him to attend, Rabbi Moshe Alshich, to his consternation, fell asleep no sooner that the Ari began expounding on the secrets of the Torah.
As one would expect, Rabbi Moshe Alshich was devastated. Was his falling asleep against his own will a sign from heaven that he was not worthy of being a disciple of the Ari? Or, perhaps, it was a sign that he was not ready for the study of Kabbalah. Perhaps he had to undergo more purification?
When Rabbi Moshe addressed his concern to the Ari, the Ari’s response was that Rabbi Moshe’s soul emanated from the world of Drush and therefore he was not able to fathom the secrets of the world of Sod.
What was the meaning of the Ari’s response.? And why would it comfort Rabbi Moshe Alshich when he heard that his soul was not capable of studying Kabbalah?
“Why were You Not Zushe?”
To answer these questions it would serve us right to remember an oft-quoted story of the great Chassidic master, Rabbi Zushe of Aniapoli.
He would say: “I am not concerned that I will be asked in the next world why I wasn’t like the Patriarchs, or like Moses and other great people of the past. For that question I have a simple answer, I am not the Patriarchs, Moses or any of the other great sages of the past. I am, however, greatly concerned that they may ask me a question for which I have no answer, name-ly: `Why weren’t you Zushe?’”.
There are two very different reasons for people not having the ability to realize certain intellectual and spiritual goals. The first is that the individual’s soul does not have that potential. G-d created many diverse souls, each with a different purpose for which they must have certain resources. Commensurate with their soul’s source and spiritual potential, is that individual’s capacity to accomplish certain things and to understand certain aspects of Torah.
There is also another reason why we do not realize our spiritual and intellectual goals. It is due to certain obstructions and blockages that do not allow us to penetrate beneath the surface or scale the heights.
One’s sins and shortcomings are self-destructive, inasmuch as they make it more difficult for the person to realize his/her own potential. If Zushe was concerned that he was not Zushe, it was because he feared that he fell short of the mark in his own efforts at spiritual growth. As a result, G-d had put roadblocks in his path to make it harder for him to realize his potential.
If Rabbi Moshe Alshich was, at first, concerned that he was not able to study Kabbalah from the Ari, it was because he attribute his inability to do so to his own doing. It might also have been G-d’s punishment to him for the things that he did or did not do in the past. It might also have been a test that G-d was giving him to see if he was really serious and dedicated enough to learn these secret teachings.
In the end, his inability to stay awake when the Ari expounded the secrets of the Torah was due to neither of these reasons. The real reason that he would fall asleep when the Ari would lecture was because this was not his potential. G-d did not send his soul into this world to master the teachings of Kabbalah according to the level of the Ari.
The Ari’s Higher Level
To be certain, even Rabbi Moshe Alshich was a student and master of Kabbalah. It was just that the Ari had been “granted permission” from on High to reveal an even higher dimension of Kabbalah then that which had been revealed heretofore. And it was this new dimension that he was not capable of achieving. His soul had another purpose that was more in line with the level of Kabbalah that preceded the Ari.
All Levels Accessible to us Now!
As time progresses, and the teachings of the Ari and subsequent Kabbalists, become more and more vital to the world – either because we need greater measures of holiness to keep us afloat, or because we have a need to prepare for the Messianic revelation – our souls are certainly capable of absorbing these teach-ings. It does not suggest that we are greater than Rabbi Moshe Alshich, but that our souls’ mission and the challenge of our time is to learn even these dimensions of Kabbalah.
However, as noted in an earlier chapter, this ability to take the most abstruse and esoteric levels of Kabbalah, particularly, the Ari’s teachings, were made possible by the Ba’al Shem Tov and his successors. They were given this capability to take the inherently super-rational concepts and make them rational. Hen, even simple people, whose souls have nothing to do with the world of Sod, can grasp the most sublime of concepts. This process took a special G-dly revelation that transcends all bounds, that enables one to internalize that which is essentially above logic.
Now, however, that the barriers to our studying of Sod have all but been removed, it is a Halacha, a Torah law, that we are obligated to master all of the four levels of Torah interpretation, each according to our soul’s capacity. It goes without saying that when we do approach the level of Sod, it must be done with apprehension and with proper guidance. In doing so we prepare ourselves and the entire world for the time when “The world will be filled with the knowledge of G-d as the water covers the sea” (Isaiah)
From the book Safe Kabbalah, Part Two: The Fourth Dimension by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
