What is a Kabbalist, Do They Still Exist? (9 Minutes)

0:13To be a Kabbalist, you have to be more than a Chassid. We're not even am ha'aretz yet. Do you understand? So, that's the reality. I'll give you an understanding of, like, it's not just Kabbalists; the wisdom of the sages is beyond our comprehension. So to give you a small understanding, there is a Ma'aril Diskin, a story about Ma'aril Diskin. So he made a tzaddik, huge chacham, but not regular wisdom. We think a chacham is like someone that maybe remembers a few books by heart. Or someone that speaks a bunch of languages. That's what we think is a chacham. The Maharil Diskin was known as someone that could look at a tree and within a few moments he knew exactly how many leaves were on the tree. So some people didn't believe it. So one time a student asked the Rabbi, "Rabbi, how many leaves are on this tree?" and the Rabbi looked at the tree and he gave him some big number. So then the Rabbi left, and the students were talking amongst each other like, "Yeah, but how do we know he's right? Like, he just said a big number but we didn't actually count the leaves. How do we know he's right?" So one of the students was clever. He's like, "Okay, you know what? This is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna take off..."

1:3810 leaves. 50,000 leaves here, he said. He has 47,812 leaves. I'm going to take off 10 leaves. I'm going to take off 5 leaves. Let's see if he gives us the same number again. So they took off the leaves. The Rabbi came back a little later. Like, "Oh, Rabbi, can you remind me how many leaves are on this tree?" He goes, "Oh, it's the same number I gave you before, minus 10. Amazing. Wow. Wow. You understand? So that is Chokhmat Chazal. That is..." So they took off the leaves. The rabbi came back a little later. Like, "Oh, Rabbi, can you remind me how many leaves are on this tree?" He goes, "Oh, it's the same number I gave you before, minus 10." Amazing. Wow. Wow. You understand? So that is Chochmat Chazal. That is... a wisdom that's, to us, beyond nature. Beyond nature. So when you talk about Kabbalah and people that deal with Kabbalah, these are people that are not just smart. These are people that can change nature. They do things that are unnatural. I have a friend who's an avrech, he's an avrech with the same kollel as Rabbi Freiman.

2:44He doesn't do it often, but he knows a little bit of Kabbalah. He's able to bend metal with his mind. You take a spoon, you look at the spoon, the spoon would melt, would bend. But he'll only show it to people that know him really well, that he studies with them all day. He doesn't go and, you know, do a circus show. Now, he doesn't do it in front of people because even though he can make money off of it or this, that's not for that. People that really know Kabbalah, which are very, very few, don't deal with it for that. They do things to show the power of Hashem. It has nothing to do with them. They're humble people. They're pure people. So all of these people that are running this multi-billion dollar operation, Kabbalah Center, or selling the books, first of all, a lot of them are not even Jewish. Yeah, a lot of them are not even Jewish. Nothing. They're not even Jewish. Then you have other ones that are Jewish, but they're koferim. They're complete heretics. They don't follow, they don't keep Shabbat, they don't keep anything. So, it's all capitalism. It's all money. The reality of it is that in order for us to live good lives and enjoy both this world and the next, it's the basic level of Judaism.

4:01So you told us when you went to Israel last year, huh? You said the place you were—the hospital that was across there? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, across the street from, uh, in Jerusalem, uh, Robert Frank lives in a place called Har Nof in Jerusalem, which is a few buildings away from, um, maybe three or four buildings away from where Rav used to live. few buildings away, but across the street, you know, there are all these buildings and apartment buildings. Right across the street, there's a huge fence and a big, big area surrounding this complex. What is this complex? It's a hospital. It's a mental institution. what's this mental institution doing in the middle of Jerusalem? I mean, there's plenty of places to put a mental institution, right? Why over there? Because this mental institution is for people that went crazy from learning Zohar, learning Kabbalah, and they weren't ready for it. But I thought even to have a Sefer in your house with you is a blessing, and it's, uh, changing. Having a book in your house and learning it are two different things.

5:21know again, also learning it and learning it talking about Zohar, yeah, learning Kabbalah is part of the Zohar, yeah. Learning the Arizal and learning just a few words are two different things. Most people don't know how to read the Zohar; it's a completely different language. And when you're really dealing with deep Zohar and Kabbalah, it has to do with saying angels' names, God's names. I'll show you a few things. I'll show you guys something that this is... don't think, don't, don't think, don't think that I am uh, a Kabbalist or anything. This is just something that I learned without trying, just to give you an understanding of what it is, okay? This, this right here, this page, this is the basic foundation of all Kabbalah, yeah, and it's... Different names of God. The Yud, Hey, Vav, Hey. Then you spell out the word Yud, and then you spell out the word Hey, and so on. It's the basic level, the basic foundation of all Kabbalah. Based on the 72 names? Yeah, to some extent, I guess, yes. Now, this is completely illegible, not to me and to anyone else. But if you delve into things like this...

6:35you're not ready. You start saying God's name, and you're not ready to say the Shem HaMeforash, or you start saying one of His angels' names, and your soul is not pure enough to say that name. That angel will hurt you. He'll take it offensively. Who are you to say my name? So, the people that went crazy didn't go crazy because it was, you know, so amazing that they went to a different world. No, it's a punishment. You have to be an ultra-pure soul to learn Kabbalah. You have to be an ultra-pure soul to learn Zohar. It's not for everyone. Yes, there are basic things you can learn from the Zohar, like things that it says, that we even mention in lectures. You know, things that it says, commentary that it says about Parashat HaShavua, commentary that it says about certain halachot, commentary that it says about certain things that have to do with day-to-day life. Yes, there are certain things you can learn, and there are certain things that certain rabbis teach. Very basic stuff.

7:40But it's like very, very basic stuff. Honestly, for anyone that likes mystical stuff, I have a student—his name is Sonny. I think I mentioned him earlier. He loves mystical stuff. And really, if somebody likes the mystical stuff, they don't need to go to the Zohar. Gemara—Gemara has more mystical stuff than you can imagine. Go to the Gemara. If not that, you want something simpler, go to the Midrash. Basic, the real commentary behind the scenes of what happened in the Torah. It's called the Midrash. It's huge. It's endless. It's hundreds of books. It's better than any comic book you'll ever read. All the characters you have from comic books, whether it's the Incredible Hulk, or the people that fly, or the people that run really fast, all of them are based on characters in the Torah. As a matter of fact, a big part of them is the 12 tribes. So people that like mystical stuff, they have it. They have it in the basic level Torah. You don't need to go to a place like the Zohar or the Kabbalah and put your life at risk for something that you're probably not going to understand anyway. And if you understand it, it's a problem.

8:45Because if you understand it but you're not ready for it, it could be a problem. Naftali was the one that was fast. Levi. Each one of them. Yehuda is the incredible hawk. It's similar to him. So, there's a lot of amazing teachings that Chazal have that are beyond our understanding.