After the destruction of the Second Temple, a few people remained, such as Rabbi Shimon, who began writing books and advising the nation on what they should do. They directed this nation that had disconnected from its spiritual level to adhere to a system based on physical actions corresponding to spiritual ones.

Previously, everyone prayed with a prayer of the heart; now,  a prayer book was written for them. Many things that did not exist before were now defined by instructions on how to act at the material level. It was necessary to define the boundaries of the “animal,” which no longer sensed the limits set by the spiritual world and was seeking its own enclosure—to provide a framework for its existence. This was done through the book Shulchan Aruch and other texts.

Thus, the situation that persisted for millennia can be described as the lesser evil. A person existing on the material level, who has no contact with spirituality and no perception of the surrounding light, naturally believes that nothing else is possible.

He thinks that by observing the Torah and the commandments, he is doing everything possible. Indeed, in a way, he is doing everything possible. He has no sense that any further correction is possible. Correction of what if the point in the heart has not yet manifested itself?

That is why some have one Torah and others have another. For some it is external, for others it is internal. When we speak about the inner part of the Torah, we are talking about why a person needs the Torah in the first place: either for internal correction, which is triggered by a point in the heart, or for external correction, which is prompted by the desire to know what to do with one’s hands and feet, and what words to say.

For example, you have a book about slander. Let us take just one stipulation: “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and suddenly you need all these books and encyclopedias to know exactly what can be said in connection with this and what cannot.

The law, however, states one thing: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Make an effort to do this, that is all. What books could we be talking about? However, when moving from inner work to outer work, you must give each thing an external definition so that you know which forms of its manifestation are prohibited, then the amendments begin to multiply. Internally, there is only one law: the law of adhesion, of similarity of form.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/12/26, Rabash, “One Should Always Sell Everything He Has and Marry a Wise Disciple’s Daughter”

Related Material:
Return to the Internal Part of the Torah
Internal And External Interpertations Of The Torah
Understanding The Torah Internally

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