Question: There are several stories around The Book of Zohar. Which of them is reliable?

Answer: It is unknown. Since this Book was hidden for a long time, I do not believe in any assumptions, except for what real Kabbalists say: the Ari and Baal HaSulam.

Rabbi Shimon is buried on Mount Meron. This is what it is. I know only one thing: Rabash went to the grave of Rabbi Shimon, and I felt from him how high he rises, adhering to the source.

He never went anywhere else: not to the Wailing Wall or the graves of Rambam, Ramchal, or Rabbi Akiva; only Rabbi Shimon. For him, it was just recumbency.

Question: Rabbi Shimon was Rabbi Akiva’s student. At what age did he begin to study with him?

Answer: At that time they used to begin at a very early age. In principle, he studied all his life, but I do not know at what age he began. As a rule, children began to seriously study the Torah from the age of three. This is what is written in The Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot, as well as in the scriptures, that a man is obliged to teach his son the properties of bestowal from the age of three.

Comment: I have heard two versions of how Rabbi Shimon became Rabbi Akiva’s student. The first is that he had outstanding abilities still in early childhood. The second is that he came to study when he had already married, and Rabbi Akiva did not want to accept him. Then Rabbi Shimon began to allegedly threaten him that he would tell the Romans about his studies of the Torah, and then he accepted him.

My Response: Personally, I have not read about it and I do not even want to read about it. What difference does it make to me? We are talking about a person’s inner attainment.

I do not look at this world in its animal shells. What difference does it make what is happening in them?! I look at this world only from the point of view of the forces that govern it and determine everything. Why should I look at something that makes no sense and does not exist on its own?

Comment: But these stories are told to the students of Kabbalah when they are taken on a tour of Mount Meron.

My Response: They are told this in order to draw people to a more internal study. What can you do? A person should be gradually drawn to attainment. Start teaching quantum physics to beginners and tell them that there is no time, no distance, no movement, that everything is eternity, infinity. Try to explain the quantum world to them. How many people in the world understand it at all? And spirituality is even higher.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Zohar – Myths and Legends“ 4/14/13

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