Should We Believe in the Sages?
We must take upon ourselves faith in the sages (RABASH, Article No. 4, “What Is a Flood of Water in the Work?”).
Suppose I am ready to believe the words of wisdom, but what does that mean? Do I understand the words of the sages? What is their message?
First of all, in the wisdom of Kabbalah we do not deal with bodies. There are no bodies, there are souls. The bodies that appear before us are images of an imaginary world.
I exist within desire, which manifests itself in various forms: still, vegetative, animate, and human. Sages are corrected souls that exist within the shattered system of Adam HaRishon. They can serve as help and support for me; they can be guides and educators for my shattered soul.
Accordingly, this is how we should receive their advice. For example, The Book of Zohar tells us about the ten sages of Rabbi Shimon’s group, as well as about the prophet Elijah, Moses, Aaron, King David, King Solomon, and others.
We do not perceive them as people who lived in our world, but as corrected desires, corrected souls. They exist within the shattered system that is gradually beginning to revive. They themselves are already corrected partially or completely, and they participate in the correction of the entire system.
“Rabbi Shimon said… Rabbi Abba said…” I read in The Book of Zohar. For me, these are not people who attained and speak about the upper world; for me, these names are degrees of attainment.
Through these words I study the ladder of spiritual degrees: on one level reality appears one way, on another differently. It is as if the Kabbalists are telling me this, but for me they are forces, vessels of perception.
Each sage embodies a certain spiritual concept, power, force, or quality for me. Before me are not the names of historical figures, but the names of spiritual phenomena and degrees.
“Faith in the sages” means: I want to attain the same bestowal as on the degrees about which I read. “Faith” means bestowal.
During the study, a person must include himself in this and strive to understand how it will influence him. Whatever the book speaks about, I want to penetrate the spiritual essence of every word. This is what it means that I believe the words of the sages.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/29/10, Rabash, “What Is a Flood of Water in the Work?”
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