The Spiritual Revolution Sparked by the Holy Ari

Today we have a very special lesson about the holy ARI - the man who turned the wisdom of Kabbalah into a method that suits every person on the planet. We'll be featuring a movie about his life today.

As we do every year, we're marking a Kabbalist leaving this world. In our world when someone dies we cry and feel pain - that's perfectly natural. But in spirituality it's the opposite - the death of a Tzadik - a person who reached the degree of justifying the Creator. It's not a day of mourning. We usually mark it with a day of joy. On Lag Ba'Omer we celebrate Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai leaving this world - who wrote the Zohar.

Today we mark the Holy ARI leaving. He reached such a high degree. No matter how much we speak about it, we won't understand how high he was. How much everything he did impacted humanity, how he opened the wisdom of Kabbalah for humanity. He lived in the 16th century and was only 38. He removed all the restrictions against studying the wisdom. The time that he spent here in Zefat was very short - only two years. Yet despite all that he sparked a spiritual revolution. He changed the whole approach to studying Kabbalah. 500 years have gone by and we can see how much impact he still has on all of us. In this lesson we're going to try to convey his great contribution and influence on our spiritual lives.

We've always dedicated special time to this day and throughout Shabbat we had lessons on this topic.

In the second part of the lesson we'll feature a movie by our director Semion Vinokur, featuring a very famous actor in Israel - Yisrael Sasha Dimidov - who was Rav's first student. It was always his dream to portray these great spiritual characters such as the Holy ARI.

The ARI's full name was Rabbi Yitzhak Luria. He was a trader who arrived in Zefat one day and started to speak. Everyone who was there understood right away that things would never be the same. He didn't put up any signs or handed out flyers - people simply felt that a great person had arrived and flocked to listen to him speak.

The Holy ARI was born in Jerusalem, and taken to his rich uncle in Egypt when he very young. He returned to Israel at the age of 36 to Zefat. He had only ten students. But they all managed to grasp his greatness. There was an outburst of Kabbalah studies in those days and the great ones recognized him. He didn't write anything - he only spoke. His student Rav Chaim Vital only published parts of it at the end of his life. Some parts he left with his son. Some with another relative. Eventually all the parts were put together after a few generations. That's when two books were published - The Eighth Gate and The Tree of Life. It's impossible to understand these books without Baal HaSulam who reached the ARI's degree. He put these books together and wrote the commentary on them. What we read in the morning lesson - TAS - is his commentary on the Tree of Life.

What the ARI did can be compared to the discovery of penicillin or atomic energy. He discovered how the spiritual screen works. Others discovered but didn't know how to explain how this anti-egoistic force works to balance the ego in a way that the Creator can be revealed. He explained all the various types of light - mainly how to receive pleasures in an eternal way like the Creator wants us to. He developed a method - and the entire language of Kabbalah comes from him. He arranged the most precise explanation of the cascading of lights from Keter to Malchut including all the worlds. Everything Rav explains to us about the worlds is all based on ARI (also known as Rashbi).

What did other great sages say about him?

"Know that one man sitting here will rise after me and enlighten the eyes of the generation with the wisdom of Kabbalah. That in my days the pipes were clogged, and in his days the pipes will be revealed. And know that he is a great man, the spark of the Rashbi." The Ramak on the Ari

We need to understand that this chain of Kabbalists is essentially the same soul that keeps coming back to our world to complete its mission -

Abraham who discovered the method

Moshe - who received the Torah on Mt. Sinai

Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai - who wrote the Zohar

The Holy ARI - in the 16th century "opens all the pipes" by removing restrictions - the wisdom is open to all after the ARI did a correction, which we are not exactly clear about how it happened.

Baal HaSulam added the commentary on the Talmud Eser Sfirot. He explains how he reached the same degree and that's why he could write this commentary on such a great Kabbalist at such a high degree. Up until the ARI everyone wrote about from upward downward. He was the first to write what happens from downward upward - restriction of the creature, etc.

"And you should know that the knowledge of the wisdom of Kabbalah largely depends on knowing the order of the sequence of the Sefirot and the faces and the worlds from each other, in terms of "cause and effect" with absolute certainty. And the sages of the Zohar explained this in the secret way. Indeed, one would not have understood their words until the late Ari came and revealed the things. And know that the entire innovation in the Kabbalah of the late Ari, over the previous expounders, is mainly in the revelation of the ways of the A'S Da'ur Cho'er. And although the Sha'S Da'U'ah in general were revealed to all the previous Kabbalists, indeed their main attainment and understanding was only according to the ways of the Sha'S Da'U'ah. Until the late Ari came and explained to us the knowledge of the ways of the Oh'A'ah in all their details. And in this is the opening of the hidden and locked treasures in the books of the Holy Zohar."(Ba'al HaSulam. Talmud Aser HaSefirot, Part 4, Internal View, 6)

The Holy ARI developed a method for correcting our soul. Before that the only method that existed was suffering. He created this method to enable the masses to go through this process and attain everything we've ever wanted: Freedom, peace, hope, love.

You can watch the movie here -