'Better A Good Question Than A Bad Answer,' An Introduction To Judaism And Kabbalah: A Conversation With Rabbi Gedaliah Gurfein From Jerusalem

[00:00:03] Speaker A: I wanted to introduce this very special talk from January 31, 2010, pulled from the Archives of Unraveling Religion Judaic edition. Rabbi Gedalia Gerfein was my first introduction to the deeper esoteric and spiritual teachings of Kabbalah and Judaism. In this talk, better a good question than a bad answer. Rabbi Gedal Gerfund talks about the many aspects of Judaism and Kabbalah and including prophecy and Kabbalah, its relationship, God's plan for creation, that he created human beings as co creators, partners in creation, to bring about the perfection of the world through our efforts and in being vested in doing so, it becomes ours. We've earned it. The talk closes with the concept of the BAAL Shem Tov, who was the master of the good name, Rabbi Yisrael, the founder of the Hasidic movement. Please, I hope you enjoy this very special talk with Rabbi Gedalia Garfein of Jerusalem. Gedalia, I just want to welcome you today to Unraveling Religion. My name is Joel Alessis and I'll be your host today. And Gedalia, if you wanted to just introduce yourself, okay. [00:01:18] Speaker B: I'm Gedali Gurufaim, a Syracuse University boy who's been living in Israel since 1979, or most specifically in Jerusalem. I've been working in the mobile technology field here in Israel. Excuse me, since 1983. I was ordained as an Orthodox rabbi in 1979. I served as two pulpit rabbis, one up in the city of Spatula, one in Sydney, Australia. I've been involved as a teacher of Judaism in the United States, in Europe and Australia, and here in Israel for many, many years, have written a few Torah books and just balanced my world between, I guess, high tech and high holidays. [00:02:07] Speaker A: Wonderful, wonderful. That sounds great. So tell me, tell me a little bit about just how you came to. I know the background story because I remember it from many years ago, actually. It left a lasting impression on me. But how you came to the place that you are now, religiously and spiritually. [00:02:29] Speaker B: Ah, yeah, okay. Well, as my Rabbi Jerry Garcia once said, you know, it's been a long, strange trip, but, you know, sometimes the lights all shine on me. I think the experience was really, it sort of came alive. When I came to the land of Israel. I was a fourth generation atheist American. Not really any sort of affiliation, not even a reformed Jewish affiliation whatsoever. I was part of what became known as the Bali Chuva movement back in the 70s, when of course, there were maybe only a handful of us. It was a renegade experience, but I Think what was really touching was the physical land of Israel, because biblical stories suddenly had a shape and a form in an actual location. Like you could say to somebody, King David. And then he says, yeah, you take the number 11 bus to the end, you get off and you walk to the corner. It's a whole different dimension. [00:03:24] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:03:25] Speaker B: You know, I think the other thing also that blew me away was I remember once I was working in one of the high tech parks right next to intel where they make their chips, and I realized with one eye I'm looking at the intel fab and the other eye I'm looking at the grave site of Samuel the prophet. [00:03:41] Speaker A: Oh, wow. [00:03:42] Speaker B: And that was sort of a sort of future, past and present collision. And through that soup, I guess, grew a lot of my Jewish knowledge. [00:03:52] Speaker A: Amazing. That is truly amazing. So the show Unraveling Religion is really about the exploration of all different worlds, religions. And you're the first Jewish perspective. Even though I was raised Jewish, my mom's not Jewish, but I was bar mitzvah and have spent some time in Israel and consider myself Jewish and still struggle with that identity. And it is a work in progress, so I think it's making itself clear in time. But I wanted to know, Gedalia, if you could give a little introduction about like a little snippet. I know it's. It's not an easy thing to do, but a little snippet about both Judaism and Kabbalah. [00:04:37] Speaker B: Well, it's funny, you know, because I guess in the Jewish religion, you think snippet right away. I was thinking you're going to go through circumcision. I'm much happier to go to Kabbalah. Well, I'll tell you, first of all, I have to tell you the concept of unraveling religion, if you don't mind me just taking a step back, I think that you really hit on something very important because I remember my rabbi teaching me better a good question than a bad answer. And for us, question are holy, because questions are about unraveling and unraveling. It's kind of like being an earthworm. It's about going into the soil and aerating it. And through that process of unraveling, you actually bring a kind of a vitality that allows things to grow. And in a way, I think that now to come to your question, the concept of Judaism, Kabbalah, I have to just tell you a quick little story you might enjoy. When I first came to Israel, my Hebrew was really not so sharp. And I remember I was in a supermarket And I bought something. And the woman says to me, she says, would you like a Kabbalah? I said, wow, this is amazing. Like, here I am in the middle of the supermarket, and, like, the little yemenite lady is like, wants me to give me some secret esoteric Kabbalah. Until I found out that that was the Hebrew word for a receipt. And that's really. People don't realize that the word Kabbalah, it doesn't mean mysticism, it means to receive. Because everything was about receiving. It's about making ourselves into vessels. And the more one refines the vessel, the more the subtlety of the content can become. Like, for example, if somebody had a gold vessel, they would treat that vessel with a whole different demure than they would if it was a plastic vessel. And the beauty of being a human being, like you said, you're a work in progress. We all are work in progresses. I mean, the bottom line is not about being being. It's about becoming and the nature of the world that we are in. You know, everybody here, nobody gets out of here alive. We've all been sentenced to life on planet Earth. It's only a question of when. It's never a question of if. And if we realize that the time on our planet is sacred, then what happens is we focus on how we use our time. And that usage of a time refines us as a vessel. And this is important in terms of Judaism and in terms of Kabbalah and even higher than Kabbalah prophecy. There used to be cities in Israel. I'm actually looking at one out my window right now. Which was the city of Ramoth, where Samuel the prophet was living, where you couldn't live there unless you were a prophet. There were schools where people went for prophecy. However, no matter what you could do, you could never generate a prophecy. You could only become worthy of a prophecy and then become the vessel to receive it. And this is the same on a lower level as Kabbalah. Kabbalah was a more selective transmission that was happening offline. It wasn't the mainline Talmudic or Midrashic or Halakhic flowing rivers. It was more of an elite group through which the transmission would only occur when the teacher felt that the student was a worthy vessel. And so as we make ourselves those vessels, then we are able to be Mekabel, to be able to receive more. And the Hashkacha, Pratiot, the divine providence brings us at the right time to the right place where we meet a teacher or open a book or have an encounter that illuminates us to that kind of wisdom that we're ready for. [00:08:22] Speaker A: Wow. So what I hear you saying is that everything is as it should be and working itself out in the way that it should correct. [00:08:32] Speaker B: You know, but the beauty of the world we live in is that there's night and there's day. So when things are clear, when we see it working out, that's the daytime, that's the facility of wisdom. And when it's night, that's the facility of faith. [00:08:46] Speaker A: Wow. Well, let me ask you a question, Gedalia. Since this is all God's creative action, how come we don't perceive him clearly in the world? [00:08:59] Speaker B: Great question. So I believe that this world is cosmic hide and seek. And I have to tell you, I was, like, a little bent out of shape by that experience as a child. I don't know, maybe because I was like the little Woody Allen Jew boy, because I grew up in a heavy duty Irish Catholic environment and I was like, when I was my turn to hide, nobody ever came to look for me. It was like, good. [00:09:23] Speaker A: He's sorry. [00:09:25] Speaker B: Exactly. You know, I was like, all right, we gonna go play basketball. Now he's lost. And so sometimes I feel like God's like the same thing. God got all excited. He makes this amazing planet. He, like, puts all these phenomenal souls, Chinese people and black people and Jewish people and Christians and Muslims, and it's like this amazing, amazing, amazing collection of all these cosmic souls and bodies. And then all of a sudden, we suffer, like, an amnesia. We forget to go look for God. And guys go, yo, I'm over here. Yo, I'm over here. But I think that the answer might be in Kabbalah. The Zohar, which is sort of one of the basic literature pieces of the Kabbalistic teaching, calls this world olam asiya, a world of action. It's not called a world of peace. It's not called a world of truth. Actually, in one place. It's actually called alma, the chakra, which is Aramaic for meaning a world of lie. But it's called the world of opportunity. And that the Zohar teaches us that when a person receives charity, it could be very embarrassing for the person who receives it. And that's why in Jewish law, the highest form of charity is actually giving a person a job. Because when you give a person a job and they work for it, then they feel, hey, man, where's my money? I've worked for, I deserve it. It's what we call saving face. So God in his greatness Wanted the creation to receive what God had to give, but wanted us to save face. So God created this kind of Bizarro World little Superman reference there. [00:10:58] Speaker A: Yeah, we're like co creators. [00:11:01] Speaker B: Exactly. Meant they were partners. And in that partnership, we have the ability to earn what we do so that we can take credibility for it. [00:11:10] Speaker A: Wow. [00:11:10] Speaker B: It's for our dignity. [00:11:11] Speaker A: Our dignity. And there's a change that comes about in a deep way, I think, through all of this. Right. I mean, I don't know how that translates into Jewish mysticism, but I feel that very deeply that there's a fundamental change. And all the good that we do does go someplace. [00:11:28] Speaker B: Absolutely. In fact, one of the things in Judaism is we do not utilize the delta. The only time we use a delta is as a double delta, which is the form of the Star of David. And this is because, similar to the yin yang idea, we believe that there's no such thing as an isolated force. So if you think of the Star of David, the lower star, sorry, the lower triangle of the star is actually the earth trying to elevate it to a spiritual place. And the inverted triangle which greets it is the heaven trying to manifest itself in the physical plane. So if a person finds a center point, then that harmony becomes sort of flow, in which case we ascribe to such an individual one of the names for the human being called Adam, which is rooted in the word Adama, which is the earth, meaning a person who is growing like a tree. But when a person goes off balance on one way, then the heavens, so to speak, have to compensate and off balance in the opposite direction in order to bring the person back to the center. And such a person is called Enosh. And Enosh was actually a biblical person after the days of Adam, before the days of Noah, and he was the person in the generation that idolatry came into the world. Because the word enosh is a combination of the word onus and onish. Onus means to be forced and onish means to suffer. So the human being in the state of struggle can also learn and grow, but it's through a painful process. Whereas the person in the center is Adam grows in a more harmonious nature. [00:13:05] Speaker A: That makes such clear sense to me, Gedalia. And I think that, you know, in finding that center point, there's a natural rhythm that is deep within us, that arises and emanates from us. And that's when synchronicities begin to take place and things seem to, quote, unquote, fall into place. Do you agree? [00:13:26] Speaker B: Right. Absolutely. If you'll allow me please to come back for one second to the Star of David analogy, you'll notice that this star has six points. And this is idea because when it says that God created the world in six days, especially in the writings of the Kabbalah, it does not mean 24 hour units as we have today. And one of the fingers that's pointed is that the sun and the moon were not even put in position until Wednesday. But what minor detail. And I don't think there were Internet minutes in those days either. However, what it does mean is that there are six types of time and they correlate to the six positions of space that we live in. North, south, east, west, up and down. And to move in time, excuse me, to move through space requires time. So therefore the seventh point of the Star of David is the Sabbath, which is in the middle. And that correlates both to the number seven, which is where the word Sabbath or Shabbat as we call it, comes from. And it's a different type of time as opposed to the other six types of time, because it's time of non movement. It's exactly like you said, it's finding that inner center balanced point. From there everything radiates into the six days of the week, into the six positions of time. [00:14:41] Speaker A: Very interesting. Oh my God, I'm going to mine too. So let me ask you, what is the ultimate purpose of life? Man. What is the ultimate purpose of man? Yeah. [00:14:59] Speaker B: Okay. I think that the question would be broken down into two answers. I think there is an inner circle which is what is my ultimate purpose for being here? And then there is the larger circle which is what is the human experience's purpose for being here? So the way I think of it is when I was growing up, one of the fads back in the 60s where you built a den onto your house. And a den was a place that no one would ever use, but it was there and had like furniture with plastic on it, had a coffee table. And then people would buy these like 5,000 piece puzzles. And you could benchmark time by these puzzles because every time you go to your friend's house you could see, wow, he's got 272 pieces. Now he's got 794 pieces. Now he's got 1,600 pieces. But the thing about the puzzle was your eye always went to the one piece that was missing from the area that they had already done. Now of course they didn't realize the dog had eaten it. And they'll Never find that piece. But that was the piece that they missed. And if you think about the fallacy which we all believe, which is that there's no such thing as two snowflakes which are alike. Can you imagine? Then there's no such thing as two human beings which are alike. And therefore the greatest thing that God created is the individual. Because we're like that little piece in the puzzle. If we waste our lives trying to be what other people tell us to be. That's not to say that we shouldn't learn from other people. In fact, we should learn from every other person. But if we don't really listen to our inner voice of discovering who we are, then we're that missing piece. And nobody else could be that piece but you, but me, but whoever's listening. That piece is the unique space in the universe that we occupy. So that's the primary function in the inner circle, is for each of us to discover. You know, it's not like God took your soul and was aiming for a certain religious community. And like a wind blew you out to, like, the boondocks and blew it. Gabriel, can you bring me another angel, please? And just forget about that one. You know, it's not at all. It's the choice of the country, your parents, male, female, height, size, weight, hair color, everything, everything. It's all been custom design in order to give this incarnation the opportunity to either rectify and. Or to achieve what its particular goal is. Now, while all of us are doing that, even if we're not doing it, we're doing it, then on the larger level, our vision of the world is that in the end, it will all be very good. And the beauty of knowing that in the end it will all be good allows us to walk through, even in Auschwitz. Because if we understand that no matter what happens in the end it will be good, then everything that happens is worth going through that process in order to get to that. And we can also mirror that in our own lives. If we know that the end of our lives is going to bring us to something so much more elevated. If we achieve our opportunity in this world, then we have the ability to convert our most negative experiences into our growing milestones and our most, maybe darkest, personality traits. We can heal them into our real, positive, illuminated traits. [00:18:12] Speaker A: Okay, so let me ask you a very practical question. How do we do that? [00:18:18] Speaker B: Well, I think if you look, you know, as a Jew, we always try to believe that the physical and the spiritual mirror each other. So if we look at the physical nature of the Human being. The end of the day, we are DNA. And DNA is, I don't know, magazine some of the experiments going to Stanford University to actually use DNA as the back end of computer data. But there's more capability of knowledge in DNA than anything that exists in the world today. We are actually living knowledge. So therefore the process, at least of how to do it is to become wiser, is to use our minds to develop critical thought, to think for ourselves, to be willing to open up with questions and unravel what's in front of us in order to be able to reassemble it. [00:19:04] Speaker A: Wow. Yeah. Makes clear sense to me also. And you know, from my vantage point, I kind of. Things unfolded in a way that was. I was led to meditation. And I'm just wondering if you can speak a little bit about the process or the practice of meditation and Judaism. I've read R.A. kaplan's Jewish Meditation and find it very fascinating and was just wondering. I myself practice just very basic zazen Zen meditation, but was wondering if you could speak about the Jewish practices of meditation. [00:19:39] Speaker B: Well, I don't want to say anything negative, but I just kind of say that I think that one of the things that the Jewish people could benefit most from today would be if they could go back into their roots of Jewish meditation and bring it much more into the forerunt of our being. Because when you really open up Talmudic literature, which I'll start there, you'll find in the Gemoran Brachos, it says that the original pious people would meditate one hour before they would pray, and then they would pray for an hour, and then it would take them an hour to come back to earth. Now, if you. As Jews, we pray three times a day, you can imagine that's a large chunk of time. But the truth of the matter is that the real bottom line of Jewish meditation, although there are famous books of abulafia and other things, which there are mind meditations of combining different letters of God's name. That was a meditation right there. Meditation on my dinner. But there's also. There are physical forms. I know people here who study the meditations of actually a yoga meditation with a contort their body into the 22 Hebrew letters. But I believe that the real form of meditation is to be aware that one stands before God 24:7. Because by having that image of God, what will happen to a person is the whole world will turn into a dollhouse. There will be all the furniture and all the drapings, but there will no longer be a roof, a Person will realize that no matter where they are, they are always with God. And the proximity is so beautiful and so close. It's just a question of tuning in. But that can only come through that meditative experience of drilling down and breaking through the laws of nature that veil our eyes from seeing those things. [00:21:28] Speaker A: Wow. Well said, Gedalia. And I think that, for me, I think that there's validity in all the world's religions, and they each serve a purpose. But in one sense, there needs to be that study of an individual, of man himself, by himself, before he can enter into the books. How do you feel about that? Do you know what I'm saying? [00:21:52] Speaker B: Yeah, I do know what you're saying. I would like to share a thought on that about the religions of the world. I agree with you. I think that, in fact, I was even just telling this to. I had a very interesting Shabbat dinner with a German Christian woman who was visiting from Munich. And I sat there, I said, you know, the Jewish idea is similar to the other religions, that there's only one God, but it's one God who makes many people and many types of people. And that's why, as Jews, there was never a missionary kind of a thing. In fact, if a person comes to be Jewish, first thing we try to do is send them to a psychiatrist or send them to Woody Allen. Like, why would you ever want to be Jewish? Out of your freaking mind. So it's like the antithesis, the opposite completely, of missionary activity. And the reason is, is because God made all of us. And if you really believe in one God, you cannot believe in war. Because if you really believe in one God, you have to believe in all of human beings, because you realize they're all made by the same God that made me. Made you. And so, therefore, I think that the challenge of our world today is to be able to show respect to each other. And it only happens when we reach the understanding that the ultimate characteristic is to be humble. When we humble ourselves, what we do is we stand before the Grand Canyon and we see such beauty that overwhelms us. There's so much that we can learn from each other and share with each other rather than trying to outdo each other, God forbid. And I think that that begins with the individual coming to the other part of your question, which is, at the end of the day, even if we ascribe to a religion or philosophy, we're born alone and we die alone. And that need to discover who we are first. You know what? I'll just If I may tell you a little story I used to teach. And I don't know if it's a true story, but it's a cute story. But the story goes, I guess it has to be America because sometimes Americans are not as into geography maybe as Europeans are. So this is a story of like a fourth grade teacher whose kids were like totally going amok and she needed like a few minutes R and R. So she gave them all maps of the world and says, look, cut them up and scotch tape them back together. She probably imagined by the time they realized that Denmark does not border with Afghanistan, this was going to be good for 15, 20 minutes. But sure enough, one kid, not particularly bright, especially not in geography, after just a few minutes comes up and the whole world is in perfect order. And she's flabbergasted. She says, how did you do? This kid says, well, I'll tell you something, before I cut it up, I flipped it over and I drew a picture of myself. So all I had to do was put myself together and the whole world came together with it. [00:24:36] Speaker A: Oh, wow, that's a beautiful story. [00:24:39] Speaker B: So I think that's the relationship between the need first self discovery and then world discovery. [00:24:46] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. And I think that, you know, approaching things from a Buddhist perspective, which, you know, I consider myself a buju just because Jewish Buddhist. Because I didn't find the. I didn't find this level of content and richness in the Judaism that I was taught or came to know. And I'm always open to learning more and wanting to know more, but I wanted to know if you could speak a little bit about. And I know it's not often too spoken about in many of the mainstream forms of Judaism, but about life after death and reincarnation and just the Jewish mystical view of that. [00:25:34] Speaker B: Well, I'll be happy to. I'd just like to preface it as to sort of say why it isn't and then I'll come and deal with it. If you read through the five books of Moses, there's no reference at all to life after death, and especially not to incarnations. And in fact, the Talmud has to kind of do real extrapolation to find even hints at such things. For example, we just had it last week in Shabbat in our synagogues, we read the famous story of the song that Moses led the Jewish people after the spirit living of the sea. And the language says if you're very exacting in the Hebrew, it's he will sing as opposed to he did sing. And from that Very, very subtle nuance comes the conclusion that Moses will come back in the resurrection of the dead and they will sing the song again. But the real question is, why is it so opaque? And the answer, one answer is because the Torah, or at least the Jewish teaching, tries to focus us very much on the here and now. Because the assumption is that you are who you're supposed to be now, then you will be who you are meant to be then. And if you're not who you are now, it's not going to help you in the then. So having said that, let's take a little peek. One interesting thing about incarnation, as opposed to life after death, is that normally incarnation is not viewed as a positive, or I should say that differently, it's not viewed as a preferred venue. The analogy I would think about is imagine you throw your shirt into the washing machine and you open it up at the end of the rinse, and it's not clean. So what are you going to do? You're going to put it back in for a second rinse. Imagine the shirt says, no, no, please, no more. You see what you're talking about, man? It's like you're not clean shirt. And that's the same idea, is that if a person does not succeed in what they're supposed to do, to do in this world, then they come back in all forms of capabilities and capacities in order to rectify themselves. Which, by the way, there was a great rabbi of the last generation known as the Chazonish, and every time he saw a person who had down syndrome or autism, he would stand up out of his chair for this person. Because his tradition was that these people are really the highest souls of the highest souls. And God put them in a sort of protective encasing which would stop them from being able to lose the level they had already obtained, but have enough exposure back in the world to maybe catch the last few fragments of the total puzzle they haven't yet put together. On the other hand, we also believe that reincarnation occurs in complete inanimate material. One can be completely reincarnated, even as a rock. And the reason this is is because although the nature of life, let's say a tree to a man, is where we have a respiratory vascular system and trees work with xylem and phloem. The end of the day, the only reason the tree exists and I exist is because God wills it to be so. Therefore, the substance really of life is the will of God, which case even inanimate objects such as stone can be Reincarnation. But to take it to another level, I think you'll enjoy this, because when I get into this, I kind of find people sort of go, hmm. Because one of the problems people have, or they don't maybe think it through about reincarnation is we tend to think because. And it's understandable because we live in a linear world. We think of reincarnation as linear. So what's the normal scenario? Guy lives, does whatever, dies and comes back? Well, we normally think of the coming back as coming back to the future. In other words, he lived in the 19th century and now he's been reincarnated in the 21st century. But that's very limited in thinking because the highest name of God, the Hebrew name of God, of yuden hey and vavin hey, actually means was, is, and will be, or in one word, now. There is no then by God. We can use then referring to the past, and we can refer to then in the future, but by God, there's only now. So therefore, all time exists within the same moment as far as God is concerned. So watch this. A guy could live in the 19th century but be reincarnated in the 4th century. A guy could live in the 19th century and be reincarnated in the crib next to him when he's being born. Because once you realize that there's no concept of linear time as far as God is concerned, then the only nature really of the incarnation is not a linear time experience, but an appropriate time experience. What will be the scenario that this soul needs to get it, that they didn't get it the last time? But it doesn't have to happen going forward chronologically in time. [00:30:23] Speaker A: So let me ask you this. Why do we experience time as moving from past to future? [00:30:29] Speaker B: Right. In the same way that our bodies are built past to future, we only are if you think about our senses. Where I can't remember the name of the philosopher, forgive me, but I remember the quote, which is that man looks forward and yet the future is the one direction he cannot see. Right. Most of our sight, I mean. Right? Tell me what's going to happen two seconds from now. Or better yet, tell me the New York lottery numbers next week. Not a clue. But you could certainly go into the Internet and tell me what last week's lottery numbers were. So we're built to go forward because as human beings, maybe better spelled this B, E, A, N, S, because we're kind of growing as human beings, we are going to live a certain amount of time. Therefore, we have a chronological Experience. But the fact of the matter is time is just another substance of creation. In the Zohar, it says that God. If you look at the Bible, the first Hebrew letter of the Bible is the letter bet, which is from the word bereshit, which means. Or it's whatever, sometimes translated meaning in the beginning, but it really means more at the head or at the helm of importance. Because really, in Hebrew, in the beginning would be hatchalah. Bereshit comes from the word rosh, which means the mind or the head. But nonetheless, the letter bet is the number two. So the Zohar says that when G D said create, there were two spools of thread that waft and warped each other, like, weaving in between each other. And God's voice went straight down the middle. It's kind of like the DNA if you kind of can visualize it. [00:31:58] Speaker A: I can. Yeah. [00:31:59] Speaker B: And so the Zohar asks, what were the fabric of these two spools of thread? And answers, time and space. So time is only an element of creation that we live in, but it's certainly nothing to do on a godly level. [00:32:16] Speaker A: Okay. Gedalia? [00:32:19] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm here. Sorry. [00:32:20] Speaker A: Yeah, I was a little blown away by that. [00:32:23] Speaker B: Sorry. [00:32:24] Speaker A: No, no, no, it's wonderful. It's wonderful. But I just. I wanted to talk a little bit about two. Two other things and. And a few other things beyond that, if we have the time. But, you know, I remember still the. At. Leave note, when I was there, I was there on Project Oatsma in 93, 94, and leave note, you gave a little discussion on the creation of the universe. And I know we've touched upon it in a kabbalistic way, but I was just wondering if you could talk a little bit about. I remember you saying that God carved out the illusion of lack. [00:33:01] Speaker B: Sure. I remember exactly what you're referring to. I even remember where we were in the dining room when the class was given. Right. [00:33:08] Speaker A: Yeah. Yep. [00:33:11] Speaker B: Okay. Because those are some of my fondest memories. That's why I remember them. So, yeah. Okay, we'll go on that adventure. Let's go. Ready? [00:33:18] Speaker A: Yep, I'm ready. [00:33:19] Speaker B: All right. So the question becomes like this. If God is omni, etc. Right. The infinity of infinities. So the question becomes, what was it that God was lacking that God didn't have, that God had to create? I mean, mtv, what was it that God really said? Oh, oh, my me. Right. I can't go without this. That's a B. If God is everywhere, then where would it be? That whatever this X factor is that God needed to make, where would God put it? So to build those levels, it goes as the only thing that God lacks, so to speak, is lack. So God creates lack. In a way. The mathematical algorithm of creation would be 1x2, and the answer would be x equals 0. Because 1 plus 0 equal 2 choices. The choice between reality and illusion. Opposites are not the left and the right. I know that's a little politically dangerous statement, but I actually believe that there's truth in the political left and in the political right, but rather opposites are in the center versus the circumference. What is the truth of the matter and what are all the illusions of what's not the truth of the matter? So therefore, God creates a zero, if you will, because pre creation is the one which is the one God. So God creates this zero in order to create a lacking environment where there would be a free will or a choice between, hmm, is there God? Isn't there God? Back to our hide and seek scenario. [00:35:03] Speaker A: Yes. [00:35:03] Speaker B: And in that scenario, therefore, God creates lack. Now, the problem is, as soon as God in the Kabbalah, it's called tsimtsum, which means to contract God contracted, as it were, in order to allow there to be this lack of God in the universe. But the problem with that is that as soon as God were to contract herself, then there wouldn't be God anymore. Big. Yeah. Wouldn't want to mess with it in an alleyway, but not God, because God has to be everywhere at all times. So therefore God in godly manner creates the ultimate lack. And that is, it's not lacking at all. It's only the illusion of lack. And the only place that this lack exists is between the two temples on the side of our head. It only exists that lack within our human consciousness. And this is why you find human beings going to psychiatrists to try to understand who they are. But you never saw animals going to psychiatrists to understand who they are, because they know exactly who they are. So we live in an illusion of lack, which isn't lacking at all. And the beauty of that, of course, is that since the framework of this lack is only within our human mind, we have the ability therefore, to shed light into this lack and to recognize that there's no lack whatsoever. [00:36:23] Speaker A: Which actually leads me into my next point. And I wanted to ask you if you could talk a little bit about the BAAL Shem Tov and his letter where he ascended to the chamber of the Messiah. Moshiach. [00:36:40] Speaker B: Right? No, I got The Messiah, too. That's cool. I have to tell you, I have a lot of Christian friends, wonderful people. I always say to them, I said, listen, you know what? Let's just get the guy here, and then we'll worry about one number two. You know, I was never so good at math anyhow, but, like, let's just get him here, let him tell us we have so much in common. Let's not, like, get hung up on numbers. [00:37:02] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:37:02] Speaker B: Anyhow, so, okay, first of all, I think it's important to understand a little bit about the idea of the Messiah in order to understand the question you're asking. The word in Hebrew, mashiach actually means anointed. And in fact, for that matter, there were many anointed ones in biblical history, because every time a king was to become king, he was anointed, and the high priest had to be anointed. And there were many positions of being anointed. But the idea on a deeper level, which is what you're really digging at, is an interesting concept. The word in Hebrew, Mashiach, has the same numerological value as the word snake. And this is because the snake in the Garden of Eden was originally created erect, standing on two legs. And this is because priests sin in the Garden of Eden. The concept of the human mind dealt in the space of true and false. And after the sin, the free will shifted to good and bad, which is basically a shift from objectivity to subjectivity. Because what you might think good, I might think it's bad. But what is true, hey, that's a cup we would both agree upon. And so therefore, what happens is that the snake, once the snake, once the human experience failed and no longer utilized all of the powers of this world. The snake then, so to speak, fell on its belly and became the arch enemy, if you will, in a negative sense, of the human being. But I have to just take it one more step first, and then I'll get right to the BAAL Shem Tov. This is hinted at when God first sends Moses to Pharaoh. He says, take your staff and throw it on the ground. And it became a. And then when he took the staff, excuse me, took the snake by the hand, it turned back into the staff. What does this mean? It means that the snake, or even the power of evil, is really good because everything that God creates is good. There's only revealed good and hidden good and hidden. Good is named or labeled evil. But it's really, in its essence, it's good because it all comes from God. What makes it Evil is when it falls out of the hand of the holy man or holy woman. So therefore, in the hand of Moses, it was a vessel. It was a tool through which God's will was expressed in the world. Out of his hand, it became the snake. But no problem. Just take hold of it again and it returns to becoming a vessel. So this is why the power of the Messiah and the power of the snake are the exact same power. Because the ultimate concept of the Messiah is the rectification of the world. And what is the ultimate rectification of the world? That all evil reveals its innate goodness. It brings all of the light back into the world. The moon returns to the same level of light as the sun. And so therefore, the BAAL Shem Tov, it must understand his name. The name BAAL Shem Tov means the master of the good name. Many people think that the purpose in life is to have a lot of money, as one example, or to be famous is another example. I remember when I was a kid, somebody came out with a T shirt said, the person with the most amount of things when they die wins. And then somebody came out with another T shirt, says, the person with the most amount of things when they die still dies. So it's really. There's only one thing in this world that we really, really can have. We can't necessarily have health, we don't necessarily control our finances, and so on and so on, but we can build a good name for ourself. In fact, I have to. If you'll forgive me, I don't know what our time constraint is, but I'd like to. Can I tell a little side story here or we have time. [00:40:49] Speaker A: No, we have time, and we can divide it into two segments. [00:40:52] Speaker B: Okay, cool. So there was a rabbi of the last generation known as the Chofetz Chaim. And he once came into a courtroom where some Jews were being tried in Europe for being. And when he walked into the room, because of his saintly nature, both Jews and non Jews alike stood up for the man. And the judge was very impressed by this. And he called over the lawyers and said to the lawyers, who is this man? And one person said the judge, you don't know who this is? This is the great Chafetz Chayim. And he started to tell these wild stories. He said that this man was once going to send a letter to America. And one of his students said, rabbi, I will carry the letter for you. And the rabbi took off the postage stamp and ripped the postage stamp, because he didn't Even want to steal 2 cents from the government. And once there was a thief in the house, and the rabbi went running after the thief, yelling, is there anything else that you need? And all of these like, hard to believe, amazing stories to the point where the judge finally had to stop the lawyer and say, hold on, hold on. He says, tell me something. Do you really believe these stories? And the lawyer looks back, he says, no, but tell me something, Judge, how come they don't say these stories about you? So the essence of who we really are is the good name. And the BAAL Shem Tov became the master of the good name. And this is the idea. When we refer to God's name in Hebrew, we call God the name because everything works on the vibration. This is the way the spiritual world intersects with the physical world, is through motion, is through vibrations, good vibes. And therefore, when a person plugs into that energy inside themselves, they have the ability to elevate through all of the highest worlds to find the essence of the Messiah inside of themselves. And that's what the story. Whether or not the BAAL Shem Tov really went and got to the Messiah, I don't know, maybe it's like the Chafetz Chaim ripping this postage stamp off. But. But the fact that they teach the story about the Sha BAAL Shem Tov is a much deeper parable here. And that is to teach us that each of us has the ability to master our name. So when people speak about us, they speak about us in the finest way. Wow. What an honest person, what a good man, what a good woman. Someone who, when they say it, they do it. Look how they care for their community. And through that, we elevate ourselves to find the Messiah which lives within all of us. Now, this is a dangerous place to be because if we have not reached that level through being humble, then God forbid, a person could go mentally insane in thinking that they are the Messiah. But if a person is humble, then they realize when they find the Messiah in them, they realize that the Messiah is also in everybody else around them. And so what they become is like a bell. By ringing the bell of having reached that level inside of themselves, the vibration of that bell starts to ring everybody else's bell and makes everyone around them drawn to the goodness inside of them rather than to the darkness. [00:43:51] Speaker A: Wow. Yeah, that's pretty. Pretty. I find a lot of corollary between what you're teaching and what I've learned through. Through my Buddhist exploration and, you know. Yeah, that, you know, and I was wondering. There's a teaching that I remember from a while back that talks about ani, AI and ain or nothing. And I was wondering if you know what I'm talking about, if you could. Yeah, because it's very interesting. It correlates. I don't know if I've done it accurately, but I've tried to convey this teaching to other people who are interested in various religions. [00:44:40] Speaker B: Right. The word in Hebrew which you're referring to for me or I in Hebrew is called ani. And ani is the same letters which also spells the word ayn, which means nothing. And the word ayn is a very powerful word because it's often found in the Kabbalah as well, called the ein sof, which means without end. Or what you would refer to in Buddhism, which is also written about in the reigns of Rebbe Nachman of Breslief, is called the level of nothingness. And the level of nothingness is actually the highest level. Because by coming back almost full circle, by reaching the level of nothingness, we have completely vacated the vessel. And by completely vacating the vessel, we are able to reach 100% of our total capabilities because now we can reach to the highest level. So in a way, the nullification of self is not the deprivation of self, but it's actually the fulfillment of self. In other words. Sorry, please. [00:45:46] Speaker A: No, no, no. I was going to ask, is this what Moses was referring to when he said erase me from your book? [00:45:54] Speaker B: Haha, that's so interesting you would answer that. I was just reading Rabbi Cook about that just last night. That's a very, very deep, separate subject which is a whole teaching in and of itself. And in a way it is that. But I'll give you a better example, which was when, you know, I often just say this because I am Jewish, so obviously my focus is in Jews, but I always tell this to other Jews. I said, listen, you know, in today's Jewish world you got a Woody Allen, you got a Steven Spielberg, you know, you had Rodney Dangerfield. So all these guys had great, great grandfathers that were in the desert with Moses. So you had like a Woody Allen then also. And you also had a Rodney Dangerfield. All these guys like sarcastic, cracking jokes. And in fact you even have, in yesterday's, in the section of the Bible that we read yesterday, you have the source of Jewish sarcasm. They turn around to Moses, they just came through the splitting of the sea and they say, hey Moses, what's the story? There were not enough cemeteries in Egypt. We have to die Here in the desert. I mean, it's amazing right there in the Bible, like sarcasm. So that was probably Woody Allen's great, great great grandfather who was bothering Moses about that. But one of the times, as we say in Yiddish, when they came to kvetch, when they came to complain some. So it was when the manna, or we call it the man, like, as in, hey, man, what is this stuff? When the man came down from heaven. And I mean, really, it's kind of wild if you think about it. I mean, nobody knew what this stuff was. And like, do you smoke it? How do you eat it? I mean, what is this stuff? But when the man came down, before it came down, excuse me, they were complaining to Moses to say, look, we're starving. What's going on? The bread that we brought out of Egypt, the matzah, we've already finished it. What are we going to eat? And so Moses says, are you complaining that I brought you to the desert? I'm nothing. God is the one who brought you to the desert. Now, the Hebrew language there is Nachnuma, which means what are we? But the correct Hebrew word is anachnuma. However, the aleph was lost. It just begins the word without the aleph. Now, the word Ma, which means what is the letters mem. Hey. And in Hebrew, the name Moshe, which is Moses, first letter is mem, and the last letter is hey, meaning the outer letters of Moses very name is what. The inner letter, which is the third letter of Moses name is the Hebrew letter shin, which means divine presence, Presence, which means light. So Moses says, if all I am is based upon what I am on the outside, I am the richest guy in Cleveland. I am the best ball player for the Lakers. I'm the this, I'm the that. What am I? I mean, after all, who was the wealthiest man in Buffalo in 1917? Can you tell me? [00:48:55] Speaker A: No. [00:48:55] Speaker B: Okay, Right. And nor could I. And therefore, if you were alive in 19, 1970, you'd probably tell me that Donald Trump or whoever he was in Buffalo. But guess what? In the same way you don't know 1917, no one's going to know when somebody in the future asks about the year 2010. Because if that's how we define ourselves, as the way that we are in this finite world, Ma, what are we? But when we really remove that, we drop away that Aleph of thinking that I am the one, realizing that there's only one one, there are no two ones, and there's only one one. Therefore, I'm at best A two, if not some other number. So when I lose that one, I can then say, what am I? And once I get to the question of what am I? I could realize, you know what? I may be an actor, I might be a lawyer, I might be an accountant, but that's not what I am. That's what I do, what I am. I am the image of God, and so are you. And when I work from that place, I draw it out of you. And when you work from that place, we start to build a community. When we see each other not as poor man, rich man, pretty person, ugly person, but as each of us in the image of God, which is an infinite image, then that's really how we come to the level of attaching ourselves to the ein sof, of being infinite, by understanding that that's what I Ani is really all about it. It's a shell that we shed to reveal the inner fruit. [00:50:25] Speaker A: Yeah. So, Gedalia, let me ask you a question, because I don't know if I'm going to have the opportunity another time. If I were to come to Israel, could I come study with you a little bit? [00:50:37] Speaker B: You're so sweet. I mean, I don't. I'll tell you. I'm a workaholic. I really. I teach as a volunteer whenever people ask me to, and I just, for the first time in eight years, started teaching. It's only once a month I do a class on the essence of each new moon. But, you know, come on over and then we'll worry about it. [00:50:58] Speaker A: We'll figure it out. We'll see where it goes. [00:51:00] Speaker B: Exactly. [00:51:01] Speaker A: Well, I just want to thank you so much for just a wonderful hour. [00:51:07] Speaker B: Oh, my pleasure. I feel honored. Thank you so much. [00:51:10] Speaker A: No, no, no. I mean, if you would consider it maybe down in the future, if it's meant to be, that you could come on again and we could talk some more about some of these things, I. [00:51:22] Speaker B: Would be honored and happy to. [00:51:25] Speaker A: Gedalia, thank you so much for joining us today, and God bless you. [00:51:30] Speaker B: You, too. All the best. [00:51:31] Speaker A: Thank you so much. I'll be in touch. [00:51:33] Speaker B: Okay. Shalom. Shalom. [00:51:35] Speaker A: Shalom. Bye. Bye. [00:51:37] Speaker B: Bye.