The Ari and Kabbalah in Modern Times

Q: You said that the modern Kabbalah was created by the Ari, and was later renewed by Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag. How can that be? We know that the Torah was given to us from heaven and that it doesn’t change; why then does Kabbalah change, and moreover, how can people change it? Isn’t Kabbalah a part of the Torah?

A: The whole of the Torah relates only to the spiritual world. It explains it in the language of pictures, but not a single word of it speaks of our world. It does, however, make use of words to explain the structure of the spiritual world and how it dominates us.

Because the spiritual world is the world of emotions and has no words, we use languages such as the language of the Bible (Pentecost), the language of legends (Agada), the language of the Talmud (Jewish religious laws), and the language of the Kabbalah (Sefirot), which is the most precise of all, in order to explain and describe that world. For that reason, most Kabbalists use the language of the Kabbalah.

Within the Kabbalah are several sub-languages as well: the language of the Lights, the language of the vessels, Gimatria (use of letters as numerals), matrix, drawings, etc.

Because in each generation new souls descend to this world, each generation needs its own Kabbalah. That is why the Creator sends us a Kabbalist who rewrites the Kabbalah in each generation and fits it to the new generation.

The Torah does not change because it speaks of technical existence. But unsuitable rules were canceled over time. For example, today there is no Temple and therefore none of the rules linked with it or with the holiness of the land apply today.