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There are several reasons for keeping the
Kabbalah secret:
1. "There is no necessity"
2. "It is impossible"
3. "It is the private secret of the Creator"
There is no single detail in the Kabbalah that is not covered by all
of these three prohibitions.
1. "There is no necessity" This implies that there is no point to
disclosing the secrets. This would only be possible if there was
some immediate benefit to be gained by society. Otherwise, it would
only be met with a reaction of "so what." This would be the reaction
of people who believe that the Kabbalists deal with and make others
deal with matters of no importance. This is why the Kabbalists took
as students only those who were able to keep a secret and not
disclose it unless absolutely necessary..
2. "It is impossible" This means a ban on the disclosure of the
secrets because of the limitations of the language. This language
(ours) is not capable of conveying subtle spiritual concepts. All of
our attempts to explain with words are destined to fail and lead the
student astray. Thus in order to be able to disclose these secrets,
permission from above is necessary..
Permission from above This is mentioned in the works of the famous
Kabbalist named AR"I. There it is said; "Know that the souls of the
great ones are filled with an outer (surrounding ) or inner
(filling) light. And those whose souls are filled with the
surrounding light have the gift of telling the secrets. They do it
in such a way that an unworthy person will not understand them.".
For example, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai had a soul filled with such an
outer light. He had such power that even when he appeared in a
congregation, he was understood only by those who had received the
instruction from above to write in the book of the "Zohar". There
were some Kabbalists before him who knew more. However, they did not
have his ability to put spiritual concepts into words.
So it is clear that the presentation of the Kabbalah does not depend
on the level of knowledge of the Kabbalist. Rather it depends on the
qualities of his soul. According to them, he receives his
instructions from above to disclose a certain part of the knowledge.
And so we cannot find any sort of fundamental work on the Kabbalah
before the "Zohar". Those works that we do have include only vague
and unclear hints. From the time of Rabbi Shimon the only one who
was permitted to "open" another part of the Kabbalah was Rabbi Ari.
Again it is possible that some Kabbalists before Ari knew much more
but they did not get the permission from above. Since the appearance
of Ari's books, all of the people dealing with the Kabbalah have
left the other books and have studied only the "Zohar" and Ari's
books..
3. "It is the private secret of the Creator" The essence of this ban
is in the fact that the secrets of the Kabbalah can be revealed only
to those who are faithful to the Creator and who respect Him. This
reason for concealing the Kabbalah's secrets is the most important
one. Too many charlatans have used the Kabbalah in their own
interests. They have made prophesies, given charms and have thus
lured trusting people. The initial concealment of the Kabbalah was
done precisely for this reason. True Kabbalists have therefore taken
upon themselves to check their students very strictly. The very few
people who were allowed to approach the Kabbalah in each generation
were under the strictest of oaths. They were prohibited from
disclosing even the slightest, most negligible detail which came
under the three mentioned bans.
We should not think that this division into three bans divides the
Kabbalah itself into three. No, every part, every word, every term
comes under these criteria for concealment. These three criteria are
constantly in action in this science..
However a question appears. If indeed this secret wisdom is so
deeply hidden, how did all those different writings about it appear.
The reason is that there is a difference between the first two
conditions of secrecy and the last one. The last condition is the
one that carries the greatest importance. The condition of "It is
not necessary" too often can change because of external
circumstances and become "It is necessary". For instance, this can
happen due to the development of mankind as a whole, or because of
the permission given from above. This permission was given to Rabbi
Shimon and to the Ari and to a lesser extent to others. This is why
we receive some authentic books about the Kabbalah from time to
time..
This is also the manner in which I received my knowledge from my
teacher. I received it under the same strict conditions, to guard
and to conceal. However, because of the reasons that were mentioned
previously in "The Time to Act " The condition of "It is not
necessary became transformed to "It is necessary". And so I am
disclosing one part while still concealing and guarding the other
two, as I have been sworn to do.
Author: Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag |
