In the holy city of Tsfat (Safed) four and a third
centuries ago, the disciples of Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, the holy Ari
of blessed memory, once asked him why he did not record in writing his
extraordinary Kabbalah teachings.
"Were all seawater ink," Rabbi Luria answered, "and
all the vast firmament paper, and all stalks quills, it would still not be
enough for me to write down the wisdom I have acquired.
"When I start to reveal to you a single secret," he
confessed, "I feel a downpour of divine influence like the gushing rapids of a
waterfall. At first I am at a loss how to pass on even the smallest amount of
this wisdom to you. Then I devise a way to channel it in such a manner that I
can divulge to you a minute part of that secret.
"It would be dangerous," he cautioned, "were you to
receive too much at one time -- like a nursing infant who could strangle to
death were his mother's milk to flow too quickly into his mouth."
One summer afternoon a disciple of the Ari, Rabbi
Avraham HaLevi, entered his master's house. It was Shabbat afternoon, and he
found Rabbi Luria napping on his bed.
Upon looking more closely, R. Avraham noticed the
Arizal's lips moving, murmuring. He was intrigued and bent over to listen. Rabbi
Luria awakened.
"What are you doing?" asked Rabbi Luria.
"Please forgive me," apologized his disciple. "I
noticed your lips moving and wanted to hear what you were saying."
"Let me explain," the Arizal said as he sat up. "When
I sleep my soul ascends heavenward via clearly defined pathways. Ministering
angels meet me and escort my soul to the highest angel. He asks me which
heavenly yeshiva do I desire to attend that day. I choose one and am immediately
brought there. There in the yeshiva I study mysteries of the Torah that have
never before been taught on earth."
R. Avraham HaLevi listened breathlessly. "Please,
could you tell me what you were learning now while you were napping?"
His mentor laughed. "I call the heavens and earth as
witnesses that were I to expound for eighty consecutive years what I learned
today, I would be unable to finish explaining the secrets that I heard about the
Bileam section in parshat Balak. Believe me, this is no exaggeration."
[Adapted from "Safed - The Mystical City" by Dovid
Rossoff.]
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