Weekly teachings in Kabbalah and Chassidus posted and emailed
Dear Friends,
After quite a wait, we thank G-d return to the weekly email in Kabbalah and Chassidus. Please subscribe or contact us with questions at AZKF@comcast.net
The Maamar “Walk after Hashem” from 1937, which was emailed out, is posted above.
I had hoped to write an explanatory introduction to the Maamar, but for the sake of spreading the light of Hashem’s inner Torah, once the translation became clean enough, it is more important to send it out. Please send us any questions or comments you may have.
This teaching is at the level of Chassidus, where the Kabbalistical ideas of sons and servants, corresponding to souls from different worlds
are brought down and explained in an applied fashion for practical Avodah service of Hashem. The word Avodah itself requires an introduction, but suffice for now to say that it means the work a person does on themselves, the refinement of character, the movement towards Hashem.
This Maamar focuses on the first steps of spirituality. Its description of the acceptance of yoke is a seemingly difficult task and an unpleasant one. Most people desire easy spirituality, which is unburdened pleasure of an ethereal nature, which asks nothing of them. Torah is the guide which Hashem gave the world. Mitzvos are the tools for refinement. Only by understanding the purpose of creation and the goal of life, as taught in the inner teachings of Torah, can we know what our role is, and how to achieve the ultimate joy and pleasure. Our evil inclination is our animal soul, ego, etc. our self centeredness. We must be careful in our religious life and spirituality to not be self serving even when we are developing our mystical and spiritual side. As much nullification as many of the non-Torah traditions provide, unless the nullification and self abnegation are to Hashem, the Creator, and follow Divinely proscribed guidelines, the human self remains, and will continue to be a barrier bewteen man and G-d. Hashem blessed the world with Holy and pure sources of the wellsprings of Torah in Kabbalah and Chassidus.
May Hashem lead us in His Light and keep us from the influences of false teachings, so the world may be filled with the knowledge of Hashem, peace will be upon the land with coming of the Righteous Redeemer, and the Will of Hashem will be fulfilled by bestowing the ultimate pleasure upon His creations.
Have a Good Shabbos,
Noah