The Foundations of Kabbalah

Welcome to another zman at Webyeshiva.  Tommorow night, 8pm, we will begin a series of classes and meditations on 10 major foundation principles in Kabbalah.  This will not be a class to simply learn the names of the Sephirot, the names of the Partztufim, the names of the portions of the soul.  These are necessary tools to advance in learning, comprehension and access to higher understanding.  But each student is encouraged to learn this material according to his desire and ability.   This aspect of Kabbalah  is similar to learning the names of places on a map, the names being Divinely sourced have power in  consciousness; and their assignment metaphorically to places on our bodies, and in family structure are not coincidental, or mere learning devices.   This is the work every serious student of kaballah must do, learning and reviewing perhaps many times.  The information is straightforward, and available in every book of Kabbalah, and printed in many langauges.

Our series this zman will be an exploration of foundational concepts that help to understand various ideas that we may struggle with our entire lives.  Tomorrow we will begin with the idea that ‘There is nothing new under the sun,” from King Solomon, and how the Kabbalists understand this verse, with explanations and examples that illuminate the simple pshat of the verse.  The idea of time, creation, and hiddenness, revelation, affinity of form, contraction of the Infinite into the finite with be discussed.  We will enter the Workings of Creation, which provide the spiritual highways that a true initiate may travel, with Hashem’s help.  The travelling is called Ma’aseh HaMerkavah, the Workings of the Chariot, which Rabbi Areyeh Kaplan has helped us to understand are the practices of Kabbalistic meditation.

Looking forward to seeing you there,

Avraham Shira

Shalom and Welcome.  Tonight, we will look at another foundation principle in Kabbalah, building from what we began last week.  The Ari-zal taught, in Shaa’r HaMitzvot, ‘Adam olam katan, Olam Adam gadol.’  Man is a small world.  The World is a ‘giant’ Man.  This statement describes the holographic, micro-macro description of the Universe.  It creates a map by which we can navigate the Light of Hashem from its Infinite Source, all the way to its finite level, here on Earth.  It also introduces the body of man as the conceptual map through which to understand the structure of the Universe.  There is much more to say, so join us tonight.  Look forward to sharing with you these ideas which can shape the way we see ourselves, the world, and its awesome Creator.

Avraham Shira

Welcome and Peace to All Israel,

Tonight, in the merit of our soldiers, in this world and the next, we will introduce another Foundation Principle in Kabala, mida kneged mida, Measure for Measure.  Now most people have heard of this idea in connection to the concept of Karma.  In the Torah, measure for measure exists at every level of creation.  It is not simply a measure of personal merit or guilt.  It is a tool that reveals the infinite fairness of Hashem.

Come join us for the class, 8pm, tonight on Webyeshiva.org.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

Avraham Shira

Shalom.

Tonight on Foundations in Kabbalah, we will explore the concept of ‘A Little Holding Much’.

This idea begins the journey of understanding how the Infinite Light contracts itself into the infinite number of vessels of the finite world.

We will look at several examples of this principle from R.Nachman’s classic story, the Seven Beggars, and the world as we see it today.

Our meditation will follow these ideas and lead us, with God’s help, to the ultimate understanding of a little holding much.  Please take notes and write down questions.

Look forward to seeing all of y0u.

Avraham Shira

Welcome to our Thursday night class on Foundations in Kabbalah.  Tonight  we will explore the statement of the Torah, ‘Nefesh Chayah, hu shmo.’  ‘A living soul is its Name.”  This seemingly simple phrase is a completely new level of understanding souls and names and is a critical principle for understanding the workings of the inner world, both in the universe and in a human being.  This idea will completely transform your understanding of God’s command for Adam (and all humans) to name the things in the Garden. Look forward to seeing you at 8pm Israel time.

Avraham Shira

Shalom.  Tonight on webyeshiva.org, 8pm, we will continue to ask questions about the astounding verse, “Nefesh chayah, hu shmo”, “A living soul is its name.”

Delving into this idea opens our mind to many new ideas of what is life, knowledge, language, heaven and consciousness.”  The answers we receive from our Masters of Kabbala and Talmud is profoundly succinctly given by Chazal, and Zohar. “If i knew Him, I would be Him.”

Come tonight to webyeshiva.org to continue this astounding journey within which leads to the point the holy soul of man is a spark of the Infinite.

Looking to seeing all of you.

1. Avraham Shira

Shalom and Welcome.  Tonight, 8pm Israel, on WebYeshiva.org we continue our discussion of Foundations in Kabbalah, exploring the nature of the Holy Letters, their impact, purpose and importance in the mysteries of Creation and communication.  We will draw from many sources to create a completely different picture of what a language can be, and how this effects our everyday life, even if we do not yet know the holy Aleph-Bet.

As always we will meditate at the end of the class on the concepts we have learned.

See you there,

Avraham Shira

Shalom and Welcome to WebYeshiva.

Tonight we will explore the idea expressed in many places in the Kabbalah:  The main work of humanity is to bring souls into the world.

This idea, however seemingly self-evident, is not understood completetly without the Kabbalah.  How and when and why do we bring souls into the world?

Is this simply having children?  What other ways are souls ‘brought into the world?  Why is this the ‘main work’ of humanity?  How does this contribute to tikkun olam, the restoration of creation?  Can we do this without having children?  How and when is this possible?

Come explore with us tonight.

Avraham Shira

Shalom and Welcome.   Tomorrow night on WebYeshiva we will continue looking at Foundation Principles in Kabbalah by looking at one of the most important statements of King Solomon, which is a formula for understanding man’s struggles and ultimate triumph in this world.  “Mosif da’at, mosif mach’ov”.  Increase Knowledge, Increase pain.”  Why should this be?  Why does knowing more cause more pain?  What kind of knowledge, what kind of pain.  We will explore this idea in light of the deepest knowledge, which is Kabbalah.  And how this relationship principle can push us to the highest levels of understanding and ultimately transform our pain INTO the Knowledge of God.

Look forward to seeing you there,

Avraham Shira

Shalom and Welcome.  Tonight, 8pm Jerusalem, in our Foundations in Kabbalah series, we will look at an idea called, “The Continuum of Good & Evil:  Structure of the Worlds.  The general principle is that ‘The Greater the Revelation, the greater the Judgment”.  This is based upon many teachings of Chazal.  One is, “A Tzadik is judged by a hair-breadth”; ie, his ‘revealtion of God’ is higher, and therefore he is judged more closely.  This principle will be explained and extrapolated as a window of insight into the Jewish people, and Holiness in general.  Along these lines we will begin to understand the relationship, or lack thereof, between Good, Evil, and the nature of the world we live in.

Look forward to seeing all of you.

Avraham Shira

Shalom and Welcome.  Tonight on Foundations in Kabbalah we will continue  exploring and understanding the Great Continuum of Good and Evil, focusing on  Kosher  foods and animals, and how they fit into the Divine Hierarchy of  forces that sustain this world, from the Highest Good to its complete Opposite.   This will include looking at the letters and the names of things that root these forces in the Tree of Life.

Look forward to seeing you there.

Avraham Shira

Shalom and Welcome.   Tonight on Foundations of Kabbalah, we continue with the Divine Paradigm, the ‘Continuum of Good and Evil’ exploring Good and Evil in the creation and expression of language, its relation to the Nations and the 231 Gates of the Aleph Bet, and why this is important to non-Hebrew speakers.

There is a powerful meditation upon these concepts which we will begin together.  Where each person arrives is something else.  Look forward to seeing you all there.

Avraham Shira

Welcome.  Tonight on our Foundations in Kabblah, we will explore the idea of the Divine Presence, the Feminine Form, as what R. Nachman calls, the Intermediary between man and the Infinite, Unknowable masculine form of God.  Her roles, her uniqueness and her ultimate redemption from man-made exile.  This class will include a meditation on elevating each person’s feminie aspect, as a microform of the Macro Whole of the human soul and Universal Model.  Look forward to seeing you all.

Avraham Shira

Shalom and Welcome, tonight’s concept in Foundations of Kabbalah is “The Further Away, the Greater the Return,” and this speaks of both the structure of the worlds and the Soul of Man’s return to God.  The further someone is from his Source, the greater the Glory his return brings to God’s Name, his reputation in the world.  This idea is reflected on many levels, and we will look at the reasons and the righteous mercy of God that has made  this principle a foundation of hope in a world of theological confusion.  Come join us tonight, 8pm Israel time on Webyeshiva.org.

Look forward to seeeing you there.

Avraham Shira

Shalom and Welcome.  Tonight’s class will be for the sake of our hostages, center around a profound principle of our Sages.

“Hashem merits the meritorious and brings into guilt the guilty.  ”  This Foundation Principle of our spiritual tradition can be followed throughout human history, Jewish as well as non-Jewish.  It is an idea strongly related to Divine Providence, hasgacha pratit, yet it challenges the notions of Free Choice.  Where is Free Choice if a man is caused ‘merit or guilt?’  The most glaring example of this is the Pharoah of the end of the first exile in Egypt.   This story serves to introduce us to the nature of taking responsibility before God, and the fate of those who don’t.  And the idea of from where does Teshuva arise, the heart of man or God.  These ideas will form the basis of understanding the awesome gift of Teshuva, and ‘why’ we cannot take it for granted.

Look forward to seeing you all there.

Avraham Shira

Shalom and welcome.  Tomorrow night on WebYeshiva, Rabbi Nachman in Torah 88 of Likutei Moharan will show us a beautiful example of the foundation of all foundations in Kabbalah, that Man is made in the Image of God.  He will say things we may have always suspected, but were too timid or unprepared to ask or explore the ideas.  We will literally see inside the relationship between the righteous and Hashem, and how ‘The Righteous decree, and God fulfills.’  Come and see the difference of what is the Tzadik.

Looking forward to seeing you there,

Avraham Shira

Shalom and Welcome.   Tonight on Webyeshiva.org at 8pm Jerusalem time, {which is Above Time}, we continue our exploration of Foundations in Kabbala with the Unification of all Unifications, from the roots of the Tree of Life, to the tips of the Leaves in Heaven.  We will learn, meditate and share together about this Yichud, how it is performed and integrated into our daily service.  This class is a culmination of nearly 20 weeks of working together.  Come join us and see the difference when learning, meditating and sharing are combined in an hour or so of Torat HaKabbalah.

Always

Avraham Shira

Shalom and Welcome,

Tonight’s Torah Foundation in Kabbalah is the world famous verse, ‘There is nothing new under the sun.”  Our Sages, in their sagacity, ask, ‘What about above the Shemesh?’  Under the sun, we hear, but what about above?  Is there not something new above the Sun?

The longer we ponder this verse, the more, like a flower, it opens in our understanding.  We will discuss, with the help of the Kabbalah, what is new, what is old, what is above and below the sun?  Are these terms confined to the physical?  How do they refer to the spiritual realm?  What is their link?  What was before the sun? What was before Creation?

The answers will fill our souls with understanding and appreciation for the genius of our Creator.

Look forward to seeing you there.

Avraham Shira

Shalom and Welcome to the final class of this Zman.  Tonight’s Foundation principle is taken from Rebbe Nachman.  It’s application to Torah and life in general are found at every level of Creation.  He said יש ענין שהכול התהפח לטובה

This translates as ‘There is a idea that all will turn over for the good.  This idea has been with humanity since the beginning of Creation.  Fortunately, it is with us today, though billions may disagree.  Tonight we will chart the course of the reasoning behind this idea, and how it becomes a formula pathway for the eventual divinity of mankind.  This class will be followed by a mediation on these subjects.  Come and discover what we knew but were never shown until we reached the gates of the wisdom of Torah.

Look forward to seeing all of you.

Avraham Shira

Shalom and Welcome.  Thanks to Webyeshiva, we are extending our schedule two more weeks this Zman.  Tomorrow night, and the following Thursday night, we will continue our longest ever running series, Foundations in Kabbalah.  Our subject this week will be– “Purim:  When Evil Masquerades as Goodness”.  This Foundation teaching directs us to learn about the famous concept, and reality called ‘The Heichal HaTemurot”, mentioned throughout Kabbalistic and Chassidic literature.  This teaching will challenge us and if we merit, expand our faith and trust in God’s perfect management of the world.

Look forward to seeing all of you there Thursday night, 8pm Israel, after the Fast of Esther.

Avraham Shira

Welcome.  Tonight, in Foundations in Kabbalah, we will explore the tremendous depth of the most famous of all general principles.  “Love Your Neighbor (friend) as Yourself.”  When we examine this closely we discover the secret of love and the nature of its fall.  This class is appropriate for everyone.  Please bring and share with friends.  Look forward to seeing you there.

Avraham Shira

Shalom and Welcome to a New Zman at Webyeshiva.org.

We will continue with the Foundations of Kabbalah, as we have for 3/4 of a year, a class that never ceases to surprise me with the new ideas.  Tonight we will focus on the power of perspective in Kabbalah.
The way we look at the world, and especially the inner world, changes both the observer and the observed.  This idea found in kabbala, chassidut is cutting edge in physics, psycnology and other sciences as well.  For anyone who has ever been in a family, this take on reality is a game changer.  It frees us from the bonds of old frames and preconceptions.  And the miraculous metaphysical take away is that the Creator changes the world according to the thoughts, feelings and actions of human beings.

See you tonight at 8pm.  Perhaps a change in perspective will renew us again.

Avraham Shira

Shalom and Welcome.

Tonight we will explore perhaps the most powerful Foundation Principle in Kabbalah; the Masculine-Feminine Paradigm.   This ‘motif’ in Kabbalah is much more than a metaphoric filter for understanding the non-physical planes of existence.  It is an attempt to give handles to grasp a great mystery.  What holds the world together?  Is it merely Gravity?  What holds couples, families, nations together?  Can science really take us to the beginnings of Creation without the Kabbalah?

This section of our series will challenge and empower us.  Tonight we will begin with a Story from Rabbi Nachman, a Story like no other that expects to go where we have not gone before.

Look forward to seeing you there.

Avraham Shira

Shalom and Welcome.  Tonight we will consider further the Kabbalistic Foundation of the Masculine/Feminine Paradigm.  How in fact was Chava an Ezer c”Negdo to Adam?  How do we see this is modern life, in couples and oneself?  What examples can we bring from the Tanach to broaden and deepen our understanding?  This material is both a challenge and a privildge to share.  We will examine the nature of a Bat Kol, the ‘daughter of the Voice,’ and how that dovetails into our understanding of this primordial pattern, by which God created the heavens and the earth.

Look forward to seeing you there.

Avraham Shira

Shalom and Welcome.  Tonight’s class in Foundations of Kabbalah we continue to explore the Male/Female paradigm as a model of understanding the worlds, the sefirot and the general movement of Divine Eneregy (mochin/lifeforece) in the Universe.

Tonight we will look at the ‘Kiss’, the ‘Hug’ and the ‘Union.’  Each is a stage in unification of the Ancient Holy One and His Queen Shechina.  The entire Kabbalah of the Arizal centers on these stages of ‘Ibur’, ‘Yenika & Mochim’.  Humans experience an aspect of this process in their private relations as they draw down new souls into the world.  The degree of this experience depends on the degree of one’s purity and intentionality.  This process reaches fruition in the birth of new children.  The spiritual level of the couple creates the garments/filters through which the soul of the newborn receives its ‘garments’, the aspects of the soul he must ‘live within, repair and return to his or her Creator.

By studying and sharing these teachings we share the wisdom of God into humanity, and carry on the awesome work of spreading the ‘Image of God’, the higher soul of mankind, throughout time, space and beyond.  We will meditate on these concepts at the end of the class.

Look forward to seeing you there.  8pm.  Jerusalem time.  Webyeshiva.org.

Avraham Shira

Shalom.  Welcome to our Foundations in Kabbalah series.  Continuing with the ideas of the Male/Female paradigm in Kabbalah, the Zohar provides us with two unique views

of the King-Male and Queen-Female relationship.  Each of these views reflects into the world of human relationships, and fills us with insights into heaven and earth. Perhaps from these ‘metaphors’ we can understand why the Sages in the Talmud teach, ‘a mashal’ – meta-phor is 1/60 of prophecy-Ruach HaKodesh.  And how, the phrase of connecting heaven to earth is not merely a poetical expression but a necesssarily Universal Principle.  Come learn with us tonight, 8pom Israel and discover why.

Looking for you there,

Avraham Shira

Shalom.  Tonight we will look even deeper into the vast relationship of the Male/Female Paradigm in Kabbalah.  Why are women generally shorter than men.  Why do men want to rule women, and are generally afraid of powerful women.  Where is a women’s root in the supernal worlds, and where is man’s?  Why the difference?

When we learn the answers to these questions, we see the perfect guidance of a profoundly wise and loving Creator, who pays attention to every detail of reality, especially with his beloved, the crown of Creation, humankind.  These teachings will realign us through the ancient permanent structures inherent in Creation.

It is a privilege to learn these secrets with you.  They have been revealed to heal us from the exaggerations and injustices of Exile, in preparation for the true and final Redemption.

Look forward to seeing you tonight on Webyeshiva.org, 8pm, Jerusalem.

Avraham Shira

The class and following Meditation are without charge.  A dedication is appreciated.

Shalom and Welcome.  Tonight, 8pm Jerusalem, our weekly discussion of the Male/Female Paradigm in Kabbalah, turns from the father-mother relationship to the relationship of the children with their Parents.

These archetypal relationships appear in the works of the Arizal, in Otzerot Chaim, the Chapter of Nekudim.  We will take these primordial levels and explain how they reflect in the relations of parents and children.

The Mother/Son and Father/Daughter connections in the Holy Partzufim, ‘Faces’ help us to understand our difficulties in these areas, and describe the pathways of restoration, above and below.

Shalom, tonight again we encounter a very important Foundation Principle in Kabbalah, the ‘Eishet Chayil, ateret ba’alah, the Woman of Valor is the Crown of her husband.  What does this mean in kabbalistic, as well as psychological terms?  Why does ‘it work’ this way.  How are these principles embedded in reality?  Who is like our Creator, wise and understanding in knowing what we need to know to serve Him?

Look forward to seeing you all tonight.

Avraham Shira

Shalom.  Welcome.

This week we continue as an extension of our previous week’s topic, “The righteous woman is her husband’s Crown.”  We will compare this description with other instances where Crowning is relevant in the Torah, and with our understanding of how the Lights of the Soul (and the Universe) function, we will, with God’s help, receive another miracle perception of the Unity of God , Man and Society, when a person lives on the path of the Torah.

Look forward to seeing all of you there.

Avraham Shira

Shalom and Welcome.  Tonight’s final class of this zman is from the Introduction to the Zohar.  It involves a discussion between Rabbi Shimon and his son, Rabbi Elazar.

The Zohar shows us how God ‘creates’ His Names, and how Israel draws the power of those Names into the Human Realm.  These secrets lead us to the interaction between the Holy Mother, Emma Ila’ah, Bina, and Her Daughter, Nukba, Malchut, the Princess of Creation.  Rabbi Elazar reveals an astounding secret from this episode that leads all the way to the deepest secrets of reality, how Jewish Consciousness can create the Inner Beit HaMikdash, above and below.  This teaching gives hope for the Jewish people and thus, all mankind.

Look forward to seeing you there.

Avraham Shira

Shalom and Welcome to the Fall Zman at Webyeshiva.  I hope all of you had a powerful, meaningful, joyous Tishrei.

I am excited to return t0 our learning together on the foundational Principles in Kabbalah and tonight we will return to the beginning structures of Creation, their arrangement, significance and relationship to the form and purpose of the Male/Female Paradigm around which all reality is based and built from the highest non-physical realms, down to those of us here in the dense physical plane called ‘Asiyah’, the world of Action, or doing.  Join us tonight with your questions and insights, 8pm Israel, on Webyeshiva.org

Looking forward to it,

Avraham Shira

Shalom.  Tomorrow night, 8pm Israel, we will focus on the power of the mind, the power of ideas, and how holiness drives away darkness.  These forces are at work within us, as well as in the external world.  King Solomon said, “The eyes of the Wise are in their head.”  Well, where else would they be?  What is the wisest of humans saying?  Come hear the answer according to Kabbalah.  Why does the King tell us are eyes are in our head?  And how does this relate to prayer, meditation and driving away darkness?  This Torah empowers us to continue the Jewish war against darkness on all levels of Creation.  Be with us tomorrow night.

Looking forward to it,

Avraham Shira

Shalom and Welcome to Foundations in Kabballah.

Tonight we will discuss a principle that is extremely insightful.  Both from the spiritual and practical levels of understanding;  Why does the kabbalah teach that the Feminie Power is closest to the Other Side, most vulnerable to attack from the external forces?  And why does Crown, the keter of transcendent consciousnous completely impervious to these negative power?  When. we understand these ideas, it is clear why the ‘Snake’ attacked Chava and not Adam first, and why Israel, the Chosen People to reveal this knowledge, are constantly under attack from Evil.  For the Feminine power is that which reveals God in the world, and in the mind, through speech and action.  The feminine is the power to take the masculine potential and make it REAL in this plane of existence.

Come join us for a profound discussion on these and other matters.

Avraham Shira

Shalom.  Tonight, on Webyeshiva.org, in our series Fountains of Kabblah, we will examine the concepts of Face and its Opposite, (achoor in Hebrew). These terms are essential for understanding the relationships between light and darkness, receiving and giving, influence an perception, power and submission, vessel and light.  Naturally these ideas parallel what we have learned already concerning the masculine and feminine powers in the human soul, the Tree of ‘Light’ and life.  We will also hope to use this wisdom in our personal lives and look for places where we can solve difficulties restore restore relationships and heal each other.

Look forward to seeing you there.

Avraham Shira

Welcome.

Tonight we will explore the relationships between father and daughter, and mother and son and how these realities are expressed in the Kabbalah and the structure of the world.  It is quite fascinating to see how, as human beings, we are such diverse composites of soul.  We will see, with Hashem’s help, how these influences on us are both positive and negative reflections and yet do not give us a pass to blame or a resume to take credit, but rather continue the continuum of the infinite soul of our Creator.

Bring your questions and look forward to seeing you there.

Avraham Shira

Shalom.  Welcome.  Tonight we will learn about the integration of the male and female minds, as they are described in the Otzerot Haim of Rabbi Chaim Vital.  These two power centers create awareness called Da’at, or ‘Awareness of Knowledge’ as it flows to us, and through us.  Men and women contain both these powers.  Their integration happens in Da’at.  Chochman, Wisdom, the masculine power, is called thought which is hidden, defined by many as the power to hide.  Bina, understanding, is the heart’s ability to understand a thought, and process ideas into language, or understand one thing within another, or from another.

The powers are blended in each person.  They emerge as the blending of two of God’s names.  They are at the root of heaven.  They are ‘called upon’ at the moment of reciting the Shema Yisrael prayer.   And much more.

Come join us on Webyeshiva.org, Jeruslaem 8pm.

Avraham Shira

Shalom.  Tonight we will take a look at Gan Eden.  What it is, and what it isn’t.  How does the soul exist there?  How do we transcend realms?  Can we find other souls we know?  Can we get lost?  Can we be rejected or kicked out?   Do we have a choice to return to this world?  What they do there ‘all day long?’  Is there lack in such a realm?

These and many other questions arise from this most provocative subject.

Please join us for the final class in this zman, preparing for Chanukah.

Avraham Shira

Shalom and Welcome to a New Zman at WebYeshiva,org,

Tomorrow,8pm Jerusalem time, we will examine the idea of the Breath of the Righteous, and how it is able to discern good and evil.  This particular class is based on Likutei Moharan,  109, and is a challenge for many.  The wisdom it shares about the service of the Tzadik will infuse us with faith in the interface between the spiritual and the physical.

It seems very far from us, until we see how the tzadik explains this level, and brings it very close.

Looking forward to seeing you there,

Avraham Shira

Shalom.  Last week we began with Torah LM 109 about the ‘vapors’ on the land of good and evid, and how these vapors come to a person, and teach us one of the great lessons of Teshuva is that there is always hope.

Tonight we will focus on the famous dictum of the Talmiud that Mashiach will smell and judge (moreach v-dahn) who is honest or truthful or not in legal and personal cases.

This power of scent, to smell evil or goodness is a deep, deep mystery.  And yet, even in the common culture there is a very common phrase, “Somethinjg smells fishy.”  What is this based on?  How do we learn from it?  What does Rebbe Nachman say about the powers of Mashiach.  Tonight we will open those doors of perception.

Look forward to seeing you all,

Avraham Shira

This week will be a little different as we explore, in the merit of my father, Moshe ben Avraham Yoseph, who passed this week, the level of pain that induced King David, to scream 7 times to redeem his son, Avshalom, from the dark regions; which such a traitor would be sentanced.  How is it possible to forgive such a son who wishes to take the kingship from his father?

How powerful is the prayer of a father in mourning?

How powerful the forgiveness of God when driven by Tzadikim?

How much do our children need our prayers?

Lets look at some hard questions durinng hard times.

Shalom.  This week we will build on a concept we began last week.  How ‘Loss is Gain’ in Kaballah, in Personal growth, and in our attempts to get closer to Hashem.j. It is a process we experience in ‘Avelut’ mourning.  Yet it can be a daily part of our service.  Let’s explore this together tonight.

Avraham Yoseph Shira

Shalom.  Welcome.  Tonight we will return to a foundation of foundations idea in Kabbalah.  Affinity of Form is the metaphysical principle by which we derive unity in Creation.

From God we discover divinity.  From mankind we discover conformity.  Where do the two interface?  Where does one enliven the other.  Where does freedom begin and responsibility end?  How do I be like God when I cannot imagine Him?  When he is so far beyond our minds’ ability to conceive him?

Our first challenge is to ask the questions.  The second to hear and filter the answers.  The third to accept and integrate a truth we have yet to know.

Look forward to seeing all of you.

Avraham Shira

Shalom and Welcome.  Tonight, through the deep lens of Kabbalah we’ will look at the famous story in the Talmud, where Rabbi Y.B.Levi asked Eliyahu haNavi a question.  Who here in this market will earn the world to come?  This provocative question has fueled discussion for 2,000 years.  Let’s join the history of some very important ideas that will not only inspire us, but unite the worlds as well.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

Avraham Shira

Shalom and Welcome.  Tonight we examine the phenomena of beginning to serve the Creator and being pushed away, as if we are being rejected.  Rabbi Nachman’s interpretation that ‘the beginning of getting closer is …being pushed away,’ we will understand a great principle in Service for Hashem and how to always renew ourselves.  Look forward to see you all there.

Avraham Shira

Shalom and Welcome.

Tonight on Webyeshiva.org, we will reach the conclusion of this zman with a deep principle in Kabbalaistic healing,   “The healer does not heal, but Hashem gives the Healer permission to heal.”  What is this ‘permission?’  How does the healer get the permission?”  How does the patient find such a healer?   These questions and others will challenge us and hopefully achieve a new understanding of healing, the kind that moves from heaven to earth.

look forward to seeing you there.

Avraham Shira

Shalom, welcome to an exciting spring zman at Webyeshiva.org.  Tonight we will continue with Foundations in Kaballah and some of the principles that will help us understand the non-physical plane.  Evil Surrounds Goodness is a very basic and necessary principle that helps us begin building our inner map of the worlds, and organizes our ‘information’ into a structure that projects the original structure of the universes as described by the Arizal.  Come explore this concept and find its truths within.Look forward to seeing you tonight, May 8, 8pm.  WebYeshiva.org
Avraham Shira

Shalom.  Tonight’s class will surround a new Foundation in Kabbalah:  An extremely deep understanding that a person can pass judgment on himself, and the Judge in Heaven will allow it to be so.  At the highest levels God takes a man on his word.  He holds a person responsible for what he says.  Why?  Because that is a big part of being a Human-Divine Being.  In Torah 113 of Likutei Moharan of Rebbe Nachman, the Master explains things we have never heard spoken about judgment, self-knowledge, Divine Knowledge, and the trecherous climb to the peak of our Souls.

Look forward to seeing you there.

Avraham Shira

Shalom.  Welcome to our update.  Tonight we find a deeply troubling verse in Mishle, “Increase knowledge, increase pain.”  Knowledge as Pain?  How could it be?  Or, How or why would we want to travel the path of knowledge?  We’ll explore these questions, hoping to understand or at least embrace a life-changing Torah paradox.

Looking forward to seeing all of you.

Avraham Shira

Shalom and welcome to our series on Foundations in Kabballah.  Tonight, we will look at the deep understanding that emerges from the saying and ‘writing’ of Tehilim.

That is sometimes, the Divine Presence rests upon a person. and then he responds with his own vessels/words, songs, insights.  Other times, a person  must work very hard in prayer with exercion, intention, and concentration.

So which is the way to Divine Inspiration?  Both ways.  Each depends on the person, place and time, and the sparks in any particular place that are present and waiting to be elevated.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

Avraham Shira

Shalom,  Tonight’s class has a title.  “The Kabbalah of Jewish Etiquette.”  Part 1.

We will learn some of the deepest ideas from the most obvious Jewish customs between man and wife.  We will begin with the Marriage Ceremony and let Rabbi Shimon lead us through his endless holy sefer.  Look forward to seeing all of you.

Avraham Shira

Welcome to another in a mini series of The Etiquette of Kabbalah.  This week, from Parshat Breishit of the Zohar, we find another brilliant distinction from Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai about the Creation of Adam and Eve and the Universal Principles that guide the Universe(s).

The word from creating Adam was with one letter yud, and when God recreated Adam and Even, the second creation story, the word for creation was spelled with two yuds.

This distinction can lead us in many wise and valuable directions but the Zohar understands it as the uniqueness of the feminine and why she blesses each morning, “Blessed is the One who made me according to His Will.”

According to this piece, who is closer to God?  Who has the real power?  The hidden power. . .

Come explore and invite the ideas of the greatest Kabbalists into your heart and understand who you really are.

Look forward to seeing you on Thursday, 8pm.

Avraham Shira

Shalom and Welcome.  I hope all of you are well.  This week, the The Zohar will teach us about the relationships of this world, and the next, and how fear is a challenge at every level. And the solution to our fears is learning Torah.  It protects us from fears both spiritual and physical, and this ‘force field’ is induced whether or not we are wise, learned and  experienced.  So what about men learning versus women learning?  Is the protection the same?  Let’s find out tonight on Webyeshiva.org.

look forward to seeiong you there.

Avraham Shira

Shalom and Welcome.  Tonight we will look at one of the primary prophecies of the present war before the coming of Mashiach.  This piece is found in several places.  We will use the text from the Talmud Avoda Zara and a piece taken from Sanhedrin 98b.

This Torah  reveals the long term multigenerational transmission of traits and traumas within a person, or a people, and explore this foundational concept of the linkages of generations, and how each is given the opportunity to repair the past in themselves and the perhaps, the generation at large.  Since it deals with Mashiach, and Persia, and Rome, or the West, it should help us understand more of what is happening in the world around us, and within.

Look forward to seeing you there.

Avraham Shira

Shalom and Welcome.  Tonight, a look into the Introduction to the Zohar, 8b on David haMelech and BatSheva, and God’s argument with the angel Duma.  A fascinating look into God’s relationship with Mankind, and Himself.   Look forward to seeing you there.

Shalom, tonight we explore the ‘Kabbalah’ of  teachings about God’s receiving the prayers of the righteous.  Can we ‘calculate’ the affectivity of prayer?

The weight of merits?  The weight of de-merits?  Our own efforts versus the merits of others, including family lineage?  Why some people get what they want without praying, versus those who pray for 20 unanswered years?

Come join us tonight and may we be blessed with the clarity to see through the veils of our minds, into the intentions of the One Great Mind.

Look for you there.

Avraham Shira

Shalom and Welcome,  Tonight we will look at the principle relationships between Joy and Prayer.  How each of them, by spiritual osmosis, increase each others’ power.  And open the windows of the courtrooms in heaven.  We’ll tell some stories as well about this phenomena, and how joy empowers prayer, and prayer creates a vessel for joy

Look forward to seeing you there.

Avraham Shira

Shalom and Welcome, tonight we will learn some of the secrets of prayer and healing from the Zohar, chpt. Masei.  These principles are applicable to all people, whether we use them or not.  The portion also deals with the difference between the human and non-human healers, and the difference between the wisdom of Balaam and Balak.  This will open for us an unusual link between medicine, witchcraft, blessing and cursing.

Where in the world such questions get asked and answered.

Only the Holy Zohar.

Look forward to seeing all of you.

Avraham Shira

Shalom and Welcome.  Tonight, our final meeting of this zman/semester we will examine the idea of ‘Self’ Judgment’ and the nature of tragedy.  How do we align ourselves with God when Judgment is released into the world?  How do we take enough or too much responsibility on ourselves?  Where is the middle line of Mishpat in the Tree of Life in our souls?

This subject and material cannot be overlooked.  It’s importance cannot be overstated.  When we practice true, fair, honest and patience in judgment we leave the realm of the lower human self and enter the realm of the highest spark of the Divine within.

With God’s help we will also meditate on these ideas, together.

Looking forward to seeing you all.

Avraham Shira