Q: My friends suggested that I don’t study Kabbalah. They said it was too soon for me. Why do they think that?
A: Before the 1920s, people did not need to study Kabbalah. Only a chosen few studied in each generation. They received a desire to attain the Upper Reality, the Creator, from above. At the end of the exile, with the reacquisition of the land of Israel after the holocaust, the last era began. It was a return by equivalence of root and branch, a return to the corporeal land of Israel, and at the same time, a return to the spiritual land of Israel. That is why the prohibition of the study of Kabbalah, set up by the Kabbalists themselves, has been completely lifted in our time.
However, people who are completely ignorant of Kabbalah still advocate the old approach, and cannot see that everything has changed in our world. Now there is a comprehensive change in our entire reality. You might say that if, until recently, Providence was dictated from Above, then from our time onward, Providence demands our conscious participation, made by our own choice.
If earlier we were still passive in the process, now we are compelled to partake in the process. The only condition is that we show a desire to partake in the leadership. Otherwise, the Spiritual Force will force us to want it.
There is not a quiet place left on earth. No one will be calm anywhere, especially the Jewish people, because the spiritual law that takes us to the center of creation affects the Jews first.
We are the first who must join in the leadership, and all the peoples will follow us. But it is the other peoples who feel that push, and the Creator urges us through them. It is not to our advantage that we are being struck without understanding why. If we begin to realize the reason for the blows, our situation will improve because then we will know what it is we must do.
Q: Why were we forbidden to study Kabbalah for such a long time?
A: There was no need to study Kabbalah before the return to the land of Israel. The Kabbalists themselves decided on these laws and it was they who hid the books. Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai, for example, hid The Book of Zohar and it remained hidden until many centuries later. The same holds true regarding the writings of the Ari. When he died, all his writings were buried along with him. It was not until three generations later that new texts were dug out of his grave and handed over for print.
Kabbalists have hidden the wisdom of Kabbalah since the ruin of the second temple until our days, and passed the information only to a very few.
But now, the exile is over and we have been brought back to Israel. Now we must reacquire the spiritual degree we have lost with the ruin of the second temple. Its loss led to the ruin of the temple and the exile, and only by reacquiring it can we be reestablished here.