As we go, it will become common ground that Moshe received the Torah on Mount Sinai, comprising 613 mitzvos (commands) which were to be carried out by 600,000-odd male souls who, together with their wives and children, amounted to three million people.[1] These souls (or their fragments) have been coming back through various gilgulim (cycles) ever since, in order to complete those 613 mitzvos.[2] Great secrets of Torah were also received by Moshe and communicated to certain select Jews in each generation since then.

Until the time prior to the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, it was forbidden for Jews to learn the secret side of Torah unless they understood the whole of the Talmud, were over forty and married.[3] These three conditions exempted most ordinary people from access to those secrets.

Many secrets of Torah are embodied in a volume known as "The Zohar" which contains these traditions as written down by R. Shimon Bar Yochai.

The teachings of this book were withheld for a thousand years with a prophecy that at a time when required it would be revealed. That time corresponds exactly to the Industrial Revolution[4]. At the same time as the process of technology began, there set in a deepening darkness in the world in terms of obvious spirituality. Clearly, it is easier to see G-d in the mountains than in a city street. So in order to shed light into the spiritual gloom the secret side of the Torah was to be released.

The teachings of the Zohar were refined and restructured into the form of Chassidus, first with the Baal Shem Tov, then the Mezritcher Maggid and then through an inner circle of Rebbeim throughout Europe. These secrets have been whispered and then articulated more and more loudly by the Rebbes of Lubavitch (Chabad). (See notes at end).

From the time that information began being released, and for the first time in Jewish history, an ordinary Jew had access to properly understand the greatest principles in the universe. We will deal with some of these as building blocks. When concepts are on board, we will apply them to specifics and then to the world. With this information a Jew can soar into the heavens.

   

Notes:

1. (Back to text) See Makkos 23b.

2. (Back to text) See Tanya, Iggeres HaKodesh Epistle 7.

3. (Back to text) See Rambam, Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah 2:12.

4. (Back to text) See lengthy explanation in Likkutei Sichos, Vol. 15, p 42ff (Noach 2).