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THEMES of Featured Ari Articles
Beginner
Part 1
The Ari explains that the four major categories of damages - the Ox,
the Pit, the Destroyer, and the Fire - are the archetypal four levels of evil
rooted in the spiritual worlds. They correspond to the forces of evil which
attempt to counteract the holy influences of the Patriarchs, Isaac (gevura),
Abraham (chesed), Jacob (tiferet), and David (malchut),
respectively.
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Advanced
Kabbalah explains the spiritual roots of the pilgrimage festivals.
The three festivals: Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot are referred to as "regalim", which also means "legs". These three holidays are thus "leg-holidays" on which it is necessary to strengthen our supernal "legs" i.e. netzach-hod-yesod, by traveling to Jerusalem and appearing at the Holy Temple.
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Advanced
The Ari reveals the mystical foundations of the concept of the Hebrew bondsman.
The bondsman is deemed capable of surviving the spiritual test of mating with a slave-girl only if he is already married to a Jewish woman.
Likewise, in our involvement in the physical world, we must always ensure that we are "married" to higher levels of spirituality where evil does not have such a strong hold, before we venture forth to "couple", or bond, with the lower levels of reality in order to accomplish our goals there. |
Intermediate
In its ascent to G-d, the soul reveals itself in several stages.
The five levels of the soul, in ascending order, are nefesh
(active soul), ruach (emotional "wind"
or "spirit"), neshama ("breath" of
life), chaya ("living being"), and yechida ("unique one"). These
are levels of consciousness of G-d and the relationship with
G-d that results from this consciousness, associated with the five
worlds of Asiya, Yetzira,
Beriya, Atzilut, and the
keter of Atzilut, respectively.
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Kabbalah explains how soul-mates sometimes reincarnate together.
Sometimes a man will reincarnate in order to marry his soul-mate because he did not merit to do so the first time. Sometimes he may have already married his soul-mate, but he sinned and must return to be rectified.Sometimes he has merits, and even though she does not need to reincarnate she returns with him.
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