The video begins with an informal exchange between Dr. Trappler and a student off-camera. The doctor then provides a summary of historical events which illustrate the concept of G-d retracting and then revealing his Inner Light. The Torah has a “Body” – the Mitzvos (Commandments), and a Soul (His Esoteric Mystical Wisdom), and each are expressed by man`s occupation in their corresponding manifest actions, they are celebrated separately on distinct occasions. The “Body” of the Torah was originally expressed at the Revelation at Sinai. In contrast, the “Inner Soul” of the Light of the Torah was manifest on the day of the passing of the original Master of the Esoteric- Rabbi Shimeon Ben Yochai (The Rashbi), when he named the disciples gathered around his bed (as witnesses) to reveal, in an impromptu deliberation, what is now generically referred to as “The Zohar”. Both the Revealed, and Esoteric components of the Torah were encapsulated as momentary condensed bursts of Revelation, each in fact, required centuries of subsequent interpretation and clarification. In the case of the Written Torah given by Moses, the vast detail required G-dly inspired clarification through the subsequent codification in the Oral Law, and great commentators such as Rashi and Maimonides. Similarly, the original Esoteric secrets are known as the Idres, but were fully elaborated by groups of scholars belonging to secret societies constituted by the disciples of the Kaballistic School of Tzfat under the mentor-ship of Rabbi Isaac Luria (the Arizal), and Rav Chaim Vital. But this was only brought to revelation by the founder of the Hassidic Movement – the Baal Shem Tov. Following the passing of the Baal Shem Tov (referred to as the “BSHT”), the Hassidic School divided into various branches, following his original disciples. “Revelation” and “Concealment”, is also illustrated by the centuries separating the original sentinel events and the declaration of their closure centuries later. As an example, the Old Testament first became intelligible to the masses by the Divinely inspired notes dispersed anonymously by Rashi, during the 11th Century in France. The Talmud was codified a century later by Maimonides, the Great Sephardic Scholar who lived in Egypt and was buried in Tiverias. The Teachings of the BSHT were promulgated by the Rebbes who led the various Hassidic Dynasties. These include the students of the BSHT`s Great Grandson, Reb Nachman, whose shrine in the Ukraine is visited in Umman each year by thousands of Brezlever Hasidim based in Israel. The original writings of the Arizal were handed down to Rabbi Joseph Isaac Schneursohn of Chabad, where they are on display at the Chabad Library in Brooklyn. Dr. Trappler`s Genealogy Tree (“Yichus Brif”), includes a letter from the BSHT to his Maternal Great-grandmother, Sarah Margolioth, who arrived in Cape Town from Lodz in 1901, showed her direct line of descent to Rabbeinu Tam, and Rashi. Her Great-grandfather was one of the original disciples of the BSHT. For over 40 years he was Chief Rabbi of Lemberg, while travelling throughout the Ukraine from where he brought the most complex problems to the BSHT for clarifications. Tales of the Baal Shem Tov, abound with stories of Meir and Yitzchak Ber Margolioth, who left home at the respective ages of 11 and 16 years of age, to sit and learn from the BSHT, prior to his revelation as the Father of the Hassidic School. While being the most dominant scholar of the Arizal`s School of Esoteric Thought, he devoted his life to spreading the “Wellsprings of Torah” through unconditional love, song, and joy-filled prayer as the keys to opening the Celestial Gateways to Heaven.
Tags: Arizal, Baal Shem Tov, Chabad, Esoteric School, Maimonides, Meir Margolioth, Moses, Mysticism, Old Testament, Rabbeinu Tam, Rashi, Reb Nachman, Revelation