The Holy Idra Rabah [Big Circle]

Introduction of the Idra Rabah

1. Rabbi Shimon said to the friends, “Until when will we sit with the existence of one pillar in the world of Tohu,” that ZAT were in one line, one above the other? Rabbi Shimon wanted to reveal to them the matter of the degrees of the world of correction, which are in three pillars, three lines right, left, and middle.

It is written, “Time to do for the Lord; they have broken Your law.” The days are few and the owner of the sins, the slanderer, is pressing. The herald calls each day for repentance, and the harvesters of the field are few, namely those who have been rewarded with the crops of the upper field, Malchut, which is the attainment of the secrets of Torah. Even those who attained are at the end of the vineyard, Malchut, and do not notice and do not know properly to which place they are going.

2. The friends gathered to the place of the settlement dressed in shields and swords, with lances in their hands, which are unifications to stop the shells. Hurry with your corrections, hurry to make the corrections of the three lines HBD, HGT, NHY. With counsel, wisdom, intelligence, knowledge, with vision, with hands, which are HGT, and with legs, which are NHY. Crown over you the one in whose possession are life and death, to decree words of truth, words that upper holy ones listen to, and which they are happy to hear and know. Idra means assembly [as well as seat and circle], the seat of the Sanhedrin, who warn the people.

3. Rabbi Shimon sat and wept. He said “Woe if I tell; woe if I do not tell.” If he does not tell, the innovations of Torah will be lost. If he tells, perhaps someone who is unworthy of the secrets of Torah might hear. The friends who were there were silent.

Rabbi Aba arose and said to him, “If it is good in the eyes of my master to reveal, then it is written, ‘The secret of the Lord to those who fear Him,’ and these friends are all fearing the Creator, and they have already entered the Idra of the tabernacle, and we learned that they went into the Idra Rabah and came out, but not everyone, since three friends passed away.”

4. The friends were counted before Rabbi Shimon and there were Rabbi Elazar his son, Rabbi Aba, Rabbi Yehuda, Rabbi Yosi Bar Yaakov, Rabbi Yitzhak, Rabbi Hizkiyah Bar Rav, Rabbi Hiya, Rabbi Yosi, and Rabbi Yisa. They gave their hands to Rabbi Shimon and directed the fingers upward, and went into a field among the trees, and sat.

Rabbi Shimon arose and prayed his prayer. He sat among them and said, “Each one will place his hands in his bosom.” They placed their hands each one in his bosom, and Rabbi Shimon took them. He opened and said, “Damned be the man who will make a statue and a mask, an abomination to the Lord, the work of an artisan, and places in concealment.” Everyone answered “Amen!”

Immediately after the friends were counted before him, they observed what he had warned them, “Hurry with your corrections,” and they promptly did the unification of three lines to extend them to Malchut. They did a deed below in order to awaken its likeness above. They gave the hands to Rabbi Shimon, since Rabbi Shimon is Daat, the root of the middle line. This is why they gave him their hands, right and left, and united, and their right and left were incorporated in one another though Rabbi Shimon, the middle line. By this, the unification of the three lines awakened above.

At that time, the fingers, which imply illumination of Hochma in the fingers, they held them upward so they would shine only from below upward, since after the right and left are incorporated together through the middle line, the Hochma in the left shines only from below upward. Afterwards, they had to draw all the illumination of three lines to Malchut, and entered the field among the trees, the field of holy apples, Malchut, and sat, to draw in it VAK of Hochma.

Rabbi Shimon said, “Each will place his hand in his bosom.” His bosom indicates the concealment of GAR, since placing the hand in the bosom is an act of concealment. However, there are two discernments in placing the hand in the bosom: 1) Placing the Yod in the Ohr [light], so the Ohr becomes Avir [air]. This is applied in the right line, the dot of Holam, because of which VAK is done without a Rosh [head]. 2) In the middle line, which causes only diminution of GAR of Hochma, but VAK of Hochma remain there. The middle line diminishes the left line so it shines only from below upward, which is VAK of Hochma.

To explain, I will clarify the text. “Again, the Lord said to him, ‘Place your hand in your bosom.’ He placed his hand in his bosom, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, like snow.” “He placed his hand in his bosom” is placing a Yod in the light, which diminishes it into air, VAK, applied in the right line, in the dot of Holam.

Afterwards, when he took it out, he took out the Yod once more from the air, and the air became light once more, and revealed the light of Hochma from above downward applied in the left line, before the correction of the middle line, at which time there are harsh judgments in it that are hidden, and all the lights are blocked, since the Hochma is without Hassadim. For this reason, “And behold, his hand was leprous, like snow,” since blocking and closing the lights is leprosy.

Afterwards, the correction of the middle line was revealed, as it is written, “And He said, ‘Place your hand back in your bosom,’ and he placed his hand back in his bosom.” The first action is of the middle line, which awakens the screen of Hirik of the lock, which diminishes it into VAK. Afterwards, “And he took it out from his bosom,” the second act, revealing the Hochma once more, but with a clothing of the bosom, which drew only VAK of Hochma. Then, all three lines are united and Hochma clothed in Hassadim, as it is written, “And behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh,” returning to GAR, but in VAK of Hochma.

This is why he said, “Each will place his hand in his bosom, in the bosom of the middle line, for then, when they take it out of the bosom, the left hand will shine only from below upward in the clothing of the bosom, as this is the heart of the whole correction of the middle line, Hirik. This is why Rabbi Shimon, the middle line, warned them about it.

They placed their hands in their bosom, and Rabbi Shimon took them from their bosom. He took out their hands from the bosom with the clothing of the bosom, as is the way of the middle line. He opened and said, “Damned be the man who will make a statue and a mask,” since extension of Hochma from above downward is the root of the statue and the mask, the work of an artisan, and places in the concealed one in the world, who reveals what must be covered and hidden. Therefore, in the end, he swore them over it.

5. Rabbi Shimon opened and said, “Time to do for the Lord; they have broken Your law.” It is time to do for the Lord because they have broken Your law. “Broken Your law,” broke the law [Torah] of above, ZA, since she is canceled if she is not done with her corrections of three lines. This verse is written for Atik Yomin from whom the root of all the corrections begins.

It is written, “Happy are you, Israel, who is like you,” since they are adhered to the middle line. It is also written, “Who is like You among the gods, Lord,” concerning ZA, the middle line.

6. He called Rabbi Elazar his son, and had him sit in front of him, and Rabbi Aba on the other side, and said, “We are the whole of everything,” since the soul of Rabbi Elazar was from Hochma, and that of Rabbi Aba was from Bina, and Rabbi Shimon was Daat, which unites HB with one another.

Therefore, he said, “We are the whole of everything,” since HBD are the sum of all the degrees. Until now, the pillars were established, meaning that until now, they engaged in the correction of the three lines, which are called “three pillars.” They were silent. They heard a voice, and their knees knocked against each other from fear. The sound of the High Assembly gathering, the Merkavot [structures/chariots] of the Creator.

7. Rabbi Shimon was glad and said, “Lord, I have heard the report of You and was afraid.” There, it was appropriate for him to fear, since his root is from the left line. But we, who are united in the middle line, the matter depends on love, on Hassadim, which are love, as it is written, “And you shall love the Lord your God,” and it is written, “For the love of the Lord for you,” and it is written, “‘I have loved you,’ says the Lord.”

8. Rabbi Shimon opened and said, “He who gossips reveals a secret, and he who has a faithful spirit conceals a matter. “Gossips” means one who is not settled in his spirit and is unfaithful. When he hears something, he has no rest until he reveals to another. But one whose spirit is settled and of persistence, it is written about him, “He who has a faithful spirit conceals a matter,” and his spirit persists. The matter depends on the spirit, and it is written, “Do not let your mouth make your flesh sin.”

9. The world exists only through the secret. If matters of the world require a secret, then the matters of the secret of the secrets of Atik Yomin, which are not given even to the high angels, are several times more so. Rabbi Shimon said, “I do not tell the heaven to listen; I do not tell the earth to hear, since we are the ones sustaining the worlds.”

Moses and Isaiah testified about heaven and earth that if the children of Israel will not sustain the world, they will be punished: The sky will not rain and the earth will not yield its crop. But Rabbi Shimon was speaking to the righteous who sustain the worlds, who do not need a testimony.

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Conversations With Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman - Run away to spirituality

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