The Greatness of Rashbi
Rashbi in the Cave
Rashbi Reveals the Secrets of the Torah
The Departure of Rashbi
1. Zohar for All, Beresheet [Genesis], “The Sling-Stone”, Item 200
Those righteous ones, the authors of The Zohar, and especially Rabbi Shimon, their thoughts and words were in actual deeds, for according to the quality of the innovations in the Torah that they discovered, the upper degrees were promptly set up and arranged after them in actual fact. That is, the righteous build worlds with their innovations in the Torah.
2. Zohar for All, Aharei Mot [After the Death], “Souls, before They Come to the World”, Item 99
All true righteous, before they come into this world, they are all established above and are called by names. Since the day the Creator created the world, Rabbi Shimon was ready before the Creator and was with Him, and the Creator called him by his name. Happy is he above and below.
3. Zohar for All, Haazinu, “Seven Firmaments and Seven Planets,” item 16
Rabbi Shimon said, “I raised my hands in prayer to the holy upper one that these words,” meaning the wisdom of Kabbalah, “would be revealed through me in that world as they were covered in my heart.”
4. Zohar for All, Beresheet [Genesis], “Let Us Make Man”, Item 159
As Rabbi Shimon heard, he was calling him Shimon and not Rabbi Shimon. This means that the instilling of the Achoraim, which is a calling, was so strong that he lost all his degrees and became a simple person, Shimon from the market. By that, he recognized that it was a calling and an invitation for very high attainment of Panim.
This is why he promptly said to his friends, “This must be the Creator, of whom it is written, ‘And the ancient of days [Atik Yomin] is sitting,’” of whose degree there is no higher. And he said, “And now it means that permission to disclose has been given,” meaning that now it was seen that he obtained permission to disclose that high secret.
5. Zohar for All, VaYetze [And Jacob Went Out], “This Time Will I Praise – She Called His Name Judah”, Item 175
Rabbi Shimon, who shines with the Torah throughout the world and several lights shine through him; he is the pillar of all the pillars.
6. Zohar for All, Shemot [Exodus], “Hurry, My Beloved”, Items 241-242
241) Until Rabbi Shimon comes to the place of the Garden of Eden of the righteous, until the virtue of Rabbi Shimon is heard through all the firmaments, all the upper and lower unanimously wonder and say, “Is this Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai, who was alarming all? Who can stand before him?” This is Rabbi Shimon. When he opens his mouth to begin to engage in Torah, all the thrones, all the firmaments, all the Merkavot, and all those who praise their Master listen to his voice.
242) There is none to begin and say songs, and there is none to complete his singing. In other words, those who stand in the middle of the singing do not complete their song because they all become attentive to the voice of Rabbi Shimon, until an utterance of a mouth is heard through all the firmaments above and below.
When Rabbi Shimon concludes engaging in the Torah, who saw songs? Who saw joy of those who praise their Master? Who saw the voices that walk in all the firmaments? It is for Rabbi Shimon that all the souls and angels come and kneel and bow before their Master, and raise the fragrances of the perfumes in Eden—illumination of Hochma—all the way to Atik Yomin. All this is for Rabbi Shimon.
7. Zohar for All, New Zohar, Ki Tavo, “Promises and Comforts in the Curses in Mishneh Torah,” item 1
Rabbi Shimon fled to the desert of Lod and hid in a cave, he and his sonElazar. A miracle happened to them, and a carob [tree] emerged, and a spring of water. They ate from that carob and drank from those waters, and Elijah would come to them twice each day and teach them, and no one knew about them.
8. Zohar for All, Introduction of The Book of Zohar, “Rabbi Shimon’s Exit from the Cave” , Items 187-188
He saw two birds coming and flying over the sea. He raised his voice and said, “Birds, birds, since you fly over the sea, have you seen the place where Yochai is?” He waited a little, then said, “Birds, birds, go and tell me.” They flew away into the sea and departed.
Commentary: Rabbi Shimon fled from the kingship, which ordered that he should be killed. He and his son hid in a cave, and they did not know his whereabouts. This is why Rabbi Pinhas, son of Yair, went to look for him in the islands of the sea.
Before he went out to the ship, the birds came and one of them held a letter in her beak. It said, “Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai has come out of the cave with his son, Rabbi Elazar.” Rabbi Pinhas went to him and found that he has changed. His body was filled with holes and sores from sitting in the cave. He wept over him and said, “Woe that I have seen you so.” Rabbi Shimon told him, “Happy I am that you have seen me so, for had you not seen me so, I would not be so.” Rabbi Shimon started with the Mitzvot of the Torah and said, “All the Mitzvot of the Torah that the Creator gave to Israel are written in the Torah in a general way.”
Commentary: For all the years that he had to dwell in a cave, he had to sit there inside the sand to cover his nakedness and engage in Torah, and his flesh was punctured and with sores because of it. Rabbi Pinhas wept over him and said, “Woe unto me that I have seen you so.” Rabbi Shimon replied to him, “Happy I am that you have seen me so, for had you not seen me so, I would not be so,” meaning I would not have been rewarded with the revelations of the secrets of the Torah, for he was awarded all the great sublimity of his wisdom during those 13 years of hiding in the cave.
9. Zohar for All, Yitro [Jethro], “You Will Behold the Secret of the Lines in the Palms”, Item 170
Happy are those who sit before Rabbi Shimon and are rewarded with hearing the secrets of the Torah from his mouth. Happy are they in this world and happy are they in the next world.
10. Zohar for All, Nasso, “They Placed My Name,” item 189
Rabbi Zira said to Rabbi Aba, “I saw the face of the Shechina [Divinity], and one who sees the face of the Shechina should walk and run after her. [...] and I want to walk after you and learn from those good things that you taste each day from the holy chamber of Rabbi Shimon.
11. Zohar for All, New Zohar, Lech Lecha, “Abraham Heard that His Brother Was Taken Captive,” items 61-62
How precious is the Torah to the Creator, for by its merit, one is rewarded with the life of the next world, and anyone who teaches Torah to others, more than everyone. Those who teach Torah to others and to infants, their reward is twofold. One who teaches Torah to children, his dwelling place is with the Shechina [Divinity]. Rabbi Shimon, when he came to see the youths in their master’s home, he would say, I am going to see the face of the Shechina.
12. Zohar for All, Nasso, “The Idra Rabah Kadisha,” item 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 in the Torah will be lost. If he tells, one who is unworthy of the secrets of the Torah might hear. The friends who were there kept silent.
13. Zohar for All, Haazinu, “The Idra Zuta Kadisha,” items 26-27
Rabbi Shimon said, “Now is a time of good will, and I want to come to the next world without shame. And so, I want to disclose to the Shechina [Divinity] holy matters that I have not disclosed thus far, so it will not be said that I departed from the world deficient. Until now, they were concealed within my heart, so as to enter the next world with them.”
And this is how I am arranging you: Rabbi Aba will write, Rabbi Elazar will study verbally, and the rest of the friends will whisper in their hearts.
14. Zohar for All, VaYechi [Jacob Lived], “Two Camels”, Item 120
Since the day Rabbi Shimon came out of the cave, nothing was hidden from the friends. They looked at the high secrets and were revealed in them as though they were given at that time at Mount Sinai. After Rabbi Shimon died, the fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were closed. The fountains of wisdom were stopped. The friends were contemplating matters, but they did not stand in them, to know their meaning.
15. Zohar for All, Yitro [Jethro], “You Shall Not Have”, Items 411-412
It is written, “For it is your life and the length of your days.” One who has been rewarded with the Torah and did not part from it is rewarded with two lives: one in this world and one in the next world. It is written, “Your life” in plural tense [in Hebrew it can be perceived as plural], which are two. And anyone who parts from it, it is as though he parted from life. And one who parts from Rabbi Shimon, it is as though he parted from everything.
If in this verse, in which he opened a door, we could not enter, the abstruse words of Torah are several times more so. Woe unto a generation from whom Rabbi Shimon departs, since when we stand before Rabbi Shimon, the fountains of the heart are open to all directions and everything is revealed. And when we part from him, we know nothing and all the fountains are hidden.
16. Zohar for All, VaYakhel [And Moses Assembled], “The Intention of the Prayer”, Item 118
Rabbi Aba said, “Woe Rabbi Shimon, you are alive and I am already weeping for you. It is not over you that I am weeping, but I am weeping for the friends, and I am weeping for the world that will remain orphans after your departure from the world.” Rabbi Shimon is like the light of a candle that burns above and burns below. All the people of the world shine in that light that it lit below. Woe to the world when the light below departs and comes into the light of above. Who will shine the light of Torah for the world?
17. Zohar for All, Haazinu, “The Idra Zuta Kadisha,” items 196-197
Rabbi Aba said, “Rabbi Shimon did not finish saying ‘life’ before his words went silent. And I wrote, and intended to write more, but I did not hear. I did not raise my head, for the light was great and I would not look. During this, I was shaken up. I heard a voice calling out and saying, ‘length of days and years of life.’ Afterwards, I heard another voice, ‘He asked You for life.’
“That whole day, the fire did not stop from the house, but there was no one to reach him, for they could not because the light and the fire surrounded him. That whole day, I fell to the ground and sobbed. After the fire went, I saw Rabbi Shimon, the holy of holies, that he had departed from the world, that he was covered and lying on his right side, and his face were laughing.”
18. Zohar for All, VaYechi [Jacob Lived], “When His Time Comes to Depart from the World”, Item 157
How much longer is one given to live in this world? There is no permission to inform this, and one is not informed of this. But Rabbi Shimon was in great joy on the day of his demise, and there was great joy in all the worlds because of the many secrets he had revealed then.
19. Zohar for All, VaYikra [The Lord Called], “As Long as Moses Exists”, Item 387
Woe unto the world when Rabbi Shimon departs it, when the fountains of wisdom are blocked in the world and a man seeks a word of wisdom, but none shall be found to speak. And the whole world will be erring in the Torah and there will be no one to evoke in the wisdom.
20. Zohar for All, Ki Tissa [When You Take], “The Calf”, Item 104
The friends came and kissed Rabbi Shimon’s hands. They said, “If we had come to the world only to hear this thing, we would have been content.” They wept and said, “Woe unto us. When you depart from the world, who will shine and reveal the lights of Torah?” This thing shines to the top of the heaven and is written in the King’s throne, and the Creator is now delighted about this thing. And how much joy over joy was added before the Holy King? Who will evoke words of wisdom in the world as you do?