Study Kabbalah like a Kabbalist - The Ramak's Introduction to Kabbalah - Or Ne'erav - אור נערב 

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This was so epic. Thank you for your top quality work opening the arcana of Kabbalah for us plebs.

Excellent video. Cordovero's attitude reminds me of something that St. Thomas said in the Summa Theologiae: "maius est illuminare quam solum lucere" or, "it is better to illuminate than simply to shine." That is, it is better to instruct others than to simply contemplate things for oneself. A good attitude for all, in reality.

I was going to refrain from commenting but I love the thoughtful sentiment here and you always make me bust out laughing. Your humour is priceless!!! Always a joy to watch and feel like I am left with new perspectives and data from a great teacher.

“May he let your place be at the front of all time-honored ones. May thine Ka successfully champion all things against any enemy. May thine Ba know the ways that lead to the gateway of the mummified deceased.” Thank you for diligence & contribution to academia to say nothing of your Saturnian humor Dr. Sledge

This one really spoke to me. I wouldn't call myself a kabbalist (or any specific single thing), but my spiritual life is heavily influenced by Kabbalah. I have been studying all the kabbalistic classics by myself for over 13 years now, but I can't say I _understand_ any of them, it's more like I am revealing the essence of an extra-dimensional picture of ideas piece by piece, deepening my personal relationship with Torah and G-D, something I had much difficulties when only studying Talmud and other more rational, philosophical (in academic sense) and maybe dogmatic approaches to Torah interpretation. I don't believe one even can really _understand_ the mysteries for they are not understandable by common human measurements, only experienced or perceived with a kind of extra-sensory intuition that one must first create for themselves. Same goes for studying ancient Hebrew and Aramaic; it's not really (at all) about how to speak these languages in some practical setting, but how the languages have formed around the ancient ideas, and how the very substance manifests itself through them. I find it's the personal relationship or belief what in the end really separates Kabbalah from the current mainstream forms of traditional Judaism. Maybe it's also my background living in a strongly protestant Lutheran society, and working with a strange combination of both art music and computer programming for livelihood.

Thank you for this encouraging serendipitous video especially beginning this year on studying Kabbalah! A treasure trove of complex esoteric knowledge and means of expanding learning of what would normally be inaccessible tomes and topics to navigate and comprehend!

So I've been working really hard lately on my programming skills, and I've begun noticing some striking similarities between the community of back-end software developers and the Kabbalistic milieu. For one thing, nested layers of complexity, like what you described in your comment about the nested sephiroth, are par for the course in both disciplines. A simple statement can be understood to reference hundreds of lines of code just like a certain key word in a Kabbalistic text is understood, by Kabbalists in the know, as a massive complex of layered meanings. Believe it or not, I've been pretty able to effectively adapt the thinking style I developed during my amateur study of Kabbalah into a basic understanding of how code works. From this perspective, a lot of the arcane text-specific references you mention as barriers to entry-level studies would be looked at by the dev community as cardinal compatibility sins. One of the stupidest things you can catch yourself doing as a programmer is designing software that only you, the developer, will ever understand. It makes it pretty much impossible for anyone else to do anything with your code, so other developers will usually ignore it and find an alternative rather than try to understand your personal vernacular. It would seem that such standards did not exist in the Kabbalistic community, but that likely has to do with the fact that, while devs are frequently seeking more devs to expand their projects, Kabbalists tend to be pretty proprietary and tight-lipped about their discoveries. While I'm still struggling to understand the reasons for that (though the Sabbatai Tzvi business does shed some light on it), I think it's important to recognize that Kabbalah was not made for amateurs to pick up easily. There are layers of obfuscation which, from what I've seen, seem to be viewed as necessary deterrents to seekers who are not earnest in their desire to learn and grow.

Thank you SO much for your incredibly fascinating and scholarly videos here on RU-vid. I have been binge watching and hopefully learning and getting wiser. Thank for the phenomenal link to read further.

Wonderful episode as always! That is definitely a book I will be checking out! Always a joy hearing your scholarly take on these subjects!

It’s wonderful to learn such things as this, Dr. Sledge. Thank you.

Thank you so much for all of these videos. I appreciate all that you do

Thank you for your work, Doctor, this is very informative

Going on a year of familiarizing myself with Kabbalah and the Zohar, still definitely just scratching the surface. Keep up the great vids Dr.Sledge!

Thank you so much for starting this channel!

What an incredible introduction / gift you have shared - along with great sense of humor and wit. First time viewer, forever subscriber. Many thanks from PA

As usual, great content!!!

Thank you for the encouraging video:)

You have good sense of humor. Funny dude with lots of interesting knowledge.

I am absolutely loving this series and this video. I downloaded this text as you said because I have always had a curiosity and have even had a copy of the Zohar for years, never getting anywhere on it’s study or understanding. This is probably the most valuable video in this area of study on the internet for someone wanting to start an even grazing study of this subject. I’m hooked now and as a habitual deep diver am going to listen to every episode on your channel. Seriously, thank you for creating this content. I think really you have a great deal in common with the writer of the text you are discussing here , although perhaps slightly different motivations.

Im pretty new to your channel and have watched a few things you have here. Im getting use to your style of content and realize you have a great sense of humor. This is very refreshing as I notice you cant contain yourself some time for more than two minutes without a quick under the radar joke or some dry humor. Subjects like this shouldn't be taken so dead serious, so dry and boring. Love is a gift from god which humans enjoy. Humor is another one when well timed. Great work and thanks.

I thoroughly enjoy these overviews of kabala and the history. I am not a student of the kabala, or any other mystical teachings in any depth. For now, the overview has given me a sense that “secrets” can be keys or diversions or both. It is in the study that we discover which. So much has been labeled “forbidden” by the religious people in my history. Even today, I am just supposed to listen to religious teachers of one religion, one origin. (According to leaders of my religion.) Interesting how politics and today’s organized religion want to keep people in boxes. Thank you Dr Justin for sharing.

Thank you so much Dr Sledge for this valuable video, and many thanks for sharing the link where we can read this most important work of Moshe cordovero🙏🙏

Another great video!

Awesomeness! 😎 ☕️ Thank you for all that you do. 🔥❤️🔥

Oh my word, those are some of the most beautiful manuscripts I’ve ever seen

Your videos are great. You have a great voice to listen too as well and make is easier to understand.

"accelerate the process of metaphysical redemption" starting to wrap my head around the CCRU's synthesis of Kabbalah, Numer/demonology, and Deleuze

Thank you very much for the link! ❤️

Excellent lecture as ever.

Excellent presentation. Thank you.

Very interesting Thank you for sharing

Bro I love your channel!!!

Some YEARS Ago, I would have Screamed: "This Is What I've Been LOOKING For!!" As for now..? Yeah, I'm definitely interested! Thank You for your time and Work! Ohh wow!.. 😳

Your a treasure and are an immensely great source with your real intent to answer the difficulties in the head of the beginners. Thank you! Btw you had me cracking up like 10 times in the this😂👌

Great lecture. Todah!

I haven't heard no big whoop is a while. Thank you.

Thank you Dr. Sledge.

Much appreciated!

Always amazing ...i do love how you put somethings ....make of it what you will ...so to speak. Big love.

Cracking channel. Love it!

Now I want to study the Kabbalah. Thank you for this❤️ This channel have upen a hole new world for me. Thank you thank you 🙏🙏🙏 Not only that, thanks for this channel I found more interesting to studying to other channels that's connecting to this channel. I'm a thirty student for esoterically informations.

That was amazing! Thank you!

Great Video!

Very interesting video.

You never fail to make me chuckle with your dry humour! "Spinning around, Stayin' up"

You have opened me eyes

Kabbalah is like trying to understand the universe, we can only comprehend it on our limit of understanding and there is so much beyond what we know that we just aren't able to fully process

“Selecting the wrong people is like revealing (….) Lilith “ that took me on a strange ride 🤦🏻 “The divine kiss” is a topic I m very interested in , I think that’s why I bought the Zohar , hoping to find smth on it … me being raised catholic… Very much enjoyed all the info! I ll listen to it again :) Definitely needed it … and the laughs :)) Merci Beaucoup Doctor ✨

What a treasure 🙏❤

I wish I knew this in the 1990’s. It would have really helped. Better late than never. Thank you so much. I will start over as if I know nothing.

i think you're doing similar work to cordovero now, bringing clarity and accessibility to all kinds of obscure knowledge! it's fascinating to see the parallels, i think a modern cordovero would definitely have a RU-vid channel like this

Hey Friend, Thank you for this video... Just discovering your Channel. Cordovero!!! Thanks for reminding me of his name and introducing me to some of his theories and work... It's interesting I always thought I was supposed to wait until I was 40, being raised as a Jew... At 33 I decided it was time even though I didn't have anything more than a bar mitzvah level education. Since then, the sephirot have been at the forefront of my mind and have taken me through several years of esoteric study and development. Thank you for the encouraging and interesting video! Mike, 38 years

WOW! I was never really interested in Kabbalah until I get here. Your Playlists it's like the Course Offering. I was about to start your Kabbalah playlist, my plan was to watch your full series of lectures, I will along reading the Or Neerav. I always thought that a clear entry point was impossible, thanks for open this gate for us... now I feel that I can go in without being disrespectful. By the way, if it's possible, from where the images from this video where taken from? Jeez, totally blown me away, found them extremely beautiful!!!

Just found this; Shanah Tovah u'gamar l'chatimah tovah. Or Neerav was one of my first introductory books when in yeshiva. I'm very interested, and hope this is a series.

When I was studying I dug as deep as I could into the Kabbalah and I still feel like a child who knows nothing. Honestly the degree in Philosophy and Religion was a side venture to my Engineering study but now as I look to slow down from teaching it I find my interest in this topic gaining strength once again... one never stops learning and I can always make space or get more bookshelves.

Thanks!

Kabbalah is perplexing when you first try to study it. The new agey way is simple and probably not going to hurt you but it isn't really Kabbalah. It helps if you can find a good guide or group near you. There are online groups that are pretty good. It also depends on the individual's background, existing knowledge and why they want to study in the first place.

I started with Gershom Scholem 35 years ago and I still reference his works today in the midst of all those Kabbalah scholars who have followed and those who came before Scholem.

Shalom brother. HalleluYah Yahusha for your knowledge that you give us through you vessel. HalleluYah Yahusha. Greatings Miryam S.A

Excellent

Thank you

Been binge watching all of these videos, so glad I came across a legitimate source of someone who actually understands esoterism and all these other topics you've discussed! As an aspiring psychedelic therapist, I can't help but be fascinatingly drawn to esoterism, mysticism, and alchemy. Will there ever be a video on Carl Jung and alchemy? I'm a huge Carl Jung fan and I know you could properly break down his ideas in regards to these metaphysical topics. Keep up the great videos professor!

Hello! Thanks so much for your work ❤️

I'm really excited to hear about the Palm Tree! I think about magickal ethics a lot in my journey into chaos magick. Determining what's ok and not ok to do seems to be a universal thread in human civilization, and it's endlessly fascinating for me to hear about how others experience ethical questions!

Salam Blessings healings & infinite knowledge to All..May the creator guide to the golden Etheric realm..Star Gods

I love this Guy, lol He's great :) I love all of the Video's, super Channel :)

Loved the video! Are you planning on doing any videos on Sabbatenian Kabblalistic texts?

Thankyou very much for your wonderful work dr Sledge. And for your sense of humor. My little note is just because I was like crazy looking for the meaning of “serirot” and then I realized it was just a typo. ( it’s on the card about Cordovero’s Pardes Rimmonim)

I think you are the teacher I seek! Hehe, I think you should link amazon books, as I would love to buy them, and in a small way I'd rather use your referral link, I almost bought this book. But figured I'd wait for now and try the online, but I like to highlight as I read so I can go back and study later.

Sweet!

I like how relevant this is to learning anything these days, with gatekeepers and unqualified teachers in every field. Also plenty of underrated geniuses mixed that you have to wade through the rest while you teach yourself how until you find the right teachers

I love your stance on elitist gatekeeping/being aware of the depths and complexity of Kabbalah. I first heard about Kabbalah from a Rabbi on RU-vid named Yom Tov Glasar. I am the consummate neophyte, but in the short few years I've been aware of it my spiritual awareness have grown and I have also learned a fair amount of Hebrew and Greek. I was raised on the Hebrew and Christian scriptures and Kabbalah has opened them both to me in ways I couldn't imagine prior to being exposed to it.

comment for the algorithm, stay for the PhD level dad-jokes

Okay, okay the "\m/" totally got me - well done!

Great video. Beautiful illustrations. To feel you know something (anything) seems to immediately challenge humility. To place concern in divine redemption has a way of pixelating this challenge and allows it to be non personal. It may be the only way to 'know' a structure and to teach it with humility? Great video :)

Dr J Sledge back at it again to hammer us with knowledge, y'all

Loved the subtle Sabbatai Tzvi joke.

Thanks for the great video very insightful! I am currently studying kabbalah online at KabU I highly recommend it' especially for beginners.The studies break things down in a scientific way making the concepts more accessible. Have you ever considered perhaps starting a Kabbalah study group for your channel? Thanks again for your video's! 🙏

My lifes Manifesto is distilling and looks alot like this stuff...so that is why I came on here/ how I found you!

My first occult experience was taking my first tab of acid and making my first attempt at ritual magic(k?), trying to contact Hermes as a comic book character like Grant Morrison said I could. The information bestowed (downloaded?) was a feeling of levels, of ascendance, of emanation along different stages. It's taken me ten years to realise that territory I saw from a far horizon has been mapped as kundalini and kabbalah, and I feel that it will take me many times that length of time to even come close to understanding what I was meant to.

you're awesome

I uhh... Thank you again.

Great video! Occasionally, you said stuff like "if you're a viewer of this channel, you probably already know that...", such as when you talk about prohibitions around studying Kabbalah too early. This channel is actually my first introduction to much of Western Esotericism (though I know a bit more about Kabbalah specifically, since I'm Jewish), and I suspect there are probably a lot of others like me, so you may want to avoid language like that since it might make people that are new to this information decide your channel is too advanced, even though you give a good rundown of that context right after stating that you think we already know it. All that aside, I really love your channel and all the great information about Esotericism you put out!

🤙 Aloha Dr Sledge

Cordovera did all the walking so he could teach us how to run. I dig it.

I checked this out over on Sefaria, likely due to your video, and it has definitely grown my understanding of kabbalah. Thank you very much Dr Sledge : )

The kabbalah reminds me of the tarot in a way. The letters are symbols that have different meanings not to mention sounds. And those letters make up words that have different meanings , And those words form sentences that have multiple meanings. So a death card can be the death of something or the beginning of something better , and then there are the numbers on the cards . These numbers have meanings that also give insight because they hold meanings . I know when the day comes that I can read these symbols in their many variations I will have better understanding of the structure behind the face of Maia. Until then I study and struggle to comprehend the tree above ground and below it , just like everyone else. The one thing I realized is in order to study the kabbalah and make sense of it you have to not only understand the Jewish mindset , but the way Jews thought in those days. Reading the classic rabbinical writings as well as Jewish literature . Many phrases in the English language Americans hear now and can't make sense of it. Phrases from the 40s make no sense to millennials. Americans only have one culture and that's Hollywood. Most forget their native culture in the states to fit in. By 3rd generation may have the language still , Spanish , Italian , etc but that's all. America has a bad habit of making Americans. I say that as someone who was born here and loves my country but yeah , Religious Jews , from the word religion ( linking back) . They have the schools that can teach the science , and it's very old and brings with it the centuries of it's peoples mystical writings. The Torah , Zohar, and the kabbalah . Even with a belly full of the Torah and being over 40 , it won't be easy to understand the kabbalah or qabbalah , if you don't have the mindset to think like a Jew from the days long before the industrial age .

“…spinning around…staying up…”

Id like the woute in full about sinner disrupting the flow of divine enrgy from the sephira

For me info. of the transcendent has been through the New Age/New Thought arena. I have had to eat the fish and spit out the bones. I call that place of attempted spiritual practice Hinduism Light. You have helped to bring together many loose ends that present a discernable picture. Gor that I thank you greatly.

Shabbatae tsvi’s house is an interesting place to visit.

I can't wait to tell my doctor to stop worrying about my inhuman coffee-drinking habit because it's absolutely necessary for my education

~~~ I might have to create what I have to know what I know about the PROCESS OF ILLUMINATION and put it in my ownprocess work...I love the support, thank you. ~~~

I'm Kuckoo for Kabbalah!

body of text shaped like a body, the ribcage and legs distinctly stick out to me . we are the reflection of divinity , this stuff has always been the most entertaining information

Interesting that that guy's epiteth was the Grimm because I just watched a video last week about how grim is actually a reference to Odin or woden and it implies connection between the Celts and Norse legend and Magi/druids

Dr.Sledge, Do have any familiarity with Olga Tokarczuk and her upcoming historical novel The Books of Jacob (ie Jacob Frank)? Just asking out of curiosity as I'm buddy-reading it with someone next month, to whom I recommended your Introduction to Kabbalah playlist as a primer.

Hello Dr, would you possibly consider looking into the oera linda book, your insights fascinate me and I'm curious about your take on this book?

~~~ The characters, places, pictures..thanks...I needed that to spark my EYE-- I am not always as illuminated as I am right now- but, I have akashic acess to the files, documents, SOULS-- I need the reminder- thank you...I have the key to the WAY... I now need a real student connection - I can show my cartography and tell my ideas to...send me anything you can..where or whom or how can I find a face to face guru to confirm my EYE's information~~~