“Departure”: As the first light of dawn kissed the earth, Avraham departed from his home carrying with him bittersweet farewells. His heart was torn by conflicting emotions: sorrow for leaving behind his family and the safety of his home, fear for the dangers he may encounter on his journey, and excitement for the adventure that lay ahead. His spirit was alight with the promise of untold knowledge, and as he reached the foot of the Pyrenees, the sun began to set on the city that Avraham once called home.
“The Beggar and the Tzimtzum”: Avraham strode along the path through the great mountains which stood between his home and his destination. The exertion of the hike kept him safe from the cold, but he knew he’d need a fire during the night. The sun was beginning to lower once more when Avraham heard a voice. “Shalom, stranger.” The young traveler saw a beggar on the side of the road, a ragged cloak pulled around his shoulders and a weathered beard around his cheeks. “Could you find the mercy to spare an old beggar some food? It has been many days since I’ve eaten.” “Of course. Why don’t you join me in camp tonight? We can share a meal. My name is Avraham Uziel.” “Thank you, Avraham. I am Raphael. I owe you many debts for your generosity”. Avraham and the beggar Raphael made camp on the side of the road, lighting a fire and sharing a small meal. Avraham told Raphael of his quest, and the old man admitted he was once a rabbi and had studied the Zohar for a time. Avraham was sparked with curiosity, and he asked the old rabbi to teach him something, anything about kabbalah, and his debt would be considered paid. Raphael began his lesson. “Tzimtzum. This word does not mean much to you now, but perhaps someday you will come to understand it. You look around at the world and you see many things separate from yourself. You see other people with their own separate spirits and lives. You look at the stars and marvel at things far beyond your reach. But what you don’t see are the tethers between them all. Tell me, Avraham, where is the ein sof? I will tell you. It is here.” The beggar put his hand to his own chest. “It is here.” He put his hand to his companion’s chest. “It is here. And here. And here. And here.” The old rabbi pointed to the stone on which he sat, to the trees by the road, to the moon overhead.” “What we all forget is that all of us, the beasts, the trees, the air we breathe, the food we eat, the warmth in the fire, we are all part of one whole. One unity. Your eyes do not look at your hand and consider themselves separate entities, but rather parts of one larger whole. All things in the universe are like your eyes and your hand. Connected, made of the same stuff, part of the same infinite, born from the same nothingness. We are all separate and the same. The ein sof flows through us all. You are the universe experiencing itself, as am I.” “I don’t understand, Raphael,” Avraham admitted. “That is alright, young Uziel. Think on what I’ve told you. When you most need understanding, you will find it.” Avraham slept, and when waking, still contemplated the old man’s words. The beggar would not speak anymore on the subject, and after breakfast, bid farewell to the young scholar, setting off down the road the opposite way Avraham was headed. As he continued his journey among the mountains, Avraham felt the weight of the universe’s secrets brush against his soul.
“Forest of the Shedim”: After a difficult hike, Avraham finally found himself on the other side the mountains. As he left from the foot of the range, he followed the road into a dense forest. Questing deeper and deeper into the foreboding wood, the young scholar found it growing darker and darker. He started to feel menace in the air, and the shadows seemed to twist and writhe. Unease rose in his throat.
Avraham came to a fork in the path. “This isn’t on my map…” he muttered to himself. He consulted the worn piece of parchment he carried, only confirming his fears. This fork was, in fact, not on his map. The road to the left was overgrown with roots and starkly shaded, while the one on the right was clear and better lit by gaps in the canopy. He took the latter.
After what felt like an hour of walking, Avraham realized that the tree cover had thickened and the road had become treacherous with roots and rocks. Fear swelled in his chest once more, but he continued forward. His heart dropped when he came to another fork in the road, one suspiciously similar to the one he’d first seen.
“I must’ve gone in a circle. How did I not notice the side path before?”
This time, he took the darkened path.
Once more he came to the crossroads. Avraham heard whispered laughs behind and around him among the trees. A rasping, deep voice pierced his consciousness:
“You’re lost, little one…”
Avraham felt as if the air itself had frozen into ice. He shivered in the cold despite the sweat beading on his brow. If neither of the paths would lead where he needed to go, then he’d make his own. He darted into the treeline away from the direction he’d heard the voice. The shadows pressed in around him as he sprinted through the brush. It almost seemed like the trees themselves shifted and moved, a malevolent force ensuring he couldn’t find a straight direction to run. The whispered laughs grew ever louder, but their cackles were drowned out by his heart pounding in rhythm with his frantic strides.
Avraham tripped over a jagged root and landed face-first into mud.
“You’ve left behind your parents, your siblings, your friends…”
He struggled to crawl onto his back.
“You’ve entered unknown lands, abandoned your responsibilities at home… for what?”
He covered his ears, trying to block out the whispers. It only grew louder. He saw two glowing yellow eyes peering at him from behind a tree. A gaunt skeletal form of black shadow stood staring at him, the talons of its bird-like feet digging into the mud as it wrapped its long, clawed fingers around the trunk.
“You shouldn’t be here… you’re too weak… go back to where you came from, little man…”
“Silence, demon!” he shouted, his voice echoing through the wood.
An unnatural nightfall fell, and Avraham was smothered by an oppressive darkness.
A voice came like the sound of rushing water. It carried with it both the power and serenity of a river. Avraham did not shudder at this voice. It was not like the one which tormented him.
“I have come to give a guiding word.”
“Please help me!” Avraham begged. “I don’t know how to leave this cursed place, I should never have come here!”
“Fear not, Avraham, for the way out of this wood is clear, if thou would but follow it.” “I cannot see! How am I supposed to find a path? Please, show me, I beg you!”
He crawled to his knees, shouting towards the sky which he hoped was still there beyond this unnatural darkness.
“Thou need not see to carry thyself from this place. Here is my guiding word: tzimtzum.”
“How is that meant to help me here? Are you the demon in guise, torturing me again?”
He stood now, looking about him, terrified he might see the glowing yellow eyes once more.
“Close thy eyes and forget thou had sight, it will not serve thee here. Focus, and feel for the ein sof within and around thee. Remember what thou hast been told. Fear not. Let the trees be thy eyes, the road be thy map. Trust thy feet and thou shalt not find harm in this forest.”
Avraham, icy dread tearing at his stomach, took one step forward. He squeezed his eyes tightly, trying to bring his rapid breaths under control. His hands trembled as he tried to focus on what he felt around him. Another step. Thoughts collided and jumbled in his anxiety-wracked mind, but again he took a deep breath, and stepped forward. He continued like this. Breath. Step. Breath. Step. The cold sweat on his brow dried, and his thoughts came into focus. Breath. Step. Breath. Step. Despite his inability to see, Avraham found his footsteps free of roots and rocks which might trip him.
He continued on like this, he knew not how long, until suddenly he stepped and felt not dirt, but grass beneath his foot. He felt warm radiance on his face, and as he peeled his eyes open, they were stung by the rays of a bright sun. The scholar stood now in a field of tall grass, a sea of green which undulated like waves in the ocean. The forest of the shedim was behind him.
“The Revelation”: The road to Avraham’s destination was long, but walking it felt easy after the ordeal of the forest. When he first saw the stone synagogue where his new teacher lived, he nearly cried out in joy. He knocked on the brilliant wooden door, and it opened. “My name is Avraham Uziel. I have come very far to study the ways of kabbalah under Rabbi Eliyahu ben Emet. Is he here?” The door opened further, letting the sunlight into the temple, and Avraham saw who had answered. The face of the beggar Raphael peered back at him with a satisfied smile. The old man was now wearing fine, clean clothes, and his beard was well washed and trimmed. “You made it! I was wondering how long it would take you.” Avraham was stunned. “R-Raphael? What are you doing here?”
“You’ve come here to study from me, according to you. Raphael was just a name I gave you on the road. I am the Rabbi Eliyahu you ask for. You should be glad I ran into you those weeks ago - I gave you your first lesson in kabbalah early. Come, let’s have a talk.” The Rabbi brought the young scholar into the synagogue, and sat him at a table with a cup of tea. They had a long talk in which Avraham told the story of what he’d gone through to come to this place. “And what did you learn?” the Rabbi asked. “Not to be so easily tricked by demons?”
“Well, that is certainly true, but that’s not what I mean. Who led you out of the forest of the shedim?” “An ishim guided me.” “Perhaps, but did they show you a path? Force your feet to walk? Tell you what direction?” “No, as I told you, I closed my eyes and let the ein sof guide me.” As the words left Avraham’s mouth, he understood the lesson. He said, “I led myself out of the forest.” “Good!” the Rabbi exclaimed. “You will make a viable student yet! You see now that kabbalah is not just about external knowledge, wisdom of books and phrases. It is just as much about your own internal enlightenment. One cannot occur without the other….” The two talked for many hours more about anything and everything they found interesting. That night, Avraham slept in a proper bed for the first time in weeks. The much needed rest brought him a peace he had forgotten since leaving home. In the morning, he continued his journey to kabbalistic enlightenment, knowing that a month prior, he’d already taken his first step.
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“Departure”:
As the first light of dawn kissed the earth, Avraham departed from his home carrying with him bittersweet farewells. His heart was torn by conflicting emotions: sorrow for leaving behind his family and the safety of his home, fear for the dangers he may encounter on his journey, and excitement for the adventure that lay ahead. His spirit was alight with the promise of untold knowledge, and as he reached the foot of the Pyrenees, the sun began to set on the city that Avraham once called home.
“The Beggar and the Tzimtzum”:
Avraham strode along the path through the great mountains which stood between his home and his destination. The exertion of the hike kept him safe from the cold, but he knew he’d need a fire during the night. The sun was beginning to lower once more when Avraham heard a voice.
“Shalom, stranger.”
The young traveler saw a beggar on the side of the road, a ragged cloak pulled around his shoulders and a weathered beard around his cheeks.
“Could you find the mercy to spare an old beggar some food? It has been many days since I’ve eaten.”
“Of course. Why don’t you join me in camp tonight? We can share a meal. My name is Avraham Uziel.”
“Thank you, Avraham. I am Raphael. I owe you many debts for your generosity”.
Avraham and the beggar Raphael made camp on the side of the road, lighting a fire and sharing a small meal. Avraham told Raphael of his quest, and the old man admitted he was once a rabbi and had studied the Zohar for a time. Avraham was sparked with curiosity, and he asked the old rabbi to teach him something, anything about kabbalah, and his debt would be considered paid. Raphael began his lesson.
“Tzimtzum. This word does not mean much to you now, but perhaps someday you will come to understand it. You look around at the world and you see many things separate from yourself. You see other people with their own separate spirits and lives. You look at the stars and marvel at things far beyond your reach. But what you don’t see are the tethers between them all. Tell me, Avraham, where is the ein sof? I will tell you. It is here.”
The beggar put his hand to his own chest.
“It is here.”
He put his hand to his companion’s chest.
“It is here. And here. And here. And here.”
The old rabbi pointed to the stone on which he sat, to the trees by the road, to the moon overhead.”
“What we all forget is that all of us, the beasts, the trees, the air we breathe, the food we eat, the warmth in the fire, we are all part of one whole. One unity. Your eyes do not look at your hand and consider themselves separate entities, but rather parts of one larger whole. All things in the universe are like your eyes and your hand. Connected, made of the same stuff, part of the same infinite, born from the same nothingness. We are all separate and the same. The ein sof flows through us all. You are the universe experiencing itself, as am I.”
“I don’t understand, Raphael,” Avraham admitted.
“That is alright, young Uziel. Think on what I’ve told you. When you most need understanding, you will find it.”
Avraham slept, and when waking, still contemplated the old man’s words. The beggar would not speak anymore on the subject, and after breakfast, bid farewell to the young scholar, setting off down the road the opposite way Avraham was headed. As he continued his journey among the mountains, Avraham felt the weight of the universe’s secrets brush against his soul.
“Forest of the Shedim”:
After a difficult hike, Avraham finally found himself on the other side the mountains. As he left from the foot of the range, he followed the road into a dense forest. Questing deeper and deeper into the foreboding wood, the young scholar found it growing darker and darker. He started to feel menace in the air, and the shadows seemed to twist and writhe. Unease rose in his throat.
Avraham came to a fork in the path. “This isn’t on my map…” he muttered to himself. He consulted the worn piece of parchment he carried, only confirming his fears. This fork was, in fact, not on his map. The road to the left was overgrown with roots and starkly shaded, while the one on the right was clear and better lit by gaps in the canopy. He took the latter.
After what felt like an hour of walking, Avraham realized that the tree cover had thickened and the road had become treacherous with roots and rocks. Fear swelled in his chest once more, but he continued forward. His heart dropped when he came to another fork in the road, one suspiciously similar to the one he’d first seen.
“I must’ve gone in a circle. How did I not notice the side path before?”
This time, he took the darkened path.
Once more he came to the crossroads. Avraham heard whispered laughs behind and around him among the trees. A rasping, deep voice pierced his consciousness:
“You’re lost, little one…”
Avraham felt as if the air itself had frozen into ice. He shivered in the cold despite the sweat beading on his brow. If neither of the paths would lead where he needed to go, then he’d make his own. He darted into the treeline away from the direction he’d heard the voice. The shadows pressed in around him as he sprinted through the brush. It almost seemed like the trees themselves shifted and moved, a malevolent force ensuring he couldn’t find a straight direction to run. The whispered laughs grew ever louder, but their cackles were drowned out by his heart pounding in rhythm with his frantic strides.
Avraham tripped over a jagged root and landed face-first into mud.
“You’ve left behind your parents, your siblings, your friends…”
He struggled to crawl onto his back.
“You’ve entered unknown lands, abandoned your responsibilities at home… for what?”
He covered his ears, trying to block out the whispers. It only grew louder. He saw two glowing yellow eyes peering at him from behind a tree. A gaunt skeletal form of black shadow stood staring at him, the talons of its bird-like feet digging into the mud as it wrapped its long, clawed fingers around the trunk.
“You shouldn’t be here… you’re too weak… go back to where you came from, little man…”
“Silence, demon!” he shouted, his voice echoing through the wood.
An unnatural nightfall fell, and Avraham was smothered by an oppressive darkness.
“Ishim”:
“Fear not.”
A voice came like the sound of rushing water. It carried with it both the power and serenity of a river. Avraham did not shudder at this voice. It was not like the one which tormented him.
“I have come to give a guiding word.”
“Please help me!” Avraham begged. “I don’t know how to leave this cursed place, I should never have come here!”
“Fear not, Avraham, for the way out of this wood is clear, if thou would but follow it.”
“I cannot see! How am I supposed to find a path? Please, show me, I beg you!”
He crawled to his knees, shouting towards the sky which he hoped was still there beyond this unnatural darkness.
“Thou need not see to carry thyself from this place. Here is my guiding word: tzimtzum.”
“How is that meant to help me here? Are you the demon in guise, torturing me again?”
He stood now, looking about him, terrified he might see the glowing yellow eyes once more.
“Close thy eyes and forget thou had sight, it will not serve thee here. Focus, and feel for the ein sof within and around thee. Remember what thou hast been told. Fear not. Let the trees be thy eyes, the road be thy map. Trust thy feet and thou shalt not find harm in this forest.”
Avraham, icy dread tearing at his stomach, took one step forward. He squeezed his eyes tightly, trying to bring his rapid breaths under control. His hands trembled as he tried to focus on what he felt around him. Another step. Thoughts collided and jumbled in his anxiety-wracked mind, but again he took a deep breath, and stepped forward. He continued like this. Breath. Step. Breath. Step. The cold sweat on his brow dried, and his thoughts came into focus. Breath. Step. Breath. Step. Despite his inability to see, Avraham found his footsteps free of roots and rocks which might trip him.
He continued on like this, he knew not how long, until suddenly he stepped and felt not dirt, but grass beneath his foot. He felt warm radiance on his face, and as he peeled his eyes open, they were stung by the rays of a bright sun. The scholar stood now in a field of tall grass, a sea of green which undulated like waves in the ocean. The forest of the shedim was behind him.
Avraham fell to his knees and smiled.
“The Revelation”:
The road to Avraham’s destination was long, but walking it felt easy after the ordeal of the forest. When he first saw the stone synagogue where his new teacher lived, he nearly cried out in joy. He knocked on the brilliant wooden door, and it opened.
“My name is Avraham Uziel. I have come very far to study the ways of kabbalah under Rabbi Eliyahu ben Emet. Is he here?”
The door opened further, letting the sunlight into the temple, and Avraham saw who had answered. The face of the beggar Raphael peered back at him with a satisfied smile. The old man was now wearing fine, clean clothes, and his beard was well washed and trimmed.
“You made it! I was wondering how long it would take you.”
Avraham was stunned. “R-Raphael? What are you doing here?”
“You’ve come here to study from me, according to you. Raphael was just a name I gave you on the road. I am the Rabbi Eliyahu you ask for. You should be glad I ran into you those weeks ago - I gave you your first lesson in kabbalah early. Come, let’s have a talk.”
The Rabbi brought the young scholar into the synagogue, and sat him at a table with a cup of tea. They had a long talk in which Avraham told the story of what he’d gone through to come to this place.
“And what did you learn?” the Rabbi asked.
“Not to be so easily tricked by demons?”
“Well, that is certainly true, but that’s not what I mean. Who led you out of the forest of the shedim?”
“An ishim guided me.”
“Perhaps, but did they show you a path? Force your feet to walk? Tell you what direction?”
“No, as I told you, I closed my eyes and let the ein sof guide me.” As the words left Avraham’s mouth, he understood the lesson.
He said, “I led myself out of the forest.”
“Good!” the Rabbi exclaimed. “You will make a viable student yet! You see now that kabbalah is not just about external knowledge, wisdom of books and phrases. It is just as much about your own internal enlightenment. One cannot occur without the other….”
The two talked for many hours more about anything and everything they found interesting. That night, Avraham slept in a proper bed for the first time in weeks. The much needed rest brought him a peace he had forgotten since leaving home. In the morning, he continued his journey to kabbalistic enlightenment, knowing that a month prior, he’d already taken his first step.
Incrível, li toda essa história escutando essa musica tranquila e imaginando essa aventura 🙏🥹👏
love it
Sublime
@@Heromhqd thank you!