Three very interesting shiurim or lectures today. Unfortunately I came late as the late lighting of the Channukka menora makes for a very tired little boy. So I let him sleep. Mean mummy tomorrow as I am going to get him up earlier so I can get to the beginning of Rabbi Shishler's lecture at 9.45am. Today I arrived half way through the shiur. (lesson or lecture). He was brilliant as usual.He explained four levels or dimensions in the world within the background of a fifth dimension. The four dimensions are Atzilus or a world with no sense of an individual entity, infinity leading to the next which is Beriah the level of machut or angelic level where there is a sense of self on a minor level of understanding, but it is very much more flexible than Yetzirah which is more grounded and has a sense of yesh, self existence that is fixed and it is the world of homer or substance that is created to form a certain thing that is fixed or unable to be changed or moved. The level of the Beriah is capable of shapeshifting and movement that has much more freedom than the world of Yetzirah. Asiyah is the inanimate part or domain of the spiritual world. If we were to fix those four dimensions into four elements that we understand they would be Asiyah = stone or rock, Yetzirah = vegetable e.g living things like vegetation etc and then Beriah = animals and Atzilus = the infinite mind then there is the fifth dimension which we will learn more about tomorrow.
The second one on Chassidus by Ita Broh was fast paced and excellent on the Rebbe's sicha on Channukka. A quick summary would be that she reviewed the different arguments for increasing light or decreasing lights as the days of Channukkah progress according to different rabbonim and schools of thought.
Shemen or oil has the power to increase kedusha through the burning and we moved on to a discussion on what is the intrinsic nature of Chomacha and of bina. Chomacha, I understood to be an intuitive spark or flash of inspirational wisdom that when developed through bina (understanding or conceptualising) leads to a greater striving for a connection and indeed stronger connection to holiness and G-dliness. She also touched on the trancendental powers of the souls and the nature of desires and wants and how holiness evolves over and above logic. The attack of the Greeks was on the spiritual connection that the Jewish nation has with Hashem and this is what is under attack even in today's world.
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