Хасидус к Эйха 3:6

Hence the Oral Torah is like night. As our Rabbis of blessed memory said (Sanhedrin 24), "He has set me in dark places," (Lam. 3:6) -- this is the Babylonian Talmud. And it is written: "and the darkness He called Night" (Gen. 1).

Thus was the order of the reception of the inner nature of the Torah. The word Kabbalah means reception, or more precisely, the reception of the penimiut – inner secret nature – of the words of Torah. This is the way it is said in the Tikkunei Zohar (Ch. 12, page 58a): When you go to it (Holekh) to receive it, it is called Halakha (the law). When you receive from it (Mekablah), it is called Kabbalah. This is to say, the inner point of Knesset Yisrael (the Divine presence which dwells with those who guard the Torah) follows this pattern. Before the light of God’s effluence is received, and exists only under the covering of garments, it is called Halakha, or the law. The law is the garments of the words of Torah. When you receive the inner light and understand the penimiyut, it is called Kabbalah. Kabbalah is more closely related to the written Torah (the Pentateuch, Prophets, and Writings) than the garments of the words of Torah (the Oral Torah). Kabbalah comes to explain how the Oral law is found within the Written Torah. This is why the Zohar introduces an explanation with the words, ta hazi – “Come and See!” whereas the Talmud introduces an explanation with the words, ta shma – “Come and Hear!”⁶⁹The author draws a distinction between the esoteric dimension of Torah (the Kabbalah), and the exoteric dimension (Halakha). The exoteric dimension serves as a covering and concealment over the inner dimension. In other words, under the surface of Judaism’s revealed aspects – the laws, the Talmud – lies a vast mystical dimension. The Zohar invites the reader into its discussion of mystical secrets with the words “Come and see,” because seeing represents a direct, non-intellectual grasp of the material. The Talmud, however (which is the root of Halakha), begins its arguments with “Come and hear.” This is because hearing is a more linear way of processing information (one word after another) and requires a degree of constructive thinking. Accordingly, the Written Torah is actually closer in nature to esoteric wisdom, since it is a product of a direct revelation of God to man, and not the result of deductive reasoning, as is the Oral Torah. All who stood in the line of the tranmission of the Torah aslo received its esoteric teachings (as is explained in the introduction to Brit Menuha, which traces the order of transmission of the secrets of Torah, that is, Divine Names, from Adam HaRishon to Shimon Bar Yohai. Even the Geonim⁷⁰The Torah Scholars and leaders from soon after the closing of the Talmudic period: 800 CE to 1000 CE. delved deeply into the secrets of God, according to their wisdom, as is written there). In this way, the order of reception reached the members of the Great Assembly.⁷¹The first of whom was Ezra (c. 500 BCE). The Great Assembly included the last of the Prophets – Haggai Zecharia Malakhi, and Daniel – and lasted until the time of Shimon HaTsaddik (300-270 BCE). See introduction to the Mishne Torah of Maimonides. They understood the knowledge of the mysteries hinted at in the names of God, and would teach their students the simple meaning together with the secret. Each one understood the mysteries of the Torah according to his level and ability. Yet when the spiritual level of the people fell, and they no longer gave honor to the Torah, when sin became widespread (as mentioned in Kiddushin 71a), the sages found it necessary to conceal the secrets of the Torah, as is mentioned there. We find it recorded in the Zohar (Lech L’cha, 86b) that Rabbi Abba once revealed one of the secrets of the Torah. Rabbi Shimon said to him: I decree that the one you revealed this secret to will be exiled together with this teaching among our fellowship in Babylon. Rabbi Shimon said to him, God forbid that they are to be punished! Yet since the mysteries are so greatly revealed among us, thus he should be exiled among our fellowship, and learn their ways, and the secrets shall be concealed among us. In this way, the mysteries will be revealed only among us, as God has agreed. This means that in Babylon, they knew how to hide the mysteries in garments, as the Zohar states (Vayehi, 224b): Rabbi Shimon said, “When I am among our fellowship in Babylon, they all gather around me, and learn these things openly. After the mysteries are revealed, they take them and lock them in an iron box, concealed from all sides.” This is the nature of the Babylonian Talmud. It is said in the Gemara (Sanhedrin, 24a), “It is written in the scroll of Eicha (3:6), ‘He has placed me in darkness like the eternally dead.’ This is the Babylonian Talmud.” For in Babylon, the Torah was hidden beneath garments. They seem on the outside like simple matters, simple garments, yet they are all in order to hide the mysteries of the Torah in garments of this world. Then the mysteries were transmitted only to the masters of sod (secret).