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<font size=3>At 05:13 PM 1/9/2014, R. Ben Waxman wrote:<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Are you stating that according
to Rav Miller the GRA did NOT know kabbalah?<br><br>
Ben<br><br>
On 1/9/2014 9:16 PM, Prof. Levine wrote:<br>
><br>
><br>
> I once discussed with him R. Chaim Volozhin's
"proof" that the GRA <br>
> knew Kabbala well which he writes about in his introduction to the
<br>
> GRA's perush on Saffra D'tzeniusa. He waved this away also.<br>
</blockquote><br><br>
Absolutely not. It is well known that the GRA was an expert in
Kabbalah and R. Miller certainly knew this and agreed.<br><br>
His response was to Rav Chaim Volozhin's story that supposedly proved
that the GRA was an expert in Kabbalah. He felt he needed to relate
this, because Reb Chaim claimed that there were those (the
Chassidim) who claimed that the reason why the GRA was against them
was because he did not know kabbalah. <br><br>
I am referring to the story that Reb Chaim of Volozhin relates about the
man who came to Vilna and claimed he could tell people's deepest
secrets. He was brought to the GRA who asked him is he indeed had
this ability. The man said he did, and he would prove it if the GRA
allowed him to. The GRA told him he could, and the man related the
following. "On such and such a day you (the GRA) was sitting
here and on one site of you was Reb Shimon Bar Yochoi and on the other
side of you was the ARI and you were telling them over your chiddushim in
kabbala on Parshas Haazinu." Reb Chaim says that the GRA
turned white and mumbled, "But I sent the Shamash out that
night." He then said that the man did have this ability
but it came from extreme bitterness and insisted that the man leave
Vilna. <br><br>
Reb Chaim's proof regarding the GRA's expertise in Kabbalah is the fact
that he was teaching Kabbalah to Reb Shimon Bar Yochoi and the ARI.
<br><br>
(I have to admit that I have not seen this story in many years, so I may
have some of details wrong, but it is written in the introduction
to Saffra D'tzeniusa.)<br><br>
Now I know approximately when the GRA lived, when the ARI lived and
when R. Shimon Bar Yochoi lived. How the 3 of them could be sitting
in the same room at one time is beyond me.<br><br>
When I told this story to R. Miller, he waved it away. I
pressed him and said that the source was Reb Chaim Volozhin, but he
still waved it away. That is when I asked him way he dismissed all
such stories out of hand, no matter the source. His reply
was, "Our emunah is strained enough by what we are required to
believe, to add to this is not wise."<br><br>
YL</font></body>
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