Torah Lecture Series: 1 of 54BERESHIT – KABBALAH IN HIS PROLOG. RABBI SHIMON BAR YOCHAI ITS AUTHOR ASKS… “WHO MADE THESE?”
In a nearly hour-long live teaching, the Israeli artist and vocal pedagogue turns the first word of Genesis into a lesson on blessing, fear of Heaven and the weight of a promise.
Bereshit is the first word of the Torah, and Miriam Jaskierowicz Arman wants her listeners to stay with it. In a 57-minute live session titled “Bereshit – The Creation … The Kabbalah of the Torah,” the Israeli artist, writer and vocal pedagogue asked a question she repeated throughout: “who created these?”
She describes the session as the third cycle of live teachings she has held on Facebook, and says this one is different. Many people, she explains, had asked her to teach the Zohar, given that she has written about the Kabbalah of the voice and the secret codes of the voice in the Zohar. She says she prepared the same material in Italian and is now presenting it in English.
She was clear about what she would not do. “I do not believe in anything but the absolute truth,” she says, adding that commentary other than that of the sages does not interest her. Instead she draws out “a precept or a thought process” that listeners can understand and be comfortable with, working from the Zohar text itself.
A question for the theories
Arman opens by acknowledging science and its theories about origins, including the Big Bang and what she calls tremendous research spanning millions of years. Then, she says, she looks up at the sky, the sun, the moon and the stars, and asks who made them. She extends the question to light and dark, water and dry land, animal and vegetable, fire and earth. Whoever created these, she tells viewers, also created “you” and “me.”
“Everything comes out of thought.”Miriam Jaskierowicz Arman, from the live session
From there she turns to the Jewish tradition that the Torah preceded creation by 2,000 years, and that before creating, Hashem consulted it. The angels, she says, asked why man would be created when he was certain to sin. The answer she gives is that repentance, teshuvah, was already built in, so that when people fall they have a way to turn around and come back.
Why the Torah begins with Bet
A central section follows the Zohar’s account of the 22 Hebrew letters, each of which arrives before Hashem to argue it should open the Torah. Arman reads the passage on the letter Bet, which asks to be first because it stands for berakhah, blessing, which the worlds above and below offer to God. The request is granted.
The letter Alef, first in the alphabet, holds back, having seen the others leave without success. She is told that although creation begins with Bet, Alef will remain the first of letters, because divine unity is expressed through it. Arman notes that Genesis begins with two words that each open with Bet, which the Zohar reads as the higher and lower worlds operating together.
Illustration: the Zohar’s exchange between the letters Bet and Alef, as Arman presents it.
Seven days, and a choice
Arman walks through the days of creation and stops at the sixth. Man, she says, was created on the same day as the animals, and when he is not guided by the Torah’s laws he behaves like one. Yet, she adds, animals “would never conceive of the horror that man can conceive,” because only man has free choice. In the Garden of Eden everything was permitted except one thing, and she asks listeners to think about how much that single restriction left them. She then turns to the seventh day, Shabbat, as a gift from the One who, in her words, “owns the world.”
The seven days of creation as outlined in the teaching. Arman places Shabbat, the seventh, at the center of her personal story.
Rabbi Shimon and the three kinds of fear
Arman then reads the Zohar’s teaching, attributed to Rabbi Shimon, that all the precepts of the Torah are contained in summary in the first chapter of Genesis. The first precept is fear of the Lord. She describes the passage as distinguishing three kinds of fear, only one of which is genuine.
Three types of fear, as read from the Zohar in the session.
A promise she says she keeps
The most personal passage concerns Shabbat. Arman says it took her a long time to observe it fully, and that she knows she needs strong discipline to do anything. When a close friend died while she lived in Safed, a group of friends agreed to recite Psalms daily in her memory. Arman took on three chapters and made a vow of her own. She says her word has always been her bond, a lesson from her father, and that she has kept the commitment through days of serious illness.
“Hashem gives you the power when you’re doing His work.”Miriam Jaskierowicz Arman
She closes by tying these threads to the present. Man, she says, has damaged the world just as in the generations after Adam, and she describes her own generation as the generation of Mashiach. Her call is to take on the one precept of fear of Heaven and to thank Hashem every day, not only at the High Holy Days. She ends, as she says she always does, wishing viewers health, joy, happiness, knowledge, wisdom and “eyes to see who created these.”
Full text of the video (English), word for word
Includes the original timestamps. Spoken-word captions, unedited.
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and here we are for me it's really the third time uh that I'm doing a cycle live on Facebook but this cycle the third cycle is going to be a little bit different Maybe a lot different than the rest that I've done in the past because there's so many people who've asked me and who have written to me and who have uh wanted me to I can't see anything I have to have to put this away uh that have asked me to please please please do uh do ABA after all you write a book about the
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cabala of the voice and you write a book about the secret codes of the voice in the Zohar so why don't you do something here so I thought about it and since I teach in a certain way way and I do not uh believe in anything but the absolute truth so whatever constitutes commentary other than the sages of course but commentary on Zohar on for that matter is not my not what interests me so what I've done is I did this in Italian and I'm doing the same thing in English I'm pulling out of
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cabala a precept or a thought process that is going to be understandable to all of us that you don't have to feel yourself um completely out of it but something that we can talk about and something that you can understand and be comfortable with just like we've done with chra soit is the beginning the beginning of all so how can I say the beginning of all when science talks about Big B [Music] theories tremendous amount of research millions of years and I look at things and of course I hear what they
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say and I read what they say and then I turn around and I look at the sky and I look at the Sun and I look at the Moon and I look at the stars and I say who created this you can have a million theories and you can sell them to the world but I'd like to find one person you can answer my question who created these and if you don't have an answer to who created these then give me an answer to who created light and dark who created water and dry land who created Animal and vegetable and who
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created fire and who created water and Earth and who created you don't want to admit or say and be thought of as totally being lost because you're thinking in such an old f fashion way you don't understand anything about science you understand nothing about anything that's okay because who created these also created you and also created me and also create anything and everything that you can look at watch touch feel and imagine that everything comes out of thought so before before Hashem
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created he went to look at Tyra because tah preceeds the creation by 2,000 years and he takes counsel with Torah takes counsel with the angels and the angel angs cannot understand why are you creating man you know he's going to sin and you know he's going to throw away and Destroy Hashem says I've already thought about that and I put cha return already I put it there so when they sin they have a builtin claws of turning around and coming back Zohar of course brings things up in a very
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interesting way and there are many many many interpretations of why tah begins with the letter bit now the Hebrew alphabet begins with alif and ends with t and there are two there are 22 letters and Zohar speaks about every single letter [Music] arriving in front of Hashem and giving Hashem incredible reasons why he should begin the Torah with them and hasem listens and to each letter he gives an answer volume one page 2 a and volume 1 page 3 so all of these letters arrive and all of these letters are told whatever
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reason that Hashem is not going to start t with them until the letter bet comes and speaks directly from the Zar the B then entered and said oh lord of the world may it please thee to put me first in the creation of the world since I represent benediction BR offered to thee on high and below the world above and the world below offer benedictions to God the Holy One Blessed Be he said to her assuredly with thee I will create the world and thou shalt from the beginning be in the creation of the world the letter Alf first letter of the
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alphabet remained in her place without presenting herself said the Holy One blessed be his name Al alive wherefore comes thou not before me like the rest of the letters she answered because I saw all the other letters leaving thy presence without any success what then could I achieve there and further since thou Hast already bestowed on the letter bet this great gift it is not meet for me to come before The Supreme King to take away the gift which he has made to his servant and give it to another the Lord said to
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her alive alive although I will begin the creation of the world with the bed thou Wilt Remain the first of letters my Unity shall not be expressed except through thee on these shall be based all calculations and operations of the world and unity shall not be expressed save by the letter alif then the Holy One blessed be his name made higher World letters of a larger pattern and lower World letters of a smaller pattern it is therefore that we have here two words beginning with b this is the way tah
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starts both words with the letter B in the beginning God created he created and then the two words beginning with Al Elohim the name of God one of the 72 names of God it God created with they represent the higher World letters and the lower World letters which to operate above and below together and is one Elohim it God created that who created that Hashem Elohim God created that you know there are many interesting conversations about where does all this come from who wrote this who can 5,7 81 years
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ago give create a world the world that you and I live in how can somebody write laws and rules and regulations and thought thoughts and Commandments and by them the Jewish people live the world lives the moral laws of the noahide laws are tah the morality of the world is based upon Tyra who created these you know you go through the first day light and darkness the second day separations of the water the Third Day land and vegetation the fourth day sun moon and stars the fifth day small creatures fish
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and birds the sixth day animal and man seventh day God rests from work man on the same day as animal when man is not Guided by the laws and the commands of Teran he behaves and acts like an animal but animals would never ever ever do not to each other what man does animals would never conceive of the horror that man can conceive because animals don't have free choice but man does so when God created man Garden of Eden you have it all everything is yours the only thing that you can't do you can't
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eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge isn't that amazing I mean when you think about just think about it and take away everything just take the thought and think about it you have have absolutely everything there is only one single solitary thing that you're not allowed to do and this is of course what Adam was told by Hashem then Hashem thinks that man should not be alone and so he takes the rib and he forms Eve and Eve is seduced by the snake and Eve seduces Adam the fruit is eaten by
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both man loses his place in the Garden of Eden woman is damned with childbirth with menstration with pain with domination out you just lost perfection you just lost a world and look at our lives how many times in your life instead of going for the right when you know it's right you let yourself be seduced by the left instead of doing the right thing you choose the wrong thing instead of keeping Shabbat instead of from the first day from the moment of creation on the seventh day of creation toyra tells
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you the skies the Earth and all their numerous components were completed on the seventh day God completed his work that he had made on the seventh day he rested from all all the work that he had done God blessed the seventh day and he Sanctified it because on that day God rested from all his work that he had created for the remaining work which was left to be done he finished on Friday and on shabbath he rested so if God rested and God God stopped Sanctified the day gave it to you as his gift reality his gift
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to you with all of the rules and the regulations you can come to me and you can tell me this doesn't fit and that doesn't fit and the next thing is wrong and this doesn't work and I need and this I and I will tell you who created these and every single thing that you have and every single thing that you own and every single thing that you can imagine ever of owning having [Applause] being has nothing to do with you you think it belongs to you you think you created it and I ask you who
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created these because he who created these he who gave you the gift of Shabbat because he rested on Shabbat he is the one who owns the world and we see we don't talk about it but we see if we just open our eyes a tiny little bit and today we don't have to even open our eyes because everywhere you look and everything you hear and everything you see is all influenced by hashem's Will and every single movement in the universe created by Him destroyed by him taken back by him granted by
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him all of it is his Rish Shimon was in a cave for 13 years together with his son and when he came out after 13 years the second time because the first time God put him back and said your attitude isn't right you come out and you're throwing fire with your eyes go back another year and learn so after the second time that he came out his father-in-law sees him and he sees that his body is covered with sores and he says wo unto me bit Section 1 page 11b woe unto me that I see thee thus he
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replied happy is my portion that thou seest me thus for otherwise I would not be what I am abish Shimon then opened his discourse on the precepts of the Torah page 11 he says the precepts of the Torah which the Holy One has given to Israel are all laid down in the first chapter of Genesis in summary in the beginning God created this contains the first precept of all to it the fear of the Lord as it is written the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom as well as the fear of the Lord is the beginning of
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knowledge it is the beginning and the Gateway of faith and on this precept the whole world is established there are three types of fear two have no proper root while the third is the real fear there is a man who fears the Holy One Blessed Be he in order that his children may live and not die or lest he be punished in his body or his possessions and so he's in constant fear evidently this is not the genuine fear of God another man fears the Holy One Blessed Be he because he's afraid of punishment in the other
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world and the tortures of gim purgatory this is the second type which is not genuine fear the genuine type is that which makes man fear his master because he is the mighty ruler The Rock and the foundation of all worlds before whom all existing things things are not as it has been said and all the inhabitants of the Earth are not and place his goal in that spot which has been called Ira fear rabish Shimon here wept and said woe to me if I tell and woe to me if I don't tell if I tell then the wicked will know
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how to worship their master and if I do not tell then the companions will be left in ignorance of this discovery corresponding to the holy fear there is an evil fear below that scours and accuses and which is a lash for punishing the wicked now he whose fear is of punishment and accusation is not endowed with that fear of God which leads to life the fear which rests upon him is that evil fear of the Lash but not the fear of the Lord for this reason the spot which is called the fear of the Lord is also
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called the beginning of knowledge hence this precept is laid down here as it is the principle and root of all other precepts of the Torah he who cherishes fear observes the whole Torah and he who does not cherish fear does not observe the other precepts of Torah since it is the Gate of all therefore it is written hence this precept is laid down here as is the principle and the root of all other precepts of the Torah he who follows this precept observes the entire Torah through a beginning that is
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fear God created heaven and Earth for he who transgresses this transgresses all precepts of Torah and his punishment is to be scourged by evil lash this is implied in the words and the Earth was chaos and confusion to VU and darkness was upon the face of the Abyss this is an illusion to Four kinds of punishments which is needed out to the wicked toou chaos alludes to strangulation as is written a line of toou meaning a measuring cord V confusion alludes to stoning stones of Confusion by the Stones which are sunk in the great Abyss
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for the punishment of the wicked darkness is burning as it is written and it came to pass when you heard the voice out of the midst of Darkness while the mountain did burn with fire and the mountain burned with fire Into the Heart of heaven and darkness this is the fire that rests on the heads of the wicked to consume them the wind alludes to beheading by the sword which whirls around the wicked like a tempest as it is said and the Flaming sword which is turned every way these punishments are are Meed out to those
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who transgress the precepts of the Torah and The Words which allude to them follow immediately after the word beginning which symbolizes the fear of God which is summary of all precepts then for the follow the other precepts I'm going to share something very private with you it's 20 years that I did cha actually started years before but it took a long time for me to finally completely observe Shabbat that was my biggest most difficult thing for me to follow for the stupidest reasons ever
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but at that time they didn't seem stupid I know me and I know that in order for me to do something I need to have very very very strong and powerful discipline uh when I lived inat safed a very very very close friend of mine passed away and the friends got together and they decided that they would say a book of TM all 150 of them every single day and everybody took a number of tahim and basically we said we would do them and we will do this in her honor we will do this for the elevation of her
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soul we didn't say how long at least I didn't hear that and I took on three chapters now three chapters of TM is no big deal but it is a big deal it is a big deal when you don't do it it is a big deal when you give your word and you don't fulfill it it is a big [Applause] deal when you put yourself to something and you don't fulfill expectations not your expectations but hashem's expectations because when you give your word in reality you're giving it to a sh I take this very very very seriously
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I always have my word has always been my bond and I learned this from my father sham who was that way and this was one of the great great great gifts that he gave to me and very much so his teachings have been very very very important in my life so if you compare the importance of my father's teaching on this earth and the teachings of Hashem there is yet is some difference no so I decided I decided that I needed to give myself and to give my word a great power and if the fear of Heaven has to be in every single thing
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that you do so I said to myself speaking to my conscience to the beginning to the [Music] beginning of knowledge to the beginning of wisdom to the beginning of fear I said hasem I am going to take on these to Hillen for my friend kesser and I'm going to do them every single day and if I don't do them if I don't do them then you can take my life I think about this I think about this and there have been days when I was beyond ill and when I couldn't open my eyes and when I couldn't
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move my body but I did not not say might to Hashem gives you the power when you're doing his work he gives you the power to do his will is his will is the beginning is the precept the rabi Shimon says is the opening door to all I pray that I will never ever not say my T my friend that in my humble humble completely humble opinion is because I can't I can't do anything me I'm speaking for me I'm not speaking for anybody else I'm speaking for me I cannot do anything without thinking in my head
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that Hashem is watching me and anything and everything that I do is being written in the book of remembrance and I am afraid I am afraid of not doing it right and I am afraid of disappointing him like I was afraid of disappointing my father and I'm talking about my father because who gives me and who gave me life and who created these isn't it all the same because from Garden of Eden we go to kind and able we go to murder we go to 10 generation after the creation of man to Noah and in 10
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Generations man destroyed everything and every good that God wanted to give him just exactly the way we are destroying his world now every evil that can possibly hit the world is being perpetrated by men is has been will be every single thing that is written is being brought to the face of this universe and we are the generation of miach of the Messiah and we are living it not only are we living it but we are creating it there are places in the Torah where Hashem says I will move my face away I will not look at them and they
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will think that I don't see but I see and in everything that they do and in everything that this precept that is laid down here and is the root of all other precepts of Tyra is totally being forgotten put under the carpet thought is unimportant but it's not and deep down inside yourself you know precisely what I'm talking about and if you know what I'm talking about and you desire to take this precept this one precept and take it on I'll have a condominium in the world to come that's the only
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way to live an existence that is God fearing we're starting a new year where in the second Monthan of the new year we've just cleaned our slate of all the past stuff it's our time to take on it's the time to go to Hashem every single day every day every day don't wait for El and don't wait for the king is in the field every day I thank you hem for waking me up in the morning forgiving me my soul back for giving me another day of life another day of goodness another day of
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being your servant and another day of living in your beautiful world eloh beta eyes in the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth and in the beginning Hashem created bet benediction love fr ship Humanity so this is our first sort of introduction into the precepts into a precept into a commentary of rabish of course I'm working with Theo Z the work is text perfect and there are no commentaries except the things we talk about everything is completely and totally either or I would love to hear from
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you and at the beginning as I did in the end and as I do every time we see each other I wish you health and joy and happiness and knowledge and wisdom and eyes to see who created these shalom
Miriam Jaskierowicz Arman
Artist · author · poet · lecturer · vocal pedagogue
Miriam Jaskierowicz Arman is an Israeli artist, author, poet, lecturer, and internationally known vocal pedagogue whose work connects voice, visual art, memory, Holocaust remembrance, and peacebuilding. Born in postwar Germany to parents who survived the Holocaust, she has built a career spanning vocal technique, three-dimensional glass art, education, and public advocacy.
Her family later immigrated to the United States in 1962. She has lived and taught in numerous countries, including Israel, Italy, the United States, Switzerland, Hungary, Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, and Mexico.
She is best known for developing the Giro Vocal Motion Technique and is the author of The Voice: A Spiritual Approach to Singing, Speaking and Communicating (first published 1999). As a visual artist she works in three-dimensional glass fusion, mixed media, and pastel. From 2020 to 2025 she organized Italy’s National Poetry Competition for the Shoah and Peace, “Remember and Never Forget.” She has served as a peace ambassador for the Universal Peace Federation in Italy and, since July 2024, as honorary president of the Italian Jewish Cultural Institute (ICEI). In 2026 she helped launch the first official Israeli program of the International Association for Arts and Culture for Peace (IAACP).
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