מפקין ליה מכל תרעיןPut Out of Every Gate

mapkin leih mi-kol tar'inIn Gamatria ↗

Good deeds bring you in; knowledge opens the inner gates.

Shaltiel grants that the kabbalists have been defended, but asks who needs this. Scripture, Mishnah, Talmud and the codes are enough to do God's will, and he suspects there is more reward in staying away from Kabbalah than in seeking it. Yehoyada agrees that not everyone must know the Torah's secrets. Scholars must. In Midrash Shocher Tov, God asks the one who learned Talmud whether he also gazed at the Chariot. The Zohar lists what a person must know: his Master, his body, his soul, this world and the worlds above. Whoever leaves without that knowledge, even with many good deeds, is put out of every gate there. Shaltiel protests that deeds are the goal. Yehoyada clarifies: he still reaches the World to Come, only not its highest levels. And deeds are made whole only through this wisdom.

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