Kabbalah and the Hidden Architecture of You - Lesson 2 (Bonus): Pre-Class Discussion

Taught by Rabbi Eliyahu Schusterman — An informal pre-class conversation recorded before Lesson 2 at the Intown Jewish Academy (Chabad Intown, Atlanta) on November 3, 2026. Before diving into Lesson 2, Rabbi Eliyahu Schusterman picks up three questions from the group. First: do Jews believe in heaven and hell? Yes, but not the hell of pitchforks and red costumes. The soul descends on a mission to discover G-d hiding in plain sight, and its reward is a relationship it truly earned, "the difference between being a trust fund baby and working for your money." Gehinnom is not punishment for its own sake but a cleansing, like polishing a buried diamond, so the soul can take in Divine revelation without the filters it picked up in this world, much as the sage Rava fasted to forget his old way of learning before studying in the Land of Israel. Next, a clearer picture of what Kabbalah is: each of us sees the same room through our own lenses, while the Kabbalists, like the Arizal, who said that sharing what he experienced in a sixty-minute Shabbat nap would take eighty years, lived in a deeper dimension and taught what they actually experienced. Finally, a follow-up on last week's question about the soul's yearning and suicide: growth means letting go of parts of ourselves, not the whole, and, as the story of Nadav and Avihu shows, the soul's job is to stay in the body and live through it. The Intown Jewish Academy takes pride in offering innovative, inclusive, and impactful educational programs to all. People from a diverse spectrum of life find the Academy to be a warm and non-judgmental community in which to experience the richness and authenticity of Jewish learning and heritage. ~ Support our work! http://intownjewishacademy.org/donate ~ http://intownjewishacademy.org http://soundcloud.com/intownjewishacademy http://facebook.com/intownjewishacademy http://instagram.com/intownjewishacademy