Shaar Hashamayim Yeshiva (, lit., "Gate of Heaven") is an Ashkenazi yeshiva in Jerusalem dedicated to the study of the kabbalistic teachings of the Arizal (Rabbi Isaac Luria). It is famous for its student body of advanced kabbalists — many of them roshei yeshiva and Torah scholars — as well as beginning and intermediate scholars who study both the revealed and concealed Torah.
Name
The name of the yeshiva was taken from the Torah passage in which Jacob dreams of a ladder stretching from earth to heaven. After he awakens from his dream, Jacob exclaims, "This is none other than the House of God, and this is the Gate of Heaven (Shaar Hashamayim)!" (Genesis 28:19).
Origins
The impetus to found Shaar Hashamayim Yeshiva came from a dream experienced by two noteworthy Jerusalem rabbis on the same night in 1906. Rabbi Chaim Yehuda Leib Auerbach, author of Chacham Lev, awoke one night from a strange dream and went back to sleep, only to be awakened again after the dream repeated itself. He got dressed and set out for the home of Rabbi Shimon Horowitz, a kabbalah scholar and author of Shem MiShimon and Kol Mevaser, to discuss the dream with him. As he walked, he saw someone approaching him in the night and was surprised that it was none other than Horowitz, who was coming to see him about the dream he had just dreamed. It turned out that they had dreamed the same dream. They had each envisioned an honorable Jew, his face shining with a supernatural light, who had demanded to know why people weren't studying his teachings. "My Torah has the power to bring the Divine Presence back from its exile," the man told them. The two realized that the man in the dream was the Arizal, the sixteenth-century mystic of Safed, who was known to have regretted the fact that few Jewish men who studied the Torah also studied Kabbalah, in particular the Ashkenazi Jews of Jerusalem. At that time, the only place where the Arizal's teachings were studied was the Beit El Synagogue in Jerusalem. On the spot, Auerbach and Horowitz decided to open a yeshiva for the study of the Arizal's kabbalah and share the responsibilities as joint roshei yeshiva.
The yeshiva opened shortly afterwards in the Old City of Jerusalem, with accommodations for a Talmud Torah, a yeshiva ketana, a yeshiva gedola, and a kollel for married students.
Curriculum
In 1924, the yeshiva published a pamphlet describing its aims and approach as follows:
First, the study of the revealed Torah, as it is studied in all the holy yeshivot, [including] Shas in depth and poskim. Second, the study of kabbalah, mussar and inquiry. [This is] the only place in the world where the Torah of kabbalah is studied in an orderly manner, progressing from simple teachings to more difficult ones, taught by talmidei chachamim who are qualified for the task. …
The yeshiva's intention is not to provide its students with a simple, superficial understanding of the works of kabbalah, to afford a mere glimpse, wherein lies the danger of stumbling — as Chazal put it, "He glimpsed and was injured." Only extensive inquiry and in-depth study of all the kabbalah works ensures full, rounded knowledge. This is what Yeshivas Shaar HaShamayim and its branches aim to provide.
Then as now, kabbalists who wish to study at the yeshiva must demonstrate extensive knowledge of the revealed Torah, and spend half the day in the yeshiva learning the revealed Torah. The yeshiva offers daily shiurim (classes) in Talmud, poskim, halakha and aggadah. Classes on the concealed Torah (i.e., kabbalah) are organized by level. The first level is introductory, with the study of the Arizal's Otzros Chaim. The second level studies the Arizal's lessons in Eitz Chaim in depth. The third level studies the kavannot (mystical concentrations) of the Rashash.
Student body
One of the first students in the new yeshiva was Rabbi Tzvi Pesach Frank, a dayan (rabbinical judge) on the Jerusalem beit din (rabbinical court) and future Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem. The yeshiva has produced a number of Torah scholars, Torah disseminators and rabbis. It has also published many works on kabbalah.