Putting My Life In The Hands Of The Guide

Baal HaSulam is our guide and this means that I must accept everything that is in his books as the absolute truth. If I can understand what it says in my own mind, then I accept it of course, but even if I don’t understand, I should accept it even without understanding. Otherwise I will not reach the desired goal.

A guide means that he is a couple of steps before me telling me: “Follow me, to the right, to the left, straight ahead!” And I follow him. I don’t see the road, but he sees and is walking ahead of me. When I lift my foot in order to take the next step, I don’t know where to put it, and so I ask him: “Should I put it this way?” And he answers: “This way! Now a bit more to the left; not that way, a bit more to the left.” And I follow his instructions. This is following the guide.

It is also the same in our world. If I go mountain climbing or to some other dangerous place where I do not know the road, I put my life in the hands of the guide. It isn’t a tour guide in London; it is called a source, a guide.

The guide of the Bnei Baruch group is Baal HaSulam. If you want to study with us, you should know that we study according to our source. If not, then you should look for somewhere else to study. This is what Rabash told me when I asked him how I could be sure I was in the right place. I was thirty years old, full of energy, I had everything: health, family, money, everything one needs in life. I also asked him the same question: “I am following you and I have to dedicate 20 years before I reach anything, if I find out that this path is wrong, I will discover it when I am 50 and it would already be too late to correct anything in the few years that I would have left. How can I now be sure that I am in the right place?” And he answered: “Go and look for the right place.”

I was disappointed with the answer. I thought that if he were a spiritual guide, he should advise me to make the right choice. But this was his advice: “You should look for yourself, I cannot tell you.” If you choose a certain place, you should accept the teacher and follow him blindly. He becomes your head.

So if anyone doubts me, you should check me with regard to Baal HaSulam. I will be only too happy since I see my mission as presenting him to the public. This is how a person should check if this path is right for him or not; it is a waste of time to study if one doesn’t accept this method.

But if a person has already decided to study in one of our groups, he cannot accept only part of what we study and reject other parts. It turns out that with this he makes a decision based on his ego, thinking that it is more important than the path that we follow and study. I respect his opinion, but it is impossible to advance if one doesn’t accept this method above reason. Sometimes when you reject it but still accept the mind of the upper, you can advance, but if you don’t agree with the teacher about corporeal actions since you judge by your corporeal mind, on the corporeal level, then it cannot be. It is clear how you should perform them and you need to perform them in faith above reason.

Where faith is involve, the influence of the group is necessary. It is very simple: You either agree and accept things or you don’t belong and don’t advance along our path by even one step. A person has to calculate things, and if he disagrees with the teacher when it comes to corporeal matters, then he will certainly disagree when it comes to spiritual issues. He is only deluding himself that in spirituality everything is fine, but his work will lead to nothing. This is the reason that only very few people reach the goal.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/13/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam