Baal HaSulam—The Channel Of Our Connection With The Creator

 

The anniversary of the passing away of Baal HaSulam, our teacher, is a special day. This is the soul that connects us with the Creator, the person who opened the gates of the wisdom of Kabbalah for the last generation, in which we live.

Without his teaching, we could not be awarded what we have already received and can still receive in the future. Knowledge, the entire approach, the methodology, and the stages of attainment, all this was prepared for us by Baal HaSulam. Of course, everything comes to us from the Creator but through this great soul.

One of the reasons that the wisdom of Kabbalah (reception) has such a name is that it gets passed on from generation to generation. Every student must have a teacher. Only exceptional individuals with special help from above can directly reach the attainment of the Creator by themselves. Therefore, we must always be connected with the sages who have attained spirituality, the great Kabbalists, so we can advance from generation to generation.

It all depends to what extent a person is able to follow the teacher. Everyone has their own difficulties in this. It is natural because this is how the degrees are arranged from above downward. It is difficult for the lower one to overcome their egoism and connect with the upper one.

In our world, on the animate level, there is no such problem because nature obliges a child to be dependent on adults. However, at the degree of man where you need to study the wisdom of Kabbalah, this is not easy to do. There we need to bow down and maximize the greatness of the teacher in order to learn from him.

Of course, this is not in order to honor the teacher but only for the benefit of the student. If the student feels less than the teacher, he will be able to bow down more and receive from the teacher. In the sciences of this world, this requirement is not so categorical, after all there the student must be critical of the teacher and check him out.

In the wisdom of Kabbalah, however, a person cannot attain anything if he does not bow before the Creator. Therefore, as much as he bows down before everything he receives from the teacher, who teaches him from the sources that came from the teachers of all generations, that much attainment he receives. Only in this form can the small one receive from the big one.

Therefore, we need to understand what an exceptional and great man Baal HaSulam was. We must accept all his works and legacy without any criticism, then we can hope that we will begin to connect with his soul and receive through him the upper force from the Creator.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/10/19, “Baal HaSulam Memorial Day”

Baal HaSulam—The Channel For Our Connection With The Creator

Today is a special day—the anniversary of the passing of Baal HaSulam, our teacher, from this world. This is the soul that connects us with the Creator, the man who opened the gates of the wisdom of Kabbalah for the last generation in which we live. Without his teachings, we could not be rewarded with what we have already received and can still receive in the future. The knowledge, the whole approach and methodology, the stages of attainment—all this was prepared for us by Baal HaSulam. Of course, everything comes to us from the Creator, but through this great soul.

One of the reasons that the science of Kabbalah (receiving) has such a name is that it is transmitted from generation to generation. Each student must have a teacher. Only exceptional individuals can, with special help from above, directly reach attainment of the Creator by themselves. Therefore, we must always be connected with the sages who attained spirituality, the great Kabbalists, and thus advance generation after generation.

Here, everything depends on how much a person is able to follow the teacher. Everyone has their own difficulties in this and this is natural because this is how the steps from top to bottom are arranged. It is difficult for the lower ones to overcome their egoism and contact the upper ones. In our world at the animal level, there is no such problem because nature obliges a child to be dependent on adults. But at the human level on which it is necessary to study the science of Kabbalah, this is no longer easy to do. There, we need to bow down and maximize the greatness of the teacher in order to learn from him.

Of course, this is not in order to honor the teacher but only for the benefit of the student. If a student feels himself less than his teacher, then he will be able to lower himself more and receive from the teacher. In the sciences of this world, this requirement is not so categorical because the student must be critical of the teacher and test him. But in the science of Kabbalah, a person cannot attain anything if he has not bowed down before the Creator. And therefore, to the extent to which he bows down to what he receives from the teacher who teaches him from the primary sources that came from teachers of all generations, he gains attainment. Only in this form can a small one receive from a great one.

Therefore, we need to understand what an exceptional and great man Baal HaSulam was. We are obliged to accept all his works, all his legacy, without any criticism and then we can hope that we will begin to connect with his soul and receive through him the upper force from the Creator.
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/10/19, Baal HaSulam Memorial Day

Baal HaSulam

From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 10/10/19

Yehuda Leib HaLevi Ashlag is known as Baal HaSulam (Owner of the Ladder) for his Sulam (ladder) commentary on The Book of Zohar. Baal HaSulam dedicated his life to interpretations and innovations in the wisdom of Kabbalah, disseminating it in Israel and throughout the world. He developed a unique method to the study of Kabbalah, by which any person can delve into the depth of reality and reveal its roots and purpose of existence.

Baal HaSulam was born in Warsaw, Poland on Sep 24, 1884. At the age of nineteen he was ordained as a rabbi by the greatest rabbis of Warsaw, and for sixteen years he served as a Dayan (Jewish orthodox judge) and a teacher in Warsaw.

Baal HaSulam’s teacher was Rabbi Yehoshua of Porsov. In 1921, Baal HaSulam immigrated to Israel and settled in the Old City of Jerusalem. The word of his coming quickly spread among Jews who emigrated from Poland, and he soon became known as an authority in Kabbalah. Gradually, a group of students formed around him, attending Kabbalah lessons in the wee hours. Later on Baal HaSulam moved from the Old City and settled in Givat Shaul, which was then a new neighborhood in Jerusalem, where for several years he served as the neighborhood rabbi.

Baal HaSulam spent the years 1926-1928 in London. During his time in London he wrote the commentary to the Aris Tree Of Life Panim Meirot uMasbirot, which he printed in 1927. Throughout his stay in London, Baal HaSulam conducted extensive correspondence with his students in Israel, which were assembled in 1985 in a book titled Igrot Kodesh (Letters of Sanctity).

In 1933, Baal HaSulam published the tractates Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah), HaArvut (The Bond), and HaShalom (The Peace).

Baal HaSulams two major works, the result of many years of labor, are Talmud Eser Sefirot (The Study of the Ten Sefirot), a commentary on the writings of the Ari, and Perush HaSulam (The Sulam Commentary)on The Book of Zohar. The publications of the 16 parts (in six volumes) of Talmud Eser Sefirot began in 1937. In 1940 he published Beit Shaar HaKavanot (The Gatehouse of Intentions),with commentaries to selected writings of the Ari. Persuh HaSulam on the Zohar was printed in 18 volumes in the years 1945-1953. Later on Baal HaSulam wrote three additional volumes containing commentaries on The New Zohar, whose printing was completed in 1955, after his demise.

In his Introduction to the Book of Zohar, Baal HaSulam writes as follows (item 58): And I have named that commentary The Sulam (ladder), to show that the purpose of it is, as with every ladder, that if you have an attic full of goods, then all you need is a ladder to reach it, and then all the bounty of the world is in your hands.

Baal HaSulam wrote a series of introductions that prepare the student for proper study of Kabbalistic texts. Some of these introductions are Preface to the Book of Zohar, Introduction to the Book of Zohar, Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, Preface to the Sulam Commentary, General Preface to the Tree of Life, and Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot.

In 1940, Baal HaSulam published the first and, as it turned out, the last issue of the journal HaUma (The Nation). The journal was shut down by the British Mandate authorities after having received malicious information that the journal propagated communism.

Baal HaSulam encountered enormous difficulties printing his books. We can learn of the importance he ascribed to printing and disseminating Kabbalah from the 2003 Israel Award laureate Prof. Shlomo Giora Shohams description of his meeting with Baal HaSulam in the early 1950s.

“I found him standing in a dilapidated building, almost a shack, which housed an old printing press. He couldn’t afford to pay a typesetter and was doing the typesetting himself, letter by letter, standing over the printing press for hours at a time, despite the fact that he was in his late sixties. Ashlag was clearly a tzaddik (righteous man) – a humble man, with a radiant face. But he was an absolutely marginal figure and terribly impoverished. I later heard that he spent so many hours setting type that the lead used in the printing process damaged his health.”

This excerpt was published on Dec 17, 2004 in Haaretz newspaper, in a story by Micha Odenheimer.

Baal HaSulam did not merely put his ideas on paper; he acted vigorously to promote them. He met with many leaders of the Jewish settlement in Israel of the time, leaders of the Labor movement and many public figures. Among these figures are David Ben-Gurion, Zalman Shazar, Moshe Sadeh, Chaim Arlozorov, Moshe Aram, Meir Yaari, Yaakov Hazan, Dov Sadan and the great poet Haim Nahman Bialik.

According to Ben-Gurion, he met with Yehuda Ashlag several times, and was apparently surprised:

“I wanted to talk to him about Kabbalah, and he wanted to talk about Socialism.”

(Ben-Gurion Archive, Diaries, Aug 11, 1958).
In his essay Three Meetings and In Between (Amot, Tel-Aviv, 1963, p.49), Dov Sadan writes:

“Rabbi Yehuda Leib Ashlag, among the greatest Kabbalists of the time, aimed at turning the fundamentals of Kabbalah into a historic engine of our generation. Through his socialistic perception, which is based on the above, he sought contact with the Kibbutz Movement.”

It might be surprising to think that Baal HaSulam sought connection with the Hebrew Labor Movement and its leaders, considering the mental and educational chasm between them. However, deep study of his writings reveals a fascinating and intriguing figure of an erudite who was very much involved in the events of his time, both in Israel and the world over, a figure whose ideas are considered revolutionary and daring even to this day.

Why We Need To Understand The Greatness And Uniqueness Of Baal HaSulam

Today is a special day, the Yahrzeit, the day commemorating the death of Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag, Baal HaSulam.  

Who is Baal HaSulam? He is the soul that connects us to the Creator. He was a person who opened all the gates of the wisdom of Kabbalah to the last generation we’re now in.

Without Baal HaSulam’s teaching, we would be unable to be awarded with what we have already received. Moreover, without Baal HaSulam’s teaching, we would be unable to progress to what is ahead of us, both in terms of the knowledge and the method of Kabbalah, and also its stages of attainment.

No matter what will happen as we head forth, we will reach a need for the Creator. However, such a need will have to pass through this great soul.

“A person has the choice of going to a place where there are righteous. One can accept their authority, and then he will receive all the powers that he lacks by the nature of his own qualities. He will receive it from the righteous. This is the benefit in ‘planted them in each generation,’ so that each generation would have someone to turn to, adhere to, and from whom to receive the strength required to rise to the degree of a righteous.”

– Baal Hasulam. Shamati article 99. “He Did Not Say Wicked or Righteous.”

One of the reasons why the wisdom of Kabbalah is called “the wisdom of Kabbalah (reception)” is because it passes through each generation, and every generation needs a teacher, a Kabbalist, one with spiritual attainment, in the world. That is a necessity in the wisdom of Kabbalah. Only extremely rare and unique individuals can reach attainment of the Creator by receiving special treatment from above. As such, we need to always be connected to great sages who are in spiritual attainment, so that in each generation, we can make spiritual progress.

Since the wisdom of Kabbalah discusses phenomena that a person can only attain through the teacher, then he learns sources, through the teacher, which pass through all generations. The key to the student’s attainment of what passes through his teacher is subjugation, through which the small can receive from the great. Accordingly, there are degrees of the student’s subjugation to the teacher.

Therefore, we need to understand how great and unique Baal HaSulam was, and how much we need to subjugate to what he left us, his writings, with the hope that to the extent of such subjugation, we will be able to connect to his spirit, through which we can receive the upper force from the Creator.
Lesson on the Topic “Baal HaSulam Memorial Day” on October 10, 2019.

Gratitude To Baal HaSulam

Baal HaSulam’s Yahrzeit [ed. the anniversary of Baal HaSulam’s passing] is a special day of remembrance and gratitude to a very special and exalted soul who descended to this world as a messenger of the Creator to open a path for us, an entrance to the upper world, so that we can reach it here, during our lifetime.

Baal HaSulam did so much in order to bridge our corporeal Kli (vessel) and the spiritual one, which lets us connect with it, and through it reach connection with the Creator. He paved a very long and special path, just like the Baal Shem Tov and the Ari did in their times. We are incapable of fully appreciating what this soul did.

Ultimately, we should be thankful to the Creator for sending us such a soul, such tremendous help. When we learn from the books of Baal HaSulam and approach the goal with his help, we must appreciate, thank, honor, and love this extraordinary person, this special tool that creates a connection between us, those who are below and those who are above.

We should be so proud of this honor and take on even more commitments to be worthy of connection with such a soul. We are unable to realize his contribution to us and its power, but still, we must love him, as children love their parents. So we must draw near and cling to this soul, which opened the passage to the Creator in our time. We would stand no chance without him.

There were many Kabbalists before, but in our time, there is no other method that allows, in practice, for the revelation of the Creator and becoming His partners, supporters in His work with creation. Thanks to Baal HaSulam, we are able with our small souls to facilitate his ascent, and along with him, our own. We were honored to receive an invitation, a pass to the upper world, and the choice is in our hands.

A mere two hundred years ago it was impossible to conceive that completely secular people like us, without any preparation or connection with the Torah, could have any chance of approaching spirituality. Then came the soul of Baal HaSulam and opened a passage for us, and now we can pass through this tunnel just because of our pure desire.

The most important thing is the desire. It doesn’t matter that a person has sunken low in the corporeal sense, it has no relevance in spirituality. If you look over the Machsom into the spiritual world, you will see the person as though through an x-ray: no meat or fat, just the bones, which is the essence. And according to that essence, according to our desire, we are accepted into spirituality.

I am so happy that there are so many people with us around the world that yearn according to their inner essence toward the truth, and in line with their desire are ready, through the method of Baal HaSulam, to cross that path and reach perfection.

The key to this is very simple: our unity. We advance to the extent that we unite; with each move toward unity we take another step in our advancement. This tunnel puts constant pressure on us, it squeezes us and forces us to connect even more tightly to the point of passing through the eye of a needle. The secret of our success lies exclusively in our unity.
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From the Daily Kabbalah lesson, “Yahrzeit Baal Sulam”, 9/19/18

Baal HaSulam About The Commandment Of Love

Question: Why do you say that your focus is on correcting the relationship between people and unifying them, while Baal HaSulam mainly wrote about the worlds, the Sefirot, etc.

Answer: Baal HaSulam had to reveal the system that governs our world. His Talmud Eser Sefirot, commentaries on The Tree of Life by Ari, The Book of Zohar, and other works formed the basis of his work.

But if we take the letters and articles of Baal HaSulam, they all talk solely about the process of attaining the Creator, which is the goal of studying the science of Kabbalah.

Spiritual attainment occurs only among the people who are engaged in creating a specific connection among each other. This connection must be similar to the ten Sefirot and that is why Baal HaSulam described it as The Study of the Ten Sefirot (Talmud Eser Sefirot).

As soon as people even minimally become similar to what is described as ten Sefirot, they immediately begin to feel the Creator in them. Meaning, these feelings are a sensor, a detector that reveals the Creator.

Remark: Once Baal HaSulam received a letter from one of his fellow citizens with a claim that Baal HaSulam defined a new structure, a new methodology.

Baal HaSulam replied with a long letter in which he stressed: “It seems that you have not sufficiently studied my words.” He noted that “when the people entered the land of Israel and there was no peace, it was impossible to expect that someone would fulfill the main commandment.”

In order for the Torah not to be forgotten, people began to engage in the rest of commandments, ignoring the most important one because they had no other choice. But the most important is: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

My Comment: It is written in black and white. There is no way around it. And this is exactly what is missing. There is a void in all modern religions in fulfilling the commandment of love for one’s neighbor. That is why everyone, including religious figures and systems, hate Kabbalah because it puts emphasis on achieving love for one’s neighbor.
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From The Lesson in Russian Language 9/10/17

Melodies Of Baal HaSulam

Question: Why did Baal HaSulam start writing music?

Answer: Baal HaSulam’s group consisted of less than ten people, and everyone came from different places. Each had their own melodies that they played at mealtimes or during prayers, especially on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur).

So Baal HaSulam composed his own melodies, and taught the students not to sing foreign prayers to the words from the prayer book. That is how the melodies to the texts of Ari and “Bnei Eihal” came out, “Kel Mistater,” etc.

Question: Can these melodies and their text somehow affect a person listening to them?

Answer: They do possess certain spiritual forces. A melody has a great power, but it can only be attained to the degree that a person is dwelling in it.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 10/16/16

The Language Of The Kabbalist

Question: What were the relations between Baal HaSulam and his students? What was his connection to them and the letters that he wrote to them?

Answer: The connection between a Kabbalist and his students is described very well in Baal HaSulam and Rabash’s letters.

They wrote more than they spoke. Practically, I never heard Rabash say, “It seems to me that my eyes see the friends, my arms embrace them, and my legs dance with love and joy along with them in a circle, and then my ‘I’ is annulled and dissolved in my friends.”

As for Baal HaSulam, he expressed everything academically.

Remark: Nevertheless, he had a breakthrough when he wrote: “The only thing that stands before you is the love of friends.”

Answer: He points to this as the most important thing; otherwise, what is the use of all the other actions if there is no clear intention to unite the group in which all this is revealed?

The fact is that there are four languages for explaining the actions: the language of the Tanakh, i.e., the Torah and everything that exists behind it, the language of the Talmud, the language of legends, and the language of Kabbalah. We need to connect all these in order to fully explain it. This is HaVaYaH—the full name of the Creator—that is, a complete revelation of the upper force, the property of bestowal in the property of reception.

Only in this is the love of friends is revealed. Therefore, Baal HaSulam writes that the most important commandment is the commandment of unification and now it stands before the whole world.

I hope very much that with the help of such great figures as Baal HaSulam and Rabash we can do it. At least we see how it all materializes.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 10/16/16

In Order For The Higher Energy To Penetrate The World

After the war, Baal HaSulam was able to accomplish a lot: publish his works, although they were not numerous. He wrote a lot, but usually ended up burning his writings. Once, he gave his little grandson, the son of Rabash, a bag of papers to burn. His grandson was a smart boy. He understood that there was something precious about it and saved the bag.

When I came to Rabash, his son showed me that bag, and we started sorting it out together. The first thing I did was to photograph those writings. It was not easy to make copies of manuscripts at that time.

So I made the copies for Rabash and one for myself. Later four books were produced from them including A Sage’s Fruit. The first two books came out when Rabash was still alive. We used to go to the park together, read the text, and he would edit it. And the last two books were produced after his death.

Previously, Kabbalists always burned their writings. Sometimes their works were even buried with their bodies, as it was with Ari, who was buried with his manuscripts. And sometime later, the works were dug up and rewritten. The same happened with The Book of Zohar that was concealed for many years until somebody found its separate pages used them as wrapping paper.

Question: What kind of action is it when a Kabbalist writes something and then burns it?

Answer: When I studied with Rabash, during the lessons it often happened that he would say a phrase, I would stare at him and understand nothing. He would continue speaking on the topic, adding another phrase and again, nothing was understood, although, it seemed there was nothing mystical about the subject.

The Kabbalist does it on purpose so that this knowledge, this power, can come out from him into the general world. By letting it into the upper world, he gives it the right to exist on the same level as his own, and lower.

Why can’t he say this when he is alone? Because, in front of him, there are “babies,” meaning students, who are currently on the level of our world. When he imparts something to them, his words, energy, and then Light transcends through them and begins affecting the entire world.

Nothing more is needed. That is why great Kabbalists burned their writings.

Question: And no one has even read them?

Answer: No. That was sufficient.

Question: Do you, also, want to burn something, or have you already?

Answer: No, my work is different. I explain everything to you, verbalizing it.

The thing is, you can’t do it any other way! There are no mysteries here! Mystery is only what you do not understand. That is the single framework for restrictions.

Revelation is a paramount task, it is the most worthwhile task. We have to reveal the quality of bestowal; there is nothing else in the world. Inside us, we have the quality of reception, opposite to it is the quality of bestowal; you reveal one inside the other; here, you have all the mysteries of nature and all the worlds.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 10/16/16

Twenty Years Before The War

Twenty years before the Second World War began, no one conceived it. However, Baal HaSulam knew about it well in advance. He warned the Jews in Poland of the danger and implored them to leave, but they did not listen. When the war began, no other country wanted them and they perished.

By that time, Baal HaSulam was already living in Palestine. When the troops led by General Rommel approached it, the people began to panic. Yet, Baal HaSulam was absolutely confident that the troops would stop and told this to his students and acquaintances.

And indeed, Rommel stopped right at the Palestinian border even though he had the support of Egypt. The predictions of Kabbalist’s have come true.

Baal HaSulam understood everything that was happening in Europe at the time and was very concerned about it.

This raises the question: can a Kabbalist affect the upper forces? Under certain conditions, yes. Perhaps it is not because he wishes to do it, but because he is guided that way from above. He has no calculations of his own in this regard, not in any way or with any one.

I guess that this might have been his spiritual action: a guide was required in order for it to happen in our world. The same happens every moment with every one of us. We affect one another at every moment and determine one another’s state. It is also possible to determine one another’s state at critical moments.

Question: Don’t you say that a Kabbalist cannot affect the corporeal future?

Answer: This is not the corporeal future, since, in fact, there is no matter at all. This is a state of forces, their correlation with each other.

What does “corporeality” mean? If we research any object, we will find that it consists of a vacuum. What is in it? Atoms? These are particles separated from one another by enormous distances. That is to say, matter is force. There is nothing corporeal.

Therefore, we and everything we feel around us is an accumulation of forces. And it all moves within a single field called the soul. This field is what we need to care for, molding it so it becomes similar to the force that is inside of that field. And that is up to us, the people. This is the correction.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 10/16/16

What Is The Kabbalist Talking About?

Comment: Baal HaSulam in The Last Generation writes about thirty million years of the Earth’s development. However, this contradicts all religions.

Answer: Kabbalah is a science and it speaks absolutely clearly about it. Even in The Book of Zohar, written two thousand years ago, it states that the Earth is round. It is a good thing that Kabbalists were not caught by the inquisitors, after all, fifteen centuries later scientists were burnt for such statements! It is written very simply about this in The Book of Zohar.

Question: About what thirty million years of development does Baal HaSulam speak?

Answer: He simply imagines these geological periods of development of the Earth. He lives in them!

However, what does it matter? Kabbalists do not contemplate this because this does not apply to the purpose of creation. Ask them what happened five billion years ago, how the Sun, the galaxy, and the black holes were formed, and they will tell you.

A Kabbalist feels all this in his desires. After all, if you work with the desires on the level of Adam – Man, which is not the level of human but the next level of uniting the desires, then naturally you can consider all the previous ones and study them. It is written in Kabbalah that Kabbalists knew the language of animals, the language of fish, and so on.

These are not just beautiful words or an allegory. You can penetrate and understand the essence of all spiritual degrees below you. It means that you understand everything absolutely clearly, the way we understand a baby, at least at some level and in some volume, also everything else on the animate, vegetative, and inanimate levels.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 10/16/16

Two Incarnations Of A Great Soul

Baal HaSulam is the greatest Kabbalist of our time. It is very difficult to speak of such a tremendous force because we do not really understand what it means to be a Kabbalist. He lives alongside us and at the same time in a different world. A Kabbalist actually lives in two worlds.

For a Kabbalist there is no confusion. He sees the upper world and the lower world. But what interests him most is their interdependence: how it is possible to make corrections in the upper world from the lower world such that it again influences the lower world and our world rises to the level of the upper. This is the task of every Kabbalist.

A Kabbalist is coming from that desire which characterizes him in the general system of the soul called “Adam.” Each of us has a different root. It is called “point of reference” or “point in the heart.” And that’s why each reveals the upper world in their own unique way.

However, all points in the heart reveal this system in a relatively similar fashion. Nonetheless, all those who wrote prior to Baal HaSulam, for example, had a very difficult time writing a commentary to The Book of Zohar.

And prior to the appearance of The Book of Zohar, no one was able to write anything even resembling it, despite the fact that many Kabbalists knew more than Rabbi Shimon. They just couldn’t describe it the way he could.

That is, in Kabbalah there are many such conditions: you can be great, a spiritual genius, but cannot describe anything, you simply don’t have the ability.

But Baal HaSulam had both of these qualities. It’s amazing! In the entire history of Kabbalah there was practically no Kabbalist with such ability.

Moses was the greatest Kabbalist, and still the Five Books written by him are written in such a way and in such language that everyone can interpret them in any way they want.

And what was written by the Ari in his work The Tree of Life cannot be understood at all; here, a clear attainment of the spiritual world is necessary for one to even begin to understand what he is talking about. In this book, purely physical data are laid out, just as in any physics textbook.

That’s why when the Ari started to teach, the only one who was able to appreciate him was a great Kabbalist of his own time, the Ramak. He sent all the other students to the Ari as well, emphasizing that this material is something new. But neither they, nor he, were able to understand the system of the Ari, not even to the day he died. And that’s because the Ramak belonged to the previous generation of souls, those who came into this world prior to the Ari.

That’s why Baal HaSulam openly says: “All that I attained, I attained following the Ari’s soul incarnating in me,” in other words, he was the Ari’s next incarnation. What is meant here is not the physical body, since it doesn’t exist and neither does our world. The only thing that exists is the shattered, scattered desire in a tremendous egoistic space.

In this space there are drops, like raisins in a cake that have inclinations toward unity, toward adhesion with the Creator. But we don’t feel these inclinations because we exist in an ocean of egoism, we sit in this dough, that’s why we don’t even sense our ego. Each “raisin,” each point in the heart, constantly undergoes all types of corrections.

Baal HaSulam happens to have been the outcome of that same “raisin,” which was the Ari, that same soul who was the Ari, who continued his work. This is called an “incarnation.” In other words, this is not a separate soul, but that same soul continuing its work, only under different conditions, in a different generation.

And what does a “generation” mean? It is not what happens to us in our world. When many points in the heart, embryos of a soul, even though they are changing constantly, while they still exist in a wrong kind of connection between them, they imagine themselves ostensibly experiencing our world.

That’s why it is most important that we think not of this world, presenting itself to us through our five animal sensory systems, but instead about that which is happening through the point in the heart.

Question: When a soul reincarnates, is the individuality preserved?

Answer: The soul engages through various external conditions. The Ari brought into our world The Tree of Life. The next time that same Ari came, he was called Baal HaSulam and brought into our lives Talmud Eser Sefirot.

Question: In other words, he held the same spiritual level of attainment as the Ari?

Answer: Even greater.
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From the Lesson in Russian, 10/16/16

Ari – The Turning Point From Darkness to Light

Ari, “Tree of Life”: Behold, that before the emanations were emanated and the creatures were created, the upper simple Light had filled the whole existence…

The goal of creation is to bring the creations to the attainment of the Creator, to adhesion with Him, to reaching His level. The entire development of the human being in this world throughout thousands of years is directed at the realization of this task.

There were many people throughout human history who were able to come out of the animal degree into the human one, starting from Adam, the first man, Adam HaRishon. Such people are called Kabbalists, and during all the generations they kept helping others to come to the attainment of the upper force, to enter the spiritual degree.

Our whole life in this world, within our egoistic desire, is there for the purpose of coming out of it and elevating ourselves to the level of bestowal, to the highest existence—eternal and boundless.

So we ought to thank those people, who, having attained the Creator themselves, exerted all their efforts to develop the science of Kabbalah, helping others reach the same degree and go through the same states on the way to attaining the highest reality.

All evolution can be divided into two stages. Initially, there is an instinctive maturation and the development of the desire for pleasure. However, at some point that desire develops to the extent of demanding its correction into the desire to bestow. That turning point is symbolized by a special Kabbalist, whose name was Ari.

That messenger from above did for us what no one else has ever done. There is no other person who has made a greater contribution to the general correction. Starting with him, humanity entered the period of deliverance. For it was the Ari who revealed the science of Kabbalah, the methodology of correction, who took it from above and brought it deep down for us.

That is why today’s date [July 27, 2017] is so important for us—Ari’s Memorial Day. For everything we have in our spiritual life, what we strive for, investing our whole life into, has really come from the great Ari. It is the soul that symbolizes the turning point from the world of darkness into the world of correction.

He was the first Kabbalist who brought people the practical methodology of correction that includes the structure of the upper worlds, the circulation of souls, distribution of Light, and development. He linked these explanations to the holidays and quotes from the Torah.

Ari created the language of Kabbalah amd made it possible for study, research, and implementation. He translated Kabbalah from the language of parables and hints, received before him among the Kabbalists, into a modern, precise, scientific language: measures, degrees, Aviut (depth of the desire), Kashiut (strength of the screen)—all scientific terms.

After him, Kabbalah turned into a real science, due to the highest degree that Ari has attained, allowing him to encompass the whole upper world.

That is why he begins his writings from the four stages of Direct Light, in all the details. All the structure of the worlds that the science of Kabbalah teaches came from Ari. Baal HaSulam writes that he attained his spiritual heights due to the fact, that he received an embryo of the soul of Ari. Because of this special soul, Baal HaSulam reached his attainments and continued the work of Ari.
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From the Lesson on the Day of Ari’s Memory 7/27/17

Who Are The Articles By Baal HaSulam For?

Question: Why did Baal HaSulam write articles that provide a comparative analysis of Kabbalah and philosophy, Kabbalah and psychology, and Kabbalah and science?

Answer: Baal HaSulam lived a hundred years ago when the world had not heard yet about what the wisdom of Kabbalah is. Until that day, Judaism was in a state of stagnation and constantly denied and opposed the wisdom of Kabbalah. He wanted to rouse the sleeping world, especially before the Second World War, before the Holocaust. So in the twenties and thirties of the last century he wrote articles for the people and in 1940 he published the newspaper The Nation.

He planned to produce fifty pamphlets, each one which would include five articles. But he only managed to publish the first journal, which contained the articles, “Matan Torah(The Giving of the Torah),” “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee),” “Peace in the World,” “The Peace,” and another article. After that, they closed his small publishing house and he said that he would not write any more because the world was not ready yet for this. We can only imagine how much we lost.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/28/16

New Life #624 – Baal HaSulam- Rav Yehuda Levi Ashlag

New Life #624 – Baal HaSulam- Rav Yehuda Levi Ashlag
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Summary

When one looks at the life of the Kabbalist, one must divide the viewpoint into two levels, our world and the upper world. When Baal HaSulam found the ARI’s book The Tree of Life at his teacher’s home, he was astonished to discover what was written there. A few years later, he organized a group of families to immigrate to Israel, but he was banished, and in the end he immigrated by himself. He brought a tanning machine with him to Israel. He believed that man must work and not be a sponge and receive charity. But when they discovered that he had been a rabbinical judge in Warsaw, they appointed him to be the Rabbi of Kiryat Shaul.

He turned to the secular public since a Kabbalist who has attained the general system thinks and worries about everyone. He explained how we can participate consciously in the development process that we must go through. The essence of the correction is to transform our egoistic nature, the hostility and hatred, into love of others. He wanted to introduce the ideas of Kabbalah to the people, so he met with Ben-Gurion and the leaders of the community.

He foresaw the Holocaust and World War II. By his being in Israel, he spiritually stopped Rommel and Stalin. He wrote a lot and is named Baal HaSulam because of the “ladder” interpretation he wrote for The Book of The Zohar, which is the ladder of the levels of correction.

At the end of each day, he would give away his money so that he wouldn’t have any for the next day, in order to draw spiritual forces closer to the people. But they never listened, and today we must make his system public in order to correct the situation in Israel and in the world. In his writings of the “Last Generation,” he explained that in the end, we must attain the life of love of others and social equality. There was no person more important for our generation because he gave us the tools to reach the upper life, peace, and eternity.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #624 – Baal HaSulam – Rav Yehuda Levi Ashlag,” 9/10/15

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The Wonderful World Of Tomorrow

The wisdom of Kabbalah is revealed specifically in our time because we are in year 5,776, which is at the end of a 6,000 year period of human development that began with the first revelation of the upper force to a human being.

So it is worthwhile for us to use the knowledge of this wisdom as rapidly as possible to leave all of our troubles behind and attain a completely different life. We see how the higher management influences us and constantly puts us into very difficult situations in order to obligate us to reflect on the question,  “What can help us improve our lives?”

Baal HaSulam wrote in the article, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”, section 39: Now we have shown that the Creator’s desired goal for the Creation He created is to bestow upon His creatures, so they would know His truthfulness and greatness, and receive all the delight and pleasure He had prepared for them… 

So where is all this?! Every person asks: “Where is this good or at least something that isn’t so bad?” And all of this is because we exist within our five senses and these limitations, and without evolving, we cannot attain what the Creator prepared for us. After all, they are not designed for this. We associate this life in which we now exist with our body. But this wonderful life and all the good that is prepared for us by the Creator belongs to our soul.

Question: Is this what is called the “world to come?”

Answer: Yes. But it is written: You will see your world in your lifetime (Berachot 17a).

We need to attain it here in this life and in this world. A person doesn’t acquire the next world after his death; he attains it here in our world.

Even now, we are in this infinite world, but we don’t feel it because our five senses of sight, hearing, smelling, taste, and touch lock us into this minute envelope called “this world.”

If we expand our senses with the help of the wisdom of Kabbalah, the wisdom of perception, and immediately depart from feeling this world, outside of its limitations, we feel the world to come, meaning the world that comes as a revelation. And there we discover all the pleasures that the Creator has prepared for us.

Baal HaSulam wrote in Shamati #75, “There Is a Discernment of the Next World, and There Is a Discernment of This World”: There is a discernment of “the next world,” and there is a discernment of “this world.” The next world is considered “faith,” and this world is considered “attainment.”

It is written about the next world, “they shall eat and they shall delight,” meaning that there is no end to the satiation. This is so because everything that is received by faith has no limits. However, what is received through attainment already has limits, since everything that comes in the Kelim of the lower one, the lower one limits it. Hence, there is a limit to the discernment of this world.

Faith is the new force that we acquire with the help of studying the wisdom of Kabbalah. We receive the power of faith, a unique sense that helps us open the borders of this world and begin to feel what is beyond it.

We expand the world just like a child who goes out of his room and sees a vast world:However, what is received through attainment already has limits, since everything that comes in the Kelim of the lower one, the lower one limits it. Hence, there is a limit to the discernment of this world.

Question: What limits is Baal HaSulam talking about here?

Answer: If we go out of our five senses and acquire an additional sense called the sense of bestowal, love, unity, and connection, then through that, we move to a wider world, a more expanded sphere than the one in which we feel our lives and existence.

It is called redemption when you go out of the framework of this world, like from a dungeon or prison where you feel that everything is pressuring you, is limited in time and space, and you cannot be free of all the troubles that crushes you within it, and so you go out into a spacious and wonderful world.
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From the Israeli Radio Program 103 FM, 8/9/15

Ynet Article: “Two Intellectual Giants Who Predicted The Future”

Two of the greatest spirits of the twentieth century, who were removed from the world during the Days of Atonement—predicted what would happen to us today, and they were not wrong… Rav Michael Laitman’s special column about Rav Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) and his succesor Rabbi Baruch Shalom Ashlag, marking their death days.

“Two Intellectual Giants Who Predicted The Future”

On a cold, rainy night in 1979 I couldn’t sleep, thoughts plagued me. Suddenly I found myself behind the wheel, driving without direction. A large sign interrupted my thoughts: “Bnei Brak.” I entered. The streets were deserted. At the corner of Chazon Ish street I encountered a passerby. “Where do they study here?” I asked. He looked at me and answered, “Go to the end of the street, there you will see an orchard, across the street.”

So for the first time I met my teacher, Rav Baruch Shalom Ashlag, the oldest son and heir of Baal HaSulam—the greatest Kabbalist of the twentieth century. From this moment my life changed beyond recognition.

For twelve years I served as his personal assistant and student, and absorbed from him everything that I know about the wisdom of Kabbalah. Every day he would retreat to the second floor and write. That is how his profound articles were born that paved the spiritual path that is most appropriate for every person today. Nobody before him wrote in such a simple and practical language. Like a father who guides his children down the path, he takes the readers by the hand and leads them until they discover the true meaning of life.

Rabash followed in the footsteps of his father Baal HaSulam, the Kabbalist famous for writing the “Sulam Commentary to The Book of Zohar.” Both of them absorbed the ancient wisdom of the chain of Kabbalists that preceded them, and they were the link that accommodated it to our generation. “I am glad that I have been born in such a generation when it is permitted to disclose the wisdom of truth,” writes Baal HaSulam (“The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence”).

A Time to Act

In the year 1922, eleven years before Hitler rose to power, Baal HaSulam foresaw the threat of annihilation facing the Jewish people in Europe.

He took pains to warn the heads of the Jewish community in Warsaw that the sharp Nazi sword had already been placed upon their necks. He urged them to unite and return to the land of Israel, but they refused to heed his calls and ostracized him, and he emigrated to Israel alone. The Second World War came and didn’t pass over the members of that Jewish community, all of whom perished in the death camps.

In the thirties Baal HaSulam made supreme efforts to meet with the heads of the Yishuv(settlement): David Ben-Gurion, Zalman Shazar, Moshe Sharett, Chaim Nachman Bialik, Chaim Arlozorov and other public figures. He tried to speak with them about the importance of unity and about the need to connect the parts of the Jewish Yishuv that was emerging in the land of Israel.

In 1940, over the objections of the ultra-Orthodox circles of engaging in the wisdom of Kabbalah, Baal HaSulam published a newspaper called, The Nation—the first newspaper of its kind devoted to the socio-spiritual unity of the Jewish people. His opponents turned to the British government and took care of the closure of the newspaper.

Baal HaSulam expected that precisely in our day religion would lose its hold on people, the political basis would crumble, and social factionalism would destroy all its good parts—until humanity would remain without an answer. He tried to talk about this with all who would agree to meet with him. The subject burned in him and he felt the need of the hour. He knew that the only remedy for the suffering expected for Israel and the world was to restore the unity that was always the foundation of the nation, otherwise they would rise up against us to annihilate us.

The Last Generation

The message of unity that Baal HaSulam bore, is more relevant than ever. Waves of surging hatred and anti-Semitism are threatening our continued existence. “We have gathered here to establish a society for all who wish to follow the path and method of Baal HaSulam,” began my teacher Rabash in his first article (“Dargot HaSulam, “Purpose of Society 1”).

After his departure in 1991, people began to gather around me whose hearts were burning with a desire to discover the purpose of their existence. Gradually the Bnei Baruch group was founded, named after Rabbi Baruch Ashlag, which became the “Kabbalah for the People” organization.

Every morning we study from the books of the Kabbalists: The Study of the Ten Sefirot, The Book of Zohar with the Sulam Commentary and other writings of Baal HaSulam and Rabash. We try to continue and disseminate the method to all who want it, exactly according to how my teacher transmitted the wisdom of his father to me.

As of today we number around two million students throughout Israel and the world, and we see our role as carrying on the way of the two great luminaries, and just as Baal HaSulam emphasized, “…only through the expansion of the wisdom of Kabbalah in the masses will we obtain complete redemption” (Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot).

On these days we commemorate the departure of the two greatest of the generation. I hope that we will have the sense to walk faithfully in their way.