A question I received: Why did Kabbalists prohibit others from studying Kabbalah until very recently?

My Answer: There were several reasons for the prior prohibition of the study of Kabbalah for the general public:

1. The souls of Israel, which used to be in spiritual attainment, separated for the purpose of intermixing with the other souls that remained unchanged from the times of Babylon. The souls of Israel descended to the level of this world and have become equal to the other souls. That is, the souls of Israel had to descend to the level of this world since the intermixing gives the other souls an opportunity to become corrected.

2. Humanity had to go through all the stages until it reached complete disappointment from its egoistic development and saw itself empty, worthless, and situated on the threshold of the destruction of all its systems through which it hoped to achieve happiness.

3. Meanwhile, human beings developed internally, intellectually in their egoism, and this gave us the ability to grasp abstract forms that exist beyond time, motion, and space. We have only begun to speak about such things in the 20th century. Although it was written in The Book of Zohar almost two millennia ago that the Earth is a round sphere (The Zohar, Chapter “VaYikra (The Lord Called),” Item 142), people were burned in bonfires for such words even five hundred years ago.

Time was required for humanity to develop its mind and feelings, to come closer to understanding what the science of Kabbalah tells us about: an Upper dimension. Even now this is not easy to comprehend, but the next generation will enter a new vision of the world if we prepare the foundation for it. And the next generation is us in our new reincarnation. An ability to perceive in this way is already emerging in us. The current development has brought everyone to the same level, and it is possible to reveal the science of Kabbalah to everyone at the same time. People of all nationalities are coming to study it.

However, in order to truly understand it, we need to unite. First we can understand and feel what Kabbalah is talking about through our egoistic minds and feelings. But then attainment begins, and it is perceived only in the unification of souls. Unification gives birth to a new organ of perception: the soul. If we unite, the mutual inclusion will give each person his soul for perceiving the Upper World.

If Baal HaSulam had not received guidance from Above, he would not have disclosed the science of Kabbalah. A Kabbalist exists in contact with the Creator and carries out His orders, serving as a binding link between the Creator and humanity. Therefore, the decisions of Kabbalists to conceal or to reveal the science of Kabbalah comes out of necessity, from the obvious (to them) connection between the Upper Light and the readiness of people’s desires for correction and perception.

Today also there are certain limitations. There is an opportunity Above to open wider the flow of the Upper wisdom. However, people are not yet ready for this. I feel the opposition to new information. This is because it is opposite to egoism and we do not desire it. For this reason, there is a law in Kabbalah: “The desire should precede fulfillment.” Our primary task is to create a spiritual vessel. Meanwhile, the Upper Light is already ready to be revealed in it.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/7/10, Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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"Preface to the Sulam Commentary," “Three Come Out of One, One Exists in Three,” Item 52: Thus, it has been explained that the second discernment in raising MAN de Zeir Anpin to YESHSUT is to unite the two lines of YESHSUT, right and left. They can only shine through the Masach de Hirik in Zeir Anpin (Item 39), which completes the middle line in them and determines the two lines of Bina….

There are two lines in Bina: the right line, which is Hassadim (Mercy) and the left line, which is Hochma (Wisdom). They are not able to unite. In fact, each is ready to completely occupy the desire 100% by itself. They remain in opposition to each other.

However, they cannot emanate without each other! They both come from Above, but the right line, as if, says: “How is it possible without bestowal? Isn’t bestowal the purpose of creation?” While the left line, as if, contends: “I am the foundation of creation! I am the Light of Hochma that must be revealed in it! How can it be without me?”

And so they argue with each other without the possibility of compromise or reconciliation. Yet, in their agreement lies the solution: reception for the sake of bestowal.

To facilitate agreement, a third factor is necessary. This third factor allows each one to budge from his strongly held stance and to understand the other. The solution lies in the middle. The solution is not a compromise! Rather, it is a unique and remarkable opportunity to understand one another, to clothe in one another, and to arrive at the golden agreement.

Before the middle line, everything that existed was the qualities of the Creator. Creation begins with the middle line which allows the union of bestowal and reception. This is the form in which the creature can fully participate in bestowal and can become similar to the Creator. It is like a child who unites his parents (the two opposite lines of the Creator), and makes them one family.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/8/10, "Preface to the Sulam Commentary"

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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYigash (Then Judah Approached),” Item 64
While studying The Zohar we should transform into the “characters” in The Zohar, so we can sense what they sense. After all, these are our spiritual qualities.
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Preface to the Sulam Commentary,” Item 52
The greater our plea to the Creator, the more strength we receive from Him to obtain His form, which is bestowal.
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot, Item 39
The Creator concealed Himself from us so we wouldn’t be like puppets; so we would reveal Him independently and obtain His qualities.
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Writings of Rabash, Article “Forever Will a Person Sell All that He Has and Will Marry the Daughter of a Sage,” Vol. 1, 1984 
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The Zohar, Chapter “Tetzaveh (Command),” Items 132-133: “And boughs of thick trees” are three, three lines, HGT…“And willows of the brook” are two, NH, which have neither smell nor taste, like people’s thighs.
The Lulav [palm branch], Yesod, takes them all and includes them, like the spinal cord in the body….
With these kinds, which correspond to HGT NHYM, man should be seen before the Creator. The leaves in the palm tree imply to all the other armies, which unite in these appellations by which the Creator is called.

The Zohar is intended to help us achieve attainment rather than understanding. Attainment means the realization of corrected desire and the beginning of sensing and seeing the spiritual reality. Understanding comes only afterward. That is because we don’t have the Kli for understanding, we don’t possess the properties which The Zohar describes.

It’s not about a palm branch or other plants that we know in this life. The Zohar tells us about forces that acquire the shape of particular branches in our world. It explains the spiritual roots that we can’t understand since we are unaware of where they are and what they look like.

That is why we listen to The Zohar without the slightest understanding. We only realize that it describes the reality that we don’t yet perceive. In error, we visualize pictures of this world which is the wrong approach.

Our only resort is to think about our unity and how to reveal what’s written in The Zohar within the connection among us. It is a story about connections within the Upper system and the revelation of the Creator through it.

That is why Baal HaSulam writes in Item 155 of his “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot” that Kabbalists wrote their books not only for themselves in order to share knowledge, but also for all of us as a “miraculous remedy” (Segula). Even if we don’t understand what we read, but keep the intention of attaining the Upper reality that the Kabbalistic books talk about, we attract the Surrounding Light which returns us back to the Source, to the Creator.

The Light directs us and provides us with the intention to bestow instead of the intention to receive for our own sake. Then we start sensing the Upper reality that exists within the property of bestowal. That is, we attain the spiritual world.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/4/10, The Zohar

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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYigash (Then Judah Approached),” Item 53
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The environment will keep me thinking about the spiritual goal, if I, in turn, care that everyone is thinking about our unity and doesn’t abandon these thoughts. Thus, everyone will receive this impression, grow stronger, and advance. This is called “mutual guarantee,” whereby everyone cares about others having everything that is necessary for spiritual advancement. If instead of worrying about receiving from the environment, I worry about how to strengthen the bond between friends, as a mother cares about her children, then this is sufficient for this environment to begin influencing me.

First of all, I have to take actions in the direction of giving, connection, and care. I should view myself as being bigger than them in this regard, in order to influence them, strengthen them; I should search for additional ways of how to provide this for them. And after this I have to be able to humble myself in order to receive from them.

This will come to you, because by putting efforts into something it becomes dear and important to you, and thus influences you. It is similar to parents being both impressed by and dependent upon their children.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/6/10, Article, “Concerning the Importance of Society”

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If I stay alone for one moment, without the support of the group, I will immediately fall. By myself I have no grip on spirituality, the Creator, or bestowal. I can either be within my spiritual vessel while I am connected with the others and receive support from them, or outside of it. As soon as I lose their support, I fall.

One cannot advance and achieve something on his own. He won’t be able to keep himself in spirituality even for an instant. If a person thinks that he can advance on his own through reading Kabbalah books, performing some actions, and keep on the spiritual path, then it is self-deception. One will be lying to himself and only hoping in vain for advancement. Without participation and connection with the group, called the mutual guarantee, we have no chance to stay in spirituality even for a moment.

Besides, to be present in the spiritual environment doesn’t mean to be in it physically. What matters is how strongly a person desires this environment to impact him since that testifies to his desire to put himself under the influence of the Upper Force or the Creator. But if a person simply reads Kabbalistic texts in solitude, he will not be under the Creator’s influence because everything one reads passes through his egoistical filter. A person will perceive the book as he understands, feels, and desires to see it!

Thus, I’m under the influence of the Creator only if what I read comes to me through the group. The Creator or the Light “dwells amongst his people,” meaning within the group, the assembly of the souls.

Individually we have no chance for spiritual advancement. We have to understand very clearly that our only instrument to unveiling the Creator is our unity.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/6/10, Article, “Concerning the Importance of Society”

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The Zohar, Chapter “VaYigash (Then Judah Approached),” Item 2: However, everything was created in the Torah, and everything was perfected in the Torah. And as the Torah begins with Bet, the world was created in Bet. This is so because before the Creator created the world, the Nukva, all the letters came before Him and entered one at a time in reverse order, in the order of Tav-Shin-Reish-Kof and not in the order of Aleph-Bet-Gimel-Dalet.

Item 3: The letter Tav came before Him and said, “You wish to create the world with me.” The Creator replied, “I do not, since many righteous are destined to die in you. …This is why the world will not be created in you.”

Item 4: The three letters, Shin-Kof-Reish, approached each on his own. The Creator told them, “You are unfit for the world to be created in you for you are the letters used for reading Sheker [deceit/falsehood], and a lie is unworthy of rising before Me.”

This can be compared to how we ask the Creator to help us unite the desire (Kli). The letters are the formation of Malchut. Essentially, it is her that we are trying to construct from our points in the heart.

Hence, if we come to the Creator with our desire (although we don’t presently realize it), crying like infants not knowing exactly what to ask, it works as though we are appealing to the Creator in all kinds of forms and letters. Yet we get nothing in return until we discover the correct desire or the correct letter.

Item 5: The letters Peh and Tzadik approached, and so did all of them until they reached the letter Chaf. When the Chaf descended from the Keter [Keter written with Chaf in Hebrew], the upper ones and the lower ones were shaken, until everything came to exist in the letter Bet, which is the sign for Beracha [blessing], and in it, the world was perfected and created.

We have to attain a desire, a state where only the blessing from Above can give birth to our spiritual vessel. Only if we join the force of blessing and become one with the Creator (and not by any other efforts of ours) can we acquire the spiritual Kli.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/6/10, The Zohar

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There is no Light without a vessel, and no fulfillment without a desire. The Upper Light is in a state of complete rest; it fills and surrounds creation entirely. Everything depends solely on our desire, our vessels of perception. If we yearn for this particular fulfillment, we will perceive it. However, if our desire does not correspond precisely to the frequency or quality of the fulfillment (meaning there is no equivalence of properties between the desire and what fills it), then we don’t feel fulfillment. Multiple examples of the corporeal world attest to this.

We have to bring our desire to the Upper Light to be filled. To do this correctly, the desire has to correspond to the Light, that is, to be in bestowal. How are we going to acquire this force of bestowal? Kabbalists say that the power of bestowal exists in every person, but is very small and remains this way in the person alone.

It can grow only if a person unites with the others. If he wishes to attain bestowal and is willing to do whatever it takes in order to receive from the group and the friends their desires to bestow, then he acquires from them many such desires. He does so in the degree in which he annuls himself and exalts the friends in his own eyes. In this way he is able to receive from them a greater desire to bestow, in both quality and quantity. And if a person possesses the desire to bestow, then the Light during the reading of The Zohar will work on him; it will begin to organize his desire and fill it.

Therefore, preparation to reading The Zohar should take place in the group, in the mutual “incorporation” into each other, in order to form a strong desire. In this case, we will succeed. We can accelerate time and shorten it, without the need to submerge ourselves in prolonged corporeal suffering. We can transform earthly suffering into the torments of love, which means suffering from not having the qualities of bestowal, from not having the desire to give that we must attain. We can work with the group and friends, and in doing so acquire such a will.

As we see, everything is in our hands. We can actually condense time to zero. The Creator created only the point “existence from absence.” The rest He handed to us, so that we increase our desire from the size of the point in the heart to the expanse of Malchut of Infinity. This is only possible if we unite. Therefore we only have a single opportunity to attain the desire for the Light: to strive to be together within our small desires to bestow.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/6/10, The Zohar

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