Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “I Am the First and I Am the Last”
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Lech-Lecha (Go Forth),” Item 41
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 2, Part 7, Item 19, Lesson 12
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 19, Lesson 16
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Today we are celebrating the anniversary of the death of the ARI. We will commemorate this day by joining together in a festive meal; many students around the world will participate as well. We honor this special soul that revealed spiritual redemption for us: the way to come out of the last exile and to achieve the revelation of the Creator. The revelation of the Creator is the revelation of love and bestowal, which connect us all together. And to the extent that we unite, we reveal the Upper Force, a higher, spiritual life within us.
If we talk about the ARI as a person who lived and died, rather than as a soul that exists eternally in spiritual space, then the ARI was a person who threw the end of the rope to us who are existing in this world. By grabbing onto this rope we can begin to ascend to the spiritual world from our present state.
This is why we are so thankful to the ARI and we honor him so much. We want to be as close to him as possible since he represents the desire of the Creator, thanks to which we ascend. Baal HaSulam writes that he did not add a thing to the ARI’s teachings; he merely explained them. Every Kabbalist that came after the ARI helped to develop his teachings a little more since the ARI laid the foundation for the method of correction.
You might ask: “What about Abraham, the father of the nation? Doesn’t the method of correction belong to him?” During the times of Abraham we had not gone through the breaking of the souls and the destruction of the First and the Second Temples; the period of exile had not yet come to an end.
The ARI lived during the very end of the last exile, and from his time and on the “labor pains” of the time of redemption, the need to ascend, began. The ARI took the method of Kabbalah from the time of the Patriarchs and the time of the exile and made it into a method for correction of the souls. That is why he is especially dear to us. Let us hope that we will merit becoming true students of the ARI.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/15/10, Pri Hacham, Igrot (Letters), Letter 39
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A question I received: Why was Chaim Vital the only one of the ARI’s students to understand the teachings of the ARI? Why was it him in particular?
My Answer: It is impossible to know why the souls were arranged in this manner from Above. Baal HaSulam wrote that he did not know why he had merited such a great mission. However, we need to understand that only our corporeal perspective sees certain souls as extraordinary and others as unimportant or “secondary” ones because we see through the prism of our egoism.
However, if we are talking about the spiritual world, then there are no “great” or “small” souls there. Everything is measured in bestowal, and therefore the greatest one is the one that bestows the most, the one who serves everyone, and is situated below everyone else serving as support and a foundation for the others.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/15/10, Pri Hacham, Igrot (Letters), Letter 39
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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. I promise to answer them. The commentaries in brackets are mine.
The Creator’s Guidance Is Purposeful
His guidance over the reality that He has created is in the form of purposeful Guidance, without taking into consideration the order of the phases of development [determined by the initial and final states], for they deceive us and prevent us from understanding their purpose, being always opposite to their final shape. [By constantly challenging us with new tasks, the Creator teaches us, like children, how to become similar to Him.]
It is about such matters that we say, “There is none so wise as the experienced.” Only one who is experienced has the opportunity to examine Creation in all its phases of development, all the way through completion, and can calm things down, so as to not fear those spoilt images that the Creation undergoes in the phases of its development, but believe in its fine and pure end.
– Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”
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A question I received: Quantum physicists are getting more and more lost in their research even though they keep investing more strength and resources in it. Why has the field of science seemingly reached a dead end?
My Answer: The entire problem with our sciences is in our inability to connect all the facts to one, single source. Why have our scientific explorations hit a dead end which now requires us to make a new qualitative jump?
This happened because science, like all of humanity, has moved in the direction of separation, dissipation, and dispersion. Our scientific research is based on our nature, and our nature has become even more egoistic and dissipated. For this reason, we are not working in the direction of the synthesis of incidents; we are not looking for the commonality that connects everything into one whole. Only the wisdom of Kabbalah can help us with this.
I hope that after the entire confusion we will only see two forces operating in the entire universe. And then all the individual fields of sciences will unite: biology, zoology,botany, psychology, medicine, quantum physics, etc.
After all, if scientists were to use the wisdom of Kabbalah to help them reveal the common foundation, which gives origin to all the laws of behavior inherent in the still, vegetative, animate, and human levels, they will see that the entire external behavior comes from the same two forces that exist in nature: reception and bestowal.
There is nothing else beside these two forces and the combination between them in a multitude of states. The different degrees of inclusion in one another create the differences between all the levels and all the creatures.
If scientists were to understand this and begin to examine all occurrences from the point of view of two forces, science would progress from the seeming dead end they have reached. Scientists would be able to draw parallels between the things that happen on the still, vegetative, animate, and human levels. After all, these are the same forms of the combinations of forces of the Creator and the creation.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/16/10, Article “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Its Essence”
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A question I received: What is the Light that Reforms? What does it feel like? Is it something pleasant that illuminates our path?
My answer: This Light is a force that begins reforming me. I suddenly realize that I see the world in a “different light.” What changes is my outlook on things and my attitude to people. I become more tolerant, understanding, and agreeable with them. I become more compassionate and accepting of people the way they are. I feel that we are all tied together.
I feel closer to them and more forgiving, as if they are my children. I see them as parts of myself. I am not quite aware why and how it is happening, but I begin to forgive everybody. What I previously hated and was appalled by doesn’t seem that bad any more. I easily compromise, as if I am in a close relationship with people.
This is how the Light works on us. We don’t “see” it because it doesn’t illuminate what is in front of us as a flashlight would. This Light impacts us from within. We draw it to work in us and to reform our properties.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/16/10, Article “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Its Essence”
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Everything that the Kabbalists of the past did, each acting according to his own conditions and time, was the preparation to our present state. Thanks to it, we have all the primary sources necessary today, which enable us to advance: the writings of the ARI, The Zohar with the Sulam Commentary, the writings of Baal HaSulam and RABASH.
There has never been a time like ours before. The Kabbalists of the past were not given the opportunity to work in similar circumstances to what we have today: a global crisis that resembles the crisis of ancient Babylon and reflects the breaking of the common soul in the Upper world.
About 80-90 years ago, Baal HaSulam wrote that we would live in the generation of the Messiah, at the era of spiritual redemption. As the nation of Israel has already acquired their land and established a state, it means that we now have an opportunity to build everything according to the spiritual law of love thy neighbor as thyself and unite together as one spiritual nation.
However, it is impossible to reach this state without the realization of evil, and for this we need either great suffering, or for the Light to reveal our evil. Today we have an opportunity to draw this Light, to see that we are opposite to bestowal and love, and to begin the correction by uniting with society and the nation. Let’s hope that it happens soon!
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/15/10, Pri Hacham, Igrot (Letters), Letter 38
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How did the breaking of the worlds occur? The lower one, Malchut (which cannot fill itself, but without which the final correction is impossible) asks the Upper One (the mother, Ima) for the Light in order to receive it for the sake of bestowal. The whole system of the Upper worlds is ready to give the lower one this Light.
Now, everything depends on the lower one who understands that everything is ready for the feast. He can receive it without any shame, but only for the sake of bestowal. He truly desires bestowal! He is told from Above, “Take it; you can do it.” There is no way to predict the imminent downfall….
Somewhere in the First Restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph) hides the serpent’s tongue, but it is impossible to see it from here as it has never revealed itself before. This is a concealed point of the creature’s independence which has never manifested before. The creature completely obeyed the Creator, the Light that created it, and it was impossible to tell that something would interfere with it being in complete bestowal.
However, on the other hand, this point had to exist. Otherwise, the creature would not be independent. If I do everything that the Creator tells me, then it is as though I, myself, do not exist. My individuality does not exist. My “I” comes out particularly in in the fact that I want to become like the Creator, but something in me doesn’t allow me to do this. This quality that doesn’t let me become similar to the Creator in spite of my great desire is what makes me independent.
The root of the breaking is that it reveals the independence of the creature which stands opposite to the Creator. If the creature received all the desires now – the Light from Above, the awakening from below, and performed the action for bestowal – he would be a machine. Meanwhile, the breaking retrieves and develops the point from him which allows him to tear away from the Upper One, the Creator.
Before the breaking, the creature is just a machine. During the breaking, his independence is revealed. After the breaking, the system of correction of this point is created, and it provides the opportunity to act independently. The correction of the creature is that after the breaking, it makes all the decisions based on this point of one’s independence. Thus, one gradually ascends from below upward, toward the Creator, while building himself at the same time.
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/14/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot
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A question I received: Following is a quote from an article by Rabash. “Then the Creator said to him (Abraham): you should not regret that you do not work with uncircumcised people. Now, after circumcision, you have a similarity in qualities, and hence I can reveal myself to you.”
Is the circumcision the First or the Second Restriction? Also, what does “reveal” mean? Is it a connection between friends or a true desire for bestowal with an altruistic foundation as opposed to an egoistic one?
My Answer: Circumcision is the Second Restriction. As it is written, “Cut off the edge of your heart.” This means do not work with the egoistic desires (extremities) that will only become corrected at the end of correction, Gmar Tikkun.
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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. I promise to answer them. The commentaries in brackets are mine.
The Creator’s Guidance Is Purposeful
To understand these questions and inquiries [to comprehend the Thought of Creation and what happens with us] the only tactic is to examine the end of the act, that is, the purpose of Creation. For nothing can be understood in the middle of the process, but only at its end.
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 4
“God is the [the property of] Absolute Good, and … He [this property, force] watches us in complete benevolence without a hint of evil, and in purposeful [and absolute] guidance. That means that His guidance compels us to undergo [consciously, that is, with the same love and appreciation] a series of phases, by way of cause and effect, preceding and resulting, until we are qualified to receive [on our own] the desired goodness. And then we shall arrive at our [shared] purpose as a ripe and fine-looking fruit.
– Baal HaSulam, Article “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”
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