Question: What is the difference between the school of the Baal Shem Tov and that of the Vilna Gaon?

Answer: This is a very complex system of two trends in the wisdom of Kabbalah. In general there are four streams in the wisdom of Kabbalah:

1. The Eastern wisdom of Kabbalah,

2. Kabbalah of Baal HaSulam, which is a continuation of the wisdom of the Kabbalah of the Baal Shem Tov,

3. Kabbalah of the Vilna Gaon, which is a continuation of the wisdom of Kabbalah of the Ramchal (Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto), and

4. The wisdom of Kabbalah of the Ramak (Rabbi Moshe Cordovero).

Today, however, there are no more unique streams. They are all studied mixed together and different Kabbalistic sources are used. Today you can’t even understand which of them are true and which are not.

I believe that the true sources are The Book of Zohar with the Sulam Commentary, the writings of Ari, and the writings of Baal HaSulam and Rabash. We study according to them.

There are streams that study according to other streams, with other sources. I cannot say anything about them, nor do I want to say anything about them. Each person will choose according to his interests.

Our main task is to make the wisdom of Kabbalah accessible to everyone in all languages and in the simplest way so that every person in the world can use it and discover how to correct himself and discover the system of higher management.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 10/1/17

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