Baal HaSulam made it so that if an ordinary person follows his way, he can achieve Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator just like a dedicated wise disciple. Before him, one had to be a great wise disciple in order to be rewarded with Dvekut with the Creator (RABASH, Assorted Notes 75, “The Work of the Greatest in the Nation“).

We received this opportunity thanks to Baal HaSulam, who revealed the wisdom of Kabbalah to us and brought it closer. And we see that by following his method, we are indeed advancing and gradually drawing nearer to the Creator. Only small steps remain to reach the first contact with Him.

The actions of the Kabbalists are multifaceted. The Kabbalists worked to develop the wisdom of Kabbalah itself, its methodology, and also to make themselves a channel for conveying the upper light to us. That is, they tried in every possible way to bring the Creator closer to us, both from His side to us and from our side to Him.

And Baal HaSulam acted specifically for the last generation, so that “even an ordinary person, following his path, could be rewarded with adhesion to the Creator.” We hope that we too will be able to merit this.

Know for certain that since the time of the ARI to this day, there has not been anyone who understood the method of the ARI to the fullest…as they are in their upper root… .

And now, by the Creator’s will, I have been rewarded with a conception [impregnation] of the soul of the ARI, not because of my good deeds but by a higher will. It is beyond me, too, why I have been chosen for this wonderful soul, with which no one has been granted since his passing until today (Baal HaSulam, Letter 39).

The whole difficulty of the wisdom of Kabbalah lies in the fact that although all Kabbalistic books are available for reading, it is impossible to understand them without the detailed explanations of a teacher who constantly works on the student to develop his mind and arrange his soul. Kabbalah cannot be studied independently, and even studying with a true teacher takes many years.

A student needs a recognized teacher who is in spirituality, who will serve as a channel of connection to the upper light, and organize each step of his spiritual work just as one cares for an infant in our world. Without this, growth is impossible, as if an infant were left alone in the forest.

There are many people who passionately wish to attain spirituality and begin to study. But if they have no teacher, they may extract purely mechanical knowledge from the books, which in no way brings them closer to the Creator.

After all, this work is extraordinarily difficult and can only be done under the condition of continuous care of the student by the teacher and participation in a proper group. It is painful to see how people get entangled in all kinds of methods of their own invention.

Baal HaSulam separated the wisdom of Kabbalah from all fabrications, so that a person who wishes to engage in the work of the Creator would clearly know whether he is on the right path or not. And therefore, there are forces that try to distance people from Baal HaSulam.

We hope that despite everything, we will succeed in spreading his method in the widest possible way and to give every person the opportunity to attain the realization and revelation of their soul.

RABASH writes about Baal HaSulam in the “Introduction to the Book Pri Haham”: “Such a soul descends into the world once in ten generations.” In truth, it is impossible for us to comprehend the true height of his soul, just as small children cannot understand who their father and mother are or appreciate the home in which they are growing up—for that, one must first grow up.

We hope that we will grow and understand who our teacher truly is, he who even today serves as the connecting link between us and the upper force. We will try to realize his method; it is the very same method of ARI and RASHBI. There is no other method; one only needs to know how to correctly implement it. And it is truly possible to feel that within Baal HaSulam an inclusion of the soul of the ARI occurred.

Baal HaSulam gave all his strength to slightly bring down the wisdom of Kabbalah from the heavens and bring it closer to us. He thought only about how to write books that are accessible to the modern generation and to spread them. We do not understand how much this man sacrificed so that we, 60 to 70 years later, could take these books and extract from them all the principles of spiritual work.
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From a conversation at a meal on the day of remembrance of Baal HaSulam, 9/30/2017

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