The Footsteps of the Mashiach
Question: They say that the Ari was Mashiach ben Yosef. What does that mean?
Answer: The correcting force called “Mashiach ben Yosef” carries out the preparation before the “coming” (revelation) of the correcting force “Mashiach ben David.” Yosef points to the Sefira Yesod, and David to Malchut. Yesod prepares its influence on Malchut in order to correct it.
The Mashiach is not a person, not the Ari himself, not his physical body, but his teaching, his method, his force. It is a soul that operated in the common system of souls in such a way as to open a path for the light and illuminate all souls with it.
It stands on the path of the light from above downward, connects the higher corrected souls of the Kabbalists of the past with those souls that are still uncorrected, receives the light in its higher clothing and clothes it in a form suitable for our souls, distributes it by degrees, and brings the light closer to our souls.
Therefore, starting from the Ari and onward, souls began a mass correction, as in the times of the Baal Shem Tov, with the emergence of Hasidism. In this way humanity began to advance spiritually.
If not for the Ari with his method, there would be no Baal Shem Tov with his Hasidic movement (which gave rise to numerous Kabbalistic groups among the people). And without the Baal Shem Tov there would be no Baal HaSulam, and without Baal HaSulam there would be none of us today studying Kabbalah.
These stages are called the “steps of the Mashiach.” In other words, it is the development of the method and practice of correction toward its final completion. We are the first to implement the final stage of correction, because we use the force of Mashiach ben Yosef in order to attain the revelation of the force Mashiach ben David and to correct Malchut itself, the general assembly of all souls with a common screen.
Question: Will a person with a special soul appear in our world who implements the method of correction and who will be called Mashiach ben David?
Answer: It is possible that Mashiach ben David is our common desire, which in the end will carry out this action, and not a particular individual. We are not interested in the people who lived in this world—the Ari, Baal HaSulam or even Rashbi—but in their influence within the system of souls. We are speaking about a soul that reveals the light of correction to us.
And we act in the same way. Together we create a system of souls in order to draw the light from above and pass it on to all the uncorrected souls. We perform an action that already belongs to the Malchut of David.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/22/11, Baal HaSulam, Preface “Introduction to the Book Panim Meirot uMasbirot”
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