Comment: Baal HaSulam was a revolutionary who performed a dramatic change in the wisdom of Kabbalah. He was strongly hated by some and strongly loved by others, and there was no average attitude toward him.

My Response: Yes, this is true. People who understood him loved him, and those who did not understand him naturally hated him very much. There were even people who used to come to his grave and step on it after he passed away.

Question: Do you think that Baal HaSulam was a revolutionary?

Answer: When I first began to read texts by Baal HaSulam it opened my eyes. I read a lot before that, including the writings of Ramhal, Ramak, the Gaon from Vilnius, and other serious Kabbalists who were popular. They were really great Kabbalists, but I didn’t feel that I received anything from them.

I did not enter their flow and did not understand their language. They did not tell me anything, although I seemingly listened and read books, but it was not the same system of expression that was supposed to clothe unto me.

When I discovered Baal HaSulam, however, I was very impressed by the way he expressed the text, by his system, his revelation, and how he guides the reader by telling him “Look here, look there, now you see the difference, this way or that way,” although I cannot say that I understood everything. It was a feeling of a teacher who studies with you and guides you, plays with you, and answers your questions.

Baal HaSulam’s writings are based mainly on questions and answers. In his articles he first asks questions and then answers them. This is the right thing to do methodically.

Question: You were looking for not a mystical or emotional, but actually for a scientific presentation.

Answer: Yes, of course, only scientific. Everything else was wrong and not true for me, and I thought that I had no need for it and that it was totally unimportant.

Question: How is Baal HaSulam’s modern language expressed scientifically?

Answer: At least in what he said, “In this article I would like to scrutinize these and those questions,” and then listed about 20 questions. Then he gradually clarifies one question after another and arrives at a clear and accurate outcome, and then sums it all up, “to sum up, what we have is this and that.”

As a university graduate and a beginning researcher, this approach was certainly the closest to me and best understood. I understood that he is a serious person and not just some religious person who believes in something and wants to impose his views on me by confusing me. As a methodologist, Baal HaSulam accurately builds a logical chain and a scientific approach.
[247601]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 3/10/19

Related Material:
The End Of “The Prophecy Of Baal HaSulam”
Baal HaSulam’s Mission
Attaining The Greatness Of Baal HaSulam

Filed under: Baal HaSulam, Kabbalah Study - No Comments →

Baal HaSulam, “The Prophecy of Baal HaSulam“:  Afterwards, the Lord spoke unto me with a vista, saying, “Lay down on your right-hand side.” And I laid down on the ground. And He said unto me: “What do you see?”

And I said, “I see many peoples and nations, rising and falling, and their faces are deformed humans.” And the Lord said unto me: “If you can grant form to all these nations and blow into them the spirit of life, then I shall bring you to the land that I have sworn unto your fathers, to give unto you, and all my goals will have been fulfilled by you.”

The fact is that we are simply making the translation easier so that people would really understand the idea of correction. But in general, of course, the strength of Baal HaSulam lives in his works.

It is through his connection with the Creator, with the upper force, and through his commentaries on The Zohar and all other works that we can approach the completion of this goal.

Everything that practically corrects us is that double-edged sword that he received from the Creator and with which we raise ourselves, correct ourselves, and shift from our egoistic attitude to the world to love and bestowal.

Question: What does it mean “a face of a man”?

Answer: “A face of a man” means “similar to the Creator” because “man – Adam,” comes from the word “similar- Domeh” to the Creator.

That is, the Creator says to Baal HaSulam “Make people become similar to Me. That is why I give you the sword.”
[278447]
From KabTV’s “The Power of The Book of Zohar” #5

Related Material:
Gratitude To Baal HaSulam
Melodies Of Baal HaSulam
Who Are The Articles By Baal HaSulam For?

Filed under: Baal HaSulam, Dissemination, Zohar - No Comments →

And it came to pass in the days of the war, the days of the dreadful carnage, that I was praying, crying bitterly all through the night. And behold, at the break of dawn, it seemed as though all the people in the world have gathered in a group before my mind’s eye. And a man was hovering among them with his sword over their heads, lashing at their heads. The heads soared upward, and their corpses fell to a great basin and became a sea of bones. (Baal HaSulam “The Prophecy”)

From the point of view of Kabbalah, we are talking about very large, serious processes in the souls. These are not heads or bodies, not our earthly minds or our qualities.

If we speak purely allegorically, then people, as if, are deprived of their minds. Only their bodies remain with them, which fall to the lowest level, the level of our world. They are deprived of the opportunity to rise spiritually, and thus they become spiritually dead.

By war we mean the war of the forces of good and evil, between which man is confined. In this war, everything depends on which way the action is going, what the scales are leaning toward.

And a voice called out to me: “I am the Lord, God, who governs the world with great mercy. Reach out your hand and take the sword, for now I have given you power and might.” … “I will make you a great sage and all the sages of the land shall be blessed in you, for I have chosen you for a righteous sage in all this generation, to heal the human suffering with lasting salvation.”

Baal HaSulam reveals his mission. The Creator, instead of sending an angel to take off heads, gives him a double-edged sword so that by the force of this sword, only by a reasonable, correct force, he can bring people another idea—correction— to give them, as it were, a different head and to restore their life, to make their striving forward different, that is, to guide them on the path of correction with the help of the same sword.

The sword symbolizes the upper light. It can be both the poison of death and the elixir of life.

This is what Baal HaSulam felt and he began to seriously implement this prophecy.
[278213]
From KabTV’s “The Power of The Book of Zohar” #5

Related Material:
Kabbalists On The Greatness Of Baal HaSulam, Part 2
Kabbalists On The Greatness Of Baal HaSulam, Part 1
Attaining The Greatness Of Baal HaSulam

Filed under: Baal HaSulam, Zohar - No Comments →

Baal HaSulam, “The Prophecy of Baal HaSulam“: Take this sword in your hand and guard it with your heart and soul, for it is a token between Me and you, that all those good things will happen through you, for until now, I had no such faithful man as you to give him this sword.  … And I said to myself: “May I grant all the dwellers of the world a drop of the purity of this sword, for then they will know that the pleasantness of the Lord is in the land.”

The Creator says that through Baal HaSulam He gives the world a method of correction that has never been passed on to anyone before.

My teacher was the eldest son of Baal HaSulam, and he took over the method of correction from him and passed it on to me. It is truly the most suitable for those souls who are now descending into our world. With its help, we can correct ourselves, correct the world, and achieve the goal of creation.

“I have chosen you for a righteous sage in all this generation, to heal the human suffering with lasting salvation. Take this sword in your hand, and guard it with thy heart and soul, for it is a sign between Me and you, that all those good things will happen through you, for until now, I had no such faithful man as you, to give him this sword.” 

Therefore, when the Creator says in essence, “You are a special person, and it is to you that I entrust this sword, this technique, the key of salvation,” they are not empty words.

Comment: It is known that the Creator told Moses the same thing upon his exit from Egypt.

My Response: At that time, it was necessary. But the Torah that Moses established is not enough for our generation because souls have gone through a lot of egoistic changes since then, and in our generation, they need a new approach.

Not even a new approach but a development of the previous technique to make a real method of correction out of it. This is what Baal HaSulam added.
[278327]
From KabTV’s “The Power of The Book of Zohar” #5

Related Material:
Gratitude To Baal HaSulam
Melodies Of Baal HaSulam
Who Are The Articles By Baal HaSulam For?

Filed under: Baal HaSulam, Kabbalah Dissemination, Rabash, Zohar - No Comments →

The anniversary of the passing away of Baal HaSulam, our teacher, is a special day. This is the soul that connects us with the Creator, the person who opened the gates of the wisdom of Kabbalah for the last generation, in which we live.

Without his teaching, we could not be awarded what we have already received and can still receive in the future. Knowledge, the entire approach, the methodology, and the stages of attainment, all this was prepared for us by Baal HaSulam. Of course, everything comes to us from the Creator but through this great soul.

One of the reasons that the wisdom of Kabbalah (reception) has such a name is that it gets passed on from generation to generation. Every student must have a teacher. Only exceptional individuals with special help from above can directly reach the attainment of the Creator by themselves. Therefore, we must always be connected with the sages who have attained spirituality, the great Kabbalists, so we can advance from generation to generation.

It all depends to what extent a person is able to follow the teacher. Everyone has their own difficulties in this. It is natural because this is how the degrees are arranged from above downward. It is difficult for the lower one to overcome their egoism and connect with the upper one.

In our world, on the animate level, there is no such problem because nature obliges a child to be dependent on adults. However, at the degree of man where you need to study the wisdom of Kabbalah, this is not easy to do. There we need to bow down and maximize the greatness of the teacher in order to learn from him.

Of course, this is not in order to honor the teacher but only for the benefit of the student. If the student feels less than the teacher, he will be able to bow down more and receive from the teacher. In the sciences of this world, this requirement is not so categorical, after all there the student must be critical of the teacher and check him out.

In the wisdom of Kabbalah, however, a person cannot attain anything if he does not bow before the Creator. Therefore, as much as he bows down before everything he receives from the teacher, who teaches him from the sources that came from the teachers of all generations, that much attainment he receives. Only in this form can the small one receive from the big one.

Therefore, we need to understand what an exceptional and great man Baal HaSulam was. We must accept all his works and legacy without any criticism, then we can hope that we will begin to connect with his soul and receive through him the upper force from the Creator.
[253792]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/10/19, “Baal HaSulam Memorial Day”

Related Material:
Gratitude To Baal HaSulam
Baal HaSulam—The Channel For Our Connection With The Creator
Baal HaSulam

Filed under: Baal HaSulam, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Kabbalah Study, Spiritual Teacher - No Comments →

Today is a special day—the anniversary of the passing of Baal HaSulam, our teacher, from this world. This is the soul that connects us with the Creator, the man who opened the gates of the wisdom of Kabbalah for the last generation in which we live. Without his teachings, we could not be rewarded with what we have already received and can still receive in the future. The knowledge, the whole approach and methodology, the stages of attainment—all this was prepared for us by Baal HaSulam. Of course, everything comes to us from the Creator, but through this great soul.

One of the reasons that the science of Kabbalah (receiving) has such a name is that it is transmitted from generation to generation. Each student must have a teacher. Only exceptional individuals can, with special help from above, directly reach attainment of the Creator by themselves. Therefore, we must always be connected with the sages who attained spirituality, the great Kabbalists, and thus advance generation after generation.

Here, everything depends on how much a person is able to follow the teacher. Everyone has their own difficulties in this and this is natural because this is how the steps from top to bottom are arranged. It is difficult for the lower ones to overcome their egoism and contact the upper ones. In our world at the animal level, there is no such problem because nature obliges a child to be dependent on adults. But at the human level on which it is necessary to study the science of Kabbalah, this is no longer easy to do. There, we need to bow down and maximize the greatness of the teacher in order to learn from him.

Of course, this is not in order to honor the teacher but only for the benefit of the student. If a student feels himself less than his teacher, then he will be able to lower himself more and receive from the teacher. In the sciences of this world, this requirement is not so categorical because the student must be critical of the teacher and test him. But in the science of Kabbalah, a person cannot attain anything if he has not bowed down before the Creator. And therefore, to the extent to which he bows down to what he receives from the teacher who teaches him from the primary sources that came from teachers of all generations, he gains attainment. Only in this form can a small one receive from a great one.

Therefore, we need to understand what an exceptional and great man Baal HaSulam was. We are obliged to accept all his works, all his legacy, without any criticism and then we can hope that we will begin to connect with his soul and receive through him the upper force from the Creator.
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/10/19, Baal HaSulam Memorial Day

Related Material:
Baal HaSulam
Why We Need To Understand The Greatness And Uniqueness Of Baal HaSulam
Studying According To Baal HaSulam

Filed under: Baal HaSulam, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Spiritual Teacher - No Comments →

From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 10/10/19

Yehuda Leib HaLevi Ashlag is known as Baal HaSulam (Owner of the Ladder) for his Sulam (ladder) commentary on The Book of Zohar. Baal HaSulam dedicated his life to interpretations and innovations in the wisdom of Kabbalah, disseminating it in Israel and throughout the world. He developed a unique method to the study of Kabbalah, by which any person can delve into the depth of reality and reveal its roots and purpose of existence.

Baal HaSulam was born in Warsaw, Poland on Sep 24, 1884. At the age of nineteen he was ordained as a rabbi by the greatest rabbis of Warsaw, and for sixteen years he served as a Dayan (Jewish orthodox judge) and a teacher in Warsaw.

Baal HaSulam’s teacher was Rabbi Yehoshua of Porsov. In 1921, Baal HaSulam immigrated to Israel and settled in the Old City of Jerusalem. The word of his coming quickly spread among Jews who emigrated from Poland, and he soon became known as an authority in Kabbalah. Gradually, a group of students formed around him, attending Kabbalah lessons in the wee hours. Later on Baal HaSulam moved from the Old City and settled in Givat Shaul, which was then a new neighborhood in Jerusalem, where for several years he served as the neighborhood rabbi.

Baal HaSulam spent the years 1926-1928 in London. During his time in London he wrote the commentary to the Aris Tree Of Life Panim Meirot uMasbirot, which he printed in 1927. Throughout his stay in London, Baal HaSulam conducted extensive correspondence with his students in Israel, which were assembled in 1985 in a book titled Igrot Kodesh (Letters of Sanctity).

In 1933, Baal HaSulam published the tractates Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah), HaArvut (The Bond), and HaShalom (The Peace).

Baal HaSulams two major works, the result of many years of labor, are Talmud Eser Sefirot (The Study of the Ten Sefirot), a commentary on the writings of the Ari, and Perush HaSulam (The Sulam Commentary)on The Book of Zohar. The publications of the 16 parts (in six volumes) of Talmud Eser Sefirot began in 1937. In 1940 he published Beit Shaar HaKavanot (The Gatehouse of Intentions),with commentaries to selected writings of the Ari. Persuh HaSulam on the Zohar was printed in 18 volumes in the years 1945-1953. Later on Baal HaSulam wrote three additional volumes containing commentaries on The New Zohar, whose printing was completed in 1955, after his demise.

In his Introduction to the Book of Zohar, Baal HaSulam writes as follows (item 58): And I have named that commentary The Sulam (ladder), to show that the purpose of it is, as with every ladder, that if you have an attic full of goods, then all you need is a ladder to reach it, and then all the bounty of the world is in your hands.

Baal HaSulam wrote a series of introductions that prepare the student for proper study of Kabbalistic texts. Some of these introductions are Preface to the Book of Zohar, Introduction to the Book of Zohar, Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, Preface to the Sulam Commentary, General Preface to the Tree of Life, and Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot.

In 1940, Baal HaSulam published the first and, as it turned out, the last issue of the journal HaUma (The Nation). The journal was shut down by the British Mandate authorities after having received malicious information that the journal propagated communism.

Baal HaSulam encountered enormous difficulties printing his books. We can learn of the importance he ascribed to printing and disseminating Kabbalah from the 2003 Israel Award laureate Prof. Shlomo Giora Shohams description of his meeting with Baal HaSulam in the early 1950s.

“I found him standing in a dilapidated building, almost a shack, which housed an old printing press. He couldn’t afford to pay a typesetter and was doing the typesetting himself, letter by letter, standing over the printing press for hours at a time, despite the fact that he was in his late sixties. Ashlag was clearly a tzaddik (righteous man) – a humble man, with a radiant face. But he was an absolutely marginal figure and terribly impoverished. I later heard that he spent so many hours setting type that the lead used in the printing process damaged his health.”

This excerpt was published on Dec 17, 2004 in Haaretz newspaper, in a story by Micha Odenheimer.

Baal HaSulam did not merely put his ideas on paper; he acted vigorously to promote them. He met with many leaders of the Jewish settlement in Israel of the time, leaders of the Labor movement and many public figures. Among these figures are David Ben-Gurion, Zalman Shazar, Moshe Sadeh, Chaim Arlozorov, Moshe Aram, Meir Yaari, Yaakov Hazan, Dov Sadan and the great poet Haim Nahman Bialik.

According to Ben-Gurion, he met with Yehuda Ashlag several times, and was apparently surprised:

“I wanted to talk to him about Kabbalah, and he wanted to talk about Socialism.”

(Ben-Gurion Archive, Diaries, Aug 11, 1958).
In his essay Three Meetings and In Between (Amot, Tel-Aviv, 1963, p.49), Dov Sadan writes:

“Rabbi Yehuda Leib Ashlag, among the greatest Kabbalists of the time, aimed at turning the fundamentals of Kabbalah into a historic engine of our generation. Through his socialistic perception, which is based on the above, he sought contact with the Kibbutz Movement.”

It might be surprising to think that Baal HaSulam sought connection with the Hebrew Labor Movement and its leaders, considering the mental and educational chasm between them. However, deep study of his writings reveals a fascinating and intriguing figure of an erudite who was very much involved in the events of his time, both in Israel and the world over, a figure whose ideas are considered revolutionary and daring even to this day.

Filed under: Baal HaSulam, Facebook, Spiritual Teacher - No Comments →

Today is a special day, the Yahrzeit, the day commemorating the death of Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag, Baal HaSulam.  

Who is Baal HaSulam? He is the soul that connects us to the Creator. He was a person who opened all the gates of the wisdom of Kabbalah to the last generation we’re now in.

Without Baal HaSulam’s teaching, we would be unable to be awarded with what we have already received. Moreover, without Baal HaSulam’s teaching, we would be unable to progress to what is ahead of us, both in terms of the knowledge and the method of Kabbalah, and also its stages of attainment.

No matter what will happen as we head forth, we will reach a need for the Creator. However, such a need will have to pass through this great soul.

“A person has the choice of going to a place where there are righteous. One can accept their authority, and then he will receive all the powers that he lacks by the nature of his own qualities. He will receive it from the righteous. This is the benefit in ‘planted them in each generation,’ so that each generation would have someone to turn to, adhere to, and from whom to receive the strength required to rise to the degree of a righteous.”

– Baal Hasulam. Shamati article 99. “He Did Not Say Wicked or Righteous.”

One of the reasons why the wisdom of Kabbalah is called “the wisdom of Kabbalah (reception)” is because it passes through each generation, and every generation needs a teacher, a Kabbalist, one with spiritual attainment, in the world. That is a necessity in the wisdom of Kabbalah. Only extremely rare and unique individuals can reach attainment of the Creator by receiving special treatment from above. As such, we need to always be connected to great sages who are in spiritual attainment, so that in each generation, we can make spiritual progress.

Since the wisdom of Kabbalah discusses phenomena that a person can only attain through the teacher, then he learns sources, through the teacher, which pass through all generations. The key to the student’s attainment of what passes through his teacher is subjugation, through which the small can receive from the great. Accordingly, there are degrees of the student’s subjugation to the teacher.

Therefore, we need to understand how great and unique Baal HaSulam was, and how much we need to subjugate to what he left us, his writings, with the hope that to the extent of such subjugation, we will be able to connect to his spirit, through which we can receive the upper force from the Creator.
Kabbalah Lesson on the Topic “Baal HaSulam Memorial Day” on October 10, 2019.

Filed under: Baal HaSulam - No Comments →

Question: Why did Baal HaSulam burn about 50 of his articles like “The Last Generation,” and “Peace in the World”? What have we lost?

Answer: I cannot say what we have lost. He simply did not finish most of these articles because he was banned from publishing them.

There are many opponents of Kabbalah. Nowadays we also see on the Internet how many ill-wishers we have. But this does not prevent us from disseminating.

At that time, dissemination was impossible. An application was submitted to the British mandate, which was then in charge of the country, and Baal HaSulam was banned from publishing his articles. Therefore, he said: “This is a sure sign that I should not be writing.”

It is a shame, of course, because we lost a massive amount of unique material. However, probably, it should be so. Otherwise, there would be too much material for us and we would not know what to do.

Question: Why do you often say that the burning of manuscripts is also a revelation?

Answer: The fact is that when a Kabbalist writes and then burns the writing, it means this has already been written down in our world, already sounded, read, and passed through the sensation of man. That is, the upper force has realized itself in this person. If it has already been realized in someone, felt by him, then it will be achievable by others. After that, he can burn everything, it doesn’t matter anymore.
[247791]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson in Russian, 3/10/19

Related Material:
In Order For The Higher Energy To Penetrate The World
Who Are The Articles By Baal HaSulam For?
The Secret Of The Missing Volumes Of The Book of Zohar

Filed under: Baal HaSulam, Kabbalah Study - No Comments →

Baal HaSulam’s Yahrzeit [ed. the anniversary of Baal HaSulam’s passing] is a special day of remembrance and gratitude to a very special and exalted soul who descended to this world as a messenger of the Creator to open a path for us, an entrance to the upper world, so that we can reach it here, during our lifetime.

Baal HaSulam did so much in order to bridge our corporeal Kli (vessel) and the spiritual one, which lets us connect with it, and through it reach connection with the Creator. He paved a very long and special path, just like the Baal Shem Tov and the Ari did in their times. We are incapable of fully appreciating what this soul did.

Ultimately, we should be thankful to the Creator for sending us such a soul, such tremendous help. When we learn from the books of Baal HaSulam and approach the goal with his help, we must appreciate, thank, honor, and love this extraordinary person, this special tool that creates a connection between us, those who are below and those who are above.

We should be so proud of this honor and take on even more commitments to be worthy of connection with such a soul. We are unable to realize his contribution to us and its power, but still, we must love him, as children love their parents. So we must draw near and cling to this soul, which opened the passage to the Creator in our time. We would stand no chance without him.

There were many Kabbalists before, but in our time, there is no other method that allows, in practice, for the revelation of the Creator and becoming His partners, supporters in His work with creation. Thanks to Baal HaSulam, we are able with our small souls to facilitate his ascent, and along with him, our own. We were honored to receive an invitation, a pass to the upper world, and the choice is in our hands.

A mere two hundred years ago it was impossible to conceive that completely secular people like us, without any preparation or connection with the Torah, could have any chance of approaching spirituality. Then came the soul of Baal HaSulam and opened a passage for us, and now we can pass through this tunnel just because of our pure desire.

The most important thing is the desire. It doesn’t matter that a person has sunken low in the corporeal sense, it has no relevance in spirituality. If you look over the Machsom into the spiritual world, you will see the person as though through an x-ray: no meat or fat, just the bones, which is the essence. And according to that essence, according to our desire, we are accepted into spirituality.

I am so happy that there are so many people with us around the world that yearn according to their inner essence toward the truth, and in line with their desire are ready, through the method of Baal HaSulam, to cross that path and reach perfection.

The key to this is very simple: our unity. We advance to the extent that we unite; with each move toward unity we take another step in our advancement. This tunnel puts constant pressure on us, it squeezes us and forces us to connect even more tightly to the point of passing through the eye of a needle. The secret of our success lies exclusively in our unity.
[233540]
From the Daily Kabbalah lesson, “Yahrzeit Baal Sulam”, 9/19/18

Related Material:
Melodies Of Baal HaSulam
New Life #624 – Baal HaSulam- Rav Yehuda Levi Ashlag
Who Are The Articles By Baal HaSulam For?

Filed under: Baal HaSulam, Dissemination, Holidays, Spiritual Work - No Comments →