Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

The Superiority of Man to the Beast

Man’s advantage over animals is that he can aim at a remote goal, meaning to agree to a certain amount of current pain, out of choice of future benefit or pleasure, to be attained after some time.
– Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”

And man’s pre-eminence over all animals is that our minds are developed to such an extent that all the body’s events are depicted in our brains as images that we experience as concepts and rationalities. Thus, the mind and all its deductions are but products that extend from the events of the body.
– Baal HaSulam, “Body and Soul”
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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

The Superiority of Man to the Beast

Animate: Each of them has its own sensation and characteristic. They can certainly operate against nature, meaning give, and they have individual life. Yet, they cannot feel more than their own being. In other words, they have no sensation of the other and hence, cannot care for the other.

Speaking: It can act against nature, is independent from the society, and feels the other, and hence can care for them and complement them by feeling and regretting with the public, being able to rejoice in the solace of the public, and by the ability to receive from the past and from the future.
– Baal HaSulam, Shamati (I Heard), Article #115, “Still, Vegetative, Animate, and Speaking”
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Question: When you simplify The Book of Zohar, aren’t you afraid of ruining it?

Answer: No, I’m not afraid because I know for sure that I’m ruining it! The text of Zohar for the People is compiled from the original text of The Book of Zohar and the Sulam Commentary, weaved together and simplified.

Therefore, it is definitely ruined compared to the source. Many words (such as Behina and others) that underline precision, were removed from the sentences in order to make the text easier. The resulting text is coarser, less precise, but more concrete.

We had to take this plunge in order to bring The Zohar’s text closer to an average person’s level of reading and understanding. Of course, this kind of text does not replace the source under any circumstances. It is intended for mass reading of The Book of Zohar.

Some study Kabbalah as mechanics, some study Kabbalah as a wisdom, some study Kabbalah to memorize things, some study Kabbalah to write books, some study Kabbalah to teach—but some study Kabbalah in order to change. Under the influence of the upper Light that descends upon a person in the process of reading The Book of Zohar, one starts feeling the upper world, and then, from the sensations, he begins to understand it. This is the real study of Kabbalah. And the book Zohar for the People is intended for these kinds of people.
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Related Material:
A Ladder Into The Sky
Kabbalah’s Most Important Book
The Zohar Will Help Everyone

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

The Superiority of Man to the Beast

And the most important sensation is the noetic sensation given to man alone. By its virtue we can come to perceive the Creator.
– Baal HaSulam, “The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence”

A beast sees only itself, not the past or the future. Man feels the past and, thanks to this, can correct his flaws. Whereas beasts, not being able to correct themselves, cannot evolve as man does.
– Baal HaSulam, “Writings of the Last Generation”
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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

The Superiority of Man to the Beast

All animals completely rely on nature and are utterly incapable of progressing beyond nature, meaning beyond the qualities they are created with. Man, however, has been gifted with the power of thought. Using this power, he gradually becomes free of the chains of his nature and develops it from reception to bestowal. His task is to take example from nature and act like it.

He does not wait for nature to give him chicks, for the hen to come and incubate the eggs. Instead, he builds a machine that incubates the eggs and hatches chicks for him, just as the natural hen. Having learned about the purpose of his development, man does not wait for nature to bring him to similarity to the Creator by the slow and evil path of suffering, but rather hastens and betters his development by the power of Light.
– Baal HaSulam, “The Nation”
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Related Material:
Kabbalists On The Nature Of Man And The Nature Of The Creator, Part 9
Kabbalists On The Nature Of Man And The Nature Of The Creator, Part 8
Kabbalists On The Nature Of Man And The Nature Of The Creator, Part 7

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

The Superiority of Man to the Beast

After all the research, we find no advantage of man’s form over the beast except for the awakening towards Godly Dvekut (adhesion). It follows that the whole meaning of humanity’s existence is evaluated by the strength of man’s aspiration to the Creator, and in that, he is superior to the beast.

This is why it is written, “a wild ass’ colt is born a man.” And as the beastly desires necessary for his sustenance arise in man, so do the human desires need to awaken in him necessary for the fulfillment of his purpose. And the type of desires helps us discern who stands before us: still a beast or already a human, meaning he who craves similarity to the Creator.
– Baal HaSulam, “This Is for Judah”
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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Egoism Is Embedded in the Nature of Every Person

Egoism is not natural self-love, which is entirely positive, individual force of existence. In that respect, it does not altogether contradict the altruistic force, although it does not serve it.

Egoism is progressive hatred and exploitation of one’s friend to ease one’s own existence. It contradicts and is the complete opposite of the love of others and destroys the society.
– Baal HaSulam, “The Nation”
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Related Material:
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Kabbalists On The Nature Of Man And The Nature Of The Creator, Part 6
Kabbalists On The Nature Of Man And The Nature Of The Creator, Part 5

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Egoism Is Embedded in the Nature of Every Person

The nature of each and every person is to exploit the lives of all other people in the world for his own benefit [without considering the profit of another at all]. And all that he gives to another [by using him or her] is only out of necessity; and even then there is exploitation of others in it, but it is done cunningly [by distributing prizes or rewards, privileges to disguise the exploitation], so that his friend will not notice it and concede willingly.
– Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”

Anything outside one’s own body is regarded as unreal and empty. And any movement that a person makes to love another is performed only…to receive a reward. Thus, such an act cannot be considered “love of another” because it is judged by its end. …But making any kind of movement only as a result of love for others, without…any hope for any kind of self-gratification in return, is completely impossible by nature.
– Baal HaSulam, Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah), Item 13
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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Egoism Is Embedded in the Nature of Every Person

While man’s very essence is only to receive for oneself. By nature, we are unable to do even the smallest thing to benefit others. Instead, when we give to others, we are compelled to expect that in the end, we will receive a worthwhile reward [otherwise, we are incapable of performing that act].
– Baal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

The equal side in all the people of the world is that each of us stands ready to abuse and exploit all the people for his own private benefit with every means possible, without taking into any consideration that he is going to build himself on the ruin of his friend [or doing it consciously, by ruining his friend, which makes his own fulfillment look and feel even greater].
– Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”
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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Egoism Is Embedded in the Nature of Every Person

Egoism is embedded in the nature of every person, as in any animal [but in man it is also directed at using and demeaning the other and in addition, it constantly develops].
– Baal HaSulam, “The Solution”

One cannot make a single movement without any benefit for oneself.
– Baal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

“A wild ass shall be turned into man” (Job 11:12) because when one emerges out of the bosom of Creation, one is in utter filth and lowliness, meaning a multitude of self-love that is imprinted in him [and he is not capable of considering the interests of another], whose every movement revolves solely around himself, without a shred of bestowal upon others [and what’s more, by demeaning another. Man always evaluates his success not in and by itself, but relative to another. Meanwhile, an animal is content with natural needs and virtually does not compare itself with others].
– Baal HaSulam, Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah), Item 12
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Related Material:
Kabbalists On The Nature Of Man And The Nature Of The Creator, Part 3
Kabbalists On The Nature Of Man And The Nature Of The Creator, Part 2
Kabbalists On The Nature Of Man And The Nature Of The Creator, Part 1

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