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

Love of Others Is the Means to Attain the Love of the Creator

Both stages of the correction of egoism, its correction in relation to one’s friend and in relation to the Creator, …pursue the same goal, namely performing actions for the benefit of the Creator. It makes no difference if one works for one’s friend or for the Creator. That is because … anything beyond his own interests appears to be unreal.
– Baal HaSulam, “The Love for the Creator & Love for the Created Beings”

The imperative of “love thy friend as thyself” is the ultimate goal of all actions. …It’s impossible to be mistaken in its fulfillment since we know that if we place the needs of our friends before our own, it is bestowal.

Hence the goal is not to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul” for it is completely equivalent to “love thy friend as thyself.” … With regards to the Creator, one may deceive oneself; and with one’s friend it is always spread out before his eyes.
– Baal HaSulam, “The Love for the Creator & Love for the Created Beings”
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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Love of Others Is the Means to Attain the Love of the Creator

A person starts the correction of egoism with the intention “for oneself.” Then, under the influence of the Light that corrects, he acquires the intention “for the sake of the Creator.” Trying to reach bestowal to one’s friend, one reaches bestowal to and love of the Creator since it makes no difference if one works for one’s friend or for the Creator. That is because anything that is outside of man’s desire, outside of selfish profit, appears to be unreal.
– Baal HaSulam, “The Love for the Creator & Love for the Created Beings”

The impression that comes to a person when he bestows to the Creator is completely the same as the impression he gets when he bestows to the other. In both cases, he is engaged in bestowal, without any hope of receiving any reward. Hence, in the act of bestowal, the love of the Creator and the love of his friend unite and actually become one.
– Baal HaSulam, The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee), Item 22

The correction of man consists of two parts: By correcting his relation to the friend, one gains the skills necessary to correct his relation to the Creator.
– Baal HaSulam, “One Commandment”
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Related Material:
Kabbalists On Love Of Others And Love Of The Creator, Part 1
Kabbalists On The Torah And Commandments, Part 39
The Formula Of Returning To Goodness

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

Love of Others Is the Means to Attain the Love of the Creator

The first stage is love between friends and then they can attain love of the Creator.
– Rabash, The Rungs of the Ladder, “What Is the Substance of Slander and Against Whom Is It?”

The attitude toward the friends is more important than the attitude toward the Creator because the bestowal upon one’s friends brings one to bestow upon his Maker.
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 19

We must study the essence of the love of the Creator based on the study of love of the friends…since the properties of love of others were only imprinted in humans for reaching love of the Creator.
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 69
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The entire wisdom of Kabbalah came to us from The Book of Zohar and the works of the Ari. If it were not for Baal HaSulam, we would not be able to study. The Book of Zohar is full of allegories and stories understandable only to a person who is on the same spiritual degree and can decipher these clues.

As for the Ari, he himself never wrote anything; he only talked. All his works are written by the Ari’s disciple Chaim Vital and the entire multi-volume collection of essays is based on what the Ari said over one and a half years. His group existed only for a short time; he taught it and then passed away.

By various ways, this material went to various people who compiled books from it. One part of the records was kept in some secret place; the other was buried in Chaim Vital’s grave and retrieved later, when the grave was opened. The third part was handed down the generations and passed through many people, and who knows what they have done with it.

The Ari talked about the whole system in general, and if a person doesn’t have the complete works and cannot understand the material well, he cannot compile it correctly. That’s why, although these records were collected by Kabbalists, much was missing, and the accurate sequence couldn’t be kept.

Therefore, Baal HaSulam added his commentaries to the Ari’s works so that we could follow a natural progression from simple to increasingly complex and, studying in the correct form, understand the Ari’s writings. We wouldn’t be able to comprehend anything without it. In Kabbalah, this is very dangerous because it you don’t understand what is being described, you fantasize about anything.

So, we have to appreciate the great work that Baal HaSulam has accomplished: We would have achieved nothing without it. Sometimes people ask me: “If there are so many other Kabbalists, why don’t we study their works?” But we don’t have anybody else to learn from because all of them wrote from their high degrees, for example, such Kabbalists as the Vilna Gaon or Ramchal. We can’t base our studies on their works because Kabbalists didn’t interpret them for ordinary people like us so that we could understand, use, and realize them on ourselves.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/27/2011, “General Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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

The Importance of the Intention during the Study

If he intends to study the Torah in order to receive the reward of the Torah, called “Light that Reforms,” then his study is beneficial. However, when he forgets the goal of studying the Torah, the Torah is not instrumental in completing the work of making a desire of bestowal …This is the meaning of the words, “Any Torah without work [on the intention to get corrected by the Light of the Torah] ends in annulment” [is void of its Light].
– Rabash, The Rungs of the Ladder, “What Is Torah and Work on the Path of the Creator”

One of the wonders of studying the secrets of Torah is that when a person studies its concepts out of love, even though he is not capable of perceiving the matters with intellect, they elevate his essence nonetheless, hence these matters shine their Light upon him.
– Rav Raiah Kook, Orot HaTorah [Lights of the Torah], Chapter 10, section 10
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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

The Importance of the Intention during the Study

Before the study one must clarify the goal with which he now intends to study the Torah, meaning to clarify his intention.
– Rabash, The Rungs of the Ladder, “What Is Torah and Work on the Path of the Creator”

One needs to exert great effort before engaging in the study so that the study would bring him the Light of the Torah that Reforms.
– Rabash, The Rungs of the Ladder, “What Is Torah and Work on the Path of the Creator”

The purpose of the study of  the Torah is to come to feel the Giver of the Torah. Such a disciple is called “Israel.”
– Rabash, The Rungs of the Ladder, “What Is Torah and Work on the Path of the Creator”
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Related Material:
Kabbalists On The Approach To Studying The Wisdom Of Kabbalah, Part 5
Kabbalists On The Approach To Studying The Wisdom Of Kabbalah, Part 4
Kabbalists On The Approach To Studying The Wisdom Of Kabbalah, Part 3

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

The Importance of the Intention during the Study

The Creator, who created the evil inclination, evidently knew to create the remedy liable to eradicate it altogether. And if one practices Torah and fails to remove the evil inclination from himself, it is either because he has been negligent in giving the necessary effort, as it is written, “I have not labored but found, do not believe,” or perhaps one did put in the necessary amount of labor, but has been negligent in the quality.

This means that while practicing the Torah, he did not set his mind and heart to draw the Light in the Torah, which brings faith [the property of bestowal] to one’s heart. Rather, he has been absent-minded about the demand for the Light that Reforms, although he initially aimed for it.
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 18
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Related Material:
Kabbalists On The Approach To Studying The Wisdom Of Kabbalah, Part 4
Kabbalists On The Approach To Studying The Wisdom Of Kabbalah, Part 3
Kabbalists On The Approach To Studying The Wisdom Of Kabbalah, Part 2

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A person who opens The Book of Zohar, opens it in order to reveal the Creator. By definition, the science of Kabbalah is the method of revealing the Creator to creation in this world. Otherwise why would Kabbalah and all of Torah be given to us? The Creator becomes revealed in the desire to bestow and love in a person. This desire is equal to the Creator in qualities, and the Creator becomes revealed in it according to the law of equivalence of form.

Thus, the Creator is the quality of bestowing and loving, the force of bestowal and love, “the Good who does Good.” How, then, can we achieve the desire to bestow and love, the Good who does Good? By connecting with each other in spite of every person’s egoistic forces that mutually repel one another and by building a net of good connection between us above the net of hatred. By building a net in which every person is good and does good, bestows and loves in relation to others.

But how do we do this if each of us is just a small egoist? We read The Book of Zohar, which talks about our corrected states in which we are connected by a good connection between us, and we desire for this to come true inside of us. In that case we receive an impression of those good states, which already exist in infinity. This impression, the influence of forces from our corrected states upon our current state, is called “surrounding Light” or “the Light that returns us to the source of goodness.”

Then, according to the formula, “I created the evil inclination and I gave the Torah for its correction, because the Light in it returns to the source,” we return to the source—the Good who does Good. Thus, we reveal the Creator, the Good who does Good, our root.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/26/11, The Zohar

Related Material:
If You Want To Be Good – Prove It!
The House For The Creator
The Path To Revealing The Creator

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

The Importance of the Intention during the Study

During the practice of  the Torah, every person must..set his mind and heart to reveal the Creator [the property of bestowal and love]. And any person is fit for it, as it is written: “You labored and did not find, do not believe.” …Thus, one needs nothing in this matter except the labor alone.
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 97

There is a wonderful remedy to those who engage in the wisdom of Kabbalah. Although they do not understand what they are learning, through the great desire to understand, they awaken upon themselves the Lights that surround their souls.
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 155
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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

The Importance of the Preparation for the Study

Hence, the student pledges, prior to the study, to strengthen himself in faith in the Creator and in His guidance in reward and punishment…. One should aim one’s labor to be for the commandments of the Torah [his own correction], and in this way, he will be imparted the pleasure of the Light in it. His faith [in such act of correction] will strengthen and grow through the remedy in this Light….

Then one’s heart shall rest assured that from Lo Lishma [for oneself] he will come to Lishma [for the sake of bestowal or the Creator]. Thus, even if he has not been rewarded with faith [the property of bestowal], he still has hope through the practice of Torah. For if one sets one’s heart and mind to attain faith in [bestowal to] the Creator, through it there is no greater commandment than that.
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 17
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