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

The Remedy in the Engagement in the Wisdom of Kabbalah

We have to learn the exalted matters called “the wisdom of Kabbalah” only as the means to reach the Creator by studying the properties of bestowal. …When one studies the exalted matters in order for them to bring him nearer to the property of bestowal, it results in drawing the Lights nearer. This means that this study will cause him to thus be rewarded with aiming all his actions to be in order to bestow. This is called “preparation work” for he prepares himself to be qualified to merge with the Creator.
– Rabash, The Rungs of the Ladder, “Three Lines”

There is a remedy in the Torah to reform a person. This refers to the evil within a person, meaning that the will to receive will be in order to bestow.
– Rabash, The Rungs of the Ladder, “As I am for Free, You Are for Free”
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Related Material:
Kabbalists On The Approach To Studying The Wisdom of Kabbalah, Part 1
Kabbalists About Studying Kabbalah, Part 19
Kabbalists About Studying Kabbalah, Part 18

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

The Remedy in the Engagement in the Wisdom of Kabbalah

Why are we all obliged to study the wisdom of Kabbalah? It’s because although those who study it do not understand what they are learning, through the yearning and the great desire to understand what they are learning, they awaken upon themselves the Lights that surround their souls.
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 155

It is written in The Zohar: “With this composition, the Children of Israel [those who aspire to His revelation] will be redeemed from exile [His concealment].” …only through the expansion of the wisdom of Kabbalah in the masses will we obtain complete redemption [from sufferings of this world].
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 5

When a person engages in the wisdom of Kabbalah, mentioning the names of the Lights and the vessels related to his soul, they immediately influence him to a certain extent…and time after time during the engagement…bring him closer to achieving perfection.
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 155
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Related Material:
Kabbalists About Studying Kabbalah, Part 19
Kabbalists About Studying Kabbalah, Part 18
Kabbalists About Studying Kabbalah, Part 17

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

Workers of the Creator Who Make the Torah Arid

This is the matter concerning the declining merit of the generations until they reached the final restriction in our generation and hence nobody feels any need to correct their nature. …Even those engaging in the work, it is by rote; they are not thirsty to reveal the upper wisdom. And even if they see such an opportunity, they prefer to remain at the level of simple execution.
– Baal HaSulam, “The Remedy of Memory”

Woe unto people from the affront of the Torah. For undoubtedly, when they engage only in the literal and in its stories, it wears its widow-garments, and covered with a bag. And all the nations shall say unto Israel: “What is thy Beloved more than another beloved? Why is your law more than our law? After all, your law, too, is stories of the mundane.” There is no greater affront to the Torah than that. Hence, woe unto the people from the affront of the Torah. They do not engage in the wisdom of Kabbalah, which honors the Torah, for they prolong the exile and all the afflictions that are about to come to the world.
– The Writings of Ari, The Tree of Life, Part 1, “Introduction of Chaim Vital,” 11-12
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Question: What does it mean that each of Rabbi Shimon’s nine students represented a separate Sefira? Can Kabbalists like that exist in our time as well?

Answer: The ten Kabbalists who made it possible to write The Book of Zohar are the ten main Sefirot. Each of them, by attaining the root of his soul, understood that he belongs to one of their main ten Sefirot, and then their inner unification produced such an enormous force that they could fully reveal the upper Light and “splash it out” on us. That is why this book is called “The Zohar,” according to the name of the Light that shines in the upper part of the world of Atzilut (GAR de Atzilut).

I don’t think that today we need Kabbalists of such high stature. They have already revealed everything, have illuminated the entire system of souls, and then all the other Kabbalists joined the same system. This produced an entire corrected net of souls inside of the common system of souls, which are not corrected yet.

Now, if we want to correct ourselves, then it’s enough for us to read The Book of Zohar and as much as we can, with all our might, to try to join its authors, their souls, as well as the Kabbalists who follow them. They became the corrected part in the common system of souls, and if we want to join them, then we will be able to use all of the Lights and forces that operate in their mutual unification. That is how we will be able to use the Light of The Book of Zohar.

Essentially, we have already received everything! There already exists a corrected system of souls inside of the system that still hasn’t corrected itself. We have the book at our disposal and all of the science of Kabbalah in general, which we study by the method of Baal HaSulam. This is enough for us!

It’s clear that there will still be new revelations, we will explain everything more and will better understand what is written in this book. But from above we have already received everything in order to complete our correction.

Kabbalah is studied in a group. And every person in the world who feels that he has to correct his soul and aspires to reveal why he exists, where the root of his life is and its reason, will eventually find his way into the same net—into one of our groups. There he will begin to reveal what we are doing and how to reveal the root of the soul, how to reveal the spiritual system in which we exist, although we are there in an unconscious state for now. So how can we come to realize this system?

When we come to the group and start studying, then at first we see people in front of us. But then, after we have studied for some time, we begin to understand that these are not people, but an internal connecting net that unites us.

For now this system is dysfunctional, but we are trying to reveal a certain connection in it, looking for a force that could correct us, make us one person with one heart, bring us to love for the neighbor, mutual guarantee, and mutual unification.

This mutual aspiration toward one another in order to reveal the connection between us in the unity of hearts brings us to the sensation of that net. We feel that it exists. We suddenly begin to feel that it is present. And then, inside of this connecting system, we see ourselves and all of the great Kabbalists that enter this net as its corrected elements and support it, conducting Light inside of this system, nourishing it by the Light of unification, love, and mutual participation among all its elements.

It doesn’t matter how we sit together: physically or virtually. The most important thing is that we feel together and want to become part of the same system, to join the Kabbalists. And if we read The Book of Zohar, then we pull nourishment, force, understanding, and spiritual sensation from these souls, from that corrected net, just like children pull it out of adults. This enables us to become part of that system ourselves and attain mutuality, connection, and concessions, canceling ourselves and uniting with everyone.
From the program about Lag B’Omer on 5/17/2011

Filed under: Collective Soul, Group Work, Holidays, Kabbalah Study, Kabbalistic Sources, Q&A, Spiritual Teacher, Spirituality, Unity, Zohar - 1 Comment →

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

Workers of the Creator Who Make the Torah Arid

There is an oath that the Light of bestowal and love will not awaken in the world before Israel’s deeds in Kabbalah study will have the intention to bestow contentment. …Thus, the length of the exile and affliction that we suffer depends on us and waits for us to merit the practice of the intention to bestow.
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 36

A person, born with the will to receive and wishing to correct it to in order to bestow, which is known to be against nature, has only one counsel: the Light of the Torah. … Hence, such people who engage in Torah, not necessarily to know the laws and the customs and to fulfill the commandment, but…in order to correct the heart, these are called, “wise at heart.”
– Rabash, The Rungs of the Ladder, “What Is Torah and Work on the Path of the Creator”

Those who engage solely in the dresses of the Torah are gravely mistaken. …they consider the wisdom of the Torah with its purpose as mere addition of some quip to the laws—which, though truly sacred and precious—they will not illuminate our souls.
– Rav Kook, Igrot (Letters), Vol. 2, 153
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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Workers of the Creator Who Make the Torah Arid

But if a person from Israel degrades the virtue of Kabbalah, which deals with the correction of our souls, relative to the mechanical fulfillment of religious rituals, …he humiliates and disgraces the Children of Israel and strengthens the destructors of the world in the nations of the world, who will regard Israel as superfluous, as though the world has no need for them, God forbid.
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 69

I met with the most renowned Kabbalists of Jerusalem, people who have already worn out their years delving in the writings of the Ari and The Zohar and knew them virtually by heart…. I asked them if they had studied with a Teacher who attained the inner essence of the texts. They answered: “Heavens, no! There is no internality here whatsoever, but accurate texts, given to us, and nothing more than that.”… “The Ari received the composition of these matters from Elijah, and he knew the internality, since he is an angel.” Here my wrath poured out on them, for my patience to be with them had ended.
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book, From the Mouth of a Sage”
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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Workers of the Creator Who Make the Torah Arid

The redemption of Israel and the rise of Israel depend on the study of Kabbalah. And vice versa, all the destruction and the decline of…Israel are because…they have degraded its merit and made it seemingly redundant.
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 69

The Creator gave us Kabbalah, the method of correction,… so that with its help we could learn to perform actions with the intention to benefit the Creator. Had it not been for the engagement in Kabbalah for the sake of the Creator,… there would have been no tactic in the world that could help us invert our nature.

…If one’s intention in the study of Kabbalah is not to benefit the Creator, …not only will his nature not be corrected, but rather it will become worse: His egoism will be greater than what he received from nature.
– Baal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”
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Related Material:
Kabbalists On The Torah And Commandments, Part 46
Kabbalists On The Torah And Commandments, Part 45
Kabbalists On The Torah And Commandments, Part 44

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

Workers of the Creator Who Make the Torah Arid

There is a common opinion that the essence of the Torah is in the observance of the actions, and for this it is enough to study the revealed part of the Torah. … Yet, this is not the case. Our sages have already said, “Why should the Creator mind if one slaughters at the throat or at the back of the neck? After all, the Mitzvot were only given to correct people.”

…Hence, clearly, if the actions are not arranged for the desired goal, it is as if nothing exists. And it is also written in The Zohar: “A Mitzva (commandment) without an aim is like a body without a soul.”
– Baal HaSulam, “The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence”

The aridity and the darkness that have befallen us in this generation, such as we have never seen before. It is because even the worshipers of the Creator have abandoned the engagement in the wisdom of Kabbalah. … [Hence,] it is no wonder the whole generation is failing because of them.
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 57

Those who confine themselves to the practical part of the Torah and do not wish to try to understand the wisdom of Kabbalah… and the flavor of commandments …make the Torah dry. Woe unto them, for with these actions they bring about the existence of poverty, ruin, and robbery, looting, killing, and destructions in the world.
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 70
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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Only the Light in the Torah Reforms the Person

Our sages said, “I have created the evil inclination, I have created the Torah as a spice” (Babba Batra, 16). The matter of the spice is as our sages said, “If only they left Me and kept My Torah, the Light would reform them” (Yerushalmi, Hagiga, 6b). Thus, that there is a power in the Torah to reform a person, referring to the evil within man, meaning to make the will to receive be in order to bestow.
– Rabash, The Rungs of the Ladder, “Man Is Created in the Torah”

We see that the purpose of creating the worlds and the souls was entirely with one intention: to correct everything to be in order to bestow, which is called Dvekut [adhesion], “equivalence of form.” The Creator said about the Torah, “I have created the evil inclination, I have created the spice.” In other words, after a person receives the Torah as a spice [medicine], the evil inclination [egoism] is corrected to being in order to bestow, as written in The Zohar, “The angel of death [egoism] is to become a holy angel [that of love].”
– Rabash, The Rungs of the Ladder, “What Is Torah and Work on the Path of the Creator”

Related Material:
Kabbalists On The Torah And Commandments, Part 44
Kabbalists On The Torah And Commandments, Part 43
Kabbalists On The Torah And Commandments, Part 42

Filed under: Kabbalistic Sources, Torah - 1 Comment →

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

Only the Light in the Torah Reforms the Person

By not being able to exit the will to receive for oneself and feeling the need for the Creator’s help, a need is born to be assisted by the Creator. The Creator’s help is through the Torah because the Light in it reforms him, meaning he receives vessels of bestowal.
– Rabash, The Rungs of the Ladder, “What Is the Foundation upon which Sanctity Is Built”

Our sages said, “The Creator said, ‘I have created the evil inclination, I have created the Torah as a spice [for its correction],’” meaning that the Torah and Mitzvot spice [correct] the evil inclination, to give it flavor, for the evil inclination is called the will to receive.

When it is for oneself, it is tasteless, for the restriction is over it, and it remains in a vacant space. But through Torah and Mitzvot, one reaches the intention to bestow, and with this vessel, called the “will to receive,” one receives all the delight and pleasure.
– Rabash, The Rungs of the Ladder, “Concerning the Goal”
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Related Material:
Kabbalists On The Torah And Commandments, Part 43
Kabbalists On The Torah And Commandments, Part 42
Kabbalists On The Torah And Commandments, Part 41

Filed under: Kabbalistic Sources, Love - No Comments →