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

Thus, we see that the main [spiritual] work we must do [on ourselves] is to achieve the purpose for which the world was created—[give the Creator an opportunity] to do good to His creations—is to qualify ourselves to acquire vessels of bestowal [desire with the intention to bestow]. This is the correction for making the King’s gift complete, so they will feel no shame upon reception of the pleasures. And all the evil in us removes us from the good that we are destined to receive.

We were given the remedy of Torah and Mitzvot (commandments) so as to achieve those Kelim (vessels). This is the meaning of what our sages said (Kidushin, 30), “The Creator says, ‘I have created the evil inclination, I have created for it the spice of Torah [for its correction],’ by which he will lose all the sparks of self-love within him and will be rewarded with his desire being only to bestow contentment upon his Maker.”
– Rabash, The Rungs of the Ladder, “What Is the Substance of Slander and Against Whom Is It?”
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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

Man was created with the will to receive self-pleasure called “the will to receive for one’s own benefit.” We are told that one has to nullify that will to receive and acquire a new Kli (vessel) [desire] called “the will to bestow.” Not every person is rewarded with it, meaning with the ability to acquire Kelim (vessels) [desires] suitable for the Upper Light to reside in [for the Creator to become revealed].

For one to attain the will to bestow, our sages said (Kiddushin 30), “I have created the evil inclination [egoism in a person], I have created for it the Torah as a spice [an addition to egoism in the form of the intention “in order to bestow”],” meaning that specifically through the Torah [studying it in order to correct oneself], one [a person] can achieve the Kelim of bestowal.
– Rabash, The Rungs of the Ladder, “The Importance of Faith”
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Related Material:
Kabbalists On The Torah And Commandments, Part 41
Kabbalists On The Torah And Commandments, Part 40
Kabbalists On The Torah And Commandments, Part 39

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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

The Torah [the method of our correction] we engage in is in order to subdue the evil inclination [egoism], to attain Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator: that all one’s actions will be solely in order to bestow [as He does]. Alone, it is impossible that one will able to [correct himself or simply] go against nature since the matter of mind [thoughts] and heart [desires] in which one must be complemented [in the direction of love and bestowal toward others], necessitates receiving assistance, and that assistance is through the Torah [the Light that corrects], as our sages said, “I have created the evil inclination, I have created the Torah as a spice.” This is so because while engaging in It [to correct oneself], the Light in it reforms them.
– 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 40
Kabbalists On The Torah And Commandments, Part 39
Kabbalists On The Torah And Commandments, Part 38

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Only the Light in the Torah Reforms the Person

Through the engagement in Kabbalah with the intention to reach the property of bestowal, there manifests the natural remedy of Kabbalah study, as it is said: “The Creator says, ‘I have created the evil inclination, I have created for it the Torah as a spice.’” Thus, that person develops and marches upward in degrees of the above spoken exaltedness, until he loses all remnants of self-love and he performs all his actions only to bestow, so even the necessity that he receives flows in the direction of bestowal.
– Baal HaSulam, "The Revelation of Godliness" (Matan Torah), Item 12
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Question: What signs can help us tell whether a person is advancing in the study of The Book of Zohar?

Answer: Which books you study is irrelevant in this regard because besides studying The Book of Zohar we also study Talmud Eser Sefirot as well as articles and letters by Baal HaSulam and Rabash which explain how to advance toward unity among us and toward mutual study. They help us to get organized correctly. After we organize among ourselves into a study group, we begin studying actual Kabbalah.

The purpose of the study group in Kabbalah is not to study the material, but to aspire through reading it to realize the “Segula,” meaning to evoke the influence of the Light upon us from a higher level. If during the study we desire for the Light to become revealed inside our unity, then by this effort we build the higher level and then our effort brings about the emergence of that level.

However, if we study trying only to understand the material, then we do not study the Torah. That’s because the Torah refers precisely to our effort and the appearance of a new level in it.

Therefore, progress in studying the primary sources (The Zohar, the books of the Ari, and Talmud Eser Sefirot) is determined by the force of your aspiration to reveal the next level inside of you, instead of the desire just to know the material.

There is no advancement in understanding or accumulating knowledge because prior to the sensation of the upper world, all our notions of it are incorrect.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/12/11, The Zohar

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The name Baal HaSulam means “Owner of the Ladder” in Hebrew. He received this name because of the title of the “Sulam (Ladder) Commentary on the Book of Zohar” which he wrote.

As he says, the revelation of this book, as well as the fact that he was able to create a commentary on the entire Book of Zohar is a sign that the generation is already worthy of correction, the revelation of spirituality to the masses, and with the dissemination of The Book of Zohar the whole world will come closer to correction.

When Baal HaSulam published The Zohar with the Sulam Commentary, his students walked around the streets carrying volumes of this book, going to different places in an attempt to disseminate it. It was very difficult. People were afraid of The Book of Zohar because there were rumors that this book is very special, that is has enormous power, and is able to bring benefit as well as harm.

Only in our time, 60 or 70 years after the Sulam Commentary was created, we are presenting The Zohar to the world in an adapted form that makes it accessible for the wide masses so that everyone could read it and enjoy it.
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From the 4th lesson at the WE! Convention on 4/1/11

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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

How one can achieve complete equivalence of form, so all one’s actions are to give to others, 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. If one as much as doubts the reward, one will refrain from acting [since the reward compels him to perform an act to benefit oneself]. Thus, how can one’s every action be only to bestow upon others and not at all for oneself?

Indeed, I admit that this is a very difficult thing. One cannot change the nature of one’s own creation, which is only to receive for oneself, much less invert one’s nature from one extreme to the other, meaning to not receive anything for oneself, but rather act only to bestow.

Yet, this is why the Creator gave us Torah [as the method of correction so that with its help we could learn] … to bestow contentment upon the Creator. Had it not been for the engagement in Torah [for His sake]… and not to benefit ourselves, there would have been no tactic in the world that could help us invert our nature.
– Baal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”
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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

Torah refers to the Light [of correction] clothed in the Torah [in the aspiration to reach the property of bestowal by connecting with the friends, to be as one], meaning, as our sages said, “I have created the evil inclination, I have created the Torah as a spice.” This refers to the Light in it, since the Light in it reforms it [creates within a person the property of bestowal].
– Baal HaSulam, Shamati [I Heard], Article No. 6, “What Is Support in the Torah in the Work”

The Torah is the only spice to annul [to correct by the upper Light] and subdue [to replace man’s nature with the opposite nature, that of the Creator, to shift from egoism to bestowal and love] the evil inclination, as our sages said, “The Light in it reformed them.”
– Baal HaSulam, “The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence”
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Related Material:
Kabbalists On The Torah And Commandments, Part 35
Kabbalists On The Torah And Commandments, Part 34
Kabbalists On The Torah And Commandments, Part 33

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The vice of the disciples of Rabbi Akiva was that there was no love of mercy among them. And hence, Rashbi said: “We need to reach a great love between us, meaning the yearning to bestow so we may draw the Light and all good.”
– Law Codes, The Way of Life

When a person evokes mercy to the friend with his prayer, his plea rises up and evokes mercy from Above. If, however, a person pursues personal gain, his prayer is far from rising and finding a response.
– The book, The Greatness of Shlomo
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When The Righteous Unite
Everyone Can Reveal The Creator
An Easy Way Of Correction

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As soon as the righteous [those who wish to justify the Creator] unite, there immediately intensifies mutual hatred [egoism] that causes fights and quarrels.
– The book, Noam Elimelech

When ten of Israel [who strive toward the Creator] unite in order to acquire the property of love and bestowal, through their force of oneness, the property of love and bestowal is drawn to the world.
– Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter, The Language of Truth
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Related Material:
A Righteous Man Is The Foundation Of The World
He Who Justifies The Creator Is The Righteous One
Kabbalists On Kabbalists, Part 10

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