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

613 Suggestions and 613 Deposits

That explains to us why he calls the 613 Mitzvot 613 counsels [Eitin de Oraita, recommendations about how to correct the Kli] in several places in The Zohar, and in many other places in The Zohar he calls the 613 Mitzvot [Pkudin, the Lights that must enter the corrected Kli] “613 deposits.” This is so because at first, one must keep the Torah and the Mitzvot in order to purify his body [oneself from egoism] and enhance his soul [aspiration for love and bestowal].

At that time, the 613 Mitzvot are as 613 counsels [corrections of the Eitin type] for him, “tips” by which to gradually purify and be awarded coming before the King [rise above egoism], and receiving the Light of his face. This is because keeping Torah [drawing of the Light] and Mitzvot [correction of 613 egoistic desires] gradually purify him [from his natural egoism], until he is rewarded with the Light of the King’s face [universal property of bestowal and love; otherwise, there is no use in his actions].

Also, it is written similarly in the Gemarah: “The Creator cares not if one slaughters at the throat or slaughters at the back of the neck [in other words, mechanical acts themselves are pointless]? Rather, we were given the Torah and Mitzvot only to purify Israel [all who aspire to the Creator, to the property of “love others as yourself].”

However, after one has been sufficiently purified [from egoistic desires] and merits the Light of the King’s face [the property of bestowal], one’s eyes and soul [desire to bestow] open and he is awarded [within] the attaining the 613 Sacred Lights found in the 613 Mitzvot [corrected desires]. These are His Holy Names [attainment], the ones he can attain.

By keeping each of the Mitzvot [correction of a desire], one takes [inside] the part of the Light deposited in that Mitzva, since the Mitzva is a Kli (vessel) [the secret of the desire] where the Light is clothed, meaning a Holy Name that belongs specifically to that Mitzva. This is the meaning of “The Mitzva is a candle and the Torah—Light.” At that time, he calls the 613 Mitzvot “613 commandments (deposits).”
– 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.

613 Suggestions and 613 Deposits

There are two parts in Torah and Mitzvot:

A. The Torah and Mitzvot as they appear to all, are the keeping of Mitzvot and the study of Torah in the form of 613 counsels. These have the power to purify and cleanse the body [desire], and enhance the merit of the soul [intention], to be worthy and merit receiving the Light of the King’s face, as the soul was in its root, before it diminished and came into this base body [egoistic desire] in the base world.

B. Keeping the Mitzvot and studying the Torah in the form of 613 deposits, namely the matter of attaining His Names and the full reward of the souls.

The merit of the latter part over the former is as the merit of Heaven over Earth. This is because the first part is mere preparation, and the second part is the actual completeness and the purpose of Creation.
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the book, From the Mouth of a Sage”
[30508]

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

The Essence of the Work in Torah and Mitzvot

The purpose of the study of Torah [Kabbalah which unveils the Torah] is to come to feel the Giver of the Torah. If one does not place the goal of reaching the Giver of the Torah [the Creator] before one’s eyes, he is considered “a gentile [one who does not desire to reveal the Creator, regardless of his origin or nationality],” meaning he has no need for faith [perceiving the Creator], that is, to have a need to seek advice [the instructions of the Torah, the advices of Kabbalists] for achieving faith [perceiving the Creator]. This is why he is still regarded as “a gentile [he who does not strive to reveal the Creator]” and not as “Israel [he who aspires for the Creator].”
– Rabash, The Rungs of the Ladder, “What are Torah and Work on the Path of 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 Essence of the Work in Torah and Mitzvot

All the Mitzvot that are written in the Torah or the accepted ones, which the Patriarchs established, although they are mostly actions [of a person in this world] or words [that need to be uttered] [thereby fulfilling the commandments], they [commandments, that is, advices] are all to correct the heart [one’s desires], “for the Lord searches [wants us to correct] all hearts, and understands all the [egoistic] inclinations of the thoughts [intentions].”
– Rav Abraham Eben Ezra, Yesod Morah, p. 8b
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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

The Essence of the Work in Torah and Mitzvot

By keeping Torah and Mitzvot, the purpose of creation—to do good to His creations—becomes revealed.
– Rabash, Rabash—the Social Writings, “The Importance of a Prayer of Many”

The meaning of the souls of the children of Israel [those who, regardless of their nationality, aspire to the Creator] is that they are a part of God Above [the property of bestowal]. The soul cascaded [from the world of Infinity to our world] by way of cause and consequence [the Light’s correspondence to desire] and descended [in the property of bestowal] degree-by-degree until it became suitable [so distant from the Creator’s level] to come into this world and clothe the filthy corporeal body [desire to only receive, not give].

By keeping the Torah and observing its Mitzvot, it ascends degree-by-degree [in the property of bestowal] until its stature is completed, and it is fit to receive its reward from The Whole. This has been prepared for it in advance, meaning attaining the holy Torah by way of the Names of the Creator [the properties and acts of bestowal], which are the 613 deposits.
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book, From the Mouth of a Sage”
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We read The Zohar with the Sulam Commentary where the source text, The Book of Zohar itself, written in the language of Talmud, and Baal HaSulam’s commentary, written in the language of Kabbalah, interweave with one another like threads in a tapestry. We receive the text in a ready-made form with these two languages intermixed with each other. But when you read or listen to it, it’s as if two pictures or two screens arise before you like on a computer — the inner and the outer.

On the outer screen you read the text in the language of the Talmud, while on the inner one it is talking about spiritual qualities and actions in the terminology of Kabbalah. These two screens gradually start to unite as one for you, and that helps you to start bringing the observation of the outer picture of the world closer to the inner observation.

You read The Zohar and it helps you start perceiving the outer reality as happening inside you. Gradually this influences you and you suddenly begin relating to the world the same way as well.

It’s as if you go through a cloud and find the true reality, the authentic perception of reality. And The Zohar accompanies you.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/30/10, The Zohar

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

The Essence of the Work in Torah and Mitzvot

By accustoming themselves to keeping Torah and the Mitzvot [actions for the sake of others] in order to bring contentment to their Maker, they gradually depart from the bosom of the natural creation and acquire a second nature, being love of others.
– Baal HaSulam, Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah), Item 13

The Creator gave us Torah and Mitzvot, which we were commanded to do only in order to bestow contentment upon the Creator. Had it not been for the engagement in Torah and Mitzvot Lishma (for Her Name), to bring contentment to the Creator with them, 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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Writings of Rabash, “What is the Flood Water in the Work”: We have to take it upon ourselves to believe in the sages….

Suppose I am ready to believe the words of wisdom, but what does that mean? Do I understand the words of the sages? What is their message?

First of all, we do not work on bodies in the science of Kabbalah. There are no bodies, but only souls. The bodies that appear before us are images of an illusory world.

I am in a desire that manifests as different forms: still, vegetative, animate, and human. “The sages” are the corrected souls that are in the broken system of Adam HaRishon. They can help me and give me support; they can be my mentors and instructors for my broken soul.

Accordingly, that is how we should accept their advice. For example, The Book of Zohar tells us about ten sages of Rabbi Shimon’s group, as well as the prophet Eliyahu, Moses, Aaron, King David, King Solomon, and so on. We shouldn’t perceive them as people living in our world, but as corrected desires or souls. They are in a broken system, which is gradually starting to be restored back to life. These souls are already corrected, partially or in full, and they participate in the correction of the entire system.

In The Book of Zohar I read things like, “Rabbi Shimon said…Rabbi Abba said….” For me they aren’t people who attain the upper world and tell me about it, but rather, these are names of levels of attainment. Through these words I study the ladder of the spiritual degrees: on one degree reality appears this way and another degree that way. It seems as if Kabbalists are telling me about this, but for me they are actually forces or vessels of perception.

For me every sage represents a spiritual notion, might, force, or quality. I don’t look at the names of historical protagonists, but names of spiritual phenomena and levels. That is the “faith in the sages”: I want to attain the same bestowal as the one that’s present on the degrees that I read about. “Faith” is bestowal.

At the lesson a person has to tune into this and aspire to understand how this will influence him. No matter what the book narrates about, I want to penetrate inside the spiritual essence of every word. This means that I believe the words of the sages.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/29/10, Writings of Rabash

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Just reading The Zohar brings many results; it evokes various phenomena and changes in a person. A person does not understand what he reads, but he tries to understand it, driven by his nature, even though from the point of view of Kabbalah this is not necessary at all. He may read it with the right intention or one that is not so correct.

In any case, the book works on him, influencing him so he advances. He cannot avoid feeling the changes inside. He should only keep returning to this book as often as possible, read it every chance he gets, and stay connected to it in some way.

Then he will see that this book is built in such a way that it creates for him a picture of reality parallel to his current reality, and he starts to slightly shift between them. Instead of the superficial story he imagines something beyond this reality. That is how The Zohar works inside a person, creating new qualities of perception inside him.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/29/10, The Zohar

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

The Essence of the Work in Torah and Mitzvot

If one’s intention in the Torah and Mitzvot is not to benefit the Creator, but oneself [if the intention is egoistic], not only will the nature of the will to receive [for oneself] in him not be inverted, but rather, the will to receive in him will be much more than what he was given by the nature of his creation [before he began to study the Torah].
– Baal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

The purpose of the whole Creation is that the lowly creatures [people of our world] will be able, by keeping Torah and Mitzvot [by attracting the Upper Light of correction through studying Kabbalah], to rise ever upward [climb the rungs of love and bestowal], ever developing [by correcting themselves], until they are rewarded with Dvekut [complete similarity of properties] with their Creator.
– Baal HaSulam, Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah), Item 6

The whole of the Torah and the Mitzvot [means of correction] were given for the sole purpose of cleansing Israel [those who aspire for the Creator], which is the cleansing of the body [elevation of altruistic desires], after which he will be granted the true reward [for their effort in correction], which is Dvekut with Him [complete similarity to the Upper Force], the purpose of Creation.
– Baal HaSulam, The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee), Item 27
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