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

Following the Paths of Kabbalists

The RAMBAM said that if a thousand blind walk in a line along the way and at least one of them is able to see, then they are certain to take the right path and not fall into the pits or obstacles since it is the sighted one who leads them. But if the sighted person is missing, then they are certain to stumble over every hurdle along the way, and they all will fall into the pit. [The task of spiritual leaders is to lead the generations towards the Creator by the path of the Torah. It is the responsibility of the masses to follow their spiritually sighted leaders.]
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 57

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

Who Is a Kabbalist?

Therefore, come and see how grateful we should be to our teachers who impart us their sacred Lights and dedicate their souls [the method of correction] to do good to [correct and fulfill] our souls. They stand in the middle [having to decide] between [two paths] the harsh torments and the path of repentance and save us from the bottom of hell [the path of suffering] that is harder than death.

They also accustom us [via a quick and easy path of the Torah] to reach the heavenly pleasures, the sublime gentleness and the pleasantness that is our share, ready and waiting for us from the very beginning [of creation], as we have said above. Each of them operates in his own generation, according to the power of his Torah and sanctity [the Creator’s quality of love and bestowal].

They have already said, “You have not a generation without such as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” [leaders who direct us to the path of the Torah over the path of suffering].
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 8

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

Who Is a Kabbalist?

In the souls of the great righteous [those who have become equal to the Creator in the quality of bestowal] there is everything: all the good and evil [their evil, corrected to good, and the evil that is the ego of the entire world which they correct], and they suffer for everything [include in themselves all of the world’s uncorrected desires so as to prepare them for correction by their owners] and receive pleasure [supreme attainment] when they turn [correct by including within] all the evil into good.
– Rav Kook, Orot Kodesh, 3, 153

No generation is without chosen individuals [Yechidey Segula] on whom the Creator’s spirit rests, to whom Elijah the prophet is revealed and teaches the secrets of the Torah. [This refers to the special people who are able to attain the Creator even in the period of Galut (exile) out of the spiritual qualities and prohibition on their attainment. In our time of exiting Galut, this attainment is available to all people.]
– Rav Chaim Vital, “Preface to the Book, Etz Chaim”

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

Who Is a Kabbalist?

Now we can easily understand the merit [special quality and wisdom, heart and mind] of one who has been rewarded with cleaving unto Him once more. It means that he has been rewarded with equivalence of form with the Creator by inverting the [egoistic] will to receive, imprinted in him through the power in Torah [the Light of correction] and Mitzvot. This was the very thing that separated him from His Essence [absolute good and bestowal], and turned it [specifically his ego] into a will to bestow.

And all of one’s actions are only to bestow and benefit others [in which he is similar to the Creator], as he has equalized his form with the Maker. It follows that one is just like the organ that was once cut off from the body and has been reunited with the body: It knows the thoughts of the rest of the body once again, just as it did prior to the separation from the body.

The soul [the point in everyone’s heart, the aspiration for the Creator after it awakens in a person] is like that, too: After it has acquired [by correcting itself via the Light] equivalence with Him [acquired the quality of bestowal in place of its inherent quality of reception], it knows His Thoughts [as it knows its own for it has achieved adhesion with Him] once more, as it knew prior to the separation from Him due to [uncovering] the will-to-receive’s disparity of form [being opposite to the qualities of the Light, the Creator].

Then the verse, “know thou the God of thy father,” lives in him, as then one is rewarded with complete knowledge, which is Godly knowledge. Also, one is rewarded with all the secrets of the Torah, as His Thoughts are the secrets of the Torah. [“Secrets” refer to the Creator’s thoughts and desires because they are concealed from a person due to disparity of form and are attained by him as he becomes similar to the Creator.]
– 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.

Who Is a Kabbalist?

However, understanding the meaning of the word “spirituality” [property of bestowal] has nothing to do with philosophy [since philosophy doesn’t deal with the correction of a person, and philosophers investigate using their egoistic qualities]. How can they discuss something that they have never seen or felt? [For they perceive only within their corporeal properties, whereas spirituality is attained through the property of bestowal which is opposite to corporeality and egoism.] What do their rudiments [about their ability to perceive spirituality] stand on? [It is obvious that it stands on complete ignorance.]

If there is any [true] definition that can tell spiritual from corporeal, it belongs only to those who have attained a spiritual thing and felt it [and thereby can distinguish between spiritual and corporeal]. These are the genuine Kabbalists [those who attained spirituality while living in this material world]; thus, it is the wisdom of Kabbalah that we need [to get to know this world better, understand why we exist, and how to live correctly].

– Baal HaSulam, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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

Who Is a Kabbalist?

Were it not for sages [those who have attained the Creator by equivalence of form], people [those who have not yet attained Him] would not know what is Torah [methodology of correction]and what are the Mitzvot (commandments) of the Creator [sole governing force], and there would be no difference between man’s spirit and the spirit of a beast [at their final state].
– The Book of Zohar with the Sulam (Ladder) Commentary, Chapter “Shemot” (Exodus), Item 84

Mysteries and secrets of the Torah will not be revealed as a result of one’s earthly powers, but only as thanks to the Upper Light [correction and fulfillment] that stems from the Height of His Divinity [the World of Infinity] with the help of His messengers and angels or prophet Eliyahu [the force of creation].
– Chaim Vital, “Introduction to Shaar HaHakdamot”

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about the passages from the great Kabbalists. I promise to answer them. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Who Is a Kabbalist?

The depths of the Creator’s secrets cannot be understood by the human mind [because it thinks egoistically], but only in accordance with Kabbalah [by correcting oneself from egoism to bestowal], learned from great people [teachers] whose hearts have been penetrated [filled] with the Creator’s Light [and who can therefore teach others how to attain it].
– Rav Kook, Orot Kodesh, 1, 101

Only the true righteous [those who have attained the Creator’s quality of bestowal, justify Him, and are therefore called righteous] are capable of understanding [attaining in the quality of bestowal, the Light of Hassadim] the purpose of the world to come [the Light of knowledge, the Light of Hochma].
– Rabbi Nahman of Breslav, Likutey Moaran, Talk 18

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about passages from the great Kabbalists. I promise to answer them. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Who Is a Kabbalist?

The wisdom of truth is conditioned [in order to understand it] by all the teachings [therefore, the wisdom of Kabbalah becomes revealed only after humanity reveals all the teachings of our world in general and attests to their limitation], and all the teachings are conditioned by it [humanity will learn the origins of all teachings precisely from discovering and mastering Kabbalah]. This is why we do not find a single genuine Kabbalist without comprehensive knowledge in all the teachings of the world [not because they studied them but] since they acquire them from the wisdom of truth itself, as they are included in it.
– Baal HaSulam, “The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence”

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about passages from the great Kabbalists. I promise to answer them. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Who Is a Kabbalist?

However, Kabbalists who attain [in their sensations and mind] the upper [higher than the attainments within the five physical senses] degrees, attain everything [the whole universe] in its full measure [including the part concealed from people] and merit complete attainment of these levels within, which [and this attainment specifically] is called a “soul.”
– Baal HaSulam, “The Secret of Conception Is Birth”

Each who receives abundance from the Creator takes pride in the Creator’s garlands [fruit of creation]. And he who has merited in the hour of action [self-correction] to feel that the Creator, too, takes pride in him, finding him ready [in his similarity to the Creator] to receive the abundance [the Light of love and bestowal], is called a Kabbalist [he who receives the goodness prepared by the Creator].
– Baal HaSulam, Pri Hacham, Igrot (Letters),  Letter 46

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about passages from the great Kabbalists. I promise to answer them. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy

Where philosophy [egoistic narrow-minded thought limited by human intellect] ends, the wisdom of Kabbalah begins. This means that philosophers’ research only extends to the level of circles [to which their egoism, limited by the intention “for the sake of themselves,” allows them to rise], and they know nothing higher than that. Their knowledge is [even] lower than these circles [that they sense through their egoistic sensations and investigate with their brain], yet the majority of them are very confused [since they are unable to see the whole picture of the universe, its causes and consequences] and admit to this fact.

The wisdom of Kabbalah starts where their “wisdom” [limited by their egoism] ends, meaning from the level of circles [of human attainment] and on.
– Rabbi Nahman from Breslav, Sichot Moaran, 225

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