Baal HaSulam was a very private man, a man of his narrow circle. European culture was clearly manifested in it. This is even evident in his music, which had a prevalence of the Eastern European, Polish melodies, with some Italian accent.

He is very specific in his presentation. Even when he talks about science, Kabbalah, and everything in general, his expression and style are based on knowledge of the deep layer of the Talmud, the Mishna, the Prophets, holy writings, and the Torah.

For example, sometimes he mentions a few words and at the same time casually refers to some source. If a person catches this, he understands the subject right away and perceives the text in a different way.

For example, sometimes even in our conversations we say that “Love covers all transgressions.”

However, in Kabbalah we mean that this phrase is from the Psalms of David, and at the same time we understand what kind of sins they are, what kind of transgressions they are, what kind of attitude a person has toward a person when he hates the other and is ready to destroy him. In the end when he moves to the state of love for the other, then all those so-called previous transgressions and the previous hatred on the contrary support the love he has achieved.

It means that this phrase includes such a huge layer, the order of states that one has to go through in order to say “Love covers all transgressions.” Without that it is just a nice phrase.

Another example is: “I have washed my feet, how can I rise from my bed?” Who knows what it is talking about?

This is a passage from Song of Songs. From the Kabbalistic point of view, Malchut says my “Reglaim” (legs), meaning the end of the Partzuf, the Kelim, the desires that receive the entire Light of Hochma are already up above. I am in the horizontal position, meaning I have already washed and cleaned my limbs, my final states. I cannot use them anymore.

How can I rise now also from this state “to embrace you, my Darling?” meaning to connect with Zeir Anpin in the receiving desires when I already annulled them. This is how the soul of a person, i.e., his desires, speaks with regard to the connection with the Creator.

It means that a multitude of various states, conditions, and interpretations of what is happening are implied here. This is a very serious system of relations. This is how it is said “How can I rise to you, Darling, open the door, since I already washed my feet and lied on my bed?”

Phrases like this can also talk about anything: a rider and his horse, a donkey and his driver, etc. Therefore, we need to adapt all of this to today’s generation that does not understand or know anything, and after all, has not heard about the existence of the Song of Songs, or even of the Psalms of David, or other sources.

We have to show them a short path. We do not have time to study all these sources even though they talk about pure Kabbalah. However, they speak in an allegorical way, while we have to bring a person directly to the revelation of the upper world. This is the reason we create our own media sources.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Expiration Date of Kabbalah” 1/31/10

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Question: When you explain Kabbalistic material, you use a limited number of phrases and words, but simultaneously, you convey a whole bouquet of your feelings in different combinations. How is that possible?

Answer: In principle, as soon as you start reducing everything to ten parts of the soul, or the five worlds, or the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human nature, then everything becomes very concrete, very compact. Therefore, the explanation can be through a manageable number of words.

You reduce it all to some definitions, like, in chemistry to atoms, molecules, and valences. It is the same with us. It is the coarseness of the screen, the magnitude of desire and its thickness, the magnitude of light and its various states, that is five lights, five screens, five types of egoism thickness over it, the combination between them. All this is a small, specific vocabulary.

All the enormous impression and all the richness of conveying feelings and thoughts is in the combination of these few parameters.

But they evoke various opposite sensations in us. And therefore, by going through just a hundred words, you express absolutely everything you can in human existence, not only in our world, but all worlds. The main thing is for a person to feel what you are talking about. And then there will be a very concrete language between you.

In Kabbalah, the vocabulary is minimal, just like for chemists and physicists. They do not have many words and phrases either. The most important is the combination of parameters in all possible combinations and connections. They give the entire palette of sensations and thoughts.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Kabbalist’s Limitation” 4/17/10

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Question: Is your Hebrew based on a limited vocabulary?

Answer: Yes, indeed, but no more is needed.

In the last century, there were two great Kabbalistic sages: our great teacher Baal HaSulam and the great Kabbalist Rav Kook. Rav Kook always told Baal HaSulam that he envied his small vocabulary, with which he could convey huge layers of knowledge, sensations, and insights.

Rav Kook himself was, so to speak, the master of the spiritual word, the literary language. His language is very flowery, verbose, complex, and confusing. As long as you read one phrase, a page and a half long, like Leo Tolstoy, you can hardly understand anything. But that’s how he expressed himself. It also depends on the character of the person.

As for me, since at my core I am still a researcher, scientist, and systematiser, I do not tolerate anything superfluous. Therefore, in my speech, in my explanations, I try to make everything concrete.

I believe that this is the most important thing in human education. And feelings already depend on his inner work.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Kabbalist’s Limitation” 4/17/10

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In spirituality, there are no letters, as I have already elaborated on before. All the multiplication in spirituality relies on the letters derived from the materiality of this world (Baal HaSulam, Letter 14).

Letters are a record of the forces that a person must evoke when reading Kabbalistic texts. That is why Kabbalists when they work on texts, relate their feelings to words and letters and at the same time, can change their powers and impact the environment.

Question: What letters do we need?

Answer: We need practically all letters. And there are only a few of them in Hebrew, only twenty-two. It is said that it is the shortest alphabet of all.

Some alphabets include forty-seven letters and close to sixty, but here are only twenty-two.

Therefore, we need to understand what each letter suggests, what it implies, and what combinations of forces are in it. This is very serious.

When a person begins to approach the meaning of the letters, he feels how they are playing in him. And then he reads them differently. He is no longer in a hurry because each letter evokes a resonance, a reaction in him. In such a way, he gradually begins to feel what the text wants to convey to him.

It is said: there is no renewal in the light, but there is creation, that is, when it is necessary to convey movement over the letters, and the form of the higher ones is revealed.

The form of the higher ones is the following degree. And movement atop the letters means that a person, desiring to reach the next degree, forms an intention above his interests, i.e., not for himself.

In principle, we need to connect with letters in our feelings. Then we can understand what the Kabbalists want to convey to us.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam Letter 14

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You will thoroughly keep the Achoraim [posterior, back] for Me, for My name, then the abundance will do her thing and fill the letters. The qualities will become Sefirot, since before the filling they are called “qualities,” and upon their fulfillment for the best, they are called Sefirot, sapphire, illuminating the world from one end to the other (Baal HaSulam. Letter 14).

Achoraim are receiving vessels. If we use them for the sake of the Creator, if we want to bestow with their help, then the filling that comes through the receiving Kelim lifts us to the Panim (vessels of bestowal).

And so we begin to see what secrets, what lights, are in letters and words.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam Letter 14

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Question: How does The Book of Zohar differ from TES or Psalms  with respect to the power of correction?

Answer: The Book of Zohar is unique because it was composed by people who sought to uncover the mysteries of the spiritual world and present them to all of humanity. Kabbalists consider The Book of Zohar the most valuable book in attaining the Creator.

Question: Why is the language of The Book of Zohar so complex? Couldn’t everything be explained, for example, from the perspective of the physics of light or electromagnetic laws, so that one could first understand spirituality in the mind and then pass it all through feelings?

Answer: It cannot be so. The Kabbalists who wrote The Zohar presented us with this gift, the simplest and most accessible, to attain the upper light and through it reveal the Creator.

Question: What does self-sacrifice for the sake of the Torah and commandments mean?

Answer: It means that I neglect all the states that are comfortable for me only to feel the inner meaning of the Torah, commandments, and The Zohar.

Question: Reading The Book of Zohar always evokes amazing feelings. I started reading it independently a year and a half ago and was surprised I could do it. Then I started reading it in the group. Recently I realized that I stopped feeling it.

Answer: There is nothing to worry about. Various states of this kind happen so you elevate the desire  and aspiration to understand The Zohar.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/15/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “To Understand the Words of The Zohar”

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Question: The Book of Zohar has two levels: the language of feeling and the language of spiritual definition. How can we use both levels to help us rise above the story and feel its spiritual meaning?

Answer: To help us understand the spiritual meaning, the Creator created not one person but many people by breaking the common soul into parts and thereby allowing us to unite.

If we unite over our egoism, we will be able to understand the Creator and all of nature more and better.

Question: How can I feel everything described in this book is happening to me?

Answer: This happens by the upper light, called The Zohar. We should only strive to bring each other closer and to positively influence each other.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/15/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “To Understand the Words of The Zohar”

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Now you can understand that sleep [Tardema] in Gematria is “translation” [Targum]. It is also the letters Tered MA [MA will descend]...(Rashbi, Zohar for All, “Heaven and Earth”).

Question: What is the significance of the numerical value of words?

Answer: Language is a code that contains many different symbols.

We know that the Kabbalistic sources are written in Aramaic and Hebrew. And here we are also talking about the fact that there is a simple language, a written language, and a numerical language, which all indicate how words can be combined to form other words.

This is a very broad concept including how letters form words, how words form sentences, and how we can use sentences to manage the world.

The numerical value of a word implies that I can represent the word as a number or a specific set of numbers.

Question: So, could the Torah be written in the form of numbers?

Answer: Of course. How do programmers compose instructions for a computer? They write various letters, symbols, and then input them into the machine. The machine, understands these symbols, reads them, and executes the program.

Question: The thing is, the letter itself appears as a combination of certain symbols and has a specific form that expresses the relationship of forces. But what does the number mean?

Answer: The number indicates on what level these forces operate. So when a Kabbalist reads that some character in the Torah lived for 900 years, it signifies the spiritual level of that character.
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From KabTV’s “Introduction to The Book of Zohar” 1/21/24

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The language of the translation is close to the holy tongue, yet the angels do not need it and do not know it, while they do need and know the languages of the nations of the world. The language of translation is posterior, VAK of the holy tongue, since VAK are called posterior and sleep, without Mochin, which are GAR. For this reason, the translation is truly very close to the holy tongue (Rashbi, Zohar for All, “Heaven and Earth”).

Question: What are these two languages: one, Hebrew, is holy and the other, Aramaic, is reverse of it?

Answer: The holy language is called Hebrew because it conveys the direct influence of the Creator on all of creation. And the reverse language, as an imprint from Hebrew, is called Aramaic. Many books on Kabbalah, including The Book of the Zohar, are written in Aramaic.

Question: Why is Hebrew not enough?

Answer: Because the two languages complement each other and describe the whole creation. The point is that creation must be described in such a way that is understandable to everyone.

Moreover, it is crucial to understand that Hebrew and Aramaic are not just two opposite languages, but are an expression of the forces of creation, and that is why we use both. After all, how can these languages be opposite at all? For example, The Book of Zohar and Talmud are mainly written in Aramaic, while other primary sources are in Hebrew. Yet in principle, both Aramaic and Hebrew convey the Creator’s attitude toward creation. The choice of language depended on the period of writing and for whom the books were written.

Aramaic was once a more common language. It was not only read and written, but also spoken. It gradually fell out of use.
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From KabTV’s “Introduction to The Book of Zohar“1/21/24

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Question: On one hand everything in the Torah is encrypted because the secrets of the universe must be hidden since people can misunderstand them. But when you begin to analyze the Torah, everything fits into one rule: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” What is there to hide?

Answer: The fact is that in nature, inside us, in the upper governance that controls us from above, there is indeed a lot that is incomprehensible. There is no secret in this. The only secret is how we can reveal what we do not understand, get closer to the Creator, enter into His governance, look into Him, and understand Him.

Question: It is still unclear; so many books have been written, even in two languages: Hebrew and Aramaic, tens of thousands of pages! And all this just so that we can unite together and love each other! Why write so much about this? Is there really no other way for people to understand that they must unite?

Answer: In order to unite, you can write one sentence. But we see that it does not work. Therefore, a system of forces is offered that affects a person and helps him transform himself in similarity to the Creator.

Just as all of nature consists of a unity of opposites, since it was created due to the combination of different elements and parts, so people with completely different qualities must unite with each other. This process has been going on for hundreds of thousands of years throughout the universe.
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From KabTV’s “Introduction to The Book of Zohar” 1/21/24

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