Question: Why did Rabash choose you?

Answer: It does not depend on the person. It does not depend on anyone, only on the general system.

Comment: You, a person with two higher education degrees who was born in Belarus, came to an old man who did not study anywhere.

My Response: It does not matter at all.

By the way, we had a common mentality. I was born in Vitebsk, and he was born in Warsaw. At that time, Poland and this part of the USSR were somehow connected. My father even had Polish citizenship since this territory was annexed to Russia only before the war.

So what do I want to say? Even the names of food, drinks, and household utensils were very close and understandable to Rabash. He liked the food my wife cooked. In this regard, we understood each other well. Our mentality was very similar.

I do not know how it would have been with Baal HaSulam because this is, of course, a completely different spiritual level. But on the physical level I am sure it would have been the same.

It helps. Still, the mentality is very important for a student who is at a small level.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/12/10

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How many people around the world today are in genuine fear and a sense of helplessness? They do not find any justification for their suffering, they do not know what to do, or how to feed themselves tomorrow or in a few months. Some worry about what will happen to their billions, while others do not know how to live when their last pennies run out.

Everyone suffers in their own way, but no one understands how to continue to exist. And we suddenly received such a gift from above that we can look at this world with a human gaze, and not as small and unhappy, beaten animals. And all this is thanks to the revelations of Baal HaSulam that have reached us and through his soul, and Rabash was a transitional adapter between us and Baal HaSulam.

Baal HaSulam was conduit of the light from the world of infinity to us through his perfect soul, which had reached its final correction. But he asked to lower himself, because otherwise, he could not connect with people. And only after he was lowered by many degrees, he was able to write The Study of the Ten Sefirot and The Introduction to The Book of Zohar. We do not understand the degree that he had before, the greatest height, from where he could not even tell anything in words.

Which means, it was at the degree of the GAR of the world of Atzilut and above, where the light is not clothed in desires. From there, he could not address the person and be heard, and therefore, he asked to lower himself. And in fact, he fulfilled his mission, which the Creator expected from him, knowing that he would ask for it and fulfill it.

And we are at an intermediate degree between Rabash, Baal HaSulam, and humanity. On the one hand, we need to rise up to understand what Baal HaSulam said. On the other hand, we need to go down to the people and understand what they need from us and in what form they will be able to accept our message. We need to reach both of these poles, above and below.

Baal HaSulam and Rabash spoke from above. And we are at the bottom, below the Parsa, in order to be able to touch and awaken the world, and then, together with all mankind, to ascend through the Machsom and connect to the upper Malchut. This is our mission.
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From a Conversation at a Meal Dedicated to the Memorial Day of Baal HaSulam

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Question: Baal HaSulam kept his disciples at a certain level. And when he died, they fell. How did you manage not to fall when Rabash died?

Answer: I was connected with him internally. I just stuck to him and was by his side all the time.

After his death, I got up every morning and mentally talked with him. I talked to him in a dream. While doing something, I thought: “If I tell him, how will he react to this?”

Very often I broke away from some activity, jumped up and looked at the clock: “Oh, I’m late, I have to run to him!” But he was gone. Or I woke up in the middle of the night with the same thoughts, as if I should go to him.

And these were terrible shocks: “Oh, I’m late!” on the one hand, and on the other hand, immediately the second blow, there is nowhere to run. There is nothing to compare with twelve years of being next to a person who was like a spring of life for you. Nothing.

But for this you need to reach absolute devotion during your lifetime. And it does not just depend on the person: “I want!” It comes with great difficulty and I would say luck. There was an element of luck here.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Dr. Laitman’s Prophecy” 6/25/13

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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Always with Me”

Thirty-one years ago today, my teacher and mentor RABASH passed away. This post is dedicated to him because everything I know, everything I understand, everything I teach, and everything I do I learned from him, and my life’s goal is to continue his legacy to the best of my ability.

RABASH was the last in the line of spiritual giants that began thousands of years ago. From his time onward, the line does not continue because now is the time for the knowledge that was privy to a chosen few for so many centuries to spread around the world.

RABASH was unlike any of his predecessors. As the last in the line, his concern was with the realization of the knowledge, with implementing it in real life. Accordingly, he focused his teaching on one principle: The complete perception of the world is achieved only through connection with other people. And how do you connect with other people? You love them. How do you come to love other people? This is what the teachings of RABASH reveal through his writings and through the thousands of oral lessons he had given throughout his life.

By the time RABASH passed away, he had installed in me a clear and complete method for developing love for other people, who are not related to you biologically, culturally, or in any other way. He did not come up with the method out of thin air, of course. It is the same method that the people of Israel had implemented among them since the inception of the nation nearly forty centuries ago. However, like other spiritual leaders in their time, RABASH adapted the method for developing love for others to our time, to the people who live in the 20th and 21st centuries, and in his adaptation lies his greatness.

I received from RABASH and learned from him more than I can express in words. However, if I had to choose the most important lesson that I took from him, it would be this: Stick to your goal and never look aside. Even if the goal seems distant, often unachievable, never look aside. Whether you achieve your goal or not is unimportant. If the goal is worth striving for, stick with it and never look away.

I know our dreams often seem unrealistic, but we have no idea what tomorrow will bring. Therefore, I always advise my students and anyone who asks to pursue their dreams.

As for me, I will continue to work for the rest of my life to realize my teacher’s dream: that all the people in the world will come to love one another as one man with one heart.

—

For more of the many things I had learned from RABASH, read my book, Always with Me.
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My new article on Linkedin “Silence Is Golden”

I spent countless hours conversing with my teacher, Rav Baruch Shalom Ashlag (RABASH). For the most part, we spoke when we were alone during our daily morning walks or during our frequent two-day trips to Tiberias.

I once asked him what he did before I came, since when I met him he was already seventy-three years old. He said, “I was alone.” When I asked him if he didn’t need to talk to someone, he simply said, “No.”

Today, thirty years after his departure, I understand what he meant. I sit alone in my room and feel no need to come out or speak with anyone. I could sit here for a hundred years and not mind it whatsoever. I take strolls here and there, but since the closures started, I am mostly by myself, and I am perfectly content. Were it not for my students or the necessity to spread the wisdom of Kabbalah to the world, I wouldn’t utter a word.

In this I am like many Kabbalists before me. They, too, did not spend their days in idle conversation. They studied together and read from authentic Kabbalah sources.

This was also what RABASH and I used to do. Even when we were alone, such as in Tiberias, we would sit facing each other, The Book of Zohar or The Study of the Ten Sefirot open on the table between us, cups of Turkish coffee next to them, and we would read, and read, and read.

Once in a while, RABASH would stop reading to explain something, or I would ask a question about the text, but for the most part, we would read and connect between us, rising to a shared, spiritual feeling. Noting more was needed, nothing at all.

When an important event occurred, such as a war or elections in Israel, or other events that stirred the Israeli public, we would exchange a few words about it, but not for long, and certainly without prattling about it. We would not veer off from thinking about life’s purpose for a moment; every second mattered.

It is written in the Mishnah that Shimon, the son of Rabban Gamaliel, used to say, “All my days I grew up among the sages, and I have found nothing better for a person than silence. Study is not the most important, but deeds; and one who speaks too many words brings about sin” (Avot, 1:16).

Kabbalists are silent because they listen with their hearts. They listen to our common heart, the heart of the human system called Adam HaRishon, of which we are all parts.

We are born locked inside the bubble of our ego; we cannot listen to our common heart. Instead, we only listen to ourselves.

What I had learned from RABASH is to listen deep within, beyond the ego, to the common heart. In the depths of our soul, there is a longing to break through the boundaries of ego and feel the common heart. When we connect with it, we will truly be able to hear what is outside of us. We will be able to converse with the soul of all of humanity, with all of nature, and through them with the Creator.

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 10/2/21

For many years, students and friends have been asking me to tell them the story of my time with my teacher, RABASH. For many years, I felt that there was no need for it, that times were different and things work differently today.

But through my conversations with Semion Vinokur, many of the stories percolated to the surface nonetheless. Semion, who really feels me, managed to put them down on paper in his unique and captivating style, and all of a sudden, there was a book.

The book, which was titled Always with Me, begins with my childhood questions and my years as a young man. But these are but the prelude. The bulk of the text tells the story of my years with RABASH: how I found him, how I became his disciple, his assistant, and why I am committed to passing on his message of love for all of humanity.

Today’s Kabbalah students learn very differently from the way I learned with him. However, every student goes through a very similar internal process and can sympathize with the experiences described here.

Since times are different now, I cannot teach my students the way RABASH taught me. Although the way is slightly different, attaining spirituality still requires and will always require dedication and devotion to the goal.

RABASH passed away in 1991, but he will never pass away from my heart or from my mind. When I teach, he is always with me. When I rise in the wee hours to prepare for the next morning lesson, he is the one who guides my heart. When I speak with world leaders or with scientists, it is his legacy that guides my thoughts and words.

I hope that when you read the stories, you will get a taste of the greatness of the man who has made Kabbalah approachable to every person on this planet. RABASH’s teachings are a gift to humanity, and I do my utmost to see that everyone enjoys it.

What I have become, I have become thanks to him, because indeed, he is always with me.

And finally, a word of gratitude to Irina Rudnev and Mark Berelekhis for their meticulous translation into English.

Get a copy on Amazon:

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Today we celebrate the memorial day of my teacher Rav Baruch Ashlag (Rabash). There were thousands of Kabbalists who lived before him and millions of people who dreamed of revealing spirituality.

But now all this work is focused on us and we must try to bring ourselves to the form of the so-called last generation so that we reach the spiritual level through faith above reason, the first association with the spiritual world with its forces and possibilities.

All of humanity is beginning to feel its dependence on each other both in a bad and in a good sense, both its dependence on terrorist groups hungry for war and on people who strive to unite.

We are all part of humanity and we are increasingly aware of our connection with each other. So far, this dependence is expressed in unpleasant forms, the pandemic, for example. But on the other hand, we are advancing more and more because we see that our connection comes from above as a necessary condition for moving forward.

Two great Kabbalists: Baal HaSulam and his eldest son, Rabash, created a methodology designed for the last generation, for us. Therefore, we are extremely grateful to these two Kabbalists and to the Creator who sent them to us. Rabash writes that if a group of people united by a common goal gathers together ready to annul personal interests for the sake of connection, then such a group is able to achieve the sublime goal even here in this world.

The more a person values the group, the teacher, and the Creator, the more he approaches the force of bestowal and reaches faith above reason. There is one main principle that operates here called “The Torah, the Creator, and Israel are one.”A person seeks to join the ten, which he organizes so that it becomes a place for the revelation of the Creator in it.

We must act in this world as messengers of the Creator, fulfilling the desire from above and helping it to be realized in humanity. After all, there is no such connection between the Creator and humanity that would allow people to feel the Creator’s intention. Therefore, we need to implement this connection, to rise to the spiritual level of faith above reason, and at the same time be within reason, that is, to serve as a transition between the Creator, the force of Bina and Malchut for the whole of humanity.

In this way, we will be able to shift all our forces and intentions to humanity, which will join us and rise with us together as a supporting force, the AHAP of the spiritual degree.

Of course, there is nothing new under the moon, and the concept of faith above reason was known to Kabbalists even before Rabash. But it was not clarified and explained in such detail as Baal HaSulam and Rabash did in order to bring this technique to practical implementation among the masses.

Rabash explained the method of Baal HaSulam in detail and expanded it in his articles. In fact, he took the entire spiritual path that a person should go through and thoroughly explained it. All his articles are like one fascinating novel explaining the spiritual development of a person and his ascent from the animate to human level.

We do not even understand what infinite depth Rabash’s articles hide. Only when we climb the spiritual ladder to the final correction will we be able to assess how this man has prepared the whole path for us and what supreme degrees he describes in his articles.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/12/21,”Day of Remembrance of Rabash”

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My new article on Linkedin “Thirty Years Ago Today, My Teacher Passed Away”

On a cold and rainy evening in February 1979, as I and Chaim Malka, my study partner of several years back then, were about to start studying our usual ancient Kabbalah books, I suddenly got tired of the endless and seemingly futile search for the truth. “Let’s go look for a teacher,” I said to Chaim. “Where would we go?” he asked. “Let’s drive to Bnei Brak,” I replied, “we’ve never looked there.” Chaim wasn’t keen on driving in this weather, much less to a Jewish Orthodox crowded city with narrow, semi-paved roads, and where kabbalists were unlikely to be found. I urged him nonetheless and he, reluctantly, agreed.

When we got to Bnei Brak, late that evening, there was no one on the streets. They were empty, wet, and cold. At a crossroads, I suddenly spotted a man about to cross the street. Hurriedly, I lowered the window pane and hollered toward him: “Where do they study Kabbalah around here?”

It was a very unusual question. In those days, no one spoke about Kabbalah, and among Orthodox Jews, the topic was a taboo. Even more unusual was the man’s response: He looked at me calmly and replied straight away, as if he had been waiting for me to come and ask him just that. “Turn right, go all the way down to the end of the road where the orchard begins,” he said. “To your left, you’ll see a house. That’s where they study Kabbalah,” he concluded and went on his way.

We drove as the man instructed, and indeed, the house was there. We got out of the car, and knocked on the door but no one answered. The house was nearly all dark. We tried the door and it was unlocked. We went inside and there was no one there except for one room that was lit and voices came from in there. We walked in hesitantly and found five or six elderly men reading in The Zohar and murmuring words in a language I did not understand (it was Yiddish). The elder gestured to us to take a seat, and we sat silently next to the men, on the benches around the old, wooden table where the men were studying.

The elder among them, who invited us to join them and was clearly the teacher, turned out to be Rav Baruch Shalom Ashlag (RABASH), the firstborn son and successor of Rav Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam), the greatest kabbalist in the 20th century and author of the acclaimed Sulam [Ladder] commentary on The Book of Zohar. Finally, after years of searching, I had found my teacher.

For the next twelve years, until his final breath, I stayed with RABASH, assisting him in everything I could, and learning from him all that he could give, and he had given me more than I could ever have imagined anyone could give. Thirty years ago today, he passed away in my arms, leaving me his notebook where he wrote all that he had learned from his giant father, and with a legacy: to tell the world about the true meaning of this great wisdom, and show them a path of light in a dim present and a foreboding future.

I wrote my first three books under the guidance of RABASH. Following his passing, I wrote another book, and people began to come to me in search of a teacher. I had no desire to teach. I wanted to seclude myself with the books and the wisdom I had learned from RABASH. But they insisted on coming and I realized that the times were changing and the doors to the wisdom of Kabbalah were opening.

Together with my first students, we established the first study group, and Bnei Baruch [Sons of Baruch], a group of students who strive to walk in the footsteps of my teacher, and of all the kabbalists before him, came to be.

Thirty years later, Bnei Baruch is no longer a group. Today, it is a worldwide movement that strives to help the world unite in love above all differences. Thanks to my students, the teachings of RABASH are learned and loved throughout the world. These students are fulfilling my teacher’s dream. Therefore, today I am confident that with the help of my teacher, and the dedication of my students and friends, the teachings of the man of light, whose love radiated from his every word, will spread far and wide, and illuminate our lives.

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Baal HaSulam, “The Prophecy of Baal HaSulam“: Take this sword in your hand and guard it with your heart and soul, for it is a token between Me and you, that all those good things will happen through you, for until now, I had no such faithful man as you to give him this sword.  … And I said to myself: “May I grant all the dwellers of the world a drop of the purity of this sword, for then they will know that the pleasantness of the Lord is in the land.”

The Creator says that through Baal HaSulam He gives the world a method of correction that has never been passed on to anyone before.

My teacher was the eldest son of Baal HaSulam, and he took over the method of correction from him and passed it on to me. It is truly the most suitable for those souls who are now descending into our world. With its help, we can correct ourselves, correct the world, and achieve the goal of creation.

“I have chosen you for a righteous sage in all this generation, to heal the human suffering with lasting salvation. Take this sword in your hand, and guard it with thy heart and soul, for it is a sign between Me and you, that all those good things will happen through you, for until now, I had no such faithful man as you, to give him this sword.” 

Therefore, when the Creator says in essence, “You are a special person, and it is to you that I entrust this sword, this technique, the key of salvation,” they are not empty words.

Comment: It is known that the Creator told Moses the same thing upon his exit from Egypt.

My Response: At that time, it was necessary. But the Torah that Moses established is not enough for our generation because souls have gone through a lot of egoistic changes since then, and in our generation, they need a new approach.

Not even a new approach but a development of the previous technique to make a real method of correction out of it. This is what Baal HaSulam added.
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From KabTV’s “The Power of The Book of Zohar” #5

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 9/22/20

One cold, rainy evening in February 1979, as I was doing my usual delving into Kabbalah books with my friend Chaim Malka, I realized that it was hopeless. “Chaim,” I said, “we are going to find a teacher right now.” We got into the car and drove off to Bnei Brak, an Orthodox city where I had heard that people study Kabbalah. As the rain poured down the windshield; I drove almost blindly, in zero visibility. But I was driven from within; I had to keep going.

Once inside the city, we had no idea where to go. Suddenly, I saw a man standing on the sidewalk waiting to cross the street. In the pouring rain, he was the only one around. I rolled down the window and hollered through the torrent: “Where do they study Kabbalah around here?!”

The man looked at me nonchalantly and said, “Turn left and drive toward the orchard. At the end of the street you’ll see a house across from it; that’s where they study Kabbalah.”

In that house by the orchard, I met my teacher, Rav Baruch Shalom HaLevi Ashlag (RABASH), the firstborn son and successor of Rav Yehuda Leib HaLevi Ashlag, the greatest kabbalist of the 20th century, who was known as Baal HaSulam (author of the Sulam) after his Sulam (Ladder) commentary on The Book of Zohar.

During the next twelve years, I served as RABASH’s personal assistant and became his prime disciple. I studied with him three hours in the morning and two hours in the evening with everyone else. I also studied with him while we were alone as I took him on his daily outings to the beach or to the park. I studied with him every other weekend when the two of us spent weekends in each other’s company, and I studied with him when he was hospitalized for a month on two occasions. I asked him all the questions that I could about spirituality, whether during lessons or while driving, or at any other opportunity. I asked him because I needed to know. I knew he was the last of the Mohicans, the final link in a lineage that goes back millennia, and I knew I would have to keep that teaching going. I recorded every lesson and took notes of his words. I absorbed from him everything I could, the outer and the inner meaning of the words, so I could pass them on when the time came.

After some years, when RABASH told me that I needed friends with whom to practice spiritual work, I brought him forty students. To them he started writing his priceless essays about one’s progress from a regular person to a kabbalist—who knows the innermost subtleties of human nature and one’s relationship with the Creator.

The essays of RABASH paved the way not only for his students, but for all of us, every single person. Now these essays are a lighthouse that shows the way to anyone who wants to achieve spirituality. They teach us how to relate to one another and how to relate to the feelings and states we discover within us along the way. RABASH, much like his father in his own way, was a pioneer, a trailblazer of endless courage, compassion, and love for humanity.

After his demise in 1991, people asked me to start teaching. RABASH had encouraged me to teach while I was still with him, so when people approached me I consented and formed a study group we called Bnei Baruch (sons of Baruch). Indeed, we aspired then and aspire now to merit the name and be my teacher’s spiritual children.

Today, as we commemorate the 29th anniversary of his passing, it is my hope that we will continue to merit the name Bnei Baruch, to walk in his path of love and unity, and to spread the authentic wisdom of Kabbalah throughout the world to every thirsty soul.

“And once I have acquired a clothing of love, sparks of love begin to shine within me, the heart begins to long to unite with my friends, and it seems to me that my eyes see my friends, my ears hear their voices, my mouth speaks to them, the hands embrace, and the feet dance in a circle, in love and joy together with them. And I transcend my corporeal boundaries and forget the vast distance between my friends and I … and it seems to me that there is no reality in the world except my friends and I. After that, even the ‘I’ is cancelled and immersed, mingled in my friends, until I stand and declare that there is no reality in the world but the friends” (RABASH, Letter No. 8).

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