Michael Laitman, On Quora: “The Memorial Day for the passing of Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam)“

Today is the Yahrzeit, the Memorial Day for the passing of Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam). According to the custom, we need to mark the date and day of the passing of our teacher, Baal HaSulam, the great Kabbalist who paved the path for the world’s correction.

Thanks to him, we know how to act in order to not get confused and err in the path of the Creator, i.e., the path of connecting among each other in which to discover the Creator’s eternal and perfect quality of love and bestowal.

Baal HaSulam’s entire path and his teaching is based on Kabbalists who preceded him, and we are thus happy in that there is such a teacher who can guide us on a path that advances us to the purpose of creation during our lives.

Baal HaSulam left us many texts. He was the only Kabbalist in the 20th century who wrote commentaries both on The Book of Zohar and the writings of the ARI (Kabbalist Isaac Luria), and he also wrote several essays that explained Kabbalah’s basic concepts and fundamental principles so that any person could learn Kabbalah’s fundamentals and progress to the purpose of creation.

He taught a few people, and mainly it was his older son, the great Kabbalist Baruch Shalom HaLevi Ashlag (RABASH), who wrote the entire method of spiritual development for us, which is suited to us living in our times, i.e., to the souls that now descend to the world.

I invite everyone to watch today’s Daily Kabbalah Lesson where we studied the article, “The Order of the Work of Baal HaSulam” by Kabbalist Baruch Shalom HaLevi Ashlag (RABASH).

Also, if anyone is new to the wisdom of Kabbalah and to the method of Baal HaSulam, then I recommend getting started with courses that my students put together in our learning environment for beginners, KabU, in order to get a structured grounding in Kabbalah’s fundamentals (see the links in my bio).

Based on the Daily Kabbalah Lesson with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on Tuesday, September 26, 2023. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Today is a special memorial day for Baal HaSulam, Rav Yehuda Ashlag, the great Kabbalist who paved the way for us that leads to the correction of the world. Thanks to him, we know how to behave in order not to make mistakes and stray from the path of the Creator.

Baal HaSulam’s methodology is based on the achievements of Kabbalists who lived before him. That is why we are grateful that we have such a teacher and that we can be his disciples, follow him in his way, and be sure that we will achieve the goal of creation in this lifetime.

Baal HaSulam left us many Kabbalistic articles and books and also taught his students, and most importantly, his eldest son, Baruch Ashlag (Rabash), who described the entire method of spiritual work suitable for our days, our time, for the souls descending into the world today.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/26/23, Writing of Rabash “The Order of the Work, from Baal HaSulam”

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Question: In the lesson, we can dissolve in the field of love and light and not ask about anything at all. On the other hand, a question gives a connection with the teacher and raises the ten, and this is also important.

How can we make the right analysis and reach a balance so that both states feel in contact with the Creator?

Answer: It is necessary to make the right decision: how much, when, and what you can ask so that there is maximum benefit for you and the rest of the lesson participants.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/24/23, “To Criticize Oneself”

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Hasidism is a trend built on the exaltation of the teacher, the exaltation of the Creator. And a Kabbalist, besides this, also has a critical attitude toward a teacher because a person who studies Kabbalah consists of two properties: egoism and a point in the heart directed against the ego.

The fact is that the egoistic property of the Hasid is ready to submit to the teacher, just as small animals serve a person and they feel good next to him.

I remember when I began to study Kabbalah, literally a year or two later I met my friend, who by that time had moved to America, to the Lubavitcher Rebbe: “Michael, I found a Rebbe! I found a teacher!” He said this with such enthusiasm that I became envious: “And me? I don’t have any of this. And he is so happy, overflowing; he found the whole world.”

The next day I came to my teacher Rabash and told him everything. I was young, independent and said everything as it is: “I am, of course, uncomfortable in front of you, but I don’t feel that I have found a teacher that I am so happy that it fills me and I have everything in the world. I do not have anything. I didn’t find anything, I’m always under pressure, searching. In my life I have already gotten used to this, but why are the paths so different?

He replied: “You were given a good lesson from above—the feeling that you really have nothing in your hands.”

And it will get worse and worse until the person really screams, demands with all his might, feeling: either death or a decision. There can be no other. But to reach this point, he must invest a lot. He should not wait until it manifests itself, but put pressure on it all the time.

It’s very hard. It takes a lot of nerves, many, many years. All this applies to those who have a point in the heart. And those who do not have it, they have no complaints at all.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Hasidism” 10/1/11

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Question: If it weren’t for your explanation of Kabbalah, I would never even want to hear what it is. But when faced with your explanations, I felt that there is truth behind it. Usually, this feeling holds you for a while, and then gradually goes away. And you are left alone with a lot of criticism. What should a person do in this case?

Answer: I do not care about lulling a person, appeasing, calming, or giving him the strength to resist those criticisms that begin to brainwash him as if sympathizing with where he, the unfortunate, has ended up, and so on. I am not interested in that! This is the fate of man, he must cope with it himself or he will not become a Man!

I am not going to come to anyone’s aid! I am being completely serious. Not because I am indifferent to the fate of a person but because he will otherwise not survive! It is necessary to push the little chick so that it flies. There must be a push! There is no escape from this.

This will only make you stronger! Only in the fight! In no case should this opportunity be taken away from a person. That is why I never help anyone! I watch with compassion how one suffers and how he cannot find himself!

I remember how once, emotionally I said to my teacher with pain: “Well, help me!” And he grinned right in my face. I was ready to tear him to pieces! I was in such a terrible inner state that I could not see day and night. I was tormented, boiling, smoking three packs of cigarettes a day, I could not see anyone, I ate myself up. I had such inner experiences, searches, misunderstandings, malfunctions, that death is better than such a life!

And my teacher, who, in principle, was to blame for the fact that I felt this way, grinned and did not even help! In anything! He only said: “It is okay. A little more, a little more. It will pass.” What “will pass”? And so on for months and months.

It is a very complex process when a person acquires the quality of another world and accommodates two worlds: the material world, acting under the egoistic force of reception, and the altruistic world, acting under the force of bestowal. These are completely different, opposite, contradictory worlds! At the beginning of the journey they are not connected to each other. A person is either in this or that half. And only then can he build a middle line.

It is in such a struggle, confusion, and clarification that a person consisting of two parts of the world is born.

But this is not an endless process. For each degree there are a certain number of states that we must go through. This is our evolution. This is the only way we can develop. In fact, this is a wonderful way of development!
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Insurmountable Criticism” 9/3/11

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Question: Let’s say that you raise the importance of some process, and a person listens to you and gets involved in it. Then you radically change the process, and he gets involved in what you say again.

But after this happens several times, a person begins to wait, does not do any actions either in one direction or the other, and accordingly loses. What is the correct way to act in this case?

Answer: I will only say one thing. Do you want to get out into the upper world? Then stop being a smartalek and wait for what I say. Close your eyes and go! Since you do not see the upper world, you have no other option but to blindly follow the recommendations of the teacher.

You can turn to any other methods, and they will tell you the same thing. How do you think you can climb to another degree?! Offer me another method!

You can go to anyone, turn to any other sources, and they will tell you the same thing! If you want to change, you should just close your eyes and follow the teacher.

First, choose a teacher with your eyes open, and you will still have to close them and blindly follow him.
Gradually, as you progress you will begin to understand, feel his path, and gradually involve analysis and synthesis of everything that happens to you on the way. There is no other way.

When you were born, did you check what Mom was doing to you?! It is the same on the spiritual path when you grow up! You have not been born into the spiritual yet, but you already want to start checking something with your earthly mind. This is why nothing works for you!

And so it is with everyone, except those who agree to annul themselves and realize that spiritual birth, as well as earthly, means the complete annulment of the present state: I cannot climb with my earthly brains and poke around in some unearthly spheres of the next degree and the next dimension because there is no man there.

At the next degree, we are all connected by our points in the heart, our desires and thoughts to the spiritual and to mutual bestowal. That is, both desire and reason merge together there.

Our next degree is a degree independent of our bodies, a degree where only our heartfelt, sensible striving for a common connection to find the common power of bestowal and love so that it will be revealed between us.

What can you do with your earthly brains that are tuned only to fill your flesh with vital animal power at that degree?! Nothing! You can only prevent yourself from getting up.
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. How Can You Be Trusted?”

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Question: When you touch objects, do you get additional information directly from the contact? You said that when you enter the sea you receive information.

Answer: This is not information, these are sensations. These are feelings that cannot be described. They are not even related to Kabbalah.

Suppose a person living in the forest feels that something is happening there. I have met such people. They are completely different. They also talk about nature in a completely different way.

Question: Does this mean that the physical perception of some phenomena never helps you?

Answer: No, I try not to be in physical perception at all. What for? I exist in it because I have to live, teach, and explain. I have a mission. Actually every person has it. I seem to have found my mission, and I am trying to realize it.

On the other hand, a Kabbalist is limited by certain borders. He does not hang out with people at various gatherings and participate with them in all kinds of events. He does not care and does not need it. Why should I explore anything in this world when the whole point is to raise it higher?

And there is no one to talk about what I am researching except for the specialists who are next to me who also strive for this, that is, my students. When I give a lesson, explain, and they ask, these are the best hours of my life. We get included in the general system together, we climb some steps together, and I raise them.

By asking a question, they push me to new explanations and new research. And the solution comes at this very moment. All this is a wonderful symphony, the harmony of feelings, desires, thoughts, analysis, and synthesis of the entire universe!

Besides that, what else is there? What exists in our world is just an automatically operated machine. Therefore, it makes no sense to solve anything in it.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. A Feeling That Can’t Be Described” 8/20/11

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Question: At some point in your life you studied Kabbalah alone. How did you determine that you did not fall into some wrong current?

Answer: After the death of Rabash, I locked myself at home, did not listen to anyone, did not see anyone, tried not to feel anything, and only worked on books.

I wrote my first 10 to 12 books. After that, I practically did not write myself but only spoke. These texts were processed by my students, they were published under my name, but these are books spoken aloud by me and not written by hand.

I was only inside the sources! Except for Baal HaSulam and Rabash, no one existed for me. So the years went by, years and years.

At the same time, I was not under anyone’s influence, not even under my own; I was only under the influence of what the books of Baal HaSulam and Rabash told me. I studied them, copied archives, processed manuscripts, and I was at it from morning till night. I held on to it like a lifeline. Not a step to the side!

After all, Rabash mentored me all the previous years. And despite the fact that he died, he is always with me. I try to be in contact with him and follow the calling that I feel from him. That is how it works. You can imagine whatever you want, but this is what it is.
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Anti-Kabbalah” 8/20/11

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Question: You said that we implement our choice by transforming the desire to receive into a desire to bestow. How do we do this?

Answer: The most important thing is the intention: what I do and why I do it. I do it only because this is the will of the Creator.

Question: Is it possible to work in this way with any desire that is revealed in a person?

Answer: If you know exactly what the Creator wants in one of your desires, then you can do it.

Question: How can I know what the Creator wants? How can I figure this out?

Answer: To do this, you must be inside the ten and be connected with your friends in such a way that you can try to bestow to them, set your heart toward them, and then you will gradually learn to direct yourself to bestow.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/24/23, “According to the Sorrow, So Is the Reward”

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This is why he who pleads mercy for his friend, they cannot both receive the granting of the prayer at once because only he needs that thing, meaning that salvation—to feel the greatness of Kedusha [holiness] called “raising the Shechina from the dust” (RABASH, “What Is, ‘Anyone Who Mourns for Jerusalem Is Rewarded with Seeing Its Joy,’ in the Work”).

Question: What is the essence of mercy? And what do we ask for a friend?

Answer: We ask that a friend be connected with the rest in a ten in which the Creator could be fully revealed. This is what mercy is.

Question: In the same article, Rabash says that one must ask both for society and for a friend. Does it mean they are the same thing?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Without any transition? Or are they different stages?

Answer: A person loses his temper, and for him there is no difference. He simply asks that the Kli, vessel, be corrected in its external part.

Question: And how can we ask for a friend or for society if the Creator is not important at this moment?

Answer: First you must increase the importance of the Creator.

Question: But we are talking about the state when the Creator is not important, you have to ask. And how can we ask if He is not important?

Answer: Ask.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/27/23, “What Is, “Anyone Who Mourns for Jerusalem Is Rewarded with Seeing Its Joy,” in the Work?”

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