New Life 624 – Baal HaSulam – Rav Yehuda Levi Ashlag
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

When one looks at the life of the Kabbalist, one must divide the viewpoint into two levels, our world and the upper world. When Baal HaSulam found the ARI’s book The Tree of Life at his teacher’s home, he was astonished to discover what was written there. A few years later, he organized a group of families to immigrate to Israel, but he was banished, and in the end he immigrated by himself. He brought a tanning machine with him to Israel. He believed that man must work and not be a sponge and receive charity. But when they discovered that he had been a rabbinical judge in Warsaw, they appointed him to be the Rabbi of Kiryat Shaul.

He turned to the secular public since a Kabbalist who has attained the general system thinks and worries about everyone. He explained how we can participate consciously in the development process that we must go through. The essence of the correction is to transform our egoistic nature, the hostility and hatred, into love of others. He wanted to introduce the ideas of Kabbalah to the people, so he met with Ben-Gurion and the leaders of the community.

He foresaw the Holocaust and World War II. By his being in Israel, he spiritually stopped Rommel and Stalin. He wrote a lot and is named Baal HaSulam because of the “ladder” interpretation he wrote for The Book of The Zohar, which is the ladder of the levels of correction.

At the end of each day, he would give away his money so that he wouldn’t have any for the next day, in order to draw spiritual forces closer to the people. But they never listened, and today we must make his system public in order to correct the situation in Israel and in the world. In his writings of the “Last Generation,” he explained that in the end, we must attain the life of love of others and social equality. There was no person more important for our generation because he gave us the tools to reach the upper life, peace, and eternity.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 624 – Baal HaSulam – Rav Yehuda Levi Ashlag,” 9/10/15

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I remember that at the time of the first Lebanon War,  my teacher Rabash and I listened to the news on the radio all the time, and he shared his impressions with me about how he perceived all that was happening. And I was surprised about how such a great Kabbalist was worried about events in the country and the world.

And for him it was a map of the battlefield. He completed everything through his internal calculations with higher Sefirot, and somehow this worked for him.

During the military operations Rabash was very focused, more quiet than usual. In general he was a person who very much loved jokes, but the moment the war began, his state changed sharply. This was truly derived from within; he was terribly concerned and very happy about our victories and successes on the battlefield.

I felt that this was terribly close to him, unlike the rest of the people around him in Bnei Brak. At that time I was a beginning student, and I was quite surprised about how much a person believed or didn’t believe in the Creator, His power and how everything comes from above.

Rabash always wanted to know the factual news, without any commentary, to react to them correctly. And when they asked him why he needed it, he answered: “And if your children were there, even then would you act calmly and dispassionately like this?” That is, he felt that his children were there in Lebanon. That is really how he felt about it.
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Question: Did your teacher Rabash tell you about the meaning of life right away when you came to him?

Answer: I wish he had explained it to me that way… When I first came to my teacher I asked him after two or three lessons whether I was in the right place in order to attain the meaning of life. I had searched in many places before that and so I wanted to know whether I should spend my whole life studying with him.

His answer was very simple: “Go find out. I am not keeping you and not driving you away, but you should know that you have to check and find out that you are really in the right place.”

He did not try to convince me that I was in the right place to fill my body and soul since I wouldn’t have believed him anyway. This is the reason he said: “Go find out!”

This is what made me understand that I really was in the right place, where I was not being deceived and I was actually being taught the method of attaining spirituality. Later on I discovered it myself and could check whether it was indeed so or not. This is the wisdom of Kabbalah, it gives you tools but all the rest is up to you.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 10/25/15

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Question: Do you give private lessons?

Answer: I don’t give private lessons to anyone because it is useless.

A person must study together with a group; it is only in connection with his friends that he creates the same system of forces in which he begins to feel and discover the upper world.

So there is no reason to study alone. The study should take place only in conjunction with other people, a minimum of ten people. And with the right connection between them, they will begin to feel the upper world.

Question: But you were taught one-on-one with your teacher. What has changed at this time?

Answer: I studied according to a particular program; in history there have been cases like these. Later it wasn’t easy to move from personal study to group study. I understood what it was, but didn’t personally work with the group. Most of my study took place one-on-one with the teacher.

But this cannot be today; we have entered into such a historical period in which all of humanity needs to go out to the upper world. So personal study will not yield results.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 9/27/15

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Question: Are particular skills and abilities required for attaining the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: No, only a desire is needed.

Question: Are there people in our world who have reached the upper world?

Answer: Certainly, today in our world there is a certain number of people who have attained the spiritual world. In addition, many are engaged in our system and are on the way to attainment.

In the previous generation, these were people who studied the wisdom of Kabbalah under the guidance of my teacher Rabash.

Before then, there were people who studied Kabbalah under the guidance of his father Baal HaSulam. And even earlier, if we go deeply into history, there were great Kabbalists from whom remain great writings for us. They all were involved with the discovery of the system of management and the way to use it in the way most beneficial for all of humanity.

There were even hidden Kabbalists who didn’t write books and didn’t have students. Their role was to create contact between our level and the higher level. In the sources, they are called the 36 hidden Tzaddikim (Righteous Ones). However, 36 is a symbolic number.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 9/27/15

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Question: Can I become your student? I became familiar with the wisdom of Kabbalah this year.

I read books, watch your video recordings, and have registered to the virtual course, but I would really like to know how you determine whether a person is ready to become your student. Is it because you can see the person’s level of readiness to serve the Creator?

Answer: A person determines that by himself according to the calling of his heart. If he has a real desire to discover the meaning of life, he has to develop it by his connection with people who study in our courses. Good luck!
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Comment: You have been urging and encouraging your students lately and telling us that we are not doing our best, that we are not working as hard as we could, and that we are not advancing. There is a feeling that we are not compatible with your velocity.

Answer: I would like my students to engage in self-fulfillment more. Self-fulfillment is when you work for the group, which thus ignites and begins to operate thanks to you. There is no other way.

My role is to bring the Kabbalistic group to a state in which people will clearly understand what their problems are, what their role is, how they fulfill themselves, and how they should use the data we receive in the best and most efficient way. All this must be discovered inside them.

They will even become experts before they enter the upper world. They will at least be masters in the levels we are on today, which means that they will become independent.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 5/6/15

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Question: If someone goes against the teacher, and in addition the friends support him, are they weakening their connection with the teacher?

Answer: Even if this happens consciously or not, this is not important, because we are in a system and it is terrible if someone is working against it. I am interested in knowing about this in order to correct this student.

I feel terrible about him; after all he is acting like a baby who doesn’t understand the kind of system he exists in. It is worthwhile to stop him even if he innocently is doing something foolish and harms the system unintentionally since this could harm many people in a chain reaction. That’s the whole idea; the teacher has no concern about himself.

This is a big problem, and the friends must pay attention and stop this. We don’t know how much we depend upon each other at all. The network exists and all of us are connected within it, and if I don’t want to pay attention to this, to acknowledge this connection and use it, I cause immense harm.

The connection exists and operates according to our level, our situation, and so everyone must help each other. One suddenly begins to envy others, another begins to be angry at someone, to hate and reject him, and all of these individual destructions destroy the entire system.

Ostensibly, why should it interest me when two friends are not talking to each other? But this is very important to me because they are part of the system called a “group.” I cannot remain indifferent.

In general we behave like gentlemen and pretend that we don’t notice the conflicts of others and don’t get involved. Yet if we could see what destruction this brings us, we would find a way to influence the friend. We would simply give him blows; throw him out of the group. After all, we see that he is closing the spiritual faucet for us.

And we remain indifferent because we were apparently educated not to get involved. But this is really foolishness and not education if I see that someone is boring a hole in our common boat and pretend that nothing is happening.

It is necessary to feel everyone as a commando unit that receives a combat mission and to connect so that no stranger will enter among us. As is understood, the general connection of the group with the teacher is a spiritual law which we must maintain!

I don’t require them to serve me materially. Serving the teacher means giving him contentment, and he gets contentment from our choosing a particular direction for our spiritual development in dissemination, and everyone participates in giving contentment to the teacher. Then it is possible to receive the Light this way since the order of the steps is unchanged.

To me this was as clear as day. I had an old car and in exchange for it I bought a new one with an additional $10,000. What did I need a new car for if I lived 50 meters from Rabash? It was just to drive him to arrange his affairs. And so I made a calculation; he taught me how to make this calculation, without shame. On the contrary, this was an opportunity for me to invest myself. And that is how it is in everything.

It was good if every time when I bought something for him, every 100 grams of cheese, I would always think that I gave him contentment and wanted to get the power to give contentment to the Creator through this. As is understood, I would carry out 90% of the deeds automatically, yet sometimes I would catch myself doing this and build the right intention. That is how you discover a spring of living water for yourself, a spring with Ohr Hassadim (Light of Mercy), and attract the Light of Torah.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/27/14, Topic of Lesson “Teacher”

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Question: If a student goes against the desire of his Rav (teacher) and the spiritual faucet is automatically closed, does the student feel that the faucet is closed or is he under the illusion that the faucet is still open and everything is good?

Answer: There could be such an illusion.

Question: So what are the indicators here?

Answer: This must be clear to him. There are those who think that they are in connection with the Creator. They don’t hear or carry out the instructions of the Rav; they even refuse to try, for example, some kind of simple action that touches upon dissemination, and hide behind all kinds of calculations. All their calculations are materialistic, and so the person is not ready to do them correctly. He has the opportunity to realize the desire of his Rav, the teacher, but he doesn’t do it.

It is possible to say that he is opposing him, but he doesn’t have a connection with the Elyon (upper). I am not talking about a connection of Ruach Be Ruach (spirit to spirit) or mouth to mouth any more. That would already require true devotion. Only luck helps here. I can attest to this from my personal experience. A person is given so many possibilities to discover and acquire the spiritual world, to approach the Creator. But he doesn’t recognize his opportunities and move towards them, seemingly heedless of them. He simply lacks the sensitivity!

When he looks back on this path later, waiting a bit and acquiring experience, then he is amazed at what the Creator did for him. For I already held success in my hands, I received such care, support, and opportunity to do this and that and that. I missed such wonderful opportunities like these that will not return!

After that opportunities are given to him in the next incarnations, in the next situations, but really, here the group is very important for helping everyone because nobody is ready to nullify himself to the Rav; this is so very difficult. In my external life I can easily give things up, even for a person who is not important at all in my eyes. But here this requires great effort. And so a group is given to me that requires me to increase the importance.

And all of this must be according to the knowledge of spiritual laws, and not from the desire to do good, to look nice, to love or not to love. We must be directly integrated into a system, hold onto it like gears, and be adjusted to it.

What else can we do? According to my character, I would close myself off in isolation. I also thought of acting like that: close myself off with books, go deeply into the material. I didn’t think that I would have students and I would be connected to people, but without a choice…
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/27/14, Topic of Lesson “Teacher”

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Question: What does one need in order to be as closely in an equivalence of form with the teacher as possible?

Answer: Everyone feels this according to the sublteties of his soul. But if we decide to perform some general action, everyone has to participate in them, otherwise a person is neither with the group nor with me and it is as if he is thrown off the boat into the stormy sea, although he may not feel it.

Besides, if I work with someone on a certain project, no matter what one does: one can take care of the electricity, another can prepare excerpts from articles, etc., and there are others who have to see what is required of them. They come to me to clarify what I want exactly and why I think so, an expert may explain to me that it should be done in a different way and then I may change my mind.

But the student has to care that his opinion and my opinion should be one! If he doesn’t agree with me, let him come and convince me. This often happens, I am not so stubborn that I don’t listen to reason. It’s usually about corporeal matters, including dissemination because there can be different local conditions I am not aware of. But the principle is “make your desire his desire,” which means that there should be an agreement between the student and his teacher and the fulfillment of the desire.

Question: How should I know that I have made my desire his desire? Not everyone can come and ask!

Answer: If it is a personal project you may come and ask. If it is a general project in dissemination, I count on the people in charge of this project. I hope that they understand the responsibility they have to guide everyone according to what has been decided. It is as if we all reach one desire, one intention, one direction, and then we go out and disseminate. There you have to make sure that things don’t divert in other directions, and if this suddenly happens you should consult me.

If we don’t hold on to the accurate direction, it is like two connected pipes where one suddenly shifts and then nothing can flow through them. I have to make my desire his desire for the Light to flow.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/27/14, Topic of Lesson “Teacher”

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