Today we are celebrating the anniversary of the death of the ARI. We will commemorate this day by joining together in a festive meal; many students around the world will participate as well. We honor this special soul that revealed spiritual redemption for us: the way to come out of the last exile and to achieve the revelation of the Creator. The revelation of the Creator is the revelation of love and bestowal, which connect us all together. And to the extent that we unite, we reveal the Upper Force, a higher, spiritual life within us.

If we talk about the ARI as a person who lived and died, rather than as a soul that exists eternally in spiritual space, then the ARI was a person who threw the end of the rope to us who are existing in this world. By grabbing onto this rope we can begin to ascend to the spiritual world from our present state.

This is why we are so thankful to the ARI and we honor him so much. We want to be as close to him as possible since he represents the desire of the Creator, thanks to which we ascend. Baal HaSulam writes that he did not add a thing to the ARI’s teachings; he merely explained them. Every Kabbalist that came after the ARI helped to develop his teachings a little more since the ARI laid the foundation for the method of correction.

You might ask: “What about Abraham, the father of the nation? Doesn’t the method of correction belong to him?” During the times of Abraham we had not gone through the breaking of the souls and the destruction of the First and the Second Temples; the period of exile had not yet come to an end.

The ARI lived during the very end of the last exile, and from his time and on the “labor pains” of the time of redemption, the need to ascend, began. The ARI took the method of Kabbalah from the time of the Patriarchs and the time of the exile and made it into a method for correction of the souls. That is why he is especially dear to us. Let us hope that we will merit becoming true students of the ARI.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/15/10, Pri Hacham, Igrot (Letters), Letter 39

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A question I received: Why was Chaim Vital the only one of the ARI’s students to understand the teachings of the ARI?  Why was it him in particular?

My Answer: It is impossible to know why the souls were arranged in this manner from Above. Baal HaSulam wrote that he did not know why he had merited such a great mission. However, we need to understand that only our corporeal perspective sees certain souls as extraordinary and others as unimportant or “secondary” ones because we see through the prism of our egoism.

However, if we are talking about the spiritual world, then there are no “great” or “small” souls there. Everything is measured in bestowal, and therefore the greatest one is the one that bestows the most, the one who serves everyone, and is situated below everyone else serving as support and a foundation for the others.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/15/10, Pri Hacham, Igrot (Letters), Letter 39

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

The Creator’s Guidance Is Purposeful

His guidance over the reality that He has created is in the form of purposeful Guidance, without taking into consideration the order of the phases of development [determined by the initial and final states], for they deceive us and prevent us from understanding their purpose, being always opposite to their final shape. [By constantly challenging us with new tasks, the Creator teaches us, like children, how to become similar to Him.]

It is about such matters that we say, “There is none so wise as the experienced.” Only one who is experienced has the opportunity to examine Creation in all its phases of development, all the way through completion, and can calm things down, so as to not fear those spoilt images that the Creation undergoes in the phases of its development, but believe in its fine and pure end.
– Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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Everything that the Kabbalists of the past did, each acting according to his own conditions and time, was the preparation to our present state. Thanks to it, we have all the primary sources necessary today, which enable us to advance: the writings of the ARI, The Zohar with the Sulam Commentary, the writings of Baal HaSulam and RABASH.

There has never been a time like ours before. The Kabbalists of the past were not given the opportunity to work in similar circumstances to what we have today: a global crisis that resembles the crisis of ancient Babylon and reflects the breaking of the common soul in the Upper world.

About 80-90 years ago, Baal HaSulam wrote that we would live in the generation of the Messiah, at the era of spiritual redemption. As the nation of Israel has already acquired their land and established a state, it means that we now have an opportunity to build everything according to the spiritual law of love thy neighbor as thyself and unite together as one spiritual nation.

However, it is impossible to reach this state without the realization of evil, and for this we need either great suffering, or for the Light to reveal our evil. Today we have an opportunity to draw this Light, to see that we are opposite to bestowal and love, and to begin the correction by uniting with society and the nation. Let’s hope that it happens soon!

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/15/10, Pri Hacham, Igrot (Letters), Letter 38

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

The Creator’s Guidance Is Purposeful

To understand these questions and inquiries [to comprehend the Thought of Creation and what happens with us] the only tactic is to examine the end of the act, that is, the purpose of Creation. For nothing can be understood in the middle of the process, but only at its end.
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 4

“God is the [the property of] Absolute Good, and … He [this property, force] watches us in complete benevolence without a hint of evil, and in purposeful [and absolute] guidance. That means that His guidance compels us to undergo [consciously, that is, with the same love and appreciation] a series of phases, by way of cause and effect, preceding and resulting, until we are qualified to receive [on our own] the desired goodness. And then we shall arrive at our [shared] purpose as a ripe and fine-looking fruit.
– Baal HaSulam, Article “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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Baal HaSulam, Letter #39: Itzhak Cohen, one of the Ari’s students, said that he entered the Ari’s room when he was dying and wept because the students were losing the hope they had during their teacher’s life to see a world full of goodness, wisdom, and the Light of the Creator. The Ari replied, “If there was at least one complete righteous man among you then I would not be taken away from this world before my time.”

The student asked him, “What should we do next?” To which the Ari replied, “Tell the friends on my behalf that from this day on they are not to touch the science I taught you because you did not understand it properly. Therefore, only Chaim Vital will continue to study it quietly and in secret.”

The student exclaimed, “So we don’t have any hope?!” And the Ari replied, “If you merit it, I will come to you and teach you.”

The student objected, “How will you come to teach us if you are already leaving this world?” The Ari replied, “What do you understand of the concealed secrets and paths of my return to you!” With these words, he immediately passed away to enter life in the world to come…

Indeed, this is a sad picture. Everything was arranged from Above so that during the Ari’s death his group of students was not next to him. Just one student was present, Itzhak Cohen. Even Chaim Vital, the leading student of the Ari to whom the Ari transferred the paths of this wisdom, was not present next to his teacher at this time.

Apparently Itzhak Cohen did not possess great attainment at the time since he did not even understand what was happening and asked, “How will you come to teach us!?” This means that he did not yet understand that there is no difference between the worlds, and that the Upper Level is always able to descend and manifest on the lower levels whenever they are ready to accept it!

The Ari tells us, “As soon as you make an effort and are ready, I will make contact with you! As soon as you rise to the spiritual level, we will immediately meet and there you will receive all the fulfillment and help from me!”
[17425]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/15/10, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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

Why Is The Creator Concealed From Man?

Everything is prepared beforehand [created in its perfect state] and each soul already exists in its entire light, abundance, and eternity. Only because of “shame” [in order not to feel humiliation because of undeserved reception] the soul came out of it [the initially created state of complete fulfillment by eternal pleasure] by the way of restrictions [increasingly greater concealments of this state] until it clothed in a filthy [concealing reception completely] body [egoistic desire].

Only [yet specifically] thanks to it, the soul returns to its source where it existed before the restriction along with the reward from the horrible path that she had traveled. All in all, the reward is complete adhesion. In other words, the soul gets rid of “shame” [undeserved reception] since its vessel of reception [egoistic desires] turn into the vessel of bestowal [altruistic desires], and it becomes similar to the Creator in its properties. [And hence is able to feel the entire Light that initially filled it.]
– Baal HaSulam, Pri Hacham, Igrot (Letters), Letter 25, pg. 81

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

Why Is The Creator Concealed From Man?

Had He told them about the wondrous things in the essence of the reward [in merging with Him through our similarity in the property of bestowal and love], they would necessarily use and [unintentionally] assume His work [bestowal with intention] in order to obtain that wonderful reward for themselves. This would be considered working for themselves, for self-love. That, in turn, would falsify the whole purpose [of the Creator to make us similar to Him, eternal, free, independent from Him, and perfect].
– Baal HaSulam, Article The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee), Item 29

The Lord is the [property of] absolute benevolent goal. Accordingly, it is the law of the benevolent to do good, and that is what He desired – to create creatures so He could be benevolent towards them since if there is no receiver of the goodness, there is no benevolence. Indeed, in order for the benevolence to be complete, He knew in His sublime wisdom that it is worthy for the receivers to receive it from their own toil. Only then they would have that goodness, and no shame would remain as they receive the goodness, as would be if he were to receive charity from another.
– Ramchal, Klalei Pitchei Hochma ve Da’at (The Rules of Gates of Wisdom and Knowledge), Item 18

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A fable from Baal HaSulam’s Igrot (Letters), Letter 26, pg. 85: A great good King had one purpose: to give pleasure to the citizens of his kingdom. He gave them an order to do work for him for a year and designated a special place for it in his palace. The reward was set up at the place of work where the King prepared meals with an abundance of various delicacies.

They all started to work and thought that the King would put guards over them to watch their work, but the King hid himself, and they could do as they pleased. They were not aware of the King’s invention, a seasoning, the healing powder that gave all the dishes filled with delicacies and sweets a bitter unpleasant taste. But in the place where people did work, this seasoning made the food taste divine!

Those who where loyal to the King, did the work as they were told and carried out the orders precisely, even without being watched. Thus, the healing dust filled their bodies. When the time of feast came, the workers were able to taste countless flavors and the sweetness they had never known before. So they constantly praised and thanked the King.

But those low workers who didn’t recognize the greatness of the King and that they should love him faithfully (because no guards were watching over them), disregarded the place of work and chose to work where it was more pleasant. So when the time of feast came, the food tasted horribly bitter because of the magic dust. They started to curse and berate the King and his feast because he prepared such a bad reward for their exertion. And for them, the King became a great liar for he gave them bitterness and salt instead of delicacies and sweets.

From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/9/10, Baal HaSulam, Letter 26, pg. 85

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

Why Is The Creator Concealed From Man?

The reason for the concealment of the face [the concealment of the Creator] from the people has been explained: It is deliberate, to give people room for labor, to engage in His work in Torah and Mitzvot [to correct themselves to bestow in order to become similar to Him] out of free choice [by acknowledging that His state is perfect and that He is just]. Because the Creator receives more contentment from their work in His Torah and Mitzvot than from His angels above [the forces of nature], who have no choice and whose work is coerced.
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction To The Study Of The Ten Sefirot,” Item 80

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