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

Following the Paths of Kabbalists

As far as spiritual life is concerned, there is no natural obligation on the individual to abide by the society in any way. On the contrary, here applies a natural law over the collective, to subjugate itself to the [spiritual] individual [in order to thereby reach the goal themselves].”
– Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”

While most of humanity is undeveloped, and the developed ones are always a small minority, if you always determine according to the will of the collective, which are the undeveloped, and the reckless ones, the views and desires of the wise and the developed in society, which are always the minority, will never be heard and will not be taken into consideration. Thus, you seal off humanity’s fate to regression, for it will not be able to make even a single step forward [toward the mandatory goal of their creation].
– Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”

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Question: Why does the Creator allow some people to commit brutal crimes?

Answer: The science of Kabbalah illuminates the questions of perception of reality, free will, and human nature, showing that a person who lives in this world does not possess freedom of choice. Therefore, he doesn’t commit any conscious acts.

A person can attain the freedom of choice only in a Kabbalistic group, which is a group of people connected in order to attain the spiritual goal. In this case a person receives or earns some degree of acting freely. However, those who have not reached spiritual attainment and have not reconciled two opposite forces, action and intention, do not act at all!

They arrive at the end of this life as if they have never lived. In other words, they haven’t lived as “humans.” It is their biological body that lived, just like any other type of animal. It is a life dictated by instinctive nature only. A person can only rise above it by way of “faith above reason,” when he desires to attain a different nature.

The unity of these two natures, Upper and lower, is regarded as the human in him. Only a person who achieves this can be said to have performed independent actions that are worth punishing or rewarding. In other words, only a Kabbalist can be judged for his own actions. An ordinary person cannot be judged since he acts in accordance with Nature’s orders. He follows one route and does nothing using his own free will.

Nevertheless, in our world punishing measures are necessary. However, we don’t administer them at will but under orders from Above, although it happens through the government legislature, courts, and law enforcement devices. All of this exists in order to hasten our development!

This is the Upper Governance over all people, who are like puppets, with the purpose of bringing them closer to the point of freedom of choice.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/31/10, “What Are the Two Actions During the Time of Descent?”

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

Following the Paths of Kabbalists

Even though one has a soul, he is not ready to know Him, “Until the spirit be poured upon him from on high.” However, one must lend an ear and listen to the words of the sages [about how to reject one’s egoism], and believe in them [their directions, while annulling oneself] wholeheartedly.
– Baal HaSulam, Igrot (Letters), Letter 19, pg. 70

And since the more developed in the generation is certainly the individual, it follows that when [the time will come and] the public [having no other choice] wants to relieve themselves of the terrible agony and assume [spiritually, in bestowal and love] conscious and voluntary development [rather than by force through the path of suffering], which is the path of Torah, they [the masses] have no choice but to subjugate themselves and their physical freedom to the discipline of the individual, and obey the orders and remedies [the method of correcting the egoism] that he [the spiritual leader] will offer them.
– Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”

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At some point we come to realize that our entire life can be divided into two periods according to how the Upper Governance, the Creator, treats us. The first “half” is our childhood, when nature (everyone around us) protects us in every way, and the second “half” is when this protection ends. I become an adult and nature starts pressuring, demanding, and loading me with responsibilities.

It is difficult to understand why things are this way as well as why a human being is born absolutely helpless, falling into the arms of his mother and father and becoming a burden on society. And why in the second part of his life, as soon as he becomes self-sufficient, he has to work hard and worry about how to protect others and provide a happy childhood for them just like it was provided for him.

This is a reflection of a spiritual law where the lower part (AHP) of the Upper Partzuf descends to the upper part (Galgalta Eynaim) of the lower one in order to push him forward. This happens because our qualities and the Creator’s qualities must penetrate one another, and this occurs in the reverse form, by way of the breaking, known as “Adam HaRishon’s original sin.” With the help of the original Evil (the snake), we acquire a special hollow area within ourselves, the place for the future soul. It is the place where we will find ourselves merged with the Creator and attain His height, having known good and evil.

This is the path we will have to walk. For now we still don’t possess this point of independence and we are governed with the help of “angels” from Above (Upper Forces). In other words, everything we have comes from Him. The Light acts first in everything and we are just derivatives of it.

How, then, do we make the creature primary and the revelation of the Creator, the construction of the Creator within the creature, secondary? If I existed in this world without any support and there weren’t any Kabbalists before me, where would I gain an opportunity for free will, this profound point?

The Creator can give me everything else, but this freedom mustn’t come from my will to receive pleasure because even though this desire is completely opposite to Light, it is still fully governed by the Light, only in the reverse form. The Light acts, and my will to receive jumps to the opposite side, like on a swing. So where does my independence come from, without which all creation would have no purpose?

We receive it precisely from the primordial Evil. We have nowhere else to get it from.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/15/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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Before Baal HaSulam there were two methods of correction (or of studying Kabbalah): through the mind (the method of the Ari) and through the heart (the method of Baal Shem Tov). Baal HaSulam took both of these approaches and unified them into the middle, third line, creating an effective, precise, and simple method that is suitable for the modern souls. It is the only means enabling us to attain correction.

The scientific part of Kabbalah is based on the Ari, while the inner work comes from Baal Shem Tov. Baal HaSulam wrote the book, Talmud Eser Sefirot based on The Tree of Life by the Ari, adapting it to our generation. However, if you look at his entire teaching as a complex, then the four compositions Talmud Eser Sefirot, Panim Meirot, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” and “Preface to the Sulam Commentary” are devoted to the "physics" of the Upper World and are based on the teaching of the Ari, while all the other articles are devoted to a person’s inner work and are based on the method of Baal Shem Tov.

The Light of Correction comes to us while studying the "physics" of the Upper World, but it only comes through the group. If the group is not organized correctly, does not study together, and does not desire to unite, then it is impossible to attract the Light. The group is the magnet that attracts the Light that Reforms. And it must have a form that makes it ready for correction. Everyone must expect it!

We must reveal two things: 1.) our evil and lack of unity, 2.) the desirable state, the state of universal connection. We must expect that we will go from the first state to the second state with the help of the force called “the Light that Reforms.” The group is obligated to understand this very clearly since otherwise what kind of Light would you be able to attract? The spiritual vessel or desire must precede the Light.

This is why all of creation was created and why it develops until the very World of Infinity: It is in order to create a need to reveal the Creator in creation. We are not required to reveal the Creator or the Light! We have to reveal the creation! We have to understand that creation was not created in order to remain a point and to live as an animal. Rather, its destiny is to become an independent individual that has freedom of will. Therefore, our desire must always come first (Kli Kodem Le Ohr).

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/9/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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Baal HaSulam’s article “Preface to Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 7: Now you can understand their words about the verse, “I, the Lord, will hasten it in its time.” The Sanhedrin (98) interpreted, “Not rewarded – in its time; rewarded – I will hasten it.”

Thus, there are two ways to attain the above-mentioned goal. Through their own attention is called a “Path of Repentance.” If they are awarded that, then “I will hasten it” will be applied to them. This means that there is no set time for it, but when they are awarded, the correction ends, of course.

If they are not awarded the attention, there is another way, called “Path of Suffering.” As the Sanhedrin said (97), “I place upon them a king such as Haman, and they will repent against their will,” meaning in its time, for in that there is a set time.

There are two paths before us that lead to the same goal, and we are at their intersection. At every given moment we should feel that we are at the crossroads that determines our freedom of will, and the choice here is very simple: to take the path of the Light or the path of suffering.

A third path does not exist. We must advance by one of these two paths and decide at every given moment what our next step will be. Your foot is already up in the air, and now you have to choose where to land it: on the path of Light or on the path of suffering.

The moment will pass, and you will once again have to make a choice. Your foot has been lifted from Above to force you to make a step, and it is up to you where to place it, on which of the two paths. In accordance with our choice, you will receive the strength and the means to advance since you have to keep moving ahead, one way or the other.

If you advance by the path of “Beito” (natural development, in due time), the forces of nature are pushing you onward against our egoism since you wish to advance led by your ego. Hence, you are impacted by the forces that oppose your egoism, trying to keep you in bestowal. But on the path of “Ahishena” (hastening time), you start to consciously convince yourself through the environment that being in bestowal is worthwhile. Thereby you draw the Surrounding Light, and it returns you to goodness.

On the path of “Beito,” you receive blows and learn through them. Sooner or later it will result in your request or prayer for correction and advancement like you would have by the path of “Ahishena.” Conversely, if you initially take the path of the Light, you will save time on the first segment of the path, where you would have otherwise wasted time through your lack of desire to listen and exert your own effort.

There is no time to think about where to land our foot! Everything depends on the preparation of the spiritual environment.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/4/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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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.

All the Teachings in the World Are Included in the Wisdom of Kabbalah

They have no scientific solution as to how a spiritual object can have any contact with physical atoms to bring them into any kind of motion. All their wisdom did not help them find a bridge on which to cross that wide and deep crevice that spreads between the spiritual entity and the corporeal atom. Thus, science has gained nothing from all these metaphysical methods.

To move a step forward in a scientific manner here, all we need is the wisdom of Kabbalah. This is because all the teachings in the world are included in the wisdom of Kabbalah.

[While Kabbalah explains everything, it is only for the one who is ready to apply it in practice. This is because only when a person transforms his egoistic properties into altruistic ones, can he realize that the entirety of reality exists only subjectively in his perception, and that his properties define it completely. The whole of reality is the perception of his properties in comparison to the properties of the Upper Light.]
– Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”

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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.

All the Teachings in the World Are Included in the Wisdom of Kabbalah

All the teachings in the world are included in the wisdom of Kabbalah. [Kabbalah is based on the attainment of one initial force which is the source of all the forces and qualities that flow out of it. Therefore, Kabbalah is the source of the sciences that examines these secondary forces and qualities.]
– Baal HaSulam, The Freedom

The greatest wonder about this wisdom [Kabbalah] is the integration in it: All the [separate] elements of the vast reality are incorporated in it, until they come into a single thing—the Almighty, and all of them together. [A wonderful characteristic of attainment consists of the gradual unification of all of the opposite and different objects, forces, and qualities which, to the extent of one’s own correction and attainment, rouse in the one who attains a sense of perfection and eternity.]
– Baal HaSulam, The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence

There is no other wisdom in the world [except Kabbalah] where matters are so fused and intertwined by way of cause and effect, primary and consequential, as is the wisdom of Kabbalah, connected head to toe just like a long chain [as a single and whole creation].
– Baal HaSulam, The Essence of The Wisdom of Kabbalah

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We feel reality if two forces come from Above and act upon something common between them. If they can activate a Reshimo (informational record) to reveal it within us, then they enter it. The Reshimo forms a picture of the world, my state, and then I feel it.

On the other hand, if these two forces are unable to reach the Reshimo in order to activate it and they do not bring it into play, I do not feel the reality. It simply does not exist for me. My whole existence, the whole picture of the world, every state in which I feel myself and the world that surrounds me, is a Reshimo that is activated due to these two forces: the right and the left, reception and bestowal. Like a robot, I feel the realization of the Reshimo within me.

If these forces activate a Reshimo on their own, it means that I have no freedom of will and I exist in this world while being controlled like an animal. All of our reincarnations, our whole history, and our entire development in this world occur in this manner. These two forces constantly affect the Reshimot (plural of Reshimo), showing us this movie of life, scene after scene.

However, life gradually becomes more difficult for me. I’m expected to activate the Reshimo on my own with the help of the two forces; I’m expected to become the middle line, adding my attitude to the influence of the two forces on the Reshimo.

Then, how I see my state and the whole world depends on me. And the only change I wish to see in the world is the presence of the Creator, the force of bestowal and love. In this manner, I realize the Reshimo. This time, it is through my own participation and with the revelation of the Creator, which occurs to the extent that I desire to draw Him into my world.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/12/10, The Zohar

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We are completely under the authority of nature. We are controlled in all of our actions, those of the body as well as those of the soul. Yet, Kabbalists say that we have freedom of choice. There would have been no point to create this whole creation if the Upper Force unambiguously determined everything that happens to us beforehand.

However, the freedom of will exists only above our present life, only there, in a higher dimension where we wish to rise above our egoistic nature, in the quality of bestowal. Only on that ascent from one degree to another will we able to choose whether to ascend by receiving blows from nature. If we do not use our freedom of will, do not exert our own effort, do not strive to develop ourselves on our own in the same direction, or see a desired goal in this, nature will push us. But if we search for the forces to help us execute this ascent, this is where we find our freedom of will.

Kabbalists explain that freedom of choice exists only in building a correct environment. Moreover, I don’t just choose the environment; I advance under its influence. I can choose my environment and by that hasten my advancement as well as change the nature of this ascent.

Instead of dashing to and fro under the blows of fate like a beaten animal, I can rise by a wonderful path, according to my own desire, full of feelings, understanding, and by my own strength, as befits a human being. I can do this if I examine the goal, wish to near it, and understand that in order to hasten my development I need to draw more Light than I receive through the natural path. This means is given to me; it is called the Torah, the Upper Light; it pulls me out and returns me to the source.

It is written in regard to this work that if we leave it even for one day, if we don’t realize our freedom of choice, then we halt our development for two days, and are not permitted to advance independently. We begin to be influenced by the natural Upper forces.

After all, it is not enough to only lose to the extent of our not exerting effort; we don’t learn much from this. To teach us to stay on the wonderful path, we receive a “punishment” for straying that is slightly greater than what we did so that the next time an even greater obstacle emerges on the path, we would beware not to stumble on it. The spiritual law states, “If you leave Me for a day, I will leave you for two.”

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/9/10, Shamati #108

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